Ethan Weeks 1-8 & Austin Family Christmas Letter 2008

Ethan is getting so big!!! I just wanted to post some pictures of him from every week of his life so far. As for Jared and I we are doing well and we both LOVE being parents. It is so great! 

Here is our little guy! I am also posting his first similes!

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

Week 6

Week 7

Week 8

Also, here is our 2008 Austin Family Christmas Letter...

Blessing Day

Ethan was blessed by Jared this Sunday in our ward. We bought him a little white outfit for the blessing. Grandma and Grandpa Banner (mom and dad) flew in for the event. It was a very special day! 

One Month Old!!!

Ethan is one month old already! He is growing so fast! I took Ethan to the pediatrician today and he now weighs 11 lbs. 4 oz. and he is 23 inches long!!! They said he is in the 90th percentile for babies his age. I hope he doesn't keep growing that fast or he is going to be a big blimp! Here are some recent pictures.

Thanksgiving

This year we drove to California to visit Jared's side of the family. It was a very fun trip. The drive took us about 12 hours each way. It was a long drive but Ethan did so good! We had a beautiful thanksgiving dinner on Thursday...and can I say...I LOVE PUMPKIN PIE!!! It was so good! I feel bad for Ethan. All he eats in breast milk....poor kid. He is missing all the joy of delicious foods that are out there...poor poor kid.

Here is Ethan with his Great Grandma Peters on Thanksgiving day.

Ethan with Grandma Austin

Ethan with Aunt Jenna

On Friday we went shopping. We were ambitious on Thursday night that we would wake up at 4:00am and go to all the great sales. To make a long story short we got to the first store around 9:00am. I guess we'll have to try harder next year.

After all the shopping we decided to do something festive so we made a ginger bread houses with Jared's sister Jenna.

On Saturday Jenna, Jared, Ethan, and I went to San Francisco to find the spot where Jared and I got engaged so that we could show it to Ethan. Ethan was a little fussy but we still got some cute pictures. 

Sunday we drove the long 12 hours back to Phoenix. It was a great trip. I am so thankful that we were able to see Jared's family again. I sure miss them again already! I hope everyone had a wonderful thanksgiving with your families. Happy Belated Thanksgiving!!

Upside Down

Ethan has decided that he wants to ride in his sling his own way. I was making dinner and Ethan wanted to be held so I put him in the sling. He kept wiggling his head out of sling. I would put him back into the fold of the sling and before I knew it he would wiggle his head out again. For some reason Ethan really likes to be upside down...I guess he was that way in the womb so I shouldn't be too surprised. We'll see if Ethan keeps up his upside down preference as he gets older.  Silly kid!

Haircut

I decided that long hair is pointless these days. If I have time for a shower I rarely have time to blow dry my hair and what is even more rare is if I have time to curl or do anything cute with my long hair. Having a new born takes up a lot of time and frankly my hair ends up in a wet messy ponytail or bun every day. So I decided to cut my hair to make life a little easier. Now I can wash, blow dry and curl my short hair in the time it took to wash my long hair. I love it already!

Before

After

Three Weeks

Jared and Ethan took a Sunday afternoon nap. I couldn't help but take some pictures. Here is my favorite.

Ethan is officially three weeks old today! I can't believe how fast and slow the past three weeks have gone. Here are some pictures I took of him today after his bath.

One more thing...Ethan is getting a diaper rash. Anyone have any good suggestions on a great diaper rash cream or anything else that could help? I think it might be from the diaper rubbing up against his legs because the rash is in the insides of his upper thighs not on his bottom. Let me know what you think.

More pictures of Ethan

There isn't a lot of time to write...imagine that! All the mothers out there are just smiling I am sure because they know how much work newborns take! We had a rocky weekend but things are looking much better today. Ethan is just about over a little cold. As for me... I am hopefully on my way to healing from Mastitis (an infection from clogged milk ducts).  I had a temperature anywhere from 100-105 degrees from Saturday afternoon until Monday sometime in the early morning. Jared and I went to the emergency room on Sunday around noon because I couldn't take the fever much longer. They gave me antibiotics and I feel much better...I'm not healed yet but at least the fever is gone! Oh the joys of breast feeding.

Other than having a mommy with mastitis and a baby with a cold (that he got from daddy) we are doing quite well. Here are some pictures of little Ethan from the last couple of days.

Daddy and Ethan sleeping on the couch...notice how they are in the same position? Like father like son!

Ethan trying to eat his blanket

Daddy did a little "photo shoot" of Ethan

HALLOWEEN

Since Ethan was born  before Halloween I had to post pictures of him a cute little halloween outfit. I also had to post our Halloween costumes from the ward party last Saturday.

Here is our cutie on Halloween. The hat is a little big but somehow that made him look even more cute!

Ethan Jared Austin

Our little Ethan was born on Monday, October 27th at 1:32 pm. He weighs 7 pounds 12 ounces and is 20 inches long. I went to the hospital around 11:00 Monday morning after about 12 hours of minor contractions.

One the way to the hospital I started getting some hard contractions. When we got to the hospital the nurses checked me and I was dilated to a 7. They put me in a delivery room. I had hard contractions that were very painful for about an hour. I asked Jared to get a nurse to check me to see how much more I had to dilate. If I still had awhile I wanted an epidural. The nurse came in a check...I was at 10 cm. Forget the drugs! My water finally broke about 3o seconds after the nurse checked me. Doctor Howard came in shortly after that and I started pushing. Ethan was born around 1:30...the whole labor lasted about 2 1/2 hours. 

Ethan has done so good! He passed all the tests with flying colors. He is so cute and we love him so much! We brought him home last night around 5:00pm. We are so excited to be parents!!!