a woods update

it's been awhile...we've been busy these last few weeks. as you know carter was born on december 1st. each day after his birth we had to take him to the doctor's for billirubin tests. he was coombs positive which means he was more likely to get jaundice and get it quickly. at the hospital his billirubin count was up, so we had to get it tested the next day. it was up the next day as well, so we had to go again and again. thankfully, by that friday the numbers were down and they said he was going to be just fine!
however, that night i realized he felt kinda hot. after taking his temp. and seeing that it was 100.3, i called the on-call nurse (which is what we were told to do if his temp was 100.3 or above.) she had me take his temp again and it was down to 99.something...so she said to just keep an eye on it. if it gets to 100.4 or higher she said we'd need to go to the er. well, we got to bed around midnight and i just had a feeling that carter wasn't doing so good. so about 30 minutes later i took his temp again and it was 101.1. i got eric up and we headed to the er. thankfully, jennie was still here so i woke her up and asked if she'd take care of jackson. we spent many hours in the er where they did lots of tests...blood test, urine test, x-ray, spinal tap and they got an iv started (after 3 tries that had to do it in his head) and started giving him some fluids and antibiotics. around this time, a guy was brought into the er by ambulance that was getting cpr. all the er staff had to attend to him for a couple hours trying to save his life. after he was taken to a different department, the staff was available to finish up with us and the other patients. they finished doing the necessary tests on carter and sent us upstairs to be admitted in the pediatric unit. until this time, we kinda thought they'd get carter feeling better and we'd be heading home in a few hours. once we got up to the peds unit and carter's doctor was able to come see him (this is around 9am on saturday) we found out that we'd be staying at the hospital until at least monday. we found out that all the tests had come back negative, but the urine test they let sit for 72 hours to make sure there is no bacteria growing. and in the meantime carter is getting iv antibiotics as a precautionary thing. so i stayed with carter at the hospital and eric and my mom (who came on sunday) took turns visiting us anf taking care of jackson. when the doc came in on monday, he said he'd like us to stay one more day just to be sure. tuesday morning came, (carter's fever had broke sunday evening), and the urine test was negative, so we finally got to go home. it was a scary ordeal, but we're thankful that it ended up just being a virus and that carter is doing wonderfully now.

since we've been back home, winter has officially began and we now have 4 feet of snow!

jackson is getting more used to having carter around. every now and again he'll just stop and watch carter and touch his head and try to hold his hands...it's really cute! he's also been giving him kisses. he's going to be a great big brother!
jackson is seeming to grow up right in front of our eyes. he's doing his sign language lots ("more", "all done" and he's starting to do "please"). he's also talking some. he continues to say "daddy" all the time and he's said please, more, baby, and carter (which sounds more like "ca").

so there you have it...kinda long, but an update nontheless.

carter gregory

carter gregory was born monday, december 1st at 5:51pm. he weighed 6lbs 12 oz and was 19.5 inches long. we’re all doing well and are home trying to get used to life with another member of the family.

induction

throughout my whole pregnancy i said i'd rather not be induced and just wait for baby to come on his own. well, that was when i wasn't 40+ weeks pregnant. i've already been in labor and delivery twice in the last week and a half and have left both times without a baby in my arms. a week and 1/2 ago, i was up all night one night with horrible abdominal pain due to the hernia i have. although they didn't do anything for the hernia pain, they monitored carter and found he was doing okay. i was having regular contractions, but not progressing in any way :( after doing the monitoring of carter and an ultrasound, the doc said he looked good and i should go home and take it easy. thankfully the abdominal pain subsided (after 24 hours) and we just keep waiting.
then, yesterday i had realized i wasn't feeling carter move much, so i layed on my left side, drank some cold juice and counted how many times i felt carter move in 2 hours (this was something doc told me to be doing). in that time i didn't feel him move at all. i wasn't super worried, knowing that this far along, babies aren't moving as much (there's just no room) and that i can't feel all of the smaller movements he makes anyway. i went ahead and called my doc and the birth center at the hospital, and they both said to come in to be monitored for a bit. so, eric and i headed out again. thankfully, my sister's in town so she took care of jackson for us (thanks, jen!). after getting checked in at the hospital, they put the monitors on me and i did a non-stress test. carter passed within 10 minutes...he's doing great! the nurse was reassuring and said i did the right thing to come in, but again...no baby in my arms.
so, all that to say i'm changing my tune about being induced and am scheduled to go in on monday morning. i'm still hoping i go into labor on my own today or tomorrow, but if not i should be leaving the hospital early next week with my precious carter gregory. i can't wait! we'll keep you all updated as soon as possible after he's born. the hospital doesn't have internet (we are in north idaho, you know...you can't expect too much!) so, as soon as we get home we'll send out a post.

