Landon and the Houston Texans

We attended the All-Access night for the Texans this past week so Landon (decked out in Liberty White) got to meet some real live football players and see their locker room and training facilities. Very cool! 

Here he is chilling in the players' locker room

And now he's going down the tunnel to the field (just like the players do on Sundays!)

All this excitement called for a quick drink break

Here's Dad's name on the wall with all the original season ticket holders

And Dad told him all about how fun it was to be there the first season

It was a great night! We just had to go home and chill out on the couch...

One Month Old Video and Update

Thanks for all the comments and commisserations about colic. We've been handling it pretty well and most nights it's actually quite minor compared to some stories we've heard from others, so we consider ourselves blessed.  Walks do a world of good so maybe we'll get in good shape while dealing with it. 

I took this video of Landon today, which was his one-month birthday (already!?): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ss7xl1cKqsA

He loves laying on his changing pad and while he was happily looking around I thought I'd do some stretches. Before long I realized when I moved my arms, he moved his and got really excited, and his eyes were following my hands the whole time. So I grabbed the camera to try to catch some of it. As you can see, he's getting interactive these days and I think there are even a few smiles in here!  It's kind of long, but the beginning has the most interesting reactions.  You can also see how big he's getting...he weighed in at 10.2 lbs this morning.

The World with Colic

"I feel ... the way a happy new mother feels about her impossible, colicky, restless newborn baby -- I just don't care what it puts me through. Because I adore it. Because it's mine. Because it looks exactly like me. It can barf all over me if it wants to -- I just don't care."  -Elizabeth Gilbert in Eat, Pray, Love (talking about her love of travel)

This quote struck both me and my mom as we were reading this book this week. And guess what...it turns out Phillip and I have a precious little newborn with colic!  Luckily he is not always as bad as the quote makes it sound, but through it all, this describes how I feel so well.

We all agree this is a very vague, catch-all diagnosis that is completely unsatisfactory when you are trying to find a reason for why your baby cries, but Landon's bad spells each night perfectly fit the description. We definitely think it's digestion-related with Landon and have found some ways to make it better but haven't completely eliminated it yet. One night gripe water worked like a charm but the next it didn't. Putting him in the Baby Bjorn (see cute pic of him sleeping in the Bjorn below) seems to help comfort him and it makes all the bouncing during that 2-3 hour time period much easier as well.  Yesterday I started taking a non-dairy Probiotics supplement and I am upping my intake of bananas so he can get those "good bacteria" through his milk and hopefully balance out his gut flora, which is known to be one of the big differences between colicky and non-colicky babies.  So we're working with it and just hope to continue to see improvement.  The change in my diet to lactose-free, soy-free, spice-free has also helped although I'm still trying to figure out certain triggers that are less obvious that inflict him periodically throughout the day....yesterday I realized grapes (and grape jelly) might be hurting him, so no more grape-related things for now. And today is much better so far. I am thinking soy is less of an issue so next week I'm going to try to eat a little soy sauce during the day to see if he is OK with it. I heard a lot of comments on my last post from empathizing friends who have been through this - I appreciate all of those as I fight off my craving of ice cream every day!! :)

On an unrelated note, I came across this picture of Phillip as a baby with his parents...it just shows how right everyone has been when saying Landon looks like his daddy!  I put a picture of me here as well for comparison...he definitely takes more after Phillip.

And thank you Tom for the Astros gear and Jill for the London bear!

3 Weeks Old

Landon celebrated his 3-week milestone with Grandma and Grandpa Jansen's visit this week. They've seen the full spectrum of baby moods - happy baby to screaming baby!  He's growing so fast, as you can probably tell from the pictures. And when he's content, he's more fun every day.  But he has been experiencing some reflux and some digestive discomfort all week off and on so the guessing game of changing my diet begins. I eliminated dairy starting on Saturday afternoon, so we'll see how that affects him. Yesterday was much better until I ate some peanut butter, which obviously did not agree with him.  So I'm taking lessons from Aunt Kristy and cousin Sydney's experiences with food intolerances and going on a very conservative diet to see if we can ease his discomfort. I guess it's better for me not to eat ice cream every day anyway. :)  I'm grateful to learn from their experiences instead of starting from scratch with this guessing game!  Enjoy the new pictures below!

With Grandpa Jansen

Dining at Humble City Cafe

Stretching after a nap

With all four grandparents - the Perry's and the Jansen's

With Grandma Jansen

Happy Mother's Day!

Landon is 2 weeks old today as we celebrate our first mother's day at the Perry household. It has been a great week of learning to communicate with Landon and watching him grow. Aunt Kristy and Uncle Steve were here all week and were a great help as we experienced Phillip going back to work, Landon's first bout with reflux (after a taco dinner), and his second pediatrician appointment (where he already weighed in at 1 lb over his birth weight!).

We also had an unfortunate happening with our 8-year-old dog, Leroy, as he had to have back surgery on Friday night. It was 3 years in the making with an annual struggle with back issues, but this time his back right leg was basically paralyzed, so it was time to finally do the surgery. He tolerated it well and we will see over the next 3-5 weeks how much function he recovers...we pray for a full recovery! 

Anyway, it was great to have Aunt Kristy and Uncle Steve here for all of this excitement and we miss them already!  This week Grandma and Grandpa Jansen come to visit, so we are excited for that.  Landon is growing like crazy and changes every day.  And one last piece of news, last night we hit a milestone...Landon only woke up once between 10p and 6a!  We hope for a repeat tonight!!

Below are some new photos we took throughout this week. Enjoy and Happy Mother's Day!

I love Aunt Kristy!

Snuggly and warm after bath

Napping with Dad

Feeling fat and happy...

First bottle!

Chilling in the bouncy

Landon's 5-day old photo shoot

Here are some of our faves from our photo shoot on Friday...

Sweet baby...

Flight planning is hard work!

So is building an airplane!