Jack: 5 months

I seriously can NOT get enough of this picture..I am sooo one of "those moms" who whips out her camera and shows this pic to anyone who will look at it. What's more, my grandpa "Sonny" who passed away when I was in 6th grade, used to wear plaid pants and various "get-ups" similar to this outfit....LOVE it!!!

I reflect on this past month and very much view these last 30 days as a time where our whole family was "getting in to the groove" of things.  Many transitions have occurred lately and this month, we have worked on stability, routine, consistency and just creating some calm after the waves.  I would say that Jack is fully adjusted to 5 days a week daycare and is thriving in that setting.  With the exception of HOW our provider communicates with us and the lack of tact in some of her statements, she loves him so much and is really trying hard to help him develop and enjoy his time in her daycare.  I am also pretty much adjusted to being back in the groove of work and being in that setting again.  I have been SOOOOOO busy at work I can barely keep up and as we speak I have 6 outstanding assessments that need to be done and I am booked with back to back clients for the next 3 weeks.  It is a blessing and a curse to be so busy in my field.  

While being so busy and trying to keep up, it is with mixed emotions that I report Jack is 100% on formula as we complete this month.  He is a tank, he is a pig, he loves him some grub and I can not keep up.  I starting supplementing with formula right at 4 months and at the completion of this month, my freezer stash was gone, my pump sessions yielded next to nothing and our nursing (for nutrition and milk) has come to an end.  I am enjoying the new freedom and decrease in anxiety and "need to plan ahead-ness" that I used to have while full on nursing; however, I also sometimes feel like I failed my child knowing I COULD have done multiple different measures to try and strengthen my supply.  I know could have quit my job, I could have pumped 3x over night, I could have taken pills, ate more, drank more, slept less, pumped more, nursed more, ate oatmeal, overdosed on fenugreek, done cartwheels and painted my face purple but I didn't want to.  Adding an extra 5-6 months of breast milk knowing that Jack is about to start solids soon and seeing how healthy and fine Mia has turned out...I decided not to give a shit.  The hold up for me has been knowing that Jack will be our last child and that I will never again be able to experience the bond that is created through nursing again.  I know I'll have bonds with my kids in other ways, but the things was that Jack and I both loved this experience.  Ahhh bless...we had a good run Bud.  

Plus...he basically is chompin at the bit trying every day to get as many fingers/fists in his mouth as he can...I keep waiting for that 1st tooth. 

You kinda see this in the pic but a funny thing I have noticed with Jack lately is his intense eye contact...like almost a little stalker creepy-like :)  He is so curious of his world around him that he will just sit and stare at people even if he's doing his own thing...but it's cute nonetheless.  

Jack loves his baths now which makes everything more pleasant.  He has outgrown the sling type thing and basically outgrown the infant tub...but he looks too cute in it to stop using it just yet.  Plus, he can't sit up on his own yet to be in a real tub...so there's that too.

 Jack is still rockin the swaddle at night and doing quite well with it.  We have had to switch to the larger size of course, but he seems to stay still and sleep solid when we wrap him up tight and prevent the random flailing of arms that can occur.  Mia was swaddled until 6 months and I imagine Jack will be too....especially since this chill lump of a dude hasn't mastered the art of rolling over just yet.  Jack CAN roll over if he wants to and I have seen him do it on several occasions...he just doesn't AT ALL seem interested.  It's like...why would I roll over when I am fine just chillin right here?  I won't start worrying about his motor development too much until he decides not to walk until he's like 3 or something.

Another huge "groove" our family is getting in to is the fact that Nate is now finishing his 3rd month ( I think) of being self employed and working full time at home in our basement.  It has been a while since started his venture of "sticky" and switching it over to full time employment has been an adjustment...that has been extremely beneficial so far....thank GAWD!  Nate seems to bond more with Jack and the kids seem to like being around their dad more now that he has the freedom and space to do his current passion.  With that, we have not had a lot of time to upload and photo shop pictures...let alone take them.  Jack has come along with us for some fun family outings and cabin visits this past month, but we did not do a good job of documenting...our bad.  So the random segue I guess is that Fathers Day was fun as we went out of town to our neighbors cabin for the 3rd year in a row and Jack was able to enjoy some family time with us and with good friends.

 Jack and neighbor buddy Luke lounging in the shade while the older kids went bonkers.

There are so many pics from this weekend but we didn't take many...these few pics are thanks to our neighbor :)

Same old thing, different location :)

Luke and Jack: High on life.

This is the Fathers Day art project the kids made for Nate.  Jack looks so startled by the whole thing but damn that is cute! 

Well, Jack-a-boo, Buds, Bubbers...I am, as always, very excited to see what you have in store for us next month and beyond.  You have been such a chill and cuddle-bug baby and I am loving all the snuggles I can get.  Sleep tight, love you.

Jack: 4 Months

Ahhhhhhhhhh!  I am so happy and so cute! 

And I actually like my Bumbo now too!

