Hi Ho, Hi Ho...

...it's back to work I go. 

In many ways, it seems as if there is just no way that 16 weeks have come and gone and that tomorrow is my first day back at work.  In other ways --- like seeing how much Jackson has grown in his 15 weeks and the fact that it feels like he's been a part of our lives forever --- it seems like I've been away from work for far longer than 16 weeks.

Corey will be watching J this week, followed by my dad next week and Joan the last two weeks of August, so knowing that my babe will be around family for the first month I'm back at work definitely helps me feel better about going back.  And by the time September 6 rolls around and he heads to daycare, I think I'll feel a bit better dropping him off on his first day, plus we really like where he'll be going (Young Child Academy).

I am sure tomorrow will be hard for me.  I will totally miss these cute chubby thighs and happy, little feet that never, ever stop moving:

And this adorable 'fro-hawk that earns J lots of compliments from the strangers and passersby we encounter daily:

But most of all, I'll miss this adorable face and happy smile that I normally get to enjoy all day, every day.

Honestly, the only things I'm looking forward to tomorrow are seeing my co-workers, who I've really missed, and getting to wear a new outfit, which isn't jeans and a t-shirt or the workout clothes I have been living in the last few months (my mom and I may have done a bit of shopping last week when she came to visit for a few days).  Hopefully the day will pass quickly so I can get back home to hang out with my two favorite boys!  (And I really hope I get through the day without doing any baby talk, making funny faces and noises to get someone to smile, or doing any raspberries on anyone's tummy.)

Seabrook with the Shawvers

On Friday, we packed up and headed  to Seabrook for the weekend. There, we met up with the Shawvers for a little beach getaway. Corey and I had been before - once with our friends, and once with our family - but we hadn't been in almost two years, and the Shawvers had never been, so we were looking forward to heading back.

The weather was amazing and the house we stayed in - Eleanor Cottage - was perfect. (Fun fact - it is owned by Kevin's old boss from his Starbucks days.) We had a great time relaxing and catching up with Kevin and Jen, and we loved being able to spend more time with their 4-month old, Addy. Though Addy and Jackson were on completely opposite nap schedules, and they didn't really acknowledge each other the few times they were awake together, it was still so much fun to have them both along with us. We are looking forward to seeing these two kiddos grow up together.

Here are a few photos Jen captured this weekend:

Jackson slept through his entire first trip to the beach.  We had to capture this photo to ensure that we have proof for when he's older that he was actually there.

Love this - it's one of our first family photos since the day he was born.

I just LOVE those lips of his. 

And here are a few photos Corey snapped while we were at Seabrook.  Others can be found here.

Jackson's been much more verbal and very into making faces; this captures one of these moments.

Finally able to snap a few photos when they were both up at one point; Addy wasn't so sure of Jackson and his cooties for some of the shots, but she put her feelings aside for the sake of a good photo opp.

The Shawver fam.

Group photo in front of Eleanor Cottage.

Three Amazing Years

Three years ago today, Corey and I were getting married at the Seawatch Restaurant overlooking the beautiful Wailea shore. During the ceremony, as I was reading C a note I written him, an obnoxious local drove by shouting "Don't do it!"

Three amazing years later, I'm so happy that we didn't listen to this local's advice - these have been the most wonderful three years...even better than I ever could have imagined. C is the most fabulous best friend, husband and daddy I could have ever asked for and I can't wait for many more happy years to come.

Happy anniversary, Corey - I love you!

Night Away from J

Last night marked the first night both Corey and I were away from Jackson and I'm thrilled to report that it went very well for all involved!

Our friends Matt and Christy were getting married at the amazing Seattle Tennis Club so we'd lined up my parents to watch J while we attended the wedding and reception. Then, a few weeks ago, we decided to take my parents up on a previous offer to watch him overnight so we could get a full nights sleep / sleep in. With our 3-year anniversary coming up this week, and no other plans to celebrate it, and our plans to be out late at the wedding anyway, we decided to get a hotel downtown (which actually turned out to be the hotel that many of the out-of-town wedding guests were in) to stay after wedding.

It was the first time we'd been away from J together and while I had complete confidence in my parents, I was concerned that J would give them a hard time. I'm so happy to say that he did GREAT and took several 2-hour naps, slept 9 hours overnight and gave them plenty of smiles to repay them for being such great babysitters.

In addition, he learned a few new tricks in the short 20-hours we were away from him - he can now hold his thighs up / pull his legs back when you change him as if he's trying to help keep his legs out of the way (he started to do this right before we left but improved while we were away), he grabbed his feet for the first time, and appeared to be trying to pull his feet up to his mouth. It's amazing how fast he changes and learns new things, which is even more evident when away from him for a night.

