Jude Turns 1!

Well, it's been almost a year since I last posted.  It's been a wild ride that I'll save for another post.

This one... is dedicated to my sweet baby boy that has taken over our world in every way possible.

In his first year, Jude was suffered from annoying little things such as ear infections and acid reflux which made it difficult for him (and Mommy and Daddy) to get much sleep.  But with love and care, we could always coax that bright smile out of him!

At one year:

•  Jude is so very close to walking.  He's been wanting to do it for over a month now.  We are patiently waiting for his first steps!
• He is sleeping so much better through the night now.  In the last week, he's been waking up around 3am for a 4oz bottle and goes right back to sleep (in mom & dad's bed) and sleeps until 6:30am for another 6oz bottle.  Trust me.  This is a vast improvement.
• Although he does a TON of baby talk, he has only formed a handful of words.  "Dada" is his favorite.  Followed by "NoNoNO" and "Mama."  We think he's also saying "Juju," but this hasn't been confirmed.  Jude is a man of few words.
• Jude looks like he'll be a righty.  He holds writing utensils in his right hand, when he's not busy eating them. And on the rare occasion when he has an eating utensil, he also holds it in his right hand.
• Speaking of eating... He's a pretty solid eater.  He likes most things.  But when he's not interested in eating, that's it.  There's no coaxing him.  Even if it's something he usually loves.

The many faces of Jude:

•  Jude is TROUBLE!  He gets into everything.  He loves to grab and swipe at things.  He loves to climb onto and roll over things.  He's all boy in that respect
• Jude is a little peanut.  Throughout the last 12 months, he's consistently been in the bottom 5th percentile of his group.  At his 12 month checkup, he bounced up a bit!  Head: 46.5 cm (50%), Weight: 19 lbs 3.5 oz (5%), Height: 28.5 in (10%)
• He has 6 teeth that are fully in.  The 2 on the bottom were first, followed by the top 2 and then the 2 next to them on top.
• Jude is super active.  We can't even hold his attention long enough to read short stories
• But he LOVES to sing and clap.  Any time music comes on TV or someone starts singing, it catches his attention.  He knows to clap when he hears, "If you're happy and you know it"
• Pro: Jude does not suck his fingers nor does he use a pacifier.  Con: It has been a long rode since he never could figure out how to self soothe.
• Jude has been going to Montessori since he was 9 months old.  It was tough on everyone for the first month, but he's got a wonderful teacher now and the consistency has been great for him.  She really does love him!

Overall, Jude has been one of the happiest babies, when with/around his mommy.  He has been known to be very trying for everyone else.  He has no difficulty winning people over with this 2-teeth smile.

For a small treat at school, Jude shared fruit-o's with his classmates.  And his sister.  And her classmates.  They were all gone by the end of the day  =)

After school today, we knew he would be pretty tired so we had a small celebration.

First he opened presents

Sister Mia is having a tough time learning that it's not always all about her

Then it was finally time for Jude's first bite of cake!  It was a busy busy Wed. so Daddy stopped by a local cupcakery for birthday treats.  They were great!  The kids loved them.

Happy 1st Birthday sweet baby Jude!

Here's to many more...

*** Photo credit: Many thanks to my sweet and dear friend Kathie Quinn for the beautiful pictures of our baby boy.***

2 Months Old

My smiley baby boy turns 2 months old today! Jude, I LOVE being at home with you. You fuss, but all you ever wan to do is cuddle.

Jude Update:

• Weight: 11lbs, 3 oz, Height: 22 in, Head: 39cm. 5% all the way around!
• It turns out, Jude has acid reflux. He has all the classic symptoms. Fussiness with eating. Arching back. Lots and lots of spit up after many many hours of fussing over gas bubbles. Our pediatrician prescribed some Axid for him in hopes that it will simply "soothe" the AR. He will continue to spit up, but hopefully be a little happierabout it.
• He also seems to be struggling with his regularity now. Ugh. This poor child. We went toHouston over the weekend and he didn't go the whole time we were there. I finally gave in and got him some suppositories to assist him and whoa-la. 3 days worth of poop. TMI,Iknow. But I did a happy dance.
• It's finally starting to cool of just a touch. Just in time for Jude to make his debut outdoors!

