What's Jayden Up To?

Staying home part time was one of the best things I could have done for me and for my family. I love being home with the kids and keeping house. I've even been doing a little bit of baking and I can't wait for the kids to be a little older so I can share kitchen & baking time with them. Here's a recent family shot.Being home more often has done wonders for my relationship with Jayden and I’m so happy for that. When Jayden wakes up in the morning, he comes running to our room and he used to ignore me and go straight to Daddy, but not anymore. Now, he smiles at me and comes over to my side of the bed. In the mornings when I get us ready for the babysitter, we always end up making some noise and Daddy wakes up to say good-bye but Jayden will have none of that. He makes sure to stick by my side so I won’t leave him behind. And when I do leave him home with Daddy, sometimes he follows me to the door and cries. I always spot his long sad face in the window, waving good-bye. It breaks my heart.

Jayden is growing and learning so much. He seems to be saying a new word every time I chat with him. It’s so great to be able to talk with him and to have him understand. It’s hard to keep it together when I tell Jayden to stop it and he responds with pop-it. He’s so darn cute. Jayden also mimics everything he sees us do. One day, I saw him take my slipper and hit the wall. I wondered why on earth he was doing it. Some time later, I grabbed a flip flop and squashed a bug on the wall. Eureka! Yesterday, we took a nap together and he even tucked his little hands under his chin, like mommy. It was so hard not to laugh.

We've had a potty chair in the bathroom for a while. About a week ago, he used it out of necessity and sheer luck. I’ve been trying to get him to use his potty ever since, but he boldly stated No! He would not use the potty and since that day he’s been true to his word. That doesn’t mean that Mommy has stopped hoping. When Jayden goes to bed and he’s desperate to get my attention, he says Mommy, ca-ca. Of course, I go get him and there’s usually nothing in his diaper. I then take him to the potty. He removes his pajama pants and diapers and sits down. A second later, he gets up and turns the ventilator on. A second after that, he closes the door. Yet another second after that, he gets tp. After about 5 minutes of this, I realize he is never going to go potty. He’s playing me. Back to bed he goes. Yesterday, I was trying to shower and he came to get me frantically calling out ca-ca, ca-ca. I fly out of the shower and take him to the potty only to find that he’s already gone. So much for taking a shower. He does love the Elmo Potty Time DVD. He watches it over and over again. Last night, I moved us all into my bedroom to settle down and signal that bedtime was nearing. He called out Elmo, Elmo, Elmo until I played the DVD. Now when he poops in his diaper, I always tell him he should tell mommy when he has to go poopy so he can use his potty like a big boy, like Elmo.

Here's my little man doing his favorite thing. Hanging out with the guys in the garage! He loves the ride on mower and most of his push toys are out there. Notice how red his cheeks are. He gets quite a work out when he goes outside. In fact, he came in with that black ring around his neck for the very first time. My baby is growing up!

Maya Turns Four Months Old!

Four Month Shot:

My baby girl has turned four months old. I don’t know where the time goes and I wonder how she’s gotten so big. The other day, I looked at her in her car seat and she was huge. How did that happen? Where have I been? I try to cling to every moment and yet time seems to slip right through my fingers. But I guess you can’t hold on to the moment forever so here we are. Four months old already. I’m so happy that I write about these special times so that when she’s Jayden’s age, I can go back and remember every last detail of her infancy.

To celebrate, I took Maya to get her ears pierced. Here she is crying hysterically after the deed was done.

Unfortunately, they did not get the holes right and I was mortified. I went back the next day and they attempted to fix the situation, but still got it wrong. I couldn’t blame the girl, because she was trying really hard and it’s difficult to come in and fix something that someone else loused up. I gave Maya a dose of Tylenol, just in case and pushed her around the store until she was sleeping. This made it easy to take a good look at Maya and mark the spot and finally on the second try, she got it pretty close. For getting her little ear poked three times, Maya was doing great. She flinched a little and barely cried.

And after all that, even now, I’m still worried about the holes not being even. It’s so hard to look at her and tell if they are or not because her cheeks are so chubby, you can barely see her ear lobes. Plus, her ear lobes are shaped a little differently. I tried so hard today to check and double check and triple check. I wish I would have had the sense to see that Maya was being fussy and call the whole thing off, but I was so anxious to have her ears pierced. I am tempted to take the earrings out and letting them heal and trying again in a few months, but I am going to wait until Maya’s four month check-up and see what Dr. Jill has to say.

The past month has been full of challenges and emotions. Maya has been struggling to nurse and suffering from nipple confusion. We’ve had our moments, but I’m still hanging in there and I’m happy to say that she is still nursing and my milk supply is still here. This weekend has been the best weekend yet, with very little struggle. Hurray! I have an order of bottles in and hope to receive them soon. They are supposed to help with nipple confusion because in order to get the milk out, she will have to use the same sucking action that she uses when she nurses. Let’s hope they help.

Maya is also showing signs of teething. She is drooling quite a bit and is moaning and gnawing at anything she can get her hands on. I broke out her teether and instinctively, she’s been grabbing it and trying to soothe herself with it. She’s doing a pretty good job of it. I tried to feel her gums and couldn’t find anything, but it could be another couple of months before one breaks through. We’ll see. Poor girl was really struggling tonight, but I rocked her and then I let her nurse even though she had already eaten and she was finally able to get to sleep.

Although she used to sleep at least 6 hours straight through the night, Maya stopped when I went back to work. I read that it sometimes happens when moms return to work. Maya seems to eat less in the daytime and nurses more in the evenings. With that said, she’s back to waking every three hours to nurse. Wow, this is so hard to do especially on days when I work. But I wouldn’t trade nursing for sleep. At least not yet!

Little Maya is very active and very vocal. She kicks around in her play yard and swings her arms at the toys hanging above. She can reach them and hold on to them.

I can see that she’s going to roll over soon. She already tries when I lay her on her belly. She loves Jayden and just stares at him and his shenanigans. She even shows interest in the TV. She is super alert and wants to see everything around her. She turns her head towards all sounds and boy does she spend a lot of time smiling. I’ve never seen anything like it. She’s always smiling or laughing. And boy does she squeal with delight! She’s always cooing about something. Nursing gets lonely at times ‘cause I have to shut off the TV or she’ll turn away from me to watch it. If I look at her, she pops off the nipple to smile or laugh. If Jayden is making a ruckus, she wants to see why. I say she’s just plain nosey!