Weekly Pictures and Updates

**WARNING... LONG POST

LOT'S OF PICTURES BELOW THOUGH**

This week has been a good week. David and I are starting to get into a good routine with Tucker. Here's a little update on easch of us, and then LOT'S of pictures of the week. :)

David: Work is getting busy for David. He was approved for overtime to try and get all of the budgets finished by next Friday, the 19th. So he worked some long hours this week, including Saturday for 6 hours. He is enjoying work still, and loves the everyday challenges it brings. His church calling hasn't kept him too busy, except for the last week or so as they are doing charte renewal which is what he's in charge of. It's so fun when David comes home everyday for lunch. He loves to snuggle with Tucker and spend time with him, and then in the evening it's the same routine. His favorite thing is to lay in bed with Tucker sleeping on his chest. I've gotten some cute pictures of it. He's such a great Dad. I can't wait until Tucker starts to recognize when his Daddy get's home from work. It's going to be SO fun!

Jenn: I have been busy busy busy being a Mommy. Tucker and I spend all day together and it is great. On Tuesday he and I went and made Christmas goodies with Brittany and her little boy Randy. We had a lot of fun. Wednesday was our first trip to the grocery store and it was succesful. Friday we put up the Christmas stuff, and Saturday we went to a baby shower for Brindy in Corvallis and visited with our friends Kim and Chris. Because of all of those activities... today I sat around because I hurt. Yes, I'm really good at overdoing it too soon. We woke up today to snow though, and I decided that taking Tucker out in it wasn't the greatest thing, so we stayed home from church. David stayed with us since the roads were kind of yucky.

Tucker: Our little man is growing like a weed. I swear everyday he is going through a growth spurt. He is still sleeping pretty well as long as we get him down around 10:30, he sleeps until about 4:00. Then he eats, poops, has a diaper change, and eats again for about an hour and goes back to bed until around 8:00. If we put him to bed any sooner than 10:30 he gets up every 3 hrs. it seems. So we don't mind staying up later with him. We are also giving him a formula bottle with about 4 ounces in it before bed, and then I nurse him to sleep and that seems to work well. During the day while we are at home, we like to just hang out. When he is awake I will talk to him about anything and everything and he just looks at me like I'm crazy. But I love it! :)

So I hope everyone enjoys these pictures, they are in no particular order. :)

Tucker fits so well under our tree.

He seems to enjoy it under there.

Our cute little tree.
We love it!

Whether nursing or with a bottle. this is what Tucker does with his hands when he eats. So cute!

This is how he looks after he eats. We call it his "milk drunk look". I love the milk beard he gets!

This was Tucker helping me decorate for Christmas. :)
This is the look that Tucker gives us when we talk to him.

Tucker and David assuming their favorite position.

Mommy and Tucker on His first snow day! :)

Tucker and Mommy snuggling on the front porch in the snow.

Our Front Porch This Evening.

A blurry David in the snow. He had fun playing in it, He's such a big kid!

Mothers Intuition

I have heard my whole life of this "Mothers Intuition", and having never been a mother before I never really understood it. I always thought it was so interesting to see the bond between a mother and their child. Such a precious gift. Today I was holding Tucker and talking to him about any little thing I could think of and he was WIDE awake jsut looking at me. At one point I said something and then just smiled at him and after a few seconds he gave me the biggest smile. I hoep this is the beginning of my favorite stage with a baby when they start to smile and respond. Tucker was awake a lot today, and I have loved every second of it. :) Back to the mothers intution though. Every night after I put Tucker down to sleep I lay in bed myself and wonder when he will want to wake up and eat. Now, I know full well that he will let me know loud and clear when he is ready to eat. He knows what he wants. Anyway, it seems though that every night I wake up just before he starts waking up and squirming to eat. I roll over look at the clock, and within a few seconds I hear him in the monitor starting to squirm. So I always wait until I know he's awake and then go in and get him. It's nice because then he's not super pissed by the time I get him. And even though it is really late (or really early depending on how you look at it) I love that time with Tucker. We've come to an agreement on our schedule and as long as we both follow it, we are both happy. If I lay Tucker down between 10:30 and 11:00, he usually wakes up between 3:15 and 4:00. He'll be awake for about 60 - 90 minutes for nursing and a diaper change, and then back to bed until 8:00. So I will nurse him at 8:00, then he takes a cat nap while I eat breakfast, and then it's bath time and on with our day. It's SO much fun, and I love being a Mom more than anything in the world. It is hard for me to look at Tucker and know that one day he will not need me as much as he does now. But I look at my brothers and how close they are with my Mom and I pray that Tucker and I can have a bond like that!

Priorities

It's amazing how priorities change when you have a baby. Here is an example of what my kitchen would look like before Tucker came...

