Christmas Wrap-up

Hope everyone had a great Christmas! Our first Christmas with Carter was pretty laid back. We helped him open his presents Christmas morning. Thanks everyone for all your generous gifts. Some things that Carter got this year included lots of clothes, some new toys, several fun books, baby DVDs/CDs, very cute shoes, and a homemade hat. After opening presents, Mike and I enjoyed some seriously delicious french toast for breakfast. See Flickr for some pics.

Today Carter had his 4-month doctor visit. We had a second round of vaccinations resulting in a high-pitch scream I thought would shatter glass. But after a minute or so in Mike's arms, he calmed down to a quiet hiccuping sniffle. Then once we got home, it was as if nothing had happened. What a trooper! For those keeping track of his growth, he is 26.75 inches long (96%), 15 lb 3 oz (58%), and his head circumference is 44 cm (90%). So basically he's long and lean with a big head for his age. He's growing so fast! At 4 months old, he's just barely fitting into his 3-6 month clothes. Soon we'll have to switch over to 6-12 month clothes. We have another doctor visit at 6 months and around that time we'll be giving solid food a try. Oh, Carter got a new highchair too (thanks Grandma Lily!).

Have a great New Year everyone!

Christmas card crank!

Grr! I'm so sorry everyone, but our Christmas card will be late this year. I know some of you have been waiting for it and I apologize. I ordered some cute photo cards of Carter and they STILL haven't arrived here for me to mail them to you. I'm ready to give their customer service department an earful. So just think of our cards as New Years cards. Better late than never!

We have roll-over!

Big milestone for Carter yesterday...he rolled over onto his belly all by himself! It was amazing to watch. He had been trying so hard the last couple of days and yesterday he finally got it. He then proceeded to do it every time I put him on the floor without any problem. I tried to get good video of the task, but as soon as he sees the camera, he becomes fascinated by it and stops whatever he's doing. Check out Flickr for part of a rolling-over, and also a really cute video of him laughing.

Countdown to Christmas

I love this time of year! Christmas is my favorite holiday...all the decorations, hot cocoa, snow, trees, everything. I can't wait until next year when Carter is old enough to participate.

Last weekend, my Mom and Ed came to visit Carter. While they babysat, Mike and I went out and found the perfect Frasier Fir for our Christmas tree. I love how it looks all lit up in our front window.

Mom and I got ourselves new webcams for our computers. We tested them out yesterday and they are so cool! We had a live conversation over the computer complete with video. I had Carter on my lap so he could see her and she him. (Brenda we should look into this for you)

Mom and I did some baking over the weekend too. I made my new favorite: Chocolate chunk banana oatmeal cookies (sorry Ed, did you know there was banana in them?). I got the recipe from Martha here. I'm not a fan of nuts so I just omitted them and added more chocolate.

I fell behind with my bird feeders last month and I got back on track this past weekend. The birds must have missed me because they were crazy for the food. So many birds! In the past few days I've seen nuthatches, finches, bluejays, cardinals, juncos, titmice, woodpeckers, flickers, and probably others I'm not remembering. I love watching them.

Carter is growing so fast. It seems like every day he does something new. He's getting so close to being able to roll over. It's fun to watch him work at it, though he gets frustrated when he needs our help. Check Flickr for videos.

Hope everyone enjoys their Christmas holiday! Sorry we can't be with family this time around. We'll take lots of photos and videos though! Love you all!

Thanksgiving Wrap-up

Today we woke up to our first snow of the season! Christmas is in the air!

It's good to be back home. Thanksgiving in Arkansas was great! Carter got to meet so many new friends and family and he handled to trip better than expected. We got back last night, gave him a bath and a bottle, and he slept for 7 straight hours. Poor guy.

Highlights from the weekend:
1) Deep-fried turkey
2) Naps on the couch
3) Arkansas' amazing win over LSU in the final minute
4) Papaw making Carter laugh
5) Looking through Mamaw Bertie's old photos
6) Sleeping on a memory foam mattress pad (we must get one of those!)

We just discovered that the Minnesota Twins are coming to St. Louis this summer to play the Cardinals. I think that might be a first. I hope we can get tickets...I missed seeing the Twins play last year. Carter will have to wear a Twins outfit and a Cardinals hat.

