Monday, September 10, 2012

24 Weeks

Jackson is now 24 Weeks old. I look back at pictures when he was a newborn and I can hardly remember those days! He was so tiny! I remember looking at his sleepers he wears now and thinking that he couldn't possibly be that big at 5 months! 


This picture Jackson and I took to send to Daddy at Fort Jackson. Matt had a slight delay in shipping to Basic Training so he's able to call or check his phone for this week. While he's ready to get started officially, it's nice being able to talk to him.

These pictures uploaded a little out of order so I'll give brief explanation of each and then finish with some of Jack-isms of the week.

Jack is all about his thumb. I've been using a paci to help him go to sleep, but he loves sucking on his thumb!


We recorded Matt reading some stories to Jack before Matt left. This way Jack can watch them and hopefully it will help him to remember Daddy when we see him at his graduation. Matt's greatest fear about Basic is that Jackson won't remember him and won't want Matt to hold him etc.


Jackson is going to be such a little flirt when he's older! He has such a winning smile. I mean, seriously, look at this kid! Plus, I love his little crocs!


Jackson's cousin Waverly had notorious post-nap hair. Jack is catching up!


He woke up from a 2 hour nap and his hair was going every-which-way! Mommy tried to comb it down but it just sprang back up!


Mommy set up a nap area for Jackson downstairs. This is a mini down comforter folded over. It's super comfy for him and allows me to keep packing without having to hook up the monitors. I got baby monitors before we had him... still haven't put batteries in them!


I'm trying (unsucessfully) to get Jackson used to sleeping in his crib/pack n play. He usually will spend the first leg of the night here fine and then start whimpering after an hour or two. He won't fully wake up normally. If I leave him to try to fall back asleep his cries escalate. As soon as I pick him up his head goes to my shoulder and he's completely out again. Try to put him back down and he cries. We'll get there though. For now, for the remainder of the night he sleeps on my chest or on Matt's side of the bed with everything pushed away from him.

One time I checked on him in the pack n play and he was scooted all the way to the side. Silly baby! I put him back in the middle.


When I was trying to take his weekly photo, this is the face he kept making. It was just so silly.


He is such a handsome little Booger. He loves his feetsies! Mommy has been putting lots of different shoes on him since his little feet grow so quickly. Have to get good use out of all his cute shoes!


My little turtle.

He still isn't able to sit up on his own. I leave him be and he... plops over!


He loves his O-ball. So I bought him one of the O-ball strings. He loves that too! It's so flexible and he loves that he can grab it and chew on it.


Ok, some Jack-isms (since Jack isn't talking yet, these are just his facts/stats) for the week:

*Jack and I went to a MomMe group with my friend, Danielle. Unfortunately, I'll only be able to go to two sessions since we're moving. But it's something fun for me to do in the midst of packing. So we go and I plan to keep Jack with me. But one of the nursery women wanted to take him (because he's always so smiley at people), so I let her. Halfway through the group the door opens. All the mommies look to see which child was having issues. My baby! I stand up to get him and he breaks into this big grin. All the other mommies "aw" in typical mommy fashion. His eyes are all red and his whole face was broken out in red splotches. He must have been crying hard! He sat quietly on my lap with a few deep gasps as he regained control of himself. Next week (the sessions are every other week) I'll just keep him with me and we'll all be happy. While I don't like that he's more clingy now, I do like that I can settle him down without a problem.

*Through all the packing and changes, Jack has been such a little trooper! He does so well during the day when I put him in his jumperoo or bumbo to play. I'm usually sitting right next to him packing up a pile of stuff so he's content as long as he can see me. We take breaks throughout the day to play or read.  He takes good naps so that helps me get a lot done.

*When Jack learns a new sound he does it over and over and over again. His current sound is "Dadaaa", which is so fun! I reinforce that sound by clapping, smiling, or repeating it to him. I show him pictures of Matt and say "Dada" when we do Story Time with Daddy. I would love to be able to give Jackson saying "Dada" when he sees Matt to Matt for his graduation. Jackson also is still loving to blow raspberries. He especially loves it when Mommy does it back to him. Unfortunately, this produces a lot of slobber running down his chin. I don't mind slobber, but since I have the air conditioning on it makes the top of his shirts pretty chilly after a good drool fest!

*Jack is so good at running errands. He'll often fall asleep in the car, but sometimes he'll play with his giraffe that attaches to his carseat. Sometimes I just hold him when we run into a store, sometimes I put him in the Moby wrap, and sometimes I'll put him in the umbrella stroller. He is such a great baby to run errands with. He hasn't gotten fussy during those times yet, even if he was mid-nap. He loves people and makes new friends wherever we go with his smile.

*When we play I often sit him in between my legs so he's sitting up and I'm supporting his back. This week when he was done sitting he has twisted around and thrown his arms around me. I love this! I reply by picking him up and giving him good snuggles. I love that he's able to "give me a hug". Makes my heart warm.

*Jack has learned to jump in his jumperoo. He can sit there and jump jump jump for a good long time. He plays with the toys around the edges and I swap out the hanging toys to keep his interest. He has also learned how to turn in the jumperoo so he can get to the different toys. Today he was "yelling" at one of the attached knobs on the jumperoo for about 30 minutes! I noticed him pulling at it and "yelling". He wasn't crying, he wasn't fussing, but he wasn't making a happy noise either. I attached some of his rings to the knob and he didn't even play with them. He kept pulling at the ring. Afte about 15 minutes his "yelling" grew louder. Eventually he began to cry while pulling at the knob. It was obvious that he wanted the knob off, either he didn't like it there or he wanted to hold it. I picked him up and distracted him with another toy. While he was "yelling" at it I tried to turn him to another toy but he was not interested.

*Feeding: Jack continues to eat just breastmilk. He is growing growing growing though! I still give him one bottle a day (usually spread out between a few feedings) but don't have to pump the excess milk. He drinks all that I have plus the thawed milk from the freezer! While this slightly worries me since he's drinking more than I'm producing in a day, it will help not waste that milk. I still haven't figured out how we're going to transport it to Michigan without it thawing. When we get to Michigan I'll begin trying solids with him so maybe my milk supply will be sufficient in conjunction with the solids.

*Sleeping: Jack has been sleeping a lot. It was a bit worrisome, actually. Paired with his eating habits I thought that maybe he wasn't getting enough to eat and he didn't have enough energy to stay awake. My mom thought it was probably a growth spurt. Looked it up online and every thing I found suggested a growth spurt also. So I guess my baby is growing!

Jackson is everything I could have hoped for in a baby. I still kind of want our first two children to be close in age, but I'm thinking that I may want a little more time with just Jack. He is such a wonderful little soul, and I'm not just saying that because I'm his Mommy. He is so well behaved and so happy. I would hope that our second child would come before Jack turned three, but I'm certainly willing to wait longer than I thought for baby number two. I love being able to focus on Jack and give him all my love and attention right now. Some may think that having babies within 2-3 years of each other is close in age. What I mean when I say close in age- I thought I might have been pregnant again (we took three tests a couple days before Matt left) and I would have been thrilled! I wanted a good three months recovery time after Jack was born... then I would have been ready to be pregnant again. If we get pregnant in the next year I'll still be so so happy. But now if we don't, I won't be disappointed- which would have been the case previously.

I am in a good place right now with our entire family system. It has been so wonderful mothering Jack and I am so thankful for this opportunity.