Rolling over

Being a Ham!

Just playing.............................. Starting to get frustrated


Realizing he might be able to turn over


Reaching high.................................almost there....


SUCCESS!

Sorry for no post last week. It was a little bit of a weird week for me. I spent two days getting my PALS certification during the day while Carter spent time over at Aunt Carrie's house. It has been a while since I have had to study and take a test so I had a pretty stressful week studying for PALS. Luckily I passed, and now I am officially certified for two years! (for those of you who don't know PALS stands for Pediatric Advanced Life Support. It is similar to CPR but it is specialized for children and is more in depth.) We have to be certified to work up on pediatrics. Carter got to enjoy time with Aunt Carrie and cousin Noah while I was there and he had a great time. It is so neat to see them start to interact, or at least notice each other. I can't wait for them to be old enough to play together. Carter has also had some new things happen this last two weeks. He rolled over from front to back one time completely unassisted. (I caught this with my still camera) I had put him on his tummy and the next thing I know he is trying to roll over. The whole thing took him a few minutes. He would give up and lay down and then try again. We have yet to see it again but hopefully he will do it again soon. He has also started eating rice cereal every evening and we even introduced pears. He is a huge fan of pears but not a fan of rice cereal still. We mix them together and he is happy. He is starting to get more coordination with his tongue but it is still a little difficult in the beginning. On a more yucky note I noticed this weekend (and so did grandma) that Carters lymph nodes in the back of his head and ear were pretty swollen. They have been swollen for the last few weeks but not as bad as they were on Sunday. He hasn't seemed sick or anything but I started to get worried that they were getting bigger. So I took him into the doctor today and he has a little ear infection and the doctor thought he might have a little bit of an upper respiratory infection. He still doesn't act sick but in retrospect I remember him pulling at his ear some over the last few days. I just didn't think that a baby this young would do that. He got put on some amoxicillin and hopefully that will take care of it. Chad and I also got to get out for a little bit over the last few weeks and we even got to go up to Omaha to hang out with our friends Abby and Jason. We ate dinner (without a baby) and then got to go to a movie. It was so nice. We went and saw Juno which I highly recommend. That about wraps it up for us. Talk to you next week.

Neonatal Developmental Clinic (5 months old)

Triplets 2nd birthday party

We have had a pretty busy week. I spent the weekend pureeing baby food (and food for a new recipe book I got for Christmas) with my friend Christy and trying out the new recipes. They have been pretty good so far. I have enjoying making the meals and they are healthy! Our evenings have been filled doing odds and ends. Carter has also had a couple new things this week. He went to the Neonatal Development Clinic yesterday. When we left the NICU they asked us if we wanted to be a part of it. All they do is collect some research and track how the NICU babies do once they leave the unit. It is no cost to us and gives us another set of eyes to make sure Carter is on track with his development. We got great reviews. Even though Carter just turned 5 months he is really about 3 3/4 months adjust age. When it comes to development that is the age they use. They said he is doing above what a 3 3/4 month baby would be doing. They weighed him (with his clothes on, and a full diaper) and he was 15lbs 8oz. They measured his head which they said was good and that his head shape is looking great. (preemie babies tend to have abnormal skulls since there bones are more pliable) He was able to track a toy all over, turn to my voice and hold his head up with good control. She was impressed ( a developmental pediatrician). It always makes you feel good when someone tells you your child is on track so I am happy with the report. Carter also has started to giggle every time I tell him "I'm gonna get you". He will laugh and put his arms out in front of him (like superman) as if to protect himself from the "tickles". It is so funny. If I can get it on video I will post it soon. Chad and I got to get away on Saturday night for a few hours to celebrate our friend Jessi's birthday. We had a good time. The last thing we did was celebrate the triplets 2nd birthday. It was a lot of fun watching them eat their cake this year. We are going to do a bigger celebration in the summer since they just got a ton of gifts for Christmas. Chad and Carter stayed home since it was past his bedtime but I got to go and watch them eat cake. I am trying out Picasa for my pictures this week so you will have to let me know how it is. The pictures are of Jessi's birthday party, the triplets cake party and some random pics of Carter. I have to explain that the ones of Carter where he has a hat that is too small and mittens on. After we give him a bath we always have to lube him up with lotion and aquaphor to his body and head (due to his really dry skin). But when he gets super tired he rubs his face with his hands and also scratches at his head. So the combination of lotion plus tiredness leads to him scratching at his face and head and getting the aquaphor everywhere. So we have to put a hat on him (to make sure the aquaphor soaks in) and mittens to prevent him from scratching his face. He looks like a gangster in the photos so I just had to explain it.

