8 weeks old

Kevin is 8 weeks old today....so hard to believe. And to celebrate the milestone - Kevin rolled over. He was laying on his tummy in his crib and rolled over onto his back. Such a big boy! I don't think he knows what he did so it'll be interesting to see how long it takes him to do it again - but the fact that he did it made us proud.

I am wrapping up my time at home with Kevin and tonight is the last night that I get up with him for 3am feedings (at least until this weekend!) I can't believe I was home for 8 weeks. I am ready to get back into a routine and I look forward to Ben being at home with Kevin. He's going to have so much fun.

Oh...and an update on Kevin's schedule. He takes a 9:00pm bottle and sleeps until 3:00am and then wakes up again for a bottle at 7:00. He's followed this schedule for a week now so I am calling it official. He eats and naps around the same time every day. He's such a good baby.

New pics and cute video

Kevin is smiling so much now it makes taking pictures so much fun! Check out the video to see how good he's talking....

11 lbs 11 oz

Kevin weighed in today at 11 lbs 11 oz and measured 23 inches....He's getting so big! We even had to trade in his size 1 diapers for a size 2. His new thing is smiling and talking. He smiles for us all the time - espcially when he wakes up. He's so cute and so much fun. He's also sleeping for one 6 hour stretch during the night. He's eating every 4 hours the rest of the day. Is this an actual schedule we're on? If he's still doing this in a week we'll call it official.

I go back to work next Wednesday so Ben is preparing to be a stay at home dad for 3 months. He already does so much around the house - but now he's doing more with Kevin to make sure he's ready when I'm gone. He wore the infant carrier with Kevin last night and prepared dinner, vacuumed and helped me straighten up the house....it was too cute! Kevin is absolutely fasinated with Ben. They are going to be great together.

A special congrats to my friend Sarah who welcomed her new baby on Christmas Day! We can't wait to see sweet baby Olivia.

Kevin's 1st Christmas

Kevin's 1st Christmas was wonderful! We spent Christmas Eve with Ben's family (and found out that Kevin will have a new cousin next year....congrats Stephen and Amy!)

Christmas Day we went to my parents. Kevin was in such a good mood and didn't mind being passed around all day!

Here are some fun pictures of our Christmas.....

Updated Pictures...Finally!

A Sleeping Baby = A Happy Mommy

We've had such a busy week with our little man. I officially decided on Monday to put Kevin on formula. I am returning to work in 2 weeks and to be honest, I am exhausted! It was a hard but good decision. We've been able to get out this week and stay out for longer than 3 hours. We went Christmas shopping on Wednesday, visited with my friend Bryanna yesterday and we're going out again tonight. I am so happy and feel so much better. I'm getting more sleep at night and Kevin just seems more content.

A major plus to him being on formula...Ben gets to help with feedings. As a matter of fact, Wednesday morning..Kevin woke up and Ben got up to feed him. I slept until almost 11:00 that morning. It was great!!!! He's such a good husband and daddy.

I will post new pictures of Kevin shortly. He is waking up from his nap....

A look back....

Kevin will be 6 weeks old on Monday. It's so hard to believe! Ben and I had our official first date last night since Kevin was born. We went to Saltgrass and had a great time. My parents came over to watch Kevin. It was hard to leave him - even for a few hours but I figured I haven't left this little man since he was born and since I'll be returning to work shortly I needed to get used to it. We didn't call home once to check on him!!!! He was an angel for my parents and slept most of the time. It's great having family here to help out and love on Kevin.

Enjoy the pictures of my final months pregnant, Kevin's arrival and his first month just hanging out with us. He's changed so much and gets cuter every day. We're not bias or anything!

Prayer, Patience and Parental Instincts

Follow up from my post yesterday: Ben and I have decided not to continue an aggressive approach with Kevin's reflux. Instead, we're relying on our "Three P's"...prayer, patience and our own parental instincts. I really feel in my heart that he is okay and all this medicine they want to try is too much for his little body and young age. Why put a one month old on 2 different medicines if you don't have to? We're not too impressed with our doctor's office and at this point one doctor is telling us something completely different than another doctor in the same office and neither of their nurses know what they're talking about. With that said we are going to take Kevin to the pediatrician's office I used to work at. I love the doctors/staff there and since he's going to daycare by my office - this location is perfect.

We feel great about our decisions and are reminded that God is in control and He will take care of him.

A Good Night

Last night was great! I haven't admitted it yet but Kevin has been sleeping with me for the last week... Poor Ben has been sleeping in the living room on an air mattress. This started when Kevin went through his growth spurt last week and was wanting to eat every hour. I was exhausted and when he fell asleep one night, I layed down with him and what do you know - he slept for like 4 hours. I thought "great, I can do this every night" and I did! I was about one feeding away from not breastfeeding anymore but getting sleep last week helped me stick with it.

