Four months old!

Our little angel has been with us for four months now! We love this boy so much. We love his sweet, pure spirit, and his precious innocence. It's not always easy, but we can't imagine life without Jamie!

Weight: 14.06 pounds (almost doubled birth weight)

Height: 24 1/2 inches (has gained 5 in)

Sleeps: 6-8 hours at night, wakes up for feeding and change, sleeps another 2-4 hours

Naptime: two hours after wakening in morning, and then whenever he feels like it.

Duration of nap: anywhere from 5 minutes to four hours, the stinker. :)

Bedtime: was about 8:30 for awhile, but now whenever he feels like it.

Eats: 5 oz every three hours except at night. No solid foods yet. Waiting until 6 months.

Likes: grabbing anything within reach of his hands, especially Mommy's hair and Daddy's chest hairs; putting things he grabs in his mouth; being sung to in a dramatic, operatic voice; looking at faces; people to say "wooooooo-EE!" going gradually higher in pitch; catching sight of his feet and studying them every morning; sleeping on Mommy's chest in the morning. (Refuses to sleep on Daddy's; just lifts head up and squirms.)


(All this is partly so I can remember it when I get around to filling out this part of Jamie's baby book, hence the ton of detail.)

He got his four-month shots today, and was such a trooper. He only cried for about five seconds and then just kind of complained. What a brave boy!

PURPOSE face lotion

I know this is kind of random, but every time I use it, I think, I love this stuff. I should tell everybody about it.

It was about $2.33 at Target if I remember correctly--that's what caught my eye first. It's Johnson & Johnson, it's SPF 15, fragrance free, won't clog pores, dermatologist recommended, all the good stuff. And did I mention it's under $3??

I use it morning and night. It doesn't feel heavy or greasy even though it has the sunscreen in it. Jason likes it, too, and he's not easy to please. The website I got the pic from seemed to have a lot of people who didn't like it, so maybe we're freaks, but what's the harm in trying when it's that cheap?

DID I MENTION IT WAS LESS THAN $3??

Another new blog

We've been trying to lighten our load and thereby trying to sell a few things. The way people do it around here is to make a blog with the items for sale, then post on BYU-I's online bulletin board, saying "here's what we have for sale, see our blog for pictures." Voila, new blog.

If anyone's interested (it's mostly DVDs right now, a few PS2 games will be added), it's noallstuffforsale.blogspot.com.

And if there's something on there that you gave me as a gift, please don't hate me!! :D

Check out the hair bows!

Some of you may have noticed the "Robin's Handmade Hair Bows" in my links list down there. Robin is a stay-at-home mom of three young kids, and they seem to have been given a lot of trials health-wise. She has started a website selling handmade hair bows for little girls at very reasonable prices to help their family financially. Her youngest son, who is a little over two years old, will be having tethered spinal cord surgery at the end of this month and some extra money would be very helpful for the cost of food at the hospital (for Robin and her husband), gas for driving back and forth from the hospital (I think it's a bit of a trip), flying the other two kids to Robins parents' place in CA, etc.

So let's get some cash flow going for a family in need! If you have a little girl or know anyone who does, I encourage you to check out Robin's website and give her some business if you can. It's http://robinleach.mybisi.com/. Also, if you could pass it on to friends, post it on your blog, whatever to spread the word, that would be great. Every little bit helps! Thanks!

Breastfeeding 101

This isn't a post about holds, letdown, milk supply, or what it might seem. It's a few things I've learned from my struggle with and recent decision to finally end breastfeeding. Be warned, it's a little long because I've tried to give even somewhat of an accurate picture of all I've been through and exactly how I feel, which is, of course, impossible.

Here's what I've learned in a nutshell:

Your nipples don't always "toughen up." Breastfeeding, for some women, is torture every 2-3 hours.
Breastfeeding may be cheaper than formula-feeding, but it is not necessarily easier.
You just may feel like the lowest form of life if you decide to feed your baby formula, and people's assumptions and careless comments about how much better breastfeeding is don't help.

