Giggling video

Here's a video to go with the 2 month post below. Sorry about the bad angle... I was holding the video camera up with my shoulder.

Jack giggling from Stephanie Powell on Vimeo.

Jack is 2 months old!

Jack has changed so much again! We're starting to really be able to "play" with him. Here is a bullet list of what he's up to right now. This may be the only time with 2 kids that I get the monthly post done ahead of schedule (1 day early!). He is a sweet, easy baby as long as he is fed on time, burped, and put to sleep on time :) We love our Baaaybeee Gak!

At 2 months, Jack:

-wears mostly 3-6 month clothes (the 0-3 are just too tight with the diaper and difficult to get on) and I'm guessing that he weighs around 12 lbs. His 2 month appointment is later this week.
-goes to bed around 7 and wakes between 7:15 and 7:30. eats once during the night, usually around 4 am. I swaddle him with the miracle blanket and that has helped him take longer naps in his crib. His longest stretch of sleep has been 10 hours, but he usually does more like 9. The last time he woke up more than once at night was during his 6 week growth spurt.
-takes 3 longish naps during the day and one short catnap in the evening. Naps at home are in the crib (and he sleeps best in his room... does not sleep well anywhere else in the house. If we are out, he will sleep in his car seat, but not guaranteed to sleep for a full nap. Sometimes at home he will also wake up early (called the 45 minute intruder) but I can usually get him to go back to sleep as long as there are no distractions (read: as long as Elise is also sleeping).
-is still an excellent nurser and we're at a very easy stage because he is efficient and I rarely have to wake him to finish eating. He also won't nurse unless he is hungry (read: doesn't try to use me as a pacifier), which is ideal except for the occasional time where I would like for it to put him to sleep! We have the Dr. Brown's bottles and he likes them, but in the time it takes me to thaw milk and put the bottle together, I could be almost done nursing him, so we just stick to that unless I'm leaving him with someone.

-has the eat/wake/sleep thing down
-is still a little stubborn when it comes to burping, but this is getting way better
-deliberately touches/hits objects instead of just randomly batting at them
-likes looking at people and smiling back and forth with them
-has started giggling, especially at the pat-a-cake game
-likes to ride in the Beco carrier, which is GREAT
-still uses the cloth diapers on the lowest setting. They are also fantastic. I have been using a disposable on him for the long stretch of sleep and will probably continue to do so.
-isn't crazy about trying to do anything while on his tummy (other than chew on his hands). he isn't unhappy on his tummy unless it is too close to nap time.

Here's a sample schedule:
7:15/7:30 - wake up, eat, change diaper/clothes, play
8:45ish - nap (usually this one is in the car seat because we often have activities/errands in the morning)
10:15 - eat, change diaper, play
11:30ish - nap
1:00 - eat, change diaper, play
2:00ish - nap
3:45 - eat, change diaper, play
5:00ish - short nap, usually not in crib because I don't want him to sleep for a long time
6:30 - eat, in bed by 7:00

(plus the 4:00ish middle of the night feeding... Elise started sleeping 12 hours a few days after she turned 2 months old, so we'll see what happens with this little guy!)

Mike has been gone for the last 2 weeks and we haven't been able to communicate with him, so I am very anxious for him to see how much Jack has changed in that short amount of time. We've got one more week to go. I'm very thankful for the company and extra sets of hands that have come to visit us! Here are a few pictures. My sister-in-law, Michelle, is a photographer and took some really cute ones of the kids while she was here. I will be sure to post them when I get them!

In this one you can kind of see his "curls"... his hair gets a lot of them after every bath!

If you have a lot of extra time on your hands, you can check out my inaugural post... Elise's 2 month update!

Funny video

I have a lot of videos that I haven't gotten around to posting, so here is the first one! Enjoy.

Untitled from Stephanie Powell on Vimeo.

7 weeks

Notice the smile on Jack's face... I love my boys!

29 months!

I can't believe that we almost have a 2 1/2 year old! This post will be brief but at least it will be relatively on time. We've had a good month. She's finally adjusted to Baaaaybee Gak's permanent status in our home and is in a good mood most of the time. Of course, we still have moments where we are reminded that she is, in fact, a 2 year old, but most of the time, she's great.

Stats: She's just over 36 inches and 30 lbs. She still wears the same size 8 shoes that she wore last summer! She wears mostly 3T clothes, with a few 2T and 4T mixed in.

Sleeping: She sleeps for roughly 12 hours at night (about 7:30-7:30) and takes a 2-2.5 hour nap during the day. She is back to going down very easily for naps and bedtime (it took a few weeks after Jack's arrival for this to come back).

Eating: She still eats very well... nothing has really changed in this department.

Playing: She still loves jigsaw puzzles and can now do her 12 piece puzzles without assistance. She loves to do this while I am nursing, which works really well. She also loves playing with her dolls and stuffed animals. Somehow, they seem to find their way into the swing, bouncer, car seat, play mat, and crib. She enjoys playing with her duplos and really likes to pretend. She carries on a lot of one-sided conversations with her dolls, animals, duplo people, and Baby Jack, of course. She plays well independently, probably the best that she has since we moved here in November.

