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Fri, Dec 31, 2004 7:39 PM
Is it party time?

Matt and I decided to invite a couple of people over for New Year's Eve, and about three weeks after this decision, we decided to send Jake to my parent's house for the night.

He fell asleep in my arms on the couch about 15 minutes before they arrived, and it was then I wasn't sure I could give him up... even for 18 hours. But, they packed him and about a u-haul's worth of stuff up in the jeep and hit the road at 7:15. It was all I could do not to cry.

I don't know how many mornings I have thought to myself how nice it would be to have just one night without any disturbance. I don't know how many evenings I've thought about how much I'd like to blast the stereo and have a couple of beers. But, at that moment it seemed there was a hollowness in my stomach, an emptiness in the house, a quiet in the world that I hadn't before known.

Truly, I made it through the night without shedding more than three small tears, and we had a very good time. Good food, good friends, good drink, and an enjoyable new year's eve.

By 10:00 the next morning I was running up the driveway at my parents house. I rang the bell three times (because the dang door was locked) and yelled "give me my baby!"

It was all I could do not to knock my dad over and rip him out of my mom's arms. But when I did get him, I cuddled him up as tight as I could, leaned close to his ear, and whispered, "happy new year baby, I missed you."

As much as I want to end the story there I really think I should add that he has since fallen asleep in my arms eight times. I just can't seem to put him down.

Happy new year family, friends, and internet. May two-thousand five bring you joys unnumbered, and love indescribable.

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Tue, Dec 28, 2004 9:24 AM
I have this odd feeling that Jake loves this exersaucer thing almost as much as he loves me.

We went into his room, it was on his bed, and as soon as he saw the thing he jumped, wiggled, threw his arms out to it, smiled, and laughed.

"Who needs a clean diaper when I've got all this?! Free me woman! I have toys to play with!"

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Sun, Dec 26, 2004 10:00 AM
What a great Christmas it was!

After spending a quick morning at home opening presents, we rushed to my parents house. Jake napped under the tree before getting the full dose of grandparent snuggles. The first gift to be opened was Jake's brand-new exersaucer (there are pictures in the photo gallery)! Luckily for Matt and my Dad it came in about a million pieces.

We got through all the other gifts, passing the baby around the room. He smiled, cooed, and chirped pretty much the whole time. Once everything was unwrapped daddy and grandpa set to work building his exersaucer, and Jake fell asleep in front of the fire place.

Before we knew it we were running late for dinner at Matt's parent's house. We stopped by the house and unloaded Jake's haul (the boy made out like a fiend... you'd think the kid was spoiled or something), and set out for Christmas part 2.

Jake spent most of the afternoon playing with his cousins (one is about a month older than he is and the other is six). Of course he also got to spend time playing with his grandma and great aunts. He seemed to have almost as much fun as they did "flying" around the kitchen and having his hair styled. I think he will really love being doted on by the Jorgenson sisters (even if he will stop admitting it after a certain age).

He seemed to love every minute of the attention, and even slept through dinner, allowing Matt and I to enjoy a full meal.

We finally made it home that night and Jake was out like a light for the next 10 hours. Such a busy day! But, he handled it like a pro.

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Tue, Dec 21, 2004 9:00 AM
As some of you know there is a bulletin board for August 2004 mommies that I frequent (I've been with them since February). We post questions about our babies, stories and pictures, and our joys and complaints about our husbands and day to day lives.

The other day, a question was posted asking about how much time our husbands spend with the baby. After reading most of the responses I realized that I am one of the luckiest girls in the world, and thought I'd share my reply with you all so you too can see just how lucky I am.

"My husband has been terrific.

He was really into this daddy thing from the minute he found out I was pregnant. I think in the hospital the nurses only changed one diaper... Matt changed the rest (every time they would try, he'd jump up, "I'll do it!"). We had some small complications, and ended up spending 4 days in the hospital. Matt would go to the nursery as often as they would let him to get Jake and bring him to the room to nurse. Matt talked them into letting Jake come back to the room and stay with us (he spent the first night in the nursery), and when he walked out of the nursery with that baby (I was in a wheel chair, and waited outside... I thought he was just running in for a second) I cried.

I could barely walk for a week due to a pulled groin muscle, let alone walk while carrying the baby. Matt took care of both of us in a way I never even knew he had in him, changed nearly every diaper, soothed the baby when he cried and I was in so much pain I didn't know if I would make it through the night. He read everything he could get his hands on about nursing, then helped me figure out what to do when the baby wouldn't latch on right. When I was healed, he taught me all the little tricks that make diaper changing so much easier. He spent 6 weeks off work doing chores, grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning, caring for the baby... he did it all while I sat there with my jaw on the floor amazed at how lucky I am to have such a wonderful husband.

