Growing and Setting goals

The day started off taking Levi to meet his pediatrician for his 1 week check-up. We were happy to find out that Levi is almost back to his birth weight. For those who don't know, babies typically lose up to 10% of their body weight in the first two-three days of life. Levi was born weighing in at 7lbs 15oz and at his 48 hour check up he had lost 7 oz weighing in at 7lbs 8oz. Today, 5 days after his last weigh in he was 7lbs 14.5oz. This was very exciting and an indication that nursing is going very well.

We had several questions for the Dr. I had been fairly concerned about the bump on his head, but the Dr. confirmed for me that it really is no big deal and he sees them all the time. We also talked to him about Levi's inability to sleep without us holding him at night, the Dr. said we should not leave Levi crying for more than 5 minutes at this point. We already knew that though.

Some friends of ours brought over the infant insert for the ergo baby and today Justin and I took both kids to the grocery store with Jackson sitting in the cart and Levi in the ergo baby. It went very well and I am

My goal with Levi for today was to figure out how to put him down! For the last week we have pretty much been exclusively holding him. I hadn't really given putting him down an earnest try until today. One of the main reasons that today was the day is because Nana & Grandpa left today which means that when Justin and I have things to do, we don't have anyone else around to hold Levi for us. I think I succeeded. Levi happily sat in his vibrating rocker both awake and asleep for extended periods of time.

We have goals with Jackson too. Today we are facing getting Jackson back into his routine now that Nana is gone. Jackson has been staying up later than usual with Nana here. She loves to play with him as much as possible and he definitely loves to play with her. And given that I have been largely preoccupied, I let Jackson's bed time slip for a little while while Nana was here. Keeping him up later is fine when other people are here to help, but when it is just Justin and I, we can't have Jackson running around after 8pm. And, as I write this, Justin is battling Jackson to fall asleep (9:45pm). So, our goal in the next week will be to get Jackson back on schedule. We've been through this before when we have traveled and I feel confident we can tackle this goal again.

It is with great sadness that Justin will leave town tomorrow at 4am to travel to Winston-Salem to attend the funeral services and celebrations for his college debate coach (who was so, so much more than just his college debate coach), Ross Smith who passed away very suddenly on Sunday. I would never forgive myself if he did not go. Enduring a day by myself with two kids is nothing in comparison to the sadness we feel over losing Ross, so I will absolutely tackle life with two kids head on and happy because life my friends is a glorious thing.

We are thankful today for eachother and our two beautiful children who by all accounts are healthy and happy- even if sometimes they do cry.