6 months!

Jude is 6 months today!

It's almost hard to believe it has been this long since he was born. He's so big now, and has tons of skillz.

Milestones this month:

- He's rolling like crazy.

- He prefers to be in his bouncy activity fun center of doom and excitement. He'll sit in that thing and bounce, play, laugh, and talk for hours.

- He isn't so cranky about being on his belly now that he can roll over.

- He sleeps better on his side/back.

- EVERYTHING he gets his hands on goes in his mouth and everything is targeted for him to get his hands on.

- He looks at me when I say his name.

- He gets excited and grabs my hands when I clap. He has even started kind of clapping the wrong way (I need to video-tape it, it's cute).

- He has tried 6 foods (rice cereal, bananas, apples, sweet potatoes, carrots, and green beans)

and has loved them all.

- He takes the spoon from me

and feeds himself, but he can't get food onto the spoon himself quite yet.

- He scooches on the floor a little.

- He loves the cat (not really a milestone, but his excitement and cat petting are adorable).

- He babbles on and on, usually in a "blahblahblah" manner, sometimes "dadadada" or "ooooh, aaah, gagaga" (another thing that needs to be video-taped).

- He can sit up without me holding him up, but he's still topples over from time to time.

- He's still extra clingy.

- He's starting to smack his lips.

- He makes pfffft noises a lot.

- He won't sleep on his own unless I'm babysitting at Lisa's house.

- He has no more stuffed animals he's super attached to because the jerk dog demolished them. :(

I'm supposed to try to find a job. I've looked and there's nothing around here, plus it doesn't help that I'm going to need weeks of time off within months of starting. I have humored my parents and applied to a few places, but I still don't see a point. :/

2 weeks ago we took him to a Detroit Red Wings game. It was tons of fun, and he

looked adorable in his jersey and skate booties he got for Christmas. Unfortunately, we lost

literally in the last minute of the game. He had fun and got excited when everyone cheered, after his initial shock from the loud noise of course.

It's so strange. Up until a few weeks ago, his surgery was going to be today. I didn't really think about it much until my mum talked about it yesterday and today and then it really hit me again. I think I've just been repressing the thought so I don't freak out about it. If I dwelled and freaked about it all the time, I'd get even less done, and that wouldn't be very good, now would it?

5 months!

Jude turned 5 months on Saturday!
This past month he has:
- rolled over tons.
- started schooching around the floor a little.
- continued to laugh and smile like crazy.
- has become much more vocal and seems to have the basic grasp of the rhythm of conversation.
- started showing basic communication signs by putting his arms out to be picked up, grabbing towards things he wants (which seems to be everything), and grabbing my shirt when he's hungry.
- sat up unsupported for brief periods of time.
-started to tolerate being on his stomach.
- been extra clingy and snuggly.
- shown signs of being ready to start eating solids by tracking food, trying to grab it, and putting silverware in his mouth properly.


Friday night he had rice cereal for the first time. He did super well with it, he actually swallowed most of it and ate about half a tablespoon of it. He kept opening his mouth for the spoon and closing it on it once it was in too.

I've started giving him bottles and sippy cups with a little bit of water in them to see if he knew how to drink from them because his not taking a bottle is getting a little ridiculous and I'd like a break from the house sometime without having to worry about coming home after 2 hours to feed him.





We finally met with the 2nd opinion doctors at UM hospitals last Monday. After much thought, research, and debating with myself I've decided to go with them for his surgery. I would have liked to go out of state but it isn't very feasible. UM does the procedure more on par to the top centers in the country. They won't do it until 9-13 months so I'll have to play this waiting game even longer. They don't use a helmet post-op. All-in-all I feel more confident going there.

I want to know who my audience is...