If you are of the opinion that there is no excuse to not breast-feed, the next time you see a mother bottle-feeding her baby and are tempted to feel disapproving, please consider these points:

She may have been planning, ever since she planned on becoming a mother, to breast-feed. The thought may never have entered her mind that she wouldn't. She may have gone to WIC appointments where they pounded "breast is best" into her head in at least ten different ways (verbally, videos, handouts, posters around the office), and she agreed wholeheartedly. She may have bought nursing bras, pads, night clothes, shirts, etc. for nursing before her baby was born, read books multiple times, etc. so that she would be prepared. Then when her baby was born, maybe breastfeeding hurt--a lot. But maybe she figured it would pass, and everyone and their mom told her it would, so she kept going. But it might never have stopped hurting--it might have only gotten worse, no matter how many lactation specialists or breastfeeding peer counselors she got advice from. Every feeding might have hurt her worse than labor, and she could only get through them by squeezing her husband's hand and watching a movie for distraction.

Maybe this girl wouldn't give up, though. Maybe she tried pumping so that her baby would still get that precious breast milk. Only you're supposed to pump every three hours, so maybe she got even less sleep because she spent an hour getting up with the baby, then another hour pumping, and by that time the baby would be getting up in only another two hours, so she was falling apart from sleep deprivation. So maybe pumping didn't work great, either.

So this girl might have thought, well, a bottle of formula here and there wouldn't be bad. But then maybe her milk supply began to dwindle, so she tried to breast-feed the baby and pump. Maybe those feedings hurt all the more, but the girl felt so guilty at the idea of not breastfeeding that she lived in almost constant pain for three months, unable to give up the idea of having that special bond with her baby and giving him that perfect nutrition.

Maybe she has shed, literally, thousands of tears over breastfeeding. Maybe she wishes more than anything that she could, and maybe when she sees the sideways or even outright disapproving looks some women give her, she wonders all over again whether she's a good mother or not.

Maybe she used to feel a little disapproving toward bottle-feeding women herself (to her shame), until she learned for herself that there is no one right answer for everyone.

I could include so many other details and nuances, like wanting to feed the baby before church so she wouldn't have to make formula in the mother's lounge, worrying about the cost of formula, worrying about the idea of a natural disaster that might make formula unavailable, going back and forth literally multiple times a day about whether to quit, hoping that somehow it would be better with her next baby...

In other words, please remember (and I absolutely include myself in this plea--to myself, it's a stern order) that none of us, ever, know what another person feels or is going through, and we have absolutely no right to judge anyone but ourselves. Like how we all know that two parents are better than one, but not everyone has that luxury. Some mothers have to work outside of their homes--and they hate it. We try to do the best we can, but this is not an ideal world. Studies do show that breastfeeding is the most beneficial way to feed a baby, but it just may not always be a viable option. Thank goodness formula has come such a long way and is a perfectly acceptable second choice!

I hope that wasn't too self-righteous or offensive in any other way. I just really feel strongly about this after all the turmoil I've been through with it, and feel almost desperate for people to understand.

Video--actually rolling over (april '09)

Bonus points to anyone who can name the movie playing in the background! (Jamie was trying to look up to see it the first time he rolled over--taking his head back so far made him lose his balance :))

Video--fussing about rolling over

This one is kind of more for those who'd like to see Jamie in every way, not just the highlights, like family and close friends. Feel free to skip if you'd rather see more exciting stuff. :)

Happy Mother's Day!

This posted sideways again. Rrr. But this what my sweet husband presented me with for lunch today! I love chocolate-covered strawberries! He also gave me 6 red roses "from Jamie" last night :) that I got to arrange! I do miss working with flowers. (P.S. They never give you enough greenery when the flowers are wrapped instead of in a vase.) I would have included a pic, but quite honestly, I just don't feel like going upstairs to take a pic of them. Jason also got me Taco Bell (and a drink from Sonic, both my choice) for dinner last night after the baby was in bed. I like being spoiled. :)

Just hangin' out.

Another froggy towel pic. Can you tell I love these?

Starting a couple nights ago, we moved Jamie to "his" room, the second bedroom, and I miss him a little, but since we have the monitor, it's been fine. We can hang out in our room after he goes to sleep again, and I can put laundry away and stuff while he's napping. It's been nice.

He just doesn't want to sleep straight through--am I mistaken, or aren't they supposed to sleep like 12-14 hours without waking up by now? Or do they wake up briefly during that? Sometimes Jamie still wakes up multiple times, but always at least once after about 8. (Still MUCH better than the newborn stuff, but since he goes to bed early and we stay up a few hours afterward, sometimes he wakes up when we've only gotten 3-4 hours sleep. Oh well, work in progress.)

