08.31.07 - One year ago

Exactly one year ago today was the beginning of my cycle that brought us Jackson! Jackson decided to celebrate his conception by sleeping almost nine hours straight last night! I really needed a full night's sleep myself, so I am ever so grateful to him. That's the second time this month that he's slept through the night, so hopefully it's the start of a trend. George and Carolyn came over to visit Jackson last night, but boy oh boy was he cranky! He pretty much screamed the whole time. I think he was just really tired. Tomorrow we're planning on doing a photo shoot since it's been six weeks. We want to have some nice pictures of him in his baptism outfit. My parents and grandparents are coming over to visit tomorrow afternoon. And then on Sunday is the baptism! We also decided to have a little get-together afterwards and supposedly if everyone shows up, it's going to be 19 people...20 including Jackson, so that should be a lot of fun. Hopefully Jackson will behave :).

08.27.07 - We have a big boy!

We've got a big boy on our hands...Jackson rolled over for the first time last night! He was asleep on his tummy in the crib and when I went to check on him I found him on his back completely against the side of the crib, sound asleep. He probably didn't have any idea what he did, but it still counts I guess :). I forgot to mention all the purging I did over the weekend. We packed up his bassinet and put that away, so no more sleeping in our room. I went through all his clothes and put away everything that doesn't fit him anymore. I can't believe he's already grown out of some of his clothes. It's mostly the newborn size and a couple of 0-3 months sizes. He's still in mostly 0-3 months, but is starting to be able to fit into some 3-6 months. Our boy is growing up so fast *tear* :(.

08.26.07 - No more restaurants!

I think we're going to steer clear of restaurants for a while. Jackson has acted up the last three times and today we just had to leave within seconds of sitting down at our table. Hopefully when he gets a little older and can entertain himself more, he'll be a little less fussy. We went to church this morning and he slept the entire time - so at least he was good then! It's a good thing we rescheduled the baptism because the church was packed. There would have been no room for our families. This evening, Adam gave Jackson a bath for the first time since he's been born. I kept telling him that he needs to do it in case I'm not home one evening or I'm sick or something, so I guess I finally convinced him. He did fine, of course. Luckily, Jackson loves the water, so it's never a big deal to bathe him anyway. After his bath he was really tired and fussy, but wouldn't go down to sleep, as usual. We were putting away our warm clothes that had just come out of the dryer and laid him down in a pile of them and he was out within a minute! It was so cute :). So maybe we just need to put his blanket in the dryer and wrap him up in that before bedtime now!

08.24.07 - We're Jacksonless

We're Jacksonless for the first time tonight. He's spending the night at Grandmama's and Grandpapa's. We went to Martinsburg for the day for Jackson's Great-Grammy's and great-great aunt Norma's birthday lunch. Jackson got to meet a lot of his family members for the first time - Uncle Doug, cousins Jefferson, Henderson, Dorothy, Mark, and Kate, and aunt Norma and Uncle Morehed. Jackson is not a restaurant baby! He was pretty fussy the whole time until he finally fell asleep. I'm uploading a video as I'm typing, so hopefully that'll be up by the time anyone reads this. Adam and I are enjoying a quiet, relaxing evening. We cooked dinner together and broke open our bottle of Bounty Rum we bought in St. Lucia years ago and made rum and cokes. Yummy! I'm sure we'll be picking up Jackson as early as possible tomorrow. I already miss him so much it hurts :(. Oh - and the baptism is now officially rescheduled to next Sunday, September 2nd...so anyone who is free, please come!

08.22.07 - Shopping

Jackson, his Grandmama, and I went shopping at Fair Oaks Mall for the day. He did well for the most part - got a little fussy at lunch (they actually almost kicked us out because he wouldn't stop crying!) and fussy towards the end of the day because he hadn't napped the whole time. He just refuses to nap if he's in a different environment. He made out like a bandit - got lots of clothes at Baby Gap (including a DIAPE(RED) onesie) and Children's Place and then I got him a pumpkin Halloween costume and a nightlight for his room at Pottery Barn Kids. It's a red pick-up truck, but it'll pass as a fire truck. He's actually been sleeping in his crib for the past week or so, so I really need a little light in there at night when I check on him or when he gets up to eat in the middle of the night. At lunch today, a little girl came up and stood at our table and said "excuse me...your baby is really cute." She was so cute herself! Jackson also flirted for a while with a saleslady at Victoria's Secret. Two months old and he's already trying to pick up women at lingerie stores!

