Mommy Goes to Work

This past week marked a big milestone for Colton and me. Thursday I returned to work after a 12 week maternity leave. I feel so blessed to have a great job that allowed me 12 weeks of paid leave (although not all was paid at 100%). The timing worked out beautifully. Colton was born the weekend after my last day of work so I got 12 full weeks home with him. I was scheduled to return on Monday, March 1 but I decided to ease myself back in with two days. Instead of starting him in day care we had my mom come and she spent the day with him. Grammy and Colton had a lot of fun. He would giggle for her and she even put him in the froggie bouncer we got him that he hadn't been to thrilled about before. He loved it! It was awesome to have her here, she cooked wonderful dairy free dinners each night with the ingredients we already had in our home...that is a miracle in and of itself because we had NO food. I haven't been shopping in at least two weeks, yikes! Funny thing is as soon as she got home she sent me a list of meals for the week with ingredients so I can shop and not have to think about what I'm cooking each night. I wonder if she'll do that every week for me?

Returning to work was a lot smoother than I thought. I'm so grateful to have a job that I absolutely love and that I work with some wonderful people. They made coming back so much easier and having work that you love makes the days go by quickly. The sooner I get in and work and get done, the sooner I get home to my butterbean.

Pumping at work is interesting. My company has a great little room for nursing moms to use for pumping. We have a glider rocker, dim lights and even a sound machine for distraction. All that aside, it's still weird to pump at work. I'm also pumping exactly what he needs right now which is nerve wracking. As he goes through his 12 week growth spurt he's eating A LOT more so it's been tough to keep up. Thankfully we supplement a little with soy formula so that gives me piece of mind. My goal/plan is to pump until about six months at which time we'll wean him off and onto formula completely. He'll be on solid foods by then so it will make the transition easier.

Up next...the big first day of daycare! Josh and I took the day off tomorrow so we could work out a routine in the morning for getting him there. We also want to make sure he gets settled and meets all his new teachers (and we meet them all!). We're dreading it, I know it's going to be the hardest thing ever to leave him there with strangers. We have good friends that use the same daycare for their children and they all love it so we feel confident we're in the best place. It really wouldn't matter where it was though, it's going to be hard for us. The daycare is actually a small Montessori school and it's in an old cottage house in downtown Alachua, about 2 minutes from my work. There are 7 infants and 3 full-time teachers (all early ed and Montessori trained) and we've heard wonderful things about how they help the development of babies so hopefully in the next weeks/months I will be sharing all of Colton's new milestones.

Here are a few photos from Grammy's visit. Colton now likes to be read to, another first for him. Before he would just wiggle and squirm and now he actually sits still and listens. He's weighing in at 16 lbs now and today marks his 12 week birthday. He's the biggest most beautiful little boy ever and Josh and I wake up every morning and thank God he's healthy and happy and ours!

Love,
Jenny

P.S. If you're looking at the actual blog online you'll notice that it's "Under Construction" and I hope to have it fixed this week sometime. I'm working on a new page layout.

Grammy's Visit

Great Grands and the Bride to Be

The bride to be at her shower

The past few weekends have been filled with family! First we had a visit from my Grandma and Grandpa Wills. They live in North Georgia (although we're working on convincing them to move back to Florida!!) and this was their first visit to Alachua to see where we live and to meet Colton. My grandparents and I were very close when I was growing up. They lived at the end of my street in the house my dad grew up in and just across from my elementary school. I would walk up and down that old dirt road, sometimes several times a day, to visit with them. They moved away when I was 13 but thankfully they have been there for the big milestones like high school and college graduation, and of course our wedding. Well the birth of their first great-grandchild was enough to get them packing back to Florida! Thanks in big part to my Aunt Kathy and her husband Roger for going to pick them up and drive them back down. It was priceless to see them meet Colton for the first time. They were like old pros, they both spent time holding him and before I knew it Grandma had him up over her shoulder burping him, teaching me the tricks she learned with her three kids. It was awesome! We've been working hard to get them to move back down to Florida and hopefully that's not too far away! It will be so wonderful to have them here for holidays and birthdays.

We also went back to Crestview this past weekend to visit Josh's family. It was Caitlin's bridal shower and good chance for us to bring Colton to meet the family, including Great Mamaw and Great Nana. We were a little apprehensive about the four hour drive. We decided to put him down to "sleep" at his usual bedtime on Friday but instead of in his crib we put him in the car seat. We quickly loaded up and started driving. He slept the entire way and didn't wake up until we pulled into the drive at Josh's parents house. The rest of the night was tough, not really for him because he was still on his schedule, but for us since we had missed a few hours of our usual sleep time and he certainly wasn't going to sleep in the next morning for us! The next night was much better (we went to bed at 7 p.m.!). The drive home was great, he napped and then woke and ate and played for a while and then napped a second time until we got home. He went to bed at his usual time, phew!

The visit to Crestview was great. Colton got to meet Mamaw and Nana as well as the rest of the family including Great Aunts and Uncles, second cousins and more. We were there for Caitlin's bridal shower which was a lot of fun. She got tons of great things for their home...makes you want to get married and register all over again! Sunday was relaxing, Josh's mom even made me dairy free waffles so I could enjoy the same breakfast as everyone else, delicious! We'll get to see the rest of the family again in just a little over a month. Caitlin and Mike are getting married on April 11th here in Gainesville and we can't wait!!

Below are a few photos from the visits. Up next is a really big event for Josh - his 30th birthday!!!!! Since things are a little crazy around here with the baby and me returning to work this Thursday he wanted something easy and simple. We're getting together with a few friends from Gainesville at his favorite restaurant. I'm planning to have a big party for him when he turns 31 to make up for this year :-)

Hope everyone is doing well!

