Three Jones

5x7 Folded Card

2011-11-21T20:35:00.001-05:00

Family Wall Christmas Card

Create personalized Christmas card designs at Shutterfly.com.

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2009 Disney Book

2010-11-22T19:21:00.001-05:00

Click here to view this photo book larger

Christmas Card 2009

2010-11-22T19:19:00.001-05:00

Seasonal Chic Noir Holiday 5x7 folded card

Get custom holiday cards online at Shutterfly.com.

View the entire collection of cards.

Shutterfly Rocks!!

2010-11-22T18:57:00.005-05:00

As a longtime customer of Shutterfly, I am so impressed with this years’ selection of Christmas cards! They are so reasonably priced at around $1 each for beautifully designed cards that are personalized with my own photos. I’ve just put together our card for this year and selected a 5x7 folded card. I was pretty impressed that I could also put photos and additional text on the INSIDE of the card and it was no additional price!

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-cards

I especially love the designs by Stacy Claire Boyd and Fresh Lemonade. I chose one of the designs by Blonde Designs. I'm including pictures of our sweet new baby boy, Jackson!

I’ve also used Shutterfly in the past to create Jacob’s birthday invitations. I used photos of Jacob from the past year and put together an invitation based on whatever theme we were using. Shutterfly even addressed and mailed them as well for a fee that was just a little more than a stamp!

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/birthday-cards-stationery

This is a great time of year to also put together a photo calendar for the grandparents! We do this or a photo book each year! Makes a great Christmas present!

http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars

Catching Up....

2010-06-16T21:01:00.003-04:00

So, I'm not a great blogger. I can't find the time to do it on a regular basis, but for the last few vacations we've taken, I've tried to blog about our trips, which also serves as sort of a way for me to go back and relive some of our experiences.

We were in FL & Disney last week, and I'll get to the trip in a moment, but first, to catch up from where we left off in Dec 09.

Jan 10: Jacob and I took a trip with my mom to FL - two nights in Naples with Grandma Elsa and two nights in New Port Richey with Sugar & Papa. We hadn't been to FL in about 11 months, so it was a good time to go. We had a great visit with them, albeit short!

Also in January, I found out I was pregnant with our 2nd child!

February: We had a pretty decent snowstorm and had a good time playing in the snow!

March: We took a trip to Myrtle Beach for a weekend and we told our families about our new addition and learned around the 12 week mark that they were 95% sure we were having a boy. Jeff and I also celebrated our 7 year anniversary with a stay at the Hilton in Durham and a meal at the Melting Pot.

April: We had a Level II Ultrasound that confirmed we were having a boy and that all looked normal. We also went to Wilmington for the Azalea Festival where my friend from childhood & beyond, Kim Munley, was the Grand Marshall of the Azalea Parade. Thanks to Dad & Nancy, Jeff and I attended the black-tie Patron's Gala and got to spend time with Kim, her daughter Hope and her brother, Wesley.

May: We took a trip to the NC Zoo for Mother's Day, and I got a cool new camera (Yay!) Later in the month, we had a Fetal Echocardiogram at Duke which showed that this baby boy has a normal heart! We also went to Wilmington for Memorial Day Weekend and enjoyed visiting family and swimming in Dad's pool.

So that brings us to June! And our trip to FL!!

Friday, June 4: I had a morning meeting at the NC Bar Center and after the meeting, headed home. We left home around 12:30 p.m. for our trip. We drove to Savannah and arrived around 5:15 p.m. We stayed at the Embassy Suites near the airport - it's pretty new - only open a couple of months and is a new, more modern design for Embassy Suites. It was a very nice hotel! We went to dinner at a nearby Ruby Tuesday's and headed back to the hotel to settle in for the night!

Saturday, June 5: Jacob awoke right at 6 a.m. - I swear that kid has an internal clock! We had to kill time until 7 a.m. to go to breakfast at the hotel. We packed up and had the car packed before we ate. Breakfast was great - Jacob had made to order pancakes. Jeff did too. I had a yummy veggie omelet. We discovered that Jacob loves Fruit Loops - which is interesting because he has not eaten any cereal (other than occasional Frosted Strawberry Mini-Wheats) in well over one year. The E.S. breakfast also had rice krispie treats! :D We got on the rode just before 8 a.m. headed to New Port Richey to visit my grandparents. (Unfortunately, a few days before we left, my grandma, we call her "Sugar", fell and broke her hip, so she was in the hospital.) On the way, we stopped near Ocala and had lunch at a McAlister's Deli. We arrived in New Port Richey at Sugar & Papa's house and visited with Papa. Later that night, we went to the Chinese buffet in NPR that we've now gone to for our last few trips. After dinner, we headed over to my Aunt Alice's house where she had ice cream cake for Papa's 88th birthday which was that day. After cake, my Aunt & I went to visit Sugar at the hospital. We stayed until about 9:30 p.m. and I was exhausted, so we went back to her house where we were staying and Jeff and I went on to bed!

Sunday, June 6: My sweet Aunt Alice set her alarm because she knew Jacob would be up bright & early. She made us a HUGE breakfast of pancakes, eggs, sausage, fruit salad, muffins. Everything was delicious! Then, we headed back over to visit with Papa for a little while. We stayed until 10 a.m. and then headed to Orlando where we were meeting the Darroch family at Downtown Disney to get started on our trip! At DTD, we did a little shopping and then went to Earl of Sandwich for lunch. I was surprised to find it wasn't too busy compared to previous visits. Looking back I think that is because Sunday is probably a travel day for many people. Especially, lunch time on a Sunday. Jeff had the original sandwich, and I had the chicken cobb wrap - it was very good. Jacob went with peanut butter & jelly because that was what Sterner wanted!

After lunch, we let the boys (Jacob, Sterner & Grayson) ride the small carousel and the train ride. By then, we decided we should probably head to Super Target for groceries. When we got to Super Target, Jeff took Jacob & Sterner to look at Wii stuff on the other side of the store, while Kim tried to keep Grayson happy and the three of us (Kim, Steven & I) shopped. Our goal was to get the weeks' worth of groceries in one trip! Kim & Steven had smartly planned a menu for the week and made a list of groceries. By the time we checked out - our total bill was $273! We packed the groceries into the car which was no easy feat considering both cars were PACKED still from the trip down. We headed to our rental house - www.orlando5.com at Emerald Island Resort in Kissimmee. Jeff & I stayed at Emerald Island Resort in February 2009 with my brother & Katherine and my mom and really enjoyed it. The house we rented this year was even better! It was nicer and bigger too - its a 5 BR with 4.5 baths and it's own pool & hot tub. All the houses in the subdivision have their own pools. By the time we got to the house, it was a little before 4:00 p.m. We decided the first thing to do was to go swimming!! Well, of course, after we unloaded the cars, put away the groceries & explored the house!

After our swim, we got cleaned up and made dinner for the boys - they enjoyed fish sticks w/ veggies & fruit and we tucked them into bed by a decent hour, 7:30ish, and enjoyed an adult dinner later of steaks on the grill, baked potatoes, salad, and grilled bread. Which is the same meal we had the first night of our trip to the Outer Banks last September, so I guess now it's a tradition!! After getting dinner cleaned up, we made plans to be ready to leave for Epcot the next morning at 8 a.m.! More to come!!

Jacob's First Car

2009-12-31T12:30:00.001-05:00

From Grandmother... (Mrs. Bullock)

OBX Vacation Part IV

2009-09-21T20:52:00.002-04:00

On Thursday, September 10, the weather was still looking pretty windy/rainy. Not a wash-out, but not a beach day either. We decided to head over to Roanoke Island Festival Park.

The highlight of the park is the Elizabeth II, a recreation of the sixteenth century type ship which would have brought folks over twenty or so years prior to the "Lost Colony."

As you board the ship, there are costumed guides who answer questions and let you know more information about the ship. The boys really enjoyed climbing around the ship and ringing the bell. After the ship, we headed to the settlement site area. They had an area set up with tents and a blacksmith, as well as a game called Skittles. Skittles, apparently, is a variety of bowling dating back many years. Jacob enjoyed trying to throw the wooden ball and knock down the pins. After talking to the costumed guys at the settlement site, we headed into the museum. It was quite kid friendly and had lots of hands-on exhibits. In fact, Jacob enjoyed it so much he didn't want to leave! He was nearly in tears as we left and it was starting to rain a bit.

We had already decided to swing down to Bodie Island to see the lighthouse there. We had seen it four years ago and there's not much there other than the lighthouse and a giftshop, but it's nice to go look at. As a nice surprise, the lighthouse itself was open. You can't climb, but you could go inside and look up the stairs. We later heard that they are trying to make improvements so that people can climb to the top. After the lighthouse, it was time to head on back for lunch and naps. We had a laid back afternoon, and in the evening, Kim & Steven headed out for their date night and Jeff and I were in charge of getting the 3 kids fed dinner and put to bed!

