Catching Up...

Let's catch up after the big holiday weekend. So much has been happening in Jack's life since the last post. Dad only worked Monday and Tuesday and then had six days off over the Thanksgiving weekend. Let's look at the week that was.

Wednesday
Mom and dad took Jack to Target and we got all our holiday decorations in order. That afternoon dad decorated the outside of the house (man did the memories of decorating our house on Terra Bella come flying back standing on that ladder, putting hooks on the gutters). Meanwhile, mom started unpacking and putting things together inside the house. Soon enough we got the tree up and all decorated.

Thursday
Happy Thanksgiving! We all piled into the car and headed to Grand Rapids to hang out with Amy's family for Thanksgiving. We had a great meal at her aunt's house, and Jack got to hang out with his grandpa and gigi.

Jack got all dressed up for his first Thanksgiving.

He also got to meet Maverick, who was a bit jealous of all the attention Jack was getting.

Jack was awesome the whole day, never fussed with anyone who held him and then slept the whole way home.

Friday and Saturday
We headed back to Target to return some things and pick up some other things and finished up the decorating. Mom's friend Ronni came over to watch Alias, and dad went to Jesse's to play FIFA '07 on the 360.

Jack apparently had a difference of opinion with dad over the jacket he was trying to put on him.

And somehow, during the weekend, Jack seems to have joined a gang and is now proficient at flashing his "East Sideee" sign.

Here Jack looks pretty content taking his first real bath in the bathtub.

Sunday
Papa and grandma came over on their way to the airport (they're now in St. Thomas) and then Jack went to his friend Elle's birthday party.

Monday
Dad was off on Monday, too, and Jack had his latest doctor's appointment. He's now nine pounds 11 ounces and 22-plus inches long. Doctor said both numbers were better than he thought they would be, so we were happy to hear that. Mom was not, however, happy to hear that the next appointment meant shots.


So much has changed in just the time dad was home. I submit for your consideration:

• He now goes down for naps after feedings in his crib.
  
• He has smiled a couple times. Maybe not on purpose, but they were smiles.
• He takes a bottle now, and mom was happy to get more than three hours of sleep in a row for the first time.
  
• He went five hours between feedings for the first time, only once, but it was encouraging nonetheless.
• He seems to be going through a growth spurt, he's eating like a maniac the last three days.
  

In the next couple weeks, the doctor says we can look forward to:

• The number of poopy diapers steadily decreasing
• Him smiling on purpose
• His night-time sleep patterns getting longer

All good things.

Only 26 shopping days left until Christmas!

Big Weekend

Man, Jack was a traveling superstar this weekend. Actually, starting on Wednesday, he left the house every day through Sunday. Wednesday he went to church with mom, then to the dentist on Thursday. Friday he visited dad's work, where a world-record for the amount of people in an 8x8 cube was set.

But Saturday was the big day out.

It started with his first spectator sporting event, the finals of the church basketball league dad plays in. Dad's team, Milan Vineyard Church, was playing Ann Arbor Vineyard Church, a rivalry second only to the other big game on Saturday (sorry UM fans, I was actually pulling for them this game). Milan pulled through with a 10-point win after trailing by 14 in the first half. Jack was very excited (ok, he spent most of the game eating, but I could feel his support nonetheless).

We then took his biggest road-trip to date, heading out to Rochester Hills for a big family party.

He got to hang out with all his first-cousins, from left Jacob, Anna, Kyle and Matt.

Then he spent some time with the extended cousins, all 10 of them!

Papa played some patty-cake with him.

And finally spent some time with newly-born Riley.

It was a pretty busy day for him, but he did great. For some reason he didn't want to fall asleep in the car on the way home until we were 20 minutes into the ride, but he did fine after that. He must have been tired, because he went four-plus hours between feedings twice Saturday night.

Speaking of Saturday night, he got his first bottle from dad at 2:30 a.m. He took the entire two ounces in like 10 minutes, but that wasn't enough so mom still had to feed him a bit more. Ahh yes, like father like son, always hungry.

Sunday we went back to church, and he made it through the entire service this time. Then while dad was at Kroger after church, he returned an entire feeding on mom's lap. And her pants. And the chair cushion. And the ottoman. And the floor. And his blankets. And his outfit. And his face. Basically dad was the only thing to stay dry because I was in the frozen food aisle two miles away.

Good times indeed. Dad's looking forward to this week because he only has to work Monday and Tuesday and then he's off until the following Tuesday. I'm already sifting through my clothes to find the most forgiving waistband for Thanksgiving.

