Crawling again

Now that Jac is feeling better he has remembered that he knows how to crawl. This morning he crawled across the bed to get a granola bar and this afternoon he crawled across the couch to get Daddy's computer. This evening we put him down in the ground to practice his crawling some more. He didn't crawl while he was down there but he did do a lot of practice getting up on his hands and knees and rolling out of it.

He does not crawl on his hands and knees yet. When he does crawl, it is combination of a soldier crawl and rolling to get where he wants to go - and get what he wants!

Happier Baby

Jac is feeling so much better. He pooped on his own several times today and he had the biggest diaper we have seen in a long time this evening! It is amazing what makes you happy as a parent!

We had a nice day today. We went out and about in London and went to the Victoria and Albert museum. This is a pretty amazing museum and we only saw a small portion of it. Just before they closed we found the jewelry exhibit - and I really want to go back. We also made it to Harrod's right before they closed - and only got to see a small portion. We were amazed to see a £45,000 cell phone on display!

Jac was feeling so much better today it was really fun to watch him smile and laugh, like his normal self.

So spoiled

We are so spoiled by all of the convenient appliances we have back home!

Our dishwasher for one. It takes about 5 minutes to put all of Jac's bottles into the dishwasher and then 40 minutes later you have clean, sterilized bottles. No fuss, no muss.

Secondly, our washing machine and dryer. Ahhhh, for a dryer. When we were in Italy we hand washed a lot of clothes - a lot - since Jac was throwing up for 3 days and dried them outside in the sun. Here in London the washing machine in Alexis and Chris's flat washes everything! in hot water. There is no way to wash things in anything but. The washer also has a dryer as part of it but we were warned not to use it unless we want to ruin all of our clothes. This means that to dry things we have to hang them up all over the flat and wait 24 hours for them to dry. I am so not used to this. At home we have a full size washer and dryer in our condo that I use at all hours and can have clean dry clothes in about an hour!

Thirdly - a large, and very cold refrigerator. Ahhh, for things to come out of the fridge cold enough that they stay cold for a bit. When we take Jac's milk out of the fridge it almost immediately feels a bit warm and the only way to keep it cool if he doesn't eat it almost immediately is to put back into the fridge.

I think I am just a wuss and spoiled!

I will give the Brits one thing though. The TV coverage of Wimbledon and Euro 2008 are so great! HD coverage - and you can watch five different matches from Wimbledon!

Very pregnant Momma

Every day I seem to get a bit bigger. I knew I was really showing when the EasyJet check-in guy (the one that gave us a hard time on the way to Italy!) noticed that I was pregnant and asked me how many weeks I was (he was just worried about me flying!).

I never got this big with Jac so it feels good to be getting bigger - and tiring. I notice every day that it is a little harder to bend over - and more tiring to walk around - and I know I have a long way to go.

No. 2 also kicks all of the time. Really. It is amazing to me how frequently and how vigorously No. 2 kicks me. During this trip Joseph got to feel No. 2 kick. He never felt Jac kick - and so we were both very excited. I think it is funny when I take a bath and I can see the water move when No. 2 kicks. A lot of the time it feels like No. 2 is doing somersaults inside of me - and perhaps he is.

Out on the town in London

Even though Jac has not been feeling too well he has been a real trooper. We have been out and about in London visiting various fun spots. We have seen more people in 1 minute on a busy London sidewalk than we see in a day in Boulder.

Jac has handled all of the activity with great composure - including many rides on the Underground and the occasional train ride!

Here are some of my favorite pictures!



Jac having fun with Daddy at a Ramen place in the Carnaby Street area of London. You might ask why we have to come half way around the world the wrong way to get ramen but we do!



Jac and Daddy on Regent Street in London close to the Apple store.



Jac and Daddy in the Apple store on Regent Street. This is the biggest Apple store in the world.



Jac on the Underground with Mommy. We have been using this ring sling a lot. Jac can ride comfortably and sleep when he wants to without changing position. It has really saved Mommy's back and allowed Daddy to not have to carry Jac all of the time.




On the way to the London Eye.





Jac and Daddy and Jac and Mommy and Daddy on Westminster Bridge. We walked a long way (with Mommy's feet hurting the entire time!) to get to the London Eye. When we got there we found out that the ticket was price was 15.50 Pounds each ($31) and we decided that it wasn't worth it to ride (we had been on it a few years ago when we visited London). It is amazing the decisions an exchange rate of 2 dollars to one Pound will do! You would think we might have checked the price before we walked all that way but it did give us a nice walk around London!



