LOL :)

We had several fun things going on last week, the most exciting of which was Hunter's first laugh! He has seemed to be on the verge of laughing for a couple of weeks and we have been waiting for him to break in to laughter for us. I must say, it is pretty darn cute. :) He's given us a handful of really good ones and laughs harder when you laugh back at him. I love it!

Saturday was the Longhorns first football game. We took Hunter down to the action for a little bit to his 1st tailgate! I'll have to admit, I was pretty excited about his first football experience, although I did feel like I was cheating on my Hoosiers. I guess this means I'll have to take him to Assembly Hall as soon as possible. :) He seemed to really have fun. We were in a shaded area and the weather wasn't too bad. It actually looked like a storm was going to blow through at one point and cooled things off a bit although it never did rain. He liked being outside and even took a little snooze while we were there.



His favorite activity right now is to stand up in your lap and jump up and down. He is finally big enough for his Baby Einstein jumper and he can entertain himself for quite a while. He has a lot of fun in it!

Mimi visit

My mom was here last week and boy did Hunter have a good time with her! AJ was out of town for a couple of the days so as usual she helped me out a TON. It had only been since July 4th that she saw Hunter, so about 6 weeks, but she could notice a huge change in him developmentally. He is much more engaged than he was then and of course, who can resist those big smiles! He didn't roll over while she was here but I'm sure he'll have plenty of new tricks to show off next time. :)


We nixed the rice cereal for now. He was doing a good job getting the hang of the spoon, but it wasn't making a difference in his sleep habits and it doesn't seem like his little system is just quite ready for it yet.

While Mom was here we took a trip out to the Oasis for lunch. For those of you not from Austin, the Oasis is a local restaurant out on Lake Travis which is famous for it's beautiful sunset view. We have a had a really rough summer. Yesterday we were on day 67 of triple digit days so far this year (the record is 69) and the lake levels are extremely low. It was so shocking to see how low the water was. I got home and compared to some old pics of the same view...

We need some serious rain!

Our new favorite thing to do is Skype with Mimi. We finally got it hooked up and have been able to video chat with each other several times. It is so much fun! Now we hate having to talk on the phone without seeing each other. :)

4 months

I can't believe we are already at Hunter's 4 month appointment and 2nd round of shots! He was quite the trooper again and didn't cry all too much when he received his shots. He weighed in at 13 lbs, 13 oz (40th percentile) and 23" long (10th percentile). He is getting so big!

The only challenge we've been having is with his sleep patterns. We talked to Dr. Terwelp about this and he said that physiologically he should be able to sleep 8-12 hours a night at this point. He also said that most babies are sleeping longer than Hunter does right now, although he does see some that are in the same boat so we're not exactly out of the norm. He suggested including rice cereal as a part of his bedtime routine to see if that might help him sleep longer. Tonight was the 3rd night we've tried it. So far it hasn't made a significant impact but he's still getting used to eating from a spoon and really spits most of it out right now.

We had dinner with our friends Mark and Allison last week. Their son is Harrison, who is one of Hunter's very first friends. Harrison is 2 months older than Hunter and you might remember me mentioning their playdates in previous posts. This is the first time that we stood Harrison and Hunter next to each other and it was sooo cute! Harrison touched Hunter's arm and Hunter didn't know what to think. We finally got a pic of the two of them together (thanks, Allison!).


Saving the best for last -- Hunter rolled over for the first time on 8/14! It was just the two of us at home and he did it twice. After that I realized it was the real thing and got the video camera and was able to capture it on video the 3rd time. :)

Nap strike and new tricks!

I thought this was just too cute and funny not to post. Occasionally, Hunter will have an afternoon (or entire day) that he refuses to sleep, which I affectionately refer to as a nap strike. Usually he will either fall asleep and wake up within minutes of going down in his crib, making it perfectly clear that he does not intend to lay there any longer, or sometimes he just won't fall asleep at all in the first place. The other day we were having one of these afternoons - he wanted to play and wouldn't fall asleep. It looked a little something like this:


Followed by phase 2 of the nap strike, about 5 minutes later:


Sorry that it does not include sound... :)

He is almost to the point where everything goes in his mouth. His hands automatically do and he is getting to where he grasps different things and brings them to his mouth also. He is not quite rolling over but looks like he's getting close. He's got the baby push-up mastered!

Andrew has been here for two weeks so Hunter has had a lot of fun playing with him. He also had another playdate (aka Mommy Lunch) with his friend Harrison this week. Next week is his 4 month appointment and then the week after that Mimi visits!! I'll make sure to post an update after his check-up.

