1 1/2 years of Gavin!

Time sure flies when you're having fun.  I find that the days, weeks, and months, just keep speeding up somehow.  I believe my last update was just at the turn of the new year.  Since then, we've been up to a lot!

For Gavin, he has been exploring the world, learning a ton, and thrilling us each day just by being his wonderful, cute, happy, giggly self.  Gavin has been walking all over and running all over! He loves to explore everything in our house and he and our dog, Marty, have become really good buddies.  Gavin loves to poke Marty's face, pull his tail, pet his back, and throw him his ball.  Most of the time, Marty is a calm companion with him (most of the time!).

Because of Gavin's love of exploring we've gone to the Children's Museum a few times in the last 2 months.  He just LOVES that place.  He especially loves the water exhibit, splish splashing around.  One time when we went he made a couple of friends with two older girls who were about 8 years old and they played peek-a-boo with him--very cute :)

After our very scary high fever escapade at the hospital with Gavin (see previous post), our pediatrician got Gavin a quicker appointment with an ENT.  We quickly decided we were going to pursue surgery to have ear tubes be put in for Gavin.  He was on ear infection #10 that wouldn't go away despite 3 trials of antibiotics.  I was very nervous for the procedure but it went super quickly (15 minutes long).  Gavin even made the nurse and anesthesiologist laugh when he met them and stuck out his hand to shake their hands.  He's quite the charmer! He didn't even shed a tear at all during or after the procedure.  What a champ! I was a proud mama.  And to date, he's been ear infection free (hoping this trend continues!).

Also, Gavin had his first dentist appointment.  Our pediatrician said it's now recommended that kids go to the dentist once they are 1 year of age.  We weren't sure what to expect since we can barely brush his teeth without a fight from Gavin.  They mostly did education about dos and don't for good tooth care.  It was honestly all things we already know--like don't give him lots of sweets, gummies, or juice.  They did show us a handy way of brushing his teeth by having him lay backwards on Tom's lap with his head in my lap so one person can hold his hands while the other brushes his teeth.  Sounds funny, but it really works!

Gavin has really been talking up a storm lately.  Most of his "words" are unintelligible to the non-mommy or daddy ears, but he will say "da" for dog, "dada" for daddy, "ma" for mommy, knows "ba ba" for the sound of a sheep, and lots of other cute little sounds.  He has also progressed a lot with learning sign language which certainly helps us understand what he wants.  For instance, he will sign "more", "help", and "all done".

My favorite "new" thing that Gavin has learned is to give kisses.  He will lean in if you ask him for a kiss. He hasn't quite gotten the pucker part, but it's super cute nonetheless.  He also gives us hugs too and it just melts my heart!!  Other new things Gavin has learned is to open and close doors, he's getting much better at drinking out of a cup without a lid, can use a spoon and fork to feed himself, he has learned to play the recorder (and often sings into it to make sound), and tries to help us get him dressed (sometimes undressed too by taking off his socks for instance).

On average Gavin sleeps about 10-11 hours at night, falling asleep between 7-8pm and waking up about 6am.  He then takes about a 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon from 12-2 or 3pm.  We have had a slight recurrence of some separation anxiety at night time with lots of crying when we leave him in his crib, but this is improving slowly but surely.

In our unseasonably warm March weather we've been venturing outside daily.  It's so fun to be outside with Gavin now that he's more mobile.  He loves discovering everything there is outside, including trees, leaves, rocks, and our neighbors cat which he calls "ca".

We marvel everyday at home much Gavin is growing and learning and my love just continues to grow for this little boy.

It is way too HOT in here!

Though I put some humor in the title, the last 48 hours have been anything but humorous with respect to Gavin's health. 


On Wednesday afternoon around 4pm Jackie received a call from our daycare stating that Gavin's temperature was over 100 degrees and he needed to be sent home. After Jackie seeing him and feeling him burn up we took no chances and went to urgent care. Jackie and I were suspicious thinking this could be an ear infection since Gavin finished his 3rd course of antibiotics in the last 6 weeks. However, the exam showed that Gavin's ears weren't red or infected but they were recessed. We opted for no prescription medication since we had a scheduled visit with his pediatrician on Friday and decided we would treat with Tylenol and ibuprofen. We got lucky and left the urgent care within one hour (the nurse had sympathy for us and saw that Gavin is quite active and an hour wait in the waiting room wasn't going to do anyone any good). We took him home that evening gave him dinner and put him to bed. However the night didn't go so well as Gavin was up a few times between 3-5:30am. 


Jackie and I decided that I should stay home with Gavin (we couldn't send him to daycare within 24 hours of a fever anyway) and we did a little coloring, played with some puzzles, read lots of books and did quite a bit of napping. Gavin did well throughout the day until yesterday evening (Thursday). We continued to give him ibuprofen and Tylenol alternating doses. He went to bed at 6:30 which has been quite earlier than normal (Gavin typically goes to bed around 7 and falls asleep around 7:30). Jackie and I went to bed knowing that we'd need to be getting up throughout the night (6th sense parenting feeling). Sure enough we were worken up with cries from his room. I got up and took his temperature which was quite high at 103.9. We decided that with only the four hours of ibuprofen on board that we couldn't keep his fever down so we called 911.



We hear sirens go by in our neighborhood and we always wonder where the emergency vehicles are headed. This time we knew they were coming to us. A police officer and two EMTs came into our house and asked us into about Gavin and his condition. The officer left after the EMTs felt comfortable and they got right to work. They put a device on Gavin's finger measuring his oxygen which was normal. After documenting a brief history, they then asked us what we wanted to do. We decided that it was best to go to the St. Paul Children's Hospital ER and take the ambulance ride in the event of a seizure or other medical care that Gavin required. Jackie rode in the ambulance with Gavin as I followed behind in the car.

At the ER Gavin was seen right away. They took his temperature rectally and it shot way up to 107.1. Now we REALLY had cause for concern. The physician came in to see us shortly after the nurses did some initial work-up and said that she wanted to rule out any scary diagnoses and ordered a urine sample, chest  X-ray, blood work and have him Tylenol rectally. The four hours in the ER were challenging. After all the testing was done it came back normal but Gavin needed some hydration so they put in IV into his left ankle and also gave him medication through that line. 

Thankfully the physician ruled out meningitis and didn't order a spinal tap, but she was concerned that Gavin may have the flu. So to be sure, our nurse performed a final test by squirting water up Gavin's nose and immediately sucking it out. Of course he didn't like it thrashed and threw a fit but also got a bloody nose from the test which lasted only a few minutes. We won't find out if he has the flu for approximately 48 hours after the test.

Thankfully we are all home and resting, gearing up for our next doctor visit to Gavin's pediatrician to discuss the test results and come up with a treatment plan. 


Given that I not only like to share the process and experience of the visits we have, I also want to share a few new bits of knowledge Jackie and I gleaned from this visit to the ER.

1. In Gavin's case, and I don't know of this is because of age and weight, we can administer ibuprofen on a schedule of every 6 hours and if he spikes a fever we can give Tylenol too in between.
2. Similar to when you're expecting to deliver a baby, have the diaper bag at the ready in your home with diapers, wipes, a change of clothes, etc...  Consider having a change of clothes or extra clothes for the parents/caregivers in the event you would leave the house in an emergency like we did.
3. Ask if you don't understand something the nurse or physician tells you. There are so many times medical and office staff came in and out of the room, hooked up an IV, took a urine sample, obtained chest X-rays, took my co-pay, peeked in to see if we were OK, etc... Ask for spellings of medications. Ask how long the dose is effective. Should it be given with food? Does it need to be refrigerated or room temperature for storage? Does your discharge paperwork summarize the care you received and a next course of action?   
4. Stop at the pharmacy and stock up on some basics; in most cases, it's cheaper than your average "big box" store. I bought a large amount of liquid Tylenol for $2 and I know it will get used.  

Nursing woes...belated recap

I was reflecting today that I really love my blog because it's a great memory book about what's been going on the past 2 years or so of my life.  Especially with bringing Gavin in the world, it helps me remember all the little things that have happened.  What I recognize, though, is that there's a huge part of the beginning of Gavin's life I really haven't written about.  That is the breastfeeding part.  Truly, I have only really opened up about most of this nursing saga with my close friends, and only Tom knows all of the...gory...details.  I never wrote about my experience being a nursing mama on the blog because I thought it was too personal, and some may not want to know all the TMI details.  And maybe it is too personal, but I'm realizing that the memories associated with it are the hardest I have from Gavin's early days and I decided to write this blog post as a sort of catharsis for myself to try to let go of some of the memories.  And if it can help any soon to be nursing mamas prevent some of the many problems I had, even better.

