The Carter Family

Fall update

I hate that it's been so long in between family blog posts.  But I'm just so overloaded with photography work, my personal projects get severely neglected.  So here's a quick update on some of what we've been up to this fall. 

In September we took a trip to Oak Island, NC and Myrtle Beach, SC for a family wedding.  I don't have many pictures to share b/c I let the other family members play paparazzi for the week.  But here are a few from my camera.  Oak Island was beautiful.  This is where the wedding took place.  Unfortunately it rained the whole day of the wedding. Sydney and I ventured out that morning to play in the sand.

After the wedding was over, the Carters rented an awesome beach house on Myrtle Beach.  We even had our own pool!  Austin went for a dip a couple of times.  And of course Sydney was  a little fish just about every day that it was warm enough to swim.

This fall we've had lots of ups and downs with Austin's sleeping habits.  On vacation he learned to put himself to sleep without much intervention from us.  Part of this development included him pulling his blanket up over his face and sleeping that way.  It really was kinda cute.  After regressing to waking up almost every two hours, we finally did a few days of "baby boot camp" to break him and us of this horrible habit.  Now he gets up maybe 1 or 2 times a night, and sometimes even sleeps all the way through.  Thank God!!

In October we took advantage of our Sea World passes for the first time with Austin to enjoy the Spooktacular event. Sydney had fun getting lots of candy.

Austin really enjoyed himself too.

At the end of October, we decided it was time to break out the big toys from the attic.  We brought down the exersaucer for Austin.  He LOVES it!  I think he was really tired of laying around on his back all the time.

Meet Austin's girlfriend...Charlotte.  They are only 3 weeks apart in age.  Ahhh...young love. :)

We took the kids to our church's pumpkin patch for some family pics before Halloween.

Sydney and Austin all dressed up for Sydney's school halloween party.

Sydney was a butterfly princess this year.  Unfortunately she only agreed to wear the wings during her school's costume parade.  She refused to wear them trick-or-treating.   Oh well!

Austin is 6 months old now and eating all kinds of veggies and fruits.  Sydney is so great with him.  She is an amazing big sister.  I've been busier than ever this year with holiday photo sessions.  It's been a challenge juggling my business vs. family life.  But we're getting through it.  It'll be so much easier next year when the baby stage is over.  We're getting ready to head to Blue Ridge next week for our 10th annual family get-together.   I'm not mentally ready for another trip, but I know it'll be fun once we get there.  Hopefully I'll have another update soon after we get home.  Happy  Thanksgiving everyone! 
 

The rest of our summer...

I can't believe I haven't blogged since June!!  Life has been a little crazy lately.  We did a lot of traveling and Austin has been growing like a champ.  For now I'll give you a quick update on what the rest of our summer looked like.  Then - SOON - I will post about some of our trips and more recent goings-on.

We celebrated the 4th of July at Tom's parent's house.  They got a slip-n-slide for Sydney.  But I think Tom enjoyed it more than anyone...

Even Austin got in on the action.  This was not my idea for the record.  He didn't seem to mind it though, as long as the water didn't hit him in the face...

After our beach trip in July, my parents came to our house for a night so they could attend our church with us and the Carters for Austin's baby dedication.  He wore Tom's Christening gown.  It was very special for us because our pastor and very good friend Bryan Legg performed the ceremony.  He wrote a letter to Austin about all the he's been through with our family and how we hope that he someday grows up to love the Lord with all his heart.  Bryan stayed at the ER with us the entire time they were putting Austin through the tests when he was spitting up blood at just 5 weeks old...so he had more of a bond with us and the baby than your average pastor.

Sydney had some big milestones too. She had her first trip to the dentist in August.  They let her lay on my lap while they did the cleaning.  She got to wear these cool pink shades and giggled the entire time they were in her mouth.  It was the funniest thing!  We celebrated her good behavior with a trip to Funtasia to play in the ball pit.

We're on a budget this year, so for Tom's birthday, Sydney and I made him a cheesecake. He LOVES cheesecake, and in 9 years of marriage I had never attempted to make one for him.  So I got his grandmother's recipe from his mom and it turned out rather well!  Sydney and I also wrote him a story about a Princess and her Prince (Sydney & Daddy).  She colored him a little picture and also picked flowers from the front yard for decoration. 

Sydney started a new class for Preschool in September.  She now goes three mornings a week to the co-op class at First Methodist.  I thought the first day of school was on Monday of that week.  So we got her dressed, packed her new backpack, unloaded the baby so we could walk her to her class, and realized there was no one else there.  Class didn't start until Wednesday.  Oops!  So this is Sydney on her 1st first day of school...

And this is the kids on her 2nd first day of school...

