Guitar lady comes to visit

I have to share this picture from Jacob's daycare that I got yesterday.  His daycare started sending us pictures during the day recently and I love getting to see him having fun.  Makes the part in the morning when I leave him crying much better because I know that he loves it the minute I am gone. 

The caption said: Jacob loved having the Guitar Lady come in, play her guitar and act with her turtle puppet. He was showing her his dance moves and head bobbing. It was priceless! :)

This made me laugh because when I saw the picture of him up front and center (in the green shirt and shorts - birthday gift from his Aunt Sommer and Uncle John) I was thinking that I bet he loved it.  He loves music so much.  We have a bluetooth speaker we bought recently for our kitchen and when we make dinner every night we play toddler pandora music on it and he just loves to dance.  He wiggles his hips and bobs his head - no matter the day I've had, seeing him do that makes my day.  So I can only imagine what real live music sounded like for him!  The teacher told Brian when he picked her up that a lot of the other kids were scared of her and Jacob just LOVED her. 

He also loves recess at school.  I had to pick him up early on Friday for his 15 month check-up and they were out at recess.  It was like 100 degrees and roasting.  Most of the other kids were sitting under the shade, but Jacob was staning at the fence (wrought iron, so see-through) watching the older kids at their recess - I think he was jealous because they have more fun things to do since they're bigger! 

His 15 month check-up went well.  24.5 pounds (50%), his head and height are 75%, so he's taller than wide.  He passed everything well except we are going to have a speech therapist come work with him at least once (paid for by the state of Colorado so kids don't fall behind) to try to help his vocabulary a bit.  He still isn't talking much but I hear him trying new words almost every day, so I'm not too worried about it, I think he was just so focused on gross motor development that he fell behind in fine motor and speech.  But, it's free and absolutely can't hurt him, so might as well get a few tips and tricks to help him continue to thrive. 

One more funny story about daycare.  He always hates dropoff in the morning and cries every day.  Today there were 3 girls already there for some reason and when we got there he didn't even cry when I left.  Brian said he's got to be manly in front of the ladies - LOL! 

Jacob at 15 months

I promised an update on Jacob and now I can do it!  Emotionally I'm feeling a lot more back to normal and this crazy child of mine lights up my life every day. 

Jacob after getting a haircut.  July 2013

Jacob is 15 months, it's insane to think that my teeny tiny newborn is now running all over the house getting into EVERYTHING.  I mean everything.  You put a room full of safe toys and there is ONE thing he shouldn't play with and you better believe he finds that one thing, ha!  He loves going up to the receiver on the TV and hitting all the buttons.  The best part is that he knows he shouldn't.  He will go right up and look at you and then pointedly (is that a word?) push it.  He also loves banging on the glass fireplace, getting into the trash, and trying to pull out our glass lids and Le Cruset pots.  We have a gate to keep him in the kitchen, nook, and family room, but if the gate is left ajar he spots it like an eagle and bolts!  He runs right to the stairs which is also something he knows he's not supposed to do.  If he thinks he has more time before he gets caught he'll stop to play in the dog's water.  His newest thing he just started doing was chewing on the corners of our cabinets where there is a little rubber stopper to keep the door from slamming.  What - a - stinker!!  He love playing outside.  He will run down our driveway, try to eat rocks, and run down the sidewalk yelling the whole way (he loves making noise too).  He takes years off my life with worrying about him and yet he fills my heart with SO MUCH joy it's incomprehensible most day. 

We love our new house and I think Jacob does too.  Our neighbors are all so great and most of them have younger kids.  The family across the street has a 5 year old and a 2 year old and Jacob loves the 5 year old girl. She will come run with him on the driveway and he gives her such big hugs.  Brian said he likes older women already :) 

He loves Gracie and loves throwing her his food when he's done eating.  His favorite food right now is yogurt, he could eat it all day every day and be happy.  He also loves pancakes, meat, and cheese.  He has yet to eat any steamed veggies but he will eat veggies out of pouches.  He also likes sitting on our lap and eating what we're eating (but heaven forbid we put our food on his tray, he wants to eat it off our fork) :)



Here are a few pictures of Jacob that make me smile (I have a million of them, so tried to just pick a few to show his personality and pretty hair).  The one of him standing on the box cracks me up because I forgot to mention that is his new favorite thing.  He loves climbing and dangerous boxes that could collapse at any moment are his absolute favorite!  I have brought up an upside down laundry basket that is way more sturdy and he still picks the stupid box time after time.  So funny.