Jac and Daddy at Wagamama. We have spent some of our time in London looking for good food. The variety of food available in Boulder feels very limited - and the opposite seems true in London! Wagamama was pretty good - not the best - but better than what we can get in Boulder!

The Poop Chronicles - Literally

Yeah! Jac pooped! He has been constipated since all of the throwing up really messed up his system. We started to get very worried about him yesterday and then even more today. He had not pooped since Tuesday (and it is now Saturday).

We weren't sure what to do and we called back to Boulder to talk to his pediatrician. We rousted her out of her bed at 4 am Boulder time and she kindly told us to use a suppository and that he did not need to be seen by a doctor just yet. We also called Alexis and she referred us to one of her friends in London who has a 1 year old. He gave us the number of the NHS that we called and we able to speak with an on-call doctor. He also told us we needed to use the suppository and that we needed to make sure that it stayed in. This is actually much harder to do than one might imagine with a little baby that is trying to poop and push it out!

The good news is that he pooped! We got him to poop around two this afternoon and then again this evening around 10 pm. He is now sleeping on Daddy. We think we are going to have to use some more suppositories before he is back to normal but at least we are making some progress. I really did not want to have to try to take him to the doctor in London (which seemed to be almost impossible on the weekend anyway!)

First time parents and all that! Poor little Jac has to suffer through our learning curve. I realized today that I was so worried before we left about No. 2 having problems while we were on the trip that I did not think enough the problems that Jac could have. Hmmm - the sibling problems have started already!

Difficult time in Italy

Jac had a tough time while we were in Italy. He did okay for the first day or so but the evening of the second day (Alexis' after dinner drinks get together) Jac started throwing up. While I was socializing Joseph was taking care of little Jac who threw up 3 or 4 times. It wasn't clear (and never really was) why Jac was throwing up. We think that it may have been the heat - it was very hot and humid - a quick transition from the relative cool of London - and Colorado - where it has not really started to heat up yet - and where it is quite dry. We also theorized that it might have been thr bottled water, a stomach flu he picked up, or something in the tap water that we were using to clean his bottles. We definitely missed having a sanitizing dishwasher when all of this was going on.

Jac threw up all night that first night. The next morning my parents went and found him the Italian equivalent of Pedialyte - which is called Dicodral. We contacted his pediatrician and did the standard tiny amounts really frequently of Dicodral and so on. We did this all day and then moved on to giving him small amounts of formula. He seemed to do well with this but then ended up starting to throw up again. This seemed to go on and on. We missed most of Alexis' Sports Day event on Friday - although we did make it out for an hour or so - and then took Jac back.



The next day (Saturday) was the wedding - and we were very concerned about Jac and what to do. Every day we were in Italy it got hotter and Jac just did not seem to be able to handle it. Alexis told us that she would understand if we did not bring Jac to the church for the wedding. After a lot of thought we decided it was best not to try to bring Jac to the church. I obviously needed to be there (since I was the Matron of Honor!) but we decided that Jac and Joseph would stay back at the hotel. I think this decision was for the best. It was very hot at the church and there would have been no way to keep Jac cool.

After the ceremony at the church Alexis had a big reception at the hotel - and we were able to bring Jac out for that - outfitted for a little while in his suit. I was very glad that he was able to be there for most of that - and he seemed to enjoy it. The reception was amazing - there were even fireworks!



The next day we were scheduled to fly back to London. We had to drive back to Pisa to get to our flight - a 2 hour drive - and we had to pack - and I had to help collect pictures for Alexis in the morning. Oh man! Our flight was at 5:50 pm - and we got into the terminal at the airport at 4:50 pm. Not good. We ended up getting bumped from our flight - we were the first people to get bumped - and the last! Well - the good news was that we didn't miss our flight - and EasyJet put us up in a hotel, fed us, and credited us 250 Euros each (more than we paid for our tickets!). So that was good. The bad news was that we had a baby that was not doing well in the heat - and we had to spend an entire day longer in Italy - with 5 hours in the airport the next day. We managed it with a lot of hard work - and a lot of good planning and engineering from Joseph (as per usual) and made it back to London, and my sister's flat - on Monday evening.



