Week 16: whoa baby!!

This week has been nuts!! KR has night shifts (5:30pm to 8:00am!!) and has had to sleep during the day. Meanwhile, Dean and I had to make ourselves scarce which led to very little packing. Dean was extra fussy in the evenings since he missed his daddy, so the single mom thing was hard!! But today, KR assembled a very hard-working crew to move our big stuff and now we are officially half-living in two places. Oh don't worry, we have a wedding to go to in 45 minutes! Haha. Ok I will get to the part you are all really reading this for!
*Mr. Dean has learned the letter 'g'. He is making the sound, like in goat, and also a new gurgle sound.
*he likes to play with my arms while I change his diaper! So cute and loving.
*today he reached his friends hanging above him on his swing!! He seemed very proud of himself.
*I tried gas drops one day and that night he was up at 2am, 6am, 730am & 9am! The next day I stopped the drops, he was still up the next night at 330. But then last night he was pretty close to back to normal. He didn't go to bed til midnight and slept til 630 and went back down until 1030(this is much more his usual routine). But it seems like he fed a tiny bit better the last two days and was back to old bad habits today. You win some you lose some.
*I've been practicing with him this week-letting him grab the pacifier out of my hand and put it in his mouth. Most of the time he gets it in his mouth sideways and just chews but a few times he finally got it in correctly! He didn't suck hard enough though and it fell out right away.
*since Catherine was in town, I finally learned how to use my ring sling! Dean looks adorable in it but just like ergo, he fights it for a while, then loves it, then gets over it haha.
No pictures today because they take forever to load and I already tried once today and it failed and deleted everything I wrote haha. Hopefully soon but no promises.

15 weeks!

Wow!!! Time is flying!! We have begun our packing and are getting ready to move so soon! But its hard when KR never gets to be home and on top of that, his sister Catherine and her family are in town! We want to spend time with them, but have had to pack instead sometimes. But its all working out. It always does. One of my favorite sayings is, "Everything will be ok in the end; if its not ok, its not the end." Sorry, tangent. Haha. Ok, on to Mr. Dean!
*he has found his bottom lip again haha. He is slightly sucking on it again here and there. Still as cute as ever!
*he really likes his thumb...but not to suck on. He chews on it-to the point of gagging himself all the time!
*I was advised by someone that its possible his tongue-tie might have reattached itself after he had it clipped in the hospital (they didn't give us any directions on exercises to keep it from doing so....) And so this, in addition to him having a major lip-tie (in my opinion), might be contributing to his nursing issues. So we have an appt on Wednesday to see the lactation consultant and the Dr will join us. If they determine that is the case, they can give me a referral to the ent right there. I also was referred by someone to a Dr in the area that can clip it with a lazer so its essentially painless and will not require any stitches or anything. My poor baby though!!! I hate thinking about him having to go through this, but if it helps him... Oy. That about sums up parenthood right there right? Haha.
*it almost seems like Dean rolled over to prove he could and then got over it. Haha. He hardly ever does it any more! But I know he can and it wasn't just a fluke! I think he just realized if he rolls to his tummy, then he's in tummy time and that's not fun anymore! Haha.
*still lovin his toes.
*also still chatting up a storm. I love his little voice! He coos and squaks and I love listening to it!
*he's always smiled a lot but I feel like the last few days he's amped it up even more!! Makes me so happy!!









*while laying on his back, he does what I call his super man pose a lot! So cute!

















*he grabbed pupsy yesterday! While in the swing, oftentimes I will put his puppy on the tray, to look at but mostly just because. Yesterday I realized he had grabbed him somehow!!



*he is getting better at getting objects to his mouth. We are still practicing grabbing them though. If I put it in his hand, he can grab it but, he can't quite grab it yet if I just put it in front of him.
*oh duh! I took him in for a weight check, to make are he's eating enough through all this. He was 15 pounds, 7 ounces! He's definitely slowed down since he was younger, but he's still gaining and in the healthy range.
*

14 weeks

Now on to the Dean Diaries. Haha
*this week I realized he no longer sucks in his bottom lip. I'm grateful I got pictures of it and hopefully video. It was so dang cute!! But its better this way, for his lip.
*while in his swing, he is starting to put his foot up. It cracks me up!


*update: since I started typing this earlier today, there has been an exciting new development! Dean rolled over from his back to his stomach! He was laying on a blanket on the floor and KR came in to ask if I rolled dean over. He was on his tummy!! He put him back on his back and he did it again! He did it three times already! It's funny since he complains so much about tummy time and seems to have no interest in following from front to back. Ha ha. The way he rolls is he will grab his toes, and kind of fall/roll over to the side-he's been working on this all week. Then once he's on his side he flattens out and keeps rolling! I'm so impressed! I'm also still trying to get it on video.
I don't want to say its been an uneventful week, especially given his new trick, but I really can't think of any other changes or news. If anything else comes to me, I will make a part two tomorrow haha.

Moving Soon!!