08.21.07 - Baptism postponed

We're going to have to reschedule Jackson's baptism. Adam got a message from church today that there would be a total of 3 babies/3 families doing a baptism this Sunday. Call me selfish, but I don't want to have to share the baptism with two other families. It's too special of an occasion. We'd also have to fight for the front pews with the other families. I want to make sure everyone in our family will be able to see. Besides, my grandparents can't come this weekend anyway because Granddaddy hasn't been doing so well, but there's a chance he could make it if it were another date. So, as soon as we can get a hold of someone at church to reschedule, I'll let everyone know the new date. Hopefully it'll be soon...otherwise Jackson is going to outgrow his cute little outfit!

08.20.07 - the weekend

Jackson had another busy weekend. On Saturday, we went to Augusta, WV for my friend Teresa's daughter, Abbie's, first birthday party. Jackson got to meet a lot of babies - even another Jackson! Of course, our Jackson was the cutest one there :). Yesterday, we went to church in the morning and then over to Grandmama's and Grandpapa's for the rest of the day. Jackson got to see his newly painted room there. He was very impressed by how bright it was. We also went outside and played in the yard for a bit. Jackson even got to ride the doggy for a split second, haha. Alex is still freaked out by this little tiny person, but we finally managed to get both of them in a picture together.

 

08.17.07 - Who knew?

Who knew hands could be so fascinating? Jackson has spent a majority of the last two days just staring at his hands. He watches himself open and shut his fists and gets so excited. It's so funny just to sit and watch him do that. He's just now starting to grab for objects now too. He played with his rubber ducky in the bath last night and in the last couple of days has been reaching for his toys on his rainforest play mat. He really does do something new every day it seems. He's growing up so fast :(. However, he didn't match his eight hours of sleep from the other night. Last night he was up for about three hours in the middle of the night, wide awake...mostly staring at his hands, haha. I'm glad it's the weekend so Adam can take over for me tonight and tomorrow so I can get some much-needed rest. I've been awfully cranky and sleep-deprived myself. Tomorrow, Jackson is going to his first birthday party for Abbie's 1st birthday. That should be fun!

08.16.07 - 8 hours!

Jackson slept from 10:00 last night until 6:00 this morning! Eight hours straight! Oh boy was Mommy ever grateful to get a full night's sleep! Now he's got a lovely present in his diaper for me too :). What a good boy!

08.12.07 - Jackson's weekend

Jackson was very busy this weekend, as always. On Friday evening, we went over to Adam's parents' house for dinner and Jackson got to see his uncle Andrew for the first time since the day he was born. I think he's grown quite a bit since then - Jackson, not Andrew! He got his first boo-boo when he sneezed and hit his head on the table. He had a little red mark and bump, but it was gone the next morning. On Saturday, I spent my first day away from Jackson. I had terrible anxiety about it the night before and barely slept...silly me, but I knew it was going to be hard for me to be away from him for so long! He spent the day with Grandmama while Adam and I ran errands and got haircuts. Jackson did fine of course...me, not so much, but at least it'll be easier for the next time I have to leave him. Today, we went shopping at Target to stock up on baby food. I found a coupon online to save $1.00 on any two Gerber baby food products, which made some items only 2 cents!! We only spent $40 on almost $100 worth of baby food - stage 1, stage 2, stage 3, and rice cereal. It was so awesome, haha. The girl that rang us up thought we were nuts. I have more coupons though that expire on Wednesday, so we'll probably go back again before then. Now we're just spending the rest of the evening at home to unwind a bit. I uploaded a new video today also, so check that out. Jackson is quite the pianist.

08.10.07 - 2 months!

Happy 2 month birthday, Jackson! We're going over to Adam's parents' house tonight for dinner and to see Jackson's uncle Andrew who has been in Belize for the last two months. Jackson is in his crib right now watching his rainforest toy. One minute he's cooing and the next screaming, then back to cooing. Weird child, haha. I think he's recovered from the shots the other day, thankfully. He slept really well again last night, just getting up around his normal time of 2:30 to eat and then right back to sleep until 7:30 this morning. Not too shabby. He did go a stretch of 11:00 pm to 5:00 am the other night, which was wonderful!

