Mom Muscles

Today as I sat rocking Wesley to sleep with his bottle, I was thinking back to when he was a newborn, when my back, neck and arms would ache from the constant carrying around a new baby and nursing every two hours. My body was not yet familiar with the muscles needed for "mommy-ing". But today, just 10 months later, I cradle a 25lb 31 inch baby around in one arm while making his bottle with the other. My mom muscles have grown, and so have I.

This makes me happy.

So Big

How did my little man get so big? He's now mobile, and kneeling. We're all loving the space in this new house.

6 months!!!

Holy cow! My baby is a half a year old! I know everyone says it, but seriously where does the time go. Mike and I never knew we could be SO in love with our little man, we are CRazY about him! I often hear Mike whispering to Wes "Do you know how much you are loved? Your mom and I love you more than you can know." His latest stats this week put him at 80% for Height at 27.25 in, 85% for weight at 20lbs, and he still has that huge noggin. We find that some shirts don't really fit all that well just because the neck won't fit over that HEAD.

These days he:

*has mastered rolling over, you have to watch closely because we put him down and next thing he is across the room, he's a speedy roller!

*is almost sitting up, he's a little wobbly, but almost there

*loves his vegi's! We've tried Peas, Green beans, and Squash so far.

*hates rice cereal

*is a chatter box, loves to talk

*has the cutest dimples!!! I don't know where they came from, but I adore them!

*Loves to smile

*is a happy boy in the morning

*is sleeping pretty well

*Loves his Nola girl, they are so fun to watch together. When we get home from errands Nola runs to greet Wes first thing in his carseat.

He's always watching her and smiling at her funny movements.

We love our "baby bear"! (Mike's always telling Wes he is built for the arctic with all his extra layers, he's our little polar bear) Happy 6 months Wesley!!!

Puppy Love

Two Months!

Say it ain't so! My baby is TWO MONTHs old! I can't believe he is growing so fast. My love for him grows everyday.

This boy is a lot like his Daddy and loves the morning, he is all smiles when he gets up for the day around 7.

He smiles and laughs a little coo-like laugh at Dad to say goodbye as he gets ready for work.

He LOVES bath time and has just started to kick and splash more, which makes holding onto him challenging, but he is oh so fun to watch.

He loves Nola and she equally adores him. She is always checking to see if he is ok in his carseat as we return home and she loves going on walks all together when the weather is nice. She follows him around whenever we pick him up. I love that she has adapted so well to a new baby at home.

He's a great little eater and is growing like a weed.
Today we found out he is 13.1 lbs and 24 1/4 inches, both exactly at the 80th percentile. He's our little chunky monkey.

We also had our 2 month shots today, which were not so fun. I managed to not cry at the Doctors office, which is a miracle, and he's been so sleepy and cuddly at home. That will make it hard to go back to work for me tomorrow, but I'm glad I've been able to snuggle him all day (thank goodness for Tylenol and the Sleepy Wrap). Tomorrow morning he will head out to work with Dad at Kohl's where there is a daycare on site. I love knowing that Mike is right there if Wesley needs anything. Mike can go give him a bottle or take him out to lunch whenever he wants. We sure love our little smiley man.
Sorry for the bad photo, but after the flash he didn't want anything to do with pictures and since our shots he has slept almost all day. We'll get a better one later tonight.

Family

We had a surprise 1 day trip to northern Utah and my baby sister got to meet her nephew...she was all smiles! She is one gorgeous young aunt! Wesley is so lucky to be so loved by all the Bauter Clan.

Aunt Mary

Uncle Ben

Aunt Mary steals Wes back

Grammy Bauter and Great-Grandma Naisbitt

Papa Bauter

Uncle Ben and Aunt Denver Visit

We couldn't be luckier to have these cute newlyweds out to visit their new nephew. We had so much fun all week. We're slowly trying to convert all of our family to the cheesehead way of life. We toured 3 different brewery's, tried 8 flavors of custard, visited the Cheese castle, experienced Chicago deep dish at Giradonos, made fresh mozzarella, watched movies, ate Friday fish fry, cooked up a storm, hit lake drive, had appetizers at Miller Park, made corn beef and cabbage for St. Patrick's day,... and spent lots of quality time changing baby diapers (Ben is a champ!). Wesley was such a great baby being carted all over the city. By the end of the week during our last Brewery Tour Mike said "so Wesley has been on 3 brewery tours in one week and we've only been to church 1.5 times!" Ha! Maybe we need to revamp our parenting philosophy. We are so lucky to have such a great family. We miss them already. Thanks for coming to visit Uncle Ben and Aunt Denver!!

y.

One Month

Our Wesley turned 1 month last week, he is such a joy to have in our home. He just started smiling when we tickle under his arms and make silly noises at him, it is the ultimate reward to get those smiles after changing multiple diapers a day. Also this last week we hit a milestone and Wesley is no longer fussing most of the day (which I love, I feel so much more sane now, Ha!). He now loves to lay with Nola, sit in his bouncer and be cuddled by Mom and Dad. He's a great eater and is already pretty good at holding his head up and loves to kick against your legs and try to stand up.

