8 months old

Today Jacob is 8 months old!


I took a few different pictures and these are the ones that turned out the best. Above he is smiling (I think sometimes he looks like he inherited slight dimples from me - I definitely see a dimple in the picture above).

Above he is staring at the camera, seeming confused.

Here he is playing with his elephant.

And now he seems ready to make his escape.

Jacob is getting lots more mobile these days, but he is still not crawling. We knew when Jacob was born 6 weeks early that he probably wouldn't hit any developmental milestones early; and since they say that most babies start crawling around 8 or 9 months, we had no expectation that he would start crawling any time before that. I wouldn't be surprised at all if next month we are still reporting that he is not crawling, and that's perfectly fine.

Jacob has really started picking up a schedule, which is nice for me - much better than when I had no idea when he would be tired, or hungry, etc. We go to the gym every morning Monday through Friday pretty much as soon as we can get there after the Kids Klub opens. When we get home (usually around 10am) Jacob eats and goes down for nap #1 of the day. Sometimes he naps for only an hour, but a few times he has napped 2.5 to 3 hours for this first nap. He wakes up, eats, plays (or we run errands), eats again and goes down for nap #2. Nap #2 is typically shorter than nap #1, but it is long enough to get him through until bedtime which is usually between 7 and 7:30.

Jacob loves to blow spit bubbles. Sometimes he wakes up in the morning and just starts spitting. Which is much better than waking up crying. He also loves to stick out his tongue, not that we have been able to get a picture of it.

Jacob loves Colby. He loves to watch Colby and reach for him. He loves it when Colby gives him kisses, although I don't love it all that much. He also loves Colby's toys. Colby has hardly any toys (because he chews them to pieces and we throw them away) and Jacob has plenty of toys, but when Jacob sees one of Colby's toys he makes great effort to get it. It wouldn't be that big of deal if it didn't automatically go into Jacob's mouth once he gets it.

Jacob has really found his voice this past month and it turns out that he can be quite the talker. He especially likes to make high pitched sounds when he is happy and talking to himself.

Most of all, Jacob loves it when Daddy comes home and plays with him. Justin is able to get the best laughs out him.

2 months later than I planned

This post should have been done back in June. Better late than never.

On June 11th, Justin and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary.

In some ways it is hard to believe it has already been 5 years, but when you look at all we have been through you would think we had been married quite a bit longer.

Since we have been married we have:

• Dealt with being unemployed and unable to find a job (luckily only for me and not both of us)
• Lived in an apartment that we were busting out of the seams in
• Bought a car together
• Taken some nice little vacations while childless with 2 incomes
• Were greeted with the first 2 tropical storms of the season for both our first (in Destin, FL) and our second (in Orlando, FL) anniversary
• Moved half-way across the country
• Bought our first house
• Suffered through infertility
• Justin was diagnosed with an incurable chronic illness
• Went through in vitro
• Gone through 4 hurricanes together
• Lived without electricity for 2 days (which was 2 days too long)
• Justin has had 3 major surgeries
• I had to be hospitalized and put on bedrest the last 10 days of pregnancy
• Had a 6 week premature baby

We have gone from right out of school, completely broke and in overwhelming debt; to two nice incomes and living comfortably as we paid off debt and saved money; to one nice income and one small income from a part-time job back down to one income again (and feeling broke due to the cost of diapers and formula).

We are glad that some of the things that drive some couples apart have only brought us closer to one another. It has been an amazing 5 years and we know that things will only get better.

Justin and the case of the Disappearing Punch Bowl

No, it is not the first book in the next series by J.K. Rowling (if there ever will be a next series). It's just a funny situation that I encountered today. In an effort to clear up some more counter space, Julie asked me to put the punch bowl somewhere. I immediately thought of the place I like to put all of the not-often-used kitchen items (since we don't have enough cabinet/closet space for it all)...on top of the cabinets. There are already a couple cake pans up there, so I got a chair, climbed on it to get on the counter, and placed the punch bowl and ladle in the next available space...the corner.

