5 months old!

We can't believe our little man is 5 months old already. He is the love of our lives, and we are so blessed to have a healthy, playful, handsome guy. He's teaching us about love, patience and ourselves everyday. Here's some of the most recent happenings.

Size: Jackson is now in size 6-9 months clothes. 3-6 were getting tight, he's really on the borderline for sizes, but we've moved him up. Target brand diapers are abnormally huge, so we've been able to stretch the size 2 for longer, otherwise we'd be in size 3 for sure. We haven't weighed him in a few weeks, but we've definitely already doubled our birth weight (goal by 6 mo), and he's weighing in somewhere near 17 pounds! Growing so much!

Health: Jackson has been healthy all month- praise God! No more ER visits, we haven't had to use the nebulizer or even the humidifier. Even with daycare, travel, and family visits our little man has stayed healthy as can be.

Sleep: Sleep habits are pretty much the same still. He usually gets in a longer nap late morning/ midday and then takes a late afternoon and an evening catnap. Bedtime is 9pm and on occasion he will sleep through the night, but majority of nights he's still getting up to nurse once, which gives me extra cuddle time with my little man :) Since he's still waking up some, Jackson is still in the pack and play in our room. I'm not ready to transition him across the hall just yet, but we have practiced naps in his big boy crib. It's so funny how the baby's room HAS to be ready, and noone ever goes in there except to grab clothes. Go figure.

Schedule: Schedule is the same as before. Thankfully Jackson has put himself on a regular schedule, and even with travel, visitors and everything else, he has managed to stick to it most days:
6am: Wake up/ breakfast
730am: Leave for school/ work, catnap in the car
9am: mid morning feed
10am-12pm: long nap
12pm: lunch time!
130-2pm: afternoon catnap
3pm: mid afternoon feed
5-530pm: catnap
6pm: dinner!
730pm: nurse then last catnap
830pm: bath/ shower
9pm: nurse and bedtime
2am: nurse

Social: Our little man is quite the big flirt. He's always smiling and laughing at Mommy and Daddy, teachers at school, and any friends and family he gets to meet. Just recently he's really become interested in Wally. He will often follow Wally around the room with his eyes, and smiles or gets excited when Wally likes his entire face. Last weekend Jackson threw his first fit, and Dan and I didn't know what to think. I don't remember exactly what happened, but it was something to the effect of Jax being impatient and frustrated when we didn't respond right away. He stiffened his arms and legs, then let out a short but loud yell. It happened to each of us over the weekend, and when Jax did to to me I said, "Well, excuse me sir, but there is NO need for THAT." Oh the joys heading our way...

Diet: Still breastfed! Jackson is doing great at nursing and I'm really enjoying the extra cuddle time with my monkey. I am, however, looking forward to starting him on foods. Our pediatrician supports our decision to exclusively breastfeed, and like the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics both recommend, we plan to wait on foods until 6 months.

That said, the checklist of milestones for trying food include good head control while sitting and/or sitting unassisted, interest in foods, ability to turn head away from bottle or breast when full, motor skill developed for putting everything in his mouth. Jax has met all of these milestones, so we're patiently waiting for the right time to start foods. We did let him try some pureed, frozen bananas last week and he LOVED them! He was lunging for the spoon and very eager, so I think we may be trying foods sooner than 6 months.

Crying: Usually only when sleepy, and at 730pm- that's fussy-30 at our house. Otherwise, happy, giggly, smiley boy :)

Milestones: Sometimes sleeping through the night, sitting up great, trying foods soon, everything goes in his mouth, and he can flip over tummy to back. Note: he won't roll over for mom and dad because he knows we will give in and flip him, but we've seen him do it for other people :) Stubborn little booger.

Mom and Dad: Doing great. Lots of exciting changes in both of our careers, but less and less 'us' time. Taking a marriage class during VBS at church, and it's lending great insight to the institution of marriage that will hopefully help us for years to come. For the most part, we focus our time and schedules on family time, chores, and sleep. We are hoping that sometime soon our schedule will regulate and we will have more time for each other, working out, and just plain down time. For now, we are just too busy being Mom and Dad and loving our little monkey!

A Special Day for Mom

This year was my first year having the privilege to celebrate Mother's Day, crazy to think I'll celebrate this day every year for the rest of my life. Here's a recap of how my first, very special Mother's Day went.

First, Saturday we demolished our kitchen. Like, literally we tore out the cabinets, counters, moved the stove, everything.

So, after understanding that we had NO kitchen, it makes this first part of Mother's Day extra special. Jackson and Wally woke up early, about 5:30am. Normally I try to allow Dan some extra sleep when that happens, but this morning he took the boys to the living room and let me sleep in- until 8am!!! That extra 3 hours of uninterrupted sleep was a Godsend. I woke up without an alarm, to the sunshine coming in through our brown curtains in the dark, cool bedroom. Ahh.... amazing. I then hear Dan in the kitchen puttering around, and Wally running in and out of the open sliding back door. I pull myself out of bed and wander down the hall to find Dan in our shambles of a kitchen, oven plugged in and slid to the middle of the room, cooking me pancakes for breakfast. Wally was frantically running around trying to get someone, anyone, to throw his Kong and play with him. Jackson was in his bouncer, telling Daddy everything about his morning and his dreams. The kid was talking more than we've ever heard before! He rambled on with his coos and ahhs and smiled when he saw me walk into the kitchen. The room was a little hazy and slightly smelled like smoke, which I later learned was a result of the first batch of pancakes- burnt to a crisp. I scooped up our beautiful boy and returned to the bedroom for diaper change/ get dressed/ Jackson eat breakfast, and Dan brought my golden and perfect (second batch) of pancakes to me in the room. Two blueberry and one banana chocolate chip. It was a perfect start to the day.

The next hour went per routine with us alternating playing with the baby while we got ready for church. We headed off to Sunday School in separate cars, and Dan told me when we arrived that Jackson continued to talk his ear off the whole drive. After Sunday School we left before service, the boys heading home, and me heading to an hour long massage Dan had booked for me!! I drove out to the shopping area by the beach (where we were when we went into labor with Jackson- such a fond memory) and headed for my massage while enjoying the warmth of the abundant sunshine. My massage went great, and was actually very painful and uncomfortable- in a good way. My massage therapist was able to pinpoint all of my stress spots, even in my pulled IT band, and work them out without mercy. I left the massage sore, dehydrated, and feeling gross as the released toxins flooded my bloodstream. Even with as rotten as I felt, it was such a treat and she did a great job.

I headed home to my boys, we grabbed a quick lunch of refrigerator leftovers before heading out for some essentials. 10 X 10 EZ canopy and a wagon (to be bought later) to head to the beach! That's right, abundant sunshine and a house under construction means we were free to enjoy the sunshine! Jackson did great at the beach, and wasn't sure what to think of the waves crashing up around his waist and face while he and daddy sat at the water's edge. Although our beach trip didn't last long, it was a great success!

That evening we grabbed a quick drive thru dinner and headed home to unwind and enjoy our time together before starting the rat race in the morning. Jax was talkative all night, and full of smiles and coos. It was the first day we've really had him talk all day. And blow lots of bubbles. It was a perfect, wonderful day and my boys made it very special for this mama. Dan has once again spoiled me, and set the bar high for future special days for each other :)