Thursday, January 31, 2008

Doing great


Alex has had a good couple of days. He isn't doing anything new but he is smiling a lot and hasn't been very fussy at all. He has also been sleeping great. The other night he slept from 10 PM until 4 AM and last night he slept until about 3 AM. After he eats he tends to go right back to sleep for another couple hours. It is so nice to have a somewhat long stretch of sleep.

I have been keeping busy with a few mothers groups that I am attending and today Alex and I are going to see a movie with a few moms from my PEPS group. Hopefully it will go alright and it is something that I can do on a regular basis.

Monday, January 28, 2008

Let it snow



Today we woke up to about 3 inches of snow so I decided to dress Alex up in his snow suit and take a picture. The snow suit quickly came off after we realized he was roasting in it. After we played dress up we got ready to take him for his two month check up. Luckily his appointment wasn't until 10:30, which meant a lot of the snow had melted on the main roads (though our neighborhood was still covered).

Alex's appointment went very well. He now weighs 9 lbs, 14 ounces and is 21 inches long. He is a growing boy and the doctor says he is doing great. He also got three shots today which was no fun. After the appointment he slept for about 4 hours and then woke up all pissed off. I spent the next hour trying to get him to stop crying and now he is doing much better.

We would also like to report that after 3 weeks of trying the bottle he has finally had two bottles successfully. He always took to the bottle for a few minutes but it usually ended up with him crying non-stop and me feeding him. Yesterday he took the bottle without crying and did not need me to feed him afterward. This is quite a relief for me since he will need the bottle when he goes to daycare. Hopefully this will continue and it isn't a fluke.

-Jess

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Two months old!




Today is Alex's two month birthday. Time sure flies by when you are caring for a little one. Everyday is getting a little easier since I am getting more sleep at night. I took the pictures above as Alex was hanging out with daddy. Seeing his smile is so exciting and so cute.

Our brunch yesterday was a great success. Alex happily slept through the entire meal and Rob and I had a great time stuffing our faces. After that we went over to some friends house to watch the Huskies lose and then off to home to relax. Today we are painting our kitchen...finally. We have been talking about it forever but have been too busy to do anything about it.

Friday, January 25, 2008

The adventures of Jess and Alex


Alex and I needed a much needed break from hanging out at the house today so we joined Rob for lunch down at Starbucks and paraded him around for all to see. Like usual he slept the entire time despite our efforts to wake him. When Alex wants to sleep there is no waking him, no matter how hard you try. After lunch I decided to take Alex down to the waterfront where we walked down to the sculpture park. It was not the most pleasant walk at first since it is so cold, but once I warmed up I had a much better time. Now we are back home and ready to relax.

Tomorrow we are taking Alex to his first fine dining experience, Salty's. We go every year for my birthday. Hopefully he will be an angel and sleep the entire time. I will let you know tomorrow if he behaved himself.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

The sunshine is oh so sweet


Today might be the last we see of the sun for quite some time so I had to take advantage of it. I strapped Alex into the baby bjorn and took Sampson for a walk. Having my own personal heater was quite nice. We had another great night of sleep. Alex seems to be developing somewhat of a pattern at night. He sleeps from about 9pm to 1am and then every three hours after that. It is such an improvement from just a week ago.

Other than that no new tricks for Alex. He is becoming much more interactive, which is a ton of fun. I can't wait to see what he does next.

-Jess

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Smiles



I captured these this morning while Alex was hanging out in his bouncer. He loves to look at the fish and smile at them.

Monday, January 21, 2008

What a cutie



I have been trying to capture one of Alex's precious smiles and above is about as close as I can get. Right now he smiles randomly and when I least expect it and there is never a camera around when you need it. He is developing into a little person and it is so much fun. Today he spent about a half an hour looking at a mirror I have attached to his crib and talking to himself. He is also enjoying the winnie the pooh wall hangings we have above his changing table. It makes changing him a little less painful when I see a big smile on his face as he stares at winnie.

Last night was an excellent night for sleeping. Alex went 4 hours between feedings, which is a record and after that woke up every 3 hours. I know it doesn't sound like much but it was heaven for mom and dad and he is doing just great in his crib. I must say, it is nice to have the bedroom to ourselves.

-Jess

Friday, January 18, 2008

The Nursery


Last night, after several sleepless nights, I thought I would try an experiment, putting Alex to sleep in his own room. I figured we spent a lot of time putting his room together and have a perfectly good crib, so we might as well get some use out of it. Now I am kicking myself for not doing this earlier. While he still woke up every 2 or 3 hours, he managed to get back to sleep after each feeding. I just need to figure out how to not focus on every noise I hear through the monitor so I can sleep but that will come with time.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Sleeping...

I think that I jinxed myself with the last post in which I mentioned that Alex had been doing better at night. That lasted about two nights and now it is back to sleepless nights for mom (and sometimes dad). Alex seems to think that night time goes from 2 PM to 2 AM. I keep trying to tell him that he should sleep until at least 6 AM but he doesn't listen. The cold he has is not helping. He wakes himself up trying to breath through his nose but he is so congested that it is very hard for him.

We went to the doctor just for our peace of mind only to be told that he does have a cold and there isn't anything we can do for it. While we were there they weighed him and he now weighs 8 pounds, 14 ounces. The cold has not affected his appetite one bit.

On a good note, Alex has started to smile a lot more which is great to see. I haven't been able to capture it in a picture but as soon as I do I will put that on the blog.

Friday, January 11, 2008

Firsts...

Alex has had quite a week. He got his first cold at the beginning of the week. Unfortunatley we aren't able to do much for him, which I think is harder for us than for him. It doesn't seem to be bothering him too much, he just has the sniffles. I don't know if it is related to the cold but he has been sleeping much better at night. The other night he only woke up once to eat and then went right back to sleep. He is finally figuring out the difference between day and night.

He has been enjoying his week with cousin Deb. We have gotten out of the house to see the sights since this is Deb's first visit to Seattle. We went to Starbucks to visit Rob and then to Pike Place Market and today we took a trip to Greenlake.

Alex has also shown us his first smile. We haven't captured a picture yet since they are few and far between but it is very exciting to see.

Sunday, January 6, 2008

Sorry it's been a while

Well it looks like it is more difficult to blog consistently than I thought it would be. Alex certainly has a way of causing you to not get a whole lot done during the day. Must be because he's so cute. I've decided to make up for it with a bunch of pictures.

As we said earlier, we spend New Years in Cannon Beach with three babies (Alex - 1 month, Ezra - 3 months, and Lila - 9 months). Below is a picture of the kids hanging out around 9pm on New Years Eve. We decided that there was no way we were going to make it to midnight so we would celebrate New Years - New York time. We were able to take a couple quick trips down to the beach and Alex enjoyed the Baby Bjorn and hanging out inside Dad's jacket. He also learned that bean bags weren't just made for the 70's.






Alex is finally out of Preemie clothes and into newborn outfits. Below is Mom torturing him in a very cute hooded jacket and then later taking a nap on Dad during the Seahawks playoff game. Dad wanted to jump up when the Hawks scored, but couldn't. Alex says, "wake me up when they get to the Super Bowl."