Playing with cousins

More playtime

Daddy's HOME!

He was only gone for 4 days for a business trip, but boy did we miss him! That is part of the reason Jackson's 9 month blog post took so long. It is exhausting working full time and taking care of baby full time. Justin does so much and is such a huge part of Jackson's life that we really feel the void when he isn't here. Jackson and I had fun together, though. We kept busy and even had a playdate with Jackson's buddies Brayden and Benjamin. They are both the little boys to two of my former coworkers. Here is a picture, although the boys look less than thrilled. I promise they had a good time though!! :)


Anyway, Justin said he had a talk with Jackson before he left for Michigan and told him that he needed to take care of mommy while daddy was gone since he would be the man of the house for 4 days. Jackson must have listened because he was a good boy for me. Still, it was SO nice to have Daddy slip in late last night and be there with us this morning. We sure did miss him!!

9 months!!

Ok, this is waaaay late, but here goes...

-Jackson is pulling up on everything!! He is not content to sit or crawl anymore. He will grab onto anything he can to stand up. This includes things that are not stable, which makes him wobble around/fall over. The good news is that he has finally mastered bending his knees to sit back down. Sometimes he lets go and is standing there all by himself. We replaced our coffee table which had very sharp edges with a leather storage ottoman, and he loves to pull up on it and bang his toys on it.


-It is a HUGE challenge to change his diapers/clothes now. That is because he twists and turns and flips and flops and lunges for anything that the can get his hands on. Wait, make that anything that he's not supposed to touch. He really wants to get his paws on the ear thermometer, bulb syringe, and toothpaste. We have to be really careful because he would flip himself right off of his changing pad. Getting his pajamas on is such an ordeal these days. I dont know why he fights us so much. The other day when Justin picked him up from Mothers Morning out, he was just in his onesie (no pants). The teacher said he just wouldnt let her put them on! Silly boy!


-He is now eating the organic baby puffs-YAY!! HE is also eating cheese and yogurt strawberry bites. He seems to finally be over the gagging phase. This has made eating out at restaurants so much easier because we can give him little snacks to keep him occupied while we eat. His pincher grasp is getting really good, too! I think he feels like a big boy when he feeds himself.


-I know that I have said this before but he is so STRONG! He just loves to take his toys and toss them. The bigger the better. The other day at his mothers morning out program the teacher said she just can't get over how strong he is and that she has only ever had one other baby in the program like that. She pointed to a big dinosaur toy that is meant for a child to sit and rock on and said that it is his favorite toy. I said "Oh does he sit and rock on it?" and she said "No, he lifts it up and tosses it on it's side". Oh goodness! And not only is he physically strong, but he has such a strong will and a stubborn streak. No doubt he gets that from his mommy! ;)

-Sleep is still inconsistent. Some nights he only gets up once, but some nights it is 2-3 times per night. Once in a blue moon, he sleeps the whole night without waking. I just can't pinpoint what makes the difference. Naptime has improved, though! We now get about 2-3 hours worth of naps now every day which is great!

-Jackson loves music. We stream Pandora through our TV every now and then and he gets a big smile on his face. We dance with him and sing to him and he is thoroughly entertained.

-We limit his exposure to TV, but we do let him watch the Mickey Mouse ClubHouse show in the morning. He LOVES that show and will sit still and watch it intently. When the songs come on he gets this HUGE smile on his face. I think there are trips to Disney World in this boy's future!

**Pictures are coming!! I will update this asap with lots of 9 month photos!

Vampire Baby's first trip to Atlanta

I hate that we have no pictures to post here! Jackson took his first trip to Atlanta last weekend. My best friend Meri lives there with her husband Matt and we have been planning to come for a long time. Also, one of my very dear friends Whitnei was having a baby shower, so I wanted to surprise her and make a weekend out of it. The trip up there was a bit of a challenge because little man was in some serious teething pain. I mean he was biting onto stuff and ripping it out of his mouth and also shoving his whole fist in his mouth. Poor guy was just so miserable. He usually sleeps so well in the car, but he woke up from his nap after 30 minutes...and he was not happy! We pulled over in Columbia and gave him some tylenol and I got in the backseat to entertain him. He did ok after about 40 minutes of fussing and he finally fell asleep a little while outside of ATL. He also started having some runny diapers and we stopped to change a blowout at the rest area. Once we got to Aunt Meri and Uncle Matt's house, all was well. It was GREAT to see my partner in crime and hang out with Meri. She was my maid of honor and college roommate and we lived together for a long time after college as well. We have had too many adventures to count and she is actually the one who introduced me to Justin. It was a big adjustment for me when I had to move away from Meri because she is my girl and a big source of peace/comfort to me. I guess a lot of that comes from living together for so long. I remember when Justin and I bought our house, the first night I just broke down crying and told Justin " I miss Meri!". Boo hoo! Ha!

