Dear Jude … Month 1

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My dear Jude,
Today you are one month old.  Your father and I can hardly believe we’ve made it this far. We’d read all the books and heard all the stories, and truly we were prepared for the worst.  But so far, you have been a wonderful baby.  It’s taken time, but we’ve begun to figure out your squawks and screams as your own little private language.  A little extra cough before this wail, a little grunt after that scream, and that’s the difference between “feed me”, “burp me”, and “just put me the heck down, I’m tired!” Slowly but surely we’re figuring it out.  Just give us time, we’re slow learners.

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We have discovered that you love to be swaddled.  I take that back, you don’t love the act of being swaddled, you just love the feeling after having been swaddled.  It is truly amazing, you will be screaming your head off because you are so tired or overstimulated, and we will swaddle you up, turn you on your side, and tuck you under our arm, and you instantly relax.  Just like Dr. Karp says in his videos (Thanks to Zarah & Josh for the tip!).  It happens so fast, that sometimes we want to ask, “who are you, and what did you do with our screaming baby?”  We love you just as much when you are screaming as when you are happy and relaxed, but we’ll take the happy and relaxed any day of the week.

Side Note: Dr. Karp is now one of Kevin’s personal heroes!

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Eating was a rough start for you. At first you weren’t interested at all, you just couldn’t quite get up the energy to suck. I guess you were just as tired as me, from the whole being born thing. For that little rest, I am grateful. But then, all of a sudden, you got very very hungry, and still hadn’t figured out how to get what you needed. You reduced me to tears on more than one occasion as you screamed and screamed because you were so hungry, but the two of us couldn’t figure out how to get this whole nursing thing coordinated. To make matters worse, you had two incredibly strong arms attached to two very angry fists that shook in rage, blocking your mouth from getting anything to eat. Your father had to literally restrain your arms as I’m trying to get you to nurse at just the right angle. This took a lot of practice, baby, but we’ve finally turned that corner.

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At first, you took about twenty to thirty minutes to eat, and then when you started eating more hungrily, you began to get lot’s of gas and would pull off screaming every few minutes needing to be burped. These all time marathon eating sessions stretched out to an hour or more. One time we hit an all time high of a 90 minute feeding session. By the end, both you and I were exhausted and we just fell asleep right there on the couch. You have become a much more efficient feeder now, and you chug down what you need in a record 8 minutes. I was worried that you weren’t eating enough, but you’ve gained plenty of weight and filled plenty of diapers, so who’s complaining? Certainly not me. That middle of the night feeding is so much better now that I can feed you and be back in my bed in 10 minutes if I don’t take time to pee.

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And speaking of sleeping, I am so proud of you! We have fallen into a nice little routine, where you eat about every three hours during the day, then at 6, 8, and 11 in the evening and then you don’t wake up until 2 or 3 AM. After that, you’re asleep until 6 in the morning. This makes life so much better than those every hour and a half feedings we started out your life with. When you wake every morning at 6, it’s your most alert period of the day. This is hard for your father and me because we are most definitely not morning people. There have been times we were so tired we just swaddled you back up, brought you into bed with us and lay you between us to take in the amazingly interesting sites of our bedroom ceiling while we slept for just a little bit longer. But usually, I suck it up and pop you into your stroller and we take a nice walk. After I’ve woken up, I’ve come to love our morning walks. You are so alert and aware. You seem to be taking in the whole world around you and it’s just amazing to watch. We make the half hour walk to Starbucks and by then you’re about ready to take a little snooze. I love these times with you, sharing one of Kevin’s and my favorite activities, relaxing at Starbucks on our laptops. Yes, in case no one told you yet, you were born into a family of nerds.

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Last Friday marked two big milestones for you. Since you were officially four weeks old, the official “they” have said we can safely introduce a bottle. This is a big deal for me because it means that Daddy can take over one of your evening feedings and I can sleep for more than three hours at a stretch. This also means that your father and I can take an evening out while you get to spend some time with the many friends and relatives who would love to take care of you. We were a little nervous that you wouldn’t take a bottle easily, or that you would take the bottle and suddenly refuse to nurse. But you took the bottle from Kevin like a champ and went right back to nursing just as easily. This is a huge deal for us. So to all our family and friends out there, we are officially accepting bids from businesses.

