Jack's 3 Month Photos

Here are some of our favorites:



He was a grumpy gus by the
end of the session.

April Updates

Updates from the past couple of weeks - we've been VERY busy lately.

• Jack:  
• He rolled!! It was during tummy time on April 2nd, I saw him on his side and then whoop!  He was on his back - he looked as surprised as we were! It was really cute.  Lately these days, he's been a real sweetie: he's been sleeping through the night, and smiling and cooing a lot.  We went for 3 month pictures April 12th. Jack has been a lot of fun.  I can tell that he is able to see further distances as he is very aware of the world around him; he is always looking around and he is awake more often.
• Physical Therapy - This Tuesday I took Jack to his first Physical Therapy appt as he was referred by his pediatrician at our last appt. At PT, they diagnosed him with Torticollis; basically his head is tilted.  There's many reasons this could have happened specifically to Jack: how he was positioned in the womb (he was a long baby) and how he was positioned in the birth canal - he was born kinda crooked.  What's important is that it is totally fixable.  He turns his head to the right, so five times a day we do PT exercises with him. He does NOT like them, but he's getting better at tolerating them (they do not hurt him is what the PT person said).  He has to go back to PT in 2 weeks - I'm hoping she sees an improvement with him.  If not, he may have to eventually wear a baby helmet :-( because the right side of his head is a little flat due to him turning his head to the right so much. The Physical Therapist said that it is really good that we are getting to him early and not at like 9 months. We're working on it and I feel confident that this will be corrected.
• House:  
• Painting -We closed last Wednesday.  We are very excited and can't wait to move in.  We went to Lowe's a few weekends ago and just walked around to determine what we need to purchase.  We have big plans for this house.  We are excited to personalize it to our needs and style. Last weekend we painted, and painted, and painted...  We had friends over on Saturday and we thought we could get it done in one day.  Well that was a crazy idea - we had no idea how long the process actually takes. So on Thursday and Friday night after work, Colin and I taped off all the areas we wanted to paint - that took forever because we have white molding around every edge of our house - which I do love. Saturday, friends came over and we got to work painting all the walls and edging everything.  We painted from about 10:30am - midnight.  There were a few rooms that we needed to paint twice, that we didn't expect but luckily we thought ahead and bought a few extra cans of untinted paint (Sherman Williams was having a 40% sale, and we didn't want to go back and buy the paint at full price - eek! $60!).  Without our friends' help this process would have taken WAY longer - so we are so grateful. On Sunday just Colin and I went back and painted til about 8pm at night. Now this week we are going back and touching up the walls (I want them to lookas perfect as possible).  Colin and I have the same attitude about home improvement - if you're going to do something, do it right.
• Our neighborhood - on Wednesday as soon as we closed, we went to the house.  About an hour after we were there, one of our neighbors (Fred) stopped by to welcome us to the neighborhood.  It was so nice of him.  Fred's a retired high school English teacher who has lived on our block for over 20 yrs. Fred gave us a quick synopsis of our other neighbors and told us how our neighborhood is a great one.  I definitely felt very welcome. On Saturday, two of our other neighbors stopped by and gave us a beautiful potted flower.  On Sunday while we were painting, we had all the windows open and it was wonderful to see the neighborhood environment.  It was like a movie - families taking walks down the middle of the road (there's not much traffic), kids playing outside, a family creating a easter egg hunt for their kids, birds chirping, dogs barking - you get the picture.  I loved the sounds of our neighborhood - I'm very excited about living here.
• The move - This has been the most organized move yet. I packed most of our items while I was on maternity leave which really helped keep us organized. Wednesday our cable and internet will be installed and Colin's new grill will be delivered. Friday - I'm taking off to pack up the items we currently use so that they will be ready to go. Saturday we hired movers to come and move our heavy furniture items (which includes them taking apart and putting back together our king size bed) and our dining room set, entertainment stand and other furniture will be delivered as well.  Saturday night -we will be sleeping in our new house for the first night!  We've been moving over items every night as well and slowly unpacking (our kitchen is unpacked).  We didn't want to unpack too much before painting.
• The New Job!
• I started back to work last Monday.  I really love my new job - it is the perfect position for me.  I get to organize things and be creative while still interacting with students. My boss is really awesome and we get along great. She also is a new Mom who's daughter just turned 1, so she understands the 'coming back to work after maternity leave' transition. This job is a great fit for me.
• Colin also got exciting news - he was offered a volunteer position in town due to his awesome creativity at work.  A woman he works with is now the Chair of Freedomfest which is Champaign-Urbana's huge festival for the 4th of July.  She offered him the position of PR for the festival.  Since PR is a natural skill of Colin's, he of course jumped at the chance.  He's got some awesome ideas already, so I'm excited to see what he'll do in this position.  Last night, he had his first planning meeting and it went very well. The Chair boasted about Colin, so he's got some high expectations - which I know he'll exceed.  This is a great way for him to get involved in the community and network.  
• The Blog
• I will definitely try and update it more often than I have - it's just been very, very busy for us these days!