08.09.07 - A fussy day

Jackson was a bit fussy on and off today...mostly when the Tylenol was wearing off. He slept really well last night though and the two of us took a three hour nap this afternoon, so that was a blessing. His temperature got as high as 99.9 last night, but today it's been much lower. No lumps or redness to the injection sites either, so that's good. At least we don't have to do this again for two more months!

08.08.07 - My poor baby!

Today was the dreaded shots day. It was so sad seeing him in pain like that. The rest of the doctor's visit went well though. He's up to 11 pounds, 8 ounces and is 23 inches long now. Growing like a weed! When it came time for the shots, I had to hold him down while the nurse gave him the injections in his thighs. He's got little bandaids on his legs now. He went to sleep as soon as we left the office and slept for a few hours while mom and I did some shopping and had lunch. When we got home, he was very cranky though - screaming and crying, poor thing. He's finally asleep again for the time being. I added a few pics of him from today to the gallery. He looks so miserable in them. Yesterday he had fun though! We drove to Arlington to Meaghin's apartment and then the three of us drove into Georgetown for lunch and some walking. We decided not to go to the zoo because it was just too hot for that. He was really good while we were out - slept for most of it. We'll have to do it again soon when it's not so hot out. I better go see if he's still sleeping away peacefully...

08.05.07 - Sick?

We've spent most of the day wondering whether or not Jackson was not feeling good. He was pretty stuffy this morning and sneezing a lot, so we thought maybe he was catching a cold. We had to do church because of our meeting afterwards, but he didn't even make it through the first hymn before he started getting fussy, so we spent the rest of the service downstairs in the social hall. He fell asleep downstairs and seemed to be doing okay. We spoke with the pastors about his baptism for a bit and then we came home. I took his temperature and it was 99.6, which supposedly is normal for an infant's rectal temperature. He did well for the rest of the day...just his usual evening fussiness, not anymore than usual. He didn't want to finish his bedtime bottle, but after I gave him some gas drops, he calmed down and drank the other half a little bit later. I took his temperature again after his bedtime bottle and it was down to 98.7, so he definitely doesn't have a fever. He's resting in our bed right now...trying not to fall asleep, haha. He's not a big fan of falling asleep. He fights it to the bitter end. We'll see how overnight and tomorrow goes.

08.03.07 - Jackson's week

Jackson had another busy week this week. On Tuesday, his daddy was off from work, so we all went to the grocery store. I used the Baby Bjorn carrier as opposed the car seat in the cart deal and that worked out really well. Jackson loves being carried around in the Baby Bjorn. He usually falls right asleep once he gets in, which was the case at the grocery store. On Wednesday, Jackson and I drove into town to meet my mom and her parents at Arby's for lunch. Nan-Nan and Pop-Pop were so excited to see their great-grandson again. Nan-Nan even walked him around Arby's and showed him off to strangers, haha. After lunch, mom and I rode in to Martinsburg so Jackson could visit with his other great-grandparents for the afternoon. Unfortunately, he was fussy for most of that visit, but I know Grammy and Granddaddy were happy to see him all the same. Yesterday afternoon we drove into town again to meet Adam's mom for lunch. So Jackson has had a lot of grandparent/great-grandparent action this week! Tomorrow we're heading over to my parents' house for a celebration (of Adam's new job) dinner...steaks on the grill. On Sunday, we have a sort of rehearsal with our pastors for Jackson's baptism later this month. Also, "uncle" Erick is coming over for dinner. We've decided not to have a get-together after the baptism now. We're really short on money this summer with Adam losing his job and such, so it's just not doable right now. We'll put all of our celebration efforts into Jackson's first birthday instead :). Next week, Jackson and I will be going to the zoo in DC with auntie Meaghin. He also has a pediatrician appointment on Wednesday for dreaded shots - 4 of them! My mom is going with me since Adam will be working and I'm pretty scared about watching my poor baby have to be stuck four times :(. I'm sure he'll be pretty fussy for the rest of the day and into the next.