Jude snoozing away in his carseat while Mia plays at the park. So sweet!

Last week, Uncle Tommy got to make a trip to Austin. He got to see both his babies, Stephanie and go to ACL fest. Talk about productive!

And some random pics for Mia... on her "pooter"

September Update

The weekend that Jude turned 1 month old was Labor Day weekend. On Friday, Ong and Ba

came to town to visit and provide much needed assistance! Oh happy day!

On Sunday evening, we get a call from Nini and Papa letting us know that there are some wild fires in Bastrop and that the city/county has asked them to evacuate. Would it be ok for them to evacuate to our house? Or are the fires in Pflugerville bad, too? Fire? Fires? Huh?

Turns out it was the weekend of the great wild fires. We turn on the news and sure enough, there are fires EVERYWHERE. Because of the severe drought in the region, the extremely windy day and the holiday weekend things were catching fire easily and then being carried and spread like, well, wild fire.

The Pflugerville fire was not far from our house. Down at the end of Kelly Lane close to the Preserve neighborhood. The relatively small fire coupled with the quick action of the PFD and Travis County helicopters, the fire was quickly contained.

The Bastrop fires were a completely different story. The area is densely wooded. The fires raged for miles and miles. For days and days.

Nini and Papa stayed with us through the holiday weekend and then went to Ft. Worth to visit Jenni and Cade for a few days. With the same bag they had packed in their rush to evacuate. It would be well over a week before the fires were contained sufficiently to allow them to even return to the area.

When they were finally able to return, they were the lucky very very few. Their home was untouched. Not even any signs of smoke damage. All they had to throw out was some spoiled food from the electricity being turned off for so many days. We all counted our blessings.

During this time, Stephanie returned from a long weekend visit in California. On Tuesday after Labor Day, we decided to take the pups and Jude out for a nice long walk since Stephanie didn't have to work (she works for Bastrop ISD). Stoli and Diesel were as usual running and chasing each other. Having a generally good time. Diesel stopped somewhere ahead to do her business and then continued on chasing Stoli. Stephanie and I finally caught up to her pit stop and were heads down searching for her "treasures." After a few minutes, we were able to collect it all and wouldn't you know it, we look up to see Stoli and Diesel trotting back towards us. Well, Diesel trotted. Stoli was noticeably limping. We stop to take a look at him and he screeeeams. OK, so don't touch it. Stephanie takes Diesel and they run back to the house to get the car. I coax and comfort Stoli as we try to make it as close as possible back to the main road so that we can get in the car when Stephanie returns. The whole time, I've got Jude strapped to my chest because we didn't bring a car seat.

We get Stoli home and call the vet. They didn't have any appointments left that afternoon so instead of opting for the emergency route, I chose to just take him in first thing the next morning. Torn ACL. 100%. After leaving the vet's office, we go straight over to the surgeon's office. Surgery scheduled for the next day. Surprisingly, Stoli is able to walk out of the surgeon's office and into the car. He's a little loopy the first few hours, but he is a champ and recovers so so well. No more running for him =(

Our goofy dog going for aqua rehab

Figures he can kill 2 birds with one stone and hydrates while he rehabs

This maternity leave is one surprise after another. So now I'm bound at home. Stuck between painful fussy breast feeding sessions and ACL rehab. Yay for baby boys!

Jude 1 Month Old

Weight: 8 pounds 13 ounces. Jude's gained 3 pounds his first month!

Height: 19.5 inches. We're waiting for the height to kick in

We just moved from the newborn diapers to size 1. The new diapers are HUGE!

Jude is on such a great schedule. He eats every 2-3 hours during the day and every 3-4 hours during the night. When he's not eating, he's usually sleeping (after he gets his issues worked out). But towards the end of his first month, he's started to have more awake and alert playing time which has been so much fun. We finally get to see his eyes!

