week 12

here's what happened during week 11-12 (week 12) in ian's life. april 7-14.

ian is 12 weeks! still another week until he's 3 months old! i can't believe the time has gone by so fast!!!

the week started out pretty crazy. ian was having a hard time adjusting to life back in chicago. i thought he wouldn't notice the time change- but he did. he spent the majority of the week waking up during the 6 am hour local time (7 am in atlanta). i guess next time we go out of time zone we will stick with OUR time because i didn't think i'd ever get him back to sleeping until 7 or later. we did pretty good though b\c we managed to get him back to sleep every time w\o having to feed him- so he's now back on his regular schedule!

speaking of feeding- i've cut back feeding to 10 minutes per side, sometimes he goes more, but mostly he's at 10 minutes per side.

lots of new adventures this week!

1. sleeping in his own crib- i have started moving ian into his crib for naps. we're slowly working our way to sleeping there all the time, but we're not quite there. he's doing pretty good though- i think he'll only get better.

2. independent playtime- i've stopped hovering over ian while he has his playtime and letting him play on his own. this means i can fold laundry, start dinner, or take care of other things while he plays and i watch him. i think this will help when he gets older because he won't always have to have me or someone else around to play with. he doesn't seem to mind- he pretty much enjoys doing his own thing while playing anyway.

3. bumbo chair- we introduced the bumbo chair this week. ian can't quite hold himself up in it completely, but if we sit near him he does pretty well. he only seems to like sitting in there for about 5 minutes though.

4. we're back in the swaddle pod. ian was just moving around so much, and the pod seemed to be the only thing that calmed him down. he's doing a lot better with it this time around- sleeping through the night, instead of waking up in the middle of the night fussy.

ian just seems to be growing and changing so much. he's cooing more and more, even laughing a little. smiling like crazy, and discovering more and more while he's playing! i love it!

oh, we also went to chuck e. cheese this week for my niece's 11th birthday. man, that place is ridiculous, but i have a feeling we will be seeing more of it in the next decade. kids have no regard for babies, i'll say that much.

here are the pictures from this week (my favorite part)!

here's ian and me at chuck e. cheese... where a baby can be a baby

playing at grammie's house

last nhl regular season game. detroit red wings vs. chicago black hawks. go wings! we cheer against the home team. btw, aren't his eye lashes to DIE for!

week 6

wearing my sweet sweater suit


full of smiles

playing with my cousin, jason

and cousin, christian

meeting great-grandma priscilla for the first time!

Ian just turned 6 weeks old this week! I can't believe it's been 6 weeks already!! So here's what happened from week 5-6!

Ian discovered his hands this week, he keeps putting them in his mouth. We kept smelling this really weird smell that wasn't coming from his diaper- turns out it was Ian's hands- because he keeps putting them in his mouth- they smell like sour milk. Yuck.

I also learned a really awesome trick for getting Ian to nap. i started implementing it on monday, and it works like a charm- he's napping really well now. thanks to Chronicles of a Babywise Mom

Last weekend we took the 4 hour drive to ft. wayne, indiana- where dave's gma and most of his cousins live. so ian got to meet a lot of his family. we also had some newborn photos made- Dave's cousin and his wife have a photography business. he did really really well!

i had my post-partum appointment this week- it went really well. not as bad as i was expecting. i'm healed, and i'm back on the pill. boo, but it's better than being pregnant again so soon!! although Dave & figured out with our insurance debacle (see past posts if you don't know about that disaster) that if i had another baby THIS year, it would be FREE! i still have to go back again in may for my yearly exam, so i dodged that bullet for now. if i haven't said this before- i love my ob. maybe too much. she is pretty much the coolest chick ever, and i want her to be my friend. maybe i'm just lonely for friends up here, but if i were to ever hang out with her, it would be awesome. and possibly awkward.

so many exciting things have happened this week that i have lots to write about for next week! can't wait to share them all!!

Week 5

here i am with mommy. she feels like she looks like one of the girls on 16 and pregnant

here i am with daddy and his cool mug from uncle chris. very funny!

here i am smiling for my 1 month pictures that mommy & daddy took! isn't my sweater handsome?

We just wrapped up week 5, and things are pretty much still the same. Ian is currently screaming it out in his pack & play while i give him the 5 minutes of "calm down time" before i go reinsert the paci and we start this all over again. he's still having trouble with afternoon naps, so i am beginning to wonder if he's just a cat napper, or if this is just a phase. we'll see. but first, i must reinsert the paci because my dog is probably about to have a stroke. we didn't know this, but apparently he's the only one in this house who is allowed to cry...

ah, victory, but we'll see for how long. anyway, week 5. Ian becomes more and more alert as the days go by- all part of his not wanting to miss anything (i think he gets that from me). well, he was asleep, but dad came home and woke him up by clanging around. thanks dad.

also this week Ian has started to smile more often. i'm starting to think he actually may like the two of us! no laughs yet, but he's getting there as he smiles are bigger and more often!

Ian also turned a month old on Saturday, and came down with his first cold, courtesy of mommy (so much for those antibodies in breastmilk helping him to fight off colds)... that led Ian to his first time sleeping through the night! of course, it hasn't happened since then, but he has been putting up numbers of anywhere between 3-5 hours, which is really good. it means we've dropped at least 1 feeding at night, and we'll only be sleeping longer from there.

on tuesday, Ian had his 1 month check up. can i just say i'm good? i predicted Ian's weight exactly- 8 lbs, 4 oz. still a pretty small guy, but growing! 20.75 in. as well. 25% in each- so he's a well proportioned baby! next month we go for shots, but everything checked out! i knew it, he's perfect...

that pretty much leads us up to now- we're in the beginning of week 6. we'll see what it holds for us. mommy knows it holds her post-partum appointment, and she isn't looking forward to that, or being cleared to go back to work. darn you, America and your work-centric culture!

Letters to my son

dearest ian:

i promise if you would just take a nap you would feel better and there would be no reason to cry. believe me.

love always,

mommy

ps. it would help tremendously with my abilities to cook dinner.