Lincoln @ 2 months

I can't believe how much this little one grows each time I look at him. He is 2 months old. The newborn outfits no longer fit. He is currently wearing 3 month clothes, they are still rather roomy on him. 

We've got a couple smiles here and there as well as a few coos. They are still very quick to come so we have yet to catch them on camera. 

Linc's developed a cough that had us worried but its most likely due to the weather change. It is getting cold here at night. We are using a humidifier and it has made a big difference. 

He is still a good sleeper at night. We'll put him down around 9pm and get him out of bed around 8am.  We have yet to have a regular daytime schedule due to the feeding tube. The good news is his swallowing is getting better. We aren't doing any more bananas mixed with breastmilk. He is drinking straight milk from a bottle 3 times a day. I've also started putting him on the breast after I've pumped most of the milk out. (He is still on his feeding tube, we took it out for the pictures)

I'm still pumping every 3 hours. It seems to be getting harder and harder to get up at night. One more month like this then I can drop the middle of the night feedings. I can do it!

His hair is starting to come back in so he doesn't look like an old man as much. 

We've also been cloth diapering 24/7 and loving it. We've even had several diaper changes out of the house and its not too bad. You do have more stuff to lug around but thanks to wet bags you don't have any stink. I am so glad we chose to cloth diaper. 

Look how cute they are. 

Linc at 2 months:

Height: 22 3/8 in

Weight: 9 lbs 6 oz

A New Life

I've been at Notre Dame for a week now and honestly I feel like I haven't got anything done. This blog will get done though!

Here is a quick recap of life at South Bend.
-went to 2 BBQs.

One was with a bunch of psychology grad students who didn't know how to handle a baby in their company. We really are the minority here, being a married couple with a child all by our own choice. The second BBQ was hosted by our ward. There were plenty of children there and lots of fun.

-went to church and pumped!

As we were about to pack Linc into his carseat his pump starting going off "No Flow" that means there was a block that we needed to find. Thus we had to replace his tube, clear it out and then tape it all back on. We arrived at church just in time for the last 10 minutes of sacrament. I spent those minutes plus a couple more in the mother's room pumping. It was an interesting experience but a good one. The mother's room is the social room of the ward. When I went in there were already 2 women nursing. We had a nice chat and they finished up and left. As they left another young mom came in with her baby. After a very high stress morning to spend those 20 minutes in a quite room chatting with the ward members really helped calm me down. I have a feeling that I am going to make a lot of good friends in this ward.
That night a family invited us over for dinner. He is doing his residency at the local hospital and she is a former teacher. They have two very rambunctious boys and a cute chubby baby. They were very helpful and friendly. The boys were very excited to show me all their spiders and bugs they had found. It made me realize that I might not be ready to have my own little mancub. I'm glad I get a year or three to prepare for that aspect of motherhood.

-tried to unpack the apartment

This I feel is a never ending process. As soon as I empty one box there are 20 more to go. The other downside is our little apartment has little room for storage so we've had to purchase a few items to help us organize our stuff.

-Linc has started smiling

He still hasn't figured it out completely but he is definitely working on it. Sometimes I get a great big smile sometimes its only one side of his cute mouth but he is smiling in response to the silly things Ryan and I are doing to coax them out of him. I've tried several times to get them on film but it hasn't happened yet. We'll keep working on it.

-Linc is focusing more

I will catch this little man just staring me down from across the room. He also is starting to just look around and be content on his playmat.



-started cloth diapering

I am in love with cloth diapers. The only stinky part is emptying the bag into the washing machine. The rest of it really isn't stinky at all. I love how I don't feel like I'm wasting diapers when he decides to dirty one right after a diaper change. They are also freaking adorable on his little bum. Ryan has become a pro at it as well. I think I'll start being one of those annoying people who always advocates for cloth. Its worth the mess and the stinky for me if I don't have to spend the money down the road.

-got in my first cardio workout

Our complex has a ton of little amenities. Nothing fancy but it all works. They have a room with a couple treadmills, an elliptical and some other work out gear.  I have been dying to get on the weight loss bandwagon since I hit my highest weight during pregnancy. So after dinner one night Ryan watched Linc while I did a low impact 30 minute workout. I'm still scared to put on a sports bra or any other tight restrictive article so I just did a very quick paced walk. It felt so good to put my muscles to work.

-had my first sick day

Yesterday I was sicker then a dog. I woke up for my midnight pump barely able to walk to the front room where I pump. I went back to sleep only to be woken up by a pounding headache. I spent the whole day going from burning up to freezing cold with a headache and lots of other achy parts. I could barely function. Lucky for me Ryan only had one class so he stayed home and took care of Linc while I slept. He went to his class and Linc and I both slept the whole time. After drinking plenty of fluids and taking my share of advil I am feeling a lot better today. Not 100% but I can take care of my own.

-Linc went to his first doctors appointment here

Yesterday Ryan and Linc went to the local hospital for Linc's first assessment here in South Bend. We originally had an appointment with our pediatrician on campus in a couple weeks but they don't deal with feeding tubes so they sent us to the hospital. This caused some major chaos in our insurance but the doctors and office staff were very helpful. Wish we could say the same for the Notre Dame end of it. Ryan was not a very happy man yesterday. He still bristles when anyone brings up insurance. Insurance is and has always been a nightmare. Hopefully we can get it all figured out soon and then never deal with it again.

