Colton
Long Time No Blog
Ok, so I know it’s been like, 4 months since I’ve posted anything. But, I’ve upgraded my blog and I’m gonna make a point to start blogging regularly again. I forget how many people actually read this thing until I get yelled at for not posting. It’s not difficult to come up with useful stuff to write these days, as our life has pretty much been consumed with the rapidly growing spawn of my loins. This kid is growing like a weed, and destroying everything of mine he can get his strained-carrot coated hands on. Since I last blogged, he’s popped two teeth, started popping two more, started babbling “mama” or “dada,” learned to crawl, pulls himself up using furniture, your leg, a dangling laptop cable, or whatever is available, can stand on his own, drops solid deuces, waves, and generally isn’t afraid to tell you what he thinks (at least in baby language). Tonight, he took his first step. Woah.
One more thing…I’ve always been in search of a neat tag-line for my blog, and tonight I’ve decided upon “The cool side of the pillow.” It’s in reference to this phenomenon that my dad and I have experienced for years where you constantly flip your pillow over throughout the night so that your head is resting comfortably on the cool side. My mom vehemently denies this phenomenon exists, but I beg to differ. If you practice the simple act of pillow flipping, post in the comments below. My dad and I can’t be the only ones!
It’s crazy to think that Colton is 10 months old already! As requested, there are some recent photos below, and the link to all of our photos is over there to the right. I’ve also uploaded some videos of him. If you want to see them, shoot me an email. Enjoy!
Colton’s First 2 Months
Well folks, it’s been a little over two months now since the Cole-Train was born, and it has been an adventure. Shortly after he was born, he developed double ear infection and there was serious talk of putting tubes in his ears due to the infections happening at such a young age. He was also not sleeping at night due to a cold and congestion and was generally in pain for a good part of his first month. It seemed he was visiting our pediatrician and ear, nose, and throat doctor every few days!
Fast-forward a month or so later to present day, and things are going as well as can be. He’s up to 11 pounds 6 ounces, will not be requiring ear tubes, and has grown into the cutest little dude you could ever imagine. I know as his father, I’m quite biased, and nobody wants to hear another parent go on to talk about how great their kids are, (See this article in “The Onion” for more on that), but he sure is a good lookin’ little man. He’s starting to make faces and laugh out loud, and generally seems like a happy baby. On average he sleeps from about 11pm to 7am with an occasional middle of the night dookie/feeding wakeup.
Life as a parent is definitely draining both mentally and physically. It’s very frustrating when he cries and we can’t figure out what’s bothering him. But, when I’m holding him and I look at that little face and realize just how much he depends on Cindy and I to take care of him and how vulnerable and amazing he really is, I can’t help but feel he’s worth every minute of missed sleep or bit of stress-induced hypertension caused by caring for him.
I’ve uploaded a ton more photos of Super Colton Bear (you scrubs fans will get that reference), and you can check out some samples below, or visit our photo page for the full lot!
Colton Randall Jansen
The newest addition to the Jansen family has arrived! It all started this past Tuesday when Cindy’s water broke (while she was at work, mind you). Or, so we thought…the doctors told us it wasn’t amniotic fluid. Even now as I sit here typing this, it still remains a mystery as to what it was, but after going to the OBGYN for the third and final time that day, the doctor said he ruptured her water during the exam and we were whisked away to labor and delivery.Cindy was a true champion, keeping her cool while simultaneously telling the nurses that she was feeling a 10 on the pain scale!
Remember all of those videos that show the dad massaging mom’s back, spouting off encouraging phrases? Yeah, well, our “video” went slightly different than that. I was basically placed on silent observer duty, where I was not allowed to touch, talk to, or breath heavily around my laboring wife. This went on for several hours, until finally the epidural was placed, and I got my wife back. Originally, we thought we’d be in for a long night because stuff was progressing slowly, but all of a sudden it was kicked into high gear, and at 4:04 AM on Wednesday, December 19th, 2007, our son Colton Randall Jansen was born.
He was 7 lb 6 oz, 19 3/4 inches long at birth, and absolutely perfect. Mom and Colton are doing extremely well, and all three of us are functioning on very little sleep. But that’s ok, every missed minute of sleep is worth it when he looks at you with those tiny little eyes (see below). Already he is developing his own personality, and we can’t wait to see what kind of man he turns out to be. Thanks to everyone who visited or sent us well wishes…see below for photos of the whole experience!
Links:
-Our photos of Colton
-Hospital photo page
The End/Beginning Is Near
Well folks, the end of our pregnancy is near, and the beginning of our lives as parents begins! The baby’s room is painted and cleaned, the “new parent” classes are over, and the closet is packed with clothes.
It has been noted by several people that since I’m such a “picture” type guy, it’s strange that I haven’t posted any photos of Raisins and her surprisingly non-stretchmarked belly. The woman drinks water like it’s in short supply, and thus her hydrated skin has been able to handle a kid who doctors claim is in the 88th percentile in size.
Anywho, our digital camera broke, so we haven’t been able to take pictures of much at all, but since my sister recently requested a pic of the lovely preggo, I’ve taken one with my phone. For those of you who saw Cindy not a month or two ago, her belly looks a lot different, and has finally surpassed mine! 18 days and counting…
The Results Are In…
Hey everyone, we had our 20 week ultrasound yesterday, and the results are in. So many people were surprised that we wanted to know the sex right away in lieu of being surprised. I’m gonna let you in on a little secret…no matter when you find out, it’s still a surprise! That’s ok, everyone is entitled to their own choice, and ours was to find out. Hell, I had two daydreams to follow. Am I buying barbies, or am I buying footballs? Hopefully “barbies or footballs” translates respectively to “girl or boy. Although, Cindy is the mom, so if it was a girl, chances are good it would have been premium clothes shopping by day, wings, beer, and Monday Night Football by night. (aren’t I lucky?)
First and foremost, I know it’s cliche, but we were hoping for a healthy baby above all. Never has a cliche been so true. Everything looked good thus far, but being a new parent diving into a world I know next to nothing about, I was a bit scared that we would be one of the unlucky minority and have some sort of complication. The ultrasound was both a gender-revealing exercise as well as an event to quell our fears and give us that happy news we were so longing for. Once we got the good news we were hoping for, the rest was just gravy. Although, we had leaned more towards having a boy first. All of our friends had girls, and there’s just something about having a son that made me want to smile the biggest smile I had ever smiled in my entire life. Yet, I think the tears I shed when I saw that ultrasound would have been the same no matter what the sex, but I was pleasantly surprised when I found out that was a boy. I mean, the little nubby he’s got thus far is just big enough to make Troy jealous, but nonetheless, it’s clearly and distinctly a penis.
If the old adage is true that the dropping doesn’t roll far from the pile, then this kid is sure to be a handful. But that’s ok, we’re as ready as we’ll ever be to start our family. Plus, I’m sure my parents are waiting for the day that kid turns into a little terror, completing their patient wait for sweet revenge for all the crap I pulled when I was a kid. That’s all for now. Thanks for reading, and check out the pictures below!
