Cupcakes and Commentary

I cannot believe three weeks have already passed! Here is what we have been up to!

My husband went back to work this week. Sad. A is still asking if Daddy gets to stay home each day. As you may have read in one of my previous posts the night before my husband went back to work, J did not sleep hardly at ALL, and A refused to take a nap the next day. However, since then J has slept better and is actually going about three hours at night now. I’m still struggling to get A to nap well, I don’t think three year olds drop naps at this age, do they?

J is taking about four ounces of formula per feeding now and is going between 2 and 1/2 and 3 hours between eating. He takes a pretty solid nap around mid day (by solid, I mean a good hour/hour and a half) and then sleeps pretty well (besides waking up to eat) from 8:30 p.m. to around 3:00 a.m…..sometime after 3 something happens. He gets fussy, wants to be held, so on and so forth. Otherwise he catnaps through the day and is awake off and on.

My new favorite app for my Ipod is called “white noise baby”. J has had a couple of fussy periods throughout the last few days and this has been a life saver. I can set it beside the bouncer or outside the pack n play, and he will calm down quickly. For anyone who remembers how many hours and days I spent sitting holding A while I ran the hair dryer, this app is a really nice change.

J’s eyes are still steel gray, which is the color mine were when I was a baby, so I’m thinking he might end up with brown eyes.

All the boys (my son and my nephews) are still infatuated with J, which I think is so funny. Today A and his cousin had a discussion about who J loves more, HA! Sweet boys!

And lastly I had to include a picture of how J sleeps. This is a perfect example of him, stretched out, arms near his head, no desire to be swaddled what so ever.

Three Weeks Old!

Tags: Baby J

Before J was born A was very excited about his arrival. I wondered how he would feel when he actually arrived though.

I think this picture pretty much says it all.

Tags: A and J

Whoever came up with the term “sleep like a baby” and references it to sleeping well is seriously misguided. It has been easier to adjust this time around to the lack of sleep as before we had A I had spent luxurious time sleeping steadily from 10:30-11:00 each night to 8:00-9:00 in the morning, and it was fabulous! I am glad I had that time to sleep in because I have never had it since! In the last month of my pregnancy with J I did not sleep well at all. Besides being up and down on a monthly basis with A because of his ear infections, I couldn’t sleep in general and got used to being up at odd hours. So the adjustment to having J wake up three or four times a night for feeding has not been that bad, and my husband and I have switched off getting up with J. Plus, with my husband home for the past two weeks I have been able to nap in the afternoon.

On Monday night we got the true introduction to newborn-hood. Up until now J has slept really well and ate really well at each feeding. Last night, J was up almost all night crying, wanted to eat every two hours, and hardly ate anything several times that we fed him. My husband went back to work today, and A woke up crying for Daddy. As my husband went out the door I looked at A who had already asked five times for “fruit loops with the marshmallows” that we did not have, and J was STILL AWAKE, and I thought…I’m going to need a lot of coffee today. And I know now that my inability to sleep the past month and a half was prepping for now. Because when A was a newborn right now I would be napping, however, I am updating my blog, trying to get a few things done, and rejoicing that in another hour my Mom will be here to take A on a play date with his cousin at their house and I can finally get a shower. And another cup of coffee.

Now he sleeps peacefully.

Tags: Baby J

One of the ideas we started since J arrived is weekend movie night. My sister and her family have been doing this for awhile and I really liked the idea. We thought it would be fun to start for A, and gives him something to look forward to on either Friday or Saturday night! Our first movie night we watched Tangled (which A LOVED). This past Saturday we did make your own pizza, and we watched a little Jack and the Neverland Pirates movie I had DVR’d. I also started a pick three with A. First, make your own pizza.

We bought fresh pizza dough from Publix, which was really good. I let A help me put it all together which he really enjoyed and then we all got to pick our toppings for our third of the pizza.

Rolling the dough…

Spreading the sauce…

Sprinkling the cheese.

A only wanted cheddar and monterey jack cheese, while I opted for mozzarella, ham and red onion, and my husband had mozzarella and pepperoni.

While the pizza was cooking (If you get the pizza dough from publix there are instructions on the package for cooking it), I started making our salads, which leads me to my pick three for A.

We have had some trouble getting A to 1) eat at dinner and stop talking, 2) eat the meal we make, and 3) stop running around singing at the top of his lungs while we are finishing dinner.

