Hunt Family Sleeping Arrangements

Seriously people, the fur babies are getting worse and worse in the sleeping department. They used to just sleep curled up in one position, but now they sprawl out and take he entire bed. 

Mr. Hunt took this picture one morning when he was headed to work. This is no joke.

River used to sleep in the spot that Hannah is in, but when Jane was in the rocker, Hannah wanted to be right there the entire time since she loves Jane so much. River was so thrown off, but he has recently gained his spot back since Jane has moved to the crib.

One night while I was feeding Jane, I look over and see this....Seriously?

To make things worse, the fur babies don't stay in one position throughout the night like they used to. River is constantly on and off the bed. It wakes me up every time. Its not like a little dog that you wouldn't notice, its 100lbs jumping on and off the bed. If he gets hot or uncomfortable, he has to jump off and then jump right back on like it will change.
Hannah just goes all over the bed. Sometimes she goes under the covers and licks our feet, sometimes she lays like a human, then other times she is curled up on the bottom of the bed. Shes bad though because every time she gets up, she shakes like she is getting out of the water. It shakes the entire bed and wakes me up.
None of this ever bothers Mr. Hunt by the way.
Would I change it, maybe. Some nights I think that I need to get up right then and train them to sleep on the floor, but then I start to feel bad. I know they are just dogs, but that's all they know. Yes, its our fault for letting them up there since day one, but they think its their bed just as much as its ours. They go in there in the middle of the day for naps too. It would rock their world if all of the sudden they couldn't lay up there with us, and it would probably be worse than getting Jane to sleep in her crib. Id be up ALL night telling them they weren't allowed up.
So, I just wanted to complain on here, then not do anything about it. Typical.
Im thinking maybe once Jane is a few years old they can sleep with her! Haha! We will see.

Love,
JRH

We Did It!!

I say "we" because this transition was just as hard on me as it was Jane (if it even was hard for her....I'm thinking it wasn't).

As you know, Jane was sleeping in our room in the little rocker that we had. She LOVED that thing...and still does. I was worried that she hadn't slept flat on her back ever since the rocker has an incline, that I had a feeling the transition to the crib was going to be HORRIBLE. I know babies have a hard time adjusting either way, and the fact she doesn't like to be flat on her back made it worse.

We tried for a few naps to sleep in her crib and if she was REALLY tired, she would sleep in the crib, but only for about 30 minutes before she freaked out. Also, one night I tried to put her in the crib and after an hour of trying to get her to sleep, I put her in the rocker and she passed out immediately.

The main reason I wanted to transfer her to the crib besides the obvious of just trying to get her used to it, was that I was worried I was keeping Mr. Hunt up at night. Jane was waking up twice a night to eat and we did it all in the room. According to him, he wasn't bothered and didn't care, so I just kept her in the room.

Fast forward a few weeks, Jane now only wakes up once between 4-5am. She eats and then goes right back down, but she takes awhile to go to sleep. She doesn't cry and is very content by herself, but she has recently started to talk and blabber to herself. Right after I eat, I go in the living room to pump so I always let Mr. Hunt know that I'm not in the room. I do that because one time, I didn't tell him I was leaving, Jane started to cry, and he didn't do anything to help her because he thought I was in there and would take care of it. Anyway, she ends up keeping Mr. Hunt up now with her talking and by the time he gets back to sleep, his alarm is getting ready to go off to wake up.

So I knew it was finally time to just bite the bullet and get this girl into the crib. In anticipation of a very LONG night, I made sure I got alot of rest that day and I set up the blow up mattress in her room. No, its not a crazy idea. If you are a mommy, you understand. To be honest, it wasn't because I was worried about leaving her by herself, it was more of the fact that I knew she was going to be up a few times and didn't want to have to continue to get out of my bed and walk back and forth to the rooms.

To my surprise, the first night went alot better than I thought, but it was still a change from her normal routine int he rocker.

