Aren't Babies Supposed to Nap?!

Once again, I have been absent to the blog world. As well as the phone call world, email, IM, text messages, etc. Apologies. After all the books I read before having a baby, I had no idea what my days would be like! Not sure you ever really do until it's your turn. I love the time at home with my son though.
My sweet boy, I love you more than words, but you do not nap!!! Nick and I have been going crazy trying to get this child to sleep during the day. I thought when I had a newborn that I would have at least a few hours a day where he was sleeping to pay bills, catch up on email, scan Facebook, etc - not this child.

After reading pretty much every sleep book out there and testing out any and all advice, I have had come to the realization that I just don't have the textbook child. Jake is an amazing night sleeper, sleeps 12 hours a night with only one feeding around 2 or 3am, so I can't complain too much, but the days are VERY busy given I can hardly set him down to eat a meal or go the bathroom.

And, although it took me awhile to come to terms with it, Jake is colicky. Our pediatrician said so at his one month appointment, but I was in denial. We are finally down to about 1 - 1 1/2 hours a day of crying which is more normal and much more manageable than the 4+ hours we had before. Insane and so difficult on some days.

I am very busy trying to keep him from crying so we rotate through toys until he is bored, walk outside, drive around in the car, run stupid errands to get out of the house, etc. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Depends on the day.

So after driving almost all the way up to Wisconsin to keep him asleep in the car, walking until my feet ache with him in the ergo pack, rocking and rocking and rocking, nursing him, running the vacuum for noise, singing and reading stories, I have come to the conclusion that Jake just doesn't nap like the other babies. So working on this schedule now...

6am: Good morning!

6am - 7:30am: Playtime

7:30am: Nap #1 (20 - 30 mins... Emily gets dressed for the day and finishes a cup of coffee)

8am - 10am: Playtime, drive to gym for my workout, and Jake plays in the newborn room

9am or 9:30am: Mom works out for an hour - 'Emily Time'. I am addicted to my classes at Equinox and Dailey Method

10am or 10:30am: Nap #2 (20 - 30 mins on the drive home from the gym with a couple mins to spare for me to make a bite to eat)

10:30am - 12pm: Playtime!

12pm or 12:30pm: Nap #3 (20 mins to 2 hours, most often 20 mins. Depending on how much time I have, I check email, pay bills, shower, do laundry, write thank yous, blog posts, return a phone call, etc)

Sometime between 1pm and 2:30pm Jake wakes and we play again

3pm to 4:30pm: I desperately try for another short nap if his other 3 were all 20 mins

Then, we play again until bath time....

5:30pm: Bath time (he loves loves loves the bath)

6ish: Nick gets home from work

6:30pm: Lights out for Jake

And then I pour myself a glass of wine and Nick and I eat dinner and catch up on the day before going to bed ourselves by 9pm, or Nick meets with his tutor as he continues to study for the GMAT.

My goodness.... some days I so envy the moms that have the great napping children so they can count on a couple of hours to actually start a task and complete it. I know I have a busy boy on my hands and he is just terrified he is going to miss out on a minute of fun, so he fights sleep like no tomorrow. This is totally going to the child that always says 'I am not tired, mom' even though his eyes are red and puffy from playing so hard during the day. Beth, the nanny, is in for it when she takes over on the 17th of January. Although, I'd take this challenge on any day.

Some photos of my little love bug from December (catching up from the holidays).

 Zoo Lights at Lincoln Park, although we were there for maybe 15 minutes. Jake wasn't into it.

 Christmas Eve after Mass with Mom

 In Jake's Christmas PJ's with Dad before bedtime

 The Montgomery Family stockings

 Christmas Morning! Santa came (and Jake slept until 7:30am!)

 Merry Christmas

 Santa's Little Helper

Shopping in the city

 Little boy is in there...

Our Little Boy

A picture post (finally).... some photos from the last few weeks of our handsome, growing little boy.