Jackson warmed up quickly to Meri and we went out to dinner Friday night while Matt was on his way home from a business trip. That night when I went to put Jackson down to bed, he did something that I still haven't recovered fully from...He BIT me. Hard. While nursing. I don't know why-maybe teething? I jumped in shock and he pulled back and stared at me with this wild look in his eye. It was kinda dark in the room and I couldnt see any damage, so I let him try again and nurse, which he did and it was a little uncomfortable. By the next morning it was getting more and more painful to feed him. By that evening, it was excruciating!! I ended up having to start pumping on that side. After a day or two, 2 teeth marks emerged. It looks like I was bitten by a baby vampire! Since then, I have been alternating between pumping and letting him nurse, but after a few times of letting him nurse, the pain returns. It isn't infected, but I think that it is taking so long to heal because every time he eats it is like taking a step back. He has also tried biting the other side a few times, but nothing hard. I have been telling him NO! and I think he has gotten the message. If he keeps it up, he is going to wean himself sooner than planned. I can honestly say that mastitis has got NOTHING on the pain from a bite! I mean a few times the pain has been "grab onto the couch cushions and breathe through it" type pain. I had 8 months of blissful nursing with no problems and then BAM...two issues in the last month and a half-what's up with that!?

Anyway, on Saturday we went to breakfast with Meri and Matt and then they dropped me off at Whitnei's for her baby shower...which was great! Meri, Matt, Justin and Jackson went to a park and played where Meri joined the very elite and selective group of people that Jackson will let feed him his bottle! :) As for me, I definitely surprised Whitnei and it was WONDERFUL to see her and get to say hi to baby Austen before he is born. It was a great time and she looked wonderful! Her best friends did a great job throwing the shower and the games were a lot of fun! Also, Whitnei's nursery is absolutely beautiful. It makes me want to do more with Jackson's. I am SO excited for her and Damian and baby Austen who will be here very soon! When Justin picked me up, he brought Jackson in to say hello and I am so glad Jackson got to meet everyone. Love ya girl-you know I wouldn't have missed the shower for anything!

That night we grilled out with Meri and Matt and just had a relaxing evening. I love Meri's house. I got to fall asleep at night to the sound of the crickets and wind chimes. I even got serenaded by a rooster every morning, which was really cool! Sunday morning we left about noon and hit the open road. Jackson fell asleep 30 mins into the drive and slept for about 2 1/2 hours on the way home. We stopped for lunch and then he played in his carseat the rest of the way home...success. It was a great weekend spent with two of my favorite girls ever!

PS-Jackson's 9 month update coming soon...Just a little late!

New look!

Well the old blog design was a little long in the tooth, so I have updated it to something that we really love...the beach! I think the warm weather is here to stay-Yay! I realized that that the old blog design was both pink and blue because we did not yet know if we were having a boy/girl when I made it...seems like just yesterday! Thanks to everyone who has sent me their email address-I will be sure to add you and I appreciate you reading the blog and keeping up with us! I sometimes wonder if this stuff is interesting to anybody else but us :) I also got an email from a friend of a friend who said that reading my blog helped inspire her to breastfeed as long as she did...that was awesome and it made my day!!

I have been meaning to mention that Justin and I are on a new mission-we are pretty much eating only organic foods. Have you seen the movie/documentary Food, Inc. yet? If not, watch it and I promise you will never look at your food the same way again. It's all about the industrialization of food and it is heartbreaking, infuriating, etc. We had been slowly easing into buying more and more organic foods and phasing out the others, but after watching this we tossed almost everything in our fridge/pantry that is not organic. The funny thing is the day we watched the movie, we had already done our shopping and I was feeling bad that we spent DOUBLE our grocery bill that day than we used to. After we watched the movie we instantly felt better, though! It is definitely eye-opening!

