Sunday, July 29, 2012

Summer Outings

We went up to Bear Lake and stayed at the cabin for a few days with the whole family. A few days up there is all Jesse could stay since he just started his new job in June. It will probably be our only vacation this summer...but it was so good to spend that time all together-so happy we could!
We did the usual laying around and relaxing and playin cards while at the cabin.
 Corbin smiling at Grandpa Haws
 Grandpa working and holding sleeping Corbin
Grandma Haws rocking Corbin to sleep
Corbin had his first boat ride and went on his first (long) four wheeling ride. (nothing too dangerous) I held him in the carrier and he basically slept the whole time-the vibrations and white (loud) noise did the trick.
We rode up to Ephraim's Grave. He was the last grizzly bear known to roam utah killing a bunch of animals. Weighing 1100 lbs and about 11 feet tall. This was the stone monument marking is gravesite.
We spent a couple hours at the beach as well. I was able to go wakeboard for just a few minutes and that is all I could handle...its makes a difference when you are out of shape-my abs hurt for a couple days after. ha!
We also went down to Logan one of the days and said goodbye to our Camry and bought ourselves our first brand new car. 2013 Hundai Sonata. Even though it basically looks the same we just felt it was the right time to get rid of the Camry. It's Jesse's new commuter car. 
The Jensen Family has gone to the Ogden Rodeo ever since Jesse was little and now Corbin will as well!
He slept like this for maybe the first 20 minutes then he was wide awake the rest of the time...I think it was a bit too loud for him to sleep through...

Ali, Quinn, and Ella came from Michigan to see us for a bit. We went to Lagoon one of the days they were here! We watched the little ones ride the kiddy rides most the time, then Jesse and I snuck off and rode a few rides-we both can't ride too many now because we get sick on a lot of them...
 Corbin slept for a good portion of the time we were there...he had his shots that morning.

 Corbin and Ella-7 months apart
Corbin's only ride-The train.

Saturday, July 28, 2012

2 months old

I know I just did a little update on my baby boy but I will have to often...I'll try to make this one short. Corbin was 2 months old on the 25th of July. Everyone always says it goes by fast and they grow so fast and at the beginning I didn't care because I just wanted his little body to grow out of his reflux and feel better. I feel like this last week or so he has gotten so much bigger/chunkier! (but what he is wearing can make him look different too)
 I told myself now that I am going to try to enjoy every stage and what it brings. Sometimes I get frustrated that he wants to be held all the time and then I realize I can enjoy this time where he wants to be so cuddly because that might not last. (yes, he is laying in my arm right now half sleeping...and I might be starving and need to go to the bathroom but don't want to wake him up right now because he looks so happy and peaceful sleeping with his hand curled around my finger as he gives me little smiles)

He had his 2 month appt yesterday. Stats: 11 lbs 12 oz 52%, 22 inches 16%, head circumference 16.2 inches 78%. So he is chunking up but still is a short guy with a big head (from the Jensen side..ha!) I sure hope he wont srtuggle with his height all his life!
He also had to get his shots which he only cried for a few seconds and then was tough! It might have hurt Daddy more just to watch it. That night though he woke up crying and had a fever. We gave him Tylenol and it went right back down. But I had to take him back to the doctors in the morning to get a blood sample, urine sample and a respiratory test just to make sure everything was ok. Which wasn't very fun to watch as well.. He also weighed 12 lbs the next day...did I mention he might be chunking up fast? And he is doing just fine today...just wants to be extra cuddly...
exhausted after being poked for all the samples they needed :(

A few more things about what Corbin does lately...

