Andrew's One-Month Update!

Dear Andrew,

You are officially one whole month old!  I can’t believe it!  My how time flies.  It feels like you have been with us for forever already.  You fit in just perfectly.  Things are mostly the same from your two-week update except you’ve just gotten bigger.

We had our first big outing as a family of four… we went to a pumpkin patch.  You did wonderfully.  We got some pictures of you with big brother and mom & dad.  You slept most of the time and when you were awake you enjoyed just looking around at all the action.  Mom has also been getting out of the house with you… we’ve been to Target, the mall, Hobby Lobby, Kroger, Babies R Us and to pick big brother up from school.

Parker loves seeing you in the morning and still always wants to give you a hug and a kiss all the time.  The rest of us could be chopped liver, but not you.  He also likes to help you do tummy time… he gets excited when he can “play” with you.  Parker will still give you his elephant, but maybe not as much as before… he takes it back a lot quicker now.  But, it’s still pretty special that he gives it you.  You guys are going to have so much together soon!

You are doing a wonderful job at sleeping at night time, but you maybe require a little more work to get to sleep.  You have a certain point that if you exceed that time... it’s hard to get you to sleep and then you won’t sleep very long, either.  You love to be bounced and you also LOVE, LOVE the blanket Grandma Kathleen got you…. It’s all warm and fuzzy.  Nevermind that it’s still 85 degrees here, you are basically sleeping with a winter blanket.  You love to be warm.  You aren’t soothing yourself to sleep as much… it requires some work from mom & dad.  You still sleep in the rock n’ play and I’ve moved the rock n’ play to your room during the day so you can start to get used to the new environment.  We’ll be working on transitioning to the crib very soon!

You also like to be outside.  You and I will sit outside and just hangout.  I think you like to hear the wind/leaves and listen to our water feature.  We go on walks with big brother and you like to just watch him run around.

We take a bath every night and you still love the warm water.  You SOMETIMES take a pacifier--- I’m not sure if you really like it or not.  I’ve seen you suck on your thumb, too. 

We’re so glad you’re hear and look forward to watching you grow into your personality!  At one month you:

•          Have put on some weight!  You are somewhere around 8lbs and still wear newborn clothes.
•          Drink about 3 oz at every feeding.  The first feeding in the morning you will drink 4 oz and then at night you will drink a little more, too.
•         Sleep from about 10-7 consistently now.  Of course, now that I’ve typed that it probably won’t be consistent any longer. Hehe.
•          Poop 1-2x a day and wear size 1 diapers
•          Love to be bounced and rocked.
•          Love watching big brother run around and jump on the trampoline.
•         Do very well in the car… it puts you to sleep very quickly.  But, you like to be moving in it.  You aren’t really a fan of the car seat if it’s not going anywhere.
•          Nap about 1-2 hours at a time.
•         Don’t mind tummy time as long as your stomach is full.
•          Doing a great job of holding your head up and you will turn your head from side to side while on your tummy.
•          Like to lay on mommy.

We just got your newborn photos in!  Woo hoo!  See how much you’ve grown, too?!  Mom and Dad love you baby boy, always and forever.

Andrew's One-Month Update!

Dear Andrew,

You are officially one whole month old!  I can’t believe it!  My how time flies.  It feels like you have been with us for forever already.  You fit in just perfectly.  Things are mostly the same from your two-week update except you’ve just gotten bigger.

We had our first big outing as a family of four… we went to a pumpkin patch.  You did wonderfully.  We got some pictures of you with big brother and mom & dad.  You slept most of the time and when you were awake you enjoyed just looking around at all the action.  Mom has also been getting out of the house with you… we’ve been to Target, the mall, Hobby Lobby, Kroger, Babies R Us and to pick big brother up from school.

Parker loves seeing you in the morning and still always wants to give you a hug and a kiss all the time.  The rest of us could be chopped liver, but not you.  He also likes to help you do tummy time… he gets excited when he can “play” with you.  Parker will still give you his elephant, but maybe not as much as before… he takes it back a lot quicker now.  But, it’s still pretty special that he gives it you.  You guys are going to have so much together soon!