So comment if you're reading this and become a follower instead of a stalker. :D

Christmas talk

I'm 98% certain Jude has night terrors. :( He's been almost consistently screaming but not entirely waking up at about the same time almost every night for a few weeks. It doesn't matter if I'm holding him, sleeping with him, or he's in his crib while he sleeps, he still does it. He doesn't even wake up, he just screams and it takes a while to calm him down and usually the only thing that helps is nursing him. It's kind of scary and makes me worried. I just scoured through my parenting books and there's nothing on the topic so I hit the Google machine, and this is the most cohesive thing I found. I'm going to mention it to his doctor when he goes again, which won't be until after his surgery, if it's still happening but it doesn't seem like there's much that can be done about it aside from comforting him back to sleep.

Christmas was good. We got a Wii from my grandma, which means my family has officially joined the 21st century, at last. Up until last year we still had dial-up internet and never had cable. My parents also got a flat screen TV for the whole family to share. They got me a TomTom GPS because of the time I ended up in Lansing on my way up north >.< and a video camera. I can't use the software that came with my camera though apparently. It won't work on the family desktop for some reason and I can't get it to work on my laptop. I was at least able to save the files and upload them to YouTube. Here's a video of Jude on my mum's lap. I can swivel the screen 180º so I pointed it at Jude while I was filming and he was laughing at "the other baby" on the screen.


Jude got tons of toys for Christmas of course. I'm still in the process of cleaning and finding homes for everything, it's going to take weeks most likely. He's rather clingy and it seems like I can only put him down for 10 minutes at a time, if that.

I have tons of pictures from Christmas to upload of course, I just haven't gotten around to it. I will eventually, have no fear.

Christmas time is here!

I'll make sure to post all about all the festivities when they're over.
Merry Christmas everyone!

Surgery, Thanksgiving, 4 months, etc.

First and foremost, Jude is 4 months as of yesterday. He hasn't really reached any new milestones, but his skills are definitely improving. He knows that he's grabbing things and how to do it. He investigates things more with his hands, and his mouth. He babbles and laughs almost all the time. I haven't really put him on a schedule, but he has seemed to form one, or something like one on his own. He can sit up, but not quite on his own yet, he's a little wobbly still. He loves to stand when I hold him up. He also loves to look at himself in the mirror, I have a little narcissist on my hands. He has rolled over on his own, but he doesn't do it often for whatever reason. All in due time I reckon.

His surgery went well. He was confused afterwards and cranky unless I was holding and rocking him. He was really upset when I put him down to get him dressed to go home. I distracted myself by making my parents & Chris play hangman with me while he was in surgery. His bandages finally all fell off last week and there's some scars, but the doctors gave me a silicone gel to make them better. He was drugged up, cranky, and groggy for a day or two after. The day after he fell asleep on the floor while playing, twice. The morning of he was surprisingly happy considering he wasn't allowed to eat. He also didn't wake up in the middle of the night to eat like he normally does so it worked out pretty well.

Playing at 5 am before we left for the hospital.

Post-op.

Home from the hospital.

The day after.

Thanksgiving was Thanksgiving. We spent it at my grandma's house. I cooked some things that everyone loved. I've been so domestic lately, it's odd. And now Christmas is approaching rapidly. Eeeks.

'Twas the night before Jude's surgery....

...And these are some of my thoughts.

I'm freaking out, I have been for weeks but I haven't showed it much. I actually have been trying to suppress all emotions around people, it's crazy weird. I know everything will most likely go great,

and that it's for the better but part of me is freaked out by the fact that my baby has to have surgery, especially since I've never had surgery, aside from the c-section. It's also weird that he'll look completely different after tomorrow. I know he won't be a different person,

but he'll look different and that makes me kind of sad. Getting his skin tags removed makes me feel hypocritical too. I'll miss his adorable little cheeky nipples.

Since we have to be there at 6 & his surgery's at 7:30 he's not allowed to eat after midnight but he can have pedialyte or water until 4:30. Which means when he wakes up looking to eat at 3 I have to try to give him that. That's going to be a challenge since he won't take a bottle at all. I thought about trying to just cuddle him back to sleep, but I think it will be better to try to get something into his stomach.

I'm also upset about Chris, he's all talk and no walk and it's annoying, but that really has nothing to do with anything and I know if I talk or think about it more I'll just think of more things and it will be catastrophic.