11 months old!!!

I am a little behind in making the post about Jacob turning 11 months old. Sorry!

Our little guy is very energetic. He doesn't like to stay still for very long, he always wants to be crawling somewhere, pulling up on something, getting into something, etc. One of his favorite things to do lately it to push the chairs to the kitchen table around the breakfast room and kitchen.

Jacob is still having some problems when it comes to eating. It is a source of great frustration for me. It seems like whenever we see some progression, we later see him take some steps backward. It is most frustrating to me because of how expensive formula is and because he doesn't eat 3 meals a day, we will have to keep him on formula (rather than move him to milk) when he is a year old.

For a couple days Jacob will eat rice cereal pretty well twice a day. We try to add something to his rice cereal, but if we add much he can taste it and won't eat. Typically we try to add about a teaspoon of some type of fruit or vegetable to about 3 tablespoons of rice cereal. If we try to add more than that he will cry, shake his head and refuse to open his mouth. Usually he eats well for a couple days, and then a couple days where he won't eat much at all.

Jacob is very interested in our food and always wants what we are eating. But, of course, we have to be careful with what we give him. He is just finally learning how to gum things up to soften them up enough to swallow them. His gag reflex is still pretty strong though, so if we don't give him pieces that are super small, he gags and then throws up. He starts to get tired of the little tiny pieces of our food that we give him and he becomes bored with eating long before he may be full.

Jacob is still a pretty good sleeper at night, although he really hasn't adjusted to the time change very well. He used to wake up for the day between 6:30 and 7 am, but now he wakes up between 5:30 and 6am. It makes for a tired mommy throughout the day.

Jacob has lately become quite intrigued by Colby's doggy door. He hasn't tried to crawl out of it yet, but he really likes to look outside and play with the door.

Just 3 weeks until Jacob turns 1 year old!!!

Moving On

We have hit a milestone in our lives. After almost 6 years of employment with PricewaterhouseCoopers, Justin is moving on to (we hope) greener pastures.

What we have loved about PWC and will miss:

• 3 weeks of paid paternity leave within the first year after we have a baby


• 22 weeks of short-term disability paid at 100% of base pay (and over the course of 9 months we used about 15 of those weeks when Justin was so sick and going through all his surgeries)


• 4 weeks of vacation a year


• Medical insurance that covered infertility treatments including IVF

What we are happy to be saying goodbye to:

• Lots of traveling for Justin - in fact he was gone for 7 out of 9 weeks from late July until early September which is what ignited the job search


• Busy season - at PWC about 2/3rds of the year is busy season where Justin has been expected to work 50-60 hours a week, add in commute time and that leaves us with


• Hardly ever getting to see Justin during the week

It will be hard to say goodbye to all the great benefits that Justin has had while working for PWC, but we are really excited for this next chapter in our lives.

What we are excited about:

• Being able to eat dinner at home as a family at a decent hour on a regular basis

• Half-days on Fridays


• Greater possibility of an annual bonus


• Higher base pay

Justin's last day with PWC will be the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and starting on Monday, November 30th Justin will be an employee of Plains All American Pipeline.