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 :)