Last year's birthday (a post 12 months in the making!)

So. My birthday is today. My 30th birthday (BOOOOOOOO). I have absolutely no idea how any of this happened. Isn't it still 1998 and right now it's time for me to go watch Carson Daly host TRL where my favorite "band" in the world, 'N Sync, has the no. 1 video for the 126th day in a row?! Yeah. Pretty much in my head that's where time stopped for me. My life rules. 

P.S. I still love me some Justin Timberlake. And I may or may not be kind of, sort of, ridiculously excited that he's fine.uh.lee making some new music. About dang time, Mr. J.T.!

P.P.S. Don't judge me.

Last year for my birthday, I woke up in the middle of the night with what I thought was a wicked case of food poisoning. (I'll spare you the details other than to say what a dear, sweet husband I have since he traversed to Smith's at 3 in the morning to buy me Sprite, saltine crackers and Pepto-Bismol.)

Breakfast in bed for me last year. Bah.

John and I had both taken two days off of work and made reservations at the Anniversary Inn up in Logan to celebrate, so in between bouts of nausea we eventually made our way up there so we wouldn't lose out on our money. Our room was pretty dang amazing, but sadly I was too sick to really enjoy it. We did manage to get pictures, though, don't you worry. 

Well, the nausea didn't go away over the course of the weekend (to this day, thinking about the breakfast we were served at the hotel makes me want to throw up), so I figured I had a nasty, nasty strain of the flu. Going to work the next week was a nightmare and I'm not quite sure how I managed to even make it out of bed...I spent my days ridiculously nauseous, counting the seconds until it was time to go home. And when I got home I would just lay on the couch for the rest of the night. All I could even think about eating were ramen noodles, grilled cheese and baked potatoes. 

Fast forward eight months later and that "flu virus" was born. And this year, that stubborn, vicious flu bug that turned into my darling, darling little John Max is here to celebrate my birthday with me. Here's hoping my day does not involve vomit this year! (Not counting spit up, because my sweet boy may have already spit up on me when he gave me the most generous gift of waking me up at 3 a.m. to feed him. Happy birthday to me!)

Four months.

Yo. So my baby suddenly became four months old on the 21st. You know how people who've experienced something before you have always tell you what to expect, and how things will go, and you kind of think to yourself, "whatever, my experience is going to be totally different than that!"? Those people are actually kind of right. When I was pregnant all I ever heard was how fast babies grow up, to cherish every moment while they're still little and will let you hold them, and to try on their clothes earlier than you think you need to because they'll probably outgrow things before you even have a chance to put it on their little baby bodies. And I thought to myself, babies are babies for a long time, and my baby will be the snuggliest baby EVER, and besides, I'll have a little pipsqueak baby who will stay in newborn-size clothes for months and months and months. 

Well, here I am with a four-month-old who is, indeed, growing faster than I thought possible, with a closetful of darling clothes, some of which he's never even worn and perhaps won't get a chance to since he's growing so dang fast and is practically in 6-9 month clothes as we speak. Oh, and the snuggly baby thing? Not so much. Max is much too interested in things going on around him to take the time to lay that cute head of his on Mom's shoulder. He's got throw pillows to look at! And walls and ceiling fans to stare at! And hands to eat!

Max had his four-month well-child appointment this morning (and another round of horrible, awful shots that this time I braved alone!) and here are his stats:

Weight: 15.43 lbs. (61st percentile)

Height: 26.77 inches (96th percentile) (!!)

Head circumference: 16.7 inches (50th percentile)

So essentially, we have a skinny, tall, very healthy baby. I am kind of blown away by how tall he is (maybe because I'm such a shrimp myself?)--our pediatrician said he's as tall right now as an average seven-month-old. Sheesh, kid. He's also developmentally on par in some ways with six-month-old babies, what with his new-found ability to roll over from his back to stomach, desperate attempts to sit up by himself and constant need to stand. We have a wonder child, folks!

Here's a little bit about our cute boy at four months old:

Likes: 

His binky

Having his diaper changed

Playing under his activity mat

Standing

When Daddy comes home from work

When Daddy holds him upside down (Mommy is not such a big fan of this one, however)

Looking in the mirror

When Mom and Dad make funny sounds for him

Being pushed in the stroller
Listening to Daddy sing and play the piano or guitar

Dislikes:

Being burped

Being cradled like a baby when he's tired (seriously?! What baby doesn't like to be held like a baby?)

