Love my baby. Miss my body

Like the title says I love Jack. More than love him! There should be a new word for love to describe the way I feel for him. But I miss my body. I miss my old clothes. I miss my butt, thighs and flat tummy. I don't know what I thought my body would look like after childbirth. I've been pleasantly surprised. Things are still in the same place and look relatively good considering what happens during the child growing and birthing process, but I still want the old me back. I'm about 8-10 lbs shy of my pre-pregnancy weight and seem to have plateaued in the losing weight area. Before Jack was born I would have done what any rational woman does when they want to lose 5-10 lbs, starve and workout like crazy. Since I'm still breastfeeding that rules out starving. If I don't eat then Jackson doesn't eat and a hungry baby cries a lot ;). So that leaves working out like crazy as the means to shed the last 10 lbs. Well here's the thing, I'm tired by the time dad comes home or the kiddo goes to asleep and I finally have the opportunity to go to the gym. I know some serious working out is just on the horizon. We are taking a trip to New York in two months and I'm determined to take my old jeans and sweaters! New winter clothes will so much more expensive than the few clothes I've purchased to supplement my summer wardrobe while I'm inbetween sizes and I dont want to spend our money that way. So I'm wondering all you moms out there...how did you lose the weight and how long did it take to get back to your old self, more or less?

Jack on YouTube

Danny here again. This is now my SECOND blog post. EVER. So here's whats up: Jack on YouTube.

Background
Knowing I wanted to record our fun times with Jack, I started doing research on HD camcorders about a year ago, a few months after we learned Frances was preggers. I had my feature wish list all picked out: Full HD (1920x1080), a decent sized disk drive (no messing with memory cards), light weight, reputable brand, etc. But I planned on waiting as long as possible until actually purchasing anything because camcorders go the way of all electronic equipment: as time increases, cost decreases and quality and features increase. In other words, roughly speaking,

T = (Q + F) / c

HOWEVER. December 25th came and with ZERO prompting, my MOTHER bought us a camcorder as a celebration of that magical holiday where we all get presents. Now, upon opening up that gift, here's what went through my mind: "WHOA. A CAMCORDER. Awesome! Oh wait. How is this going to line up with my feature wishlist? Given the vast array of possible camcorders she could have purchased, the odds are fairly low." But after a cursory view of the specs, astonishment came over me as my eyes parsed the important parts: Canon HG20, Full HD, 50GB HDD. So naturally, I thanked my mom asked how in the world she ended up buying the perfect gift. She replied that she asked the salesperson at Best Buy which camcorder was a good one then WENT TO READ REVIEWS ON BEST BUY'S WEBSITE. Why in all caps you may ask? Because I work for the company that provides Best Buy with their superior online Reviews/Questions/Answers services (Bazaarvoice). User Generated Content (UGC) saves the day!

So since Jack was born, we have recorded several videos, and a few of them were quality enough to post on YouTube for family and friends. So I uploaded the first video file in its native format to YouTube, and it worked! Woohoo! Here it is:



After a few months, we recorded 2 more videos that I wanted to post, but YouTube changed their video processing at some point recently and they came out all garbled up. GRRRRRRRRR!!!! What this meant was that I either had to buy video converting software ($50-$100), or spend the time to learn how to convert each video to a YouTube friendly format with open source tools. Long story short, after a weekend and a few late weeknights of research, I figured out a way, and so here are the next two videos:






So sorry for not posting these earlier. We hope you enjoy them :)

First Play Group Date

So Jack and I went to our first play date with the mom's group I found on meetup.com. We really enjoyed it and the other moms and babies were very friendly. The meet up was at a coffee house/romper room in Round Rock called Jungle Java. I would highly recommended this place to mom with children of all ages. The high points- first of all it's air conditioned, that all by itself is would be reason enough to check it out in this heat. It has a really nice coffee selection along with baked treats and some sandwiches. There are two play areas that the kids get to enjoy, a huge indoor play scape and an area for babies with a slide and other fun little toys. There are also comfy chairs like other coffee houses and all in all its nice. The noise volume was a little loud but not so loud that it bothered any of the younger kiddos.

Jack and I took our first trip down a slide together! I think I enjoyed the slide more than he did but that'll change soon. I forgot to take my camera so I don't have any pictures to show, check out their website.

Wow! Jack is 5 months old!

Jackson was 5 months old last Thursday. This has been whirlwind of a month in so many ways. Jackson has changed a great deal in such a short amount of time.

