My Boy!

As Christy gets some much needed sleep and there is finally a free minute where James decided to do the same, I figured I would take a minute to update everyone on James' surgery last week. After our pre-op on Tuesday, we felt comfortable with what we were in store for on Thursday for James' surgery. James had been as personable, cute, and entertaining as we had seen him in the days leading up to his surgery and that hadn't changed the morning of the big day.
We arrived at the hospital at 6:45 am for the schedules 8:45 surgery. James was not able to eat after 2 a.m. so we were hoping the surgery would start on time. James was in such a great mood and decided he wanted to show off for everyone who came into the room presurgery by rolling over, talking, laughing, and doing anything he could think of to get a reaction. Of course surgery was delayed so we had to spend an extra 30 minutes keeping James occupied and keeping him from realizing he was hungry.
Letting James go with the nurse into surgery was one of the toughest things we had to do. Nervous about the anesthesia, the surgery, and how he would be after the surgery, we seemed to have it hit us at once as it was time to let him go. After a few healthy tears we were actually given our own waiting room (I am guessing we will see that on the bill at some point) and didn't have too much difficulty getting through the two hours. Our first update, after a half hour, assured us that the anesthesia had gone well and Dr. Matthews had begun working on James. We had one more update an hour later and then Dr. Matthews came in right around 2 hours after they had taken James back to give us the recap.
He said that surgery had gone well. He was very pleased with the lip and had been able to help the nose also. Because of the cartilage in the left nostril, a retainer was needed to help form the nostril. The stitches are desolvable so the only thing that would eventually need to be removed besides the retainer was a piece of tape over the lip.
We were then able to see James and he was really struggling to get over the after effects of anesthesia. He seemed like he was in some pain but the nurses explained that as the anesthesia wears off it is similar to a hangover. And as you can imagine, if a 25 year old has a problem with a hangover, you can imagine the discomfort for a six month old. Also, by virtue of the tube that was down his throat during surgery, he had considerable discomfort in his throat for a few days after. The next 24 hours were spent in our own hospital room with James seemingly in and out of pain and getting over the anesthesia. He was able to sleep an hour or two in his hospital bed and then spent another 3 or so hours sleeping in my arms. Around noon on Friday the old James started coming back. His personality came back a bit by bit and it was interesting to see the old personality coming through two swolen cheeks, a swolen lip, and a very raspy voice that sounded like offspring of kermit the frog and 60 year old two pack a day smoker. The nurses took off the bandage and we were able to get our first glimpse at the repairs. It looked great. The lip was unbelievable.
James was reluctant to eat for the better part of 24 hours after surgery and as Dr. Matthews visited us on Friday morning, he said we were ready to be discharged after James ate. We proceeded to wait on Mr. James for a while until he decided it was time to put the new lip to work and get some nourishment. He ate twice and we were discharged around 3 p.m.
We arrived home to our good buddy Max and Uncle Greg and had a wonderful, albeit relatively sleepless, weekend.
As of today, James is doing wonderful. We visited Dr. Matthews today and he said everything looked great. We are scheduled to visit again next Tuesday at which point the stitches should be desolved and the retainer will most likely be removed. James goes back to daycare tomorrow and that will be the last step to resume regular activity. He continues to have an abundance of personality which makes every minute with him a blast and he also continues to not want to sleep which makes alot more of those minutes for us to spend with him.
Thanks to all for your well wishes, prayers, and follow up. Although it was the three of us in the hospital, we knew there were many more with us in spirit and thoughts. We will look to get some pictures up soon and I am sure Christy will be much more eloquent with her post in the upcoming days.

6 months

Our baby boy turned six months old yesterday. It's hard to believe he's a half year old already! It's the strangest feeling, because it feels like it has gone by so quickly, but at the same time, October 15th seems like forever ago. James celebrated his half year birthday by expanding his repertoire of solids and eating some green peas made by yours truly. The little guy made me so proud, and devoured them! He also had his six month well visit and got two shots and drank one vaccine. He weighed in somewhere between 15 and 16 pounds, and measured around 25.5 inches. We didn't get an exact reading because in typical James fashion he peed on the nurse as she was trying to weigh him! He's still on the small side, with his weight and height only somewhere around the 10th percentile, but his noggin is in the 34th percentile. Even so, his doctor says he's doing great, and was impressed with his strength and determination to move and wiggle around like a bucking bronco while the doctor was trying to examine him.

