Another first finished

Jake celebrated his first Christmas in Massachusetts. We weren't sure
if that would happen due to weather, but we caught an early flight out
of Sacramento to make it. It was worth it, even though after one
cancelled flight and close to 12 hours of planes and airports we still
had a two-hour drive home. Oh and we're all sick, too. But, besides
the hassle of travelling,, it was so nice to spend Christmas 'home.'
And thanks to my nephew Jack and his letter to The North Pole, Santa
was able to deliver Jake's gifts to Lancaster (and Santa went
overboard!).

No way

This was the title of an email I opened today. Seven months! I know I just said this a month ago, but it's so hard to believe how fast time goes by.

Jake is now sitting up on his own, and it's great. He can sit and play for a while - he's doing so well at entertaining himself, and definitely loves being off of his belly. He isn't making much progress as far as crawling, but pulls himself along with his arms. He gets very frustrated when things are out of reach.

He is solely on formula now. That has both it's good and bad points. I miss feeding him at night, and I really miss it at 3 am! He still wakes in the middle of the night and we have a lot of trouble getting him back down. I think by the time we have a bottle ready he's wide awake and ready to play. He is doing much better with solids and eats just about everything. Prunes are still his favorite, and even though we fill him up with them, he still has trouble pooping! He doesn't like peas much.

He just loves bouncing now. He bounces in his door-way jumper, bounces on our laps, tries to bounce in his car seat. He is the epitome of a bouncing baby boy! He also can sit in his bathtub now and loves to spend a little extra time in there playing. He gets all excited when I come in to get him in the morning, and now I understand why Chad said "it's like Christmas every morning." What a cuddly little guy he is.

We're excited for Christmas, but I can't say that I'm looking forward to a 6 and 7-hour flight with a 20-pounder on my lap. Dave and I are praying he sleeps!

'Christmas' morning

We had so much fun with Jake this morning. He was really into opening
presents and seemed genuinely excited with his new toys. But here he
is with his favorite, which wasn't from Santa but Grammie. It's a lion
cub that purrs, growls...even blinks. The thing is so realistic it's
bizzare. I find myself getting upset when Jake yanks on her ear and I
keep gasping 'gentle with the kitty!!'

My favorite was the adorable REI vest Dave got him. It's just too cute.

Santa came!

We're looking forward to celebrating Jake's first Christmas tomorrow
morning. Or at 3:00 am, you never know when he's going to decide to
start his day!

Yes, the small teddy bear is the Snuggle fabric softner bear. When I
read the description of 'snuggle bear' on Amazon, I didn't make the
connection. And when the bear showed up plastered with tags that said
'snuggle fabric softner' I ripped them off thinking the bear looked
generic enough. Then I showed it to Dave and he immediately said 'I
will make your laundry soft!' :(

Happy birthday Lu

I tried to get Jake into the christmas penguin costume that Lucy gave
him this morning, but he was not having the giant penguin head. Can't
say I blame him. We sent this picture off to our friends (and now ex-
neighbors) Lauren, Steve, and Lucy took off last weekend on a cross-
country drive to move to Iceville, i mean - Massachusetts. Lucy
turned 2 today!

Bundled up

If this is how I dress him when it's 57 degrees, what am I supposed to
put him in in Massachusetts?

The hat is a gift from our neighbors who hunt.

Christmas shopping

We took Jake Christmas shopping today, which seemed weird, but it
seemed more weird to leave him home alone. :) We'll be doing his first
Christmas in our house on Sunday, since we'll be 'home' for Christmas
this year. So yes, those are his presents from Santa in the cart.
Hopefully he didn't catch on! Anyway, it was the first time I tried
him out in a cart. Look at how proud he is of himself.

I don't know why we're in the bike aisle!

Dad dressed him

I got a nice surprise this morning when Dave offered to get up with
Jake and let me sleep in a bit (formula is really starting to win me
over). I got an even bigger surprise when I got up and saw what Dave
had dressed him in.

Hey, the clothes were clean and I got two extra hours of sleep so I'm
not going to complain!

Frosty's

We decided last minute today to find somewhere to cut down a Christmas
tree. We ended up at Frosty's in the Santa Cruz mountains. (Frosty's
was located right next to "Tabacco Ranch Tree Farm" - wonder which
gets more visitors?) We're looking forward to decorating it tomorrow
with Jake, along with the mini-tree in our front yard, which is a
Willow Glen tradition.

