Setting Records.

Five days without a post. I'm slackin'. All has been well for the past five days. With the exception of the four shots Jackson got on Wednesday. They made him very cranky and irritable for about twenty-four hours. Who could blame him? He is still sleeping in the paypen crib on a couch cushion. He seems to like it, so we're gonna keep it up. Here's what it looks like.


Last night Betsy and I went to a wedding. We dropped Jackson off with Grandma and Grandpa B. We were gone for over five hours. That's definitely a record. We dropped him off with two bottles of pumped breast milk and a frozen portion of breast milk. We were certain that was way more than would be needed. We were wrong. He drank it all and was out like a light when we arrived to pick him up. When we got home Betsy fed him, but he wasn't really interested. So we just put him down to sleep and there he slept until around 5:00am Nearly five hours! another record.

This morning the three of us hung out in bed for a little while and played. It was lots of fun.


Yesterday we did some playing in his actual crib. We'll get him sleeping in there sooner or later.

12 Pounds, 6 ounces of attitude.

Get a load of this guy.


Jackson went to the pediatrician yesterday because he bumped his head. It was nothing serious. He's just fine. He was weighed and is tipping the scales at 12 pounds, 6 ounces. He's reversed his original numbers of 6lbs. 12oz. It was recomended that we get him to sleep in a crib or bassinet to prevent future bumps.

We figured we'd be in for a long night of crying. That was, until I came up with a plan. We discovered that the portable "play yard" (play pen is not P.C. anymore. I guess pens are for pigs.) is almost exactly the same size as one of the couch cushions. So, I figured we'd just get him to fall asleep on the couch as normal and then pick him up, cushion and all, and carry him to the improvised play yard crib thing.

It worked like a dream. He fell asleep as usual around 11:00pm. I picked him up along with half the couch and headed for the hallway. That proved to be the most difficult part. The width of the cushion and the thickness of me had not been taken into consideration during the planning phase. It was a tight squeeze, but we made it. I lowered him into the "crib" and he was never even aware of the old switheroo. Betsy reported this morning that he stayed asleep and blissfully unaware until around 2:40am. At which time she simply fed him and put him back in and he went off to sleep. "I love it when a plan comes together."

We'll try it the same way tonight.

Here's a bonus picture of Jackson behind the wheel of his "car".

His feet don't touch the ground yet but he seems to like being pushed around in the walker.

He's Sleeping in the Crib!

The cat is sleeping in the crib. Oh well. Someone might as well use it.

What a Difference.

What a difference four weeks makes. The picture at the left is pretty much what we got at all times when Jackson was not eating or sleeping. Now, when Jackson is not eating or sleeping, we often see something more like the picture on the right. Sure he still cries, but we feel like it's good old fashioned, standard, baby crying. We can now even detect subtle differences in cries and we're learning what those differences mean. Before, he only had on and off. Great stuff. We're playing and smiling and having lots of fun.

I haven't had a chance to update as often as usual because I started a new job this week. I've had orientation and training everyday and just didn't have the energy to get my blog on. Today, I came home to this.


That sure erases the woes of long days of boring orientation.

Video Test.

Short video of jackson playing. Probably wont work.



fingers crossed.

Slept through dinner.

Unbelievable. We went out to dinner last night with a bunch of friends. We took Jackson along, of course, and he slept the whole time. Jackso usually has an uncanny ability to sense when Betsy is eating. As soon as the fork reaches her mouth, Jackson will usually start crying. He has slept through meals out before, but not like this. We put him in the car seat at 5pm and we didn't take him out until after we were home at around 8:15pm. The only drawback was that nobody got a chance to see just how snazzy Jackson was looking in his khakis.


It gets even dorkier. We dressed alike.

I think it's safe to say it.

We've made some real progress in the sleeping department. The last four nights, Jackson has started out sleeping on his own. Not entirely on his own, but close. Betsy has been putting him down on his little sleeping wedge, on the couch. Instead of sliding in along side him, she lays down on the other end of the couch and they both sleep for around 3 hours. Monday night, Betsy was able to go and sleep on the other couch for about two hours, leaving Jackson to sleep all by himself. After the initial few hours of sleep, it's back to business as usual. It's a start.

Jackson is also spending much more time awake and not crying. As he becomes more and more aware of the world around him, he becomes more content to just hang out and take it all in.

Jackstand.

We're working on Jackson's standing skills. Look at 'im go. All you gotta do is hold him up and he stomps his feet down and stands up tall. He's even trying to hold his own head up straight. As you can see in the picture, He's also growing his hair back. Considering he kept the hair on the sides and back, I think we're gonna be seing a pretty sweet baby mullet in no time.

Not a whole heck of a lot to report lately. Jackson has been great. Much less, seemingly unprovoked, crying. We are giving him the gripe water (the all natural baby stomach settling stuff) a lot less often. He doesn't seem to need it as much. We are all getting some good sleep. Still on the couches and still waking up to feed Jackson several times a night, but Betsy has mastered the sleep feeding so as not to wake up to fully. Doesn't bother me a bit over on my couch.

I guess that'll do for tonight. I'll try and post something more tomorrow. Thanks for reading.

Happy Cinco De Mayo!

All Smiles.

We're getting more and more smiles every day. Much like Bigfoot or Nessie, these smiles are elusive and very hard to capture on film. I did, however, manage to get these photos this mornning.



For some odd reason we seem to get the most smiles when Jackson is atop the changing table. I guess it reminds him of clean dry baby butts. Who doesn't smile at baby butts?