Finally you may have noticed a new author in recent days. Mom will be making regular appearances on the blog from now on. You can tell her posts by the lack of paragraphs, capital letters and punctuation (and she was the UM grad). Just kidding, we love mom!

jackson

jack and i are getting much more comfortable going places - wednesday we went to the new moms group at church - it was our first trip alone and he did GREAT - he slept the whole time! thursday we went to the orthodontist. we thought we should get jack started on braces right away (: actually i got my bottom braces put on and jack was very good while aunt carrie and grandma sandy watched him for me - lucky for me they work at the orthodontist (: jack did great even though it wasn't very fun for mama. here is jack before we went to visit daddy at work today - he did great again and he seemed to be a big hit with phil's coworkers.

the other day jack was so sleepy that it took both dad and mom to wake him up to eat (: jack didn't want dad to leave for work on thursday - so he was hanging on to his shirt. (:

friday jack had a visitor - his friend gabrielle came over to hang out - here they are just laying around....tomorrow we are going to watch the big basketball game between the ann arbor vineyard and the milan vineyard! jack is very excited (: go milan!!!!

jack's mama

hi everyone - i figured it was about time to make an appearance on jack's blog. wow, so much to say about being jack's mama, i suppose i'll keep all the really long rambling to my own blog (appropriately titled 'ramble') and say that being jack's mom is amazing - i just love him so so so much and he is so precious and this amazing gift from god....even though it is really hard and we are tired and sometimes nervous it is a really wonderful experience. i had a friend tell me to really cherish these newborn moments, even through the sleep deprivation and the craziness, and i am trying to do that. like when he cuddles up on me after eating and falls asleep making cute little noises, when he is eating and grabbing my finger with his little hands, when he makes all kinds of cute expressions and faces in his sleep, his little gasping noises, the way he is so strong and holds his little neck up for like 10 seconds and then smashes his face back against my shoulder....the face he makes when we are holding him up to burp, the way he stretches his whole little body out to wake up.....all his cute picture poses, outfits, hats, blankets, and baby things! even being up in the middle of the night - boiling pump parts, watching espn fishing channel and peeking at him every 2 seconds to see if he was ok - even that seems like a good memory...

i got out for the first time last week after being in the house for over 7 days with him, and it was crazy to realize that the world just keeps on turning even though we are here in the house wrapped up in this little bundle. we have been so blessed by everyone - people bringing us meals every other day through december, tons of friends and family stopping by to see jack, lots of calls, emails, flowers, gifts, and people running errands for us. grandma coming overnight a few times to give us a break, friends coming over just to let me sleep for a few hours or fold laundry or empty the dishwasher - we have been so amazingly blessed with everything in our life, and this baby experience is no exception. phil has been absolutely the most wonderful dad to jack and husband to me during this stressful time - he gets up with me almost every time at night, changes more diapers than i do, encourages me and prays for me and with me all the time - he is so in love with jack and i think we are making a pretty good parenting team so far - i am SOOOOOOOOOOO lucky to have him and so is jack!!!

what would a post from mama be without a few pictures???
phil and i laughed so hard when i put this hat on him - he is at a stage right now where none of his hats fit him! this hat was made by grandma lozen's friend jo - but it is still a little too big for him!
we put jack in his first pair of pants - he looked so cute!

jack had his second playdate with billy pipkorn today, and also met caitlin (his future wife) for the first time today! we knew it was love when caitlin picked up the xbox controller and turned it on all by herself - they were made for each other! pictures of her eating the controller forthcoming!!!! (:

one more little story - it is clear dad should do most of the posting since mama tends to go on and on and on - this morning before 8:00 am we had an emergency bath (due to a major bathroom accident which resulted in us having to pull the poopcovered onesie over his head for the first time), vaccumed the whole house (to keep jack occupied until we were done cleaning up, he loves the vacuum, he may look like phil but he loves vacuuming like me) and did a whole load of laundry- jack likes to make the mornings interesting and likes his daddy to be late for work!

Second doctor's visit part II

Forgot to mention a couple things about yesterday. After we left the doctor, we stopped by our friends the VanBemmelens so that Amy could nurse, then we had our first family outing! The three of us piled out of the family truckster and went to Target.

Jack's excitement was slightly muted (ok he slept through the entire trip) but trust me, he was pretty fired up. Especially when we went past the tools and the sporting goods. We were able to pick up some Christmas decorations (yes, it's that time whether you want to believe it or not) and some groceries before heading home. It was a big day for him!

Unfortunately, that big day may have taken a bit much out of him, as he didn't really seem to keen on sleeping last night. Most likely our fault for throwing off his feeding schedule to get him to the doctor on time.

However, big news again this morning. At 6:30 a.m. while I was changing his diaper, I noticed a bit of blood on his sleeper. We quickly determined it was from his cord, and a bit of research told us this was normal when it was getting ready to fall off.

Little did I know that meant in less than an hour. At about 7:30 when I was changing him again, I opened the sleeper and the cord was gone, we now have a cordless baby! This means his next bath will likely be a real bath and not on the kitchen counter.

