Little Thumb Sucker

Well, I think it is official...Jack Griffin is a thumb sucker.  Every time he gets a chance (and can find his thumb), it's in his mouth.  I was looking through pictures of the day Jack was born, and I realized that he has been a thumb sucker since day one.  See the picture below of his thumb sucking at the hospital.  Tummy time has turned into "find my thumb so I can suck it" time.  Jack was laying on his Baby Einstein play mat the other day and I was in the kitchen doing the dishes.  I could hear him cooing and making noises and then it got very quiet.  When I went to see what our little man was doing, there he was contently sucking his thumb. 

At this point, Jack can only find his thumb when he's laying on his tummy or being held against someone's chest.  It's difficult when he's sitting up because he can't get that hand close enough to his mouth...I'm sure once he figures out where his hand is, that thumb will be in the mouth.  I love that Jack can soothe himself with his thumb and we don't always have to worry about putting a pacifier back in his mouth, but is he going to be one of those kids who is still sucking away on the first day of kindergarten?!  Am I going to be one of those mothers who asks the teacher to help her child stop sucking his thumb?  Will we be putting nail polish and pepper and gross stuff on his thumb to help him break the habit when he's eight years old?  I guess that only time will tell and right now I'm celebrating the fact that I have a two month old who is able to soothe himself with his cute little thumb.  Here's the cutest little thumb sucker in action!

Here's Jack on the day he was born, sucking away in the nursery.  He figured out how to soothe himself when he was only a few hours old...

 

 

Jack's Buddy

We are so blessed to have so many friends who have babies close to Jack's age.  He will have lots of little friends to play with and lots of them are little boys!  Here's Jack with his newest buddy, Baxter Manley.  His parents are our sweet friends, Kyle and Megan, and we are so excited to have such great friends raising a little boy at the same time we are.  Baxter is six weeks younger than Jack and I'm sure they have many play dates ahead of them!  Proud daddies, Kyle and Garrett, are showing off their baby boys, and just in case we forget their names, their onesies say "Baxter" and "Jack."  Aren't they the cutest little boys in the world?!

Happy Jack!

Jack is now six and a half weeks old and he has started giving us these adorable smiles, laughs, giggles, and coos more and more every day.  He especially loves it when we sing to him!  His favorites are Jesus Loves Me, Old MacDonald, and Father Abraham.  This morning Jack couldn't stop smiling and laughing at his Daddy while he sang Father Abraham. 

My Sweet Boys

My two sweet boys surprised me today with a little mommy present.  Garrett said it was my belated "push" present (although I never pushed, Jack was "pulled" out of my tummy instead!).  Jack wanted me to know how much he loves his mommy.  This was the cute little surprise I saw when I walked into the living room this morning..I can't resist this precious little boy!!

 

Notice the little blue box by Jack...his daddy did a good job!  I feel so loved by both of my boys!  

A Few Firsts

Jack had many "firsts" last week, so here they are!

 Jack went to the Texas State Fair for the first time in his life and here he is experiencing his first Fletcher's corny dog.  He was so thrilled about the whole experience that he slept the whole time we were there!

Next, Jack met his Great Grandparents for the first time!  Here he is with Tom Tom and Gran.  He was especially thrilled to meet Tom Tom because he got his name Jackson from Tom Tom, whose name is Thomas Jackson.  We can't wait to see Tom Tom and Gran again soon!

The next night Jack got to experience his first football game!  We went to see my cousin, Matt, play in his Flower Mound High School game at SMU.  Jack loved being in the Baby Bjorn with Daddy!  

On Sunday afternoon, Jack took his first trip to the Pumpkin Patch.   We went to the Dallas Arboretum with Anna and Andrew and had so much fun enjoying the beautiful fall weather!  Jack had a hard time staying awake the whole time!

Sweet Sleep!!

Last night Jack Griffin gave his mother the greatest gift in the world...6 consecutive hours of sleep!  He went to bed at 11pm and slept until 5am!  This was a minor miracle at our house considering that two weeks ago he was up screaming for two and three hours in the middle of the night.  This sleep miracle was not accomplished by Jack on his own; we owe thanks to many people for this.  First, we must thank the nurses at our pediatrican's office who have helped us immensely.  Jack has developed a little reflux and our sweet nurses have helped us diagnose his problem, given me amazing new mommy advice, and ultimately given us a prescription for reflux medicine, which has really helped settle Jack's tummy calm his reflux.  We also owe thanks to Maria Pappas who gave us a "Nap Nanny" at my baby shower in Houston and it has done wonders for Jack's sleep!  The Nap Nanny is an inclined sleep positioner and it helps Jack sleep after his late night and middle of the night feedings because sleeping flat on his back really intensifies his reflux.  We are also thankful for our ultimate swaddle blanket...Garrett swaddled Jack so tightly last night that he was a little burrito and he couldn't flail his arms and wake himself up.  Ultimately, though, I must thank Jack for his amazing ability to sleep for 6 hours at 4 and a half weeks old.  I'm praying that it happens again tonight (and every night after that!), but if I've learned anything about life with a newborn it's that things are unpredictable and ever-changing, so I'm sure I'll be up in the middle of the night tonight!

Jack asleep in his Nap Nanny...check out those chubby cheeks!!

4 Weeks Old!

Garrett started the Griffin family blog the week we brought Jack home from the hospital in hopes that we could use it as a way to share what's going on with Jack with our family and friends who we don't get to see all the time.  I agreed that it's a great way to share and promised that I would be a diligent blog poster, but it's taken me four weeks to actually sit down and write an update on our life with our newest little family member.  Now that I am pretty fully recovered from my c-section, Jack is letting me sleep for more than two hours a night, and we are figuring out a little routine, I am promising to be a faithful updater of the Griffin blog. 

I can't believe that Jack Griffin has been in the world for four weeks now...the official one month celebration of his birth isn't until Monday, September 27th, but it was four weeks ago yesterday that Jack was taken out of my belly and became the newest member of our little family.  We've done a lot of adjusting over the past month, and I'm slowly but surely getting used to life as a stay at home mom.  I now live with spit up or poop on me all the time and "getting dressed" means putting on a t-shirt, leggings, and running shoes.  Although I'm not looking too pretty these days, I love taking care of our precious boy and I really can't believe how much he has already grown and changed.  Jack has been working on holding his head up, turning it from side to side when he's laying on his belly, keeping eye contact, and following a light or object with his eyes.  Of course we think he's a genius, and we're anxiously awaiting his first "real" smile (as opposed to a gassy smile or smile while he's asleep). 

Jack has officially outgrown several of his 0-3 month clothes, and he never did fit into any newborn clothes, and I'm already sad to put away some of his tiny little clothes.  He never was a really tiny guy though, and he weighed 10 pounds, 8 ounces at his 2 week check up. We can't wait to see how much he's gained when we go for his one month check up next week.  For now we're still eating, sleeping, pooping, and curiously looking at the world around us...Jack is a pretty relaxed little guy (most of the time), and I continue to praise God for His goodness to us in the miracle of our son.

Our little family (minus Lucky!) 

Jack is wearing one of my favorite Kissy Kissy outfits that Honey and Big John gave him and I'm so sad that it is officially too small!