Dear Jericho,
We got your two month pictures back from Jenn and Tim (The photographers) and I think so far these are my favorite. Although, I will probably say that each month. Its amazing how much you have changed from last month. When the Jenn saw you this month she said "Oh my he has grown a lot!" I didn't believe her until I saw these pictures and was able to compare them to the ones from last month. WOW... you are growing a lot.
Now, you are my son so I think you are the most beautiful baby I have ever laid eyes on. So, I tried to only post a few of my favorites but there are 40 pictures from the photographer so you are lucky I didn't post them all. I got the pictures back on Friday when I was at work from Teresa (I haven't told you about her yet) and I will admit, I didn't get much work done after that. Seriously, I got them at a meeting at 10 and I stared at the disk until I could get back to my office and look at them. My productivity at work tanked once I got back to the office. Oops!
The funny thing about getting pictures taken monthly is I'm going to have to choose from these to be able to get 8x10's of every month. That means, by the end of your first year I'm going to have AT LEAST 12 8x10 pictures to show you growing up. This is amazing, and priceless in my eyes because not very many Mommy's can get pictures taken every month (professional ones) so they can document their little ones growing up. I will admit, at this point I'm willing to not have restaurant food or take out for a month just so we can afford these pictures. Its worth the money in my book ($45.00 plus tax). The only problem I'm going to have is finding wall space in this house. Its a huge house. But Heaven forbid your Dad and I decide to have more kids. Where will the pictures of those kids go?
Dear Jericho,
When you were still in my belly I would play music on my computer at work and have one ear bud in my ear and the other ear bud in my belly button. I wanted to share everything with you and that included my favorite music.
Now that you are out in the world, your Dad had mentioned several times while we were in the car and you were so calm that he thought you liked the movement of the car and the music we would play. The music on the radio was no longer muffled, but the funny thing is when Daddy drives he doesn't have the same music on that you heard in my belly. Daddy and I don't always have the same taste in music, but I tried to listen to a variety of things when I was pregnant so you could hear more than just Mom's pop music and her wild card Josh Groban classical music.
When I was pregnant, I would listen to Pirates of The Caribbean soundtrack because Daddy likes that movie a lot. In fact, if you were going to be a girl, we were going to name you Keira after the actress in Pirates of The Caribbean. If you have a sister by the time you read this, her name is probably Keira. Another soundtrack I would listen to was the Transformer's soundtrack. Daddy is a HUGE transformers geek and even has a tattoo of Optimus Prime on his calf. I think he got that right before we started dating, BUT it was before the movies even came out. So your Dad loved Transformers before they were "cool".
I was pregnant through the winter. So one of the songs I listened to a lot was "Bells of New York City" by Josh Groban. Whenever I listen to it. I remember you kicking in my stomach whenever I would drive home (sometimes in the rain) from work. When I was pregnant, and would sing in my car you were always very active.
I also listened to a lot of Ingrid Michaelson. For the most part, I listened to mellow music. I worked a lot, wasn't getting a lot of sleep and wanted to keep my blood pressure and everything as mellow and relaxed for you as possible.
And of course... the wild card songs.. From Pirates of The Carribean and Transformers
You probably think your Dad and I are nerds now.
Anyway, the whole point of this post is that even though I wouldn't consider us a music family, you do like it a lot. Your Daddy was listening to 80's music the other day and you went bonkers. So he ended up putting music up on YouTube on the TV so you could watch the videos and coo at all the colors. The other day on the way to the grocery store you got rather animated when Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody came on too.
How you acquired this as your "taste" in music is beyond me. Now, I play a little of a watered down version of some songs to you when I'm trying to get you to sleep. So you can have familiar tunes but mellow enough so that it doesn't crack you out and keep you awake.
Dear Jericho,
One of the fun things that happened (i'm being sarcastic here) during your 2nd month of life was your 2 month shots. You did pretty good, but you still cried. I don't think i've heard of a baby getting shots and NOT crying. I'm sure you understand why I didn't get pictures of this eventful day of your life, but I'm confident you can paint a picture in your mind of yourself as a baby and Mommy holding you trying to console you in the doctor's office. One of the things Mommy wasn't prepared for this month was your apparent desire to make her worry daily by deciding it was too cool to poop. Today is a Saturday and you stopped pooping over a week ago on Thursday. So we're going on your 10th day (today is the 9th) of your "Poop Strike". When we were at the doctor, we told her about this and discussed it again. I had called them a couple days before hand after you hadn't pooped for a few days. I was already worried at that point. She told us to wait it out, and as long as you were happy and didn't seem uncomfortable not to worry. You would think Mommy would listen to the doctor when she said not to worry... but I'm worried. Daddy is fine with it, and isn't worried because he said if there was something to worry about the doctor wouldn't have told us not to worry. Its a Mommy's job to worry I guess.. So Worry I will.
