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New photos in the gallery!

As you may have noticed, when two shutterbugs procreate, then seem to take a lot of photos. Jackson cannot complain someday there are no photos of him as a baby. I think we’re averaging about one photo every 5 seconds give or take.

We are, however, struggling to figure out how to post them in a way that makes sense. Fortunately, Mike has what I like to call ‘mad computer skills’ and can set up all sorts of fancy things when he has the time. We are going to try a new organizing system where we put up folders based on dates, so the new folder is called ‘Jackson week four through six’. We are then going to do some sort of searchable tag thingie on photos so you can see different types of photos, but I don’t want to give away the surprise (also, it’s really Mike who understands how it’s going to work).

We are also intending to have a folder titled “daily photos” which is currently under progress, again thanks to Mike and his mad skills. That folder, as the title suggests, will have ~ daily photos from my iPhone added to it. That way, if you want a daily photo fix of the boy, don’t worry, we’re here to help 🙂

Posted 17 October 2008 † kirsten § Uncategorized ‡ Comments (0) °

Extra extra extra: life is good, more smiling baby photos

So I was working on a 6-week update last week when it was week 6 (yeah, I know, I’m a stickler for time and date and keeping them real, what can I say) and then last week was kinda brutal so it didn’t end up happening. Mike was outta town, I was a temporary single mom which means that I was exhausted and back in raccoon phase. I had girlfriends come over every nite to help me out, which was indeed a God send, but it was still more work than I realized could be possible and it kicked my butt pretty severely.

But then- Ta Da – Mike came home and I’ve gotten more rest and we’re moving on. Well until next week when it happens again. Sigh.

But I digress. In terms of the boy- Jackson is a thing of wonder. He’s changing every day- not just physically where he’s starting to fatten up and who knew wrist fat could look so cute? – but also his personality and what he can do. He’s more alert, he can see farther, he’s making new sounds and new faces and he wants more entertainment. The last part can be a bit trying at times as it’s hard to deal with the non-verbal and the mostly non-communicative to ask them what it is they would like to do when they’re screaming and making it clear that what you’ve given them is NOT what they wanted to do, but we’re getting there.

Speaking of the new faces coming from the J-man, one of my favorites is the smiling. The boy smiles and smiles, more every day. In fact the other day he sat in his bouncy chair just grinning off into space, at dust molecules I guess (?) It was adorable. How adorable you ask? Well fortunately, I got some shots of his grinning tonite.

Enjoy!

Posted 15 October 2008 † kirsten § Uncategorized ‡ Comments (0) °

An exciting new first!

The boy smiled at me yesterday- on purpose! Fortunately I had my new iPhone so I got a blurry photo of it. YAY!

However, at the moment just to spite me he started crying so I must run.

Posted 07 October 2008 † kirsten § Jackson ‡ Comments (0) °

Curious minds want to know: what happened at the docs?

Why what good timing you have! We just got back and we have all the stats you could want and more!

Height: 22 inches = 55-60th % (born 20.5 inches)

Weight: 9 lbs 4 oz = 25th % (born 7 lbs 7 oz)

Head size: 38 1/2 cm = 55th % (born with head)

So this is good! I thought he might look long and skinny and apparently that thought was not inaccurate. I asked how they come up with the percentiles- is it based on birth weight or is it just all babies lumped in together. The doc told me it’s all babies lumped in together, so it’s not that surprising that he’s low on the weight side given that one of my former colleagues’ wife had a baby at 9 lbs 11 oz and that baby clearly had a slight head start on the whole ‘acquiring mass’ thing.