Since he has found his fist and sucks on it (and i've caught him sucking his thumb now) anytime I swaddle him he almost always wiggles his at least one arm out.
I can't tell if he sometimes sleeps with his eyes half open or if he is awake. Because he can lay there like this for 10-15 minutes sometimes. A little creepy looking. And in my arms he has his one eye barely open...it makes me think he is just making sure he is still being held or someone is still there.
And if he takes a really good long nap it can takes him a good 10 minutes to wake up as he lays there half awake and stretches out!
ok I guess that was just a few more things about his sleeping habits... ha! but I thats because he actually sleeps more like a newborn now. But I can't say he is the best at sleeping yet. The afternoon and evening he struggles with staying asleep and taking a good nap and if we go anywhere he doesn't sleep too well in his car seat right now. But he has gone a 5 hour stretch a few times now during the night. (which is good for him) And I am hoping now that he is going longer between feedings (about 3-4 hours) he will start sleeping even longer stretches at night. We will see...

Saturday, July 21, 2012

My growing baby.

I have been needing to write more about Corbin's first 6 weeks of life or so but haven't quite gotten to it. I really don't want to come off sounding negative or anything and I hope I don't just sound like I am complaining but for journaling purposes I think I need to remember a few things.

Well, to be honest it has not been easy! Being a new mommy and trying to figure out how to take care of a newborn and knowing his needs can be hard sometimes. And putting a baby with reflux into that is even that much harder...well at least I am going to assume that! But don't get me wrong I absolutely love being a mommy to my sweet baby boy!

I can't quite pin point when he for sure developed reflux..but I want to say about when he was a week and a half because I remember at his 2 week appt telling the doctor that he spits up a lot! But he didn't seem to worry, he probably gets that a lot from new parents though. But from there it kept getting worse, not just the spitting up but you could just tell that he was so uncomfortable all the time. He could never lay still and would always be squirming which was probably from the pain of reflux. This is so hard as a parent to see, especially at the time not knowing what it is for sure and why he was like that. 

At first they said maybe I was not producing enough milk and he was still hungry because it seemed that he was always wanting to eat and he didn't gain enough weight one week. Which I guess could of been the case but I am pretty sure it was probably because he was spitting up so much and it is soothing to suck for a baby and soothing to eat with reflux as well--but later I learned it can actually worsens the problem by just eating all the time...good thing I know now. We were also told to try to start supplementing with formula after I feed him but I felt that only made it worse, he was even more fussy and would spit up nearly all of it.

I called the pediatricians office 2 different times because I was worried. The first time they told me I need to burp him more often and hold him up for at least 30 minutes after he eats and stuff like that. The 2nd time the lady told me I needed to cut all dairy out of my diet, anything that had the milk protein in it-you would be surprised how many products do. It was difficult for me to do but I knew it would be worth it if it would help. A week passed and I saw little to no improvements and was slightly frustrated and disappointed but at the same time knew it wasn't the dairy doing it and they gave me the ok to start eating dairy again because I should of seen some improvements. (which I was happy I didn't have to worry so much about what I was eating...and I could still eat ice cream!)

So the 3rd time I called the office I was determined to see the doctor, no more of them just telling me things to do, I knew he had reflux and he needed to get help for his poor little body and of course I was pretty exhausted as well.  My little guy was sleeping very little which means I was sleeping little to none. There had been a few days of no sleep mixed with the changing of hormones that I would just sit there and cry because I felt so helpless and exhausted and confused about knowing what to do. I had read so many things desperately trying to find out what I should or could do to help. I also would laugh as I told my Mom I would sit there and cry and tell Heavenly Father that this is all I could handle-I reached my limit-(thinking He will never give you anything you can't handle) mostly I just prayed for help and for my little baby boy to feel better.

For my birthday I was asked what I wanted and my reply was just to make him feel better-of course that was all that was on my mind and all I wanted! I had looked into a natural product for reflux, gas, colic stuff and my mom also had a friend that used it and recommended it so we thought we would give it a try. I can't say that it worked right away like it says it would but over the next few days I could see some improvement. He was actually taking naps during the day which meant he was able to relax enough to, so it must be helping. They couldn't get him in at the doctors for a few days because of the holiday. So the day we had his appt he was doing so much better-the spitting up had not really changed but you could tell he wasn't so uncomfortable anymore. We decided to still go to our appt because we really couldn't cancel by then. It was confirmed he had reflux.