Making a Comeback

I have wanting to do a blog post for weeks now, so apologies for the delay and the quick summary of events from the last month (I will post pictures in a separate post) . Here is a bulleted list of what we have been up to (in no particular order):

- Grammy (Terri) & Poppa Jim Jim (Jim) came to meet Jake for the first time for Thanksgiving! It was awesome to have them in town for the holiday and watch them love on and hold little Jakey Boy.

- Nick & I got a date night while Terri & Jim were in town to celebrate our 2 year wedding anniversary. It was so fun to go out with my husband and dine on sushi and wine knowing that our little boy was in good hands. We had a wild night and were home by 8:45pm. Ha.

- My parents Nanya (mom) and Poppa (dad) also came to Chicago for Thanksgiving with their families, so it was great to get to see them even though their visits were brief before they went home to Boston.

- Nick & I are going to be an auntie & uncle again! Christa & Tony are pregnant with Jake's cousin. We are so thrilled! Our kids will be the same grade in school too, as their baby is due late June/early July (just in time for Christa's sister's wedding). Very exciting.

- We hired a nanny! This is big news & a huge relief based on the riff raff that came thru in the interviews. We are doing a nanny share with another family (Mia is just 3 weeks older than Jake) and we found an incredible woman, Beth, through another mother's recommendation. I feel much more at ease knowing that my sweet boy will be in good hands when I have to go back to work in January. Beth is 53, a Filipino woman with lots of spunk and energy and more than 15 years experience in being a nanny.

- Jake has had a couple of nights with 6, 7 and 8 hour stretches in the last month! So exciting... he almost is able to sleep thru the night. We are so proud (and feel well rested).

- He also has started to smile and coo and is a very strong boy and can hold his head up. Hanging in the bathtub and watching his mobile that Grammy & Poppa Jim Jim got him are a bit hit & source of entertainment these days.

- Nick picked up his tutoring sessions again and is studying like crazy with the goal of taking the GMAT early next year. I am so proud of him.

- I am going back to work January 17th after MLK weekend. So I am just trying to enjoy these last 6 weeks of my leave with my son. We are a lot more adventurous these days and have been taking advantage of the awesome winter weather we have had so far (think sunny, not a cloud in the sky and cold).

That is about it for the last month's activities for the Montgomery fam. Kelly Craft comes into town for a visit tomorrow afternoon... I am SO excited to see her and hang out. We have lots of fun girls activities to come this weekend. Look out Chi-town.

Prince Jake

Nick and I have quickly realized that this is Jake's world and we just live in it :) We are now lovingly calling him, Prince Jake.

It feels like we have groove going (kind of) as we have started to figure each other out. Jake LOVES to be held. He isn't a fan of being alone in his stroller, or the swing or the pack and play. So in order for me to get up off the couch and not feel like a complete sloth all day, I have figured out that the Ergo carrier is my best friend. He crashes within minutes and I am hands free able to do things around the house, walk with Lyla, do laundry, etc. Amazing. And I love having his little head on my chest so I know he is still breathing.

Nick got our little boy to smile at him yesterday morning! So cute, and I wish I had the camera nearby to capture it. Ill make sure to snap a photo next time. I can tell that Jake's vision is improving every day. I can see his eyes follow me across the room (well until he loses focus) now. I can't tell if his witching hour(s) are decreasing and honestly, I don't want to jinx it if it is! He is also getting to be quite the noise maker... serious grunter, especially in his sleep. It cracks us up.

In other news, my friend, Elina, and I have started interviewing candidates for our nanny share (her daughter is just 2 weeks older than Jake). We had our first interview earlier this week and reality set in that we are trusting someone else with our child's life - terrifying. Both Elina and I got a strange sense about this girl... not sure what it was, but that was enough for us to pass. We have a couple more interviews lined up for tomorrow afternoon as Elina is going back to work mid December, so the clock's ticking. We have registered on several nanny match websites in the city, so I am pretty confident we will find a good one pretty quickly. More to come on that.

