Jack Updates

Waiting Room at Doctor-Check out my feet! :)
Hanging out on the table
Close up of him hanging out on the table
Sleeping in the bouncy seat
Loving his Bouncy Seat
I have a few updates for you about Jack... Last week he had his 2 month appt. We found out he weighs almost 14 pounds and has grown 2 1/2 inches!!!! His little head has now moved into the 50 percentile while his length and weight are in the 90th percentile now. He is growing so fast!!! This appt is the one where they receive their shots. He woke up that morning and from the second he got up he could not stop smiling at me. I felt so guilty! He smiled on the changing table. He smiled all morning. He smiled when I put him in his car seat. He just hung out on the way to the Doctor simply looking out the window without falling asleep and without crying. Then at the Doctor's office he just hung out while we waited and smiled and the Doctor and nurse. My heart was breaking!!! When it came time to give him his shots he was just hanging out on the table. I almost died because he looked up at me and smiled right before the nurse put the first needle in his little thigh. Then came a cry I have never in my life heard. He sounded so incredibly sad and just looked at me like he was being punished for being so happy. Then she stuck him 2 more times and the bottom lip came out so big! He was whimpering the whole way out and he had my neck and hair with such a tight grip as he cried. It was the saddest thing! Greg will be going next time! I couldn't handle it! I am one who already runs out when they try to give me shots! I was just dying. Then I hated having to strap him in the car seat when he didn't want to let go and take him home. Poor baby! Anyway- I took a picture of him on the table waiting and one in the waiting room. He had been smiling HUGE but of course when I pull out the camera he just stares at it like "What is this thing in my face? I want to smile at Mommy!" Too cute. Jack has also slept through the night twice. Both times he slept 8 hours long... Not consecutive nights but we are still proud. We made a family outing to Babies R US on Sunday and bought him a bouncy seat. He doesn't have long before he out grows it but for now this is his favorite toy! He will even go to sleep in it! Where was this during my past 10 weeks of maternity leave? Oh I know- it was at the store and meanwhile I was trying to force him to love the lovely swings he has in every color! :) I guess he knows he already will eventually get his way! He definitely prefers the bouncing motion vs the swinging. I took a few pictures of him in it. I will warn you he looks like a "Chunky Monkey". I will admit he has meat on his bones but these pictures make him look way bigger! They are precious so I had to post them. He is semi smiling. One day I hope to get the Huge Open Mouth Smile he likes to flash. Anyway- I am about to go wake him up from his nap. I will update more later!

2nd Year Anniversary!

Today marks the day of our 2 year anniversary! It is so crazy how time goes by so fast! So much has happened in just 2 years! When we took these pictures in Mexico we never dreamed we would be moving from Texas to North Carolina and have a new addition to our family in just 2 years! We are very thankful! We look forward to what else the future holds and what else God has in store for our family. Much love from our family to yours!

