2 Months

2 Months old! Austin still looks a lot like Jacob but definitely has his own features as well! He had his well child visit today and got his first round of vaccinations. The office I go to have switched from 2 nurses giving the vaccinations at a time to just 1 now. I'm not as much of a fan. Now he has to go through 2 sessions of pain vs just getting it all done at once. :( But Austin is definialy turning out to be our fastest growing kid. He is currently 12 lbs 2 oz and 22 1/2" long. He is only 5 oz behind Jacob's 2 month weight and started a pound lighter. So I have a feeling he is going to be closing the gap within the next month or so. He is wearing size 1 diapers but I think 2's would def fit him better so I'm just waiting for the size 1's to be out so I can buy him size 2's. He is still wearing 0-3 month clothes although I'm sure we will be switching him to the next size pretty soon!

Austin is a very smiley kid when he doesn't have any other things bothering him. (Which seems to be a lot more often than not) But you can usually get a smile out of him even if he is feeling a little cranky. It's funny though because he loves to look up at whatever is above your head so when he "smiles at you" he's not actually smiling at you. He's smiling at you while looking above your head. I still think he is smiling because of your presence. Just not looking at you while he does it. :) I think Jacob is one of his favorites though. Jacob can almost always get Austin to smile. And Jacob loves being around Austin so it's very cute.

Austin reminds me of Jacob a lot. He has the same desire to always be up a looking around. He doesn't much like to by laying flat on the ground and prefers to be at somewhat of an incline when he is self entertaining. So when I am able and he allows I will either put him in the chair sitting up, on the bean bag, in the bumbo or the walker so he can be sitting up looking around. He also loves to stand. I can hardly get him to sit anymore when I am burping him. He is usually standing and can fully support himself on his legs. He has very very good head control and doesn't mind tummy time most of the time. Something that always makes Austin smile is when I am "running" his legs. He loves it for some reason. I think he is a pretty strong kid and the predication was also impressed with how well he stood and held his head up. If you are holding him he doesn't want to rest against you he likes to be sitting fully supporting his head on his own. He has started cooing a little but doesn't really talk much as of now. And just yesterday he started sucking on his hands! Austin seems to be getting better with the car seat as well. We don't have to swaddle him anymore when he is in it and as long as you are moving he seems to do pretty well. Although I would say it still isn't his most favorite... And Austin really seems to like bath time but it pretty much ends when I have to wash his hair and get him out because he hates both of those.

This is Austin's signature look :)

Austin has the best pouty lip. I think it is the cutest! I unfortunately haven't been able to get a picture of it. :( He also does this really cute whimper cry that I love. I'm not sure what it means yet... But while I'm figuring it out I'll just enjoy it. :) This video doesn't do it justice. But It's the best I could get.

He either has a very low pain tolerance or is just a little sensitive. If he gets bumped in anyway he starts screaming. And although it usually is very short lasting. He goes from 0 to 60 in like 3 seconds. Because it doesn't last very long I'm leaning more towards he is just a little sensitive. :) Austin has definitely been our most challenging kid thus far. He is very needy and wants to be held all the time which is really hard with two other very small children to take care of. He also wont put himself to sleep so I either have to bounce, rock, walk, pat his bum or all of it to get him to go to sleep. Then it's hard because I feel like if I lay him down he just wakes up.
He is so squirmy all the time I feel there are times when he has to be in pain but I have no idea what kind of pain he is in. We have tried all the gas medicine and that doesn't seem to help much. At his doctor appointment we got him some acid reflex medicine to see if that helps. We'll have to see. I have really tried to start focusing on something I am eating that may be upsetting his stomach and have cut out all the foods that seemed to bother my other kids. So right now I'm not eating dairy, peanuts or beans. If things get better I will introduce them one at a time to see if I can figure out if that is it. He seems so have a few good days and then a few really bad days where he doesn't sleep much all day and he is just really fussy. I just feel so emotionally drained all the time. I don't get a break from being a mom ever and it has been really hard. I constantly feel overwhelmed and when the other kids are fussy on top of Austin my stress levels sky rocket. I know this too shall pass but some days I just don't know how I'm going to make it through. I've been spending a lot of time in Driggs getting extra help from my family. But I feel like as soon as I'm back in Idaho Falls I just can't handle it anymore. I know postpartum depression is playing into my emotions and that is not helping. I do feel like he is getting a little better and will self entertain sometimes. Usually the evenings are the worst. He currently hasn't really liked the swing but I'm trying to force it on him so that I can put him down. The vibrator broke in our bouncy chair so he doesn't seem to be as content with that as he used to be. On a positive note. When Austin gets really angry his lip quivers really bad and it is really cute. ;)

