general life, life with baby

So Far, So Good

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Today is Friday, so my third official day back at work. So far, so good. Jameson had some great days at daycare, the ladies love him (though I think they may say that off all the new babies!). He finally poo’d at daycare on Wednesday right before I picked him up (phew, glad I missed that). He’s been doing good the past couple nights staying up til 9.

Last night in particular was great! It was his first night of no feedings during the night. He woke up and made some noises around 4:30 and we popped his pacifier back in and he was good! Usually he cries outright for food in the middle of the night, so I thought maybe with the mild fussing we would be okay with a pacifier, because I really didn’t want to get up to feed him at 4:30, that would have put me way off sleeping, I would’ve just stayed awake after that.

I don’t expect we’ll have a change to sleeping through the night all the time now because he is nursing and they still digest quicker, but maybe we’ll see some more of these, that would be nice.

This week at work pumping has been okay — they have rooms for us, which is nice, though the first day I wasn’t on the schedule so I was jumping around to the other one across the building to do it. I have been feeding him at lunch, though today is the first day that I’m not going to do that since he’ll want to eat around 12:30 and I will be going out to lunch today. The whole thing is just kind of annoying, but not inconvenient yet because I haven’t had meetings. We’ll see how next week goes!

Also next week I have training at Baldwin-Wallace on Thursday and Friday. I am not looking forward to finding a place to pump at a college campus. I guess I’ll probably end up in the car, which is fine, but so far as I know we only get one long break so I may have to escape in between.

Jameson will be 3 months next week! I have all kinds of pictures to take. I have a cute outfit for St. Patrick’s Day that I may take pictures of him in this weekend so I can post it on St. Patty’s haha. Then he’ll wear it to daycare on Thursday. So cute! He is starting to get so much hair, I love it.

We’ll I am going to run now. I will be posting pictures this weekend of his first day at daycare in his cute outfit.

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diy, general life, life with baby

Last Day as a SAHM

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The acronym means Stay At Home Mom. Today is my last day of relative freedom (relative because of course there’s a little baby who needs me all the time :)) Today we are dropping Jameson off at daycare in the afternoon while Brian and I go up to Cleveland for lunch at Melt for a super unhealthy but tasty extravagant grilled cheese sandwhich. I’m pumped! Then after I will get my hair done and a manicure. So after they cut my hair they’ll straighten it, which will make getting ready for work pretty easy for a couple days til I wash it again.

Jameson had his first day of daycare yesterday, for a half day in the morning. We took some pictures of course, cause it was like the first day of school lol! Brian was all dressed up for work (he didn’t take off work yesterday, so it was a real trial run) and Jameson was spiffy in his favorite outfit, jeans and rock ‘n roll t-shirt. I’ll post the pics soon. It was a lot of work getting him ready, but some of that was because of me. I will have to get up a little earlier to make it in time for work. Also I was trying to get my pump ready to go, since I intended to pump in the car since I would be out all day til I picked up Jameson. I didn’t end up pumping, but getting all that ready was a pain.

The ladies at daycare said that he did great, that he a very easy going baby (which of course I already knew). I told them he does tend to get fussy in the afternoon, so we’ll see how he does today since he’s going to spend the afternoon there. He ate all his bottles and enjoyed watching all the activity. I know, because when I stopped in at 11, he barely noticed me, he was so intent on watching everything since it was all new. I think that’s the most activity he’s ever been around, and I think he’ll probably really enjoy it. There’s one other small baby there, and maybe one other that’s not too far off from his age. The other really small baby is 3 and a half months old but she only weighs 8 pounds! The ladies told me the the doctor has told her mother to add formula to her milk because she’s not gaining enough weight (they call that “failure to thrive”). And I thought Jameson was small for his age!

While Jameson was at daycare, I went shopping. I found the most ADORABLE outfit ever from Target. It’s a onesie, a jacket and pants all covered in elephants! The onesie says “mommy’s peanut” on it. I lovvve elephant outfits. I almost bought this outfit too, but I couldn’t spend all that money on him. I thought it would make a cute Easter outfit, but I think I have some other clothes that will fit. We still have almost two months before Easter and who knows what size he’ll actually be in! He’s still in 0-3 most of the time, but the sleep ‘n plays are starting to get too short on him, so we may have to move those up sooner rather than later.