Having his nose suctioned out

Being put in the carseat

Having clothes put on him (seriously, he cries almost every single time I put a onesie on him)

When he rolls over onto his tummy and gets stuck
Going to bed earlier than 10 p.m. (We have apparently passed our night owl tendencies onto him...but we're working on getting him on an earlier schedule. Not my favorite thing in the world, mind you.)

Man, we just love this boy to pieces.

Holidays wrap-up. And the startling realization that my baby is no longer a newborn.

I swear, it happens to me every year...December and Christmas just fly right on by, with hardly any time to just enjoy it. Next year all I want to do is sit in front of my beautiful Christmas tree, drinking hot chocolate and watching Christmas movies. (Yeah, like that's really going to happen with a 15-month-old running around the house, undecorating my beautiful Christmas tree, spilling hot chocolate everywhere and yelling during the movies. And oh my gosh, YOU GUYS. My baby will be 15 months old next Christmas!)

Anyway, we were able to get a lot of celebrating in, mixed somewhere in between bouts of illness (John had the most horrible of horrid sore throats for a couple of days and Max and I have been fighting colds for about a year now, it feels like), me officially quitting my job to become a full-time mom (post to come later about this one, kids) and John and I continuing to figure out this whole parenting thing.

 I absolutely love my Christmas tree. It is a hodgepodge of ornaments, but most of them have sentimental meaning behind them. We got two new ornaments for Max this year:

To my great delight, I discovered that Max liked to hang out on the floor and stare at the Christmas tree...saving my sanity and also allowing me to actually eat using both of my hands on more than one occasion. Sometimes he even took naps in front of the tree.

We had kind of a low-key Christmas, present-wise, which I thought was just perfect. I'm sure we could have gotten away with not getting Max anything, but I think he was pretty stoked about his new binkies, pajamas and outfits. Next year we'll splurge and get him some boxes and wrapping paper to play with, don't worry.

We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas morning/afternoon with my family before venturing up to Logan to spend the rest of the week with John's family. I may or may not have spent the majority of my time there staring out the window at the hordes of deer (including a couple of rather large bucks) that converged in my in-law's backyard. Because apparently I've never seen deer before. It's not like I live near the mountains and see them on a regular basis or anything.

And somehow in the middle of everything, I realized last week that my boy is no longer a newborn. He has started grabbing anything he can get his chubby little hands on and he tries to put everything those hands get a hold of into his mouth. We are assuming he has started teething as evidenced by the constant crazy-long strings of drool that hang off of his chin and soak his outfits every day. And he has become somewhat mobile--he kicks his legs all day long and as of Monday can roll over from his back to his stomach! (We're still working on getting him to roll over from his tummy to his back--I have found that he'll tolerate "tummy time" a little bit better if I have him try it out while he's only in his diaper. I swear, that boy is so much happier if he doesn't have on any clothes. Maybe we have an exhibitionist on our hands.) The other day I left him flat on his back in the middle of his crib and went into the other room for one second, and this is what I came back to. Naturally I took pictures before I helped him.

Max is also becoming much more vocal and makes the sweetest little coo and gurgle noises I've ever heard. (He also makes these high-pitched screams and squeals that sound very much like a feral cat...) He has finally started laughing and I'm pretty sure that the heavens open when he giggles. He especially loves to laugh for John.

Apparently all I'm good for is SUSTAINING HIS LIFE by, you know, feeding him with my own body. No biggie.

So...I blinked and my baby is 3 months old.

So somehow my baby is already 3 months old. Umm, excuse me...wasn't he just barely born? When did this happen? John put Max in his pajamas the other night and brought him down in a 3-6-month-sized sleeper. And it fits him. I may have fought back a few tears at how fast my little guy is growing. Yep. I'm one of those moms who cries when her baby moves up a size in clothes. 

Max had his two-month appointment with the pediatrician a couple of weeks ago and apparently I produce super milk because our little dude is, as they say, growing like a weed. (Also, little man had to get his first round of shots. THE HORROR. I cried all the way to the pediatrician's office thinking about it. And even though I totally stepped out of the room when the nurse was doing them (don't worry, John stayed in with him!) I could still hear his sad little anguished, betrayed cries in the hall and couldn't stop the tears from coming. The nurse gave me a hug when she saw me. I am awesome.) Anywho, here are his stats from birth until now:

BIRTH, 9/21/2012

Weight: 7 lbs. 6 oz.

