Chunky Monkey

Austin has started to be a chunky monkey. Here are some pictures of his Buddha Belly.


He is starting to try to focus so he gets cross eyed a lot!
Look at that belly!

Ingrown toenail

Well I had minor surgery yesterday on my toe...I had an ingrown toenail. The frustrating thing is that this is something that can be easily prevented. I started having problems at the end of my pregnancy when I couldn't reach my toes. I let it go too far so by the time I had Austin and could reach my toes it was already infected. I performed "surgery" on it myself one night and thought I had it taken care of. Well about 2 weeks later it starts hurting worse than before. I woke up yesterday and I hurt so bad it was hard to walk. I called a podiatrist and they could get me in so I went. I WILL NEVER let it get that bad again. That was so miserable! They literally cut out a huge chunk of my toenail and then killed the root so my big toe will never have as much toenail again... I have a special shoe that I have to wear now and I have to soak it in an iodine bath twice a day until I go back in a week and a half.


My foot soaking in the iodine bath. Yes this is a cooler. It was the only thing big enough to soak my foot in :)

Stomach Sleeping

Well we have had lots of rough nights lately, and its all John and I's fault. We've heard so many times "DON'T EVER LET YOUR CHILD SLEEP ON HIS STOMACH" so we have tried everything to get Austin to sleep on his back. When he was first born he would sleep anywhere, but now hes getting older and starting to notice things. Along with this comes more curiosity. Well about a week ago he started to refuse sleeping on his back, so I would let him sleep on his stomach during the day when I was hovering. Well as you can tell John is exhausted b/c he doesn't get to nap during the day. So he is here when Austin will scream and cry b/c he's tired but every time we put him on his back he stays asleep for less than 15 minutes. Then we try again... over and over for HOURS. Finally I told John I'm tired of fighting Austin and I'm going to let him sleep on his stomach at night. John was appalled. I told him I would rather Austin get sleep even if its on his stomach than get no sleep at all. John still wasn't on board so I told him I'm going to sleep and you deal with Austin and try to get him to sleep on his back. See John isn't here all day to see me try over and over and I just can't do it anymore.
Last night Austin was awake from 6:40 pm until past midnight. Babies at Austin's age shouldn't be awake more than 2 hours at a time, so as you can see he was REALLY cranky. I got up to pump at midnight and I told John he should really put him on his stomach. John said, look at him his eyes are wide open he isn't sleepy. I reassured him that Austin was sleepy but now he is at the point where he is over tired and gets wired. As soon as John put him on his stomach he was out and slept for 5.5 hours! That is a record!
Anyway I feel like we are terrible parents for letting him sleep on his stomach, but it came down to sanity. So now he will be sleeping on his stomach during the day and at night. I'm reading a book by Marc Weissbluth about sleep habits for babies. Its really shed some light on what we have been seeing, although Dr. Weissbluth says for him to sleep on his back as well... Oh well there isn't anything we can do. Cranky baby=NO SLEEP for Tarver family.

Austin's Blow Out

A couple nights ago John was feeding Austin and Austin blew his britches out. I was in the other room pumping and John starts yelling. "Kim get in here NOW". I come running in and he is holding Austin up and John has poop all over his shorts! It was SO funny. Haha! Anyway I took Austin from him and John walked over to the trash can and thew his shorts away. I told him we could wash them, but he said it was too gross so he just threw them away!! HAHA! A couple days later it happened again, but not as bad, his shorts were salvaged. Only John...

Bongo Room

John's dad, Greg, is in town to see Austin. We went for a walk yesterday and had brunch at Bongo Room. They have these really gourmet pancakes. I had caramel apple pancakes with praline cream. Greg had red velvet pancakes and John had a skillet. You have to have something non sweet to counter all the sugar in the pancakes. It was SO good. It was 50 degrees outside and drizzly so I bundled Austin up. It was so funny! John kept saying you are putting too many clothes on him, but once we got outside I think Austin was the only one who was warm. I definitely didn't have enough clothes on! Here is a picture of Austin all bundled up in his carrier.

Austin Pictures

It's been a while...

Well Austin will be 3 weeks tomorrow. Time flies, but at the same time it feels like he has been here much longer. I don't know if that made any sense...
Well last week my parents were here. They were a HUGE help. Not only did they help with Austin but we also did some things around the house that needed to be done. We even rearranged the furniture in the living room.
This week I've been here by myself. I've had some melt downs and John has been late to work most days and left early. I hope they understand that we are new at this...haha!
So here are some updates on what has happened since I posted last:
1. Austin finally gained enough weight that we don't have to keep going to the ped. As of Tuesday he now weighs more than he weighed at birth. I'm sure one day we will look back and this and wonder how we could have been concerned that he wasn't gaining enough!
2. Breast feeding is HARD. I've been having a really hard time with it. I haven't given up yet, but have met with 2 lactation consultants + 1 in the hospital. I finally have enough milk that we don't have to give him formula anymore, but I'm still pumping a lot and giving him a bottle. Hopefully this will end soon so I'm not tied to my pump every couple hours!
3. I gave Austin his first bath in his bath tub. Guess what...he peed and pooped in it! Haha. Anyway that was an experience, and I did it by myself so you can imagine how difficult that was.
4. Austin has started to sleep in his bassinet at night, he doesn't sleep through the night, but at least we don't have to always hold him.
5. John and I continue to have trouble being able to tell when he is going to pee on us or himself when we change his diaper. We go through SO many clothes and changing pad covers.
6. He is starting to get a little more control of his head, but by no means has full control.
7. He is smiling more now. Also he loves his hands. He touches everything and is constantly trying to feel things. He even grabbed onto my glasses with a death grip yesterday. I'm sure he didn't know what he was holding but still it caught me by surprise.
8. John HATES cloth diapers! Haha! We are using a diaper service that we prepaid for, but I still keep finding Austin in disposable diapers. Oh well, he will get the hang of it eventually.
9. I have started to leave the house more. At first I couldn't because I couldn't carry the car seat carrier with him in it up and down the stairs. Now we just need to get more of a schedule down so we can go for walks outside.
10. I've lost 30 of my 45 lbs!! I hope the next 15 come off as easily...
I have taken some pictures and will post some later. Austin is waking up, so gotta go.