Turkey Day Travel Plans

It's really mind-boggling the amount of stuff a baby requires when you travel with him. The packing list for him is longer than my own! Tomorrow we leave for Arkansas for Thanksgiving. I can't tell you how excited we are for a delicious home-cooked meal! It will be Carter's first trip into another state! We've packed the appropriate Razorback gear so he'll be sure to fit right in. The drive will be long but we're hoping that since we're driving at night, Carter will sleep for most of it.

New pictures and videos on Flickr!

Family Weekend

Ways in which you know you've become a parent:

1. You discover spit-up on your shirt and you aren't exactly sure when that happened.


2. You catch yourself licking your thumb and using it to wipe something off your kid's face after you swore you would never do that whenever your own mother did it.


3. Wearing any pair of pants that require buttoning and zippering feels like "dressing up".


4. You look forward to a shower like it was a visit to an expensive spa.


5. You prioritize tasks you can accomplish during naptimes.

Becca's sister, nephew, grandmother, and mother all can to visit last weekend. It was a miracle that this trip took place with travel costs, work schedules, and grandma's fear of flying. But it was totally worth it for everyone to meet Carter. Dalton (Becca's nephew) was really excited to tickle Carter and hold him in his lap. So cute! We painted some Christmas ornaments complete with Carter's footprint to commemorate his first holiday. Overall, a really great weekend!

Carter is unfortunately what we call "in between hairstyles" right now. He's starting to lose the hair he was born with and new hair is growing in, but the two events aren't happening in the same spots on his head. He looks like he's experiencing a grown man's balding, like George Kastanza from Seinfeld. Poor guy.

Mike's been doing some duck hunting on the weekends, but without much success. :-( He's a little more limited in the amount of time he can put into it and so he's been trying to hunt closer to home. Maybe next year he'll stock up our new freezer with lots of duck.

Naked Trees and Halloween

One windy day was enough to completely strip all the trees of their beautiful leaves. Now our yard looks like a carpet of reds, yellows, oranges, and browns. I want to rake them into a huge pile and jump in them.

Halloween was pretty uneventful here. I didn't dress up like I usually do and Carter is really too small to have a costume. We did dress him up in a pumpkin shirt for the evening though. Maybe next year we'll go all out with family costumes. Carter could be Yoda, I could be Princess Leia, and Mike even agreed he would be Darth Vader.

Carter is really starting to smile a lot now. New pics on Flickr and a video of his silly grins if you are interested.

Mike and I made time to vote on Tuesday. Hope you all got a chance to vote too! I wonder if they will ever sort out the final vote count for Missouri.

Big weekend coming up! Carter's Grandma, Great-Grandma Lily, Auntie Karen, and his cousin Dalton are coming to visit. We're really excited for them to see Carter. I'm sure we'll have tons of new pictures to post after the weekend is over.

2-Month Doctor Visit

Carter's 2-month doctor visit was this morning and it was a big one. Poor guy had 4 immunization shots today and he took it like a champ (i.e. screaming and crying on end). Now we're back at home and he's sleeping it off peacefully. I'm sure by this afternoon he'll be exacting his revenge on Mommy. He continues to grow, weighing in at 11 pounds, 14 ounces (56%) and stretching out to 24.25 inches (91%). His head circumference is in the 82%. His big head might explain the apparent receding hairline. He's growing so fast that his hair can't keep up. We may need to resort to a "comb-over" for the Christmas photos.

Duck hunting season is approaching so Mom is looking forward to many mornings alone with Carter while Dad is out bringing home the spoils. Mom started playing volleyball again last night and boy she is paying for it today. While I have new found strength in my arms (carrying a 10-lb baby around does that), my legs seemed to have forgotten how to move properly on the court. Still, it was good to have a two-way conversation with an adult for a change (no offense Carter).

Leaf color is peaking right now. The hillsides look like the trees are on fire, so much red, yellow, and orange. A fat, fluffy, goldfinch sits outside at the bird bath. Probably wondering if I'm ever going to get out there and refill the bird feeder.

Oh, new pics on Flickr! Check 'em out.

Horray for Fall!