Little did I know that, unlike the bottom of the cabinets, the top of the cabinets are NOT boarded over in the corners. This means the punch bowl and ladle took a quick and noisy journey out of sight, and into the hole. Luckily, the punch bowl was big enough that it did not go all the way down to the bottom of the 48" tall cabinet chasm. I was able to extricate it, but there was no hope for the ladle. Even through the use of some extra-long cooking tongs, I was not able to retrieve the still-stranded ladle.

Julie said that it is probably a good thing, because we don't know what all might be down there besides the dust accumulation of a 6-year-old house's cabinet chasm. It is a good thing the ladle is not too expensive. At least I know now, and here is warning to all of you, that it is NOT a good idea to store things in the corner above your cabinets.

4 weeks to go

Four weeks from today I will be rejoining the workforce.

I am a little nervous about it.

Justin and I had discussed before Jacob was born whether or not I would return to work afterward and we decided that we would see where things led us. A few months ago we decided that it would be nice if we had a little extra income so we could be saving for a bigger vehicle. Both of us have small vehicles and even though mine is older, Justin's is a piece of crap.

So I made arrangements with my boss to teach 1 class that meets 2 nights a week this fall. The good things about me teaching this class are:

• Class doesn't start until 7:35 pm. Hopefully Justin will be home in time before I have to leave for school (however it is busy season).
• It won't be a lot, but it will be a little extra income that we can start putting aside for another car.
• I have taught this class before. Even though I will have to re-write exams for the semester, I am familiar with all the material and the final exam is almost all written (almost because last fall school was canceled for a week due to Hurricane Ike so some of the material didn't get covered and I may end up changing a question or 2 from the final so that info is on there).
• It will be nice to get out of the house without lugging a diaper bag around.
• It will be good for my brain not to turn to mush.
  

The bad things about me teaching this class are:

• After being assigned the class, I found out that Justin will be out of town the first 2 weeks of the semester.
  
• A couple weeks after that I found out that Justin is supposed to go out of town for another couple weeks during the semester, meaning Justin will be gone a fourth of the semester.
• I am super worried about being prepared for class every day the way I should be. I will have to make sure I am prepared at least a week in advance just in case Jacob doesn't nap or something else makes it so I'm not able to prepare for class the day of. I'm a procrastinator, so I hope that I am always prepared in advance.

I think what I am the most worried about is the fact that Justin will be gone and my whole purpose for teaching at night (as opposed to during the day) was so that Justin would here to take care of Jacob. The plus side here is that I have the best friends ever who have all reassured me that they will be there for me and help me out. It still makes me nervous though since I will need to leave for class around 7pm and I am usually putting Jacob in bed between 7 and 8 every night and this means his night-time routine will definitely hit some bumps those weeks when Justin is gone. I have to admit, I have really been thinking how much easier it would have been for me to teach during the day and find someone to watch Jacob than at night like this.

Let's keep our fingers crossed!

7 months old already

It is hard to believe that our little miracle baby is already 7 months old. Here he is looking all cute:
It seems that it takes 2 people to get Jacob to smile when the camera is out. Since Justin is out of town and wasn't here to help me take the picture I couldn't get one with a smile. I think he is just too confused by the camera or something.

The past month has been full of ups and downs. Jacob is not doing well with "solid" food. We thought he was just having a problem with rice cereal, so after a few tries we moved on to oatmeal cereal. He just doesn't seem to like it. After a few bites he is totally done. But he really wants any food we are eating, so I think he just realizes that baby food is nasty. We will keep trying. We did have him try squash a couple times. Mixed reviews on that one.

Jacob is still rolling all over the place, and in fact he rolled right off our bed a few days ago. I felt completely awful about it, but he only cried for about a minute, was clingy for about a minute or two after that and then was fine. With rolling, he has learned that it really is better to be on his tummy than on his back. I am glad that I don't have to help him roll back onto his back all the time anymore.
Before it seemed that Jacob was rolling aimlessly, but now he rolls with a purpose. He will see something that he wants and he sets out for it. He has done a little creeping, but it is mainly by rolling that he gets where he wants.

