Sunday, October 30, 2011

Jonah and Mommy...

Dear Jonah,
I wanted to write down a few little things, like songs and nicknames, that you and I share just between us.  I love our little moments together and I want to be able to remember some of the things we did.  I'm sure it's not that interesting to anyone else, but when I look back in a few years, I don't want to not be able to remember. 

Some of the songs I like to sing to you:
1. Jesus Loves Me
2. Jesus Loves the Little Children
3. Mary had a Little Lamb
4. Hush Little Baby
5. To the tune of "Oh My Darling" : Jonah Baby, Jonah Baby, you're my sweet Jonah Boy.  You are precious and I love you, Jonah Baby, Jonah Boy.
6. To the tune of "Frere Jacques": I love Jonah, I love Jonah. Yes I do. Yes I do. He is my favorite boy, he is my favorite boy. Yes he is. Yes he is.
7. To the tune of Jingle Bells: Sh Sh Sh, Sh Sh Sh, etc.  Don't judge me, it works!

Some of the nicknames I have call you:
1. Jonah Baby
2. Jonah Boy
3. Jonah Stink
4. Stinky Stink ( I probably call him this more than anything, lol)
5. Babycakes
6. Sweet Pea
7. Baby J

Some of my favorite things you do with momma:
1. I love when you smile at me, and bring both fists up to your mouth when you see me.  It's like you get so excited, you don't know what to do with yourself.
2. I love it when you put a hand up on my neck or chest when you're nursing.
3. Some of my favorite moments are when we sit in the rocking chair, read a book, and then pray for all of your friends and family.
4. The big grin you give me in the morning when you wake up.
5. When you babble MAH, MAH.  I know you don't know what you're saying, but I will always remember that you made the mmm sound before the ddd sound!!

Jonah, you have been more of a blessing to me than I could ever put into words.  You have brought more love and joy to me than I could have imagined.  You came into my life at the most perfect time. God, in His infinite grace and wisdom, knew that with great loss, I would need great love.  You, my sweet boy, are great love. You have changed me in ways I can't even comprehend sometimes, and to say that I am grateful for you doesn't even scratch the surface.  I pray that you know how vast our Father's love for you is, and that you know Him early and well.  I also pray that you always know how much you are loved by your mommy.  You are such a beautiful and precious little boy!

                                                                                                           Love,
                                                                                                               Mommy

Jonah: months 2-4

In July, Jonah spent a little more time in Lubbock. My brother, Summer and Caedan were able to fly down to spend time with the family. It was so much fun to spend time relaxing and hanging out together. We usually only see each other on either Christmas or Thanksgiving, so to have a middle-of-the-year visit was awesome! The family went swimming at my mom and dad's next door neighbor's house on 7/14/11. 
Jonah had to stay in the shade because it was still a million degrees outside!  He didn't seem to mind though!

Here's Caedan "showing me his muscles"!!
 We had no idea how special this time together really was that day.
 When I woke up, Papi came over to watch  me so momma could get in the pool for a little while.
 Poor Caedan, your daddy shoots you in the face...and laughs about it.

 I love these two:
 Sweetest little smile in the world
 That night, we all sat outside on mom and dad's porch. What I wouldn't give to be able to go back and truly indulge in every second of our time together.
Jonah also did a little swimming of his own while we were in  Lubbock.  I am a firm believer that you should never go swimming without a buddy, so who else would we invite but our friend Sydnee!  How precious are these two??
Sydnee had had a little more practice at the whole swimming thing...
 That belly kills me every time...lol

 Jonah, we don't stick our tongues out at our friends!

