2 1/2 months

At Austin's two month check up these were the stats:

Weight: 12 lbs 8 oz (75%)

Length: 23 in (55%)

After his bath, if you look closely you can see his hair sticking up

 Since his last appointment, he has put on a little more than 4 lbs.  He is very solid.  At his blessing, Scott and Ashley came with Rachel.  She was so much smaller than him, and at her two month appointment she was 9 lb 3.4 oz.  That is a huge difference!

Lately, here are some things that he can do:

*stand up against the couch on his own

*laugh and smile all the time

*He is out of 0-3 month clothing

*make the raspberry sound

*reach for toys

*sit up when up against the boppy pillow

*sleep about 6 hours at night

*found out that he has hands and feet

*Go about 3 hours between feedings

*wake up smiling

*do tummy time for about 10 minutes at a time, sometimes more

Here is a cute video of him that I took today.  He was laughing at the raspberry sound.

Cute smiles!

First outfit in the 3-6 month size, cute sock monkeys!  2 1/2 months old

  (3/23/11)

Now, I promised some pictures of the dog bite.  I took out the stitches earlier this week, but I haven't taken a picture yet.  You can see the front of my leg were I got the stitches, and then on the back of my leg you can see the rest of the damage that Belle did to me.

Dog bite

4 stitches!

Back of the leg bites

Long Week

Well, this has been a very long week for us.  I am sorry about my lack of posts, but I have been so busy with going back to work that I just haven't found the time to sit down and update the blog.

Austin is now 8 weeks old!  I can't believe how fast time is flying.  Two weeks ago I returned to work.  It wasn't very fun leaving him, but it has to be done.  Brandon's mom is sweet enough to stay with us and watch him while I am at work and Brandon is at school.  This past week I had parent teacher conferences.  This means that I left for work on Wednesday at 7 and Austin was still in bed, and then I returned home at 7:45 and Austin was in bed for the night.  When he woke up around midnight, he just wanted me to hold him for an extra 20 minutes before he would let me put him back to bed.  It was just as hard on him to not have me as it was for me.

On Friday, we had to attend the Military Ball for the year.  Brandon planned it, and it actually turned out really great.  Bronco Mendenhall was the speaker, which was awesome!  I had no idea that he wasn't in the top three candidates for the job back when they were looking for a new head coach!  He actually only got it because the defensive players told the school to give Bronco the job.  Attending meant that another night was spent without our sweet boy!  On Saturday morning you could tell that he hadn't had enough mommy time.  He was just fussy with anyone else.

Also, this week, we blessed Austin.  A ton of family was in town, and are just about gone.  We loved seeing everyone, especially because we got to see our new niece!  She is just two weeks younger than Austin, and so much smaller!  Austin is a chunk compared to her.  When I held her for the first time, there was a huge difference, she felt like she weighed nothing because she is so much smaller than him.

This morning I was in the kitchen making dinner for tonight, and we had three dogs in the house.  This had caused problems the night before, but nothing too major.  However, this morning I was walking toward the dishwasher when a dog fight broke out between Gus and my sister's dog Belle.  I was pinned back against the dishwasher, and they were right next to me.  I was just about to reach down and pull Gus' back legs to break them apart when I got bit by Belle.  It hurt so bad!  Then, I see blood coming through my sweatpants.  As I am lifting up my pants I see blood running down my leg.  It was about 11:30 and church starts at 1, and in my mind I am thinking "This is not how today is supposed to go!  We are supposed to be at church in just over one hour to bless our little boy and now I am the one stopping us."

When we looked at my leg, it was pretty deep and Brandon said that we are going to the hospital.  Great, just the way I wanted to spend my morning while all the family is in town.  At the ER they numbed me up and cleaned it out, then stitched it closed.  I have four stitches in my leg.  I know that there was nothing that could have prevented it, and that it was not my sister's fault.  When we got home it was 2:15 and sacrament was over.  However, all the family came in for the blessing and we didn't get to do it at church.  Luckily enough, our wonderful Bishop came over and we did it at the house.

I will post pictures later, but right now it is bed time and the camera is down stairs.

Valentines Weekend

This past weekend Brandon and I were able to spend tons of time together.  This can be a rare thing even on the weekends with school demands on Brandon.  All day Saturday we spent it cleaning.  Now, I know that this doesn't sound like fun, but we love to clean.  This included the 4 loads of laundry and all the folding as well.  It was nice to be able to do the small things together.  This semester has been more hectic than ever for Brandon.  I feel like I only see him when we are crawling into bed at the end of the day.  Therefore, we haven't been able to clean up the house together since December.

