Uncle Ken and Aunt Hollie Visit!

Jackson got to meet our good friends Ken and Hollie today... :) We went to eat at Gadwall's and Jackson slept like an angel! Ken and Hollie are in town visiting from Fort Worth and are keeping their 2 dogs at our house... So hopefully, we will get to visit with them several times before they go back to Fort Worth! Hollie is due Sept 11th w/ their first baby - Elizabeth Clayre. So Jackson has another girlfriend lined up! :) Hollie looks so cute pregnant! I know they will be such great parents!

Make me stop!

I think I take about 50 pictures a day of Jackson! I just can't stop! He's just cuter every single day!! These are from today.

35 To Go...

Well, I'm not going to get discouraged... I'm not going to get discouraged... I'm not going to get discourged... I'll just keep telling myself that. I only lost 1 pound this week despite a VERY healthy eating schedule and working out as scheduled. It's a real bummer... I think I've decided that I just don't get ENOUGH exercise... so I'll just have to fix that.
Well, my friend Ken has just turned our competition - which WAS friendly - up a notch. He has posted on HIS website (http://www.kennethpwoodruff.com/) that he will "kick my butt" among some other smack talk.... Well, anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE a good competition and I HATE to lose. I'm very pleased that I saw this on his website because it has definitely given me some great motivation. I know it's going to be a LOT easier on him to lose the weight but I figure, I probably have more time than him since Jackson (usually) takes naps, so we'll call it even. So - it's ON! I will begin weighing in on Fridays instead of Sundays because my free day is Fridays... (if you can even call it a free day - this week, I had chicken fajitas and 2 oreos - whoopie...). Stay tuned for future postings on the Keisha/Ken battle. :) Bring it on!

Baby Bjorn!

Mike was dying to try out the Baby Bjorn.... Jackson, of course, loved the attention!

Uncle Mike Came To Visit!

Our good friend Mike from Dallas flew up to Little Rock to visit! He and Ryan golfed Saturday and this morning and then spent some time hanging out w/ Baby J.... We had a good time! Jackson proved what a GREAT baby he is by continuing to sleep through the night!!! It's almost unbelievable!

Jackson's "Party In My Crib!"

Last night, Jackson slept so perfect and this morning, Ryan and I were awoken to him talking to himself at 600am... I let him talk and talk until about 630am and when I went in to say Good Morning to my precious angel - this is what I found!!

Chunky Monkey!

Jackson had his 2 month pediatrician visit today. Unfortunately, he was given 3 shots for vaccines and he didn't like it one bit! Of course, it made me feel good cuz he immediately stopped crying when I picked him up - but that probably had more to do w/ him not having a needle in his leg anymore! :) Either way, made me feel good! His weight and measurements were taken at this visit... and drum roll.... he weighs 11lbs, 14oz! They were very impressed w/ his weight gain at this point.. especially considering he was down to 5lbs, 12oz at his lowest... So the doc said WOW on that one! :) He also is 22 1/4inches long (he was 20 1/2 at birth) and his head is 40 1/2 cm around. They said he ranks in the 50th percentile on everything... so yeah! My perfect baby!!! Doc did say that after evaluating Jackson (we were in there together for about 15-20 minutes - which is a long time w/ a doctor!), he thinks Jackson may be developing a bit faster than most babies his age - based on his eye contact, strength of neck and agility. Here are some pics I just took of Jackson w/ his bandaids on!

Daddy scored LOTS of points w/ Mommy today cuz he surprised me by showing up at the doc's office!!! He told me he had meetings he had to be at and couldn't make it so I was bummed, but he surprised me!!! Jackson was happy too!

Sleeping All Night! :)

Jackson has slept all night for 3 days in a row now! I highly recommend "BabyWise" for any parent who needs a good night's sleep! Jackson seems happier and is laughing a lot ... I never realized how important it is for a baby at that age to get enough sleep! The problem is we have to TEACH them to sleep... Otherwise, they fight it and then seem cranky all of the time. For the last 2 days, Jackson has let me know when he wants to go down for a nap... The premise of "BabyWise" is feeding, waketime, naptime... In that order. So... sometimes, I try to keep Jackson awake a bit longer for waketime cuz - let's face it - he's SOOO cute! But like this morning, he hung out w/ me for a little while after his bottle (like 30 minutes) but then, he was ready for a nap! He started fussing and squirming... So I took him upstairs, set him down in his crib, gave him his paci and fast asleep he went! It's SOOOOO awesome! Granted, it took us a week to get to this point, and it's not perfect yet but WOW- what a difference a week makes! There is hope for new moms who are sleep deprived! WOOHOOO!

