2 Month Well Baby Visit & Other News

James went for his two month check up today. He got a great report and showed off his smile for the doctor. Of course, he did not enjoy his four shots but was a pretty good sport. James is now 10 weeks old. He weighs 13 lbs 13 oz and is 26 inches long. This puts him at the 90th percentile for weight and he is off the charts for length. What a big boy! I must confess we are not sure where this impressive height is coming from. My mom says that she had some pretty tall family members and my granddaddy was tall. Who knows if it'll stick! We often laugh about his big noggin which also measured in at the 90th percentile. He just has a big brain in there! :-)

The last few weeks have been wonderful. James is SOOO smiley and happy. He will "talk" to anyone who will listen including the animals on his mobile and play mat. I could just look at him all day. He is so cute and cuddly!

Last weekend Granddaddy came for a visit. Nana was at a quilt retreat with her best friend Alice. We loved seeing my dad interact with James. It was really precious. I got a kick out of seeing this super soft side of my dad come out. It gave me a peek into how my dad must have been with me as a baby. Granddaddy watched James Sat. night and Daniel and I went to dinner and a movie. It was nice to have a date night. We will be going to Houston in a few weeks and Nana can't wait to see James again. She really missed getting to see him this last time.

The other big news from this week is that James went to his sitter Maria for the first time. It was a positive experience. I dropped him off and he stayed for an hour. I am going to take him one day a week until I have to go back to work and build up the time so that it is not such a shock for him (ok, for me!) when I have to return to work. I have one month before I return to work. Maria was great with him and I know he will be in good hands.

We will post more soon!

Slept Through the Night!

Today is a big day for us! James went to bed at 8pm last night and woke up at 7am this morning! I woke up at his normal time to eat during the night, but he was just sleeping away. I couldn't believe it! I hope tonight is a repeat of last night. It was so nice to get a good night's sleep.

James is doing just great. He is almost 9 weeks old and in the last week or so his personality has really emerged. He smiles a lot, coos at us and is starting to mellow out. His colic is starting to improve. He is finally big enough to sit upright in his Bumbo chair and loves to look around. He is also really enjoying watching "Baby Mozart" from Baby Einstein. I get a kick out of seeing how mesmerized he is by the music and the colorful images on the screen. He loves it so much I went on Ebay and got him a 25 disc Baby Einstein collection!

James had a wonderful day on Sunday. At church he was "talking" and cuddling with the nurery worker. When we brought him into the sanctuary at communion to receive a blessing, he was wide awake and he looked all around. Then we went to the grocery store where he was very alert and calm. Later in the day we went to visit the Merrill's and had a good time there too.

Yesterday afternoon after he had his bottle he was very happy. He hung out in his high chair (it reclines) while I made dinner. I was able to snap a picture of him smiling - the first one! We'll post again soon...

First Laugh? We hope so!

Ok, Jessica...this blog is for you! Lots to report! James is just growing so fast and becoming so incredibly alert. He enjoys looking at his rattle and other toys and being read books. A package came from Grandma and Grandpa Duffy full of new books and a Paddington Bear. We stood Paddington up on the kitchen table and James reclined in his high chair and just stared at his new friend for the longest time.

James is seven weeks old today and is just the center of our lives. Seven weeks old already.....wow! How time flies! I still have seven weeks of maternity leave left and I am looking forward to watching all the growing he will be doing. I wish I could just memorize how he feels in my arms because I have never felt so happy or complete. I know I will miss these days. I am so happy that I decided to take FMLA to spend extra time with him. I just can't imagine missing these special moments.

We have been on a lot more outings lately since it is getting a little easier to get out of the house with James. We have been to eat lunch with Daniel a few times, to Target, out to eat on the weekends, to visit the Merrills, to the doctor for check ups, to a Superbowl party at the Collazo's and even to school for a luncheon.I also took James out for a long walk in his stroller when we had a warm day. We went back to church for the first time last Sunday and James was great. He received a blessing at the altar during the Eucharist. Father Crary wants to baptize him on Easter Sunday so we are getting that arranged. We are going down to Houston in a couple of weeks to visit Nana and Granddaddy. Hopefully James will meet some more family members and friends for the first time.

On the homefront, the big news is that James has slept in is crib (instead of his bassinett) for the last two nights. He has woken up once during the night to feed, but other than that has slept peacfully in his own room. Although I miss having him so close, I must admit I have slept so much better. This morning I heard him making some noises on the monitor and I realized he was "talking". I went in to discover he was just cooing away to the zebra on his mobile. Priceless!

