The Hoeman Family: One Year Ago

One year ago our lives changed. One year ago it went from just Kurt and me to a family of three. One year ago we went from care-free nights and weekends to thinking about someone else before ourselves. One year ago we headed to the hospital to meet our baby.

I cannot believe our baby boy is one year old today. I can't help but tear up as I sit and think about how quickly his first year has gone by and how much our lives have changed because of our little man, Carter.

Carter's original due date was October 26th. Well, since there was no baby yet, Kurt and I went to my weekly appointment and planned for an induction on October 30th. The directions were to arrive at the hospital at 6 a.m. The night before we had everything packed and ready to go for our early wake up call. Of course that evening I didn't sleep very well. While I knew the most important thing would have been to get a full night's rest, my nerves kicked it into high gear and won the sleep battle. Needless to say when the 4:30 a.m. alarm rang it didn't take much to pop out of bed. Kurt and I were out the door by 5:15 and headed to the hospital to start the induction process. On the way there, (we weren't even out of our neighborhood) my phone rang. It was a nurse from the hospital informing me that there were no rooms available yet and that I needed to stay home until they called back. Ugh! So we went back home, wide awake at 5 something in the morning. We decided to put a movie on and hopefully catch a few more winks before they called. Kid you not, as soon as we got comfortable again and closed our eyes my phone rang (around 6:30). This time it was my doctor telling me they were ready and to come in to the hospital.

We arrived at the hospital eager and ready, only to find that my doctor had jumped the gun and the labor and delivery unit had been super busy and really wasn't ready for us. However they showed us to a room and checked in periodically but nothing officially began until 9:00 a.m. My labor and delivery nurse was great! Once she was free of her other patients she began her paperwork with me. They started the pitocin fairly quickly, around 9:30. And with that my labor had began. I remember my contractions not being to bad in the beginning and then picking up fairly steadily. My doctor broke my water around 11:00 which helped move along things. I waited for the epidural a little too late, but once I finally got it life was good. However I didn't get much rest time between getting my epidural and pushing. My doctor thought I was ready and had me pushing for a little bit but then decided to let me rest for an hour. Honestly I wish I would have gotten the epidural a lot sooner so that I could have taken a long nap, but oh well.

An hour later it was time to push again. This time we were going to meet our baby. All the nurses in the room were so excited because we did not know the sex of the baby. My nurse told me she only experiences that a few times a year. The whole time throughout our pregnancy people would ask "what do you think you are having?" At the very beginning my gut feeling was a boy; however I felt extremely confused because my mom seemed dead set the baby was a girl. I think she convinced everyone she knew the baby would be a girl, including me. Well once our little baby was born, Kurt was the one that shared "It's a boy!" I couldn't believe it! The doctor placed our baby boy in my arms. Kurt and I were filled with so much happiness and love for our new little guy. Of course everyone in the room wanted to know what his name would be. Kurt and I had our boys' names narrowed down but hadn't fully committed. So we looked at each other and I said, "So do you think Carter?" And we knew that was the one. Several years ago, before we were ever pregnant we had talked about how we liked the name Carter. We also found out that one of Kurt's great grandfather's name was Carter. We always knew that if the baby was a boy then his middle name would be John, after his grandfathers, John Mlynarczyk and John (Jack) Hoeman.

One thing I will never forget after Carter was born was his crying. I know that when a baby is born you want to hear a good healthy cry. Well Carter provided everyone in the room with a good, healthy cry for at least 15 minutes. I guess that should have been our first sign of his temperament. :0 Kurt cut Carter's umbilical cord. He was weighed in at 7 lbs. 12 oz. and 19 inches long. After all initial procedures were completed, Cater was taken away into the nursery for bath. In the meantime I hung out in my room waiting for feeling to return to my legs.