Jackson's 2 Month Birthday!

Today is Jackson's 2 Month Birthday - I cannot believe he's already 2 months old! YIKES! It happens soooo fast! Here is a pic of him from this morning w/ an adorable onesie that his Aunt Janet bought him!

Jackson and Mommy Have A Secret!

It's 2 minutes long cuz I couldn't stop videoing!!

What A Weekend!

This weekend, Ryan, Jackson and I were visited by Ryan's mom - aka Grandma! We had a great time just relaxing... On Sunday, David and Carla and Carla's parents stopped by on their way thru to Memphis. Jackson was fascinated with Carla's dad - he just kept staring at him! We took a trip to the Clinton Presidential Library - which was very cool... Jackson did SOOO well! He rode along w/ Ryan in the Baby Bjorn Carrier - and didn't make a peep! He even fell asleep at one point! What a good boy! Here are some recent pics.

Dang it. 36 still to go.

... well, T Minus 17 weeks.... Still 36 pounds to go. I weighed this morning and didn't lose anything this week. I feel good about my workouts though. I didn't miss any and worked a little extra this week. I'm not going to get discouraged - but I am changing my "bad day" to Sundays since that's the day I weigh in... Friday is too close to "weigh in" for it to be on that day... So no bad day until a week from today. Anyway, I think now that I have Jackson on a routine (almost there!) - I will make my workouts a bit longer... Up until now, they have been about 20-30 minutes... but I think I'll add some stuff... so hopefully, that will help.
My friend Ken is going to lose weight too - he's far ahead of me w/ his running - he's been doing pretty fast 5K's - so I have a while to catch up w/ him but he's going to post his success too... He wants to lose 30 pounds... So we're going to use this posting online deal as motivation slash competition-for-bragging-rights type deal! He needs to lose approx 1.5 pounds/week to make his goal... So root him on too! I, on the other hand, need to lose my regular 2 and the 2 I didn't lose this week... this should be an interesting week for me!

What a cutie!!

Fingers Crossed!

Well, last night - Jackson slept very well - 7 Hours! The book says that he could (and will be) sleeping 9-11 hours consistently... but I'm thankful for the 7! So far today, he's taken both naps very well and I just laid him down for the 3rd... I have a feeling this one won't be as promising since he didn't seem as tired, but so far, no crying! It definitely takes some time to teach a baby to fall asleep on his own, unless you started that from the beginning... We were gradually walking down the "spoiled" road w/ Jackson and hoping to break those bad habits now since he's still very young... OH boy - the crying just began! Here we go! I'm holding on w/ a vision of a beautiful road up ahead! Stay tuned!

Not a good day...

Jackson and I are not having a good day. With much talk and MANY people's personal success stories, I have decided to try the "Babywise" philosophies for sleeping... Jackson is NOT a fan so far. He is not enjoying naptime and HATES that I'm not rocking him to sleep. It's been a LONG exhausting day and I'm so glad that it's 500p cuz that means daddy will be home soon and he can help! Jackson's crying is quite possibly the worst sound that I have ever heard. I'm going to give this thing a go - I know that magic takes time and I have some serious bad habits to break already... It's worth it in the long run to have a rested, happy child w/ predictable patterns for eating and sleeping. So it says on average, children can break those habits and establish the new ones w/in a week... So I'll keep you posted. Right now, it's not fun. Great things don't come easy.

7 1/2 Weeks Old!

Here are some new photos of our little angel!

HE DID IT!!!!!

JACKSON SLEPT THRU THE NIGHT!!!!!!! WOOOHOOOOOOO!!!!! I'm so excited! It's amazing because I was worried that our chances of that had ended because he had pretty rough nights on Friday and Saturday nights.... Ryan and/or I was up with him about every hour or 2... and we'd stay up about an hour at a time! It was pretty tough since Connie was here and I didn't want to be tired! Well, yesterday, he was ancy all day and fussy.... I was prepared for a tough time - so I prayed to GOD that he would sleep through the night soon.... I didn't think it would be last night, but he did!!! I got him down at 930p and he didn't wake up until 430am!!!! UNBELIEVABLE!! I feel like I just won the lottery! I think the trick is, we are keeping the routine going... No matter what, we do not deviate from it... Plus, he's eating a LOT at night - about 6-7 oz .... He tried to fall asleep several times but I kept waking him up and making him finish his bottle and WHALAH - sleepy baby! :) Then, he went back to bed at 530am or so and slept another 2 hours! I am one very blessed mommy!

