9 months November 6, 2009

Jack turned 9 months earlier this week.  He’s still crawling on his tummy but can get where ever he wants pretty fast.  He’s started pulling himself up and has pulled himself up to a stand position a couple of times.  He’s starting to eat “real” food from time to time and does a pretty good job of feeding himself.

    
We lowered his crib after this.

    

      
This is what Jack does when he’s tired.  Two fingers
in his mouth and one hand behind his head.

Jackson had his 9 month check up yesterday.  He weighed in at 19.12 pounds and is 27 inches tall.  He got his seasonal flu shot and didn’t cry one bit and I was extremely grateful for that.  The doctor also noticed that he is starting to cut his top two teeth and said he could be cutting the top 4 because they were all swollen. 

Jack has had a cough now for about 2 months so the doctor wanted to do a chest x-ray to make sure everything was ok.  When we got into the room, I could see the machine we were going to have to put him in and I instantly remembered a story my parents told me about a similiar machine that I had to get into when I had pneumonia when I was about Jack’s age.  You sit the child inside a seat type thing and they have these clear doors that cover the child from their hips to their head.  I had to hold his arms over his head; it was awful.  Jack was crying like he’d never cried before.  We’d definetly seen him cry harder, probably the first time he got shots but this was a different cry, you could tell he was scared.  The whole thing took maybe 3 mintues but it felt like forever.  This was the only picture I could find online and I don’t think it really does it justice for how horrible it is.  Thankfully, the doctor called us back last night around 6:30 and told us that everything looked good.  He is going to start taking some over the counter Zyrtec to try and get rid of that cough.

Happy Anniversary and Happy Birthday! November 6, 2009

Tuesday was a great day in the Burlison household!  Not only was it mine and Nick’s 2 year anniversary; our niece, Aubrey Colleen was born.  She is so beautiful and looks so much like her big sister. 

    

Happy Halloween! November 1, 2009

Yesterday was Jackson’s first Halloween.  We originally bought him a lion costume but after finding a duck costume, we couldn’t resist!  Jack’s favorite book is, I wish that I had duck feet by Dr. Seuss.  We could resite a few pages from the book and he would light up. 

We started trick or treating around 3:30 because we had a lot of houses to go to and wanted everyone to be able to enjoy a happy Jack.  The best part of the night was when Jack was laughing in the back seat and when we looked to see what he was laughing at, he was playing with his duck feet

              

 

8 months October 7, 2009

Jackson has changed so much since the last time I posted.  He decided to start “crawling”.  He doesn’t crawl on his hands and knees but “soldier crawls” wherever he wants.  Over the past few weeks he has perfected sitting up and can sit up from laying down.

Jackson is talking up a storm and we can hear him say mama and dada but I’m not sure he knows he’s saying them.  We think he might be teething again as we feel like we’ve taken a step back towards night time fuzziness.  The past week or so he has been extremely tired and cranky and has gone to bed as early as 6:15 and will occasionally wake up around 9:00 crying but will go back to sleep.  I was finally able to get a picture where you can see his two teeth.
    

A few weeks ago, we purchased a new car seat for Jackson from Toys R Us, the Graco My Ride 65  I had planned on buying this car seat somewhere else because I didn’t like the colors on this one but Toys R Us will let you use multiple coupons and I can deal with a color scheme I don’t love to save 25%!  This carseat is rear facing until 40 pounds and forward facing till 65 pounds.  I don’t know if we’ll keep him rear facing until 40 pounds but we will most likely keep him rear facing past the old recommendation of 1 year and 20 pounds; seeing as he’s already 18 pounds and someone scared me with a rear vs forward facing video   He looks like such a big boy in his new car seat. 

Jackson has found a new love; Albert.  He gets so excited when Albert is around and will “crawl” to him.  I’m so thankful that Albert has so much patience for Jackson.

