One Month - James

James you are one month old!

Eat

You nurse on demand which turns out to be about every 1-3 hours during the day and then you eat about 3 times during the night.  You are an EXCELLENT nurser.  We do give you one bottle a day to get you used to it, but I love nursing you so we can snuggle. 

Sleep

You wake up in the morning around 7:00ish and are usually up for an hour or two before you take your first nap.  I like for you to have about 3 good awake times during the day because I have found that helps you sleep better at night.  The best way for me to get you to nap during the day is to wear your in the baby bjorn or lay down next to you while you nurse.  We put you in your crib for the night around 8:30 and you usually give us a 4-5 hour stretch.  Then you're up every 3 hours or so during the night.

Sizes

You stopped fitting in your newborn clothes right around the time you turned one month old.  You are currently wearing 0-3 month onsies and some 3 month clothes that run small.  You are in size 1 diapers.

Stats

• Weight: 10 pounds, 10 ounces (74th percentile)
• Height: 22.75 inches (85th percentile)
• Head Circumference: 14.75 inches (39th percentile)

Likes

• Nursing
• Sleeping
• Looking at light (windows, lamps, etc.)
• Being held in the baby bjorn
• Walks in your stroller
• Car rides
• Watching the ceiling fan when it is spinning slowly

Dislikes

• Baths
• the process of being swaddled (but you like being swaddled once you have calmed down)
• being poked by your big brother

Firsts

• You smiled on purpose for the first time on September 18th (you were technically 1 month, 4 days old but close enough)
• Following objects/people with your eyes
• First time to the park (you slept the whole time)
• You have started losing your hair on the top of your head just like Evan did.  

Life with Two

James was only about 1 week old in this picture

Two children.

Four boys (including Matt and Joey).

One thousand diapers.

Not enough sleep.

Tons of love.

Evan has been asking to hold baby James ever few days

Our life lately has definitely been an adjustment.  A LOT has changed in just a very short amount of time.  Not only did we add another little one to the mix, but Matt started a new job, and I will be teaching a different grade when I return to work (this equals more work on my end).  

First visit with the doctor

Quality time!

Overall I'm happy to say that it has been a somewhat smooth transition.  I have to partly attribute that to the fact that we started sending Evan back to his babysitter about 2 weeks before James was born.  We wanted him to have a clear routine and not feel like he was going to the babysitter because the baby was around.  He returned to his babysitter 5 days after James was born.  I initially struggled with the thought of sending Evan to daycare while I was home on maternity leave, but I realize now that it was the best decision for our family.  It gives him time to be social with other children, and me time to love on this baby (and nap of course).  I was blessed with 4.5 months off with Evan and I will unfortunately only have 8 weeks off with James.  I want to be able to soak up this time with my littlest one as much as possible. 

A lot of people have asked how Evan is doing with this change in our family.  I'm happy to say that he hasn't regressed in any skills!  I hear that a lot of kids will regress when it comes to using the potty.  Lucky us because Evan is nowhere near ready to be potty trained so that means double the diapers and wipes (she says with sarcasm).  In all seriousness, he does become jealous at times (usually while I am nursing) and promptly tells me to put James in the swing.  I make sure to love on Evan as much as possible while James is sleeping.  He has become more cuddly in the past month and I'm going to count that as a win!

Joey: the protector

Love this kid!

Since Evan is gone during part of the day and James is sleeping a great deal, I have some free time on my hands.  What am I  doing you ask?  One word:  Pinterest.  I have never considered myself much of a cook, but I have been trying out new recipes left and right!  They are mostly low carb recipes (my diet of choice) and I'm enjoying it much more than I had anticipated.  I'm also going through each room of our house and purging unnecessary items and reorganizing things.  If you know me at all, you know I'm in heaven while I do this!  It's not every day that the house is quiet and you can organize a closet without a two year old asking to be picked up, have his boo boo kissed, or simultaneously terrorizing another part of the house.

I officially have only 3 full weeks left to enjoy my maternity leave.  That is 3 weeks to make new recipes, kiss my baby whenever I feel like it, and lose those last pesky pounds so I can fit into my work pants again.  Let's hope these are the three slowest weeks of my life!

 

James' Newborn Photos

I took James' newborn photos when he was 5 days old but I just got around to editing them.  He was super cooperative and was passed out the entire time while I was taking pictures.  He has already changed so much (he's one month old now) so I'm happy that I took these pictures!

Check out that sweet face!  I could just stare at him all day long.

I can already tell that he is going to have Matt's eyelashes...long and curly.  The girls will be swooning.