getting closer

we're due to have carter on wednesday. i had an appointment this morning and learned that i'm dialated to 3 cm and 70% effaced. after striping my membranes, the doc said he wouldn't be surprised if i deliver in the next day or two...i'm hoping he's right!

more communicating

this morning jackson ate his breakfast all by himself. i gave him a piece of toast while i cooked an egg for him and then let him eat the scrambled egg with his hands. he did a great job and the coolest part was when he had just a couple bites left he did the sign for all done. he didn't smash the eggs in his hands or throw them on the floor (his normal routine when he's done eating). i'm so proud of my little man.

blue's clues

what is it about blue's clues that gets my never-sit-still-for-anything son to do this:

there are other movies he watches (like baby einstein, the wiggles, sesame street) and none of them cause him to just sit. what is it about joe and blue?

ps i got a picture to upload. i did a small one and was able to be patient and it only took 8 minutes! but isn't he cute?

more?

i'm not sure if i've mentioned it before, but jackson doesn't say much yet. he also hasn't really seemed to catch on to the little bit of sign language we've been trying to teach him. today, however, he did the sign for more. he was eating his lunch and wanted more hotdogs. i showed him the sign for more and asked "more?" and he did it. and did it again and again! here's to hoping he'll start communicating in other ways besides fussing!!!

climbing

jackson learned how to climb onto the couch this morning. this is a little unfortunate because we often put things on the back of the couch that we don't want him to get...like the camera. and the off-limit items are what i think drove him to figure out how to get up there. he was pretty proud of himself for getting ahold of that camera. now he just needs to figure out how to get down. he seems to think that he can just kinda walk right off...this makes momma nervous.


(on a completely unrelated note, it's snowing here. it's very wet snow and so not sticking at all...but i'm still not ready to be thinking about snow. hopefully it goes away soon and stays gone for a long time.)

"mommy"

jackson doesn't talk much. he says daddy quite a bit and he'll say ball ("ba") and has said more ("mo") and every now and again he'll say mama...but not very often and it hasn't ever really been directed at me or about me.
the other day eric was showing jackson some pictures on our camera. they came across one of me and jackson pointed to it and said "mommy". eric asked if i heard what he said and of course i didn't. but don't worry, because they came across another picture of me and jackson said "mommy" again. music to a mother's ear!

bottle be gone

as of late last week, jackson is no longer taking a bottle. he had been having one 3 times a day (before each nap and at bedtime). at his 1 year doc. appointment dr. brian said i should try to get him to just use sippy cups. so i started slowly decreasing the amount of milk he got in each bottle. we got to 2 ounces for each bottle and he seemed to be adjusting just fine. then last tuesday he didn't have his morning nap so he was extra tired when it came time for his afternoon nap...so i decided to see if he'd fall asleep without having a bottle at all. i took him to his room, gave him his pacifier, rocked him for a minute and tucked him it...no problem, he was asleep within minutes. over the next few days, we skipped bottles here and there and he continued to have no objections. i have now put the last bottle away and thankfully our little man is still sleeping very well. it was easier than i thought. now, i'll have to start thinking about when we'll want to have the binkie be gone.

