Carson Robert Hicks

We welcomed Carson Robert Hicks on March 24, 2011 at 8:05 am. He is absolutely perfect, he was 7 lbs 5 ozs and was 20 inches long. He seems so small to me, I forgot how fragile newborns were until I held him. He was born with a full head and body of black hair! We are all in love with him, I don't think Bowdy quite understands that Carson is here to stay. I did catch him looking into his bassinet yesterday laughing at him. I know they will be best of friends!

So Many Blessings

Wow, has it really been 8 months since I lasted blogged? Where does all the time go? Anyway so much has happened in the last 8 months and honestly I don't think I could have imagined my life any better. Bowdy turned 1 year on December 10th and I can't believe how big he is getting. At his one year appointment he weighed 19lbs, that is incredible to me because it seemed like yesterday I was packing around a 4 pounder! He is a pretty happy baby, as long as he has taken all his naps and isn't sick. He is such a joy to be around and he has a smile that can light up the room. He definitely knows when to turn on the charm, I know most parents like to stay home when their kids are cranky, but honestly when Bowdy test my patience, I usually load him in the car and do errands like go grocery shopping. He is such a ham and a people watcher that he behaves he best when he is out and about. I can always count on getting stopped at least twice in the store for people to play with him and admire his smile... I know a little bragging, but he does have a "million dollar" smile! Bowdy has his favorite people at certain times.... in the morning he will not let his dad put him down, even if Clay needs to get dressed and he wants nothing to do with me, when we are at work he only wants Janelle to be with him and is always fighting Luke for a position on her lap, but at night time I'm his number one gal, he is quite the cuddler when he stops moving for a few minutes. He lights up when he sees his cousins and when Uncle Mikey and Uncle Travis come in the office. He is completely smitten by my dad, who people say he looks just like!

Bowdy's 1 year update:
Eats 4 bottles a day every 4 hours.
Eats 3 small meals and he loves baby food
Speed Crawls, no walking yet!
Loves his paci
10 percent in weight
Takes two- two hr. naps
Sleeps from 730 pm- 8 am
Says dada and mama

Oyster Fest 2010

This was my first year to attend Oyster Fest. It was a blast, the sun was shining for the most part and the people watching was great. Over the past years I have started to like Oysters, as long as they are the baby ones and I don't have to chew! There are so many different ones to choose from, but I think my favorite one was a cucumber lime salsa Oyster. Here are some pictures from that weekend.

A new start-Day 2

So again last night I tried to figure out Bowdy's sleep issue! He did great all day taking all his naps and eating good. Last night he did much better than the night before, but I guess anything wold be an improvement from waking up every hour or so.... Last night went a little like this:

• 8 pm to bed
• 12 woke up crying, I gave him his paci and he fell asleep
• 1 am he woke up again and I went in there to comfort him after 5 minutes of crying and then 10 minutes later he was still crying so I gave him a pillow, wrapped him up and he went straight to bed till 6:30 this morning.
• At 630 I went in and gave him his paci, he slept till I woke him up at 7:30

Over all I felt like last night was much better than Wednesday night so I know we are on a good start. Hopefully tonight gets better not worse:)

A new start

So last week I was talking to Janelle and telling her that I couldn't believe how much easier Bowdy was now and that I didn't think it would ever get to this point. I was raving about how I felt I could take him anywhere and knew he wouldn't be too difficult for me to handle. This shouldn't have come as a surprise to me since I had taken him out and about since we came home from the hospital, 4lbs and all, but I think it finally hit me that I could do anything with him. Bowdy has been great during the day, taking 3 -2 1/2 hour naps and usually a evening cat nap that last from 30 minutes to 1 hour. He had been sleeping through the night with his last feeding at 8 or 8:30. I would only have to get up and give him is paci around 3 or 4 and then wake him up at 7:30. I often would complain that I felt like he should have "sleeping at night" down since he was almost 6 months and I believed he should be "perfect" Well I guess that was pretty much a perfect night compared to what I have been going through this last week. He is definitely pushing my patience each night. He has all of a sudden started waking up every two hours through-out the night and I was at my wits end on Monday night so I decided I wasn't going to give in to his screaming, but around 4:30 when Clay left for work he demanded that I do something for the kid since he had been whaling for the last 30 minutes! I cracked and ended up wrapping him in his Indian basket and what do you know... he was fast asleep until I woke him at 7:30. What is going on with him? I cried yesterday to Janelle because I just don't understand what his deal is. Yes it could be an upset stomach, or he is teething, or something hurts, or he is just being spoiled.... Too many unknowns. I tried to think if I was doing anything different these last couple weeks with him and I realized that I just started feeding him banannas, so maybe they upset his belly? None of these questions make it easier for me because I refuse to be another mom who makes excuses for her child because they have sleeping issues.
I was pondering this all day and trying to figure out what I was going to do different so that Bowdy, Clay, and I can survive the nights without an ounce of resentment. I read through the Babywise blog and searched for answers. I came across a few sugesstions that might help us! I think we are going to try to be more consistent at night time and establish a bed time routine. Until Tuesday night, we had just been giving him a bath somewhere between 7 and 8 and fed him between 8 and 8:30, which just might be a little to inconsistent for him. I hope that is the answer!
Last night is the first night I really implemented CIO as described in babywise. Night one of the implementation went a lot better than I had planned. Here is what happened:

