Jack: One Month

The bear is technically Eleanor's, but we're borrowing him. He's made out of an old shirt of Dave's - our D-Dad bear, and even though Dave will never know this little guy, we'll be sure to tell Jack all about his D-Dad and how wonderful he was.

location change, and no longer grumpy after a huge burp and spit-up, requiring an outfit change

"Bro - your sticker fell off." 

Sweet Jack,

You have been the hardest transition out of all of our babies. So many people told us that zero to one child was the hardest, but I disagree. Perhaps it was harder to get used to no sleep when having the first child, but I really think the transitions all depend on the personalities of all of the children combined. Your big sisters are charming, but whatever frustration they have with the changes in our family are being taken out on each other. Thankfully they adore you. The difficulty in this transition is that they are both clingier to me, following me around all day, and you love to be held more than anything, so that makes for having a lot of children on me all the time. I'll let you in on a secret, Jack. If I could hide away and just snuggle you all day, I would. You curl up on my chest and fall peacefully asleep, and we spend most of our evenings on the couch just cuddling. It's my favorite time of day.

It's also been difficult figuring out what keeps bothering your tummy. You spit up constantly, you kept choking, and you had some fast breathing issues in the beginning at the hospital that had us worried. A routine 15 minute visit to the nursery resulted in a 3 hour stay and a chest x-ray. You lost a high percentage of weight when in the hospital, although it didn't seem like much to me since you were such a big baby at birth. You're doing much better now that I've adjusted my diet, but you still sleep in a newborn rocker next to our bed, because laying flat is not working for you right now. You don't like barbecue or pizza or fast food, sometimes no dairy, possibly not gluten - it's such a guessing game and I'm very hungry. But, to have a calm happy baby is worth whatever food I have to give up.

Unlike your sisters, you aren't a huge fan of the carseat or the swing (even though you're a motion baby) and much prefer to be held. If you're well fed and sleepy enough, you'll tolerate them. I wear you in a sling/wrap around the house some days and also for every errand we run. We've added a couple new wraps into the rotation and I'm loving them, as are you.

You started giving tiny smiles just after 3 weeks, and I don't believe that they were gas smiles. Gas hurts! With the diet changes, you transformed into a much calmer baby.

You look so much like Eleanor as a newborn, except the very boy version of her. You have my eyelashes, pale and on the short side, while the girls were thankfully blessed with your daddy's beautiful long dark lashes. You are definitely all boy - you look like a boy, you sound like a boy, you're hungry all the time, and you are such a fan of me.

We had many visitors both at the hospital and in the weeks following at home. Your daddy had the first week off from work, and then Nonnie came for a few days and Nana the week after. Lots of help for me, and I cried each time one of them left! When the last of the help left for good, I cried huge tears. We survived that day, and all the days since, but not all of them have been pretty.

I have to say, you're my most high-maintenance baby, but with all of the snuggling you let me do, you're probably my sweetest, too. I look forward to month number 2!

Love,
Mom