Connie came to visit!!!

My best buddy Connie came to visit us this weekend from Fayetteville! It was SOOOO nice to have her here - she and I went shopping, went to Olive Garden and watched I Am Legend and just hung out and talked... We had a good time! It's pretty special since she had to leave her BEAUTIFUL 1 year old at home to come spend some alone time w/ me... I want her back already!

Halfway there...

I know that this site is all about our family and that all topics should pertain to our family, but I am going to step outside the box for a second. Besides, Keisha does an excellent job of keeping the world informed about all of our exciting happenings! Instead, I would like to take this time to talk about:

THE CUBBIES!!

The regular season is officially half way over as of today, and my beloved Cubbies are in first place in their division and are tied with the Angles for the best record in all of baseball!! Now I don't want to get ahead of myself (since it has LITERALLY been 100 years since my team has won the world series...), but our squad is looking really good. How good you ask? So good that we are sending a league record 8 players to the All-Star game this week! I just ask that all of you keep my cubbies in your prayers. If this keeps up, it is going to be an exciting October! I encourage everyone to visit cubs.com everyday to stay in the loop!

Project Fit: 2 down, 36 to go!

T-18 Weeks!
Ok... Here is the dealio... I typed my blog about losing the baby weight from Dave's house (Ryan's brother)...I hadn't actually weighed myself so I was guessing that it was 35 pounds that I needed to lose... Well, on Monday morning, at home, I weighed and I actually needed to lose 38 pounds! Yikes! Soo...... when I got on the scale today - I did officially lose 2 pounds for the week but I have no idea how since I did not exercise a single day. I think it was just that I was bouncing between those 2 pounds and got lucky this morning... My goal weight is based on what I weighed when Ryan and I first started dating - I know that was a long time ago, but I was 21 years old and in college, so I wasn't a teeny bopper! I was an adult and I shouldn't have a reason for not getting to that weight again... Now, the truth is that I wasn't at that weight when I got pregnant - I was 10 pounds over that - so I'm trying to lose the baby weight, plus 10 pounds! Yikes again! Last week, I spent the entire week trying to get my house finished up before my friend Connie came... So, it was down to the wire, but it got all done! Now, my house looks like a regular house w/o boxes or clutter, etc... It was mostly the office and the closet that needed finishing and now, it's finished. I have no more excuses for not working out! Soooo.... Now, I have 18 more weeks until my birthday. So, 36 pounds in 18 weeks... Exactly 2 pounds per week. I know it sounds easy, but I'm a bit nervous! Either way - it has to be done.
Here's my routine: M/W/Sat- Jogging. Tu, Sun- P90X Yoga. Th - Strength Training. Friday - Off. On my off day, I'm allowing myself to eat whatever I want but on the other days, it's no junk at all, period. There is no diet crap - it's just eating healthy and come on, that's not hard! I know this is a matter of the mind and that's it. My biggest challenge is to do this while Jackson is still only 7 weeks old. The truth of the matter is, he will have to learn to love his swing so he can chill in it while I work out.... The yoga DVD is an hour and a half, so that's why it's on Saturday and Tuesday - Tuesday's yoga will probably be an "after Daddy gets home" thing to do since it's so long... but jogging - for now, that's only 30 minutes, so I feel good about him swinging while I do that...then I can watch him too.... :)
Since I'm SUPER serious about this, I'm going to go ahead and say -Starting point (last week), I needed to lose 24.8% of my body weight! I'm sure it's not too hard to figure out what I weigh based on that, but oh well - humility is key to success in this process.... I know I can do it. So I'm going to. I am 5.26% of the way there!! 36 pounds to go (94.74% left) - Here I come! :) KEN: Let me know if you want to make this a friendly competition! I'm soooo not joking about making this happen! :)

Jackson Dreaming! (Watch his mouth!)

Take Our Poll!!

Who do you think Jackson resembles most? Ryan and I have heard all 3 options - me, Ryan and my little brother Ray.... Let us know what you think!! :) Here are the pictures of us so you can compare...

