Long Time, No Write

Dad got behind in keeping up with his Esther blog while he tried out a new job from May - September. His new job didn't work out, so he is back at Raytheon again.

In the meantime, Esther learned to crawl (about 9 months), learned to wave "bye-bye" (about 10 months) and sprouted the start of 2 teeth (10 months). She is 10 1/2 months old now. Esther can nearly walk on her own, she has been walking with help since she was less than 6 months old, but now she takes about 6 steps on her own before falling down. She doesn't seem to be too interested in walking most of the time, she is happy being carried around or crawling, since she knows she is good at crawling.
Esther had her first cold around 9 months too, that was probably brought about by the teeth she was growing. She has had a rough time with her teeth. She gets really irritable during the daytime, and then sometimes wakes up screaming during the night. That isn't like Esther at all, since she is always such a sweet girl during the daytime (although she still wakes up 2-3 times per night to get some milk from Mommy). Esther likes to suck and chew on her fingers while playing with her new teeth. It hurts when she bites my finger with her sharp teeth!

Daddy loves to spend time with Esther - he can't seem to get enough of his little girl! (except for at night-time, when Daddy likes to sleep).
Last Friday night Esther was not tired at all. After falling asleep on the way home from her cousin Mallory's 3rd birthday party, Esther woke up at home and would not go back to sleep. Daddy read her books again with the light on and then tried to rock her back to sleep. Didn't happen. So, Daddy let Esther stay up until about 2:00 a.m. playing with books, and she didn't yawn even once. Mommy eventually intervened and fed Esther, which calmed her down and put her to bed!

Esther loves to point!!! She sticks out her little pointer finger and babbles words at anything moving or interesting. She started doing this around 8 months I think. Daddy likes to tell Esther what she is pointing at, so hopefully she will learn new words. Esther has already learned the word "button" this way. Now you can ask Esther, "Where is Daddy's button?" and she will point right to it.
Esther loves to be praised too. She gets really excited when people clap and say "Yeah!" for her. She will wave her arms and squeal.

Mommy and Daddy are buying a new house to move into on November 21. The new house will have 4 bedrooms, so there will be room for a new brother or sister for Esther maybe sometime next year (2009)...

Update

Esther's latest big trick is rolling over from her back to her tummy! She started this about a week before she turned 5 months old. At first she did it one time when we weren't looking. Then the next morning when Dad went in to get her she was on her tummy! After that, she was rolling over several times a day. The problem is, Esther can't roll back over from her tummy to her back, and she doesn't like being on her tummy for too long before she starts crying. The last two nights she has been waking up several times a night after rolling over on her tummy and crying until Mom or Dad come in to rock her back to sleep. Both Mom and Dad are really tired. Dad is super-tired since he is still going to work all day long. Hopefully this is just another 7-10 day phase like when she started teething and it will pass.
Mom and Esther are leaving on Saturday to go to Texas to visit Molly's cousin, Alicia. They will be there until next Wednesday afternoon. Dad will probably go visit his parents to have someone to keep him company while he misses his wife and little girl.

Growing!

Esther is well past the 4-month mark now. She is definitely growing bigger and longer. She still doesn't have a lot of hair yet though. :-p We still have to work to get her to enjoy tummy time. She really doesn't like to be on her belly for too long, and hasn't made much progress towards rolling over or crawling yet. She still likes to walk with help though - she thinks she is pretty big stuff! We can almost always get a smile out of Esther when we let her walk on top of us and look down into our faces. She is a happy, smiley little girl. She is still teething, but we think she is through the rough week that she had a few weeks ago. The last couple of nights she has been waking up 2 or 3 times during the night, but that's still better than nearly once every 1-2 hours!
She seems to be going through a phase where she wants to be held CONSTANTLY. For awhile she really liked her "bouncy seat" and would sit in it unattended for 15-30 minutes or so. Now she needs to be held or rocked by a real, warm person.
Esther really likes to suck on her hands, on toys or on other people's hands. Maybe because she is teething?
Esther is also starting to make more noises. She laughed for the first time last week! (see Molly's flickr account for the video) She tends to make a lot of sounds when she is eating her fingers. Esther doesn't have much control over the pitch or volume of her voice. It's funniest when she lets out little squeals and squeeks!

