13 Weeks Old

Well, it’s the end of another week. Tomorrow, Max will be 3 months old. It has gone by so fast and he has gotten so big. It seems like every week when I do laundry, I have to put more of his clothes in the bin for storage. My baby is growing up!
This week has been pretty low key. Daycare, home and sleep is pretty much been our routine. It’s been too cold to get out and do anything at night. His congestion seems to be getting better. He has been sleeping better at night and if we’re lucky enough to keep him up past 9:00, he will sleep until about 4:30 a.m. He does really well at just eating and then going back to sleep. The past three mornings, he has slept until the 8:30-9:00 time. Which is nice because that gives me time to get ready for work and get him packed up for the day. And even if he wakes up before I’m ready, he is great about just lying in his bed and looking around. The best part of my day is going in his room and him looking up at me with the biggest smile. It makes it that much harder to take him to daycare, I just want to stay home and play with him. He is really enjoying the exer-saucer and his play mat. He is starting to grab the toys that hang down and shake them. He seems to be enjoying his time at daycare too. There are a lot of different toys and activities that they do with him and he seems to be sleeping less during the day. We are just ready for the warmer weather to come our way. This spring and summer will be lots of fun and it is my goal to get Daddy outside more with us!

12 Weeks Old

12 weeks already?! I can’t believe how fast these weeks fly by and how big Max is getting. Eric and I both had off on Monday, so Max got to stay at home with us. Nothing to exciting...a trip to the grocery store...other activities included eating, sleeping, playing and bath time. Then, on Wednesday, Max had his first snow day. Since the Iowa City schools were closed, our daycare was also closed. So, Eric and I were going to split the day and each stay home a half a day with him. Well, I went to leave for work and watched my neighbor nearly take out the mailboxes because the driveways and street were so slick from the ice. So, we were all at home that day. Things got better towards the end of the week. Max really seems to enjoy daycare. He gets to play and look at himself in the mirror. Today, they said he was very talkative. But, they also said that he wouldn’t take a nap and was so fussy because he was so tired.
He also had two trips to the doctor this week. I guess being a mom has got me paranoid. I’m just worried about his congestion, but the doctors keep reassuring me that he is okay. That his lungs sound perfectly clear and that we need to just keep running his humidifier and using the saline mist to help him with his congestion and cough. I guess it’s the weather and he just can’t kick this cold.
I think he is starting to get back into a regular sleep routine. He wakes up a few times in the night, but usually just needs to be re-positioned or patted on the back and he falls back asleep.
We are very excited because Grandma and Papa got a new computer and now we can video chat with them. We tested it out tonight and were able to see everyone down in Texas. Mom said she didn’t know if it was a good thing or not because she just wanted to reach through the screen and grab him.
Tomorrow is my first show since being back at work and I have to be away from Max from early in the morning until late in the night. I’m not looking forward to it and I’m just hoping that it will go by quickly...and that Daddy will bring Max to visit me! :)
Enjoy the pictures this week.

11 Weeks Old

It was a long week this week, indeed. It was the first full week of daycare for Max. It really is hard work...go to work all day, come home and cook dinner, play with Max, clean up, feed Max, bathe Max, put Max to bed, wake up with Max during the night, get up the next morning and do it all over again. I think we are starting find our groove in the morning...as long as Mommy can get out of bed. If I can get out of bed and in the shower before he wakes up, we’re good to go. He is really good about just lying in his crib when he wakes up...this let’s me put on my make-up and get dressed. Then we go downstairs and have some breakfast and I pack up my lunch for the day and fix my hair. This last bit I almost forgot yesterday and just about walked out with a towel on my head.
Max is feeling so much better and we think the ear infection is gone. He has been tylenol free for a few days now and only has one more day on his antibiotic. Wednesday night he slept through the night until 5am. It was great! He woke up and was hungry but went right back to sleep after he ate. Last night he woke up at 4am and then went back to sleep until 8 this morning. We’re getting closer and closer to a full night. If only we could keep him up a little later and get him to eat right before he went to bed, but that’s a challenge that we will have to keep working on.
He seemed to have a good week at daycare and he seems happy when I pick him up. All of the ladies there are really nice and it’s getting a little easier to drop him off each day. I do love picking him up in the afternoon though and we get a little alone time in at home before Daddy gets home :)
We have a three day weekend this weekend, so it will be nice to have an extra day with Max. Next weekend is my first show since being back to work so we’ll see how that goes. It’s on Saturday, so I will be away from him all day and night. Maybe Daddy will bring him up to visit me at some point during the day.
I didn’t take too many pictures this week...I was really tired in the evenings, but I will be better about it in the weeks to come. He is growing up so fast! My co-worker brought her little girl up to the office yesterday. She is about 6 weeks younger than Max and so tiny. She was making little squeaky noises and I realized that Max doesn’t do that...he is full on coo-ing and yelling at us. He is just growing up too fast, but he’s my little man and there are no words to say how much I love him.
I’m too tired to write captions and do the formatting, so enjoy the few pics and until next week...

