Videos of Tanner!

Tanner hanging out on his new play mat!  Love the smile about 1 minute into the video!!!  What a fun little man!

Sitting up in his new Bumbo chair!!!  He's almost 7 weeks old!  He didn't love it, but he does really well holding his head up!

Big Smiles!

We finally got a good picture of Tanner smiling!  For the last week or so he has really been smiling a lot and trying to talk to us! He is such a fun little guy!  Normally we can't get a good picture once he notices the camera... He's a little camera shy!  But we finally got a great one!

Just a few things... more for me, so I don't forget them!

* Tanner really started "Social Smiling" on June 21st!  He was interacting with us and giving us big smiles and even cooing and trying to talk!!!  

* A few days before he was 7 weeks old, we put him in his Bumbo chair!  I think is was still a little to tiny for it, but he has been doing so well at holding his head up that we thought we'd try it out!  He didn't love it, but he did really well in it!

*  Since he was really young, Tanner has been very aware of his surroundings!  He is very alert and really focuses his eyes on things and people and he is responding to hearing voices and even his name!

Tanner is 1 month old!

I can not believe that my sweet baby is 1 month old already! Time is flying right by! He is such a good baby! He is getting so big, so fast! 

 We took Tanner to the doctor the other day and the doctor says he is growing great and looks really healthy! When Tanner was born he was 7lb 6oz and 20 inches and we took him to the pediatrician when he was 3 days old and he was down to 6lb 9oz. He had us supplement a little bit and the next day he was up to 6lb 15oz. Now he weighs 8lb 12oz and is 21 inches long! The doc said he is in the 30th percentile for weight and height! And the 99th percentile for IQ! ;) 

Some fun/interesting things I want to remember...

• Tanner has started to smile, a little bit. We've gotten a few out of him! And he gave a big smile the other day when I put him in front of a picture of Christ! So sweet!
• Tanner loves bath time!!! He gets so relaxed in the water! It's so sweet! He is getting too big for the kitchen sink, so we've been bathing him in his little bathtub and he loves it! A few times now, Daddy will get in the big tub with him and he loves that even more because he can be in the water more! The other night they were bathing together and we had just gotten done washing Tanner when he started to "toot" a little! We laughed, but Tom wanted me to hurry and get him out before he did more that just make bubbles! Well, we didn't quite make it and Tanner did his business in the water! It was so funny! Needless to say, Daddy had to take a shower after his bath!
• We had our first "Diaper Blow-out" the other night! Tom was holding him when he filled is pants and he wanted to change him right away. Tanner is a very loud little boy, if you know what I mean, and it always sounds like more than it really is! I told him he should probably wait a few minutes so we could make sure he was really done! Tom said that it felt like a lot and that it was really warm! Haha! Well, he blew out all over his clothes! Then the next morning, I was feeding him and he threw up ALL OVER me and him! Tom came in and cleaned Tanner up while I took a bath. A while later I hear, "Oh No!!!" Tanner had peed through his diaper and clothes and soaked Tom! Seriously soaked him and there was even a puddle in the rocking chair! What a morning! We went through 3 outfits before it was even 10:30 in the morning!
• Tanner has started to not like sleeping on his back. He hates being on his tummy when he is awake, so I doubt he'd like to sleep that way. He takes a lot of his naps in the swing and he sleeps most of the night in his bouncer chair. Sometimes he'll last a few hours on his back if the is on a pillow. Silly boy! At least he is sleeping pretty well at night! The first few weeks he was sleeping 4-5 hours at a time at night, and then the last week or so he'd wake every 2 1/2-3 hours. But the last few nights he has been back to 4-5! 

We absolutely love being this little guy's parents! He has brought so much joy into our lives! We waiting so long for him to come to us and we went through a lot to get him here - and we couldn't be more happy to have him in our lives!

Picture Update (overload!)