Austin is a good eater! But he eats all the time! I usually feed him every 1 1/2 hrs. Which is why he may be gaining so much weight... If he is napping he will go 2 hours but usually wakes up to eat in the middle of his nap. If I'm not doing anything then the 1 1/2 isn't that noticeable. But if I'm doing something I feel like I'm feeding him all the time! He is a great eater though!

Austin is sleeping great at night! Although he's a night owl and usually doesn't go to sleep until 11 pm. Which pretty much means I'm on mom duty every moment of my waking day. But after he goes to sleep he usually does a 6 hour stretch before wanting to eat and then goes every 2-3 hours after that till he wakes up for the day around 10 am. Naps are still all over the place and sometimes it seems like he doesn't really nap at all. But I know over time that his nap schedule will get more consistent. Now if only I could get him to figure out how to fall asleep on his own.... That is a work in progress.

1 Month

I can't believe our little Austin in already a month old. It goes by so fast. You blink and eye and that newborn stage is over. Austin has already gained over two pounds and is now 10 lbs 2 oz. He has gained the most weight in the first month then my other kids. He is in size 1 diapers and I just changed him to 0-3 month clothes today.

The first couple weeks of Austin's life was kind of rough. For both of us I think. From day one I felt like food being in Austin's tummy bothered him. Gas? His digestive system just figuring things out? I don't know. But he just looked like he was in pain a lot of the time and would cry quite a bit if he was awake. He has definitely been our baby that cries the most even though I would consider him to be on the "easier" side of babies. But coming after the most content baby in the world, Ida. Any baby would seem more difficult. We spent a few nights with me holding him all night in the rocking chair and nursing as soon as he would wake up because that was the only way I could keep him settled down. I feel like it's always kind of a challenge trying to "figure" the baby out. How do they like being held. What settles them down. We haven't hesitated at all in giving him the pacifier. (Which he takes very well) Sometimes he just sucks it so furiously that I know he is in pain. Especially those first 2 weeks.

Since the first two weeks either we are just figuring things out better or he doesn't seem to be as bothered anymore. We still have our bad days. Where I just feel like I have to hold him all day long and he's never really content and doesn't sleep much. But they are becoming less. On fussy days it can be very emotionally and mentally draining. But sometimes all it takes is a good cry and then you are ready to face the world again. Currently he seems to do pretty well during the day but evenings can be rough. I'm thinking he just gets gas cramps and is in pain. So I just try to keep the gas medicine in him and I've started trying to figure out if there is something I'm eating that may be bothering him.

He isn't very content when he is awake but usually in the mornings we get a very happy Austin that will sit and entertain himself for a bit without getting upset. I just find myself not knowing what to do with him when he is awake! Ida was just so easy and I never really had to hold her. But Austin likes to be entertained when he is awake. So I have to force myself to just sit and entertain him. :) Like I said. It's a learning process for both of us! But Austin is pretty strong and is already really good at holding up his head. I don't do tummy time nearly as much as I should but he would probably be really strong if I would actually take the time to do tummy time. He also really enjoys his baths! He doesn't however like the car seat. The only way we can kind of keep him happy in the car seat is by swaddling before we put him in.

Austin is sleeping pretty good right now. His schedule is still all over the place. Everyday is different. At night he seems to have a few days where he goes to bed between 8-9. Then it changes and for a few days he doesn't go to bed till between 10-11. But he usually does a 4 hour stretch at night then every 2 hours after that till morning. He also seems to take a 3-4 hour nap in the afternoon. He will also have sleeping days and awake days. Some days he sleeps most of the day. Then other days he seems to be awake a lot during the day. On a side note... I should mention Austin doesn't sleep anywhere but in the vibrating bouncy chair. :) It is nice to be able to move him where ever I want him. But I'm sure eventually I'll want him to be able to sleep without vibration. At night I don't turn it on anymore. But during the day I use it. You do what you gotta do to get sleep :) This time around not getting the sleep at night is killing me! I'm so tired all the time. And waking up in the mornings is so hard....

