Christmas With The Autry's!!!

Christmas with the Autry's

Christmas at my parents house has developed into a crazy and exciting experience over the last 6 years!!!  We went from a family of 5 to a family of 15!!!  I truly enjoy Christmas at my parents even with all the craziness.  I have enjoyed watching our 5 neices and nephews over the past 6 years just waiting for our child to join in on the fun.  Well this was finally our year.  We enjoyed lots of great snacks and family time.  Here are some pictures from our first Christmas as a family of 14.  (Baby Jayden wasn't here yet)

Brandon helping Davee

Peyton with his nightlight that Mimi made

Reagan and her new robe

Davee and her vacuum

Payton is such a sweet patient little boy

Paige and Granny

Bryson loves dinosaurs

Reagan and her nightlight

Daddy watching his family

Preslee and her robe

Brandon and his Elvis keys.  I have had these for 5 years and finally remembered to give them to him

Willie's Christmas present.  We bought him a subscription to a hunting magazine and it hasn't come in yet

Brandon and his gun cleaning kit

Ashley Marie

Daddy aka POP

Mimi and Malachi

Willie and Bryson

Mom and her new sock monkey pj's



And that's a wrap!!!!

The Woes of Breastfeeding!!!

Breastfeeding

Breastfeeding has been a difficult task in our house from day 1.  Malachi latched on the first night perfectly, but the next couple not so much!!!  Well by the time we were home he was getting better at latching on.  With in a week he was latching on perfectly every time, but another problem developed.  Malachi was absolutely starving.  I was not making enough milk to sustain him.  This was such a disappointment. 

After talking to several lactation consultants and doing everything absolutely possible nothing was helping.  I took Fenugreek, drank Mother's Milk, pumped every two hours, ate healthy, and drank a lot of water.  I was eventually making about 5oz a day, which was only one bottle for him a day.

Well after 8 weeks, I have exhausted all my options and instead of increasing my supply it has started decreasing the last two weeks.  The last two days I have pumped less than an ounce.  Our breastfeeding days have come to an end.

This makes me incredibly sad and disappointed but there's not much more I can do.  I have to tell myself that at least he got 8 weeks of breast milk.

I am going to start making his formula.  I am hoping this will make me feel a little better about the whole breastfeeding thing.

To those moms out there that can breastfeed, please enjoy every moment!!!!!

Christmas At Our House

Christmas With the Bowden's 

We truly enjoyed our first Christmas as a family of three this year!!!  

Our First Family Christmas Picture

My wonderful parents came into town on Saturday, December 17th, to watch our sweet precious boy, so we could go shopping.  We hadn't been alone with each other since Malachi was born.  I absolutely missed my little man, but enjoyed the night out with my wonderful husband.  We started the night off right, by enjoying our absolute favorite Mexican Food of all times, ANAMIA'S!!!!  After a delicious meal we headed off to do our shopping.  We had to buy for him and a few others, but only got his shopping completed.  I finished the rest up later on.

I had so much fun wrapping presents this year.  I think it was because I was wrapping presents for our first child???  But who can be for sure???  Here is the first present I wrapped, and of course it was for Malachi. 

The finished product.

And another one.

This is probably the smalled present I have ever wrapped.  We got our brother-in-law a Bow Hunter's Magazine subscription.  I was told it would be delivered by Christmas, but of course it wasn't.  So I wrapped a small note explaining what his present was.  It was about 1 square inch.

Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas Eve as we always do...with my in-laws.  We have had this tradition since before we were married.  We go over to their house around 3:00 and stuff ourselves with great food and drinks.  This year was especially fun because of course we had our new addition.  My father-in-law experimented with a new menu this year.  We had an outstanding pork tenderloin.  Justin and I decided that it was to become a new tradition. 

We had a great time and enjoyed being with family.  Malachi got some awesome presents from his Papa and Gramie (aka Nana and Numpy)!!!  Those names are a story for another day.  He was given his highchair, which matches his pack and play, a very cool jumper that turns into a very cool activity table, some old school wood puzzles, and several other fun things. 

Justin got a new hunting coat, thermos, and bullets for his new 357.  I got a working train.  I have always wanted a train to put around the Christmas tree!!  This one puffs smoke, has a bell, and a whistle.  I also got the 7th season of Everybody Loves Raymond.  I love this show and had all the other seasons.

I tried to take pictures but soon found out my camera battery was dead.  Luckily we had my mother-in-laws camera, but I haven't been able to get pictures from her yet. 

To end the night we made our cinnamon rolls, packed up, and headed home.

When we got home, Malachi and I made our first batch of Christmas cookies for Santa Claus.  This was a very special time for me, because I have always wanted to make Christmas cookies with my own kids.  Here is Malachi and his Daddy helping with the cookie cutters.

Here's Malachi with the finished cookies.