So here we go...

I knew from pre-becoming pregnant that I wanted to breastfeed.  I read books about it, I went to a breastfeeding class through a parenting center we have in the Twin Cities, and felt ready.  In the hospital I saw two different lactation consultants to get as many tips as I could to set Gavin and I up for success in this new nursing relationship.  Unfortunately, the second lactation consultant I saw really set me up for a road to trouble.  She made me use a nipple shield (I know I told you it may get to TMI) and said I should only nurse with this to make sure Gavin was latching on appropriately.  Only later did I learn that this can cause babies to become dependent to only using this and that it can also increase your risk of developing breast infections.  She also told me that I should use a breast pump for 10-15 minutes extra after EVERY nursing session to ensure that I'd have an adequate milk supply.  I was extremely exhausted in the hospital after a labor that lasted over 30 hours, but was determined to listen to the advice of the lactation consultant, so I did.  It was laborious and time intensive to pump after each nursing session (which lasted about 45 to 60 minutes each anyway because Gavin was VERY slow), but I did it.

Five days post-partum when we were at home is when it really got hard.  This was the day my milk "came in" and I became horribly engorged.  Naive me, I continued pumping like the lactation consultant told me to, after each nursing session as I'd been instructed which made it all worse.  That afternoon my brother, Corey, came over for dinner and to meet Gavin.  During dinner I felt like I got hit by a truck, was so exhausted that I laid my head on the table and nearly fell asleep.  After my brother left I took a bath to try to relax and started shaking uncontrollable and was SO cold.  It was then time to nurse Gavin again and I felt absolutely awful, like I had the flu.  I took my temperature and it was 102.  I then started to have excruciating pain in my chest and nursing was also terribly painful.  The pain was shooting up my arms to the point I could barely hold Gavin.  Because I was so engorged as well, I had developed lumps all over both of my breasts and could tell Gavin wasn't able to empty them completely.  I called my nurse line and they paged the on call OBGYN who called me back shortly.  I ran through my symptoms and he was pretty certain I had mastitis but wanted me to be seen the next morning to make sure.  I was advised because they thought it was mastitis to make sure I was emptying my breasts of milk every 2 hours around the clock until the infection cleared.  Talk about exhausting.  I was also told I could use ice packs on my chest to help the pain and engorgement.  I got barely any sleep that night because I was in so much pain and my fever made me sweat like crazy.

The next morning my doctor was able to fit me in and confirmed that I had mastitis. In addition, she confirmed that (TMI alert) my stitches from labor had torn, became infected, and I had a bladder infection to top it off.  I was pumped full of antibiotics and was cautioned by my doctor that once you get mastitis, the more risk there is of developing it again.  I was uber determined, however, to get past this and continue to breastfeed.

One very nice part of my post-partum journey was a benefit I got through my job for free telephonic services with a lactation consultant named Debbie.  Debbie became my nursing lifeline.  I probably spoke with her 1-2 times a week for the first 16 weeks of Gavin's life.  Debbie was the first person to help me realize how enormous my milk supply was.  She had me pump after Gavin had a full nursing session and I pumped out 6 ounces of milk out of each breast.  She had some sort of reaction like, "holy crap!".  She said at this stage it was normal to pump 2 ounces per breast BEFORE a nursing session.  She then coached me on a plan to try to cut down my milk supply.  Once my mastitis cleared up, we talked about a plan to try to reduce how much milk I was making because this was lending itself to the plugged milk ducts that I constantly had and was constantly trying to rid myself of.  Basically the plan was to keep pumping after each nursing session to ensure that I was emptying all of my milk out to try to get rid of the plugged ducts.  Then I was to choose one nursing session a day and only pump out half as much as normal for 3 days, then skip pumping after that nursing session the next 3 days, and keep repeating until I was no longer pumping at all after nursing sessions.

Unfortunately I was not able to ever finish this plan because 3 weeks post partum I developed mastitis again.  This time Tom was at work and I was home alone with Gavin.  I noticed the initial signs of exhaustion again and while nursing I felt the same shooting pains in my breast and up my arm.  It hurt so bad I was literally afraid I would not be able to hold Gavin and had to set him in his crib.  I called Tom who raced home to find a crying me and a crying Gavin.  I again had a high fever and called the nurseline who said again that it sounded like mastitis.  I went right back to the doctor who confirmed it again and sent me home with more antibiotics and that I needed to nurse until my breasts were empty every 2 hours until the infection had cleared.  Totally exhausting.  Plus this completely threw my whole plan on decreasing my milk supply back to the starting point.

After this second bout of mastitis, I had a brief period where I decided I couldn't do this anymore.  I couldn't put my body through this wearing routine any longer and we bought a can of formula.  I gave Gavin one bottle of formula which he promptly spit up all over himself, and decided this was not what I wanted.  I really, really, wanted to be able to breastfeed.  I knew all of the positives and decided to not let myself give up.

Once the mastitis cleared up, I worked with my lactation consultant, Debbie, on trying to get Gavin off of the nipple shield and she also advised me to see a lactation consultant face to face.  I went to see one at Methodist Hospital who was very helpful in correcting Gavin's latch and nursing went much more smoothly after this.  I did tons of research on ways to prevent mastitis as there are many different things that can contribute to it (including stress--ironic huh?!).  I started taking Lecithin supplements three times a day which is supposed to help prevent pluggled milk ducts.  I was super hopeful.

Yep, you guessed it, as soon as thing started getting better, and I was advised it was time to try cutting down my milk supply, then came back the plugged ducts and again at 7 weeks post-partum I got mastitis a third time.  I was devastated.  Beyond devastated.  This really hit me not only physically but also emotionally. I felt like I was trying so hard and only running into the same problem over and over again.  My body was so tired.  While working through this course of antibiotics, Tom had a "come to Jesus" moment with me.  I was constantly, every single day of Gavin's life, thinking and worrying about my body.  That, on top of post-partum hormones was really wearing on me.  He really wanted me to stop breastfeeding.  I really, really didn't want to do it.  It took a lot of talking, a lot of crying, and a lot of convincing, but I finally came to the decision to stop.  Let me tell you this was the hardest decision of my life.  Not kidding.  I had so much guilt about stopping, felt like a failure, had to deal with telling others including some who though didn't say it outright, gave judgmental glances when I told them I was going to stop nursing.  I had to acknowledge the fact that I couldn't be a good mom while nursing in my conditions.  My doctor also had a mini "come to Jesus" moment with me too, acknowledging that it was very lucky that the mastitis would come back again, which I was terrified of.  Being worried and anxious all day every day was causing me to be preoccupied and not able to enjoy my time with Gavin.

Here came the tedious and tricky part.  Because I was making SO much milk (at my peak I was making 70 ounces a day which my lactation consultant said was about 3 times what a normal woman makes and was the most she had ever seen a woman make with only one baby--not multiples), I had to move forward very carefully.  I spoke with my lactation consultant and did a lot of research on my own.  I met with my doctor and we came up with a plan to actually go on an antibiotic for a little over a month while weaning and to do a very slow weaning process to try to prevent getting mastitis again.  We learned from my previous mastitis experiences that each time I got mastitis, it only caused my milk supply to go up because of how often I needed to nurse to cure the infection.

Basically what we devised was a 7 week nursing taper.  I stopped nursing completely and instead just pumped.  I started with 7 times a day.  Because of how much milk I was making it took me 45 minutes for each pumping session to empty all my milk.  Yep this was a lot of hours a day I was pumping.  I did this all through the night as well.  At 8 weeks old Gavin was sleeping through the night and I was still waking up 3 times a night to pump.  Every 4 days I cut one of those pumping's in half, only pumping half as much milk as I normally did.  Then 4 days after that I skipped the pumping entirely.  I kept going with this schedule and once I had cut a few pumping's out, I spread the time out between pumping's further.  Basically this entire time I was dealing with engorgement and constant pain from the pressure from all the milk I was holding.  I was discouraged as other women I had talked to said it took them 3 days to wean and I had to deal with 7 weeks of it.  I was bitter and so sad about it all.  What I also started to notice was not what was supposed to happen....which is that the less I pump the more my milk supply should go DOWN.  But no, not my wacky body...my milk supply was going UP!  So frustrating.