ROCKER:
9:30-10pm: Falls Asleep
4-5am: Wakes to eat
5:30am: back to sleep
8:30am: wakes up

1st NIGHT IN CRIB:
9:30pm: Put in crib
10:30pm: Falls asleep after having to put her paci in once for her
1:30am: wakes up crying
1:30-4am: wakes up on and off every 30 minutes or so just to have the paci put back in
4am: eats
5:30am: falls back to sleep
8:30am: wakes up

So as you can see, the beginning of the night was good until 1:30am. I never once had to pick her up out of the crib, but I did have to continue to put her paci in her mouth and rub her head which she loves. I call it paci poppin'. Normally, she can sleep without it, but she loves to have it to sooth her and with a change, I think she really just needed it.  Finally at 4am I fed her and dreaded going out to the living room to pump, but I put her back in the crib and went out to the living room. She started crying once where I had to go in and put the paci back in. Then when she started crying one more time, I was almost done pumping so I let her cry. She ended up falling to sleep on her own and I was very surprised. I went back to sleep and was shocked when she started crying again and I looked to see it was already 8:30am. So the second half of the night was great!

The second night I decided to sleep in my own room. When I was headed to bed, I started to get sad thinking about her in the room all by herself, but I was comforted with the monitor. I knew I just had to do it. I left the blow up mattress int here just in case I had to go in there and stay, the last thing I wanted to do was let Mr. Hunt listen to her scream on the monitor and keep him up that way

2nd NIGHT IN CRIB
9:30: put in the crib and falls right to sleep
3am: wakes up and cries for 5 minutes so I went in, put the paci in, rubbed her head and left
4am: wakes up to eat
5am: falls back to sleep after talking to herself....no crying
8:30am: wakes up

I COULDN'T BELIEVE IT! SHE DID IT! Besides the one time she got up at 3am, she had her regular schedule, in the crib, in the room, by herself. I am so proud. I guess the whole laying on her back thing wasn't as bad as I expected.

Now shes been in her crib for a week and a half and weve only had ONE bad night. The bad night was after her 2 month shots so I think her tummy hurt poor thing. Some nights she still gets up around 5 to eat, and other nights she doesnt wake up at all and sleeps from 10pm-8am. Our pediatrician was very surprised when I told her this, but she knows its from all the food that Jane eats during the day. She said we are lucky parent to have a good sleeper.

Love,
Jane's Proud Mom

Uncle Dave is 16!!!

Yep, Its Uncle Dave's Birthday. My little "baby" brother is 16 and I cannot believe it. He is such a young man now. He is polite, fun, sweet, funny, lovable, and just an all around gentleman. Heck, he drives now! I cant help but think I helped to raise the kid. Just kidding Mom and Dad, I really give yall all the credit. I still look at yall and wonder how in the world we got the best parents who could somehow raise us to love one another and respect each other as much as we do. But enough about yall, its Davis' day.

As much as I'm so happy about his birthday today, I'm also a little sad. For the past few years, Ive always been there for his birthday, or at least there the weekend before. Mr. Hunt and I used to surprise him every year and show up in Bluffton. I think after a few years, he expected it and it was no longer a surprise. Last year was particularly sad to me, and he probably doesn't remember this, but I always will. 

Mr. Hunt and I were visiting Bluffton for the last time before we made the big move to Texas. I was already upset about leaving and living so far away. We had to leave on his actually birthday and I remember him coming into my room that morning to kiss me goodbye as he left for school. I woke up wanting to say bye one more time. (I know this sounds sappy, I would obviously see him again, but moving 20 hours away was a HUGE deal). I went and bought him miniature snickers and a gift card and went to his school. I stepped into the office and asked to speak to Davis. They found him and he came in. I gave him the snickers and the card, he said thanks, gave him a hug, and I left. As much as I wanted to take him with me or just spend more time, it was a little awkward with the people in the office looking at us. 

I walked out of the school and began to cry. I was saying bye to my baby brother and moving all the way to TEXAS. I had to say bye on his birthday. 

