tummy time

Hunter you sure do like to cuddle. I just love it! My favorite time of day is after your bottle getting to snuggle with you, however I don't want you to get used to being rocked all day long. So, this momma has to break herself, as well as you from it! You love layin on my chest on your belly. You sleep sooooo well this way! So I just started putting you on your belly for your naps the other day. Jared and I decided we would stop rocking you to sleep during naps and let you "cry it out" in your crib. However, you have yet to cry when we put you in there for nap time. Usually you are just so tired and love sleepin on your belly that we just lay you in there and turn on your sound machine and you go right to sleep. I have been sooo nervous to do this though! I know the Doctors all say "backs to sleep" but all the older mom's out there always tell me "you kids always slept on your bellies and you are fine!" So, I thought I'd give it a try since you are getting good at holdin up your head now. Saturday you slept from 11-5 in the afternoon on your belly. Usually your naps are 1-5 so that was a whole 2 hours longer! I was worried you wouldn't sleep at night after this long nap, and you did wake up a little earlier than usual but you still slept well. So, I'm hoping we can eventually get the courage to let you sleep on your tummy through the night as well! But for now, just naps so I can check on you often and I can listen to you breathe through the monitor!

Photo Shoot

I had a little mini photo shoot the other day when Hunter was awake. I saw this thing on pinterest that I want to do with his pictures. You find a collage frame and put a picture of his face in the middle. Then all around it you take pictures of parts of his body and put them around the middle picture. It was so cute! It will help me remember the little things :) So here are some of the pictures I took of our little guy. He's getting cuter and cuter everyday!

obsessed

I never thought I'd be obsessed over... well... poop. Yes, I said it, poop. If you have ever had a child you may or may not understand. I've been trying to figure out my kid's poop since he was born.We are now on our 4th formula and I'm hoping this one is here to stay!!!!

Similac was number one... tried this one for about a week and a half, maybe 2 and he was going way to far between his poops.. like even 5 days!! So we had to ditch the similac.

Next we tried Gerber Good Start... yay he started pooping more, but still not every day. With this one is was about every 36-48 hours but he was SO gassy with this formula.. We were actually on this one until he was 6 weeks old. He started getting worse and worse belly aches with it though.

So, then the Dr. recommended soy formula. I thought for sure once we switched him to soy he'd be all better. When Jared was a baby he had to be on soy so I figured like father like son... wrong.
Once again, its all about the poop people. This formula made him go everday, but poor little guy was pushin out rocks! This stuff was hard! He was way less gassy though, but he started spittin up with this one. UHH. It's always something!

I have done so much googling on formulas in the past month then I've cared to! So, today once again I called the Dr. I told her what all the formulas have done and she thinks he needs to be on Enfamil Gentlease. This one is supposed to be gentle on the tummy and reduce gas, spit up, and fussiness. Then she had me buy miralax and I'm supposed to put one teaspoon in 1 bottle daily. I'm REALLY hoping we can stick with this one! She also said to try switching bottles and maybe that he was getting too much air. So I switched him to Dr. Browns since my sister has had good luck with them.

It is SO frustrating seeing your baby with a belly ache and not being able to fix it! I'm praying this is the last of our troubles with tummy issues!

Changes

Here is our little guy awake!

Hunter it seems like everyday you are changing in one way or another! Some days you sure are a puzzle! We've had you on Gerber Gentle formula for about 5 weeks now and you were doing great on it. Until just recently... you've started the whole constipation thing again.. uhh! AND the most recent thing you've started doing is crying during your bottle. This is not your  normal "I'm hungry" cry.. this is a hurtful cry! You want to eat but you act like it hurts. So, I'm going to go ahead and try the soy formula. The dr. reccomended it but I didn't really wanna use it unless I had to. So, we'll give this a week or so and see if you do any better. I hate that my baby is hurting! I'm not really sure why you are constipated all of the sudden again... I just wish you could take well to a certain formula and stick to it! I hate switchin you around.