With my lactation consultant, we then decided to try EVERY other trick in the book for decreasing my milk supply.  Many of these tips were more or less old wives' tales but I was desperate.  I tried wearing multiple sports bras to try to squelch the milk supply.  I put ice packs on my chest after each pumping session to try to again, stop the milk from coming back.  I tried placing cold cabbage leaves on my chest after pumping, again for the same purpose.  I then tried taking Benadryl multiple times a day which is also supposed to decrease milk supply.  I also drank cups and cups a day of peppermint tea each day which again, supposed to decrease milk supply.  Nothing was helping.  Luckily, I was able to continue the weaning schedule and hadn't gotten mastitis again.  I did have one hiccup in the weaning process when I was about halfway done with the weaning I was pumping and started pumping blood...a whole ounce of blood.  It was gross and totally freaked me out.  Call to my nurseline again and I got another reaction like "oh my, that should definitely not be happening".  Back to the doctor's office and my doctor said she had never had someone experience this and went and did a pole with some of her other colleagues.  Basically they couldn't determine why this had happened but nothing they could find told them this was specifically cause for concern.  I was told to keep pumping and continuing weaning but to come back if it happened again.  Luckily me for it didn't happen again.  So back to weaning...it wasn't until I was down to 2 pumpings per day that my milk supply FINALLY started to decrease.  I was up to pumping 28 ounces in one pumping at that time, though.  Yes this is an insane amount of milk and you can only imaging how uncomfortably painful this was.  When I was finally done pumping all together, it took a full 10 days for my engorgement to go away.

Now what I can say is that when I was finally done weaning, I for the first time in 4 months (which is how old Gavin was when I was fully weaned) I felt relief and no more worry.  I was so glad to be done with nursing even though I still had a ton of guilt about it.  The one positive that came of my breastfeeding problems was that because I made so much milk, I had been able to save all of the extra milk Gavin wasn't able to drink.  We had so much milk, in fact, that we had to buy a separate chest freezer to store it all (we're talking about 1800 ounces total).  With this, Gavin had breastmilk until he was 6 months old and that, in my opinion, isn't too shabby.  I was proud that I was confident that I had literally tried everything I could to try to make breastfeeding work.  It just didn't for me.  I was also lucky to have an extremely supportive spouse who dealt with helping me through this whole process.  

So to copy my husband who likes to write anecdotal comments to his "future Tom", here is my list of tips to "future Jackie" if I ever have another child.  Because I will try breastfeeding again.  Despite all of the trauma I went through the first time around.  But here are things that I will do next time and a list of things I will NOT do next time:
-Do NOT buy nursing bras with underwires in them (I didn't know this)...they can instigate plugged milk ducts
-Do NOT use nipple shields unless ABSOLUTELY necessary, and even then try something else
-Do NOT pump at all until your milk supply is well established
-DO meet face to face with a lactation consultant as often as possible in the early weeks of nursing
-DO be on the lookout for plugged ducts and intervene as quickly as possible to eliminate them
-DO take Lecithin supplements to help ward off plugged ducts

When I became a mama, most of my closest friends hadn't yet entered this journey so I did feel alone with a lot of this.  I hope, though, that I can help others who have had issues and help them know there is a way through the hardest of the journey.

Christmas and 10 days off!

This year, Tom and I were lucky enough to be able to take a good chunk of PTO from work which gave us 10 days in a row off of work and home with our family of three!  It was a wonderful 10 days and so great, that I decided it deserved a blog post of its own because Tom and I planned the week to include many things we don't often have time to do.

Day #1: To start this break off, we had Christmas Eve.  In the morning we went for a walk at Mall of America in the morning. Yes, it's probably pretty dorky sounding, but it's just so chilly outside and this way we get to take Gavin and not freeze! It's just us and the old folks :)  We then went to church and Gavin did pretty well in the VERY busy service and spent some of the time in the nursery when he was getting a little antsy in the service.  Afterwards we went to our annual Christmas Eve dinner at Panera.  It's been a tradition to go there with my parents for many, many years.

Day #2: Christmas Day Gavin woke up in his Christmas jammies and we took part in our own family of three's family tradition of singing Christmas carols around the piano serenaded by Tom.  This is my favorite tradition, personally, and look forward to when Gavin can sing with Tom and I.  My parents and brother came over about 10am and we opened a ton of presents and all got very spoiled.  Some of Gavin's favorite toys were a big boy toothbrush he gnawed on for a long time, legos, stacking blocks, and Dr. Seuss flash cards.  When Gavin went down for his nap, my mom and I did a lot of cooking and then ate a very delicious dinner together.

Day #3: The day after Christmas we spent a lot of time with friends.  In the morning we went to Ikea for breakfast and met up with some Luther friends we hadn't seen in awhile, Nick and Michelle, and got to see their two girls as well.  In the afternoon we hosted a bunch of friends at our house for a pancake dinner to celebrate two of our friends being in town, Rachel and Nathan.  It was a lot of fun to catch up with them and for them to get to see Gavin too!

Day #4: This day we drove up to the Maple Grove Community Center to meet up with my coworker, Melanie, her husband, and her son who's 4 months older than Gavin.  We all went swimming in their pool there which was a TON of fun.  They have a kiddy wading pool there and I swear Gavin didn't stop smiling and laughing the whole time there.  That child is definitely a water lover.  We can't wait for next summer to be able to take him swimming more often!

Day #5: We started the morning off with Gavin's 15 month well child doctor visit.  Previously Gavin had no problems or fears of going to the doctor, but the poor guy has learned to fear the doctor's office.  As soon as the nurse walked in he started crying.  Unfortunately we learned there that his 5 month streak of being ear infection free had ended.  He also had to check 2 vaccinations which was the low of the visit.  On the plus side, though, is that he's growing and developing wonderfully.  Just in the last week or so he's taken off walking on his own and we love seeing it.  His stats at the visit were: 31.5 inches tall: 60% (which the doctor thought might be an underestimate as he was very squirmy when he was getting measured;  27.4 lbs: 80%; head circumference: 18.3 inches, which is in the 30th %ile.
Later that day after Gavin rocked out a 3 hour and 15 min nap (those shots wear him out!), we met up my mom at Mall of America and went to Underwater Adventures.  Gavin LOVED it there.  He was so amazed at all the fish, especially the jellyfish and sharks and kept pointing to them and saying "ah" which is his new lingo for when he wants to touch something.

Day #6: We decided that on this day that we would take Gavin to daycare so that Tom and I could get lots of to dos done sans baby. This happened to be the first full day he spent in his new toddler room and he did so well there.  We were nervous because this was the first time he slept on a cot instead of in a crib like in his previous infant room  But he went to sleep super easily and slept for 2 1/2 hours-woo hoo!  Meanwhile while Gavin was at daycare, Tom and I were all over doing tons of errands.  We started at Mall of America where did a few exchanges for other sizes for Christmas things, etc, and then took our dog Marty to what we refer to as the "dog spa" at Petsmart to get groomed.  We went out to a nice yummy lunch at Doolittles Woodfire Grill and then did a few more errands and went back home and took down our Christmas tree and cleaned the house.

Day #7: In the morning we took Gavin to the St. Paul Children's Museum and all three of us had SO MUCH FUN.  So much fun that we bought a year's pass which is actually really economical as you only have to go 4 times to pay for it.  Gavin really really enjoyed walking and crawling and exploring, climbing on things, and playing with all of the little exhibits.  His favorites were the bubbles, stacking blocks, and playing on some drums there.  We already can't wait to go back.

Day #8: This day was a bit more low key in the morning.  Tom drove down to Mankato to help my brother move to a new place.  While there, Gavin and I went to the library where he picked out a bunch more books.  Later that night since it was New Year's Eve my mom came and stayed the night at our place so Tom and I could go to our friends' Kirstyn and Dave's party where we got dressed up and hung out.

Day #9: New Year's Day we slept in (till 7:15-woo hoo! Sad, I know).  In the afternoon we just ran a couple errands so a pretty low key day as well.



Day #10: In the morning we met up friends, Becky, Jeromy, and Linnea at Ikea for their free breakfast (FYI we just learned about the fact that they have a free breakfast for anyone on Monday mornings-amazing!).  Then that afternoon I met up my friend Sarah to geek out and see the Breaking Dawn movie.  Yes I read all the Twilight books and had to see the movie too--it was great!

So that was our fun-filled 10 days off and it was a blast.  Super refreshing and wonderful to build so many memories with my family and friends.

