Nate and Lindsey : December 2013

Spencer smiles and Nate gets a Christmas bonus (ha!)

(still working on getting a picture, sorry to disappoint.)

This morning was the first time Spencer smiled (besides in his sleep)! It was the cutest thing and I have been trying to get him to do it again all day, but no luck!
I was sitting in bed and ad him leaning back against my bent legs, I blew in his eyes a few times (meanest mom) and he closed them and opened his mouth wide and gave a big ol' smile! We repeated this 2 or 3 times before he was done with that game.

In other news Nate got a Christmas bonus of a $1 Pennsylvania lottery scratch ticket. He won a whoppin' $4.00.

what a joke.

Christmas Eve & Christmas day.

This year Nate had to work on Christmas day so we decided to have our big dinner on Christmas eve. Nate has become quite the chef (always has been) since Spencer was born. I get halfway through making or doing something when the baby starts crying and Nate has to take over. Christmas was no different. I got halfway through making 2 pumpkin pies (thanks for the crusts mom!) and Nate had to finish. I think he even had to make the whole peanut butter chocolate himself, he just had to keep coming to ask me if it looked right. He made ham, mashed potatoes (I peeled and cut them is all) and green bean casserole. And I got to help make 'pink stuff'. And just to brag about him a little more, on Monday he made 3 batches of cookies for us to gift to people; chocolate chip, snickerdoodle, and hershey;s kiss cookies. What a stud! And it was all amazing!
We went for a walk afterward and even though we were bundled up it was freezing so we didn't last long! We came home and just relaxed and watched parts of a couple Christmas movies on tv. Then we opened a couple presents because I wanted Nate to wear his to bed! He wore his Santa jammies for a few hours but then decided they were too hot to wear to bed.
Christmas day was very low key for us this year which we didn't mind at all. We opened a few presents, ate our leftovers and then Nate went to work. We were spoiled by both our families and are so thankful to all of them for even thinking of us, we missed all of them but enjoyed a nice little Christmas with our little family.

Excuse how gross we are in the following pictures:

sleepy Spence.

the chef and his meal, minus 3 pies.

wishing his parents a merry christmas :)

SANTA!

just wanted to show off our cute baby.

We are so grateful to have such generous families! Thank you to all of you, we love you!

One Month Old!

December 16, 2013

the bink lasted about 2 seconds.

I know parents always say this...but I can't believe my baby is already a month old!! Time has gone by so fast and he is already so much bigger!
At his 1 month doc. appointment he was:
9.11 lbs.
43%
22 inches.
69%
15 in. head.
74%

if you've ever seen Nate yawn, it looks just like this.

He did jump up a whole growth curve (according to a chart the doc. had) in both height and weight. We were all very pleased with his weight as he gained 2 whole pounds in 3 weeks! It was about time he started growing!

like father, like son!

At 1 month Spencey has terrible baby acne!! Here's hoping it clears up soon! He still hates to have his diaper changed and cries and screams the whole time. He also doesn't really like to fart or poop. He doesn't like to be naked or be on his belly. And up until 2 nights ago, he REALLY didn't like sleeping in his own bed. He is still not a big fan of the bink and makes really awful gagging noises and faces if we try to give it to him.

Now for the stuff he DOES like! He LOVES the water! Showers and baths are his favorite, even listening to running water can usually calm him down. He loves to nurse, even if he's not hungry (his mom is really not a fan of this habit). His favorite trick is waiting until his diaper is off to pee! He likes to just be held and we love that!!

Another trick he's really great at is casting spells! But seriously, it is the funniest thing...when Spencer is asleep and we go check on him he gets spooked or something and shoots his arms up in the air really fast! Nate kept calling him a wizard and I didn't understand why until he said it when we were both checking on him sleeping. It was hilarious and he really does look like he's a wizard casting spells on us! I keep trying to get a video, but he must be on to me because he will never do it when the cameras out! ;)

Finally, after a whole month we have gotten into a bedtime routine that has him sleeping more in his own bed and only waking up twice a night! We start getting ready for bed at 8 which includes a little bath, some lotion (this lasts about 10 seconds because he doesn't like to be naked and starts screaming), swaddling, lights off, calming music, and nursing! This puts him to sleep anytime between 8:30-9:30. If I let him sleep on me for about 5 minutes after he's done eating I can put him in his bed and he will sleep till midnight when he wakes up. At midnight we do a diaper change, reswaddle, turn the music back on, and he nurses for 30-45 min. when I can then put him back in his bed. He will then sleep till 4-4:30 when we repeat the same procedure and he will go back to sleep until anywhere between 8-10am! He is definitely his father's son with his sleeping habits!

We love having him here with us!! I sometimes miss being pregnant and I definitely worry about him more, but we have really enjoyed him and can't wait to watch him grow!

the best we could get...

I couldn't resist...I love this cute bum!

Oma comes to Waynesboro.

November 25- December 4 my mom was in town and it was awesome!!
When she originally mentioned coming out here we decided she better come closer to 2 weeks after my due date so that there was a better chance of baby adventure being here (we were both pretty sure I was going to go over my due date...how naive of us!)
We had planned to have Nate pick her up since I wasn't sure how our week old baby would do in the car for 3+ hours driving to and from the airport, but something exciting happened Monday morning that changed my mind...our heater broke!! I remember waking up about 5am and being freezing!! Nate had a meeting to go to early and when he got back around 10am I told him I was still freezing! He went around and checked all the heaters and sure enough, NONE of them was working! So he called the landlords who said they'd send people over immediately so somebody needed to be there, me. Nate had a few errands he had to run so me and Spencey stayed in bed with my electric blanket on until 1pm when ALL the power was cut!! I still hadn't had anyone stop by to fill us in or check things out and I was getting really annoyed wondering if our heat was getting fixed or not. I just kept bundling Spencer and making sure he was warm enough, luckily he didn't even notice and mostly slept the whole time. Anyway, we finally heard the heat in our whole building was out and they were working on fixing it. Nate was supposed to leave around 3pm to pick up my mom and as it was getting closer and we still had no heat, I decided me and Spence were going to go too because I was freezing and didn't know when we'd have heat again!
Of course our power and heat started working right before we had to leave! But we decided to still go and Spencer actually did really well! I brought my pump and pumped on the way there so he wouldn't be too starved. He only had a minor blowout on the way home, and silly inexperienced mom hadn't thought to pack an extra outfit so he wore poop stained jammies home. :)
While my mom was here we spent some time visiting quilt stores and thrift stores, cooking for Thanksgiving, cooking for us, and we even went to Gettysburg one day. My mom spent a lot of time cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, and babysitting, oh and making snowflakes for our tree! It was SOOO nice and helpful having her here too! We really appreciated all the help she gave us and I'm still trying to get used to doing all that myself now! I had sure missed her and had fun just spending time with her. We can't wait for an opportunity to move back closer to our families.
Most of the pix from her trip ended up on her camera, but here's the few I did take...and yes, I still look pregnant.