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!

All things Jackson...

There are so many cute and funny things that Jackson has done/said lately that I want to remember. You just never know what is going to come out of his mouth. And he is ALWAYS listening and repeating what he hears, so we have to be so careful. Here are some of the things that he has said lately. For most of these, I have no idea where he gets them from!

-When I ask him to do something, he has started saying "Aye aye, captain Mommy!"

-When Rhett starts crying in his swing, Jackson will walk up to him and pat him and say "Don't worry baby Rhett...Mommy will come and get you soon, I just know it!"

-Several times a day, he will say "Mommy/Daddy, you are my best friend!".  A few times he has gotten mad and said to me "No mommy you are NOT my best friend" :)

-When Justin tells him they are going to go outside together and play, Jackson gets really excited and says "YAY I am SO happy!" and jumps around the room.

-His new favorite movie is The Lion King and he loves to talk about animals and bugs. He goes through each one and asks me the same question for each. For example: "Mommy are sharks naughty or nice?", "Mommy, can we touch sharks?", "Mommy, can we eat Sharks?".

-Ever since he started watching the Lion King, he eats his fruit snacks off of the table without using his hands. He bends his head down like a lion and picks them off the table with his mouth. I have to keep explaining that we are humans, not animals and we use our hands and utensils to eat.

-He loves to pull his shirts over his head and make silly faces. He will do just about anything to get a laugh from me and Justin and he gets really tickled when we laugh at him.

-He is really getting into using adjectives. Some of his favorites "Daddy, this is AWESOME or AMAZING, or COOL!

-He has really begun singing more and will sing spontaneously on his own when he is playing independently. Some of his favorite songs at the moment: The Lion sleeps tonight, Hakuna Matata, Jesus loves me, The Bear Hunt song, Twinkle Twinkle little star, ABCs, Free Falling, Beautiful Life by Edwin McCain, and the Creature Report song from the Disney show "Octonots". Also, we listen to Sting radio on Pandora every morning while we eat breakfast. This kid can pick out a Sting song a mile away. He also is really good at picking out Bob Marley and Sarah McLachlan.

-He recites the Pledge of Allegiance and puts his hand over his heart.

-He is in love with kicking and throwing a ball. He keeps talking about wanting to play soccer.

-He is still crazy about all things cars and trains!

-He is really into dancing, wiggling, jumping, twisting, and stretching. He has learned a lot of these at school. It is adorable to watch!

-He can point out so many musical instruments. He knows drums, guitar, piano, tuba, trombone, trumpet, etc just to name a few. He also uses the terms adagio, moderato, allegro, and presto to describe speed. He learned this from watching the show "Little Einsteins" , which he loves. It is amazing how much he pays attention and then uses the words appropriately. They are such sponges at this age!

Now for some not so nice things he has picked up (no doubt from kids at school). Just keeping in real! I swear it drives me crazy when he comes home saying some things because we are so careful about what we say around him. Sometimes, we just have to ask him "WHO taught you this?"

"Mommy/Daddy, I am going to toot on your face". (Of course once Justin laughs at this, so Jackson thinks it is funny to say now! )

"Mommy/Daddy, I am going to kick your face" -This one makes me so mad. He gets in big trouble for saying this.

"Mommy can I drink your booby?" or "Mommy can I touch your boobies?" HAHA-this is of course due to his curiosity when Rhett is nursing.

"Mommy/Daddy, can we eat poop?" When he poops in his diaper, he will say "WHOA that is a BIG poopy! :)

Ahh, this boy keeps us on our toes!! He is just so precious to us and constantly amazes us with his humor, wit, sweetness, and intelligence. Also, his memory is just amazing. He doesn't forget a thing.

I am sure there is so much that I am leaving out, but these are just a few things that he has been doing/saying lately. I can't believe he will be 3 in August! We are having his party at the children's museum downtown this year.

This week is his last week of 2 year old preschool. He will continue to do the summer program at our church and vacation bible school this summer. He starts back to regular preschool in August and must be potty trained by then. So we are about to get REAL serious up in this house about using the potty! Here are several pictures/videos that I have taken over the last few months. I just love this child to pieces!

                                                           Singing "Jesus Loves Me"

Spelling his name and singing songs

This video is Jackson singing a variation of the Bear Hunt song. It is supposed to be "Two black furry ears, one black wet nose, two sharp pointy teeth"...but Jackson changed the lyrics to "one black wet fanny" It is so cute! We laugh at him every time!

Rhett-5 Weeks Old

and growing bigger every day! Rhett is really starting to fill out and we are starting to see more of his personality coming out. The big news for this week is that Rhett began smiling at us around 5 1/2 weeks!! We get lots of smiles now and he is cooing a lot as well. I will try and post a video. Please excuse my annoying voice in the background :)

Rhett has been a pretty happy guy for the last few weeks and it is wonderful. He is doing a great job sleeping. He goes down around 8:30 or 9 PM and wakes twice throughout the night to nurse, but then goes right back to sleep. He wakes up about the same time as Jackson does every morning, so they are on the same schedule, which is really convenient. I am getting decent sleep at night and then about an hour nap during the day. Rhett naps very well when he is all snuggled up against me, so it is nice to have that time with him while Jackson is in school.