Looking at the calendar this week, I was SHOCKED to actually realize that the month was basically done and we would soon be in June...seriously, where has this month gone?!  I think this month has gone by so quickly because this is my first full month back at work and adjusting to my new "normal"...and by normal, I mean organized chaos :)  I feel like I blink and my little newborn baby boy has grown up so much.  He's basically off to college.  I am not even sure what to write about because this month was such a quick blur.  Actually, now that I look back at my May calendar, I kind of get sad because the majority of it was spent at work or somehow otherwise away from Jack, snif snif.  My birthday was this month, two nights were spent brewing and bottling beer for the first time, mothers day was a date night kind of thing with Nate, each Thursday I have music class with Mia, we had an overnight wedding spent away from Jack and every Tuesday night I work late and sometimes dont get home until just after Jack goes down to bed....sad!  Well, before I get too upset about all the time spent away from Jack this past month, maybe I can show some pictures and talk about some "firsts" or new developments this month :)

For a week or two Jack now seems to prefer front facing holds in the Bjorn.  His head control is really good lately if he isn't tired and on this particular evening, he spent over an hour in this position as happy as can be observing just about everything that came in to view for him.

 This was another one of those group baby/kids pics while in Minnetonka visiting with good friends.  Jack was cooperative but preferred staring at the lamp instead of smiling and looking at the camera.

 Jack's first mother's day brunch with Nana Terese. Nate took the kids so I could have some alone, sleep in and relaxation time....yes please.  Not the best pic of the ladies but this post is about Jack so I figured I had to find a semi-good one of him first.

 GASP! "A baby sleeping on their stomach!!?? And are those BLANKETS in his crib?!!"  Jack does not sleep overnight on his tummy yet as he has not mastered the art of rolling over; however, there are moments I do allow him a "kitty nap", as Mia calls them, in this position when we are all home and close by.

 He finally likes his Bumbo!!! Yay!!!

Now that I think of it, Jack really hasn't done many "firsts" this month that I can pinpoint other than more smiling, more cooing, a bit of laughter, practice with rolling over and finally enjoying his Bumbo and baths :) ...oh wait, there is that one thing....get a load of this!

So...if you know me or have read some previous blog posts of mine, I have been somewhat obsessed with trying my hardest to "keep up" with Jack and pump or nurse to give him only breast milk for as long as I can.  Nursing has been nearly 100% awesome for us, we both enjoy it and it is just plain great.  Pumping...yeah, boring, annoying, pain in the butt but I was willing to do it to give him what he needs. I was only able to nurse and pump for Mia for 3 months as my supply QUICKLY plummeted once I returned to work and I basically gave up and did not want to deal with the stress or pressure I was putting on myself.  Since being back at work this time around, I also noticed a dip in supply and having to use a lot of freezer stash sooner than I wanted.  I COULD keep up with Jack but that would require me to pump 3x at work, once around 10pm before bed and wake myself up in the middle of the night to pump all the while not knowing when he would actually wake up and want to be fed.  I did this for a while and it got old and exhausting.  With a few drunk nights and our first overnight away from jack and being back at work, I was swiftly going through my freezer milk and knew I'd make it a total of 4 months exclusive breast milk, but also knew I'd be needing to supplement soon...most likely within days.  I shared this with our day care provider and she understood my goals, congratulated me "making it this far" and "trying so hard to keep up" and understood we'd most likely be adding formula pretty soon.  On Thursday, ONE DAY BEFORE Jack would turn 4 months old and I would reach my goal, I find out that our day care provider "just decided" to go ahead and add 1 oz of formula to all three of his bottles (3oz in total)....WITHOUT my consent, let alone knowledge of it.  Jigga what?!  I was so shocked that I really didn't even know what to say or how to react so I played it off and just went home.    After talking with my hubby and neighbor, I felt like I should really say something and address things.  It isn't exactly WHAT occurred that bothered me, it was more about HOW it was done.  My neighbor convinced me to say something and call her so I did...and left one of those long embarrassing messages where you get cut off...oh great, Molly you are so lame.  She ended up calling back and OMG I answered the phone.  Long story long, it ended well, she apologized a lot and said I was right and that I  should absolutely know what my kids are eating/drinking ahead of time and then she told me how her daughter chewed her out for a similar thing...again, little to do with the ACTUAL outcome but way more to do with the method in which is occurred.  I know that in the grand scheme of things, she had good intentions, wanted to make sure we/she exposed Jack to formula before just dropping him off and crossing our fingers and in the end, everything was just fine, he ate the bottles and no harm was done to my son; however, again, it was disappointing that she felt she could go ahead and make "first time" decisions about what my son was going to ingest and when and how much.  It would be totally different if he ran out of milk, she spilled it or she went through her back up freezer bottle...but she didn't.  Whew, all in all, everything worked out and I am still TOTALLY counting and claiming that he was nursed/pumped exclusively for 4 months.  Im not sure how it will all go down at this point, but I am continuing to nurse and just think that his bottles from now on will have 1-2oz of formula in them.

This might very well be my favorite picture of Jack to date.  I swear all I did was prop him up on the couch.  He was the one who placed his arms and I melt every time I see this pic.  He is so ready to be invited to the yacht club :)

That's all for now...not much else to report. Since I'm already a day late in posting this, I better just be done. Hopefully I'll have more fun pics, news, developments, etc of Jack for month 5 :)