9.25.09 Weekend Activities

We had a busy week this week w/ a meeting for Mommy and Parent/Teacher Conferences, so I got behind on blogging.

The two pics below are from the weekend before when Katie and James hung out in their strollers together. Katie loves to teethe on her stroller but James isn't quite sure about it (the look of questioning from James cracks me up as he will gladly eat his toes or try to "kiss" our noses by putting them all the way in his mouth).

They obviously thought something was funny in Babyland :-D just not sure what was so hilarious.

Friday after school James and I braved an at-home art project. We decided to finally use the leftover modeling clay from Mother's Day and imprint James' 6-month foot and hand prints. The first shot is the 6-month prints and the bottom pic is from when he was 2-months old -- what a difference!

Saturday morning was pretty lazy -- I don't remember why James isn't dressed but I think this was the transition from PJs to clothes. Daddy was practicing taking some shots with his new camera -- he is getting some really good ones (it just takes a bit more work to get them uploaded, I'll get around to it some day when he shows me how to do it).

Um, why wouldn't I want to play in a desk drawer, Mommy?

We went to Lowe's to help Gma Chele get a new rug home on Saturday afternoon. James kept himself entertained with Mommy's sunglasses :-D What a goofball!

James' first bite of squash -- yummy! We tried the jar food first to make sure he didn't have a reaction to it then made him some homemade squash later this week (interesting but it worked out).

The car keys have become a favored toy to play with here lately. James really likes the noises that the main part makes -- beep beep, a car trying to start, a home alarm -- and the LED is fun too; however, his favorite part is teething on the keys! Thanks Jamie C.!

HOCKEY IS BACK IN SEASON!!! WOO HOO!!! I'm very excited about the Blackhawks being on TV again! They opened the season 10/2 in Helsinki, Finland with a loss in a shoot-out (although Yahoo! Sports had them winning already -- jerkolas) but came away w/ 3 points as they played awesome on Saturday and beat Florida. Kane, Sharp and Byflugien are starting strong, each "on pace to get 82 goals this season" (LOL) as they have all scored in both games so far :-) Thanks for the cool socks Gina G.!

Sunday = Football!!! We ventured over to Dom & Jen's house to watch the Bears game -- they pulled out a "W" by the hair of their chinny chin chins. Thanks for inviting us over and for all the yummy food! James and I were dressed and ready to support the Colts later for the Sunday Night game - they won.

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.

First Week All Alone

As I'm typing this blog, it's snowing outside. That's right, I typed SNOWING! Did Mother Nature not get the memo that it's April? She can be so downright moody sometimes I tell ya! I'm so over it and am contemplating trying to talk my family into moving someplace with a more stable climate -- San Diego anyone?
James and I were on our own this week (above is a pic Gma Chele took of us - very good one of James, me, not so much)...scary to start but we made it! The mornings are always interesting because I have to time out feeding him with a shower as he naps and then we have to go downstairs for the day. I'm still limited on the amount of trips I can make up/down the stairs, so we must plan ahead (which isn't always my strong point)! Needless to say, there were definitely a few days where I didn't get to eat lunch until almost 3pm -- someone feels the need to be held constantly and I can barely get anything accomplished (i.e. making lunch) before he starts to cry again (it makes for a bit of a long day). I did get something to help though :) I had ordered a Moby wrap from Target last week -- you essentially "wear" the baby -- and was set on having to wait until late April to get it because it was on back-order and a 2-6 week delivery...however, the UPS man was our prince in brown shorts and delivered it on Thursday! Woo Hoo! Once I figured out how to get it on properly (it's prolly 10 ft long all stretched out) and get James in it safely it was game on. Only problem is he falls asleep in it (good) but has super radar as soon as I try to lie him down in his pack n play for some shut eye myself (bad, Mommy needs naps too).
Wed. night we took James out of the house somewhere other than a dr. appt. - very exciting! He joined us at St. Matthew's as we had to attend a mtg. to be able to get him baptized (which we wanted to do before U. Larry gets deployed). Visitors this week included Gma Chele, Aunt Jen K. and her momma & grandma - it was a busy Thursday! Then on Friday we took James to see Jen's new house and watched some Blackhawks hockey (they cliched a playoff spot - stellar) with her and U. Dominic.