10 Weeks Old

This week was pretty eventful in the Wilbanks house. We all donned our Hawkeye gear on Tuesday and tuned into the Orange Bowl to watch the Hawks win over Georgia Tech. Max looked so cute in the Hawkeye slippers Grandma Ellingson got for him, but he was asleep before the game even started. He did wake up to catch some of the game and then he was up most of the night. Around 2am, he woke up and we couldn’t get him to calm down for about an hour. We finally were able to get him to sleep in his swing and I stayed downstairs with him. He was supposed to start daycare on Wednesday, but we took him to the doctor and he had an ear infection. So, we got antibiotics and ear drops and Mommy stayed home with her little man. He slept most of the day on Wednesday and by that night I could tell that he was starting to feel better. He was sleeping more on his regular schedule...I think the Tylenol is what helped most. Wednesday also brought another winter storm. When we woke up on Thursday, there was probably about 6 inches of snow everywhere and it was COLD! I decided to stay home that day too. With two days of medications and two nights of good sleep, Max was ready to start his new adventures at daycare on Friday. It was a little hectic this morning, but we got everything in the car and got him there around 9:30. They were all ready for him. It was hard to leave him there...broke my heart to close that door, but he did great and I was able to hold back the tears until I got out of the classroom and into the hall. But, then I cried all of the way to work. I was able to keep myself busy at work and by mid-afternoon I was ready to leave and go get my little boy. He was just starting to wake up when I got there and Ms. Callie said that he had a great day. We came home, ate a little something and played awhile and then he was tired. He is in his swing now taking a nap. I can’t believe two and half months have gone by already. He is changing so much every day and I am amazed at all of the changes he is going through. He is such a blessing and my heart is so full of love for him. I always knew I wanted to be a parent, but never realized how it would feel...it’s amazing!
So, now we are just going to be settling into a routine here at home. Hopefully, it will get easier to drop him off at daycare. I had Eric with me this morning, but next week, I’ll be on my own. Here’s hoping I can go through with it!

9 Weeks Old-Happy New Year!

This week was big for all of us at the Wilbanks house. Mommy went back to work and Daddy tried being a ‘stay at home dad’ with Max. All in all, things went fine. It wasn’t so bad leaving Max at home with Daddy. I did miss him a lot, but I knew that Daddy was taking good care of him. Sophie and Ellie also came and stayed with us for a couple of days. They watched Star Wars and just hung out with Eric and Max. I worked longer days than I expected at work trying to finish up a project, but there was nothing better than coming home and just sitting with my little guy. He is really starting to enjoy lying on his playmat more, looking up at himself in the mirror and batting at the hanging rattles. He laughs and smiles and is just so darn adorable!
He had his 2 month checkup this week with his doctor. He weighed in at 11 pounds and 15 ounces and grew one inch to 23 inches long. I can’t believe how big he is getting. He had to get 3 shots and he really did great. I was so nervous that I was going to just lose it. Max screamed when they poked him, but settled down pretty fast afterwards. They let us stay in the room as long as we needed so I nursed him and it calmed him down and he probably fell asleep in the car on the way home (I had to go to work so he went home with Daddy). He slept most of the day and when I got home we decided to give him some tylenol because he really hadn’t eaten much and was kind of fussy. The tylenol seemed to help him and ease his pain and he ate.
Another big change for Max this week was sleeping in his crib in his own room. The first few nights were a little rough, but he started to do better in the middle of the week only waking up once or twice during the night. He is growing up and life has so many new adventures and discoveries each day for him. We are loving life with our little guy and are looking forward to the new year and all of the fun times that it is going to bring us.
Max is going to start going to daycare this week. Eric is still off from work so he’ll take him in for just half days so he can get used to the routine and everyone there. It’s going to be hard when I have to start taking him for the whole day. When I’m away from him all I can think of is getting back to him...he is growing and changing so much every day and I don’t want to miss a thing! I’m sure we’ll all adjust great though...at least I hope so!
We wish you all a wonderful 2010!