I then went to Hobby Lobby where I found the coolest frames ever! For Christmas this past year, I made Brian a perpetual calendar with no days of the week. Anyway, I used a flip photo thing from Kohls as the base, but these are even better since they’ll hang. I bought all they had, which was just two, so maybe I’ll make one for myself too. I also bought a few frames to put on my desk at work. Then I went to the dentist, which was fine (still no cavities, yay!) but I found out I have the “remnants” of pregnancy gingivitis. Ew. So to clear it all up I need to be extra diligent about brushing and flossing.

I stopped to see Jameson then who pretty much ignored me and then went over to get a free shirt from Ann Taylor Loft. They sent me a “we miss you” coupon for free $20 with a $20 minimum purchase. So I bought a $20 shirt, which was free. Score! Then I stopped by Little Tikes with Jameson to show him off to friends and co-workers. They all think he looks like Brian 🙂 It was a very good day.

In other Jameson news, he hasn’t poo’d since Friday late afternoon/evening. He’s usually an every other day kind of guy, so I was getting concerned, but now I’ve read up on the inter web that sometimes they can go up to week without going. He’s very unlikely to be constipated since he’s exclusively breastfed. Thought last night we thought for sure he was going to go since he was fussing a bit, turns out he was just overtired!! I think maybe we’ll have to move up his bed time. Now that he’s getting used to this schedule of getting up earlier, he’s usually fussing by 8 o’clock. As much as I love him up til 9, it’s not a happy time for him if we’re forcing him to be up and he’s tired. So 8 may become the new bedtime. I’m going to wait til after DST starts though and see how he does, since for a little while 9 o’clock may feel like 8 to him. He’s still doing really well at only getting up once, and I’ve eliminated the extra feedings in the evening and he’s still sleeping well. He always gets a feeding right before bed, but no forcing extras in between. I think this is probably as good as it’ll get until he’s either on formula or starting solids.

The plan is right now to start weaning him to formula (which, knowing him, the easy going and easy bottle feeding baby that he is, he won’t even notice), sometime in his 6th month. Brian is going to San Diego for a conference around our anniversary, so there’s talk of me going for a couple days too, and it would be great to be done breastfeeding by then. I already feel guilty about, lol. It may be a little rough, we’ll see how things go. Plus I do really like losing the weight so easy! I broke into the 130’s for the first time in a couple years earlier this week. Another week or so and I should be a solid 139, which would feel really great.

Picture time! Last week I took some fun photos of Jameson and Sasha. She is really good with him. We spent some time on the floor on Sunday together, me in between Sasha and Jameson. I think she would lick him all over like a newborn puppy if we let her, haha. We’re still super careful since she doesn’t know her own strength, even around us, but she’s doing really good. I posted one of the photos up on “Baby’s First Year” a website part of Babble.com as part of their babies best friends contest. Voting starts on March 16th, so I’ll be posting a link to vote then!

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general life, life with baby, pets

Squirmy

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Jameson has been really squirmy the past few days! He’s really starting to move around a lot and always wants to be moving. He’s also been sleeping a lot better — 4-5, even a 6 hour stretch one night. He is usually only getting up once a night right now. I say “usually” tentatively since he could lapse back to old habits any time! But I’ve really been enjoying the extra sleep. His bedtime is officially 9pm, and though he’s sleepier earlier than that, I think that he’ll adjust even better after Daylight Savings Time begins. Next week, we’ll be waking him at 6:15am to eat, and my hope is that he will eventually sleep solidly from 9-6. That would be a-mazing!

He’s grasping, involuntarily, at all kinds of things now. His giraffe toy on his activity gym is easy to grab, as is necklaces, shirts, and of course, hair!

On Sunday, Hollie, Jeff and their girls came over to visit. They were cute, as always. I edited the photos but for some reason on this laptop they seem a little cool colored. I may go back and tweak them some. Anyway, the girls are getting so big, particularly Allison (the youngest). I first met her when she was about 1 — she is turning 5 now.

Crazy to imagine the time going by and Jameson turning 5 too. I had a dream last night that he just went and sat up all by himself. Using only one arm! hahaha But really, I think he’s going to be a quick learner, he is getting really good at holding his head up.