Christmas in the park

We went to downtown San Jose for 'Christmas in the Park.' It's this
annual festival with rides, food, and booths with animated Christmas
scenes. It's actually run down and sad, but Jake kind of liked it. He
went on his first carousel ride (I panicked because it was going so
fast and I thought I was going to drop him!), got lots of compliments
from the other attendees, and seemed to enjoy having his picture taken.

In other news Dave and I are over the moon because some of our closest
friends had healthy baby boys over the past few days. Steph and Sean
welcomed Connor Andrew (I think that's his name) on Sunday and Allison
and Vishal welcomed Deven this afternoon. We are just holding out for
Conan and Lori - their baby boy is due Friday (Dave's bday!).

Ghetto mall santa

Dave, Lisa, and I waited in line today to get Jake's picture with Santa.
1. Don't malls usually do more for the Santa set? I was surprised to
see the green sheet and nothing else.
2. Santa smelled so much like cigarette smoke. And his arms were
shaking when I handed Jake to him. I would've left but Jake reached
for him, cooed, and snuggled into his beard. (gag).
3. You can tell from this blog that Jake isn't one to smile at the
camera. Well he turned to the camera, tilted his head, and smiled from
ear to ear. You could see his teeth! That's when the picture lady said
'the camera just broke.'

So Jake's first Santa picture wasn't a success. I think we'll take him
to Palo Alto and see if we have better luck with the rich people's
Santa.

Happy Thanksgiving

Thirty-one turkey days under my belt and I can't remember feeling so utterly and completely thankful.

Jake loves Nana

I just came across this sweet picture of Nana and Jake from our visit
to Massachusetts in October. Jake just took to her... I'm not sure why
she looks so scared of me!

Milestones

Holding his own bottle AND drinking formula...all in one day! It's soy
formula - he's already showing signs that he's a true Californian.

Mmmm...prunes

We haven't been that successful when it comes to Jake and food. He
just didn't take to solids like we expected, and he'd meltdown soon
after he was put in his highchair (removing the tray helped-the tray
definitely freaked him out). We were at a loss until Dave remembered
a funny story where Katie gobbled up two containers of prunes. We
found some stage 1 prunes, gave it a try and sure enough he ate up the
prunes like they were candy. Its been two successful nights of
prunes. Now I'm just waiting to see what kind of payback arrives in
his diaper.

Jake the giraffe

We had great weather this weekend so that meant lots of time spent
outside. We went for walks, to the playground to go on the swings, and
to the farmers' market in Mountain View with Aunt Erica and Uncle Nick
(or at least Dave and I are hoping he'll end up 'uncle' Nick). :) Notice that I didn't make the kid swing with a million blankets stuffed around him. I'm starting to realize he wont' fall out.

And (drum roll) Jake slept through the night!!! I can't tell you how refreshed Dave and I felt at 7 this morning, and we didn't even make it to bed until after 12. We'll see what tonight
brings!

Creepy baby

I was getting ready to throw out the box that Jake's exersaucer came in when I wondered: How does the exersaucer baby keep his khakis and button-down so wrinkle-free when he's bouncing around?

Caught dad!

I think we spend 90% of our time untangling his little fists from our
hair.

Hump day

Tonight Dave and I sang selections from 'The Sound of Music' for 10
minutes while trying to comfort Jake as he cried/moaned in agony
trying so hard to poop. I ended up holding his little legs up and sure
enough he got out so much we used half a package of wipes and wondered
if he still weighed 18 pounds (his weight on Monday). We'd been
waiting for this day for a week and Dave and I just cheered him on.
Then his little red face relaxed and a hint of a smile appeared.
Victory! Wednesdays used to mean splitting a bottle of wine and
watching a movie -- this was so much better than that.

What I wish he would do

He's been up fussing since 12 and I just got him to fall back asleep
in my lap 3 hrs. later. I really may just sit here until morning - I'm
too afraid to move!

Sitting up & spitting up

Here he is sitting up on his own! He started sitting about a week ago. I think he did it for the first time about three weeks ago, but I got excited and let go of him to clap, and he fell over and smacked his head, so I hadn't tried it again until this past week.