Unfortunately Jacie started throwing up again - after a day in London - and we really don't know why. He seems much better now - he is holding food down - but now he is constipated.

He has maintained his spirits very well through this whole thing - but we have noticed a change in his behavior. He is now crying when he is hungry - which he never did before. We think this is because we had to withhold food from him - as we were trying to rehydrate him and stop his throwing up. This is the baby that I never imagined I would have to hold food back from. I felt so terribly when he would finish the 15 ml I gave gim of Dicodral and be asking for more and I would have to walk him around for 10 minutes before I could give him more. Augh. Poor thing.

We are also afraid that he has lost weight - it is hard to imagine that he has not. He is back to formula now - but we are diluting it a bit from his normal formulation. He is eating well again - and full amounts.

Last night he was up 5 times to eat - not large amounts - but 5 times! I think he is just preparing me for having a newborn again!

We are here in London for 5 more days and then we head back to Colorado.

My little sister is married!

Well - they did it! My little sister is married! We came to London and then on to Italy to celebrate Alexis and Chris' wedding in Tuscany and as of Saturday June 21, 2008 Alexis and Chris are husband and wife in the eyes of the church! Congratulations!

One of Alexis' friends has put up a very nice set of pictures on flickr if you would like to see what the wedding was like!

Sleeping and bathing

Jac has handled his transition to a new continent quite well. We arrived in London at 8 am yesterday. He slept some during the day and then went to sleep for the night around 10 pm. He woke up around 1 am and wanted to play (which Daddy did with him). He ate some more and went to sleep about an hour later. I then slept the rest of the night with him until 10 am! He woke up a number of times to eat. Generally when he wakes up to eat during the night it is mostly a little twisting and turning which wakes me up. I get his bottle and he basically dream feeds, frequently with his eyes closed or just barely open - and then he decides he is done and rolls over onto his tummy and goes back to sleep! Very nice!



After we all got up this morning we gave Jac a bath as he did not have one last night. He was shaking before the bath and we couldn't figure out why. It was not clear if he was cold, or hungry or excited! After he got in the bath he calmed down and was very happy to play with Daddy.

Jac is a world traveler - welcome to London

Well - we are now in London. We are here for my sister Alexis' wedding (she is getting married in Italy - we will be leaving for Italy on Wednesday). We had a two part flight here - Denver to Dulles, and Dulles to Heathrow. The Denver to Dulles flight sat on the ground for 1.5 hours after pushing back from the gate which was a bit annoying! When we made it to Dulles our Heathrow flight was waiting for us and we had to run for it to get to the flight and our bags didn't make it (they arrived an hour later and were delivered to my sister's flat later in the day!). We were fortunate to have Economy Plus seats on both flights. We used frequent flier miles for the flights (we had to pay a 10% fare for Jac) and I am not sure why they gave us Economy Plus - except that we were traveling with Jac. Whatever the reason it was very nice and made handing Jac much easier.

Jac was quite good on the plane. He had a bit of trouble napping. He is not used to sleeping on us anymore - which he used to do all of the time. Now he is used to falling asleep on us sometimes, but mostly he is used to sleeping in the bed and falling asleep there. Joseph had the brilliant idea to lay down a blanket on the floor of the airplane and let Jac lay down there for a bit and eat some food. Very cute. I wish I had a picture but it was too dark. He threw up once on the second flight. We think he got too hot from sleeping on Daddy and having a blanket over him. After we got him and Daddy in some new clothes he went back to sleep!

For a while I got up from my seat and let Daddy and Jac use the two seats to spread out a bit. Jac "decided" he would sit in my seat while I was gone!

No. 2 is huge!

I had my last ultrasound today before we leave for Europe for Alexis' wedding! I am now 23 weeks and 3 days along in No. 2's pregnancy - and No. 2 is measuring 25 weeks and 5 days! Huge! "He" is now estimated to weigh 1 pound and 11 ounces - 3 ounces more than Jac when he was born! He has lots of fluid to play in and we saw him drinking today!

I am elated with the good news. I have been anxious about an ultrasound this far along in the pregnancy since I found out I was pregnant - and No. 2 and I have passed with flying colors.

No. 2 is continuing to dance around in my belly - particularly at night when I am trying to sleep. Happy baby! Jac never moved this much. In retrospect I can see that this means that he was never as happy in utero as No. 2 is now.

