Happy Birthday to Jacob!

Today Jacob is three months old. Our little boy is growing up! And aging beautifully. We pulled out the camcorder last night and looked at just how tiny our boy was and how much he's grown. Enjoy a look back at the first few weeks of his life and tonight we'll post some today pictures for comparison.



Brand new



In the hospital with his Mother Teresa blanket



With his body double



Tiny, tiny man (um, I guess we could put this caption with all of these)



The Circle of Life...or our little Man Cub



Our first glimpse at how curly his hair really was, and apparently (by the look on his face) his first glimpse of daylight



Look at those tiny (or teeniney or witsie) legs



Again, note those legs! (he didn't get those from momma!)



Little pink skin and tiny nobbly knees



Maxin' and relaxin'



"The Moneymaker": the only way to hold him to get him to calm down, now he's so big we really can hardly do it



Misery! (Some things never change)



The bouncer that saved us all, the ONLY place he would sleep



Smell something bad son?



What a sweet little wrinkly body!



I love this picture, daddy looks so refreshed (which belies the amount of sleep he was getting) and so proud



Little buddha legs, but no buddha belly!



Blessing day



This looks like one of those eye trick pictures, do you see the baby in this picture? (Jacob's the little guy in the middle)



This was one of our first days alone with him (no grandmas or grandpas to help us)



And life rolls on...



...we think.

We have some news!

On Monday daddy did something very special. (Aside from playing with and loving Jacob and helping mommy clean bottles, etc.)



He started a new job!!! Congratulations Daddy from your boy and your beautiful wife. We're awful proud of you. We're excited for life at Taylor Consulting Group.






And while you're busy at work valuing mergers and acquisitions, Jacob will be busy at home figuring this guy out...



And he'll be ready to smile at you and play, play, play (or cry, cry, cry...depending on his mood) when you get home.



We love you!

(Please excuse the poor quality/pale and sickly pictures...we're between cameras right now and so we're using the camera setting on our camcorder. And one megapixel really is just one lowsy megapixel.)

Last Sunday we took some pictures...

...and we have no words for how cute these are, sigh.

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Which one's your favorite?

I'm losing my mind! And the snaps from Jacob's onesie!

On Tuesday night we put Jacob down for the night, anticipating a night of uninterrupted, or nearly so, sleep. But about 30 minutes later Jacob woke up crying. For those of you not acquainted with our sweet little boy's nighttimes, they do not include crying before 2:00 am, and usually not before 7:00 am. We calmed him back down, but it happened again. The third time it happened I decided to take that boy's temperature. It was 102.0, the second try was 102.3. So, now that my heart was beating in my ears, we called the doctor and they said that considering his age it could be:

a. nothing serious

b. something serious

They told us to go to the children's hospital here in Atlanta to have him seen to. I now had jungle drums and a high pitched humming sound in my brain as we were getting him ready to go to the hospital. So much so that, while fastening his onesie, I only "found" one snap. I looked at it and thought, "where did the other two snaps go?!? They must have fallen off in the washer!?! And left no trace on the fabric?!? Pant, pant, pant." I thrust Jacob at Matt and told him to get a new onesie because the snaps weren't on that one. I busied myself with the diaper bag while Matt quietly (he knew better than to rub my nose in it now) unsnapped the mismatched snap and realigned the snaps to find three fully functioning snaps on both sides of the onesie. A miracle!

The hospital made us feel so grateful that Jacob is a healthy boy. I had no idea that things like baby blood pressure cuffs and baby hospital gowns (make sure to tie it down the back) existed. And while it was funny to see all of that in miniature, it really brought home how hard it would be to have a sick child. It made us realize what Hailee, our cousins' daughter who has strugged with Leukemia, and her family deal with all of the time.

It also made us grateful to have a children's hospital so close. They took great care of him and helped us feel at ease. Despite their efforts to make us comfortable they did have to take a urine sample and blood work. Our eyes got wider and wider as they catheterized him for the urine sample, but he seems unscathed now. And I couldn't watch the IV. Matt held onto him and we both tried to calm him. But apparently, twenty minutes with a numbing solution on your skin still doesn't numb it enough to not feel this...



Yes, baby blue had a full IV. They strapped his arm to a three inch plastic board so it would stay straight. They did the IV to get the bloodwork and in case he needed fluids once the results were back. But thankfully he didn't. The bloodwork and urine sample all came back clear, so they chocked it up to a viral infection. We just monitored the fever (didn't get past 100.5 after that night) and gave him Tylenol as needed and by Friday morning the fever was gone, and it hasn't returned.