Over the past month Jacob has started to make more sounds than just cooing all the time. The other day he said "ama", so I think we will hear "mama" from him before we hear "dada". Not that he will know he is talking about me when he first says it, but I will be excited nonetheless.

Jacob has also mastered another trick over the past few days:
He can sit up for a few minutes before he topples over! He usually just slowly falls over, but he has taken a few hard spills that end up with a bonked head and a screaming baby, so I decided to start putting the boppy around him to keep us both happy.

In the past month, Jacob has learned to nap pretty well (not counting the last few days when I don't think he has been feeling all that great). He typically only takes one nap a day for about 2 hours, however sometimes he will take an hour nap and then later take an hour and a half nap. I am loving that he naps and I am actually able to get a few things done around the house.

Jacob loves it when Justin comes home from work and he will lay in Justin's arms and tell him all about his day. He also loves to play with Justin by having Justin pretend to "eat" his stomach. He loves it more than blowing on his stomach, but he loves it best when Daddy does it (as opposed to when I do it) .

It is hard to believe that he is 7 months old and that he is getting so big. I looked at the first picture we took of him next to his elephant when he was 1 month old and was shocked at how big my baby is getting. Who told him he could grow up so fast?

Six Month Stats

I am such a slacker. Monday I took Jacob in for his 6-month check up and all week I have thought "I'll wait to post the stats until I have a cute picture of him to put with it." Of course, in order to get a cute picture I would have to get the camera out.

Jacob weighed in on the 22nd at 15.3 pounds which put him at 12th percentile for his weight. I have to admit being surprised about this one. The doctor is still pleased with his weight gain - up 2.5 pounds since his 4 month visit, but I am surprised he went from 15th percentile for weight down to 12th. I realize that he is still small for his age, but I don't think he is that small. I think there was a screw up. Anyway.

Jacob grew 2 inches in the last 2 months and is now 25.5 inches long (15th percentile) and his head grew to 42 cm (10th percentile). Both of these had measured in at the 5th percentile for his 4 month check up.

Over the last week, Jacob has decided not to sleep through the night and that he needs to eat sometime between 1am and 3am. We have been given advice from a couple different people to simply console and soothe him and put him back to bed. Maybe that works for their kids because their kids aren't really hungry when they wake up in the middle of the night. But this is one of the only times that Jacob really screams. He feels like he is starving. I will just keep hoping that Jacob goes back to sleeping 9-10 hours before waking up hungry.

He has also started to try to get somewhere, which at this point he has to accomplish by rolling. He acts like he wants to crawl, but really doesn't have the strength yet to hold himself up enough to really attempt it. He is getting stronger and stronger everyday though as he realizes that being on his tummy can be pretty fun afterall. And I think that he has made the connection that if he wants to go somewhere, he will have to do it on his tummy and not his back.

Here is Jacob from when he rolled himself under his activity jumper. I guess it can be as fun underneath as it is sitting inside. Justin and I were both pretty impressed that he rolled over the bar without a single noise to signify that rolling over the bar didn't feel good. Silly kid.

Six Months Old!

It is hard to believe that our little guy is already half a year old. One picture shows him smiling, the other really shows how big he is getting.

Jacob is really growing up - he loves to roll over from his back to his tummy. He is getting lots better at being on his tummy, although after a while he is really ready to be back on his back, but he has a hard time getting there. He really wants to be mobile, but lucky for us he isn't there yet.

A couple weeks ago we attempted to start Jacob on rice cereal, but he wasn't taking to it so well and after a few days of trial, he was spitting up a lot so we quit. Today we tried again and he is taking to it far better! He has also made the move into his crib in his own bedroom and seems to be doing great. We think that he is sleeping better and we like having our room back to ourselves. Now to get his little mini-crib moved out of our room so I have better access to my dresser.

As Jacob has gotten bigger, he has become very squirmy - especially during church. He loves playing with his daddy and sticking his tongue out when Justin plays with him.