Soon Carter returned to us in our new room where Kurt and I immediately began the roles of mommy and daddy as we cuddled and held our newborn. In this particular hospital, Carter stayed in the room with us the entire time. And so the sleepless nights began. :) We spent 2 nights in the hospital. Carter even celebrated his first Halloween there and was so kind to bring candy for the staff. On the third day we were discharged. We packed up our belongings and headed out of the hospital to bring our baby boy to his new home.

So much has happened in a year. Some of my memories are already a blur. Whenever friends ask me about when did Carter "do this" or "do that" I can't always quite remember. I guess that's what sleep deprivation will do to you. In the first year there were most definitely some hard times but overall we feel so blessed and can't even begin to describe how much we love our little guy.

So now here is Carter at 12 months, 1 year old.

Weight: 20 lbs. 12 oz.
Height: 28 3/4 in.

Food: Carter loves his carbs! Noodles, bread, crackers, the more the better. I was always so proud of him for eating his veggies. He will still eat them but without the gusto he once had for them. Hopefully this is just a phase. He also enjoys his fruits and dairy. He is still not a big fan of protein. Some days he will eat chicken or pork and other days he won't. He doesn't really seem to like beef. Carter does enjoy grilled cheese sandwiches and beans when they have been mixed with some sort of seasoning or sauce. And I should mention that Carter now thinks paper is a new food category. There have recently been multiple occasions where I have discovered him munching down on paper. I'm thinking this boy will be like his mommy and also enjoy sweets. We shall see what he does with his birthday cake. (Pictures and post on that to come later.)


Yummy!

Sleep: Carter is doing a great job sleeping at night. He usually goes to bed around 7:45/8:00 and then will wake up somewhere between 7 & 8 the next morning. As for naps, he is still not the best napper. For awhile I could pretty much count on a good hour morning nap, but as of late that has been unpredictable. The afternoon nap which has always been the unpredictable one, is just that. Unpredictable. Not sure, maybe he will soon be transitioning from two naps a day to one. I guess I will count my blessings that he at least sleeps at night.

Activities: Carter is a BUSY boy. His attention span lasts all of a few seconds before he is off to something else or throwing down one toy to go play with another. Kurt and I are in it for it. He currently loves playing with these large Lego blocks. He loves loves loves to take them apart. In fact Kurt and I will try to build towers for him and he will instantly start destroying them. Carter is still crawling everywhere. He will even go crawling on the cement outside, which he LOVES being outside. Carter has also learned how to work the stairs. He quickly figured out how to crawl up them and now is even pretty good about going down them. He is getting much better at turning around and going down on his tummy feet first. Carter loves to walk but only if he is pushing his walker or holding onto someone's hands. Carter really enjoys music and responds well to it. We often catch him "dancing" by rocking back and forth or bouncing up and down. Usually when we sing "If You're Happy and You Know It" he will clap his hands. He also does some hand motions for "The Wheels on the Bus". A friend of ours gave him a little glow worm. We call it Carter's baby and will say "Carter give the baby a kiss," which he will then open his mouth and slobber all over the face of the baby. The glow worm also plays music and he will "rock" the baby. So sweet! Oh, and Kurt is working with Carter on "playing catch". a.k.a rolling the ball back and forth.

crawling on the concrete


Owe! This hurts my knees.

Just sitting on a table. No big deal.

Pushing his toy around the floor.

What a cutie!

playing catch

Personality: For the most part Carter is a happy little boy. He has a great belly laugh which is contagious once he gets roaring. The little guy makes Kurt and me laugh on a daily basis. He has the best mannerisms. Sometimes he pulls in his upper lip so that his bottom lip is sticking out. It's so stinkin' cute! He loves to "talk" and carries on a conversation with us or just himself. He has a lot to say! Also our little man is pretty stubborn. He knows what he wants when he wants it. If you take something away be prepared for screaming and crying. I tend to think Carter is an over-reactor. Any little thing that can be slightly upsetting can cause him to tear up. Despite the tears and hard headness this little boy is the best.