A Father

I think Father's Day was pretty successful around here. I am not one to brag or be mushy. I would rather tell people how I feel in person rather than on Facebook or something like that. But for you few faithful blog readers....I will brag just a little.

I try to tell Jon all of the time what a wonderful father he is. And, it is so true. He is an amazing father and husband. He works so hard and is so involved and invested in us. He would rather spend time with us than pursue his hobbies, though he does make some time for himself, which is important. He is so hardworking and works full-time plus is in a Master's Program. He is in the Elder's Quorum Presidency at church and is always serving others. Jon works tirelessly to improve our yard and our home. He also makes time to play with Jackson and will always watch him when I need a break. Jon loves to cook which is a huge help to me. People are so shocked when they find out he can cook, and is good at it! I never realized that so many men don't cook.  He is also very clean and is not afraid to clean or do laundry or any other housework. Jon also makes time for me and makes me feel like a queen. I am grateful for such a wonderful man to raise our son. Becoming a father is easy, but being a father is not. It is a lot of hard work and Jon is definitely doing the very best he can.

I also am blessed to have a wonderful father, grandpa, and father-in-law. They each shape Jon and I's lives everyday. My dad is hard-working, smart, so generous, and happy. My grandpa is happy, funny, active, faithful, and independent. My father-in-law is an amazing cook, is funny, kind, and wise. Also, I was blessed to be able to meet one of Jon's grandpas who passed away last year. I know he was an amazing man. I wish the world had more dads in it who truly cared. It would seriously change the world people.

And now, a picture overload celebrating dads, especially Jon:

Jon's Grandpa Powell

Jon's dad with little man

My dad holding Jackson on the day he was born

My grandpa

Cheesy gifts from Jackson and I.

I made Eggs Benedict for Jon and brought it to him in bed. (minus the sauce that didn't turn out).

I bought this romper and gave it to Jon last Father's Day along with a picture frame that said Daddy's Girl. I didn't know what we were having yet and wanted to get him two things, one for each gender. This shirt says "Cool like my pop."

Now here are a million pictures of my boys together:

first bottle

first outing- Ward Valentine's Day Party

First Sunday at church

at a park in Colorado; 3 months old

push-ups with Daddy in Colorado

playing after church

walking in Colorado; 3 months old

back home after Colorado trip

one of my favorite pictures ever; I think Jackson is about 2 months old here

this is and almost daily occurrence at our house; usually while I am making dinner

first airplane ride; 3 months old

Mother's Day

Add caption

first time eating rice cereal

4 month check-up (Dad holds his hands during shots)

We love you Jon!!

Back Track

So once upon a time, I was pregnant. And on the day before we met our baby, we took maternity pictures. Yes I procrastinated until literally the last possible moment. I went back and forth between wanting pictures and lacking the motivation to actually do them. Luckily our friend from church had agreed to take them and reminded me about them. We had planned to do the pictures early in the morning on January 18^th to have the best lighting. Our friend called the night before and asked if we could reschedule the pictures for around 2:30. The forecast was going to be really cold, I think in the negative or single digits that morning. The high for the day was going to be 20 I think. So it was decided we would do pictures during the warmest part of the day. I am SO glad we did. 1) IT WAS FREEZING! It looked warm and sunny but there was a terrible biting wind. 2) I was having contractions that morning and had contemplated going to the hospital. I would have probably cancelled the pictures and never done them had we not rescheduled, which makes me sad to think I might have missed this special opportunity, but I didn't. Whew. I am glad we have these pictures to remind us of our last day as just the 2 of us. Keep in mind I hate photos of myself. I am posting these so they will be in our blog book for posterity’s sake. This was our friend's first couples shoot, so we were sort of practice for her. I think overall she did great! J

So here are our pictures: 

And there you have it.

Advice

While being pregnant and now as a new momma, I have gotten tons of advice. Most of it has been unsolicited but kindly welcomed. Here is the top advice I have been given and my thoughts about it all:

1) "It goes by fast, enjoy it while you can." I think this is great advice and is very true. I really do try to savor each moment. I however, also hate this advice because it makes me feel guilty when I am not thrilled about a screaming baby, sleepless nights, and feel guilty for ever leaving my child's side. Yes it goes by fast and I want to cherish it. But laundry does need to be accomplished and I am human. I already stress about being an empty nester and Jackson is only 4.5 months. So I get it, it goes by fast. I am loving it, I really am. But there are still hard days. And also, the days sometimes go by incredibly slow- being home alone talking baby talk all day. But the time overall really does fly, especially the weeks and months. I feel so sad knowing Jackson will someday be all grown up, but that is just the way it is meant to be.

2) "Sleep when the baby sleeps." This is great advice and something that is really important. I actually love this idea. I use this to justify every nap I take and why I must go to bed early some nights. But, of course you can't always sleep when the baby does. Nap time is my chance to catch up on everything that I couldn't accomplish when the baby was awake. It is a frantic race of to-dos. And I know that with each child added to the mix it will be more and more difficult to sleep when the baby does. So I do sleep whenever I am tired and I can. But sometimes it is just not possible and i just have to make the most of it.

