Fall Pictures

Jacob is almost 9 months!

I have tons of photos that I want to share, but I will post them later. Here's an update on how the Furlong family is doing:

Jacob is growing up so quick. He went from army crawling to pulling himself up in 1.5 months! He still does the army crawl most of the time, he finds it quicker than trying to put one knee in front of the other knee. He’s pretty slow still with the traditional crawl. This last week he started sitting from a crawling position. He loves to pull himself up on boxes, he thinks he’s hot stuff that he’s standing up! His favorite things to play with are cords (which he doesn’t get to play with) and anything that he can press buttons to make noise. He also likes to spin the wheels on cars and Emma’s Little Einstein Rocket. He’ll find a car and army crawl all the way to the tile to make it roll on the tile. Pretty smart! He has two bottom teeth that are growing fast. They are broken all the way through, so the whining is over for now. Teething has been pretty rough for him. He mimics us when we are talking. He tries to say ma ma or da da, but it usually comes out Ba, ba, ba, ba…. And he’ll go back and forth with a short “aahh” between us. He’s eating 2nd foods now, I tried the 3rd foods, but they were too thick and he gagged on them. So we will stick to the 2nd foods for awhile. He still thinks his sister is funny stuff and laughs at her all the time. Jacob is such a Momma’s boy still, he wines and cries for me if he sees me and someone else has him and then is very happy when I come and get him. But he is becoming more of a Daddy’s boy lately. He starts crying immediately a panic cry if someone other than Mommy, Daddy, or Grandma holds him. I hope he grows out of that soon!

Emma is getting really good at recognizing her ABC’s. We bought her Dora letters that she can stick on the wall of the bathtub, she loves spelling simple words like CAT and DOG and EMMA. Last night she decided to spell her name EMMB because the A was already used in the word CAT. She didn’t want to mess it up. She loves coloring and she likes to trace any letters she sees in her coloring books. She’s even pointing to the words in her books and having me read them. I think she finally gets the concept that we read left to right. For the longest time she would point to pictures from right to left. She’s still very headstrong and when she has her mind set on something, it’s hard to convince her otherwise. In October she got to go to 2 pumpkin patches. We went to a very commercialized pumpkin patch as a family. It had all kinds of games to play and rides to ride. She rode on ponies, bounced in the bouncy blow up ride, rode on a cow train, and walked a straw maze. It was a great time. Then with her daycare we went to a more traditional pumpkin patch where she got to feed goats and turkeys, pet ponies, and pick out her own little pumpkin. That was fun too. We carved 2 pumpkins this year and Emma loved helping but hated pulling out the seeds. She said they were too slimy. But then she helped me sort the seeds to roast them. She really loved eating the roasted pumpkin seeds.

Jerrod is finally back to work, he started back the first of this month. He is doing really well. We haven’t been back to the Dr. for the final appointment, due to not being able to afford the trip, but the last time we went, the Dr. said that he thought Jerrod represented the best case scenario. Praise Jesus for a great range of motion! He is done with his therapy sessions and I am continuing to stretch his arm at home. He still can’t lift a lot with that arm, I am sure that will take some time still.

As for me, I am enjoying my family tremendously. It is nice to have a husband back in commission that can help around the house and with the kiddos. And he has been absolutely wonderful. He has been cooking every evening, I don’t even remember the last time I cooked a meal. And he cooks wonderful, tasty meals! He’s great with the kids and they love their daddy! This last weekend we put up our Christmas tree and decorations. I know it’s early, but we usually don’t have time the weekend after Thanksgiving. We thought it would be nice to enjoy it longer this year. It is beautiful and has gotten us all in the mood for Christmas!

update on Jerrod

Jerrod is doing great! He is reaching the back of his neck, which is something that he has not been able to do for 4 months now. He is staying on the CPM machine as much as possible, even though the dr. said he only has to stay on it 8 hours a day now since it is past 3 days after surgery. He is starting to go stir crazy, thankfully he gets to get out and go to therapy every day. His elbow has a HUGE bruise on it from the surgery, but it looks like it's starting to heal. His range of motion is absolutely amazing, hopefully after all of this he won't be able to tell the difference between his right and left arm ranges. That would be wonderful! He's able to help me some already with Emma and Jacob, which is much different from the last surgery and something I'm very thankful for. Thank you for all of your prayers! Praise Jesus for a wonderful recovery so far.

