Getting Bigger

I know I know!!! It has been a while, but work makes things so much harder. Jack seems to be progressing along well. He is holding his head up really well while both sitting and lying on his tummy. We have had no roll overs yet! I know that people say not to compare your kids to others, but it is hard. Jack shows signs of rolling from his back to his front, he gets 3/4 of the way there, but just doesn't go over. I know it will come. He has shown no signs at all of going from tummy to back. He just plays on his tummy and when he is done, he cries. I suppose that when he is finally motivated enough it will happen. We see his doctor next week and I will just her about it then. I am sure she will say not to worry about it. I will keep you posted.

We made it through the first cold...of course he got both Dustin and I sick. A friend of ours made a good point (I'm not sure it is very scientific), she said that we are not used to the kid germs and they are harder to fight off. It might be a long winter. We did not have to have any antibiotics but his nose was very congested and he hated having his boogers sucked out. I did call his doctor and she said they try to keep them off antibiotics if they can. She said to watch for fever and not eating or sleeping. He did not have any of these signs so it was just a little saline in the nose and then a good suck and the boogers came right out! Just a hint: If you want to get a good suck be sure to close one nostril when sucking the other. This keeps the boogers from just being sucked from side to side.

Here are a few short videos of how much he is growing and changing. The first one is a bath time video. After we are done with his bathing, I take him out of his chair, hold his head and let him float. He loves kicking his arms and legs in the water. He can create quite a splash!

The next video is a little giggling. We have had some better giggle fits, but this is the one we have on video.

This last video is just totally random! We were at home watching a Tennessee Titans football game and I needed the Titans to win for my football pool. I was just being silly and it seemed to make Jack very happy.

All and all things have been great here in Salt Lake City! We just love being Jack's parents!

Happy Halloween!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!! Jackson had a great Halloween...or at least I think he did. Dustin and I had fun having Halloween with little Jack. He was such a sweet little cow. I am pretty sure he was the cutest little cow ever!

The day before Halloween we went to a cookie party with my best friend Amy's family. Amy's nephew Michael and his wife Emily have a little boy, Will, who is 3 weeks younger than Jackson. He might look like he is older but he is not older, just bigger. He makes Jack look like a little midget. They made a great pair, the candy corn and the cow...BFF's!















On Halloween our little cow handed out candy to the kids that came to the house. We missed most of them because when we went out to walk Daisy and it seemed like all the kids were out and when we got home there were none. After handing out some candy we went visiting our friends and showing off our cute cow. We ended up at Amy's sister's house playing Rock Band. While you think it might be hard to play Rock Band with an infant it wasn't because we had Toni. Toni is Amy's sister and she took Jack into her room and cuddled him and loved him until we went home around midnight.

It was a good Halloween and we look froward to next year...he won't be able to do much trick or treating, maybe a house or two but he will probably be walking. I am definitely not ready for that yet!

Snow Suit

Since Jack was about 6 weeks old I have been taking him to Layton High School football games. My clinic covers all the injuries for Layton High. Jackson has gone to all but 2 of the games (both were before he was 6 weeks old) and he never fusses. He usually watches the first half and then sleeps the second half. It is the magic of the sling. A couple of weeks ago the temperature dropped and we actually got some snow...not at the game, but it was quite chilly. I found him a little snow suit which he could wear for walks in the winter, but it works perfectly for football games too. Have you ever seen anything so cute!!!

I Miss Him When I'm at Work

Well it was back to work this week. On Monday Dustin was off for Columbus Day so he stayed home with Jack. I worked a 4 hour day, but with the commute and paperwork Dad was home with the boy ALONE for 6 hours! They did just fine. I didn't do too bad either. It was much easier leaving him with Dustin. The 2 of them spent the day walking the dog and playing NCAA football on the play station. Jackson only had one melt down...and I learned a good lesson. Don't leave Dad to put on an outfit that you have never tried on the baby first. Dustin asked that I leave some clothes out for Jack and I picked this cute outfit. I have been slowly moving out his newborn clothes and adding in 3-6 month clothes. I had never put this outfit on Jack before and it was made of cotton, but not a very stretchy cotton. When Dustin was trying to put on a long sleeved shirt I don't know if he caught Jack's finger or twisted his arm funny, but apparently Jackson started screaming bloody murder. It took Dustin about 30 minutes to calm him down, but he did it all by himself without a call to mom. Yeah Dad!

