1 month

Ian you are 1 month or 4wks and 3 days old today (however you want to look at it).

You are 21in long, and I'm going to guess about 9lbs based your 2wks appt weight of 7lbs 3oz.

You have made the month of January fly by which is pretty hard to do when you live in the midwest and the weather sucks this time of year. You spent the first 4 days of your life in the NICU due to a multi-tasking issue of breathing, eating and swallowing all at the same time. You have since mastered that skill and added peeing and pooping into the mix. Good job multi-tasking is a great life skill. You can also eat staying fully dressed, in the beginning we would have to strip you down to your diaper in order to get you stay awake and keep eating.

This is a good thing I was getting worried that I would be sending you to school w/a note about some strange condition which requires you to strip down to your boxers (yes I'm going to assume you're going to wear boxers) in order to eat. Good job on overcoming that issue.

Now as much as we disliked not being able to bring you home 48hrs after birth the NICU did get you on a routine/schedule whatever you wanna call it of eating every 3hrs which now has become every 4hrs. You are also up to 4oz or sometimes more at a feeding. Which means you have come a long way from your NICU days where a good feeding for you was about 17-25ml (in english that isn't even an oz. an oz is 30ml). So good job on picking up the interest in eating.

You are also out of preemie clothes which who would have thought having a daddy that is 6'6" and was 10lbs at birth and a momma that is 5'7" and was 7lbs at birth that you would need preemie clothes?!?! Well your parents weren't ready for that one so some shopping had to take place for preemie and newborn clothes. You still don't quite fit into all newborn clothes either. Needless to say you have the quite the wardrode and you also have quite the shoe collection to sport as well. No pressure with the 3 pairs of basketball shoes or anything but your momma and daddy don't want to work forever:)


Here you are with your 0-3mos wardrobe there are more items hanging on the dresser behind me.


In the last week or so you started spending more time awake and taking in your surroundings. You recognize my voice and daddy's voice your not quite following us with your eyes just yet, but you will with time hey you were 3wks early. You only have about 12in of visibilty right now. During your awake time we do tummy time to work on those neck muscles.


For the most part you tolerate bathtime, in the beginning we weren't filling your tube up with enough water but now I think I have it figured out now so bathtime should become enjoyable for you.


You went on your first of many road trips and did great. You very rarely cry and seem to have adjusted to being in the world quite well dispite your early arrival. You still have a head full of hair, at birth you had blonde tips and the nurses in the NICU were very jealous of this, your hair is now more of a strawberry blonde color. You have big dark blue eyes and we're anxious to see what color they turn.

Ian, your momma and daddy love you very much your are truly a gift from God.

We will have to work on getting more pics of the 3 of us, this is the only one we have, yikes.

opinion

Ok momma's out there I need your thoughts on the topic of baby powder. The hospital says no but I got a little boy you can't seem to shake a diaper rash. I've been treating it with neosporin and desitin which cures it for a little bit. But it quickly returns. So what are your thoughts on baby powder does it help prevent and/or treat diaper rashes. What are your recipes for treating diaper rash?

slither

This is where Ian starts out when we put him to sleep:


And this is where he is when he wakes up:



**And no he didn't manage to change his jammies, I just forgot to take the after picture that day and waited till today to do it.

Aunt CiCi

This is Aunt CiCi


And I'm pretty sure she likes Ian a lot (and yes we look a lot a like):






The only problem is, she lives in Orlando and although it makes for a great vacation spot for us to go to and the fact that she works part-time for this guy:

Is a BONUS!!!
She works Friday and Sunday evenings for the Mouse driving fireworks cruises during the fireworks at Epcot.

So if you're down in Disney book yourself a Fireworks cruise w/her (don't worry that's not the boat you'll be on). She likes to have people from back home on her cruises. So that's her fun job but when she's not fulfilling peoples dreams at the happiest place in the world she is playing safety girl for Osceola County Health Department for those in Michiana Area we would pronounce this as O-CE-OLA but in Florida it's pronouced A-CE-OLA fancy I know (English lesson is over). She is the car seat inspectation go to girl, fire drill runner, CPR instructor, swim lesson teacher, tobacco educator (not her favorite duty), and all things safety related. And when she not at either of those 2 jobs then she is at the gym working out, or hanging out with her friends watching football, or going to some great concert, or shopping and finding awesome deals. You see we were taught to find great deals by our mother, grandmother and aunt. Shopping or bumming as my Aunt Judi and Granny Ree call it, is in our blood. We have gone through extensive training and every so often we have workshops to freshen up our shopping skills. Ian and his cousin Nicholas has been the main beneficaries when it comes to this department the last 7 months or so. If Ian didn't have accidents in the middle of diaper changes he wouldn't be able to wear so many of the clothes that he has received from his deal finder family members.