Fifteen month updates...better late than never!

Well since Gavin turned ONE, the last 3 months have FLOWN by! Moving forward, I probably will be less stringent on updating the blog as regularly, but definitely hope to update it as often as I can to help in scrapbooking some of the memories of our little man.

Our little family has been uber busy the last 3 months.  This mama has been taking an online grad class I need to do for continuing education to maintain my therapy licensure.  Despite being busy, that hasn't meant we've been lacking in the wonderful moments these last few months.

For Gavin, these last three months have included a transition to a new sleep schedule.  He is almost fully transitioned to his new room at the daycare center he goes to, which is for toddlers.  In this room they only take 1 nap per day and it's been quite a big adjustment for him to go from the 2 naps to one. But he's now there, sleeping at night from 7pm to somewhere between 6 and 6:30am, then napping from 12 or 12:30 for about 2 hours.  We also just started adding in a blanket to his crib for sleepy time.  He hates to have the blanket on him as he doesn't like having his legs restricted.  He is still quite the active sleeper, and moves around all night.  So we just lay the blanket next to him and he cuddles up to it.

The other major milestone for Gavin has been the beginning of walking.  Gavin initially preferred doing a lot of army crawling and then overnight figured out the whole genuine crawling thing.  From there he was pulling up on everything in sight, scooting around furniture and walls, and walking holding onto our hands.  In mid-November (the 14th to be exact!) he took his very first big boy step to his Daddy.  I missed the first official step but Tom called me over when this happened and Gavin took his 2nd official step towards me.  Since then he's been taking lots of little steps (up to 8 in a row at this point) and we bought him his very first pair of high quality shoes (from Stride Rite).  We love how proud of himself he is when he's taking steps.

Speaking previously of daycare, in his new toddler room, he has a new daycare teacher named Rose who is very kind and enthusiastic with the kids.  Everyday they go outside (unless it's super cold) and do daily art projects.  They also send us daily emails and pictures from their activities which I love.  So far he's already gotten to play with play dough, water color paints (and he licked the paint brush), and did an experiment with snow.

I know some struggle with this toddler age bracket, but I personally LOVE it.  I find Gavin's predictability with naps, eating, etc. much easier than the major unpredictability of how he was a year ago.  I also love seeing how his personality is developing more and more everyday.  He talks and babbles a lot lately, especially a lot of dada's and mama's, uh-oh's, and trying to say other words like water and bottle and dog.    One time about a month ago while giving Gavin a bath, he looked at me very deliberately and said "hi, mama", and my heart just melted!  He also loves to go pet Marty, our golden retriever, and sometimes even tries to lay on him which is very cute. Luckily Marty has been very calm and understanding of Gavin for the most part.  Gavin also loves to clap his hands and can even do it on cue when we ask him to.  One night while rocking him to sleep, I sang him a lullaby and when I was done he looked up to me and gave me a round of applause.  It was just the cutest thing ever.  He also makes a ton of funny faces including sticking his tongue out, smacking his lips, and trilling his lips.  One of the down sides of this toddler era is the growing presences of tantrums. He really likes to push some boundaries, primarily regarding things he knows he's not supposed to touch, like our Christmas tree, Marty's dog dishes, and our exercise equipment.  We really try to focus on positive reinforcement with him which has proven to be really helpful so far.  And you may call this too much information, but about a month ago, Gavin gave us another "first" I could have lived without...his first time pooping in the tub.  Gross!

We've been glad that since July Gavin has been on a major lucky streak with his ears, meaning he hasn't had a single ear infection since then! He did just recently develop his first major cold of the winter season.  He had a lot of coughing, some wheezing, and a sinus infection that he needed antibiotics and a nebulizer treatment for.  He's been a major trooper and is on the upswing now!

A couple of other highlights of the last 3 months have included some trips to the library, where he gets to play with new toys and bring home lots of fun books.  Gavin has found a true love of books and will often sit on the floor with a book in his lap "reading" to himself.  For Halloween this year, Gavin dressed up like a giraffe, and we went trick or treating to a few of our neighbors houses where he was a big hit.  Mama and Dada thoroughly enjoyed all the candy he raked in as Gavin wasn't able to indulge in it this year.  For one of our faith group gatherings, all of our babies dressed up in their costumes and it sure was fun seeing all our cutie pies in their big puffy costumes.  We also enjoyed a trip to Grandma and Grandpa Denison's house for Thanksgiving Day.  We also went to the Macy's 8th floor display with friends, Becky, Jeromy, and Linnea Carlson, to see the Christmas display.  We also had friends Jeff, Alisson, and Megan Rasmussen over for dinner to celebrate the first baptismal birthday of both Gavin and Megan who were baptized on the same day together at our church.  It was a great time to celebrate and reminisce about the last year of both of our babies' lives!  Everyday I enjoy seeing Gavin interact with others, especially with Tom.  Tom has been such a wonderful father and has the perfect balance of being silly with Gavin but also with a tremendous amount of caring as well.

Life is good.  Really really good.  I absolutely love being a mother, it's really something that I can say has made me feel more complete, more fulfilled, and Gavin brings me joy everyday.

A whole year old!

I can't believe it's true. Gavin is a whole YEAR old! Tom and I have been very nostalgic this past week, reminiscing about what was happening last year at this time. Everything from going to my last doctor appointment when I was one week overdue, to going out to dinner our last time as a family of two, to going to the hospital for what was to be a very long induction process, and especially the moment we first got to lay eyes on this little bundle of joy. It's just all so unreal.

This last month leading up to the big birthday has been full of lots of memories. Gavin has been crawling around all over in his own unique style, what we call the army crawl. He also loves to stand holding onto funiture and practice walking holding onto Mommy and Daddy's hands. He can also pull himself up to his knees. He really loves music, having us sing to him, pounding on the keys to our piano, and playing with his musical toys. He had some increased separation anxiety, a little cold, and teething (his pediatrician said he has 4 top teeth coming in) which caused a brief relapse into waking up in the middle of the night. But luckily, he's now back to sleeping like a champ. He goes to bed at 7pm and wakes up between 6 and 6:30am. He also takes 2 naps a day at 9am and about 1:30pm, with each lasting 1-2 hours each. As for eating, he eats 3 meals a day and an afternoon snack. I'd say his favorite foods are all types of fruits and cottage cheese (gross to me but he gobbles the stuff up). He has quite the personality too. He is extremely expressive with his facial expressions which helps us understand how he's feeling. He is also Mr. Chatty saying lots of "da da", "ma ma" and his latest phrase, "uh oh". We are just constantly telling him how cute he is. Not that we're partial, but we just love this little guy more and more every day.

Gavin also had his one year well baby check up and his stats are:
Height 30.5 inches, 75TH percentile
Weight 25 lbs and .5 ounces, 75TH percentile
Head circumference was in the 25TH percentile
Very happily, I can report Gavin is going on over 2 months since his last ear infection. This is literally the longest he's gone without one since he was 3 months old. We are very happy about this and hope it's at trend that continues. The pediatrician said Gavin is doing great, and commented on what a happy, social boy he is. We couldn't agree more, and that's just a few of the reasons we adore this little guy. This week we also started Gavin on whole milk which we're introducing gradually into his diet. So far, he seems to like it.

To ring in his 1 year birthday, we had a birthday party celebration, Hawaiian luau style and everyone was greeted with a lei as they arrived. We had lots of family and friends in attendance, and we had a wonderful time. It was a huge blessing to have so many people who love Gavin present that day. For the party itself, we had pulled pork sandwiches (to mimic pork cooked buried in the beach), lots of fruit, and some yummy punch. And we can't forget the cake! Gavin got his own personal Teddy bear cake. It was so hilarious to watch him eat it. At first he was very cautious, just touching the frosting and taking a few licks from his fingers. He soon realized the yumminess in front of him (this was his first time ever having sweets mind you) and started eating handfuls of the cake and lots of frosting. Luckily only a few pieces went flying around our kitchen, but it was definitely a memorable moment. He also ate his cake off of a birthday plate that I made him, which I hope and intend for him to be able to use for each birthday to come. Gavin also received many wonderful gifts at the party, including lots of clothes and pajamas, tons of books, and toys, toys galore! He is definitely stocked and has already enjoyed playing with all his new things. But I believe his favorite parts of the party were getting to tear up his wrapping paper (which was cute because each time he'd tear a little piece off, he'd hand it to me for safe keeping) and hitting his balloons.