It went surprisingly well. We fed the boys homemade mac & cheese that Steven made earlier in the day, and sweet potato fries. After some playtime and I'm sure some Blue's Clues, Jeff took Jacob & Sterner to read to them, and I took Grayson to feed him a bottle and put him to bed. Grayson cried a little, but settled down after a little while. There wasn't much I could do to help Grayson, so I went in and helped Jeff. After books, Sterner and Jacob went right to bed without any issues at all! Jeff and I sat down to eat some of our leftovers from the night before and waited for Kim & Steven to get back. All was well!

OBX Vacation Part III

2009-09-16T20:09:00.002-04:00

On Wednesday, 9/09/09, the weather was looking a little better, but still cloudy and cool in the morning with a good possibility of rain. We decided to trek to the north towards Corolla. When Jeff and I went to Manteo in 2005, we did not go much past Kitty Hawk, so it was interesting to pass through Southern Shores, Duck, and other small developed areas on our way to Corolla. The houses up that direction are just enormous and at some points, the island is so narrow that the water on the sound side is very close to road (NC 12) and the ocean is easy to see to your east. There is also much less commercial development that direction, though a Harris Teeter has opened in the last year or so, and there are beach shops and such, it's just not the degree of commercial development seen in Kill Devil Hills / Nags Head. Some people believe those areas are too commercial and compare them to Myrtle Beach, but having just visited Myrtle Beach in May, there is no comparison really. To me, Kill Devil Hills/Nags Head is just commercial enough to have good variety for shopping, eating & entertainment, but not the complete overdone of Myrtle Beach.

Anyway, it took us about 40-45 minutes to get to Corolla. We were headed to the Currituck Beach Lighthouse, and had also planned to visit the Wild Horse Museum and whatever else we came across. Both of those are very close to the Whalehead Club, which is a large formerly private home that has been renovated and can be toured, sort of like the Biltmore on a much smaller scale. First, we headed to the lighthouse. We were looking forward to checking it out and climbing it. It's actually one of the "easier" ones to climb. Many you cannot climb (Bodie, etc.) and Hatteras has a 42 inch minimum height, so the kids couldn't have gone. Yes, we took three kids ages 9 months, 2 years and 3 years up 210 steps to the top of the lighthouse. The climb wasn't too bad and Jacob did really well and went all the way up by himself. At the top, the views of the water, the sound, and the Whalehead Club were stunning. We took photos and then began our descent. Jacob again made it most of the way down but wanted carried about the last 1/3 of the way. I thought going down was worse than going up because you had to look down. It's also harder on the knees! After the lighthouse, we decided to venture down this dirt road which had a sign pointing towards the Wild Horse Museum. It was a bit further than we thought it would be, but we made it. The Wild Horse Museum is housed in the old Corolla Schoolhouse, built in the late 19th to early 20th century and used until the mid-1950s.

The Wild Horse Museum was of course, small, but had a very friendly attendant who answered our questions. Fortunately, we were visiting on a Wednesday, the only day of the week that they have a former wild horse visit for the kids and adults like to meet. And even better, we were just in time since the horse would be showing up around 11:00 a.m. Shortly, Uno arrived. He was a beautiful chestnut color with a blond mane. We had already heard Uno's story earlier, he had been removed from the beach because he had been abandoned by his herd. It was later discovered that he had health problems, which is likely the reason he had been abandoned. Once a horse are removed, they are immediately vaccinated, but they cannot be returned to the herd because they could infect the herd with diseases they have not been exposed to. Because of this, it is quite serious when a horse is removed from the beach and not a decision made lightly. We all enjoyed meeting Uno and we took pictures.

After that, we went looking for some food because we had been smelling something ever since we had ventured over to the Wild Horse Museum. As an aside, there are additional buildings, former homes renovated into businesses and shops, as well as a chapel that make up the Historic Corolla Village area. It's pretty neat.

As we ventured, we found Corolla Village BBQ, the only place to eat anywhere in the immediate vicinity. It's a former outbuilding/garage of one of the homes and sells NC-style BBQ. Having had Pigman's BBQ two days earlier, the Corolla Village BBQ was a huge improvement. It was quite good in fact. After we ate, we checked out a playground near the Twiddy Realty building. Apparently, the Twiddy family has done all the renovations in the Historic Corolla Village area.

After the BBQ lunch, we headed on back to the beach house. I really wanted to keep Jacob awake until we got back and he wanted to sleep. I knew if he did, he would not nap when we got back. So, as we drove along, Jeff and I sang silly songs to him, and while he was acting like he was mad at us, he kept laughing. We got him home without him falling asleep and he took his nap without incident.

Wednesday night, it was decided, would be a date night for Jeff and I. Originally, I thought we'd put Jacob to bed and head out, but Kim & Steven felt like they could handle it, and Jeff and I would return the favor on Thursday. So, Jeff and I decided to head over to Manteo and walk around a bit. We decided on nostalgia and ate at the Full Moon Cafe, where we had eaten four years earlier. I had Shrimp and Grits, which oddly enough was served over Polenta, which any good southern girl knows are NOT grits! Jeff had a huge shrimp & crab enchilada. Oh, and we had a baked brie appetizer that was really good too. The food was good and we enjoyed our dinner. We wanted to do something else after dinner, and a walk on the beach seemed like a good idea, but it was far, far too windy. So, we opted for a visit to the Outer Banks Brewing Station, which brews their own beer and we wanted to check out anyway. We had a beer apiece and split the beer sampler before heading back to the house, where all the kids were fast asleep.

Kim & Steven had taken them out for
pizza at Dare Devil Pizza which was 1/2 block from the house and then took them to the beach to play in the sand a bit. They'd had a good time and all was well!

*Sigh, our vacation was more than half over!*

OBX Vacation Part II

2009-09-14T21:00:00.003-04:00

Tuesday morning, we knew it would be raining when we got up. In fact, there was a low pressure system that was causing quite a bit of wind as well. It was nearly like a tropical depression!

So, we decided to head over to the NC Aquarium at Roanoke Island. When we got there about 10:00 a.m. or so, it wasn't too busy. The kids enjoyed looking at the fish and other exhibits. We caught the diver talk in the big shark tank. We had just seen the diver talk at the Fort Fisher Aquarium on July 4th. Jacob loved it then. It was cool because the diver would give the kids "high five" through the glass. This time, it wasn't quite as interactive, and while Jacob still enjoyed it, he was disappointed he did not get to high five the diver! They take a photo of you at the beginning of the tour and at the end you can see different views of yourself on different backgrounds. I ended up buying two of them. We also got some magnets and Jacob got a book - Curious George goes to the Beach. More on that later. ;)

Lunch the previous day had been sort of harried, so we opted to head back to the house for yummy leftovers from our Labor Day feast the day before. Then the kids went down for a nap. Each day, it seemed like Jacob would go to sleep earlier than Sterner and get up earlier, and Sterner would sleep later. So, when Jacob woke up pretty early afternoon - we decided to take him to play mini-golf. I'm glad we did too because we would not have had time later in the week. We headed back towards Nags Head - there are actually three mini-golf courses near the Outlet mall. While it was sunny at the beach house when we left, by the time we got over to the mini-golf, it was raining! Jacob was so disappointed. It looked like an isolated shower, so Jeff suggested we walk around the Outlet mall a bit and see if it would stop. So we popped into the Coach outlet and Gymboree. Nothing we couldn't leave without.... It stopped raining and we went for the Jurassic Park mini-golf. Jacob is so funny. He will hit the ball, then pick it up, moving it closer to the hole, then sort of just push it along with the club until it goes into the hole... But, he just loves it. Even more than bowling we later discovered! We finished 18 holes and then actually did the 2nd course, for a total of 36 holes of golf. I was pretty "done" after the first round, but we pushed through because Jacob loved it.

We headed back to the beach house and it was time for dinner. Since we were having grilled fish, coconut rice, and a black bean/mango chutney, we decided to feed the kids first and put them on to bed and then have an adult dinner. It worked well! We also decided to watch a movie together. Still not hot tub weather Tuesday night. We watched a movie. The movie was great, but we ended up stopping it half-way through to take a potty break, etc., and ended up talking for an hour! We finally restarted it up and finished it.

Wednesday - we went to Corolla! More to come!

OBX Vacation!

2009-09-12T20:23:00.005-04:00

We are just back from the Outer Banks of NC! We had a wonderful trip. I didn't have great internet access out there, so I had to wait to get back to blog the details of our trip.... without further adieu...

