Take Baby to Work Day

Wednesday morning James was having a good ole time playing with his hands and feet while I got ready. He isn't really much of a sucker but he does enjoy putting his hand in his mouth for a couple of seconds before throwing another air-punch. He has also started recognizing his feet. He will pull them up like the middle pic at the abs and then accidentally grab them and get so overly excited he kicks them back out. The way he pulls them up makes me think he may figure out how to roll over from his back to his belly soon but we'll have to wait and see!

Found his thumb

Found his feet

Trying to stuff both hands in his mouth at once

I was getting ready so I could take him down to work to let him meet everyone! It was nice to see everyone but I sure don't miss that drive!

At my desk

With Vicki

With Heather

Jenny thought the best place to change James' dirty diaper was on my desk neighbor Scott's desk. Scotty is a bit of a clean freak about his desk as he clears it off on Fridays and disinfects it and he eats lunch at my desk so mine gets dirty and not his...He's lucky we like him and that diaper didn't even come close to touching his desk :-)

He started crying just as I got the camera out to get a pic of him and Jenny

Nick kept asking Jenny when I was coming in to school to visit. He stayed at school for 2 extra class periods after his early release to see me and meet James, which is pretty fantastic! That's easily the longest he's been at school in a looong time so I feel pretty special. I'm very proud of him because while he may not be the best "typical student," he's come a long way and is leaving to become a Marine in mid-June. He'll be back to visit in September hopefully before he gets deployed to Afghanistan...thanks for helping to defend our country Nick, make us proud!

Gina G. and myself in the Field House. Gina is a first year teacher and a victim of the bad economy as our school district RIFed (reduction in force) all 1st year teachers. I have really loved working with her and am keeping my fingers crossed that something will work out so she can remain a part of our team. She is also a huge Cubs and Blackhawks fan, which makes her even more fun to have around and helps us even out the Cubs fans with the Sox fans.

After work I took James to the doctor for a "weight check" to make sure our little peanut is gaining weight. At his 2 month appt the doc said she thought his evening fussiness is probably related to him being hungry due to him being tired and my milk production decreasing as the day gets later. I used the Wii Fit to try and weigh James (not the most accurate of measuring devices, I know, but what I have handy to get close to ounces) and he was still registering under the 9lb mark on it, so I decided to give the doctor a call. Babies of James' age are supposed to gain about 1 oz per day. It turns out James finally broke the 9lb mark! He weighed in at 9lb, 2oz; however, this weight gain was only about 5 oz over 9 days. While he is gaining and that's good, it's still not at a rate that they like to see....so that means we (well, mostly I) have to feed him more often during the day to try and fatten this skinny minnie up! He had usually been pretty content with eating every 3-4 hours, but now we're feeding him every 2-2.5 hours during the day so he gets 5-6 solid feedings during the day and one before bed. I felt like a milk machine before but definitely now :-) I can hear him Moo-ing from across the house, hehe. We are supplementing him with a bottle of formula at his last feeding before putting him to bed to make sure his belly is good and full for the night. I almost cried right there in the doctor's office when she told me she wanted me to wake James up after 5 hours of sleep -- I mean, I have a newborn who will sleep 7-8 hours at night and she wants me to wake him and break that pattern -- is she nuts?!?! So we are going with the formula at night to fill him up and then not letting him sleep past Jim's alarm clock in the morning as a compromise. He is going to get his weight checked again on Tuesday, so we'll see if what we are doing is working -- if not, then I'll just be setting and re-setting an alarm clock throughout the night and day time because I'm freakin' exhausted already, let alone with having to wake him in the middle of his nights sleep.