Months 2-3

First off-- I wanted to say that Jay and I are very thankful for the support from our friends and family  the last few months. It has been very difficult trying to budget the simplest of things like groceries when your rent takes almost 2 unemployment checks. Add in extra necessities you never had to get before (formula, diapers, wipes, clothes, etc.), and you start feeling like you are going crazy.


We have been keeping busy--Jay has been hired on as a contractor for Alaska Air. He will be starting soon, which means going back to me in charge of Grant all day and night. Jay has had so so many interviews and whatnot the past few months, so I am happy for him. He deserves it! 
It will be an adjustment after having him home the past two months. I feel like I already have these long lists of things to get done every day, so we will see how it goes.  This also means we will need to move closer to his job when our lease ends in March.  We had already planned on moving since we want Grant to get his own room, but now that means we definitely want to.

As for me, I am doing okay. I am not sure what I am going to be doing. I really wanted to go to grad school, but that is on hold for now--too much going on all at once. Working might be do-able if I can find some cheap cheap babysitters. I am interested in working at a tutoring center or possibly getting into ABA therapy, but we will see how it goes. For now my main focus is figuring out routines for Grant and me when Jay goes back to work and trying to get back into some kind of shape so I am not so tired all the time! I have also been dealing with some postpartum anxiety problems, particularly panic attacks while driving. I am hoping they go away soon as being afraid to drive is never a good feeling.

Grant's 2 month shots went OK--he only cried for about 5 minutes and then fell asleep.  He was actually fine after the first one, had this look like "what just happened?", but then 2 & 3 came and he wasn't a fan! I had a hard time keeping it together too; I got all teary eyed. Grant ended up with an upset tummy from the oral vaccine, but after a couple days was okay.Not looking forward to the 4th month vaccines!

First Christmas with Grant was also a lot of fun--he has no idea what was going on, but watching his eyes bulge as we opened his gifts was hilarious. It really is more fun for him to get gifts than us!

Hmm Grant's milestones lately:

He is starting to giggle more and also drool...a lot (eww).
Grant has been trying to sit up, swinging his arms at objects,  grabbing and holding items (including rattles).
Some of his favorite toys lately include the O-Ball Rattle


and the Fisher-Price Rainforest Gym (Christmas gift from his Grandma and Grandpa R.)

Grant has been learning about cause-and-effect: If I hit the toys on the gym, it plays music and lights up. He also enjoys the PhonyPhone App (free) on the iPhone:










He has also really been getting into pop-up books and particularly touch and feel board books.  Jay and I are going to be starting Baby Sign (Language) time with him in the near future with the basics--mom, dad, milk, etc. I would also like to get him some bilingual (Spanish/English) books to start him on.  Grant is already becoming quite the talker, shrieker, and squealer particularly when he is excited or mad. Do I need to be worried ? lol . If you turn him away from the tv when we are watching a show or turn the page on a book when he's not ready, he gets hysterical--yikes!

The past three days or so, baby boy has slept 6 hours at a time at night in his crib--hurray!He will then wake up every 1 or so after that, but a 6 hour stretch is about twice as long as we have been getting. We are hoping this trend continues!

 Oh, and Grant also enjoys pulling and eating hair now:

He's a great baby boy, and he brings a lot of joy to our lives.

Now that I've spammed you with enough text and pictures.... We hope that you all have a great 2012, and we are looking forward to what the future brings :0).

Grant turns 2 months tomorrow

Grant turns two months old tomorrow--what a crazy past month it's been. Jay is still busy with the job hunt, and in the mean time I have been trying to get financial assistance set up to tide us over until the new job comes along. So. much. paperwork.
The job search seems to have slowed down temporarily, but that could be because the holidays are around the corner--or at least we hope things get back to speed soon. 

The past week or so Grant has been going through a growth spurt! We had him weighed last week, and he was 12 lbs. 2 ounces--will be interesting to see how much he weighs at his 2 month checkup on Friday. Neither of us are looking forward to him getting his shots though--no fun =(. Jay and I do look forward to getting more sleep  hopefully when the growth spurt is over. At this time, he is eating every 1.5-2 hours!

Milestones for the past couple weeks--

Grant is quite the smiley one now when he is awake (and not hungry); not quite giggling yet, but I know he will get there.  Yesterday he attempted to roll from back to front in his crib. It was not successful lol. He was leaning with his shoulder and leg and trying to swing forward to roll over, but it didn't happen.  He does, however, still occasionally roll from front/tummy to back during tummy time. We also wonder if he is teething. Grant will keep rubbing his face against our chests (even when not hungry) , rubbing around his eyes/ears, and we can see the teeth through the gum tissue (along with feeling the ridges)- isn't this early? I guess we will ask the doc on Friday.