Background....
So, several months ago, Jeff told me he really wanted to spend a week at the beach. Pretty much all our vacations have centered around Disney, family and a couple of cruises. His family vacations growing up were spent at the beach.

We decided on the Outer Banks. We've only been out to the Outer Banks one other time, about 4 years ago. We stayed in Manteo that time. But we wanted a true week at the beach vacation... I started looking for houses to rent directly from an owner.

After MUCH searching, I found a wonderful house in Kill Devil Hills. It was actually hard to find a direct rental, even using VRBO.com. Here is the house we found: Caribbean Dream

It's four bedrooms, 4.5 baths, 1.5 blocks from the ocean, a pool and a hottub, multiple decks, and fairly new. I was enamored with this house! And we got an amazing deal through the owner. Roughly $400=$500 off the rate through the rental agency! We started thinking of who we could take with us. Pretty early on, I decided this trip would be a lot more fun for all of us if we took another family with kids so Jacob would have a playmate.

We ended up asking our friends Kim & Steven, who have two sons - Sterner, almost 2.5, and Grayson, 9 months. Steven and I go way back. We were coworkers about 10 years ago. He met Kim the summer we worked together at a law firm in Wilmington, and she and I became great friends too. About four years ago, they moved to the Raleigh area. With the best of intentions, we've still only seen them a handful of times a year. We had just recently had a park/dinner "playdate" with them, and a few days later, I emailed them the house I'd found and asked them to join us. To my surprise, they responded enthusiastically within about two hours! We had been excited about the house, and now we were really excited to have such great friends going with us!

This trip was so much different than other vacations... which were mainly to FL... and mainly focused on family & Disney. After several months of waiting, but not nearly the planning that goes into a Disney trip... we left for the Outer Banks last Saturday!

Prior to our departure, I went to the Holly Springs Farmer's Market and bought some produce to take with us. We ended up leaving a little before 11 a.m. We stopped in Rocky Mount and had some lunch at the Cracker Barrel. We headed on. We could not check into the house until 4 pm so we stopped at the Outer Banks Visitor's Center near Manteo around 3 pm and hung out a while looking at brochures, etc. We got to the house about 3:30 p.m. Kim & Steven & the boys were already there waiting by the pool. They'd gotten into the gate, which wasn't locked. We all went into the house and got the cars unpacked. Wow at the stuff that four adults & three kids need for a week at the beach!!!

Next up was a trip to the liquor store and the Harris Teeter, which were fortunately only about a mile a way and right next door to each other. Both were very busy. The parking lot of the ABC store was so busy! Steven and I ran in while Jeff & Kim waited in the respective cars with the kids. The line was wrapped up and down two aisles! I grabbed what I needed and Steven offered just to wait in line for both of us and walk over to meet us at the HT.

We had loosely planned the first four days of meals... I had a list and a cart. Kim had a list and a cart. Then Steven came in and had his own cart. With Jeff manning the two older boys in the spaceship cart, we all zoomed around the HT gathering supplies! We finally met at the front and ended up totaling about $400 in groceries between 3 carts & two bills! We got back to the house and it had to be carried up to the third floor kitchen. Houses at the beach are often "upside down." The living areas, the kitchen and living room are on the third floor to take advantage of the ocean views.

As the time in the day was waning by the the time we got back from the grocery and unpacked the food, we decided to feed the boys and then have a later adult dinner. It worked well. We got all the boys into bed in the 7:30 to 8 p.m. time frame. (As an aside, that is J's typical bedtime and it was a coincidence and a blessing that Kim & Steven's boys go to bed at the same time!!)

Anyway, once they were all to bed, we enjoyed a wonderful dinner of grilled NY strip steaks, baked potatoes, and salad on the screened in porch. After dinner, we talked for a bit and then decided to reconvene in the hot tub. Oh yes. The hot tub was NICE!! It was actually a bit too hot. We jumped in and out and managed. We finally turned into bed about 11 p.m. A great start to the vacation....

On Sunday, we decided to hit the beach. The weather was looking precarious for the remainder of the week and we needed to take advantage of any decent beach days! After breakfast, Jeff, Jacob and I ran to the local Wings for a beach umbrella. Everything was 50% off, and even though it was cloudy, I was determined we needed one. :) We actually got a great deal on one for $12, and headed back to the house.
Finally, we headed out to the beach. Oh my, how much stuff we took! It was a bit cloudy and quite windy as well. The ocean was far too rough for swimming, but we'd known that in advance and had planned to let the boys play in the sand and to stick our toes in the surf occasionally, not venturing much past ankle depth. We stayed out maybe an hour and a half, but with the wind and lack of sun, it was a bit cold... so we headed back to the house. They had a good time playing in the sand. We got the boys showered & bathed, fed them lunch and put them down for naps. Jeff and I headed out to Austin's Seafood Company to buy some shrimp for dinner. We also made another trek to the Harris Teeter for MORE groceries! We got home and later, we had a wonderful "shrimp boil" with shrimp, corn on the cob, potatoes, sausage, etc. After we put the kids to bed, we hopped in the hot tub again!

On Monday, the weather was really looking not so hot. Rainy. Windy. Yuck. It was Kim's birthday and she made us a wonderful breakfast of pancakes, both chocolate chip & regular, as well as bacon. We weren't sure what we were going to do... but by about 10:30 a.m. we knew we needed to get the boys out of the house. So, we decided to take them bowling over in Nags Head. Why bowling you ask? Well, Jacob LOVES bowling... (and so does his dad! ) Jacob was really excited about bowling! With four adults & two kids playing, it took a LONG time to play even one game. But it was good. I actually did decent... I bowled two strikes and a few spares. I ended up losing to Jeff 116-114. Jacob bowled a respectable 82 I believe. Sterner bowled similar.... as a disclaimer, by the end, both boys were using one of those bowling ball slope roller things. Even Grayson got a few turns! Kim had herself a strike or two. Bless his heart, Steven was just not a bowler. He tried, but he did not excel at bowling. :) Or maybe he let Kim win because it was her birthday! :D

After bowling, we decided to go out to lunch. We decided on BBQ and checked out Pigman's BBQ. It was decent. Nothing to "write home about." I had Turkey-Q and Jeff had Pork BBQ, which was better than the too saucy Turkey-Q. The hushpuppies were good. And Jacob enjoyed the french fries. :) After lunch, the kids were sort of rowdy, so we headed home for naps! I think we ALL took naps that day! The post-nap plan for dinner was a Labor Day cook-out with grilled hot dogs, hamburgers, homemade pasta salad, homemade slaw and some MEAN baked beans with ground beef, bacon, etc. in them that could be a meal in and of themselves! We had a great dinner with the entire gang. After dinner, Steven brought out a Carvel ice cream cake with candles in the shape of a "32" for Kim's birthday. We all enjoyed some ice cream cake and sent the boys off to bed.

Unfortunately, that night, it was too rainy for the hot tub...

More to come! Including pics!!

Bennett's Thrift Store - Benefiting Triangle Mended Little Hearts

2009-08-31T13:57:00.004-04:00

I have not had a chance to visit yet, but just found out about a new resale type shop in Cary called Bennett's Thrift Store and they say on the website that the support Triangle Mended Little Hearts, our local affiliate chapter of the AHA Mended Little Hearts program.

They are located at 3094 Kildaire Farm Road in Cary (Suite 170), at the intersection of Ten-Ten and Kildaire Farm Road (Millpond Village), between Lowes Foods and Jersey Mike's.

Store Hours of Operation:

Monday - Friday (9 am - 8 pm)
Saturday (9 am - 5 pm)
Sunday (1 pm - 5 pm)

From their website:
We accept new or gently used clothing of all sizes for women, men, children and infants. We also accept accessories like hats, belts, shoes, purses, ties, jewelry, blankets, household items, linens, towels, kitchen utensils, cookware, dinnerware, toys, and household appliances (TV's, microwaves, small computers, household accessories). Basically if it is usable, we need it.

Annual Cardiology Follow-Up!

2009-08-20T11:00:00.002-04:00

On Tuesday, August 18, we made our trek to Durham for Jacob's annual visit to Duke to see Dr. Rhodes. Dr. Rhodes is special to us because he and Dr. Delaney were the two doctors that were there when Jacob was admitted to Duke at 3 hours old and performed his catheterization at 5 hours old. In essence, they saved his life so he could go on to have surgery by Dr. Jaggers 6 days later.

Every single visit outpatient visit to Duke Children's, we've gone to Elmo's for a meal beforehand. I suppose we are a bit superstitious and we've always gotten good news at these appointment, so we continued our tradition of a meal at Elmo's and had a wonderful lunch there.