I have dreamed for years about all the Christmas traditions I would want to start when we had kids.  Along with the cookies on Christmas Eve, I have wanted to start a PJ tradition.  I want all our kids to get a pair of Christmas PJs to open on Christmas Eve.  This was Malachi's first pair.  They were soooo cute!!!

Here is a picture of our 'Den Tree' before Santa arrived.

Christmas Morning

Santa came!!!

Christmas morning was a little different this year then years past.  We woke up to find Santa had been there.  He had eaten the cookies we made and even left us a note.

Here's a close up of the note.

 Here are some other pictures from our Family Christmas Morning

Justin's Christmas Present

Malachi's First Car

Malachi checking out his presents

The Aftermath

After baking

After icing

The complete breakfast, a Christmas tradition in our house

Christmas Part II with the Autry's to come at a later date!!!!

 

Malachi's First Month

Malachi's First Month

Wow!!!  I can't believe Malachi is already a month old.  Time has flown by.  What is so weird though, is the first three weeks, didn't seem to fly by.  But then all of a sudden he was a month old and we were taking month old pictures.  Time has flown ever since then.

I have truly enjoyed the first month.  He has done a great job getting on a schedule and sticking to it.  It took us a couple of weeks, but by week 3 we were well on our way to a daily schedule.

Our schedule looks something like this.

7:00- wake up time

7:15-clean diaper and breakfast

8:30- diaper change and back to sleep

11:00- diaper change and lunch

12:30- diaper change and mid afternoon nap

3:00- diaper change and mid afternoon meal

4:30-5:15- diaper change and nap

5:15-5:45-diaper change and play time

5:45-6:30- nap before Daddy gets home

6:30-7:00-play time with Daddy

7:00- Daddy gives you a bath

7:30-swing, bouncy seat, or play mat time, while Mommy and Daddy eat

8:00- Rocking time and sleep

11:00- diaper change, another feeding, and back to bed

3:00-4:00am- diaper change and last feeding of the day

7:00am- another day begins

I think Malachi is about to drop his 3:00-4:00am feeding.  Instead of taking a full 5 ounces, he only will take a couple and then goes straight back to bed.  We are going to try to give him an extra ounce at his 11 o'clock feeding.  I am hoping this will get him through all night.

I have always said I wasn't going to rock my kids to sleep, but...Malachi loves to be rocked!!!  I guess all the constant moving and rocking I did while pregnant has had an effect.  Oh well, I love to rock him.

Malachi had his first official bath at two weeks old.  He looks really big in this photo but I think it's the angle of the camera.

 

Here are some other photos from this month.

Malachi and Daddy's first story.  Malachi has heard this story about once a week since he was conceived.

He loves this giraffe.  Thanks Mimi and Pop!!!

 Malachi had not been sleeping very well on his back.  I know you are not supposed to let babies sleep on their tummies, but we tried it out during nap time for a couple of days before letting him sleep on his tummy at night.  During this experiment I stayed in the den with him, which is where his pack n' play is.  I never left the room.  I discovered he slept the entire 3 hours of his nap, instead of constantly waking up.  He also struggled with breathing and spitting up on his back.  This also disappeared with the tummy sleeping.

I mean look how cute he is on him tummy.  After a couple of days we decided it was OK for him to sleep at night on his tummy.  I was truly OK with this because we have an Angel Care Movement Monitor on top of a video baby monitor.  I of course watched him like a hawk for most of the night, but woke up at 6:00am and realized he hadn't woke up to be fed at 3:00!!  At first I was petrified.  I ran into his room and found a perfect little bundle sleeping so soundly.  Well sleeping through the night was short lived, and the very next night he woke up around 3:30 to eat!!  Oh well, waking up once a night is perfectly OK with me.  He eats at 11 before I go to bed, then between 3-4, and usually wakes up around 7!!  It works great for us. 

Malachi's Birth

Malachi's Birth

Well our story started on November 10th at our doctor's appointment.  I had a feeling I was getting ready for Malachi's debut because I had been having Braxton Hicks Contractions the entire week.  Well I didn't get myself too worked up, because I was affraid he was going to tell me Malachi wasn't coming any time soon.  But to my surprise I was already making some minor progress.

Justin was planning on going to the deerlease that weekend, so we were wondering if he could still go.  The doctor said "no way" and that he was going to be very surprised if I wasn't in the hospital that weekend. 

My contractions continued the rest of the week and into the weekend.  So to help get our little bundle of joy here we walked every where we went in Keller.  We walked to Sonic a couple of times and all around our area.  We probably walked 5+ miles in two days. 

On Sunday night, the contractions were still going on, but they started coming more regularly, so Justin started watching the clock.  My doctor said to go to the hospital if they were coming every 5 minutes for 2 hours.