Here are a bunch of recent pictures! We love him more and more every day! I wanted to jot down a few little fun/funny things... Since he was less than a week old, he has been sleeping 4-5 hours at night, waking to eat and then sleeping for several more hours! We have been spoiled! He is a very gassy baby! Everyone in town can hear his little toots or when he fills his pants! The other night, in fact, it was right after I took the picture of him in his little orange outfit, Tom and Tanner were sitting on the couch, Tanner sleeping, and he filled his pants... very loudly! It startled him awake and it scared Tom. I thought he was going to throw Tanner off his lap he jump so high! Oh how I wish I had it on video! The other day and night, he was really having a rough time. I think he had a tummy ache and he was pretty upset. I tried everything I could think of and nothing was working. We have a bunch of the normal binkies and some soothies, and he'll take them occasionally, but he doesn't love them. As I was praying to know what to do, the thought came to my head to try the other kind, Mams, with the fatter nipple part. So the next day I picked some up and guess what... He loves it!!! What a blessing! Tanner is such a joy! We love him so much and we love being his parents! We've been wanting this for so long, some days I have to remind myself that it's real! He is such an answer to prayers and our dream come true!!! 

He is about a week old in this picture. 

  This is him "waking up" so we could take a bath!!! 

2 weeks old. What a handsome little man! 

  Chilling in his jammies! 

  He is about 2 1/2 weeks here. I think this is the first picture that I realized... he doesn't look like a "newborn" anymore. It makes me kind of sad! 

  "Check out my muscles!" 

  Playing with Daddy! 

  Tanner LOVES taking a bath! We usually bathe him in the kitchen sink, but this time he got in the big tub! He just always looks so relaxed when he's in the water! 

  Wrapped in his towel, after he pooped in the bath water! It was pretty funny!

  This was our "offical" first walk. I say that because it was the first walk that he actually stayed in the stroller the whole time! Which was good, because usually Tom would have to carry him and this night Tom was at work, so it was just Tanner and I! Oh, and right after I took this picture and covered Tanner back up... a bird pooped on the stroller! It would have landed right on Tanner! What a night!

  Tanner and Daddy in matching outfits! 

  I actually had him in a similar blue outfit earlier in the day that I wanted Tom to see him in... but he puked several times and completely covered himself... from head to toe. He got 2 baths that day! 

 I've seen several people do something similar to this and I had a friend suggest it to me... but I'm going to take a picture of Tanner in the same chair each week until he is a month and then every month until he is a year old. 

1 week old 

  2 weeks old 

  3 weeks old

Tanner's Photo Shoot!

A good friend of mine came over when Tanner was a week old and took some pictures of him! She did such a great job, especially considering Tanner really wanted nothing to do with having his picture taken!

Birth Announcement!

Finally got Tanner's Birth Announcements done and in the mail! Here is what they look like! We sure love this little man!