"A Robot is moving Daddy's Arm!" --Emma

We have lots of praise to give our Lord Jesus Christ tonight. The Dr. was able to get to 120 degrees flection and 20 degrees extension officially, however the physician assistant told Jerrod that he actually got further than that. We got home early this evening and got Jerrod set up in the bed with the CPM (Constant Passive Motion) machine. Right now he already has a range of motion with the machine of 120 degrees flection and 15 degrees extension. Wow! Already! He is planning on uping it more in the wee hours of the morning. Praise Jesus! Praise Jesus! His arm is numb from the nerve block (it's working so far--yay!) He can feel it stretch some and a little pain during the stretches, but it is minimal. Thank you all so much for your prayers! Please continue to pray that Jerrod will be able to keep this range of motion. Also pray for his therapy sessions that they are a huge success. Please also pray for the therapist, as it takes a lot out of her to stretch Jerrod's arm. Also please pray for our financial situation, as all these trips to Indy have taken our toll on our finances. And lastly, please pray for me and the kiddos, as this time is a bit stressful for all of us.

Jerrod's surgery

Jerrod will be having his arm manipulated tomorrow (Wed Sept 24) in Indianapolis. Please pray that the Dr. will be able to tear through lots of scar tissue and Jerrod will have a really good range of motion afterwards. Also please be in prayer for Jerrod's recovery, as it will be quite painful!

More pictures and a video

Here's some cute pictures of Jacob and a fun video. I love that he tries to stick his head in the box!

Some pictures

Emma, my baby girl isn't a baby anymore!

Jacob, he's still my baby boy


Emma and Jacob playing

Emma being a dinasaur at the Children's museum

Emma under a black light at the Children's museum

Emma driving an Indy car

Say cheese!

It was cold at the zoo and I wasn't prepared so Jacob had to wear Emma's sweatshirt!

Mmmm! Yummy!

Emma got a new car. She's a pretty good driver, but she did almost run me over!

Long overdue update

So I decided to opt out of putting away clothes and instead write this. I'll post some pictures later, but I thought it might be good to just write an update. The last month and half has seemed to fly by. Jacob had his six month appointment on 9-11. He has had a tough month. He came down with Hand, Foot, Mouth disease. Which caught us off guard when the Dr. told us what it was. Jerrod called it mad cow disease because it sounds like hoof and mouth disease. It causes very painful sores in the throat and sometimes on the feet and hands. In Jacob's case he had sores in his throat, a couple of sores on his big toes, and a very bad rash all over his body. It affects babies more than older children and adults. I think Emma might have brought it home from school, but all she had was a mystery fever with no symptoms. The Dr. declared him healed from that and he looked nice and healthy. He slimmed down a bit, the Dr. seems to think it was because he was sick. He's now in the 50th percentile in height and weight. He still needs some support while sitting up so he won't fall and hit his head. He's rolling over REALLY well and somehow rolls and pushes himself to get toys that are out of arms reach. He has super grabby hands and I have to make sure nothing is in front of him if he sits on my lap at the dinner table. He's sitting in a highchair now, so he can join us at the table while we eat. I have to make sure he has plenty of toys in front of him when we start. Somehow they all end up on the floor. Jacob has started eating rice cereal. He really likes it and lunges into the spoon, which makes it quite challenging to feed him.

