Jude's 4 Month Appointment

Right before we left for Chicago, I took Jude in for his 4 Month Well Check.... His appointments are still off by two weeks so he was actually 4.5 months old when we went in.  Because of his shots, we won't be able to get his appointments back on track for another couple of months.

Anyway, Jude weighed 12 pounds 5 ounces (3-5 percentile) and was 24 inches long (5-10 percentile).  I had measured him being close to 26 not too long ago so apparently, I need to work on measuring! =)

I am always excited to talk to Dr. K about how everything is going.  I'm very fortunate that both my OB/GYN and our pediatrician never make me feel rushed.  I love that they are always patient enough to answer my questions and give me thorough explanations.  Dr. K not only talked to me about Jude, but also started giving me restaurant advice for our trip!  Love it!  Unfortuantely, the main place he recommended has a 3 MONTH waiting list!  Ha!

Everything looked great with Jude and Dr. K wasn't too concerned about anything, but one of my concerns from the beginning has been my milk supply.  I listed it as one of my questions on the sheet I filled out before being called back to the exam room and when Dr. K came in, he said "Sooo tell me about your milk supply."  So I gave him a brief synopsis... mainly that Jude was doing great during the day... eating every 4 hours and taking 2 hour naps every 4 hours.  That he's alert and achieving milestones, etc.  But at night, after his 3.5 month growth spurt, he hadn't been able to sleep the 9-10 hours he had been sleeping.  I told him that I had started supplementing with breast milk at night, but that he still was waking up and though sometimes it just took a binky to get him back to sleep that I was missing the days prior to the growth spurt.

He kind of smiled and said "When I saw his weight, my main question was whether he was sleeping at night."  He said he's still on his growth curve and since I'm tiny, he said that there was nothing to be concerned about in relation to his weight or my supply unless he wasn't sleeping well.  He said his guess is that he's getting just enough.  That he's growing and developing and doing well with my milk supply, but that it isn't quite enough to get him through the night.  So he gave me several ideas on how to get him sleeping through the night again.

Look at these sad eyes!!!!!  It kills me!

It's been two weeks since his appointment and in the last two nights, we finally seem to have had a breakthrough.  Jude still isn't sleeping as well as he was, but he's now able to go from 7:30 p.m. until 5:00 or 5:30 a.m. with a dream feed at 11:00 p.m.  SOOOO much better and I'm hoping that he will soon be able to make it until 7:00 a.m. again!

Jude did get some immunizations before we left and he handled them pretty well.  He had his initial cry, but then was fine.  When Finley saw his two bandaids (His nurse apologized that she only had girly purple ones!), she was really upset and kept saying "Jude fell down and got two boo-boos on his legs!!!!"  I tried to explain that he had gotten shots, but I don't think she really ever understood.  She was really concerned about him though which was super-cute!

A Tail

I really try to keep everything I post appropriate, but I admit this story might border a little on the inappropriate.  It is just tooooo funny not to share though.  It's one of those stories that I want to remember 20 years from now.  One that Finley will probably kill me for sharing in front of her husband someday!

Let me preface this by saying, I'm a pretty modest girl and therefore I REALLY want to teach my children modesty.  When Finley turned 2, we stopped changing in front of her.  We don't take baths or showers with our kids and we don't bathe them together.  The world will soon teach our kids to show tons of skin and that there's no harm in it so we feel it's important that they are taught modesty at home.

So when we found out we were having a boy, I started stressing about diaper changes.  Finley is a "What's that?" kind of girl so I knew that I would get questions about Jude.  Devin and I believe in teaching our kids the appropriate names for things and as much as it freaks me out that Finley says "My 'gyna' hurts." when she has a diaper rash, I know that there has been a lot of research on helping kids identify their proper parts in incidences of molestation, etc. (one of my biggest fears as a parent!)  I also don't want our children to be embarrassed or ashamed of what God created and I think sometimes giving body parts other names can indicate that there isn't something shameful about them.

ANYWAY, Jude is almost 5 months old and Finley has been around for numerous diaper changes and has never once asked "What's that?" to my relief.  I haven't made a big deal out of it and neither has she. The other day she did say "Jude's 'gyna' is red." and I just said "Boys don't have vaginas." and moved on.

Well, today, I was changing Jude's diaper and Finley got super-excited and said "MOMMY!" and I said "Yes, Finley?"  and she said "Jude has a TAIL!!!!!!"  And since she is 2, she said it about 107 times in the span of 10 seconds.  I was trying soooooooo hard not to laugh and then she said "Jude has a tail on his bottom!!!!!"  (We're still kind of learning where everything is located....)

She was so excited.  I'm not sure how to tell her that her brother doesn't have a tail.  I think she is going to be sooooo disappointed.  Maybe I'll let Daddy be the bearer of bad news! =)

Our Five Year Anniversary!

On Friday, Devin and I celebrated our 5 Year Anniversary!  Every year I am amazed at how on one hand it can seem just like yesterday that we were saying our I do's and yet at the same time it seems like we have literally been together forever.

It's crazy to think back to our wedding day.  I married my best friend and he's just as much my best friend now as he was then, but I know him better now.  Know him in a different way than I did then and I love that.  I love the fact that I will know him better in another 5 years than I know him today.  It's exciting to think about how much we've experienced together only to know that this isn't the end and that the future holds more.

I imagined our five year anniversary being spent just the two of us on a beach somewhere.  I thought we'd go somewhere really special since it was a significant anniversary.... maybe back to our honeymoon spot or on a cruise.  Instead we went to Chicago with the cutest four month old ever in tow!  How different things always turn out and though at one point I would've been heartbroken to let go of my expectations, I couldn't have been happier with how we celebrated.

Chicago was a lot of fun and a perfect place to go with a baby.  And thankfully, little J was an angel and an easy traveler allowing us plenty of time to reconnect.

On Friday, we had big plans to get dressed up and go to eat just the two of us to celebrate the actual day, but upon returning from our trip, we quickly found that the sweet and mostly happy girl we left behind was replaced with an overly emotional and insecure toddler that we had never seen before.  Wednesday was the most trying day I've had as a mother BY FAR and to say that I didn't seriously consider locking her in her room and hiding under the covers of my bed would be an outright lie.  Thursday was only a moderate step up from the day before and Devin and I quickly rescheduled our anniversary date night knowing that our little girl needed the safety of her parents instead of being left with Grandma and PaPa or a babysitter.

So Devin came home from work with surprise cupcakes from Pinkitzel and we loved on our little ones giving extra time, attention and patience to Finley.  By 8:15, we had convinced her that Mommy and Daddy weren't leaving her and that we would always come back for her and she thankfully fell asleep.

Once the kids were in bed, we enjoyed take out from my favorite restaurant....

drank champagne from the goblets we used on our wedding day (a gift from Beth's sweet parents), and cuddled on the couch to watch our latest obsession.... episodes of 24.

Call me boring, but it was perfect.

This is where we are after 5 years.  We are husband and wife and yet, we are also Mom and Dad.  Being parents is such a high calling.  One that is often completely selfless in nature.  And though we hope to always prioritize our marriage over our children sometimes being a parent reminds us of what is really important.  Going to a beach and to a fancy dinner would have been nice, but anniversaries are about spending time together.... of falling in love again and again... and that's what we did.  No hammocks or fancy waitors required.