We actually were running early and got to the appointment about an hour early. Fortunately, we were taken right back for the vitals check by the nurse. Jacob weighed 36 pounds (90%tile) and was 39 inches tall (75%tile). His BP was 117/77 and I think his pulse was 96. So far so good!

Then, we went down the hall for the EKG. We told J they'd put little stickers on him. They had Nick Jr. playing and he did great!

After that, we had to go downstairs to the first floor of the outpatient clinic for the echo. For his first 18 months, Jacob had four outpatient echos (Sept, Nov, Jan & Oct) that were in the hospital area and most were sedated. Last year, he had his first non-sedated echo in the Children's Clinic and did pretty well. They set up a whole new echo area where the radiology also is, and it was nice. So you wait on the first floor for an echo now. We waited for a little while and then went back. Jacob brought his Blue's Clues Movie and he did really well laying still & following directions. I was very proud of him for being such a big boy!

After the echo, we had to wait another 15-20 minutes to make sure they got all the proper views then we went back upstairs and checked in around 1:30 p.m. to let them know we were ready to see Dr. Rhodes. It was very busy so we hadn't really been bugging the staff. For some unknown reason, at 2:30 p.m., the nurse came out and called J's name, but then was surprised we were sitting there. She said she didn't know where we had been... which is odd because we'd been sitting there for an hour!

Oh well! We were finally taken on back to a room, and Dr. James Johnson, a peds cardio fellow came in and talked to us a little bit. Everything was fine with the EKG and echos. Dr. Rhodes came in and talked about what we'd need to look out for if J ever had complications (not being able to keep up with his peers physically; extreme chest pain, etc.) He again mentioned they will want to do a cath before he is 10 years old. He still has no restrictions, which is wonderful.

All in all it was a great visit and we don't go back until Aug 2010! And at that point, he'll only have an EKG and not an echo because Dr. Rhodes said he felt he'd be able to hear any significant changes if there were any.

Happy Third Birthday to my Little Guy!

2009-08-07T10:37:00.011-04:00

Last Saturday, we celebrated Jacob's Third Birthday. It's hard to believe three years have already gone by. I'm so proud of what a great kid he is (most of the time!!) He is a sweet, loving child and definitely a future "class clown." He loves to be silly.

Today, August 7 is also the three year anniversary of Jacob's surgery.
Here are some pictures to remind you how far we've come....

Just 5 or so hours old, after his catheterization to put a hole in his heart to save his life:

Just before his surgery, so this picture is exactly 3 years ago today:

Taken a few days after surgery:

Jacob at age one!

Jacob in November 2008, age 2:

Jacob in April 2009:

Birthday Party Picture:

Happy Birthday Jacob!!!

Prayers for my Sister In Law

2009-05-28T09:34:00.001-04:00

My sweet sister in law Katherine was diagnosed with thyroid cancer a few weeks ago. She and my brother just married last July. She had surgery to remove the thyroid on May 20, and had to go back to the hospital for a few days. She had some lymph nodes removed during the thyroid surgery and two of them were positive for cancer.

We are praying for her and for my brother. The website is www.katmcguire.com

What a fun weekend!

2009-05-04T14:26:00.007-04:00

The Holly Springs Farmer's Market opened this weekend. We look forward to going every week and checking out the produce and other good stuff. This week, we bought some great homemade BBQ sauce; and some almond meringues. The produce was mostly strawberries and onions. Jacob also got his cookie from Ms. Lonnie.

After the Farmer's Market (and after I spilled an entire cup of hot coffee in my car - eek!!), we went to Vaughn's Farms to pick strawberries. We had a great time! Jacob really enjoyed himself. We got 5 lbs of berries for $9.25!

Later on Saturday, we went to a neighborhood block party with lots of other families with kids Jacob's age. We enjoyed meeting new neighbors and hanging out with the ones we knew already.

On Sunday, I took Jacob to Pullen Park in Raleigh, which is a city park that has a 1900 carosel, small boats, a train, a lake, and a playground. It's a popular spot in nice weather!

Now, I don't want to jinx ourselves, but we are starting Week 2 of the Potty Chart. So far, Jacob is doing pretty well with that! 18 stickers in the first 4 days; and about 14 in the last 3 days.

And, without further delay - recent pictures!! HERE

Easter (& Post-Easter) Wrap-Up!

2009-04-17T22:06:00.004-04:00

Where did the last 2.5 weeks go?

We went to Wilmington for Easter. We stayed with my mom and went down on Thursday. On Friday, we went down to OIB to see Jeff's mom and Jacob had fun riding the golf cart and trying to drive it. We went to lunch down there as well. Jacob thankfully slept a little bit on the ride home. On Friday night, we went to dinner with our friends Rob & Elaine at Laterna in Wilmington. We had a great time.

Saturday morning, we went to an Easter Egg Hunt with Heather and Caitlin at Wrightsboro UMC. Jacob & Caitlin enjoyed the games, playground, snacks and of course the egg hunt. We got Jacob down for an early nap, and then afterwards went to my dad's house. Fortunately the weather was low 70's, so we were able to swim. Nancy (Nana) hid easter eggs around the house and courtyard for Jacob to find. We enjoyed our visit! Jacob got easter presents/baskets from his Mee-ma, Mimi, and Papa & Nana! What a lucky kid!

Saturday evening was low key, and on Sunday, we pretty much headed home to get ready for the week. Our week was pretty standard this week. Jacob did pee-pee on the potty a few times in the morning at home, and we've learned that he likes the "pee-pee dance" even better than candy! However, he still refuses to potty at Michelle's! I wonder if he's just to "busy" there than to do so... He does "know" that he is going to be done with diapers in the future, and he talks about that. I think we'll get there. I'd like it to be before Michelle has her maternity leave and Nicole is watching him, but we'll see. It may just have to be after that too. (Sorry Nicole!!)

Birthdays & the Dentist!

2009-03-30T12:00:00.004-04:00

I went to the Dentist on Friday. Sounds exciting right? I took Jacob with me so he could see what it was like. But, he's actually already been to two different dentists with Michelle & Jason, when they had appointments. I'd been talking to him about it and he was very excited to sit in the dentist's chair. We've also been reading Green Puppy goes to the Dentist and he has loved that book. When we went, he was such a good boy! He colored for a little while, and watched me get my teeth cleaned. Having him there made it go by a lot faster! When they did the flouride, he sat in my lap and thought the little suction wand was hysterically. The hygienist called it "Mr. Thristy." We finally got finished up and left. I told him we were going to school, and he said, No, mommy, I want to go to Jacob's dentist. I tried and tried to explain to him that this was just a visit to watch mommy. He was not too happy! We have made him an appointment for September. I want to check with our pediatric cardiologist in August whether he will need pre-med antibiotics. So far, talking to other TGA moms, it seems like it's about a 50/50 split whether PC's recommend them or not...

In the last week, we had my grandma (Sugar)'s birthday on 3/26 and my dad, Jacob's papa, on 3/28.

We also went to Sterner's 2nd birthday party yesterday at Kim & Steven's house. They had Stacy Clearman of Littland Band fame come and play. Jacob has seen Stacy play on a number of occasions, even as recently as January at our town's Cultural Center. It's attached to our library, and every time we've been back to the library, Jacob mentions the Stacy concert! Anyway, at that concert, Jacob was all into it - dancing & singing on stage, etc. Well, yesterday, he was quite shy. I'm not sure what was going on with him, but he did not want to dance, though he did enjoy holding the microphone. We had a great time at the party!

This coming weekend, we have two more birthday parties - one on Saturday for Jake, a friend from Jacob's school, which will be at Planet Child in Cary. And then another party, on Sunday, also at Planet Child for Austin, who will be three. He is the son of our friends, Matt & Meredith. (Meredith is also our dentist.) We are looking forward to both parties.

The following weekend is, of course, Easter, and we'll be headed to Wilmington. Then, the weekend after Easter, we have Jason's birthday on April 18! Busy busy!

Six Years!

2009-03-22T21:31:00.002-04:00

Today is our 6 year wedding anniversary! My mom came up this weekend and stayed with Jacob. Jeff and I went bowling on Saturday morning, then to lunch at the Q-Shack. We then checked into the Renaissance Hotel at North Hills Mall. We did some shopping at North Hills and then went to Coquette for champagne. Afterwards, we went to Vivace for dinner. It was VERY good. We were too full for dessert, but went back to the room and hung out for a little while. Then, we went to Fox & The Hound and had some beer and watched the NCAA tournament. This morning, we went to breakfast at Hot Point Cafe, and went back to the room until it was time to check out. Then, we went to the Kids Everywear sale. It's been a good weekend!