The doc was very happy with his growth and how he looked. She was very impressed with his concentration and the fact that he was very alert and looking around him the whole time. He’s been pretty alert from day one actually- the day he was born he spent a good 5 minutes staring at the long sleeve shirt covering his hand and trying to get it into his mouth. He never succeeded, but it was pretty amazing to watch his determination. It’s all so shocking too given how his father and I are both such unmotivated and unfocused slackers. Who would have guessed we would have laser focus child??? 🙂

I asked about his skin: the poor kid is riddled with baby acne and has skin peeling off of his whole head. He looks like he’s gone on too many benders while on a strictly fast food and beer diet. On the upside, he hasn’t told us we don’t understand him or demanded the car keys. In any case, it’s all part of cradle cap and is normal- even if it’s not so attractive. She said that we should wash his hair with Selsun Blue and for some reason that seems to help with the acne too.

Jackson also wanted to demonstrate his output skills at the docs- and impress he did! When we stripped him nekkied to weigh him, he peed all over the scale and his head- for the third time this week. After wiping him off the best we could with paper towels, he proceeded to spit-up all down my shirt as we carried him back to the examining room, and then all over the examining room table. Our doc prefers we hold the babies as she examines them as she finds they remain calmer and more in their ‘natural habitat’. While I held my little bundle of joy and she examined him, he let out two very large solid outputs that reverberated around the room and got an eyebrow raise from not only the doc, but the new physicians assistant she was training who was standing on the other side of the room. When the doc got to the question: is he having adequate pee and solid waste she said ‘well, I clearly don’t really need to ask that one’. That’s our boy: laser focus with high velocity expulsion from every orifice. Could a mother ask for more?

Posted 30 September 2008 † kirsten § Jackson ‡ Comments (0) °

What you’ve been waiting for: Week 4 review

Aha –

So we have made it to and now partially into week 4… and the crowd goes wild (well, in my head they do, and that’s good enough for me.)

It’s been an exciting week — Jackson is bigger every day, seems to be acquiring new skills AND Jackson had visits from both sets of grandparents – the Gravens and the Jaglos! Good times for everyone.

Highlights of the week in Jackson development land would be:

  • Jackson managed to pee on his own head not once, but twice this week! Let’s hear it for good aim and a steady stream little buddy. I was, um, fortunate enough to be present the first time – my mother was the winner of witnessing the second time. The ironic part of all of it was that he got upset that his face and hair were suddenly all wet and started screaming afterwards. It’s hard to know how to feel at that moment: part of you thinks “aww, poor little guy is upset,” and part of you thinks “Hey, he PEED on his own head. What does he expect, really?” In any case, he got his face and hair washed both times. The pediatrician had said we should bathe him a tad more – perhaps this is his way of making sure we do that.
  • Jackson managed to get the ‘other sort’ of output all over the far wall next to his changing table twice this week! How far is that you say? About 4 feet – over 3 times his own height!! WoooHooo! If it were an Olympic event, perhaps he would have gotten a medal. Mike was the parent who won the “guess who gets to experience this precious moment” prize on both occasions. While our pediatrician didn’t say anything about about washing the far wall more frequently, it too has seen an increase in baths.
  • Jackson has completely started expressing his inner snuggle self. He loves to fall asleep in the arms of anyone willing to hold him long enough for him to fall asleep and stay there for as long as the person can maintain active muscle fibers while holding a burning hot baby. If you put him down, he shows his displeasure by screaming as though he’s being tortured by demons. In truth, it’s a very effective way of getting held for a loooooooong time, the kid may be onto something.
  • He is so warm, in fact, that we’ve decided that in order to reduce our carbon footprint we’ll just down the heat this winter and use him as a heat source. We can just carry him to whatever room we’re in and presto: instant room heater, and a snuggly one at that.
  • He also seems to have gotten noticeably taller and gained a significant amount of weight. How much you say? We don’t know, but we’re going in for his 1-month visit on Tuesday, and we can report back the stats then. You can be sure we will proudly mention how we’ve really increased the bath frequency, no need to mention the why.