Height: 20.5 inches

TWO DAYS OLD, 9/25/2012

Weight: 7.17 lbs. (24th percentile)

Height: 20.47 inches (68th percentile)

Head Circumference: 13.8 inches (27th percentile)

TWO WEEKS OLD, 10/8/2012

Weight: 8.16 lbs. (27th percentile)

Height: 20.96 inches (54th percentile)

Head Circumference: 14.6 inches (42nd percentile)

TWO MONTHS OLD, 11/28/2012

Weight: 12.79 lbs. (68th percentile)

Height: 24.41 inches (89th percentile)

Head Circumference: 16.1 inches (68th percentile)

Y'all. He weighs as much now as I did when I was a year old. And don't worry that in another month, he'll probably be halfway to being as tall as I am. So I guess when you combine my and John's genes you get super tall, super healthy, super CUTE babies. Because let's be real here, my baby is quite possibly the cutest baby ever born. (Get a load of those chubber thighs...squeeaaa!!! I love them.)

Max has started smiling a lot and is almost to the point of laughing. And can I just say, those little smiles of his can probably cure all kinds of diseases and probably would have gotten Mitt Romney elected if he would have used him in his campaign. (Ha! Political jokes!) It has become my and John's mission in life to get this kid to smile, and we resort to all kinds of shenanigans to get him to do so. I'm sure he thinks we are the biggest idiots ever and only smiles to amuse us...but it works. I mean, just LOOK at this face! I die!

Another reason my baby is pretty much a rock star? He has been sleeping in five- to seven-hour stretches at night for the past several weeks. We finally broke down and put him in his own room at night after having him in with us in a cradle (that my awesome husband and dad made for him, might I add) for the first six weeks of his life, and I think that has made all of the difference. He is not exactly a...quiet...sleeper, shall we say. When he was in our room, I would wake up to every grunt, squeal and whinny. (Seriously, he makes this one noise that sounds like a horse whinnying! Who is this kid?!) And when I woke up, I would turn the light on which probably in turn woke him up, yada yada yada. And then he got to the point where he'd roll over during the night and get his hands and feet stuck in the slats of the cradle and wake up crying. So yeah. Babies in their own rooms is where it's at. And baby monitors are little angelic pieces of technology. 

I finally feel like I am getting this mothering thing down. In all honesty, the first month was super rough for me. I was healing myself while trying to take care of this little stranger, on top of which I was dealing with some pretty nasty baby blues. The whole bonding thing also didn't happen as fast as I expected it to, which was really weird for me because I felt so bonded to my little guy while I was pregnant with him. I tell John all the time that I kind of feel like I was cheated out of that first month and didn't enjoy it nearly as much as I should have. But I am taking full advantage now and breaking all sorts of those so-called "rules" that are in all of the parenting books. Do I rock my baby to sleep? You betcha. Do I let him sleep in my arms? Totally. Do I still demand feed? Yep. Do I pretty much not let him cry longer than a few minutes at a time? Maybe. OK, so I admit that I might possibly be spoiling this little one...but I really can't look at that face and not want to make him happy every second of his life.

Happy 3 months, little bug.

Max's Blessing

Our little Max's blessing day was on November 25th, the Sunday after Thanksgiving. We spent Thanksgiving up in Logan with Johnny's family this year, so needless to say I spent the days leading up to when we went up there cleaning our house like a mad woman. Consequently, I have learned that trying to clean while also taking care of an infant does not always work out quite how you want it to. At least he seemed to like the sound of the vacuum, so I had that. 

We have 1:00 church, so I tried to time everything just perfectly so that Max would be clean, fed and tired by the time sacrament meeting rolled around. He was pretty grumpy all morning and I was sure that he would scream all during the blessing, but he must have known that what was happening was kind of a big deal (or he had help from some sort of heavenly being) because he was pretty much an angel baby during the blessing. And I have to say, my Johnny gave him the most beautiful blessing I have ever heard. I have never felt more like a real live grown-up than when I realized it was my husband up there blessing my baby. I have arrived, people. 

After sacrament, we invited the bazillions of people who came to support our little family back to our house for some grub. People were PACKED in our house. I was running around like a mad woman, yet again, trying to talk to everyone, coercing groups of people into taking pictures so we could commemorate who was there, feeding my seemingly starving child and plotting how to magically make my house bigger. In the meantime, most of the food was eaten and I was reminded again of the joy of motherhood--not ever getting to eat when you want to. Ha.