Our previous anniversaries:
1st - we went to Myrtle Beach, stayed at the Hilton and ate at Melting Pot.
2nd - we stayed at the Hilton in RDU and ate at Angus Barn. The following weekend, we went to the Outer Banks and stayed in Manteo!
3rd - we went on a Babymoon / Anniversary 4 nt cruise that stopped in Key West and Cozumel.
4th - Jacob was 7 months old and it was a weeknight, we got nice take out from Lucky 32.
5th - last year, we spent the weekend at Carolina Beach in an oceanfront room at Golden Sands. We went to Southport for the day, and went to dinner at Deckhouse. Some point during the day, we had Britt's Donuts too!

Baby Maelyn Update

2009-03-19T10:59:00.002-04:00

Baby Maelyn passed peacefully last night. http://babyblack.us/

Our hearts go out to Amanda, Brad and Taylor, as well as their entire family.

Potty Progress

2009-03-18T09:10:00.003-04:00

Jacob has been sitting on the potty at times for months now. Probably since last summer.... he's actually done #2 on the potty a handful of times, but not had much success with #1.

This past Saturday, we had him in some trainers in the morning, and he promptly peed through two pairs in a row. We were heading out to run errands and put him back in his diaper, abandoning the cause. As soon as we got into the car, backed out of the driveway, and got to the stop sign, he said, "I poop, I poop." So, we turn the car around, and head back to the house. I take him in and put him on the potty, but he didn't want to sit there. He got upset and wanted the diaper back on. I finally gave in, and we started to head out the door. "I poop, I poop," he says again. I checked him and he had filled a diaper with pee-pee. Fun times. I changed him, and a little while later, we went on our way.

On Sunday, we didn't bring up the potty at all, nor put him back in trainers, etc. Sunday night before bed, he asked Jeff to take him to the potty and promptly pee-peed! Jeff and I made a big deal out of it, etc.

On Monday, fifteen minutes after Jeff put Jacob to bed, Jacob called out, "I poop, I poop." (If you haven't figured it out yet - he uses the same word for #1 and #2.) So, Jeff got him up out of the crib, and out of his PJ's and sure enough, he pee-peed.

On Tuesday morning at 6:40 a.m., we were awaken to "I poop, I poop." We got him up and yep, again, he pee-peed. So, I decided to mention this to Michelle when I dropped him off. She said she'd work with him on it at her house too. Tuesday night, before his bath, he asked to pee - and bingo - he did it again!

This morning, as soon as he got up (5:45 this morning - eek!), he asked and Jeff took him and once more - pee-pee again!

I think something has clicked for him! Hopefully we are on the right path now!!

Baby Maelyn....

2009-03-17T08:54:00.001-04:00

Baby Maelyn is the daughter of Jeff's former co-worker, Brad and his wife, Amanda.

Baby Maelyn was diagnosed in utero with HLHS.

Maelyn was born back in February and had her first heart surgery shortly thereafter. They've been working on feeding her and getting her off the ventilator since then.

Last night, she wasn't doing well and they took her into surgery to look at her intestines, and her intestines are quite sick. Hopefully they will know more later today and tomorrow.

Please say a prayer for Baby Maelyn and their family. They need them more than ever now.

Hoping for a Normal Week!

2009-03-10T21:22:00.004-04:00

Last week was rough! Here is hoping this week is more "normal", whatever that is!

Jacob had a good Monday at school. He did great, Michelle reported. Most of you know, but since August, Jacob has been at A Mother's Love Child Care Home, and it's just worked out to be a great situation for us. Michelle does preschool activities with the kids and is so good with Jacob, and has a son, Jason, who is nearly 4. Jason and Jacob get along pretty well. Even Michelle's husband, Scott, helps out and Jacob gets a kick out of Mr. Scott, too. It is so good to have quality childcare!

Tonight, we were supposed to go to Chick-Fil-A for Kid's Night with some other Triangle Mommies. I told Jacob in the car this morning that's what we'd be doing this evening. It works out well, because when Michelle is taking Jason as well, she just brings Jacob and I meet them at the CFA. So that was the plan tonight. Jacob was excited about tonight and said that he wanted to eat "tomatoes." I said, "well, you'll get your chicken nuggets, your fruit, and your milk." And he said, "and mommy will get a salad." That made me laugh. I suppose the tomatoes he was talking about were the ones on my salad! He also said about 3 times this morning, "I have a good day," meaning he was going to have a good day.

As it turned out, Jacob must have been pretty tired today at school, and felt a little warm, so we canceled our plans for CFA tonight. Jeff had his meeting for work tonight and Jacob wanted to look at pictures and videos from our trip on the laptop. He loves doing that and even request them by name, "Papa's Cane," where he parades around with my grandfather's cane, or "Tigger's Tail," when he pulls Tigger's tail, or "Alice Scary," where my Aunt Alice snuck up on him and would say, Boo! and Jacob just thought that was hilarious. He seemed okay tonight, so as long as all goes well, we'll send him to school tomorrow.

He's also currently obsessed with the Blue's Clues book, "Green Puppy Goes to the Dentist," that we got at the library on Saturday. I know we have read it to him at least 2-3 times a DAY since then!

Nearly Two Weeks...

2009-03-08T21:33:00.002-04:00

That is, nearly two weeks, Jacob has been out of "routine", and he's a routine-oriented kid. He did great on vacation, and I think if he'd had a normal week last week, he'd have been fine, but being sick and staying with Jeff & I for three out of five days last week has now caused him to get a little clingy, dependent, etc. He wants carried, he wants fed, he wants his way. It's also a "battle of the wills" type two year old thing too. We had a stand-off, so to speak at dinner. I made him a plate of several things since our hamburgers weren't ready. After a few bites, he was done. In a crying fit though. I offered yogurt, his favorite, and he said, okay. Then I told him he'd have to feed it to himself, and that set him off crying again. We offered to let him go to bed, but he wanted carried upstairs, and we told him he'd need to do it himself. Another crying fit. Our dinner was ready, so Jeff and I went ahead and ate and "ignored" him, while discussing how yummy our dinner was and we wondered if Jacob would like some. After watching us eat while crying, he finally calmed down and came over after about 20 minutes. I was putting away the food and offered him a hamburger and he ate about 1/4 of one. Then, we had no TV or tiny computer tonight and he just played with us and with his toys.

It's going to be a long week!

Two doctors & two pharmacies in one day

2009-03-07T15:03:00.010-05:00

Thursday night was a rough night. Jacob was up countless times. Around 2 a.m., Jeff checked on him and said he was pretty sure Jacob's fever was back. We dressed him in some cooler PJ's, and kept checking on him. By Friday morning, he had a fever of 101 degrees.

On top of that, I woke up with hives! No idea what they were from, stress maybe? The weirdest part was that my left ear had the worst of the hives. It was swollen, red, hot and prickly. Very annoying. I quickly took 50 mg of Benadryl to keep them from getting worse.

Anyway, the plan was for me to stay home with Jacob in the morning and for Jeff to go into work and to come home at 12 Noon, then I'd head to work and probably to my doctor for a Steriod dosepack. I called the doctor and explained that while he'd been seen on Tuesday and only had a cold, he was fine Wednesday and Thursday, and then got worse overnight. Everything was worse, his cough, nasal drainage and the fever was back. They had me bring him in at 9:45 a.m. We brought Kitty again, and the visit went really smoothly. He got stickers again, and there was almost no crying at all this visit. As Dr. Ramsdell examined him, she felt like she heard the tell-tale crackling in his lower lungs and decided he probably had streptococcal pneumonia in the right lower lobe and some on the left as well. She prescribed 10 days of antibiotics and off we went to Super Target to fill the prescription, and pick up a few extra things. Jacob got a lollipop the pharmacy and really enjoyed that. It may have been his first lollipop!

The remainder of Friday, we pretty much keep him on Tylenol or Ibuprofen alternating every three hours and his fever stayed in the 101 range. He was about as sick as I have ever seen him. You could tell he was just miserable and not himself.

I went off to work at Noon, and made it into the office for maybe 45 minutes before it was time to go to my MD appointment for my hives. I see a PA actually. I was in and out of the office in 19 minutes with a prescription for Prednisone and a prescription for a Z-pack just in case I get worse since I'm already sick too. I went to the pharmacy and it took 30 min plus to fill the prescription. Pharmacies are so slow! (I did avoid the Rite Aid right by my doctor because it takes an hour there usually because it is so close to the hospital.)