The issues I'm referring to with Jude is reflux. So frustrating. In the early days of life, we noticed that he was having trouble with latching and control the milk flow. A breast shield helped to resolve the milk flow issue. However, he was still having issues with burping and spitting up. It wasn't until this week that I was fairly certain he had reflux. He would want to eat, but then he'd arch his back and constantly push back from the breast while he was eating. It threw him AND me into a frenzy every time. It's frustrating and painful when you're trying to feed a child who wants to eat, but can't and your milk has already let down. The pediatrician prescribed some Axid for him and we're waiting to see how it works out.

Jude is my noisy baby. He's not really all that loud and fussy. But there's almost always a stream of sound coming from him. Whether it's a soft hum, a whimper, groaning, squeal or cry, he's hardly ever just quiet. It's funny at times. And reassuring at night. But when it's the sound of discomfort, it gets the milk going!

Credits:

• Quilt by Barbara Nedwick
• Personalized diaper cover by Courtney Rozada

Mia: 22 Months, Jude: 3 Weeks

August 22, 2011: 2 Milestones for our 2 little ones.

Mia Update:

• Mia not only likes school now, she kind of runs the show in the 1 year old class room. She says, "story time" and the teacher sits down and reads with her and gradually the other kids follow suit. Before they head out of the room to go to lunch or the playground, the teacher will usually peak her head out of the classroom to check to see if it's their turn to head out. If it's not, she tells them, "one more minute, kids." Mia gets in front of all the other kids and also tells them, "One more minute!"
• She is still not potty trained, but consistently tells her teacher when she has pee-peed or poo-pood. Now the trick is for her to tell us when she has to go as opposed to when she's already gone!
• Mia has gotten a lot pickier about what she wants to eat. There is still plenty that she will eat, but she doesn't always eat everything on her plate any more. Some days she's a big meat eater and other days it's carbs. Some days it's vegetables. Right now she's really big into ham, cheese, mushrooms and noodles.
• Since forever Mia has loved to draw and doodle. But recently, she comes home from school, has a snack, asks for her Mickey Mouse show and proceeds to plop down on the floor with her drawing book and special markers and declare, "I do my HOMEwork!"
• Since she turned 20 months, Mia has been taking swim classes at Aqua Tots. She loves it there. We started her out on Wednesday evenings and quickly realized that she was too tired for an after school activity. When we moved her to the Saturday morning class, she's all about it. She just finished her last class for this season last Saturday. Here is a clip of her swimming around with Daddy!

• One of Mia's favorite activities these days (besides drawing) is playing pretend. She's pretty good at it. She's pretty established at playing kitchen and baby. She's just now starting on dress up... if you don't count her get-up's everyday as dress up =) Here she is as Tinker Bell

I'll wait to do the Jude update at his 1 Month entry. For now, I will leave you with his newborn photos done at 3 weeks old.

A Sleepy Jude Morning

He looked so precious sleeping away this morning, I just had to grab the camera and capture. No special occasion today.

1 Week Old

Can you really use the word "old" with someone so new?

One week ago today, we went to the hospital not know what to expect. And we were right.

Everything about Jude so far is different than Mia.

From the bedrest to the quick labor and delivery to the almost immediate discharge (we only spent one night in the hospital).

But there are more. Jude is already proving to be much more laid back than Mia. But while he fusses less and sleeps better, Mia nursed with much less issues.

At his 5 day check up he was down to 5 pounds 13 ounces and so we kept having to go back to the doctor every day for a weight check. The milk flow is too much for his immature system to handle. He has latching issues. And so on and so on...

He's a little small now, but we have no doubt he will catch up in due time.

(Note how absolutely loose his little newborn socks hang on his ankles!)

Sibling Love

Despite all her angst before his arrival, Mia just can't get enough of her Baby Jude.

Well.

To an extent.

She says things like, "I want to hode it!"

... and "I kiss Baby Jude."

But what she really means is, "Plop him in my lap while I watch my TV shows, please."

Birthday Movie

Jude's Birth Video lovingly created by Daddy

Monday August 1, 2011

37 weeks + 5 days.

Jude just couldn't wait any longer.

Since I was sick the day before and labor started in the early morning hours, the first I felt I might be in labor was about 5 o'clock on Monday morning. I was rolling around in bed and noticed stronger contractions. They were persistent and by 5:30, I started noticing they were also consistent. The difference between these contractions and pre-term labor contractions were that they were actually painful as opposed to just the feeling of pressure. Instead of just practicing my relaxation breathing techniques during each contraction, I found myself really trying to ride the waves.