Otherwise, it’s been a total blessing to have our parents visit. I had gotten exhausted to the point that the raccoons at the National Zoo were starting to hit on me, thinking I must be one of them with the dark circles under my eyes. Mike’s parents and my parents were able to go into ful-on Grandparent Mode and take Jackson for walks, give him cuddles, entertain him, show some love and change some diapers to give us a break. I am happy to say that I’m looking more human now, and I’m able to keep a thought for up to 5 minutes as opposed to the 30 second cycle I was on before. Bonus!

Posted 28 September 2008 † kirsten § Jackson ‡ Comments (2) ° Tagged:

3 week update

So today is the 3 week anniversary of bringing home our little bundle of joy/spit up demon – both are accurate nicknames, it just depends on what mood the boy is in.  Every day is an adventure- we have good days where he naps a lot and is a good mood and looks at books and is contented with the world, and then we have tough days where he doesn’t want to sleep and by late afternoon, his arms and legs are like airplanes spinning around and he gets frustrated and agitated that the limbs that are attached to him are out of control and he starts screaming and so it goes. We never know what type of day we’re going to get- I’m sure he doesn’t know what type of day he’s going to have either, it’s an organic unfolding of either bliss or something far from pleasant.

This whole experience of becoming a parent has been very humbling. People always say that new babies are hard and exhausting, and I believed them, just like I believe people when they say that it hurts to break a bone or it sucks to be fired. I’ve never personally experienced either, but it’s not a stretch to imagine that both would be awful and difficult and something I’d like to avoid. It’s not a stretch. But it’s one of those things that until you actually go through it, you can’t understand the extent to which it’s hard, and exhausting. And we have an easy kid and it’s still kicking my ass.

I have always admired and honored parents, and now, now I walk around the streets looking at how many adult people there are and I think ‘you, I don’t know you but you were a pain when you were a tiny baby and someone loved and nursed you through it even though they probably wanted to leave you on a corner with a ‘free’ sign’ but they didn’t. You should be thankful and amazed that you’re here. Now show some respect.’ But in a polite society pushing a baby carriage you can’t just go off on random people. Well I suppose you can but it’s not recommended.

Posted 18 September 2008 † kirsten § Uncategorized ‡ Comments (2) °

We do get to sleep occasionally

Jackson’s had a few days lately in which he made things a little tough on himself (and us) by fighting off the sleep. I’m pretty sure I know where he gets this from, and it’s not from the parent who can fall asleep in an airplane while it’s still taxiing. Nonetheless, we occasionally get the few moments’ nap (and he finally slept pretty well last night, once he fell off the sleep cliff.) Stock new-dad photo by Kirsten, using her new iPhone, tee hee.

Posted 18 September 2008 † mjg § Jackson ‡ Comments (0) °

14 days in and still ticking!


So, today is Jackson’s 2 week anniversary! I realize the phrase “2 week anniversary” makes me sound like an over-excited teenager with a new boyfriend “like oh my God, I know he loves me because today is our TWO WEEK anniversary,” but hey, I’m an over-excited, over-tired and overwhelmed new mom, so back to puberty it is. Plus, since he just had a bath, I’ve, like, seen him naked. Clearly this is serious.

Side bar on the adorable towel he’s in: our friend Julie just sent us 3 matching hoodie towels with ears that she made for the whole family. Jackson got to try his out for the first time today – bath day! In addition to his recent cute towel acquisition, he’s also starting to acquire smiling skills — mostly in his sleep and we realize more as a reflex than anything intentional — but it’s still super cute in our humble opinions and melts our overtired hearts. Unfortunately, it’s also super fleeting so we hadn’t been able to capture one on film… until today! With Mike’s excellent photography skills (and, let’s be honest, some serious luck) we got the ultimate cuteness of Jackson smiling and in his towel. Don’t deny yourself any longer, click on the link and check out the photos!