You are doing a wonderful job at sleeping at night time, but you maybe require a little more work to get to sleep.  You have a certain point that if you exceed that time... it’s hard to get you to sleep and then you won’t sleep very long, either.  You love to be bounced and you also LOVE, LOVE the blanket Grandma Kathleen got you…. It’s all warm and fuzzy.  Nevermind that it’s still 85 degrees here, you are basically sleeping with a winter blanket.  You love to be warm.  You aren’t soothing yourself to sleep as much… it requires some work from mom & dad.  You still sleep in the rock n’ play and I’ve moved the rock n’ play to your room during the day so you can start to get used to the new environment.  We’ll be working on transitioning to the crib very soon!

You also like to be outside.  You and I will sit outside and just hangout.  I think you like to hear the wind/leaves and listen to our water feature.  We go on walks with big brother and you like to just watch him run around.

We take a bath every night and you still love the warm water.  You SOMETIMES take a pacifier--- I’m not sure if you really like it or not.  I’ve seen you suck on your thumb, too. 

We’re so glad you’re hear and look forward to watching you grow into your personality!  At one month you:

•          Have put on some weight!  You are somewhere around 8lbs and still wear newborn clothes.
•          Drink about 3 oz at every feeding.  The first feeding in the morning you will drink 4 oz and then at night you will drink a little more, too.
•         Sleep from about 10-7 consistently now.  Of course, now that I’ve typed that it probably won’t be consistent any longer. Hehe.
•          Poop 1-2x a day and wear size 1 diapers
•          Love to be bounced and rocked.
•          Love watching big brother run around and jump on the trampoline.
•         Do very well in the car… it puts you to sleep very quickly.  But, you like to be moving in it.  You aren’t really a fan of the car seat if it’s not going anywhere.
•          Nap about 1-2 hours at a time.
•         Don’t mind tummy time as long as your stomach is full.
•          Doing a great job of holding your head up and you will turn your head from side to side while on your tummy.
•          Like to lay on mommy.

We just got your newborn photos in!  Woo hoo!  See how much you’ve grown, too?!  Mom and Dad love you baby boy, always and forever.

Andrew's Two Week Update

Dear Andrew,

You are two weeks old!  While you have only been in our lives for two short weeks, you already fit in perfectly with all of us.  You are very calm and low maintenance—completely opposite of your big brother.  You love to cuddle, but if left alone, you will fall asleep by yourself most of the time.  You have great awake time during the day and are such a good sleeper at night!

DD Nana & T-Pa were here for 10 days helping us out and they were such a big help!  They got Parker to/from school, prepped dinners and stayed up late at night with you (until midnight) so that we could get a little more sleep the first few days.  Though, you immediately slept for 5 hours at night when we got home so that was kind of AMAZING.  Your Aunt Kirstie came to visit and help us, too.  And of course, your Aunt Kate was also present!  The whole Hesseltine family was here to welcome you into the world!  It doesn’t happen often that all of us get together at the same time in one place, so, Andrew, you should feel pretty special that everyone was present!

Mom feels a lot more confidant with you and has less feelings of anxiety then when she had Parker.  I don't feel as though I need to cry all the time and genuinely look forward to every moment with you.  Mom spent the first few weeks of Parker's life having the "baby blues," but I'm not running into those types of feelings nearly as much with you.  I don't know if your calmness is a reflection of me just knowing what to do or if you were just going to be calm either way.

When big brother wakes up in the morning, one of the first things he does is ask about you.  We get downstairs and big brother won’t leave the house for school until he’s seen you.  He likes to be the person to wake you up in the morning—“Wake up An-dew!” he yells (we are still working on a whisper voice).  He gives you lots of hugs and kisses and likes to hold you, too.  He loves you so much and I can’t wait to see y’alls relationship grow as you both get older.  He will also give you his “horsies” (small horse figurines that are really zebras), but I usually don’t see him do that until I manage to sit or step on one. Hehe.