In addition to sitting up, Jake has flat-out refused to drink formula. He had two bottles of it this weekend without a problem, but today he refused it. Which makes me being at work a little bit of a problem. I came home today to try to help Dave out and we tested him by putting breastmilk in a bottle. He drank that just fine. Then we mixed a bit of formula with breastmilk and he just wouldn't take it. When Dave finally got him to get a bit in his mouth, he pulled his head away from the bottle, looked at Dave and SPIT it right in Dave's face!

We're hoping maybe it's all due to his teeth, but Dave bought about every type of formula there is tonight to try again tomorrow, and I'm rearranging meetings so I can come home and feed him if need be.

Why do these things always happen the day after our pediatrician appointments?

Day at the beach 2

Here he is again at the beach in Santa Cruz... a little happier to be on his blanket. We were trying to get a picture for our Christmas card. I had a nice big Christmas sweater and hat to put him in, but even at the coast it was 80 degrees. I'll torture him by putting him on cold, wet sand, but I won't put him in a sweater when it's too warm.

Day at the beach

Dave and I took Jake to Santa Cruz today to celebrate his 6-month birthday and escape the heat of San Jose. Jake loved watching the waves, but whenever I tried to put him down on the wet sand, he would cry. Being the horrible parents that we are, Dave and I did it a few times so we could get a picture of his cute crying face and sneak in a few laughs as he desperately tried to keep his little feet off of the sand.

Brunch with the big people

This morning we went to Stacks in Menlo Park with our friends Chris and Gary. Jake just sat there for an hour, looking cute, chewing on the strap of his little seat, and listening intently to the adult conversation (notice how I'm not)... I was really impressed considering we were up ALL night with him. He had his first taste of formula yesterday and I think it didn't settle well. He woke up at 2:00 and there was nothing we could do to make him feel better. Grandpa came to visit/babysit this afternoon and he had another bottle of formula so we'll see how tonight goes. Hopefully well, because we have an unexpected open day tomorrow and I'm so excited to spend the entire thing with Jake before I face another week of work.

Mother of the year

Here he is all ready for bed! With a patch of bananas dried in his
eyebrow and under his nose (I'm not sure how I missed that when I gave
him his bath), in his Christmas sleep sack because I'm behind on
laundry, and covered in lint because he managed to roll around on the
hardwood floors in his room and I haven't swiffered in forever. But he
is going to bed on a just-washed crib sheet... one point for me,

Then and now

How is it possible that little baby below is now this big? Here he is
eating oatmeal (with his favorite bib from Aunt Ashley). He also sat
up on his own tonight. What next? Am I going to come home tomorrow and
find him playing the Wii?

Happy six-month birthday, Jake

Is it really possible that this was taken six months ago???

His new tooth works

I was feeding Jake today when he bit me. Who knew one tiny little
tooth could hurt so much? I gasped in surprise and pain and squeezed my eyes shut while the pain passed. When I opened them he was looking at me with wide eyes, then his face just crumpled and he wailed! Poor little thing. He's becoming so much more aware every day...growing so (too) fast.

Every time I try to get a picture of his tooth he makes this face. He's such a little tease!

Holding hands with dragon

Dragon

Soon after I found out I was pregnant I bought this purple Gund stuffed dragon. I thought it was adorable, soft, and just sweet. I put
it on a shelf when I was decorating the 'baby's' room. I couldn't wait to play
with it with my new baby. The further along I got in my pregnancy I
was really lucky to get so many things from friends, family, and even
work. But the toys were hard plastic rings, or primary-colored blocks,
or things that crinkled when you felt them. I felt stupid and put the
dragon in a sterolite container. Obviously I didn't know what a baby
should play with. I was going to give the dragon to GoodWill but Jake
recently spotted it. He squealed and reached for it.

Now every night before bed we play on his floor and all he wants is
his dragon. He'll scoot over rings and teethers and things that make
sounds just to get to it. And every night it just about melts my heart.

Warning

The picture you are about to see may cause you to have an overwhelming
urge to jump through your monitor and cuddle the subject.

Take the picture already

So I can keep bouncing in my new toy you got me for my six-month
birthday!! And next time don't hide my feet on me so I can bounce
without slipping all around! You and dad may have gotten a good laugh
but it's cruel!

