Austin's First Christmas

We had such a fun first Christmas with Austin! It felt like Christmas lasted longer than normal this year. Grannie came out to visit the week before Christmas to help me while Andy was out of town, so I think that made it seem like a 2-week extravaganza. When Grannie was here we shopped, wrapped presents, and hung out with Austin. It was sooooooo wonderful to have her here - I wish she lived next-door!

Since we were going to spend the night at GranDude and GranJan's on Christmas eve, we opened our presents from Grannie and Grandpa with Austin a little early on Christmas Eve-Eve so we would have less to haul over there. Even though Austin had no idea what was going on, but it was still special to open presents with him that night. We were spoiled - including the Dex Man! He was in heaven with his new weasel toy. Andy got some much wanted Bronco parts, Austin got a mound of fun presents, and I got these amazing memory keepers from Paper Cotiere that I am obsessed with!

 Link to Memory Boxes: http://www.papercoterie.com/product/memory-keepers/. I made one for Austin and one for our Wedding and will use them to save special cards, hospital bracelets, little keepsakes, etc.

Dexter and his new toy. You put an empty plastic water bottle inside the weasel...sounds gross but its dog heaven!

Early Christmas present from Aunt Robin - a TCU sweatshirt. 

On Christmas Eve we loaded up the car with enough stuff for a week long trip and headed over to Andy's parents. We had a relaxing low-key Christmas Eve. Our night involved lots of hanging around, overeating and of course, playing with little Austin.

Austin didn't have the best night's sleep on Christmas Eve so I felt a little cracked out on Christmas morning, but it was still so fun and I did manage to score a nap later that morning.

Jan always gets everyone matching pajamas (such a fun tradition). Here we are looking a little frightening with no makeup and matching pjs. Life with a newborn, right?!

We got a ton of great presents. I can't tear Andy away from the iPad. Its great! I actually wasn't sure how necessary they were since we all have iPhones...but it so fun and convenient! I'm pretty sure I will never get to use it ;)

Here is Austin with all of his loot on Christmas morning. We opened them all for him since he slept through present opening time on Christmas morning. He usually wakes up to eat around 6:30, then is ready for another nap by 7:15 or 7:30. And will usually sleep until 9:30 when he is ready to eat again. Our mornings are pretty predicable but the afternoons still get a little dicey. I think he is playing catch up still from his low birth weight and he likes to eat about every 2 to 2.5 hours in the afternoon/evening. Some nights we get to sleep 5-6 hours at a time and others he wakes up every 3. Who the heck knows. I'm trying to "schedule" him and follow all of the rules but he obviously has his own little personality and internal schedule.

Here are a few more pictures from Christmas Day:

Austin and his Great Grandpa Bob. I'm pretty sure Grandpa Bob said "isn't he beautiful" about 50 times...so cute!

 New sweater vest. Love it!

Robin being Robin ;) Working on her Lego retro VW van.

Hope you had a very Merry Christmas! We missed all of our Texas family, but are hoping to make a visit sometime in February!

Christmas Party Fun

Last weekend we went to two fun Christmas parties! Austin was a trooper and it was nice to "get out" and socialize a bit.

On Friday night, we had our first (hopefully-annual) Progressive Dinner Party on Cottage Way. We went to four houses on the street for four different cocktail style courses - appetizers, soup/salad, light dinner, and dessert. It was a blast! We say this all the time, but we LOVE our neighbors!

The kids drew names about a month ago and had a secret santa gift exchange to kick of the night. There are 19 kids just on our little part of the street and they are so cute! The bigger kids stayed at the Bailey's for the evening (with babysitters, of course) so the parents could have a night "out."  Austin hung out in the Bjorn most of the time and did great.

We were the first house for the night - appetizers. Andy had a last minute work trip, so I actually had to set up, cook and host alone - eek. I was a little freaked about it all week, but the timing worked out just right and we survived! Austin fell asleep right as everyone was getting there. I was afraid he would be hungry or screaming right as everyone got there, but it couldn't have worked out any better timing wise!

I meant to take pictures of every house as we went along, but of course, I forgot. I wish I had a picture of Thuy's dessert spread - amazing!! The best butterscotch pudding you've ever had in your whole life...I swear.

On Saturday night, we celebrated with a few of our friends at the Schoneman's. Katherine is definitely the hostess with the mostest and the party was so adorable and fun as usual! We were supposed to wear tacky sweaters, but this little mama didn't have the time or energy to make it to goodwill this year - does a red puffy vest count...even if I wear it on a normal day?!

Here is Austin with his buddy Grace. Grace was actually due 3 days before Austin, but he decided to make his appearance 8 days before her. He was early and she was late. She's a cutie!