Back Home in Little Rock

We made it back to Little Rock safely and securely... The night we got back, Jackson slept for 5 hours from 900p - 200am!! It was the first time we had given him a REAL bath in his bathtub (always given him a sponge bath before) and he absolutely loved it. I think it soothed him right to sleep... I wish I could say that every night since he's slept for 5 hours, but that's ok! We're consistently at 3 hours at least once in the night now! So that's good! On Monday, Ryan and his dad went to pick up Jackson's crib. It was the first night he slept in his crib!! The nursery is way upstairs, so it's not very close to us - so that was something for Ryan and I to get used to! We're used to having our baby very close to us, but the sooner we start, the easier it will be.

His sleeping patterns are so random! Last night, I got up w/ him about 4 times until 730am. Ryan and I have started a new routine - we're starting "quiet time" at 730p so we can get him ready for bed... which just means, we're not doing any unpacking and loud banging from hanging pictures, etc. We're going to at least START the routine, even though he's not ready for an actual "bedtime" yet - but at least he'll learn the routine... We give him a bath at 730p, then bottle, then bed. Last night, it took us an hour AFTER the bottle to get him to sleep, but then he slept for almost 3 hours. He's been taking about 5 oz consistently now each time, but last night, he drank 6 oz!! I know some 7 month olds that aren't even taking that much milk at a time!! He's a growing boy!!! :)

**The swing is our friend!! So far, 3 days in a row, he's slept in his swing for over 2 hours straight so I can get caught up in the office! It is such a blessing!

PS: Today is my dad's birthday: HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD! WE LOVE YOU!

New Goal: Get rid of baby weight!

Ryan and I are without baby right now... Last night and tonight, he is staying w/ my mom and Ryan and I are solo! I thought it would be so great to have a couple nights to ourselves and I am glad we did - but I think I've spent the majority of the time thinking of how much I miss my baby! I've called my mom several times... so much so that she has asked me to stop. I can't help it - I'm used to being w/ him 24/7 and looking at those gorgeous eyes and I miss him!!! Last night, Ryan and I went to the Elk River and camped out w/ our friends Chris and Rachael Meachum - that was fun... We went on a 12 mile canoe trip today and now, we're spending the night w/ Ryan's brother Dave.... Carla is in Pennyslvania so we're missing her too. We went to eat at LaHuerta and then to see the movie "Wanted" - which was good! Tomorrow, we'll pick up Jackson from Mimi's house and then we're off to lunch w/ Ryan's mom and then back to Little Rock. I'm actually (surprise, surprise) looking forward to getting back to Little Rock and starting a routine of some sort... Every week I've either been in Fayetteville or had someone at the house since Jackson's been born and now that I'm comfortable w/ him and he's not screaming all day, I'm looking forward to being a regular 3 person family! I know Ryan is really looking forward to that too.
For the record, tomorrow starts my NEW physical fitness routine. I'm done w/ junk food, and crap. I know what I can and can't eat, so I just need to do it. Most importantly, I am starting a regular exercise schedule - I'm going to run 3 days/week, yoga (my Aunt Janet gave me her P90X yoga DVD) 2 days/wk, strength training 1 day/wk and rest 1 day/wk. I'm sooooo serious! I have 35 pounds of baby and pre-baby weight to lose to get back to where I was when Ryan and I started dating. That's my goal and I'm giving myself until my birthday to do it (Nov 18). I'm going to update every week on how much I've lost so that if I don't lose, it will be one big freaking embarrassment.... but I'm going to do it!! :) I'll make myself post an update on Sundays... That's 19 weeks, so I need to lose 1.84 pounds/week, so let's just goal at 2 pounds/week. I'm really looking forward to getting this extra weight off and getting back into my good clothes!

Lots of Love for Jackson!

Jackson and I arrived in Fayetteville on Saturday night because I had a few doctor appts up here. Needless to say, Jackson has been shown plenty of attention! My aunt, my brother, my mom and dad, my grandma and Megan have all been showering him w/ love! Here is a picture of Jackson w/ my Aunt Janet and w/ my brother. Speaking of my brother, he watched Jackson yesterday for about 30 minutes while I ran to Walmart... he had to change his diaper, give him a bottle and was burping him when I got back! I was so totally impressed - I was so scared to leave him but I knew Ray could handle it! :) I weighed Jackson today and he weighs 9 pounds! It feels so good to see him "chubbing up!" Tonight, Jackson and I are going to go visit Grandma Carol and tonight DADDY gets here! I know Ryan's very excited about seeing Jackson! Tomorrow, Ryan and I are headed off to camp! We're going camping, hiking, canoeing w/ our friends Chris (Meach) and Rachael! My mom is on "mimi duty" for 2 whole nights! She is excited but lets see if she still feels that way on Sunday! Happy Fourth!!!