Food!

It's a little bittersweet but today we had a major milestone.  We started our little monkey on solid food!  We went a slightly non-traditional route (not any surprise if you know me).  We waited until he was almost 6 months old, could sit well on his own, lost his tongue thrust and was showing interest in our foods.  We also skipped the rice cereal and pureed baby foods.  Instead we went straight to soft table foods. 
First up... AVOCADO!

 We put it on the tray of S's Bumbo and let him check it out for a while.  Honestly he wasn't that interested, even when we started eating bites of it.  He put his hands in it but never really brought it up to his mouth.  So we put a few pieces up to his lips to see if we could get him interested but he seemed more focused on watching the dog. 

It may have been bad timing.  I wanted to start today while Mike was home for it and about a week before his next well-baby check.  His pedi was adamant about me starting solids no later than 5 months and doing the traditional rice cereal.  So this way I can honestly tell him at the next appt that we have already started solids so I don't have to get into yet another disagreement with the pedi.  On a separate note, I'm beginning to wonder if we need a different pediatrician who thinks more like I do. But today S had just woken up from a nap and still isn't feeling great because he has a cold.  He actually spit up several times while he was playing with the avocado.  So maybe tomorrow will go better.

Tonight at dinner though mom put some bread in S's mouth to see what he would do and he made this funny face, almost like "ick", and pushed the bread out with his tongue.  =)  Solids are going to be a process.  But I'm fine with that.  I like that S still wants to get all his food from me and I hope it stays that way for a long time still.

You've come a long way baby...

A few days ago our little monkey turned 5 months old. I can hardly believe that just 5 months ago they rushed us in for an emergency c-section and introduced us to our son. We celebrated 5 months with a trip to the cardiologist who decided that we can start weaning Sawyer off one of his heart medicines! That's a whole month earlier than we expected to even start discussing if coming off any of the medicines was an option. She said that Sawyer was making great progress and sounding good. Even better, we're weaning off the medicine he gets three times a day, as in the one he gets at 6am, 2pm, and 10pm. Because if you have kids you know, there's nothing better than waking a sleeping baby. Fortunately for us Sawyer sleeps through taking his medicine but we figured it was just a matter of time before he would actually wake up and not want to go back to sleep. Hopefully in about 5 - 6 months we'll be done with that medicine and just down to one and that one won't require waking the sleeping baby! The cardiologist visit was such a yay God moment: to be reminded that everything was taken care of in such a way to protect Sawyer's health while he developed before birth, during birth, and afterwards so that we have our own little miracle - a healthy, happy son.

We love our baby so much and can't believe how big he is. He's already pushing out the feet on his 6 month sleepers and I had to go buy shorts in the 6 - 9 month size because his current ones were too short for him. At his 4 month checkup he was still in the 75% for length and we think he's had a couple of growth spurt since then. He's a happy baby that loves to talk and play. He adores his dad and is already watching Mike's every move. Lately he's become fascinated with the dog and will watch Apollo all day long. About a month and a half ago we saw the first tooth bud in Sawyer's mouth and in the last couple of weeks teething behavior has gotten into full swing. He prefers to chew on his hands and our fingers instead of his chew toys still though. And I'm starting to teach him that nursing and chewing do not go together. Mommy is not a chew toy!

He can roll from his back to his side and from his stomach to his back. He doesn't like tummy time and once he learned to roll over it's been hard to get any tummy time with him. That's actually our theory for why he won't roll all the way over - why go from his side to his stomach when he knows he doesn't like it there. He has strong legs though and loves to stand. We think he may be an early walker so heaven help us! Sawyer still sleeps part of the night with us. He starts out in his bed and then I bring him to bed with us during the night. I'm not ready to stop waking up to his big happy grins in the morning. He'll only be little for a while. Plus sleeping with us means that he pretty much sleeps through the night and what parent in their right mind wants to give that up?

I took Sawyer's 5 month photos the other day but haven't gotten them edited yet. They'll be up soon and I'll post the link. Here he is though with my Uncle Bob and Aunt Dixie when we saw them a few weeks ago in Oklahoma.

DG and Sawyer

I've been wanting to post this picture for a while but it's been too hard to do. Right after Sawyer was born my grandmother fell in her apartment. DG never truly recovered and when Sawyer was not quite 6 weeks old we realized that we needed to go visit her in the nursing unit. I coordinated with my brother and his family and we all went up to Oklahoma City to see her and to say hello and goodbye. That way she got to see both her great-grandchildren at the same time. She just adored Sawyer. I had hoped that she would get better and that we would get better pictures of her and Sawyer, but these were the only ones we have. We came home on Sunday and she died Wednesday evening. We miss her.