We finally found an apartment!! We are so grateful and excited! It will be two bedroom and has laundry hook ups thank goodness!! And its closer to school for KR so its cutting his commute time in half!! It's so bittersweet though because we've lived in this apartment and neighborhood and ward for three years. And not just any three years. The first three of our marriage; this is where we started our lives together; this is where we figured things out and learned and grew together; where we started with no tv or couch and just sat on the floor playing games together, like yahtzee; where we learned to be healthier; where we had no heat or ac and KR had to put a fan in the window blowing on a bowl of ice water, creating our own ac. We have so many memories here and in our neighborhood. We can't even count how many walks we've taken-through the neighborhoods, to the mall, around the mall, to the park (which I'm going to miss a lot! Our new area is hilly!). And I can't even count how many times we get honked at by people we know who see us walking. It seriously happens all the time.
This is also where we started the biggest adventure together since marriage- Dean. All the memories of pregnancy (which some I guess I won't miss as much as others haha) and the process of praying and deciding to start our family, and then bringing home our precious new baby. We have been trying to move for a year now, it just kept not working out. I really wanted to move before we had Dean because I didn't want that many more emotional ties to this place. This home. Now its also the place where we learned how to best take care of this brand new baby we had been trusted with; how to run on very little sleep; how to best care for each other; the memory of me getting up in the middle of the night, trying to keep Dean quiet so as to not wake KR. The way the room was always bright enough from lamps plus, so I didn't need a light to see while feeding Dean, haha. The main reason for moving is space- Dean needs his own room and he needs a crib. Which means, I'm going to miss my baby sleeping right next to me. I mean, is it normal for my heart to hurt just thinking about it??
This is our home. Where the Stevens family was established in 2010. Where our kitchen is too small that we literally have no counter space(we use the table or stove), where we can tell if someone got a ticket at the intersection by the flash of the camera; where we have three lights in the bathroom but zero in the living room, therefore we have a garage/work lamp sitting on top of the free hutch we got off craigslist; where we have a nice porch with the free patio furniture our neighbor gave us when she got married and moved; where we have laughed and cried, rejoiced and mourned, prayed and read scriptures, talked and listened, where we have lived, in every sense of the word. To some it might just be a tiny apartment with no space and so-so amenities. But to me, to us, it is our home. I'm grateful for the new apartment and we truly do need to move, but I'm also truly going to miss apartment 86 on Scholls ferry rd. Number 86, the year KR and I were both born. It was always meant to be.
I'm grateful for the memories and more importantly my family. That no matter how many times we have to move and go through hard things, we are sealed and I will not have to go it alone. KR is by my side. That is one of my most favorite things about marriage-you've got your best friend with you. He is coming with me and so is Dean. I'm so grateful for that knowledge.
They are coming with me.

As promised....

Today Dean is three months old!!! I just wrote yesterday, so I promised to just post some pictures today. He had a hard afternoon, so I didn't get to take his 3 month pictures, but I did have two others in mind that I took a day or two ago.
So, here ya go!











This next one is him with the beautiful blanket Marissa made for him! It was his first use because I was too protective to let him sooner. I didn't want him to barf on it! Haha.




Today at church (blurry from the crack on my phone camera):

13 weeks!

Well I already posted about deans adorable first laugh (although he smiles a ton, I'm still waiting for him to do it again). But this week, he has discovered his toes!! And last night, they made it into his mouth ha ha.




*due to him grabbing his toes, he tends to roll to his side a lot more.
*while on his back, he arches and scoots up. Not cool because he can no longer be left unattended on the changing table ha ha.
*we got him his bumbo and he loves it!! Although in the last day, he has started reaching for his toes while in it, leaving him super slumped over, usually to the side haha.




*as you can see in that picture, he also can put toys in his mouth. Recently, he started not just putting his hands in his mouth, but any loose fabric, ie his bib, blanket, etc. So yesterday, I put a toy in his hand and he chewed on it! (I've tried this before and he wasn't quite ready). He can't take the toy from me yet but can grip it when it's put in his hand.
*because he is always putting his hands in his mouth, he has started gagging himself ha ha. I'm not a fan of this.




*he really likes his cloth book that makes crunchy noises, as well as his black and white baby animals book. If I sit him in my lap, he will hit it and talk and stare forever.
*when we give him his pacifier and hold it in for him, he will hold on to our hand. It's so sweet.

We went for our first family hike today! We went to Washington, in the Columbia Gorge. We only did part of the loop and turned back, for Dean's sake. On our way back, we heard thunder. While driving home, there was an emergency weather alert. A dangerous storm with lightening, large hail that could damage vehicles, and winds up to 60mph!! They said it was just south of where we were, and it was moving north!! We feel very grateful we were kept safe!

Deans first real laugh!!

I've mentioned before how Dean would do what I considered a laugh. Well he finally had his first real laugh!!! I'm sorry is don't know how to post a video through my blog app. But now that I have video on instagram, I will try and post it next time he laughs!!