Big changes!

Hunter is now 12 weeks old which means that my maternity leave has come to an end. After much discussion and consideration, AJ and I have decided that I will be a stay-at-home mom and I have officially resigned from Dell. We are both very excited that I will be staying home. I'm very happy to be able to be here with him every day and am looking forward to all of the fun we will have together! This means my Dell email address is not a good way to contact me anymore. You can reach me at my Yahoo or MSN address - kjwinship@yahoo.com or kristin_winship@msn.com.

Hunter is getting bigger every day and our days go by so fast. We are establishing a nice little schedule. He usually goes down by about 7:30 or 8:00 at night and is up at about 8:00 in the morning. We go on a walk as soon as we get up and get changed so we can try to beat the heat. (We've had 21 days of triple digit temperatures so far this year!) By the time we get home from our walk, Hunter eats, I eat, he goes down for a nap and I shower it is noon before I know it. He is starting to play with toys and is very interested in everything that is going on around him. It's so amazing how fast they develop! I was downloading some video they other day and found some of him at about 2 weeks old and I can't believe how big he is now.

I will blog later about our trip to Indiana over the 4th - Hunter's first time on a plane!

Ahh, sleep!

Now here is a milestone that deserves documentation! Hunter "slept throught the night" last night for the very first time! I put "slept through the night" in quotes because technically sleeping through the night is 5 (or 6, I can't remember) hours at a time and this was from 7:30pm-1:30am. Still, I'll take what I can get! Hunter is still sleeping in our room but last night I tried something different. I put him down in his crib in his room when he went down at 7:30 because I thought it might be quieter for him. We have his monitor in his room and when we put him down in our room we leave the door cracked. I stayed up until about 11:00, sure that he would wake up at any time to eat, but finally decided to lay down and then woke up in a panic at 1:00 when I realized that he hadn't woken up yet. I went to his room to check on him and he was still sound asleep. :) I've tried this trick again tonight and he is sleeping as I type so we'll see what happens!

2 months!

Hunter had his 2 month checkup today with Dr. Terwelp. I was not looking forward to this one because he had to get his first shots today. They give them 5 sticks and I didn't know what to expect but it went really fast and he did very, very well. It was much better than I expected. They also checked his bilirubin so his poor little heel got stuck AGAIN. He actually cried more for that than he did for his shots. One of the levels is still a little higher than they would like for it to be so we have to go back when he is 3 months old just so they can monitor it. After that he will go back at 4 months for more shots. :(

He is growing like a weed. His first scheduled appointment (that was unrelated to his jaundice issues in the beginning) was at 2 weeks old and he was in the 4th percentile for weight and length. Today he is in the 5th for length - 21.5 inches - and the...ahem...20th percentile for weight! He is up to 10.3 lbs. I guess we don't need to worry about him getting enough to eat!

Last Prego Pic

Ok, so this is a little outdated, but I love it so much I wanted to upload it anyway. On Saturday, April 11th, our friend Piper came over to take some pregnancy pictures of me. Turns out it was great timing because my water broke at 11:50pm that night so the pictures that she took are the last ones we have of me pregnant which I think it pretty cool. When they came over to drop off the disk a few weeks later they brought this one blown up and framed for us and it is now hanging in Hunter's room. :)

Chunky Monkey!

We had a follow-up appointment to Hunter's weight check from a couple of weeks ago and he is up to 8 lbs, 15 oz! He has gained a pound and a half in the past two weeks. Little chunk! He is still in size newborn in clothes and diapers but I imagine it won't be long before we are in 0-3 months (which will make mommy sad!).

Hunter had his first "playdate" with his friend Harrison last week. Harrison's mommy, Allison, and I went out to lunch and it was a perfect day outside. We sat outside and talked and ate and had a great time. Harrison is 2 months older than Hunter and they were both good little boys and slept almost the entire time. I'm sure these two will have many, many fun times together in the future!

Dr. Visit

Just a quick post to update on our cardiologist appointment yesterday. Everything looks and sounds good and the murmur is just a typical newborn murmur - they call them "innocent murmurs" and they eventually will go away. We are very thankful for that! I'm starting to learn that there is always going to be something to worry about with having a baby!!

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

So big!

I looked back over my past few posts and it is hard to believe how big Hunter is getting already and how much he has changed! Here is a more recent picture that cracks me up because it looks like he is just lounging on the couch like a big guy, and super cute one I couldn't resist posting of Hunter and AJ.

I took him to the Dr. yesterday to get his weight checked and he is up to 7 lbs 7.5 oz! He is growing up so fast already. We were pleased with his weight gain - he is 4 weeks old now - but Dr. Terwelp found a heart murmur that he wants to get checked out. These apparently aren't all that uncommon in newborns but due to his size and the fact that he is a preemie, he is sending is sending us to a pediatric cardiologist to be on the safe side. I am trying to stay positive and hope that this is just a common murmur and nothing more. I will be sure to post an update.

Whitney was here to visit the weekend before last, so last week was my first week home without any help and I think I am doing pretty well. :) My mom made a ton of food and froze it for us before she left and we are still enjoying that so I guess I'm not totally on my own yet! I am loving being at home with him and being a mommy. Hunter is still eating about every 2-3 hours, but last night he went for 4 hours in between feedings one time and boy, does that extra hour make a HUGE difference. I felt like I was on vacation!

We went on one outing this week to meet AJ for lunch and then Hunter and I went to Babies R Us to get a couple of things for his room. I still am wary of germs, but I am able to put his carrier/carseat in his stroller and totally cover him up where the hoods of the carrier and stroller come together, so I did that and felt okay about it. He did a pretty good job and it is nice to get out of the house with him.

Here is a pic of Hunter and proud Aunt Whitney! I will post more after our Dr. appointment tomorrow.