All About the Hands

Jacob has recently discovered his hands and seems to be grabbing onto everything! He had my necklace in his hand the other day and Dan saved the day by letting me know this before it got ripped off. I quickly washed all of these little toys that we have for him so he can begin to play with them. It is so much fun to watch him begin to play with toys now. He now grabs onto toys that dangle from his playmat and he even put one in his mouth the other day! Here is a picture of him in his Jumperoo for the first time.

Jacob also has graduated into his baby bath tub (we had been using the hammock that fit on top). Jacob's new thing is to poop after about a minute of sitting in the tub. Why he can't do this before bathtime is beyond me. Anyways, the hammock was becoming cumbersone in the clean-up process, so it got removed and he now gets to sit in his tub like a big boy. Dan now has to assist me because Jacob is so squirmy that he slides down and won't stay in one place. For fun, we put his swim trunks on him after his bath the other night and let him play in the water. He will outgrow these trunks before summertime, so we figured we might as well get some use out of them while they still fit :)

As an update to last week's post, Jacob is doing better at bottle-feeding. He still isn't the greatest fan of this form of eating, but he can easily be coaxed into taking his bottle with a little rocking and/or using the pacificer-switching trick. Who knows what caused him to suddenly fear the bottle, but I am SOOOO thankful that he is taking it again!!

He woke up yesterday morning with a right eye infection, so back to the doctor we went. It turns out that he has pink eye, most likely from his cold and his need to put his hands in his mouth and then in his eyes. This is the second infection he has gotten in four weeks!! The eye drops must be working because it already looked much better this morning. Most of you know how much of a germ-phobe I am and that I am a freak about washing my hands, so you can imagine how much the hands are getting washed now!! It is such a conflicting feeling to want to hold and play with Jacob, but also look at him like he is the plague :)

Dan's mom visited last Sunday and Jacob was so alert and good while she was here. He actually was awake from about 6:30 in the morning to about 5:00 that afternoon. Yikes!! Needless to say, he did not last very long in church, especially after a very loud rumble in his pants during communion that sent Dan and I into a fitful laughter during the prayer! We are so mature :) It was great to see him so alert, but by 5:00 I rocked him awhile so he could go to sleep. I guess he figured that he wanted to spend quality time with us during the weekend since he can catch up on sleep at daycare while we are at work :)

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!!

Angela

Little Stinker

Jacob is turning into quite the stubborn boy these days. He decided Saturday night that eating wasn't for him anymore and rejected me and the bottle. This went on until Sunday night, although he did eat a few times in between. His longest stretch of refusal was eight hours on Sunday, which sent me into complete panic-mode. He eventually decided that he liked to nurse again, but the bottle continues to be off-limits for some reason. Since I am working full-time, this has turned into quite the problem. He did take two bottles at daycare on Monday (after 30-minute temper-tantrums) but I had to go nurse him during the day yesterday. This could be happening for a number of reasons - teething, the medicine he is on for an ear infection is upsetting his stomach, he wants more attachment to me, or it could just be a phase that will pass. Whatever the reason, I am hoping that this problems resolves soon, because leaving work 2-3 times a day to nurse will get tiresome fast, not to mention even more stressful due to having to miss work.

On a happier note, Jacob did great posing for his pictures on Saturday. We actually got lots of smiles! The photo session did, however, come to a crashing halt when he pooped in his diaper and then got really fussy. We would have had one more outfit change if it weren't for that, but we are so thankful that we got as many good pictures as we did. Hope that everyone enjoyed his pictures that I sent out. I failed to mention in that e-mail that those were the raw pictures and the ones that we had printed were edited and looked much better. I was just too lazy to edit them at home!

That's all for now, but if anyone has any suggestions for me on what to do about Jacob rejecting the bottle right now, I would love to hear from you!!

Angela

First Tooth!!

Yes, that's right our 12-week old sprouted his first tooth last week. I discovered this as I was feeding him on Saturday and was shocked to see something white in his mouth. It is located in his lower middle and has already come through the gum significantly. I have no idea when this happened because Jacob showed no signs of discomfort or that anything was wrong. He has been drooling a lot lately, but I just figured it was because that is what babies do! He has a couple of other spots that look like other teeth are trying to come through as well. I'm a little sad that he is already getting teeth because everything I have read says that it usually happens between 4-7 months and I don't want him to grow up any quicker than he already is. On the otherhand, I'm happy that he isn't extra fussy or showing signs of being in pain.

We had a relatively nice weekend. I went out Friday night with a couple of friends and saw the movie Juno - definitely a good movie to see. We slept in on Saturday and Jacob got a visit from his Grandpa who bought him a bumbo seat. He is almost ready for it, just needs to get a little more head strength. We put him in it anyways and got a good picture of him in it. It makes him look even heftier than he already is! I can't wait until he can safely sit in it so he can watch his Little Einstein movies without me holding him so I can get some things done while he is entertained :) Dan and his brother went to the ISU basketball game Saturday night, which was sold out since it was against Bradley. His brother is a Bradley alum and Dan loved that ISU won - always something to compete against each other on. We decided to stay home from church yesterday since we didn't think it was a good idea to take Jacob out in zero-degree weather. I got the house cleaned and laundry done while Dan watched Jacob and it feels so good to have the house clean again!!

This week should be relatively non-eventful. Jacob's infant room is having a Valentine's Day party on Thursday and he can bring cards to exchange if he (us) want to. I'm still debating on whether it is worth it or not. On one hand, it seems silly for babies to exchange cards, but on the otherhand, I don't want him to be the only one not participating. I'm making small treat bags for his teachers, but it is more of a thank-you for putting up with my anal-retentiveness :)

We're getting Jacob's three-month pictures taken on Saturday, which should be fun. I'm crossing my fingers that he cooperates. We tested out some clothes on him on Saturday and he did NOT like that at all. I figure that we'll start him out in the outfit that we want the most pictures in because he may not make it through multiple outfit changes.

On a personal victory, I am wearing my wedding ring for the first time in six months! It is still a little tight, but I am glad that I was patient in seeing if it would fit again before getting it resized.

Angela