For his actual birthday, on September 20th, which was on a Tuesday, Tom and I both took a day of PTO and had a day of fun all together. Gavin got to wear a shirt all day that said Birthday Boy. We also took him out to lunch and out to his first time having ice cream. He was an instant fan and stuck his face right into the ice cream cone. We also went on a walk and did lots of playing.

Wow oh wow, our baby is now a 1 year old. He'll always be my baby though, even when he's 60 :). We can't wait for all that's to come in these next months and years!

11 months and counting!

Dear Gavin,

Happy 11 month birthday! You've hit a ton of milestones this month including pulling yourself up on the dresser, babbling lots of da da das, and scooting aro

und on the floor. Personally, I thought you would've been crawling by now, but I'm not anxious to push you along. You can take your time.

Here's a few pictures of recent adventures this month.

Most recently, we went to a Kite festival in Bloomington on your the 20th of August. We're definitely going back again. Here's a video of us running through some streamers, and a few pictures of you and me, and you and Momma.

Other funny stuff that you did this month was sucking on your top lip. It must be because you're teething and working on those top teeth, but you sucked your top lip in so far and made lots of smacking sounds. Here's one of these funny photos.

Finally, you've become so wiggly when we need to change your diapers and clothes, that we sometimes put your changing pad and supplies on the floor. This way you tend to roll in circles and not off the dresser.

The next milestone we hit with you is your one year birthday. What an exciting time that day of celebration will be.

Love,

Momma and Daddy

10 months baby!

We've now made it into the double digits for months and in less than 2 months we'll have a whole one year-er on our hands, yikes! Every month with Gavin has been simply a joy. Here's a few of the highlights:
-Gavin has become a lot more in motion. He is spinning around on his tummy, scooting backwards at times, reaching for things, rolling like crazy, clapping his hands together, and standing with help.
-Gavin has some strong opinions! He loves to let us know things he really likes and things he really does not like. For instance, he really likes Mommy's water bottle, any type of paper, shiny, glass things, and really does not like when Mommy or Daddy try to take them away. In all honesty, though, it is really fun seeing his personality come out and develop into the little man that he is. It is also super fun to hear his ever expanding babble vocabulary. Sometimes he has long strings of, "ma-da-ba-ga-da" sounds in his cute little voice.
-also this month Tom's parents visited and got to spend some HQ time with Gavin
-over Fourth of July weekend we also went to Como Zoo which was Gavin's first zoo experience. He really liked it, especially the polar bear exhibit where he watched the polar bear swim up to the glass and they had a fake polar bear baby he got to pet.
-this month Gavin has mostly been sleeping on his tummy. At times this has freaked us out a little because at times he will sleep with his head on his hands and his face straight down, but we have made sure he is still breathing and he seems to be just fine.
-Gavin now has two pearly white bottom teeth fully through and with this he has been graduating upwards in the food world. He is now eating three meals a day and 5 bottles total. For breakfast he has cereal and fruit. For lunch he has yogurt, fruit, and puffs or some other carb. For dinner he has some form of meat, veggie, and carb. He is now eating bigger chunks of fruit and veggies and mostly loves it all! I love how proud of himself he gets when he can put the food in his own mouth. He has also mastered the sippy cup and drinks water from it throughout the day too.
-this month also includes our seemingly never ending ear infection saga. After Gavin got his 6th ear infection that took two courses of antibiotics to clear, we set up an appointment with an ENT (ear, nose, throat specialist). We don't have an appointment till mid-August since that was the soonest available, but we are pretty certain we will be getting tubes for Gavin's ears after that. Though this infection is currently cleared, when we had his ears rechecked there was still a lot of fluid just sitting there, making him susceptible for another one. I am praying that doesn't happen but unfortunately historically we don't seem to be having the best luck. But we'll keep hoping for the best!
-lastly, over this month Gavin got to participate in our annual WOMANZA (an acronym our friends use to describe our awesome get-togethers) cabin weekend at our friend, Sarah's, family cabin. It was a full house with 10 adults, 1 baby, and 1 dog, but we had fun. Gavin got to go in his first boat ride and even helped Captain Sarah drive it at one point (he was very thrilled about that!). He didn't sleep super well in his pack n play, but it was fun to get to share Gavin with our friends who don't all get to see him that often.

We hope you are all enjoying your summers, I know we are! Until the next month's post, chao!

Month 9!!

This post is a little late...but better late than never!

Each month with Gavin gets better and better. This month we'll start off with his "stats" . We had his 9 month well baby visit last week and he weighed in at 22 pounds, 5 ounces and 29.5 inches, meaning he's almost in the 90th percentile for both. He had quite the growth spurt since his 6 month check up, but he is doing great.

He sure loves his food and it's been fun introducing even more things into his meal time repertoire. His initial inclination with new foods is a mix of skepticism and a sour face but he warms up quickly to most things. This month we added in more puffs which, as they sound, are little grain puffs that are made with grain, fruits, and veggies. He is able to pick them up between his pointer finger and thumb and feed himself. It's so cute and impressive to see him reach that milestone. We have also introduced more whole foods, like shredded cheese, cottage cheese (which he absolutely hated and even gagged a bit on--I can't blame the kiddo, I hate it too), bits of bananas, and bits of whole grain bread. We also tried yogurt and barley. We have found a baby food brand we love, Earth's Best, which is what most of the food he eats is. We love it because it's all certified organic, and I feel a lot better feeding him the best ingredients we can find. It's also caused me to try and buy more organic food myself whenever I can. We also have a local farmer's market in Eagan Tom goes to every week, so Gavin will have lots of yummy food for the summer.

Other new and fun things for Gavin this month include lots of rolling around. He's not a big fan of rolling, but this month he gets very proud and excited when he does it. We even walked into his room one morning and he had flipped from his back to his tummy in his crib for the first time. He continues to swivel and scoot back on his tummy too. No crawling just yet, but he does love to stand, so we help him support himself against the couch quite often.

This months we welcomed warmer weather so we got Gavin a kiddy pool for our backyard and he had a blast splish splashing away in it! He also adores his daily bath time and splashes so much occasionally he gives us a bath too with his splashes. I wonder what he'll be like when he's older because he is the kickiest little baby I know. Maybe he'll be a runner like his mama or a biker like his daddy :). We have also enjoyed time swinging together in our hammock in our backyard. Gavin also waved "hi" to someone at daycare when they said hi to him. He just loves people so it's fun to see how curious and interested he is in people. He also now babbles "ba-ba" and "ga-ga". We can't wait to start hearing the "ma-ma" and "da-da"s too! His new favorite song this month is "The Wheels on the Bus" and he gets a huge grin and giggles whenever I sing it. Not surprisingly (because of his daddy's musical gifts), Gavin seems to love music. At bedtime if he's fussy, I'll sing songs to him and he calms right down. Tom also let's him pound on the keys to our piano and plays him piano pieces when he's in his jumperoo.

Also after many months of us thinking that Gavin was getting a tooth, he actually got his first one this month! It is on the lower part of his mouth on the left side and we can see that its next door neighbor is close to coming out too. Unfortunately with the tooth has come some expected pain which has made him cranky, which makes us sad for him. So we give him lots of chew toys and most of the time that helps a lot.

This month Gavin also tool his first trip riding in the front seat of a shopping cart at Byerly's while we shopped. He loved being up in the action where he could see everyone. We have also been gradually transitioning to 2 naps a day. Those 2 naps range from 1 to 2 hours normally and then you get an average of 11 hours of sleep a night, going to bed around 6:30 and waking up between 5:30 to 6:00. Speaking of bedtime, Gavin has also shown us a number of times that he can fall asleep all by himself at night which we are very happy about, as is daycare!

That about wraps up this month. It has been full of joys like every other month and we are so happy and proud of our little guy!

8 months and going!

Each month seems to be coming and going even faster and faster. But luckily things just seem to be getting better and better as time goes on. It's so fun as Gavin gets older, he gets so much more interactive and animated.