This morning, we couldn't wait to get home to see him, and Roxy as well, so after sleeping in until about 8 a.m. (that's "late" for us these days!), we grabbed a quick breakfast at 5-Spot and headed home to our little fam.

We had a wonderful time celebrating with Matt and Christy on such an amazing summer day, dancing the night away, hanging out with some of Matt's college friends after the wedding, and having the opportunity to spend some quality time together in honor of our upcoming 3-year anniversary. Thanks again to my parents for watching Jackson for us!

3 Months

Jackson is 3 months old today and I honestly have no idea where the last three months have gone. Seriously I've blinked and our babe has changed so much more than I could have imagined and with only two weeks left of maternity leave, I've been cherishing every second with him even more than before.

Here are some 3 month highlights:
- Slept through the night (i.e. 9-10.5 hours) three of the last five nights.
- Happiest in the morning (like mommy!) and is VERY talkative during this time.
- Weighs just over 16 lbs (nearly double the size he was when he was born!).
- Turns towards voices and noises and will sometimes turn towards you when you say his name.
- Tracks us and Roxy as we walk across a room.
- Neck strength improves almost daily and he needs much less support when sitting or being held.
- LOVES to "stand" (with our support, of course) - the proud face he makes when doing so is priceless.
- Also loves to look at himself in the mirror.
- While he still doesn't love tummy time, he doesn't mind it quite as much as before.
- Drools up a storm and chewing on his hands or our fingers whenever he can find them.
- Enjoys playing with the toys that hang from his bouncer - he tries SO hard to pull the handles on his own, which make a little birdie twirl around, and has been able to get the bird to spin several times on his own.
- Wears more and more of his 3-6 month clothes and has started to grow into his shoe collection (which is expanding rapidly, since he loves shoes as much as mommy and daddy).

Sleepy Head - Part 2

As I mentioned previously, we've been working to transition Jackson from his bouncer to his crib for naps and we've also been trying to help him give up his catnaps in favor of longer naps. I'm excited to say we've made HUGE progress on both fronts over the past few weeks.

For all three daytime naps, he's been in his crib for almost the last two weeks. The key was finding the right timing to put him down for a nap --- he needs to be drowsy but not too tired and thus too cranky. I also started a nap time routine so that he starts to understand when it's time to go to sleep. I swaddle him and then rock him for a few minutes until his eyes get nice and heavy. Then I drop him off in his crib and let him drift off to dreamland. So far, it's been working pretty well. We still put him in his swing or bouncer for his evening nap as that tends to be his more fussy time and when he seems the most tired and we want to ensure he gets some good napping in, which both of these guarantee.

As far as longer naps, he's had some FABULOUS naps the past three days and I really hope he keeps this up rather than going back to the 43-minute catnaps. Yes, I had them timed down to the minute - for nearly every nap over the last 3-4 weeks, he would wake up fussing or crying at 43ish minutes. Don't get me wrong - I wouldn't mind if he was a cat napper and woke up rested, but he was waking up clearly still tired and was fairly cranky.

After scouring the Internet and reading several sleep books to find a resolution, I learned that he was probably having trouble transitioning from one sleep cycle to the next during his naps. (Side note - they actually have a name for this napping issue --- the '45-minute intruder'.) I had no idea why, since he is able to put himself to sleep for naps and at bedtime (we try put him down drowsy but awake so that he knows that it's up to him to fall asleep) and obviously during the night when he wakes up since I'm assuming that when he sleeps 8-10 hours overnight, there have to be some wake-ups in there that we aren't even aware of.

Turns out it could be because he's overtired when he goes down for a nap, just a phase or there could be something distracting him from falling back asleep. Since I've played around with the times I put him down for a nap, I didn't think it was that he was overtired, and since it doesn't matter where he's sleeping, whether it's light or dark, etc, I didn't think it was from any specific distractions. So I figured it must just be a phase and based on what I read, it sounds like it's something most babies eventually outgrow. After trying some suggestions I read about - like trying to soothe him back to sleep as soon as he makes a peep at the 43-minute mark - he suddenly started sleeping much longer over the last three days and waking up less tired and fussy (and an added bonus is that I have been able to get more done)! I did have to occassionally help soothe him a bit if he woke up in the middle of the nap, but he went from getting about 3-4 hours of naps per day to 5-6.5 hours --- he's had several 2-hour naps, a few 1-hour naps and a couple 1.5-hour naps!

