Fun with paper...

To explain why he has the shiny tissue paper in his pants, when Nicole first opened her gift she put the paper in his shorts and he chased it around like a dog chases it's tail. We tried to recreate it but he learned from his past...

Just say no...

Here's Jackson doing his latest discovery...

Happy Birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jackson turns 6 months today! It's amazing how fast he's growing. Here are some of the "big boy" things he's doing now:

• Sitting up (still a little wobbly but he's getting there)
• Eating baby food (he's been eating cereal and stage one food for a while now and the doc said he's ready for stage 2)
• He has both his bottom front teeth
  
• Rolling over (from back to stomach and from stomach to back)
• Talking (well making noises, but Nicole and I honestly think he says "I love you" every now and then)
• Getting up on his knees and rocking (give him a few more days and he'll be crawling)

So he's pretty much the coolest kid ever, but I'm not sure I can handle all this growing up stuff. If he keeps it up I guess I'll have to make him get a job soon...

Home sweet home...

Well as many of you know we have moved into our new house. We're not completely unpacked, but we're moved in. Speaking of moving in, this move was the greatest experience of my entire life; in fact, it changed my entire outlook on life. I realized that over the past years I had been wasting my time and effort on such frivolous things such as picking up boxes, carrying couches, lifting mattresses, taking apart beds, etc. This time I had the revelation of hiring movers, and let me just tell ya, "It's WORTH it!!" We were moved out of our second story apartment and into our new house (which is about 45 minutes to an hour drive from our apt.) in less than 4 hours. It cost about double what it would be to rent a Budget truck and do all the work yourself, except when you do it yourself it takes all day and you can't stop sweating for a week after the move. So 3 Men Movers, BRAVO! They did such a great job, nothing was damaged. I don't think I'll ever move again without hiring movers. Of course, I hope it's a really, really, really, really, really, really, really long time before we move. Our insurance agent needed some exterior photos of the house so I'll share some of them with ya (interior photos are coming) ...

5 months already!?!?!

Well today marks exactly 5 months and one day since Jackson was born. I can't believe it's already been that long! It's been a blast and it's getting more fun every day. Many have been requesting more photos of our little guy so yesterday before I left for my last bridal portrait session I snapped some photos of my two favorite people. Jackson had just finished eating so ignore the goo on him...

Has the housing market crashed?

Well in our case, no. We are scheduled to close on our house this Friday at 3 p.m. With the market doing so many crazy things it looks like we're getting it just in time. We really got lucky with this house because it's a brand new build, sits on .72 acres, and was in our price range! We hope to start moving asap, but we still have the apartment until the end of May so we're not in too big of a hurry to move everything all at once. Once we get settled in feel free to visit, or if you just cant wait feel free to help us move! Here are some photos I took on my cell phone of the house before it was finished...

Cutest kid in the world...

We were driving around the other day and Nicole sat in the back with Jackson and shot this video on her cellphone, I'm pretty sure Jackson now qualifies and the cutest kid ever....Enjoy!

Daycare...

Well, Nicole started back at the grind today and we took Jackson to his first day of daycare. Being the photographer I am, I completely forgot the camera!! I really was kinda upset about this, but what can ya do?

I didn't think it was going to get to me as much as it has (not forgetting the camera, but leaving him at daycare). I feel like such a punk for just dropping him off with these people he doesn't know. Thankfully Nicole knows pretty much everyone who works there because oddly enough, they all took care of her when she was in daycare.

One good thing about him being at daycare is he'll probably get on a schedule, FINALLY! It seems like no matter what Nicole and I would do he just wouldn't get on a schedule. Well I can't wait to see him tonight, I wish he could talk so I could ask him how it went, haha.

Oh yea, here's a photo of him in the bath the other day, nothing special except that it's a picture of him...

Merry Christmas...

Merry Christmas from the Smith's...

Some new photos

Well things are kinda getting back to normal around the house. Our sleeping patterns are still a little weird but I'm sure that's just how it's going to be for a while. He was laying in his bassinet the other night and I snapped some shots of him...

Rubber ducky, you're the one...

BEFORE YOU READ THIS POST, FIRST READ "OFF TO HOME WE GO..." (I'M POSTING TWO AT ONCE AND DON'T WANT ANYONE TO CHRONOLOGICALLY GET THROWN OFF)

Tonight was bath time! (don't worry we took his diaper off for the bath but we figured we'd take one that's for public view) It actually went a lot smoother than we expected.

He screamed, we got anxious, he got clean, became happy again, our blood pressure dropped, and then he got to eat.

Off to home we go...

We finally got to leave the hospital around 7pm yesterday after we took our car seat safety class/test at 5pm. Good thing we took the class because we were going to do everything wrong (really babies-r-us shouldn't sell all the extra things like pads for the shoulder straps, comfy headrests, mirrors to put on seats to see the baby, etc... because they all void the warranty of the car seat and things like the mirror go from functional to dangerous projectiles in a wreck).

But then it was time, the trip home was upon us!
On the way out we decided to stop at the winter wonderland and get a family photo. The first photo was a little shaky and I made the lady take another, is that bad or just the photographer in me?

Now that the car seat had been tested it was time to put it to action! Jackson seemed pretty comfy and we made it the entire way without a peep of discomfort.
The entire time Jackson was in a hospital he was on a pretty regular, but that would all change.

We got him home and he was wide awake...all night...morning...day...and finally decided to take a nap around 4pm. In an attempt to get him to sleep last night we tried just about every bed, seat, swing and flat surface we had. Nothing worked except laying on mom. So that's were he remained.












But tonight he gets to stay in the crib, probably...maybe...I'm not promising anything.

Coming home...

We're going to get Jackson from the hospital today!!!! I think that's about all I need to write for this update!!!! Here's some Christmas entertainment to celebrate:

Monday, Tuesday, Happy days...

Sorry for the long gap between updates, but I guess having nothing really to update is a good thing. Jackson is doing great! The doctors seem very optimistic that he'll be home Monday or Tuesday!!! After the initial night of his A's and B's he hasn't had anymore episodes. The doctors told us that sometimes premees just kinda forget to breath but that Jackson seems to be remembering.

It's almost harder now because he's doing so good we just want to get him home. He's seems to be really happy and surprisingly calm (let's hope that lasts, haha). Well here's some photos from the past few days:

Two steps forward, one step back...

Just as we began to kinda see the end, last night happens. The report from the doctors earlier in the day was that Jackson was doing great. Then last night when we were there with him he kept having what they call "A's and B's". 'A' for apnea and 'B' for bradycardia.

• Apnea: is a technical term for suspension of external breathing. During apnea there is no movement of the muscles of respiration and the volume of the lungs initially remains unchanged.
• Bradycardia: as applied to adults, is defined as a resting heart rate of under 60 beats per minute, though it is seldom symptomatic until the rate drops below 50 beat/min. In Jackson's case, the term is used to explain a heart rate that, while not technically below 60 beats per minute, is considered too slow for the individual's current medical condition. And is more than likely being brought on by the apnea.

Normally Jackson's heart rate is about 120-130bpm but when he would have a brady his rate would drop to 60bpm. It was a pretty scary night for us, we know that it is fairly common in preterm babies but we were just getting so close to him coming home.

On an up note, he no longer has the feeding tube in and, besides the leads checking his vitals, he's tube free! Keep praying!

---
Kyle, Nicole and Jackson