Emma is getting to be such a big girl. Today I was thinking that maybe, just maybe the terrible two attitudes and fits were mostly over. She is so smart and witty and she keeps us laughing. She teases us all the time now, which tells me that she has quite the sense of humor. She's getting really good (3 yr old good) at coloring. She is getting closer at coloring inside the lines. She changed classrooms and teachers in August, which we were a bit worried about because of how shy she is. She didn't have nearly as hard of a time as we thought she would. She loves her new teacher and classroom. At school, she is doing some really cool projects. She did a book of her family, which was way cool. She is so loving toward Jacob and hardly ever shows any kind of jealousy. She loves sharing her toys with him and she also really likes playing with his toys. She has learned that she has to trade him toys if she wants to play with the one that he is playing with. This last weekend we went to Indianapolis for Jerrod's Dr. appointment. We got to stay at the "duckie hotel" (Homewood suites--a duck is their mascot). Their pool was pretty warm and Jacob got to go swimming too. We got to go to the zoo and the Children's Museum. The zoo was a bonus because the Children's Museum is closed on Mondays, which we didn't know until we got there. Major disapointment! She cried and cried. I cried too. So we went to the zoo instead. So on Tuesday morning we had to make a quick trip to the Children's Museum because she was sooo looking forward to it. Jerrod's appointment wasn't until early afternoon, so it worked out great. The zoo was a bit cold, but still fun. And the Children's museum was way cool, lots of hands on stuff for Emma to do. It was really fun!

Jerrod's Dr. appointment did not bring great news. He is not progressing as well as expected. Here's how Jerrod described what the Dr. has to do now:
We met with the Doctor yesterday in Indianapolis and he slated an outpatient surgery for the near future (still awaiting call for date). They will put me to sleep, place a 3 day paralyzing block on my right arm and wrench on it for 30 minutes, breaking up scar tissue to gain almost FULL movement. It has been described as "breaking chicken bones" This is a blessing in that I might get tremendous amounts of motion, but it's going to hurt, really bad, despite pain meds after that block wears off. Immediatly after surgery, I go on a 24/7 machine that keeps my arm in motion with therapy daily. The doc believes that my elbow shows sufficient qualifications for me to have lost less than 10% - 20% range (Thats incredible) when we're done, but nothing is final until after the surgery
So, please join us and pray for Jerrod's elbow that he will regain more range of motion after all of this is over.

As for me, I'm hanging in there. In the last month I've had two bacterial infections that act a bit like strep, but the strep test came back negative. I'm done with my antibiotic and I can still feel it in my lymphnodes. I'm praying that my body will fight it instead of having to take more antibiotics. But if it gets worse again, I will definately get a blood test this time to figure out what it is! I'm really enjoying my family right now and I had a great time with just our immediate family in Indianapolis. It's still weird sometimes to think that I have 2 children and Jerrod and I are responsible for these two little lives!

Happy Birthday, Emma! 3 years old!

Ok, like usual life got in the way and I'm a bit late with this!

Wow! I can't believe she's already 3! Jerrod and I have said several times over the past month that we can't believe we have 2 kids, let alone that one of them is 3! We had a birthday party for Emma and her cousin, Jackson on Saturday. Emma's birthday is on the 18th and Jackson's is on the 19th. Jerrod made the cakes and did a GREAT job! Our house was full of princess decorations and balloons. She was so excited when she saw the princesses on the wall! She got all kinds of cool presents from everyone. A new big girl princess bike, a doctor's kit, an outfit for her dolly, princess placemats, a tinker bell dress up dress, books, the Little Einstein's Rocket & characters, and I'm probably missing a few others! We had a great time at her birthday party and it went perfectly (except it rained and we were planning on having it outside).

She loves going to new places and doing "special" stuff. She gets so excited when we tell her that we are doing something special. She loves the zoo and she loves to go to hotels and swim. (We've been doing a lot of that lately because of all our trips to Indy). Her favorite characters are the Little Einsteins, princesses, and Mickey Mouse clubhouse and she still likes Calliou alot. She's starting to get a sense of humor and she loves to be funny and tease!

Emma is getting to be such a big girl. She has relinquished the stroller to Jacob and walks now. She's really good at staying close to us (which I thought would never happen). Her obedience issues are getting so much better. She sometimes has tough days when she's not feeling well, but other than that she's really good at doing what we ask. She's at such a fun age and she makes us laugh all of the time. She loves her friends at school and her teachers too. She has a posse at school that includes two other girls. They are best of friends and they act just alike! Who knew at three she could have such good friends! She is completely potty trained. I still keep a pull up on her at night because when we tried a couple weeks without one she had a few accidents. But for the most part she keeps it dry at night. She loves singing songs by herself. Her favorite songs are Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, Jesus Loves Me, The B-I-B-L-E, Old MacDonald, the ABC's, B-I-N-G-O, and she also loves to make up songs (she gets this from her Dad!) She also likes it when we make up songs, she asks us to sing the wall song or the door song, etc, where we have to make it up as we go.