• Laid him down for bed at 8pm, he immediately fell asleep
• He woke up at 12:00 so I waited 3 minutes, went into his room touched his belly and covered him back up, when I left the room 30 seconds later he was still crying.
• I waited another 5 minutes and he was still crying so I went in there and did the same routine as the first time, left the room.
• after another 8 minutes he was still crying so I repeated the routine, left the room and he was still crying.
• I was going to give him 11 minutes this time to calm down, but after two minutes he was silent!
• I laid in bed trying to fall asleep and it seemed like at least an hour of peace.... but what do you know after 8 minutes of silence Bowdy started crying again...
• I repeated my routine two times and he soothed himself to sleep. By this time is was about 1 am and he fell asleep till 2:30 am.
• I again repeated the routine, but only had to go in there once before he fell sleep
• Then at 4:15 he woke again, I went in there once and he sleep till 7.
• my goal is to have him sleep to 7:30 so I went in there, gave him is paci and then woke him at 7:30 to feed.

I know that this is a long and boring post, but I'm hoping this night process keeps getting easier. We are leaving for the lake on Sunday and will be gone almost 3 weeks, I hope he is a little better by then so he doesn't bother anyone. We have changed his daily schedule and I plan on being less flexible with is until he masters his night sleeping. He is perfect for me during the day so I know he can be perfect at night!

Here is our new schedule:

7:30- bottle and solids

8:45- nap

11:00 bottle

12:15-nap

2:00- bottle and solids

3:15- nap

5:30-bottle

7:45-bath

8:00 -bottle and solids and bed.

If anyone has any helpful suggestions let me know I am totally open to any ideas... I know babywise works because I see the kids that are raised on it and they are a pleasure to be around, but maybe I'm doing something wrong:(

6 months

Wow has time really flown by! I still find myself in disbelief that I have a baby, much less a 6 month old baby! Where does the time go? I guess when you work almost full time you don't realize how fast time is really going when all you seem to think about is getting the week over and enjoying the weekend. Sometimes I wish I could be a stay at home mom for the simple fact that I wouldn't have to get up early and get dressed every morning and rush to the office. I dream that only having to find things to entertain my child and getting tons of play time with him were things that consumed my day. Every time I get this "I don't want to work" feeling I take the day off and once I finish all my chores, I just sit there and realize I couldn't do this everyday, week vacations are nice, but I don't think being a stay at home mom is for me, unless I had a billion kids. Besides working for my Dad isn't half bad, I get to bring Bowdy to work and get to be will Janelle, Connor and Lucas. I bet if Danielle worked here, Janelle and I would work lots of hours because we would love just being with eachother.

Bowdy is doing great, we had his six month check up on Monday and he weighed 14lbs(3%), 25.75" long(24%) and was 9% in head. The doctor said he was progressing just great, but wanted him to start gaining more weight, hopefully he will move into a higher percent at his 9 month check up. I can't believe that in another 6 months he will be 1 year, it seems like he will always be small, not crawling or talking. but I guess I need to savor this time because before I know it he will be into everything!

6 month stats:

• Sleeps 12 hours at night
• Feeds every 3 1/2 hours
• Eats 6 oz of formula
• Eats 3 meals a day
• Still very smiley
• Rolls over immediately when placed on the floor
• Puts everything in his mouth including both feet
• Starting to do mini push ups(I think he will be crawling soon)
• Loves his cousins to talk to him
• Doesn't spit up as much as before(I think the meds are working)
• Has a cough that will not go away

A little less crazy

Im finally getting a little bit of time to update my blog (just finishing watching 5 kiddos) that is officially way overdue! A lot has been going on in our lives, but the most exciting thing is that I finally finished college. Yes I know I should have my masters degree, or even a PHD with the amount of time I spent getting my BS in Business, but oh well I truly lived up the first couple of years of college, or the first four years and wasn't focused on getting into the real world, but the truth is just working and raising a baby is way easier then going to school! I am enjoying spending my nights with family instead of in the library, even though study groups were quite amusing with the right kind of study partners! I have been working at least 30 hours per week and I hope I can step that up to 40, but I'm trying to find the perfect schedule and the balance I need to be a good mom and wife. I know that Clay is probably more excited for me to be graduated because it will take a little pressure off of him playing daddy day-care. Well the most important boy in our lives is now 24 weeks! It is crazy how fast the first 5 months went, and I feel like I didn't appreciate him as a baby because I felt like he wouldn't get to the big boy stage, but I know he is growing up faster than I could imagine. He is now 13 lbs and the doctors seem happy with his growth even though he is still on the smaller side. We started him on reflux meds a couple weeks ago because he was spitting up more than normal and he has had a cough for almost 6 weeks.

They are hoping this medicine will help him gain more weight and get rid of the cough, I know his grandma Dena will appreciate him not smelling like puke, or spitting up(projectile status) on her!

Bowdys Milestones:

-2 bottom teeth

-eats baby food three times a day(when I'm on top of it)

-Rolls over and is constantly turning in circles to watch TV

-Loves his johnny jump up

-eats 6 ozs ever 3.5 hours

-sleeps from 830 pm- 7:30

-takes 3 naps

-smiles constantly

*Im sure there are many more, but over all he is a GREAT baby, I didn't know someone could bring you this much joy. He has been a blessing to Clay and I