3 Months Old

3 Months Old

Weight: Not sure...we go back to the Dr. at 4 months old
Height: Not sure...we go back to the Dr. at 4 months old
Clothing Size: 0-3 and 3 month clothes in most everything 
Diaper Size: Size 1
Feeding: 5oz. breastmilk every 3 hours (except at night)
Sleeping: Sleeping in his big boy crib every night from around 9pm until 6:30am.  Such a good little sleeper! We still have a few nights where he wakes up from being either not tired or hungry.  But, most of the time, all it takes is a little food & some rocking in the glider & he's back to sleep in no time. 
Nickname: He's still definitely my little "Wiggle Wiggle" but has also developed into becoming quite the little Possum.  So many times I've gone to lay him down in his crib (or bouncer, nap nanny, etc. for naps) and his eyes pop right back open looking at me.  Most of the time it's accompanied by the cutest little smile.  I envision him wanting to say "Hey Mom, gotcha! I'm not really tired!" 



Milestones:

• Sitting up in the Bumbo
• Rolling from his back to his tummy
• Starting to have a real laugh
• Baby Dedication at Church (and Mommy's first Mother's Day)
• Going to daycare so Mommy & Daddy could go back to work :(

"I'm not ready to wake up from my nap & face the day!!"

 Happy baby boy!

 

Smiling at the great-Papaw

This picture just makes my heart melt.  Jett baby & Papaw at Papaw's house in April.  He was loving making all kinds of noises talking to my Papaw.  Just seeing the two of them together is the most precious thing ever.  I wish Mamaw was here to meet Jett, but I'm so grateful that he has a great-Papaw that loves him so much!

Sitting in the Bumbo

Amazed by the monkeys

My little laid back kiddo

Likes:

• Loves the monkeys on top of his bouncer.  He is so amazed at them when they move. 
• Sitting up instead of laying down...with lots of assistance, though 
• Reading the touch & feel books with Mommy
• Constantly making noises and figuring out his vocal cords
• Looking and paying attention to everything around him
• Loves being outside

Dislikes:

• We're still not a fan of changing outfits, especially the ones that go over his head.  But, we've turned this into a game of "peek-a-boo" so it's more enjoyable. 
• Washing his head in the bathtub

Things we can't live without:
My list really hasn't changed much from last month.  The swaddle is seriously the funniest part.   After Jett has ate, changed his diaper, etc. I turn the lamp on in the nursery & put him in his swaddle.  These days he gets all tucked in the swaddled & wants to "talk" constantly.  We then rock him for maybe about 5 minutes and he's out! His new thing is that he does not want his pacifier to sleep (unless he's in all out meltdown mode).  He does really good just falling asleep on his own.  And for that, I'm so thankful. 

• Fisher Price SnugaMonkey Bouncer- Seriously...he LOVES this!
• Angelcare Video Monitor: Watching Jett sleep is precious, but knowing that the sensor will go off if something happens is priceless! It really puts me at ease.
• Swaddles: This baby definitely sleeps better all swaddled in. It's like once he's swaddled, he knows it's time for bedtime.

Other thoughts from the month:
Going back to work was the hardest thing ever.   Jon & I were both blessed to be able to take off 12 weeks together to be at home with Jett.  Needless to say, after being home for that long & having such precious baby, made both of us want to stay home forever! :)  Thankfully, I have an amazing husband and amazing work family so I'll only be working part time for now.  Now that I'm back at work, I can honestly say I love having my adult interactions and being able to eat lunch with both hands for a full hour break.  Haha! But, it's wonderful to also be able to have the flexibility to be at home and spend time with Jett part of the week. 

At first, I thought daycare was the most awful thing ever.  It was so hard for me to let go of my baby.  I mean, who loves him as much as his mommy & daddy do?! The first day he came home a screaming, crying mess.  Which, of course, meant that I was a crying mess.  Huge meltdown in the Baker household.  I was convinced he hated daycare and felt so guilty having to go back to work.  Thankfully, after we got his schedule down with his daycare (and told them they didn't have to change his diaper 18 times a day unless absolutely necessary!), he is perfectly fine there and the mommy guilt is somewhat gone.   It's still hard some days to drop him off, but other days it's just so much easier knowing he's in good hands. 