Yesterday we visited the daycare and got the scoop on what all we need to bring. I’ll be dropping that off tomorrow after my massage that Brian bought me when he was in Mexico. Should be lovely! And Aunt Carol will be watching Jameson while I’m away. He should be good for her though, he’s very happy most of the time now, and he’s actually really started liking his swing this week. I think the swing is new enough that it’s still very exciting for him and the swing plus a pacifier calms him right down when he’s upset.

Sasha went to the vet on Friday and her bloodwork showed some liver issues, so she’s on a liver health pill and will get bloodwork done again in 3 months. But she’s officially a senior citizen now which is kind of sad. But she’s still as perky and smart as ever. Whoever said you can’t teach an old dog new tricks never met Sasha 🙂 She’s even learned to hover over her water dish and wait a bit for us to wipe off her face! We’ll see if that lasts though after I go back to work and no one’s here to do it during the day though.

Well, I am off now to go visit Lisa and Jonathan again!

Oh, and for those wondering, I did successfully make dinner on Monday, though I had to feed Jameson in the middle and so Brian did the last couple tasks. But it came out great as usually and we doubled the batch for tasty leftovers! Here’s the recipe:

A Healthier-for-you Restaurant-Style Zuppa Toscana

Brian adapted the recipe from: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Restaurant-Style-Zuppa-Toscana/Detail.aspx

1 (16 oz) package turkey smoked sausage (like turkey kielbasa)
3 potatoes, cut into 1/2- to 1/4-inch slices
2 large onions, chopped
6 slices bacon, chopped or crumbled
1 Tb minced garlic
2 cups kale or escarole, washed, dried and shredded or cut (approximate, Brian just buys one bunch and uses it all)
2 Tb chicken soup base (or 5 bullion cubes)
2 quarts water
8 oz heavy whipping cream
2 Tb olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F
2. Place sausage links onto a sheet pan and bake for 25 minutes or until done, turning once. Cut links in half lengthwise, then cut at an angle into 1/2-inch slices. Set aside.
3. You can either cook onions and bacon together with olive oil, or I baked the bacon at 400 degrees F separately to eliminate some of the bacon fat and grease splatters 🙂 Cook onions in olive oil over medium heat until onions are almost clear in a large saucepan (I used a big pot and added everything else to this to make cleaning easier). When bacon is cooked, remove from onions if they were cooked together, crumble or cut and set aside.
4. Add garlic to the onions and cook an additional 1 minute. Add chicken soup base, water, and potatoes, bring back to a boil and let simmer for 15 minutes or until potatoes are softish.
5. Add crumbled bacon, sausage, kale, and cream. Simmer 4 minutes and serve.

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Happiest Baby

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Jameson is just a great baby recently — and when he is grouchy, I am starting to get a clue as to why! Usually, he is grouchy when he is overtired or bored. Of course, when he is hungry also, particularly at night.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xcmuOeTxAM]

Last night was a great night for us; the past couple nights we have been putting him to bed at 9. This seems like a great time because he is already getting tired, but I don’t think I’ll feel like he is going to bed right away when I get home from work. Also it gives me like an hour or two of alone time or time with Brian, which is nice. Anyway, last night we gave him a bath and this time I got in the bath with him so he could experience more water while Brian did the washing. It was fun, I think we’ll enjoy bath time. Then I fed him and we put him to bed drowsy but awake. I had to put his pacifier back in about 4 times, but he was asleep by 9:20 and he slept until 3:30!! That is almost 6 hours of sleep. I went to bed a little after 10 and got 5 hours! Just great. I hope we can keep it up! To top it off, it was storming like crazy (apparently both Brian and Sasha had trouble sleeping) and neither Jameson or I woke up (at least until he cried). This is much better than our usual, which is him getting up every three hours. Maybe we can get this down in a couple weeks and start working on better naps!

On Friday we went to see Lisa and new baby Jonathan. He was a little less grouchy than last time we visited and since it was daylight, we got some of the cutest pictures of the two of them together. He still has a big set of lungs on him while Jameson is still just starting to discover his. Lisa and I talked baby the entire time. I’m going over again this week too!

Lynne dropped by last week also and we got some cute pictures of him smiling at her.