Just before 6AM, I decided to crawl out of bed and get into the shower for 2 reasons. The first was to help determine if this was true labor contractions. If they were, the contractions would continue even if I changed my position and environment. In the shower, I noticed that contractions were coming every THREE minutes and lasting about 40 seconds. I stayed in the shower a bit longer because it was comfortable and because I feared if it was another long labor like Mia's, it would be a while before I got another shower!

After getting out of the shower and getting dressed, I ran another labor test while calling the doctor's after-hour number. I got a glass of water. Since I was sick yesterday, I thought there might be a chance I was having more than normal contractions due to dehydration. That didn't help, but the midwife did suggest eating something small to run another test. By now it was about 6:45. Nothing was slowing this down, but I was on the sofa having snacks and getting through each contraction. Shortly after, Mia appeared downstairs with Mark dressed and ready for school. I remember heaving myself off the sofa, going to the pantry and getting her a morning snack. She happily plopped herself down on the pallet I made on the floor eating her snack and watching Sesame Street. Mark loaded her up for school about 7:05 and promised he'd be back in just a few minutes (school is only 2 miles from the house).

I was waiting for 8AM so that we could go to the doctor's office and get confirmation I was in labor. Due to preterm labor contractions, I didn't want to go to the hospital prematurely. But by 7:40, I knew that this was no false labor. I had been experiencing 40 second contractions every 3 minutes for the last 2 1/2 hours. And now the contractions were getting so much stronger, my breathing was more of a groan through the contractions. It was time to go to the hospital. From talking to my midwife, I already knew that my primary doctor was on-call that morning. So I felt reassured as we left the house. Everything was going to be fine and I would be home shortly with our new addition!

We arrived at the hospital just after 8AM. Mark oddly suggested that he pull up to the front, drop me off and go park the car. I freaked. Are you nuts?! Park the car and grab a wheelchair to get me! I'm past the point of walking through these contractions. =) Pregnant woman.

As soon as the nurses set eyes on me, they knew that we were not messing around. Instead of waiting at the counter to check in, they immediately lead me to my L&D room and did admissions there. In between contractions. When they finally got around to checking me at8:30, I was already 5cm dilated. Shortly after, Dr. Sebestyn appeared, ready to rock.

I don't know how the times worked after that, but it was just a mere 90 minutes from when they first checked me to Jude's arrival. Mark said it was rocket fast. Looking back on it, I guess it was. But being in it, living each individual contraction, it felt like it would never end. At one point, I had to ask. Are we getting close? Because if we have a ways more to go, I'm not going to make it. As soon as I said that, I knew I was in transition. The hesitation stage.

Then I remember thinking, I know they're gonna tell me it's not time to push yet, but I HAVE to. They're going to have to figure something out to give me clearance soon because like it or not, I'm going to start pushing. I told Dr. S, I have to push. Really. I do. She told me I had to hold on just a little while longer, I looked to be about 9cm. But I couldn't. So she told me to go ahead and get a practice push in. I don't think it did much physically for the baby, but it made me feel SO much better. Another push or five and I heard a HUGE pop, felt a huge relief and then a lot of laughter. WHAT? Was the baby already here? I opened my eyes. No. What I saw was my little doctor drenched. As if someone has doused her in a giant Big Gulp. My water broke =) She was covered from head to waist. Nurses ran to wipe her glasses down and she was good to go. The laughter helped me more than I knew.

Another 5 pushes, lots of intense pain and burning and Jude was born.

Jude Anthony Xuan Neuabuer
Birthday: August 1, 2011 @ 9:55AM (1st 107 degree day of MANY in 2011 summer!)
Weight: 6 pounds 5 ounces

Length: 19 inches

Birth Place: St. David's North Austin Medical Center, Austin, TX

You were happily welcomed by your parents

Mia came to visit later in the afternoon and was so excited to see her Baby Jude!

Daddy thought way ahead and special ordered your first birthday cake from Ms. Natalie