Happiest Baby

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.

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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

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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6 weeks old!

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.

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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

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

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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Jameson is Two Weeks Old!

Jameson has had a busy week! Wednesday we went to the doctor for his two week appointment. He weighed 5 lb 15.5 oz, so he is probably a 6lb-er by now! We also got a referral to see an ear, nose and throat specialist to get his tongue tie cut. Then he got to meet all of Brian’s friends! We also heard good news that evening that Jason and Lisa are expecting a baby sometime in August next year. Everyone loves him, of course.

So on Thursday we went out again to the doctor. The ENT was just great, we liked him a lot. The tongue tie cut was quick and clean, barely any blood. We nursed there in the office and everything was well! Jameson is a champ. We were doubly glad we went ahead and got it taken care of because the ENT said that his was severe enough that it may have cause orthandontal problems later. Later on we introduced him to his first pacifier! He likes it, and now that he spends more time awake, it is very soothing for him (and for mom).

On Thursday, he also turned 2 weeks old! We got some cute photos of him with alphabet blocks (I stole the idea from an old co-worker!)

We took him for his first walk on Friday since it was so nice outside. There was still snow on the ground, but melting very quickly since it was a warm 50 degrees! He slept almost the whole time, which was impressive since we were rumbling over snow banks and ice on the sidewalks. The stroller is nice, it felt like a little all-terrain vehicle.

Jameson enjoyed his New Years Eve; that night, JP and Lisa came over and we had king crab legs (first time I have ever eaten crab that wasn’t already out of a shell), filet mignon, twice baked potatoes and spinach artichoke dip that Brian made from scratch. Lisa met Jameson for the first time. They are due in early March, so they are getting very excited and enjoyed holding him. He was on his best behavior! They didn’t make it to midnight because Lisa was getting tired early so late in her pregnancy, but Brian and I did with Jameson.

We had yet another visitor on Saturday! Celine, who lives in Alaska, stopped by for a surprise visit. She called that morning because she was in Cleveland! I hadn’t seen her in years, so it was great to see her and to meet Keith, her boyfriend. Her mother even got Jameson a cute duck book with a little music CD.

It’s been a great weekend. Tomorrow, Brian is going back to work, so that will be different. I have enjoyed having him home these past few weeks… tomorrow I have some goals though, so I should be able to keep busy. I will be taking down our Christmas decorations!

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Weekend

This weekend has been lonelier for me because Brian is mini-vacationing with his friends. This Thursday-Sunday, he has spent touring distilleries of whiskey in Tennessee and Kentucky. Meanwhile, I have been working and visiting my grandma.

I kept myself busy in Thursday and had dinner with a friend, Teresa, who I haven’t seen in a long time. On Friday, I RedBoxed a couple movies that were on my list (but not Brian’s, haha!). I saw Prince of Persia, and The Backup Plan. I thought both were pretty good, and entertaining. Sasha has been very good with Brian away, though I am sure she misses having him home too!

The weather was hot enough to turn the air on those two days, I was happy to see it cool off today. I went to visit grandma today and was telling her about it, she didn’t realize it was close to 90 on Thursday and Friday because she hasn’t been out of the house since her surgery on her broken wrist from the last fall. The pins in her arm don’t look as bad as expected, because the arm was bandaged up. She certainly isn’t young anymore, but she has two very nice almost-nurse ladies taking good care of her.

Brian should be back tomorrow evening which is good. He will be coming with me to my glucose test Tuesday morning for part of the time. This past Tuesday, I took a glucose level (and anemia) screening test which was to test for gestational diabetes. I failed the screening, so I now I have to take the 3 hours test at the hospital. Doctor said that about 10% of women fail the screening test, and only 10% of that 10% actually have a problem. So odds are in my favor! I read up on the test, and it sounds like they will be drawing my blood four times. I also have to fast for 12 hours in advance, so I will undoubtedly be starving by the time it’s over! Hopefully, there will be no passing out. I’ve taken the morning off work entirely, so since it’s at 7 am I should have some time afterwards to walk around the mall before going to work the afternoon.