We had a little neighborhood block party last weekend and it was a blast. We are lucky to be surrounded with great neighbors and we got to meet some others that we didn't already know. We had a huge spread of food and all the kiddies were having a blast. Jackson did great and even let a few of them hold him, all while giving out a lot of smiles. The nurse that delivered Jackson was there with her two little girls and she couldn't believe how big he is. None of the other neighbors could believe that Kathy just happened to end up being our labor and delivery nurse. We had not known each other until that day. And I think it is very safe to say that Kathy has seen me at my WORST! :) ha! It still makes me cringe to think about all that she has been there for and seen before and after I delivered Jackson...Yikes! Our pediatrician friend came down with his wife and new baby too. The weather was really nice and it was a fun evening. We really need to do this more often!

9 month Well Visit

Official Stats:

Height: 30 inches-90th percentile
Weight: 21 lbs-52nd percentile
Head Circ: 18 inches-57th percentile

Jackson did have to get his second round of the seasonal flu shot, but he did well with it. He even gave Dr. Baker and the staff some good smiles while we were there. We asked about the chunky food thing and he said to keep trying to introduce chunkier foods and If he gags alot, give it a week and try again. I hope he will get used to it soon. Dr. Baker said Jackson is doing great!

My 1st Mother's Day

Take 1-I love the way he is looking at the flowers!



Take 2!

My first official Mother's Day was wonderful. I still kinda feel like last Mother's day was really my first one since I had a living baby on the inside, but we will still call this one my official first. :)

My two boys spoiled me with a beautiful bouquet of flowers, cards, and a gift certificate for a (much needed) hour long massage. We began the day by going to Okra Grill in Mt. Pleasant for breakfast which was great! Then we went to Whole Foods and did our weekly grocery shopping as a family. After we got home, we just lounged around and Jackson snoozed. I also potted some flowers to brighted up our yard a bit. For dinner we drove downtown to Jestine's Kitchen for some good Southern cooking-my favorite ! I had a sugar cured Ham steak, fried okra, baked mac and cheese, red rice, and corn fritters. We ended the evening by driving down to the market and going to Kaminsky's for dessert. Justin and I split a Smores Cake and a Cherry Chocolate Chip cake...which were WONDERFUL! Jackson was flirting with the pretty waitress and showing off his clapping skills for her. Did I mention the weather was perfect that day? When we got home, there was a beautiful hanging basket of flowers on my porch from my neighbor and her 3 girls for me for my first Mother's Day...how sweet! They even hand made me cards which were the cutest. All in all, it was a great day to celebrate being a mom. It was also a great day to honor my own mom...she is the greatest and I am so lucky to be her daughter! Love you mom! We are going to get together this week to celebrate. I am also so thankful to have a wonderful mother-in-law as well!

Going Private

I've been thinking about making this blog private for awhile, and I think I am going to do it in a week or so. After seeing how much info is out there on a website called spokeo.com, I was reminded about just how easy it is to find people and personal info about them on the internet. By the way, if you havent been to that website, go and search for your own name, phone number and email address to see what all is there. Who knows what you can see if you pay for the extra info. Anyway, if you click on the "privacy" link at the bottom there are instructions on how to remove it. It's nothing that anybody who is internet savy can't already find on the internet, but it compiles it all in one place. Since I put so many photos and stories about Jackson, I would feel more comfortable making the blog private. Please send me your email address so that I can add you, and if I don't know you, let me know who you are. :) My email address is alainchas@yahoo.com.

Random Updates: Sleep and Mothers Morning out!

Jackson might have his first official cold. We still don't know for sure, but he has had a runny nose for almost a week now. Nothing too crazy, but enough that I have to suction his nose out at least once or twice a day. We had one bad night where I literally got 3 hours of sleep. It was last Friday night and he tossed and turned because he was so stuffed up and couldn't breathe out of his nose. Poor Justin gave up his spot in bed and slept on the couch so that Jackson could sprawl out with me. And Sprawl he did...we tried so many different sleep positions from one end of the bed to the other until we would find one that worked for awhile. The next morning Jackson was as fresh as a spring chicken while me and Justin were dragging along like an old and busted pair. He has seemed fine since then, but just has a slight runny nose. So maybe it is teething related, allergies, cold...I just don't know for sure but at least he is still his happy rambunctious self!