Where Austin spends a lot of his time....

A week ago we got a first real official smile! I didn't even have to do anything. I was just holding him and looked down and he was smiling at me! It was so cute. I love baby smiles so much! We are all loving Austin!! He really likes to be swaddles and cuddled so we are getting lots of cuddle time in!

Happy Birthday Jacob!

Happy Birthday Jacob! We had a fun pirate themed birthday party.

Jacob with his birthday candy!

He loved his new pirate ship!

Jacob is now 28 lbs 4 ounces and 35 inches tall. I switched him to 3T clothes a couple weeks ago and they are pretty big on him. Lots of growing room! He is wearing size 7 shoes and size 3 diapers. Although we are hoping to potty train him soon because I am way over having three kids in diapers! The only problem is he has zero interest in potty training.... And I don't want to start him too soon and have it turn out to be a disaster! So, we shall see.

Jacob is still the most picky eater. He does like all breakfast foods. Like pancakes, waffles, oatmeal. His most favorite breakfast right now is what he calls rolled pancakes. AKA crepes. :)  He also likes smoothies, pasta and apples. Yup... that is about it. Haha. Seriously, trying to find stuff for this kid to eat is the worst! It's almost impossible. He also really likes fruit candies. Like gummy bears, starbursts and stuff like that although he isn't a real fan of baked goods at all. We discovered at Jacob's last doctor appointment that he is anemic. Which means he is low on iron. (That process was a traumatic experience for both of us). So he now on an iron supplement which we hope helps. The reason we even checked it is because Jacob eats dirt. Like he finds big marble size clumps of dirt and snacks on them the whole time he is playing outside. He eats so much dirt that his poop is clay. I felt like this was a little extreme so I brought it up with his pediatrician who decided to drew some blood so they could check his iron. Now hopefully he will stop eating dirt so that Ida will also stop eating dirt.

Jacob's favorite thing to do is watch TV. If I let him I think he would watch TV all day everyday. And I know when he is watching he is paying very close attention to what he is watching because he will randomly quote from the movies he watches. He also loves to ask a million questions about the movie if there is someone in the room that will answer them.

His favorite questions are, what's that? What are they doing? What happened? Oh ya.... And Why? Jacob has been asking why for like a year now. Everything you tell him he says, Why? And will keep asking why for every answer you give him. I try my best to answer him. But it gets to the point that I have no idea why something is a certain way! It's one of those things that is fun and annoying at the same time.

Jacob also really likes to ride his bike. And he is getting so good at it! People are constantly complimenting him when we are out for a walk and he is riding his bike. It is his balance bike and he loves to go down hills, put his feet up on the bars and just cruse. He has really good balance and I know that if we wanted to we could switch him over to a real bike now and he would pick it up really fast. But I think Scott wants to wait until next summer.

Bike crash!

First time mountain biking

Jacob does really enjoy being outside and doing outdoorsy things as well. Like hiking and camping. We want to get a rock climbing harness this summer and get him going on that. He went once in an indoor gym last year but we want to get him on real rocks.

Jacob also enjoys swimming and has no fear of water. We have to watch him very closely around water. He loves wearing his floaty and it gives us a lot of peace of mind as well!

Jacob is his father's son and has found a love for rocks as well. He has a big collection that he keeps in a box. The only problem is the box is already full.... So we might need to find a bigger box. He also still loves to help mom cook and insists on putting in all of the ingredients and stirring it himself.

Sorting his rock collection

Jacob has started into the midst of terrible 3's I think. So far I don't find them to be as terrible as the terrible 2's he went through about 6 months ago. That was about 3 month's of pure awfulness! He was testing every boundary we had and I really felt like I couldn't even take him into public because he would not listen to me at all and no punishment mattered to him and he would just throw the biggest fit if he didn't get something his way. It was so awful. Thankfully. It was very short lasting but believe me. He definitely threw everything he could at us in those few short months. Now he is just a three-nager and talks back about everything. It's definitely really annoying but not as awful as the terrible two's. He tries using the same tricks that we use on him to get us to let him do something. It's actually very amusing at times when I'm in the right mood. He still throws a lot of fits. But when he was in him terrible 2's I started just calmly putting him in his room in timeout where he had to stay until he was "calmed" down. That is... calmed down as soon as I would enter the room because he would just keep yelling until I would come in. So I still use that as well has giving him lot's of options that I can live with. Like asking if he wants the door opened or closed when he is in time out and stuff like that. It seemed to really work for the 2's and so far is working for the 3's as well. The arguing I really don't care for though. He never just takes no for an answer and tries over and over to get you to say yes to whatever he is asking for. He says, "Just say yes mom" or "Mom, ask me" Which means he wants me to ask him if he wants to do whatever it is he's trying to get me to say yes to and then when he says yes I'm supposed to let him do it. That other day I was getting him into the car seat and he hit me. So I asked him, "Jacob, did you just hit mom?" (He knows that if he says no he will get in trouble for lying and if he says yes he will get in trouble for hitting) So he starts looking around, turns to dad and says, "Hi dad, what are you doing?" Haha. So clever.

