Little man is growing up. He woke up from his nap and entertained himself in his crib! First time ever. Although as I'm writing this he has started crying...


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Snuggling with mommy on a rainy day. And mommy is enjoying every minute of this very unproductive day!




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I took Jack to get his first shots today. We are splitting them up, so he only got one shot and then an oral medication. Thank God there was only one shot. He didn't handle it well.




Before the shot. He wore camo to make him tougher.

He was flirting with the nurse just laughing and smiling. And then she stuck him. He turned bright red and gave a huge silent scream which turned into a very vocal scream. Poor baby. I didn't cry though. No use in both of us crying.



We get to do it all over again in a month. Yipee.

He's back to being happy now for the time being.

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these will be Jack's toes in 20 years.  the picture is of my brother's feet.  jack's toes are the exact same as mine and my brother's toes which are exact replicas of my dad's. the turner gene for toes must be very strong!

Jack Thomas, you were 8 weeks old on January 16th. This time is flying by so fast.

Can't believe you are so big

Just taking in the outdoors

My smilin' Jack

Holding my head up and pouting.

Jack,

• you are growing into your clothes more and more. Some outfits are even *gasp* 3 months!
• you are getting better control over your body temperature, but still seem hot-natured.
• you started going on walks in the stroller. I push you and daddy walks Bailey and Scruff. Usually you sleep through the walks, but you were awake for the last one. 
• you are still loving the swaddle. 
• you still move constantly. Sucking on your pacifier is the only time that you are still. It helps to calm you I guess.
• you have started smiling and cooing at us. You will smile spontaneously when you see mom or dad and you especially love us to sing. daddy has a much better voice than mommy! Plus the songs he makes up are much cuter!
•  you are still in a newborn sized diaper and we are using cloth diapers when we are at home. 
• mommy had to take you to the doctor because you began screaming all the time again and would not sleep. Doctor C increased your Zantac to .75 ml and we started rice cereal in your bottles. The difference is amazing! You have pretty much stopped spitting up and are overall a much happier baby now. 
• you are so much more alert now and always want to be able to see what is going on around you.
• you are eating 4 ounces every four hours. we are trying to work up to five ounces.
• you are very happy to see your daddy when he comes home from work. it's adorable!
• your favorite sound on your sound machine is the rain. it makes you fall asleep very fast.
• you can hold your head up now and sit up without falling over if you have something to lean against.

You are growing like a weed, little man! we love you more than we thought possible!

For the first time, Jack just took his pacifier out of his mouth and dropped it on the ground. Not the usual "I'm gonna swipe at my mouth until my pacifier flings across the room." He literally took his hand, grabbed his pacifier in it, moved his hand past my lap, and dropped the pacifier on the ground. I picked it up and put it right back in his mouth (yeah I didn't clean it, big deal. my floors are clean).  And of course, he's been sucking on it like there is no tomorrow. I thought we had a little more time before he started dropping things on purpose!

I just had this thought and had to write it down before I forgot. My memory is shot these days. I am finding lots of crafts I want to do with jack as he gets older. What I'm thinking to do is to print the directions out, buy the materials when they are on sale, and then somehow store them in an organized fashion. This way when we want to make one we already have the materials and don't have to go shopping for them.


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I promise we do dress our child. He would just much rather be in his diaper and a happy baby = a happy momma.

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This week for the first time, I feel like I finally have my feet under me in regards to being a mom. I can get peed on, pooped on, vomited on and not blink an eye. I can survive now on very little sleep. I am amazed at all the things I can do one-handed. Full blown screaming fits that include breath-holding and turning his face dark red don't even raise my heartbeat anymore. I can tell his different cries and what he wants. I know his favorite pacifier and when he is getting tired of doing something.

This is by far the hardest job I have ever had. Figuring out how to take care of a newborn, my husband, and myself all at once has been challenging. There have been and will be days when I can't figure out why God has trusted me with these amazing responsibilities. What he saw in me that thought "she can do this and do it right." I've always had trouble making decisions and now I have to make decisions that impact an innocent child's life. His LIFE. Thinking about that can be overwhelming if I let it.

I don't do a good job at it some days. I get frustrated with jack when he cries RIGHT when I start to do something. I silently and sometimes not so silently wonder why Neil can't see that something needs to be done or that I need help. Thankfully, those days are coming at me less and less. But it's hard...and fantastic all at the same time.

It's strange to think back before Jack was here. What did I do with myself? I feel empty and lazy if he's not around. You mean I can just sit and do nothing?? My mother-in-law kept him for us for a few hours one afternoon and I didn't know what to do with myself. I swear I kept hearing a baby whimper or cry. I would stop what I was doing to listen for it. Jack is so ingrained in everything I do now that I'm listening for him even when I know he's not there.

I can't even fathom him not being around. Him leaving for college is going to break me in two if going without him for a couple of hours was difficult. And let's not even think about me going back to work in 4 weeks...

I never thought I would be the mom who wants to smother her child by being with them 24/7 but I totally am. I need to work on that before he hates me and needs therapy for a co-dependent mother. :)

This is the time of my life!


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Neil and a friend of mine talked me into trying cloth diapers. A wonderful family member was generous enough to buy me some to see how i liked them. Success! They are great. A little more work for dirty diapers, but really easy compares to what I thought.