Monday mornings aren't so bad...

when you get to wake up to this.

He's full of smiles, squeals, and rolls all around in his crib (hence the blurry picture - caught him just after a roll). All this before he's even had his first cup of coffee.

Best $20 ever spent

Toys come and go, but man he loves his mobile. It's the cure-all for any breakdown. It mesmerizes him!

We just put up the ugly, mesh 'safe bumper' because he was getting his legs stuck in between the slats of his crib. He has a perfectly nice bumper that came with his bedding but all this SIDS research has me so paranoid he'll be lucky if he ever gets to sleep with a blanket or
stuffed animal.

Whheee!!

This afternoon I took Jake for a walk downtown to Starbucks with a
stop at the park on the way back. It was our little routine back
before Dave was on leave and I was home alone with him. A month
changes everything... He used to give a big grin when I first put him
in the swing but today it was a loud, hearty belly laugh followed by
endless giggles. Completely made my day!!!

Tiny toes

Last night we met up with our friends Julie and Justin and their baby,
Lucas. Lucas and Jake are just two weeks apart in age but SO
different. Lucas is long and thin. Jake really just looked like a
little linebacker. He's half the length of Lucas but has 5 pounds on
him! I wish I had taken a picture. The biggest difference was their
feet. Lucas' were seriously twice the size of Jake's. I gave his size
1 Nikes a shot today (1 = 0 - 3 months) and took this picture. When I
lifted him up from the chair they both fell off. Looks like it's just
Robeez for the near future!

Yum yum dim sum

We went out for dim sum today. It's the perfect place to bring jake --
it's usually loud enough to keep him asleep when he nods off in the
car on the way there. If he does wake up he can make as much noise as
he likes and it blends in. Plus there's all that action - he loved
watching the carts go by. With how fast he's growing it won't be long
before he's eating dumplings with us!

Trying so hard!

I think we'll have a crawler in no time! He tries so hard and gets so
frustrated. He can scoot himself to a toy, but uses mainly his legs.
He just pushes his little face along the floor (awful to watch!).

Jake sends a big thanks to Aunt Amy who taught me about mobile
blogging. More typos but way more posts!

Lunch time

this was the face that greeted me when I came home for lunch yesterday.

Going on six months

Jake is almost six months! And now that I'm back at work, I can actually update his blog. Here's a quick rundown:

Likes: His toes, his exersaucer, and his beloved French teething toy, Sophie the giraffe. Have you heard of this thing? It's all the rage and it costs a whopping $20. I refused to give into it until he started eyeing any other little baby who had one. So his "Sassy" whoozit has been replaced. Although all the other babies that have a Sophie are usually scooting around in a Bugaboo, not a Bob.

Dislikes: being held for too long (he used to be so cuddly!), his carseat, sleeping through the night. I seriously wonder if in ten years I'm still going to be sitting in the rocking chair at 3 am rocking him back to sleep.

Milestones: He rolls all around now and is starting to scoot! I'll feel much better when he catches on to lifting up his face. And he got his first tooth on November 1st! That was a big week - new president, new tooth.

Jake loves being home with Dave. And Dave honestly has being a stay-at-home parent down. He is so much better at it than I am. I go home at lunch every day and Jake is dressed and happy and there is lunch on the table for me. When Dave used to get home he'd usually find me teary-eyed in the rocking chair holding a half-eaten bag of fig newmans. I don't know how he does it - I'm thoroughly impressed... and very grateful.

10 weeks

Jake is 10 weeks now - two and a half months! So hard to believe.

Jakes full of smiles now. He's still having trouble going down at night, but he's bright-eyed in the morning and he loves to play. He'll coo back if I coo at him now. I'm in love with his cheeks, which are getting chubbier every day... can't stop kissing them.

At his two-month appointment we found out he's 13 lbs. 1 oz. and 23.5 inches long. He's basically in the 50th percentile for size. He got four vaccinations and slept for two days straight. I've been trying and trying to get him to sleep, but all I wanted was my little fussy, awake Jake back.

I'm getting used to taking him out, and even bought a ticket to Massachusetts for mid-August. I am so scared to fly alone with him, but I figure the worst that can happen is he'll cry and annoy the other passengers - passengers I'll never have to see again (as long as they aren't on my return flight!).