One thing that remains the same is that Rhett is a temperamental little guy if he wakes up and is hungry. He will cry so hard that he turns almost purple and he gets SO worked up. He can be quite dramatic. As soon as I feed him, he is perfectly happy. He doesn't do this at night-only during the day when he wakes up in his carrier. He will be doing this cry that we call his "goat cry" which sounds just like a goat. It also almost sounds like he is laughing and Jackson has a perfect impression of it, which he will start doing. So then we have one baby crying hysterically and then the other is laughing and imitating him. Justin and I just look at each other and laugh..what else can you do amidst that chaos? :)

Other than that, things here are going quite well. We are having quite a time lately with Jackson misbehaving at times. We have noticed that it happens mostly when one of us is giving Rhett attention. It really seems to bother him when Justin is holding Rhett. Obviously he is having some jealousy issues, so we have really been trying to give Jackson some special attention. Still, he has been spending a lot of time in time out for smacking and not listening. We hate having to punish him, but we have to let him know that it is unacceptable to smack us when he gets put in time out or gets overly excited. Most of the time, he is just so sweet and loving to both us his baby brother that it melts your heart. I know it will get better with time. It is a big adjustment for him, coupled with the fact that he 2 1/2 years old and testing his limits.

We had Jackson and Rhett dedicated to the church on Mother's Day yesterday. Rhett was awake and peaceful for the whole thing. Jackson on the other hand was, well, a handful! I know it is a lot for a 2 1/2 year old to stand still in front of the whole congregation, but he was acting W-I-L-D and trying to run away, climb up the stairs, smacking Justin, and talking out loud. Despite our talking to him beforehand and bribing him to behave, it was just too much. And OF course we were the last to go (there were several families that participated) since our name falls at the end of the alphabet. I kinda wish we had done Jackson's dedication when he was younger and more manageable! :)  Still, despite its challenges, we had our sweet babies dedicated together and that was so special. Also, the preacher who married us retiring in June, so it was important that he was there during our boy's dedication. Our church presented each boy with their own bibles with their names on them and certificates of dedication. Someone there took pictures, so as soon as I get them I will post some.

Tomorrow I am going back to Dr. Geier for my 6 week post partum visit. We got her a thank you card and cookies and I am going to write her a really nice note thanking her for bringing our sweet boys safely into this world. I LOVE the fact that she delivered them both. Plus, she was so reassuring and accommodating with my craziness during both pregnancies because I worried every step of the way with both. You name it, and I worried about it. I am going to miss seeing her on a regular basis. She is such an awesome doctor!

I am going to be working on Rhett's 6 week post soon, but first I really want to write a special post about all of the sweet cute things Jackson has been doing. For all of our challenging times lately with him, there are a million more precious moments with him and I want to remember them all!!

Rhett is 1 month old!

Time is flying! Our sweet baby boy is now a whole month old! We took him in last Wednesday for his 1 month visit and he was:

10 lbs 12 oz! I am amazed at how fast he is gaining weight!
I looked back at Jackson's stats and Jackson was 10 lbs 12 oz at his TWO month visit. Wow-this explains why Rhett has been outgrowing many of Jackson's old clothes so fast. I can't believe how quickly Rhett is putting on weight. The pediatrician said he is doing perfectly and that he looks great.

We also had his umbilical cord taken off. The dr estimated that had we left it on, it would have taken about another 3 weeks to fall off on its own. I am glad we made the decision to have him take it off. Now I get to look at Rhett's perfect little innie belly button.

The dr checked him again for thrush and assured us once again that he most definitely does not have it. It  makes me mad that the original nurse practitioner misdiagnosed him. Grr! Other than that, he is thriving and doing well. We still have some times of fussiness, but overall he is a happy little guy. He just loves to nurse and be held ALL of the time. My back is hurting from carrying him/bouncing him all of the time. Justin's mom said that Justin was the same way when he was a baby.

Another thing Dr. Graham said is that if he hasn't gotten colic by now, that he won't, so it is nice not to have to worry about that. My heart goes out to parents who deal with that. There have been 2 nights where Rhett was inconsolable for about 30 minutes and it plain sucks to not be able to make it better!

I have been getting some smiles here and there, although I don't yet think they are for me. They usually are right before he falls asleep or has a dirty diaper. I can't wait until he smiles for us. He makes the sweetest little sounds and coos. He is definitely happiest in the mornings and is up like clockwork at 6:30 am every day.

