Wandering Browns

Landon's Christmas-day-excitement face Is it sad that I am working on Landon's 3rd and 4th month posts at the same time? In Landon's 4th month, he became interested in toys! He also found his feet and started rolling to his side. He loves to explore everything by putting it in his mouth. He kind of sits up supported or puts his hands out in front and balances that way.  He also LOVES bath time, and is already perfecting his backstroke technique. Austin and Landon joined Lifetime Fitness, the gym where I work as a master's swim coach, in December. Landon is old enough now to go to childcare while I work out, which makes it much easier for both Austin and I to get our workout on! Austin's goal was to lose enough weight between Thanksgiving and Christmas that he could eat whatever he wanted at Christmas and not get any fatter. I'm happy to say that he accomplished his goal, and even ended up a pound lighter than he was at Thanksgiving. My husband is a star :...

I have been WAY too busy putting together Christmas gifts, making Christmas treats, and preparing to travel to Colorado for Christmas to write up Landon's third month. He continues to be an awesome baby, and smiles every day. In his 3rd month he started to sleep better, only waking once per night to eat. He rolled over once while we were taking video of him doing tummy time, but it ended up being a fluke. In Landon's 3rd month, I started working Saturdays doing physical therapy at a nursing home. Austin became Mr. Mom staying home Saturday and caring for Landon so that I could practice my PT skills a bit. I'm so grateful for a husband who, although at first unsure, was willing to watch Landon without me around so that I could have some time to myself. I love my boys! Little charmer...  We went on our first airplane ride in November. Landon did great for the majority of the flight and barely fussed at all at the end of a four hour flight to California. I flew out a w...

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I just like how Landon and Austin are matching The theme of month #2 was family, family family. Everyone wanted to come see our cute little man! Grandpa Jim came out for a weekend in the end of September. Austin blessed Landon September 30th while Jim was in town and did a fantastic job. He is so thoughtful with his choice of words and it was really special. I was very nervous right beforehand, because Landon was SO fussy. In our previous ward, there were several baby blessings where the baby just screamed through it, and I didn't want that to be our experience. On that Sunday, there was a new member confirmation and another baby blessing that took place right before ours. I had to go out into the foyer to try to calm Landon down because he was just being really fussy. When the baby blessing before ours finished, I rushed in and handed him off, just hoping he wouldn't start crying again. He was calm throughout the whole blessing, and began fussing right when he returned to ...

I guess now that Landon is almost 2 months old, I should probably get around to recording my memories and impressions of his first month of life. Landon was born almost 2 weeks late, so my mother had to go back to CA before we were discharged from the hospital, and Grandpa Jim went home the morning after we were discharged. Grandma Ev was able to stay a couple more days to help with the transition to home, and she was a lifesaver. The first few days of Landon's life at home were pretty hard for me, mostly because we went to the doctor and he had lost a whole pound. He was looking really skinny and I was so sad that I was not producing enough milk to feed him. I know this happens to a lot of babies, but I was pretty sure that I was going to be the best mom ever and produce gallons of milk for him to drink. Well, that doctor's appointment was on a Tuesday. Our pediatrician told us to supplement with 1 oz of formula 2 times a day and see if that did not bring his weight back up. M...

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After realizing that my body was not defective, I had Austin do the Hypnobirthing balloon trip fear release script- one reserved to use if I was having doubts about my abilities as a woman to birth my baby without fear and without medical intervention. It was a very emotional time for me, and around 12:00-1:00 pm on Thursday, August 23rd, my contractions started to get much stronger and much more regular. I ignored the timing of them for awhile because we had had so many disappointments leading up to this point. By the time I had Austin start timing contractions, I was having them every 2-3 minutes, and they were much more intense, requiring me to go into relaxation in order to not tense up and fight what my body was trying to do. I can't say that I didn't feel pain, but for the most part I was able to relax through them enough to just feel intense pressure/discomfort especially in my low back. Sometimes I felt them in the front as well, but it was the back pressure that was th...

On Tuesday, August 21st, I went to my last midwife appointment. At this point I was 41 weeks, 2 days and I knew that we would be making a plan of what to do if my little guy didn't come by a certain date. We decided that if I did not go into labor by 8:00 pm on Thursday night, I would come into the hospital to be induced. Being induced would opt me out of the alternative birthing center room and the water birth that I really wanted to try. At that point, I was dilated to a 1-2 and 50% effaced. Things were not looking great as far as having the birth that I wanted. That night, however, I began to have regular, stronger contractions. These were definitely different from the mini contractions I had been having the past week. They started out about 10 minutes apart, and got to be 2-3 minutes apart after an evening walk around the neighborhood. These were fairly strong contractions, although I was still able to walk through them. After returning home, they slowed down to every 6-8 min...

When pondering how I wanted to do this birth story post, I decided that in order to get the whole picture of what was going on with me in my head, and how it all turned out, we had to start at the beginning, with my parents arriving to await the birth of my little guy. Then I realized that if I did it in one post, it would be so long that no one would read the good part- when he popped out 2 hours after arriving at the hospital! So if you just want to read that part, go to part 3. If not, here is the entire birth story.  My labor and birth encompassed all 3 types of labor that I read about while I was pregnant: false/practice labor, prodromal labor, and REAL labor.  Practice labor:  The month of August, for me, was spent in anxious anticipation of the birth of my little boy. My parents and baby sister Claire flew into the Chicago area on August 7th to help me finish getting ready and to be here for the birth. They were able to be here for my birthday on the 10th...

Proof we were there... the giant jelly bean... We wanted to go do something fun for the 4th.We had not gone into the city yet, so despite 100 degree temperatures, we ventured into the city of Chicago via the train and checked it out. We ordered a dinner picnic basket from this gourmet grocery store/deli, which included beef tenderloin, edamame and carrots, delicious Italian cookies, and pasta salad. YUM! We took this over to Millenium park and got to watch an awesome free patriotic concert on the lawn. I couldn't believe it was free in this great venue, until Austin reminded me how much we pay in sales tax as residents of Cook county (almost 10%!!) This was the pavilion where we listened to a symphony orchestra concert on the 4th! Too bad it was over 100 degrees! As crazy as it might sound, Austin and I went camping last week. Don't worry, we brought an air mattress so  that I could sleep on the ground in relative comfort. Austin, on the other hand, was not...