I went back to work for a little while, but Jeff said that Jacob didn't want to get up from his nap, so I headed home a little after 4 p.m. When I got home, we let Jacob be for a little while, but by 5 p.m., I wanted him to get up for a little while, so I lured him out of his crib with the promise of ice cream. That worked. He got up and stayed up until about 7 p.m., when he was ready to go back to bed. Around 8 p.m., he woke up in a sweat, so I think he fever broke then, and it hasn't been back.

He was up quite a few times last night crying, it seemed like once an hour. Jeff and I think he's just "milking" it at this point. Finally at 2 a.m., I told him we weren't coming back in and he needed to go to sleep and he stayed quiet until nearly 7 a.m.!

He's doing a lot better today - full of energy. I could barely type this out because he was bouncing and standing up in my lap and playing with the mouse while I typed.

Jacob Dancing (& other cute things)

2009-03-05T15:13:00.001-05:00

Jacob had a pretty good first day back at school yesterday. He was happy at drop-off and pick-up.

Jacob has a new “hobby” - dancing - and I must have the camera on him while he does it. He is such a ham. (See Video Below...)

Some other cute things he has said/done in the last few days.

* He calls tissues - “bless-yous”

* He got his Handy Manny book-bag out last night and said “Bye. I’m going to Disney World.”

* He likes to feed Jeff and I pretend food. Such as, “here is some broccoli” and he puts his hand to your mouth for you to “smack-smack-smack, MMM”. Or “here are some jelly beans,” and even names what colors they are.

A "Normal" Day!

2009-03-04T09:09:00.004-05:00

Let's hope so! Jacob is back at school today and Jeff and I are at work. The first "normal" day in nearly two weeks!

Here is the Tigger Video from our trip!

A Trip to the Doctor

2009-03-03T11:13:00.002-05:00

Jacob's fever was about 101 this morning, and his cough worsened overnight. I had left a message for our doctor yesterday and they called this morning with an appointment for 9:45 a.m. I told Jacob we were going to the doctor, and he said, "No, mom, I stay here, maybe next time." I told him if he would be good and go to the doctor, he could have a candy cane when we got home. He said, "I don't want a candy cane." Great, even bribes didn't work! I coaxed him into the bathtub and got him dressed.

I told him we could take Kitty to the doctor and he wanted to do that. As we were leaving, he was saying that Kitty was sick and needed to go to the doctor. He was good all the way there. When we got there, he told the receptionist, Ann, that Kitty was sick and needed to see the doctor. He usually freaks out at the doctor's office by the time we pull in the parking lot, so Ann was impressed he was so calm. He chose the rocket ship room over the firefighter room. He let the nurse, Dana, take his temperature with a little crying. Then, he actually stood on the scale by himself. This was a first for him! He's usually so freaked out by then, that I have to hold him and then they weigh me and subtract my weight. He was 34 lbs! I think we had been underdosing him on the Tylenol yesterday by a 1/2 teaspoon, so that's probably why it didn't help a whole lot. The doctor saw him and examined Kitty prior to examining Jacob. She's a really great pediatrician! We just love her. Anyway, his lungs were clear, so she felt its just a bad cold with a fever.

Thankfully today, his temperature has been closer to 99 degrees and he is much more active than yesterday, so I'm hoping he is on the mend and can go to school tomorrow. Right now, we are playing with his doctor kit and he is doing the same exam to me that the doctor did to him and Kitty.

Jacob is sick....

2009-03-02T21:23:00.002-05:00

Yesterday, when we got home, as I was getting Jacob out of the car, he was sort of shivering. I thought it was odd and when we got him inside and took his temperature, sure enough, he had a low grade fever. It went up a little and we gave him some Tylenol and put him to bed. He slept all night until 7:00 a.m. this morning, which is really out of the norm for him. When he got up, his fever was about 102.

It had snowed overnight, but nothing like the snow we had on January 20. The snow in the driveway had already melted by the time we got up. I took my time getting ready and made my way into work by 9:30 a.m. Jeff had already planned to take off today, so he stayed home with Jacob. Jacob's fever stayed in the 101 to 102 range all day and was not much relieved by Tylenol, so I went and got some Motrin after work. Jeff had just given Tylenol when I got home, so we had to wait a few hours. The amazing thing is that Jacob has been taking Tylenol great! He went to bed at 7 p.m., but has already been up twice crying. It's going to be a long night. The most recent time, we tried to give him some Motrin, but he wasn't having it.

Looks like I'm on deck to stay home with him tomorrow...and maybe even take him to the doctor.

Wrapping Up...

2009-03-01T21:08:00.003-05:00

Saturday, February 28:

Saturday afternoon, Jacob went down for his nap and when he woke up, he was in a whiney mood. We let him watch Blue's Clues for the 39th time in a week, but I've also explained to him multiple times that this was a treat because we were on vacation and we wouldn't be watching DVD's 24/7 when we got home. I figure, hey, it's his vacation too! After a while, he finally decided he was interested in going swimming, so Katherine & I took him in the pool. This was the only time I got into the pool the whole week, but it was finally warm enough for me! Poor Jeff was still in bed with some type of respiratory infection.

My brother & mom had gone grocery shopping for dinner. My brother had decided to make a special dinner in light of our lack of a great dinner at California Grill. We had snow crab legs for an appetizer with a garlic butter, as well as garlic bread for an appetizer. My brother made seafood pockets - puff pastry with lobster, flounder, scallops, and shrimp, then covered in a bechamel sauce with mushrooms & onions. Very rich, but very yummy. He even packed up the leftovers for Jeff and I to take home with us!

At 8:15 p.m., I decided to run out to get gas, but had to venture to THREE different gas stations because the first was too busy, and the second one, I couldn't get the pumps to work. Finally, the third, which was also busy, I was able to gas up. I decided to make my third trip to Walgreens in the last, oh, 14 hours to get some Tylenol (for Jeff's fever) and Naproxen (for my knee which had been hurting.)

After finally getting home around 9:00 p.m., I went to bed around 9:30. It's been a good trip, but we were ready to head home.

Sunday, March 1:

I awoke at 4:40 a.m. and knew we wanted to get moving by 5:00 a.m. to leave by 5:30 a.m. We wanted to allow plenty of time to get home prior to dark. For those of you not in the NC area, a winter storm warning was in affect for our area! This is pretty unusual for March, so we certainly had not thought this would be something we'd have to worry about! Anyway, after about 10 minutes, I decided it was pointless to lay there any longer and got up and started the last minute packing. Jeff got up shortly thereafter, and we woke up Jacob, or maybe he was awake... Anyway, we said our goodbyes and were out the door by 5:30 a.m. nearly on the dot. Jeff was feeling A LOT better today, thankfully, and volunteered to drive the first leg of the trip. In hindsight, I'm really glad he did because I was really tired. We pushed through and he drove all the way to Brunswick, Georgia (226 miles in 3.5 hrs). We got there at 9:00 a.m. or so and had a fast food breakfast. We left around 9:30 a.m. and I drove this time, straight to Florence, SC (245 miles in about 3.5 hrs). We stopped again and this time had some lunch - it was about 1 p.m. We got back on the road a little after 1:30 p.m. perhaps and Jeff drove us all the way home (145 miles in 2.5 hrs). We got home at 4:00 p.m.

Jacob was good in the car. He had a few moments of boredom, but we pushed him through with books, stickers, toys, stuffed animals, silliness, CD's, etc. We didn't even have to resort to the DVD player, NOR the jelly bellies on the way home. The last 30 minutes, he started getting a bit tired of riding, and I got out the camera and showed him pictures and videos from our trip. That got him through.

So, we are home now! Let's see if I can keep up this blogging thing! And, we'll see how much snow we get and whether our "vacation" is unexpectedly extended by a day tomorrow!

Hollywood Studios, etc.

2009-02-28T16:37:00.001-05:00

Friday, February 27:

Today was our day for Hollywood Studios. It’s also ESPN: The Weekend, with lots of live broadcasts, sports personalities, athletes, etc. The four of us really wanted to ride Tower of Terror and Rock N’ Roller Coaster, so we headed for those first and got fastpasses for RNR and baby switch passes for TOT. By 10:00 a.m., we’d were done with those rides, but Jacob was, of course, getting board. So, we headed over to Playhouse Disney Live and we were just in time to wait for the 10:30 a.m. show. While everyone got in line, I ran over to the new Toy Story Mania ride, but the wait was 70 minutes and the fastpasses were for 5 p.m., so I knew we wouldn’t be able to use them.