In Jacob news, he's five months old now. He is rolling over! Not just onto his belly, but back onto his back as well. He does it really quick! I'm not sure that Jerrod has seen it yet because I say, "look, he rolled over!" and as soon as Jerrod looks he's back onto his back. This happened about 3 times the other day :) He sounds like an Ewok when he talks, it is very funny! Emma and Jacob really love eachother. Emma loves to talk to him and Jacob talks and smiles back. We're trying really hard to teach Emma to always treat her brother nicely because she loves him. Can you teach them not to be rivals and instead always be friends? We're certainly going to try! Tonight is Jacob's first night in his own room. We set up his crib yesterday and he is sleeping in it tonight. He loves the mobile above him and before he went to sleep tonight he was trying to grab the animals on the sheets.

Jacob is 4 months old!

Jacob had his 4 month checkup today and 3 yucky shots. He didn't get horribly upset though, he just cried for a bit. He is 26 inches (90th percentile), 16 lbs 10 oz (85th percentile), 16 inch head circumference (10th percentile). So it looks like he is growing consistently. He just recently started to show some interest in trying to turn over. No success yet though. He actually fell asleep tonight on his side while he was trying to turn over. He plays really well with toys now, he'll reach out and grab the toy from my hand. He loves his play mat with the toys above him. He can also switch the toy from one hand to the other. He loves to just sit and watch all the activity going on around him. He loves his sister very much and I'm pretty sure he finds her very entertaining. He'll be sitting up very soon unsupported. He can sit up now very well supported. He's finally starting to stand up on my lap, he's a little behind when Emma started standing. I think Emma was about a month old when she started standing. Jacob loves to talk and smiles a lot when someone talks to him. He loves when Daddy talks to him! He still loves to suck his thumb and now he can get his whole fist in his mouth. He also has a bad habit of sucking on his arm and has actually left a line like bruise where he sucks on his arm.

Jerrod is doing pretty well. We are traveling to Elkhart 3 times a week in the morning for therapy. There are only 4 hand and arm therapist specialists in this area. 2 in South Bend and 2 in Elkhart. So we opted for the closer of the two cities. I am soooo thankful that I have the most awesome bosses in the whole world! I am taking a laptop and working during his therapy sessions. I am so blessed to have such flexibility in my job! They ordered a dynamic splint for Jerrod and we picked it up today. It cranks his arm up or out and holds it there. The point of it is to help his range of motion. In his last therapy session he got to 12 degrees out and 92 degrees up. The therapist is very happy with the 12 degrees. Of course when he gets home he can't replicate it.

Last week Jerrod had a Dr.'s appointment in Indy. I took an extra day off and we went to the zoo. We had a great time. Emma got to pet an elephant! Then she looked for the elephants the rest of the day. We finally found them, they were taking a bath in the river :) Emma loved the zoo and keeps asking to go back. We also saw the dolphin show and she got to ride a pony twice. She picked out small mini animals to take home with her.

This last Sunday the Merrill's came to visit for the morning. It was short, but a great time. Jeremiah and Emma love playing together. Jeremiah really liked Emma's truck.

Jacob is 3.5 months old and Jerrod is doing well

We went down yesterday to Indy to get Jerrod's staples out and see the Dr. and therapist. It was also our anniversary, the cool thing was that we got to go to the Cheesecake Factory between seeing the Dr. and the therapist. They told Jerrod to start moving his arm. The therapist gave him several excercises to do over the next 2 weeks until we see them again. Right now his arm is very week and it is a bit painful to do his excercises. The therapist said his degree of extension was 55 degrees. Please continue to pray for him that he will be able to get full extension and inflection back in his arm. We know it will be a long road, Jerrod is a bit impatient though. So please pray for his patience too. (The picture is of Emma wearing Daddy's splint) Also please pray for our financial situation. Jerrod will not be able to go back to work for about 3 months, so we are opting for the disability insurance that we have through work. However, the waiting period is 40 working days before compensation starts, so that is not until July 16th. And then it will probably be another week to 2 weeks before we see a paycheck.

