Rhett 11 Weeks and Jackson potty training!

At 11 weeks, Rhett is over 14 lbs. I weighed him on our scale, and it said he was well on his way to 14 1/2 lbs. I won't get a completely accurate weight until his 4 month visit, but he is fitting quite well in 6 month clothes. He wears 6 month pajamas too.

He is adjusting to sleeping in his pack n play. There were several nights where he was adjusting to the change and was waking earlier/more often than usual, but last night he was back to his normal waking once per night to nurse. He has been taking longer to get down at night, though. I have been holding him for about an hour before laying him down (from 8-9pm). If I lay him down any sooner, he wakes up. But I don't mind the extra snuggle time with my baby. I know how fast the newborn/infant stage goes, so I am treasuring our time together.

One new thing he has done this week is that he started to laugh. It is SO adorable. I was getting him undressed before his bath last night and he started giggling. It was the sweetest thing and sounded just like Jackson when he laughed as a baby. Rhett is such a smiley guy and continues to "talk" all of the time. He has really got something to say! I just wish I knew what it was! :)

He also rolls side to side all of the time. He loves to lay on his side and I am convinced he will learn to kick his leg over and roll in the next month or so. He still falls asleep during tummy time, so I still doubt he will be rolling from tummy to back any time soon.

Also, Justin gave him a bottle of pumped milk for the first time yesterday. It took a few minutes for Rhett to catch on, but once he did, he gobbled it up. That was a relief for me, because I start back working tomorrow. Boo! But at least I work from home most days and will be able to nurse him throughout the day. I am building up a great milk supply in the freezer for the days that I travel, though.

As for Jackson, he is almost potty trained!! We have been at it for 3 days and we have only had a few small (pee) accidents. He has gone #2 in the potty for two days in a row and is getting great at telling us when he needs to go potty. He is staying dry during naptime and last night he stayed completely dry overnight!! We are SO PROUD of our big boy. He is wearing his big boy underwear all day long now to school and at home. We still put a pull up on him at night just in case for now, though. He also continues to sleep through the night in his own bed and stay in his bed in the morning until we wake up..Woo hoo!

I need to do his 12 week update soon-I am a little behind. Rhett will be 12 weeks tomorrow! Time is flying.

Pictures from week 11:

This is why tummy time is still unproductive. He lifts his head perfectly when we hold him and he can sit in his Bumbo really well, but instead of lifting his head during tummy time, he passes out! :)

Rhett-10 Weeks and a few professional pics

Not much has changed since last week-Rhett continues to eat and sleep well. He is giving me a good 7 hour stretch at night and only wakes up once now to nurse around 3 AM. One thing he started doing this week is rolling completely onto his side from his back. He rolls on both sides and  I am just waiting for him to kick his little leg over and roll completely over. I checked the blog for when Jackson did this and Jackson rolled from his tummy to back at 14/15 weeks. Jackson didn't roll from his back to tummy until around 18 weeks or so. It seems these boys really are going to be very different, because Rhett has absolutely no interest in doing much during tummy time. He pretty much falls asleep every time I put him on his stomach and so I think it is safe to say that he will not be rolling from his tummy to back any time soon! It is so funny how different they have been in many ways!

We had our wedding photographer and friend, Kim, come to do some photos of Rhett and also a few family photos. We had these pictures done at exactly 10 weeks because that is when we had Jackson's baby photos taken as well. The weather was so overcast and cloudy (and extremely humid!), so we had limited places we could shoot. We took some family photos in our bedroom, which was the only place that had decent light at the time and also outside on the porch. Kim send just a few "teaser" shots to give us until she can get the rest to us. I am happy with them so far-I can't wait to see the rest!

Other than that, my maternity leave is winding down and I will be headed back to work in two weeks. It has gone by super fast and, although I love my job, I am dreading going back. We are starting our new fiscal year, so I will have lots to keep me busy when I start back.

Here are some photos of Rhett at 10 weeks!

Sleeping in his bassinet

 My little Buddha baby!

 Be still, my beating heart

 My precious big boy!

