May Updates

I haven't had much time to blog lately. Jackson is still waking up every couple of hours through the night and I'm trying. My level of functioning isn't the greatest although I do think I'm starting to adjust to little sleep. My spare time goes to studying for the NCLEX. I take it June 18th, Ah!Anyway, enough with the excuses, here are some updates from the last few weeks. There are just too many cute pictures and too little time to do them all justice!

We had a Ward BBQ at Bishop and Sister Dicou's house. Here I am with two of my close ward friends: (left to right) Catherine Pututau and Rachel & Gavin Brown.Troy playing a game with Bishop on the lawn.

Jackson had his first boating trip on the 29th. We went with my family. He enjoyed his time riding Willard Bay fairly well. It's similar to the car I suppose, which he loves, so it worked out okay. He did not, however, love his life jacket. As you can tell it is super big. He kept trying to eat the corners which were pushed up into his cheeks. It was pretty funny. It would have kept him afloat had we needed to abandon ship, but it wasn't his favorite thing.

He grabbed his hat, like he was trying to keep it on! How cute.
Jackson and his cousin Madi at Troy's sister Lexie's high school graduation. He slept through most of it.
Like father, like son. Perhaps Jackson will be a hat wearer too. I love this picture!I absolutely love this track jacket. He wears it ALL the time because I hate to think about it getting too small.
Troy trying to play with Jackson, even during nap time.

I'm also in love with this blue hoodie. Doesn't it look adoreable?


My friend Allison Taylor keeping Jackson sleeping soundly.

I love his little wrinkly forehead. He's growing into that extra skin more and more. It might not be around for much longer.


He has such pretty eyes. No bias here ;)

Pictures with Great-Great-Grandma

Today we took 4 and 5 generation pictures with Jackson. That's right, 5! My great grandma is still alive and well at the right bold age of 94. She's living at a care center in Bountiful. We were up there for family dinner and stopped by to take the pictures. I was pleased with how they turned out.

5 generations: Left to right, Brenda Barneck (grandma), David Mabey (great-grandpa), Mom, and in front Beatrice Call Mabey (great-great-grandma) holding Jackson.
4 generations: left to right, grandma, mom, and Mary Steed Mabey (great-grandma).
This picture was actually taken a few weeks earlier on a different Bountiful visit. I love it. This was the first time my Great-Grandma Mabey got to see Jackson. She just loved holding him and couldnt stop talking about how beautiful he was. It's good he is so small, she held him for a long time before her arms got tired. Then she took a rest and held him again. So precious.

BYU Baseball

Troy and I have had a bit of cabin fever lately. Staying inside with a brand new baby can make you a little antsy. So today, we went to a BYU baseball game. It was glorious to be outside in the sun! We were a little worried about Jackson, but he stayed nice and shaded in his car seat. I brought milk with me to feed him while we were there, but he slept the entire game! We finally had to wake him up to give him the milk before it went bad. He was in a deep sleep. We had to rub a cold washcloth on his head to perk his interest in food. It sounds mean, but that's what the nurses told us to do to keep him eating regularly. Hooray funny family outings and for being out of the house and in the sunshine!

Jaundiced Jackson

So the first few weeks home have been rather busy. It's amazing how busy being a mom is, yet at the end of the day, when I look back on my accomplishments, it doesn't feel like I really did much. Feeding babies is a time consuming ordeal! I'm still adjusting to the new schedule of sporatic sleep and not getting much of anything done before noon, but in general it is really fun. Jackson is SO cute. Sometimes I spend my time starring at him thinking, "Wow, this little person is mine!" (and Troy's of course :)

We made it home from the hospital just fine. It made the whole thing feel more real when we brought him into our apartment. He LIVES with us! What a concept. Little Jackson ended up having jaundice which required a bilirubin bed. Luckily we were able to do all of it from home as some babies have to be admitted to the hospital. He had to be in the bed anytime he wasn't eating. Luckily he slept through most of the two day period when he was strapped to that thing because it would have been awful if he hadn't. On the first day he cried pretty much straight for the 2 hours between feedings and it was rough. I can't imagine if it had been like that the whole time.

Here are some pictures of the bili bed...

It's like a little tanning bed for babies! It almost lit up our whole bedroom. Those are powerful UV lights! I technically wasn't supposed to put a blanket over him, but he was naked under (aside for the diaper) and so he was a little chilly.

He loves to have his hands by his face so the built-in sleeves the bed came with weren't the greatest. I suppose they would have worked for a normal sized baby, but this guy's shoulder span was almost half the size of the space between the sleeves! We had to maneuver a little to make him comfortable. Pretty cute huh?

The Brand-New Newborn

I wanted to post this first video of Jackson. It's a little shaky as Troy is trying to watch and run the camera at the same time-- a lot to handle for a brand new dad. :) Beware that there is a lot of crying (this kid has not cried like that since!) and that my open abdomen is partially visible at the beginning of the video. I, of course, think this is cool, but I understand that it's gross to most of the general public. It's a little long, but so cute because it's he's so brand new. Enjoy!