We were supposed to have one more Christmas party last night for my girls bible study, but Andy is in Tennessee, so I didn't want to brave it alone. I took Austin to bible study last week and it was a disaster. I threw off his little schedule and had a terrible time getting him to sleep. We aren't quite ready for prime time.

Grannie is here for the week - yay!!!! We've been having fun hanging out with her doing a little Christmas shopping, wrapping presents and hanging around the house.

Austin's 2 Month Milestones

Stats from your 2 month checkup:
Weight: 10lb 1z (14%) - moving on up the charts!
Length: 23 inches (51%) - you grew 2 1/4 inches in 1 month!

We had your 2 month checkup yesterday and you had to get 4 shots - poor little guy! Broke my heart. 

You've outgrown most of your newborn sized clothes and fit into about half of your 0-3 month clothes. They are still a little big, but the newborn sized clothes are too small. We just switched you to size 1 diapers.

Your neck is so strong. You hold your head up so well!

You are still a good eater and you continue to take a bottle from anyone. And you don't discriminate about the temperature - you will take it cold. 

We've started to get out more. You don't mind the carseat at all and usually fall asleep a few minutes after I put you in the carseat/stroller. You sleep while I walk/jog. We usually do a little run through target on our way home from walks to pick up any groceries we need. It's way easier to walk to the store vs. loading up the car and driving

You still sleep in your bucket in our room at night but you're about to be too big for it. For naps, you sleep all over the place - in your bouncer, in your bucket, in the bjorn. You are a great napper during the day - we've just got to work on that whole consistently sleeping through the night business.

If you have one, your witching hour is around 9 and will last until midnight or 1. It's hard to get you to sleep and to stay asleep but we know you are tired.You seem to eat every 3 hours in the morning/early afternoon, then every 2 in the late afternoon and evening. You smile at us and can track us across the room. You started smiling around 5 weeks and its the stinkin' cutest thing. Just a week or 2 ago I noticed that when I walk in the room you look and me and follow me with your eyes.

You are much more alert during your wake times and I can tell you are soaking in your surroundings.


You smile and stare at the toys on your playmat and will happily sit in your bouncer and stare at the toys or look around the house.

You still love to state at the ceiling fans. You always smile and coo at them. I think you're trying to tell them a story! 

This month you also had your first Thanksgiving and you also attended your first Christmas party!
We just love you to pieces and are having so much fun watching you learn and grow.

Austin's 1 Month Milestones

This is basically a month late, but I wrote everything down right after Austin turned 1 month old so I wouldn't forget.

Stats from your 1 month checkup:
Weight: 7lb 10z (7%)
Length: 20 3/4 inches (22%)

You are long and skinny, but are gaining weight like a champ. You are a great eater and I am so grateful for that! 

You’re still wearing newborn sized clothes but have outgrown all of the premie clothes. Most of your clothes are hand me downs from our neighbors Billy and Jackson. We only had a few newborn sized outfits when you were born, so they let us borrow their preemie and newborn sized clothes!

You wear newborn sized diapers and we definitely go through at least a 12 or so a day! Thank you, Amazon Mom!

Everyone says you look just like your dad. You have big blue eyes like him and you definitely have his Darcy nose.

You’re starting to be more alert. Your eyes can focus on our faces and you can follow us from side to side. If we open our mouths wide, it seems like you’re trying to do the same thing back to us.

We introduced a bottle of pumped milk to you at 3 weeks and you took it with no problem! Your dad usually feeds you a bottle once a day so we can make sure you continue to take it.

You sleep in your "bucket" in our room at night. Our pack and play came with a newborn sleeper and you seem to sleep better in this than in the bassinet. I think because it hugs you a little bit on the sides.

You like your pacifier but will only take the one they gave us in the hospital. I ordered a bunch of backups just in case!

You are starting to look around at your surroundings and seem curious. You like when we hold you so you can see over our shoulder behind us. You just hold your head up and look around at everything.

You love to look at lights, ceiling fans and the vertical lines of the blinds in the living room.

We swaddle you at night to sleep. When you nap during the day unswaddled, you often sleep with your hands up by your head in “touchdown” position.

You don’t mind riding in the carseat. In fact, if you are fussy, it usually calms you down.

We’ve practiced tummy time a few times and you like it. You can lift your head and usually turn it one time from side to side. 

So far, you seem to enjoy bath time!

You like to be held and are definitely a snuggle bug. 