Jack Updates

Ok so since my last blog I almost had a heart attack.... You see- I have this great baby monitor in Jack's "Big Boy Crib"... My dear friend Jess has used the same kind with her kiddos and she loves it. It basically sits under the mattress and goes off if it does not detect movement after 20 seconds... I wish that it actually went off after 10 seconds but 20 seconds is the only option... Anyway- this is one of the main reasons I decided to put Jack sleeping in his own room vs in his pack in play in our room. I was getting up every hour to check his breathing and now I have the monitor so figured this was a better choice. (And it is).. Anyway- Jack sleeps swaddled and really can't move around too much but I worry sick that he will stop breathing or kick out of his swaddle (we use his kiddopatumus or the miracle blanket- both of which are very hard to get out of but he manages) and then it will be on his nose and he won't be able to breath. I know- Greg thinks I might be a little crazy.. :) So a few days ago I woke up at 5:00 in the morning to what I thought was my cell phone alarm going off. ( I set this still to check on Jack if he has not already gotten up.) In my half sleep moment I turned my ringer off and the alarm kept going off. Greg and I realized this was the monitor! I ran into his room and on the way I thought I lost my heart! My instinct was awful! I started shaking him in his crib. Now- I debated admitting this on my blog because I am not a bad mother and I did not shake him hard. I know you are never supposed to shake a baby and would never do this but I was completely out of it. I promise it was not hard and he was still laying down. Anyway- to my surprise he wouldn't wake up not because he was not breathing but he was dead asleep. We think maybe he had managed to scoot himself over too far that it couldn't pick up his breathing as well and went off. When I went in he was a little to the side. This same thing happened the next day and after I had a heart attack all over again I did notice he was again scooted to the side. I talked to Jess and she said this happened to her numerous times. She said it is still better to her to use it than to not and I totally agree! Wake me up 100 times with false alarms as long as you work!!!! So- another update is Jack slept from 10:30 until 4:30 this morning... That is 6 hours... I can live on that! Way exciting! He also was so good this past Friday night. I had 14 girls and 1 boy over for Keno and Greg was on "Daddy duty". Jack slept the whole time after his bottle and a little activity time. He was great for Daddy! My friend Sara with the Angel Baby Grace came over and brought Grace and Grace was so sad the whole time. Sara spent the evening upstairs with Greg and Jack trying to calm down Grace. I told her I was so excited to see she cries too! :) Grace is so cute though. She cries and smiles 1 second later. It melts your heart. I will take a picture of her next time. Ok- so Saturday night Greg and I had 2 couple friends over and I think we were expecting a little too much with Jack. He would not sleep and cried and cried. I spent most of the night upstairs although he did sleep 15 minutes while he let me eat my dinner! :) Oh well! He has really been so much better though. I think it is naps that make a difference but even though I know that sometimes he just won't sleep. Today we tried everything and just as he would sleep he would wake up so finally we went for a ride in the car and he was out. We went to Kohls and I bought him a few outfits and even tried on a shirt for myself. We also bought Daddy some items... He stayed asleep the whole time. I dressed him up in his swimsuit and hat to go and took pictures. I am posting them because he looked so cute! Oh- on Sunday we had a family outing to Birkdale to eat lunch and stop by Janie and Jack a clothing store. Jack fell asleep and didn't wake up until Greg and I were shopping for books for him. I fed him and we got home before he went crazy. When we got home he hung out with Greg and layed around with him. Greg also put on the "Snuggli" that Jess sent us and put Jack inside. I wish I had taken a picture of Greg walking around the house with it on! Greg loved it and so did Jack. (Although Greg said he felt silly just as silly as someone wearing a "fanny pack"). Jack went right to sleep. The things you do to get them to sleep huh!?!?! I never thought I would see the day Greg wore a "Snuggli"! LOL Ok- enough updates. These are probably boring to most of you! I only have 3 more weeks at home with him. I am going to miss him so much! I will update more later!

Jack Update

CRYING CRYING CRYING

Aren't I cute?

Half Smile

I am so PROUD!

Passed OUT

Put EM up! Wanna Fight?
Typical!



He only did this once but I HAD to take a picture of it!

