Month Four

It's that time again! Or, actually, two weeks past that time. The bug had his 4 month birthday on September 10th and of course I'm just now getting around to posting his update.

Jaxon,

This month we've kind of settled into more of a routine. This was my first full month back at work and your first full month with your grandparents. Mimi and Papa keep you about 2/3 of the time and Gugu and Pop keep you the other 1/3. I want you to know how blessed you are that both sets of your grandparents are willing to do this. A lot of people (me included) don't get to know or have a good relationship with all of their grandparents, so I never want you to take the time you have with them for granted. They each have so much they can teach you and they love you so so much.

At your 4 month doctor visit you weighed 17 pounds, 13.5 ounces and you were 25 inches long. So, you grew an inch this last month but only gained about 10 ounces. You're definitely losing that little potbelly but you're still in the 95th percentile for weight. Dr. Wood said you're very muscular for a baby and he knew your daddy would be happy to hear that, which he was! We've been amazed by your strength since you were born. You were holding your head up and looking around the first day we met you! Daddy and I like to think you'll be an athlete like he is, but of course we'll let you pursue whatever interests you have even if they don't include sports. (And Mama would really appreciate it if you didn't particularly want to play football. That would make me sooo nervous.)

We were able to get you out of your first pair of orthopedic shoes this month. I was so ready to get them off of you, I had a countdown going in our kitchen! What I didn't know was that the second pair of shoes we have to put you in are just as ugly or uglier than the first! The good news about them is that you don't have to wear them 24 hours a day. We have a little more flexibility with them so if we ever have a special event, Daddy and I just leave them off. You'll probably need to be in these for a couple of months and I'll probably start my countdown for them soon! When you have your shoes off, you looove your feet. It's like they were a hidden treasure that you're just now able to discover and enjoy, and you're just the cutest thing when you're playing with them.

Here's one last picture of you in your first pair of "special shoes."

This month you've seemed to grow by leaps and bounds, and when I say that I don't mean physically. You don't miss a thing. You're constantly observing your surroundings. It's so fun to just watch the look of wonder on your little face as you take everything in.

You're super interested in whatever we're doing when we're holding you. You reach your cute little dimpled hand out to feel anything else we happen to have in our hands, and you definitely know what your bottles look like. You've all but jumped out of our arms to get to them before! And speaking of bottles, you've been able to hold them by yourself for quite a while now but I always forget to mention that. It makes me a little sad because you're just growing up so fast already! I feel like before long, you won't even need me anymore! But at the same time I'm so proud of how smart you are and love watching you learn and grow.

During tummy time, you've started rolling over both ways! I made quite the fool of myself shouting and dancing and running for the video camera the first day you did this! Daddy just laughed and shook his head at me but of course he was super pround of you too. And from the look on your face you seem pretty proud of yourself!

Everything goes into your mouth these days and you're drooling more than ever! You've definitely been teething for a while but we're not sure when you'll actually pop your first tooth out. In the meantime, we just make sure we have a burp cloth nearby to wipe your face lots!

You "talk" more than ever now. You have the sweetest little voice and you love to hear it as much as Daddy and I do! You'll talk to anyone who will listen and many times, just to yourself. If you're playing with your toys or your feet and we've stepped out of the room, we can still hear you going to town, having the best conversation with yourself. It's such a joy to hear and always makes us smile. If I had to guess, you'll probably be a very talkative guy.

I don't think I've mentioned this but you've been sleeping through the night since you were about 10 weeks old and we're VERY appreciative of this. Your first couple of months, you slept in a pack-and-play in Mama and Daddy's room. It had a little newborn sleeper in it that kept you nice and snug. Around 10 weeks, we had two big transitions for you. We moved you to your crib and we had to switch you to formula because of an allergy you have. We're not sure which change caused you to sleep through the night. Or maybe it was both. Either way, we're SO happy for it. Most nights you go to sleep between 8:30 and 9:00. During the week, we have to wake you up at 5:00 in the morning because of our work schedules. Daddy does a wonderful job getting you ready for the day while I get myself ready! On weekends, you sleep until about 6:00 or 6:30.

You get bored easily and don't like to be in one place for very long. You usually don't spend more than about 15 minutes at a time in your Bumbo or jumper, or on your activity mat. We think this means you'll be a very active little boy, curious and into everything. We're sure you're gonna keep us on our toes! And you love interacting with people. If you're by yourself and start to fuss, you often start smiling as soon as someone walks over to talk to you.

All of this means that unless you happen to be sleeping, you HATE being in your carseat. I have an hour (or more, depending on traffic) commute to work and while you sleep most mornings, most afternoon rides home are torture for both of us. You scream and scream to get out of the carseat and my mama heart breaks when you're screaming and there's nothing I can do to help you. Mimi plans to start coming to watch you at our house one day a week, to give you and me more of a break from those awful car rides.