Our favorite season is approaching. The weather has turned cool and the leaves are beginning to change. The trees lining the roads around our house are going to put on a spectacular display this year. There's also something in the air...a crisp woodsy scent that makes me want to go camping.

Last weekend was the annual Pumpkin Daze festival in Republic, MO. Every year, gardeners from the region grow the largest produce they can and enter it in the festival's contest. The two biggest draws are the pumpkin and watermelon contests. Mike's Dad is a regular competitor (and winner) of the watermelon contest. This year, his biggest melon placed 4th with the overall winner weighing in over 200 lbs. The largest pumpkin was bigger than a washing machine! Carter was dressed in his pumpkin outfit. He got to meet more family and experience a new level of spoiling.

Carter is finally big enough to fit into the bumGenius cloth diapers we invested in. They are still a little bulky on him, but it beats spending money on those disposable diapers. He kind of looks like a sumo wrestler when he wears them.

Mamaw and Papaw gave us a ton of pears at the festival. I used a bunch of them to make a pear & cranberry pie tonight. Yummy!

Schedule? Ha!

5 weeks old yesterday!

Just when I think we've established some semblance of a routine, it's thrown out the window. However, some things that continue to happen without fail and like clockwork:
1) Carter never wants to go back to sleep after Dad leaves for work in the morning, robbing Mom of a much-needed extra hour of sleep.
2) Carter usually sleeps in the late afternoon during my one hour guilty splurge of watching Gilmore Girls reruns. No matter how peacefully he appears to me sleeping, he wakes up just before Dad pulls into the driveway. It doesn't matter if Dad gets home at 4:30 or 6:00 pm, Carter always times it just right.

Pumpkin Daze this weekend! I've started a list of things we'll need to bring for the trip. We may need to buy more luggage to carry it all.

The pictures from our professional photo shoot look amazing! Some of my favorites are uploading to Flickr right now.

Happy Birthday Karen! Hope you have a fantastic day!

Baby Stats and First Date

My multi-tasking skills have always been quite good in my opinion. But now I have transcended to a whole new level. As I type, I am rocking the baby in his bouncy chair with my foot, uploading photos on my computer, all with the washing machine and the dishwasher running, and stopping occasionally to add items to my growing shopping list.

The baby is doing great! We had a doctor appointment last week and he's up to 9 lbs 4 oz and 23.75 inches long. His length puts him in the 97 percentile for his age so he's pretty long! He's already starting to hold his head up a little bit and he likes to listen to music too. We had some professional photos taken this week and I have to say...the little guy is a natural. He hardly fussed at all and seemed to love having his photo taken. As soon as we get these pics, we'll get them online. In the meantime, check out the very unprofessional pictures we've taken on Flickr sometime today.

My mom left this morning after spending the week here with us, helping out with the little guy. She was especially a big help yesterday. Mike and I got to clear out our vegetable garden. We harvested the remaining peppers (over 30!) and pulled everything up for composting. You should have seen the enormous horn worm we found. Ew! Then Mike tilled the ground for our winter preparation. It was great to be outside on such a nice day. I can't remember the last time I could do something without feeling physically limited in some way. It was liberating!

Then last night, Grandma watched the baby again since Mike and I had plans for our first post-baby date. We went to the sold-out show of the St. Louis Symphony performing the score to the Lord of the Rings movies. It was so amazing! I had goosebumps nearly nonstop...the vocals, the orchestra, all of it was really wonderful. Then we hurried home right after to see our boy to bed. Thanks for all your help Mom!

Today we are back on our own and the house is quite while the little man sleeps. We're counting down the days to the annual Pumpkin Daze festival in Republic, MO. The little guy will get to meet so many new family members and begin to learn the art of growing huge watermelons from his Papaw.

Dreamy Laughter

Today our baby is 3 weeks old! Parenthood is still surreal. Will we ever really feel like parents? Every time we look at his face, it seems impossible that he was actually inside me...or that we created him.

While he was sleeping in my arms today, I swear he giggled. I wonder what he was dreaming about. The smile lingered on his face for a few seconds. I can't wait to start seeing that smile all the time.

Few new pictures on Flickr and also a video!

Home Alone

Day 2 of Mom and Carter's home alone experiment. Today has gone better than yesterday. Some things I've learned over the last couple days:

1) No baby is a textbook baby. Every baby is unique.