Baby is moving a lot more noticeably now, and occasionally uncomfortable. At my last appointment, the doctor said I had only gained 2 pounds, which seems really low! I swear I have grown twice the size I was in the past month! I finally put up my tree wall decal, which is super cute. Next doctor’s appointment is in three weeks, then I will be on the two week appointment schedule!

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Waiting

Just playing the waiting game now! So I will write about other stuff:

We spent Easter at my parents in Centerville, which was very nice. Everyone was home, and (maybe because I can’t let childhood go), I had my mom hide eggs and our baskets still. I love that part of Easter, it’s entertaining, and fun to have Brian do it too haha. My mom started writing poems for clues to hiding places back when we first move to the house on Sentinel Oak (what was that, some 10 years ago now?). Anyway, it is a firmly planted tradition now even though it only started after we were all older.

My brother is spending the fall in Florida doing the Disney program in his major, Industrial Engineering. We are all supremely proud of him, and I am excited he will get to spend some time away from school which I think is a very good thing. Not because he’s not doing well, but because I am a firm believer in studying abroad (or elsewhere in the US as the case may be). It’s awesome to gain new experiences like that.

My lightbox which I was using to photograph my jewelry was taken apart with some of our last showings (as we were starting to get desperate to make our house look big and inviting). Anyway, I have thus not taken any new pictures of jewelry that I’ve created, though I have done a few. The most recent one combines chain, which is a new thing for me. I am going to do another chain one soon that I think will be good enough to sell. I am still enjoying the hobby!

This upcoming weekend I am headed to Columbus for a (mini) reunion with old friends, and to see Jamie’s new house which will surely make me jealous! I am impatient and have noticed this month to be harder than before to try and stay motivated and positive. I am ready for this all to be over. We started packing in the house last weekend (Brian started packing the garage earlier); I put away all the rest of the books and started in the office closet which currently houses all my crafting items. This week I want to finish the office and take things off the walls. I hate wrapping stuff in bubble wrap, so I don’t want to wait til the last minute and get sloppy on those types of items.

I will post pictures of the new place once we are settled! My parents are giving us some furniture of theirs that we aren’t picking up til end of May, so chances are there won’t be pictures until then. They are giving us their old couches, my old day bed (less the mattresses), a gliding chair, elliptical and some other stuff. I am super pumped about it, it will be so nice to have like-new furniture!

Anyway, that is all that’s new on this end. Til next time.

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Aug. 12, 2009

So I’m sitting here with a glass of red wine, working on work stuff and I thought maybe I should take a break and write a post–it’s been a long while since I last updated. I think it was about the wedding. It’s crazy how much time has already gone by since the wedding.

A lot of people have asked me if things are different after you’re married. Of course this depends dramatically on if you have lived with your fiance beforehand… for Brian and I it wasn’t different at all, except maybe that we’re both much more relaxed than we were in the months leading up to the wedding. I get to sign my name different, that was difficult. I have said my new name out loud a few times now and it still sounds weird. But I like being Mrs. Hilary Thomas.

I still miss Sir Chewy, still expect to get another one after moving… and moving seems closer and closer. Come January I think we’ll start looking (cross your fingers!). Brian is contacting landscapers this week to schedule the front yard to (finally) get re-done. It needs regraded, house needs waterproofed around the basement, not to mention the flower beds we’ll need to re-add and plant new plants. The shrub/flower planting can wait until next spring but the grass needs to get in around the end of this month.

The garden is so-so. Guess that’s what happens when you plant late, get so busy you don’t weed, and forget about the running water sprinkler or likewise forget to water altogether. We’ve gotten some beans, will get some pepper and perhaps a cucumber or two. Basil is returning to life after being mutilated by japanese beetles, so we’ll get some tasty pesto sauce with that.