Yesterday was a big day for me... I got the OK from my doctor to workout (my sanity back!). I decided to venture to the Stroller Strides class to try to put myself out there to meet some other moms. I was SUPER nervous that my baby would scream and cry and disrupt class, but the instructor assured me that it was no problem and it was likely just me that would hear him anyway. She let me know that I can always take a break from the workout to do a lap around the gym to get him to calm down if it was necessary.

So, I begged Jake to let momma get her sweat on, we got started and I crossed my fingers that he would sleep for the next 60 minutes. Well... I got 35 minutes in before my son had a complete meltdown -  as in face turning purple, screaming at the top of his little lungs, kicking and failing meltdown.  I was so embarrassed and unprepared that I just quietly left class. Ugh. But, on the bright side, I do have to say that I was expecting my first workout to be really, really hard after almost 6 weeks without activity and it was totally fine. I am encouraged for the next sweat session.

And a cute pic to conclude the post.... little blue bear (it's really cold here today)

97th Percentile

Holy Smokes! Jake is a whopping 12 pounds, 23 inches long & in the 97th percentile for both. My goodness, what a growing boy! On to Month Two....

Month One

Well, it's been one month since our sweet son came into our lives... I can't believe how SLOW time went when I was pregnant and how FAST it goes now that he is here. Everyone told me it would fly by and well, everyone was right. His 1 month doctor's appointment is next week so I will be able to post the stats then, but here are some updates and milestones from the last 30 days.

• Jake consistently sleeps 4 - 5 hours on his first nighttime stretch before feeding (this is keeping us sane and not feeling too sleep deprived)
• He is a great eater... I have a feeling the scale will confirm this next week. Newborn size clothing is getting too small already
• We have one strong little boy, he can hold his head up for brief moments in time although he is not a huge fan of 'tummy time'
• I think we are going to have one busy little boy with how much seems to be going on in that little head of his (see pics below)
• The sounds that come out of his behind are shocking :)
• We gave him his first real bath, not sure that he actually enjoyed it though.
• Jake & I can successfully run a couple errands a day outside of the house. I even figured out how to walk Lyla with Jake (hey, it's the little things)
• What Nick and I like to call the 'witching hour' usually starts sometime between 4pm and 6pm (this is about when I stare at the clock and impatiently wait for Nick to get home from work :))
• Our favorite pasttime is talking about Jake, staring at Jake, holding Jake or thinking about Jake. We are obsessed with our child. Love him more than words!

 The 1st Bath

  Post Bath Relaxation

Momma & Jakey Boy

Tummy Time

Happy 31st Birthday Daddy!

Living the Life

One Month

Celebration!

For Our Tiny Angel

Tiny Angels

Tiny Angels rest your wings
sit with me for awhile.

How I long to hold your hand,
And see your tender smile.

Tiny Angel, look at me,
I want this image clear....

That I will forget your precious face
Is my biggest fear.

Tiny Angel can you tell me,
Why you have gone away?

You weren't here for very long....
Why is it, you couldn't stay?

Tiny Angel shook her head,
"These things I do not know....
But I do know that you love me,
And that I love you so".

Dear Ella,

While we never got to meet you in person, we know you so well and love you so very much. On September 26^th we became an aunt and an uncle for the first time! We will never forget the excitement of that day! You were born to the most fun loving and amazing parents who love you more than words.

While you may be gone little one, you will always be present. It’s like a branch from our family tree was ripped off. Without it we are lopsided and off balance. No one else will ever be our first niece, the first grandchild and your parents first love. Our hearts are broken, but we know that you soul is watching over us every moment of every day.

Please look after your parents and help to heal their hearts. They miss you so much, sweet girl. You are a gift. Now that we have been forced to give you up, we promise to make sure your little life is loved, honored and your presence is always known and felt in our family forever. Ella means bright light or torch. Ella, you will always be our light.  

Keep dancing like little girls do, up in Heaven, healthy and strong. Make sure you show the others how to do the air electric guitar move like your momma. We miss you and love you so much.

Love always,

Auntie Em & Uncle Nick