So when I woke up this morning, the first thing I thought of was him, despite the LONG night I had with Jane, I immediately smiled. As much as I wanted to just cry thinking and knowing I wouldn't see him today for the first time in a long time on his birthday, birthdays are supposed to be happy. So instead, I made a video of Jane "singing" Happy Birthday and talked to him a little bit through texts. 

Dear Uncle Dave,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Its your special day! I still remember the day you were born. I was in 5th grade and Dylan and I got to skip school that day. Grandpa took us to Walmart to eat McDonalds and then we were on our way to the hospital to meet you. Dad was dressed in hospital scrubs and he let us try on the feet things that go over his shoes. You were so little (like my little doll baby), and even though I wished you were a girl, once I saw you I fell in love. Another baby brother was OK in my book once I got to hold you for the first time. 

You are growing so super fast. I guess we all are, but watching you grow really makes me feel old. You are such a great person. Don't change. I'm excited to see you as an Uncle to Jane. She already loves you. I cant wait to see you next....whenever that might be. 

I LOVE YOU!!!

Love,

Your Big Sis

Jane's Nursery

I had full intentions on updating the nursery as I went along, but obviously after painting it, I kind of fell off that wagon.
The nursery came together so slowly (for a few reasons) that it seemed silly for me to update for each little thing. As much as I was so excited to put together a sweet little girl nursery for Jane, I had NO motivation. After cleaning out the room, painting, and putting the crib and dresser together, I got bored. The big things we finished and I just couldn't find the motivation to do anything in there. Things were just piling up in there and I would find random spurts of energy and go and put everything away.
Now that its done, I'm happy. Its alot more colorful than I pictured it in my mind to be. I originally thought of having the grey walls and then use the colors in the fish painting, but the colors just turned into any bright color I could find. I read somewhere that its good to have bright colors to stimulate the baby's brain. I'm not sure if I really believe all that mess, but since I have alot of colors in there, Ill go with it.

To be 100% honest, the room STILL isn't done and Jane is 2 months old. There were still a few things that I wanted to do in the room, but then we started house hunting and I decided to put all that on the back burner. Heck, Jane just needs the essentials, she isn't effected by a nursery that her Mom feels needs more.

But now that we are definitely moving, I knew I had to blog and take pictures of her sweet nursery that I spent my whole pregnancy planning in my head and putting together, and the room she had for only 2 short months. We can look back and see the room that we brought her home to.

I'm also really excited to decorate a new nursery, although I will be using everything we already have so the room will look similar, but I will finally finish it....just in a different house.

So, without further ado.....Jane's Room

The room is small, but we fit everything that we needed in there. I am still looking for the perfect rug for under her crib. Especially now that her new room wont be carpet. I also had full intentions on making curtains from the same fabric as the crib skirt. Oops! Also, I had three of Jane's newborn pictures printed out and put in frames to put on the wall behind the rocker. Just never got around to hanging them.

Going into the room and looking to the right is her changing table and dresser. 

I painted the little wooden basket green and it holds the lotions and other things that I need on hand like hand sanitizer after I change a diaper. (by the way, this nursery tour is probably better now because after she was born, I realized what we really needed where, and you can see it a little lived in)

The iPhone is deactivated but it plays her noise that she sleeps with. We also have her hamper and the diaper genie. The diaper genie doesn't get used alot since we use cloth diapers most of hte time, but from what I can tell, the diaper genie really is great.

Now to look inside the drawers. The top drawer on the left is the diaper drawer. We have both types of cloth diapers and some disposables. There is also wipes and a few changing pad covers since girls too tinkle when you take off their diapers.

The top drawer on the right looks like this. I'm keeping it real people. It looked alot more organized before Jane got here, but it now looks like this. This is all the newborn and 0-3 size clothes. Well, just onsies, pjs, and pants. True outfits are hanging in the closet.
Now that she is growing out of some of the newborn cloths, I also have a basket beside the dresser to throw the too small clothes into until I can put them all away at once.