We had a few nights this week where it reached the 20s. We didn't get any snow (phew), but with our heater on as high it could go, it was still cold regardless. Trying to keep warm this winter is going to be a challenge!







 

And for reference how cold it has gotten so quickly--compare to the previous tree picture:

Sick baby week 6

The past week Grant has had his first terrible cold. At 6 weeks, he has been coughing, sneezing, congested, and downright miserable. We are going on day seven, and although he is sounding better (a dry cough rather than a mucous one), he still groans and is generally upset when he begins to cough. Suctioning his nose has been an interesting experience, using the nosefrida (you use your mouth to suck the mucous out!), and we invested in a humidifier along with trading in some things at babysrus for a portable bassinet so he can sleep upright in our room.

However, despite the fact he has been sick, sleeping more and eating less, Grant still finds that he wants to play when he is awake (what a goof!). The past few days he has discovered that he has hands, and he enjoys trying to eat them. We awake in the middle of the night to him sucking on his fist to signify that he is hungry.
Yesterday for the first time (Nov. 8th), Grant began to roll over from his stomach onto his back! Uh oh, I guess that means we really have to make sure he doesn't roll off of anything now. Instead of practicing forward momentum, he decided that shifting onto his side and eventually rolling over during tummy time was more interesting. Now if only his face wasn't covered in snot during tummy time ;).

He is beginning to speak more often, and one can only imagine what he is saying with the high pitched cooing.  He also has been making more "real" (not gas) smiles, but they are still only a rarity during the day so trying to catch a picture is difficult by the time I grab my phone or the camera. I managed to sneak a picture during the middle of the night a few days ago:

As tired and grumpy as one can feel when waking up to a screaming baby at 3am every day, a little smile here and there sure goes a long way :).

Jay is still looking for work, and he has been doing great! Between phone and in-person interviews, he has had at least 5 interviews in the past two weeks. He has been waiting to hear back on a couple of positions, but in the meantime will keep applying for more.

Fall weather is here, and I wonder what happened to Spring and Summer. The year has seemed like a blur, but we are looking forward to the Holiday season with family.  I enjoy taking walks now and admiring all the different colors around our apartment complex despite the cold weather :)

2011?

Where has the time gone? This has been a busy year for Jay and me.  Jay had been busy at work with lots of changes going on--his current position ended last Friday when his contract company did not get the contract with Boeing. He is currently in the process of finding a new job, but we are hopeful! He's had some good interviews lately so keep your fingers crossed for us ;). 

I finished my B.A. at EWU in June of this year. I had been working as a lead preschool teacher where I had a classroom of 10 two and a half year olds all by myself.  This proved to be too stressful while going to school full time (oh and I was also exhausted because I was pregnant but didn't know it yet) so I put in my two weeks notice at the beginning of February. Trying to hurry and finish the last 2 quarters of school was rough, but with the help of great classmates (and Jay), I was able to finish a quarter earlier than originally planned.

Mid-February Jay and I found out that we were expecting a baby--surprise! I also found out that I was accepted to grad school at UW. In light of all that was happening with Jay's work, we decided it would be better if I waited to attend grad school (daycare costs, trying to figure out if we need to move for work, etc.).

Grant Lucas was born on September 22, 2011 at 1:10pm.  What a surprise I received when I went to the doctor for my weekly appointment, only to be told I had to drive straight to labor and delivery to have a baby (high blood pressure issues).

He's currently doing well--at almost 6 weeks old, he is up to 11 lbs. He has been lifting his head up briefly for a couple weeks now, and he enjoys tummy time. Grant's milestones for this week include: giggling, smiling periodically at Mom & Dad, and cooing (I swear sometimes it sounds like he's saying Hi back to us :P). He loves his snuggabunny swing and trying to "climb" up everyone's shoulders.  Grant sleeps for a maximum of 3 hours tops so far, but we are working on trying to get him used to "day" and "night". Oh, and he is quite the piggy, he eats all the time! But honestly he is a pretty mellow baby overall besides when he's hungry and needs diaper changes. Here he is in his first Halloween outfit (all the newborn costumes were too big on him still):

And here he is today compared to when he was born--we have really fattened him up!:

Anyway, we decided to try and keep a blog updated for family + friends so will try to post more soon :)

Hello all!