So, to add to your list of "1sts" this month.. lets see you've had your first cold, your first round of booster shots and guess what.. YOUR FIRST JUICE DRINKS! This is because Mommy and Daddy are trying like MAD to get you to poop. (Side Note, one day I am going to show this post to your girlfriends so that they will know that you didn't poop when you were 10-11 weeks old *kidding*) I even stuck a (gasp) thermometer in your butt to try to get things to come out. That actually worked once. However, one of the things the doctor suggested was that we give you Juice. So far, we've tried Apple Juice, Pear Juice and today I tried Apple/Prune juice. That was about 3 hours ago and still nothing.. Although you are asleep right now so I will just be happy with that.
I wasn't and still am not thrilled to have to give you juice. I really didn't want you to start getting foods and juices until you were 6 months. But with your reflux (have I posted about that yet?) and your "poop strike" you've been given baby rice cereal, infant juice drinks, and infants Tylenol all in your first 11 weeks of life.
At the last doctor's appointment, the doctor started talking to us about giving you foods (she mentioned we could start at 4 months.. eh.. we will see) and also mentioned for us to get the Tylenol for when you start teething which apparently should be coming in the next few months.
I'm not excited about any of those benchmarks. I thought I would have more time before I would need to start worrying about baby food and teething rings. I'm seeing you grow up quick before my eyes and as excited as I am to see you roll over and get your teeth in. I'm just not ready for you to start doing those things yet.
Dear Jericho,
One of the hardest things about being a Mommy so far has been hearing your screams and cries. Mommy has been getting her fair share of that lately and I would like for it to be over.
It all started two nights ago. Our night time routine of you waking up once per night and getting a bottle was turned upside down when I went back to work. Instead, now when you wake up I feed you which takes about an hour not including changing diaper time. Which you scream and cry through now and it sucks. Your cries in the middle of the night hurt my already sleep deprived head. A couple nights ago you started coughing when I would put you down to sleep from your midnight snack. Your sister, Alexis, had been sick and was holding you a couple days prior to that and your coughing and stuffy nose was just what she had. I guess now you will know your first cold was when you were 2 months old... and it sucks.
It is difficult for you to sleep but you seem to be okay during the day. This means instead of you waking up once per night, you are uncomfortable and waking up maybe two or three times a night. I'm feeding you to soothe you back to sleep but the second you stop eating and I think we get to both go back to bed it doesn't work out. You being uncomfortable is so sad and I wish I could take your cold away and have it for myself. We would both get some sleep if it were that easy!
I pretty much spent most of my day today fishing boogers out of your nose. Its not one of the most glamorous things about being a Mom but anything to help you breathe easier and sleep longer at this point, I'll do.
Today, you got your first bump. No, it didn't bruise but I believe I have a bruise on my heart because I was the one that did it. You were a happy baby for a small portion of the day so I put you to play under your activity mat. Eventually you started to get sleepy so I was picking you up to put you on my shoulder to start putting you to sleep and I hit your head (gently) on the lamp in the family room. You hardly cried, in fact it was more of a whine. However, I cried for about 30 minutes. Shortly after I hit your head on the light you spit up (which is common for you) then you went to sleep in about 5 minutes after I started rocking you. But the two of these things together is a sign of a concussion and so the not-so-calm side of Mommy panicked. I saved us a trip to the ER by rationalizing your symptoms and waking you up from your sleep a couple times. You were not happy about this and screamed at me until you got comfortable enough to go back to sleep, but your fussiness and anger towards me was a relief.
Tonight Daddy worked so when he was trying to get ready for bed, I gave you a bath and a bottle. Within a little while you are asleep and so is Daddy. I can't hear a peep out of you from the baby monitor, but I can sure hear Daddy snoring. Good thing that doesn't wake you up.
I Love you so much Jericho, but Mommy is going to go to sleep tonight and I hope you don't wake up for a few hours.
At First, you didn't like Bath Time. In fact the first couple baths you screamed like someone was killing you. Daddy took pictures of you on his phone though, because it was an event we had to catch on camera.
Sorry for the nudity.
As time went on you learned to like your baths. Maybe we learned how to make them more enjoyable, I don't know. When you were 6 weeks old I started taking baths with you. I think you liked this better because you felt more secure. Thank You for trusting me enough to take you in a big tub of water! Don't worry, Mommy is a good swimmer and wouldn't let anything happen to you.
I looked forward to Bath Time and still do. Not only do you smile now, but you sleep the best after a bath so we save those for right around bedtime. You take a bath, cuddle with Mommy eat a late night snack and your off to dream land. Its wonderful.
