Jackson is officially two weeks old today! Woohoo! How fast time flies, and perhaps even faster now that I find myself constantly savoring each moment with my last newborn. The thought is sobering to me, as I try to soak up all the last hints of that beautiful newborn scent, which is disappearing so rapidly! I have yet to give Jackson a bath because I am afraid it will all disappear! So silly, but I find myself emotional about this all the time, and I am trying to counteract those feelings by just enjoying each moment with Jackson while he is still in his itty-bitty-bean phase. As I keep telling Jared (and as I am sure I will keep repeating on here), I will miss having a newborn baby. I have not had any feelings of thinking I will miss pregnancy, but I will absolutely miss newborns.
Okay, on to Jackson stuff. As of 2 weeks, Jackson weighs 8 pounds 11 ounces...yea!!!!!! He was 8.4 when he was born, 7.11 when he was released from the hospital, and 7.4 when he went to a ped appointment on day 3. That's when I started supplementing up to 8 ounces a day, and he was up to 7.8 when he went to be circumcized at 6 days old. Seeing as he has passed his birth weight at 2 weeks old (technically 17 days, which is when I am updating this), he really is doing fantastic, and at this point is only taking an extra 2 ounces a day, and mostly at night to help him sleep a bit better; he is a great nurser and hasn't had any confusion at all going from formula to breast milk. This has been a huge blessing for me, and I am glad he is growing well! Jackson has also grown a full inch in 2 weeks-he is now 22 1/2 inches long! That puts him in the 95%, while his weight is in the 50% and his head circumference is in the 25%. He is eating every 3 hours during the day and stretches to 4 at night. I am still being anal mom and setting my alarm for every 2 hours just to check. I am happy to say I snagged a movement monitor on Ebay for 25 bucks, and I am really hoping it will give me some peace of mind.
Jackson has good awake periods during the day-not a ton of course, but enough to know that when he is awake, he is very alert. He will find my eyes and stare at me intently. He is my best baby, by far, at keeping his binky in his mouth, and yet, there are many times when he just does not need it. He enjoys sleeping in his swing, and likes to focus on the mobile in there, as well as the one in his pack and play. He is able to get his fist to his mouth and likes sucking on that, or on a finger; I think he has figured out scratching his face hurts, and he hasn't done that for a while after marking up his face quite a bit in the hospital. No for sure sign of what color his eyes are going, sometimes I think more blue, other times I think more brown. He has lost that very high pitched cry he was sporting in the hospital, and will give me more warning cries now before he really ramps up. He doesn't cry a lot at all, but there are definitely times he cries just because he wants snuggles-which I am seriously happy to give!
Jackson has had his first cold this week-no wonder with highs being in the 50's. It doesn't seem to bother him, just keeping him elevated in his pack and play and keeping his nose suctioned out. His umbilical cord fell off when he was 15 days old (updated after starting this post of course). His circ is healing nicely, though we thought he was getting majorly infected a few days after having that procedure-enough to where I actually called the on-call ped at 1:30 in the morning one day...that's saying a lot, I don't call frequently, if ever. Turns out the yellow pockets that I thought were indicative of infection was just a consequence of his slightly high bilirubin levels. No issues now and everthing is healed up just fine. Jackson does have a bit of a yeast build up right now, and we are using a creme to get that to clear up.
Sara has officially christened the first nickname, which everyone now uses: Jacksee. I told the kids a big fat NO to calling him Jackie, but JackSEE, with the /s/, is just fine, and fitting for him! The kids are relentless about asking me to hold him, to the point where it is almost frustrating to me. Karianna is amazingly helpful with him, and has gotten extremely good at toting him around anywhere; I can really rely on her to rock him if I am finishing up something for work and need a few extra minutes. Sara is also exceptionally good at keeping Jackson happy if he is getting fussy in his swing or his bouncer. She loves taking care of him! I think I need to do a better job at letting the kids really interact with Jackson though-sometimes its easier to just keep everyone away as a mode of keeping the baby safe! But they are just so excited about him, I need to make him more accessible to everyone all around.
Jackson has had several outings so far (I have to add "of course", as I am not super anal about keeping newborns sequestered unless I have a good reason). He has been to Walmart, Ross, Burlington, Michaels, Culvers, Bush, and family members' houses. We are hitting up a park today, so we'll see if he enjoys that to any degree. He likes listening to the shower water run, and he likes laying on his side slightly in bed. He doesn't mind the swaddle, especially with two very stretchy blankets that I have. He does not care for his carseat-specifically, being packed into it. Car rides are also up in the air-I am not convinced he really likes the rocking motion of a traveling car. His toes and feet remain super long, and his legs are still skinny little spindles. I look at his chest all the time and feel grateful that it does not sport a scar...it may sound weird, but it's almost weird for me to look at a scarless chest. It's funny what one major life experience will do to your expectations!
With every day that passes, I feel like Jackson gets better at nighttime sleeping. He definitely has his nights that he treats as days, but they are growing farther apart-such a nice feeling, though I am not counting my eggs before they hatch! He tends to be very awake from 8-11pm each night, staring at everything around him. He'll start to get fussy-ie, needing someone to hold and rock him-around 10, and then he'll usually zonk out by 11. Jared and I are getting better at making sure we are ready for bed shortly thereafter-that's a work in progress, as I tend to need to zone out once the baby is out, and Jared is my "zoning out buddy". Jacks sleeps wonderfully through the first 3 hours nowadays, even 4 at times. He'll nurse around 2/3 in the morning while I watch silly infomercials or dumb news shows that don't deserve any other time slot than middle of the night. He'll go back to sleep without any fuss or rocking needed so I have been able to just lay him back down and go back to sleep myself. On the off chance he does fuss, it's usually at this point that I'll supplement a bit and he's out like a light. He nurses again around 6 in the morning, and at that point, I am very prone to just letting him sleep in my arms until I have to get out of bed at 7:15 or later if it's a weekend. He sleeps the best in my arms....I don't sleep well, but I relish these moments as they will disappear before I know it.
That is a ton of information about Jackson and I have become nostalgic just typing all of it, knowing in another few weeks or months, things will be all the more altered. Stay little Jackson-just for my sake! Please!
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