Jackson continues to do well and help out with Rhett. I can tell Jackson gets annoyed sometimes when I have to pick Rhett up because he is crying. Jackson will often ask me to put "baby brother" down so that I can play with him. :) Overall Jackson is the sweetest big brother and he beams with pride when Justin and I make over what a great big brother he is. I am going to make a post soon about Jackson and all of the  fun things he has been saying lately that I don't want to forget. You never know what that one is going to say...he is such a sweet and funny child. I can't wait until he and Rhett can really interact with eachother.

It is amazing how fast 1 month has flown by. I have my 6 week pospartum check up next Tuesday. Then I will be halfway through my maternity leave. Boo. I am really enjoying spending time with my sweet boys! Happy 1 month Rhett!!

My grandad, James Derrick holding Rhett Derrick (on a side note, can I please get my grandad's tan? Although he spends a lot of time outside working in his garden, he is naturally really tan)

 Rhett and Great Grandma

 Looking alot like big brother here

 He has lost a bunch of his baby hair- He has a party in the back for sure!

 Jackson with Aunt Niecy

Rhett-3 Weeks

Playing catch up!

Week 3 was sort of a challenging week for us. Rhett was fussy and seemed uncomfortable for the early part of the week. Justin's mom came to stay with us during this week, which worked out perfectly and gave us a bit of a break. On Wednesday, we decided to take him in to the dr. because I heard a slight rattling in his throat in the mornings and I was worried that he had caught Jackson's cold. Jackson had gotten over his cold that he had the week Rhett was born and then once he started back preschool after spring break, he got all snotty again. Gotta love the preschool germs!! It was so easy to keep Jackson healthy until he started mother's morning out at 9 months old. We know it is inevitable that Rhett will get his first illness sooner than 9 months, but we are trying to prolong it as long as possible.

Justin's mom went with me to see Dr. Graham who we love! Dr. Graham listened to Rhett and checked his ears and nose, which were perfectly clear. Also, his o2 saturation was 100%, so that was great news. Dr. Graham suspects that the rattling is just a little post nasal drip that should go away on its own. It only happens in the 4:30 am-6:30 am window, and then he is clear the rest of the day. His nose is clear during this time, but I just hear a rattling in his throat. He can nurse just fine thankfully. I am glad that it is nothing serious and that he doesnt have a full blown cold or anything. Lord knows we are doing everything in our power to keep this boy healthy!

Also, Rhett still has his umbilical cord!! Jackson lost his at 8 days, but Rhett is hanging on for dear life-haha! Can you blame him? :) If it is still on at his 4 week visit, the dr. is going to take it off with a little silver nitrate. Hopfully it will come off before then.

Another weird thing-At Rhett's 2 week visit, we had to see the nurse practitioner, who I was not impressed with (she was really flighty). She said that Rhett had thrush because his tongue had some white on it. Justin and I did our research and were still not convinced that he had thrush. We finally decided to start him on a very mild medication, nystatin a few days after the appt just in case. It was just an oral swab of his mouth twice a day. Then at his 3 week visit with Dr. Graham, Dr. Graham said that Rhett most definitely did not have thrush. So needless to say, we stopped the meds and were happy to hear that.

Since our visit to the dr last Wednesday, Rhett's mood has improved considerably! No more excessive gassiness, and he has become a much happier baby. We finally started getting some 3-4 hour stretches of sleep...yeah! He is pretty consistent with his sleep schedule:
sleep 9pm-1 am, then nurse, sleep 1:20 am-4 am, nurse again, sleep 4:20-6:15 am, then wake up. Although he is up twice a night to eat, he goes right back to sleep, which is so nice!

We have been getting out with Rhett and he has been doing great! We went out to eat for the first time with him at the Glass Onion and even bought a bib from there to commemorate Rhett's first trip out (aside from the dr office visits). We have also gone out to eat at Sesame, and shopped at Target and Babies r us as a family of four. It is so nice to get out again among the living!

It has been wonderful to see our happy baby. And he is SO strong. He is holding his head up on his own all of the time. I hope the gassiness is behind us. I think my monster milk oversupply had a lot to do with it. It has leveled off now. I am going to start pumping soon so that we build up a good supply in the freezer. I should mention that he is a BIG boy! Here are his most recent stats. Keep in mind that during his fussy time in week 2-3, he was nursing 12 -14 times a day!

Hospital discharge: 7 lbs 2 oz
1 week visit (routine visit and really he was only 5 days old): 7 lbs 5 oz
2 week visit (visit for diaper rash): 8 lbs 11 oz
3 week visit (visit for rattling sound): 9 lbs 14 oz!!!!!! oink :)

Today he is 4 weeks old and we have our routine 1 month check up tomorrow. Can't wait to see how much he weighs. He has already outgrown clothes that Jackson was wearing at 2 months old!  His sweet personality continues to come out more and more every day and he loves to gaze up at Mommy and Daddy. He is cooing alot now and smiling in his sleep a good bit. He seems a little fiestier and more demanding at this age than Jackson was, especially when hes hungry.  He continues to LOVE his bathtime. He is such an angel!