Some of our boy's new tricks this month include being able to sit up all by himself like a champ. He loves to sit and play with toys, is reaching all around him for toys and other things in sight. On his tummy, he holds his belly up really high off the ground and turns to the side each way. It seems like crawling may not be too far away for him. Tom and I were thinking, though, that it wouldn't surprise us if he didn't just skip crawling and start walking since he LOVES to be standing up, especially on our laps, and tends to squeal a lot when standing like he's so proud of himself. Speaking of being squealy, he's been SO giggly lately, and tends to crack himself up pretty easily, especially when he sticks things in his mouth, like his bib or other toys. He has some favorite "mommy and daddy" toys too that we try to keep away from him--like paper and cell phones because as soon as we take them away he protests and gets pretty mad. It also cracks us up at some of the things that get him rolling in giggles. Yesterday I got him giggling away just by pulling apart the velcro on one of his bibs. And today, we spent a little time at his Godparents, Becky and Jeromy's house, and Tom was bouncing one of their teddy bears from the side to side in front of him and he thought this was just HILARIOUS! There's really nothing as infectious as a baby's laugh. I wish I could just bottle up that laugh for whenever I'm in a bad mood.

This month Gavin has continued to just love his food. We've been ever expanding his range of foods. He's tried lots of fruits and veggies, like apples, bananas, pears, mangoes, blueberries, raspberries, carrots, sweet potatoes, peas, green beans, squash, pumpkin, potato, and some "puffs" for babies that more or less melt in their mouth. He's even able to pick up and feed himself the puffs, though he's not a huge fan of them. He still has no teeth yet though we've suspected for awhile that a tooth might be working it's way out.

So one of the other "new" things for Gavin just recently is a little emergence of some stranger danger. He doesn't get upset when new people hold him but we can tell he's giving them a bit of the "evil eye" and looks for either Tom or I for some reassurance.

Best of all this month seems to be the longest time in a long time that Gavin has been mostly healthy. FINALLY! All winter it seemed like he was catching some new bug from daycare every couple weeks. He's continued to sleep wonderfully for us, sleeping normally from 7pm to 6am and then takes 3 regular naps of about an hour each on average.

One of the very exciting parts of this month was celebrating my first Mother's Day as a mother. I can honestly say that being a mother is the best thing EVER and it's even hard to list all the million reasons why. This year Tom, Gavin, and I celebrated by doing Race for the Cure, a race I do yearly and just love. We joked that Gavin "Slept for the Cure" as he was asleep for the whole race, but it was still fun to do it as a whole family! After the race, we went to brunch at Pizza Luce. They have a fantastic brunch menu, I got their Pesto Benedict which was fantastic. Then in the afternoon my parents came over and we had some ice cream cake to finish the day off. Quite a lovely first Mother's Day it was!

7 months and a Hawaiian getaway

Boy did month 7 sneak up on us! Probably because a bulk of the month was spent preparing for our first family vacation...to Hawaii! Tom had his annual work meeting in Hawaii this year and we have had plans for a LONG time to join him after his work meeting had concluded. Tom was actually in Hawaii for 10 days for this work meeting, so that meant that Gavin and I spent those 10 days being the two amigos (well the 3 amigos if you include our dog, Marty). I can not imagine how challenging being a single parent (especially of a baby) would be long-term, because after 10 days I definitely needed this vacation and realize what a blessing it is that Tom and I get to co-parent Gavin together, sharing the many, many daily duties.

So after I successfully packed up what felt like half our house with all the things we needed for caring for Gavin away from home (including 70+ diapers), we were set to embrark on this journey to paradise. We had 3 total flights, just me and Gavin, to get to our final destination, so I was quite nervous about having so many flights without Tom being there to help. Luckily my parents came over early in the morning of the day we left and helped us to the airport. The first two flights went pretty smoothly and I had some nice fellow passengers help me get settled in the plane with Gavin. it was hectic trying to make our first connection but we made it pretty smoothly. I even was able to keep Gavin on his normal eating/nap schedule. We were planning to get him adjusted to the time change (5 hours difference) once we arrived in Hawaii. Our second flight got us to Honolulu where we were to catch our final flight to the big island of Hawaii. This was the connection I was most nervous about as I had to get our checked baggage in baggage claim and then recheck the bag as were flying a different airline this last leg of the trip and they wouldn't check my bag all the way through. But when we landed in Honolulu I called Tom to let him know we landed and MUCH to my grand surprise, he told me he was waiting at the gate as he was able to finish his final work meeting early and was able to get on the same flight as me and Gavin to the big island. Not gonna lie that I almost cried tears of joy and relief. It ended up being a miracle that Tom was able to do this as we realized that Gavin and I would have missed our flight otherwise, as even with Tom's help with our baggage we barely made our last connection.

Unfortunately, here comes the point where the trip went downhill fast. Our last flight left Honolulu about 5pm which is 10pm back home time, and Gavin woke up (way past his normal bedtime) and screamed for almost the entire last flight to the big island. Not fun, and we felt terrible for the poor guy. We knew the flights and time change would be rough for him, but it's hard to predict just how hard. And mind you that I had been fighting off residual effects of a sinus infection and a nagging hacking cough that wouldn't seem to go away, so I wasn't feeling my best either. We did finally land, though, and Tom's aunt Diane, met us at the airport and helped us back to her house where we stayed that first night. That night was rough as Gavin was out of sorts, I felt awful and couldn't seem to stop coughing, and Gavin woke up several times that first night crying.

After our fitful first night's sleep, I took a gamble looking on priceline and scored an amazing deal at a resort there called Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel, and we headed to the resort for the rest of the trip. This also, we realized in hindsight, ended up being a good decision, as Gavin had a pretty low tolerance to the heat, so it was helpful since this resort was on the beach and had it's own pool, that we could hang out for awhile outside then come back to our room for frequent air conditioned breaks. If we had continued to stay with Tom's aunt and uncle who graciously offered us a nice place in their home, we would have had to make a much grander production of packing up things to head to the beach and wouldn't have been able to stay very long before needing to go back to their house.

The other low point of the trip was once we did arrive to the resort, we realized that both Gavin and I seemed to be getting worse. Gavin had started crying much more than usual which is just not like him and I was coughing so hard it was making me vomit (sorry if this is too much information) and lost my voice. Luckily the resort had an on call physician who was able to come see us both and diagnose poor Gavin with a double ear infection and me with viral laryngitis. We got some antibiotics for Gavin and some other tips for helping him, especially on the plane ride home as an ear infection can put him at risk for his ear drum rupturing. Hearing this bit of information made me consider that we should stay in Hawaii forever rather than put him at risk for that. But we also talked with our pediatrician office back home (who thankfully have a 24 hour nurse line) and it seemed a low likelihood that this rupture would happen as long as we took the proper precautions.

So our first few days of the much anticipated Hawaiian vacation were a bit of a letdown as we spent much time in the hotel room and Tom tended to the two of us sickies, with Tom basically having to read my lips as I had no voice. But there was some light at the end of this tunnel. The antibiotics seemed to help Gavin start to feel better so we could at least take short jaunts to the pool and my throat felt better and my voice came back, so I was able to soak in some sunshine too.

So the main lesson learned certainly is that we will NEVER fly with a baby again after learning that plane rides can instigate ear infections. I felt like a terrible mother for having put our little guy through this. I'm probably being a little over dramatic about it, but seeing your baby hurting is just the worst thing ever.

Well...moving on to a more upbeat side to this blog post...Even with these downers to the trip we did get to experience some exciting "firsts" with Gavin: his first time in a swimming pool, the first time at a beach and putting his feet in the ocean, his first time wearing SUMMER clothes, and our first real vacation as a family of three.

Other highlights of the month have been Gavin getting even more neck strength on his tummy. He also wiggles to each side on his tummy now and I can tell he is itching to be able to crawl, because he is uber curious of everything in sight, wanting to hold and/or eat anything he sees. Gavin has also begun getting his first tooth. His biting on things has increased significantly, as has the drooling, and rubbing his jaw and ears-clear signs of teething. But the clearest sign of all is the little hard nubbin we can feel in his top gum starting to poke it's way through.

Half a year old baby!

You read it right folks, Gavin is 6 months old and half way to that year old mark! Time sure is flying by. I feel like he's growing so fast and some days I just want to press the pause button so he'll slow down!

To start off this month's recap we'll defer to his 6 month stats via his well baby visit.
Height: 27 inches (75th percentile)
Weight 18 lbs 0 ounces (50th percentile)
Head circumference is in the 35th percentile
He's doing great growth wise. The pediatrician was impressed at how strong he is with holding himself up on his tummy. Though he's not a regular roller overer (technical term of course) he has done it twice so we know he can do it. Normally on his tummy he likes to stick his arms and legs in the air and looks like an airplane, so cute! Also if you've ever met Gavin you'd know he loves to squeal! He gets so excited and lets out these quite loud laugh/squeal/screams, especially when we pick him up in the morning. Talk about a great way to start the day.