In the morning, Jamie usually wakes up and babbles for awhile. It's like he's excited to try out his new skill again, so he just hangs out and talks and we listen to him on the moniter. So cute. :)

I'm going to try to post a couple videos, but they take FOREVER and our dumb internet has been iffy, so it will definitely be a separate post.

Happy Mother's Day to all you moms and moms-t0-be (whether that be months or years from now)!

Moving yet again, but at least this time it's in the right direction.

After his bath this morning. Taken with my phone, so not so great quality, but seriously, how adorable can one baby be?!

We've now given notice on our place :( :( :( and our landlord said if she or we can find someone to move in sooner than thirty days, she'll pro-rate our rent and not hold us responsible for the whole month. So nice of her.

So we really are getting ready to move now...so to speak. We need to get on it, but our lives are so up in the air right now, I think it's hard to find motivation and energy. Poor Jason does not get to teach seminary, at least not right now, so it's off to CA to mooch off my parents and try to get Jason into grad school, and first get him job, an amazing score on the GRE and figure out what program he'll even want to apply to (i.e. figure out what he wants a career in). How long will it take to get in? What school will it be? How will we pay for it? Will we have to move hundreds of miles again, away from everyone we know?

Sigh.

And with all this on my mind, I get to start trying to sort through and pack up a houseful of stuff.

I HATE MOVING. And this will be the worst move yet, because all the other times, we've left big stuff behind, either in storage units or with friends. This time we have to rent a truck, or a pod, or I don't know, we haven't figured that out yet...not to mention that I'll probably have to bug poor Hayley (friend) a ton to watch Jamie while we pack, because he doesn't like not having the attention of a big person for long. And all the other complications our adorable baby presents...

I'm sorry. Don't mean to be such a downer. Time to focus on the positive.

1) Moving in with my parents may be a major downgrade in space, but it will be a heck of a lot cheaper (rent-free, etc.).
2) Built-in, willing, eager baby-sitter: my mom. Jason and I can go out together sometimes!!
3) Lol we'll have cable again. (We're going to have to be extremely careful not to become addicted.)
4) Being around family in general will be awesome, even if it's not permanent. (Who knows, maybe it will turn out to be.)
5) Sacramento is so much prettier than Rexburg. Much more greenery, tons of trees!
6) Hopefully, Crystal and maybe Christy and I are going to take a Wilton cake decorating class at Michael's during the summer. And, duh, I'll be near my friends again! That's a big yay! I can't wait to meet Elle (Sam's baby, who will be making her appearance Friday).
6) My brother just got his own apartment, so we'll be in his old room, but now that it's clear my parents will be getting new carpet for it and painting. So it will be a nice new, fresh room.

I'm kind of grasping at straws here. I'm immensely sad to leave our cozy, lowish-rent townhouse. It's funny, for years I've been dying to leave Rexburg (usually this vehemence comes out during particularly cold winter days and/or when I know I'm missing yet another family gathering in Sacramento), but I've been so sad about all the things we'll be leaving behind.

I'm so selfish to complain, though. We're so blessed that we have a place to go, that we're going to save so much money, and all those other good points. I do hope, though, that we can figure things out, get our own place, and not be tempted to mooch off my parents longer than necessary. I believe the Brethren (the leaders of my church) when they have said that young couples need a place of their own, so I just hope that we can get one before too many months pass even if it's a struggle, and that we'll be blessed.

Any and all prayers for Jason to be able to find a decent job soon after we get there so that we can get our own place would be greatly appreciated, as well as any tips anyone in the area might have on job leads. Thanks!





Oh, one more note: Jamie has been babbling, and it's the CUTEST darn thing ever. I got a couple videos and will try to post them soon.

New recipe blog is up and running

www.toogoodrecipes.blogspot.com

Still recruiting contributors! Leave a comment if interested!

Beware

So I just got an 877 call, answered it, and it was a guy from Living Scriptures "just calling to check on how you're enjoying those DVDs." He then tried to get me to order more products then and there and hung up rather quickly when I politely declined. I feel kinda bad now, taking their free products, so if you're going to order this, either plan on (1) ordering more, (2) feeling bad for saying no, or (3) not including your phone number!