3) "Breastfeeding doesn't hurt if you do it right." This is just so not true, at least not initially. Breastfeeding actually hurts quite a bit at first. Now, it will hurt worse if you are not doing it right but I felt like a failure because it hurt. It hurt a lot for at least the first 2 months. I cried and I wanted to give up so many times. I think if Jackson had taken a bottle better I might have. But I am so glad I stuck with it. Jon's support helped me immensely. Now it really doesn't hurt at all, except maybe occasionally. And along with this, the purple cream everyone recommends for your nipples is no bueno (Lansinoh). Trust me when I say to get the nipple butter from target.com. It saved my life.

That is all I can think of at the moment.

4 Months!!

Stats:

Length- 25 inches

Weight- 15 lbs

Jackson has changed a lot in the past month! He is definitely not a little newborn anymore. This past month has been full of changes. I can't remember a whole lot but I feel like he has changed so much!! Jackson laughs a lot more and can play with toys more. He can scoot on his back pretty good now. He seems to actually recognize that his reflection is him and not another baby. He always smiles and chats it up with his reflection. Jackson talks a lot, especially when he is tired. He tried rice cereal and sweet potatoes. I was desperate to try something because nursing is so hard on my back, neck, and shoulders. I am in constant pain all over. Jackson refuses any type of bottle or pacifier. He also wants held most of the time. I love holding him but it is physically hard on me. Jackson loved both the rice cereal and sweet potatoes but the sweet potatoes were hard on his tummy. We will hold off on that for a bit. Jackson loves to chew, drool, blow spit bubbles, and growl. He has really chunked up this month and it is so adorable!! No teeth yet and his hair keeps getting thinner and lighter. Still no rolling over, he gets close but hates tummy time so it is hard to do. Plus he has been sick so tummy time is bad for all that snot. This month had been the fussiest so far and the worst for night time. He gets so fussy and angry that i have to just drive with him or stay outside and walk. The fussiness is rough when Jon isn't home. But I have survived so far. A lot of days Jackson is just so happy though. He is such a blast  Jackson has started to wake up 3 to 4 times a night which has been tiring. He wakes up for the day around 5 or 6 which is way too early! But he is so cute and happy when he wakes up.. We bought Jackson a bouncer and walker toy thing and he loves it! He can't be on it for too long yet because he is not strong enough to sit like that for long but he loves it!

Here are his 4 month pictures. I usually hate posting so many similar pictures but they all show his personality so well. He really is a happy baby overall and brings us so much joy!!

always chewing and he loves his stuffed animals

Jackson loves his reflection and will talk to it and giggle at it. He gets so excited everytime he sees himself.

Yes, he loves his piano!

Camping and a Day of Mothers

Ok everything in this post is all out of order and it is too complicated to fix. Enjoy the pictures and my blurb about our first family camp out and my first Mother's Day!!

Jackson's signature sleeping pose.

This is right before Jackson woke up and looked in awe at all of the trees.

I had a wonderful first Mother's Day!! Jon has always done something sweet for me on Mother's Day. Last year I was pregnant, and we suspected it but didn't know yet. I really try to value Mothers Day because neither of my parents had their mothers around at my age. My dad's mother died when he was a teenager and my moms mom died shortly after she got married. I am so happy to have both of my parents still. For Mother's Day Jon made me breakfast - toast and a parfait. He knew I would want something healthy and we had eggs the day before. He also painted me a really cute sign for our home. He is so creative and thoughtful with his gifts. These kind of gifts are always the best kind. Mother's Day didn't feel too different than any other day because Jon always helps me out a lot with Jackson and everything else. But I did notice he tried to help out even more because it was Mother's Day. He let me nap forever which of course was the best, even though I woke up feeling crazy. It was like 3 hours on and off because Jackson kept waking up to nurse. I was so out of it. Being a mom is so completely difficult at times, but because it is hard it also makes it so amazing. I know being a mom would not be as fulfilling as it is if it were easy. Because I put my whole heart and soul into it, I feel like I appreciate the good all the more.

We also went camping this weekend and went on a short hike. I had my fears and almost called it off on account of rain and feeling like we were nuts for taking a 3.5 month old camping, but I am so glad we did it! Jackson did so well!! He only woke up once at night but had us worried when he didn't go back to sleep right away as usual. He fussed on and off and nursed on and off until Jon rocked him to sleep. We both prayed he would go back to sleep because it was dark and raining and there was a dad with young kids camping near us. I was so worried about disturbing them. I panicked a bit but it was all ok. He even let us sleep until after 6. What a good boy! (Normally we are up at 5ish).  My favorite part of it all was after his morning nap, Jackson woke up in Jon's arms and just looked up at the tree tops in awe. His eyes kept scanning back and forth, taking it all in. He is just so happy when he is outside, just like Jon and I. We love watching him enjoy nature. We are excited for many more camp outs together!!

My breakfast and painting

Jackson had his first go at rice cereal this weekend and he loved it! He kept smiling and kicking his legs wanting more and more until at the end when he was just playing with it. This was after we got back from camping.

Mother's Day morning, my happy boy!!

The day he tried rice cereal. These pictures are obviously all out of order

He was sleeping like this, ear plugs I guess.

Historic hike- Revolutionary War sites

Camping picture

Ready to hike

Revolutionary War Monument

Another monument

My painting, before adding handprints. We are going to add our handprints and will add each child's as they come.