We're almost certain that your eyes will be brown- probably a darker brown like Daddy's than a greenish/hazely brown like mine. We've been curious for quite a while about your eye color so it's fun to finally think we know what color they'll be!

As you know, your Daddy and I love you more every day and can barely remember what our life was like without your happy little self in it. You're my dream come true and I am beyond thankful for you.

I love you to the moon and back,

Mama

New Look and Giveaway Winner

Hi, loves! What do y'all think about the freshened up look around here? No major changes but I was getting tired of the blue background, so I had it switched to white and it feels like a breath of fresh air to me!



I've been meaning to mention something for a while. I've received some super sweet comments lately that I would love to respond to, but the comments / profiles aren't linked to an email address or blog. I do see and appreciate every comment I receive, but I'd love to be able to contact everyone who communicates with me through my blog!


If you don't want to link an email to your profile, please leave an email address in your comments if you want me to be able to respond. Thanks much! :-)


In other news: as I kind of suspected might happen, we did not win our little modeling contest. We did come in second in Jaxon's age group (winners were chosen from each age group). Only problem with that was, our 41 votes came in behind a little bowtie-wearing boy who received 291 votes! So yeah, not even close.

Jaxon was absolutely thrilled when I told him how many votes he received.

But he was a little stunned when he heard how many the other guy got. I don't blame him, I felt the same way.

But on to the happier news of who won the drawing for the $20 gift card! I used my typical outdated method of throwing everyone's names in a bowl (twice if you voted on both pages), then having my husband close his eyes and draw one. You'll just have to trust me that we didn't cheat. Cause we didn't. Promise.

And the winner is...

(drumroll, please, and all that jazz)...

Kindra S!

Congrats, Kindra! Let me know what store or website you would like a gift card to. Thank you so much to everyone who voted / entered. We feel very loved and are super appreciative of the support!

Now I'd just like to know how in the heck those crazy parents managed to drum up 291 votes.

A Year Ago Today

A year ago yesterday, I had no idea how my life was about to change. I had been diagnosed with PCOS three months earlier, and was told there was a chance that JD and I might never be able to have children of our own. We had decided to stop doing anything to prevent me from getting pregnant, because we didn't want to put any more restrictions on our situation than my body was already putting.

When I was diagnosed, we decided that if I didn't get pregnant in the next six months, we would try clomid, a fertility drug. I was willing to take pills but not willing to do anything more invasive, like shots. And we had pretty much decided against adoption, though we didn't completely rule out the possibility. We decided that if I couldn't get pregnant with minimal effort, then we would do everything we could to live a full life, just the two of us. And our pets.

Little did we know that two short months after my diagnosis, I would be pregnant. I had a check-up with my doctor on a Thursday in September to adjust some medication that I take for insulin resistance (caused by the PCOS). I showed my doctor the temperature chart I had been keeping for the previous few weeks. I was just trying to get a feel for how the charting would work, and was eager to show him how I'd been doing with it.

He gave it a cursory glance, handed it back to me and said, "If you don't start your period by Monday, take a pregnancy test and call me with the results. Looks to me like you could be pregnant." I literally laughed in his face. I told him he was silly and that there was no way I was letting him get my hopes up like that. He shrugged and said, "Ok well I'll talk to you about it next week."

I didn't think much about it over the weekend. In my mind, there was zero chance that I was going to get pregnant that easily. But being the good patient I am, I took a test I had at the house while I was getting ready for work on Monday morning, September 13th. JD banged on the bathroom door and asked what I was doing that was taking so long and I yelled back that I had just taken a pregnancy test because Dr. A had told me to, but that it was negative. I was so sure that it was negative that I glanced at it and even though there was a clear "+" sign, it didn't even register that that actualy meant positive.

The image of the "+" on the test started to sink in as I was working, and I suddenly freaked out and started googling images of positive pregnancy tests. I called JD after work and told him I was no longer sure that the test was actually negative, and to clear things up in my mind I was going to take another test --this time digital, so there would be no question about the results.

JD had to work late. I think he was working out his baseball team or something along those lines. So I bought the test and went home to take it by myself, still completely convinced that I wasn't really pregnant.

Except I was. 

I remember the completely surreal, almost out-of-body feeling that I experienced when the word "pregnant" popped up in the little window. I looked at myself in the mirror and thought, "We did it." Only, we didn't do anything. We hadn't had to do anything. No pills, no shots, not even an ovulation predictor.

We'd only had to trust. That if we were meant to have a baby, God would give us our baby. That if we weren't, we would be ok. Somehow, we would be ok.

Most days I was able to convince myself of this. But not all.

Those three months of not knowing if we would have children weren't easy. In fact, at times they were pretty hard. I tried not to show it to anyone, especially JD. Because I didn't want him to know how deeply disappointed I would be if I couldn't have a baby, to know that I would feel as if my life's purpose wasn't being realized, to know that I would feel as if I had failed- both myself and him.

