Saturday night fun!

We had a fun night tonight out as a family. Our friends Tara, Danny and Colton (Jackson's partner in crime) invited us to dinner for a gourmet "build a burger" night at the club where they are members. This is the place that we have thought about joining as well so it was nice to check it out and it is literally across the street from our house, so it could not have been easier! We enjoyed a nice dinner indoors in the grill room over looking the pool (it was air conditioned but it was still pretty hot from people coming and going in and out so much and the intense heat of the day still baking off). The dinner was buffet style and included all kinds of great salads, and a buffet of items to make your own mini gourmet burgers and crabbie patties. They even had a baked potato and baked sweet potato bar with all kinds of toppings and fixings to mix together. We saw some other friends we knew while at dinner and Sarabeth was a doll to sleep in her stroller the whole time letting us enjoy dinner. After dinner when the boys could no longer sit still, we let them hit the big pool and play some of the pool games that were set up for the Saturday night family time at the pool. This is one of the nicest pools we have been to around town (we don't usually swim at public pools down here since we have one in our backyard, but again, this one is really big and nice for kids as the entire area is gated. It is also nice for adults to sit by as it is right on the intracoastal waterway so you can watch boats go by and take in the great sights, sounds and smells while sitting by the pool. Jackson and Colton played really well together, here are some pictures from our fun low key Saturday night! This is Florida living at its best in the summer time!!!

p.s. for the second night in a row, Jon and I had both kids bathed, and sound asleep, each in their own rooms and beds BEFORE 9:30 pm...now THAT is an accomplishment for a household with a three year old and an 8 week old, lets hope this trend continues!!!

8 week appointment

We had our 8 week appointment THursday morning. Sarabeth is 10 pounds, 13 ounces (I was not far off as I had guessed she was between 10.5-11 pounds based on how she is sleeping) and she was 22 inches long, head size was 14 inches (I think), that is the only one I cannot remember for sure. She continues to be 90th percentile in height and 50th percentile in weight which is good. She checked out healthy which was as always a huge relief. No heart murmurs, no hip clicks, no cradle cap, just a healthy smiling, cooing baby girl. She did NOT like the shots (and who would) here are some pictures of her bandaged little legs and a few of us swimming in the pool later that night! She continues to love both the pool and the bath.

rough day

Poor Sarabeth had a rough day today. Probably her first rough day since she's been born, as she is generally a very easy going happy baby. She spent about 5 hours at school today as a trial run to get ready for next week and while she slept for them just fine and even slept in the crib without issue (something Jack would never do in the beginning), she absolutely REFUSED to take the bottle from her teachers. I fed her last at 9:15 or so and I dropped her there and left around 10:45 after dropping off her supplies and going over her routine with the teachers. I got back there around 3:30 and the poor thing was being rocked but was just crying and would not even take the paci she was so upset. They said she had played and smiled and cooed and slept but when it came to eating, it was a struggle.

As soon as she heard my voice she stopped crying instantly and relaxed in my arms. I took her in the back of the baby room where there was a rocker for nursing and of course she ate like a champ for me since there were no bottles involved, and even gave a few pathetic whimpers in between, lip out and all. Break my heart already!! We are going to practice more with the bottle this weekend and hope for the best, she's got to eat during the days and she had been doing so well with this. She only recently began to fight the bottles in the evenings. Ugh. The life of a working mom. When we got home she nursed several more times trying to catch up from the day of self imposed fasting and now she is down for a nap, the day wore her out pretty well. Lets all hope that next week goes a bit better as she continues to adjust to our new routine. I will post some pictures next week of her official "first day" on Monday.

We're in for another very hot weekend here so likely we'll be inside quite a bit. We'll swim and hit the beach early in the day and again in the early evening when the sun is not so strong and hot. We've been invited to go to a pool side dinner with friends at a club in town tomorrow night so that should be fun but other than that, we'll be around the house bracing ourselves for next week and my return to work! Jon and I are making a lot of progress in organizing the house and purging our closets and drawers of things we don't need/use anymore. That is a very good feeling!! I've also made a lot of progress on my photo album project in getting photos printed and organized from 2010 and 2011. We continue to work with poor Jack on the pooping on the potty..we're getting closer and have had some close near misses, but we are continuing to work with him. One day at a time with that one....happy weekend everyone!!

pictures from our playdate today

Today I went to my friend Melissa's house and met up with her, and our other friends Erin and Angela. Melissa had Hope on May 13th, Erin had Hayden on May 21st, Sweet Sarabeth was born on June 2nd, and Angela had Austin on June 25th. Hope is 10.5 weeks, Hayden is 9.5 weeks, Sarabeth is 7.5 weeks, and Austin is 4 weeks in these photos.