Jacob is now 3.5 months old. He is growing so quickly! He's well into 3-6 month clothing. He's now talking, smiling, and laughing. He loves to play peekabooh. He thinks that it is sooo funny! He's sitting up really well with support. He really has shown no desire to start turning over. He's pretty content on his back. And the other day I put him on his tummy for tummy time (which I haven't really done because he has good head control) and instead of getting fussy, he fell asleep! He loves sucking on his fingers and likes his fingers more than he likes a pacifier. This is quite the opposite than Emma was. He's a pretty laid back little boy. His fussiness in the evening has subsided. He loves his sister and his sister loves him. She's really sweet to him. He is so cute and a complete joy!

Emma has been taking Daddy's injury pretty well. She's really careful and gentle. The other day she patted and kissed Daddy's "boo boo". She's had lots of fun hanging out with family. She got to go to Grandma and Grandpa's and play with her other cousins and Aunt Louisa yesterday. That was fun for her. The picture is of Emma with Curious George at the Children's Museum. The video is of Emma at Uncle Andrew and Aunt Lesley's a couple of weeks ago, the morning of Jerrod's surgery.

God is good!

Sorry it took me so long to do this update! I didn't have internet access in the hospital and got home very late last night and went back to the hospital early this morning. I got to come back to my brother's house before Emma went to bed tonight. It was nice to spend some time with her.

Jerrod's surgery was a complete success. Go God! The surgeon didn't have to guess where any piece went, the pieces lined up perfectly and they could save enough of the bone that he didn't have to have a bone graft. The surgeon moved Jerrod's arm while he was still out, he had FULL range of motion. This is such a HUGE answer to prayer! The surgeons in Goshen told him that he would not have even close to full range. And the surgeon in Indy thought he will have some limitations. Yay God!

Last night and this morning was really rough for Jerrod. His drip that went into his arm to keep it numb quit working last night. The anesthesiologist was not sure that it was in there correctly and it obviously was not. So they put him on a morphine drip through his IV that didn't really help with the pain until about 11am. He rated his pain this morning at a 10. That's probably a 20 for me! Jerrod has a pretty high tolerance for pain. Most of the pain was coming from his splint. It was squeezing his arm. The therapist came in about noon and redid the whole thing. He redressed it, put an ace bandage around it, and then molded a splint around his arm. It was sooo much more comfortable for Jerrod and it took away a lot of Jerrod's pain. His pain level was still at a range of 3 to 5 this evening, so they decided to keep him another night to try to get his pain under control. The dr. changed his pain meds to the highest he could give him. When I left, he was off his morphine drip and only on pain pills. So, hopefully all will go well overnight and he will get to come home tomorrow.

Emma has had a great time hanging out with her aunt and uncle and cousins. They went to the Indianapolis Children's Museum today and she had a great time! Tomorrow morning she gets to go to Grandma and Grandpa's house, she's pretty excited about that. Jacob has been hanging out with me at the hospital and has been no problem at all. My mom came down yesterday to keep me company and help take care of Jacob. I was very thankful that she was there! All the nurses ewwwed and ahhhed over him all day today.

Thank you so much for all of your prayers. We can definately see God working! It's still a long rode to recovery, but I think we're over the hump. The dr. said today that it would be about 3 months until Jerrod could return to work full time.

Update on Jerrod--surgery on Monday

Sorry this update is so late! We saw a specialist in Indianapolis on Tuesday afternoon. He said that Jerrod needed a bone graft to fill the gap that is basically just powder right now. They will take a bone from his wrist and put it in his elbow. Then they will put a plate with locking screws in his elbow. His wrist will heal in 8 weeks. He will be in a cast straight out for 2 weeks, then a sling for about 8 more weeks, and then rehab for about 20 more weeks. He will go into surgery Monday afternoon at 2pm. We have to be there at 12pm. Jerrod has to stay overnight in the hospital and will get to go home hopefully on Tuesday if everything goes well. Emma gets to spend some time with my brother and his family. She's pretty excited about that. She loves to play with them.

