A week of firsts

"Oooo"

This week was a week of firsts. I (finally?) went back to work, Jackson started daycare and he turned 2 months old!  I was nervous about daycare because leading up to it we had not yet been successful in getting Jackson to take from the bottle again. He would take from the bottle when he was days/weeks old, but then he wouldn't take from me which created quite a problem that resulted in me crying in front of the pediatrician.  (Which, I still feel like she stares at me just waiting to see what will make me break again.) We didn't think the bottle would be that big of a deal since he was feeding off the shield anyway, but I think he liked the ease in which he could eat from the bottle instead of from me. So we then had to take the bottle away. We tried different types of bottles, we tried different people feeding him, both with me around and me not around, but nothing was really working.  I warned Erin that we were trying but not being terribly successful. I don't know if it was due to being in a location where there was no smell of me around, or just that it was his only option and he finally decided he was hungry enough, but he took from the bottle with no problem from Erin. Thank God! Once I found that out, I felt much much better about leaving him in daycare. Until then, I was having these images flash in front of me with me needing to rush up to Erin's during the work day to periodically feed him (and I thought getting away for 20 minutes to pump was going to be difficult).

Be careful when you open my freezer, you might get attacked by milk!

He is also doing well at daycare. The first day there were a couple younger kids (i don't know ages but they were walking and talking and probably school aged 5 and 7?), and when I came to pick him up they were sad to see him go.  One little boy even asked if he could keep him.  One of Erin's friends even bought her the Rock N' Play so Jackson can sleep in the same thing there as he does at home. It's still hard to leave my baby in the care of someone else, especially not family. I am sure over time, though, Erin will probably become close enough to family.

He is smiling a lot now :)

I am currently doing part time work for the first couple weeks and working my way back up to full time. I like it this way. I think I would struggle more if I had to jump back in full time.  It's starting to get a little better, but my first few days back I kinda felt like part of me was missing. While I still like what I do, I felt as though some of that passion was gone. By the end of the week I started to get my groove back.

Apparently, learning to take from the bottle has made Jackson decide he's ready for his big-boy pants as well because as of Tuesday he has decided he wants nothing more to do with the shield and will instead feed directly from me.  The "technique" with the shield was so lazy, that I wasn't sure we'd actually be able to figure out how to breastfeed the correct way but he just took to it as though he had been doing it all along. This makes life so much simpler.

Jackson turned two months old on Monday, and he had his two month check up on Wednesday. He weighed in at 10lbs 9oz, which is two pounds heavier than his 1 month appointment.  He didn't measure much more in length, only 22", but I don't think that's terribly accurate because he is growing out of his newborn clothing with the feet.  He is too long for them.  He did get several vaccines, which was hard to watch because I know they hurt. Fortunately, aside from being sleepy and a little painful he did ok. Nothing a bit of sleep couldn't cure.

Jackson at 1 month old

Jackson at 2 months old

2 months old