We survived our first weekend home alone without any help and it went very well.  You don’t mind the loud noise big brother makes.. in fact, you slept right through the two lawnmowers playing chase in the living room by some miracle.  Thank goodness you love to sleep!  We like to take family walks together and Parker still likes to make sure you have his prized “little elephant” when he is home.  Though, he will snatch it from you if he gets upset or goes to lay down.  But it’s okay… you have your own toys, too.  Parker also likes to “race An-dew” when we go on a walk which means he runs next to the stroller while mom or dad push you. 

You don’t seem to mind tummy time too much and will lift your head up off the ground and turn it to a different side all on your own.  You also seem to take after mama more than your daddy when it comes to your good looks.  ;-)  You still have lots of hair, though it seems to be thinning on top a bit.  Your umbilical cord fell off after the first week and we’ve been giving you full baths ever since.  You love the warm water and the warm towel afterwards (thank you Lori [and Grandma Joan] for that little trick!).  You head off to bed at about 10 PM at night. 

I can’t wait to see how the rest of this first month goes… you are doing so well!  Your two week check-up went wonderfully and you are such a trooper.  We love you baby boy, always and forever.

At two weeks you:

• Eat about 2 OZ every 2.5 to 3 hours during the day—we move to feeding you every 2 hours (cluster feeding) in the evening hours.
• Must burp after every feeding or you will do a large spit up.  Otherwise, your spitting up seems to be getting slightly better, but you still spit up a little bit after every feeding
• Can sleep 8 hours at night from 10-6.  Sometimes you will wake up for a middle of the night feeding around 3-5 AM, but then you sleep until 8:30 if you do that.  I have no idea how I’m getting so lucky… all I have to say is Babywise and Happiest Baby on the Block are the best books ever.  Eat, Wake, Sleep hasn’t failed me yet!
• Sleep in the rock and play in the extra bedroom next to mom & dad’s room
• Wear newborn clothes—most of the 0-3 month clothing is still too big for you. 
• Have wake time for about an hour or so after every feeding… sometimes less, sometimes more
• Weigh 7lbs and 14 oz (you’ve gained all of your birth weight back!) (50^th percentile)
• Are 21 inches long (25^th percentile)
• Like just staring up at the ceiling and hanging out on the floor or sitting with mommy while we watch big brother play.
• Enjoy being warm and cuddled
• Beginning to hold your head up for a few seconds on your own
• Poop 2-3x a day and wear newborn size diapers; though when I run out of those (about 30 left I think), I’ll be moving you into size 1
• Seem pretty sensitive to bright lights and you won’t really open your eyes too much unless we dim the lights a little bit for you
• Make goofy grins when you get a little gassy in your sleep.  I can't wait to see you smile when something actually makes you happy.

Hanging outside on the back deck.

The smile on big brother's face says it all.  He loves you!

More hugs for An-dew!

First sponge bath.

First real bath where we put you in water.

Reading books at night before bed.

I love my two boys!

Andrew's Birth Story

Dear Andrew,

Today I plan to document the story of your arrival to this world.  It was not very dramatic, stressful or crazy… it ended up being just perfect and everything went just the way it was supposed to go.  I have a feeling this is going to be a part of your personality because you are just perfect without all of the drama.  You seem to be pretty easy-going and laid-back.  In fact, I don’t even think I’ve seen you hard-core cry for me, yet.  You just kind of whimper and chomp on your hands when you are ready to wake up and eat.  But, I regress… about that day.

On Tuesday, September 27, 2016, Robert and I woke up and got Parker ready for school.  DD Nana and T-Pa were here, too.  They helped us get Parker ready for school and took him to school while mom and dad got all of our things together for our stay at the hospital.  Per usual, whenever there is a big trip, Rob always has to do something last minute and in this case it was he had to go to the bathroom.  So, I finished packing the suitcase, packed the cooler with his snacks (dad gets grumpy when he doesn’t have yogurt or his juice), backed the car out of the driveway and reversed it in so the back-end of the car was more adaptable to putting luggage in, loaded the back of the car, and just waited for your dad to finally be ready.