I hope you can tell through the computer I am sarcastic and we talk about our crazy baby all the time but we couldn't love him any more if we tried.  In fact I have to run because I have to go get him from daycare and take him to his 15 month wellcare check at the ped.  I think we're getting the last of the series of shots and I heard a rumor shots go down from here, so just have to get through today.  I'm excited to see how much he weighs and how he's doing for his age with development as well.  I'll try to post an update soon.

Where has the summer gone?!

Holy cow, it is almost September and my baby is almost 15 months old!  I have so much catching up to do on here and so many wonderful things that Jacob is doing now, and I will try to go into details and stories soon.

Jacob turned 1 year old on June 1.  The day was tough for me because I had just found out the day before that I had a miscarriage.  I wasn't even supposed to be able to get pregnant and suddenly a week before his birthday I took an old expired pregnancy test on a whim and sure enough two strong double lines.  It was not something that was planned but very much wanted.  To find out the baby wasn't going to stick was very hard to hear.  All the years of trying so hard to get pregnant before Jacob and then to find out I may possibly be able to get pregnant and then have that ripped away was very sad.  The only thing it did was give me hope.  Hope that I might be able to get pregnant after all, and maybe this one loss was just a fluke.  I tried so hard to enjoy Jacob's day.  I made a homemade cake and had fun decorations I had purchased online.  He had a great time, went wild on his cake and had fun opening presents.  I need to find where the pics I took went so I can upload some. 

Two months later (two weeks ago) I found out I was pregnant again.  What the heck?!  I am suddenly Fertile Myrtle.  I was so scared to get excited since the last one ended badly.  This one ended the same way.  The second hcg didn't double as it should, but it still increased.  We did a third hcg and that one only increased a tiny amount.  We knew it was another miscarriage.  Two in three months.  To say that this has been hard on me in an understatement.  That's kind of why I needed to write to get some feelings out.  My mother had a miscarriage before she got pregnant with Doug, so she understands and has been very supportive, calling me to see how I'm doing, taking me to lunch, etc.  The rest of the family I guess doesn't understand having never been through it and I know they have lives of their own and problems of their own.  I'm coming to terms with that, but I have been very withdrawn lately.  I guess in my mind I envisioned a different level of support.  Many of them I haven't seen in months and we haven't talked much either.  I am so blessed to have a fabulous IVF support group.  We've all become very very close, even though the relationships mostly exist online, I've now met many of them through travels and girls who lived locally.  They have all been through miscarriages plus infertility and know just what to say - I really don't think I could have gotten through this without them.  I think this is extra tough for me because it's the realization that I probably cannot have a healthy baby naturally.  So I have to decide to prevent any more pregnancies so I don't have to keep going through miscarriages or keep trying and hoping one will stick.  The odds aren't great.  My OB tells me to do IVF again (HA - if she wants to fork over the cash, I'm all for it).  I am so so lucky that I have Jacob already and that his embryo decided to stick and that he's so healthy.  I have been crying every night putting him to bed singing "you are my sunshine" because he is SUCH a blessing, and if he's the only child that I get, I will still be eternally grateful to God for giving him to me.  I will hope that he will be a less than typical guy who will call his mother often and stay in-state for college and marry a wonderful girl that I can spoil like my daughter :)

A more uplifting post coming soon, I promise :)

Where has the time gone?

Holy cow, my sweet baby boy is almost 11 months old!  I was looking back at my last blog post and it feels like it has been such a long time since then.  He changes absolutely every day. 

Things he is doing now at almost 11 months is pulling up on EVERYTHING, walking around furniture.  Bending down to pick up toys and standing back up again.  He still rarely crawls the way you picture crawling.  He does this swimming frog crawl on his belly, and boy does he fly!  He does NOT sit still for a second anymore.  He is also going up the stairs now, but doesn't do it very well.  He always looks back to see if you're there and then falls back into your arms.  You cannot take your eyes off of him for a SECOND!  We put him in his walker a lot because then he can't get into things or go up the stairs. 

He has the absolute best personality, I couldn't love him any more.  He loves to play games and he laughs all the time.  He is sick today so he has been a little fussy, but he's usually very good natured (though demanding at times).  He loves watching Baby Einsteins and thinks out tablet is "his".  Sleeping through the night lasted several weeks when he was 7 months and hasn't happened again.  He went through a horrible sleep time at 9 months (right about the time we moved in with mom and dad - see below).  I think it was a wonder week plus moving to a new house.  It was horrible.  He's back to mostly just once a night, except last night he was so stuffy he couldn't sleep well, so he was up several times just crying, he didn't know why he didn't feel good, poor baby.  I think he's also cutting two molars, so I think he's sick plus teething molars = poor baby. 