2) Stick to my own system. What works for other people may not work for me.

3) Personal hygiene isn't really that important.

Mamaw and Papaw have returned to Arkansas. :-( I've posted some new pics on Flickr of their visit here. Thanks for your help you two!

Missing Dad Already

A somewhat sad day in the Bunn household. Mike had to go back to work today. Thankfully his parents are here for several days so they will make the transition to stay-at-home-mom a little easier.

Yesterday we took Carter to his first volleyball game. He was amazingly well-behaved the whole time, though he did get a little warm in the Moby Wrap. See pictures on Flickr.

Speaking of pictures on Flickr. If you wish to download some of the pictures from Flickr, you are out of luck. Flickr protects its users' photos from copyright violation and prevents rampant downloading. If you really want a copy of a particular picture (or several), just send me an email with the names or descriptions of the pictures. I will email you the original files or work something else out depending on your needs.

Cheers and Jeers

Cheers for M&M Premiums! The Triple Chocolate are divine.

Jeers for baby wipes. While extremely handy and effective when being used, I hate how they fail to come out of the dispenser without pulling 3 or 4 extra wipes along. Why can't I just pull out one wipe without them sticking to each other?

Cheers for Bert's Bees lip balm with pomegranate oil! Lip smacking!

Cheers for Standford vs. Illinois volleyball tomorrow afternoon in St. Louis! Go Illini!

Cheers for the Moby Wrap! See below. We still need to practice getting the right fit. Carter was extremely wiggly when I decided to try it out.

Jeers for pacifiers...none of which seem to satisfy my baby.

Jeers for still having to wear maternity clothes even though I'm no longer pregnant.

Cheers for finally being able to wear my wedding ring again, and also my favorite shoes. Be gone swelling!

First Doctor Visit

I know it's late. Time ceases to have any real meaning though when the 10-day-old infant gets hungry.

Yesterday was his first appointment with his pediatrician. I really like her a lot. She has been doing this for a long time and so she seemed to be able to read my mind. She answered half of the questions on the list I had brought with me before I even got a chance to verbalize them. She must be familiar with the new-parent mindset. She made us feel like we were doing a good job, which was a huge relief. The baby has nearly completely regained his birth weight so we are definitely on the right track. She gave him a clean bill of health and sent us on our way.

Welcome to the World

Please forgive us for being remiss in updating this blog with our biggest of big news! I'm certain most of you already know that we welcomed our son into the world this week. He's absolutely perfect in every way, but needless to say, we've had our hands full since we brought him home.

The Birth Story
For those of you interested, here's the account of the big day. If you prefer not to read about the details of childbirth, then skip to the next section if you don't mind. On Tuesday, August 26 (9 days before the due date), I got up at 12:30 am for my usual trip to the bathroom. While washing my hands after, I felt a trickle run down my leg. I wrote it off as still needing to pee more, but every time I sat down, the trickle stopped. But when I stood up, it started again. The light bulb in my fog-induced brain flickered and I wondered if my water just broke. Mike and I had prepared for this moment in case there was confusion. Amniotic fluid is basic and urine is acidic, so what did we do? We brought home some pH paper from the lab of course. A quick test confirmed without a doubt that the trickle was amniotic fluid. I called the hospital to tell them what happened and they advised me to come in. I marvelled that I had yet to feel any contractions and wondered if my labor would be fast (Ha!). I woke up Mike and we packed up the car and headed to the hospital.

The drive there was pretty uneventful, though I did begin to feel contractions. As soon as we settled into the delivery room, the contractions came on strong and regular. I was only 1 cm dilated, but with these strong contractions, I hoped we would make some good progress towards 10 cm. However, 7 hours later, contractions completely debilitating, I was still only 2 cm. Even though we hoped for a natural childbirth, at this point I knew I couldn't handle another 7 hours of those contractions only to gain a single cm. I asked for something to help take the edge off to help me rest in between contractions. We were exhausted having slept only a couple hours before this all began. The medication helped me sleep a little in between contractions, but after 2 more hours, I had not made any progress on my cervix. I began considering an epidural. The doctors were optimistic that it might help my body relax and make better progress, but they knew my wishes for a natural delivery. We decided on the epidural, just wanting to get things moving in a forward direction.