He has now been going to his Mother's Morning out program for over a week now and so far it seems to be going well! It is only for 2.5 hours a day, 3 days a week. He is slowly warming up to the teacher and he even smiled for her. He still won't take a bottle from her, but he's only there for such a short time that it really doesn't matter. Funny story: The second day I dropped him off and there were 2 other babies there, a boy and a girl. The boy is a year old and started walking recently so he was walking around. Jackson took one look at him and crawled over to where the boy was standing and pulled himself up on a storage bin to a standing position. Then he looked the boy right in the eye and gave him a look like "Look I can do that too!". Then Jackson let go of the bin and was just standing there on his own as if he was showing off. He quickly grabbed back on to the bin before he plopped down, but I just got a kick out of him acting like that. The teacher said that Jackson likes to play with the little girl there, except she has to watch them because they both try and grab onto each other's faces. They are about 3 days apart in age. He does cry as soon as he sees us when we pick him up, but I am encouraged by the fact that he seems to warm up to the teacher a little more every time he goes. Meanwhile I am able to get a TON more work done in the time that he is there. I do miss him while he's there and I find myself counting down the time until I can hold my sweet baby. I hope it continues to go well! p.s. Check out his cool backpack from Uncle Allen and Aunt Becca...we love it! And please excuse my raggy ponytail in the picture. I will by glad when my hair grows all the way back! Poor Justin looks kinda tired in his picture....Must be a morning he woke up early and let me sleep. This little man wear us out!

Sleep/Naptime continues to be a bit of an issue and I am totally to blame. Jackson was a great little sleeper until about 4 months when the nightwaking began. It would get better but then slowly start coming back. We tried letting him cry it out which helped for a while too. The thing is that it has come and gone, so I never know if it is coinciding with teething pain, gas, etc. So I never know if he is truly in pain or if he just wants to be held. Jackson has also been napping in his crib, but whereas we used to get 2 naps a day for an hour and a half each in the swing, we are now getting 2 naps a day for about 30 mins to an hour (although closer to 30 mins!). The swing spoiled us!! Getting him to sleep is another beast, though. That is because I STILL nurse him to sleep every night which works like a charm and I also do for many of his naps too. If he wont go to sleep for naptime I lay him in his crib and let him fuss for a bit before I get him and rock him to sleep. And I know these are the cardinal rules of what not to do when sleep training, but it works for us now until he is completely weaned. As for his teeth, we brush them with baby oragel toothpaste every morning and night (which he loves!) so that he doesnt get tooth decay from the milk/baby food sitting on there at night. Have I ever mentioned that Justin has never had a cavity and I have only had one tiny one? I hope this means that Jackson will be blessed with good teeth but you never know!

Anyway, naptime is what it is, but as far as sleeping through the night, we are still not completely back there. He will usually go a good 6 hour stretch and then he is fusses every 3 hours after that to eat. He never fully wakes up though. A typical night: 7:45/8 bedtime, 2/2:30 feeding, 5:30 feeding, wake up 6:30/7. Justin will usually get up with Jackson in the AM so that I can get an extra hour or so of sleep, which is so nice! What's weird is that some nights he will actually sleep the whole night, though. It is frustrating to me that the inconsistency is still going on at almost 9 months old, but I know it is in large part because I have let it be this way. So Justin and I have talked about doing the "cry it out" thing again, but after some thought we both agreed not to. What we do is working for us right now, so we are going to ride it out for a bit. Honestly, I think my body is really used to waking up and I have no trouble going right back to sleep after 10 mins or so of feeding him.

The thing is that I know this time with him is so precious and when I think about more of the "cry it out", its just not worth it. If life as we know it were to end tomorrow, I know I would regret letting him cry to learn to soothe himself so that I could get some extra sleep, but I would NEVER regret picking him up in my arms and comforting him. A weird thought, I know, but it was just a way for me to put it in perspective. I have wondered if maybe it is doing more damage than good to constantly comfort him when he cries in the middle of the night instead of letting him learn to self soothe...but honestly how could it ever be wrong for a mother to respond/comfort her baby? If anything, I hope it reassures him that me and Justin are always here. So that is where we are today with this. And I realize that it works for us right now because we have no other kids and flexible jobs, so I am in NO way saying that parents who do the cry it out method are wrong. I am learning more and more each day that every baby is so different and you do what works and is right for your own family. Now if this is still going on after a year old when he is weaned, check back with us...we may have changed our tune!! :)

Jackson's big boy 9 month appt is next Tues and we can't wait to see how much he's grown! We also need to talk to the pediatrician about the whole table food/solid food deal. Our child absolutely HATES anything chunky and will gag profusely and refuse to eat it. Bread, bananas, stage 3 chunky baby food...nothing is working. He still loves his stage 2 baby food though. I really want to start giving him teething biscuits, puffs, small bites from our plates but he is having none of it. We found some really great organic snacks/food from Whole Foods (our new favorite place...we are buying about 80% of our groceries organic now!)Hopefully he will come around soon.

Fun in the crib