He's been back to work for about 14 weeks now. He works at least 10 hours a day (sometimes 6 days a week, sometimes a day shift and night shift back to back), and spends nearly every other free minute with Jake. When he's around in the mornings he lets me sleep in, and spends the morning caring for and playing with the baby, when he gets home from work he kisses me then practically runs to wherever Jake happens to be and picks him up and loves him with all his heart and soul.

There are so many mornings I wake up, and stumble out to the kitchen bleary eyed for my morning coffee only to find a smiling happy (clean) baby playing in his highchair, and my wonderful husband washing bottles and singing.

I always smile, and wonder how I got so lucky to love, and be loved like this."

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Sat, Dec 18, 2004 8:59 AM
Usually when I wake up in the morning Jake is already awake, babbling to himself and playing with his feet. Such a good baby, letting mommy sleep.

A few days ago I woke up, and the babbling was kind of muffled. This made me nervous so I quickly rolled over to see what was going on, and found his fuzzy jammy covered foot in his mouth.

His little nose was all wrinkled, and his eyes were squinty as the fleece jammies soaked up all the saliva in his mouth. I don't think that little foot that he'd worked so hard to get into his mouth tasted like he expected it to.

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Sun, Dec 12, 2004 4:00 PM
Is it bad to admit that sometimes we call Jake "Farty"?

He is so going to hate me for that one...

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Wed, Dec 8, 2004 11:51 AM
I gave birth to this?

As of today Jake weighs 14 lbs. 15 oz. (falling in the 60th percentile), and is 26 inches long (falling in the 80th percentile)! The doctor says he's perfect in every way, and growing like a weed.

He's also recommended that we start giving him baby food. One thing at a time, and something new every couple of days. Holy Cow! This kid is growing up too fast.

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Wed, Dec 1, 2004 5:27 PM
Jake rolled over on his own for the first time yesterday. I put him down in his crib, because it is a safe place for the little wiggle monkey, to take a little nap and once the eyes started to droop I left the room. I was just deciding to do the dishes when I heard the scream.

It wasn't your typical "I'm hungry" or "I'm lonely" type of scream, this was the kind that makes your heart skip a beat. This was the kind of scream that makes mothers drop what they are doing and RUN to their child. This is the scream that the thought of terrifies me more than the thought of childbirth.

I ran into the nursery thinking the worst. Only to find my precious little boy face down on the mattress screaming in anger because he can't figure out how to get 'unstuck'.

Of course, my first thought is "Get the camera, or roll him over? Get the camera or... Dang! Matt is trying to sleep." So I rolled him over, he stopped crying and fell asleep. Crisis averted.

Now. I nearly forgot to post this occurrence. Yes, I thought a few times, "oh yeah, I need to post about that," but it wasn't as cute and pressing as some of the other things I really wanted to post about today (things which will now be put off until tomorrow). But, what happened this evening made me sure that this had to make it online.

About 40 minutes ago Jake was acting tired, so I decided the crib was a lovely place for a nap. After he rolled yesterday I went over all the necessary safety precautions, removing all stuffed animals, pillows, etc. from the bed. Not that there were a lot, but enough to make a new mommy paranoid, so they were banished. I laid the baby down, put the pacifier in his mouth, and started the mobile and aquarium. The soft music played, the bubbles bubbled, the lights moved in sweet soft patterns, the eyes drooped, and mommy quietly escaped.

It only took about five minutes for the screaming to begin. This screaming was similar to the above described screaming, only more urgent. I dropped the phone and went running to flip Jake over (a bit less quickly this time).

The first thing I noticed when I went into the nursery is that Jake's feet were pointed toward the ceiling. If he wasn't on his tummy, then why in the heck was he screaming like this?! Then I noticed how close he was to the aquarium.

Somehow this little boy had managed to scoot under the feet on the aquarium, and wedge his soft little head between the aquarium and the mattress. His arms were flailing, his feet were kicking, his face was red, and he was ANGRY! I actually had to press down just a little bit on the mattress to remove him from the clutches of the evil aquarium. I scooped him up to calm him while watching the little bump rise in the middle of his forehead.

So, now the Evil Fisher Price Aquarium of Doom is banished from the crib until Daddy can devise a new plan for attaching it to the crib. Then it'll return to just being the Evil Battery Sucking Aquarium of Many Dollars that we all know and love.

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