3 months

If you remember when Hunter was a couple of days old, he had to be readmitted to the NICU so they could treat his high bilirubin levels that were causing his jaundice. When we were there, AJ told my mom "When I find this Billy Rubin guy, I'm going to kick his ass!". Hunter had a 3 month check-up last week. This isn't a regularly scheduled visit, but at his 2 month visit Dr. Terwelp checked his bilirubin levels again and wanted to have us come back in at 3 months because it was still a little higher than he would have liked. We hate this because they have to prick his little heel and squeeze out a vial of blood and it is so sad. They weighed him (12 lbs, 7 oz!) and measured him (22.5 inches) and after the exam thought that due to how well he is growing and how his color looked that it wasn't necessary to check his bilirubin. Looks like we finally got that Billy! He is officially double his birthweight and has grown 2 1/2 inches. This puts him in the 10th percentile for length and the 48th percentile for weight! He's got the cutest little chubby cheeks ever and he is smiling all of the time. I love it!

As far as sleeping through the night goes, we're pretty hit and miss. He had a REALLY good night earlier this week and slept for 7 (SEVEN!) hours from 8pm-3am. Ever since that night though, it has been back to every 2-3 hours, maybe one 4 hour chunk of time. I've decided that anyone who says that their baby has been sleeping through the night since they were 4 weeks old is just plain lying. There just isn't any other explanation for it. :)

First plane ride!

We need to get this boy a frequent flier number! Hunter had his first plane ride when we went to Indy over the 4th of July. My birthday is July 5th so we usually like to take a long weekend with the Independence Day holiday being so close and a corporate holiday for Dell.

It wouldn't be a trip that I took without any travel stories and this time did not disappoint...

We had an early morning flight on July 1st - 7:10 am. We started off a little late but not too bad....it just takes us so much longer to get out of the house these days! We got to the airport and it was PACKED. When we were checking in at the kiosk I was not able to check in electronically and had to wait to speak to an agent. Ugh...now I was starting to get a little nervous. We stood in line for quite a while and thankfully a gentleman in front of us let us go ahead of him. We were at the check-in counter for at least 20 minutes as the agent tried to get me cleared - apparently this was some security precaution that we got caught up in. By this time we had less than 10 minutes before our plane took off. This agent actually left her position at the counter and walked us through security to make sure we got on the plane. She was by far the nicest American Airlines employee that I have EVER encountered. Sooo, along with the baby we have all sorts of extra stuff that we are traveling with now...a carry-on (with a change of clothes for all 3 of us...I have learned my lesson...), the diaper bag, a stroller, and a big car seat travel bag. We're rushing along, trying to get our laptops out, shoes off, bags pushed through the x-ray machine and then comes the car seat bag....the openings on these x-ray machines are deceivingly small. :) I seriously looked like Greg Focker trying to push this thing through the x-ray machine. It did go through but they had to call someone to help get it out of the other side. AJ thinks we broke it because he looked back and all of the people in line behind us were stopped and shooting daggers through the back of our heads with their eyes. Oh well, we got through okay and finally made the flight. We were the last two on and got separted but we were only flying to DFW so it was okay.

Here is a pic on our layover -



Hunter was a sweet little angel on all of our flights. I was really worried about the air pressure changes hurting his little ears but we didn't have any problems with that at all. I tried to nurse him whenever we were going up or down but a couple of times he was sleeping hard so I put the pacifier in his mouth and that seemed to work.

Mom picked us up at the airport and of course was super excited to see Hunter. I suppose she was excited to see us also. :) The last time she saw him was when he was two weeks old. When we were waiting for our bags the man who was next to us came up to me and said "I don't think you are going to get your baby back, ma'am".


We had a great few days in Indy. We got to see Grandma and Grandpa Hunter who came up with my uncles Bill and Steve to visit us on Friday. Here is a cute pic of the 3 of them -


Whitney and Brian threw a very nice "Meet the Baby" party for him on Sunday. We had a house full of family and friends who stopped by to meet Hunter. It was so nice to see everyone and it was a great party. Here he is all partied out -



I love the pic of Mom and Brad holding him because we have a similar pic from when they were here and he weighed, what, 5.5 lbs and now look at him! He is just getting so big so fast!

We had a very nice trip and it was nice to get out of the 105 degree heat for a few days. We laid over in Dallas again on the way home and when we got off of the plane in Austin we were waiting outside of the plane for our stroller and carseat that we gate checked and they never showed up. I was not a happy camper...this was a brand new stroller that I just bought right before our trip and a carseat that we need to have to get the baby home from the airport...on top of that, how do you lose something that was put right by the plane as we were getting on??? So, down we go to the lost luggage counter, where we have had the pleasure of spending time before, and we walk in and the super nice lady from our first flight that walked us through security was working at the counter! They gave us a loaner car seat to use and they delivered both the carseat and stroller around 2am that morning so all is well. I am writing a letter to American about this lady. It isn't very often that you encounter someone so helpful in the airline industry these days...and she was nice to boot!

Hunter has finally getting back into his sleep pattern. It has taken a few days to get readjusted but it looks like we're back on track. We have a big week this week including 3 month pictures tomorrow!

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!