Yay for naps that help J wake up happy and yay for being a more productive mama! Fingers crossed he keeps it up!

Apparently the nap time routine works on Roxy, too...

Sleepy Head

Not sure if it's a fluke, but Jackson has slept well past his normal 4 a.m. rendezvous the last two nights! Yesterday, he woke up at 5:45 a.m. to eat, and then went back to sleep until 7:45 a.m. Today, he slept until 7:15 a.m. after going to bed at 9 p.m.! (Side note: He had a slight crying attack around 10:30 p.m. - do babies have bad dreams / nightmares? He woke up so suddenly and was crying so hard, it took us both bouncing him to calm him down before he could fall back asleep so I have no idea what else it could have been. This has never happened before - normally, once he's asleep for the night, we don't hear much from him until he's ready to eat.)

That means he went 11 hours between feedings and he got 10 hours of sleep - wow! I thought for sure he'd be up closer to 6 a.m., since, when I happened to wake up at that time, he'd make little sounds in his sleep every now and then as if he was about to wake up. And the best part is that instead of screaming when he woke up because he was hungry, he was babbling to himself --- that's a first, too!

Here's how we found him when we went to get him up. When I put him down last night, his head was under the mobile...

Fancy Footwork

In the last few weeks, Jackson's chubby thighs have been able to start bearing enough weight for him to "stand", which he loves. I think it's the change in scenery and a change from what his legs are normally doing (kicking nonstop). It's so cute --- he gets this look on his face like he is so proud of himself for tackling a new skill. And he loves standing in front of a mirror so he can look at the other cute baby who is also learning to stand.

He gets tired pretty quickly and his legs start wobbling, which makes it look like he's dancing. Corey and I find this very amusing.

Can't wait until he can stand on own - I'm sure he'll be very proud of himself then, too.

This is from the Fourth of July, which I think is one of the first few times he tested this out.

This video is from today.

My Point of View

In order to continue to help Jackson build his neck strength for sitting up, and later crawling, we've been doing lots of tummy time. He gets pretty angry when we put him flat on the floor on his tummy, so I've been finding other fun ways to get him on his tummy, like propping a pillow underneath him and then laying on the floor at his level with toys and lots of funny faces, putting him on my shins while laying on my back flying him around like an airplane, etc.

Today, we spent some time lounging on the couch and "talking" to each other (read cooing back and forth) and I happened to have my phone handy to capture some video when we decided to do some tummy time.

Not the best video, and not too much going on, but thought you'd like to see what tummy time looks like from my perspective and why I happen to love it so much.

A Day in the Life of Baby J - Part 2

I happened to come across my blog post from early last month with Jackson's schedule at that time and was shocked at how far he's come in just a few short weeks.

Here's a look at his current schedule:

6:45-7:15 a.m. - J wakes up, followed by first feeding, followed by wake time (he's typically up for 1-1.5 hours at a time), followed by a nap in his crib (he's currently struggling with catnaps - trying to figure out how we can extend them, as he's clearly tired when he wakes up after ~45 mins; however he will not go back to sleep, no matter what we do)

10:15 or 10:30 a.m. - Second feeding, followed by wake time or a walk with the BOB, followed by a nap

1:45ish p.m. - Third feeding, followed by wake time, followed by a nap

5ish p.m. - Forth feeding, followed by walking Roxy with J in the Bjorn, sometimes followed by a nap

8 p.m. - Bedtime routine (fifth feeding, PJs, book, swaddle, cuddle / rock / sing for a few mins)

4ish a.m. - Sixth feeding

As you can see, we've moved up J's bedtime - while it means less cuddle time with him at night (during which he was usually sleeping anyway), it's been great to have time to ourselves to get things done and get to bed a bit earlier for our beauty sleep. We've also started bedtime and naptime routines to help make putting him down to sleep easier so he knows what's coming and starts to get tired at those times. So far, since we started these about two weeks ago, it's been going really well.

We have been able to get him down in his crib for his first nap, but the subsequent naps have been harder as he's overtired after the cat naps and when he's overtired, it's hard to get him down to sleep anywhere we put him. But, we'll continue to try and he'll hopefully outgrow the catnaps at some point, as well.

It's been so nice now that he's been sleeping about 7-8 hours straight at night and it's been much easier to do more throughout the day (i.e. run errands, go on walks, etc), now that he's going longer between feedings and on a fairly predictable schedule each day.

Looking forward to seeing how his schedule changes over the next month and whether we see the same sort of drastic changes we saw over the last month - fingers crossed he'll be fully sleeping through the night! (A girl can dream, right?)