And, we were off by 8:15 AM so that we made it to the hospital by 9.  We showed up at registration, gave them our names and headed on back to labor and delivery where they took me to the C-Section prep room.  It wasn’t very glamorous—just a large room sectioned off with three similar holding rooms with two chairs and a baby monitor.  I changed my clothes and got hooked up to the monitor where we made sure you were doing OK in mom’s tummy.  And you were!  I got hooked up to my IV and waited on the doctor to be ready.

The doctor showed up at 10 and made sure all was well and said we could go early if an operating room was ready.  Your daddy then went down to get him a Dr. Pepper because you were going to be born during lunch and he gets pretty feisty without all three meals a day.  Well, while he was gone the doctors came back and said they were ready.  I know, of course they did!  Perfect timing, this is exactly what happened when your big brother was born… your daddy was getting a Dr. Pepper when it was time to start pushing.  So, alas, I had to tell them to wait and your daddy walked in soon after.  Thank goodness.

I walked back to the OR and dad went to a different c-section room where he put on his scrubs.  They prepped me in the OR and I got my epidural.  I had a little trouble getting the epidural to spread high enough over my belly so they had to lay my table all sorts of different ways, at one point I thought I might slide off head first!  But, it eventually ended up working right.  Then, dad came in and they pulled you out.  You gave a healthy scream and were a perfect color. They cleaned you up, got your measurements and then handed you to daddy.  It was all very smooth and you were doing great.  I got to hold you for a little bit while they worked on sewing me up and dad took you to see DD Nana and T-Pa while they finished working on me, too.  I met you and your dad in the recovery room where I got to hold you some more and make sure my pain levels were under control.  They were, which was a relief.  I knew exactly what to ask for and made sure they gave me plenty of the “good stuff.”  I didn’t want what happened with your big brother to happen with you… and it didn’t!  I only had to spend about 45 minutes in recovery before they moved us all to our regular room.

So, DD Nana and T-Pa went to pick up Parker from school and get some items from home that I had forgotten (such as the boppy) and met us at the hospital around 3:30 or so that afternoon.  As soon as your big brother, Parker, saw you he immediately climbed up on the bed and said, “need that” and kept pointing at you and repeating that same phrase.  He was fascinated with you!  Once he got to hold you, he loved touching your nose and giving you hugs and kisses.  He loves you so much!  From then on, when he saw me holding you Parker would look at me with his palms out and say “hold him.”  It was a picture perfect moment.  Big brother, mom and dad both love you so much!

You did very well at the hospital and things went well with mom, too.  We got to go home Friday around lunch time and we’ve been figuring out this whole “family of four” thing ever since.  I think it’s going pretty well.  T-Pa and DD Nana went home a week after you were born and they were a huge help.  We will miss having them here.  We are about to embark on our first weekend without any help!  Dad’s parents are coming the following weekend I think and Aunt Kate is headed to Dallas.  So, it’s just going to be us.  It will be fun!

All in all, everything went wonderfully.  You are a beautiful baby boy.  You weighed 7lbs 10 oz when born and 7 lbs 2 oz when we left the hospital.  You were 19.5 inches long, too.  Overall, you are very comparable in size to your big brother when he was a newborn.  But, I will say… you have a lot of T-Pa’s features on your daddy-sized head.  J You also have your momma’s toes (which are also T-Pa’s).

I will post your two-week update next week.  We all love you baby boy, always and forever.  You feel like you’ve been a part of our family forever and it’s only been a week!  You are the perfect addition for us. 

I love you, baby boy.

Perfection.

"Hold him!"

Big Brother loves you so much!

Getting ready to meet Andrew!

Here you are!!

Mommy and me time.

Here we are!  They just don't make scrubs to fit daddy-sized heads or bodies. hehe.

Daddy loves you!