And...last thing.  Honestly, I wasn't sure how long I'd make it breastfeeding.  Around 3 months I had to start pumping exclusively.  Whoever has the misconception that breastfeeding/pumping is easy is sooooo wrong! I'm still hanging in there & have given my self a short-term goal of pumping until Jett is 6 months old.  I wish I was one of those mothers that has a wonderful milk supply.  Sadly, I've tried everything but I just don't get enough milk to provide all that Jett needs in a day.  I've had to also let go of that Mommy guilt & realize that giving my baby formula is not a bad thing.  :)  He still gets 90% breastmilk in a day and for me, that is perfect.  As long as I have a happy, healthy baby that's all that matters!

The Nursery (Part 2)

I'm so, so happy with the way the nursery turned out.  As I wrote about in The Nursery (Part 1), decorating this has been an all around family project & labor of love.  I'm so grateful to my family for helping so much with getting it as perfect as it could be! 

So here's my favorite panorama picture of the nursery! I love the bright colors & of course, the airplanes.  

Other side view of the nursery: 

This wall is pretty special to me.  It's not super clear in this picture, but the photograph hanging on the wall is of a puppy dog on a tow truck pulling other trucks. My Papaw took that photograph when he was in college & it hung over the mantle place at his family's house for the longest time.  As long as I can remember, though, it's been in Mamaw & Papaw's house.  I love that he took the picture & it's a typical little boy photo with the trucks & dogs.  Jon & I were thrilled when I told us we could have it to put in the baby's room.  Such a special touch to add.  

The other piece below it was actually a piece of furniture that my parents used for my nursery. It looks perfect with the photo above it & fits on that wall great too.  So, we have a little bit of old with a little bit of new in the nursery!  

 Here's the other side of the nursery.  The mirror, lamp, and canvas were all painted by me.  The chair (which you can see better in the other blog post) is actually blue & green to match.  And, the dresser is from IKEA...one of my favorite stores ever! 

The shelves on the wall are also the same bright green & they are also from IKEA.  I wish there was an IKEA closer to us! 

Daytime picture of the nursery before the shelves were hung.  And, notice the little airplane rocker in the floor from Jon's sister.  So cute.  

This decal turned out perfect! I ordered the Airplane Decal from Etsy.  Great Etsy shop to work with & loved that she let me order this in 2 different colors.  It is absolutely perfect & looks amazing! 

This is the other wall decal that is right above the door.  It was also ordered from Etsy.  I wanted a little Dr. Seuss combined with airplanes, so this one fit perfectly! 

So now we're just waiting for little Jett to make his appearance so he can use all the wonderful things we have for him.  We're so blessed by our friends and family that have graciously given us gifts for this sweet baby and helped with so many things. This baby is already so lucky to have wonderful people in his life.    

The Nursery (Part 1)

Oh the nursery!  This has been one of my favorite parts of getting ready for Baby Jett.  When we first found out we were having a boy, Jon's immediate reaction was to do a sports nursery.  My thought was that we have the rest of our lives to do sports (more than likely) with this little guy, so I wanted to do something different.  I spent hours looking up nursery ideas online.  We looked at bedding from literally everywhere & couldn't find anything that we both loved.  When I found the airplane material on Etsy and we both loved it (gotta go with what you agree on!) that's what we settled on.  Of course.... all the "custom" places online were either outrageously priced OR would take anywhere from 8-12 weeks.  For those that know me, when I want something I want it done pretty much instantly.  (I call this "only child syndrome" at its finest) My wonderful mother, knowing how I am about things, decided that she could probably sew the bedding.  I just had to promise to help & not want perfection since she repeatedly said she's "not a seamstress."  :)

I found the material a lot of places online, but ended up ordering 8 yards for about $40 (on sale!) from here.  Once we got the fabric, we went & got the baby bumper inserts for around $20 and picked up some cording and extra material for the bed skirt, crib sheets, and cording around the bumpers.  I think in total the materials we used were around $100, which was much cheaper than getting it made online AND I was getting exactly what I wanted. 

Making the bedding was a labor of love from my mom.  We stayed up way too late many nights sewing and making mistakes with the bedding.  We got acquainted with the seam ripper pretty good, but looking at the bedding you'd never know that we made mistakes!  We used Mamaw's sewing machine so it was so special creating something for Jett that, no doubt, Mamaw would have been so proud of us doing.  There were so many times, though, that we both just wanted to pick up the phone & ask her a question about sewing.  I still laugh thinking about the lady in Hancock Fabric telling Mom she'd have to use a zipper foot for the cording & Mom saying "Okay...um what's that?!"  It was so great just to be able to spend time together doing the project & the finished product turned out amazing!  Definitely fun memories that I'll never forget.

Mom sewing the cording & material

The first bumper complete! It was only about 1AM, but we were so proud!

