it seems this aways happens...

   In between my (extremely spread out) posts, it seems that something big ALWAYS changes! This time it has to do with work. I'm not working at the coffee shop anymore and have pretty much decided to just not work for awhile! It was getting pretty stressful trying to keep up with the house, Jack, and working at night. I think right now my major focus will just continue to be Jack! And I'm pretty sure I'm going to go back to school this fall and start working towards being an IBCLC. I'm so excited!

   So that's pretty much it on the "me" front. Jack, on the other hand... well, that's a whole different story! He has changed SO MUCH!

   Since putting him on formula, the little guy has gained a whole pound in a month! I'm so glad he's finally putting on some weight and not looking so skinny! He also grew about an inch and a half! He's been crawling all over the place and pulling himself up on EVERYTIHNG! The couch, baby gate, toys, Jump-a-roo, my legs, the sliding glass door at Ainsley's house... you name it. He also recently started walking around while holding onto the furniture. He goes all over the place! From the couch to the baby gate, down the length of the baby gate, back up to the couch, along the couch, back over to the gate, crawl over to a toy, pull up on it, walk around it... you get the point. 

   Jack has also discovered how to take the lid off of things now! I bought him the generic version of the Gerber lil' munchies (like cheetos) or whatever and left them in the living room with him (lid on) to go to the bathroom. Well, I hear "clang! .......... clang! ..... clang! ... CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG!!!" and come out to see what on earth is going on, only to find Jack with the container in his hand, banging it on my end table, with NO lid on it. Needless to say, there were little cheeto things ALL OVER the floor! Haha... guess you could say I learned my lesson! 

   So I'm also in the midst of planning a first birthday party for my little man. OMG! I can't believe he's about to be ONE! Since his birthday falls on a Wednesday this year, we're going to have it the weekend before. BUT I still plan on doing something (just the 3 of us) on his ACTUAL birthday. I am so excited!
   Also, I bought a new computer a little bit ago, so hopefully it helps me keep up with my blogging a little better than I have been (I know, I say that all the time!)... Sorry! Anyway, that's about all the excitement I can handle for right now... it's pretty late and I've got to get some sleep. Oh! One last thing! The past few nights, Jack has slept from 9:30 PM until 9:30 (or later!!!) AM! THANK GOODNESS! I finally have a baby that sleeps through the night again! So, I had better catch some zZzZs while I can! :) Good night!

gah!!!

   I am SO sorry that I pretty much skipped the entire month of April on here! Let's just say I've had a lot on my hands here lately. I am going to configure my account so that I can write posts from my e-mail and hopefully I'll be able to keep up with it a little bit better that way! Anyway, I'm just going to go ahead and jump right into all of the updates for around here!
   For starters, Jack is about to be 9 months old! 9 FREAKING MONTHS!!! In 6 days! I really underestimated just how fast time goes by when you have a baby. But the thing is, the older they get, the faster it goes by (although I'm sure by the time he's a teen I'll think otherwise). So let's see if I can cover EVERYTHING that has happened in the past month that I was absent from here...
   Jack now has a grand total of 4 teeth! Two on the bottom and two on the top! His favorite food is broccoli. He no longer eats ANY jarred food or cereal. He doesn't like being spoon fed unless it's yogurt, cream of wheat, or grits. Haha. He has perfected his Army-style low crawl, can pull himself into a standing position while holding onto things now, can walk while holding our fingers, claps when we say "Yay!" or he is proud of himself, and he waves "Hi" and "Bye" to EVERYONE!
   Also, he is still breastfed, although not as often. He gets a couple of bottles of formula every day now. If you look at his "growing up..." chart, you can see that his weight for months 6, 7, and 8 are all VERY close. His doctor and I weren't sure if it was related to his reflux or what, but I started to notice before he turned 8 months that he was spending less time nursing because he was so easily distracted! The less time a baby spends nursing, the less nutrients they receive. This means he was pretty much getting the foremilk (the more watery part of the milk) and less hindmilk (the fattier, nutrient rich part of the milk). This can in turn damage your supply.
   So once I noticed that, I decided to go ahead and switch him to mostly formula when he turned 8 months old. Since we started doing that, he is sleeping better at night, less fussy, and seems much more alert, aware, and talkative. You might be wondering, "why not just pump?" Well, I have been. My supply has been pretty damaged from how he was nursing over the past few months and although I could get it back up, I just don't have enough time to chase after him all day long, keep up with the house, work (more about that in a bit), and pump. I have only been getting about 0.5-2oz each time I pump, where I would normally get 3-4oz. I'm extremely proud of myself for exclusively breastfeeding him for 8 months, but pretty sad that I wasn't able to continue that until a year old. So yeah... a pretty bittersweet situation!
   And yes... I mentioned work in the paragraph above. That's right, I have a job! Granted, it's only part time and it's at night, but I LOVE it! I'm working downtown at a place called Rude Awakening Coffee House. Yes, I have worked there in the past. It's my home away from home! I love it there! Also, Zach got a job too! He now works for a landscaping company in a town about 45 minutes away from our house. He's been loving it. Although we certainly don't get to see each other as frequently now! But we're working on that.
   Anyway, I had better get off here! It's pretty late and I have a good bit of cleaning and laundry to do before I can actually go to bed... oh joy! Haha. Good night!!!