Here is our happy family on Wesley's 1 month birthday! At his check up he was
11 lbs = 80% for weight
22.75 in = 75% for height
15.75in = 90% for head size

We have a little linebacker on our hands.


My handsome sleeping men! Wesley is so fun to cuddle with.



Wes and Nola hanging out (sorry for the red-eye, my editing program is on the fritz).

One of the very first smiles! We love the gummy grin! Love you Wes!!!

Coming Home

He's FINALLY Here!!

Wesley Michael Spencer has arrived, making his debut at a whopping 9 lbs 4.4oz and 21 inches. We were SO ready. It all started with our Doctor appointment on Friday morning......enter BIRTH STORY:(details for family and remembrance..sorry to bore some).

Mr. Wesley was 3 days post-due and we needed to see how he was doing. To our surprise the ultrasound predicted this "little man" to be between 9lbs and 9lbs 13oz....WHAT! We were shocked, we thought we'd have a big baby(I was 8.2 and Mike 8.8), but weren't expecting 9+ pounds. My body and the baby were showing no signs of progressing to delivery. Given the size of this kid and no signs of my being ready to deliver the doctor thought that maybe we should consider a scheduled c-section with the added risks of delivering a Large Baby, rather than risk an emergency c-section.

This was not at all what I had expected. This has truly been a great pregnancy, I have felt great and was still sleeping relatively well (even in this last month). So a c-section was not even a thought I'd considered. I broke down and had a rough afternoon processing the news from our doctor. Mike was such a rock, reminding me that all he wanted was for his wife and son to be safe and healthy. The positive was that we knew we wouldn't have to wait too much longer to see our baby. My Dr offered to do the c-section on Sunday as he would be on call anyway, so we knew it was coming.

My mom arrived Friday night. We sat down to watch a movie and out of no where I started having regular contractions. We timed the contractions and they were lasting between a minute and a minute and a half and were spaced about four minutes apart. After about two hours of regular contractions we thought that maybe the Dr. was wrong and we would be having a baby the old fashion way that night.

(Watching a movie, timing our contractions)

(Arriving at the hospital Friday night)

So we packed up and went to the hospital. When we arrived they hooked me up to the monitor and began to assess my "readiness" to deliver. Well, wouldn't you know it, once hooked up to the monitors the contractions became less frequent, less intense and I was making no other progress. They kept us at the hospital for a couple hours for observation, we walked those halls for 2 hours straight trying to get something started, but no progression meant were were getting sent home.

Saturday the contractions came back but were all over the place. At about eleven that night the contractions were so intense we decided we needed to go back to the hospital. This time I didn't go home. I was still not progressing (dilated to 3, baby not dropping) and since the c-section was scheduled for the next morning they started an epidural to see if I would last through the night. The epidural was my best friend! I seriously don't know how women do it without, I love modern medicine. I felt amazing as soon as it started, I could breath and smile and get excited for what was to come. We slept until the Dr got there and we were ready to go...then we got bumped 3 hours later because 2 emergency c-sections came in. At this point, my body had been laboring since Friday night and it was now 10:30a Sunday morning, I was exhausted.

(Ready for the c-section to start, the BEST NURSE ever, Gina)

(Mike all gowned up to meet me in the OR)

We got ready for the OR and within minutes Wesley was born. The 2 doctors working on me kept saying how anxious they were to get him on the scale. 9 lbs 4.4oz and 21 inches long! A big boy!

They finished stitching me up and took Wes to the NICU to monitor his breathing. By the time I was finished and through recovery Wes was ready for us to come visit him. He did so well that they let us bring him right up to our room and he didn't have to stay more than 1 hour.

(recovery Room)

We are all doing fabulous. Mike is a wonderful Dad, taking care of us all and making sure everyone is rested and happy.

my "little" BIG man!!

Wesley Michael Spencer:

Born 1/23/11 @ 11:00a

9 lbs 4.4 oz

21 inches long

Story to follow.

love my job

I love my job, so much in fact that I'm blogging about it while I'm on Maternity leave awaiting this little stinker...I mean my precious baby boy's arrival. I'm only one day past my due date so it's really not big deal, but I've cleaned the kitchen like 3 times in the last two days, dusted, vacuumed, watched like 5 episodes of A Baby Story on TLC, walked the mall everyday for an hour, gave the dog a bath, and now I'm going to go take a nap. I can't complain, I've had a fabulous few days to myself, but I do miss work just a little. I have some seriously fun people that I get to hang out with and I love interacting with my patients everyday, feeling a sense of accomplishment when we complete something on the treatment plan, and I love getting to tell them they don't have to come see me until the next cleaning/exam.

We had a fabulous Christmas party this year. My boss has a life size "man" sculpture in his house, my assistant and I had fun taking funny pictures around it.
I was spoiled with a new purse, scarf and driving gloves....Now let me just say a little something about driving gloves...I had no idea what I was missing out on, these things are amazing. They fit so snug and don't slide along the steering wheel when you are turning the corner, and so warm and comfy! Of course I love the snazzy purple.

Like I said, I love the people I work with....we are quite an attractive bunch if I do say so myself!