3months vs 5months

I put these two side-by-side, and couldn't believe how much he's changed.

                     5 1/2 months                                                              3 1/2 months

Right before my eyes!

I feel like I can't even keep up with how many "firsts" we've encountered over the last few weeks! It's just been crazy.

I've heard from friends that once five months hit, the firsts just don't stop. Little man is growing to be a big boy!

Jackson loves to grab everything in sight now-a-days. Especially when he's eating. We joke that he needs a 5 foot radius around him of child proof items to pick up!

He especially loves $1.50 off coupons of baby food. Yummmm....

Speaking of baby food, this little man won't say no to anything I put in front of him, and for that I am grateful! He's graduated to three meals a day and eats all sorts of fruits and vegetables. Breast feeding has become more of snacks now, and right when he wakes up. This makes me so sad to know this phase is slowly weening. I am so blessed that I have been able to experience this with him. Although it was so hard when he was first born to get used to, I have not regretted it for one second. 

For the first weeks this little guy was eating foods, I pretty much insisted on being home when we fed him. One, because he needed a Bumbo, and two, well, look at that mess. Finally, I felt as if we were good to go outside of the house, and we had our first high chair experience at Cheesecake Factory with my parents. 

He did super awesome and really loved being a part of the group instead of stuck in his car seat. He could play with toys while we ate. It was wonderful to sit at a meal and actually eat without having to chow down quickly to take the baby back. 

Lately, it's been so hot here in SoCal. 80 degree days with no air conditioner can lead to this. 

He spends the majority of his days as "nakie baby."

I think he's alright with it. 

Any day he's going to start crawling, right? Ohhhh no. I hear that's a whole new ball game. 

I feel when we have number two these milestones won't astound me as much as they do with Jackson. It's amazing that just (almost) 6 short months ago, this little man was in my belly swimming around at less than 7 lbs. 

He's now sleeping through the night consistently! He is still tightly swaddled, but lays completely still until the morning, so I'm not complaining. I think in the next couple weeks we will transition one arm out and see how it rolls. 

He also is swaddled for nap time. I'm so so grateful for Kate, his day care provider two days a week. She showed me a great swaddling technique for naps while at home. Jack is on two 1.5 hour naps a day and goes down in about 5 minutes. I swear Kate's my angel! I'm so happy that "cry it out" has only been a resolution twice since he's been born. I have exhausted every other option I possibly can, and I am so happy that I have not had to resort to it. 

Our dear friends Lauren & Dave Miles came down from Valencia for Aaron's birthday this weekend. While Aaron and Dave went golfing, Lauren and I went to the pool at her hotel! I was so excited to bring little Jackson into the water for the first time. 

 

Stepping into the pool...Jack was very curious...

Ta-Da! A BIG bathtub!

We played around with him. Lauren laid him on his tummy so he could kick a bit and "swim" in the water. It was so adorable. He tried to grab the water as if it were a toy, it was so funny how he couldn't quite comprehend what it was. 

This exhausted him, and he quickly laid down for a nap and mommy was able to take a quick nap in the sun as well. SO grateful for any 10 minute nap I can take. 

I swear, every time I put this boy to sleep I wonder if I have loved him enough that day and cherished every second of his sweet little life as a 5 1/2 month old. I am so blessed. 

Aaron and I had our four year anniversary as well. We didn't do much on the day of because Aaron had class, and basically both of us forgot until the day before due to our busy schedules.

I came home from work to this. 

The little "XOX" package is a Sprinkles Red Velvet Cupcake. My man knows me too well. 

I ate my cupcake and enjoyed my flowers with the product of our love while Aaron was at class.

It's been...by far...the BEST four years of my entire life. 

God is so amazingly good, all the time. 

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.

Boy oh Boy!

..and certainly no longer a newborn! We have a full blown baby on our hands.

Our sweet boy is 4 months old today. He's had some milestones this week that have really made it obvious to me that my baby is growing up...way too fast.