Now that James has moved on to solids, I'm determined to make him a healthy eater who eats all kinds of foods. I've decided to make his baby food myself using the Babycook I got for my birthday from my Dad and Liz. It's really simple to use, and the food tastes great. At least Max and I think so!

Yesterday I made peas and sweet potatoes, and I was so impressed by the colors that I had to post a picture.

Here's the finished product stored in little baby food containers that can go right into the freezer. I had so much fun doing it, that I'm thinking about going into business like Diane Keaton in Baby Boom!

Just Swingin

James had his first experience on an actual outdoor swing this past weekend at Hailey Zakrzewski's 1st birthday party. After months of sleeping in his baby swing, it should come as no surprise that he loved this swing as well. Here's the video to prove it.

Working Mama

I finally have an excuse for being a complete slacker in my blog posts. I went back to work a few weeks ago, and we are still adjusting to being a two parent working family. I never thought I would be a working mom. I just always thought I would stay at home when I had kids, but so far things are going well. Of course I miss my little James, but it is nice to be back in the working world after more than five months off. I loved every minute I got to spend at home with my baby, but wow, was it hard work. I really don't know what's harder - being a working mom or a stay at home mom.

James seems to be adjusting to daycare. He's gotten better at taking a bottle, and he even takes a short nap most days. This is much improved from the first day when I had a good laugh when I went to pick him up. On his daily report under naps it was listed that he slept from 12:55pm to 1:00pm! That's our boy. He doesn't sleep much, even at home, but he's getting better. He's too afraid he's going to miss something, and he really likes to take everything in. I think that's what he likes most about daycare - all the action and people to watch.

Here's a pic of James all worn out after a day at daycare. Look at how he fell asleep gripping his chains. What a little cutie pie!

5 Months Old!

Well once again I have been slacking off on updating the blog. I swear, keeping family and friends updated with pictures of a baby is a full time job. Between uploading pictures to Kodak Gallery and Facebook and trying to keep up a blog, it can consume you. So here is a long overdue post with a video of James from his 5 month birthday this past week. James tried rice cereal for the first time on his 5 month birthday, and I tried to upload the video here but had some technical difficulties. If you want to see the video of him eating cereal you can check it out on my Facebook page. Enjoy!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Here's our little Valentine in his festive holiday outfit. It says "All you need is L-O-V-E (and naps)". It's not the greatest picture of his outfit, but it's still pretty cute. He's actually more interested in his feet in the picture. You can see that he's grabbing them, and trying to talk to them! That's his new trick, talking to everyone and everything that will listen.

Last year we found out that we were expecting James on Valentine's Day. I surprised Jim by wrapping up a positive pregnancy test and giving it to him in a Valentine's gift bag. It's pretty hard to top that gift, but Mom and Dad get to enjoy a Valentine's night out on Friday. Thanks Suzi! We are going to try to go to dinner and a movie, but I'm not quite sure I'll be able to make it that late!

February Already?

I cannot believe it's February already. That means our baby boy will be 4 months old in less than 2 weeks. It also means I have to go back to work next month! I'm actually not going back until the last week in March, so I still have close to 8 weeks left, but I still have to say I'm going back to work NEXT month. I hate the idea, but I know it's something I have to do. I try not to think about it, but I can't help it. When I first had James, 24 weeks seemed like an eternity, and now with less than 8 weeks left I have no idea where the time went. I thought I'd really take advantage of the time off and have a chance to do all kinds of projects and go all kinds of places, but my days have been filled with diaper changes, feedings, trying to get James to nap, and singing silly songs and doing crazy dances to try to entertain a screaming baby. Sometimes I ask myself what do I have to show for all my time off? Then I look over at my happy, healthy, growing baby and realize that's what I have to show for it. Taking care of James was what I was supposed to do over these many weeks and that's exactly what I did.


We survived North Carolina's first winter storm of 2010. We actually got about 5 inches of snow, which is quite a bit. They don't plow the streets here, so our neighborhood was a sheet of ice all last weekend. I'm proud to say that with the exception of walking Max, I haven't left the house since last Thursday! I've really embraced the Southern way of life!


Max loves the snow. It's so much fun to watch him try to figure out what it is when it first covers the ground. James didn't make it out to play in the snow this year, but I can't wait to see him in it next year with all the other kids in the neighborhood. The kids here really take advantage of the snow. They are out playing before 8AM and still out when I'm putting James to bed at night. Yesterday during our walk I noticed more snowmen in our neighborhood than I think I ever saw in my entire life growing up in Western New York!