The perinatologist I saw today - Dr. P. - thinks that if No. 2 continues to grow the way "he" is he will be 7.5 pounds when be is born - and that there is no reason to think he will not make it to term (or close!).

Jac learns to crawl

Jac has been working really hard on learning to crawl, and he did it for the first time today. Much like when he learned to roll over he did it when I was not around (when he learned to roll over he was with Grandma and I was out!). Today he crawled for the first time with Adri (his babysitter) while I was in the other room looking for something. Of course! She didn't want to yell for me because she was afraid she would scare me that something was wrong. By the time I came back into the room after about 3 minutes of searching he had crawled across the mat we had put down on the bed 3 times!

His crawling at this point is sort of a modified soldier crawl - he has not quite sorted out the entire coordination with his head and his arms and his legs - but he can get from Point A to Point B and get what he wants and that counts as crawling in my book!

I took some video of the crawling that he did after I came back. The video is not great but you get the idea! I also have a video of him earlier in the day when he went on his hands and knees earlier on his changing table for the first time (he also did this for the first time while I was in the other room and Adri was making sure he was safe on the table!)

Jac is eating again

On Tuesday night I went out to the movies for some Mommy R&R time. While I was out Jac was unhappy and Daddy was trying different things to calm him down (that day Jac had only had 1 hour of sleep all day!). Joseph decided to give Jac rice cereal. And he ate it! He threw up when he stuck the spoon too far into his mouth - but not on the cereal. The last two days I have also been experiemtning with the rice cereal. He has gagged a few times but he has not thrown up. He is not eating much, more playing with the cereal and getting it all over him and everything else. He is enjoying it though. We may be on our way to him eating "real" food! I hope Alexis and Chris are ready for all of this!

Jac really likes to bathe

Well, it's been quite the turnaround lately. In the last few days, Jac has actually gotten to really like taking baths. When he gets fussy in the evenings, we take him to the bathroom and start filling the tub -- that usually get him calmed down, and he watches as the tub fills up. As the water starts to collect, he'll start to lean toward the tub, reaching his hands out toward the water, clearly eager to get in.

We had a really long bath tonight. I think we were in the water for about 40 minutes!

Eleven months old

Jac is now 11 months old. It is hard to believe sometimes, and almost harder to remember what things were like 11 months ago when he was born. It has been a truly amazing experience that I would not trade for all of the tea in China as the saying goes. Let the growing and learning and exploring by the entire family continue as we prepare for the arrival of No. 2.

10 pounds 9.5 ounces!

Jac now weighs in at 10 pounds 9.5 ounces (4.80 kg). Yeah! He has broken the 10 and a half pound mark!

Thanks Aunty Charmy and Uncle Wayne

Last Christmas, Aunty Charmy and Uncle Wayne bought Jac some very stylish clothes - and he finally fits them!

In this picture he is sitting in a little kids arm chair at Target wearing a very stylish onesie.



And in this picture he is out at dinner in a very hip, Mexican restaurant with Mommy and Daddy - and getting noticed by all of the ladies!

Jac blowing bubbles

Jac has been blowing bubbles - and drooling a tiny bit. This is very different for him as he has never really drooled. The other day he was having a ton of fun standing on Daddy's lap, blowing bubbles and reaching for Mommy's camera.

Jac and Mommy at a play date

Yeah! Jac and I have made some friends. We took a signing class and a music class this spring and it paid off! We have found a group of children and Moms to hang out with.

We had a playdate at Chautauqua Park in Boulder. It was very nice. All of the Moms spread out blankets and set the kids down to play. The children were all between 8 months and 1 year. They are all so different in their development. It is a ton of fun to watch. Jac is really behind even the 8 month old - although she can sit but not roll - and he can roll but not really sit!

Yeah!

Stupid baby monitor tricks

Our first baby monitor was inexpensive, but not very good -- it had too much static, and resulted in too much feedback. We then replaced it with a "noise free" digital baby monitor, and that one works very well. Almost too well!

We were preparing to leave the house with Jac, and I realized that I didn't have my cell phone. Taj called my cell phone with hers so that we can spot it quickly. Well, it turned out the phone was right by the couch.

Or, so we thought. We ended up digging in and around the couch for minutes, thinking that it had somehow rolled off while I napped there the previous evening. Nope.

We finally found the phone -- in our bedroom (where Jac sleeps with us), a few feet away from the monitor base. We had been fooled by the receiver (and charging base) that we leave next to the living room couch.