So now he is 8 weeks old and I feel that I have a better handle on things. I feel I am finally learning most of his needs. He still is a messy baby-can't go anywhere without burp cloths and his shirt will probably always look dirty if I don't have a bib on him. (good amount of laundry) I learned that sleep is very important and it can make a huge difference of how he is as far as being fussy or not. He can only stay awake about an hour and a half then he needs to take a small nap. He fights naps during the day though especially if he stays awake too long. I have to put him down before he gets overly tired or it can be a long process of trying to rock him to sleep as he fights it. He has never given me a problem with going to sleep at night but the only bummer is he still wants to eat every 2-3 hours around the clock which makes for a tired mama still..

He started giving us real smiles at about 6 weeks, he is especially smiley in the mornings! We love it! He even has cute dimples that come out! I love to see him happy now! :) He loves to be sucking so he will basically always take a binky but the last week or so he found his fist and sucks on those as well.

He was also a messy boy when it came to diaper changes. The first few weeks we couldn't go a diaper change without getting either peed or pooped on...and/or the walls were covered in it.  He has gotten a lot better at not making such a mess. But he sure is one of the gassiest babies...not gonna lie there...

But I love Corbin so much! I love just staring at his handsome little face and seeing his cute little nakey body! We can't quite figure out what color of hair he has, I feel like every day it can look different. But I say it is brown with some hints of red in it. These last couple days I realize he sure is a growing boy. He gets the double chin now when he smiles real big--we knew it was coming! It's kinda funny too that I can be exhausted from taking care of him but if I haven't held him for a couple hours I almost start to miss him, I guess its since I am so used to having him connected to me basically so it gets weird if I haven't for a while.

Here are some random pictures in chronological order to see our growing baby!

He likes bath time, he just sits still basically the whole time looking so relaxed.
June 10
June 15
I still love how sweet he looks when he sleeps!
June 17
He sleeps much better if he is swaddled. "little burrito"
June 19
June 23
June 25
June 27
July 6
"yes Mom...."
July 13
Ready for church! already love ties on my little man!
July 15
And this picture might make him look chunkier than he is. But it sure is cute!
July 19

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Week of Celebration

The first week of July is always great because I get to celebrate my birthday on the 2nd, my brother Matt's birthday on the 3rd, and then The Fourth of July, the Grandpa Jensen's birthday on the 5th!

Jesse had to work on my birthday, so it was me and Corbin all morning but we did get a great surprise at the front door that morning-some beautiful flowers from Jesse! :) Then I went to lunch with Grandpa and Grandma Haws and later ran some errands with Jesse's mom to get out. My mom stopped by after work for a little bit then when Jesse got home we went out and got some Sushi-I figured it was a good choice since I am not pregnant anymore and its been a while since I have been able to enjoy some! Then we went and got a snow cone-no cake and ice cream because I was off of dairy there for a while.
Tuesday I was able to go out to lunch with my sister Courtney and nephew Max for my birthday and then we went out to dinner with the Fam for Matt!

On the Fourth we went out to Plain City-well I did with Jesse's family because Jesse once again had to work-but only 10a-5p. They had a little parade out there and spent time with the Jensen Family and meeting Grandpa Blaine Jensen for the first time-who Corbin's middle name is after.
I spent the rest of the day with my family and had a BBQ with them when Jesse got home and played some badminton. We watched the Kaysville fireworks from our front porch with our friends Kirk and Ashley Waldron!
( gotta love Corbin's festive outfit! ha )
 
 
 
Thursdays Jesse has off so we spent the day together then went to Market Street Grill for dinner with all the Jensen Family to celebrate Grandpa's birthday! And we got our 4 generation picture!
Friday I got together with some friends and they took me to lunch for my birthday! Kylee, Ramsey, and Kalli and Kason!
It was a great week...this next week we will be spending a few days relaxing all together up in Bear Lake! :)