I took some new pictures so I decided to give you an update... Jack is doing well... Mom is kind of going insane but it is all worth it... Jack is a great baby.. He is especially great around friends and family... I went to get my hair highlighted and brought Jack with me. I was paranoid the entire time that he would wake up and go crazy like he does at home.. I am friends with most everyone at the salon so they insisted I bring him even though I warned them... He ended up sleeping the ENTIRE time. I think he liked the blow dryers... I mean he has never taken a nap so long in his life... That evening was a little difficult to get him to go to bed but I had told him he could be as fussy as he wanted since he had let me get my hair done.. :) Then on Sunday my friend Sara and I went to Birkdale (an outside shopping center) with our babies.. (She has a daughter a few months older than Jack). Her daughter's name is Grace and since Grace has been born she only cries when she is hungry and the cry is more like a tiny fussing sound. (For those of you who have read The Baby Whisperer- Grace is literally an angel baby.) I was so paranoid about Mr. Jack and he slept the entire time. I had to wake him to feed him in Barnes and Nobles and he did his famous scream while being burped which Sara said was not as loud to everyone as it seemed (as I was walking down the bookshelves aisles).... However- after the bottle he went right back to sleep. I am thinking if there was a title for the kind of baby Jack is it would have to be a social baby.. :) You see- when Jack is home his normal routine is high maintenance as his Dr. describes it. He is what they call in the book a "touchy baby". Part of this is due to acid reflux and the other part is probably inherited from his daddy... JUST KIDDING! His normal routine is cry when he wakes up and usually fuss while you change him and then if you don't put a bottle in his mouth fast enough he will scream like a cat it crying.. He then eats happily and when you take the bottle out to burp him he goes CRAZY. (I am told this is due to acid reflux but I think he is just a baby that loves to eat bc he cries when the bottle just leaves his mouth before you burp him and if you put it back he is happy again. Then when you burp him he arches his back and cries..Sometimes I have to stand up and burp him to get him to not be quite to loud. (This is supposed to be acid reflux and I do believe this one.) I have been told to burp him after every ounce because Jack has been gaining weight faster than most. He is not over weight but she wants (the Doctor) to watch how much he eats every day because he could drink 7 ounces most feedings if we let him. He would later spit it up but she said it takes him awhile to realize he is full and burping him more will help him do this. It seems to be working if I can deal with the extremely loud crying.. and I can.. Then after he eats he plays for about 20-40 minutes. (That is after we sit up right for a while so he can spit up all he needs to first from the acid reflux.) All the while though he gets tired of one position or thing very quickly. He likes variety so I have to change things up every 5-8 minutes or so.. We do tummy time, back time,. sitting up time, baby einstein, the swing (which he hates), read a book, play with farm animals Gambi gave him, the boppy and so on and then he starts yawning but he will not put himself to sleep. You see- we have tried everything but it seems this is my job... Any tips would be appreciated.. He will not fuss for awhile and then go to sleep either. If you try that he starts coughing and chocking which the Doctor said is not a good idea and could possibly be attributed to acid reflux. So I rock him to sleep every time and then when it finally happens and I lay him down POOF he wakes up and we repeat the process. I have found if I let him sleep on his stomach he will sleep for at least 15 minutes before waking up but I have to watch him since you are not supposed to. He used to like to sleep in his car seat after I rocked him to sleep but not this week. So- I have been laying down letting him sleep on me in order to get him to nap. Or I let him sleep wherever he will! I stress out about him not napping because that is when they grow. Anyway- today I have been swaddling him like we do when he goes to bed at night and he is currently working on 22 minutes of a nap! This is BIG time! The only problem with this is I have to keep him naked with just a diaper on all day bc during nap time the swaddle he used is fleece and he can't get to hot. He gets out of all the others... However- this seems to be working now so this is good. I just hope he still sleeps well tonight and doesn't associated his swaddle with night time. You see- he sleeps so good at night! Last night he slept from 10:00-3:00. I think that is great for 8 weeks old....Oh and he is on night 3 of sleeping in his BIG BOY crib! We are so excited.. He is a light sleeper so we couldn't move or whisper with him in our room. We miss him but I like the monitor because it goes off if there is no movement for 20 seconds (this counts breathing). Anyway- when he wakes up from nap time we repeat the whole process as far as rocking him until it is really time to get up from nap time and then we go back to the changing and then eating part. Honestly he is a good baby but his Doctor definitely said he is one of the 20 percent that are high maintenance and while she actually told me to continue holding him that he should grow out of it soon. The only thing I am worried about it daycare because they won't do that. I also wonder if they will swaddle him since he won't sleep any other way. He scares his self with his arms and legs and wakes up. Anyway- the Doctor said by the time he goes to daycare he will be growing out of this... We shall see! He is great though and we love him! He is starting to smile which is precious. He has a little dimple on one side above his lip. He only smiles a few times a day but if you catch it your heart melts. Hopefully he will start doing this more. He is also very good at holding his head up for awhile. I will post pictures...You will enjoy seeing how much he has changed and how big he has gotten! We can't believe it every day! He goes next week for his 2 month appt and shots... :( I will cry I know... Anyway- I am also posting a picture of him in his Chicago outfit that his daddy's friend Patrick McNulty sent him. It was very nice of him. Precious! We miss everyone! Love you!