Our house ended up going back under contract the first weekend we were back on the market and we got full asking price.  We moved in with mom and dad at the end of February and we are still living there.  We will close on our new house on June 13.  We are having a good time at mom and dad's and they spoil Jacob like crazy, but we are also very excited to have a house again.  I know I will miss all the help with Jacob and I will really miss my 2 minute commute (which will turn into 20+ minutes), but it feels like we've been there for longer than two months. 

Here's a pic of the house where it is right now:

 

Lots more going on, but that's all I have time for right now.  Will try to update sooner than 4 months :)

Jacob is 7 months old!

Two days ago Jacob turned 7 months old!  Time is really moving fast, I cannot believe my tiny baby boy is already 7 months old. 

Jacob is eating new foods every few days as we build up his food repertoir.  He is eating carrots, prunes, apples, peaches, bananas, butternut squash, peas, and sweet potatoes.  He has had plain yogurt a few times too, and of course baby oatmeal.  He is really eating a lot lately, about 4 ice cubes 3x a day plus 6 ounce bottles of milk every 2 to 3 hours.  The good news is that as a result of all of this food he is sleeping through the night most nights!  He will on occasion wake up in the middle of the night, but more often than not it's because he's filled his diaper and is leaking.  We have gone to overnight diapers one size up and that has helped a lot.  I'm sure it won't last forever and he'll be up soon again, but it is a great blessing right now! 

Jacob is sitting up pretty well on his own, but we still don't plop him down and walk away because he doesn't last too long and usually tumbles over after a few minutes!  He rolls all over the place, and spins too.  Last night he started crying about two hours after we put him in bed and I looked on the baby monitor and he was crying and spinning in circles over and over.  I have heard babies practice what they learn during the day in their sleep so you will often see a baby learning to crawl up on his hands and knees, but this was a first for me!  I was able to go up and give him his paci and pat his back and he eventually fell back asleep.  So even though he's not officially mobile yet, he definitely can work his way to where he wants to go!  Usually it's towards something we don't want him to have, like the fireplace hole in the floor (where you turn on the pilot light I think) or towards a dog or phone :)  What a stinker. 

He is also cutting at least two more teeth which will bring him to 7 teeth total.  The 6th has broken through and the 7th is about to.  He gets a little fussy when he's teething, but not outrageously so.  I really think the amber necklace has worked wonders.  I know Brian still says he doesn't really believe in it, but he puts it on him every day and around his ankle every night, so I think he believes more than he lets on :)  It has helped us not have to give tylenol or other numbing meds, so finger's crossed that continues on.

He is so funny with his actions lately.  He likes to roll onto his side and life his arm and leg up in the air, like a yoga move.  When he lays on his back he loves to vigorously shake his head side to side and usually gets his whole body in on the action, it cracks me up!  He also likes to shreak really loudly which scares our dogs because they don't like high pitch noises!  His favorite toy is still his jumper where he can get out a lot of energy, but he is also liking more interactive toys like some vtech toys that he got for Christmas. 

New Year's this year was nothing very exciting.  Brian worked 9-9, so we weren't planning on doing anything anyway.  The contract on our house unfortunately fell through on New Year's Eve also.  The buyers insisted on a new roof from the inspection even though we had a letter from our insurance company and a 3rd party roofer that our roof was in sound condition.  We are very frustrated to get back to square one and have showings again, but we hope the next buyers will be easier to work with than these people had been.  We had a showing New Year's Eve from some couple who called on our house last week when we were under contract.  My realtor called them back and they came and took a tour.  I guess they really liked the house, so now we're waiting to see if they make an offer.  The good news is they didn't have a realtor so if my realtor makes the sale he can cut down some of his fees so we can make a little more profit on the house.  At this point I don't care, I just want to get it sold.  I am nervous we will lose our new house as a result if we don't get our house sold in the next 60 days, and that is crushing.  We are so excited about this house, I just have to pray that God knows a lot more than I do about what's best for us, and it will definitely work out. 

In other house news, they broke ground at our new house!  I got the email the day after we went back up on the market, so it was kind of bittersweet.  We go next Friday to pick out all of our finishes in the new house and I REALLY hope we have a contract by then so I can enjoy the process more.  I haven't told my contact at Richmond yet about our house going back up on the market, I'm hoping to keep it on the DL until we are under contract again so she doesn't make us sign the addendum to penalize us more if it falls through (to break our contract when we're under contract is a $250 penalty - to break our contract if we are just for sale is a $1500 penalty - yikes!)