Hollie and the girls visited yesterday and Maria is coming over today to meet Jameson, so the next post should have some cute photos of them! Tonight I am also going to attempt to make dinner, like one of the soups at Olive Garden, so that should be interesting! Last time Brian made it we took a photo, here’s what it should look like if I do it right:

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2 Weeks and Counting

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Today Jameson turned 10 weeks old! But I haven’t edited those pictures yet, so I’ll show off from last week’s 2 month photo shoot!

I have just 2 weeks left at home with Jameson and I’m trying to decide what I want to do before I go back to work. Jameson and I have been to the mall and gone on a couple walks. He’s been out to lunch and dinner a couple times now too, and went with me to the eye doctor on Tuesday. I’d love to take him to the outdoor outlet mall near by but that will depend on the weather. He’s also met most of my friends now; Lynne stopped over just yesterday and Matti and Cassie came by earlier last week. That only leaves a couple people who haven’t met him yet. He’s been a very social baby while I’ve been off work! 🙂

So last week Aunt Holly and Grandma stopped by for a quick overnight visit! Jameson was in a much much better mood than during Grandma’s last visit while Brian was gone for work, so that was great!

Also last week on Saturday he visited his future BFF Jonathan, just 3 weeks old. Jonathan was born premature so he’s still wee little like Jameson was. Jameson looks sooo big compared to him. Also a lot more active. Jonathan has a better set of lungs on him though! haha

I took some photos of Jonathan for Lisa and JP’s announcements, which I’m actually pretty proud of. We didn’t have any natural light since we went over in the evening so they are a little indoors-y looking, but we got some great shots even with him being a bit grumpy that evening!

Lisa has some lovely furniture, so when I go back tomorrow to visit Lisa maybe I’ll get a few shots of Jameson looking cute on her couch, plus a few more of Jonathan in some nice natural light. I’ve run out of fun places here at home to take photos of Jameson, haha! Though this week I put him in his monkey hat for a few extra fun photos; I think I got some smiles out of him too so that’ll be cute once I edit them!

A couple people mistook Jonathan for Jameson on fb which was funny. Guess I just take a lot of pictures of Jameson so it’s natural to assume 🙂 But I for one know that Jonathan doesn’t look a thing like Jameson. All babies don’t look alike to me anymore! Speaking of other babies, our friends Carrie and Matt had their new son Nicholas a couple days ago! He’s got a cute nose, he looks exactly like Matt. They live nearby so Jameson has another future BFF now!

Next week on Tuesday we’re taking him to the daycare to visit with the teachers and get details on what he’ll need for his first days. Work is getting more “real” by the day. It’s funny but I think maybe I’m more possessive of Jameson now than I was at first. It’s going to be hard leaving him, so I’m glad Brian will be dropping him off at daycare, at least for a little while until we get a schedule going (Brian has a flexible start time for work).

I just had an extra moment to edit a couple of today’s photos, so here’s a sneak peak!

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Sleeping

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This week, sleeping has been on my mind a lot. Particularly Jameson’s sleep, though my sleep is included in that! After grandma’s visit the other week when Jameson was so cranky, he’s been a (relative) angel during the day. But we are still on a crazy non-nap schedule where he seems to go some days awake all day long and other days asleep all day long. Night time sleeping varies, some are better than others (last night I got the most sleep in a row that I’ve gotten since he was wee little and sleeping all the time, a whole 5 hrs straight).

So I bought a book which hasn’t come yet to help me scheduling him. I would love to have him on some sort of schedule by the time he goes to daycare, which is just 3 short weeks away. At least, a schedule for feeding him so that the week before I go back to work I can practice pumping at certain times of the day, more than the once a day I’ve been doing now, and so that I can schedule him to nurse at around noon so I can visit at lunch and feed him. And with the feeding I hope the napping will come! I can’t figure it out, it’s like he’s on a 48 hour schedule instead of 24. He spent most of the day awake yesterday but today he has slept with only me waking him to eat most of the day!

I still wonder if some of that is his congestion, and I’m also wondering if maybe it is allergy related instead of cold (because if it’s really a cold, it must be the mildest cold ever). I wouldn’t be surprised since the house has been closed up since winter started, we had super dry air (Brian just installed the house humidifier on Sunday) and I only clean every couple weeks and we have a large dog that shakes off a whole small dog’s worth of fur whenever she moves. Sasha causes me allergies sometimes too.