 

Up close of the bumpers while sewing them

Final product of the bumpers and crib skirt (before the crib sheets were done)

Emma was really tired & ready to go to bed after us staying up so late,

so she just decided to sleep on the extra fabric!

Papaw even got in on the sewing! This was him making an orange pillow with minky material and a satin edge.  Turned out perfect!

 

 Final product of the bumpers, crib sheets (just one of them, but I have several), crib skirt, & orange pillow Papaw made! I'll post more about the decal in my next nursery blog.  :)

Mom also made the curtains using some of the extra material from the bedding.  The orange part of the curtains is actually king size sheets from Bed Bath & Beyond that were on clearance for $18.  She cut the sheets into panels the same size as the airplane material.  They match perfectly! 

Other Projects:
I also decided to make use of several items I had in the house instead of going out & buying new things.  This turned out to be way more fun than I expected! I took a swatch of the airplane fabric to Home Depot & got blue and green paint that matched the bedding perfectly.  Home Depot has little sample jars of paint that they'll mix for you for around $3.  For what I was painting, the little sample jars are more than enough for what I needed and I still have some left.  The paint from there is much better, in my opinion, than buying the little cans from Hobby Lobby. 

My first project was turning in an old canvas I had previously painted (and didn't use) into a wall hanging for the nursery.  I went to Hobby Lobby & bought the wooden letters and airplane 1/2 off for around $5.  The airplane was originally baby blue and red, so I used my paint from Home Depot & painted it to match the nursery.  After everything dried, I used Mod Podge & glued the letters on the canvas.  I thought it turned out cute!

Finished Product!

 

Since Mom & Dad moved in the middle of my pregnancy, they had lots of things from their house in Camden to get rid of.  I got this gold mirror from Mom's bathroom and decided to paint it to go above the changing table using the same paint. 

 

Before:





 

After:

 

 

I knew I wanted a lamp to go in the nursery beside the glider.  I had this lamp just stored in my closet because the original colors didn't match the current decor in our house.  The lamp was originally turquoise, brown, & white.  Using the same paint (seriously, best $6 investment ever) and masking tape, I painted this lamp the green & blue that match everything else. 

 



Finished Product!

 

It was so fun getting to paint and make different things for the nursery.  It really has made it special knowing that my family has helped with different parts of the room.  Can't wait to post pictures of the completed nursery soon!

Alpha Gam Baby Shower

On December 16th, my sweet friends and sorority sisters threw us a baby shower.  I've been a member of Alpha Gam for almost 10 years now (geez I'm getting old!) & I'm constantly amazed at how blessed I am to be a part of a great group of ladies.  No matter the age or distance between all of us, we always can come back together & have the best time!

 

Before the shower, Jon, Mom & Dad, and I hung some items in the nursery and organized it a little.  Donna also came up for the shower.  It was so fun to get to show the nursery off & go through the cute things that I have already!

 

Collage of some of my favorite pictures from the shower

 

Kirby's Mom, Janice, wrote the cute little poem that was on the shower invitation.  She's so creative!

Kandi & I

Me with all my gifts

This is my look of amazement that I got a box of 800 wipes! This picture cracks me up!

Papaw found this little blanket that was hand stitched by Mamaw.  He hand wrote a note about how he found it & thought it would be a good baby blanket.  Of course, I cried.  I miss having mamaw here to share all this with, but I'm thankful for the sweet time we've been able to spend with Papaw. 

Cutest diapers ever! Jon's family got custom diapers made with Jett's name on them & airplanes.  Seriously, the cutest baby present ever!

Boppy from Brandi

Cute table decor with yummy food

Dianne & Kathy decorated a Christmas Tree for Jett with baby toys, bath goodies, socks, etc. on it.  It was so cute!

The Christmas Tree again

 

 

We're so blessed to have wonderful people throw us showers.  We've been given so many great things for baby Jett! 

 

 

Naming Baby Baker

Finally a name post! When we first found out we were having a baby, there were no set names that we had already decided on.  The only name that I've loved since childhood is Parker, my mom's maiden name, but Parker Baker sounds like a used car dealership.  :) We just decided to wait until we found out what we were having before we came up with names. But, of course, once we found out we were having a boy we still hadn't made a decision!

The one name I really wanted to use was Owen.  Owen is my Papaw's middle name and I just really thought it would be special to name our son after him in some way since he's so special to us.  I wasn't sure if I wanted it to be a first name, even though I love the name, so we decided to use it as a middle name.  I feel like we were the only people in the world that picked out a middle name first!