Rough few days...

The last few days have been rough for Esther and Mommy & Daddy. After she had slept through the night for 5 nights straight, she has been sleeping fitfully for the last 6 nights in a row. Last night she was up every hour on average, and had a major meltdown around 4 a.m. We aren't exactly sure what's going on, but our best guess is that she is teething. 4 months is about the earliest babies teeth, and she is still 6 days short of 4 months, but we can't think of what else it would be. She seems to like sucking on a frozen teether zebra, so we figure she wouldn't like doing that unless it felt good to her. Dad called the doctor on call tonight and the doctor also thought her symptoms sounded like teething. Esther has her 4 months appointment with Dr. Kidd on Tuesday. She has to get more shots...
Poor little girl. Mommy & Daddy wish they could do more to help her, but at least this won't last forever. We gave her some baby Tylenol last night and tonight. Last night it didn't seem to help, but maybe it will work tonight. Crossing fingers....zzzz

Past the 3 month milestone

Welp, Esther is 3 months old now (14 weeks tomorrow). Time has been flying by lately, and she has been growing like a weed.
Esther has learned 2 new tricks in the past couple of days, right about at 3 months.
Her first trick is that she reaches out and grabs her "bug on board" that is attached to her bouncy seat. She typically only reaches and grabs with her left hand, but she is starting to use her right hand just a little bit. Maybe she'll be a lefty? She will extend her arm straight out, and then slowly pull it back toward her face and up to her mouth or to her left eye. Her poor little eye takes a beating sometimes. She also likes to suck on her hand, which really calms her down sometimes. She can get pretty noisy when she's eating her hand though...making contented little sounds.
Esther's second trick is doing sit-ups in her bouncy seat. She will raise her head up and then lean forward, crunching her upper body like she's doing a sit-up. She makes funny grunting noises when she does this too. Molly and I had to start strapping her in to her bouncy seat because she is getting a lot stronger and more wiggly now. Molly has counted Esther doing about 15 sit-ups at one time! She is a strong little girl.
Daddy has baby-sat Esther a couple of evenings now for 3-4 hours at a time, and Josh and Carolyn have also baby-sat Esther once. Esther does great for Daddy, and just needs her bottle when it's time to eat. She is a good, happy little baby. She has only had a couple times lately where she wouldn't go to sleep at night. She gave Mom a hard time one day last week, not going down for a nap, but her usual day involves several naps. Today Esther was rudely awakened by the new neighbors drilling and hammering something into the wall of their bedroom next to Esther's room. Hopefully that will only last for one afternoon...
Esther had a good Easter at Grandma and Grandpa Mathews house. She got to see nearly everybody. Esther wasn't sure what to think about the NCAA Basketball Tournament. She enjoyed watching on Dad's lap on Friday night, but when Craig, Tot and John (Craig's friend) came over to watch Butler play on Friday afternoon, Esther got scared when everyone cheered a couple times. She stuck out her bottom lip and looked really sad, and then let out a big wail. Daddy eventually calmed her down though...poor little girl.
Esther is growing every day! Daddy thinks that every day when he comes home and sees Esther that she looks a little bit older. Her face seems to mature on at least a weekly basis, and she is getting longer.
Esther and Mommy and Daddy can't wait for it to warm up outside!! It is officially Spring now, but it sure doesn't feel like it (in the 40's, low 50's with rain / snow). Mommy is anxious to take Esther out to work in the garden with her. Mommy plans to take Esther to the zoo to see the butterflies soon!

11 weeks old!