The mommies enjoyed lunch (I made a great tossed salad, Melissa made chicken salad, Angela made fruit salad and Erin brought cookies for the toddlers that were playing (Lola, Hunter and Jackson are all within a few weeks of each other in age) so it was a pretty crazy afternoon. Jack was at school but Lola and Hunter were there playing. Here is a picture of us at our shower, all pregnant, and the rest are from the playdate today!!

more pics

here are a few more from our little photo shoot yesterday...I need to get my good lens out since I have a subject that sits still (mostly) again!!

honest Abe

With turning 3 Jackson has become "Honest Abe" around our house. He will tell you if you look fat, bad, sad, mad, happy, if something is funny, and yes, he will even tell you if you smell followed by "ewwww".

I have been taking showers at night lately since I just don't seem to even get one otherwise right now. So, by the following evening, I'm sure I don't smell great, and I take my shower right after he goes to bed so he gets me at the absolute WORST and likely smelliest time. Last night I walked about 3 miles outside prior to his bedtime. Jon was inside with him struggling (still) to get him to poop on the toilet (no success yet but we are trying hard). When I came in I put the baby to bed and then it was time to put him to bed. I tried to give him a hug and tell him that we love him but that he has GOT to poop on the potty and be a big boy and mid-hug and sentence he interrupted me and said "wait, what's that smell mommy"!!! Jon started laughing and I could not help but laugh too. Sorry Jackson, life is so crazy right now, you're lucky I'm giving you one on one time and putting you to bed, geez!!

With that story, I will leave you with some pictures I captured of sweet Sarabeth yesterday...she does not mind if I smell, she just wants to nurse...she is growing so much!!!

weekend re-cap and last week of maternity leave (already)!!

It was a low key weekend around our house (the first in many weeks) which was nice but it was SO hot outside, that it was like winter up north, we were pretty much stuck in the house to avoid the extreme heat. Our temps were in the upper 90's with heat indexes both days near 110....now that is HOT. Saturday we just relaxed at home and Saturday night Sarabeth and I went to a birthday party for one of my JLIR friends at another friend's house and Jon and Jackson went to see the new Cars 2 Movie. Sb and I had a great time at the party, everyone oohed and aahed over her and her soon to be BFF, baby Hope (my friend Melissa's baby who is the same age)! I forgot how EASY it is to attend an adult gathering with an infant vs. with a toddler!! Sunday we ventured out early for a family outing to our local fountain park (got there and the camera batteries were dead so all pics are on facebook or on my cell phone camera, and i have not figured out how to upload them yet so will share those here later). Jackson loved running through the fountains that go up and down randomly with the other kids (and he even got me to go through it cover up and all at the end, I was soaked and he thought it was hilarious) and SB hung out with either me or Jon in the shade while Jack played. The park is right along our intracoastal waterway so it is a really pretty spot with a nice breeze and a view of the Sunday boaters going by. It made us wish we were on our boat but then it was just so hot. We only lasted about an hour before we headed back home to get OUT of the heat and make some lunch. The rest of the day was spent doing tasks around the house. I am cleaning out closets and trying to get us organized. I am also trying to get photos into albums and labeled from the past year, yikes. That is a daunting task but I want to get it done this week becuase it is my LAST week of maternity leave, double yikes!

I do feel ready to go back to work, although like any new mother, I'm not keen on leaving the baby. It will be better this time since I already know and trust the people who will be caring for her but I'm not going so far as to say I will be brave enough and have a stiff enough upper lip to drop her off the first day. JOn will definitely have to do that for me!! Thank goodness he is better at handling that stuff than I am right now. I need to just survive the first week back to work and showing up in tears will not help. I'm trying not to think about that and just to focus on what I need to do and that includes trying on lots of clothes this week to put some outfits together that are professional, comfortable, and will allow me to easily pump in my office, that is no small feat so along with the picture project, I will be organizing my wardrobe this week, doesn't that sound fun...not....but I must do it!