Helping mom sew

 Some of the stuff this kid comes up with just really cracks me up. He is turning out to be quite the manipulator. Like when I tell him he can't watch TV right now he will make his voice all high and squeaky and try to ask in the most innocent, fun way so that I will say yes. Or he goes and finds a movie that he knows I like and asks if we can watch that one. Or he'll say, "Just one mom." His new thing is he wants to talk to mom or dad when we are trying to talk to each other or someone else. He says, "Mom! I'm talking to you!" and repeats it over and over until you acknowledge that he's talking to you. So now. When we are trying to talk to each other we just make Jacob think we are talking to him but really we are talking to each other. So we look at him and say his name repeatedly through whatever we are saying and that seems to do the trick. :) But when Jacob wants to talk to you he always starts the conversation with. "So.... What are you doing?" It's pretty funny.

Jacob really is the sweetest boy though. He is always telling me he loves me and gives me kisses. He also really enjoys cuddling. And although he still likes to tease his siblings, he is really great with them as well. He likes playing with idea. Or rough housing with her... Which she doesn't think is very fun. And likes to hold Austin and tells him he loves him all the time. He will also go give him his pacifier without being asked if he is crying.

Jacob is still a great sleeper! He takes a nap still between 11 and noon and will sleep anywhere from an hour and a half to tree hours. He hardly ever fights taking naps or going to bed. Sometimes it's a bigger fight trying to get him to stay up longer when he wants to take a nap. But when he is feeling tiered he will want to go take a nap. Or when he just needs to rest and reset I will often find him in his bed just laying there. He lays there for like half an hour then he comes back out and is ready to play again. He still won't give up having his pacifiers at night and for naps but we don't use them at all during the day anymore. He also has to have at least 2 but preferably 3 pacifiers when he is going to sleep.

All in all I think Jacob is shaping up to be a little mini Scott. I know Scott is loving taking him on all sorts of adventures! We love you Jacob!

Austin Scott Bergendorf

I started having contractions Friday morning. They weren't very hard but harder than just braxton hicks. The were also very irregular so I didn't know if I was even in labor. I was going to be spending the day in Pocatello at my sister, Ondrea's, state softball tournament so I decided to get all the hospital bags ready and the kids overnight bags ready just in case I was in labor. I continued to have irregular contractions throughout the day but nothing really changed. That night Scott and I went on a date to celebrate our 5th anniversary. (Happy anniversary Scott! I love you!) During the date the contractions started getting harder and closer together but still very irregular. Anywhere from 8 to 20 minutes apart. I figured I probably was in labor but still didn't want to get my hopes up. Plus... It was my anniversary tomorrow and I didn't really want baby coming on my anniversary.

After the date the contractions were hard enough that I wouldn't be able to sleep through them. We went to bed around 12:30 and while Scott slept, I continued laboring throughout the night. I was unfortunately only able to get about half an hour of broken up sleep through the night between contractions. I was able to stay very relaxed though the contractions up until 3 am. Right before that contraction I had dozed off and was awoken by a very painful contraction. At first I wasn't sure if the contraction itself was harder or if it just seemed harder because I wasn't able to get myself prepared for it before hand because I was sleeping. I soon discovered with the next couple contractions that the contractions themselves had become harder. I was having back labor again and it was after this that I could no longer relax through them and I had to apply counter pressure on my back for any kind of relief. And although the contractions themselves were harder, they were still very irregular and I wasn't sure how far along I actually was. I felt like it was still too early to wake up Scott because I felt like one of us should at least be a little rested so I decided at 6 I would wake him up and with each contraction I would push my hips in as hard as I could to try to provide myself with some relief.