In the back of my mind (and Jon & I had talked about this previously), I somewhat wanted to stick with a "J" name since both of our names start with "J".  There are so many popular names right now that start with a "J"--names that I absolutely love--but since Baker is a somewhat common name, I didn't want to have a full name that was super common.  A lot of people also recommended us looking at the Dugger's children's names since they use all "J" names for their kids.  Clearly there are a lot of names to choose from there. 

We struggled with coming up with names.  We looked at family names, googled names, looked at baby name books, etc.  We found names we liked and added them to our list, but nothing that we were really sold on for sure.  I downloaded 2 different baby name apps and laughed a lot when these notifications would pop up on my phone somewhat taunting us to hurry up and make a decision! Haha

 

As we were driving back from Hot Springs to Jonesboro one weekend, I was steadily looking at names and telling Jon ones that I liked.  I googled everything from modern to traditional to popular, etc.  Literally everything.  I googled Aviation names and Jett was the first one to pop up.  I told Jon that name, as I had been doing for the past hour or so, and we added it to the list. 

 

The more we talked about names, the more we loved Jett.  It's different, starts with a "J", works well with Baker and Owen, and for my personal request, can't really be shortened to come up with a nickname.   Once I started thinking about it, it completely made sense.   This little baby boy has already a been an airplane traveler too! Of all of my work travel, I've had to take several flights over the course of my pregnancy and never had any issues at all (thank goodness!)  Places traveled for work/fun with Mommy (because really...he had no choice):

• St. Louis, MO
• Providence, RI
• Fresno, CA
• San Francisco, CA
• Oakland, CA
• Seattle, WA
• Portland, OR
• Eugene, OR
• Dallas, TX
• Kansas City, MO
• Lincoln, NE

So, Jett Owen Baker it is! We can't wait to meet our little baby!

 



23 Weeks

This week has been a busy one so far! The sorority houses at ASU are underway which means lots of meetings.  Alpha Gam's interior designer came in this week to help with all of our choices, so it's been fun picking out items for the future house.  It's also Homecoming Week at ASU & that means tons of friends coming to Jonesboro! And....it's tax extension deadline at work. 

Pregnancy Journal:
How far along? 23 Weeks --- Baby Baker is the size of an Ear of Corn this week

Total weight gain/ loss? At my appointment last Thursday, I've lost 5 lbs so I'm back to no weight gain. 

Maternity clothes? My Gap maternity stretchy jeans are awesome! Still in my regular clothes though.  I feel like one day I'm just going to wake up & gain 20 lbs all at once.   

Sleep? Not sleeping good at all.  Last night I went to bed around 10:00.  I read on my Kindle for a little bit & then crashed.  At 2 AM I was WIDE awake.  For whatever reason I decided to get up and fold laundry from the dryer & wash all the bathroom rugs in the house.  At 3:00 I text Jon (since he was working) & he came home for his "lunch" break.  He left around 4AM & I then decided to start reading my Kindle again.  I think I finally went back to sleep at 5:30AM.  Whew. 

Best moment this week? Jon & I went to Camden to see my parents & Papaw this weekend.  I had the best time just getting to spend time with them.  I miss Mamaw so much. There's so many times that we would be at their house & I would think about her not being there.  It was wonderful, though, getting to spend time sitting & talking with Papaw. 

 

Emma missed Papaw too!

 

 

Also, I was on the search for any old Sock Monkeys that Mamaw may have made.  I remembered a few from when I was little & we finally found one right before we left. 

 

Sock Monkey made by Mamaw, Outfits from Popsicles, & the rocking chair that my mom & I had when we were little.  It was yellow & I repainted it as soon as we got home. 

 

Other than that, Jon & I went to Popsicles last Thursday and oh my! at the stuff, people, etc.  Everyone keeps telling me to not buy clothes, but it's so hard not to when there is so much precious stuff that is inexpensive! I have to stop buying clothes!  

 

A few of our Popsicles finds! I've decided that little boy clothes are so fun!

 



Miss anything?  No

Movement? Definitely feeling the kicks!

Food cravings? Bananas and my favorite fall item---pumpkin!

Anything making you queasy or sick? Not this week, thank goodness.

Most entertaining thing you've been emotional about this week? Nothing so far...but it's only Wednesday :)

Have you started to show yet? Not any more than last week, but oh the strech marks.  Eeeek!

Belly button in or out? In

Wedding ring on or off? On

Happy or moody most of the time? Happy!

Name possibilities? A couple...but not sharing them just yet :)

Looking forward to? ASU Homecoming this weekend! I'm helping with the Alpha Gam Member/Alum tailgate in Tailgate City & am so excited about seeing old college friends.