pictures...or a lack thereof

one thing that makes me kinda sad about having dial-up internet is that it takes FOREVER to upload pictures. actually the last couple of times i've tried uploading pictures for my blog i've ended up getting an error message and not even being able to get the pictures posted at all. i've realized that i do most of my blogging around pictures i've taken and now that i'll rarely be able to post them (at least from home...which is where i'll be a lot especially after next month when i'll have a newborn and 15 month old to take care of) i'm afraid i won't blog as much.
i'll try to keep it updated (mostly so i don't have to hear it from my sis about not having anything new to read on my blog).
here's some news from last week:
on wednesday i woke up with some pretty bad abdominal pain. i had had similar pain a month or so ago and my doc said it sounded like i had a hernia trying to make itself know. well, after an appointment that afternoon, it was confirmed that i do indeed have a hernia, but due to that fact that i'm pregnant, there is not much that can be done (in less it gets really bad, then they might do surgery...thankfully, we're not to that point yet). anyway, back to wednesday morning...the pain was bad enough that i called eric at work and asked if he'd be able to come home for the day to help with jackson. he's such a great husband! he came right home and after jackson's morning nap took him to the children's museum in spokane. (here's where i'd like to post some cute pictures eric took.) shortly after they left i realized the pain was going away so i took advantage of alone time and got 3 loads of laundry done, did the dishes, vacuumed and cleaned up the living room. now we're just hoping for no more pain during the last 3 weeks of my pregnancy.

after spending most of friday in my pj's i decided i wanted to get out and do something. so i decided we should get jackson a costume and take him to eric's parents and grandparents house. as soon as eric got home from work, we headed to target (i thought they might have their costumes on sale). they did, but there wasn't anything that'd fit jackson. so we headed to fred meyer...same thing there. we decided to try costco and if they didn't have anything, we'd call it off. they did have some costumes and the cow was the perfect choice for our little guy. (again, imagine super cute pictures of my super cute son in a super cute cow costume). i think he had a good time, and i got enough pictures to scrapbook.

yesterday, eric spent most of the day painting our family room. it's pretty big and open, so i felt it was okay for me to help a bit too. he did all the prep work and started all the cutting in (there was lots of this due to the 4 doorways and 2 windows). i did the rolling...which took less than an hour. now we just have to get the 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms done. do you think we can do it before carter's born?!

and now the boys are sleeping and i'm getting to get caught up on all the online happenings.

an update

well, we have internet now. it is dial-up, so i'm not sure if it really counts :) i guess that's one of the bummers about living out of town.
we've been busy these last few weeks. although we're getting closer to being all moved in, we still have some work to do. we want to get the basement painted in the next week and then finish getting stuff unpacked and organized down here. i'm really hoping to get this done before carter arrives (which will be in about 4 weeks, give or take...hopefully take!) we have an amazing view of the lake out here and lots of area to play. jackson's really seeming to enjoy himself out here. he's also started walked lots. he actually very rarely crawls anymore and just recently he's been able to stand up without having to hold on to something. i'm really glad he's getting the hang of walking...it will prove to be very helpful when we have another baby that will need to be carried around.
eric's been busy with work and doing stuff around the camp...mostly getting it ready for the winter. we've already had a number of reservation requests (even a group that wants to use it in february...it'll be cold and snowy!)
i was going to post a couple pictures, but alas...the slow internet is making it not possible at this time. i'll try again later (as in tomorrow or next week or some time after i have forgotten how miserable dial up is)

new home

we've moved to our new home at twin lakes friends camp. we still have many boxes to unpack and some painting to get done, but it's nice to be there. yesterday eric and i talked about how it just feels right...i'm glad we are where we're supposed to be. i have a neat picture of our view, but because we don't have internet at home yet and i didn't bring my camera to the library, i can't show it to you. i'm hoping we get internet soon...i'm really missing it. until then, i probably won't be updating the blog much (not that i've been doing that great anyway).

the deer

some deer found their way into our yard the other day...

jackson had lots of fun watching them roam around and eat our grass...
then the deer left...
jackson wasn't so happy anymore...
(he really was this upset about them being gone)

the quail

one evening last week, we were sitting in the living room when we heard this loud thunk on the screen door. i had seen something out of the corner of my eye and thought someone had thrown a ball at the house. eric went to check out what was going on and found this:
a quail had flown into the window part of the screen door. it hung out on the porch for awhile while it regained it's composure. eric helped it off the porch and when we checked later it was gone. i'm just really glad we have a screen door. i HATE birds and would have been a mess if it had made it into the house.