Baby Dedication

Dear Sawyer,

Today you are almost 16 weeks old and today at church we had your baby dedication. Today was special for me because this is one of those things I dreamed about doing before we had you. It was one of the first things I signed you up for after you were born.
So today we dressed you in a pretty blue outfit with smocking that Nana bought for you and carried you on stage in front of the whole church. We were introduced and you waved to the church. Then we promised to raise you in the church. We promised to teach you God's truth at home. We promised to do our part to lead you to Christ. And then Pastor Pete prayed for you - for your walk with God and your faith, for your safety and health, for your friendships and your future wife. And he prayed for wisdom for us as your parents. Then we went with Angel Royal, both sets of grandparents, Damitra Masi, Uncle Griffin and Maryam, Lyndsay, Alan, Jack & Luke Heartsill, Erik Walker and Kelli, Maria and Forrest, Wes, Christy, Ethan & Alyssa Plaisance back to pray for you some more. You had other friends who wanted to be there and couldn't. Sarah was in Cambodia on her mission trip. Alli and Cesar had to be out of town. Steph and Dave Cone were sick. Oscar and Nicole were running a half marathon.
Looking around that circle of people who loved you though was very special. Those are all people who will be there for you during your life to support you and help you grow in your walk with Christ. They'll be there with your daddy and me to give us support and wisdom in how to raise you to know and love God. I know that you will be blessed because God has given you a wonderful church family to grow up in. And that's why this day meant so much to me before you were ever born. Of all the hopes and dreams I've had for you, the only one that is truly important, that truly matters more than anything is that you grow into a man who loves God and follows Christ passionately.

Love,
Mommy and Daddy

Easter 2011

We celebrated Easter this year with service at our church and then lunch at home with my parents. Here we are for our first family Easter. More pictures are up on facebook. Here's the public link to the album.
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150160529860044.292892.662435043&l=e97dcdc8bc

Updated photos

Here's a sample of updated photos of Sawyer.


Here we are the day Sawyer finally got to come home from the hospital.
And his first week home he would occasionally hold on to his own pacifier. Unfortunately, this one interfered with his nursing. The one he has now doesn't have a handle so he can't hold on to it. We have to put it back in his mouth whenever he wants it.

Sawyer's second week home was a big Oklahoma State basketball game. Mike and Sawyer watched and as you can see Mike was all decked out. Sawyer had an OSU onsie to go with his OK state hat.

We had to come up with some creative solutions, especially early on when I couldn't carry anything because of the c-section. How should Mike carry the baby and the laundry basket? Easy...

Our sweet baby sleeping...

And Spring in Texas means you need pictures in the Blue Bonnets.

More pictures

February 25 - 3 days old

Welcome Little One

Sawyer Michael Cross was born Tuesday, Feb 22, 2011 at 7:39pm. He weighed 7 pounds 8 oz and was 20.25 inches long. Here are a few pictures. More to come later as well as more information about his birth and his heart condition.

Maternity Photos

My sweet friends volunteered to take some maternity photos of me in the beginning of Jan. They said they wanted to practice their photography skills. Obviously they don't need to practice anymore and should start charging! My friends did such a great job!!
We kept the photos a secret to surprise Mike with them for his birthday. I gave him several prints and frame that he could take to work. No surprise - he took the OSU one to work! Here's a couple. Follow the link below to see the album we posted on facebook.

Here's the link to more of the pictures that we posted to facebook.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=267220&id=662435043&l=d7e70679b3

Latest Baby pictures

Week 29.
We had a 3D/4D ultrasound done this weekend. This was just for fun, not medical. we wanted the pictures of baby and we could also schedule it for a weekend that both our parents were in town so that the grandparents got a look at their new grandbaby. We still didn't find out whether it's a boy or a girl because we still want to wait. We did find out our baby is bald though! So much for the old wives tale that heartburn means you're having a hairy baby. Our baby decided to sleep through the whole ultrasound though and no amount of poking, jumping, and stretching could convince her/him to wake up. I couldn't do the traditional sugary orange juice drink to wake up baby because the doctor just diagnosed me with gestational diabetes. I tried a couple sips of Mike's coke but apparently it wasn't enough to get baby going. We still got lots of cute pictures though. Here are a couple of our favorites. If you want to see more then just follow this link to the ones on facebook http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=202330&id=662435043&l=33a03567dd

Here is baby smiling.


