Happy Birthday Baby Max!

Today is Baby Max's One Week Birthday! We can't believe he is already that old! And he has definitely gotten bigger! You can just look at him and see the difference a week has made! He also has already gone from drinking 1-2 ounces of formula at a time to 4 ounces! If he keeps this up, he will definitely be a big boy! He is a very good baby and generally sleeps or just sits awake and only cries when he gets hungry, about every three hours. We have lucked out this time! Makenna loves her little brother and pretty much constantly tries to kiss him or stuff a pacifier or bottle in his face. It is a little challenge to try to keep her off of him, but I guess that is better than her hating him! So we are definitely happy with our little family of four (although DEFINITELY exhausted!)

It has been a very busy week and we actually haven't taken too many pictures. But I thought we would just share what we have taken:


When Max was first born, he cried unless you swaddled him. Now he has decided he hates to be swaddled! In fact, usually during the night Max sleeps for three hours, gets up to be fed and changed, then goes back to sleep. Last night, Max woke up screaming and crying after only an hour. We tried everything- feeding, changing, burping, rocking, etc. Nothing would stop his crazy screaming! Finally Austin unwrapped him. He instantly stopped crying and went to sleep! Apparently he doesn't want his arms wrapped up anymore-- he is obviously too grown up for that! We checked on him during his nap and we found him sound asleep, but totally uncovered. Also notice his crossed legs! So funny!



Yesterday we received a package in the mail from Austin's mom. It had some clothes for Max in it, some Father's Day things for Austin, and some clothes for Makenna. Makenna decided her bloomers would make a great hat! (Excuse her little runny nose-- we wanted to hurry and snap the picture before she took off her hat and so in return we have a runny nose picture!)

Makenna putting on her "hat"-- so funny! We have tried to make sure we spend lots of time with Makenna now that Max is born. We sing songs while we feed Max, we let her help with handing things when he is being changed, and we play a lot while he is sleeping. Her face is so red in this picture because she had just returned from being outside with her dad.

We are just putting this picture in for fun. Makenna's latest favorite thing-- flashing people! She is obsessed with tummies!

My family arrived from Alabama on Saturday and stayed with us until Thursday morning. It was a very full house and a crazy time. But it was a lot of fun and Makenna thoroughly enjoyed having her Aunt Hollee and Uncles Gordon and Logan, plus Grandmom and Grandad, to play with. One of the perks of them coming was that I was able to attend Austin's Citizen's Police Academy Graduation on Wednesday night and the grandparents babysat!

For those of you who don't know, Austin has been attending an 11-week course at the Citizen's Police Academy. He has done things such as drive the police cars, shoot guns at the shooting range, gone on a ride-along with a couple of policemen (police people I guess cause one was a girl!), and much more. Well the course has finally ended and they had a nice graduation. This is Austin's certificate:

Austin received his certificate from the Chief of Police (I think that's what he was).

This is just a random, cute picture of sleeping baby Max. So far, Max has really loved a pacifier. Let's see if he stays that way, or if he turns into a thumb sucker like big sister (I would actually prefer thumb sucking-- it's a bit of hassle to have to constantly poke a pacifier back in his mouth!)!

Max's first ride on his swing. He loves this thing! It was a surprise for us because Makenna HATED the swing and would scream and cry if we put her in it! Max would stay there all day I think!

Unfortunately we didn't take too many pictures while my family was up. But they were pretty helpful. Like I said before, Makenna had a ball (actually maybe too much fun-- she is still crazy hyper!) playing with everyone. It was really helpful for her to have friends keep her occupied! She was able to go to the park and the library with my dad and siblings and she played outside quite a bit. My mom was also really good about doing some sewing projects and keeping a general eye on things while I took a couple of naps everyday! This is Makenna with her Uncle Gordon. She loves that guy!

Happy Birthday Max! Obviously things have been pretty crazy since you have been born, but you have just slept through it all! Good job Buddy! : )

Baby Pictures

Hey everyone, Austin again. I just wanted to post the link to the pictures we had taken in the hospital. The website is http://www.our365.com At this homepage, you just need to click on the find a newborn portrait link and enter in the info it asks for (Babys birthday or birth month, last 3 letters of our last name, city we live in, state) and then it will find us (Pamela M.) and you click on it and it will ask you for the password and the first 4 letters of our last name. The password is Matthews. That should take you to the 8 poses we had at the hospital.

He's Here!

