Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

Random Pictures

Vic laying in the pack n play (where he sleeps) in his new swaddling blanket. It normally covers his legs too, but he'd wiggled his way out, lol!

Everyone loved the last picture I did like this, so I thought I'd take another :0)

Him sleeping in the Moby wrap.

We had another bad couple of days with him and this was the only way to get him to sleep for awhile. We started him on a different medicine for the reflux. Hopefully this one keeps working! I love his squishy lips in this picture!

I thought this one was cute cause matt was trying to get him to hold the smoothie bottle.

"I Love Mommy" Shortly after I took this picture he pooped all over this onsie, LOL!

Being a big boy!

he's thinking "I hate it when she does this to me"

In the car seat on the way to Cincinnati. The yellow blanket with the polka dots is reversible, on the other side are basketballs. It also has slits cut in it so you can lay it in the car seat and pull the straps though so you can still swaddle him up. So cool!

I caught him sucking his thumb!! He doesn't ever do this though. I think this is the 2nd time I've ever seen him do it. Usually he just shoves his whole fist in his mouth, lol!

His cute little fleece outfit that we got him at TJ Max for $5.

Meet the Baby Shower

Matt's family had been trying for months to throw us a baby shower. For the last couple of months of my pregnancy, I had been unable to travel so they never got to do it. Finally, we had planned a trip up there on the 12th and they were going to throw us the shower then. Of course we had car trouble. Again. We took it into the shop and the water pump was busted and some other stuff that I can't even remember and it was going to cost us about $600 to fix. Plus, the part they needed to fix it, they couldn't get in until the next Monday. So we thought we were stuck at home AGAIN without a car.

Until Matt's mom suggested a rental car. Now, you think rental car, you think Expensive. But Enterprise was running a weekend special, you put $200 down and when you return the car you get $150 back, so it only costs you $50. I was like, Hell yes! We're going to do this more often instead of putting more miles and wear and tear on our car. So, the day AFTER we were supposed to be there and 2 hours AFTER the shower was supposed to start, we finally arrived in Cincinnati. Woo!

His family and friends were so very generous and we were given some really great gifts! Thank you all so much! I'll have thank you cards out soon, I promise!

Ok, it won't let me move the pictures like I normally would, so they aren't in any particular order.

These are from Sunday, the day after the shower. We had been given this adorable football outfit for him and when I was sorting through his clothes we found it and realized that he was going to have to wear it ASAP or he wouldn't fit into it.

Isn't it adorable?!?

Our little linebacker!!

Grandma Herbers (Matt's Mom) and Little Victor


The happy family

ignore how fat my face looks. It's only been 10 weeks, I'm still losing weight!!

Me and Victor at the shower.

Baby laying on the floor in the center of attention, of course!

Ma-Ma ( Matt's step-dad's mom) and Gma Zager (Matt's mom's mom)

Victor and Great-Gma Zager

2 Month Checkup

At Victor's 2 month checkup he weighed 14lbs and 3oz, 90th percentile! and was 23 and 1/4 inches long, 75th percentile! My little boy is growing so strong and big! The doctor even made a comment about how strong he was and how good his head control already is. Yay!! I love my big strong boy! So, at 2 months old, he is wearing size 2 diapers and is in 3-6 month size clothes, some 6-9 stuff depending on how it's cut. He's getting soooo big!! The sleeper he is wearing in the picture is one that my mom sent us. It's 3-6, we thought for sure he wouldn't fit into it for another month at least! I had to go through all of his clothes and pack away all the stuff he doesn't fit into anymore. I can't believe he didn't even wear alot of it. Some stuff we had thought he was still too big for until we got it out and realized that it was already too small! :0( Oh well, he's got cuter stuff he can wear now :0)

Congratulations!

Welcome Joshua Samuel Utkin!!

My oldest brother Nathan and his wife Kristy, just welcomed their 3rd little boy! He was born on Dec. 10 via scheduled c-section., He weighed 9lbs and 2oz and was 20 and 3/4 inches long.

This was Kristy the day before she delivered at 39weeks and 5days pregnant.

Congratulations!!!

Nathan is currently deployed to Afghanistan and was not able to come home for the birth. They chose to have him come home earlier in October for so that they could take a trip and spend time together as a family. He should be coming home in late March or April, we're not quite sure yet. I love you guys!!

Poor baby

Oh, we had a rough couple of days. On Sunday he did almost this same thing, Monday he was a little better and slept most of the night like normal, but then Tuesday was AWFUL. Loooong story short, for almost 20 hours Vic did nothing but scream, eat for 2 minutes and sleep for 5 minutes at a time. Mostly scream. He was up from 10:30 am until 5am the next morning. I couldn't get him to eat and he wouldn't sleep for more than a few minutes and he was just soooo miserable. There were a couple of times that we were both crying at the same time. He was in pain and I was miserable cause I couldn't fix it....

