Bathtime at Grandma's

Look at that thigh! James is gaining weight at a great clip- we weighed him with Tonya's luggage scale and he was 13.4lbs at just under 7 weeks.

Well loved and cushioned.

Proud Grandma and Daddy.

PeaPod

If you are looking for a great alternative to a pack'n play the PeaPod is AWESOME.
We took is on our Christmas trip to NC and it was perfect for night time sleep, naps and general playtime. It is so portable that if we were in the kitchen cooking we could just move it in there and James could watch us and we could chat with him- and basically it moved around the house with us all day long. The air mattress is firm enough to be safe for him, but cushy enough to entice him to sleep quite well at night. It folds up to a very small footprint in the car for traveling and I am planning on packing it in my suitcase for my trip to Hawaii with James in March.

James Cordell, a.k.a....

Jimmybean
turkey burger
booger bean
butter bean
bunga bean
Jamesy
bud
buddy
boog

These are the nicknames or terms of endearment we have called James so far (or at least that I can remember at the moment)- Tim's most common is turkey burger, mine is booger bean- though both of us call him buddy quite a lot.
All James says to us thus far is "nein" (this is what he cries out when he's mad- it totally sounds like he is repeatedly and forcefully say "NO!" over and over in German), and his cooing consists of "gown" and variations thereof, plus varieties of "ahh", "oooh" and "goo".
He has started to smile AT us- not just when he's going to sleep or finishing nursing. He also is fascinated by our dark brown ceiling fans - and these get the most smiles. I am going to try to capture this on film and post it soon- it is incredibly cute. Tim is convinced he'll be a tech nerd because of his early love of machines- we'll see, I'm still hoping for a son who loves to knit!

Handknit love

Sunday Tim took down our front door (I helped a bit) to replace the door sweep in an attempt to keep out some of the winter chill. I put James in the moses basket and put him outside with us so I could keep an eye on him. It was rather chilly so he was able to make use of the handknit sweater and mittens I did and the BEAUTIFUL blanket Christi made for him for Christmas. The blanket is extremely warm and perfect for a chilly day. Thanks, Christi, James loves it!

Perfect morning

or at least practically perfect-would be even better if I was asleep too!

Bathtime!

Despite the look on James' face he really does like getting baths.

G-diapers

When James got his belly button on Thanksgiving he upgraded from just disposable diapers to the g-diaper- he is not quite 3 weeks old in these pictures.

James is one month old!

Last Wednesday James turned one month old- and it was a big day and week for him. Monday we went to his 4 week checkup- he was 22 inches long (down from 23 inches the previous time...those measurements are so inaccurate!), his head circumference increased another half inch to 15.5, and is up to 11 lbs 1oz- that is 28oz gained in two weeks! He also received his first bath done solo by me (my mom stood ready to help but I wanted to practice doing it on my own).
Wednesday night he was having a hard time going to sleep for the night so at 12:15 I decided Tim didn't need to hear James fussing in the bassinet next to the bed so I took him to the nursery and finally got him to sleep but decided to put him to bed in his crib instead of the bassinet...just in case he woke up yet again in just 15 minutes. Miraculously he slept...in the crib...all night...not straight through- but he did sleep almost 4 hours the first stretch then another almost 3 then 2 more...and I made a little pad on the floor and slept next to the crib so that I could let him sleep until he really woke up. I think when he was in the bassinet I was picking him up too soon...when he started grunting and rooting in his sleep but not when he had truly woken up- that's why he "slept" 4 hours in the crib versus 3 in the bassinet...he basically grunted and groaned for 40 minutes in the crib before he actually woke up.
Also on his one month birthday---James began definite social cooing, he had done some before but this was much more consistent and during play time, he also gave me a half smile for the first time (instead of the smile he gave with his eyes closed while nursing or as he was going to sleep).

Victory is ours!

For the first 3 weeks of James' life he "wouldn't" sleep on his own...looking back it that probably was just as much my fault as his...he hadn't figured out night and day properly, often waking up for long periods (up to 3 hours) at night to be alert and totally wide awake. And if we put him in his bassinet he would only sleep a max of 40minutes before waking up and getting out of sorts and crying himself to an even more awake state, but more often is was only 15-20 minutes of sleep before this happened. However, if I nursed him to sleep and then just moved him onto my chest he'd sleep for up to 3 hours straight...so he pretty much slept on me for the past 3 weeks straight...which I am sure did not give me great sleep but at least whatever sleep I was getting was longer than 15 minute increments. (Tim had James sleep on him a few times until our 1-week checkup when Dr. Owen told us a story about her brother-in-law having his newborn sleep on his chest and having a dream that a wolverine was attacking him and he woke up to find himself throwing the baby off him- Tim didn't have James sleep on him again.)
Then this past Monday night James slept in his bassinet all night! And again Tuesday...and again last night! We had been trying to swaddle him thinking he was waking himself up with his flailing arms, but James DOES NOT like to be swaddled. So we just put him in a sleep sack, used a heating pad to warm up his sheets so the cold sheets wouldn't wake him up when we put him down and he's been sleeping quite well AND SO HAVE I. I'm sure we'll have our setbacks--last night James was awake from 1:20-3:00, but in general I think we now have a baby free bed.
On another front, James took his first bottle on Monday night with no fuss (unlike my attempts at pumping which are super frustrating) and again tonight. I guess food is food and he doesn't really care at this point how he's getting it.
So victory with bed and bottles...awesome.