I had no idea that one night really soon I would be staring at my face in the mirror, trying to digest the realization that I was a mother.

That night, I called JD and very unceremoniously told him on the phone that I was mistaken earlier that day and that I was, in fact, pregnant. Two trips to the doctor and two blood draws later, he was convinced. It turned out that I wasn't the only one who needed a little extra convincing that we were really going to have our baby.

And we had no idea that in one short year (no really, it flew by), we would have the most amazing four-month-old baby to ever grace the planet. We had no idea how completely our lives would change. We didn't know that we'd been walking around with a Jaxon-shaped hole in our hearts and that our family puzzle would begin to come together in such a beautiful way.

It's amazing to think that in one year, JD and I went from being a couple to a family of three. Maybe in another year we'll start trying to add to our famiy. Or maybe we'll decide that our family is perfect just the way it is for a while. Or maybe even forever.

The last year has taught me that life doesn't always turn out exactly the way we think it will. Sometimes it surprises us in the best way possible.

Vote For Jax And Enter A Giveaway!

Y'all. I'm totally about to bribe you to vote for my baby. Apparently I've become one of "those moms" and there is no shame in my game.

I'm all about free stuff -as you know- so when I found out there was a chance to win a CD of some professional pictures of Jaxon I couldn't pass it up. SO. I entered him into a little model contest.

See? One of those moms.

Only problem is, I decided to do it last minute and instead of going through the hundreds of pictures we've taken of him, I snapped a quick picture outside with my phone and sent that off. Only to find out later that most of his little competitors have these professional, model-looking pictures! I mean, if they're models already why do they need to win this contest?? Just sayin.

Anyhoo, we'd love your support. Every vote he gets will count as an entry into the giveaway. There are TWO chances to vote. Or if you prefer to look at it as TWO chances to enter a giveaway, that works as well.

The winner will get a $20 gift card to your choice of stores, as long as I have access to the store. For instance, as much as I love H&M and Ikea, we don't have those around here so those, I can't do. But if it's in the area, it's game... Target, Starbucks, etc.

Entry One: "Like" Amy Martin Photography on facebook, find Jaxon's picture (#40) and "Like" his picture.

Entry Two: "Like" Tutu5 Designs on facebook, find Jaxon's pciture (I don't think these are numbered) and "Like" his picture.

The album is called "Model Contest for Amy Martin Desgins & TuTu5 Designs."

And his picture looks like this.

Told you it was a quick shot outside. My poor child.

Important to know: comments on his picture would be super sweet and appreciated but they do not count as votes. Only "likes" on his picture will count as a vote / entry.

If there's a chance I won't be able to get in touch with you, please leave your email address in the comments after you vote so I can email you if you win!

Questions? Let me know. If you are on facebook but hate it, you can feel free to give me your username and password and I'll go vote for you. One of my really good IRL friends took this route. (Not even kidding.)

Ok now, off you go to enter!

Thanks tons, y'all are the BEST!

Loving Lately

I want to try to start doing posts about some of my favorite "little" things each month. Malin from Very Silent Words has been doing this for a while and I always love reading these posts. As seems to be the trend on my blog lately, my August post is late. **big sigh**

In no particular order, in August I loved (and am actually still loving)...

...the new orchid I bought for my office as my going-back-to-work present. It's starting to wilt a little but I'm trying my darndest to keep it alive for as long as possible. If you have any orchid growing tips, please send them my way!

...Starbucks Iced Via and the cup I use to drink it. When the heat index is often well over 100 degrees, I just can't do hot coffee. I went back to work at the beginning of August and have been pretty much hooked on this stuff since then. I always feel like I'm having a treat when I drink Starbucks and it's much more convenient and costs less this way. The plain and caramel flavors are both lovely. While looking for a picture to post, I realized the packs are on sale at Amazon for $3.50. You can bet I'll be stocking up!

...my Erin Condren life planner and the Sharpie pens I use to write in it. If you're a blogger or on Twitter, there's a good chance you heard about these planners, or even have one if, like me,  you're not one to be left out of the latest craze. I wouldn't necessarily say it keeps me any more organized than a regular planner does, but the personalization, bright colors and stickers add an extra element of fun to the whole thing. For half off the price, I couldn't pass it up and I'm definitely happy with the purchase.

...and last but definitely not least, Pinterest. If you don't know about it, you should. It's a virtual pin board where you can save groups of pictures from around the internet. I have boards that range from parenting tips and ideas, to outfit inspiration, to DIY projects that I like to think I'll do one day but probaby never will, to favorite quotes. There's also an iPhone app that's super fun. I get warm fuzzies just from looking at my boards. If you're on it and I'm not following you, let me know so I can find you!

What are some things you're loving lately?