So Jameson turns 2 months tomorrow, and his 2 month doctor’s appointment is on Saturday so I’m not taking him back to the doctor for his congestion. We’ll see if she’ll still want to give him his vaccine’s since he’s still showing congestion symptoms when he’s upset and when he’s been on his back for extended periods of time.

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Visit from Grandma!

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Last week Brian was away for work in Mexico City, so Grandma came up for a visit! Which was a good thing, since Jameson was extra grumpy last week. We spent most of the week speculating as to why he was so cranky but of course no one can ask a baby so we’ll never know. We figured it was a) gas; b) his cold that still lingers; c) lack of sleep from said cold; d) uncomfortable bassinet being elevated; e) need to poo… haha

In any case, Grandma didn’t get to experience a super happy Jameson, though we did have some better days than others. Jameson talked to her about life, I think we learned a lot haha.

She left Thursday afternoon after Jameson’s 7 week photo shoot and sure enough, Friday he was a very happy baby! His photo shoot this week was in a dresser drawer, idea courtesy of Brian’s dad again. I’m waiting for him to tell me what this week’s idea should be! Jameson is getting big, there’s only so long that I will be able to put him in cute little places!

Grandma brought up some pictures of me as a baby, and we came to the conclusion that Jameson doesn’t look anything like me! Though I suppose that could change as he gets older. I was a pretty fat baby! I am waiting from Jameson to balloon out too. She also brought up a video of me from 4-1/2 months old to about 4 years. It was interesting and funny! At 4-1/2 months I knew my name and was rolling over. It’s hard to imagine right now. Jameson is not yet 2 months and he certainly doesn’t know his name yet. He is finally enjoying the activity mat a lot more, though he still doesn’t like tummy time on it. At this very moment I am letting him nap on his stomach on the mat with me watching so he can get more used to being on his belly.

We had a nice dinner with Brian’s parents and sister on Tuesday night which was great. We didn’t really have to make dinner at all during the week! It was great to have company all day long, especially since I wouldn’t have gone out during the early part of the week because of the ice storm. Poor Sasha had a lot of trouble making her way through the snow to go to the bathroom! We’ve had snow on the ground for a long time now, all I can hope is that it will be gone before I have to go back to work.

On Friday Jameson and I visited work. I was out the longest I’ve ever been with him. I even prepared and fed him a bottle, the first time I had done so. I was worried he wouldn’t take it, but he didn’t seem to care! We went to Parasson’s, which is great because it’s family friendly and usually not busy (good for me, probably not so great for them haha). I went to lunch with two friends from work, and then headed back to the office to show him off! Since he had just had a bottle he was very content and slept the whole time. I had heard that the week prior, my other co-worker (who had her baby the same day as Jameson) brought Carson in and he was a little fussy, and with Jameson being cranky all week I wanted a nice easy going baby so made sure to feed him. It was great, everyone loved him! I was out on Friday for about 4 hours with a perfect angel, it was so nice.

Friday night, Brian’s parents came over and ordered pizza, so it was nice to have company again for almost all the nights that Brian was gone. He had a pretty awful day of traveling on Friday, with a canceled flight and then a delayed flight to a different airport. He finally got in around 2 am, which was actually good timing because Jameson had just finished eating and we were both up! We had a nice family greeting before crashing back to sleep. We spent this weekend lounging around and watching Spartacus: Blood and Sand on Netflix, which we’re enjoying a lot.

Brian said he didn’t notice much of a difference in Jameson except maybe that he smiles a lot more consistently now. Which is true; I can capture a lot more smiles on camera now! I think, especially after watching the video’s my mom brought up, that I was to get some video of Jameson this week.

So the other big things that happened this week is that I finally packed away his newborn 5-8 lb clothes which he hasn’t been wearing for about two weeks now, so it was overdue. It was a little sad… there was some outfits I really loved and they seemed so small 🙁 Also we are putting him in regular 1’s instead of newborn diapers now because they can capture all of his poo explosions since he still only goes once every other day. And we are also putting him in his crib! Saturday night, 2/5-2/6 was his very first night and he did okay. He is still recovering from a cold so the sleeping schedule was still smaller chunks of eating every 3 hours, sleeping about 2 hours at a time. Last night though he slept a nice 4 hours straight, which was fantastic! I actually do miss him in our room though, he seems so far away. He made some weird squeaks last night over the monitor that I had to go check on him. Which is totally normal things he was doing before I’m sure, but I can’t just peer over the side of his bassinet anymore. While Jameson seems to be getting so big, he has a friend now not too much younger than him!