We called the doctor after about 2 1/2 hours and to our surprise we were on our way to the hospital within 10 minutes.  I was affraid to go because I wasn't in very much pain and I didn't want to be sent home.  We ended up getting checked in and all hooked up.  I was most certainly having contractions every 5-10 minutes but hadn't made any more progress since the doctors' office on Thursday.  SOOOO home we went.  Luckily they gave me some Ambien and told me to stay home from work on Monday.  I slept from 2:00am until 4:00pm Monday afternoon.  I woke up for breakfast and lunch and went right back to sleep.

Needless to say we were very disappointed!!!

I went to work on Tuesday and Wednesday contractions and all.  I taught from my chair most of the day because they were getting more intense.  My doctor appointments were usually on Thursdays but I had scheduled this one for Wednesday in case I could sweet talk him into inducing me on Friday, if Malachi still hadn't come.

My doctor thought that I had already left work for my maternity leave but I was still working.  He told me I couldn't go back to work, that I needed to stay home and rest.  We had previously scheduled an induction for Monday the 21st just in case.  He was very surprised that I hadn't made any progress still and sent me home to rest. 

I was very thankful to stay home the next two days and rest.  On Friday, Justin came home from work and we worked on putting up Christmas decorations while watching Elf.  About 10:30 I started feeling funny and wanted to go to bed.  So we turned off the movie and headed to our room.  Justin continued watching TV and I quickly fell asleep. 

Around 1:45 I woke up feeling something a little wet.  I went to the bathroom and thought, is my watering breaking???  I went and woke Justin up and told him I thought I was going into labor but I wasn't sure.  I told him I was going to go the living room and he stayed in bed.  He wanted me to come get him in 30 minutes.  I was anxious and unsure if my water had broke.  So I started cleaning!!!

I was sweeping the floor, finishing the dishes, and apparently making too much noise, because Justin came in to check on me.  I continued to feel small gushes of fluid but honestly didn't know if it was my water or if I was peeing on myself.  Yes I know ewww gross, but it's true!!

Anyway, we decided to finish Elf and see how things went.  After the movie I continued to have small gushes of fluid so I told Justin we should probably go to the hospital.  He took a shower, while I got dressed and double checked my bags.

We left for the house about 4:00 and arrived at the hospital about 4:30.  When I arrived I was about 2 cm and was informed that my water had definitely broke and I was there for the long haul.  I asked why it gushed several times and they told me it was probably because he had moved down and was blocking the water from coming out, and as he moved around more would come out.

They started me on pitocin to help move things along and my contractions started coming more quickly and stronger.  I had about 5 hours of very strong contractions before the "assistant anaesthesiologists" could come in to do my epidural.  Finally around 2:00 they came in to do my epidural, but because of my back they had a very hard time getting it in.  The first guy tried at least 5 times for about 45 minutes.  By the time he gave up Justin and I both were crying. 

They called the "real" anaesthesiologists in and he got it in the first try.  They had to go extremely low and put it in at a weird angle.  But thank goodness it worked like a charm.  I was finally able to relax, not sleep, but relax. 

We had lots of visitors in and out and I didn't care at all.  I made sure Justin had lunch and was taken care of.  I was trying to stay calm and relaxed for him.  Around 7:00pm, I was ready to start pushing!!!!  I pushed a couple of times and he was moving down, but we discovered Malachi's head was turned to the side.  So they chose to have me stop and to watch him.  They were hoping he would move his head on his own, which he did pretty soon there after.  However, after that my blood pressure fell drastically to 60/40 and I spiked a fever of 102 degrees.  So I had to stop again.  They finally got my blood pressure back up by giving me more fluids, but my fever didn't go away.  Around 8:10, I was able to start pushing again.

Finally at 8:51, Malachi came!!!  Nothing can describe the rush of feelings and emotions I had when he was placed on my stomach.  Because he was so big, 9lbs 5.5oz, they were concerned about his blood sugar so he was whisked away to have some tests ran.  Luckily they were able to do them in the room with us, so Justin went back and forth between me and Malachi.  Justin went to tell our parents he was here and how much he weighed and no one believed him.  He had to show them a picture of Malachi on the scale. 

We were blessed again to find out he was perfectly healthy and happy!!!  They let us stay alone for about an hour before any visitors were allowed in.  Everyone came in and couldn't believe his size or hair.  Justin and I both were born in dark long hair and so was Malachi!!! 

We truly feel blessed to have this precious miracle in our life.  We had wanted a baby for a long time and tried for a while too.  We were so thankful to have a healthy happy baby boy!!!

Maternity Pictures

When I was about 37 weeks we had maternity pictures taken at the Botanical Gardens.  Here are a few of my favorites!!!

We had a lot of fun taking these pictures.  I am glad we captured this special time in our lives. 

These pictures were taken by a great family friend.