 Showing off the "glasses" he made at school and his party hat from his friends bday party

Photos by Kim Graham:



Rhett-9 Weeks Old and Jackson update

There's not too much new to report for week 9. Rhett continues to do well and is such a sweet boy. He seems like a really happy little guy and he is eating and sleeping well. He is starting to drool a lot and suck his fingers. I have also been increasing his tummy time now that he is getting bigger. The only problem is that he falls asleep every time. He tries to lift his head a few times and squirms around for a minute or two. Then he starts sucking his fingers and falls asleep!

I am slowly reintroducing different foods back into my diet. As I did with Jackson, I cut out basically any food from my diet when Rhett was born that might irritate him and I lived off of turkey sandwiches for awhile. I still don't eat anything that could make Rhett gassy (broccoli, onions, spicy food, etc) but I have been trying more and more things with success. Justin and I found these great organic pizzas by Annies at Whole Foods that I am loving right now. It is hard living off of bland food and turkey sandwiches at first, but I will take that over a fussy/colicky baby ANY day! The good news is that I only have 3.5 lbs of baby weight left to lose. The bad news is that I still CRAVE chocolate and desserts like nobody's business. That is fine and dandy now since I am breastfeeding, but I will have to cut that out as soon as I stop nursing or I will surely gain weight. Now if only I could find time to get to the gym...

On the Jackson front, I have been waiting A LONG time to be able to say this:

Jackson is sleeping in his bed ALL night long without waking up anymore!!! Also, when he wakes up in the morning, he will stay in his bed and play/sing until one of us comes to get him. This is WONDERFUL and a big deal for us. And it only took almost 3 years...ha! Justin's mom always said that Justin did not sleep through the night until he was 3, so we all know who Jackson gets it from! We are so proud of Jackson and now we are soon going to tackle the beast that is potty training. He goes at school (and stays completely dry there) and he goes at home some of the time, but he will wont go #2 in the potty. We are going to get this child potty trained before his 3rd birthday! My hope is that it will only take a day or so of hardcore training to get him fully potty trained. We'll see soon enough!

Here is Rhett at 9 weeks old:

Rhett's 2 month Dr visit and stats

Poor guy had his shots and did great until about 4 hours later. He woke up from his nap and screamed for 30 solid minutes. I almost started crying myself because he was in so much pain. We gave him some Tylenol and he went back to sleep. He woke up as happy as can be after that and had a great night. We went to a neighborhood cookout and he was so pleasant. Here are his official stats:

Height: 25 inches-97th percentile
Weight: 13.5 lbs-84th percentile
Head Circumference: 15 1/2 inches-33rd percentile

See, he really is a BIG boy!

8 Weeks

Tomorrow is Rhett's 2  month well visit. I can't wait to see how much he weighs and how tall he is. I am dreading the shots, though! Hopefully they won't bother him too much :(

He is such a little chunker at 8 weeks old! He looks as big as Jackson did at 16 weeks old and he is wearing the same clothes that Jackson did at twice his age. In fact, Rhett is beginning to bust out of his 3 month old stuff. He is starting to get some Michelin man rolls, which Jackson never got..haha!

Rhett transitioned well from his swaddle to a sleep sack, but he is still in his bassinet in the pack n play. He is so big that he feet are banging the end of it at night, so we will be taking the bassinet off soon.

I still can't believe how much Rhett coos and interacts with us. He will hold a full on "conversation" of back and forth cooing and smiles. He loves the attention. Also, diaper changes have become much more pleasant because now he loves to look up and smile at me the whole time. He is still a feisty, dramatic little  guy when he is angry, which continues to be rarely (thank God!). I wonder what that will translate to in the toddler years..yikes!

As far as sleep, he is doing great and still giving good 6 hour stretches or so at a time. He is definitely a noisy sleeper though-always grunting and kicking. During the days he is great at taking his nap when Jackson does, so that has been a nice little nap for me as well! Rhett definitely still wants to be held all the time during the day, but he will let me put him in his bouncy seat now. He is still pretty anti-swing, except for about 30 minutes or so in the morning.