Jonah's 4-month check-up was a little later due to circumstances that will be covered in another blog when I'm up to writing about it.  Anyway, he went in on September 30th, so he was actually 4.5 months old.  He took his vaccines like a champ, as always!  I had a couple of questions for Dr. B at this visit.  I asked about the rash he was getting on his neck from the constant drooling.  Dr. Benzick said Jonah's actually looked really good, and that we should keep doing what we're doing: keeping it clean and dry and maybe add a little baby powder if we wanted.  I also asked him about Jonah's eyes.  I had noticed shortly after his 2-month appointment, that Jonah's pupils don't dilate symmetrically.  Dr. Benzick said it could very well be Jonah's "normal".  He said we wouldn't worry about it until he turned 6 months.  If it was still obvious then, we might pursue a pedi ophthalmologist just to make sure that everything's ok.  He seems to be just fine, so I'm not too worried about it.  Jonah had also been running a low-grade fever on and off for a couple of weeks.  He didn't have any other symptoms, so Dr. B said it could just be him fighting off an infection.  As long as his fever doesn't get too high, we should just give him Tylenol and watch for any other symptoms.  The last thing we talked about was STARTING SOLIDS!!  Dr. Benzick thinks it's time to start Jonah on some solids based on his growth and development.  So that's our assignment between his 4- and 6-month visits.  Here's his stats:
Age: 15 days
Age: 9 weeks
Age: 4.5 months

Weight: 8.9 pounds 87th Percentile
Weight: 12.9 pounds 87th Percentile
Weight: 14.8 pounds 46th Percentile 

Height: 21.7 in 98th Percentile
Height: 25 in 99th Percentile
Height: 27 in 97th Percentile

Head Circ: 14.5 in 73rd Percentile
Head Circ: 15.3 in 30th Percentile
Head Circ: 16.5 in 39th Percentile

So, our boy is still super-tall, but continues to be long and lean!  Some of my favorite things he does now:
1. He smiles a lot!
2. When he gets done yawning, he makes this  "Hmmm" sound, and it's adorable!!
3. He gets this really intense look on his face with his lips pursed and his eyebrows creased and he kicks his legs one at a time (like he's marching) while smacking his belly with his arms stiff.  My sister calls him "Stampy" when he does this!
4. He can roll from belly to back, and occasionally from back to belly.
5. He reacts to and smiles at toys that play music or light up (especially the little frog on his carrier).
6. He talks a lot...sometimes it's more like yelling.  It cracks momma and daddy up!







We sure do love you, little boy!!

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Jonah: the model

Just in case you don't know, my precious friend, Jessica, has a sister-in-law who is an incredible photographer!! Her name is Shanna Ingram and she is currently based out of DFW. You can see her work at http://www.shanrenee.com/ She will travel, and has taken pictures of some pretty momentous occasions for me! She took amazing bridal portraits, so when she offered to take pictures of Jonah, I jumped at the chance!! Here are a few of my favorites:

Who doesn't love a baby in his hutch??



 Isn't this the cutest yawn-face you have ever seen??
 So what, I need my paci every once in a while...
 A momma has never loved little fingers as much as this momma loves those:




 Look at those baby blues...He's going to break hearts (while having nothing but the utmost respect for young ladies, or he'll be in big trouble!!)


 He has always had crazy-active toes.  When he was nursing, he used to extend his big toe back and push it right into my side...I love those moments.
 Toad belly:
How handsome is my hubby?? 

 A girl has never been so blessed...
My cup runneth over...



 So he was a little too big for the basket...lol
 Here we are.  The Forbess Family of Four (ok, so it's 3 and a dog).

2 Months and Growing...

Jonah will be 6 months old in a couple of weeks.  Therefore, this seems like a perfectly appropriate time to write his 2 month update.  This is how we roll, people, a few months late to everything!
I told you in his 2 week update that Jonah decided to start waking up every 3 hours during the night the exact day that the doctor said we could go ahead and let him go 5-6 hours, right? Well, I kept hoping he would just gradually start stretching that out-3.5 hours, then 4, then 4.5, etc.  By 5 weeks, NOTHING had changed, sleep-wise.  And all of those "other" moms out there were filling my head full of all of these false hopes.  If one more mom told me to just "wait until 6 weeks, you'll see such changes", I was going to attack her with the nearest spit-up soaked burp rag I could find.  I mean at 5 weeks 6 days, Jonah was still waking every 3 hours.  And then, something magical happened: Jonah turned 6 weeks old.  It was amazing.  The night of June 22nd (Jonah's 6-week birthday), he slept from 11:30-5:30 or 6:00.  It was miraculous!  He skipped all of those intervals in between and gave me over 6 straight hours of blissful sleep.  I apologize to all of you "other" moms and offer you a fresh, clean wipe as a peace-offering.  Since that night, Jonah has slept 6+ hours with only a few exceptions! 