Thank You Uncle Gary and Aunt Natalie!

Thank you Uncle Gary and Aunt Natalie for my super cute outfit you gave me for Christmas! I love it. It keeps me warm here in Nebraska! Thanks for thinking of me. I know someone in California loves me!
Love,
Carter

Welcome 2008!

Carters favorite thing right now
Hi Guys!

He still gets mad at tummy time (check out the real tear) - Him on his side


Rice cereal attempt



We had a pretty boring start to the new year. I was at work, Chad was at home in bed and Carter had been fast asleep for 5 hours. We are very hopeful for a great new year that will have a lot of firsts coming from Carter. Carter seems to be changing like crazy every day. Here are a couple things we have noticed. He has mastered turning on his side and spends a lot of time there. We work on rolling over but he seems to have no desire to flip all the way over. He has realized that once objects move out of his sight he can turn around and follow them. He especially does this with the pugs. He will sit in his jump chair and spin around and follow them all over the living room. He loves watching them play and enjoys the occasional pug kiss. Since he is spending a lot more time in play things at pug level the pugs continue to take more and more of an interest in him. Carter also likes to sit up and try and pull himself forward when you hold him or when he is in a bouncy seat. I think he enjoys the new control he has over his body. He went through a major growth spurt over the last couple weeks and went from drinking 25oz a day to 30oz. He has also started to giggle when I tickle him. He has to be in the right mood but it is very cute to see. He had a couple of days where he ran a low grade temp and started taking longer naps, and that trend seems to be continuing. It is still a little hit and miss but he is much happier if he takes a nap that is longer than 30mintues. The other big news here is that Carter tried rice cereal for the first time. Our doctor recommended we wait till 6 months to do solids but since he went through that growth spurt we thought we would see if he was ready. He didn't really like it very much and even went as far as to gag a couple times. I think for right now we will just try it every couple days just to get him used to eating and when he turns 6 months we will do more. I didn't take a lot of pictures this week since I was working a lot, but here are a few I took.

Baby's First Christmas

Carter had a wonderful first Christmas! I am not sure he was able to distinguish it from any other day other than we were surrounded by a lot of people for two days straight. He enjoyed being around family and having more people to see and play with. We spent most of Christmas eve with The Scribner/Hardt family and then we spent Christmas day with The Niebuhrs. He enjoyed watching us unwrap gifts and he even held on to some wrapping paper. He got a ball from grandma and grandpa Scribner that he loves. It has a lot of holes so he can hold on to it and it was a hit! He got a lot of nice stuff from everyone and will be set for the next year or so with toys to play with. Chad and I also enjoyed our first Christmas morning with our new family. Even the pugs got to unwrap gifts with us. Chad has the rest of the week off and will hopefully get some time to rest. I am back to work tonight and tomorrow but will have some time to spend at home relaxing with Chad. We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! Click HERE for more Christmas pictures.
(I also updated the pugs blog so you can go there too!)

It's a Pugs Life!

It has been a busy week getting ready for Christmas and doing all the last minute shopping. We have had week that has been all about the pugs. As you can see in the first 2 pictures the pugs were up to no good. Tatze has a huge love for my monkey slippers and will steal one from the closet frequently. It really is the only thing she has ever gotten from the closet. Whereas Nase will take anything and everything. I don't really blame her for wanting it since it looks just like one of her toys. The funny thing is that I wish I would have captured all the things she has done with this slipper. Most mornings when she gets the chance she will take the slipper and bring it out in the living room. She usually doesn't play with it she just sits it next to her. There have been other times where she will bring it up onto the chair and fall asleep on it. I was beginning to think they were developing a friendship. Until that fateful day. I am not sure what the monkey slipper did to Tatze but it must have looked at her funny because she tore it to shreds. Not only that but Nase joined in on the massacre. When I heard the ruckus I came up stairs only to find 2 pugs with white stuffing in their mouths. Boy were they proud! The pictures are of the aftermath before I had to clean it up. The pugs got in trouble for their naughty behavior but Tatze did not learn her lesson. The next morning she went for the other slipper. (She might have thought the monkey came back from the dead.) Nase on the other had has taken a strong interest in Carter this week. The pugs have slowly adjusted and showed more interest, but Nase has given up on being the "baby" of the family. He will sit right next to Carter in the bouncy seat or jump chair and almost every time I feed him he sits on the chair with us and watches Carter. It has been pretty cute to see. He is very careful around the baby and is attempting a friendship. Tatze could care less if she was friends with Carter or not. Maybe someday. I will post more after Christmas.

