Jamisen Update - 2 Months Old!

Proving himself to be his stubborn Mama's son, Jamisen has decided he likes his bottle more than he likes my breasts. He is apparently the only man in America who might make that choice and I hope that it does not bode badly for his future choices when it comes to women.

He always clasps his hands. It's precious. 

According to the books and Dr. Google, it's because I've let him use his pacifier (that's 'binky' to him, by the way) too much. However, taking it away seems like it might be too traumatizing to us all. Yes, we're weak. Yes, at 2 months of age, he's calling the shots already.

Yes, he's 2 months old!

I've gotten various advice from "Starve him into submission" to "I pumped for 8 months and bottle-fed, you can do it too." [for the record, no, no I can't] to "This is the first battle of the wills. Don't let him win!" And if Mr. Renoud Jr. thinks that he has a stronger willpower than me, he's got another thing coming. The boob is coming back. And it's coming back into his reality in a big way.

I dare you to starve this face into submission!

If I can wake up with Jamisen at 6:00 a.m. (a big IF), I love reading to him. The morning time is when he is his most smiley and his most happy. His favorite book is 'Baby's Very First Animal Book'. While it maybe seem just a wee bit simplistic to those of us reading for longer than 2 months, he focuses intently on the animals, the single word identifying said animals and seems to appreciate my extra commentary. Things like "And Penguins like to live in very cold places. They mate for life!" said in a happy sing-song voice are going to get him into Harvard. I'm just sure of it.

I got this book at a secondhand store.  He loves Mr. Owl finger puppet book too!

I swear, today he almost turned over during tummy time. He gets frustrated very quickly when he doesn't 'get' something right away - whether it's turning over or breastmilk quick enough or us to pick him up quickly.

Being watched over by a friend

Baby CPR Class

I took two different baby birthing classes to prepare for Jaminse's arrival (which, in the ultimate irony proved not needed because I had a c-section). One of the classes, my 'Hypnobirthing Natural Childbirth' class just had a reunion! It was so much fun to see all the babies.

We also decided to make it educational and roped my Dad in to teaching a Baby CPR and Choking class. My Dad delivered babies for 30 years and has been a Family Practice Physician for over 35 years now. He definitely has a bit of experience with babies. =)

He taught us how to do Baby CPR and how to deal with a choking baby. Jamisen was the perfect model (amazingly!). I couldn't have been more proud. And I also hope that I'll never have to use his helpful lessons.

Afterwards, the babies all had a meet 'n' greet. Here is Jaminsen meeting his first girl! I think he's doing a great job looking disinterested, which everyone knows is the universal boy sign for 'Hey there, I like you!'

Grandma was extremely admiring Jamisen's formal wear for the occasion.

A group shot of us with our teensy, adorable babies; it was a lot of fun to connect with everyone.

And a little video for you to see our happy, smiling baby boy (note to email subscribers: you have to click through to blog to see the video):

More shots of Lil Man on Set

Jamisen is always the perfect accessory for anything, any outfit, any event and any experience - including SoapQueen.TV

You can see how much he's growing. The little fat rolls in his legs are filling out nicely and boy, that head is getting HUGE!

Our next weigh day is this week and I can't wait to see what he's grown to. He was just a little over 21" at his last check and 9 pounds, 11 ounces. Given how much my back aches, I'm assuming he's definitely way past the 10 pound mark.

He is SO much fun and is starting to try to laugh. He hasn't let out a real peal of laughter but he's smiling, cooing and gurgling. And when he sees his Daddy at the end of the day? HUGE smile. He **loves** his Daddy. =) Me? I'm just the slave to his growling tummy for this growing boy.

Baby Jamisen on the SoapQueen.TV set (video)

He's getting so big. Breastmilk. It does a baby good!

Baby Update + Videos

We had a super fun family photo shoot this week for the Bellingham Business Journal. They sent their best photographer, Chad DeRosa to do some shots at our house. You can't tell but that's our back deck and the chair? It was built by Bramble Berry's awesome COO, Norman, as a housewarming gift. There's a matching set and we love 'em (especially now that the sun is coming out in Washington state).

Lil' Man is doing **so** much better now that we've got the gas problem under control (yes, I'm still off dairy and all cruciferous vegetables, doing baby chiro with him, small amounts of probiotics for him and feeding him 100% breastmilk with no supplementation) and we are having **so** much fun with him. He's just starting to gurgle, coo and shriek in delight. We're routinely getting smiles and just waiting for that first peal of laughter.

His personality is starting to come through. He is very chill, very easy going and absolutely loves his shower time with Daddy (for that matter, his clear preference in parents is for Daddy right now). He's also a big fan of both sets of Grandparents (photos with Grandma and Grandpa Renoud coming soon). We are so lucky to have such a supportive family on both sides.

(Videos below - if you're on RenoudFamily.com email and not reading this online, you'll need to click through here to be taken to the videos)

Daddy calms Jamisen down by playing James Brown for him. It's quite funny.



Lil Man is also getting some leg strength and some serious neck strength. He is adorable when he's doing tummy time - he just kicks his little legs and is either delighted and falling asleep on his tummy or angrily kicking his legs out and demanding to know why I've plopped him unceremoniously on the floor. =)

Washington DC Mosaic

All these photos were taken with my iPhone during our Washington DC trip.