Stachewicz Family Memories - stachewiczfamilymemories

Baby Forrest Dennis Stachewicz was born at 38.5 weeks on March 30, 2012.  My mom, Sandra, was born on this same day, making it an extra special birthday and he'll always know that he shares a birthday with his Grandma Bayer.

Forrest was born at 11:41 am weighing in at 9 lbs 14.6 oz and 21 inches long. 

We are now into 2012 and Evan is getting growing into a "big kid" before our very eyes.  We are getting ready for baby #2 to arrive at the beginning of April and just giving Evan as much attention as we can in the mean time.  He makes transitions really well though, and I am sure he will take it all in stride. 

Evan is currently 15.5 months old.  I made a list a couple of months ago that I am going to add to his baby book of words he could say at 13.5 months old.  They were:  mama, dada, dog (dah), uh oh, hi, bye, ball (bah), banana (nana), wow.  He has also picked up a few signs, including, more, eat, dog, please, and all done.  Oh and the signal for touchdown of course.  Since I've made that list, he's definitely had a little vocabulary explosion, which I suspect is going to continue to happen every couple of months now.  I don't think I could remember all of the words he knows right now and list them if I wanted to!  He is also starting to put words together ("bye dada"), learn animal noises and some body parts too. 

In other big kid news, we have started putting Ev on his little potty everyday now.  Sometimes he's all for it, other times, not so much, but there's not any pressure at this point, just introducing it to him, and when he goes we make a big deal out of it.  It's really quite cute.  We cannot forget his obsession with dogs, including his best friend, Gunner (Ga Ga).  He will call for Gunner when he's not around ("Gaaaa, Gaaaa.  Gaaaaa, Gaaaa") and Gunner gets good night kisses and Ev always says goodbye to him before going to school.  Makes us wish that Gunner wasn't 10 years old already :( .

We have been having lots of fun with Evan this summer.  We have spent a couple of weekends with Grandma and Grandpa and we all went to the Wildwood Zoo in Minoqua one weekend and on the Pictured Rocks Boat Cruise in Munising, MI another weekend.  Both weekends were really hot!!  Evan doesn't seem to mind the heat and humidity but his parents (and the dogs) are ready for fall! Evan was also in the Gwinn Fun Daze parade with his daycare which was fun. 

The most exciting news is that Evan is now a crawler.  He started at 8.5 months and it was not a day too soon.  He was getting frustrated being in one place all the time and getting cranky.  Now he loves exploring the house and of course, getting into things he shouldn't be.  And he's started pulling himself up on things too, so it's just a matter of time now before he's sprinting down the hallway.  Needless to say, Gunner has been spending the majority of his time outside...he isn't quite sure what to make out of the baby's new found mobility.  Gunner is sleeping in Evan's room at night though on his dog bed but gets annoyed when Ev wakes him up at 5.45 am "Hi! Hi!"  (Sorry Gunner, there's gonna be lots more where that came from).

Evan still loves playing with his toys, I swear he already does his version of vroom vroom when playing with his trucks and cars.  He also loves his books and pillow wrestling. 

Finally, Evan's favorite summer activity has been going to the beach, or playing in his baby pool.  He loves it! 

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This is an update of Evan at 6 months, 1 week old:

• 18.5 lbs (50-75%); 26 inches long (50%) - growth is slowing, starting to lose some of his chub

• Prefers to feed himself his bottle.

• Eats three meals a day: morning is cereal or oatmeal + fruit; lunch is veggies; dinner is a vegetable and a fruit. Also likes to eat fruit chunks through a mesh feeder.  We have yet to find a food he doesn't like and have pretty much gone through all the fruits and vegetables. 

• Can sit unassisted for a good amount of time, but will fall down if he reaches too far for a toy; hasn't yet figured out how to catch himself and keep himself from doing a faceplant.

• Gets very excited when he sees his Dad come home from work.

• Goes to bed around 7:30pm and wakes up around 6:00 am.  He will then lay in his bed and play and talk to himself for a half and hour or so before he demands to get up.

• Hates getting dressed.  Fights and cries every time we need to do a clothing change.  If he had it his way, he would be naked 24/7!

• Has graduated from the infant carrier car seat to the convertible seat and rides in the cart at the stores.
  

• Has his two bottom teeth.

• No longer using the baby bath tub; loves baths most night, likes to splash the whole time.
  

• Loves the dogs!

• Loves playing with his toys.  He is a toy junkie!

• Is starting to become cautious of new situations and strangers.

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February 2011 has been a busy one us!  Ev has gotten settled into daycare nicely.  It is very nice for my nerves to see how comfortable he seems when I drop him off and pick him up.  He loves the other kids and they seem to love him.  He is the youngest baby there, and there are always kids at the door to greet him in the morning and to help get him bundled up and in his car seat when I pick him up in the afternoon.  It is very cute!

Then there was the Super Bowl.  Evan wore his lucky Packer outfit which again brought a big win to the Pack.  Ev only made it to half time of the game, but we bought him a newspaper and a couple magazines marking the event, because with something like this you never know when it's going to happen next (hopefully we don't have to wait too long).