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The second milestone is that you… Oh. My. Gosh. Rolled. Over.  Yes, you heard me, you rolled over at 4 weeks old.  But you should already know that, you were there!  And I was so sure no one would believe me, that I video-taped it.  My dad told me that I rolled over when I was something like 6 weeks old.  Well, kid, you’ve got me beat!  Let’s just say you’ve got your mom and dad running scared, little man.

Click the play button to see the video!
He is loud!, so turn your computer volume down first.

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I am so amazed everyday at how you grow and change.  I am also amazed how daily I feel like my heart grows bigger as I fall more and more in love with you.  I look forward to this next month and all the new things we will discover together.

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Jude goes to Starbucks

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Jude goes to Starbucks

Since Jude is up and ready to party at 5:30 every morning and his longest awake and alert time is from then until about 8:00 AM, I’ve taken to popping him in his stroller and taking a walk before it gets too hot.  Somehow we always seem to end up at Starbucks 🙂

Jude likes his lattes extra hot, half-caf, no foam…

Hands Free Baby!

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Multi-Tasking with Jude

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Hands Free Baby!

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The Ergo Baby Carrier Rocks!

We received an awesome Ergo Baby Carrier from Kevin’s Aunts Carol and Barbara, Cousins Debbie, Kathie, and Lara and I finally got around to watching the DVD (yes, it came with a DVD) to figure out how to use it.  I don’t know why I waited so long!  It’s awesome!  I actually got to put on make-up this morning!  Also, getting to hold Jude so close and just walking around with him like that really calms him down… must be womb-like or something.  A big thanks for the awesome carrier, you guys

A visit from the cousins…

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Claudia, Connie, and Judy with Jude

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Connie with Jude

Kevin’s cousins Judy, Connie, and Claudia came over today to visit.  It was such a wonderful time getting to know them all better as they got to know little Jude!  We had a lovely lunch (thanks for the sustenance!  Chicken Salad, Fruit Salad, and Cheesecake is so much better than the Lucky Charms I’ve been living off of) and had a great time just hanging out with the Jude-meister.  I just love that Jude and Judy share the same namesake.  They were both named after St. Jude, the Patron Saint of Lost Causes (well, St. Jude and also the Beatles song “Hey Jude” in our case).  Both Kevin and I have loved getting to know all of our extended family better.  What wonderful friends and family we have supporting us as we bring little Jude into this world!  Thanks for visiting you guys!

Jude goes to church

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Jude and Kelly

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Emily with Jude

I’m a little behind in posting, but I assume you all will be giving me a pass considering I’ve been a little busy tending to the tiniest, neediest person I’ve ever met.  Seriously, Kevin and I are amazed how someone so tiny can be so loud and can rule our world so much at the moment.  But actually, we’ve been finally getting a routine going, and life is much better for us and Jude.  Anyway, where was I?  Oh yeah, it’s a little late in posting, but a week and a half ago, we took Jude to church for the first time.  Let’s just say it didn’t go too well.  We hadn’t gotten his schedule figured out yet and he slept when he wasn’t supposed to sleep, woke up and fussed when he was supposed to be sleeping, and was all around cranky through all of our Sunday School class.  But the college group loved him just the same.  They voted unanimously that we’ll keep him.  I concur!

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The college group votes to keep Jude

Blackwoods visit

Last Sunday our good friends the Blackwoods came for a visit (and brought food!) We had a great time relaxing with them and Iain taught us how to not freak out everytime Jude starts a’screamin’.

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MacLaren vs. McLaren

Jude got his very own Maclaren Rocker, not unlike the Mclaren F1 in its awesomeness. Here he is after too much pizza and beer. Which Mac(Mc)laren do you think is cooler? A big thanks to the gang over at Village Christian Schools who bought it for him. Now who’s buying the car for his 16th birthday?

Mclaren F1

Maclaren Rocker