I haven't posted in a long time...
Esther had a busy and eventful weekend last weekend. On Saturday we traveled up North to Hammond, Indiana, to celebrate Molly's Grandma Van Gorp's 85th birthday. The drive is about 3 hours each way. Esther did great in the car. She got hungry and Mom fed her once each way, at the Wolcott / Chalmers rest stop, which is probably about the halfway point. We decided to change Esther's diaper on a bench in the middle of the rest stop, for lack of a better place to change her, but Esther didn't mind. :-p We had fun at the birthday party - sloppy joe's and banana or chocolate cake to eat. Grandma had lots of relatives and church friends there to help her celebrate. Afterwards we stayed and talked for awhile with family, and then went to Grandma's house nearby. Esther was pretty sleepy during the party, but let a few people hold her. Then she was kind of cranky at Grandma's house, because she was getting hungry again. We ate with Kristin, Ed, Mallory and Leah at Cracker Barrel before heading home. Andy kept Esther entertained most of the time during dinner, since she was wide awake and slightly cranky. Then Kristin took a turn. The ride home was fairly uneventful, but we didn't get back until like 11:30. Esther slept good Saturday night!
On Sunday we had AWESOME weather. This winter seems to be dragging on and on and on, but Sunday was a gorgeous day. The temperature was up somewhere in the mid-60's! Mom and Dad went out in the back yard to work in the garden, while Esther napped in a little screened-in baby tent that Mom bought at Once Upon a Child. Esther slept really hard in the little tent for probably around 2 hours! She slept right through Max attacking the tent, planes buzzing overhead, and a strong wind at times. Mom is looking forward to using the tent again in Spring when she gets outside to garden some more. Only 15 days until Spring!! (as I'm writing it is 28 degrees outside with some snow and ice leftover from yesterday. yuck)
Esther is 11 weeks old now and is making sounds every day. She has a sound she makes when she gets excited that is like sucking in air really fast. She has a couple more "full night's of sleep" under her belt now, and has somewhat more of a routine. Mornings are still her happy time, and she still really likes the bouncy seat that she got from Target. Esther needs to be able to see peoples' faces. She doesn't like it when people leave her field of vision - she will turn her head to try to follow them, and if they don't come back she might start crying. She can stand up really well with some support - Dad likes to make her pick up one leg, and then she will bend her knee and kind of take a supported step. Mom tries to make sure that Esther still gets plenty of tummy time! She can halfway roll over, but no real attempts to roll over or crawl just yet.

Esther's first shots and first Valentine's Day

Esther's first Valentine's Day started off a little rough, but ended on a good note. Esther had her 8 weeks doctor's appointment, where she had to get her first round of shots. She got 3 shots and one liquid vaccination. Mom took her to Dr. Kidd and said that Esther did pretty well. Esther hollered when the medicine from the first shot was going in, and cried through the next 2 shots, but she stopped crying and took her liquid vaccination well. Esther was measured at 11 pounds, 22 3/4 inches long and her head circumference was 14 3/4 inches. All of those measurements were pretty much right on target for her age of 2 months (Esther won't officially be 2 months old for another 4 days from today). Esther is glad that she doesn't have to go back to the doctor for another 2 months!
After her rough doctor's appointment, Esther came home and rested for a bit. Then Mommy dropped Esther off at Grandma and Grandpa Mathews' house, where they and Aunt Carolyn babysat Esther for the evening so that Mommy and Daddy could go out together on Valentine's Day. Mom and Dad went out to eat downtown at Palomino's. Dad had been wanting to take Mom there to eat for awhile. It was a really nice, fancy restaurant, right downtown near Circle Centre. Dad got Seafood Fettucine Alfredo (with shrimp and scallops), and Mom got a Filet Mignon (with blue cheese and onion strings). Quite a fancy dinner! Yum yum. Mom and Dad skipped dessert at Palomino's and went home where Dad had a box of chocolates for Mom.
Esther was really good for G&G&C. She took a couple bottles and seemed to be really mellow when Mom and Dad came to pick her up. Esther likes to sit in what Aunt Carolyn calls the "Insta-Happy Chair". It is a little plastic chair that rocks that Andy or C&C used to use when they were a baby. Esther really seems to like it. She smiles, or just sits there peacefully and looks around. Too bad Esther doesn't like her swing that much... Esther gave G&G&C lots of smiles and coos. She was a good girl! She rode quietly home in the car and slept nearly 6 hours last night too! Maybe the shots or the Tylenol wore her out...

7 weeks and growing!