Tuesday was a much harder day. I took Jackson to his school...I like to call it school, it makes me feel better than day care. These pictures are from his first day of school. The ladies that work there are very nice and they welcomed him with warm and open arms. I don't have any fears that they won't take care of him, it is just hard being away from him. I cried on my way to work, but was able to work the whole day without any tears. Dustin picked him up and the ladies said he was the only baby that day not to have a melt down. His favorite place was to sit in the bouncy chair. He ate his breast milk well and was happy when Dustin picked him up after work. It was a good first day at school.

The rest of the week continued to go well. I can't tell you how excited I am to get home from work every day. It actually gives me more energy and I feel no fatigue at the end of the day, of course the longest day I worked was 6 hours so we will see when that jumps up to a 9 hour day. Everyday gets a little easier and as long as he seems happy I am happy. Having Wednesdays off is great. We get to spend the whole day together, just like old times!

Back to Work

Ooooo I am so sad to be going back to work. I can't believe it is that time already. I was never one of those people who thought I could be a stay at home mom. While I don't think I could just stay home, I would like a few more months at home and then only a part time return to work. I am returning slowly, I am only working 4-5 hours a day for the first week and then slowly increasing until the first of November when I will then work 4/9 hour days. Tomorrow won't be too bad because it is Columbus Day and Dustin is off work. I'm not too worried about it, but Dustin is a little nervous because with the commute Dustin will be home with Jack 5-6 hours tomorrow. To date this is the most time he has spent alone with little Jack. He will do just fine, he is a great dad!

Jack is growing every day. Just last week he started noticing himself in the mirror we have in the car. When you put his car seat in and sees himself he smiles...it is so cute. He has also been more aware of the toys that are on his car seat as well as the ones that hang over him on the floor. He doesn't really play with them, but he purposefully bats them with his hands. He is talking all the time and smiles big at mom and dad. He smiles at other people too, just more smiles with some people than with others. He likes being read and sang to. I sing to him during his diaper changes and I have a different song I sing depending on which cartoon character is on his diaper...Dustin thinks I am crazy I think, but it makes Jackson smile and that is all that matters.

We had a good last weekend together. Yesterday was spent watching football and baseball. Grandpa Treanor and our friend Jared came over to watch the Ute game. I think grandpa had a great time with his grandson sleeping in his arms. It was a good day the Utes won and the Ducks won (and yes Chuck...even Texas won)! The Red Sox lost, but it makes for a little more exciting series...as long as they win in the end. Today Jack and I went to visit my friend Kelly and her kids and we are going to spend this evening with our friends Brad and Amy. To celebrate my last night of full time momdom we are actually going out for dinner...somewhere with metal forks!!! Hopefully all will go well and I will keep everyone posted on how many tears fall this first week leaving the most important thing in my life with strangers.

My Mom Tries Real Hard

I have decided to put together some information I have learned either through my own blunders, through others or from reading. I would like to continue to, every few months, keep this same title and add more nuggets of information as I continue to learn as a first time mom. I think I have taken Jack's temperature at least 100 times and I am always second guessing what I am doing, so this is to help other moms not feel alone in their paranoia. I do try very hard to do what is best, but I do make mistakes. The good news it that Jackson doesn't know the difference, at least not yet.