Pictures

Ok- So I had to copy my mother in-laws blog and put these pictures on here...
I wanted you to see how much Jack resembles his daddy and thought these pictures were cute because they are similar poses. It is funny- if I could scan my pictures you would think he looked exactly like me too. Guess he is just a good mix of us both! :) I will update more later when I have time to download more pictures...

Grammie and G-Paw's visit

Jack got to meet his Grammie and G-Paw this week. They got here on Tuesday night and are leaving today. As soon as they arrived they were showering him with love and kisses. He really enjoyed their visit. We went to dinner and Jack slept the whole time. We even walked around and went shopping afterwards for about (20 minutes) we didn't want to push our luck- but Jack was a perfect Angel baby. The next day Grammie made dinner and G-Paw made some guacamole. Both were excellent. Grammie got up and did several nightly feedings during her visit. Jack really enjoyed it and I will admit that we did too! That was the first time in 6 weeks that we have been asleep during those hours. We went to breakfast one day and sat outside. It was a beautiful day and Jack was perfect. We then went to see where Daddy works. Grammie was able to help get Jack into a semi nap routine. We call his Grammie the "Baby Whisperer" because she can get Jack to sleep within minutes. (Literally) He is growing so fast it is unbelievable! I can honestly tell a difference in his weight day to day. I think he had a growth spurt while they were here. He eats 4-6 ounces each feeding. He is wearing 6 month old clothes now and some are too small in the stride. He can still wear a few 3-6 month clothes depending on the brand but most of them are already put away. He wore his 4th of July outfit his grandparents brought him. He looked so cute. I will post a picture. Today he is wearing his "Potty like a Rockstar" outfit his Aunt Meredith and Aunt Poco gave him. It is precious! It is still a little too big up top but fits perfect in the length. Well- we have really enjoyed out visitors! Jack will be so sad when he wakes up from his nap and finds his G-Paw and Grammie are gone. :( We will all miss them! Thank you for your prayers! Jack seems to be doing better. We go to the doctor on Tuesday and will update then! Take care!

Poco and Kinsey

First I wanted to say thank you to Scott and Kinsey for the cute items they sent Jack. I posted a picture of him in his outfit and laying next to the towel, burp cloth, and bib. They are so cute and so soft. :) Next for an update with Aunt Poco. Jack enjoyed meeting her! :) One night Poco and I went to dinner alone while Greg babysat. We had a great time and it was great weather so we sat outside. We babysat Jack during the day while Greg played golf on Saturday. Then when he got back I put on my fabulous TANKINI and Poco and I went to the pool for an hour or two. Yes- you heard me right. I went to the pool 5 weeks after giving birth and 25 pounds overweight. It was a beautiful site. Let me tell you! Anyway- that night we ate fajitas at home and hung out as a family. Sunday we stayed home most of the day and went to dinner that night again. It was very stormy here Sunday night. (This is good because we have needed rain.) Poco, Greg and I drove around a few times over the weekend in the neighborhood so Jack could get some help getting started on nap time. :) We had a great weekend and Jack was worn out because on Monday he slept all day long! Please continue to keep him in your prayers. We still don't have the reflux situation worked out and might be changing formula. His doctor is off until next week so I am going to ask her about it then. In the meantime he is taking axid for it. I can tell you he is spitting up less but he is still in pain when we burp him. To top it off he now has thrush so his little mouth hurts so bad. He cries before, during, and after he eats. I just feel so sorry for him! I am posting more cute pictures. He is doing good on tummy time and raising his head very well. I am also posting another picture of him holding his binki baby. It is just so cute to me. We love him dearly and are so blessed to have him. We miss you all! I will have more posts soon because tonight Jack's Grammy and G-Paw (Those are the tentative names they have chosen) are coming to visit. He is very excited to meet them! We will update soon!