As I mentioned above I don't mind where my sister lives because of her part-time job and the fact that I benefit from her perks. But, I'd much prefer her to live say in Indy, Chicago or back here in the Bend area. But that requires finding a job in an area she would like. So until then we will continue to watch airfare prices and get down there to take advantage of those perks oh and to see her too. You can catch up with her happenings at safetygirl81.blogspot.com (I couldn't get the link thingy to work).

We miss you Aunt CiCi and can't wait to see and play with you again. Ian promises to play more with you next time he sees you.

shocked

That was my reaction to the Bachelor last night. I give Mr Jake credit for not dragging anyone along if he doesn't see a future with him but letting 4 go in one episode that is shocking and this may be the season with the fewest episodes ever.

I was pleased with Jake giving Tenley rose, I like her and I'm beginning to like her more than Ali. Ali likes drama and if things are a little too quiet you can bet Ali will change that. I wasn't pleased that Vienna received a rose, she is not right for Jake but apparently he can't see that yet. I feel like we've been down this road before (last season w/Jillian and Wes) as viewers we can all see who is right and who isn't. We just have to wait and watch for Jake to figure it out.

Till next week's drama...

success and never again

Our first weekend getaway was a success. Ian slept for most part of the way he awoke in need of a bottle about an hr from our destination. So I reached around from the front seat to the back seat and popped it in. Since we were driving he had to stay in his car seat which means he couldn't be burped which meant he was very gassy come bedtime and didn't sleep as well as he would have if burping could have been done. While he was eating I thought this a perfect time to my stuff ready so i can pump. I start digging around in the bag and realize i forgot to pack the breast shields which are quite necessary when it comes to pumping. No shields means no pumping which equals agony for me!!! Now you're probably thinking stop on your way down and pick some up well that is easier said then done when you take a bunch of 2 lane country roads to get down there. We don't take 31 except to get out of town other that we are on what I mentioned before 2 lane country roads with corn fields on both sides of us, thanks to my dad for finding this route (excellent I knew I would be able to put the blame on someone else). We decided that once we get into Brownsburg Marcus will drop me, Ian and our stuff off and he will go to the Wal-Mart in town to get said breast shields. Excellent I may get some releif soon the last time I pumped was around 4:30p and it is now 8 something. Marcus returns empty handed they don't sell the pump or products for the pump that we own. Lovely, I remember that Target does and Babies R Us does, only 1 problem it is now almost 9 and we need to eat the dinner his sister and Grant made and Target closes at 10 and the closest Target is about 15min away if you know where you're going. And babies r us is out of the question as the closest one is about 30min away. Gaaahhh...well i go onto plan b have Ian latch on, sounds easy right? The last time we tried this he was still in the NICU and just as we were going to try I got a call that I needed to be in my hospital room so my doc could discharge me. I was able to get him to latch on for a little while on both sides so I got some relief, we did this again in the middle of night and come 8am you can bet I was ready to get to Target. We took the pump with us so I could pump on the way home, I filled 2 5oz bottles in a matter of minutes and felt so much better. The only bad thing is that b/c of waiting so long to do so I compromised my supply so since Saturday I've been pumping like a mad woman trying to get my supply back up recall we're gonna try to do this for 1yr (49wks left).

That was 1 never again the 2nd never agsin is the childrens museum on a Saturday on top of not a good nights sleep leaving 1 to be prone to headaches. We all enjoyed it and liked different parts they had a Barbie exhibit showcasing all barbies thoughout the years it was neat to see them all and be able to pick out ones that Jennifer and I each had while growing up (I still have all mine they are dressed with their hair done packed up and stored at my parents) We weren't so much fans of all the children running around and screaming Yes, I know we went to a childrens museum, and we will go back again just during a week day when more children are in school.

Overall we had a good time and I will never leave home for more than 3hrs without my breast pump and shields!!!

EDD

Today 1/25/10 is the estimated due date we were given back in June by our Dr's in which would we become a family of three. I can't imagine still being preggers. If he was still in me he probably would be a good 9 or 10lbs instead of 6 which means I would be absolutely huge and probably bored out of my mind as I would still be on bedrest. Although, Marcus would probably have the hat I was starting to crochet when my water broke but that's really about it. Marcus and I were talking about it yesterday on our way home from Indy and we both thought how crazy it would be if I was still pregnant and how stressful it would have been financially for me to be on bedrest. Theres pros and cons working for a small locally owned business con being ZERO benefits aside from a free gym membership. I'm so glad he came when he did. Yes, we had some very stressful days after delivery with not knowing when he would be able to come home, he is home now and thriving. Everything happens for a reason and I'm glad it does.