(note: this is not my real kitchen, just one I found online to use an example of how clean my would be)

Since Tucker has been born, my kitchen more often looks like this...

(note: again, not my real kitchen, just an example of how messy it gets)

This is just one example of how priorities have changed. Normally after dinner or any meal the kitchen is picked up and cleaned. Not so much anymore, just doesn't seem as urgent. And things like laundry. Normally it's all done in one day, and by done I mean washed, dried, folded and put away. Now it get's washed and dried hopefully in one day, sometimes it gets washed one day and forgotten about so rewashed the next day and hopefully dried, and then probably put away the day after that! Life just has things that are more important now! :) Things like this... Napping with my baby any chance I get! :)

First Day At Church (Jenn's New Calling)

So today we made our way to Sacrament meeting with Tucker for the first time. We debated on whether or not we were going to go this week or wait a week but the Bishop made the decision for us. On Tuesday the Bishop came over and extended a calling to me... 1ST COUNSELOR IN RELIEF SOCIETY! WHAT!?!?!? Yeah, that's right... Relief Society. It's pretty crazy but I'm excited. The RS president is AWESOME and so is her 2nd counselor and secretary so I am really excited to work with them. They sustained me in Sacrament today so I thought it would be nice if I was there for it. We left right after Sacrament because my incision still hurts me intermittently so we decided to just ease our way back into 3 hours of church. Probably after the first of the year we will be going all three hours, but we'll see! Tucker did awesome today. He slept the whole time, even when people were looking at him and touching his little hands. He's such an angel baby. :) Here are a few pictures from today and this week. :) ENJOY!

His Big Boy Church Outift. We don't think he looks like a newborn baby in this picture. I guess weighing 11 pds will do that also. :)

We Love His Little Angel Face

He always sucks on his lower lip when he sleeps.
It's freaking cute!

Paitently Waiting His Turn For The Bathroom. He loves to be in just a diaper, as long as the room is warm.
This is how he is wrapped when he sleeps at night and during naps. He looks like a little burrito. This is the only time he will allow his hands to be under the blankets. His hands are normally SO cold because he fights to get them out when he's awake. He's so funny!

Snuggling with Daddy after church.

A favorite activity for both of my boys!

The Comfort Of Mommy

The other day my Mother-in-law came down to take me to my Dr.'s appointment. On the way home we stopped by Walgreens so I could pick up a prescription for Tucker from the day before. I ran in while my Mother-in-law waited in the car with Tucker. I knew that he was getting hungry so I tried to go as fast as I could, but of course the pharmacy was taking forever since it was a first prescription for him. When I finally get out to the car Tucker is SCREAMING in the back seat. My Mother-in-law was trying to soothe him with his binki but he just wasn't having it. So, I get right into the back seat with him, give him his binki, rub my finger on his cheek, and start talking to him. He calmed down right away. He still had the aftershocks of the crying, but it was the first time that I really felt like the Mom. It was so awesome to be the one that calmed him down, and gave him the sense of security or whatever it was he was looking for. Once we got home I fed him right away and was just in Heaven that I was able to comfort him. :) Being a Mom is SO amazing! :)

Tuckers 2-Week Check-Up

Just thought I'd update everyone on Tucker's 2-week check-up.

* Weight - 10 lbs. 6 oz., which puts him in the 99% (that's 7 oz. above birthweight. When we came home he was only at 8 lbs 14 oz., so in 10 days he's gained 1 lb 6 oz. Yeah, he has NO problems eating!)

* Length - 22 1/2 inches which puts him in the 99% (at birth he was 20 1/2. I asked the Dr. if growing 2 inches in 2 weeks is normal. The Dr. told me that they probably were off on the measurement at birth because he was so scrunched up.)

* Head - 38 1/2 which puts him in the 95% (it was 39 when he was born, but that was including his huge goose egg from the vacuum. Yeah, did we mention that it may have been a c-section but he was so wedged they needed a vacuum. Crazy Baby!)

We have had a few nights with little sleep, but last night I discovered that at night Tucker doesn't mind being swaddled, arms and everything, when he sleeps. I swaddled him around 5:15 and I had to wake him up to go to our 8:45 appointment this morning. His favorite place to sleep is on Daddy's chest or in Mommy's arms. He's a lot like his Boehrer Uncles (Mommy's brothers), he doesn't care what you do to him or what's going on as long as he has a full tummy. He poops... ALL THE TIME! He has lot's of good dreams that let Mommy enjoy his smiles when I catch them. But every once in awhile he will have a bad dream and wake up screaming. Poor baby! His Daddy comes home for lunch every day and the first thing he does is kiss me and then cuddle his Little Buddy, it's so cute! All-in-all he's a great baby and we love him to pieces!

Here's One Of The Few Good Dreams

I Caught With A Camera