Poor little guy… September 11, 2009

Jackson has had a slight cough for a couple of weeks now.  It started off as what we thought of as a fake cough but then he started doing it in his sleep and throughout the day.  Since he didn’t have a fever, the doctor suggested some at home treatments and if it wasn’t better then give them another call.  A week later, it wasn’t better so we decided to go ahead and take him in and turns out he has bronchitis.  They gave us an antibiotic to give him twice a day.  I didn’t realize how hard it is to give a baby medicine.  I tried to give it to him while he was eating some veggies and he just spit it out.  Then I tried to put it in his bottle and he wouldn’t take the bottle.  I was surprised he could taste the 2 ml dose in a 7 ounce bottle.  The faces he gave while giving him the medicine were priceless.  Hopefully, we will figure out a way to give him the antibotics because he’s on them for 10 days and I don’t know if he’s even had a full dose yet

    

7 months and updates September 8, 2009

Jackson has got to experience a lot of firsts over the past month.  We took our first trip down to the lake.  We went with some friends that have a house in Shell Knob.  They have a great set up and we could walk back and forth to their house and the dock; which made it very easy on us with Jackson.  We took his pack-n-play down to the dock and he took his nap outside.  The water was pretty chilly so we only put him in for a few minutes but he really enjoyed himself.
         

Last week, we went to a Springfield Cardinals game.  Jackson got to go out on the field with Nick to present a check to the Boys and Girls Club from Springfield Sertoma.  He was more interested in the people around us than the game but did really good. 
    

Over the past month, we have started introducing Jack to formula and it hasn’t gone as smoothly has I thought it would.  He takes the bottles fine but it doesn’t settle well with his tummy and he’s spitting up a lot more.  We switched to a gentle formula and that seems to help a little.  So right now, he gets a 7 oz bottle with about 4 oz of formula and the rest breastmilk.  I’m hoping by the next couple of weeks, he’ll be able to take all formula. 

We also gave him a sippy cup for the first time last week.  He did really good with it and has started to want to hold his own bottle.
    

And finally, we’re getting closer and closer to crawling.  Over the past couple of weeks, he’s starting to tuck his knees under him and rock and lunging for toys.  It’s exciting to see him want something and figure out how to get it himself.

Teething August 20, 2009

Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve noticed two bumps on the bottom of Jackson’s mouth.  Over the weekend, these bumps turned white and as of this morning, one of these teeth have popped out and you can feel part of the tooth.  This explains why Jackson has as much of his hand in his mouth as he can.  Sometimes, he uses both hands to get extra pressure on those poor little gums.

Two nights this week he has needed some soothing at bedtime which is unusual for him and I think it’s from teething.  Since he started sleeping in his crib at around 6 weeks, we put him to bed awake and let him put himself to sleep.  And since he started rolling over, he doesn’t really like to be held so we have enjoyed these nights of some snuggle time with him.

 

6 months August 13, 2009

Last weekend marked Jackson’s half birthday.  It’s fun to look at how far we’ve all come in 6 months!

We went to the doctor yesterday for his 6 month check-up and he weighs 15.12 pounds and is 25.5 inches tall, both being in the 45 percentile.  I can’t remember what the circumference of his head was but it was in the 75 percentile; the doctor noted that he had a nicely shaped head

Developmentally, he’s right on track.  He’s been rolling over from both sides for almost 2 months now; sometimes he can sit unassisted for a short time but can still use a little help; he reaches for things and switches items in his hands and is starting to show some signs of separation anxiety; which turns out is a good thing because it means he is becoming aware of his surroundings.  I want him to become aware however, I’m not ready for him to cry when I drop him off at daycare.

Last weekend, we went to Nick’s parents house so we could go swimming.  Jackson didn’t really seem to have an opinion on it either way but it did seem to relax him because he kind of started to fall asleep in the pool
     

We finally got a highchair.  After weeks of trying to find a good used one, I decided that a highchair is something we’re going to use for a long time so we might as well pay the little bit of difference and get the one we want, so we went and got one from Toys R Us (with the help of a very generous gift card from my parents!  Thanks again!!)  Jackson likes to be in his highchair, we can put toys on the tray and he can play while I cook and we eat dinner.  We can eat dinner as a family

Jackson’s first birthday party! August 13, 2009

A few weeks ago was little baby Ryan’s  first birthday.  Everytime we would talk about him turning one, I would get all teary eyed and sad, I’m sure Laura wondered why I was getting so upset about her son turning one!  I’m not sure if it was because it made me think of how fast time goes or if it was because I got to see Laura pregnant with Ryan everyday and it’s just so fun to see him grow up!

Ryan had his birthday party at the Discover Center downtown.  This was such a great place to have a party.  After Ryan opened his presents and we had cake, we all went through the Center.  I forgot how much fun this place was and how much there is to see and do.  We will definitely be taking trips there when Jackson is older. 

Poor Jackson got worn out from all the excitement!

Our little monkey August 3, 2009

Now that Jackson is 6 months old, he thinks he’s old enough to give himself a bottle

He also likes to get intertwined in his crib