1 Month Old!!

Sorry it took me so long to post again. Needless to say, we have been a little busy around here lately! I can't believe Jacob is already 1 month old! I know everyone tells you it goes by fast, and now I know what they mean!! He already seems so much older to me, in his level of alertness and his looks. His face especially has filled out and he is already wearing size 3 month clothes! What a chunk! He is starting to sleep better, the last 2 nights he ate at 10, slept 4 hours and ate at 2, then slept another 4 hours getting up at 6, I never thought I would be so happy to get up at 2 in the morning (and only at 2 in the morning)!! During the day he eats every 3 hours, staying awake for about 45 minutes at a time and then taking a nap. He doesn't "play" with much yet, but loves looking at your face and being talked to, he also likes to look at his play mat and his jingling lion toy! At his last doctor's appointment on August 27 (at 2 weeks 4 days) he weighed 7 pounds 15 ounces (25-50 percentile), was 21 1/2 inches long (75-90 percentile), and his head was 19 1/4 inches (25-50 percentile). His next appointment will be October 13 for his 2 month check and shots :(. I will try to be better about posting pictures and letting you know how we are doing!

Laying with Daddy!


Tummy Time with Caly

Trying to hold my head up!

Loving my Paci!

Sleeping in my Bouncer

Playing on my Playmat!

1 month picture with Mr. Bear

Introducing Jacob Wilhelm Merkl

Jacob Wilhelm Merkl

Well, as most of you know, Jacob made his debut almost 2 weeks ago on August 9, 2010 (I know, 8/9/10, we are so good at planning easy dates to remember!! For those of you who don't know, we were married on 6/7/08...haha) at 9:19 pm weighing in at 7.0 lbs and 20 inches long. He was definitely a stubborn child, as he has been throughout the entire pregnancy! I said the whole time that he was going to be as stubborn and hard headed as his daddy, and he definitely is living up to it! Throughout my pregnancy, he would flip flop all around in my belly and as soon as John (or anyone for that matter) walked into the room to put a hand on my belly and feel the acrobatics going on, he would immediately stop. So, as with his personality, he refused to come the "normal" way, we all just assumed he was so comfy in there and just didn't want to budge. We had originally gone in Sunday night (August 8) to begin the induction process in the hopes of breaking my water Monday (August 9) morning and starting pitocin (the medicine that starts contractions) to get him here quickly. However, after about 14 hours of labor (starting at 7 am Monday morning until 9 pm Monday night) I had only dilated to about 2 cm and we all decided that our efforts were not effective and that the best option would be a c-section since my body and Jacob were just not cooperating. So, while it was a disappointing end to a very long day (and night before), everyone came out healthy and looking great! We were in the hospital until Thursday (August 12) morning, making it home about noon on Thursday. John went back to work last Monday, so it has just been me and the little man most of the week. He is doing great, eating about every 3 hours and we are all adjusting well to the new sleep schedule. I let John sleep all night since there isn't much he can do to help feed anyway, and he has to get up and go to work all day, but he lets me go to bed early (about 8 most nights last week) and let me sleep in this morning. Jacob and I both have doctor's appointments this week, so I will post again next weekend and let you know how we are doing! I will post a few pictures for you to look at, hope you enjoy! (Also, if you look to the right side, I posted a picture right after he was born and a 1 week picture with Mr. Bear, I am hoping to add to this every month with a new picture, so you can keep updated with how he is growing!)

Last "belly shot" Monday morning


First picture with Daddy!

First family picture!

Roll Tide! He's all ready for football season!

Home from the hospital

Meeting his big sister

Chillin in the bouncer

1 Week old with Mr. Bear

4D Ultrasound Videos

As some of you may know, John and I went for a 4D ultrasound last Wednesday and it was amazing! We got a few good face shots and some great short video clips!! Sorry it took so long to post them, but we have had a pretty busy weekend. Here are some of the videos and I will make a separate post with some of the pictures below. Enjoy!!

Yawn:



Eating Hands:



Sucking Hands:



I have taken some updated pictures of the nursery and some belly pictures of me at 32 weeks. I will post those later this week when I can get them downloaded on the computer.

4D Ultrasound Pictures

Here are some of the best pictures, if you want to see all the pictures go here and you can see an album where I posted them all.

6 Months

We have been started spending some time working on the nursery. We had all the boxes of furniture and got all the other rooms in the house moved around (we had to move the office downstairs and the guestroom into the old office) to empty out the room we were planning to use for the nursery. We also have a rocking chair that is going to go on the other side of the window that we haven't had a chance to put together yet. My mom and dad (Gail and Jerry) bought us the bedding so we can go ahead and start picking out colors for other things (like paint, lamps, etc.). I put in some pictures of the beginning stages of the nursery. I will take more as we get more furniture/decorations together. We are starting to get really excited now that we can see the room coming together and are starting to get some clothes and blankets for him. I can't help but walk into the room everyday and imagine what it will be like in 4 months to have him with us and sleeping in his crib.

Dresser

Changing Table

Crib (with Caly posing in her soon to be new favorite room I'm sure)

And here are a few pictures of what I am looking like at 6 Months. Enjoy!!

19 Weeks

It feels to me like I am growing out of control lately. Every week I feel like I am getting bigger and more uncomfortable!! Other than the growing belly, everything with me is going great. I no longer have any morning sickness or fatigue, I am finally starting to feel like my normal self again! The worst "pregnancy" symptom that I am experiencing right now is low back pain. It only happens toward the end of my work night or on a long road trip, when I am just at home relaxing I don't notice it.

I realized that a lot of you reading this probably haven't seen me and Jacob in all of our belly glory recently, so I have put up a picture of me at 6 weeks pregnant and one taken today, officially 19 weeks pregnant. Enjoy!!

6 Weeks

19 Weeks

It's a Boy!!

Jacob William Merkl is on schedule to arrive August 9, 2010. The ultrasound went well and they said that everything looks great. Here are a few pictures for your enjoyment!! The video at the bottom is a short clip of him yawning!

Sucking his thumb!

Still sucking!!

Sleeping with his hands over his head...just like his daddy!

A side yawn!