Raegan

After getting all packed, Jack came with us to Vermont to meet his new cousin Raegan. She was born at 3:38 AM on April 26th, weighing 6 pounds 9 ounces and 19 1/2 inches tall.



Jack seemed a little unsettled at the idea of having 2 new cousins in the same month, but I think he's getting used to it.

Jack in the box

Before heading up to Vermont to meet his new cousin, Jack had to get his stuff packed - including himself, in this box:

He soon tired of my interference, and wanted the spotlight alone.

A new skill

Jack just learned a new skill! He now turns his head to Carly or I if we call him (usually with a smile). It's wierd - he couldn't do it thirty minutes ago, and now he does it every time.

A few pictures

It's been a while since I posted any pictures, so here's a few to look at. Enjoy!

Sleep Realized

I'd like to say that today is a landmark day, but the truth is that he's been sleeping through the night occasionally for two weeks or so - I just didn't really think of it that way. According to that book I mentioned earlier, we've been feeding Jack on 4 hour intervals - 8 AM, 12 PM, 4 PM, and 8 PM. It almost immediately removed one night time feeding. If I remember right, he would usually eat 3 times a night before that. Then he started skipping his first night feeding, which would have been around 12 or 1. So after a week or so of the new schedule, he would wake up around 3 to eat, and then around 5:30...and he'd want to eat again around 7 AM, so getting him to wait until 8 was a chore, hence his lament pictured a few weeks ago. But that didn't last long. Now he sometimes wakes up around 1 or 2, but it seems to be less that he's hungry and more that he just needs to be picked up for a few minutes. More often he sleeps right through to 5:30 or 6 AM. I used to think of that as a failure - that he wasn't sleeping through the night unless he slept until his next feeding at 8 AM.

Last night he slept from 9 PM to 6:30 AM. I'm calling that a success, and as far as I'm concerned, this is first official night of complete uninterrupted sleep. So, at two months and 6 days, he slept through the night. I didn't bother trying to put him back to sleep. Instead, I gave him 2 ounces of formula, and sat with him until his 8 AM feeding. He was all smiles and lots of cooing. In fact, I think he said "I let you get a full night sleep, Dad. You're welcome."

Adam

At about 7:30 PM tonight, Jack became somebody's cousin! Adam Timothy Sjolander was born to my brother Roy and his wife Amy, weighing in at 7 pounds 14 ounces, and 20 1/2 inches tall. Everybody is doing fine.

Jack and the rabbit

Jack has been hassling us for weeks - "When can I meet the Easter Bunny?", "Why aren't we going to see the Easter Bunny now?", and so on... He even bought a special bunny suit with ears and a cotton tail. We finally caved. Being his usual social self, he invited his girlie Julianna. He was pretty excited, throwing smiles around all over the place, occasionally drooling and flailing his arms around in...glee, I guess.

Daddy & me

Now that we're a bit more used to taking Jack out, we decided to venture into the mall without a stroller. Jack slept peacefully.

Jack's been enjoying his new jumper. He's able to press the button to make the sounds play, but he doesn't understand that he's doing it. His feet don't touch the floor yet, so he stands on a cushion.

First smiles

We've been seeing smiles for the last week or two, and I finally got one on film!

The quest for sleep

At my mother's suggestion, I picked a book to help Jack sleep through the night. Today is day one of our attempt. Sadly, this means postponing Jack's morning feeding until 8:00 AM, much to Jack's lament:

He did eventually make it to 8:00 and then settled down, allowing me to score some quality sleep time:

A boy and his dog

Jack kicked back after a long day of shopping while Jackie stood guard.

Jack's new camera

Jack brought us to Best Buy yesterday and picked out a camera for us to take pictures of him with. It's got this neat thingy where you filter out all colors except one. Check out this blue picture. I feel so professional!

Our favorite pictures

While I'm waiting to get ahold of Sunday's pictures, I thought I'd post our two favorites so far.

Here's Carly's favorite:

And mine:

It's funny - he already looks different than he did in these pictures. Luckily, we're taking pictures almost constantly.

Baptism

Today was Jack's baptism. It was a big, tiring day for Jack. He woke up at 5:30 AM with a runny eye, and didn't sleep until he got to church at 1:00 PM - in fact, he was the only one of the six babies that didn't cry during the ceremony. After a great party at his Nana & Grampa's house (of which I'll post pictures when I get them), Jack had his first urgent care visit at the doctor's for his eye. We were expecting to hear "pink eye", but instead were told that it's simply a clogged tear duct. While we were there, he got a weigh-in. Any guesses? I was thinking 9 pounds 4 ounces, but he was actually 9 pounds 11 ounces. So he gained two pounds in two weeks!

Oh, and he sucked his thumb for the first time today. :)

The Christmas card that almost was

Are you ready to rock? I think you are! We were tempted to put this on our Christmas cards this past year...but we went with the one without the rocker hand.

Day 1 - Still tired from the move

All these punk kids are blogging, and then it hit me - Jack's a kid...or at least he will be eventually. He needs to get a head start. Plus, it keeps me from having to email pictures to people. "What's Jack up to lately?" Now I can respond with "Read his blog, fool!"

So, expect to see pictures, maybe some stories about Jack, and someday when he becomes the superhero computer geek I imagine him to be, he might even grace this blog with his personal presence.