false alarm

because i know you all are very consumed with what's going on in jackson's mouth, i thought i should let you know that the 5th tooth announcement was made prematurely. i could see that a tooth was trying to make it's way through, but jackson never lets me feel to see if it has actually poked through. eric has a special in with the boy, so i had him feel for the tooth. he assured me it was through. well, today i was feeling around (sometimes i am able to, but mostly against jackson's will) i realized that tooth number 5 was still under the gums. so i apologize profusely for the incorrect information...i hope you can find it in your hearts to forgive us.

super important update...or maybe not that important

jackson's 5th tooth made its appearance today. why do i want to make sure and document each tooth that comes in? will i do the same for carter? what will i do with this information...his baby book doesn't even have one of those teeth diagrams to record these vital statistics. oh well...i will still post this entry and you might be lucky enough to get to hear about jackson's 6th tooth. i bet you can't wait!

we're moving

we applied for and got the job as camp manager/caretaker at twin lakes friends camp. what we'll be doing is living at the camp, doing general maintenance, taking care of rentals, and being involved with hiring and training the summer staff as well as the 6 weeks of camp each summer. it's not winterized, so at this point there won't be any rentals during the winter time...this will allow us time to not only take a break, but get things ready for the next season. after we move (which will be in the next couple weeks) we'll put our house on the market and pray that the right people come along to buy it. we are provided housing at the camp so that will be nice (and it's at least twice as big as our 720 sq ft house we're now it!) i'm sure there's more i could tell you, but can't think of it at this point. i'll try to get eric to write a blog so you can hear/read about our new adventure from his perspective.

jackson's 1st ear infection

we went to jackson's 1 year checkup on monday. the timing was good because he had started getting sick late last week and i wanted to make sure it wasn't anything more than the common cold. when the doctor went to check jackson's right ear, he couldn't get a good view due to a large piece of ear wax (i know...kinda gross). after removing that (which, by the way, jackson HATED), he saw that jackson had an ear infection. i'm not sure if that had anything to do with his cold, but i'm sure glad we found out. so now jackson's on antibiotics and hopefully will be feeling back to normal real soon.

the park

now that jackson is getting more mobile, he does more at the park besides sitting in the kiddy swing.

steering the boat...good thing it doesn't really move since he's not even close to seeing over the steering wheel
he had a lot of fun on the motorcycle
i think this tunnel was his favorite...he crawled back and forth through it probably 20 times

birthday blanket

when my mom's first grandson turned 1, she made him a blanket that looked like her baby blanket. she has done the same for each of her grandkids' 1st birthdays. jackson received his in the mail yesterday. when eric opened the package jackson got really excited. although i'm sure he loves his blanket from grammy, i think he was thinking that daddy was going to play one of jackson's favorite games...put the blanket over my head, but don't take it off-i like it to just stay there. thanks for the blanket grammy (now you have to get busy making carter's...you have 1 year and 10 weeks!)

jackson's party

we had jackson's birthday party on saturday at my in-laws house. we invited family to join in the celebration (including my sister and her 2 kids from newberg. she makes great cakes and i really wanted her to make jackson's 1st cake. thanks for making the long, quick trip!) we had a little bit to eat, jackson opened presents (with his dad's help of course) and we had cake. i think jackson's favorite parts where playing with his cousins and his new tractor. here are some pictures:

jen decorating the cake
opening the presents (with help from the cousins)
he wasn't sure what he thought of the birthday hat
one of his new toys...thanks oma and opa, he loves it!
eating his cake...that's about all he ate, too! (cute cake, huh?)

same cake grandma made for me on my 1st birthday
jackson with all his birthday guests.

cousins

yesterday was my sister-in-law's birthday, so we watched their 3 kids while she and her husband went to dinner. jackson was definitely excited to have other kids around!

paige is almost 5 months old and had lots of fun in jackson's exersaucer

lauren and jackson in the cardboard house...they had a blast in there!

daniel's such a farm boy...he really liked playing with the barn and animals

paige-y poo...super cute!

fireman park

there's a park just down the road that's behind the fire station. jackson's too little to play on the big firefighter hat, but he enjoyed the fire chief's car and other toys for smaller kids.