Babbling baby

This is a little bit of carter talking. It is hard to catch him on tape because he seems to stop and become enthralled with the camera. Ignore my stupid commentary.

Christmas hustle and bustle

Carter in the jump chair ----------The Pugs playing with Carter

Sleepy baby ------------------------Happy baby

Hangin with Christy

Sorry it has been so long since my last post. Time has gotten away from me lately. I can't remember all that has happened but I will try my best to think of the new things. Carter did have his 4 month check with shots last Friday. He weighed in at 13lbs 6oz. which is in the 25 percentile. he was 25 1/2 inches which is in the 75 percentile. He got his shots without too much fuss. We talked with the Pedi about his development and things are looking good. He has started to really notice his toys and has started grabbing and batting at the toys hanging from the play gym. He has also started to sit in his jump chair which he really enjoys. It is a lot of work keeping his upper body upright but he pushes off the ground and spins himself around and thinks it is pretty fun. He is also eye level with the pugs and is watching them chase each other. The pugs have started to take a more active interest in Carter and have been licking, smelling and laying next to him a lot more. Nase also got his first taste of the kung foo baby grip. Nase was sitting next to the bouncy seat and Carter reached out for him and grabbed the side of Nase's face. Carter grabbed a chunk of fur and Nase was left stunned at what just happened. Nase then backed up a foot or so to be out of reach of Carter. Looks like we are going to have to start early with teaching Carter how to touch "nice" around the puppies. :) Carter has also really discovered his voice. There have been times where he will babble for 5-10minutes. It is pretty funny watching him. His face is so animated when he talks. I was able to catch some of it on video so I will see if I can post it. Carter also had several outings over the last couple of weeks. He stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Scribner while Chad and I went to our young couples Christmas party and he stayed at Grandma and Grandpa Niebuhr's Tuesday night and all day Wednesday so that I could finish up my Christmas shopping and get a few things done around the house. He also spends time every week over at Erin and Brian's while I am at work and is getting quality time with his cousins (and his aunt as well). Erin tells me funny stories of how the kids try to help her with Carter by getting his things for her. They are all very helpful and they enjoy playing with the baby toys again when Carter is not using them. She told me that Xander decided that Carter needed to wear the pumpkin bucket as a hat and kept trying to put it on his head, but Carter wanted nothing to do the bucket. It is just so cute how they think he can do the same things that they can. That is about all that I can think of that is new. I have been spending my free time wrapping gifts and writing Christmas cards. I can't wait for Carter's first Christmas! ( I will post pictures tomorrow)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving:
We had a wonderful thanksgiving this year. I had the opportunity to make the meal which was a first for me. I bought the turkey and even though I thought it wasn't thawed it was and it was done by 12:00 which was what I was hoping for. I envisioned the turkey being done like the "Christmas vacation" turkey, but it turned out great. Chad also watched a video on the internet on how to carve a turkey and I have to say he did a spectacular job. Carrie and Erin helped me prepare all the food and Giesela and Karen brought over a few dishes. The food was great and the company was fun too! Carter was really good and enjoyed seeing everyone. That evening we went over to the Hardt family side and had more turkey and pumpkin pie there too! We had some snow which made it feel like thanksgiving and helped us get into the christmas mood when we put up our decorations the next day. Carter enjoyed watching us put up the tree and wished he could have had some eggnog instead of soy milk. For the rest of the thanksgiving pictures click HERE

Family Portraits

Here are some pictures from our family photo shoot last week.

Bucket Head take 2

Since I didn't update you last week I figured I would do a short recap of our week. As you can see Tatze has a bucket on her head. She had eye surgery to fix the entropion of her eyes. It is where the eye lashes grow on the inner eye lid and cause blindness. As you can tell by the pictures she had a small blue bucket on her head but she was cleaver enough to reach around it so we had to get a heavy duty one. The clear one works a lot better but it is heavy and she HATES it. She bumps into walls and scrapes it on the stairs and hits it when she tries to jump in our bed. She can't chew on her bones or play tug near as well. She is one sad puppy. Nase also has to put up with her laying on him with the bucket poking him. She will get it off this Wednesday and I think all of us will be happy. For whatever reason Nase also got injured this past week. Last Friday I came home to Nase limping and holding his right paw up in the air. He hobbled around and looked pretty pathetic. We checked out his paw and leg and it seemed ok. it did look like it might be a little swollen. So we put some ice on it and are happy to say we did not need to make another vet visit. He is healed and happy now! The other picture is of Carter and Faith at the building dedication for Frieden's Lutheran Church.

