Archive for June, 2008

we had a great weekend with great friends! paul and i got kicked out of a bar (actually we were just told that we couldn’t come in) because of the magoo. ~ our sweet friend, sarah (in purple dress) leaves tomorrow for philly, where her next set of orders sends her. so we intended to have some good hang out time with her and friends at our favorite beach bar… it’s outdoors and right on the beach, so we thought surely we could bring jackson. we learned otherwise and so our friends moved the entire party to another bar and restaurant just so that they could enjoy magoo and some tasty beverages. it was hilarious having a 9 week old baby in a bar. the funniest part about it was when we would have people strike up conversation about jackson, wondering how old he was. one guy said “oh it’s great to see another little one out and about. our’s is 3 weeks old and being babysat by her grandparents right now, but this gives me hope for when we can get her out of the house.” ~ i think jackson really enjoyed his first time at a bar as a minor… besides, he had his GODparents with him… he was in good hands…

magoo’s stomach is still giving us quite a lot of trouble. his reflux is very painful for him and we just can’t seem to get him on the right medication to provide relief. the feedings are difficult because he will eat a few ounces out of his bottle and then the reflux will act up and he’ll start to gag as the formula starts to come back up on him. this then makes him not want to eat (who can blame him?) but not only does he cry from being uncomfortable, he works himself into a frenzy because he’s also really starving. it’s a vicious cycle. we’re hoping to get some answers tomorrow at his 2 month check up. i have a feeling we’ll be seeing a pediatric GI doc some time in the near future.

when we’re not dealing with tough feedings, we’re playing with jackson as much as possible. jackson’s favorite spot when he’s sitting with dad, is right on his chest, where he can sit up like a BIG boy. he does this a lot and watches tv with paul. i’m reading quite a bit to jackson. he likes seeing the colors in the pictures and he is fascinated when i turn the pages of the books. last but not least, we’re trying to get jackson to discover his thumb (i know, who would ever encourage such behavior?!) he gets really close to finding it but hasn’t quite gotten the concept yet. magoo will suck on his fist and occasionally get a finger in his mouth, but the thumb is always tucked inside the fist. we’re hoping he’ll get it soon so that if he loses his pacifier in the middle of the night, we don’t have to get out of bed. FIND YOUR THUMB JACKSON!!!

it was a great weekend for us, a busy one actually, but magoo did great with all of our outings. we’ll be sure to keep you posted on his doctor’s visit tomorrow…. can’t wait to see what this hoss weighs in at. ~

these first two pictures are the bright eyed face that i see when i come in to check on jackson during his nap time…. yes, his nap time, when he is supposed to be sleeping. i see this. magoo is taking to this whole being 2 months old thing very nicely and thinking that he is a bigger boy than he really is and not wanting to nap. “so fine,” i say to jackson. “don’t sleep. but you’re staying in that crib.” hahaha! he is a pistol, that’s for sure.

the other pictures are from our visit with jackson’s new friend, baby jago!!! our dear friends, jamie and rob, had their baby boy last week. mama jamie is recovering well from a c-section and baby jago is thriving. you can link to their blog from mine (look to the right, click on “the woodards”).

as for me, i’ve got to get the pistol down for a nap… will post more later.

hi everyone! to all the dads out there (especially mine) HAPPY FATHER’S DAY!!! hope it has been a great one for ya’ll. it certainly has been wonderful for us celebrating paul’s first father’s day. we had a wonderful weekend with good friends and good times with our little magoo. friday night we laid pretty low because paul actually had to go into work and fly on saturday. saturday evening was great though because we went to jackson’s GODparent’s house (billy and rachel’s) and not only did we get to spend time with them, but jackson had his first date. rachel’s good friend and co-teacher, natalie, was at dinner with her husband brett and their little lady, tessa. miss tessa was born just 4 days before jackson was and they met for the first time last night. tessa’s baby blues will be breaking hearts in the future, i am sure. attached are some pics from saturday night…. jackson getting some snuggle time with “his billy” and “his rachel,” as well as tessa showing off her beautiful blue eyes. today, jackson gave paul a very sweet gift for his first father’s day. paul has been wearing a st. christopher medal around his neck since the day he left for USNA. i gave him that st. christopher’s medal when he left and we had only been dating a couple of months. a few years later, i added another medal to the st. christopher’s on an anniversary. it’s a mizpah piece that says “GOD be with us, together and apart.” both of these have been around paul’s neck for years…. the summer after we graduated highschool…. through college….. grad school for me….. flight school for paul….. our wedding….. etc. jackson decided that it was time he was added to paul’s medals, and so he gave paul a “J” to add to it. the jewlery store that i used to work at in atlanta shipped it to us and paul added it to the rest so that he can now have jackson with him when he flies. this afternoon, paul and i went shopping for a video camera. he has been doing some research, trying to find one that would best suit our needs and what we would want to do with all of the video we will be taking and sending home when we are in japan. we didn’t make our purchase yet, but are getting close. we also made a pit stop by babies r us and got jackson the GREATEST little playhouse-sort-of-thing ever!!! this contraption is soooooo fun, i want one for myself. jackson LOVES it and was playing in it for most of the evening, having his own little party in there. i’m also attaching pictures of that. all in all, it was a great weekend….. a perfect first father’s day for paul, if i may say so myself.

when jackson woke up from his nap yesterday, he was totally animated and playful… and so we had a little photo shoot. paul and i are hoping to purchase a video camera this weekend so that we can post jackson’s latest moves on here. he is giggling, cooing, and smiling like crazy.