We then headed to Provo to have dinner at Texas Roadhouse with some good friends.  We called ahead our seating at 6 and were told to come at about 7:30.  When we got there they said that it would be about 25 minutes till we could be seated.  However, 90 minutes later we were seated.  They give you a paper with your number on it and they have to get it back from you to be put on deck to be seated.  At 8:15 we were put on deck and then they proceeded to lose the paper with our number on it.  Needless to say, we were a little annoyed when other groups were getting seated before us.  Austin was not very happy in the car seat and there was not much I could do about it.  Finally, when we got seated Austin was screaming!  I pulled him out and handed him to Brandon and instantly he was asleep.  All that he needed was to be touching someone familiar in that crazy environment.  Dinner was delicious, so that helped make up for the wait.  Brandon had also surprised me with candy from See's; totally unexpected, but so nice!

On Sunday, we just had fun relaxing and going to church.  We made dinner together, and then spent time playing with Austin.  He was so happy and alert, playing a game with his Pluto stuffed animal.  I will try to get a video of it.

Over the weekend, Chloe, Brandon's sister had car troubles and so on Monday Brandon helped her fix it.  Now, since we had already had a date for Valentine's day I didn't care that it would be "cutting in" to my evening.  I made pizza and we had a good time chatting.  When Chloe left I made dessert.  I thought that doing something low key together would be just the thing that we needed, and it was.  The dessert was delicious.  I got the recipe here.  They were so rich, but sooooo good.  I used peanut butter candies, like Reese's for the filling.

I am so happy to have my wonderful husband and beautiful son.  Three years ago was our first Valentine's Day and I could have never imagined what my life would be like in three years.

3 weeks

Austin loves to have toys or stuffed animals next to him to stare at.  He was really excited for the bear.

Well, it has been just over three weeks since Austin was born.  My recovery is going well and he is eating like crazy!  When he was born he was 7 lb 5 oz but leaving the hospital he was 6 lb 11 oz.  However, at his two week check up he came in at 8 lb 6 oz!  That is quite the growth!

Wrinkled forehead

Two week stats:

Weight: 8 lbs 6 oz - just above the 50th percentile

Height: 21 inches - 50th percentile

Head circumference: 37 cm - 50th percentile

So, all in all he is an average size baby.

We call this his crazy eyes

He is still doing great at sleeping at night. He will sleep for two 3.5 to 4 hour blocks, only waking up to eat. He goes right back to sleep after eating. When he wakes up from the second block it is around 4 or 5 am and after eating he is ready and awake for the next two hours. This will be great when I have to go back to school so I am hoping to keep him waking up around then.

His eyes have lightened up so much.

Two Sundays ago he got done eating about 30 minutes before church started. I was thinking that he would sleep through the first block and wake up during the second. However, he decided to sleep all three hours of church! It was so amazing! Brandon kept him the whole time so I didn't even have him in relief society.

Since Brandon is back in school and working about 20 hours a week, he doesn't see either of us that often. I feel bad when Brandon comes home and Austin is getting tired so he is fussy, eats and then goes to bed. This means that Brandon only really sees him for about an hour each day. Brandon takes him from me on the weekends so that he can have his daddy time.

Below are some videos, especially for the grandparents.

This video was taken just over a week ago.

He used to be scared of the hiccups, but now he just lays there and hiccups peacefully.

You can see his HUGE belly and little shoulders perfectly in that video!

This is from this morning. He was just cooing away and it was too cute to pass up.

Austin Brandon Moller

On Sunday, January 9th, Austin Brandon was born at 4:46 pm, 7 lbs 5 oz, 20 in long.  This is going to be a long post...

Due to the fact that he had been measuring big the doctor decided to induce me as soon as I hit 39 weeks.  At the last ultrasound it said that he gotten smaller.  This also worried the doctor. So, I was scheduled for induction at 7 am on the 9th.  When we got to the hospital I was about 1 cm dilated.  The nurse told me that it would probably take more than 24 hours to get me into active labor.  They gave me a drug to focus on softening the cervix and put me on the monitors.  After awhile, regular contractions started.

Around 10:20, all the sudden five nurses came swarming into the room.  They told us that during a contraction his heartbeat would dip down to around 90 bpm.  They shot me up with drugs to stop the contractions and had me lye down with the oxygen mask on.  His heartbeat returned to normal and they said that they would wait until 4 hours after they gave me the original medicine to start labor to give me potocin.  My doctor was called into the hospital and watched us closely for the rest of the day.  To be honest, I just wanted them to take him out right then and there so that he could be safe but they have to exhaust all options before a c-section can be done.

Around noon I was put on pitocin.  My nurse said that they were all taking bets on how long he would be able to stand it before his heart rate dropped again.  The thing with pitocin is that they can stop it at anytime and it would stop working in just about 3 minutes.  This way, if anything was to start stressing out Austin, they could stop it immediately.  He lasted for a long time on it, and around 2 I was checked by the doctor.  I was about 1.5 cm this time, and that was slightly depressing.

There were a few times that his heart rate dropped down, but it wasn't consistent so they didn't stop the drugs.  My nurse told me that we would probably be doing a c-section and started to get me ready.  Then, the doctor was able to break my water around 4.  There was a slight meconium color to the liquid indicating that Austin was under stress.  Around 4:30 his heart rate was jumping from 90 to 160 and back to 90.  My wonderful nurse rushed in, had me drink this nasty stuff that would make it so if I threw up on the table, my stomach acids would not eat away at my insides!  Next thing I know, the doctor and the anesthesiologist were in my room explaining what I needed to do and what was going to happen.  At this point I was worried about Austin and I didn't care what they had to do to get him out of me, but that they do it as soon as possible.