walking

jackson's getting better and better at walking. he still prefers crawling, but the other day he walked all the way across the living room!

jackson's 1st birthday

we didn't do too much on jackson's actual birthday because we're going to have his party tomorrow. we did make sure to celebrate the day a little, though. the day started with jackson giving me a present by sleeping in until 8am (an hour later than normal). after breakfast, we went to the middle school where i used to work to say hi to the other secretaries. we've visited them about once a month over the last year, so i thought it'd be fun to stop by on his birthday. of course he gets lots of attention from "his ladies". after that, we stopped by the store and i got him a happy face balloon. he played with it a lot that afternoon and is still playing with it quite a bit 2 days later. when eric got home from work he took jackson to dairy queen and they shared a hot fudge sundae and then they went to the book store where jackson picked out a fun noah's ark book. although i'm sure he didn't realize it was his birthday, he had a good day and we're looking forward to celebrating again with the extended family. here are some pictures of his day:

good morning birthday boy!
trying to figure out how to get his balloon in his cardboard house
success!
dairy queen!!!
yummy...ice cream

happy birthday little man

it's jackson's 1st birthday today. like every parent of a 1 year old says...we can't believe how fast it's gone. he's gone from the sleeping, eating, crying, pooping, tiny baby to a little guy that has started to walk.

on our way home from the hospital a year ago...
...and now he can drive!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LITTLE MAN...WE LOVE YOU VERY MUCH!

a quick review...

we've had company for the last week, so i've been a bit absent from blogging. i wanted to jot a few things down to keep my many, many faithful readers informed with what's going on in the woods' lives...okay, so maybe i don't have many, many faithful readers but i just want to remember some of this stuff for later.
*jackson's been giving me kisses for the last couple days. it's do precious and they're not like the slobbery "kisses" i used to get from him. now it seems to be intentional and i love it!
*he's been taking more and more steps. our friends that are here were counting the other day and he took 20 steps in a row across the living room!
*his sleeping has continued to be excellent. i'm sooo grateful for that. he very rarely cries when we put him in his crib and sleeps 12 hours at night at takes 2 naps (usually for 1-1.5 hours each). today he missed his first nap because i've started going to a morning bible study. i was a little nervous about how he'd do, but it didn't seem to bother him much. i ended up putting him down a little early for his afternoon nap, but then he slept for just over 2 hours. to have him sleeping so well has been a huge blessing for his dad and i.
*tomorrow jackson turns 1! we have a small family bday party planned for him on saturday. my sister and her 2 kids and my mom are coming. i'm excited to have my sister make his 1st birthday cake.
*i have another doc appt tomorrow to check up on carter. after this appt, i'll be going every 2 weeks. i can't believe i'm already at that point in my pregnancy. it sure has gone faster this time around. in less than 3 months, we'll have another precious little man joining the family!

now, im off to bed...i'll try to get bday pictures and walking pictures up in early next week.

steps

i'm a proud mama...jackson just took a couple steps all by himself! two times, he took two steps! it's just really fun to watch him learn and grow and do new things. in just a couple of weeks, we'll be celebrating his 1st birthday and maybe by then he'll be taking even more steps! (however, i'll be happy if he's walking well by the end of november when his baby brother will be born...which, by the way is less than 90 days away!)

another tooth

jackson's 4th tooth finally made it's appearance on thursday. i know, not necessarily very exciting news, but i want to post it so i remember for his baby book. deal with it!

nature

we've had some neat sunsets recently...this is one i got a picture of last week. i think it kinda looks like a fire.
we've been having lots of rain the last few days (which i've really enjoyed) and last evening, as the rain stopped and the sun came out, we saw the most amazing rainbow. the picture doesn't do it justice...

jackson's new house

eric brought a big cardboard box home last friday to make a house for jackson. he got to work on it after jackson went to bed on sunday night. he left it out in the living room as a surprise for jackson on monday morning. he told me not to show it to jackson, but to wait and see what he'd do. it didn't take him long to find his new house...and he loved it!

this is him looking through the window
even daddy can fit inside...aren't they cute?!