I continued doing this until about 4:30 am when I started having some contractions right on top of each other. Every 2-3 minutes apart. It was at this point that I decided I would wait until 5 to wake Scott up. When I did wake Scott up, which wasn't easy by the way, I told him the contractions were starting to get pretty hard and I needed his help during them. I would have 3-4 contractions right on top of each other then they would be anywhere from 5-10 minutes apart again before I'd have another 3-4 on top of each other. I didn't know what to do because the contractions were still so irregular I didn't want to go to the hospital and only be dilated to a 4.... But I didn't want to have the baby in the car either. So as we were sitting contemplating on whether or not we should head to the hospital or get a bath started for me I had another stretch of contractions right on top of each other and during this stretch I felt like I needed to push. The decision was made. We were headed to the hospital.

We woke my parents up at 5:30, who were staying with us because of the softball tournament, and told them we were headed to the hospital right now. I had long since been having silent contractions and had to moan through each contraction. When my mom came into the room she was like... Um, ya. Time to go. So while Scott got everything packing into the car and got the car seats out I had slowly made it to the top of the stairs and my mom was helping me through contractions. My other two sister's, Clarissa and Shelyn, were also staying at my house and I had a pretty good audience while laboring. I was personally having a little freak out because every time I had a contraction I would feel the desire to push and I was pretty sure we had waiting too long and I would be having a baby in the car. Every time I would feel the desire to push I would just say over and over "oh crap, oh crap."

We finally got all loaded and ready to leave for the hospital at 5:50 am. Thankfully because it was so early we hit every green light and were both a little disappointed when there were no cops to try and pull us over while we raced to the hospital. I just really didn't want my water to break in the car. After arriving, there was a reception desk worker who arrived the same time and ran for a wheel chair. But because of back labor I really didn't want to sit anywhere. So I just waddle/speed walked between each contraction. We arrived in our room at 6:05 and the nurse casually directed us and told me to put on a robe. I'm pretty sure they were thinking I'm just a naive mom who thinks she's a lot further along then she really is. A couple minutes after arriving to the room my water broke so we hurried and got the robe on and beeped for the nurse. Again she casually comes in and asks me to get on the bed so she can check how far along I was. (Apparently she HAD to check before she called the midwife.) I just kept telling her that I felt like I needed to push and after a few more promptings from the nurse I finally got on the bed to be checked. It was kind of funny to see the nurses tradition from "This is a mom who thinks she's farther than she is" to "Oh wait... She is having the baby right now!" Before even getting checked another nurse ran to call the midwife and as I had suspected, I was fully dilated and effaced.

I told the nurse I didn't want to have the baby laying down so she helped transition me to hands and knees. Everything was happening so fast and all the while I just kept feeling like a needed to push. So after I was finally on my hands and knees I didn't hold back anymore and I just started pushing. Well let me tell you. Crowning was just as bad and painful as it was the first time around. I just kept telling myself, the faster you push the head out the faster the pain will be over. So I was giving it everything I had and Scott was encouraging me from the side of the bed. After a couple very loud screams I finally got the head out and afterwards had this overwhelming feeling to see the head. So I stopped pushing and I was trying to see around my stomach so I could see the head and apparently the nurses really didn't like that because they started sounding frantic and kept telling me to push. I tried telling them what I was trying to do but I don't think they heard me. The main nurse ended up turning to the nurse that was helping her and said, "She's not pushing" and the nurse yells at me, "Jacquelyn, you have to push!" So I gave up trying to see the head and started pushing again. After another big push, the shoulders came out and the rest of the body slid out after it. As soon as I saw the baby on the bed I looked to see that we had a boy. I was not surprised it was a boy. I had known it all along.

Austin Scott was born at 6:13 am. Weighing 7 lbs 15 oz and measuring 20.5 inches long. The first thing I remember noticing was the big scowl on his face. The midwife showed up about 10 minutes later and was able to deliver the placenta and stitch me up. I ended up taring worse than I did with Ida. I think because of how quickly everything happened (and maybe because of how determined I was to get the head out so the pain would be over.) :) The plus side of having the baby so quickly was that because I am high risk I have all these things I have to do like being monitored the whole time and getting an IV and sign a million consent forms and I didn't have time to do any of that! We are so excited to have Austin join our family! We already love him so much and are so excited to start this new adventure!

First family pic