Esther hit the 7 weeks milestone yesterday. She is really starting to change at a faster pace now.
The last few days have been pretty busy for her. Last Thursday (1/31), she had her first babysitter - Grandma Mathews! She behaved herself well, and slept most of the time in Grandma's arms.
Friday through Monday she was pretty fussy, and hungry. She wouldn't go to sleep by herself much during the day or the evening, but she slept longer at night. Mom says that Esther has had 6+ hour stretches of sleep for a couple nights now! Mom had a good idea to turn the clock radio on to static, and then put the radio next to Esther's crib in the nursery. This seems to muffle the noises of the wind, weather, cats and Dad getting dressed in the morning.
Esther makes coo-ing sounds now fairly regularly. The best time to catch her coo-ing seems to be when she is in a good mood - having eaten and mostly awake, but not too awake. She makes sounds like "ooo" and "ah-goooo", usually accompanied by her tongue sticking out. She smiles more now too - although Dad still wouldn't say her smiles are always intentional just yet.
Mom figured out a cool trick to do with Esther: Mom blows on Esther's face lightly, and Esther will take a quick breath in, slightly close her eyelids and smile a bit. If Dad blows on her face too hard, Esther will purse her lips together and blow some bubbles. Esther really seems to notice breeze on her face - during cold trips outside in the car seat, sometimes the wind blows the flap open over her face and she will gasp a bit.
Every day that Dad comes home from work, he thinks that Esther has grown a bit more. Mainly her face / head seem to be growing - her body growing is not as obvious. Esther has her 2 months Doctor's appointment next week - she will get her first round of shots, and we'll get to see how much she's grown!
She is a good baby and is doing great!

Sleeping longer?

Yesterday (Sunday) was an interesting day.
Molly and Andy and Esther woke up in the morning and started getting ready for church. We are still learning how much time it takes to get all 3 of us ready and out the door to go places. We made quite a comical bunch with Mom speeding to get us to church, Esther crying in the back seat, and Dad shaving in the car mirror. We made it to church though, and only 10 minutes "late" to boot.
Esther was good during church, like she was the last week - just needing a break to have some brunch. Glenda set up her grandkids' playroom for Molly to feed Esther, so Molly can take Esther back there and still hear the sermon.
After church we ate at Burger King, but Esther got pretty fussy while we were visiting after eating, so we had to leave to go home and feed her. She was crying nearly uncontrollably while Mom got ready to feed her, but once she started eating she calmed down. Esther wailed and cried again when it was time for her to eat again later in the day. Then she slept for a record 6 hours (!) from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. after eating a lot more around 11.
We are wondering if she is starting to go through another growth spurt again. One of Molly's books said that babies go through growth spurts at 3 weeks and at 6 weeks.
Esther has sort of been making coo-ing sounds the last couple days, once or twice per day. She seems to be able to follow people's faces and large objects as they come in and out of her field of vision.
We are still amazed at how strong she is. She has always been able to hold her head up well, and she can also support her weight on her legs. She nearly stands up on her own, with Dad just keeping her from leaning forward or backward.

5 weeks old!

Esther is 5 weeks old already! As you can see from last week's photo, and this week's photo, she is smiling more often now. We aren't 100% sure that she is smiling intentionally (i.e. she knows she is smiling), but it seems to be happening more often now. She seems to smile when she is drifting off to sleep, or right before Mommy feeds her. In this photo, she is smiling while laying on Daddy's lap. Sometimes when Daddy makes funny voices she will start to smile a little bit.

Esther is still not sleeping through the night, but she is sleeping a bit longer at times, maybe averaging 3-4 hours at a time. There are days where she doesn't sleep on her own for Mommy though, which makes it hard for Mommy to do things that she wants to do. Esther does seem to like riding in Mom's Kozy baby carrier though - which lets Mom get around the house a little bit.

Esther, Mom and Dad went to visit Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa Mathews for dinner at Greenwood Village Tuesday night (1/22). She was a good little guest, and was quiet and slept the whole time until it was time to leave and for her to eat.

4 weeks old!

Esther is 4 weeks old today! It's hard to believe that we have been home from the hospital for that long, and that Esther is 4 weeks old. She definitely looks like she has grown since coming home from the hospital. She had her 4 weeks doctor's appointment yesterday, and measured 9 pounds and 4 ounces, meaning she gained 1 pound and 2 ounces from her appointment only 13 days earlier! She grew 1/4" to 20 1/4" long. The doctor said she is in the 75th percentile for weight, and the 25th percentile for length. If she has her dad and great-grandpa Rex' genes, she will catch back up in the length category soon...