He continues to change every day, I'm sure it will be no time before he's beating his old man in Madden on the 360.

Second doctor's visit

Quick update this time. Jack had his second doctor's appointment on Monday afternoon. A bit of history, he was 21 1/4" and 7 lbs. 12 oz. at birth, and 7 lbs 7 oz. at his first doctor's appointment.

We must be feeding him enough, because just two weeks after that first appointment, he's now 8 lbs. 8 oz. and 21 7/8" long, nearly 22". All else checked out very well, the little rash he had is clearing, his heartbeat is very strong, and doctor was very happy with all his results. God is indeed good.

Keep praying for Amy and nursing, she's getting more comfortable with it every day and we want that to continue. Also prayers for Jack's sleep at night are more than welcome.

Also, quick note to welcome Jack's cousin Riley to the world, born on Wednesday. Can't wait to have the two meet, congrats Rachel and Kevin!

Walks, naps and friends

Jack is now 2 1/2 weeks old, and he's been busy the last week or so. Grandma was here for another visit and her and mom took advantage of what was likely the last nice day of the year to take Jack's first walk.

We've been working on Jack's sleeping pattern. He's doing pretty good, going for at least four hours between feedings once a night for the last couple nights. That means mom can get an extended sleep at least once per night.

Dad went back to work for the full week last week, and mom did great at home with Jack. She had some visitors to help as well. We targeted Sunday as the family's first trip to church. And it worked... sort of.

We had a pretty good night of sleep. Jack ate a smaller than normal feeding at about 9 a.m., which would give us plenty of time to get to 10 a.m. service. Jack had other thoughts, however. At about 9:30 while he was in his swing, he spit up some of the smaller feeding. This likely meant he would be hungry again sooner than the normal three hours between feeding.

As a result of this spit-up, however, the swing and his outfit and much of the left side of his body were wet. That led to an unscheduled bath. We got that done and were off to church just a few minutes later than normal.

We got to church, enjoyed opening worship and announcements, and right about the same time Jesse started his sermon, Jack decided it was time to eat. And he was very adamant about it.

So we got to about 25 minutes of church. A good first step indeed and not too bad for our first outing outside of the doctor.

Speaking of, Jack's next appointment comes Monday. He's certainly growing, it's hard to tell but in the photo below he's wearing the Piston's outfit he wore home from the hospital, and he fills it out a heck of a lot better than he did just two weeks ago.

Jack was pretty awake while grandma changed his diaper.

Dad and Jack look pretty comfy taking a nap on the couch.

And also of note, the Lions are now 1-1 in Jack's life. So much for an undefeated lifetime of Lions football.

More visitors

Jack certainly has a lot of people who like to come visit him. Our neighbors Ross and Angela, Amy's friend Stephanie, Becky and Billy came for Jack's first play date, grandma came back, and Aunt Susan, Uncle Brian and cousins Anna and Kyle all stopped by on Wednesday night. Here's some photo highlights.

Jack has taken to enjoying some time on the floor on his blanket.

Cousin Anna liked Jack a lot, she thought at one point he might want a M&M. Maybe in a year or so.

Cousin Kyle wanted Jack to play some video game golf with us while he was here. Add yet another thing to the list.

Tummy Time

Amy's parents (from now on known to this blog as Grandpa and Gigi) came out Saturday for a visit. Jack really had a lot of fun with them.

While they were here, Jack had his first tummy time. We put him down on a blanket and let him roll around, move his head, and strengthen his neck (although trust me, he's pretty strong already). Within seconds of being on his tummy, he had completely turned his head from one side to the other. And the way his legs were moving, you'd have thought he was about to crawl right then. In other words, it was probably the best first tummy time in the history of the world, or something like that.

Check out Jack in his first tummy time. Just hit the play button on the lower left of the video player below. He may look unhappy in the video, but he really didn't mind it too much.

Time to head back to work

Amazingly, a week has gone by. We've learned so much about Jack in that time, and it seems every time he does something, we just stare at him amazed at how much we can love him. My friend John had a great way to describe our love for our children, saying "The way we feel about our kids is the closest thing on earth to describe how God feels about us."

Basically, when our kids hurt, so do we, when they do well, we swell with pride. The same can be said for God's feelings toward us as His children. Don't think John could be more right.

Now that the week is through, it means it's time for dad to go back to work. I'm NOT looking forward to having to leave him tomorrow. I'm going to miss him so much. No more afternoons spent doing this, at least until the weekends.

Just in case you were hoping for some new Jack pics, here you go (and really, who can have too many Jack pics?)

Happy Halloween!

Jack has taken to his swing pretty well.

And we've realized the ottoman is a good baby holder. Check out that nice, tight swaddle, way to go dad.