All in all I guess I have got a lot done. It just hasn't been visual until it was in writing.

Lincoln all bundled up ready for take off. We scored on the flight out there. It was fairly empty, most everyone got any empty seat next to them. Lincoln was great during the flight. The girls behind us not so much. ;) 

I love waking up to this little face. He is getting so big! 

vlogging

So I am completely overwhelmed by how much stuff we have in our tiny apartment and how little built in storage there is (aka NONE!), but I still wanted to do my weekly blog so I thought I would just upload the video I did at the condo for Marie.

When I have more time and when I'm feeling a bit more relaxed I'll do an actual blog on the move, my last weekend at the condo, south bend, the apartment etc. but for now you'll just have to settle with this video.

Enjoy these for the day. Maybe I'll blog tomorrow....probably not. 

Road Trip to Notre Dame

Last week I (Ryan) left early Wednesday (August 21) morning to begin a road trip to Notre Dame. For all of you who don't know, I'll be attending Notre Dame in a PhD program for Developmental Psychology. We plan on being in Notre Dame for five years. But we had to get out here first to begin our adventure.

Bright and early Wednesday morning my Mom, Dad, brother and I hopped into a Penske moving truck and our Versa. We excitedly began our journey by getting a little breakfast and topping off our vehicles.

We expected Day One to be pretty long. We were hoping to get to Lincoln, NE; a little more than half the distance to South Bend, IN. We expected about a 14-hour day. 14 hours on I-80... Once we bounced onto I-80 in Utah, we did not deviate that course the whole way to Lincoln (and eventually the whole way to South Bend).

If you've ever driven on I-80 through Wyoming and Nebraska you probably know what I'm going to say next. The drive was extremely boring. Wyoming was brown and mostly flat and Nebraska was flat and flat. Mark and I drove the Versa so we entertained each other by stopping on most of the state lines along the way. We had also gone grocery shopping to stock up on road trip goodies. We got plenty of sunflower seeds, beef jerky, and some sugar snap peas (one of Mark's favorite snacks). We also jammed to our music. At times we tried to play a game we affectionately called, "No Skippies!" Basically the game means that you turn your iPod on "all music" and you are not allowed to skip any song. Yikes. We reminisced with some classics, and we suffered through some instrumental music not made for driving. We decided instrumental music could be skipped for our sakes. We realized that we didn't have enough music, even if we played "No Skippies!" the whole time. We ended up just picking and choosing albums to rock to. One of our surprising favorites was Eiffel 65, Europop. Good memories.

Mark catching up on some Zzzz

Somewhere in the middle of Nebraska Mark and I did some exploring off the side of the road.

Our favorite drink! Limon Pepino (cucumber lime Gatorade)

By the end of Day One, and when I say the end, I mean, about 11pm, we finally get into our nice hotel room. Thankfully we all made it through the first day.

Day Two consisted of some better scenery through the rest of Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois and finally Indiana to South Bend. Day Two had considerably less driving, but we had to unpack everything when we got to our apartment.

We made a quick lunch stop at Gramma's Kitchen off I-80 somewhere in Iowa near the World's Largest Truck Stop! And off we went! We blew through Illinois without stopping, but Mark and I had some difficulties trying to get onto the toll road to take us to South Bend. After making a U-turn at the next exit three miles ahead, we cruised to South Bend.

We were really excited when we starting seeing Notre Dame Football billboards. I knew we were in ND Nation!

We finally made it to our new apartment around 7pm on Thursday. Our two days of driving felt like two weeks of driving. We drove 1500 miles from South Jordan to South Bend in two days. Another miracle.

Once we got there and I checked in, we started unpacking. Thankfully a number of my neighbors swarmed the moving truck and made quick work of our boxes. We enjoyed chatting a little bit afterward and found out that there are 14 LDS families in our complex and all the couples in the complex have kids. It's a very homogenous group.

We were able to move enough boxes around to make sleeping areas and we hit the sack.

Friday morning I had an orientation for the Psychology program. I jumped in the shower only to realize we hadn't unpacked the shower curtain. But that didn't matter because I couldn't find the mechanism to turn the shower on. A bath it was. I quickly got ready and drove to campus, got lost, asked a campus ministry priest how to get where I was going, sped walked to Haggar Hall, and arrived late to my orientation.

Let me tell you a little something about Notre Dame campus, first, it is beautiful. Old buildings, tradition, sacrifice, and dedication exude throughout the campus. Second, all the buildings look the same with very little identification, besides the golden dome and the basilica, I have no idea which building is which. I have now been lost enough that I know my way around, at least to the places I need to get to. Third, because of the age of buildings and the fact they are all halls, not buildings (e.g., Haggar Hall, McGinis Hall, Flanner Hall, etc.) I imagine I'm at Hogwarts. This perception solidified Sunday evening when my family and I walked around campus. All the undergraduates gathered for some sort of [wizard] games. They chanted the names of their halls, calling out to other halls in some sort of brouhaha. I am no longer an undergrad, so I am above those silly things....hahaha. That reminds me, I don't know what it's like at other universities, but anytime the graduate students talk about the undergrads they make the undergrads seem like an inferior species. I think it's funny.