JP and Lisa had their baby on 2/3, it was a baby boy who they named Jonathan Valentine (Valentine being a family name). He was born premature a little bit at 36 weeks, so after some help regulating breathing and feeding, he’ll be able to go home later this week sometime. Lisa had what sounds like a pretty hard labor (and I thought mine was bad, but that’s just because it went on for so long). She had to go off the epidural because it was slowing labor, which I can’t even imagine. She is much tougher than I would’ve been I’m sure! But happily she was able to deliver and is doing good, though I am sure they are shaken up by the traumatizing birth with baby being whisked away to help him. I am so excited to see them, because Jameson has a new friend and also because I am dying to see how big he looks compared to their little one, who was born 5 lb 9 oz!! Not too long ago Jameson was wee little like that, and I am curious as to how much he has really grown. Oh, and I am super pumped to buy a couple newborn outfits.

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6 weeks old!

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Today Jameson is 6 weeks old! I usually don’t post the same day, because it takes a while to edit the photos, but today I decided to forgo the shower and got the photos done early instead, ha! Jameson posed in a guitar case this week, Brian’s dad’s idea. I am running out of ideas, not sure what we’ll do next week!

Just these past couple days I have noticed a change in Jameson! He is starting to smile a lot more and shows more enjoyment! I think maybe today he smiled at me, just me, when I was changing him. I got some great pictures of his smile just the other day. He had on his little booty rattles which his cousin Gabrielle and great-uncle Mike got him. I am not sure if that was what was making him smile or not, but I enjoyed it! He is also starting to reach at things a lot more. I can’t wait til he grasps some toys (instead of just the burp rag which hopefully is just reflex and not his new favorite thing haha).

To go with his smiles, he is also showing a lot more grouchiness, but hopefully that is just the cold. On Tuesday, he wanted to eat all day long. Yesterday he was a perfect angel, and our photo shoot today was okay but since then he has been making me pay for it by generally not sleeping and spitting out his pacifier a lot. We did have a nice 10 minutes that he played on the activity mat and didn’t need his pacifier to prevent crying! He enjoyed himself for a good stretch.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzIRcXg-IT4]

Last night Brian and I went out to dinner with Jameson for the first time. He was a perfect sleepy angel. We even got to have an appetizer and dessert. We went to Vito’s, which is always great Italian. Earlier this week we had a nice visit from Cathy and Dan. They are always really busy so we had them come over even with Jameson’s cold. Last night Jameson sounded better, so hopefully the worst of it is over.

I purchased some black and white baby flash cards for him to look at. We tried them out the other night and his eyes did follow them quite a bit, his head even moved to continue following it. But mostly he is still enjoying looking at the ceiling fan, speakers and picture frames and whatever else is in the living room. Upstairs he really loves looking at the swinging birds over the glider chair. He’ll stare at those for a long time without getting bored!

It looks like he’s actually sleeping now, maybe I will get a shower in today after all!

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Night Out

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Brian and I had our first night out together, without Jameson, on Friday 1/21. We went to Rosewood Grill in Hudson, which was perfect! Brian made it a surprise for me, which was nice. We had never been there, it’s an upscale but not too upscale restaurant not too far from home which was ideal in case of emergency! But we were only gone for a couple hours and everything was fine. When we got back, Jameson was getting a photo shoot with his Aunt Melissa and grandma and grandpa. Our dinner was fantastic, I had a glass of nice red wine and a lobster penne. Brian got a shrimp and scallop dish with brussell sprouts and butternut squash risotto. The restaurant is not all seafood though, it’s actually a nice mix of anything you might want and now ranks up there with my favorite places!

This weekend Jameson was a little ornery for mom and dad. For everyone else, he was great! On Saturday, he visited with old friends Tara, Tracy and Jamie. Tracy had never visited our new house yet, so it was great to see her.