Gavin also continues to love sticking everything in his mouth and manipulating things in his hands. Especially crinkly sounding things like paper or wax paper. He loves to read books and hit the pictures with his palms. He'll let our the periodic squeal while we're reading so we know he likes it. One of the best parts of this last month was Gavin's first official word: "MA"!!!!! I was burping him after his bedtime meal and he just let out a big MA! Tom heard it too so I had a witness. He hasn't replicated it but it sure was a sweet moment.

This month we also got Gavin's 6 month photos taken by a photographer that did a maternity photo shoot for us while I was pregnant, Alison Geier. She does fantastic work but she even exceeded our expectations with the photos she took of Gavin. I called her the baby whisperer when she left our house (where we had the photos taken) because in the hour and a half she was there Gavin was just beaming from ear to ear with smiles and she got SO MANY great shots. We can't wait to choose through them so we can get some framed. We realized that we don't have a single photo of Gavin framed in our house yet. I guess just being a parent has taken up too much time to think about printing out some of the hundreds of photos we've taken of him. But that will soon change of course now that we have such great professional shots.

Also this month we entered the world of solid food. When he was 5 1/2 months we started him on rice cereal and mixed it with some of his milk in hopes he would like it better. But that first try around he HATED It and gave us some pretty priceless grimace faces. And that trend continued for the next almost 2 1/2 weeks. We backed off for a bit since he really didn't like it. Then once he officially turned 6 months old we added in carrots, then sweet potatoes. At first he wasn't a fan of those either, but one night we had a breakthrough and he just started opening his mouth wide and downing the food! We now have ourselves a very happy, healthy eater on our hands.

The other new development this month has been Gavin slighty changing his normal (or should I say old normal) sleep schedule. He's been fighting off so many colds over the last couple of months which was causing him to wake up every so often in the middle of the night. Not fun for Tom and I but we made it through. He now goes to bed between 6:30-7:00 at night and wakes up about 6:00am. He was previously still taking 4 naps a day and this has started to cut down to 2-3 naps a day. And the naps even have gotten longer. Just the other day he pulled a whopping 3 hour nap-woo hoo!

Tom and I really can't get enough of this little boy and have thoroughly enjoyed seeing him grow and change everyday. And we're so excited for each day we look forward watching that continue!

5 months old!

Oh baby Gavin, how you continue to grow and grow! Tom and I routinely look at each other in marvel and wonder how all this time could have passed since Gavin entered our lives. I can truly say that having Gavin has showed me the true capacity that our hearts have to love. When it's just me, Tom, and Gavin sitting and playing around together I feel my heart swell. It's like that part in The Grinch where his heart just grows and grows. I know it's pretty mushy to gush like this, but I feel so lucky to be able to say that we really have such a happy, easy baby. He sleeps through the night 99.9% of the time, rarely ever cries unless he's overtired or hungry, and even then he is so easily soothed. How did we get so lucky?!

So what, you may ask, is new with this little bundle of joy? He is a very social little baby, pouring out smiles to anyone he sees. I love how when I pick him up in the morning from his crib or from daycare he giggles and squeals in delight. Makes my heart melt. He's still a babbling boy, "talking" up a storm. One morning Tom and I just laughed and laughed at Gavin when he was talking SO loudly in his crib for a good half an hour. It was at 5:00 am and our typical rule of thumb is to not get him up before 6:00 am unless he's fussing or crying, so he gets used to sleeping in a little bit later. So after a half hour of this babbling to himself, he fell back asleep. This has also been a recent theme where Gavin has been able to do a bit more self soothing to fall asleep. We don't personally ascribe to the cry it out rule, but instead we rock him and place him in his crib just a tad bit awake. Most times he falls right asleep. I still take pleasure in being able to cuddle as we rock him before we put him in his crib, such a special bonding time.

We also had a follow up appointment following up on his ear infection (what emerged after his nearly month long cold the poor guy dealt with), and luckily it's all healed. He's also steadily gaining weight (mostly in his cute chubby cheeks I joke) and growing so tall. He's already starting to wear 9 month clothes and his feet already reach the end of them since he's so tall. It is really fun getting to swap out his wardrobe on a nearly monthly basis. Luckily we have found some really great deals online on baby clothes. I've already been stocking up on summertime clothes especially given that our Hawaiian getaway (joining Tom on his work trip there) is just 2 months away! I found a super adorable pair of baby sunglasses and a couple of bucket hats to protect his little bald head.

Also this month Gavin reached another milestone by rolling over for the first time! He also loves to "fly" around via me and Tom's arms toting him in the air. He is still trying to taste everything by putting anything he can in his mouth, including our fingers too. He loves to read books on our laps, and will reach out and slap the pictures. And of course, he tries to put the books in his mouth too! He's also a chip off the old block taking after his Daddy learning early how to "play" piano.

Well those are the highlights for this month!

Gavin's birth story

I've been thinking about writing this post for awhile, because I think there's something quite incredible about birth stories. Every one is different and unique. And I find myself losing touch with some of the details as time goes by, and I'd like to be able to remember, so here it goes as far as documenting the story...

Gavin was originally due September 10, 2010. We had an appointment with my doctor on that date and was told there was really not much happening as far as progress goes, other than the fact that he was a bit lower in my belly. They hooked me up to a machine to see if there were any even mild contractions going on, and there was pretty much nothing happening. My doctor's office agrees to induce you once you're a week late (unless of course there are other riskier factors going on), so we made another office visit appointment for the following week on September 17th. I was officially done with work on the 16th too. At this appointment, my doctor said I was "barely" one inch dilated. At this point I was VERY ready to not be pregnant anymore. It had been a long HOT summer (3rd hottest August on record), so I was ready to meet my little guy. So my doctor agreed to have us come to the hospital the next day, Saturday the 18th, to be induced, as my doctor was already scheduled to be at the hospital this day this plan seemed perfect. She told us the birthing unit would call us that Saturday morning as early as 6am but no later than 8am to tell us to come on in for the induction. If they were full on the birthing unit, though, they may tell us to come in later in the day.

So that Friday, Tom and I went out to eat for the last time as a family of two. I didn't sleep the greatest that night because I was anxious with anticipation of what was to come. I also woke up at 5am on Saturday because I wanted to be able to shower and eat a good breakfast before all the excitement began. Then Tom and I waited for the phone call from the hospital. And waited, and waited some more. By 8:00am I was wondering why they hadn't called since they were supposed to by then. My nerves were also getting the best of me at that point, so I called the triage line at the birthing center and talked with a nurse there. She apologized for not having called yet, explaining they were currently full but would call me soon when she had an idea of when we could come in. So more waiting and waiting and waiting. By somewhere around 10:00 I still hadn't heard from them, so I called again. My anxiety and nerves were taking over by now. The nurse said they were still full but that in the next few hours they should have space for me. So Tom and I sat and watched some TV and ate lunch. At 1:00 we FINALLY got the call to come in!

It felt kind of funny walking into the hospital not even in labor yet but knowing the next time I'd be leaving, we'd have a baby! After we got there we still had to wait for them to register me and get me into my room. My doctor came in a little before 4:00 to talk about options for the induction. At this point, I still really wanted to try to go pain med free, so we decided to try one of the least intense inductions options, a cervix ripener. I know, quite the name, but this is a birthing story so it's not for the faint of heart! They gave this to me at 4:00 and it wasn't long before I started to have mild contractions. Tom and I did a lot of walking around the halls to try to get things going. At this point the contractions were becoming more moderate where i would have to stop walking to take deep breaths. And the contractions were coming really fast and lasting pretty long too. Early in labor contractions may be every 5-10 minutes around 30-60 seconds long. Mine were coming every 1-2 minutes and lasting a minute long. So it was basically one constant stream of contractions. Even with this, though, I was still only 1 centimeter dilated by mid-evening. Very frustrating to say the least.