Another change is your sleep. You used to sleep between every bottle whether it was right away or waiting an hour to fall asleep. Now that you are 6 weeks you have started skipping your very early AM nap... boo! I know you will start being more alert and I'm ready for that so I can see you smile and hear you learn to coo, however that early morning nap allows mom to sleep in! Oh well, I guess it'll just get me used to getting up early for when school starts. So, now your sleep schedule is usually up between 6-7 then back down around 10 after you eat.. then you usually sleep till around 2 and eat then you might stay awake for a little bit, but eventually you fall back asleep till around 6 and then you eat again and usually stay awake for an hour maybe then you are pretty much down for the night. You get woken up around 10 for one last bottle before mom and dad go to bed! Then USUALLY you get up around 3am for a bottle again. I'm very thankful that you fall right back asleep after this 3 am feeding, because lately I have to work kind hard at getting you to go back to sleep around 10am and 2pm.. you fight these little naps for some reason!! You are so tired though!

As far as holding your head up... you are gettin pretty good at it! I like to hold you around your chest and let you practice that way so I can see you and talk to you! I'm still not seein many smiles :( You might be a little behind since you were a little bit of a premie.. but I have seen a few from ya! I'm hoping you learn to do that more in the next 2 weeks :) Still lots of sleepy time though so not much awake time to work on this either!

I cant wait till your 2 month appointment coming up so that I can see how you are growing on the chart comparitively! But then again I CAN wait because you have to get shots and I have to go back to work that week... UHH! I cant believe how fast this summer has gone and I don't wanna think about not being with my baby boy all day long :( It makes me sad that other people get to spend all day with you and I don't!! UHH :(

Photo Book

Thanks to Clayton and Stacy Phelps for the free photo book! Check it out :)

Click here to view this photo book larger

You'll love Shutterflys award-winning photo books. Try it today.

4th of July

This 4th of July was a hot one! We went to a cookout later that afternoon and we stripped Hunter down to his diaper because he was sweatin like crazy!

 After awhile I decided to run home and get his rock and play sleeper and his monitors. That way I could put him inside to sleep and turn the monitors on so I could still hear him. This was much better for baby! He was hot!

I don't have any pictures of fireworks! We went to Dieterich with Herboths to watch them and I think I was lookin at Hunter more than I was the fireworks. I was watchin to see if he was going to wake up from the noise... I can't hardly believe it but he slept right through them all! They even had some of those really bright sonic boom things and he didn't flinch!

Overall we had a fun day visiting friends and family:)

1 Month!

I can't believe my baby boy is 1 month old already! This month has flown by so fast :( It makes me sad because I know every other month will fly by too!

Here is Hunter with his bear. We are going to take a picture of him every month with this bear so we can see how he grows!

Hunter... at one month you have changed so much already! You are still just a tiny little guy. You weigh 8 pounds and 4 ounces today! You are still wearing size newborn clothes though! You are done wearing newborn sleepers though because your legs are too long.. as for onesies and rompers you are still in newborn and might be for another few more weeks. You still wear newborn diapers too. You will probably be graduating to a size 1 soon though!

When you were first born you were eating almost an ounce. Now, I'm making you 4 oz during the day and 3 oz at night. It seems like every week you are eating more and more! Your bottle is about as big as you are by the way!

You are eating about every 4 hours most of the time. At night, you usually get up between 2:00-3:00 and then again between 5:30-6:30 but you do go back to sleep until 9:00 which mommy loves :) I put you in your crib for the first time last night and you did great. Slept like your normal self! You still sleep like a newborn.. A LOT! I don't complain about this though!  Right now, daddy gets up with you on Saturdays and mom has all the other days since daddy works right now and mom is off. I'm crossing my fingers that you start sleeping through that 2am feeding! That would be pretty awesome, but I know that it doesn't always happen like that!

You love to cuddle! If I can't get you to sleep, I put you on my chest and bounce you up and down and you usually can't resist! You go right to sleep.

Here you are wide awake. When you are awake you are usually content as can be!

And here you are sleepin away in your rock and play sleeper with that arm up

by your head... like always!

You are advanced from the soothie pacifiers to the regular NUK ones now... I just don't like the look of those newborn ones, but you sure do love your paci and you take it so well! We were amazed at how well you took it from week one!

You don't like tummy time, and I admit I haven't really tried it that much because you don't like it! I need to get you on your tummy more though so you can start holding your head up! You will hold it up for a few seconds at a time, and you can turn it from side to side while we're burping you. You seem like you are noticing people more and focusing better. You smile a lot in your sleep and usually you will smile if I kiss your cheek or rub your cheek. Other than that, its still pretty involuntary.

We love you so much Hunter! You are such a cute and awesome baby :) We can't wait to see how you change in the months to come!