7 weeks

Jake will be 7 weeks in just a few hours. It's hard to believe. I spent this morning with him on my lap asking him "where did my little baby go? You're my big baby now!" He's still not really smiling, so he looked very seriously at me while I asked him this over and over.

In other exciting news, Auntie Kathy came to visit and I got to catch up on some sleep. She was the start of our family visits this summer. My parents will be out this week, followed by Auntie Jeanne next week. I officially had my first taste of alcohol when Auntie Kathy was here. It was nice to have a glass of wine, but I honestly miss diet coke and coffee so much more.

We ventured out into the world this past week even though my peditrician insists staying home for the first two months. I'm a nervous mother, but not nervous enough to stay trapped in our house for another four weeks. So we tried 'baby boot camp.' It was in the wealthy city next door, so I wasn't surprised when I showed up and all the other mothers had on special work out clothes and fancy jogger strollers. I was in sweats with my Chicco stroller. The class was doing normal workout stuff like lunges and squats. Then the class was instructed to step up onto a bench and down (like step aerobices). I stepped up, realized my post-pregnancy leg was jello, and fell backwards, off the bench and onto my stroller. I was so embarrassed, I didn't realize how much I hurt myself; my back and leg have these horrible bruises on them. I was thankful that at 6 weeks old, Jake is too young to be embarrassed by me!

In sad news, we said goodbye to Maggie. Her cancer came back and was just to much for her to battle anymore. We're so thankful for the year she was part of our family.

Jake's first weeks

He's here! Our perfect little boy - Jacob Yim Murphy.

I thought for sure I'd be posting like crazy our first few weeks. I had no idea that a newborn could keep me so busy.

Jake was born on May 13th - just after midnight. He shares a birthday with his Auntie Kathy! I was induced on May 12th. Most of my 20-hour labor was smooth and uneventful. It got hairy at the end, but it's true what they say about quickly forgetting everything. Jake never dropped, so my doctor ordered a c-section for me around 10 pm on May 12th. I begged to have a vaginal birth, got my way, and then two hours later I was begging for the c-section. After 2.5 hours of pushing, Jake's head popped out. I still remember mustering up the strength to sit up and look. I'll never forget seeing his face, with one eye open. I still didn't know at that point if he was a boy or a girl, but I understood what love at first sight is.

The past few weeks have been amazing and emotional and I'm thankful every day that I have such a healthy little guy. He eats like crazy, snorts when he gets extra hungry, farts so loud it makes me laugh hysterically, and covers his little ears with his chubby little hands when I try to sing to him. I think he's smiling at me but I bet it's just gas. His hands and feet are so cute I want to gobble them up. He hates getting a bath but loves his ducky bath towel and coos when he's wrapped up in it. He likes when I play John Denver on the iPod. All and all he's just the best thing I've ever come across in my entire life... he's a little fussier than your average baby and that's hard to watch him suffer through, but we're working with his peditrician to try different things to help him through his bad spells at night and get his little digestive system on track.

We're now busy with visits from family and friends. Jake and I take walks every day and spend time playing with Maggie. But it seems like 99% of the time is spent feeding him!

Our main computer died, so we aren't able to upload any new pictures of him. But here's one from his early days.

one week left

I've reached 39 weeks! I can't believe the end of my pregnancy is already here - it went by fast. I'm feeling good, but feeling giant. I've had such an easy pregnancy so far, but now the swelling in my hands and feet have gotten out of control and I have carpal tunnel in both arms (probably shouldn't be typing). I still feel like the little munchkin is going to be a boy, but that hasn't made picking out names any easier. We're down to a few for boys, but for girls we're still all over the place. Our 'short list' keeps changing... new names and longer lists. We're in trouble if we get a pink one! I'm going back to the doctor this afternoon to get my swelling checked out and hoping she doesn't choose to induce me. I just don't feel ready, although I think I'm starting to realize I will never feel fully ready. I'm finally getting downright scared about labor, especially when I catch myself in a mirror and think "how the hell am I going to get this out of me?" It really looks like I'm toting around a 10-year-old, not a baby. But despite being scared, worried, and anxious, nothing can beat out how happy I am that I'm going to be a mom.