Austin is doing great!  He weighed almost 18 lbs at his 4 month checkup.   He also just cut his 3rd tooth, only days before he turns 5 months old.  He's still not sleeping through the night, but he rarely cries when going down for a nap and bedtime.  I just lay him in his crib, he pulls his blanket up over his face and falls asleep.  I'll post of picture of that in the next post.  He loves watching his sister and often laughs at whatever she's doing.  Ever since his teeth arrived, he loves sticking out his tongue.  He is a pretty happy little guy and just gets cuter on a daily basis.

I guess that's all for now.  Hopefully I'll be able to post some of our travel adventures soon.  We went to Ormond Beach in July, Pensacola for Labor Day, and Myrtle Beach in September. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

Sydney - 3 years old

These were taken while on vacation in July. Also in these pictures are my sister and my parents.

9 weeks and counting!

I can't believe Austin is 9..almost 10 weeks old already!!  He is so darn cute I just can't stand it sometimes.  He smiles all the time now, and it even sounds like he's trying to laugh sometimes.  He's on a pretty good schedule which makes life so much easier for everyone concerned.  Last night he set a new record with sleeping 8 hours straight!! (11pm to 6am)  Man did that feel good. :) Sydney is such a good big sister.  She loves to rock him in his car or bouncy seats.  She brings him toys...even though he can't really play with them yet.  This morning she entertained him on his activity mat while I put my makeup on.  He survived his 2 month shots a couple of weeks ago.  I remember crying when Sydney got her first shots.  It was old hat for me this time around and paled in comparison to the crying he did at the ER when they dug for veins for 45 minutes.  We'll do another ultrasound next month to follow up on his kidney.  And we'll keep him on the Zantac until he's 4 months old.  Other than all that...we've been sailing through the newborn stage.  We leave Saturday for a week at the beach with my family.  I can't wait! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he'll continue to sleep well even though we'll be away from home.  

We enjoyed a couple of visits in the past month.  First my dad came down for a long weekend.  My mom spent all of June in Virginia visiting her family there.  Dad was pretty lonely so we invited him down.  He played lots of golf and helped me a lot with the kids.  Then last weekend my sister Kathy came for a short weekend.  It was her first time seeing Austin and we hadn't seen her since Christmas.  Even though it was short, we enjoyed having her here.

Papa...

 

Aunt "Kaffy"...

 

 

Austin needs to be quick about growing up to defend himself against a sister that likes to use him to play dress up!  (yes that is a bead necklace and bracelet he's wearing)

 

Tired Daddy...

 

Sydney & Austin playing on the top bunk together...

 

Sydney sporting her new short hair cut and bangs...

 

This is 100% true!

 

Austin - 8 weeks old...

Brother & Sister

I had a vision for this shot in my head and was praying that both kiddos would cooperate.  We did this first thing this morning as soon as they woke up...before breakfast even.  I am so excited with how it turned out!  Might have to get a big print to put over our bed. :)

Smiles and hair cuts

Do you want the good news or the bad news?  Good news is Austin started smiling last week, right on his 6 week birthday.  Bad news is, Sydney decided to cut her hair yesterday. 

Austin is getting cuter and cuter by the minute!  His new smiles just melt my heart. He is 7 weeks old today, which is so hard for me to believe.  Sydney has just as much fun as I do watching out for his little smiles.  She says he's always smiling at her (so sweet!).

 

 

Yesterday I was changing Austin's daiper and Sydney came running back to tell me she had cut her own hair.  It's really not that bad, just looks like she gave herself bangs.  But I got pretty upset which made her cry.  I had JUST scheduled an appointment for her to get a real hair cut in couple of weeks.  My hairstylist had suggested a short bob to get it to look healthier and grow back thicker.  Her shortest layer was finally past her chin, so I was all ready for it.  Well, her shortest layer is much shorter now.  I'm just glad we're already planning to see Miss Jessica soon so she can fix it.  Sydney spent the rest of the morning yesterday asking me when I was going to be happy again.  She said she likes me better when I'm happy.  Go figure!

New Tricks

This is day two of Austin taking his morning nap in his big crib.  AND he was able to put himself to sleep both times without crying!  Sydney was never able to do this, so this is a pretty big accomplishment.   He has also really been enjoying tummy time.  We seems to just love it.  His head is amazingly strong already...has been since he was born.  So it's really cute to see him hold himself up when he's chillin on the boppy. 

Yesterday was our 9 year anniversary.  Tom and I had our first date night in 6 weeks...woo-hoo!  We went to dinner and saw a movie.  Another great trick that Austin has learned is to take a bottle.  This is another thing that Sydney would never do.  But ever since he was 2 weeks old, we try to give him a bottle once every other day or so.  This gives me so much more freedom, I love it!