When he woke up at 9am and nothing had changed i.e. he was still screaming, although I did get him to eat for 5 minutes, which was the longest amount he had eaten since about 7pm the night before. But he was still sooo miserable that I called the pediatrician and asked for the soonest appointment they had. Doc examined him and determined that he did not have an ear infection or illness that he could see. He is pretty sure it's reflux. Within the past 2 weeks Vic has also started spitting up a lot more, which he never did before. So Vic is now on Zantac twice a day. It will take about a week to really work, but I've already noticed an improvement. He's been much happier today than yesterday even.

And on another note: He is 8 weeks old, weighs 14lbs and is in size 2 diapers and 3-6 month size clothes. He is such a big, healthy boy!!

Since he has been reaching and grabbing a bit more I've been trying to get him to play with some toys. I put the leg of this toy in his hand and he grabbed it and started swinging it around and trying to chew on it. I love it!! Pretty soon he'll really be able to play!

whoops

Showing off the guns :0) Do you like the monkey blanket? Vic's Aunt Alice made it for us, love it!

I've been so bad at this lately! I keep meaning to update but everytime I think about it Vic wakes up and my plans all go out the window.

I had my 6 week checkup, almost 2 weeks ago. Things are looking good he said, except one spot where the doc cut me still wasn't healed all the way. Apparently it was a pretty deep cut. But other than that things are good!

Great news too! I don't know if you all remember that I got into a car accident when I was 26 weeks pregnant and totaled my car. Well, yesterday the car finally got paid off! Geico wouldn't pay the claim until they got the title for my car, and Chase LOST the title to my car and it has taken 6 months to get it straightened out. But it's paid off and we no longer have to make payments on a car that we don't have! YAY!!!

Victor has been good. He's been a bit more fussy over the last couple of weeks. I guess he's waking up from that newborn stage and starting to be a real baby now, lol. He's really only fussy in the evenings, and it's apparently very common and most babies are fussy in the evenings, so we just deal with it as best we can. He's been much better the last couple of days though. He's finally on a bit more regular schedule though. He eats about every 2 hours, and in the afternoons will take a 3-4 hour nap, but sometimes he'll just take a couple smaller naps. It just depends on how he's feeling that day I suppose. if he doesn't want to sleep he's impossible to put to sleep. He can be so tired that he's screaming at us and just will fight it and fight it until he finally just passes out. I start working on him when I notice he's yawning so that he won' t get like that, but it never helps. Oh well, he's only 7 weeks old, we'll get it figured out :0)

We took a trip to Cincinnati last weekend. Not Thanksgiving weekend, but the weekend before. He was good for the first half of the 4 hour trip and then I had to sit in back with him for the last 2 hours. Same thing on the trip back. I was thinking he would sleep more on the way back because he was exhausted. He really didn't get to sleep much while we were there. He gets wound up easily when there are alot of people around and refuses to go to sleep, or with all the people he gets woken up before he's really ready. So he was exhausted and didn't really sleep in the car, and of course was miserable when we got home. He doesn't like the car seat either so that doesn't help. As long as he is sleeping in it, he's good, but he HATES to sit in it if he's awake.

Seeing everyone was so nice! I know Matt wishes he could see them more. But, I also pointed out to him that he's been able to see alot of his family since Victor was born and I haven't seen ANYone from my side. It stinks having everyone so far away. I really wanted to be able to come home for Christmas this year. It's been so long since I've been back to Idaho, and my brother and sis-in-law are going to be there too and it just makes me so sad I can't see them. My sis-in-law (the other one) is having her 3rd baby, my 3rd nephew, on the 10th this month (scheduled c-section) and I really wanted to be able to go down and help her. Of course it's the same weekend that Matt's family wants to give us a baby shower..... And to top it off I don't think we're going to end up going anywhere because the car didn't respond well to the last trip and it needs some work again.

Anyway, that's the update! Here are some pictures for your viewing enjoyment :) I keep trying to get a picture of him smiling and everytime I try to snap it he quits. It's sooo cute though when he does!

Tummy Time!

Boxing with Daddy. Vic has started reaching for things. He doesn't have great control yet, but he is realizing that he can move his arms and he grabs my face all the time while we're playing together. I nibble on his fingers :) he smiles when I do that!
He does this all the time. He'll just lay there and arch his back and hang off the pillow and stare at the lamp.

He saw daddy with the camera and started reaching for him and started to slide off :0)

This picture makes me laugh :)

He fell asleep on my lap after nursing. You can see a little drop of milk on the corner of his mouth. He's just too precious for words....

This is what Daddy and baby did all morning on Thanksgiving while Mommy was cooking, lol. Watched the football game and slept. It was just the 3 of us and it was wonderful! I feel like we hardly get to spend much time together so it was great to have the whole day just us. I made a turkey breast, mashed potatos, stuffing, corn and gravy. And of course, my famous French Silk Pie. Ok, not really famous, but it should be! And if I do say so myself, everything turned out great!