SB continues to be an amazing little baby. SHe slept for 7.5 hours straight last night...went down in her own bed at 9:30 and woke at 5:15...that is unbelievable for 7 weeks, she really is an angel baby. She has consistently been sleeping for at least 6 hour stretches for a week now so I think this is her routine. She goes down now between 9:30-10:30 each night and then wakes ususally sometime between 4 and 5 am and then goes back to sleep for about 2-3 more hours, wakes to eat and then is up for a bit and then snoozes again for a few hours. On lucky days for me (like yesterday) she lays back down with me around 7 and we sleep together in my room for a few more hours...this will definitely become a weekend routine for extra sleep and snuggle time once I go back to work!! I am so thankful that Jon gets up with Jackson on these days and lets me catch up on sleep and snuggle time with her on these mornings. There really is nothing better than having a happy, healthy little baby in the house again!! We see the doctor again on Thursday for her 8 week appointment so I will update on her stats again then. I'm guessing she is 10.5-11 pounds or so now based on how well she is starting to sleep.

Here are some recent pictures, hope everyone has a great week!!

first swim and update on sleeping

Here are some pictures of Sarabeth's first swim. We had a really nice breezy, clear bug free and rain free night the other day so we took the opportunity to take a family swim, our first as a family of 4! Sarabeth loves the bath so I knew she would like the pool, and the proof is in the pictures...thanks to the Sherman family for her cute bathing suit:)

In other news, she is doing great sleeping in her own room and napping there now too!! The first night she slept 5 hours straight in her crib and did not wake me until 3:30. I woke a few times before that because I was paranoid the monitor would not work right and I would not hear her but when she did wake, I heard her and it worked just fine. She did not want to settle back into sleep in the crib after she was up to nurse so she ended up in bed with me which was not ideal as I don't sleep good that way but some sleep is better than none so that is what we did. Last night was much better though! She went down at 10:30 and did not wake until 4:30 am. I only woke once before her to check on her as it had been so long, I could not believe she slept for 6 hours straight! I checked on her at 3:15 am and then went back to bed until she woke me to feed her. I nursed her in the comfy rocking chair in her room and then changed her and put her back to bed and she slept soundly there until after 8am..unbelievable. I of course woke again at 6:45 and checked on her not believing my good fortune that she was still sleeping. Now if I can just relax and sleep straight through like she is starting to do, I will be one rested mama, and just in time to go back to work!!

first night in her room!!

This is a really quick post just so I don't forget that Sarabeth is officially sleeping in her room tonight for the first time at just shy of 7 weeks old! This is MAJOR progress for us as parents as it took us over 6 LONG months to accomplish the same thing with Mr. Jackson! I know every baby is different and she took right to sleeping flat on her back when Jack would only sleep in the swing but I am proud of us for having the confidence to let her sleep in her room at this point and to recognize that she will be fine and that we need our sleep too!! I still have the co-sleeper in my room in case she needs to move back with us at some point during the night but for now, she is sleeping in her crib perfectly. I had planned to keep her in our room for several more weeks or months at least but she is a very loud active sleeper and kept waking me up throughout the night. The slightest movement, wave of the arms, grunt, or sigh and I was awake checking on her, only to find a sleeping (loudly sleeping) infant and I have got to go back to work in less than two weeks so enough is enough.

We have our camera monitor up flipping every ten seconds between each child's room (both kids have a camera on the wall in each of their rooms) and the main base is next to my bedside so I can see and hear them both through one system, very cool, UNIDEN makes it and we ordered it on Amazon if anyone is interested!!

I also pumped for the first time tonight. I must say that it took me a few minutes to remember how all of the tubes and pieces connect but then it was just like riding a bike once I got started! I got 4 oz which is pretty good for the first go at this. I am hoping to pump each night now before bed to start to build up a reserve.

Here's to hoping we have a good night!!

and more pictures