Routine, Routine, Routine

Carter smiling on the boppy pillow

Chad reading to Carter (Carter thinks daddy is boring apparently)
Carter with all the scratches on his face (self inflicted)



Big Smile!


Well I am happy to report that we are back into a routine and have had a really good week. Carter started sleeping through the night again! We are SO happy! He is going to bed a little earlier, around 7, and getting up between 6am and 7am. That is pretty good I think. He does wake up in the middle of the night sometimes and yell out just for a minute and then he goes back to sleep. He has also been taking naps. Not really long ones but he is taking them. He will take 30min to 1hr naps. He has taken a few that have been longer but he usually averages 45minutes. He is taking a couple a day and that has helped give me a little time to get some things done. The sleep has been fabulous here and I hope it continues. He had to go the pediatrician today though because he has had some problems pooping but we hope we got it under control now. He weighed a whopping 12lbs 15oz (with a diaper on)! I can not believe how big he is getting. I also think he has his first cold. He had a runny nose and a cough this morning but he seems to be doing fine right now. I hope it passes soon. Other than that we have just been hanging out. He is getting better head control and is doing tummy time a lot better now. We had a fairly busy week. He got to stay with family and friends while we went the the musical Annie at the lied center, and went shopping on Saturday for new clothes for Chad and I. We even took our first trip as a family to the dog park on Saturday. The pugs loved it of course and Carter slept the whole time but it was nice to get out and get fresh air. I did take my camera there but when I turned it on it said the battery was dead. So sorry there are no pictures of us there. Which leads me to the last thing we did this week and that was we bought a new SLR camera! It hasn't come yet but I can't wait to use and be able to take nicer pictures. That is Chad an I's Christmas gift to each other this year. Enjoy the pictures.

3 Months Old

Well Carter is 3 months old tomorrow! I cannot believe how fast time has gone. I was at work this week and I took care of a 6 day old infant who weighed 6lbs 12oz at birth and when I took one look at her I couldn't believe how small she was. It is amazing how soon you forget how small they were. Speaking of work, I had my first week back and it went pretty well. It was nice to get back to see my co-workers and to be in the adult world. Everyone had mercy on my soul and I actually had good nights at work that weren't so crazy busy. The winter season at my job is crazy. At any moment your night can go from good to bad in about 5 minutes. The bad thing about going back is that Carter has been out of sorts. It may have just been coincidence, but the night I went back was the night he decided to stop sleeping through the night. He was up a lot and made it a sleepless night for Chad and I both. He also decided that he missed eating in the middle of the night and has woken up every night since! :) I am not sure if it is a growth spurt, stubbornness or bad parenting, but we can't seem to get him back to sleeping through the night. We are still working on nap time as well which I am sad to say is not going any better. He is tired and falls asleep in his crib for 10-15 min and then wakes up crying. I go back in give him his binky and he goes back to sleep. Then 10-15min later he is awake again. I don't understand what he is doing. But if I pick him up and hold him he will fall asleep and stay asleep for 30min to an hour. He is such a stinker. I think Carter just wants to make us work hard! We will keep trucking along and hopefully our hard work will pay off. On the good side he is smiling a lot more and is looking at us and smiling on his own. He is developing a personality of his own and it is so rewarding to see him growing and changing everyday.

Carter's first Halloween

Well Carter made it through his first Halloween. Nights are never very good for him so he was cranky at times, especially when we put the hat on, but he was a trooper and Chad and I had a lot of fun. I am trying a new thing so that I can share more pictures. I am using shutterfly so just click on the link and you should be able to view the pictures. Click HERE

A new second cousin!

Here is a picture of the newest addition to the family. Chad's cousin Nick and his girlfriend Jessie had a new baby on Tuesday. His name is Myles Raymond. He was 6lbs 14oz and 19.5 inches long. Aunt Carrie and cousin Noah went with us to the hospital to visit and we got a picture of all of them together. As you can see they are almost all 3 months apart.