Jacob really enjoyed Playhouse Disney Live, as one would expect. The show is a little different since last time we saw it. It’s more streamlined and focuses on My Friends Tigger & Pooh, Handy Manny and Little Einsteins. It’s a cute little kid’s show. After Playhouse Disney, we decided to let Jacob check out the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids playground. Jacob really enjoyed it, but the design of this playground is pretty scary because there are lots of places for kids to hide and you can’t see them. I brought Jacob out, but he was crying to go back in, so Jeff took him back. John & Kat came along later. We debated some lunch plans, and then decided just to come back to the house to eat since Jacob had been napping around 1 p.m. each day. We did go and find Lightening McQueen and Mater from Cars and Jacob took pictures with them. We headed out of the park and home for lunch. Plus, we had big dinner plans at California Grill for John’s birthday. When we got home, Jacob wouldn’t nap. After a while, we got him up and Jeff took him swimming. The pool was FINALLY getting a good bit warmer. Jacob probably swam for nearly an hour. Later, he was watching Blues Clues on TV and literally fell asleep sitting up! He napped like that for about 45 minutes. Very funny!

We started getting ready for dinner and my mom had bought John a cake, so we had a mini-birthday party for John, who turned 30 today. Around 6:45 pm we headed to the California Grill at the Contemporary Resort. Unfortunately, by the time we left, Jeff was not feeling good at all. He was such a sport though. The Contemporary is one of the original Disney resorts. It is the tower that is just outside of Magic Kingdom. The California Grill is a fancy restaurant on the 15th floor of the resort. You can see the Wishes fireworks from Cali Grill. And, they also play the Wishes music & program in the restaurant during the show. It’s a nice evening. The four of us went there 3 and a half years ago and really enjoyed ourselves, so it seemed like a natural choice for John’s birthday. We had to make the reservation months ago too. It’s definitely been something we were all looking forward to.

We arrived at the restaurant and ascended to the fifteenth floor. We ordered drinks - Katherine had a Pinot Grigio, John had a scotch on the rocks, and I had a Cosmopolitan. Jeff decided to hold off since he wasn’t feeling good. After a wait, we were sat at our table and had a pretty good view of the fireworks from our table. They had also sprinkled Mickey confetti on the table in honor of John’s birthday. It was a nice touch.

We ordered the Malibu roll (sushi) and the artichoke flatbread for appetizers. I do not like sushi at all, but this is a place I will eat it. It was SO good. Wonderful. The flatbread was good too. We ordered our entrees about 8:15 p.m. John & Kat ordered the grouper. Jeff got the pork tenderloin, and I got a chicken entree. We waited. And waited. And waited. It was 9:00 p.m. before our food came out. The server knew this was not good and told us that a manager would be right over. To make it worse, John & Kat’s fish was clearly not right off the pan. It appeared and tasted like it had sat and dried out. Jeff’s pork and my chicken were fine. Quite good in fact. The manager came over and to really add insult to injury, he was really defensive and refused to admit there had been some type of problem. He left us to eat and told us he would return. After we ate, and he returned, he remained very defensive saying there was no way the food had just sat, and on and on. He finally moved on to say how he’d rectify it. He ended up comp’ing our appetizers, one of the grouper entrees, and giving us a 20% discount on the remainder of the bill, meaning the total bill was about ½ of what it would have been. We paid the bill and headed out. We are still a little peeved at the manager’s attitude. He must have forgotten the customer is always right rule. I’ll go back to Cali Grill, but only for drinks & appetizers, not entrees.

We all headed home and cut the evening short and headed on to bed.

Saturday, February 28:

This morning, I got up and went to Walgreens for Jeff for meds. But, the pharmacy didn’t open until 9 am and he needed pseudoephedrine, so I had to go back. I picked up a few extra things for Jacob for the car ride home. I did a little packing and then Katherine and I took Jacob to the little park in the neighborhood. Katherine and I checked out a open house across the street. Lovely 7 bedroom house for just $535,000.00. A little out of my price range! We finally came home and once we got all situated, we decided to take Jacob to Downtown Disney. We did a little shopping, then took Jacob into the Lego store. Next, we grabbed a McDonald’s happy meal for him ($4.57!), and went over to Earl of Sandwich. The line was long, but moved pretty well. The food was good! After lunch, we let Jacob play in the fountains and he had a blast. Katherine got some great pictures! Lots of those to come when I get time!

Magic Kingdom!

2009-02-26T21:18:00.000-05:00

Thursday, February 27:

This morning we headed to the Magic Kingdom, this time, not just Jeff, Jacob, John, and Kat, but also my mom in tow. A few funny things. The subdivision we are staying at, Emerald Island Resort, has dolphin statutes that spray water at the entrance and everytime we go in or out, Jacob calls them “golfins.” So cute. There are a lot of condos around here and he thinks they are “Mee-ma’s house” because she lives in a condo in Wilmington.

Jeff and I took Jacob straight to Dumbo. Jacob and I waited in line for about 35 minutes. The line for that ride was nuts! The kids were so poorly behaved. Kids hitting their parents, whining and it’s only 9 a.m.! Yikes. Jacob and I made it through and he enjoyed Dumbo.

Next, Jeff took Jacob on Cinderella’s Carousel. Jacob loves carousel horses. John took Jacob on it next. Then, we headed to It’s a Small World. Jacob was wide-eyed for the entire ride and seemed to enjoy it. We headed over to Mickey’s Philharmagic next - another 3-D movie - but we figured how harmless could this be? Well, first off, the majority of the movie is about Donald, and even more so, it’s actually pretty scary and loud. I found myself so ticked at Disney for having to make everything so scary! Jacob only flinched once during the movie and did wear the glasses the entire time, but as soon as the movie went off, he said, “that was too scary,” over and over again. He’s so brave.

Then, we took Jacob on The Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. It actually had some dark and scary moments too. I’m so much more hyper-sensitive to whether these Disney rides are scary. Jacob didn’t say he thought it was scary, but I don’t think he liked it much. It was next onto something fun. Jeff took Jacob on the Tomorrowland Speedway and let Jacob drive! Now, Jacob did enjoy that a lot.

By that time, it was around 11 a.m. and we had reservations for the Pooh & Friends lunch at Crystal Palace, We started heading that direction and got held up by one of the new Celebration style shows. We watched it for a few minutes. It was mildly entertaining. Mom, John & Katherine headed onto the restaurant and checked in. We were shortly behind them, and Jacob looked into the windows and could see Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore & Piglet. It was really hard to keep him from running in. We tried to wait patiently. Finally, the pager went off and we went in.

We got seated and Pooh came over really quickly. Jacob loved it. Next, Piglet came over, and then Eeyore. All within the first 10 minutes we were there. Yet, Tigger went right by us and we had to wait for him to circuit all the way around the restaurant again. So, we ate. And ate. And ate. The food was REALLY good. I was really impressed with it. There was a salad bar, as well as fish, pork loin, flank steak, sauteed Mediterranean chicken, lots of good food. Then, the desserts included lemon bars, boston cream pie, banana bread pudding, apple cobbler, brownies, and on and on. We were pretty much finished eating and had to wait for a good bit longer for Tigger. After the little Pooh & Tigger song and dance, Tigger finally came over. After Jacob gave him and hug and high-fives. Then, Tigger turned around to talk to another table and Jacob grabbed Tigger’s tail and would not let go. I even got it on video. It was really cute, and funny.

Then, we headed out of the park because Jacob REALLY needed a nap today. We got him home and down for a nap by about 1:30 or so. Then, about 2 p.m. or a little after, Jeff, John, Kat and I headed back to Magic Kingdom. We tried to ride Space Mountain, but it was shut down and the fastpasses were all gone. So, we headed across the park to Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. We got stuck by the parade and headed around past The Haunted Mansion. The wait was 30 minutes, but we decided to keep going to Splash and BTMR. The wait for each was 70+ minutes, so we got a fast pass for Splash, and then went back to Haunted Mansion and waited only 20 minutes to ride that. It was fun. I think it’s been updated.

We went back to Tomorrowland next. Space Mountain was showing a 55 minute wait, but the line was going nowhere. While we stood there, it flipped to 70 minutes and that was too long to wait. We headed over to Buzz Lightyear and I beat Jeff 93,500 to 21,000! Woo-hoo! We rode the Tomorrowland Transit Authority People Mover. Cheesy, but enjoyable. Then, we did the Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor. That was a really cute show that involves the Monsters interacting with the audience in a comedy show.

The four of us were a bit hungry and headed to Columbia Harbour House. Jeff wanted fish and chips. But, the food was not that great. And for the price, the portions weren’t great either. A thumbs down.