Hey everyone, this is Austin again. I get to share the exciting news with everyone. We have a new baby! Pam tells me that I need to share the whole story, so here it goes:

On Thursday morning, Pam had a doctor's appointment. She has been having appointments twice a week for the past few weeks since her blood pressure has been a little high. I decided to skip my first hour of class to go to the appointment with her. After a non-stress test, the doctor suggested that we get some blood work done at the hospital because they get the results back quicker than if they take it and send it to a lab. So we trucked on over to the hospital at around 9:00. At this point I realized that I would be missing class, but I figured I would be done in time for the golf scramble that our class had arranged for 12:30 that afternoon. At the hospital, they drew the blood and told us it would be about an hour for the results, and I took Makenna home for her nap while Pam stayed at the hospital. While I was home, Pam sent me a message that they were going to be admitting her because Max's heart rate kept on dropping everytime that Pam had a contraction, which we discovered were around 5 or 6 minutes apart. So we stayed in the triage room until a labor and delivery room opened up around 4:00. By this point, the contractions were about 3 minutes apart and Pam was dilated to a 3. In the labor room, they gave Pam pitocin to speed the process along, but had to stop it a few times because the epidural Pam got was making her blood pressure drop very low (97/37 at one point), and the ephedrine they were giving her to keep her blood pressure up was making Max's heart rate shoot up (Pam was also on oxygen from about 7pm until the baby was born). It was pretty scary for us there for a little bit, but the nurses and doctors were all great and at around 11:00 that night things started going better. Between 11:00 and 12:00 Pam dilated from a 6 to a 10, her blood pressure stabilized, and things moved along nicely. The doctor (Dr. Erickson) came in a little after midnight and got ready for the delivery. He even helped me put on a gown and gloves so that I could help in the delivery. Around 12:30 little Max made his appearance. Dr. Erickson let me catch him and I didn't even drop him!! He weighed 8 lbs 1 oz and was 20 inches long. He weighed quite a bit more than any of us guessed since he was 2 1/2 weeks early and Makenna (1 week early) weighed 7 lbs 10 oz. He has ridiculously chubby cheeks and for several hours we didn't think he had dimples, but his chubby cheeks were just hiding them. He does have them after all! He also has some dark, fuzzy little hair. Pam feels a lot better this time and we were able to get released from the hospital after less than 36 hours. We are home now and Pam's family rolled into town a few hours after we got home. We have taken several pictures, and I am sure we will take a lot more in the days to come. We also had some pictures taken at the hospital that will be posted on the photography blog and we will post the address to that as soon as they are put up. Here are the pictures:

This is Maxton Paul Matthews just a few minutes after coming into the world. He cried for a few seconds after he was born, but didn't cry at all after that. He seems like a low-key, relaxed little kid (in other words, the exact opposite of Makenna!)

Here is Max getting the work-up by the nurses. He did not appreciate the poking and prodding.

This is our wonderful doctor, Dr. Erickson. He even looks pretty good for it being 12:30 AM. He is in our ward and a really great doctor and all-around good guy.

Here is mommy and baby. Although the labor was a little rough, the delivery part of the ordeal was not that bad (says the guy that didn't have to push and got to be the first to hold the sweetest baby in the whole world).

Makenna spent the night at some friends house (Thank you so much Nate and Jenn! We appreciate it more than we can say!!) and this is one of the first times that she met little brother. The first time she saw him she sweetly gave him a kiss on the cheek (how nice!) and promptly smacked him in the face. I think the general point she was trying to make was "I love you, but don't try any funny business."

We are so grateful that Max is here! He is a cute little guy and we love him so much already. We would love for you to stop by! If you would like, just give us a call.

A Girl and Her Shoes

Makenna is such a girly girl! She loves her skirts, dresses, bracelets, purses, etc. Lately she has been on a big shoe kick. I think she has a shoe fetish!

Makenna in Mommy's flip flops

Trying to put her shoes on

She even wears Daddy's shoes!

Makenna better get a job because this obsession with shoes might get expensive!

On other news, we went to the doctor today. I've had high blood pressure the last several weeks. So the doctor said today that if the baby is not born in two weeks, he is inducing June 15th. That's less than two weeks away! But it's possible Max may be born before then-- I'm dilated to 2! With Makenna, I went to the doctor and was dilated to 2 and she was born the next day! Of course, I haven't had any contractions yet... but we can only hope! Tomorrow sounds great to me! : )