Here is baby sticking out his/her tongue.


Here baby is using his/her foot to scratch his/her ear. Clearly our baby has already been influenced by our dog. =) You can also see the baby's hand. Both the foot and hand were covering the face. Baby was being shy.

a couple of videos from the 19 week ultrasound

Mike was in charge of the camera during the ultrasound and he got a couple of good clips of Baby moving around.

19 week ultrasound photos

We had our big ultrasound at 19 weeks. Here are the u/s pictures. We also took some video and pictures with our camera that I'll post a little later. This is the profile view of Baby Cross. Baby is currently breech, which explains the kicking pattern I feel (lots of movement on my sides). Baby currently weighs about 10oz which puts him/her in the 66% percentile. I think that's a good spot. He/she can be an over-achiever on the growth chart after he/she is born.


This was a great shot of baby waving to us. Our baby showed feet, legs, arms, and hands during the ultrasound. Not too much of his/her face though, mostly kept his/her arm across the face.



Here's the top of baby's head. I asked the tech if our baby would be as melon-headed as Mike and right now the baby is pretty average. If it stays that way then we'll be able to find hats to fit Baby's head!
A view of the nose and lips with everything formed properly.


Here's baby's heart. It has 4 chambers and is beating like it's supposed! Yeah! Baby's heart rate was 150bpm.

And Mike and I had decided not to find out whether Baby is a boy or a girl. We're going to wait and be surprised! So far we've successfully made it through two ultrasounds without finding out. We know that we'll have at least one more ultrasound as we're going to have one of the 3D/4d ultrasounds for fun in Christmas when both our sets of parents can come. So there will more pictures to post of Baby then.

updated Baby pictures at 18 weeks

We've had some updated pictures recently. I got a surprise ultrasound when I went in last week. Baby had been moving everyday for a couple of weeks, but then I hadn't felt any movement for about three days. So the doctor had a look just to make sure everything ok. Of course everything was, and I would have been fine with just a doppler of the heart rate - but I'm not going to turn down a chance to look at the baby! It was a quick ultrasound, but her are the pictures. Baby looked great. He or she had turned around to the back which was why I couldn't feel him or her. Baby turned back around the next day. Mike would like to feel the kicking but he/she isn't quite strong enough for that yet.

Here the baby is looking at you. On the left you see his/her face turned toward you. You can see the eyes, nose, and lips. Baby was opening and closing his/her mouth the whole time. You can also see the belly turned somewhat and one arm on the side with a little fist! So cute! Baby was kicking and moving during the u/s which was also neat to see since the last ultrasound he/she was moving but was just kind of wiggly.


Here's another look. Baby's head is on the left looking down and that's his/her spine in the back. Baby is kind of curled up in this one. We also saw the baby's heart beating and it was a healthy 130bmp. That's our baby at 18 weeks old.

Baby Furniture

We bought our baby furniture a few weeks ago. We found a set that we liked at Babies R'Us but we weren't in a hurry to get it. We haven't decided for sure yet if we're going to move and so we weren't interested in getting something, hauling it upstairs, assembling it and then moving it. However, BRU decided to have a trade-in sale that would allow us to get 25% off the price of the crib. Since they don't have frequent sales we decided to go ahead it get it. Plus, by opening their credit card we got an additional 10% off the set and got a $100 gift card to use in the store. It was really just too good a deal to pass up. We were hoping that the furniture would be on back-order but it wasn't. We'll be picking it up this weekend but leaving it in the wrapping in our garage until we decide whether or not we're moving. Here's a picture from the website though so you can see what it looks like. We bought the crib and the lower 6-drawer dresser. The dresser we can use as a changing table. Also, we got the full-bed rails as the crib converts to a toddler bed and then to a full size bed. To see the look in a room setting you can follow this link: http://www.babiitalia.com/html/bi_ham.html#

Changes in our family

We are pleased to announce that Apollo will be a big brother. The new little one will arrive around March 1 and will resemble Mike and me rather than Apollo. Mike and I are really excited. So far Apollo doesn't seem that interested in the ultrasound photos. I'm sure he'll pay more attention when the baby arrives.

We had our first ultrasound at 8 weeks where our baby mostly resembled a healthy blob.
We had a second ultrasound at 10 weeks. Here my doctor describes the baby as a teddy bear. It was exciting to watch the baby move his/her arms and legs!

Josalyn Marie Gross

Josalyn Marie Gross born at 12:46. She weighed 7 lbs 4 oz and was 19 inches long. Everyone is doing well!