Most of the night (we didn't get back home until 5:00) Jacob spent in Matt's or my arms looking more or less like this...



You may be wondering what the pacifier-like thing is in his mouth, and it is a pacifier! A very wonderful pacifier that they had us dip in sugar water to keep him calm until they examined him. The first time he's really taken one. But I guess most babies, and some adults, would suck on almost anything dipped in sugar water.

These pictures were taken on our cell phone, hence the not-great quality. When we told Grandma Hutchison about the experience she said, "and I bet you didn't have your camera!", and I was happy to know that the extra money on the camera phone for "the baby's sake" had finally paid off. See? Sometimes my brain does work.

Jacob's Week of Firsts

Last week Jacob continued his whirlwind bi-state tour of the country by visiting family and friends in Utah. We had a wonderful time. And now mommy's all soft in her constitution as she's gotten back to the daily grind. I got very spoiled having so many helping hands all day long. (I say this as Matt is in the kitchen dutifully and wonderfully cleaning bottles, okay so maybe I still have it easy.) The point is, we had a great time and Jacob had some fun "firsts" we thought we'd share.



His first time to meet Grandma Gamette...he was having a rough moment there, but he was happier later on



His first time to meet Grandma Riggs...one sleepy fellow the whole visit, hopefully she'll get to see some smiles at Christmastime



His first time to meet Uncle Jon (behind Jacob) & Aunt Jana and sit on cousin Gideon



His first time to feel the Utah wind blow through his hair



His first time to have a baseball for a bottom



His first time to narrowly miss gouging out his eye (note little scrape by left eye) and his first time to pull this face



And best of all...his first time to meet his cousin Maddie

Maddie continually said things like, "He's soooo cute" and "I sure love that boy" while we were there. What a darling cousin. As a funny aside, once she came up and patted my legs and said, "These are nice legs. Are these big legs?". I guess Jana and Maddie had been talking about relative sizes (Maddie is small, mommy is big, etc.) and that's what precipitated the big legs comment. Funny girl.

And no, they are not big legs.

Is there anything sweeter than this?

No.

Tummy Time: Our very own Strong-Man contest

Jacob has been exercising his neck quite a bit lately. This typically includes putting him on his tummy and letting him writhe around as he 'ooches' and grunts himself into a full blown melt down. You can only imagine how much mommy and daddy love this. Despite our efforts to make it more fun (back rubbing, singing, strategically placing toys and books, promising him a new car when he turns 16, etc.) he still doesn't like it. And really, it's no wonder he dislikes it so much. If my head was in the 70th percentile and my weight was in the 25th percentile I wouldn't like it either! Yes folks, our boy has lots of big, heavy brains. It must be exhausting to lift that big noggin. His face contorts as if he were lifting a Volkswagon when he trys to get his head up. But yesterday he was trying no more...he did it.

Ta daaaa!



And, ta daaaa!



Now, some may contend that the towel rolled up underneath him is a crutch...and you'd be right...but he has also lifted his head with no towel. (I just didn't have my camera ready and was too busy yelling "hip hip hooray!" to remember to take a picture without the towel.)

It was so exciting that I was running around on a total "head-lifting high" as if I'd just gotten my first kiss. We're so excited to freak out about all of his firsts. What a boy.

Over the Coosa and through Tallapoosa to Grandmother's house we go

This past weekend we went to Tuscaloosa to visit Grandma & Grandpa Hutchison. We had a great time. I soon realized that Grandma had been preparing and waiting for grandchildren long before she got one. She had a pack and play, a crib mobile, stacks of baby clothes, and a baby monitor--all of which I would wager she's had for at least a year longer than we've been married. They all got put to use this weekend. It was a short trip, but Jacob loved seeing his grandparents and his Aunt Rachel. As evidenced by the below pictures.









Also, just so everyone knows, this smiley boy weighs 10 lbs. 12 oz. and is 22.5 inches long. We went to the doctor today for a well baby check up and he is doing...well! He also got four immunizations. I have never heard him cry like that, and I'd like to think I'm an expert on his crying. His tears even brought some to my own eyes.

Needless to say it's been a big weekend. Jacob went on a road trip and got shots! He did great with both. We are so proud of him!

We Lova Yo' Face

Jacob has been flexing his facial muscles lately and we thought you'd all like to see his new tricks, as well as some old ones.

Peaceful



Pre-sneeze



Fist Sucker



Fuss-fuss-fussy



Lower lip pout (this is the first thing that we think he inherited from his momma, Matt says I supposedly do this when I am about to cry)



And best of all...smiling!!!



Love you all!!!