Saturday evening we spent an hour at the neighbor’s party (mom and Jameson left early because they were both super tired, Brian stayed later). Between Friday and Saturday, he managed to switch his schedule a little bit and wanted to spend time awake at night. Luckily yesterday we got him back on track and he was good last night. It probably doesn’t help though that the poor guy has a cold!

Today I took him to his first sick baby doctor visit 🙁 The good news is that he is continuing to gain weight great, and we haven’t seen any worsening of the spit up. In fact, the precautions of making sure he stays upright for a while after eating, elevating his mattresses, and burping more often seems to have helped some, though he is still spitting up more than he did as a newborn. But since he is gaining so much weight, I think it might be because he is just trying to eat more than his tummy can hold! He weighed in today at 7lb 11oz, which is 8 oz over last Monday. The doctor was impressed! That is even after he pooed this morning, haha.

Doctor said he is congested, which she said was probably due to last week’s doctor visit. Doctor offices must have a lot of germs… right now there’s not too much to do for him since it’s not causing him problems eating yet and he is okay breathing when relaxed and content. He only has problems when he gets upset, when he starts making pig snorts and breathing hard! So it’s just humidifier and elevation, which we are already doing. Too bad this makes tummy time that much more upsetting though, since he’s already not too fond of the activity and now it makes it hard for him to breathe. But we’ll keep doing exercises anyway.

Last week, the doctor told us we should start giving him vitamin D, as it (and later, iron) are deficient in the breast milk. The first day I gave it to him last week I had him laid flat, which was not the way to do it! I should’ve looked it up first, then I would’ve seen I should hold his head up so he doesn’t choke. Luckily he’s very tolerant of it, and the next day doing it proper and squirting it to the side of his mouth was easy and I think he may have even liked it since he kept licking his lips afterwards and didn’t spit much out at all! He’s a champ! So I’m sure the cold will be gone soon, though she did say it could take up to two weeks to completely disappear.

He’s getting so big! He looks like such a big boy in his polo onesie from cousin Stacey who visited last week!

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One Month Old

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Jameson was one month old on Sunday. I can’t believe how quick the time has gone! We went to the doctor yesterday and he got one shot. I was surprised to know how big he has gotten–particularly his head. I knew he had grown in length, because we are starting to use the 0-3 month clothing because he is too long for some of his newborn sleep and plays. But I didn’t guess how big his head had gotten! It grew 1 inch in circumference since his 2 week appointment. He grew just 1/2 inch in length, he is now 20 1/4″ long. And his weight is now 7 lb 3 oz. (Although, we did have a poo at the doctors after the weigh in, so maybe it wasn’t quite that much! haha)

A lot of people are having babies! On facebook today I saw that a friend from college had a 7 lb 11 oz baby.It is hard to imagine that a) a newborn is bigger than my one month old and b) that Jameson at this size now could still be in my belly! Crazy. He is so awake now though that I can’t envision it.

He has recently started spitting up more– and a couple times it has been projectile-like, so the doctor has told us to watch and see if the projectile-like spit up is happening more and if he starts peeing less. Apparently, a fairly common problem with first born males is Pyloric Stenosis and it is a problem with the valve at the bottom of the stomach entering the small intestines. It begins to appear between 3 and 6 weeks, so Jameson is right in that time frame now. The problem requires real surgery to correct, so Brian and I are strongly hoping that he doesn’t have this problem. So far, the bad spit up has only happened a couple times and we hope it was related to what I ate, or the quantity that he is trying to eat.

Otherwise, he is petite, but healthy and gaining weight well! Today, cousin Stacey is coming to visit him and tomorrow we have some more friends stopping by. This past week, he met my friends Cassie and Teresa. Teresa is going to be a pediatrician in just a few months, so I took advantage of her and made her hold him for a couple hours 😉 Cassie brought over a cute pull along toy. Before I know it he’ll be walking and playing with it, I’m sure!

I have finally given myself permission to not take a photo every single day. However, that day hasn’t happened yet. But I have a photo now of every day since he was born up to one month, I think it’s time for a break before Jameson gets camera shy! I did manage to get him on a bookshelf, which, in addition to the naked photos, is the only other thing I wanted from a professional photographer. Success without the cost! They turned out really cute too.

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