Ten Months with Jack Finley

Life with a now ten month old is chaos in the best possible way. The past four months have been a blur with our little man. Every day he gets a little bigger and I remind him that it’s ok to stay little for just awhile longer.

In four months we’ve seen Jack learn to crawl, pull himself up on furniture, and he LOVES to walk with his old-school Fisher Price walker my mom got at a garage sale. He is constantly on the move and will run you over. He loves to look back at you to see if you will chase him and give you a huge smile and if you’re lucky, a giggle! He stood by himself for the first time about two weeks ago and I have a feeling he is days away from walking – he took about a step and a half on his own the other night. It makes me so proud but sad at the same time. STOP GROWING, but keep growing, but gahhhhh my heartstrings!

We are still exclusively breastfeeding and Jack has been eating both purees and solid foods at home and daycare. Jack was recently diagnosed with food allergies, to peanut and egg. We’ve been to two allergists and the most recent doctor prescribed Jack an epi-pen. Food allergies are an entirely new world to us and it’s been an adjustment in my own heart/mind trying to figure out what Jack’s new normal will be with food allergies. Thankfully, Jack’s daycare is nut-free and honestly, the hardest part is figuring out what may or may not have egg in it. So for now, Jack mainly on the breastfeeding/ whole foods diet (fruits, veggies, meat), and a whole lot of puffs in between.

Earlier this week I put a post on on a Facebook group I’m apart of inquiring about donating some of my frozen breastmilk. I ended up connecting with a mom and donated over 200 ounces of frozen breastmilk. I was talking with a friend of mine of how oddly attached I felt to the milk yet what an amazing feeling it is to not only be able to provide for Jack in that way but to be able to help another mama and her little man too.  

I currently pump about 15-17oz a day to make three 5oz bottles for the next day at daycare. I freeze anything over that at the end of the week. I can tell I’m not pumping as much anymore, partly I think because Jack now has solid food. People continue to ask how long I plan to breastfeed and like I’ve said from the beginning, as long as it still works for us, I’ll keep doing it for the foreseeable future. With his food allergies, it just makes me feel more secure that he is still getting the food and nourishment he needs from me and it won’t make him sick.

Jack is pretty consistently sleeping through the night, he will fuss here and there but rarely do I go into nurse in the middle of the night, but if he needs me, I’m there. We didn’t do any more sleep training other than letting him cry it out once in awhile. I usually gave myself 10 minutes and if he was still crying I’d go back in and pick him up or nurse him. I’m sure that’s against all the rules, but it works for us. Recently, after Jack nurses, I will put him in his crib with a tag blanket and he will put himself to sleep. This isn’t always the case, I still nurse him to sleep a lot of the time, but I can tell he’s figuring things out. Again, lasts that you don’t know are lasts are sure hard as a Mama. He won’t sleep/snuggle on my shoulder anymore, so only if he falls asleep nursing can I get all of snuggles in, so I will hold out as long as humanly possible, call me selfish, but I’m ok with that!

He rarely has stranger danger but every once in awhile he will act bashful around people and it’s the sweetest thing. He is so joyful to be around and always has a smile to give. He’s still pretty chill and easy going about 99.9% of the time. 

Over the past four months we’ve experienced our first ear infections, a double whammy the first night Mom and Dad left for 24 hours with a quick trip to Kansas City while he stayed with my mom, followed up with another ear infection after I took a trip to Chicago for work. I think he’s trying to tell me not to travel. But in all seriousness, I was a hot mess leaving for my work trip. I broke down in tears in front of all of my co-workers, literally the entire office as we got on the charter bus. I knew he was going to be OK with Cody but the idea of leaving him, pumping 24/7, and my fear of how he was going to nurse when I came back had me dreading the trip. 

Thankfully, other than an ear infection, he survived and I survived (I even went out past midnight one of the nights!). I needed the trip more than I care to admit to show myself it’s OK to step out of the mom role every now and again and take care of myself, even though it was a work trip – next time I’d prefer it be a trip with my husband to some place tropical (which we plan to do next May for our 5-year anniversary)! We traveled to Iowa City for a football game and to Minnesota to see Jack’s cousin, Theo. The boys loved chasing each other and playing to their hearts content. 

Jack still has the best laugh in the entire world and babbles all the time. He said dada first and a few weeks ago started to say mama. He has no idea what it means, but that’s OK! I’ve noticed if I sign ‘more’ or ‘all done’ he will do the signs back to me, which I’m super excited about!

For Halloween Jack was Max from Where the Wild Things Area and was literally the cutest dressed up baby in all the land. He tolerated his costume for the most part and helped Mom and Dad pass out allergy friendly treats to the trick-or-treaters! 

I was just thinking the other day that the past few months, while we’ve had some ups and downs with some things, we’ve found our groove. When you’re a brand new parent, it’s hard to see through the fog of the late nights, early mornings, endless feeding sessions, and mountains of diapers, but there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, promise! We’ve learned to take things a day at a time, to be flexible, and to trust ourselves that we know what’s best for our son and how we are raising him. 

I’m excited for the holiday season to come and to make new traditions with Jack including eating all the Thanksgiving goodies (allergy free of course), turning on the Christmas music, and of course, decorating…but hoping Jack won’t destroy everything. Lastly, I cannot wait to celebrate Jack’s 1st birthday (I CANNOT BELIEVE I’M TYPING THAT). So with all of that said, I am going to dive deep down the newborn photo rabbit hole of Jack Finley.