Potty: I'm so thankful that she is potty trained, but the hardest part is using public bathrooms when I have the two of them by myself. We get the job done, though. She's done a great job and has had zero accidents aside from a few during nap time. She does wear a diaper at night, and our best guess is that she pees once during the night (like you really care, sorry!) because she goes within the first hour of waking up.

Challenges: It is usually a challenge to wash hands, brush teeth, and change clothes. We are constantly trying to be creative to entice her to be "cooperative". Hopefully we will make some progress on that during this month.

Funny sayings:

(handing me her toy phone)

E: "It's for you, Steph! It's Pop!"

E: "My vitamin fell down."

Me: "Where is it?"

E: "It fell on floor."

E: (with a soft perplexed voice) "I might have given it to Boss?"

E: "What are you doing Daddy?"

Mike: "I'm cleaning the kitchen."

E: "Who's coming over?"

(on the monitor while she was rolling around in her crib)

E: "The ceiling is all OVER the place!"

We joke that Elise has a potty mouth because she is always talking about the potty and her related functions. She is still very proud of her potty skills and likes to brag that she kept her panties dry (and give the status of everyone else's undergarments).

E: "I kept my panties dry. Mommy kept her panties dry. Daddy kept his underwear dry. Boss kept his fur dry (she came up with this on her own). Baby Jack did NOT keep his diaper dry!"

A few pics

5 weeks

Serious little mama...

Holding "Baaaaybee Gak" with the help of the Boppy pillow

And that's all I have time for! I'm trying to learn the art of going to bed earlier and it isn't quite working. Mike is in Baltimore until tomorrow and it is a little hectic being outnumbered. I'm so thankful that he isn't deploying again while E and J are young. The last few days have been successful though... he found a great house for us to rent and I got both kids fed, bathed and in bed before 8!

Jack is 1 month old!

We had a great first month with "Baby Gak". Elise is hilarious and talks to him in a baby voice. I'll have to upload some video of the two of them sometime soon.

Stats: He had a doctor's appointment on Wednesday and weighed almost 10 lbs, so I'm sure he's a little over 10 lbs right now (2.5 lbs over his birth weight). He is about 22 inches long (1.5 inches over his birth length). I packed up his newborn clothes about a week ago, and he's been wearing 0-3 month or 3 month clothes, depending on the brand.

Diapers: I switched to cloth diapers exclusively about 2 weeks ago because we were having poop and pee leakage issues, and they've been great! I highly recommend the Bummis Tot Bots Easy Fit diapers. They will fit a toddler (Elise is about 36 inches and 30 lbs) and a baby. I think Jack was close to 9 lbs when we started using them. They are easy enough for any random person to correctly changethe diaper, and all you have to do is throw them in the laundry every other day. It is way easier than washing poop stains out of clothes and car seats! Mike and I are both very pleased with them. I've even had success with them at night, though I imagine once Jack is sleeping 12 hours, he will need a disposable at night. I change him at every feeding. He wears size 1 in a disposable.

Eating: He has started to establish a fairly predictable schedule...most of the time, he eats within 15 minutes of these times (and always RIGHT when we are about to eat dinner)

8 am, 10:45 am, 1:30 pm, 4:00 pm, 6 pm, 8 pm (and 1-2 times at night). He is still a great nurser, so much so that we rarely give him a bottle because it is a hassle (and he sleeps the same whether he has a bottle before bed or not). I have been pumping one side after his morning feeding, but I don't see much of a point in storing up milk when we're going to be moving at the end of July. I do want to make sure that he has a bottle often enough that I know he will take one if necessary, so he gets a few ounces every few days.

Sleeping: He's usually asleep for the night between 8:30-9 pm. Last night, he woke up at 4:30 am to eat and went right back to sleep. That is the longest stretch that he has slept in his crib, though he has done 7-8 hours in his bouncer several times since he was 1 week old. I no longer let him sleep in his bouncer at night, though he does sleep in it sometimes during the day. He has always slept well at night.

Naps are another story. I try to follow Babywise but it is a lot harder to do with two kids! Sometimes, I'll have to give him a feeding in two different sittings because I also need to do something with Elise, like put her down for a nap, take her to the potty, fix a meal, get her up from a nap, etc. We almost always go somewhere in the morning, so he takes his first nap in the car seat. The rest of the day is a challenge for me to get him down without nursing him to sleep or bouncing him to sleep. I usually have to try several times before he will actually stay asleep. I think I might be keeping him up too long for his waketime. I am trying to decide if it is worth the space and money to invest in a swing. Elise hated them so we never got one for her, but she was easy to put down from an early age. Thoughts? It is just hard for me to devote a lot of time to getting him down for a nap while she is awake.

Playtime: We alternate between the play mat, bouncer, someone's arms, and floor while he is awake. He doesn't mind tummy time but he doesn't do much either. He's started smiling responsively, cooing, and tracking us across the room this week.

We love this little guy and are so thankful to be a family of four!

3 weeks

4 weeks