When we hold Jackson on our laps, he loves to stand on his legs. He is so strong now that all you really need to do is keep him balanced, and he uses all his tiny little muscles on his own! So, we decided it was time to pull out the bouncy play thing (I have no idea what the real name is!). He's just barely old enough, but he loves it. I'm now wondering if he'll ever really crawl much. If you want my prediction, I think this boy is going walk really early. Anyone want to place a bet?

Just a pic below of him being goofy today...on his 4 month birthday!

Jack...with all of his pacifiers. He was very pacified. 

He has really loved his baby bjorn. We think he does because he loves to be facing out. Needless to say, this means that his infant car seat is no longer a favorite of his. He loves to cry & wail every time we place him in there. He used to love our walks/runs, but now...not so much! So, we decided to try to place him the correct way in the stroller.

 He sure looks so tiny! But, he loves to look out around at the world. It makes me happy he's still looks so small, so that way I know he's not growing up literally before my eyes.

He's had some great bonding time looking over bonds with daddy. He looks so serious working.

He's also enjoyed some lounging time watching cartoons with daddy, too! (Okay, it was The Simpsons, but we feel like that's still okay considering he's still in baby-talk mode!)

And, I have to end with a sweet picture of him, looking absolutely angelic in my eyes. 

I'm trying to not go crazy with a constantly messy house. Oh, the joys of moving! So, no one is invited over for quite some time. Don't be too offended.

A Very Special Mother's Day

Not only was this mother's day special because it was my first, but there were two other reasons it was amazingly special:

1. We were able to spend it with my parents in Washington D.C.
2. We found out one year ago that we were pregnant with our sweet boy.

What I find so incredible about the entire story is the fact that none of this was really planned. Aaron and I were on the slow track to kiddos. Doctors told me that we were going to have trouble getting pregnant for a variety of reasons. So, Aaron and I played the "whatever happens, happens" method. This method went on for a year and half. We were ready spiritually and as a couple to have a baby, we just weren't in any hurry.

Then, our little miracle love came about.

And we certainly couldn't imagine a life any other way.

God places amazing and overwhelming and exciting and exhausting tasks in front of us, sometimes when we least expect them. And, I really could not be more grateful for the wonderful opportunity he's provided Aaron and I in raising Jackson. What a glorious responsibility. 

Life has been incredibly complicated the last four weeks. While getting adjusted to a new work schedule, preparing to move and a trip clear across the country, Jackson is continuously growing and changing every day. 

We went to Washington D.C. for a week. Aaron had a work conference in Chantilly, VA. My father also had to go, so it was  a great excuse for my mom and I to tag along. After 4 days in Chantilly, we went to Washington D.C. (about a 30 minute drive) for 3 days. Aaron had never been before, and since we're such big history buffs, we all were super excited. Some photos of our adventures:

The boys at the Air & Space Museum

In front of the space shuttle that just landed 3 weeks ago!

Aaron and I at the Lincoln Memorial. Jack was passed out in his stroller

My mom and Aaron at the Lincoln Mermorial

The only awful picture of us at Mother's day brunch. Jack was a bit grouchy at the moment.

Jack's first subway ride! He looks like a bit of a goof.

The family in the subway. Aaron really felt like a tourist. Jack is sucking his thumb. We are weird. 

On a side note: he loves the Baby Bjorn! So fantastic. 

At the moment Aaron and I barely have the time to breathe. I have a feeling it will be this crazy until we move and get settled in. 

I'm attempting to get used to being in the office Mondays & Wednesdays, then working from home the other three. It's been a bit of a rough transition for me to be sure I stay on top of the requirements that work has while still working (a.k.a being paid) part time. The industry of trade shows, I swear, is a 24/hr a day job no matter how many clients you have. So, I'm slowly learning to prioritize and be more organized in my work load. 

But, we are constantly reminded how amazing we have it.

Gotta go, the little one has woken from his slumber. What the life!