The biggest change has been sleep. Since we posted last we hit a brick wall in our sleep time routine, both bed time and nap time. I was nursing Jack to sleep every nap and at bed time. I was pretty happy with this plan, it was working and he was sleeping. It was very time consuming but I thought it would only last a few months and he'd learn to go to sleep on his own. Boy, was I wrong. One night the nursing wasn't working, daddy rocking wasn't working, none of the trick up our sleeve were working. In an instant I said to Daniel it's time to cry it out or Ferberize this baby. Daniel was pretty shocked I was willing to do it, but I was desperate! I''ll spare you all the nitty gritty details, let's just say with in 2 1/2 days my little guys was going to sleep on his own for all naps and bedtime with minimal fussing or crying! Our lives have changed! Daniel and I now eat dinner together. I'm able to leave the house with out worrying if he'll be able to sleep with out me. It's been wonderful!

Now on to other stuff. Jack is rolling over now but not consistently. He seems content to chomp on his arm during tummy time or just look around. I'm getting frustrated :). He is sitting up really well in his Bebepod seat (like a bumbo) and this is where we have been feeding him. A highchair will be our next purchase but I just can't decide which one to buy and I'm overwhelmed with online reviews. If you have a recommendations I love to hear about it!

Speaking of feeding, we started rice cereal a few weeks ago and have also introduced bananas and applesauce. He really likes it and gets a little serving in the morning and right before bath time at night. Jack has really learned to use his voice and is making all sorts of grunts, high pitched squeals, and general babbles. He thinks Daniel is hilarious and those two have a ball together before bedtime. That seems to be when he is most excitable and will laugh at anything Daniel says or does.

Jackson has also officially made his debut into society. We have joined a play group on meetup.com and have our first date this week at a coffee house in Round Rock. Jack has also been to many lunch dates over the past month and does so well out in public. We are right in the middle of a big teething spell and being out and about usually distracts him from the discomfort of teething and also gives mom a break from the whining and fussing associated with cutting those first teeth.

4 months old!

Sorry to those of you who still check in on our blog for not posting sooner. Life has be hectic, good but hectic. Just to update you Jackson was 4 months old on Tuesday the 9th! He is changing so much with every week.

At his appointment he was 15.2 lbs and 27 inches long. He is in the 65th percentile for weight and above the 95th in length. Looks like someone is still on target to be a tall and lean boy. His eyes are still a grayish brown but turning more brown with each week. His hair is beginning to grow back in lighter than his newborn hair. It looks like the color I had as a baby, very light brown. He is laughing, smiling, cooing and talking to us. He just start blowing bubbles and making wet raspberry sounds when he is happy. He can hold is head up so well when on my hip, in his bebepod seat, or when we hold him sitting. He loves to chew on things, especially his own hand. Teething has begun! He likes his excersaucer and doesn't like his playmat anymore. He loves looking at our faces and watched us to see what we are doing even when I try to give him independent play time. He is so close to rolling over but has only done it once. Per our dr.'s advice I have increased tummy time which he hates! He usually starts off fine and then fusses and sucks on his arm.

He is sleeping through the night with one early morning feeding (yay for sleep!) and usually gets up between 6:30-7:00. We are in the trenches of the Ferber sleep method though. Nighttime is going well, but naps are another story. Since Jack was colicky I was doing whatever necessary to get him sleep, mainly nursing to sleep. While that was working great, mom was beginning to think I needed an ankle monitor because I felt like I was under house arrest. I am constantly anxious about leaving the house for any length of time. What if he gets hungry? Dad can't feed him he's boycotting bottles! What if he gets sleepy? Dad cant nurse him to sleep! How can I leave the house! For my sanity and the well being of everyone else I come into contact with we decided something had to give. Don't get me wrong I love breast feeding but I knew I was setting myself up for a long battle if I let the habit perpetuate.

So naps are a battle. Jackson was so tired today. He had a good morning nap because I nursed him to sleep...shame shame. But I needed him to have somewhat of a decent nap before we dove into the Ferber method. Then he was pretty out of it from taking only two 30 minute naps this afternoon. I'll post soon about our progress. He went out like a light tonight, but I'm still prepared for some (haha lots) of crying in the coming days. So hard! But it will be better in the long run.

Memorial Day Weekend: Mother's Day Redux

Hi boys and girls, Danny writing. This is my first posting, so if you are a regular at this blog and the following post seems... different, then that's why.

As you may recall, Mother's Day was terrible at the McPherson household. We had planned on so many fun things, but all was put on hold because I threw out my back. Yes, there's nothing quite like the pain of muscle tearing near your spine. But two weeks later, I'm surprised to say that it feels completely healed. So this weekend Mother's Day was redone in the form of much needed landscaping, and me taking care of the kid all day Sunday.