1 Month Checkup

Victor is 1 month old tomorrow! I can't believe we've had him for a whole month now :) At the beginning it was so surreal and I think I just felt like I was on the worlds longest babysitting job, lol! But now I can't imagine not having him. He coos and gurgles and I'm pretty sure he's working on smiling at me, there's a couple of times he looked awful close to it. But he's also been gassy, haha! He's just so adorable.

He had his 1 month appointment at the Pediatrician today. Victor now weighs 11 lbs and 2 oz (my little chunker!) and is 22 and 1/4 inches long. Head circumference is 15 inches. He also had to get another dose of the Hep B vaccine. As you can imagine he did NOT like that very much. After we got home he ate and then fell asleep for 3 hours and then woke up to eat again. I tried to keep him up for a little while, afraid that it would mess up his schedule and he would be impossible tonight. But after an hour he started crying and fussing. So I picked him up and sat in the recliner with him and 2 seconds later he was sound asleep. And that was an hour ago and he's not showing any signs of waking anytime soon. I guess he's just extra sleepy from the shot, everyone says it's normal so I'm trying not to worry about it and hopefully he'll just sleep the whole night through!

A couple of my favorite things about him:

(See? doesn't he look like he's smiling? or at least really close to it?)

~ When he is hungry and I turn him toward me to eat, he starts grunting and rooting around and it's so cute I laugh everytime.



~He never wakes up crying at night, he just lets me know he's ready to eat by sucking on his fingers and grunting.



~At night, he sleeps for 3-4 hours on the dot. A couple of times he's even gone 5 hours. Except for the first 2 days home from the hospital he has never screamed at night or been up for longer than it took to eat.


~ He loves his bath! He hated sponge baths, but since we've been able to give him tub baths he just sits in the little whale tub and coos at us.



Just hanging out in the tub. He loves when you trickle the warm water over him.



~When Matt kisses him he scrucnches his face up, cause I guess Matt's beard tickles him.


~He will poo, and then 10 minutes later when we're pretty sure he's done we change him. And then as soon as the new diaper is on him he'll let loose again. I joke and tell Matt giving him a new diaper is a surefire way to get him to poo!



His poo face. HAHA!


~ He does not like it when I drink caffeine. Back in his first week I think it was, I had 2 cups of coffee and then he was up until 5:30 in the morning. I don't drink coffee anymore! lol! Maybe this doesn't qualify as one of my favorite things... I miss my coffee!!

This onsie was in with the ton of stuff we got from friends and I found it the other day and decided he needed to wear it. It was SO funny when Matt got home from work and went to pick Vic up to change his diaper and saw what it said. Matt just looks at me and goes "Seriously?" then looked at Vic and said "I can't believe what Mommy's got you wearing. Good thing you don't care about that stuff yet..."

Amazing

I sit and stare at his little perfectly formed ears, and his little fingers, and toes and can't believe that we made him. Almost 4 weeks later and I still have a hard time believing that he was in my belly. The entire process just amazes me. How an egg and a sperm come together and turn into a beautiful baby just seems impossible. He's so beautiful..... I can't wait to see what kind of a man he will be. I hope he is just like his father!

I have the most amazing husband. The other night Victor was being especially fussy and would not go to sleep for anything, Matt took him to change his diaper. In the 2 minutes that Matt was out of the room I fell asleep because I was that exhausted. So Matt took Victor downstairs and sat with him on the couch for an hour while I slept. And then later got up with him to change him again when he heard him crying. He is so amazing to try and give me a break when he can, plus I know he loves the time he gets to spend with Victor as well. I'm so blessed to have 2 such wonderful men in my life!

On a different note: There is sooo much information about childrearing out there, that it's almost impossible to know what to follow. Some theories say have him on a schedule starting day 1 or he'll run your life, others say to hold him all the time, have him sleep in your bed so he grows up secure. Some say breastfeed till he's 2 or 3, others till he's 1. Some say don't breastfeed at all! There is just soooo much advice and information, how do you sort through it all? Victor is on a pretty good schedule at night, once he falls asleep he only wakes up about every 4 hours to eat and then goes right back to sleep. It's during the day that he's all over the place. Sometimes he eats every 3 hours, sometimes every hour, it just depends. And according to a lot of ideas he should be on a firm schedule. But if he's hungry I'm not going to NOT feed him just because it's not "time". So basically we're doing it on demand, but how else do you feed a baby? honestly? He's hungry so you feed him, that's how it works. I guess it's like my mom said, you just have to figure out what works for your baby, because every baby is different.

Here are some pictures!

He just sits and stares at the little motor part of it the entire time he's in it like he's trying to figure out how it works.
Giving daddy kisses. Matts beard tickles him so he makes the funniest faces everytime Matt kisses him.


Hanging out on Mommy's tummy.


"Mom, put the camera down"

"Mom, seriously."

I was trying to get a picture of his sleeper, it says, "Could I be any Cutier?" yes, Cutier.

I had to get some naked baby pics to show his girlfriends later :0)

Playtime!!

Hanging out with Daddy after a bath. I thought his little pose was so funny!