I was wheeled down the OR and given my spinal tap (weirdest thing ever!), and prepped.  Brandon came in and the anesthesiologist told him that if he gets dizzy to sit down immediately.  Then they started the c-section.  As I was lying there I could feel this tug-a-war going on inside of me, but of course no pain.  Brandon watched the entire procedure and thought it was the coolest thing ever!  After maybe 5 minutes, I heard the doctor say "Oh, that is a grumpy face!" and then Austin cried just a little.  Apparently, his umbilical cord was wrapped tightly around his shoulder, and would pinch off, stopping blood flow during a contraction, which is why his heart rate would drop.  This also is the reason that he lost over a pound in a week and a half.  When they cut the cord, it just started to shred into pieces!  I am so happy that the doctor decided to do it the day he did, and to take him when he did!

Due to the meconium, they had a respiratory team on stand by in the OR and they quickly took Austin and made sure he was breathing okay, and to get out any meconium that he may have had in him.  I just laid there on the table wishing that they would bring him over for me to see.  As they were working on him, he was hardly crying.  Brandon said that he just laid there quietly.  After about 10 minutes, they brought him over and said that he had been having slightly labored breathing, and were going to monitor him downstairs.  I got to see him just for a second, and then they took him away.

I was wheeled back into my labor and delivery room, and they wanted to make sure that I was doing okay for an hour before they would take me to Mother and Baby.  I was taken downstairs around 6, but I didn't get to see Austin until about 7:30.  He is the sweetest little boy!  He is very calm and really only cries when he is hungry or needs to be changed.  We have been spoiled the past few nights with him sleeping about 3 to 4.5 hours at a time.

 

 The way that he got here was not the way that I had wanted or hoped for, but that doesn't matter to me.  All that matters is that he is safe and healthy.  I am doing great, I am up walking about and I hardly take the pain meds.  I am not 100% better but more than 70% better.

Ultrasound Pictures of a LARGE baby

Due the fact that I am so far along, they don't even ask if we want 3D pictures of the baby.

It will be interesting to see who he looks like more, and how close to this he looks.  He is measuring with an expected due date of Dec. 29th, so we have another ultrasound on the 28th to see how much weight he has put on.  He is supposedly already 7.5 pounds!  The doctor didn't want to make a rush decision and take him before the next ultrasound because they can be off by a bit on the estimation of the weight.  Depending on how much he puts on in the two weeks, will decide whether or not we have a c-section or inducement.  There is not really a chance that things will happen naturally unless I go before then, which is very unlikely.  Who knows, I could have him in a week or so...

Lately

Well, I have been feeling like there has been nothing to post for a while now, but I have decided to try and be better about blogging.

About a month ago Brandon went to Costco and found this box of dog toys for a really good price.  When we got it home Gus took to just about all the toys right away which was a first.  What you must understand about our dog is that he loves toys that have squeakers in them, and most of these toys do.  One night Brandon and Gus were playing with one of the toys and Gus decided that it was time to find that squeaker.  Next thing we know, the head of the fox toy is completely ripped off the body and Gus is taking out the filling to find that squeaker.  I was a little worried that he would eat the filling, but instead he would take a little out and throw it to the side.  Eventually, he found the squeaker and this was the result:

Brandon and I couldn't help but laugh at him.  Shortly after the video ended Gus punctured the squeaker making it so that it had to be thrown away.  I have never seen him more concerned and upset about anything, but he was definitely concerned about why the super fun squeaker was being put in the garbage.

Gus also loves rawhide bones.  We just can't afford to have them all the time.  Gus can finish a good size bone in just about 2 hours.  Therefore, he tends to not get them as often as he would like.  However, this past week we went grocery shopping and they had a three foot long rawhide bone.  This thing was huge!  Brandon however decided that we just had to buy it for him, and so we did.  Gus was so excited when we took it out of the package.  However, as you can tell from the following pictures that it was as big as him!  All he did for the first couple of days was lick it, because he couldn't figure out what else to do.  Brandon eventually took the saw to the bone and cut off a piece.  Gus was in heaven and has been happily enjoying the monster rawhide since.

The bone was as long and tall as him!

Well, baby Austin should be here anytime.  The crib is put together, just need some sheets, and the changing table is together.  We have the car seat ready to go.  All we need now is the baby!  Brandon is so excited to be a dad.  I can tell that he is going to be great!  Even though he says that we are not Gus' parents, he sure treats him like a kid.  We will get to see our baby on Tuesday, so I will try and put up a better picture.  The doctor wants to see just how big he is so that we can start making plans according for birth.  Brandon was 10 lbs so the doctor wants to make sure that if he is larger, that we know before hand and can have him early.