When Frances and I bought our house, it was a foreclosure in need of work. Because we prioritized the inside of the house before the outside, the yard has looked pretty terrible since we moved in. Last summer, however, we did make a significant improvement by replacing several large sections of the front "yard" (the worst section being 50% dirt + 40% weeds + 10% bermuda) with St. Augustine grass. Here's a pic from last summer:

If you look close, you can see the new grass on the right side of the yard, bushes by the sidewalk from the driveway to the front door, bushes to the left of the front door, and trees that have apparently never been pruned.

So last week Frances called the tree dudes to come rip out the bushes in front and prune the trees. Then here's what we did on Saturday:

8am came early. Up, out of bed. Get dressed. Get kid ready. Two cars to Home Depot, with Frannie taking a detour to Starbucks. 4 bags of DARK mulch, 2 bags of native Texas dillo dirt. Back home. Move pretty white border stones to drive way for a rinse. Clear out old "decorative" rocks (using the word decorative loosely) and over turn soil in front of porch. Mix in dillo dirt. Place stones in circular pattern around tree bases. Fill mulch in each. Spread dillo dirt to low places in yard. Back to home depot. More mulch, more dillo dirt, 6 pieces St. Augustine sod, 36 monkey grass plants for porch border. Back home. Plant monkey grass while getting sun burned. Cover with mulch. Add art. Plant sod. Watch it rain. Go to sleep exhausted. (In the pic, notice how well the St. Augustine filled in from last year)

Sunday I take over Jack responsibilities for Frances while she experienced freedom. This mainly consisted of her running errands, but it was a good break for her to get away from the house. And since I'm always cold (at work and at home) Jack functioned as a cosy portable heater while I studied about church doctrine and its roots.

Monday. Nothing planned except Frances wanted to trim the remaining bushes near the front door, and maybe spread the last bag of dillo dirt. I don't know what came over us, but we agreed the 3 front bushes by the front door needed to go as well. So what was going to just be another 1 hour of work, turned into 7. Frances + Danny + branch cutters + an ax + two shovels + synchronous tugging and pulling + tending to Jack + 3 hours = victory over the bushes. After Frances made a quick trip to the Home Depot to get more dark mulch, a welcome sign, and some plants, we set it all up and called it good. Check out the before and after:

And finally, here's a close up of Frannie's artistic skillz:

So then we took nice long naps. Thank you Jack for respecting the nap. He did so well through all of this! When he wasn't napping he was outside with us in the shade grabbing his toys and yelling at them with excitement. But there was one tramatic incident where the ice-cream truck stopped at the house across the street to service some kids. It was interesting to him at first. But his interest soon turned to discontent (joining mom and dad).

So here we are at the conclusion of the long weekend. One of these days we're actually going to relax and take it easy. But we'll enjoy it more if all the chores are done first :)

So this is Mother's Day

Ok, so this Mother's Day wasn't quite what I had pictured when I envisioned my first Mother's Day. Daniel and I had planned to take out first family picnic and Jack's first trip to the park. We had a productive Saturday of yard work so Sunday would be wide open for family fun. Well Saturday afternoon Daniel leaned over in the living room to pick up a pillow from the couch and BAM! his back went out! I mean completely seized up! He could barely make it to the couch to lay down and then when he got there he was down for the count. Picnic canceled!

Well, I wake up Sunday morning feeling a little sorry for myself but find that Daniel had managed to make it to the kitchen and make me pancakes! He was worn out and uncomfortable but said he wanted to do something to make the day special for me. Too sweet! I then ordered him back to the couch. As I was cleaning up in the kitchen after breakfast I looked out the window into the backyard and see Sebastian laying down and chewing on something. Never a good sign! I take a closer look and see that it's a dead bird! Soooo gross! I go outside and shoo him away from the bird, well actually yell at the top of my lungs to get inside the house. I gave him a bath like he had never had before and then went out to pick up the bird. Daniel said he would get i,t which was really nice, but I knew bending down like that was out of the question and to lay back down.

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful until bedtime. My little man usually goes to sleep between 6:30 and 7:30 depending on how late his afternoon nap goes. Well he woke up from his afternoon nap around 4 so I figured he'd be out by 7ish. Wrong! Jackson fought bedtime until 10:00. He hasn't been this hard to put down for over a month and I have gotten spoiled by that. Everytime he was alseep in my arms by either rocking him, bouncing him or swaying him he would instanly wake up when I layed him down in his crib. His eyes would pop open and he'd smile and coo, too cute but exhausting. Well here's to hoping that today is better!!!