Developmentally, Jackson has changed so much within this week! He's using his hands more and more to grab at things, and he's getting better and better with his aim and with bringing them back to his face / mouth. His favorite thing to grab and explore? Our hands! (but he does also have a newfound affinity for "eating" his own hands...) And he's so funny now that he visually recognizes and remembers certain things -- like the ribbon his pacifier hangs from. He'll grab it and see it and grunt and fuss because he knows it's part of his pacifier and he's trying so hard to get it in his mouth. And he "remembers" the bottle too -- he starts grunting and fussing more when he sees it at feeding times.
He's also starting to "laugh." He's done it a few times, and sometimes it's closer to a real laugh versus the happy smiling squeals. Here's a video of him "laughing" and talking to us.
One fun thing we did this week was go to a cookout at Adam & Beth's house. I met Beth in my Moms in Motion class when we were both pregnant, and since our due dates were only 1 week apart we always compared symptoms, worries, and questions. And her son Caleb, is one week younger than Jackson. Erin (another girl from our Moms in Motion class) and her husband were also there with their son, Euan, who is 3 weeks older than Jackson. We've all been together before, but not since all three babies were alert and interactive. We set them up on the floor across from each other to see if they would play or talk to each other, but they seemed more interested in their own hands and looking at the big adults all around. Here's a picture of the babes (Jackson is on the upper right):
It's so neat that the three of us had boys all within one month of each other. I'm excited to see them when they can start to play together!
Reflux update -- Jackson still isn't doing too good. He has "okay" days where the crying is minimal and he only wakes up a few times in the night. And then he also has "bad" days....where he cries for what seems like the entire day, won't eat much, and barely naps and then wakes up continually at night. Yesterday was a "really bad" day....and I could confirm it by smelling the acid on his breath (and Steph smelled it too so I could make sure I wasn't crazy and making up smells since Josh can't smell it). So the Axid seems to be doing NOTHING in the way of helping to reduce the acid. At this point, we've gotten the doctor to agree to help us get the Prevacid, but in order for the insurance company to pay for it, the dr. has to send a letter to them confirming a diagnosis of "chronic GERD." As of Friday, we had not heard the status on the letter / prescription, so I called again this morning to find out the deal....waiting on a call back today. The boy has been on this medicine for 11 days now with no relief, and we've been trying to get him treatment for 2 weeks now!! I'm growing rather impatient. Sometimes I want to just take a video and send it to the insurance company....like yesterday when the only way I could get him to eat was to lay my head against his to soothe him enough so he would stop crying. Arggh.
Fun things coming up? We're thinking of taking Jackson to Speed Street in uptown Charlotte one day this week. And we're getting him a stationary entertainer (yay for a craigslist deal!) and a jumperoo, since he likes to stand up so much now and can hold his head up well.