Work is stressful. We’re in the middle of an upgrade and soon we’ll be coming in on weekends on a “volunteer” basis (if we don’t come in just to get more work done on our own…). Thank you’s need done, basement needs thoroughly clean, pictures need put on walls (we have frames empty but no photos in them haha). And time keeps flying by, I feel like I’m barely keeping up! But I’m enjoying every moment with Brian.

In recent news, I went to visit Sara at BG this weekend and that was a blast! It was great to get away. We ate at a tasty Italian joint, Zia’s, on the river-front. We visited the art museum and made our own glass flowers! That was a amazing and scary; they had us really stand in front of the 2,000 degree furnace holding molten glass the temperature of lava. Mine turned out great, I saw a picture though I haven’t seen it yet. I have to pick it up from Sara, maybe sometime Brian and I will visit the Toledo zoo or something. We also spent some time in some cool bars, one of which was a re-done old time cinema which was very cool.

Ciao for now!

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Final Single Days

Bachelorette party was last night, we had a blast, it was awesome! I had my old roommates, Mallory, Lynne and Maria come, as well as Cassie and Cathy. Emma came up and Melissa, Brian’s sister, as well as Lisa and Joni, my friend from work. Emma planned it all from NJ and drove in yesterday. It was quite a whirlwind, but a lot of fun. We had a 10 person limo and drove up to Rock Bottom Brewery in Cleveland, having drinks and snacks on the way. I had a boa, sash and button that I had to put on and beads, and the other girls made sashes out of “caution” tape that said Wild Girls on it and had beads. We had scrumptious appetizers and dinner (sampler plate and nachos, and for dinner I had macaroni and cheese). Dinner, in retrospect, I should’ve not had so much pasta. I was tipsy when we got there and sober when we left! But it was still fun.

We went downstairs after that to Howl at the Moon, a piano bar. That was great. I then had to get decked out in the rest of my outfit, consisting of a t-shirt and veil. The t-shirt was one of the ones to draw on, which I didn’t really get people to sign but that’s okay, I’ll cut it out and scrapbook it! When we first got there there weren’t many people there yet, so we got a lot of our songs played. They had them pianists play Raining Men and brought me up on stage. Lucky for me Cathy was willing to join me in embarassment (rather, I was embarassed, she was enjoying the limelight).

They brought all us bachelorettes up again later to do the chicken dance, I think there were four-five of us.

Brian built us a little fire up by the house and Lynne, Cathy and I had s’mores with Brian and then we hit the sack. Emma crashed out early after her seven hour drive, and she was up and gone by the time we were up in the morning. It was so nice of her to come out 7 hrs on her birthday for me, just to turn around and do it again this weekend for the wedding; I was impressed 🙂 I think I’m almost ready for the wedding, the ceremony programs were a pain and I had my lady friends at work help me out putting some together on Friday and finished them on Saturday. I think 9+ hours were spent on them total, it was crazy. So I have to make a few more favors and another guestbook/table number, and clean the mirrors for the centerpieces. Other than that, it’s just getting the details straight like getting ribbon to the cake lady. Only 6 days left, craziness.

Write thank yous for work bridal shower
Rehearsal dinner
Thank you tags attached to favors
Pick up altered dress
Make toss bouquet
Finish guest book table numbers
Centerpieces! Clean mirrors for centerpieces
Finalize DJ stuff
Finalize cake details
Finalize flower details
Finalize ceremony details Write love letter to Brian for the wine box ceremony!
Finalize food
Finalize photographer details (must take photos, etc. and just touch base)
Create day-of timeline
Schedule make up and hair and other salon stuffs
Create ceremony programs
Finalize ceremony music
Seating arrangement
Create placecards for seating
Buy gifts for parents, both sets I think we’re just getting them photo books after the fact.
Buy gift for Brian
Finish bridesmaid/groomsmen gifts
Pay for all the stuff (payment due dates are all coming up)

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