Please be in prayer for Jerrod's surgery that everything goes smoothly. Also pray that our travel to and from Indy is safe (we are leaving Sunday afternoon and will hopefully return Tuesday evening). Thanks so much for all of your prayers! I will try to update after his surgery.

We survived another day!

That's how we are feeling right now. I am definately in survival mode and Jerrod is just trying to control the pain. Thank you so much for all of the prayers that you all have said for us this week! Jerrod injured his right elbow last Tuesday, actually it's crushed into tiny pieces. We bought a Segway as our second mode of transportation to ride back and forth to work, we were pretty excited that it was saving us money in gas. Last Tuesday a retaining wall jumped out and stopped that Segway and threw Jerrod to the ground. Jerrod is actually pretty lucky that he just broke his elbow and the rest is scrapes and bruises. He was on the ground and tried to get up and stumbled back down, he said he felt like a war movie :) But then he got up again and rode it home! He got home, I looked at his elbow and said we're going to the Hospital right now! We spent all evening in the emergency room and they admitted him overnight to control the pain. Both kids were SUPER good at the hospital. Emma did everything that I expected her to. I was very proud of her. She sat in a chair and did not move or talk while the dr. was talking to us, which was a very long time. The rest of the week has been full of dr. appointments. We have two conflicting views from two different dr.'s in Goshen on what kind of surgery he will need. The orthopedic surgeon who saw him in the ER sent his CT scan down to a dr. in Indy to look at. We won't hear until Tues. whether we are doing surgery in Goshen or going to Indy. I think we have decided just to trust what the dr. in Indy says. The dr. put a cast on him for the weekend, which seems to be driving him batzode! Plus it's a lot heavier than the ACE bandages. The pain is greater now too, probably because the swelling is starting to go down. We are hoping that Jerrod will have surgery on Wed and not have to wait until Thur. We are hoping and praying that he will get full range of motion back. The dr. seems to think that he will have limited mobility, this thought really depresses Jerrod.

As for me, I now know how a single mom feels. I am sooo happy that this is only temporary. I'm surviving one day at a time. Both kids have been pretty good. And despite Emma having another cold, she seems not to be too clingy and winy this time. Praise Jesus! It takes all of Jerrod's energy to just get up off the couch, so he stays there with his arm up, unless he has to go to the bathroom. I'm hoping it will be a lot better after his surgery. After Jacob was born, I really relied on Jerrod to take care of Emma. He was doing almost all of the cooking and did everything for Emma. Tuesday this all stopped abruptly, I'm just really thankful that I am fully recovered from having Jacob! I don't get any time to sit down and rest. The only time I sit is when I feed Jacob or when Jacob is falling asleep. I went to Sam's club the other day and got all of the meals I could that I can just pop in the Microwave or oven without much prep. It's working out pretty well and it's really easy to fix dinner. It's been really nice out this weekend, so I put Jacob in the stroller and we've been spending a lot of time outside playing in the yard and riding Emma's tricycle in the street. She's really good at it and I think it's almost time for a real bike! We went and bought a helmet and elbow pads (Daddy seemed to think she should wear them on her elbows instead of her knees :) ) She picked out a Dora helmet.


Jacob is doing really well now. He is over his fussy period in the evening time. So thankfully I don't have to deal with that! I bought him a new play mat, he loves it! He's smiling a lot lately when he is talked to. He's also sitting up really well with support. He can be pulled up to a sitting position from a laying position by holding his hands and without supporting his head. Here's a video of him talking. It was taken a little over a week ago, and he talks even more now. Very cute!

2 months old!

Yesterday we went to Jacob's 2 month appointment. He weighs 14 pounds and is 24 inches long. Those are both in the 95th percentile. He's a big boy! His head however is 15 inches, which is only in the 10th percentile. He is starting to cooh and smile a lot. He also loves to watch fans and Emma and Daddy playing. We found out yesterday that Jacob has thrush, just in case you don't know what thrush is--it is a fungus/yeast infection in the mouth. I suspected it, and actually called the dr. about it, but they advised we just wait to see at his dr. appointment. I was on antibiotics that ended a couple of weeks ago and I think that is what made him get it. It spread to me and it has been very painful to nurse for a little under a week now. The dr. gave us both medicine, so hopefully we'll both be back to normal in a couple of weeks. On top of this I have a cold and Emma came down with a fever today and Jacob got 4 shots yesterday that made him feel pretty bad today.

