3 months old, WELCOME TO THE NEW BLOG!

If you are reading this, it means you have been keeping up with our blog. And for that, I want to thank you! I have enjoyed posting my little ramblings and adventures over the last year as I was pregnant with Jake, and when we welcomed him to our family. Hopefully, you have enjoyed reading them.

One thing I didn't love about the previous version of the blog was that no one was able to post comments (assuming anyone cared to do so). So I am happy to announce the new & improved baby blog, with all kinds of technological advances, including comments. Some of you may have seen the in-between site, which didn't wor out so well. I am sorry about the bouncing around, but I am happy here at Blogger.

Well, it is time for me to go to bed, since I am finally over this hellish stomach bug that Jake brought home and we are back to work tomorrow. Everyone have a wonderful 4th of July (I'll be back with lots of pictures), and thanks again for reading.

-Kelly

Unlucky week 13 - Everyone gets sick (Warning: GROSS post)

We had figured that Jake would get a few more colds and sniffles while he was in day care, and that he would have to build up his immunity...but we never expected what hit us. Almost as soon as Jake came home from daycare on tuesday night, he began throwing up. Over and over. First, it was just formula, then clear liquid, then bright yellow bile. (I warned you.) We called the doctor that night, and told her that he didn't have a temperature, but described the other symptoms. She said it might just be a nervous reaction to the change in his routine and the new people at daycare. She suggested giving him a small amount of water, which luckily he kept down all night. Our poor little guy was so good through all of this - he didn't cry even once, he was just sort of sad and tired and lethargic. The next morning, he had two very loose dirty diapers. (You don't HAVE to read this!) It also looked like there was a slight amount of blood in his diapers, which had me REALLY worried. This is the first time our little guy has ever been sick, so we felt so sad and hopeless. I had to go to work that morning, even though I was NOT feeling good myself. My stomach was very mad at me. Ralph took Jake to the doctor, who said that the diaper manufacturers put something in the crystals of the diaper that turn red when a baby wets and is dehydrated. I though, "Why couldn't they make it BLUE??!! Why RED??!" Anyway, the doc said she sees it all the time. She weighed Jake (14 pounds, 6 ounces!) and checked him over in every which way, and said he was perfectly fine except for a stomach bug.

I was relieved to hear this news, but unfortunately, my situation was getting worse. Whatever was in my body wanted out - whichever way it thought was quickest. When I found myself vomiting violently at work, I decided enough is enough. I went home and spent the rest of the day and night in bed, either freezing to death with chills, or boiling hot and sweating through my clothes with a fever. It felt like the flu, with aches and pains all over. HORRIBLE. I don't wish this on anyone, and I feel so bad that my baby boy had tho go through this. As of this morning, I still felt terrible, and realized I couldn't make it to work, and Jake couldn't go to daycare. Jake woke up at 5 am this morning, and Ralph went to change him since I was still feeling sick. But now Ralph was feeling nauseous too. He managed to get Jake changed, but then all hell broke loose. Ralph spent the morning vomiting up anything he tried to take to keep hydrated. So now he is upstairs, with a fever of 101.6 (he beat my 100.3) hoping morning will come soon. This seems to be about a 30-hour virus. So Jake is pretty much well again, I am almost recovered (still no appetite - maybe this isn't that bad afterall?), and Ralph is in the worst of it. We really hope to be recovered by this weekend, since we are going to New York for Jake's (very small) Christening and the 4th of July.

First days of daycare

Jake (in a swing) on the nanny-cam

I knew for a while that this was going to be a pretty stressful week. We were going to be out of town over the weekend, and coming back late Sunday night (very, very late). I had to be at work Monday morning for my first full week of work (since March!), and more importantly, I had to send Jake off to his first day of daycare. On top of that, Ralph was going to be out of town for business, so all of the household resonsibilities were going to fall on me: dishes, bottles, feedings, laundry, dog-walking, poop-scooping, diapering, etc, etc, etc. Monday morning came WAAAY too fast, and waaay too early. I rushed around the house in a frenzy trying to remember everything that I needed for his first day: plenty of bottles, formula, diapers, change of clothes, diaper wipes, etc. Everything had to be labeled with his name, and I pulled out the trusty label-maker to do its job! :). Needless to say, I forgot something (besides my sanity), and when I got there I realized Jake's crib had no sheet and no blanket. Ugh. Luckily, they were kind enough to find one for him and use that. I stopped by at lunchtime to check on him (he was fine, sleeping the day away in his crib), and besides not really eating a whole lot, they said he did just fine.

Today, I was able to logon to the daycare's website and watch the "nanny cam" - it's really only a still picture that updates every 15 seconds, but it still makes me feel better. I can barely make out which baby is which on the website, but I was able to pick out my little boy. Paranoid new mom that I am, I stopped by the daycare TWICE today, and both times he was awake, unharmed, and doing just fine. Since the daycare is just across the street from my office park, I can run over anytime, which is great...sortof.

12 weeks old; Jake goes for a swim!

We were in New York over the weekend for Laura's graduation, and also for a wedding. We got to spend some time up at Aunt Joanne & Uncle Lace's place in Connecticut, whichis always fun. They have a pool, and so we decided to take Jake for his first swim! (We also decided to find out if Ruthie-dog can swim. She can, but she doesn't like it!)