Happy Easter from Jack!

Updates from the past few weeks

Updates from the past few weeks:

• Jack's 2 month appt:  He did really well! He got shots and he took them like a pro.  The Dr. said that he was doing very well and was impressed by his neck support.  She did refer us to a Physical Therapist due to Jack preferring to turn his head to the right so much.  She said that PT would basically just show us some exercises to use with Jack.  I talked to her about Jack's issues with reflux and she recommended that we switch from Enfamil Gentlease to Nutramigen (which is very pricey).  Basically the formula is hypoallergenic so it should help his tummy feel better.  So we started him on it a couple weeks ago and he seems to be doing better (although, for the price I would like for him to be doing amazing!).  His reflux is still present so we decided to begin adding rice cereal to his formula as of yesterday to thicken his formula and hold it in his tummy better.  So far so good! 
• Growth Spurt: A couple weekends ago, we were dressing Jack when we noticed that his clothes were getting a little too short so we got to go down to the outlet mall in Tuscola to visit Carters and Gap.  We found great deals and now Jack has an awesome new wardrobe! He's wearing 3-6 months and Carter's 6 months.  
• Sleeping: Since Jack was born we've tried several times to move Jack's Rock and Play (RnP) into our bedroom for him to sleep. Every time we did it, he would be calm for 5 minutes and then would scream - we would calm him down and then 5 minutes later, he would scream.  It was exhausting so we have been doing shifts sleeping in the recliner in the living room next to the RnP for 10 weeks.  Well on Friday we decided to try again. We have a bedtime routine: 30- 40 minutes of tummy time, bath time, bottle, 30 minutes upright (reflux), then we change and swaddle him.  We noticed that once we swaddle him he stays asleep for 6-7 hours (amazing!). Then at about 7 hours he starts to wake up for his bottle, so we feed him and then change and swaddle him again (about an hour) and he goes back to sleep for another 4 hours. So on Friday we gave him his bottle at 10pm, put him down to sleep in our room at 11pm and he slept!  He woke up at 5am for a bottle and then from 6-9am slept again.  This is life changing for us, because we actually got to sleep in the same bed together and get rest at the same time.  We thought that maybe it was just a fluke, but he's been great the past 4 nights.  We are very happy that he is doing well especially with me starting back to work in 2 weeks.
• House:  All is doing well on the house front. We had our inspection a couple weeks ago and everything came out good.  There are few things we are asking the sellers to fix (hopefully they agree), but the total cost should be less than $1000 to get everything fixed.  We have our paperwork complete and ready to go.  It's been extremely helpful that Colin works for a bank and works in the mortgage department so he understands the process and has plenty of resources to answer questions that we have.  During the week I've been working on packing up our apartment and purging items we don't need (such a wonderful feeling).  This past Saturday Colin and I got so much packing done! It feels good to try and be ahead of this process.  April is going to be a BUSY month:  I start my new job, Jack starts his in home daycare, Colin's half marathon, Jack's 3 month pictures, packing, painting, moving, etc.  So the more planning and packing I can get done now, the better.  Our original closing date is April 28th, but since the sellers no longer live there, Colin is working to get it moved up a week or two.  We would really like to get in there early so that we can paint (2 rooms - living room and extra bedroom) before we move the rest of our items in. So cross your fingers that we can get the closing date moved up, even just a few days! :-)

  

  Colin and Jack snuggling after a feeding