You usually eat every 2 or 3 hours. The longest you’ve gone is about 4 hours one or two nights. I’ve tried to get you on a schedule, but have now decided to let you do most of the leading. I just try to follow the E.A.S.Y schedule. Eat, Activity, Sleep…so I try not to watch the clock too much but make sure to keep you awake for a bit after you eat. If I don’t feed you fast enough, you get really mad and let me know that you’re hungry!!

You met your cousin Riley and went to your first tailgate for the San Diego State game.

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I was so excited to decorate for Christmas this year! Perhaps its the fact that I spend A LOT of time in the house these days! I started decorating the day before Thanksgiving but didn't finish until Sunday...it takes a little longer when there is an infant around - working in 30 minute intervals isn't very efficient and staying up late certainly wasn't an option.

I'm loving having the lights on and the fireplace going every morning when we wake up and eat! Note: Its been 75/80 degrees for the past few days so I'm trying to trick myself into thinking that it "feels" like December.

 Living Room

 New addition to the stocking collection this year :)

 I love my new ribbon. I ordered it from some random Mardi Gras store online. 

Banister - this took forever! And a little HGTV on the TV.

I have all of our Christmas cards from the last 3 years on rings so I can look through and see how much everyone has changed through the years! I stole this idea from my friend Kyle and I love it! I used to keep them in a messy box, but now I can display them at Christmas time! I plan to do the same thing with all of the sweet cards we've received for Austin.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This year, we had a nice relaxing Thanksgiving. We went over to GranJan and GranDude's house. Jan let me off the hook and I didn't have too cook anything this year. She probably knows that its still a feat for me just to get out of the house.

Robin was in town for 48 hours from Colorado and I'm so glad she was there. Its too quiet when she isn't around :) Austin's great grandma and great grandpa were there too - so special to get pictures of them together!

We ate lunch around noon, then relaxed for the rest of the day watching football and snuggling with Austin.

Beautiful table setting

4 generations of Darcy boys!

Great Grandma Millie - 91 years old! 

 Cute little face!

 Not my favorite picture, but one of the only ones I have of the 3 of us.

 After turkey nap with dad. This lasted for about an hour and a half!

Relaxing with GranJan.

Happy Halloween

On Cottage Way we have a Halloween tradition...kids parade around the block a few times, then a block party after the parade. Austin was a little too small this year to march in the parade but he followed behind with Dad!

 What a bunch of cuties! 

 Parade with Grand Marshal Bailey

Austin's "little monster" costume from Auntie Robin!

 And back inside for the night by 6pm...things get a little crazy around here these days! 

Austin's Birthday

Forgive me. This is a little long...but, I want to have this documented for myself and I've always loved hearing other people's birth stories. I'm hoping my blog posts will help me pull together Austin's baby book, which I plan to make in iPhoto.

Sweet Austin, you gave us quite a scare on the day you were born...

On Monday, October 10^th, I started my day as usual…woke up sometime between 7 and 7:30am. Went downstairs, made a pot of coffee for Andy and had my regular bowl of cereal and glass of orange juice. I started working on the last project I needed to finish for work before maternity leave. Around 8:30 or so, I started feeling faint cramps in my lower abdomen…nothing sharp, just a dull ache. I kept working for another 30 minutes or so, and then decided I should probably take a shower just in case I went into labor later in the day. At the childbirth prep classes, they told us that first labors usually take at least 12 hours and to shower and lay down for at least an hour to time contractions before you call the doctor and head to the hospital. So, I figured I had at least a few hours to get ready.

Around 9, I went upstairs and told Andy, who was working from home, that I was going to take a shower and that I thought maybe I was starting to go into labor. By the time I got out of the shower, I was down on the floor crawling around in pain. I got in bed to lay down and start timing contractions. They were exactly 4 minutes apart and were getting more and more painful. I decided that I couldn’t wait a full hour to call the doctor, so I called and they said to go ahead and come in to get checked. I was bound and determined to finish blow-drying my hair and getting ready before we left for the doctor. I wanted to look somewhat decent in the hospital pictures. Well, that didn’t happen! I was in too much pain, so we quickly finished packing the hospital bag (thank goodness it was 90% packed already) and ran out the door to go to the doctor.

We got to the doctor around 10:30 or so. My doctor and hospital are only about 5 minutes away from our house, thank God! He took one look at me and said “that doesn’t look like a face that is going home today.” He checked me and I was dilated 3cm. My doctor’s office is basically attached to the Hospital, so we walked over …well, walked halfway then caught a ride with the security guy on the golf cart because I was in so much pain.

We checked in at Labor and Delivery, had to wait about 5 minutes in a waiting room, and then were admitted to my room. My L&D nurse’s name was Sheila – she was amazing and such a rock for us that day. The anesthesiologist came right away and I was able to get an epidural very quickly. I can’t remember the exact timeframe, but I'm guessing it was probably around noon. Thank God for epidurals – I felt so much better!