Next up came Evan's baptism which brought a visit from Grandma and Grandpa and Auntie Sara.  It was a really nice event that took part during a children's mass and we had a nice little reception afterwards. 

When Dad had to go to Chicago for a work conference last week, I decided it was a perfect time to try the "Cry It Out" method with Evan.  For the last 4 four months, I had been running to Ev's room with every peep, sometimes up to 4 times a night, where I would end up taking him out of his crib, rocking him and sometimes feeding him and then trying to put him back in his crib without him waking up (when I didn't fall asleep in the rocking chair myself).  With being back to work I just couldn't do that anymore, and I knew he should be able to sleep through the night.  So far it has been going pretty good.  Last night he had an 8 hour stretch of uninterrupted sleep, which is a first!

Other firsts this month so far has been Evan's first cold and cough (see above - day care), sitting in his high chair and eating cereal (which he loves), and today, President's Day, Ev is spending his first full day with Dad alone who has the day off of work.

We are definitely looking forward to spring / summer when we can get Evan outside more.  So far all he knows is snow and cold and being bundled up all the time. 

P.S.  Everybody always wonders how the dogs are are doing with all this...the answer is the are doing great, better than I ever expected.  We have even caught Gunner giving Evan kisses here and there.

Wow, time flies! 

Evan is 12 weeks old now, and you know what that means...back to work for Mom!

Besides the given (feeding, diapers, keeping his toys away from Gunner) I have spent the last few months trying (unsuccessfully) to catch every one of the precious smiles on camera.  Even with my bleary, sleep derived eyes, each day he seems cuter and funnier than the last.  Speaking of sleep derived, one thing Evan has never been fond of is sleep.  Everybody always told us that all newborns do is eat and sleep.  Well, he has the eating part down, but can't really be bothered to sleep.  Not during the day and not during the night either.  He has taken to sleeping in his swing recently though, which is nice.  At first he didn't care for his swing much, but if he's really tired we can get him to zonk out in it for a couple hours.

Ev LOVES going for rides in the car - going shopping, meeting new people, just doing anything outside of the house.  I call them "adventures" and he's always up for a new one.  He has been introduced to his Jumperoo and the Bumbo now, both of which he will tolerate for a few minutes at a time, but still doesn't know what to make of them quite yet.  I have a feeling he will soon love that Jumperoo though.  Next up:  the high chair!

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Last week we received a huge box (240 count, I think) of Pampers Baby Dry from Amazon.com.  It was a great gift, and will be put to good use, that is for sure, but we don't know who sent them to us.  If they are from you, please let us know so we can thank you properly! 

I was looking at some old pictures that I scanned recently and came across this one of me at 4.5 months old.  What do you think, is Evan his mother's son?

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We finally brought Evan home from the hospital this past Friday, on his one week birthday.  We are all doing good and getting used to Evan's schedule, which is has been to sleep a bunch during the day, and be awake every hour to hour and a half during the night.  But we wouldn't change it for the world.  Evan loves his Fisher Price Calming Vibrations chair but more than anything he loves to be held and cuddled. 

Evan's roommate, Jimmy, was discharged today, so this morning the nurses asked me if I wanted to "room-in" until we got discharged tomorrow (no jinx, no jinx).  Of course I said, "Yes"!
They rolled in a hospital bed and I have a bathroom and they deliver me meals.  Basically, I'm camping out in the NICU.  It's really nice that they offer it, and they probably like it too...now they don't have to call me whenever he rouses to eat and wait for me to trudge across the hospital and scrub in, etc.  And the nurses for the most part leave us to ourselves unless they see something wrong on their monitors or have to change his IV or something like that.  Otherwise, it's just me and him. 
Oh, and they put a onseie on him!  The only problem is that this is the NICU, and all they could find were premie and newborn sizes.  He doesn't seem to mind, but it looks so funny, it's busting at the seams!

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Eleven days overdue, Evan Michael arrived on the afternoon of 10/29/10 at Marquette General Hospital in Marquette, weighing in at a whopping 9 lbs 11 oz...and no, I did not have an epidural.  Dennis was a great coach, and there is no way I could have gotten through it without him!  Unfortunately, Evan was born with a pretty high fever but Dennis and I got to hold him briefly, and his grandparents, Dennis Sr and Joann, got to see him before they swept him off to the NICU, where he is still at today.  They are flushing antibiotics through his system, which we found out today, they will have to do for 7-10 days.  Evan is a champ though, and  is such a happy and alert baby!  He likes to "talk" and make noises when he is feeding, and he watches everything and makes eye contact with Dennis and I.  We are truly amazed by something new each time we spend time with him. 
He is going to get though this all just fine, I am sure of that.  Hopefully his mom and dad do too.  Actually, we are doing good, but of course this is all harder on us than it is on Evan.
Thanks for all your well wishes, they are all very much appreciated!

Today is 10/22/10.  I was due on 10/18/10 and remember, this was changed from my original due date that they gave me of 10/10/10. 
We are not sure what this guy is waiting for to make his appearance into the world, but I am thinking it might be a name!
We will keep you updated.

With Baby Stachewicz due in a couple of months, I set this site up to have a place to share pictures and video of the little guy when he arrives.  If you thought we took a lot of pictures of our dogs, just wait!