Sleep Challenges Part 117

This week Austin sleeping has been off. She had started to wake in the middle of the night later and later and I thought she was going to wean herself off her night time feed. Boy was I wrong. On Wednesday night she woke up around 4:15am and before I even went in there (I always wait 5 minutes) she put herself back to sleep. Awesome, right? Well, on Thursday she woke up at 1am and from then until 6am I cannot even count how many times she was up. On Friday night we put her to bed around 7:15pm and she sleep all the way through to 7:45am not making a peep, I thought to myself on Saturday morning who is this baby. And of course this was just a fluke because last night she got up three times. We really have boiled it down to her teething. She is not sick; she does not have a temperature, so we do not know what else it could be. I was fine with her getting up once a night to feed and it had been that way for the last couple of weeks, but getting up 3-4 times a night wears on you. She is also almost 6 months old and that is the age where they say you can start letting her “Cry It Out.” I never thought I would be a parent who would do that, but lack of sleep has made me reconsider.


On a happier note, Jaxson was able to come home from the hospital on Friday. I told Ragen now the real fun begins. She has texted me a couple times to ask questions and I am so happy I am able to give my perspective on things. I know as a new mother, I am constantly asking other mothers for advice or their point of view.


This week the new food we introduced was applesauce. It went over great. Austin is now getting applesauce and cereal for breakfast and sweet potatoes and cereal for dinner. Next week we are having a photographer come to the house to take 6 month old photos of Austin. Can you believe she is already going to be 6 months old? I cannot. Time has flown by. Now that she is almost 6 months old I have started to look into activities her and I can do together. I found a place that starts swimming lessons at 6 months. I am leaning towards that since it will be important for Austin to learn how to swim.

Jump Jump!

Sweet Potatoes Oh My!

Yesterday we decided it was time to start Austin on fruits and veggies. The first one we chose was sweet potatoes. As you can tell from the photos below at first she was not too sure about them, but by the end she seemed to really like them a lot. So now she is getting oatmeal and sweet potatoes for breakfast and oatmeal for dinner. Next week we are going to introduce another fruit or veggie (they say to wait 3-7 days to make sure there are no allergies to the new food). We have not decided which one yet. We were originally going to start with bananas but I read that if there is a known allergy in the family you should hold off introducing that food until 1 year. I am going to wait to speak to the doctor, but I really do not want to chance anything. (I know I am weird being allergic to bananas, but so was my Grandma).

Austin has now mastered rolling from front to back and back to front that she is using it as mode of getting around. She is very quick and had ninja like skills. She wore out both my Mom on Thursday and Luke on Friday trying to keep up with her. Oh Lord, help us all when she starts crawling. We need to get on with childproofing our house.

We all went to the grocery store today as a family and we use our shopping cart cover so Austin could sit in the cart (or lean to the side in the cart). I finally put some groceries next to her to keep her propped up straight. I guess we jumped the gun with this one.

Austin's song

Our friend Daniel Espy wrote Austin a little song the day she was born and sent it to Luke. Luke just found it again in his e-mail and asked me to post it on the blog. Enjoy! (click on "Austin's Song")

5 month update and more...

I have not really blogged for two weeks. A lot has been going on in our lives; let’s see if I can recap it. Two Wednesdays ago, Luke's Mom came into town to visit and help with Austin while my parents went out of town. She spent Thursday with my Mom and Friday with Luke "learning the ropes" and then all this past week she has watched Austin during the day while we were at work. Last Saturday we decided to try Austin on oatmeal and she seemed to enjoy it a lot better than the rice cereal. Over the past week she has really gotten the hang of eating and is eating more and more. On Friday we decided to add a second feeding of oatmeal for dinner. We will probably start on out first fruit (bananas) next Saturday. I am really excited to see how she reacts to them. Also as you probably saw from the videos I posted below, Austin is working on sitting up on her own. She is doing so well.

Other non-Austin news is we have had a crazy week. First on Monday evening my Uncle Jack was hit by car when his truck broke down on the side of the freeway. He was with his best friend Kevin and Kevin's son Spencer. They were off on the shoulder of the freeway when a gentleman driving a SUV lost control of his car and hit them. Kevin was not hit, Jack got clipped and Spencer was hit straight on. Unfortunately Spencer died from his injuries. He was only 13. My Uncle was very lucky. He has some broken bones, but has already been released from the hospital to start healing.

On Tuesday my Sister-in-law April was not feeling well and went to urgent care. They told her to go to the emergency room. When she was there they decided they wanted to do a cat scan and gave her iodine. Unbeknownst to her she is allergic to iodine and went into anaphylactic shock. Thank god she is okay now and home from the hospital.

Then...I know you are thinking can this all really happen in one week. My best friend Ragen texted me on Thursday morning and said that she was having bad back pain and cramps and the doctor had not called her back and she did not know what to do. Even though I was never in labor and I had very few contractions I paid attention in my birthing classes and I knew what Ragen was describing was contractions and she could possibly be in labor. I told her to call the on-call doctor ASAP. The on-call doctor told her to come to the hospital for monitoring. Well, she was in labor and she was only 34 weeks pregnant. So all day Thursday and Friday they gave her shots to try and stop the contractions. On Saturday morning though her water broke and at 4:20pm Jaxson Jesus Jauregui entered this world weighing 4lbs 13ozs and 18 inches long. He is doing wonderful. He will have to spend sometime in the NICU for precautionary reasons. We are going to try and go to the hospital today to visit them.

Last night Luke and I were able to go to our friends Mike and Erika’s wedding. They got married at the same place we got married at up in Carefree and it was very nostalgic. It was a wonderful wedding and was really nice to have some mommy and daddy time. This was the first time we have not put Austin to bed ourselves. I was a little concerned how she would react to having a bedtime bottle instead of a bedtime boob, but she took it like a champ. I am so proud of her.

Well I think I have carried on long enough, here are a few pictures from this week of our smiley girl. Also one of her already trying to feed herself.

Sitting up like a big girl

Here are some videos I took today of Austin sitting up like a big girl. She is still a little wobbly, but she is getting the hang of it.

Happy 5 months old Austin!

YUM-O

Yesterday we decided to start Austin on solids and she had her very first taste of rice cereal (see pictures below). The feeding went surprisingly well. I think she actually ate some of cereal and it did not all end up on her face. The faces she made were too funny and I cannot wait until we feed her again today. Luke and I decided that we are going to feed her around lunchtime for starters. This is generally when she seems most hungry during the day. That being said, My Mom will be feeding Austin during the week and I will only get to feed her the cereal on weekends :(.