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ethan

Marriage, Parenthood, Young Married Mom

October 8, 2010

Two-and-a-Half Week Check-In

Today Jacob is seventeen days old, and what a happy two and a half weeks it’s been!  I thought I was amazed at all the things he experienced while I was pregnant with him, but now I am even more in awe of how much he’s experienced since he was born.

 

For example, while in my belly, Jacob not only went to work every day, but he also went to Boston, South Dakota, Hilton Head, LBI, the rodeo in Houston, and four weddings.  A well-traveled and well-partied baby in utero, right?

 

Since his birth we haven’t ventured quite so far, but we’ve still done much more than I expected—all only when we were ready for it.  In a mere two-and-a-half weeks, Jacob has met a bunch of family and friends, and been hugged and snuggled by them all.  He’s been to Sunday Mass (he was only a little bit noisy) and helped us celebrate our first wedding anniversary.  He’s been to a bunch of local coffee shops (and even nursed and was changed at one—yay, us!), and went out for sushi the other night.  Tonight, Jacob takes Manhattan to share M&M’s World with the lovely Auntie Sarah and to meet John for dinner.

 

On the development front, Jacob has some awesome head control.  I don’t know a lot about baby milestones, when kids are supposed to do certain things, etc.  But I do know that he likes to be on his belly for about fifteen minutes at a time, which is great fun to watch.

 

What’s more exciting is that yesterday at parent/baby yoga at the Y, Jacob rolled over!  I don’t believe this means he’s going to start rolling all over the place every day, but it was definitely intentional and as much as he doesn’t seem to mind being on his tummy, he was certainly happier when on his back again.  Hooray for another overachiever in the family.

 

The other fun update in the life of our (not-so-) little Peanut is that his umbilical cord stump fell off at the two week mark.  He hasn’t had a real bath yet, but perhaps we’ll undertake that this weekend.

Now you see it . . .

. . . now you don't!

 

Every day he’s awake a little bit longer and a little bit more alert.  This is also translating to being a bit fussier in the evenings and some nights at about four am, but I’m getting as much sleep as one could hope for with a newborn.  And John’s been able to get enough sleep (I think) to keep a cold from turning into something worse, which is good news for all of us.

 

Whenever I’m not totally zonked, taking care of Jacob is really fun.  It’s wonderful to see all his facial expressions and to experience how peaceful and calm he almost always is.  We’ve added being over-stimulated/overtired to the very short list of reasons this little guy cries, but a bit of a snuggle and a couple minutes nursing undoubtedly calms him down.

 

Up ahead we have a weekend of more friends and family, and my favorite:  more time with John at home!  I love watching John interact with Jacob, because there is so much love between the two of them.  It’s still kind of unbelievable that we have a family, but gentle little boy that he is, Jacob has made the idea very easy to get used to.

 

When the idea of being a wife and a mother was vaguely somewhere out there in front of me, it seemed a near impossibility that it would really happen, that I could really handle it.  But now that it’s at my dinner table and in my arms, I can tell you quite certainly that there isn’t anything better in the whole wide world.

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