100 days to go!

only 100 more days until my due date. here's to hoping carter decides to not make it too much longer than that...CHEERS!

sleeping, part II

it's been just over a week since we've allowed jackson the pleasure of learning to fall asleep on his own. IT'S BEEN GREAT! he's now sleeping from 7pm to 7am each night (it's been that way for the last 6 or 7 nights) without needed any assistance from mom or dad! his naps started out a little rockier...he kept waking up after just 30 minutes. we tried letting him cry to see if he'd fall back asleep, we tried holding him to get him back to sleep, we tried a little of both and he kept waking up. i tried to stay patient knowing it had only been a few days, and what do you know?...he's started getting past that 30 minute mark and has been taking 1 1/2 hour naps twice a day for the last few days! i can't tell you how much less stress there is in the woods' house. i was starting to get kinda worried thinking about how i was going to deal with rocking jackson to sleep for his naps (and often once or twice during his naps cause he would wake up a lot) and at night while dealing with a newborn. i'm sooooo happy we read healthy sleep habits, happy child by marc weissbluth. i highly recommend it to anyone with kids or anyone planning to have kids.
oh, yeah...he also cries very little or not at all when we put him down now!

helping?

jackson decided he'd help me with the laundry this morning. he doesn't know how to fold clothes yet, so he thought it'd be helpful to pull the basket off the couch. it ended up on his head!

thanks to help from his mom, he finally got the basket off his head.

look mom...no hands

i think i mentioned that jackson's been learning to stand on his own...i got this picture the other day. he'll only do it if he has something in his hands...i think that he concentrates in it rather than the fact he's standing. this week he's also taken a step between furniture a few times. he'll let go of the chair and take a step to the couch, then hold on again. there's something exciting about the fact that he'll be walking soon, but i also realize that means even more chasing!

sleeping

so my friend sent me this book. after reading most the parts that applied to babies of jackson's age, i realized jackson really needs to get more sleep and better sleep. one thing i really like about this book is that he doesn't say here's how you get your baby to sleep and if you don't do it this way, you're a bad mom. he does, however, recommend some ways of helping your child get the best quality sleep...namely helping him learn to fall asleep on his own. we knew it would mean some crying. i knew i'd have to wait until the weekend when eric would be home for emotional support. last night was our first attempt. while we were listening to jackson cry i told eric, "i'm sure this is going to be one of those things where we look back in a few days and say...'we should have done this sooner.'" and i think i'm right. within 25 minutes jackson was sound asleep and slept for 9 hours straight. i fed him, put him back down, and then he slept until 6:45am. then it was time for his 1st nap. eric was huckleberry picking this morning so i was on my own. i fed jackson his bottle and prayed that he would fall asleep quickly. he cried for 13 minutes and slept for 1 1/2 hours. already he's been sleeping better than he has in a few weeks...and it's just our 1st day!!! i knew it worked for other babies and other families, i just wasn't sure it'd work for us. i'm so glad we're headed down this road. especially with another one coming in a few months. (who's name, by the way, we've settled on...carter gregory. carter is from the movie the bucket list and gregory is eric's dad's name.)
so...here's to better sleep for all of us. at least for a few more months! :)

standing

over the last couple weeks, jackson has been practicing standing unassisted. although it's usually only for a second or two, he's getting there. and yesterday he stood for at least 10 seconds while he was focusing on something else. pretty soon he'll be taking steps, then running, then going to school, then getting married...okay i'll stop there and just enjoy today :)

company

my aunt carolyn and uncle ron stayed at our place last monday for the night on their way to montana. it was fun to get to spend some time with them and jackson really enjoyed having them around. we took them for a walk on the boardwalk and then eric bbq'd some chicken for dinner. they stayed in our "guest house" (our new camper) and then were on their way. although it was a short trip, we enjoyed having them here. one highlight was uncle ron doing the dishes after dinner and breakfast. what an awesome guy!

jackson with his great-aunt carolyn
uncle ron and eric chatting

family fun night

last sunday evening we had family fun night at eric's oma and opa's. here are some cute pictures:

jackson with his opa
our niece, lauren, looking at pictures with her great oma & opa
eric's brother and sister with our nephew, daniel
aren't we cute?! me and my mom-in-law
jackson with his cousin, paige

our brother-in-law, darrin, with his daughter