Based on this I started a pick three for A. I put out the items for salad, vegetable, etc. and let A pick three selections of them and put them in his own bowl. I set out some fruit, vegetables, and lettuce choices (some of the ones I usually have out are a choice of blueberries, mandarin oranges, spinach, cucumbers, carrot sticks, romaine lettuce pieces, tomato halves, croutons, asparagus tops…it depends on what we are having). I let him pick one fruit, one vegetable, and one lettuce choice. I don’t give him a large portion either, as I have found he does better starting with smaller portions. Then we let him sit at the table and color on his little coloring mat and eat his pick three bowl while we finish making dinner. It has really worked out great. We found that he eats most of what is in the bowl and I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that we aren’t hovering over him while he eats it. Then once we sit down I feel less stressed about making him eat more of the main part of the meal because he has already started with a healthy bowl of food. We don’t do this every night, but I am trying to incorporate it at least three or four times a week. If you need more options of food choices, I have found some great food lists on Pinterest, here and here!

Tags: pick three, Super A

A little re-cap of our second week with baby J.

J is now 8 lbs 5 oz (WHAT!), and 21 and 1/4 inches long. Suffice to say he is growing and eating a lot. We are still working on schedules, but he is still sleeping decently in the pack n play at night, and has gone for a three and a half hour stretch at one point. He had a great second week check-up and no shots (except for a yucky PKU test) this time.

We started out with some dancing at M’s birthday party…

During the week we caught up on cleaning, laundry, and vacuuming…

Fit in a few naps…

Kind of.

And managed a quick photo op…

J found playtime exhausting…

And decided to take a nap instead.

I cannot believe two weeks has already gone by!

Tags: Baby J, Super A

Happy Birthday to my sweet nephew! He told me matter of factly at his party that “he will always be the oldest”. He also has told me that he will teach A how to play with baby J. Hilarious! I honestly cannot believe he is already 6, and I’m sure any of my grad school friends reading this can’t either, considering he was born the year we graduated!

We all had a great time celebrating at his Star Wars themed party!

Opening presents

J slept through the whole party!

Nothing like Star Wars to make sheets (and underwear, HA!) exciting!

A thinks he can read now. He kept saying “Oh M let me read the card to you, I can help you with that.”

This particular card was HILARIOUS.

My sister and I have a deal to take pictures of each other at events so we don’t get to be 50 and realize there were never any pictures taken of us!

“oh cool a helmet for my scooter” M stated. Nope not your scooter.

It was for a brand new bike!

Prepping for blowing out his number 6 candle!

Family picture! Yea! Happy Birthday!

My husband said to me the other day…”you think babies would evolve to learn that baths and diaper changes are a good thing”…HA! Not so much. J disliked the bath almost as much as he dislikes diaper changes. Apparently we still have several centuries of baby evolving to go.

J’s first doctor visit went great! His billirubin levels were fine, halleluiah for no billi-bed this time around! He was back up close to his birth weight 7lbs 10 oz (he was 7 lbs 13 oz at birth), and he looked terrific. Apparently A and J were completely exhausted by the doctor’s visit as they were both sound asleep when we got home and slept through lunch!

Baby J! You are one week old! Where did this week go? Let’s see what J is up to this week:

- You are taking about 2.5-3 ounces of formula. You go about every two and half to three hours between feedings during the day and one night you went three and a half hours! It was awesome!

- You sleep in your pack n play at night and it is fabulous. Borrowing the other pack n play from Aunt K was the best idea ever. With two pack n plays you can sleep in the living room or bedroom and only occasionally snooze in the bouncer. We are hoping to keep this routine up!

- You can sleep through A’s singing, the television, the vacuum.

- You do not like your swing. At all. Not sure why we spent the money on that one. Maybe you will like it when you get older.

- You had your first doctor’s appointment this week, your first bath at home, your first trip to Target, and your first birthday celebration on Saturday for cousin M!

- We are so excited to have you in our lives baby boy! We sure love you!

Tags: Baby J

Super A’s initial assessment of J…”he cries a lot.”

A talks to J in baby talk…that makes me laugh. We don’t talk to J in baby talk, so I cannot figure out where he picked that up from…I want to study it. Is that an innate part of our being to use baby talk? Hmmm…

A likes to give J kisses on his toes, show him the pictures he draws, and makes sure we know when he is crying, needs a pacifier, and takes his bottles to the sink when J finishes them.

J thinks A’s new leapster is interesting, can sleep through A’s singing, and loud talking, and him “fixing” his pack n play.