The green blanket is a very special family piece.  My grandma (hi Grandma Winston!) made it for Evan and I used it in his newborn photos as well.  It's ridiculously soft and I just love it so much.  I hope this blanket gets passed down through our family for years to come.

Those eyes!  They are still blue and we are crossing our fingers that they stay blue.  I know it's a long shot, but we would love for James to have blue eyes just like my mom.

Of course I cannot forget to add pictures of Evan!  We attempted to take a few sibling pictures, but big brother was a little hyper and uncooperative.  I'm pretty sure all he wanted to do was jump around and yell really loudly.  At least we got a super cute picture of just him.

I'll be back later this week with an update on how our family is doing and James' one month blog post!

James' Birth Story

It's been a verrrrrrrrrrrrrry long time since I have written a blog post.  I was going to give it up all together, but then I started looking back at Evan's monthly updates.  I reread every single one.  I had forgotten so much about each month!  I just loved looking back over it all (plus recording the information in his baby book because I hadn't touched his baby book in months).  I decided that I just HAD to record James' monthly update as well because I don't want to lose those memories.

So here I am!

James was a scheduled c-section due to the complications during Evan's delivery.  Matt and I both thought that the baby would make an earlier appearance than the scheduled date, but that wasn't the case.  Even though I was having contractions on and off for days prior to the c-section, we made it to Thursday, August 14th!

8 days to go!

8-13-14  Our last photo as a family of 3

We arrived at the hospital at 5:30am.  I was hooked up to an IV and monitors.  My nurse told me that I was having contractions and that if I did not have a c-section scheduled, I would have still been coming in that day!  James was coming, planned or not!

Waiting to go into the Operating Room

Matt was ready to go!

It was such a different experience this time around because instead of being wheeled into the operating room, I was able to walk myself in with Matt by my side and sit on the bed myself.  I had some trouble getting my spinal block because I was so nervous.  I wish Matt could have gotten the spinal block for me.  He's much better at those types of things.

After I finally calmed down, the c-section began!  After about 15 minutes, the nurses lowered the curtain and I was able to see them pull out James!  He was so BIG!  Evan was only 6 lb, 11 oz. so we were expecting another small baby.  

8:56 am  8 pounds, 2 ounces

Matt and the baby never left the same room as me.  We all went straight to recovery together for about 2 hours and then to our postpartum room.  Thankfully James latched on instantly and nursing was a BREEZE.  I was nervous because we struggled with Evan and it was rough.

The only issue I had was coming out of my anesthesia.  Right after they pulled James out, I became very sleepy.  I remember Matt brought James over and I was happy, but all I wanted to do was close my eyes.  I barely remember being in the recovery room.  Later on in the day I became very nauseas and even threw up several times.  The worst part?  I threw up in front of Evan when he came to visit.  Talk about not how I had imagined Evan seeing me after giving birth.  

The rest of the day is all fuzzy for me.  The shot they gave me to control my nausea made me very sleepy.  I basically slept, nursed, repeat.  I didn't even have the energy to call my best friends.  My mom and mother-in-law brought Evan by, but only for a little bit because I was not feeling well.  Evan was not very interested in James, he just wanted some love from his parents.

By midnight I felt back to normal.  Our family dropped by the next day with Evan and it went much better.  He was able to cuddle with me in the bed and he actually took interest in James.  By Sunday we were clawing at the walls to get out of the hospital.  

Evan's second time meeting James

Evan gave James kisses soon after this picture

We have transitioned pretty well so far.  I still have yet to really leave the house much (I like to stay put in my pajamas) and I have not even thought of tackling a public place with these two.  Maybe I'll get the courage once James is no longer nursing every hour! 

October in a Nutshell

I haven't been so great at blogging lately.  Instead of giving a list of excuses that aren't good excuses at all, I'll just give some highlights of our October.

Gaga (Grandma) came to visit for our first cold weather weekend.  We cooked, played, and went to the pumpkin patch!

Amongst many football games, band concerts, and Cowboys games, we found time for the State fair.  This was my first time ever attending and Evan's first time as well.

Evan rode one ride.  About 3/4 of the way through he was done and ready to be O-U-T.  At least he enjoyed himself for a little bit.

On Halloween Eve we finally decided to break out the pumpkins and get our carving on.  I wish I could say it was a success.  Instead we ended up with a toddler who wanted NOTHING to do with the pumpkin guts, and a mama who spent 30 minutes crafting an Elmo pumpkin that just fell apart.  Oh well.  You win some, you lose some.

Halloween night was a grand success.  Our good friends came over and the firefighter and princess had a blast!

Overall I'm going to call the month of October a success.  We definitely had our downs, but I am willing to say that our happy times made up for anything else we went through.  Thank goodness for good family and kind friends!