Wow babies grow fast!

Our little boy is growing so fast! Above is the picture we took of Matthew the day he came home from the hospital. Jamie had bought a hat for him that was 3-6 months because he really liked it and they didn't have one smaller. As you can see, Matthew has grown into it very well. It was drowning him that day and now it fits him perfectly. I know I a bias but I think he is the cutest baby ever! He is such a sweet heart. He sleeps through the night. I have to wake him at 3:00 am so I can nurse him and not loose my milk supply. He goes right back to sleep and sleeps soundly until about 7:00am. He only cries when he needs something. He is such a wonderful baby. I have been really worried lately because my milk supply has diminished significantly recently. I have seen one lactation specialist and I am going to see another one tomorrow. I really believe in breast feeding and I want Matthew to have it's benefit for as long as possible. Plus, dang formula is expensive! I think this may be happening for a few reasons. One, I am back at work and it is pretty stressful. Two, Matthew is getting used to the flow of a bottle and he gets frustrated easily and gives up on nursing. Three, he wants to eat solid foods. I pray that his appointment tomorrow will give me some answers as to how I can prevent having to stop nursing.

Winter Wonderland

One morning to awoke to find a beautiful winter wonderland outside our back door. All of our bushes were covered with snow and Timpanogous in the background was breathtaking. Grandma Gums had given Matthew this darling little hat for Christmas. When we put it on we knew we had to get pictures of him in the snow. They turned out really nice. I feel so blessed to live in such a beautiful place. We live only about a half a mile from Timpanogous mountian and we have a wonderful view of it from our back yard. God truly made this world for our enjoyment and it sure is wonderful. I also feel blessed to have such a perfect baby. Sometimes I sit in awe of the blessing it is to create life. There is nothing that compares. I have so much love for my little child that the world cannot contain it. Life is such a common miracle, we take it for granted. I pray I can live my life in a way as to thank the Lord for the blessing of my son's life.

Thanks Grandma Gums for keeping me warm in my hat and gloves!

Timpanogous Mountain in the background. This is right in our back yard.

From Matthew's bedroom window.

I'm eating real food now!

Our sweet baby is now eating solid foods. Jamie has been jealous from the beginning, being the food conasur that he is, that he has not been able to feed Matthew. Finally I gave in and said we could give him some rice cereal. He was very hungry at the time and didn't understand that this was a way to make him feel better. The first pictures at the bottom show how upset he was. He picked up on it very fast and now he is a wonderful eater. The picture above is his first time eating sweet potatoes. He has tried multiple foods, his favorite seems to be avacado. He usually gobbles it down really fast with very little on his face. Jamie is very proud of his little boy. He is planning on teaching him all he knows about cooking.

My first rice cereal

Daddy wanted me to feed myself a bite.

I was really hungry, I didn't understand that this was going to make me feel better.

Cooking with Mommy.

Wow, look at all this food! Will I actually eat this some day?

Our sweet boy is a lot like his daddy. He loves to be in the kitchen. We started placing him in his bumbo chair on the kitchen counter when we cook and he will sit there happy watching us for a long time. He seems facinated by cooking. Jamie can't wait to start feeding him. I have had to tell him many times why it is not smart to start feeding him already.

Shy smile :)

I love to be in the kitchen!

Cooking with Mommy

I wonder if I'll like broccoli?

Surgey blues!

Jamie had surgery on his arm on 1/25/10 to fix a non-union of the bone that was previously operated on. In October 2006 Jamie got in a motorcycle accident and miraculously only received minor injuries. He did not make it into the doctor in time so his broken arm had already started to heal incorrectly. The doctor decided to allow it to heal then perform surgery on the radius placing a wedge of bone from his hip in the side of the radius to correct the angle of the bone. This was performed in February of 2007. Last year Jamie went in to see the same doctor in order to have the hardware removed. It was then that we found out that the graft had never fully healed. He would need surgery again to re-graft the bone . This surgery that he had in January was even bigger than the last one. Over time the unhealed bone had started to colapse on itself and bow out. The bones in his wrist were not in correct alignment with the radius and ulna. The doctor suggested removing a short section of ulna in order to increase his range of motion in his wrist and decrease pain. After much prayer and fasting we finally decided the morning of surgery to go ahead and shorten the ulna. The surgery took about 3 hours when the doctor expected it to take about 1.5-2 hrs. It took almost an hour just for the doctor to cut through all the scar tissue and access the previous graft. It was in bad shape. One of the screws had broken and the other had worn a large hole in the bone. The hardware was replaced, the graft was dug out and replaced with more bone from his right knee(tibia) and the ulna was shortened about 5mm. He was so swollen after the surgery that the doctors had to place staples in place of sutures. It has been 12 days now and he is still swollen. They have now placed a temporary cast on his arm. It is great because you can remove it and shower. He will not be able to do anything with that arm for at least 6 weeks. He has been a good sport but he is in a lot of pain.

Back to work :(

I am sad to say that my maternity leave is officially over. I went back to work on Wednesday January 6th. I have to say it was one of the hardest things I have ever done. It was so hard to leave my little pumpkin. I planned it on purpose so that I would only have to deal with a half a week for the first week. I was lucky enough to convince my boss to let me work from home on Fridays temporarily. It will be hard but well worth it. I am so thankful for technology that allows me to work from home. This first week has been hard for me but Matthew has done great. Matthew is being watched by my sister Amy's Nanny Lillian. She has done a great job so far. One plus is that she will speak to Matthew in Spanish. I am excited for him to learn two languages.

Happy New Year!