Dr. E came over shortly afterwards to check on me. Things were going great at this point – I felt so much better, was progressing quickly and we were even joking around with the doctor about iPads and books we had just read.

This is when it starts to get a little foggy for me…I can't remember the exact sequence of events…

Austin’s heart rate started to drop a little low during contractions. Apparently, 90 is the bottom of the normal range and his was dropping to 70 at this point. They gave me oxygen and rolled me from side to side to see if that would stabilize his heart rate. I think this worked for a little bit but they couldn't get the heart rate completely stable. They had to put in the electrode heart rate monitor on his scalp because the stomach straps weren't working well.

At some point, I think probably around 1:15 or 1:30, I was fully dilated, so they had me start pushing. I think I pushed only a few times, but his heart rate wasn’t cooperating. Dr. E thought the umbilical cord might be wrapped around something, so the pushing and contractions pulled on the cord and made his heart rate drop.

I heard someone say something about prepping the O.R. and at some point looked up and saw that there were about 10 new people in my room. I knew that wasn’t good! Dr. E’s plan was to get me into the O.R. and have me push in there since Austin was so close to being born. Pretty quickly after I got to the O.R., Austin’s heart rate dropped again sharply (30 was the lowest), so they decided they needed to just go for the C Section. Andy had time to get scrubbed in for the surgery, but I was in there for a few minutes alone. I've never really been in a hospital, or had surgery, so it was a little scary because I could tell everyone was moving fast. I remember signing the consent form as they were rolling me into the room.

Once they made the incision, I heard them say “lots of meconium” …I obviously couldn't see anything so I was worried. I could hear him cry(phew!) and Andy assured me he was ok. It turns out that there was week old Meconium in the water – scary! Once they put him on the scale, Austin weighed in at 5lbs 8oz…quite small for a 39 week baby. They were a little concerned because it looked like he had lost weight in the womb – his skin was dry and wrinkly and he had no fat on his little body.

The nurses said he looked like a post term baby. Apparently post term babies lose weight after a certain point. The other theory (the one I think is correct), is that the placenta stopped doing its job a little early. We also learned later on that his umbilical cord was very small – which can be very dangerous during pregnancy and could have been part of the weight loss issue. He truly is our little miracle baby. We had no idea any of this going into this day…all of my ultrasounds and appointments were perfect!

I barely got to see him before Andy and Austin went to the recovery room and the doctors finished putting me back together. I remember feeling panicked because I was numb up to my chin and I felt like I needed the oxygen mask to breathe still. Andy said it was about 30 minutes before we were all together again in the room.

Once in the recovery room, Austin’s temperature was very low – around 94 degrees. We could tell that the nurses were stressed again. The NICU nurses came in to help get his temperature back up. After an hour or so in the warming tray, with a warming pad under his back and wrapped around his feet, they got his temperature back up.

They prepped us that they were likely going to have to take him to the NICU to monitor his temperature, but they were finally able to stabilize it and I was finally able to hold my baby! Good news but we weren't done yet.

At some point when we were in the recovery room, our nurse came back in and said “not to alarm you, but is there any possible way your water broke last week and you don’t remember?” I’m 99.9% sure that it didn’t…the only thing I could imagine is that it could have broke in the bath tub the night before…but I think would have known. After talking to Dr. E at my check up, I think the water just dried up at some point. They were on the phone a lot with his pediatrician and ended up taking his blood to test for an infection – thankfully the blood work came back quickly and he was perfectly healthy! By the end of a long day, the only concern was his weight…to keep his weight up, we had to supplement feed him with a little syringe at every feeding so he wouldn’t lose much weight in the hospital. Thankfully, Austin only dropped to 5lbs 5oz (3%) during the week!

On Wednesday, Austin had to spend the day and night under the biliruben light for Jaundice. Thankfully, by Thursday morning his levels were back down and he didn’t have to go back under the light. He had to wear little eye shields the whole time he was under the light and the darn things wouldn't stay on! Andy and Jan had to sit next to him the whole time to make sure they stayed on.

A lot of the week was a blur… we hardly have any pictures, I look a wreck, and we slept a total of 5 hours the entire week! I had always envisioned taking cute pictures in the hospital with all of our visitors, pictures before delivery showing that we were in the hospital, cute family pictures of the 3 of us, etc…but we ended up asking for no visitors besides family since the week was stressful and we looked horrible all week and didn't think to take pictures! Oh well! We can live without the pictures and are just so thankful for a healthy baby boy!

Ok…phew…that was long!