Love,
Jenny

Nana

Mamaw Highlander and Colton

Jenny's Aunt Kathy

Grandpa Wills

Grandma Wills

Handsome Little Devil

Today was Colton's first Valentine's Day. It started out really great. We attempted to go back to church for the first time but a morning nap curtailed our plans. Mommy went alone and next time we'll attempt to get Daddy and Colton there too. After church we decided to go out to a Valentine's Day lunch, rather than fight the dinner crowds. We went out for sushi. I love sushi and hadn't had it (well at least not the raw kind) since before I was pregnant. It was delicious and everything I remembered it too be. After that we visited the Weitekamps and our buddy James. James is the son of Katie and Brad who was born on December 26th, just after Colton. They don't know it yet, but I'm sure they'll be great friends!!

While we had a great time the day took a turn for the worse later on. As I mentioned in my last post, I've been dairy free for almost two weeks now. We've seen some improvements but his dry skin and gas haven't completely disappeared. I was attempting to take soy out of my diet as well as dairy but I definitely haven't been as vigilant about that because 1) the doctor didn't tell me I had to eliminate it and 2) it's in everything!! I took it out mostly because I read online that a lot of babies with milk protein intolerance also have soy intolerance. Well...as you read above, we ate sushi today. I didn't use any soy sauce but I'm certain there was soy in the foods we were eating. If they cooked the tempura in vegetable oil...that's soy. If they added it to the ginger dressing...soy and they probably also put it in the eel sauce which is my favorite. Well, a few hours after nursing Colton post lunch his gas kicked up into high gear and he cried and screamed in obvious pain from his tummy. You can imagine how that makes a mommy feel. So, he's getting a bottle from daddy tonight and we'll just have to hope that it gets out of my system sooner rather than later. I guess now I have to be vigilant about soy as well. Yikes, what's left to eat? Fruits, plain veggies and chicken.

Some good news! Colton has discovered his hands. A few days ago he pulled a ring from one of his toys to his mouth, a few hours later he started sucking on his hands and today he put a another toy in his mouth. It was as if he discovered it and then couldn't get enough. Guess we have to start being more careful what's lying around the house and making sure his toys are cleaned well. He's also talking quite a bit. He will have conversations with us making vowel sounds and trying to imitate the sounds we make. In fact, the other night we woke up thinking it was time for a feeding but after a closer listen we realized he was talking his sleep. No joke, he made vowel sounds for about 15 minutes. No cries, no grunts, but very obvious vowel sounds. You've got to wonder who he was dreaming about talking to.

Sleep is getting better. He seems to be pretty consistent with an 8 p.m. bedtime, 1 a.m. feeding, 4-5 a.m. feeding and then back to sleep till 8 a.m. The only time it gets tough is when he gets gas around 5:30 a.m. and we're up until 7 with him. No fun! We had a few really great long stretches a few weeks ago but that didn't last long. I'm hopeful that after his 12 week growth spurt he'll stretch it out to one feeding per night. We'll see though.

Enjoy some new photos! Colton is 10 weeks old today and it's just amazing the difference in how he's grown.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!


Love,
Jenny

Valentines Day and 10 weeks old

Dairy Free Living

My big boy had his two month check-up this week. He was 14 lbs and 4oz and 24 inches long (97th and 90th percentile). He has great head control and could hold himself in the sitting position which our pediatrician said is typical for most 4 month olds, not two months!! He's starting to bat at things with his hands and he follows people around the room with eyes. He loves to smile and coo and make noises and will try and get our attention if we're talking to each other and not him.

The biggest change though is happening in our diets. I had mentioned in my last post that he was having some gas issues really early in the morning. After talking with the pediatrician and lactation consultant we decided that he may have an intolerance (not allergy) to milk protein. If you think about it, it makes since. Cow's milk was designed for baby cows, not people so it's something our bodies have had to adapt to over time. Most grown-ups have no issues drinking milk but we've gotten accustomed to digesting it. Little babies can take a while to develop that tolerance. After ONE day of living dairy free Colton slept through the normal gassy period this morning. After doing some more research online I also realized that the dry skin and congestion he's been experiencing since a few weeks after birth are also symptoms of a milk protein intolerance. It will take about 2-3 weeks to completely eliminate it from my body and his but hopefully we should see big improvements even sooner. The good news, it's something they usually grow out of and it's highly unlikely he'll be allergic later on in life.

So...goodbye my favorite food group, at least for now! Seriously, milk, cheese, yogurt and chocolate are some of my favorites!! I've had to replace them with almond milk and rice milk and vegetables and peanut butter. Sigh. Oh well, he's worth it!

Believe it or not there are some other things happening in our life besides baby Colton :-) Josh's sister Caitlin is getting married on April 11th here in Gainesville. This weekend is her bridal shower at the Ivy House here in Alachua. I'm looking forward to that! Josh also has a big event coming up soon...his 30th birthday! Wow, it's really hard to believe we're both getting ready to enter our thirties!! We can't think of a better way to do it then by adding a beautiful baby to our family. My grandparents are going to be visiting from Georgia with my Aunt Kathy and Roger this weekend. We can not wait! Grandpa is going to be so proud of his big, healthy grandson. He was the one who predicted all along that it was a boy when most thought it was a girl :-)

Coming up later in February we'll be going back to Crestview for Colton to meet his other great-grandparents, Josh's Nana and Mamaw. It's so wonderful that he gets to meet so many of his great grandparents and I know they feel they same about their great grandson.

Here is another video of butterbean and his daddy playing.

Hope everyone is happy and well.

Love,
Jenny