For the most part, he is on a great schedule. I find myself feeding him around the same time every day and he usually falls asleep around the same time, too. I knew if I didn't get him back in his crib - he couldn't continue to build a schedule. At first I thought it would be harder on him and that he would miss me - not a chance! He slept great last night and after putting him down the first time, I was the one missing him. I can't even explain how wonderful it was to lay him next to me and for him to look up at me before he fell asleep. I still managed to get in a 2 hour nap with him this afternoon but officially at night, he is sleeping in his crib. Ben should be thrilled that he gets to return to his bed tonight!!!

The pediatrician is adding a reflux medicine to see if in addition to the Prevacid it will help more. We are going to the hospital on Thursday to get a reflux ultrasound to see what's going on inside his little body. We hope that his reflux can be controlled with medicine. He's gaining weight so I can't imagine that he'll need anything else.

He's starting to smile more and turns his head in the direction of our voices. He's so much fun and we love him so much. I am now in the process of preparing Ben for him time off with Kevin. Trying to give him tips and advice so he doesn't go crazy!

Also, please keep the Franklin family in your prayers. They are giving birth to their son Deren today! It's been a long hard pregnancy and we're praying for a healthy baby that gets to go home with mom.

Updated Pics

Things change by the day... Kevin was going 4 hours between feedings for about a week. I thought a schedule was actually forming. I was wrong! I think he's learning that if he eats less but more often his tummy doesn't hurt....and that's exactly what he's doing. He eats (which takes about 30-45 min) and sits up for an addition 30 minutes to make sure he doesn't spit up. After that it takes a good 30 minutes for him to fall asleep. So basically from the time he falls asleep - he's only asleep for maybe 2 hours before he's ready to eat again.

I've been trying to think positive about the whole situation. I look at him at 2 in the morning and think "aren't you tired?" and "how are you hungy again?" And then I think.... Some nights I sleep better than others and some meals I eat better than others. Who can blame him for wanting to eat a lot at some feedings? And he's only 5 weeks old - I know he's not going to sleep though the night yet...especially since he's breastfed. So we take one day at a time and love every minute of it. He's just precious when he wakes up (all 4 times a night!!). I get the biggest smiles during those times. It's like God's little way of reminding me how blessed we are to have him even though I'm so tired I wonder how I'll make it though the day.

Didn't make it to church today. Ben worked 2am-6am and then came home. It's about 40 degrees outside, dark and raining - staying in a nice warm bed sounded so much better at 7:00 this morning! And that's exactly what we did...

He's getting bigger by the day!

Kevin weighed in at 10 lbs 8 oz yesterday when we had to make a trip to the pediatrician's office. Ben changed his diaper and noticed that Kevin's eyes were yellow. We called and they wanted to see him and check him for jaundice. We had our appointment and had to head to the hospital to get his blood drawn. **Side Note: Jeers to the lab employees at MY hospital who were extremely rude when (1) we showed up 5 min late (unable to prevent since we left the clinic at 4:45) and (2) when the pediatrician's office put our info on the wrong req form. Hello! The req form said STAT and they just sent us away like it was no big deal. "Come back tomorrow when the form is right" is all the employee had to say to me. Cheers to the employees at Dr Yee's office who called and allowed us to go through the ER to get his blood drawn and cheers to the doctor who called us at 9:00 last night to give us the results!** His lab results came back and everything looked good. They were concerned that his liver may not have been functioning like it should....but he's perfect. They gave us samples of Prevacid today to see if it would help with his little tummy after he eats. We're hoping it works!

We took pictures today at Target and they turned out great. Kevin was a little angel and slept the entire time. We get the pictures back in a few weeks and can't wait to get frames and give them as Christmas gifts.

Kevin's eating and sleeping schedule is getting better. He's almost making it 4 hours between feedings!! Can't wait to see how much "schedule progress" he makes in the next few weeks before I go back to work.

We made it to church!

Kevin and I made it to church this morning!!!! Miracles do happen... He decided to wake up every hour on the hour last night. He'd eat, go to sleep and wake up an hour later. This continued until 2:30 this morning. He finally went back to sleep and woke up at 4:00. At that point I had already decided that we weren't going to church. I was so tired. Kevin (and God) had other plans. When I changed his diaper...he went tee-tee all over himself. I got his bath tub out and we were taking a bath at 4:30 this morning. After that, we were both awake! He ate, relaxed in his swing and I got ready for church. I was ready, ate breakfast, fed him again and we were in the car at 8:20 on our way to church!!!! I couldn't believe it..and it only took me 4 hours!

Church was great and it was nice to get out and see everyone. Kevin slept the entire time and only made noises when he was dreaming. We got home, we both ate lunch and we were down for a nap at noon. He let me sleep 2 hours - I was so happy.

We're venturing out again tomorrow to run some errands. I'm getting so brave these days. I can't believe he'll be 4 weeks tomorrow. Time has gone by so fast. One of my errands is to run by my office. I plan on weighing him while I'm there to see how big our chunky monkey is!