It seems he is on the brink of smiling.  I can't wait until he does!  He has not had anymore blood in his spit up or stool.  We're keeping him on Zantac for a while, it seems to be helping.  Doctor said if we have another episode, he'll send us straight to a specialist for more tests. 

 

 

ER scare

Well our plans this weekend proved to be unexpected.  Friday morning before Tom left for work, I fed baby Austin, then burped him as usual.  He spit up a little bit as he sometimes does.  But this time his spit up had blood in it.  As soon as the doctor's office was open, I called and talked to the nurse.  She said that because I am breastfeeding, she thought that maybe I had a breast infection or cracked nipple that caused Austin to swallow blood, and that I should follow up with my doctor.  I happened to be heading to my post-partum follow up appointment that very morning.  So I dropped the kids off at their grandparents' and headed to my appointment.  I told my doctor what happened and he checked me over, but didn't see anything to be concerned about.  He told me I should follow up with the pediatrician again.  After I got out of my appointment, I called Tom's parents' house and was told that Austin's poopie diapers had turned black instead of bright yellow, a sign of digested blood.  When I called back to the pediatrician's office and told this to the nurse, her response was "oh that's not good".  Don't tell that to a panicked mom on the phone! She told me to go ahead and take him straight to the ER.  So I called Tom and asked him to meet me at his parents' house so we could go together. 

To make a long story short, we were in the ER all afternoon.  They "assumed the worst and hoped for the best" and immediately put him on antibiotics for an infection or sepsis.  They then proceeded to take blood, urine, and stool samples and performed a spinal tap.  All the tests came back negative.  They decided to admit us for 48 hours while they performed culture tests.  By Saturday afternoon all the test were still coming back negative, his spit up was clear, and his poop was back to a normal color.  So they decided to let us go home last night.  We have to follow up with our normal pediatrician this week who will then decide if we just need to wait to see if this happens again or if we need to go see a GI specialist.  It was an exhausting and emotional ordeal that I'm glad is over.  It was crazy being back at the hospital when we were just there 5 weeks ago to deliver the baby.  We are so grateful that our boy is ok for now, and we'll continue to pray he stays well and that we figure out what caused all of this.  Here's a picture of our little guy on Saturday.  He was so good and handled everything so well.

Austin is 1 month old!

Hard to believe, but we've actually made it past the 1 month mark.  I told Tom's dad yesterday that I feel like I can see the light at the FAR end of the tunnel.  He said to just hope it's not a freight train coming....so true! 

Austin was 4 weeks old last Friday.  He is starting to sleep better at night.  We've had a couple of really good nights of him going down easily and going back to sleep right away after each middle-of-the-night feeding.  But there are other nights where he cries for an hour or more before going to bed, then he wants to stay awake for an hour or more after he eats at 3am! I feel like every time I have him figured out, the next day completely changes.  He is still pretty fussy most of the time.  His "happy" window is short.  But during that window he is absolutely adorable and sweet.  I can't wait for his personality to emerge more this month...maybe we'll even see a smile or two!

Sydney has done pretty well with the changes around here.  At first she was unfazed by him and seemed to enjoy him a lot.  She even nick-named him "Booie, booie, squishy" (don't ask me where that came from!)  The past week or so she's gotten a little more clingy to me.  I'm hoping to get some one-on-one time with her soon.  A little bit of an attitude has come out too.  Today she told me she didn't want the baby to come home with us.  She wanted to put him in the mailbox and send him away.  She also told me she didn't want him to cry anymore (I couldn't agree more!).  So we're all adjusting.  Tom asked me last night (after a particularly trying day from both kids) if I felt alone in "our fight against them".  I had to laugh...and say that no, I felt that he has been a huge help to me with both of them.  So I am very grateful for that!  Enjoy some recent pics...

Sydney asked to be swaddled...this makes me realize just how big she is!

 

Poolside in the backyard...

 

Watching TV together...

 

Awake and adorable!

 

Asleep and adorable! :)

 

Sydney enjoying gifts from a care package that came in the mail for her (thanks Aunt Merrill!)...

Austin Kenneth Carter

Sorry for not posting anything until now.  It's crazy having a newborn in the house again!  But we are all doing well and are adjusting to this new routine.  Here are some pics that my talented friend Aimee took for us the other night, followed by some more newborn shots that I did.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sydney is doing so well in her new role as big sister.  She has nicknamed Austin "Boo-ie".  Tom calls him "boy" so she decided to name him "boo-ie".  It's really hilarious to hear her say it.  She loves to help change diapers and feed him his nightly bottle.  Austin is getting on a pretty good schedule.  The only problem is he sleeps better during the day...sometimes 3/4 hours at a stretch.  But at night he's up every 2 hours.  Not fun!  He really is a sweet baby though and we are enjoying getting to know him.