New pic

I just love this picture of Hunter from a couple of days ago. It got really cool here for few days so we had to break out some long sleeves and pants. I had this Longhorn outfit on him and decided that we needed a little IU representation so put some IU socks on him to go with it. :) He is really sitting up well with assistance. He loves his Baby Einstein jumper and now can turn himself around to all of the different "stations". He is also starting to push up with his feet a little during tummy time so we might have some sort of modified crawl working here soon!

Busy, busy!

It has been way too long since my last post. We have had a busy couple of weeks! Our friends Tiffany and Joshua got married in North Carolina last weekend. Mom went with us to stay with Hunter while we were out at the wedding functions. She and Brad flew down on Tuesday - Mom, AJ, and I flew to NC on Wednesday while Brad stayed here and house/dog sat - then we flew back on Saturday - then Mom and Brad left on Tuesday. Whew! The wedding was nice and we had a good time. Hunter was a good little boy on the plane for the most part, although it was a just little more difficult this time than last. AJ's Great-Grandmother lives outside of Raleigh so we flew in on Wednesday so we could visit with her before driving to Wilmington. She is a very sweet lady and I really enjoyed meeting her. Here is a pic of Mrs. Cotton with her Great and Great-Great Grandsons!


Hunter didn't have a well baby check-up at 5 months but I think he was just under 15 lbs. We'll see what he weighs in at when we go for his 6 month visit! I started his rice cereal again two nights ago since we'll be starting solids at 6 months and he is doing great with it! He is getting most of it in his mouth and not even making that big of a mess. I suspect that the tummy issues he was having before were not actually due to the cereal so I thought we'd give it another shot to see if it keeps him full at night. We'll see!

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. :)