His cradle cap is pretty bad right now, but it always looks so much better after a bath. We have pictures with Kim next week, so the plan is to do his bath right before so that it doesn't show up in the photos. I hope things go well when we have our photos taken and both boys are in good moods that day! :)

Here are some photos of Rhett at 8 Weeks:

Rhett-7 Weeks Old

Rhett continues to be so much fun and a happy little guy for the most part. We get so many smiles and coos and it just melts your heart. There is not really a whole lot new to report this week. He has gotten some cradle cap, which I hope goes away soon. We will be taking baby/family pictures in a few weeks, so I hope it is at least gone by then. It is not yet as bad as it was with Jackson. Rhett is also getting a lot of new hair growing in!

Justin's dad and step mom came to visit for a few days and it was wonderful to see them. They got to meet Rhett and as soon as Rhett saw Justin's dad, he gave him the biggest grin! We had a great visit with them and spent a fun day downtown where we walked around the market, had lunch, came home to nap, and then went to Folly Beach and had a nice dinner that evening. Both boys did great and really enjoyed spending time with them.

On a sad note, this past week we experienced another loss in the family. Justin's sweet grandmother passed away just 7 weeks after his grandfather died. We are so sad about this, but at the same time, thankful that she is at peace and that they are together again. Their 60th wedding anniversary would have been next month. That is just amazing! It doesn't seem fair that Jackson and Rhett have lost 3 of their wonderful great grandparents in just a 3 month time period. I hate that Rhett did not have the opportunity to meet any of them, but we will cherish the photos that we have of Jackson with each of them. I can't wait for when the boys get older to tell them all about their great grandparents. One day when I get some time I want to make a blog post that tells a little about the three of them that passed away and post some photos. Hopefully I will get to that soon.

Justin headed to Indiana for the funeral for a few days, so I had both boys by myself for the first time, which went well. I feel silly for ever thinking being by myself with 1 baby was overwhelming...2 is definitely a challenge, but we did great. Jackson really took it to heart when Justin told him to be good for me and to help me out. He was so sweet and insisted on helping me with each diaper change :) My mom came over one afternoon to visit for a couple of hours, which was great. Jackson was showing off an acting wild, but he was excited to see his "Mimi".

Here are some photos of week 7:

Buddha Baby!

 Meeting Papa for the first time

 Evening walk on the beach after dinner. Jackson was in heaven splashing around!

 Three generations

Mimi and Rhett

Rhett-6 weeks old

At 6 weeks, Rhett is a big boy! He weighs about 12 1/2 lbs now! I bet he will be a full 13 lbs by his 2 month visit. (A side note-Jackson was only 10 lbs 12 oz at his 2 month visit!) My back hurts from carrying Rhett around all day because he loves to be held and does not like to be put down. That means that most of the day I am holding him, nursing, or snuggling next to him for a nap. He will occasionally nap in his swing and he sleeps great in his car seat when we go out. One good thing about carrying him around all day (and breastfeeding constantly) is that I only have 5 lbs left to lose to get down to pre-pregnancy weight.

Rhett is a really happy guy these days and dare I say a really easy baby. He and Jackson both go to bed about 8:30 each night and both wake up at 6:30 AM. I am also able to get Rhett to nap when Jackson does about 90% of the time, so they are basically on the same schedule. This is wonderful!! Rhett is cooing and smiling all of the time; However-when he is mad, watch out!  The dramatics run deep in this one and he is loud when he is not happy! Usually this happens when he wakes up hungry and in his car seat. Thankfully this does not happen too often.

He goes back and forth between taking a pacifier, but for the most part, he is anti-pacifier. I hope he will take a bottle from Justin because I am going to start pumping tomorrow. Yee ha.


Rhett has pretty much outgrown his bassinet, so we are going to put him in his pack and play soon. Also, he is busting out of his swaddles. He is sleeping like a champ right now and giving me anywhere from 6-7 hour stretches at night now, so I wonder how that will change once I stop swaddling him.

It is challenging to keep up with the weekly blogs these days, but of course since I did it for Jackson, I want to do it for Rhett too! Anyway, I want to remember all of these precious moments with our boys!