Right underneath that drawer is a more organized drawer. This is 3-6 and 6-9 month onsies, pjs, and pants. This is what the top drawer used to look like and this drawer will soon resemble the top one I'm sure. Also, once she is wearing these sizes, I will move them to the top drawer for easy access and move 12 month clothes into the bottom drawer.

This drawer is under the diaper drawer and it has a bunch of stuff in it. Her socks, mittens, hair bows, hate, and a few small toys. 

Here is the rocker. It is super comfortable and I sit in it alot now that Jane is sleeping in her crib. I feed her there when she wakes up at 5am and I also read her  a book there every night before bed.
Right beside it is a basket of books. We don't have many books yet so we might put the books somewhere else once she has too many to fit in the basket.

The little table beside the rocker is an old Ikea table that I painted yellow. I also spray painted the lamp. I use the table for her monitor and also to set a drink down or Jane's bottle. 

This isn't much to see, but I wanted to put a few more frames on this blank wall between the door and the closet. The bow is the bow that the nurses hung on our hospital door. 

Here is the crib! I made the crib skirt. I'm not sure how long the mesh bumper will stay on. I'm not sure if I like it, and most people say that there shouldn't be a bumper on the crib at all. The little yellow owl is a nightlight.

I made the garland above the crib. Since Jane cannot stand up yet, it isn't a hazard. It is hooked up on the wall and also taped very good, and will not fall into the crib. With that said, I had full intentions on moving it once she can stand even though it is still not within reach, but now that we are moving, I might put it somewhere else.

Beside the crib is just a basket of stuffed animals. She has more in the closet.

Here is the right side of her closet. The clothes are sorted be size. The top shelf is a bunch of miscellaneous stuff. Some stuff is Jane's and some isn't. We just don't have much room in this house.
The plastic drawers have blankets, swaddles, burp cloths, extra pacis, thermometer, and much more. The baskets on the floor have disposable diapers. We've already gone through so many, our stash is dwindling down. On top of the drawers is a yellow piggy bank, some baby jewelry, and a cute white bunny carriage my grandpa gave me.

Here is the right side. Shoes shoes shoes! There is just a bunch of blankets in the trunk on the floor. The  Jane banner is a banner our neighbor made for our maternity photo shoot. The baskets are full of stuffed animals and the brown elephant stuff is extra stuff for hte pack and play.

I also wanted to get a big trunk of her toys. There wasn't any room for one in this room, but maybe in the next one. There is also two living areas in the new home, so I'm hoping to make one a "play room" even though she wont be "playing" on her own for awhile, but I can certainly stash her toys in a trunk in there.

So, that's it. Her sweet nursery. I hope you liked it. I do, even though its not finished, but alas, its time to take everything down and pack it up!


Love,
Momma

The Hunts are Moving Downtown

Yep, that's right! We are moving!

Its kind of a long story. Our lease isn't up at this house we are in now until May, but our landlord has been acting weird recently. He finally came out and asked if we thought we were going to be moving anytime soon. When I told him no, he just acted awkward and said that his wife wanted to move back in.

After telling Mr. Hunt, he got super excited. Ever since we moved here and realized how far we really were from downtown, he has wanted to move. We are about 40 minutes from downtown now, and we never go down there. Since Austin is the capital of Texas and a "weird" city, there is always a ton going on down there and we haven't experienced any of it. Not to mention the restaurants and food trucks EVERYWHERE. You know Mr. Hunt and his food.

So, we took the opportunity to just look around and see if any houses jumped out at us. It helped that our landlord is actually a real estate person so he helped us alot.

We ended up finding the perfect house. Its RIGHT downtown, 3 beds, 2 bath, and a fenced yard. Its hard to find a house that big and a fence in downtown. The house is a little old, but it will be a fun change.

Now of course I'm stressing a little about packing and moving all our stuff, but I'm ready. I'm just going to take my time. I did get rid of alot of crap last time we moved, and I'm again getting rid of stuff as I pack. I will also have Mr. Hunt's help this time. But of course we have an addition to the family this time and taking care of her is #1 so the packing is put on the back burner a lot.

Ill update on everything as we go and of course be back with pictures. Just wanted to update on the blog!