All of the men who were in the circle

John's family

My family

One of the things I was most excited about was getting a four-generation picture of all of the living John Morreys since John's grandpa was in town. As I mentioned back when we found out we were pregnant with a boy, our little John Max is the seventh John Morrey. We have since found out that all seven of the John Morreys also happen to be the firstborn in their families...sorry, son, now the pressure's all on you to give the world John Morrey VIII. 

John Douglas Morrey (my father-in-law), John Max Morrey, John Scott Morrey and John Rolf Morrey. That's a lot of Johns in one picture.

I think it's kind of funny that you have all of these John Morreys who look just like each other and then BAM...there's some little stranger who looks just like me but is posing as one of them. I guess those Stapley genes are pretty strong.

All in all, it was a wonderful day and Max was such a good little baby for most of it. Only once everyone was gone did the screaming begin. He saves all of the good stuff for John and me. But we just love him and are so happy he's ours.

Zonked on the couch once everyone had left

One month already?!

So somehow, our little Max is already a month old! I have to take pride in the fact that I don't think we have screwed up our son too badly yet. :) This has been probably the most challenging, difficult month of my entire life, but that is another post for another time. Sometimes I look down at Max and can't believe he's really mine and that I miraculously gave birth to him. But he is and I did and he sure is a cute little thing. (Like, for real, he is cute. I was terrified that I would have an ugly baby. Ha.)

I kind of love that his cheeks are getting chubby.

Yeah...pretty sure he gets bored spending all day with just Mom. 

Here are a few facts about Mr. Max at one month:

• He eats about every 2-3 hours (more like every 2 hours lately), but he acts hungry ALL THE TIME. This makes for a very frustrated mama sometimes when I can't figure out if he's really hungry or if something else is going on. I am a slave to this boy. He also falls asleep nursing pretty much every time he eats, so feeding him can take a loooooooooooooooong time. But he is a good little eater and is gaining weight well, so I shall not complain. (Well, let's be honest...I do complain and nursing is definitely not the easiest thing I've ever done, but I'm glad he's a healthy little thing.)
• He's a loud little boy. He grunts all the time. And he's a very noisy sleeper. We have him in our room in a cradle right now, and thankfully by now I've kind of gotten used to all of his little sounds, but the first couple of days were a little rough and I woke up at every squeak and squeal. 
• He's a feisty little thing and has a good set of lungs on him. (That's code for he cries a lot.) We think he has infant reflux and is also a bit colicky, so he is what you might call a fussy baby most days. He spits up a lot (out of his nose and mouth, poor little guy--we go through five or six burp cloths a day and his clothes are never spit-up free) and also poops more than any baby in the history of the world. John is so proud.
• He LOVES to take baths. He cries when we take him out.
• He has a really strong neck already and can hold his head up fairly well. I tried tummy time the other day to see how that would go since he does so well with the neck strength...let's just say that he is not a fan.
• I adore his hair. I was expecting a bald baby, so when he came out with that little mohawk I was shocked. He has developed a bit of a rat tail in the back, so perhaps it's time for a trim?
• Most days he doesn't like to give me much of a break--when he's not nursing, most of the time he likes to be held and sometimes he'll only take a nap if I'm holding him. Or sometimes (like yesterday and today) he decides he doesn't need to take a nap at all until he completely wears himself out.
• He likes to sleep on his tummy on Mom or Dad's chest.
• Apparently there is something very interesting about the white blinds in our family room, because he loves to stare at them. He's starting to be more alert during the day and is very curious about everything around him. Sometimes when he's fussy it's because he wants to be facing out so he can have a good look around. 
• He has taken it upon himself to pee on Mom and Dad on multiple occasions. Changing his diaper can be a bit treacherous...the other day he pooped twice and peed twice while I was in the middle of changing him, little stinker. 
• John and I can't get over how cute our little guy is. We are constantly staring at his little face and laughing at the noises he makes. We can't wait until he starts to interact with us more and we get to see what his personality is like.

John Max Morrey

I realize I'm a little late with this blog post, but better late than never, right? John and I are very happy to introduce the newest addition to our little family:

John Max Morrey

Friday, September 21, 2012

1:15 a.m.

7 lbs. 6 oz.

20 1/2 inches

Welcome to the world, Mr. Max. :)

P.S. I will write more about his birth and first month of life soon...right now this boy is barely giving me time to shove some food down my throat and throw on a T-shirt and jeans! Who knew such a little guy could be so demanding?!