Jack used 134 cloth diapers in the past 30 days. Yes, I am keeping track!

Pampers Newborns with coupon and tax cost about $11 or $0.31 a diaper. We saved $41 over the past 30 days. I have 8 cloth diapers that cost $17 each. I have to use a total of 438 cloth diapers to break even. This will take approximately 4 months. After that, it's all money in the bank.

We only use the cloth around the house and use disposable when we are out and about. The cloth diapers have a cotten insert and an outside shell that you snap closed like the flaps of a regular diaper. They also have snaps that let you adjust for height and weight The stains come out and if they don't come out all the way by washing, you just lay them outside and the sun bleaches them out.

I would encourage you to do some research on cloth diapers. They are good for the environment (134 less diapers in the landfills) and for your wallet.




Jack in a cloth diaper at about 3-4 weeks old. It was WAY big on him at first but I started them at 3 weeks old and they say to start them later.

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Now that I've finished reading The Hunger Games trilogy (which is AWESOME by the way), I've decided that while Mr. Jack naps I'm going to tackle some crafts I've wanted to do.

Today's craft: a decorative tray for our big ottoman/coffee table. I just bought a brown textured tray at Hobby Lobby and fabric. I cut a piece of cardboard from a box leftover from Christmas to fit inside the tray. Then I taped (could have glued but I was lazy) the fabric around the cardboard and slipped it into the tray. Easy peasy and I got a custom tray that I can change the fabric on for approximately $11 dollars. Oh yeah, and I'll modge podge over the fabric to protect it but I don't have any right now.

The finished result:




Love it!

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Was so intensely working on swaddling my wiggle worm of a child that I swaddled his favorite pacifier in with him. And didn't notice until I frantically searched the entire living room then thought "surely I didn't swaddled it too..." Yep, I did.


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I took Jack to see his pediatrician, Dr. C, today because he has been screaming and not sleeping. First off, Jack has not gained as much weight as he wanted. Here we go again. Jack only gained 13 ounces in 20 days and babies his age should gain an ounce a day. He now weighs 8 pounds, 15 ounces and should weigh 9 pounds, 6 ounces.

Secondly, Jack spit up on the nurse an hour and a half after his last bottle. Dr. C believes there is some serious acid reflux going on. The Zantac was increased and we will be adding rice cereal to his bottles as well as going from 3 ounces to 4 ounces if he can keep enough down.

Dr. C gave me about 15 cans of powdered formula that had rice starch in it. Woo hoo! AND he didn't charge us for the visit. How sweet is that?! We love Dr. C right now!

Even though J feels bad, I still got this beautiful smile while waiting for the doctor to see us.







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Jack is 7 weeks old today and I just realized I have never truly written a one month post. We've been dealing with extreme fussiness, screaming, and overall lack of sleep around here so I hope you will forgive me!

Jack Thomas was 1 month old on December 19, 2011




Jack Thomas, you:

•  barely fit into any of your clothes. You don't wear them a lot anyway because you are hot-natured and sweat through your clothes most of the time. I cleared it with the doctor so all is good. 
• love to be swaddled. otherwise you go into melt-down mode which is zero fun for all of us. This is another reason why you don't wear clothes that often. 
• wear a newborn sized diaper. However, you wear cloth diapers around the house. There are so many people who think I will give this up. LOL we're gonna prove them wrong buddy!
• weigh 8 pounds, 2 ounces and in the 15th percentile. It's been a challenge getting you to gain weight! 
• are 21.25 inches long and in the 25th percentile. Your head is so little and in the 5th percentile. The doctor said not to worry because my head is tiny too. I confirmed with your Uncle Rob that he also has a small head. So you are normal. At least in our family. 
• were eating every two hours in an effort to get your weight up. We were going to the doctor every 3 days to check your weight. We have been given the green light to let you eat every 3 hours and you are eating 3 ounces of breastmilk each feeding.
• have been sleeping a lot because of jaundice, but are starting to be more alert which makes us so happy.
• like to be held all of the time. The doctor says it's because you were 4 weeks early and miss the comfort, warmth, and security of my womb. 
• do not like baths. at all. You scream your precious head off every time. 
• are a picture image of your daddy. At least to me. Although you do have my fingers and toes. I'll apologize now because of how long your toes are. People say your feet are big, but it's really because your toes are so long. Sorry! 
• started Zantac because of fussiness and spitting up. You get 0.25 ml in the morning and at night. You can thank your dad for that issue. 
• do not stop moving. Seriously. It's difficult to get a good picture of you because you are always moving your arms and legs. And you are always vocalizing when you are awake. I may have already diagnosed you with ADHD. Actually I did that while you were still in my stomach. The only time you were still and didn't kick me in the ribs was when I drank caffeine which has been shown to decrease hyperactivity in those with ADHD. Just saying.

We love you so much. To quote my dad and your Grandpa Jack, we love you "bigger than the whole world." It's true. We never knew we could feel this way about someone. It's been such an amazing month. I still can't believe you are ours.

And just because I find these last two pictures fantastically hilarious:

Is this not the saddest, most pitiful face? I was so busy taking pictures that I didn't notice he had spit up. Poor Jack.

The camera caught him right at the perfect moment. He does NOT like the flash. Obviously.