Oh, and two weird things. We moved into this house on February 28th, 2012 and we are moving out March 1st, exactly a year later. Annnddd last time we found out we were moving, Mr. Hunt's parents we on a cruise so we couldn't get ahold of them to tell them. This move was sprung on us yet again and guess what? They are on a cruise again. So SURPRISE Mimi and Papa if you see this before talking to us.

Love
Jennifer

2 Months

Jane is 2 months old today! She is getting so big. She just outgrew a few of her newborn footed pjs this week. We can squeeze her in them still, but then she can't straighten her legs and the sleeves are too short. Its crazy to see how much she has grown in one month

Alot has happened this past month with her and I have a feeling that each month will be more and more. I try really hard to write everything down so that we don't forget when the month is over, but its even hard to keep up like that.

A few things that happened:

I quit breastfeeding and I'm exclusively pumping. This girl eats so much. She loves food. At the beginning of pumping, she ate about 4oz every feeding. In just a few short weeks, she is now having 6oz every feeding (which is 4 times a day) and 2 more ounces around 5am. I promise I'm not stuffing her full because she cries if we give her anything less.

At 5 and a half weeks she took her first nap in her crib. She slept for 30 minutes (which isn't a whole nap) and then decided she didn't like the crib. After that, she still slept in our room for nights and out in the living room for naps.

She smiles a whole bunch, coos and talks. She likes to copy whatever faces I make at her.

She had her first blow out diaper which is pretty good seeing as we didn't have one for her whole first month. We've had a few since then.

She holds her head up great and loves to look around. She loves tummy time also on her mat. She loves to look up at the birds on her swing mobile and talk to them.
She smiles and is happiest in the mornings and is grumpiest in the evenings (which kinda stinks since that's when Mr. Hunt sees her the most).

She loves bath time now, but hates the drying off and lotion part only because she gets cold.

At 8 weeks old she slept in the crib for the first night and did great! I slept on the blow up mattress in her room.  She has been in the crib at night since then. She puts herself to sleep and sleeps from 10pm-5am. Then she eats a little bottle and goes back to bed until 8am. She will sometimes wake up just to have her paci in her mouth but falls RIGHT back to sleep.

She celebrated her first Valentines Day and made a piece of art for her Daddy.

I'm pretty sure she laughed at me once. It was in the middle of the night so I wasn't sure if it was really a laugh or not, but it made it really hard to put her back to sleep. I wanted to stay up with her and laugh with her.

She had her 2 month check up this morning and it went pretty good. She is healthy and growing good.

Head: 50th percentile
Weight: 25th percentile
Height: 25th percentile

She weighs: 10 pounds 7 ounces

She is 22 inches long

The doctor said she is a little nugget, but she is a girl so its normal to be smaller

Look at this next face. Oh boy!

We are so happy with our little baby. She really is an easy baby. Of course she is our first and we have no prior experience, but from what others say about their babies, she is an angel.

Of course, we would think she was a little angel no matter what.

Dear Jane,

You are getting so big, so fast. We love to see your little personality start to show. You are growing into a little lady already instead of just a sleepy newborn. We love to see you interact with you puppies and get so interested in objects like pictures on the wall and the ceiling fans. Thank you for being such a good baby, you really make our lives 100% better each day. Just looking at you puts us in a good mood no matter whats going on that day. Keep making us smile baby girl. We love you.

Love,
Mom and Dad

Hunting Season Over

Well, duck hunting that is. Mr. Hunt is now into boar hunting with a bow, but he hasn't gone yet.

Grilling bacon wrapped duck. Holy YUM!!!

Pretty ducks

Also, Mr. Hunts parents bought him a smoker for Christmas, and we have been smoking everything. 

Smoked corn on the cob and salmon

More corn on the cob and ribs

On the last day of bird hunting season, Mr. Hunt went out by himself and shot a duck. He was so proud of himself and so was I.

Looks like Hannah was too.

Now you can find him doing alot of this.

This man is a hunter.

Love,
Wife