June Weight Loss

I am happy to report that this month has been way more successful than the previous months! I mean 10 lbs successful! I still have a ways to go...about 21 lbs, but I feel that this is finally a step in the right direction. I have only made a few changes to my everyday life.

The first is that I got a job, I am working at a childcare center where I am up and moving about for 8 hours out of the day running after little preschoolers. I know you guys are probably thinking well that's just normal daily activity, but when you think about it I was previously sitting at home with a newborn who doesn't walk or crawl yet so my activity level was way down. Also, since I am working I am no longer allowed to snack in between meals, which was a major issue for me. I am a huge fan of the in between meal treats, so having them taken away from me is a really really good thing. Jason and I have also been home for the past month and we are cooking at home a lot more now. We are making smart choices with our meals as well, such as, grilled fish instead of burgers etc. I am watching my portion sizes however, I am not counting calories yet! I am still breastfeeding and I am worried that I will get to into lowering my calories and it will decrease my milk supply. I figure that once Jackson is 6 months old though I will probably throw in the towel on breastfeeding (it's getting harder and harder now to do) and move him into rice cereal and step one foods (yay!). Finally, on the weekends when I am at home I try to take my furry baby and my baby baby for stroller rides around the neighborhood. The weather here hasn't been too bad the past few days so it's a little nicer to be outside.

The changes that I have made are very small so I'm surprised to see such a  big result come of them, but I will continue to make small changes and see if I can continue to see success. If you guys have any recipes or additional changes I can make I am all ears...we are going through a little cooking slump at my house.

Jackson's Baptism

So I'm going to back track for the next few posts because there were a lot of events that have happened in a very short amount of time, and I have written about any of them! One of them being Jackson's baptism. While we were home in South Dakota Jason and I had Jackson baptized. We wanted to do it at a time and place where we could have all of our family there, so what better time than while we are home! We had Jackson baptized at my home church Peace Lutheran, this church is very near and dear to my heart because it was the church my parents were married in and where my sister and I were both baptized. Now the building itself has obviously changed over the years and they have grown, but the sentimental value and sense of family is still there.

We were not a fan of getting our hair wet!

Jackson was baptized on Saturday June 1 at the 5:30 service. We had selected his sponsors to be my sister Angie and Jason's brother Ryan.

Jackson with Ryan and Angie

After the baptism at the church the family went over to parents house for a little dinner and some good 'ol fashioned family time! It was so great to see everyone and we are so lucky that so many of our family and friends were able to attend and share this special day with us!

Cuddle time with Great-Aunt Jodie

Jackson with Ryan and Carissa

So tired from such a busy day!

5 Months Old!

I cannot believe how quickly time is flying by! It does not seem like 5 months ago my whole world changed and I received the greatest gift of a lifetime! However, the calendar doesn't lie and Jackson is really 5 months old. We had another busy month, one of these days things are going to slow down and we are going to just be able to relax and enjoy our time at home, but not yet! This month we were able to spend a little more time in our new home. Jackson's room is still under construction (I only say that because I want to do this photo collage thing on one of his walls and have not had a chance to do it yet), but it's getting really close to being all done! We absolutely love his room and the paint color (thanks Grandpa for painting it for us!) I'll put up some pictures soon!

We have also learned a lot of new tricks this month. Jackson now is a spit master...I really think that the spit accidentally falls out while he's cooing most of the time, but other times he just plain 'ol spits! It's really a little gross and we go through a few shirts a day due to increased moisture on his belly. He is also getting really great at rolling over. He is a pro at rolling from his back to his front, but we have yet to master the front to back, so he gets a little upset when he's on his belly for too long and wants to move back over. Jackson also has been more and more observant! He loves to sit in his highchair at dinner and chat about his day with Dad and Mom, he also really likes to sit up in his Bumbo and play with Cooper or whatever is close by for him to snatch up! Which brings me to our newest trick...we are a grabber. Anything and everything we can get our hands on we now like to grab and throw around. I wasn't aware of this new trick until he tried reaching for my coffee cup...luckily Mommy has cat like reflexes and got to it first! I also bought him a jumper off of Amazon and it got here shortly after we got back from South Dakota. Probably the best money I have ever spent! Jackson loves hanging out in there jumping around, or just standing in it and looking out the window. It has been great for Jason and I so that we can have our hands free to run around the house and quickly get some things done.

