Louis is 3 Months Old

Louis has grown up so much in the past month and is becoming much more predictable and fun! Towards the middle of the month he found his hands and immediately began reaching for objects. He meets an object with his fist and then often can open his hand and grab it! He also prefers his fist or two fingers in his mouth rather than his pacifier. (He pretty much only takes his pacifier for naps and bed time!) Louis is in bed for 12 - 13 hours per night waking only 2 (sometimes 3) times per night for a quick feeding then always goes right back to sleep! He is barely fussy in the evenings and will usually play happily till bedtime (Unless it's tummy time then he will cry and protest!) Actually, Louis can hold his head up when he is on his tummy - now we are working on getting him to support himself on his elbows - which so far he doesn't want any part of!

Unfortunately I started back to work last week. I am working 4 days per week (6 hours shifts). The shortened hours has made going back to work not so bad and I found a day care that I really love! It's called Creative Kids Christian Day Care and the owner runs it out of her house but she has it set up like a center where the infants and toddlers have separate rooms and the older kids have a schedule and a learning curriculum. Louis goes to day care Monday and Tuesday and then I stay home with him Wednesday, Thursday, and Mike stays home Friday, Saturday while I work. He has been to day care 2 times so far and the day care providers said he did really really well, took the bottles just fine and didn't even cry the whole day! (He hasn't slept much there and comes home exhausted but sleeps well at night!) Dad also did a good job taking care of Louis while I was working and for the most part it went well - dad even picked up, did the dishes, started laundry and went grocery shopping!!).

Louis had a doctors appointment at 10 weeks and he was 11 pounds (25-50%) and 24 1/4 inches (90%). He got his shots, which made him cry like I had never seen him cry before (which made his mom cry too!) By the time we left the doctor's office he was back to his old self and didn't have any more problems!

More pictures from the month!

Amy's Baby Shower

Louis and I flew back to St. Louis on Wednesday with my parents and Anne so we could go to Amy's baby shower. (Jeff and Amy are having twins which are due at the beginning of April). On Thursday morning my mom had to work and so my sisters and dad went to church and then the coffee shop (where grandma met us). My dad was very excited to show his grandson off! That night we had grandma and Kate's boyfriend Jared over for dinner for some wonderful Lasagna. It was nice to finally spend some more time with this great and wonderful boyfriend of Kate's -by the way they are perfect for each other and are really cute together!

Friday at 11:00am Kate, Anne, and I began our 6 hour drive to Cincinnati. (It was so nice of the girls to come with me!) We had to stop twice to feed Louis (and once to feed ourselves Steak-n-shake) but other than that Louis slept the whole way! We got in around 7 pm and stopped by Amy and Jeff's for a quick visit before heading to Amy's parents where we were going to spend the weekend. Amy unfortunately was put on bed rest at 28 weeks pregnant but she looked great and was in great spirits!

Saturday morning my sisters and I awoke to the smell of bacon and were surprised to find Amy's parents had made us bacon and eggs for breakfast. It was so nice to spend some time catching up with Amy's parents. Since Amy had to hang around the house all day, the dinner out had to be canceled and instead we prepared for some serious eating, drinking and cornhole - which is a bean bag toss game of which Jeff and Amy had a indoor set. We spent the day chatting, having a cornhole tournament and eating. We had both La Rosa's Pizza and Skyline Chili for dinner because we couldn't decide which Cincinnati favorite to get. We ended the night opening presents and eating Grater's ice cream.

Louis didn't hold up so well, I think he was overwhelmed by all of the action and noise and he didn't want to sleep so he quickly became overtired and crabby. It was one of his fussiest days I have seen in a long time! Kate and Anne checked out Cincinnati and then came back to Amy's to pick Louis up and take him home in the evening (I was going to stay to have a beer and hangout) but Louis was so out of sorts I was afraid he wouldn't take a bottle from the girls so I went home with them. As it turns out Louis fell asleep on the way home and slept almost the whole night in his car seat!

Sunday morning Amy's parents had us all over for an awesome brunch with keish before we all headed out. It was a sad goodbye especially since I don't know when I will be able to see those twins (or Amy and Jeff for that matter)! We had such a great time having all of our friends together again) and it was so nice to have my sisters on the trip to since I don't get to see them much and they helped a ton with Louis!!

...and what did Mike do during his weekend alone? He spent Saturday snowshoeing by himself in Mount Rainier National Park where he managed to get his Jeep stuck in the snow, and get a flat tire! Then he spent Sunday skiing at Crystal Mountain so, according to him, he had a great time but missed us of course!

Pictures
Some more pictures from Mike's snowshoe trip.

Grandma and Grandpa back in Seattle!

Mom, Dad, and Anne were able to make one last visit to Seattle before I start back to work. They arrived Friday afternoon Jan 9th and flew back to St. Louis Jan 14th. Friday morning I noticed that Louis had begun holding his head up on his tummy and by the time my parents arrived he was holding his fist up in the air. Friday, we couldn't tell if he had a glimpse of his hand or not but by Saturday he was definitely looking at his fist. By Sunday, Louis was making contact with toys hanging off his play gym with his fist and was occasionally able to open his hand and grab a toy (he couldn't hold on very long). We thought the grabbing might be an accident but he has been doing it ever since. Needless to say we spent much of the time watching Louis grow!