Introducing.... Tanner Loel Cahoon

Ok... So it has been almost 2 weeks now, but I'm sure most of you know what it's like to have a newborn in the house! Haha! You don't get much done! Any way... Tanner Loel Cahoon was born on Monday, May 14, 2012 at 6:05am! He weighed 7lb 6oz and was 20 inches long! He is perfect in every way and we are SO IN LOVE with this little tiny man! We actually had a pretty great experience... all in all... and the labor was pretty easy. Our original plan was to have him naturally at the Hollistic Birthing Center at St. Johns Medical Center and have a Water Birth. Well, he hadn't come by his due date and my parents were flying out here for a week, so we decided to have them induce me. I had been having some pretty strong, painful contractions for a few weeks, but mostly the last 4 or 5 days before he was born. In fact, we thought I was in labor the friday before. I was having contractions, but as soon as I laid down, they went away. Any way, we checked into the hospital at 6:00pm Sunday, May 13th (Mother's Day - what a great way to spend the evening!!!!) and they had the Pitocin going by 7:00pm. The contractions started coming pretty strong and fast after that. I don't think we realized until we were already going, that because we had induced, we had given up our chance for the Water Birth. I had to be hooked up to the IV and the Fetal Heart Monitor the whole time... and with all that and the room we were in, it didn't turn out the way we had planned and practiced for. About 1:00am I decided that I was bummed about all of that and I was in a lot of pain and I really wanted to enjoy the whole experience, so I decided to get the epidural. It was started about 1:45am and kicked in about 20 minutes later. The nurse stayed in the room for a while, getting us settled and told us to get some sleep cause it was probably going to be a long night. She left the room around 2:30 and she hadn't been gone for just a few minutes when my water broke! Haha! We called her back in and she didn't believe me! She checked me and had another nurse check me too, and they weren't sure if my water really had broken. But I was almost fully dialated and completely thinned out. Within the next hour, the contractions got really strong and I really had the urge to push. So, around 4:00am they called my midwife. (yes, because she wasn't there. She had told us she would be there Monday morning to check on us, because it was our first and she really didn't think it would go fast! But she had been calling the hospital all night checking in on me!) She told the nurses to not have me push and she was on her way. Sadly, it took over an hour, closer to an hour and 15 minutes for her to get there. Every time the nurses would check me, they would say, "Oh my! His head is right there! Don't push!" Yeah, not an easy thing to do! So, my midwife got there and we got things going about 5:30am and our sweet little guy was born at 6:05am! They brought in a big mirror, so I got to watch him being born! It was such a neat experience! As Tanner came out, the cord was wrapped pretty tightly around his neck, so they cut the cord and rushed him away pretty quickly. They put him on oxygen and suctioned him out and it took several minutes for them to get him to cry. Tom stayed with him while they worked on me. The midwife seemed to be working pretty hard to get the placenta delivered and after about 10 minutes it came... and then I started going down hill! I lost a lot of blood and my blood pressure bottomed out. They had to put me on oxygen and start a second IV. It was kind of a scary morning for us! But, around 8:00 everything had calmed down and I was finally able to hold my sweet little guy! It was so cute to watch him... from the moment he got into his daddy's arms, he was awake and alert and concentrating so hard on his daddy's face! The look on his little face was like "Oh! This is the voice I've been hearing for so long!" It was the cutest thing ever! We ended up staying in the hospital until Wednesday afternoon and I was so ready to come home! Tanner had to have his blood drawn every day to test his Bilirubin and luckily his number kept coming down! I also had to have my blood drawn every day and they were debating whether or not I needed a blood transfusion. Luckily, I didn't! My parents came in Tuesday afternoon and they stayed for a whole week! It was so nice to have them here! Tanner got some great "Homma" and "Bompa" time and we loved spending time with them! Tom and my dad did a lot of projects around the house and my mom was such a blessing to have around! Tanner and I are both healthy and doing well! And Tom and I are LOVING being parents! This is something we have wanted and waited for for SOOOOOO long and every step along the way to getting Tanner here was a miracle and a blessing! I feel that we were inspired with every decision we made along the way, even up to and during the labor... with decided to induce and have the epidural (because of everything that happened) and we are so grateful for all those promptings from the Spirit! Enjoy the pictures!!!

Check out his "cone head"! He was in the birth canal, ready to come, for a long time and his poor little head was pretty cone shaped!

Right after he got cleaned up! He was bright-eyed for several hours after he was born!

He just stared at his Daddy for hours! And it was so fun the watch Tom! He is such a "Proud Daddy"!

I had to wait about 2 hours to even hold my little man, but what a sweet moment that was!

Our first picture together (before all my drama started!)

Tanner loves to cuddle with Daddy!

Sleeping in Daddy's arms!

1 day old! And the first day he met Grandpa & Grandma Carter!

2 days old! Getting ready to leave the hospital!

All ready to go home!

His first car ride wore him right out! (He actually really likes the car, which we are very grateful for!)

1 week old! Just chilling in his diaper!

He looks so tiny in this bouncer chair!

Daddy helped him with some tummy time, which he didn't enjoy very much!

Cool dude in his cute outfit from Aunt Mallori and Aunt Nana!

Just looking handsome!

"Homma & Bompa" Carter, just before they left for the airport. We sure miss them!

Daddy and Mommy and Baby Tanner!!! We couldn't be more happy or feel more blessed!!