Just hanging out

This month we also had Aunt Angie and cousin Kinley come and visit us in Michigan. We had so much fun with them here. It was really funny to watch Jackson with Kinely, because Kinley is a big talker and Jackson wasn't sure what to think of this little thing making so much noise! However, after they left he didn't know what to think of the silence in our household either, so I think he misses his cousin!

Saying goodbye at the airport

As some of you know I got a job at a childcare center here in Michigan teaching Preschool. I was lucky enough to find a center that also has an infant room, so Jackson started daycare a week after I started work. His room is just a few doors down from my room and he loves it! He already has some friends in his room that he likes to sit up and chat with, there are lots of new toys for him to play with and he loves his teachers! It makes it a lot easier on me to know that he is right down the hall and I can go check in on him whenever I have a free moment and can spend part of my lunch hour with him.

First day of daycare!

We also got to celebrate the 4th of July this month with Daddy! Jason has started his Intern year and we are adjusting to not having him around as much...we really don't like the 24 hour call shifts, but someone has to be at the hospital to save lives I guess. Jason was off for the 4th though so we were able to spend the day as a family. We started out our morning going to the 4th of July parade downtown. It was a really long parade so we only stayed for part of it because Jackson got really tired and it was getting super hot out. After our afternoon nap we spent some time at the park where they had a craft show and carnival set up. Obviously Jackson was too small for the carnival this year, but he had a lot of fun people watching...until he fell asleep there too.

At the parade with Mommy

Overall, Jackson is doing great. He has started to sleep through the night...however, when he hears Jason get up early to go to work he has to wake up and say goodbye which kind of stinks for me because then he wants to stay up and play for a bit. He's eating 6-8 oz with some bottles still Mommy's milk and some formula. We still love bath time and cuddle time. Our favorite books are a Pooh book that Grandma Kathy gave us that has likes and sings, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (thank you Aunt Angie and Aunt Katherine for the copies of those), and Little Blue Truck (I found there's a second one of it so I am going to have to buy that one too I think!).

 

5 months old

Things to look forward to this month: Daycare Physical, more Daycare and cuddle time with Mommy (wow July might be our slow month!)

Lessons From A New Mama

So this last month Jason and I had the wonderful opportunity to travel with Jackson. I say this with a lot of sarcasm! Traveling with a baby is hard. I'm sure that as he grows up and gets more active and mobile it  will present a whole new world of travel challenges, but for now this is what we ran into...

1)  I know that it's hard because you want to make time to see all your family and friends, or you have events that you need to get to, but you have to try to stay on a sleep schedule. Although the times of naps may change a little try to get in your normal number of naps and try to keep them as close to their normal time as possible, otherwise your "vacation" will become a lot of work. We had the lovely task of changing time zones, so we will see what happens to our schedule when we head back to Michigan.

We were lucky both grandparents had cribs for us to use!

2) I don't know about you guys, but I have a hard enough time packing for myself let alone a little one, so my advice on this one...pack everything because you just don't know what you are going to need. I think on this two week journey Jackson had about 15 outfits, a whole box of diapers, all of his swaddles, a boat load of toys and pacifiers. I even brought my own tub to wash my bottles, my bottle brush and even my own dish soap. I know my mother-in-law and mom would have a lot of these things waiting for me back in South Dakota and they don't care if I use their items or not, but I just felt like I needed them.

3) Depending on where you are going will determine what outfits you need to bring, and then pack a few more hehe. We recently went to a wedding on Iowa and I had packed three outfit choices for just that day. I did not know what the weather was going to be like...the Midwest can be so unpredictable so he had one for nearly any weather type day. Also packing a variety of outfits ensures that if you do run into any weather problems you don't have to run out at buy something new!

4) Try to drive during the night or at least nap time. A few of our friends said that they traveled this way and I always thought they were crazy! Now being a parent I see how brilliant it is. Jackson's sleep schedule is something very precious to me and I will do almost anything to not mess it up. So, when we ha a long drive to Missouri or recently to Iowa we drove through the night to avoid any sleep time troubles.

Night time driving!

5) This one is a big one! Have extra diapers!! Jason and I were leaving his graduation and heading back to South Dakota and we were just cruising along when Jackson starts to make the poop face. I look in my diaper bag no diapers..they are in my parents truck. "Recalculating" goes the Garmin so we can find a grocery store and buy diapers so I can change our stinky man. Needless to say we now keep two spare diapers in my glove box just in case we run into another shortage.