Friday night I was ready to get out of the house since I had been without a car all week so we went to Verrazano's, our favorite Italian restaurant, for dinner! Saturday Mike went skiing and my family and I did a little shopping. Sunday, we hung around the house and in the afternoon walked 4 miles along the BPA trail. After the long hard walk we went to the grocery store to buy something for dinner and ended up leaving with not only dinner but buffalo chicken wings for a mid-afternoon snack (thanks to Dad and Anne!) Mike thinks that all the Heidemann's do is eat - we were having a hard time convincing him otherwise! On Monday, Mike went to work and the rest of us headed downtown. We pretty much have a routine downtown, we eat (this time smoked salmon eggs benedict at Lowell's), walk through the market, walk to Pioneer square hitting bookstores along the way and then get coffee before heading home. Dad enjoyed carrying Louis around in the front carrier!

Monday night my parents offered to stay home and let Mike and I have a date night. So of course we took Anne with us and we went see a movie - Slumdog Millionaire which I highly recommend! When we got home, we were pleased to discover that our one missing family member was on Skype so we had a quick video chat with Kate to fill her in on the week's action. Tuesday we hung around the house in the morning and met Mike for lunch in the afternoon by his work! The next day was a sad goodbye because Mike had to tell Louis and I goodbye and we headed back to St. Louis with my family... more about that on the next post!

Pictures

Kate Comes for a Visit

My sister Kate came for a long weekend to visit! She arrived Thursday afternoon Jan 1st. Friday Kate, Mike, Louis and I went shopping to make some Christmas returns. We spent the evening making chicken pot pie, and brownies and watched a movie. Saturday, we let Mike go skiing, which left Kate and I completely home bound since my car is in the shop. Kate didn't seem to mind however and we spent the day drinking tea, working on Louis' baby book, walking, making peanut butter fudge and of course playing with Louis! (by the way, making fudge with non-dairy creamer instead of milk does NOT work!!). When Mike came home we went to dinner at a new Thai restaurant that just opened down the street - it was great!! We came home and Mike and I both fell asleep on the couch at around 8:30 leaving Kate to sit up alone to finish her book - Louis had fallen asleep at the restaurant and was still sleeping!!

Kate has some crazy motherly instinct (or maybe it's and auntie instinct) but she would hear Louis at night before I did! By the time I would get to his room she would already have him in her arms. She would ask me if I needed to feed him and if I didn't she would rock him back to sleep! If I did have to feed him I would put him down and then if he didn't go to sleep right away she would get up and take care of him. It was such a nice break! Thanks Kate!!

Kate had to leave early Sunday afternoon, it was a sad goodbye but it was comforting knowing that I would be home in a week and a half! Kate got some GREAT pics of Louis while she was here!!

Louis' First Christmas

This year we spent Christmas in Maine! We took the red eye flight to Boston arriving Christmas eve morning. Louis slept the entire flight! Mike's mom and her friend Jan met us at the airport and drove us up to Portland. Our first stop was for some traditional Northeast cuisine - Dunkin' Donuts! Nancy was very prepared for Louis - she had a bassinet, a swing, a changing pad, lots of clothes, burp cloths, blankets and a car seat that she had borrowed. Louis was able to make himself at home and he was sooo happy there - fussiness was at a minimum the whole week and Louis slept very well!!

Christmas eve we went to Aunt Liz and Uncle Roy's for their Christmas Party. We had awesome Italian Food for dinner and at the end of the night sat around and sang Christmas songs to guitar music (Mike thinks my family is Brady Bunch??) It was really fun and this year I think I finally got everyone's name down so I was very proud of myself. Louis (of course) was on his best behavior and didn't make a peep so everyone thought he was such a great baby!

Christmas morning was laid back. We met Mike's grandpa and his Aunt Liz at church and then came back home to eat breakfast, drink tea and coffee and open presents with Mike's mom. Santa was way to generous this year! Mike's brother Chris couldn't come home this year and we all missed him a ton! We spent the rest of the afternoon visiting with Mike's dad and his cousin's Alisa and Marty who came over for lobster rolls! In the evening Mike, Louis and I went to another family Christmas party this time at Aunt Anita's where we visited with his cousins and his Aunts and Uncles.

We spent the rest of the week sleeping in, eating wonderful breakfasts, drinking tea and coffee and visiting Mike's family and friends. We went to Katie's annual Christmas party, we met Rob, Stephanie and their baby Caroline at Freeport for some bargain shopping, we also ate Sunday breakfast at their house followed by a long walk around the neighborhood. We ate dinner at Derick and Sarah's house with Katie, Jenny and her husband Steve. We also met met Mike's friend, Maureen, who he hadn't seen since high school at Sebago Brewing Co. for dinner.

Mike's mom was MORE than willing to babysit Louis so Mike and I took advantage and went to the movies one night and met Phil out to dinner another night! Louis did great with Nana!

We had such a nice time in Maine and it was really sad to leave. But Nancy bought plane tickets out to Seattle for February so it made the goodbye a little easier knowing she would be out in 6 weeks!!

Before we went to Maine, Mike, Louis and I had our own little Christmas at home! Louis got to open all of his presents from grandma and grandpa H while Mia was busy climbing the 18 dollar Target Christmas tree, and somehow managing not to knock it over!!

More Pictures from Maine!



P.S. We added the Christmas Video over on the right!