Jacob's 6-month check up isn't until the 22nd, so we'll have stats up in about a week.

One drama after another

It seems like it is one thing after another in our family. I'm sure everyone feels that way, but I just have to say that I hope that we are done with hospitals for a while.

I am guessing that Justin's body was going through withdrawals and missing all the attention of being in the hospital so he needed a trip to the ER on Thursday night.

Justin was bathing Jacob and after getting him out of the tub and handing him off to me to get ready for bed, Justin complained that his back was hurting him. Those who don't know Justin very well probably don't know that Justin is NOT a complainer. I am the complainer in the family. In fact, Justin doesn't complain to the extent that a lot of people didn't realize how sick he was when he was suffering through ulcerative colitis and needed his large intestine removed. After just another minute or so, he said, "My back is really killing me - I think I need to go soak in the tub."

After a soak in the tub, that didn't do much to help, Justin decided to take a vicodin (leftover from surgery #3) and take a rest in bed for a while. After about a half an hour, the pain was so intense that he threw up and decided to try to soak again.

We called the "Ask-a-Nurse" through our insurance, and after Justin answered a lot of questions about the type of pain, where it was located and the intensity we were instructed to go to an ER. I called my mom (because I always call my mom at times like these) and she asked if Justin could be having a problem with kidney stones. And we thought that I was the only one in our family that had kidney stones.

After being at the hospital for a couple hours, we were told that it was in fact kidney stones. We didn't get home from the hospital until 1:30am and after I put Jacob back to bed and made sure Justin was ok, I went to a 24 hour pharmacy to have the prescription for pain-killers filled (which according to Justin is way better than vicodin).

I'm guessing that most of our blog readers are lucky enough to not know how painful kidney stones are. When I went through them (twice) before I was told that the pain of kidney stones rivals the pain of labor. Having now experienced both, I would have to agree. I did think that my labor pain was worse than the pain of the kidney stones, but not by much. And I never experienced regular contractions - only the ones brought on by pitocin (and my understanding is that these are far more evil contractions than non-induced ones are).

Now we are hoping to be able to make it at least a few months with no more medical problems or sicknesses!

Swim time

Today we took Jacob swimming for the first time. It was a lot of preparation for a little bit of time at the pool, but we think we have everything we need for the summer to visit the pool (first time we have been to our neighborhood's pool). We know it is important to protect any baby's skin in the sun but Justin and I are both so fair-skinned, Jacob doesn't have a chance. We dowsed him with baby sunscreen, put a UV protectant shirt on him, he's got a hat, and his float is equipped with a shade.Jacob didn't know what to think at first. Then he got used to being in the water and seemed to be having lots of fun. Then he was done and ready to go home. All in all, we were there for about 40 minutes.

Traveling

In the past year, we have been lucky enough to have Justin here in town for 48 out of 52 weeks. That will soon be changing though since Justin may be gone part of next week, will be gone 2 weeks in July, 5 weeks in Aug/Sept and probably another week that I don't have a time frame for yet.

Whenever Justin travels (which we are very used to - the first 3 years of our marriage Justin was gone more than he was home) we try to look at the positives. He gets frequent flyer miles as well as hotel points which has saved us lots when we take our own trips. And it usually saves us money for him to be gone since we are only feeding him for 2 or 3 days out of the week and the rest of the time it is on someone else's dime.

We have now learned that we will no longer be saving money when he travels though. PWC has now said that lunches, even if you are traveling, must be paid out of your own pocket. The thought process being that if you are in town, you would be buying your own lunch, so when you are out of town you should buy your own lunch as well.

Is Justin the only one at PWC (this is a nationwide policy - not just his office) who takes his lunch to work? Going out to lunch adds up rapidly! The cost of going to lunch (not even a really nice lunch) is about equal to the cost of breakfast, lunch and dinner eaten at home. Even when we were both working full-time, we rarely went out to lunch when we were in our offices.

BOOO PWC on such a bad policy!