James has been very fussy this weekend & I feel like I'm always feeding him & that my body can't keep up (I know it will though)... hopefully it's just a growth spurt and not the start of colic (keep your fingers crossed for us). I'm excited to introduce my love of baseball to James this week as the season officially opens Monday! Let's get a Cubs-Indians World Series for him
now :-) GG is coming again this week for a few days over her spring break -- can't wait to see her!!!

Three Weeks Old

So like babies tend to cluster feed, I tend to cluster blog. James was 3 weeks old on Tuesday! It's fun to think of what he's accomplished so far in this little amount of time: starting to find his fingers/thumb (although I'm not convinced he knows they are his just yet); blowing spit bubbles with milk he stores up in his mouth, spitting up that milk if he's not blowing bubbles with it; he's become miles better at breastfeeding, but still needs some work from the bottle (Jim gives him a bottle at night while I pump because it goes much faster and I can barely function at that time at night - we think he drools/spits up more than he actually eats); a "coo" here and there, but very rare; he gets too bored with tummy time to go for long, but his neck is really strong for the most part and he holds it up for extended periods of time when we're holding him; he loves to follow the shadows/light patterns on the ceiling, especially of the fan and he's actually making some eye contact with us! It's interesting because the dr. asked if he startles easily (to check for hearing I'm guessing) and our answer was No because James doesn't seem to startle when the dog barks or there is a loud noise (I'm guessing he's slightly de-sensitized from all the yelling I did at school and from Easton barking his head off at me while James was in-utero) but he will startle and throw his arms out when a glass clanks or the dog shakes really hard -- such simple noises startle him but the big loud ones don't..hmm, strange to me, but hopefully indicates he is hearing well!

No dr. appt. this week to check his growth, but James is catching up in length to his teddy bear that GG bought him for when he got home from the hospital. Here is a 3 week picture to compare James and the bear.
Look at those long legs! Almost as big as the bear!!!

Here is a picture of James doing some tummy time work...he kept wanting to check out the shadows on the ceiling from the fan in our room...he kept tipping himself over but would keep his eyes up to watch those shadows move.
You would think an activity mat w/ no tools needed would be easy to assemble -- this actually took us almost 20 minutes to figure out! We know he can't really see too far yet and that babies James' age prefer black/white contrast (thus, the obsession with shadows) but this play mat is just too cool to not have out as a play option. I figure, the more exposure (within reason) he can handle the better so he can learn to interact in different surroundings

Random note: Bonnie Hunt had breaksk8 on today -- a group of 6 guys from IN/IL who break dance on quad roller skates -- very cool to watch, but they also go around teaching kids how to skate and how to make good life choices as they grow up and run into tough situations.

Two Weeks Old & Lovin' It

Daddy and James on his two weeks old night...still such the little Peanut! This outfit is from Mr/Mrs. Grimaudo -- it's a "Make Way for Ducklings" (one of Jimmy's favorite kid's books) onesie from their trip to Boston (side note: I love Boston). Anyway, I really didn't think he'd be small enough to fit in it, but it's actually a bit big on him still, so maybe we'll get a couple more wears out of it still!







Two week comparison to the teddy bear GG bought James. I guess he's only about 1/2 inch longer and 5oz heavier, so the difference isn't too noticeable yet -- I'm sure it will be crazy different in a few months! This picture was taken after a feeding, so we had a bit more of a happy camper (who then leaned over and spit up on the couch, of course the one w/o the blanket on it ;-) thanks Jamesy, hehe!







LOL -- this is the "not so happy" camper picture that we tried earlier in the day -- you get a good idea of how long and skinny his legs are though!

One Week Old

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!!! James turned one week old today. We had him sporting 3 different outfits w/ green in them today and he peed right through 2 of them! This kid has a knack for knowing exactly when you want to leave the house and then pooping for like 10 minutes -- of course, the second time is JUST after you've already changed his diaper the first time! :-)

I went for my dr. appt today to get my staples out. They said they were healing well and pulled out the staples (NOT painless as others had led me to believe). It ends up I'm probably allergic to the pain medication they had given me (glad I had been on it for a week already) and it was possibly hampering my recovery. My abdominal pain is most likely due to the fact that my dr. is really short and had to stand on a stool to do c-sections and the side that hurts is the side she stands on -- glad to know it's nothing more serious because I really don't want to go under the knife again if I don't have to any time soon!