On a happier note, we had a great time on our vacation to Florida. We spent three days at Disneyworld. Emma dressed up as a princess and got to eat breakfast with the princesses. She also got to eat breakfast the second day with Leo and June from the Little Einsteins. She loves this cartoon and was thrilled! We also went to the Clubhouse Disney live on stage at Hollywood Studios. This was very cool. It featured Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Little Einsteins, My Friends Tigger and Pooh, and Handy Manny. Emma loved it! Then we headed down to Marco Island where our vacation home was huge! We shared our vacation with Jerrod's mom, my parents, and the Merrills. It was a very relaxing time spent around the pool and at the beach. Jacob hung out in my wrap the whole time we were out of the house. He really loved it and calmed him during his fussy time in the evening. In fact, now he's not fussy as much in the evening since we have gotten back. Here's some pics.

Emma with Bell

In front of Castle

Emma and Grandma riding Dumbo

Emma and Leo

Emma and June

Emma blasting off with Rocket

Emma wiped out after a long day

Jeremiah and Emma playing at the beach

Daddy threw me REALLY high!

6 weeks old!

Has it already been a 6 weeks? He is growing, he's over 12 lbs now...he is out of his newborn clothing, and the 3 months clothing is perfect on him. He's so much chunkier than Emma was. We're thinking of moving him into size 2 diapers already! Jacob had lots of baby acne on his face, but it is starting to clear up, I guess it's normal, but Emma didn't have it. He is doing great, still sleeping through the night, sometimes 6 hours, sometimes 8 or 9 hours. We've noticed that he does have a fussy time between about 7 pm and 9 pm, but it is getting better. He wants to nurse a lot during that time. We've found that he loves his swing, this usually gets us through dinner.

We're starting to get adjusted to having two children. It's amazing how much easier one seems to be! Emma loves her baby brother, lots of kisses and hugs. We're still working on being gentle. Since Jacob has arrived, Emma seemed to be disobeying until a couple of weeks ago. We are worked very hard on trying to give her lots of positive attention and trying to get her to obey. It was quite a struggle, but it has gotten significantly better. I think it is partly just a two year old thing and also that her schedule was disrupted with baby brother. Early this week she had 103 degree fever and was wiped out. She took a 4 hour nap and slept 1.5 more in the morning than usual. We went to the dr. and the dr. thought that Emma had a bacterial infection, so she's on antibiotics now and is feeling so much better now. So far Jacob has not gotten it, in fact she's been sick 3 times since he's been born and thankfully he hasn't gotten any of it. I'm trying to be very careful and washing my hands a lot. Emma is still going to school three days a week, which gives me a break. Last month her class got to go on a field trip to build-a-bear. Each child got to build their own bear, Daddy went with her and they all had lots of fun. We went to the mall on Good Friday and Emma wanted to sit on the Easter Bunny's lap. So, we paid the outrageous amount for the picture and let her sit on his lap. It was very surprising to me because at Christmastime she didn't want anything to do with Santa.


Jacob went to church the first time on Easter Sunday. Since then we've been back to church twice. He did great in the nursery, pretty much slept the whole time. Emma didn't go in the nursery at church until she was one! However, I feel a bit more at ease that we go to a church now that has such an awesome children's area and I know he is in excellent hands! Plus, the music in church would have been way too loud for him if he stayed with us!

My recovery seems to be a lot easier this time. I'm feeling really well. I have lost a total of 40 lbs so far. 20 lbs of that was baby, placenta, and fluid, then another 10 was extra fluid retention. I still have 30 more lbs that I want to lose. I really hate this time period that I have to go buy fat jeans in a size that I have never worn before and I can't fit into any of my clothes yet. It really sucks. I went back to work part time starting at the beginning of April. I'm working from home and occasionally going into the office just to print stuff out. It's been a little hard to do, but I am getting my work done, so I guess I find the time somewhere. However, I don't have time for stuff like updating this blog!