Getting the epidural was certainly not a fun experience, but I felt incredibly relieved after its effect took place. Things moved slowly though and it wasn't until 9:30 pm (21 hrs in) that I was finally at 10 cm dilated. Let the pushing begin! That moment of excitement was extinguished after 2 hours of pushing with no baby making an appearance. The doctors could tell that it was going to be a tight fit for him to get out, but it ended up being tighter than they thought. They recommended a C-section to get him out. Mike and I agreed the best thing at this point was to just get the baby out one way or another and bring this labor to an end. At 11:06 pm, nearly 23 hours after my water broke, he was born with a full head of hair and screaming his lungs off. Mike cut the cord. The doctors confirmed there was no way he would have come out any other way than with a C-section. He weighed 7 lbs 10 oz and was 21.5 inches long. Not a huge baby really, just that my pelvic bones weren't going to allow him through. But he's perfectly healthy and I am on the mend.

New Parents at Home
Because of the C-section, we were allowed to stay at the hospital a little longer for my recovery. It worked out well because we could take advantage of all the doctors and nurses there to help us figure out what we needed to do to care for this baby. But by Friday, we were ready to get settled back in our own place. We've been at home a few days now (I've lost track) and we're getting the hang of things. It may be a couple weeks before we can get this baby on something that resembles a sleep schedule but for now, all are healthy and happy, even if some of us are a bit sleep-deprived.

Today we gave him his first bath, which he managed pretty well, and shared his opinion of the whole process by pooping all over me after I dried him off. He also figured out how to suck on his own hand. He seemed to be trying to figure out that maneuver for a few days and today it finally connected.

Photos Online
I'm about to upload some pics to Flickr so take a look when you get a chance. Some of you know the story behind the baby's first name; it's his grandmother's maiden name Carter. Ironically, Carter was born on the same day as his namesake; he and his great-grandfather share a birthday of August 26.

Good Things

Just like that section in Martha Stewart Living.

Friday was my last day at work! Yay! My co-workers brought in cupcakes from The Cupcakery in Central West End. I'm almost sad that I won't be working so close to that little gem. But I got my fill on Friday of their delicious red velvet cupcakes, so I should be good for a while.

I finally made these blueberry crumble bars I've been mouth-watering over ever since I saw them here. They turned out just as delicious as the pictures hint at. My nesting instinct has really been more of a baking instinct. In the past month I've made chocolate chip cookies, banana bread, zucchini bread, peach cobbler, peach cake, and now the blueberry bars. At least all our fruit and vegetable picking has not been in vain!

Today we picked the mother load of grape tomatoes from our garden. There must be at least 100 in the bowl on the counter. Looks like lots of salads are in our future. Some of the Brandywine tomatoes are finally ripening on the vines and they are the best tomatoes I've ever had! We've been eating a lot of BLTs lately and these tomatoes really make them outstanding!

Gardening Update

I just posted a ton of new pics in Flickr showing the progression of our first attempt at a vegetable garden. We went all out this year, starting from seeds with almost everything. Despite our lack of any experience whatsoever, I think we did pretty well. We're harvesting more than we can eat at least. I think we definitely have a huge list of "what we can do better next year" so we're already looking forward to the coming spring. Right now though, the garden thrives even though it's taken on a sort of "jungle" look. With my pregnancy and Mike's schedule, we just haven't been able to keep up with the maintenance as much as we'd like. In the end, our thumbs are a little greener and our grocery bill is a little less. And amazingly, the veggies are actually tasty! We've used them in so many recipes...here's a quick list:

Lemon balm bread

Basil pizza

Salads galore

Omelets

Zucchini bread

Chicken & veggie kabobs

Lasagna

Pasta salad

Not to mention just eating fresh off the vine!

Welcome

First post on the new blog! I know some of you may have occasionally read my old blog, but I've decided to put that one to pasture. This blog will be a little easier to maintain and hopefully easier for you all to keep up with. So welcome! Let the blogging begin! For pictures, click on the Flickr Badge to the left and you'll be taken to a new website where all our photos will be available for viewing. To view all of the photos in the separate Flickr website, click on the link that says "rebeccaswindow". It can be found on the right side next to the tiny picture of the Ferris Wheel.