James has just been smiling away. Since his first smile two weeks ago, he is becoming a pro. He even smiled at his Auntie Kelli today when we went to Fidelity to have lunch with Daniel. We just can't get enough of his grin and his sweet cooing noises. He likes to have "conversations" where he says 'agaaa' and 'guh' and waits for us to make the same noise back at him. Then he repeats the noise and smiles and smiles. Tonight the three of us were cuddled up on the couch to watch Lost. We thought James was ready to doze off, but he wanted to talk. So we were just engaging him and all of a sudden we heard a laugh....at least that is what we think it was! It was adorable and we can't wait to catch another one.

Well, off to bed. We have a big day tomorrow - visiting Kelli, Joe and Jack and going out to dinner. We will post more soon!

First Smile and Other News

James showed off his dimples when he smiled for the first time on January 24. He was exactly 5 weeks old. It was in the evening and Daniel was holding him. Daniel was making funny faces and sounds and tickling James' cheeks and chin and then all of a sudden there it was...... a huge grin! I was standing about two feet away so of course I went right over to see. It was just awesome! Daniel got a few more grins out of him that night so I was able to see them. Over the next few days James gave us some more smiles and we even caught a goofy one on film. Unfortunately we took that picture with my mom's camera and are not able to post it on here, but we will be trying to capture another grin in the next few days. It is so cool to see James' responding to us and to his environment. All of a sudden he is so much more alert and we are having a great time playing with him!

Some other news:James recently had a well baby check up and got a good review. He weighed 10 lbs. 12 oz. and was 23 inches long. He was in the 75 - 90th percentile for both weight and length. His head circumference measured 16 inches...that was in the 90-95th percentile. He takes after his daddy!

Nana and Granddaddy came up from Houston to visit this past weekend. Nana and Granddaddy watched James Friday night so that we could go out to dinner and a movie. It was nice to be out of the house but we sure did miss our little man! I don't think James was out of Nana's arms except to sleep at night. We got webcams to hook up so that James can see his grandparents and hear their voices in between visits. James had been having a difficult time with his reflux and also major baby gas. Nana showed me some things that helped him to feel much, much better. She was just what the doctor ordered! All in all, James had a wonderful weekend. And we just had a blast being with him!

4 Weeks Old Today

It's hard to believe that it has been four weeks since we were in the hospital welcoming our little man to the world! I know it sounds cliche, but it seems like just yesterday that James joined our family. Every last detail of his birthday is etched permanently into my memory. But on the other hand, it is hard to remember what our lives were like before our son.

The last four weeks have been really incredible and I have learned more about myself, what I am capable of, and what really matters than in any other time in my life. The first two and a half weeks were very rough, but slowly we have settled into life with baby. I finally feel better from being so sick and that has helped. James was diagnosed with reflux and is now on medication. We are also feeding him more and not following so strictly what the pediatrician's office said. You could say we are following our intution, reading our baby's clues and trusting our gut. James is much happier now! My good friend Kelli shared a book with me called "Secrets of the Baby Whisperer". It is not an exageration to say that the combination of the hints in that book and the supportive guidance of my mom and Kelli have helped me get through my initial insecurities and feelings of inadequacy that I was experiencing. I am getting the hang of this mom thing and having a blast! It is what I was born to do! Daniel just setteld into fatherhood without missing a beat and is helping out tremendously. He is working lots of overtime so that I am able to stay home until late March. I am very lucky to have such a wonderful husband and James is very lucky to have such a great dad!

James is awake a lot and enjoys laying on his play gym, being rocked, hanging out in his swing, watching music videos with his dad and listening to my horrible singing. He really likes "I Shot the Sherrif" by Eric Clapton (believe it or not). Sometimes I run out of baby songs. He has been smiling in his sleep a lot and I am pretty sure he smiled at me the other day. He cooed for the first time tonight. We can't wait for him to laugh and to hear his sweet voice. My friend Nell took his pictures a couple of weeks ago and he looks like a baby model. We have worked with Nell and her friend who is a graphic desginer to create original and unique birth announcements. We look forward to getting them and mailing them out soon. Nana and Granddaddy are coming up this weekend and we are really excited to see them. We will post again soon!