Generally you can receive multiple doses of the particular cervix ripener they had given me, but my doctor said they wouldn't be able to do this because my contractions were already coming too fast. So she gave us the option of waiting thru the night to see if I made any progress or could start pitocin. I wasn't at a point yet where they could break my water either as they generally want you about 2-3 centimeters dilated in order to be able to do that. I really didn't want to have to use pitocin unless absolutely necessary, so Tom and I decided to try to get some sleep and see if anything had changed come morning. My doctor then stepped out of the room and the nurse (we had many during our stay since I was there so long, but this one was sadly the one nurse we really did not like--the others were fabulous) came up to me and said basically that I might as well accept the fact that I was going to need pitocin and that having to be induced pretty much guarantees the fact that you'll need pain meds, then left the room. Rude! At this point I pretty much burst into tears. I was already scared about labor and definitely didn't need a snarky nurse to be so blunt and completely disregard what I wanted for my labor. Even if she was right, this was no way to talk to me about it. So Tom, being the wonderful husband he is, went and got my doctor to come back to the room. We had a big conversation about what the nurse had said to me and I could tell my doctor was mad. I've said it before, but I have a TON of respect for my doctor and she got more brownie points at this point because she brought in the snarky nurse and basically told her that this was my labor and that it was perfectly fine for me to wait and see what happens overnight before being pushed into using pitocin before I felt ready. Luckily at this point it was the end of snarky nurse's shift and we got one of the many wonderful, kind nurses to replace her.

I tried getting some rest but couldn't fall asleep because I was contracting so often, so they gave me some meds to help sleep and was able to get about 5 hours of sleep. I woke up about 5 am and they checked me and I was just barely 2 centimeters dilated. Boo. Tom and I talked again and decided that we had tried what we could at this point so it was time to start pitocin. Luckily I was able to eat breakfast before they started the pitocin so I'd have some energy. At this point my doctor's shift was over so she introduced us to her partner who would be taking over. It was pretty hilarious because this partner could have been her twin sister! I wasn't thrilled about having a different doctor, but my doctor said they had worked together for years so this gave me more faith.

So the piton started. It didn't take much and my contractions quite quickly became more intense and my water broke. They were still coming with the same frequency but this time very intense. It's funny that this is where my memory starts to get foggy, but it makes sense because the pain was so intense at this point. I tried to do more walking around but was in too much pain. So we tried a few pain management techniques by sitting in a rocking chair, sitting and rocking on a bouncy ball, heat to my back, pressure to my back, and a technique where they inject fluid into your lower back. It became quickly apparent that I was having what they call "back labor" because I had so much pain in my back. This is where the baby instead of coming out face down is coming out face up, so hits your pelvis and presses against your back more than normal, thus the back labor. The pain was so bad at this point that all I could do was whisper as far as communication goes. I MAY have gotten a bit annoyed with Tom too at times when he would ask me to repeat myself when he couldn't understand things I was saying. But I know he was doing all he could for me.

After hours of this, sometime in the afternoon, they checked me again and I was a whopping 3 centimeters. Feeling defeated was an understatement. I had now been in labor for over 24 hours and both mentally and physically couldn't take the pain any longer. So the anesthesiologist was paged and gave me an epidural. I had heard that the needle that gives the epidural can be even more painful than the contractions, but I barely even noticed it. I felt sad and a bit guilty that my labor plan was basically out the window at this point, but was continually reminded that there's so failure with giving birth, that you just have to do what you can to get thru it. There was also a bit of a disappointing realization that the epidural definitely numbed my legs but I was still feeling the contractions. They had me roll from one side to the other in hopes that this would help the medicine disperse. It was news to me that the epidural can settle to one side of your body if you lay on one side too long. Then I basically passed out asleep for about an hour. When I woke up the pain was very intense again, so the anesthesiologist was paged again to check to see if my epidural was in the right position. It was correctly positioned, but was seeming to wear out so they gave me another dose or what they called "bollis" (not really sure how you spell that). They also had me try laying in this wacky contortionist position on my side with my arm behind me in hopes that Gavin would flip around before birth. Inexplicably I fell asleep again in this wonky position. Upon waking awhile later the pain was all back again. The nurse was concerned, saying it's not normal to have the epidural wear out like this and they paged the anesthesiologist again. He redosed me again. The good news is that each time I woke up they checked me and I was making significant progress at this point. I credit the progress to the pitocin helping things progress, but probably even more so to the epidural for helping take away at least a bit of the pain so I could relax enough to let my body do the work to dilate further.

Also at this point it was mid-evening and I hadn't eat anything since 6am. I thought I would be hungry but I wasn't in the least bit. The only thing was that I was so thirsty. Once they started the pitocin they wouldn't let me drink anymore fluids in case of a need for a c-section, so instead was given IV fluids. Anyone who knows me knows that I almost always have a water bottle pratically attached to my hip. They did let me try a grape Popsicle and ice chips to quench my thirst, but this made me nauseous and ended up throwing up 3 times. Great husband moment #827363 was when Tom held the barf bag for me. That's love folks.

The rest of the evening was a blur really but sometime around 10ish I was feeling like I had to push so they checked and indeed I was 10 centimeters! Since I was only 90% effaced it took a bit longer to get to the 100% effaced status they wanted, and at this point it was a bit after 11. My nurse at this point was Gidget, that's right Gidget was her name! And she gave me the go ahead to try a few pushes while the doctor and what felt like loads of other people got the room ready for delivery. They had a little earlier turned off my epidural, explaining that they do this so I can feel the contractions during delivery and be able to have more productive pushes. And oh did I feel every bit of those contractions. Gidget told me that for a lot of women this portion of labor is more manageable because with the contractions you can push against them and at least feel like you have some control. For me this was true. It felt good to know that the end was in sight. They also had a big mirror in the room so I could see the progress for myself. Also very helpful. It was also helpful to have both Tom and Gidget to coach me on how much longer my contractions were going to be for each push. After 2 hours of pushing, at 1:29 am on Monday, September 20, 2010, Gavin Denison Getchius made a quick final entry into the world! The wonky contortionist position they had me lay in worked in getting Gavin to flip around because he came out face side down. They immediately set him on my chest and the first thought and words out of my mouth were, "he's so beautiful!". Even with the cone head and big dent on his forehead where his head hit my pelvis he was the most gorgeous baby I'd ever seen. He weighed in at 7 pounds, 13 ounces and was 20 inches long. And have I mentioned he was beautiful?! My favorite quote from Tom shortly after the birth with an astonished look on his face was, "that was a lot of blood.". This coming from the guy who likes watching shows like "200 pound tumor" on Discovery Health.

Gavin didn't cry right away after birth, so they had to suction his lungs but he did get a 7 and 9 on his Apgar scores and they deemed him healthy as a horse. It was amazing how much physically better I felt the second he was delivered too! Minus me getting some uncontrollable shakes (which they told me was normal), I felt so much better with this rush of adrenaline. Once they finished taking care of me, Gavin and I got some wonderful bonding time. I couldn't believe how alert he was. Tom and I were just in awe of this precious little boy that was all ours. We are so lucky and happy to have him and now can't imagine life without him. Tom was also able to steal away a couple minutes to go out and greet both of our parents/the new grandparents and my brother/the new uncle who had patiently been waiting in the waiting room since late Sunday evening for the news. Over the next two days we also had a bunch of friends and Pastor Paul from our church visit to give Gavin blessing. We are blessed to have so many people who love us and Gavin.

The next 2 days in the hospital were a whirlwind with barely any sleep because as soon as Gavin would be asleep and I would dose off a nurse or doctor would come in to take my vitals or one of a million other things. We got many comments that Gavin was a very calm baby. He would only let out a little cry when he was hungry and then was quite easily soothed. For the most part, this is a trend that has continued. He did have some jaundice but luckily not bad enough o require any further treatment.

Despite the total of 33 1/2 hours of labor, I would do it all again in a heart beat to be able to have Gavin. And going thru labor now makes me believe that any woman who has been thru labor is a hero! And here are the main lessons I learned that I will keep stored away for the future in case Gavin ever gets a sibling:
-eat a good, yet not large, wholesome meal before you go into the intense portion of labor (if you can)
-in the last days of pregnancy get as much sleep as you can. Once Gavin was born I didn't sleep for more than 1-3 hours at a time for a couple months.
-do a lot of thinking about your ideal birth plan but remember the most important thing is to be flexible. You never know how things will progress. And in the end you just need to find a way to get through the labor.
-if you need pain meds you are not a failure. While I don't think they should be overused or used if the pain can be alternatively managed, if you can't cope with the pain that's what that are there for. I had always said, I've run a marathon, I can get thru labor pain med free. Wrong, the pain was in no way comparable in my case to the marathon.
-don't be afraid to advocate for yourself. Of course you need to take medical advice seriously but you also have to feel right about your decisions on your birth process.

Well it felt good to write this down, if for nothing else as a way to keep the memories of Gavin's birth ever present for Tom and I. I know his birth was definitely the most special day of both Tom and my lives.