Where's Jon?

Jon has started to understand the concept of peek-a-boo! I think this game is taking a break while Jon tries to stuff both fists and the burp cloth in his mouth : )

Silly me!

I thought I would share this funny moment from my day : ) Below is a picture of my notepad after a conference call meeting. It was obviously important that I get information from someone; my brain just neglected to write down the name of the actual person I needed to contact! Thankfully I remembered who the 'her' was. Does this happen to any of you??

Lay off me, I'm starving!!!

Thank you, Chris Farley...

I have enrolled in Weight Watchers through work again. I did this about 3 years ago and lost about 15 pounds. Alas, in the years I have been off of the program, I gained all that weight back. I'm almost back to pre-pregnancy weight, and I did have to get new jeans on Saturday because my first pair of post-pregnancy jeans were too big, which I'm pretty pleased with. Those jeans were the first (and hopefully only) pair of size 16 anything I have purchased, and it was no fun : ( Jonathan tells me that I shouldn't let numbers bother me, but they do... I am still overweight according to my BMI, so I thought Weight Watchers program would help get me healthy. My first meeting was last Friday, which also happened to be my 5th wedding anniversary. Let's just say that I used all of my extra points for the whole week at dinner that night! But who is going to pass up a delicious meal at a fancy restaurant with the sweetest guy in the whole world? Oh, and throw in a bottle of Malbec with that! So now I'm really on the program, and I'm in the stage where I feel hungry ALL THE TIME! I just have to train my body to eat a healthy number of calories a day. And don't worry - since I'm still breastfeeding, my caloric intake goals keep that in mind. I'll try to keep the blog updated each Friday with weight loss updates. Losing 18 pounds will get me to a healthy BMI, so that's my goal!

Congratulations, Dr. Hulgan!

Jonathan received his PhD on May 8th! Congratulations on completing six years of hard work, sweetheart :) I am so proud of you!

Disneyworld!

We are not very good at remembering to take pictures, so this is pretty much all we have from Disneyworld. Don't worry, with both sets of grandparents, two great-grandparents, and an aunt along for the trip there are plenty of pictures for posterity! Disneyworld was tiring and fun : ) I don't necessarily recommend it with an infant, but this vacation was planned long before Jon was planned... Jon spent his time either looking around confused or asleep! He did smile and coo and keep his relatives entertained : ) He also enjoyed his first pool time!

Growing up

Baby Jon is now 4 months old! While 4 months is not a very long time, it has been amazing to see our little boy grow up. He has a very sweet personality and is such a joy in our family! He greets me every morning with a big grin and ends every day with a cuddle before I put him down to bed. The child has his moments, don't get me wrong, but he is a very good baby!

Here are some updates:

Eating - Jon has a pretty solid routine of 5am, 9am, 1pm, 5pm and 8pm feedings. We've introduced rice cereal at his 1pm feeding a couple of times, but I don't actually think Jon has swallowed any of it! He just grimaces, gums it a bit, and then spits it out.

Sleeping - (after rereading this, you will probably only care about this if you are the parent of an infant) Naps are getting better, although he still doesn't like them too much. Most of the time, he'll cry for about 5-10 minutes when we put him down and then fall asleep. Last week, Jon started sleeping later in the morning, and there were a few days when I woke him up at 6am so that I could feed him and get ready for work. So, this weekend, we decided to just let him sleep until he woke himself up, thinking that we might have hit the magical 12 hour sleep schedule. He amazingly slept until 7am Saturday morning - longer than he's ever gone! Of course, this completely messed up my plans to run Saturday morning.... So we adjusted his feeding schedule according to this new wake up time, and I thought how great it might be to have him eat at 7, 11, 3, and 7 instead of his current schedule. Well...he woke up at 4:30 this morning and would not settle back down to sleep. I can't remember the last time he woke up that early! So, I don't think he's ready to extend his night sleeping just yet, and I need to be content with his 8:30pm to 5am night right now.

New skills - Jon is a rolling machine! He rolled over from back to front for the first time on May 22nd and from front to back on May 26th. He has much more trouble rolling from front to back, and he gets frustrated when he can't do it, but he is getting better every day. He can pick up soft blocks with both hands, but hasn't really started grabbing all that much. He chews on everything! If he is sitting in my lap, he'll grab one of my fingers and stick it in his mouth. He is successfully sitting in his high chair and restaurant high chairs, although he still kind of sways from side to side. He has found his feet and often does the happy baby yoga pose while getting his diaper changed. Jon scoots a bit in addition to rolling, so we are going to have to switch into babyproofing mode : (

Favorites - Jon loves his jumparoo! He does not seem to get tired of bouncing up and down in it, and he has started playing with some of the toys on it. He loves squirming...especially at diaper change time. Of course Jon loves his daddy! He will look for Jonathan when he is not in the room, and his whole face lights up when he catches a glimpse of Jonathan. Although I miss him when I am at work, I am so glad that Jon and Jonathan have this special time together. Jon loves to giggle, laugh and smile, which we are of course enjoying! And his all time favorite thing may be his train mobile above his crib. He gets a huge smile on his face when he sees it, and he has long, deep conversations with that train : )

Stats: Height - 27.5 inches (97th percentile), Weight 15.14 pounds (83rd percentile), HC - 43.5 cms (96th percentile)

Here are some pictures to show how far Jon has come in the past four months:

First bath at home at4 days old: Screaming his head off

Bath at 4 months old: Cool as a cucumber! We imagine he would pop open a cold one if he was legal.

First tummy time at 5 days old: What am I supposed to be doing?

Enjoying rolling around and scooting at 4 months old: How did I get half my body under the coffee table?

Top questions a new mother answers...

I know I am so incredibly overdue on a Jon post, but I don't have access to pictures right this moment. I will post pictures of him soon!

In the meantime, I thought I would share the questions that I answer multiple times each week. Sometimes asked by friends, sometimes by complete strangers. I was amazed at what people asked when I was pregnant, and I have learned that the questions don't stop when you have the baby : ) I don't mind answering these questions for friends and family members, but the folks at the grocery store are a bit much!

1. How old is your baby?
Followed by... Wow! He's big! This is what happens when your kid is in the 97th percentile for height and the 85th percentile for weight.

2. Are you nursing/breastfeeding?
I am still shocked that people ask this question - it seems so private. When I answer yes, the questioner usually sighs a big sigh of relief and says "Oh good." What would they say if I was not breast feeding??

3. Are you working?
This is usually said with a furrowed brow. I respond that I've been back at work since buddy was 8 weeks old and it is going great!

4. Who is watching the baby while you are at work?
This is also usually said with a furrowed brow, and then a sigh of relief when I report that my husband is watching the baby while searching for a job. Again, what would people say if the little guy was in daycare?

5. What are those spots?
This is usually asked by the under 6 crowd...or at work by the under 18 crowd. It is lovely hormonal acne that started when I became pregnant and probably won't go away until I stop breast feeding and go on some pretty severe medication. I tell Jon every day that he is worth it, although I will be very glad when my skin stops looking like I have a disease.

6. Was he planned?
Yes...yes, I have been asked this question. By someone I just met : ) Oh well...yes, our little blessing was planned as much as we could plan for him. Although I could never have planned for the amount my heart grew when he came into our family!