I am going to work on updating this blog for now until I find something I like better :) I am sure some of our friends are sick of the baby pictures/info spam on facebook and google plus--so will try to update things here instead.

Guess we should update this blog!

It's been HOT HOT HOT out for Washington the past couple weeks (90's), but thankfully we have a couple days of cooler weather coming up (at least temporarily).

I guess I (Rachel) will start writing in first person since I doubt that Jay will be updating this much!
Let's see what is new since last post..hrm:

I went to my graduation ceremony last month at Bellevue College. The ceremony started at 7pm, but I had to arrive in the cafeteria at 5pm to line up. Man, that was definitely BORING standing around waiting 2 hours to get moving. Although, I do say my feet were thanking me for not wearing high heels!! The ceremony itself felt like forever; especially since I spent the majority of the time praying I would not have to run to the bathroom. =) Our *special* guest speaker was Gov. Christine Gregoire, which was okay, except she kept talking about the important of education (then why all the education budget cuts?? :( ). I kept looking around the crowd to see if I could find Jay, Ron, and Karen, but it turns out they were seated the exact opposite in the gym from where I was lol. It was finally over around 9:30ish, and we headed to dairy queen afterwords for a treat!

I think when I finish school next time we can just have a family/friends party...going to the ceremony was too stressful for me!

Recently, I had applied to several colleges in WA and somehow got accepted to all of them (woo hoo!). I decided to go with Eastern Washington University (as they have a campus at Bellevue College where I just graduated). I will be majoring in Children's Studies with a minor in Sociology which will give me several options when I graduate to either work in education, social work, or continue on to grad school. At this point, I am interested in English as a Second Language(ESL) or Special Education, but I know that may change when I take more specific classes. So for now, I am looking forward to starting classes in September. We are in the process of trying to get financial aid (loans boo) set up so wish us luck with that!

On July the 7th, Jay and I celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary. Jay wasn't feeling well (we were both sick on our first anniversary, hope this doesn't continue lol) with a sore throat and whatnot, but we still managed to have a nice day at home. We had a yummy steak dinner, some cake from the bakery that did our wedding cake (marble cake with vanilla bavarian cream and strawberries in the middle, topped with creamy frosting), and watched some episodes of 24.


Jay has been doing fine. =) We celebrated his 34th birthday on the
16th of July with some birthday brownies followed by going to the movies to see Harry Potter! We both thought the movie was OK, but more of an in between movie (Jay says Harry was too much of a wimp/not enough action lol).
He tried to get away with not blowing out the candles on his brownies, but I told him I didn't care how old he was he still had to do it, haha!
We got to celebrate again the following Saturday with his family at IHOP for a birthday dinner (Breakner? Dinfast?).

Jay has been spending his time beta-testing a new game called Aion on the computer... it's basically similar style to World of Warcraft where you create characters to level and get better gear/do quests as you go. The game isn't officially released until September, but it is something he is looking forward to!

I have been clocking some time on the treadmill the past couple weeks hoping to get the weight loss back moving. I am down 6 lbs., but I have been at a plateau for a couple months now (staying the same is definitely better than gaining, but frustrating when you are putting in the exercise). I am interested in trying out the Couch to 5k running plan to see if it kick starts my metabolism. Also, my mom was nice enough to order me a food scale which should help lots. =)
I am hoping that Jay will be motivated to clock some time too once he gets his new Nike shoes (one of his birthday presents) this week. I know he thinks about it, but I don't think he knows where to start... especially when it's hot out and you don't feel like moving at all lol. It's a struggle, but it's definitely worth it as I feel much much better exercising than not!

Well, looks like wrote my brains out... We are looking forward to seeing the Mariner's with the family on August the 7th. Other than that and doing what we are doing not too much else new. =)

Hope everyone is doing well!

Spring weather has finally arrived

Where did the first half of the year go??

Spring weather has finally arrived here in Washington (woo hoo)! The sun is shining, and it is 70 degrees outside (time to find those sandals in the closet somewhere....)

Jay has been keeping busy at work--He was asked to help train the remote access crew and did his first training session earlier this month. However, he decided that training was not for him, but he would still help get all the documentation together for training sessions. He still likes his job which is always a good thing! :)

Rachel has been keeping busy with paperwork for school. She has decided to go ahead and apply for some four year Universities for Fall quarter here in WA. The amount of paperwork and fees you have to send to each college is crazy! Rachel will be walking at graduation on June 18th at Bellevue College. One degree down, one or two to go??