Over the weekend, I mentioned we enjoyed some time on campus, we also raided the Bookstore, went golfing, and explored some of the surrounding area. On Sunday, we found the stake center by following other BYU grads from our complex to the building.

On Monday morning, my family had a plane to catch. Before I dropped them off at the South Bend regional airport we went to Perkins for breakfast. Thankfully, we had a nice waitress who rushed our food out. We then followed Siri to the South Bend airport...except she thought we were an incoming plane that could land on the runway. We were totally lost. Time kept running out as we frantically tried to reroute Siri and find airport signs. Finally, we found the entrance and my family had a slight miracle in reminding the Frontier front desk person of his job so they could get on the plane. Thankfully they safely made it home. All in all it was a nice trip that felt like two weeks.

Blogging is harder now

I have spent the better part of the morning trying to get those two blog posts up. Man I never understood how hard it was to take care of a newborn and do all the regular things (shower, pump, comb your hair etc)
As hard as it is to blog I have a goal of blogging once a week. I can't wait to turn this blog into a book at the end of the year and see what we've been through. Lets hope I can met this goal. It is so important to write down what is happening while it is still fresh.

Blessing Day

Since Ryan needed to get to Notre Dame by August 23rd for orientation we decided to bless Lincoln at home the night before the moving caravan rolled out. 

Thus Lincoln was blessed August 21st at my Dad's house. It was a very busy day for us getting the last minute packing done, house cleaned and everything else ready but we did it. When it came time for the blessing everything was perfect. 

 We kept it simple with treats after the blessing. It was my first time making the tissue paper pom poms and I loved how they turned out.

 Lincoln with his Great-Great-Grandma June

The men that stood in the circle.

The Woodbury/Maxfield family

 Ryan's 4 Generation shot

My Grandparents Heywood. They drove all the way up from Arizona for this one night for us. I am truly going to miss them this next year.

The Davidson/Heywood family

We are such goof balls. 

I know this craddle is probably making most of you cringe for all the safety violations and such but I'll have you know my Great Grandpa Ralph slept in this crib along with my Grandpa Davidson, my dad, (most of his siblings) myself, my sister and most of my cousins. It truly is a family heirloom. 

I treasure the fact that my little man will get to sleep in it for a couple weeks before we head out to South Bend. 

I was impressed with how good Linc did through the whole night. I worried he would fuss or ruin his adorable outfit but he was a perfect angel. 

Wednesday morning came too early for us. We said goodbye to Ryan around 5:30am. Then he and his crew (Melanie, Clayne, and Mark) drove into the sunrise on their way to South Bend. He kept me informed the whole drive which was nice with text messages and pictures. They are currently safely in South Bend setting up house for me and Lincoln. We will be joining them in 2 weeks if all goes well.

Lincoln @ 1 month

 Lincoln is one month old. As I was thinking about what to write I was kind of overwhelmed. In just one month of life he has gone through more then most grown adults have had to deal with. He is a trooper. Instead of focusing on all that he has been through I'll let you reread our blog.

Here is what I know about Lincoln after spending a month with the little tyke.

 He loves his Wubbanub binkies. He has two and they have to go everywhere with us. I'll be honest maybe I love them more then he does. They are the only binkie that we can keep in his mouth for longer then 30 seconds. He looks so cute when he "grabs" hold of his little friends. 

 Lincoln is a very calm baby. He only fusses when he has something wrong, usually a stinky bum, gas, or is very tired. When he does fuss 9 times out of 10 if you put him on your chest and start patting his back he will calm right down. This is his favorite way to sleep when he is over tired.

 

Apparently its Ryan's favorite way to sleep too. 

 So far we have been to his pediatrician three times. They were worried about his weight but that seems to be improving since we've taken him off Lasix (the medicine that kept his body "dry" so his heart wouldn't have to work too hard).

He is one long baby. This teddy bear was given to me when I was a newborn by my Aunt Jana. I thought it would be fun to take a picture of him next to it. This bear brings back so many memories from my childhood. No one had a bear this big. He was the best! 

Another thing we've learned about Linc is he loves his left side. If we aren't careful he will have to wear a helmet in a couple months to even out his head shape. 

Linc loves his sleep. Since bringing him home from the hospital he has proved a good night sleeper. We'll put him down around 10pm and he has to be woken up around 9am. If we don't wake him up he will keep sleeping straight through lunch. Now before you start freaking out about how wonderfully amazing he is to be sleeping through the night before 6 weeks you need to remember he is on a feeding tube. Little Man never gets hungry. He is on a constant feed which means he gets food 24/7. Thus there is no need to wake up at night. 

This has made it hard to get him on a schedule. All the baby books I've read about scheduling your baby never mention what to do if he doesn't need to feed every couple hours. O-well sleeping through the night is a fair trade off.

 Lincoln at 1 month:

weight: 8 lbs. 4 oz

height: 22 inches