5 Months!

So, I'm behind by 4 days in wishing my sweet boy HAPPY MONTHDAY! 5 months. I cannot believe it. 

Wasn't he just born? 

Some big milestones have been happening over at the McLaughlin home. First, little Jackson has been in his own room and crib for one week now. It's tough on me not having him next to me at night anymore, but it's certainly the right move. He would go to bed around 8, and we would have to tip-toe around him to be sure he didn't wake up. So, that's when we knew he would get better sleep if he was in in his own room.

Needless to say, as a first time parent I'm now obsessed about sleep and figuring out what's best for Jack to keep him well-rested and sleeping through the night.

Bedtime is as follows (at least for the last 3 nights, we're still trying to nail down a pattern)

-Feed: 6:45 (solids, usually rice cereal)
-Rock/Nurse if still hungry: 7:15
-Asleep (and swaddled tightly): 7:30/7:45
-Wake up: 2am (or 3am, but never earlier than 2)
-Back to sleep (feeding or rocking): 2:30 (we try to let him self soothe a bit before going in there.)
-Morning wake up: 6:00am

Bah. I don't like the 6am wake up calls lately. We're working on different patterns to see what works best for Jack. I'm not quite ready for cry it out at night. I know it's different for every family, but he goes back to sleep so quickly and it doesn't bother me, so I ride with it.  It's the morning wake up that I can't seem to get a handle on. Trial & error is the story of my life these days!

We have also started our little man on solid foods! Well, they're really just mushy foods but it's a start.

He really loves his rice cereal. 

I really love to feed him. We have some fun times getting super messy. 

After about three weeks of rice cereal, (mainly because that was all I could do considering the move) we introduced some veggies. We started with sweet potatoes. 

Ya, not so much.

We then tried broccoli, carrots & peas. Nothing took. He hated all of it. So now, I have resorted to mixing these glorious veggies with his rice cereal, and he seems to take to that really well. 

Mastering Parenting=Learning how to trick your child. 

We keep adding more and more of the veggies, and less and less of the rice. He hasn't suspected a thing. It's been so fun seeing his personality come out in little ways like this. 

I have found the more his little tummy is very satisfied and full, the better naps this little bugger takes. We're on two "solid" meals a day (morning and evening), and breast milk during the day as much as he likes. This has been working out well and his naps seem to be longer. 

 

There I go, back on sleep again. 

He just gets SO cranky when he doesn't nap. 

My little sweet terror. I love you so. 

 

We are enjoying every second watching his personality come through, and all of the curve balls he throws at us keep our lives interesting every day. I'm sure baby #2 we'll completely have a handle on, right? 

 

Ya, sure. 

 

 

He's SO dramatic. Seriously, though. He really is.

 

 

More than self-sacrifice

I don't think it's possible to fully understand the scope of being a parent until you become a grandparent.

And probably even then, there's new lessons in parenting to learn.

Okay, here's the current state of the little man.

Finally.

I have had a battle with my soul regarding "cry it out." And, I'm sure I'm not the first parent either. But, when you've been trying to get your baby to sleep for the past hour and half (you know he's tired.) He's had a full meal, no poopy diaper, no teething issues. He's just cranky.

After an hour and half of walking around the neighborhood, swinging him, nursing him (I caved...but for just a minute) this little man would NOT fall asleep. So I had one last resort.

I came home, gave him a nice bath and put on his mobile with music, and left the room with him staring at the mobile.

I brought the monitor with me into my room to take a shower. About 5 minutes in, the crying began.

I intentionally took one of the longest showers of my life. This way, at least the crying was muted. I thought maybe the pain I was feeling would be less.

After getting out of the shower I went to check on him very quickly. I wanted to make sure he had not cried so hard he pooped. (Seriously, this is how hard he was crying.) I picked him up to check and he immediately stopped crying. This is when I really knew I was doing the right thing. So I set him back down, tried to put the pacifier in his mouth (needless to say that did no good) and walked out the door with tears streaming down my face.

A total of 45 minutes of straight crying, and he finally passed out.

Being a parent is more than self-sacrifice. It's more than eating the majority of your meals cold because you need to feed him or change a diaper and it's more than waking up every Saturday at 7:00am.

I'm learning just as much as he is. So I guess I always have to remember that we're in it together. And at times, it will be painful for both of us.

Forever and a day

Time is flying. I wouldn't say it's because life is so magical. Moving, working 35+ hours a week, and raising our son has kept me more than busy. Through all of it, I keep reminding myself how amazing we truly do have it, and how much of this is God's blessings that we are working through.

We are officially living on Iris Avenue in Corona Del Mar! We could not be more excited. I will post pictures up as soon as the house is completely in order. It's taken us some adjusting, but it's been wonderful. We are in the process of getting some new furniture, which is an amazing thing as well! All the purchasing is completed, now it's the waiting game for it all to arrive.

Here's a picture of us in front of our old apartment. We transitioned from blissful newlyweds to happy parents in just three short years.

Our little Jackson man has also had a lot of "firsts" these days! Everything is so exciting and new to us still as first time parents. We are definitely enjoying the ride.

He had his first meal about a week ago! Yummy rice cereal with breast milk. Needless to say, it was quite a mess. One, because Daddy made it a bit too soggy, and two, well, it was his first meal!

The picture is a little blurry, but hey, we had to capture the moment.

He really loved it a lot. So now, we are feeding him once in the morning, and we try to once at night, thicker and thicker each time. Our schedule has been so hectic lately though, we are lucky if we get the once in the morning down right.

Okay, I posted this picture because it's just precious and I love his sweet little face.

Side note: this boy HATES the car. I never thought there would be a day where he would. He used to fall right asleep the second we step foot in it, now he cries pretty much the entire way to our destination, unless he's asleep before hand. Any tips mommies? We've given him all the toys in the world for distraction, and we sing to him to see if that helps, sometimes, I just have to let him cry it out...breaks my heart!

But, most of the time, he looks like this.

Love that gummy grin. He's teething now-a-days as well, which doesn't make mommy's heart feel too good. The pediatrician said he was young for teething. We haven't seen an actual tooth yet, but you can see it trying to break through on the bottom left center!

He is still sleeping in our room next to me. We are going to re-paint his room to green and eggshell thick stripes. We are (hoping) to get this done this weekend or the next. For the fumes, we can't really keep him sleeping in the room, so we plan to transition him afterwards.

So, I have a few more nights as he continues to grow before our eyes. Although, it will be nice to not wake up every 2 hours to check on him. I do this without an alarm, or even wanting to. He's sound asleep, it just happens! So, I'm hoping this will stop once he switches rooms so I can get some decent rest.

Although, I feel like I'm going to be sleep deprived until all of our children are here. And happily so. The more hours I get to spend with my precious family, the better!

One more cute one, of our little guy grabbing his sweet little piggies. He finally discovered those toes that I have been munching on for quite some time now.