Category Archives: motherhood

dear jack: four months

Dear Jack,

Hallelujah, my sweet son!

On Tuesday night you slept for 5 hours and 45 minutes straight, followed by 2 wakings. The 4 straight hours of sleep that I got at the same time was freaking awesome!

Then, last night you slept 6 1/2 hours straight, followed by just one easy-going waking for only 30 minutes to nurse. You then slept for another 3 hours and 45 minutes.

Kid, I love the way this is headed and I love you…

Mom
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jack: sixteen weeks old

Here is Jack at 16 weeks…
(May 17, 2012)

sixteen weeks!

Untitled i'm flying!

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I enjoyed my first Mother’s Day by getting to sleep in! R kept telling me to go back to sleep every time I would wake to care for Jack and I didn’t know why until I finally got out of bed at, like, 9:30am and found these beautiful flowers and cards waiting for me…

mother's day flora

firsts

And my two favorite guys were smiling at me…

these two guys are my favorite

Our bedtime routine is quickly becoming one my favorite things. First, I get Jack in a bath (which is one of his favorite things). Then Daddy arrives home and we all sit together on the bed and Jack drinks a bottle while we read a story. This week we started to read a lot of Curious George, which was fun. It is a joy to watch Jack listen more and more intently and look at the pictures. Finally, Jack gets swaddled, I often sing a short song, kiss him, say, “Good night, sweet dreams” and then I leave the room. R then does a little soothing before placing him in his bed with his Sleep Sheep playing. And we cross our fingers. We’re still working on sleeping through the night (or longer than 4 hours).

We’re tired, but with these cute chubby cheeks waking you in the middle of the night, it’s hard to complain too much…

cutest chubby cheeks

Can you believe our boy is already 16 weeks? We can’t.
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jack: fifteen weeks old

Here is Jack at 15 weeks old…

fifteen weeks!

This was quite a week! Several new things happened:
-Jack wore baby sunglasses for the first time.
-Jack outgrew his cradle.
-I went back to work.

It’s been hot and sunny in LA so we pulled out the baby sunglasses Amanda F. gave us and, boy, do we love them! I remember thinking baby sunglasses were slightly strange, but now I get it. He looks simultaneously cute and bad-ass. He wore them like a champ and charmed the socks off of the family…

priceless

3 generations of sunglasses

3 generations of dudes in their sunglasses. That’s a framer!

As I already mentioned here, on Tuesday Jack woke up cooing happily and had managed to get himself unswaddled and down toward the bottom of his cradle with his feet through the slats. He now sleeps in his pack and play. He is still swaddled at bedtime, but almost always wakes up with at least one arm out.

That same morning I went back to work. Here I am getting dropped off and saying I’ll-see-you-later to my sweet boy. As you can see, he ignored me…

Untitled mommy-goes-back-to-work day

My return to work went well and Jack-boy did just fine with his familial babysitters, who were kind enough to send me pictures, videos and texts of what he was up to. The first thing I did when I got into the office was to change my computer’s desktop background to a picture of my baby boy. The 3-day work week is just right. By the time the third day rolled around I was ready to be back spending more time with Jack. I am happy with my schedule!

Jack is still only sleeping one long 4-hour stretch at night, but continues to do well getting to sleep on his own most of the time as long as he is swaddled, soothed and drowsy. I won’t lie – it is hard to go to work all day after fitful sleep.

Here are some other favorite poses from this week’s photo shoot…

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How much do we love our boy? Sooooooooo much!
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dear jack: three months

Dearest Jack,

Here we are on the eve of my return to work. It’s 12am and you are enjoying your midnight nursing session as I type this on my iPhone. While these midnight (or later) nursing sessions are exhausting, I secretly, or not-so-secretly, love them because all is quiet and I feel a closeness to you which I hope will remain steadfast as our relationship evolves over time.

Since becoming your mom, I feel like I have grown as a person because you have taught me a new kind of patience, a new kind of tired, a new kind of laughter, a new kind of worry and a new kind of love. I’m a stronger and more selfless woman now, which I appreciate so much.

Now that my maternity leave is over, I want to tell you how much I’ve cherished your first 3 months and spending almost all my time with you. Welcoming you into the world, nurturing your newborn weight gain, seeing your wonderful personality emerge, listening to your sweet cooing, watching the delightful, and often hilarious, faces you make while eating or sleeping, hearing your breath at my neck as you nap on my shoulder, dancing with you in front of the mirror as you grin, seeing that we share a love for a warm bath before bed, the challenge of learning your special quirks & preferences, holding you in my arms as you sleep so I can admire your sweet face and watching you and your Dad become fast friends, already sharing in inside jokes.

In just 3 months, you have brought me so much joy, my little one. You have burst my heart wide open. You are my sweet treasure and I look forward to our future adventures.

I love being your mom and I love you.

Ok, goodnight and feel free to sleep through the night.

Always,
Mom
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