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! : )

A Glorious Break

Hello everyone! I'm sorry that Pam and I haven't posted anything for two weeks! And yes, this is Austin. I decided to post this time since it has been so long since I posted, and it is break-time for me. As you probably know, I finished my 1st year of podiatry school last week (congrats to all my fellow classmates) and now have 2 weeks off before we start up again. There are a few things that I plan on doing during this break. #1: Spend more time with family. Although I have been home a decent amount this quarter since I study at home, we haven't spent a lot of quality time together these last few weeks. #2: We will try and get Maxton's bedroom ready as much as we can. We also need to prepare ourselves mentally (I still can't believe that in less than a month, we will have two kids!!) #3: I have some reading to catch up on. I checked out Crime and Punishment and Julius Ceasar from the library and need to read those. I also need to work on the book I am writing. I have been stuck at chapter 6 for way too long.

As you can see, we really are pretty boring people. Lots of my classmates are heading for vacation in cool places like Las Vegas, Colorado, etc., but we are homebodies.

Yesterday we fed Makenna a Lunchable and it came with a little Airhead candy. She liked it quite a bit, but when she was finished, we realized that her entire mouth and tongue were blue! Pam tried to wipe it off, but it didn't work so well. Here are a few of the pictures we took after trying to wipe her face off:

We really like the first picture because it shows off Makennas eyes. We still aren't sure exactly how to classify their color. Dark Blue? It might be kind of hard to tell by the pictures, but Pam dressed Makenna up very patriotic for Memorial Day. You can see the red t-shirt, and maybe the white hairbow, but what you can't see are the skirt with red and white stars on a blue fabric, and the American Flag in her hairbow. Thanks Mom for the cute 4th of July outfit that we used early.

Wow, there is so much more that we haven't commented on since we posted last time. I don't want to rehash the entire last 2 weeks for everyone. Let me just say a few things on a few topics. I apologize in advance for the randomness of these things, and I hope you bear with me.

First, as yesterday was Memorial Day, I spent some time thinking about those that have gone on before us and paved the way for us today. There are many examples in nearly every facet of life that deserve our respect, and there continue to be many that follow in those footsteps of greatness and live for something greater than themselves. It reminds me of what I felt a few months ago at my Grandpa's funeral: "As I watched the local VFW officer offer it's full military burial rights upon the casket of this WWII Navy vet, I was overcome by an emotion foreign, yet well-known. Tears freely flowed down cheeks which had previously only been dampened by the falling snow. The words 'On behalf of a grateful nation...', uttered softly and sincerely, caused my mind to reflect on the sacrifices of The Greatest Generation. More acutely than ever before, I feel weak and humbled." I just hope that I can live up to the standards that have been set by some of my "unknown idols."

Second, and on a less serious note, congratulations to Kris Allen for beating Adam Lambert on American Idol. I actually care less that Kris won than I care that Adam lost.

Third, we rearranged our furniture last week. I actually moved our computer desk into the dining room so that we could have room in the living room to put a swing up for Max. After spending the time to move the computer desk and bookshelf over, I tried to hook up the internet and it wouldn't work. So I called tech support and they said that only 1 cable outlet in the apartment is set up for internet. So, instead of paying for them to come out and set up the outlet in the dining room for internet, I moved everything back into the living room. Oh well, it was a good thought and it took my mind off of studying Physiology for a few hours.

I figure I will finish off this blog entry with a picture of some feet. My feet actually. If one of the feet looks redder to you, it is. This is right after Morgan Kizzar performed a complete ankle block on me in lab (you can still see one of the needle pokes on my leg).

If anyone is home during these two weeks and wants to get together and go swimming or something like that, let us know!

Mother's Day

I wish we could have Mother's Day every day! I'm not sure why exactly; we didn't really do anything exciting. But maybe that's exactly it-- I didn't have to really DO anything all day!

Makenna actually slept in until 7:30 and then she and her dad woke me up singing, "Happy Mother's Day! Happy Mother's Day!" (they made up this song themselves!). Makenna had her breakfast (which Dad fed her and I didn't have to do!) and went down for her nap. She played in bed for a long time before sleeping which meant she didn't get up until like 11:30. Nice! This meant I had like a two hour nap and Austin listened for her to wake up for me! Extra nice! Then she got up and ate and off we went to church.

Makenna actually made it all the way through Sacrament with having to be taken out! This is the second time in her LIFE! That's right, LIFE! Even as a baby... never made it through a Sacrament meeting! So I was really excited about that-- I figured that was her Mother's Day gift to me! We did sit in the hall for Sunday School and she did have to be taken out of Relief Society, but I actually heard the talks in Sacrament meeting! Pretty exciting!

Afterwards, we came home and put her down for a "rest" and Austin made dinner. It was just chicken nuggets and fries but here lately I have only been wanting fries! So I ate so much I was almost sick! Then I took a nice hot bath to rest my aching back while Austin watched Makenna. Then we put Makenna to bed and I took another nice long bath (yes, back still aching!). While I was in the bath Austin cleaned the kitchen AND the living room. I got out and Austin made me a big bowl of ice cream with chocolate sauce. The perfect end to a great day!

Thanks Austin for letting me be a lazy bum all day! And I didn't even feel guilty because you took care of the chores for me! I love husbands, I love it when kids are so good, and I love Moms! Now if only Mother's Day were more often... : )

A Little Surprise at Bunco...

Once a month, several of the wives get together to play a game called Bunco. It's a really fun time to gather at different people's houses and eat yummy food and play a fun game and chat with each other. There usually aren't kids running around, so it's just a nice adult, girls night out. I (and I'm sure most of the other girls) really look forward to Bunco each month!

Well last night we were scheduled to have Bunco at Jenn's house. Annie and Shanda picked me up as usual and we went over to Jenn's house. Well we were one of the first people there so we just sat around talking for a while. I was sitting over in the corner in a rocking chair talking to Jenn and her husband Nate. Then everyone started showing up so I moved over to the living room. I saw some presents on the table and I said, "Oh fun!" Jenn is having a baby so I assumed she had gotten some fun baby gifts. Well a little while later Frankie said, "Were you surprised?" And I said, "About what?" "That all of this is for you!" "What?!?" Ha ha, it was a surprise baby shower! And I had been there for about fifteen minutes and it hadn't even clicked that it was a surprise baby shower for me! As Jenn pointed out, all of the presents were blue and she is having a girl, but that never clicked either! And there was a blue table cloth on the table and I thought, "Jenn is really dressing things up for Bunco tonight!" And everyone brought food and I thought, "Shoot! Why do I always do this? I didn't even think to bring anything! I'm crappy!" And there was a baby banner hanging right over my head at the rocking chair and I didn't even notice it! Hopefully it's just baby hormones because I would like to think I'm usually more observant!

Anyway, it was a really fun time. This was sort of my first baby shower ever. In Idaho, they had a baby shower for me at school, but it was mostly a faculty meeting that everyone brought a present to (don't get me wrong, that was very appreciated as well!)! So this was the first "real" baby shower. Everyone brought really yummy food and baby Max really racked up on a lot of awesome presents! I wanted to take pictures of each individual thing and tell what it was and who it was from, but Austin wouldn't let me. He said that was a bit much. So instead I put everything on the couch and tried to get pictures of it (if you are really interested, you can click on it to make it bigger to see things better):

So yea! Now we could actually bring baby Max home from the hospital and clothe him and put a diaper on him and everything! : ) Thanks to everyone for everything! We are so lucky to have found such awesome friends here! Love you all! (By the way, I was so excited about everything I kept Austin up until almost 11 talking away! And I have already written everything down in Max's baby book! Ha ha, love it!)