SHOTS--Prior to taking Jackson to get his shots, his doctor suggested I give him Infant Tylenol. I was reading Parent magazine and one of the articles suggested that following his shots to breast feed him to help soothe him. Both of these suggestions were very helpful and he came through his 8 week shots without too much distress. However, I did have one blunder. About 4-5 hours after his shots I put him in the bath. The nurse suggested that either moist heat with a wash cloth or a bath would help soothe his legs and that worked very well. It is part of our bath time routine to put lotion on after his bath...don't do that! The lotion stings at the injection sites and he just screamed. It did help to get a cold cloth and wipe the lotion off the injection sites, but it was a little trauma.

NO POOP--Apparently a baby can go for a couple days without pooping. Jack's doctor said that as long as he is peeing normally it is okay not to poop. She also said that anything from runny to very soft is normal.

CLOGGED MILK DUCTS--I have run into a problem of having clogged milk ducts. If you ever have clogged ducts you will know because your breast will hurt so bad! It aches and is sore to even the lightest touch like a really bad bruise. This can be rectified in 1-2 days by placing some heat on it. One thing I have found helps me is if I heat the sore area of my breast and then feed Jack. I did speak to my lactation specialist and she suggested taking lecithin. This is supposed to decrease the "stickiness" of the milk and prevent clogged ducts. She said to dose it as labeled on the bottle.

DECREASED MILK PRODUCTION--After my clogged ducts I did notice that my milk production had deceased and it was not bouncing back after about a week. My lactation specialist suggested taking Fenugreek and this seems to have helped a lot. She said to just follow the directions on the bottle and my production would come back in 1-2 weeks.

NAPPING--I was noticing in his napping routine that he was napping much longer and more soundly if I would hold him versus putting him in his bassinet. If I laid him in his bassinet he would only sleep for 15-30 minutes as compared to 1-2 hours if I held him. My concern with this is that when at day care there won't be someone to hold him for his entire nap. I asked his physician about it and she said that since he was going to day care that I should start practicing putting him down to sleep. She said that it was okay if he only had short naps because he would eventually get tired enough to sleep for longer times.

STUFFY NOSE--Here in Utah the air is very dry and Jackson was waking in the morning with a stuffy nose. It was not runny, but just a congestion...he snorted a lot. I called the doctor's office and they asked if he had a fever which he did not, they asked if he seemed uncomfortable or pulled at his ears and he did not. She felt that it could be just the dry air and suggested running a humidifier at night. In order to relieve the congestion they had me buy some saline drops and put a couple of drops in each nostril and then use the aspirator (the blue ball from the hospital). When I did it the first time he did not mind it hardly at all and then I spoke to our friend John who asked if I put my finger over one nostril while I sucked the other...of course I had not. He said it will feel like you are sucking his brain out. If you don't plug on of the nostrils then you end up just sucking from one side to the other and not getting up into his sinus. While this was more uncomfortable for him, it worked much better. I would suggest having someone help hold the baby's head...at least the first time, they tend to rotate from side to side to try to get away from the sucker.

RUNNY EYES--Jackson's eye was tearing and at one point it was oozing thickly causing him to wake with is eye sealed shut. The eyeball itself wasn't red and the goo was only a light yellowish color and mostly clear and teary. The doctor said this was a clogged tear duct. She said that I should run my ring finger from the medial side of his eye (nose side) to the outside several times and repeat this three times a day. We are still working on getting it cleared up, but it is getting better.

I guess that is it for now...I have droned on way too much! I know there will be more to come.

Welcome Janey Ray!!!

What a great day!!! I am so pleased that I am now an Aunt and Jackson has his first cousin. Today at 12:42 am Janey Ray Korfhage was born in Portland, Oregon. His mom and dad are doing great and Janey is a healthy 8 lb 12 oz girl. We have been waiting for this day for so long and I can't wait to hold her and spoil her like a good Aunt should!! Congratulations to by Brother Brian and a woman I am proud to call my only sister, Kari. You go girl! You did it!

On top of an already good day we did take Jack to another Ute game, this one much rowdier than the first. Utah beat the Oregon Beavers 31-28 in an amazing comeback in the last 2 minutes of the game!