Snow!

Like true Southerners we are enjoying every moment of our beautiful 3" snowfall. Our driveway and street are a solid sheet of ice, so it looks like we'll be staying put for a while. We had planned some home improvement projects for today, but of course I didn't quite believe the weatherman and neglected to get all the needed supplies, so blogging it is!

Everything looks so beautiful and magical flocked in snow.

We ventured out today to take the obligatory baby's first snow shots (I resisted the temptation to lay the baby in the snow). Enjoy!

Molly has enjoyed herself very much. (We have some funny video that I am trying to figure out how to post). Last year when it snowed we let Molly out in the front yard without a leash to play with us, and she stayed pretty close. We figured the same would be true this year. Wrong. We let Molly out the front door and she went trotting down the street. Rob was slipping and sliding after her, but he was quickly losing ground. Molly ran up to one of our neighbors who was taking out her trash... and then ran straight through her open front door. And apparently that neighbor has a daughter who is scared of dogs because all we hear is blood-curdling screams. Nice one, Molly. At least she didn't run into the next house, home to Butterbean the pitbull. Needless to say, Molly quickly lost her run-free pass :)

Happy snowy Valentines weekend to you all! (Does the automatic spacing on blogger infuriate anyone else? I'm about to have a meltdown, but I'm letting it go...)

A Hairy Situation

Keeping a blog up to date is harder than it looks! Apologies to my throngs of devoted readers and to all those whom I've harassed about blog silences in the past :)

Anyway, on to the point of this post. Poor Jack. For what will probably not be the last time in his life, Jack's advancing age is inversely related to the amount of hair on his head. Witness the progression (or regression, as it were):

My sweet boy at a few days old (I'm convinced that the feel of soft newborn hair under my chin will remain one of the most treasured sensations of my life).

And now at four months. Oh, will he ever forgive me for this picture?

Now, granted, his hair is not usually quite so, um, animated, but that little tuft of forehead hair can get quite unruly. It seems to have an agenda all its own, and I'm often at a loss as to how exactly to control it.

One well-meaning friend recently suggested an early haircut. What do you all think? I have entertained the idea, especially in light of Jack's approaching baptism, but I don't think I can bear to take scissors to his hair so soon, nor am I sure that it would actually make much a difference. And I've grown fond of the look of my little wild-haired boy. It is a little bit punk. And sometimes, a little bit rascally. Little rascally :)

Weekend Ramblings

A.k.a. random thoughts on a dreary Saturday

First, thank you mom for your help on the onesies in the last post!

Next, an update on the sleep adventure in our house. Jack did great again last night, giving us a seven-hour stretch. Someone else has suddenly decided not to sleep through the night, though. That's right- Molly-dog had to go out 3 times between midnight and 5am. Oh, yes she did. What in the world? Maybe she has a bladder infection? But, she doesn't seem to need to go out nearly so often during waking hours. Did she somehow manage to get pregnant? (I figure dogs suffer from the same small bladder issues that became so familiar to me not long ago). Again, though, you would think she would need to go during the daytime also. It shall remain a mystery, I guess, but we are really hoping not to repeat it tonight.

And in another bizarre (but gracious) twist, Molly didn't bother me at all to be let out, nor did I ever hear her (and Rob's) comings and goings. Instead, I got the full report from a bleary-eyed Rob as I was returning from one of Jack's feedings. Weird. Somehow, I hear Jack long before Rob ever does, but the opposite seems to be true when it comes to the dog. It might have something to do with Molly's decision to lick Rob in the face to wake him up. My guess is that she knows better than to mess with me in the middle of the night.

In other Molly-related news, I was inspired by my friend Jessica's facebook status on Friday and decided to attempt a walk with both Molly and the baby.

It actually went pretty well (Molly only got nudged by the stroller once- she's fine). Jack has started to enjoy our walks, which is really nice because we all need a change of scenery by the time mid-afternoon rolls around.

Finally, I have to include a couple of pictures for my dad of Jack in an outfit that belonged to my little brother. My dad is very concerned for Jack's dignity and thinks I have put him in far too many ridiculous outfits. Well, he can't complain about this one since he dressed his son it also :) How am I supposed to resist when he looks so cute??

Sunday morning update: Between the hours of 10pm-5:30 am last night no one (no, not even the dog) was out of bed. Very nice.

My Naptime Project

... because it is more fun than doing laundry and more productive than perusing facebook (again).

And, well, the boy has to have something to wear!

Question: I think the bunny rabbit needs a little pom-pom "cottontail." Is that too girly?

Operation Sleep

So, the past couple of weeks we have seen a major sleep regression. Jack teased us with several weeks of at least a 4 hour- and oftentimes a 5 or even 6 hour- initial stretch at night. And then a couple of weeks ago I think Jack began to realize that we weren't there when he happened to stir at night. And who wants to be alone at night when you could be hanging out with mommy and daddy? Not our baby.

So, we've been up at night- a lot. Every three hours to feed the boy and often several times in between to soothe him back to sleep. Hourly wake-ups aren't good for anyone. So, we decided that it might be time to help the little man remember how to self-soothe.