What else happened between 2 weeks and 2 months, you ask?  Jonah's first ROADTRIP!!  And where else would we take him besides the booming metropolis of Lubbock, TX (they have a flyover on the Loop around town now--that's big time!).  We went the weekend of June 10-12 for my 10-year (WHAT???) high school reunion.  That's right, Jonah turned 1 month old in Lubbock--what a lucky boy :) And while he was there, he got to meet one of his future girlfriends, Sydnee!! The picture below was taken on 6/11/11, Jonah's one-month birthday!!
A couple of weeks before, he had met one of his other girlfriends, Matea. 
 These two might already be in love!  They hang out at while thier mommies are at work and get caught holding hands frequently!  This picture was taken on 6/1/11 the first time they met!!

When Jonah was 5 weeks and 6 days, one of my FAVORITE things happened!!  Jonah gave us his first real smile.  Not a gassy smile, not a "I'm not sure what to do with my own face" smile, but a real, "I like you" smile!!  It was awesome!  Now I spend many hours of my day trying to get that sweet smile to spread across that little boy's face.  I cherish each and every one of those smiles and pray there are a million more to come.  (He hasn't quite mastered how to smile for the camera yet!)

Before I go, I'll tell you a little about his 2-month check-up.  When we went in we had a few concerns we wanted to talk to Dr. B about.  If you know me, I don't like to complain at the doctor's office.  I guess growing up in a health-care family, I'm very mindful of the provider's time and I don't want to be "that" patient who has all of the silly questions.  But now that I have a child, I want to be as sure as I can be about his health.  So I made a list and prayed for courage as we drove to the clinic. 
Dr. B was wonderful.  He assured us that as long as Jonah's over-active, extremely loud GI noises (I'm not even talking about his toots, just sounds coming from his round little belly that you can hear across the room) didn't bother him, not to worry about it.  He upped Jonah's reflux medicine to reflect his weight-gain.  He even listened to a recording I had made of this scary wheezy, choking noise Jonah makes after he eats sometimes.  He explained that their airways are still very pliable at this age and sometimes 'collapse' a little after eating or when they're exciting.  It only becomes an issue if they sound like that all of the time!  One of the last things Dr. B checked was Jonah's neck strength on his belly.  WHEW--I was super relieved when Jonah just popped his head up.  I definitely didn't want to be the PT mom who gets in trouble for not doing enough tummy-time, especially since Dr. B refers his patient's to our clinic all of the time!  So overall, we left there with an excellent report and feeling extremely grateful for our healthy, happy, growing baby.  Here's his stats:
Age: 15 days
Age: 9 weeks
Weight: 8.9 pounds    87th Percentile
Weight: 12.9 pounds   87th Percentile 
Height: 21.7 in 98th Percentile
Height: 25 in   99th Percentile
Head Circ: 14.5 in 73rd Percentile
Head Circ: 15.3 in 30th Percentile

So that's about all for Jonah's first couple of months, so I will leave you with a few pictures!!

We are missing a 4 week picture, because he had REAL pictures taken for his 1 month, so I'll post a few of thos in a different blog!  Look for them in about a month :)



Next, we have Jonah's first bath in the "big boy tub".  Isn't he the most precious little thing you have ever seen??  Taken on 6/5/11


Sleeping on daddy in Lubbock on 6/11/11.


One of the few pictures of Jonah with mommy.  Taken on 6/11/11 at Coco and Papi's house.

I absolutely love this picture!  This is Jonah and his precious cousin, Nate.  Nate is one of the happiest, sweetest little boys ever which is what makes this picture so hysterical!!  Here the boys are with MeMe on 6/11/11.

Here's Jonah measuring his hand against Daddy Dave's on 6/11/11.

Preston: "Come on little buddy.  Just pick your head up.  It's not that hard." 6/22/11

HOORAY!! 6/22/11

This was taken exactly a week later on 6/29/11.  Look at the progress he made!!  I'm such a proud momma!!

Jonah used to go through this whole routine when he would stretch after a nap and it was AWESOME!  I could post a whole sequence of pictures, but I'll resist!