We’re hanging in here. Every day is a new adventure. We keep thinking “Aha, we’ve figured out the boy likes xx, or dislikes yy” and then the next time we try it, the polar opposite result. I guess when people have a point when they keep telling us that babies under 3 months don’t give consistent or accurate data, so don’t bother looking for patterns. Easier said than done when you’ve been trained to look for patterns. I love patterns, I thrive on patterns, hell I even quilt and use patterns. Alas, I’ve got to stop looking to my son to give me any. Well, that’s not entirely true — he is eating pretty consistently every 2-4 hrs, and he produces output pretty consistently on the same schedule. Oh, and he screams like he’s being murdered when you’re changing his diaper — face turns bright red and lip quivers and everything. Our little drama queen is really quite impressive and consistent. There, pattern! Whew.

On a completely different note: I’m blaming it on breastfeeding, but I’m totally addicted to the cupcakes at a new cupcake place in Dupont Circle called Hello Cupcake. Mike brought 4 home the other day as a surprise for me, and after cluing me in on the very dangerous information that the store existed (it just opened on Aug 25th) he then found out there were zero left when he went to eat one. I then went back with Jackson 2 days later and got 4 more. Fortunately for Mike, I cut them all in 1/2 so he could try them. Unfortunately for Mike, I managed to eat 6 of 8 halves, but I think it was a step in the right direction from the time before.

We went back again today — after I had a mini-tantrum over the paucity of cupcakes in our home and the fact that I need lots of extra calories since I’m breastfeeding our offspring after all — and got 4 more. I have not eaten any of them, and I’m intending to share, but time will tell. If there’s a pattern to be found, it’s not looking very pretty for Mike.

Posted 11 September 2008 † kirsten § Jackson ‡ Comments (1) °

More photos uploaded

I’ve put up photos from the hospital and from Jackson’s arrival home.

Posted 09 September 2008 † mjg § Jackson ‡ Comments (4) °

8 successful days and counting..

Well we’ve made it past 1 week and I’m calling it a massive success. I’m not saying that Mike or I look good at the moment – unless you have a penchant for people with bags under their eyes who can’t make coherent sentences, and hey, who am I to judge if you do – but we’re all still going and that’s good. Maybe not at energizer bunny speed, but banging that drum all day would be super annoying, so who needs that anyway?

During our extensive new reign as parents we’ve also learned some things about our kidlet and ourselves:

  1. We really like sleep. Like really really like sleep.
  2. Fortunately for Jackson, as much as we like sleep, we love him more, so we’re willing to get up to do that ‘feeding’ and ‘changing’ and ‘loving’ type stuff that babies require.
  3. Waking up- even if you don’t want to- and seeing a little squirmy bundle of a baby looking all cute smacking his lips and looking around bright eyed like ‘where’s the milk?’ makes it seem not quite so painful to drag yourself outta bed.
  4. A small baby has a hair trigger when it comes to output and can shoot said output – in either solid or liquid form- farther than his height.
  5. Fast reflexes are helpful when changing a baby for the above reasons.
  6. I can breastfeed in public at a restaurant, but it’s not the most comfortable thing. However, as an added bonus, the baby seems to like it if I jump up and down after feeding him to make my foot wake up after falling asleep due to feeding him in the pretzel-like form required to fit at the booth.
  7. I learned last nite that a bean burrito can not only make me gassy, but as an added bonus can also make my offspring gassy. Three cheers for Polish genes!
  8. Jackson is now above his birth weight! We went back to the Ped today and found out that he’s 7 lbs 8 oz (he was born at 7 lbs 7 oz) and she was very happy with his weight gain. Of course this is bearing in mind that this is a different scale so it could be plus or minus an oz or so, but still!
  9. Because he’s gained so much weight, she said we no longer have to wake him up to feed him every 2-3 hrs!!!!!! She said we can feed him when he cries- unless it’s longer than 4 hrs during the day and maybe up to 5 during the nite. Then we have to wake him up. This is a blessing, a true true blessing. Ah sleep faeries, how I have missed you so…
  10. I have a totally awesome husband who is also a totally awesome dad and it makes this whole procreating thing a much, much more rewarding and manageable experience.
Posted 05 September 2008 † kirsten § Jackson ‡ Comments (0) °