Celebration! (Author: Melody)

I feel like celebrating: Andrew is a month old today! Jason and I have survived! Hurray! I really want to celebrate, but Jason's at school until 3, then works from the end of school until 9 tonight. *sigh*Andrew is getting so big. And it feels like I just had him yesterday because time has passed so quickly (and yet so slowly). Oh, how I love my little man!


This is him in a picture where I think he looks like he's posing for GQ!

On another front, we got some reflux medicine for Andrew yesterday, and while it didn't seem to do too much yesterday, I'm crossing my fingers for some results today! He's been sleeping a ton since late last night because he was SUPER fussy yesterday and wouldn't sleep, so once he wakes up and wants to eat, I'll give him his medicine, feed him, and pray that he feels better. The pharmacist said that he could be completely better at the end of a week, so wish us luck!

Oh, PS. Random question: How do you get your own fun background on here instead of ones that Blogspot has available for you to use? I want to change our background!

Thanks guys! And other happy stuff (author: Melody)

I just want to thank all you girls that commented on my entry from yesterday. I'm glad I have it from three good sources that chocolate is alright! Jason didn't believe me before, and I'm going to have him read your comments so that he lets up on the no-chocolate-for-Melody rule. :)

Also, as a side note, Andrew - who I thought was feeling better from a stomach virus from the weekend - started spitting up a LOT more than normal again today. I called the doctor to see what they had to say, and they sent us up to the hospital to make sure he didn't have some sort of blockage keeping his food from leaving his stomach. Good news - he doesn't have the blockage! The bad news is that it looks like he has some reflux. I'm waiting to hear back from the doc's to see what kind of action I need to take to help the reflux. I can't wait to get it taken care of so that Andrew will be a happier baby. And so that I can stop washing so many of his clothes. That's right - I'm looking forward to only having to change his clothes when he has stains from diapers leaking! It's going to be great.

Funny Andrew (author: Melody)

Something that Andrew does that I think is funny is that he loves staring at light. It doesn't really matter what light it is - the lamp in our livingroom, out the window at the bright snowy apartment landscaping - he loves it. And it is so darn cute! I love watching him stare at the light. Here's a picture of him looking outside:



And here's one of him staring at the lamp in our livingroom:



It just makes me laugh so hard. I love his face in the second picture. He is such a little goober. Or at least I know one day he will be a goober. When he has control over being one. :)

The good news is that Jason and I are starting to get better at discerning what his cries mean. Jason's really good at telling when he needs his diaper changed (probably because I make him change them most of the time...), and I've somewhat started to tell the difference between when he wants to be held and when he wants to eat. It's mostly because sometimes he cries only a while after he's eaten and I know he's not hungry yet, so he MUST want to be held, right? :p Haha. Anyway, I think what I'm trying to say is that the last couple days, we've been able to get him to stop crying in the evening for the most part. I guess he doesn't have colic... maybe we just didn't know what he wanted...? And I'm probably jinxing us now! Wish us luck!

I've been trying to be good about not eating chocolate since I'm nursing, and apparently you're not supposed to eat chocolate when you're nursing because it upsets the baby's stomach. I've decided that I'm going to make a goal of holding off eating chocolate until Valentine's Day. It's only like... 2 1/2 weeks away. I can handle that, I think. It wouldn't be so hard if there wasn't a big bag of chocolate sitting on top of our fridge. :( Once Valentine's Day gets here, I'm going to eat a lot to make up for the weeks I wouldn't let myself eat it! If it upsets Andrew's stomach, sorry little guy! I can't wait for V-Day. :)

Just as a conclusion to this post, it's been 4 weeks since Andrew was born! Hurray! And he'll officially be a month old on Friday. This month has passed so slowly and yet so quickly all at the same time.

Ahhhh!!! (author: Melody)

Since Jason didn't tell you the details about Andrew before, I will now! He was born on Tuesday, December 30, 2008 at 5:14 pm. He was 8 lbs. 6 oz. and 20 1/2 in. long. He has blond hair and blue eyes. (Yes, he belongs to me!) It's wonderful to have him here - and not inside me anymore!

The first week was rough. One night he projectile vomited once and then he seemed to spit up a LOT, so we took him to the ER. They checked him over and said he was ok, but to give him some Pedialyte. It was a scary experience!

My parents came and helped out for two weeks, which was Wonderful. My mom helped me at night so both Jason and I could sleep more. While they were here, they spoiled us rotten, and having them here to take care of their grandchild made me realize how grateful I am to have such great parents.

We blessed Andrew this last Sunday, and I was amazed that he slept through the entirety of Sacrament Meeting! He was such a little trooper! I thought for sure he'd start screaming during the blessing, but it didn't happen, thank goodness.

Since my parents left on Sunday afternoon, it's been hard adjusting to being by ourselves to take care of Andrew again. He turned 3 weeks old on Tuesday, and like clockwork, he seems to have developed a little bit of colic. He gets really fussy and irritable in the evenings and it's hard to console him. Last night was especially bad. To get him to finally go to sleep, I resorted (at 1:30 am, mind you) to taking him for a drive in the car. And then this morning, he was sick, so we took him to the pediatrician. He's been super-fussy all day long, and it pains me when I can't calm him down or give him what he wants. Sorry for such a downer paragraph, but such is life at the present moment. :(

Outside of that, life is good.

Here are some pictures of the little guy!:

Andrew and me on his birthday!

Asleep in his favorite place - his little rocking chair.

Close up!

More to come later. Our internet is running eternally slow right now, so when it's going faster, I'll post more!

We're hanging in there! author: Jason

Our little baby boy is now almost 4 weeks old! He's doing well, and Melody and I are adjusting very well to having Andrew to enjoy and take care of, relatively speaking. I'm surprised that we've been doing as good as we are, to be honest, and I don't say that to sound conceited. I have to admit though, it was such a huge help to have Melody's parents come and visit for two weeks, and they were able to enjoy their grandson and take care of him. It was a lot of fun to spend time with them. Thank you mom and dad very much! Also, Matt and Carolyn came to visit us this past weekend as well, and that was really cool, too.

Before Andrew was born, Melody and I tried to take life as easy as we could, because we knew that we'd be much busier once he was born. Melody has been a stellar mother and doing her best to take care of Andrew, and I've been helping. Right now I'm in school and I'm enjoying my classes very much. The different subjects are piquing my interest more than classes have ever before (with the exception of some of my Spanish classes), and I'm considering lots of career options and graduate programs. After talking with family, I'm even now looking into law school again (I gave it up awhile ago but now I'm reconsidering it). Homework isn't too terribly overwhelming yet, which I'm really appreciating at this time in life.

My calling of being the stake assistant executive secretary has been rewarding and time consuming. One responsibility I have is I'll get to speak in a different ward in our stake each month. Two weeks ago I spoke in my old married ward, and it was fun to see so many friends. I spoke about how the truth of God will continue to advance among people, and it turned out well. I'm looking forward to speaking every month in a different ward.

With big commitments lately, it was a stretch to join a barbershop quartet, but I did it anyway because I really miss singing. I sung with three very talented singers, and tonight we actually performed our song "My Wild Irish Rose" at the barbershop festival at a sold out concert here on campus. People cheered really loud for us, which was pretty sweet. One friend of mine even shouted out "Go Jason!" right before we sang, and I appreciated that. The audience laughed at the little funny things we did during the song to play it up. Even though it's all over now, we're talking about singing other songs just for fun every once in a while. That shouldn't take up too much time, right?

All in all, we're happy, and things seem to be going well for us.