Tuesday night was the big night. After the bedtime routine and feeding, I laid Jack down in the crib and braced for the torture of listening to my baby cry. Well, actually, I braced to listen to him cry for about 15 minutes while I got ready to go out to dinner with my girlfriends and left Rob to listen to our baby cry. Great mom, right? Well, at least he has an awesome dad.

Anyway, it turns out I did hear all the crying, all 13 or 14 minutes of it. And then that baby slept for 8 hours. EIGHT hours, people... I feel like shouting it from the rooftop! Of course, Rob and I were laying in bed wide awake for at least the last hour of that stretch nervously debating whether or not we should venture in to check on him (we didn't). But I got to have a lovely dinner with my girlfriends and sleep for three uninterrupted hours. What a treat :)

The past two nights haven't given us a stretch anywhere near that miracle that we were blessed with on Tuesday, but it has still been an improvement. Thank goodness. We are all feeling a bit more rested around here now.

For the record, I hate hearing my baby cry. The second night he cried for about 15 minutes again. You would think I could calmly take it, since I knew what sort of sleep was possible from the night before. I thought I was going to crawl up the walls though. I did seriously consider going for a run around the block... which if you know me, you know would be a really, really drastic measure.

Molly-dog has decided to reinforce my mommy guilt by reminding me of what a cruel mama I am. Wednesday night after about 60 seconds of crying, Molly also began crying outside the nursery and then pushed the door open and stood watch beside the crib. I had to pick her up and carry her out of the room, and then she sulked over to her mat where she sat looking incriminatingly at us throughout dinner. Of course she soon realized that this meant that she had us to herself for the rest of the evening, and all was quickly forgiven.

*** Thanks so much for all of the prayers, thoughts, and encouragement after my last post. So far, work and Jack's childcare have gone really well. I really have so much to be thankful for ("for which to be thankful"... I know). ***

The Night Before

Tomorrow is the big day. The diaper bag is packed, as is the briefcase. Lots of list have been made, the laundry is folded and put away and the house is fairly clean (why these last two had to be done is anyone's guess, but I know it makes me feel better).

Back to work for me tomorrow, and I have all of the emotions that you would guess I would have right about now. It is not so much like the night before the first day of school, but rather like the night before the first day back to school after spring break.

I am very, very thankful that my office has been so accommodating about my schedule. I will be working part-time and doing a good chunk of that from home. I'll only be in the office 12 hours a week, but those 12 hours... oh, they feel like an eternity to be away from my baby. And I am so thankful for the wonderful childcare situation that we have. I do indeed feel very well provided-for through this entire situation. Still, I find myself with so many misgivings- doubt, fear, guilt, sadness, discontentedness, etc. I am going to try my hardest to focus on the twinges of excitement and thankfulness, though, and hopefully they will soon replace all that other stuff. Think of us tomorrow!

The Third Month

Happy new year! I'm only a few days late with the monthly update this time, and for good reason. I was waiting to post until after Jack's doctor's appointment this morning. I knew you all were just dying to get an update on his stats :) (Well, I was only a few days late when I started writing this post... now, notsomuch.)

So, here we are. At a smidge over three months, our little man weighs 16 lbs and 2 ounces (nearly off the charts), and is 26.5 inches long (actually off the charts). His head is 42 centimeters, and I have no idea how that compares to other three month olds. I'll go with the assessment of our friend's two year old, though. A few nights ago our friends kept Jack so Rob and I could go out (thank you Jane and Andrew!), and sweet little Elisha was quite fascinated with Jack's "big" head. That sounds about right to me.

And speaking of big, our boy has some cheeks! Surely you've noticed? Before Jack was born Rob and I would try to imagine what he would look like. The one thing we knew for sure was that he would have a lot of cheek to pinch... you see, cheeks are something both of our families have in abundance.

This has been such a fun month with Jack. He is so aware of everything around him, and you can just watch him and know that he is learning about the world around him. He loves to carry on conversations- with people, preferably, but his mobiles and his own reflection will also do quite well.

Jack loves his playmat, and he still enjoys his swing, though he seems to have less patience with it now than before. As we decided a couple of weeks ahead of time, Jack began spending nights in his crib (rather than the pack n'play in our room) when we returned from all of our Christmas travels. He does just fine in his crib. It took me several nights to get used to having him more than a couple of feet away, but now I am sleeping well again. Most nights Jack will give us a 5-6 hour stretch, which I love and sorely miss on the nights that it doesn't occur.

Naps during the day are still a little hit and miss. I'm thinking that it is just about time to begin trying to have more of a schedule. Jack seems ready for it, and Rob and I wouldn't mind it either :) Right now Jack only sleeps after being bounced for some time. While we love spending that time cuddling with our baby, our backs and arms (see stats above!) are looking forward to a time when some more self-soothing takes place. We seem to be well on our way as Jack has most definetely found his thumb. He loves it! And I love the fact that he can, on occassion, soothe himself back to sleep with it. Yay!

We love, love, love getting to see more and more of Jack's little personality come out and just can't wait to get to know him more and more. He truly brings us such joy! It was so great to celebrate Christmas with him this year and to think of all of the future celebrations that we hope to have.

Here are some of my favorite shots of Jack the day he turned three months... enjoy!