we enjoyed a weekend of nana and pops lovin’ on jackson. they hadn’t seen him since the week he was born, so it was awesome watching jackson interact with them both. nana had some one-on-one time with magoo friday and saturday since pops arrived saturday night. in that time, jackson made sure to “christen” nana with a lovely explosion that left her with poop on her pjs. nana didn’t seem to mind one bit though. once pops came, jackson flirted like there was no tomorrow. he spent the weekend cooing at pops with little “woooo” sounds. jackson shows his excitement by making those noises while moving his arms up and down, kicking his chunky legs, and making his eyes as big as possible. you know he really loves you if while he is doing all of this, he includes a little cross-eyed glance at you. jackson scares paul when he goes cross eyed, but pops and i laughed about it and appreciated jackson’s excitement. nana proved herself to be quite the singer as she serenaded jackson during his “terror time” (colic hour), making up songs as she went along. she had jackson calm and cool two nights in a row with her singing. paul and i were so appreciative of the quiet evening since we had gotten used to his colicky wails. within the last 48 hours, our little magoo has discovered that his hands serve a purpose and he is trying to grasp as many things as possible. paul caught him holding on to his pacifier the other morning, and both of us are noticing jackson putting his hands and fingers into his mouth, trying to understand how the whole hand/finger sucking concept works. we are amazed at how fast he is learning and look forward to watching him grow with each passing day.

we are so active and playful these days. jackson is copying faces that paul and i make at him, sticking out his tongue, and cooing up a storm. nana arrives today, so we made sure to wear her favorite outfit. pops arrives saturday night!!! we will have so much fun showing them what a BIG BOY jackson is. enjoy the pics.

me again… since the last blog, i have received some emails from people wondering what exactly went on with jackson’s digestive system. “was he actually allergic to the dairy?” “what does this mean for later on?” etc… originally, jackson’s symptoms that he had when he was nursing showed our pediatrician that jackson had an allergy to the milk proteins from the dairy that i had been consuming. so i cut all dairy out of my diet. after 3 weeks of being dairy free, however, jackson had no relief and we saw no changes in his symptoms and comfort level. at this point in time, i started noticing that jackson would stop himself from nursing after only 15-20 minutes because his stomach would then cramp up and he would be crying in pain. the difficulty with this was that my milk supply was so abundant, that when jackson stopped nursing, the poor little magoo would get shot in the eye with breast milk. paul and i then decided that since i had so much milk and we weren’t sure just how much milk jackson was consuming (because he would stop when in pain), i would pump and we would start introducing him to the bottle. this worked out really well. jackson took to the bottle like a champ, we could see the exact amount of food he was getting in ounces, things started to look up for us…. except we still had no relief in terms of jackson’s “allergy.” by now we were up to jackson’s 1 month check up with his pediatrician. of course his doctor was encouraging the breast milk, as it is “best” for babies, the purest food you can give your baby, etc, etc. in hindsight i can see that she was only doing her job, but at that moment, in my emotional state and knowing in my heart that my breast milk was hurting my baby, i lost it. when she saw how stressed out and distraught i was, we started talking seriously about the formula, and that led to paul and i making the switch. we never could pinpoint jackson’s allergy, whether it was to the dairy, soy, wheat, whatever… we don’t know. what we do know is that his stomach can handle the formula much better, he is more comfortable eating greater quantities and is starting to sleep longer. the formula is working for him. this meant however that i would have to shut down my abundant supply of breast milk…. NOT an easy task. after some advice from my doctor, i spent days in sports bras that were purposely too small for me (sometimes 2 sports bras at a time) and was not allowed to pump at all. in order to ease the pain i was experiencing, dr. thomas told me to line my itty bitty sports bra with cold cabbage leaves. yes, my friends, i had roughage in my bra. apparently this process takes a couple of weeks so i am still in that window of time, but i can report that i am no longer in need of the cabbage leaves. but hey, for those of you who haven’t yet experienced having to stop lactating, take note because it really helped! back to the important stuff… we have learned that jackson is very colicky. SWEET!!! evenings are not a fun time of day for him, and some days, no matter what paul or i do, he is going to scream and cry bloody murder. we have done some reading on colic and apparently what used to be deemed “colic” is now getting the label “GER” which stands for gastroesophageal reflux (basically infant acid reflux). what this means is that jackson is producing acid in his stomach that occasionally gets pushed back up into his esophagus and hurts. preggo ladies, when you hit that third trimester heart burn, you know what this feels like. apparently that feeling was labeled “colic” 25+ years ago when i little, and now it’s this GER thing. regardless, jackson’s exhibiting traits of it and it’s a BLAST!!! late night baths seem to help soothe him (at least it did last night). but each day is different, which makes “getting a routine established” nearly impossible. we have to be very careful how quickly jackson takes his bottles, sometimes slowing him down, burping him in the middle of feedings, etc. while this sounds like just another thing to add to our plate (and it is) we are told that after 6 weeks things should start improving. jackson is 6 weeks today, so let’s get this show on the road!!! i am really ready to have a happy and content baby, but that seems to be more difficult than i had imagined. don’t get me wrong, he’s not miserable all the time… jackson’s happiest time of day is in the mornings from about 8 til 10. he plays, coos, and loves making faces at you. just this morning, he gave his first giggle to grammy. the pictures are from his morning play time and evening bath last night with grammy and mom. grammy left today after her “emergency” whirlwind trip here. nana and pops (paul’s parents) arrive this weekend. paul and i are making family visits such a priority right now, knowing we’ve got only 6 months left in the states. thanks again for all of your concern with jackson and his “issues.” i will keep you all posted.