11 weeks old; Kelly's first day back to work

Whoever had the bright idea that a women should have only a six-week maternity leave should be strung up by their toes and tortured. In my experience, you only seem to start to get the hang of motherhood around six weeks. At six weeks, your baby is just barely getting on some sort of routine. At six weeks, you've just begun to get about five or six hours of sleep in a row. At six weeks, your brain is just about returning to functionality. At six weeks, you are in no way, shape or form ready to leave your child. Granted, there are times at six weeks that you might want a short break from your child, but I really don't think six weeks is a good time to go back to work. That being said, my employer was gracious enough to allow me to come back to work when I felt ready. I was certainly missing my paycheck, and I was somewhat getting the urge to want to work again, and I desperately wanted some adult conversation.

Jake meets cousin Kyler...

I have mentioned on the blog before that, on my mom's side of the family, four of the cousins (myself included) were pregnant at the same time, and we all had our babies in the span of two months. All of the babies are happy and healthy, and our family just had such a neat baby boom. So on Sunday I took Jake to my cousin Stephanie's house, where we met up with Grandma & Grandpa Valentine. We were so excited to get to meet Stephanie & Chris' brand-new baby boy, Kyler, who is just about a month old. Jake just looked HUGE compared to Kyler, I guess since I see Jake everyday I don't realize how much he grows in a month, a week, a day. The babies didn't seem all that interested in each other, but give them few years and they will be great buddies. :) I am looking forward to the day in the near future that we can get all the new kids in my family together: Jake, Kyler, Ethan, and Madison.

Jake was unusually fussy during the visit (Nice, Jake. Thanks a lot.), but Kyler was kind enough to let Jake use his gas drops and also his aquarium swing. Kyler already shows great sharing skills. We have very advanced children in our family :) Stephanie and Chris also have a Boston Terrier, Charlie, who is very good at making sure no one hurts his new baby brother. Charlie seems to be a much better 'watch dog' than our Boston Terrier, Ruthie, who thinks everyone comes to our house soley to visit with HER. ("Jake? Nah, there's no Jake here. I'm R-U-T-H-I-E.")

Speaking of Ruthie, she has been quite the 'helper' lately. She even helped clean off a nice big piece of steak off my plate the other night when I went to change Jake. Bugger. She also helps 'water' the flowers in our garden instead of watering the grass. (Nice, Ruth. Thanks a lot.)

And speaking of watering, I had been doing really well in the avoiding-being-pissed-on category for quite a while. I had an impressive stretch of about four or five weeks going. But it's like a no-hitter in baseball - you don't want to mention it, or you'll curse it. So anyway, my no-pisser streak all came to an end thursday as Ralph and I were preparing to go out. It was a triple threat: Jake somehow peed thru the back of his diaper (Nice, Pampers. Thanks a lot.), then as I was changing him out of that diaper and the soaked outfit, he peed all over my arm and down my leg. Once I got over that, he promptly puked all over my shirt. I get no respect in this house.... (Everybody say it with me now: Nice, Jake. Thanks a lot.)

A very cool website...

So my cousin Stephanie mentioned something about this fascinating website, and I just had to look it up. There is a site out there that can determine what colors eyes your baby will most likely have, based on your eyes, your mate's eyes, and both of your parents eyes. It also takes into account your sibling's eye color. (Baby Fact of the day: While most caucausian babies are born with blue eyes, their eyes will eventually turn whatever color they are going to be within a few months to a year.) Based on our results, Jake has a ZERO percent chance of having brown eyes! He has a 12.5% chance of them staying blue, but a much more likely chance they will turn green (87.5%).

***My brother Danny and I both had a 50% chance of having brown eyes: mine are green (a 37.5% chance), and his are as blue as can be (only a 12.5% chance). So there's hope for Jake!***

Check out the site for yourself.

10 weeks old

Okay, one more picture...I couldn't resist :)

I could take a million pictures of this child...

But here are just two from today...

A visit with Uncle Chris

We had a nice visit with Chris this morning, who stopped off to see us in Delaware on his way back up to New York from Elon. (Good luck today Kiddo!) Of course, we took a few pictures. Here is Jake wearing Chris' wristband ...on his head. LOL.



Not sure Jake likes the headband...too funny!

Jake gets a haircut

Jake was born with a head full of dark brown hair, which quickly receded and then fell out in funny chunks here and there. He has been left with new blond hair growing in short on the top, and a funny mullet of dark hair in the back and down his neck, and one funny long peak right on the very top of his head. The back of Jake's head is a little flatter than we would like it to be (babies these days have to sleep on their backs to prevent SIDS), and with a patch of dark long hair hanging straight down in the back, it just looked even more flat, and totally ridiculous. I have threatened to take the clippers to Jake's head in the last few weeks just to even it out.

Well last night, Ralph agreed with me and we took out the clippers and gave Jake his first haircut. We were careful to keep as much of the hair that we cut as possible as a keepsake. My friend Nicole had given me the cutest baby keepsake of three boxes tied with blue bow, to keep a lock of hair, a first tooth, and baby's hospital bracelet. So the haircut isn't *perfect* (mommy and daddy are by no means professional barbers), but it looks a thousand times better than it did before. We took the before and after pictures with Ralph's cellphone.

9 weeks old

Jake went to the doctor for his two-month check-up the other day and
our little guy continues to grow bigger and bigger! At this appointment, he was 23.5 inches long (almost two feet tall!), and a whopping 13 pounds, 8 ounces!

Not much else going on at the Vasami house. Just lots of power outages because of all the thunderstorms. Ruthie dog is terrified of the storms, and even her doggie Zanax (prescribed anti-anxiety medication) won't control her shaking during the thunder and lightning. We keep resetting all of our clocks and our stupid answering machine.

We can't believe June came so quickly, and Jake is due to go into daycare on June 26th. More importantly, that's the day Kelly goes back to work full-time. I've enjoyed the time home with Ralph and Jake, but I am certainly looking forward to the return of the paycheck! :)