Esther is still not sleeping more than 3 hours at a time usually. At night she likes to eat around 8, 11, 3, and 6. Mom helps Dad get his rest by feeding Esther in the nursery instead of in the bedroom. Esther still gets cranky sometimes and wakes Dad up with her crying. She is a good baby overall - it's usually not too hard to figure out what she wants - she rarely cries for no reason.
Esther might be starting to smile - she seems to smile when we make noise with a crinkly toy, or when she is starting to drift off to sleep after a meal. She makes a lot of noise when she is going to sleep or when she is just waking up - grunting and groaning and yawning.

First Post

I thought it would be fun to set up a blog, as a way of keeping a journal of everything that's going on in our growing family, since things are changing almost every day at this point.
We have photos on flickr, but this blog should be a way to put a story behind the photos, and keep a more detailed record of what's happening.

I'll catch everyone up on what happened in the past month...

In December Molly and I were wrapping up our Childbirth classes at Methodist Hospital downtown, and getting ready at home for our baby's arrival. Since we didn't want to find out what we were having, we were calling the baby "Little E" - because we decided to name a boy Elijah Jacob or a girl Esther Lynn. We bought a new 4-door car (2008 Chevy Malibu) for Little E, and we received lots and lots of presents from generous family and friends at baby showers. Everything was ready for Little E's arrival!
Esther Lynn Mathews came into the world at 9:14 a.m. on Wednesday, December 19, 2007.
Esther was 7 pounds, 5 ounces, and 19 3/4 inches long.
She was a beautiful baby right from the start - big slate blue eyes and blonde (almost white) hair. She looked perfect! Mommy and Daddy were so happy and so grateful to God for the miracle that he gave us, after we had been trying to have a child for over 2 years.

From birth Esther was very strong and able to hold her head up for several seconds at a time. She really enjoyed being held by people, especially laying on her tummy on others' chests. She made lots of funny faces, the most frequent being a surprised look with her eyebrows raised and her little mouth pursed tightly into an 'O'. She sleeps hard, and when she wakes up she grunts and groans and squeaks and stretches.
Molly had a c-section, which went great. Molly, Andy and Esther stayed in the hospital for 3 days after Molly's c-section so that the nurses and doctors could keep an eye on Molly while she healed, and on Esther while she grew.
Things went pretty well at the hospital, although sleep was hard to come by. Esther got to know her parents better, and had lots of family come to greet her.
We went home from the hospital on Saturday, December 22, in the afternoon. That evening we celebrated Christmas with Molly's family at our house.
We slept a lot better at home, although Esther's feeding and sleeping schedule was very irregular.
On Christmas Day we celebrated Christmas with Andy's family at Andy's parents' house.
Most of our first week at home was spent with Molly feeding Esther, Andy helping to take care of Molly and Esther, and trying to get some rest while keeping the house somewhat clean. We would not have made it without the meals that were prepared for us by our church family and by Andy's Mom.
Esther had her first bath, first stroller ride outside, and first doctor's appointment all on Wednesday, December 26th. The doctor's appointment went great. Esther was gaining weight and only had a slight bit of jaundice.
Esther celebrated her first New Years at Grandma and Grandpa Mathews' house.
Esther's 2nd doctor's appointment also went great on January 2. She was up over 8 pounds this time! Esther holds very still and doesn't cry at all while Dr. Kidd examines her.
Molly got her staples out on January 3, and has been slowly gaining more flexibility and strength, but is still a little stiff in the middle.
Andy went back to work on Thursday, January 10, after Molly was cleared to drive 3 weeks after her surgery. Andy is bored at work, after being able to play with Esther whenever he wanted to when he was at home.
Esther went to church for the first time on Sunday, January 13. Our church family celebrated her arrival with us as truly a miracle and a blessing from God.

That catches us up to today - Monday, January 14. Andy is at work, bored, thinking of Esther, so he thought it would be a good time to set up a blog about her and his family. :-) He hopes you enjoy reading this blog in the future.