After dinner, we went over to Splash Mountain (one of my favorite rides) and got in the fastpass line. But it seemed longer than the stand-by line. The fastpass line did end up moving a bit faster though. It was about 6 pm and the sun was going down, and it was getting chilly. But, we forged ahead. The first corner, you go beside the five story drop and we got a good amount of wet. Finally, we did the five story plunge. They take a picture as you go down. Jeff and I were in the front row and John and Kat in the 2nd row. My brother makes the funniest faces in those pictures. Apparently, he is terrified of the falls. We had to buy the picture. I’ll have to post it later. We headed for home, but stopped for a Dole Whip Float at Aloha Aisle. Jeff and I love those! It’s pineapple soft serve with pineapple juice. We finally made it back to the house around 8 p.m.

Tomorrow, we head to Hollywood Studios (formerly known as Disney Studios (formerly known as Disney-MGM Studios)). And tomorrow is my brother’s 30th birthday, so tomorrow night, we have dinner at the California Grill!

Epcot (with Jacob)

2009-02-25T20:07:00.002-05:00

Wednesday, February 25:

Last night, we all played Monopoly after Jacob went to bed. I bankrupted John first, then my husband, and then Katherine. It was down to my mom & I, and I pretty much owned 3/4ths of the board with hotels and still had a pile of $500's. We called it a night around 11 p.m., but I think I won. :)

This morning, we headed off to Epcot. We sent Jeff for fastpasses to Soarin’, and we headed off to Test Track. We got a “baby switch” fastpass for Test Track and let John & Kat go first, while we checked out the cars in the “Inside Track” exhibit near the ride exit. Jacob liked sitting in the Hummer, Corvette, and the G8. After John & Kat rode, Jeff and I took our turn. Jeff and I agree that the ride could use a little overhaul in the beginning part. It’s kind of tired.

Next, we headed to Mission Space, a ride that I didn’t want to ride. Neither did Kat. But, my brother now works for HP, and HP has this cool hospitality suite in the Mission Space ride for HP employees. We got to stroll Jacob right through the Mission Space entrance, and then took this nearly hidden door and had to be buzzed in, etc. After a ride up an elevator, we were in a lounge area with beverages, a TV, computers, the postcard email thing for Mission Space, etc. They also had HP photo printers that you could print some pictures. Pretty neat! I talked to the attendant, who mentioned that Epcot used to have 11 such suites hosted by various sponsors, but is now down to three: this one, the GM one at Test Track and the Siemens one at Spaceship Earth. The attendant also commented on how well behaved Jacob was, and that she couldn’t believe he was only 2. He’s been such an amazing kid!!

John & Jeff decided to ride Mission Space. Katherine & I took Jacob over to the Epcot Character Spot. Wait in line one time and see about 5-6 characters. The line was quite a bit longer than it was in December 2007 when we came. I estimate Katherine and I waited at least 45 minutes with Jacob. John & Jeff even had time to go ride Soarin’ using the fastpass and still got back over to us right when we were getting to the front of the line. Jacob got really antsy about one-half way through the line, but we managed to get through using peppermint candies, dried apples, and chocolate Teddy Grahams. Thank goodness for snacks and the magic they hold for 2 year olds! We got some more good pictures w/ Mickey, Pluto, Minnie, Donald and Goofy!

After we finished with the characters, Katherine and I were ready to ride Soarin’, so Jeff and John took Jacob over to the Living Seas pavilion and Jacob checked out the dolphins and sharks, etc. Katherine and I used our fastpasses and waited about a total of 18 minutes to get onto Soarin. It was so relaxing riding it, but I missed being able to do it with Jeff. And Jacob is just 2 inches too short to ride. So close!

Katherine and I headed to meet up with Jacob, Jeff and John at the Living Seas. John said that Jeff and Jacob had just gotten in line for the Nemo ride, so I rushed to join them. Back when Jacob was 16 months old, we tried to ride that ride about 3 times and Jacob would flip out in line, and we’d use and emergency exit. I’m not sure why we kept pushing it, but we did. When we finally got him onto the ride, he flipped out, so I was eager to see how he would do this time. The line moves really fast for this ride, so it’s an easy wait. We finally winded our way up to the clamobiles, and so far so good. Jacob was fine most of the ride, and then there is another scary part with a scary looking fish and Bruce (the shark) is pretty scary on this ride too. Then you are stuck in this Crush the Turtle part forever. Jacob got a little apprehensive or scared during the ride. But he seemed fine by the time we got off and he didn’t say it was too scary like he did after It’s a Bug’s Life.

Since it was already 1 p.m., we decided to head back to the car. John wanted to pick up pizzas for lunch, so we did that. It took a while, and so Jacob had slept in the car for at least thirty minutes. By the time we got home, he wanted to eat pizza with butter and while we laid him down for a nap, he didn’t go to sleep. John & Katherine decided to hop in the pool, and offered to take Jacob swimming. So after he’d tried to go back to sleep for about 30 minutes, we got him up and let him swim. He loved it. He had fun with Kat & John in the pool and we got some good pictures.

After the swim, we started showering & bathing for dinner. I took a little nap too. We left here around 4:40 to head to Ohana at the Polynesian. It’s a Hawaiian-themed family style / Brazilian steakhouse type place. They have grilled shrimp, pork, turkey, and steak. This was my third trip to Ohana. Let’s just say it was quite different with a two year old. Just as soon as we got there, Jacob wasn’t interested in eating. And just before the food started coming out, the Hawaiian singer came out. She leads the kids around and sings and dances with them, as well as gives them leis. Jacob was by far the smallest kid out there, but wanted to join in the fun. So, I had to follow him around the restaurant to keep an eye on him. He didn’t want to eat, but at least he enjoyed himself. I got a bite or two of food every now and then. When the “show” ended, Jeff finally convinced Jacob to sit down and I was able to get him to eat a little bit. We finally all had our fill of meats and got the dessert - bread pudding a la mode with a caramel sauce. And, the server brought Jacob his own bowl of ice cream with Mickey sprinkles. He was pretty excited about that and ate a good bit of it. Then the singer came back and he had to go dance and play maracas. Jeff followed him around that time. I think Jacob’s patience is waning. I’m not sure how much longer he is going to keep humoring us. We’ll see. Tomorrow we are finally going to Magic Kingdom, where 85% of the park is geared towards younger kids. I know there is so much there he will enjoy. And, we are supposed to have lunch with Pooh as well at Crystal Palace!

Animal Kingdom!

2009-02-24T19:16:00.002-05:00

Tuesday, February 24:

Animal Kingdom!

This morning, we headed off to Animal Kingdom. We left the house at 8:30 a.m. for a 9:00 a.m. opening. Got parked, headed to the front, got through the gates prior to rope-drop. We sent Jeff to Expedition Everest to get fastpasses. The rest of us headed to the Kilimanjaro Safaris and waited for Jeff. He met up with us and we only waited about 15 minutes in line. Fortunately, Jacob really enjoyed the Safari. We saw a good number of animals and took lots of pictures. Our fastpasses for Expedition Everest were for 9:50 to 10:50 a.m. and we walked straight on after the Safari. Jeff and I rode first while John and Kat waited with Jacob. Expedition Everest is one of the most awesome rides in Disney. I love Soarin’ and Tower of Terror too. Those are my top three. I’m not sure what order I’d put those three though! Anyway, John & Kat went next and Jeff got a pretty good picture of them coming down the big drop. John’s face is priceless! Several years ago, we went with John & Kat and we bought the picture for Tower of Terror and John has the most terrified look on his face. Hilarious!

After our Expedition Everest adventure, we headed off to Dinoland. Jacob rode Triceratops Spin once with me and once with Jeff. He LOVED it! He is at such a great age for Disney! We are so enjoying ourselves. It’s like its our first REAL vacation with him because he is so much more matured now. Then, we waited in line for Goofy and Pluto. Even while we were waiting in line, he enjoyed just watching them and was laughing! Jacob loves the characters. Just loves them. He hugs them and gives them high - fives. We got great pictures with them.

After Goofy & Pluto, we headed off to lunch at Flametree BBQ. Jeff and I split a Beef BBQ sandwich with baked beans and onion rings. Jacob had a hot dog with grapes and carrots. Kat had Beef BBQ too, and John had the slab of ribs. The food was actually pretty good and we all enjoyed it. The ducks come right up to you and want to eat, but you can’t feed them! They have paper straws too, that go sort of mushy after a while.

We headed off to It’s Tough to Be a Bug (the 3D movie) after lunch. Jacob was a little inpatient in line, but hung in there. When we got into the theater, he seemed okay during the movie, but half the way through, he wanted to take off his glasses. It’d been a while since we’ve seen it, but it’s actually pretty darn scary. I was really regretting taking him to the movie pretty soon into it. He seemed okay the whole time. Didn’t cry. Only flinched once. But when we left, he said over and over again, “That was too scary. That was too scary.” Poor guy!

We took him to Camp Minnie Mickey next. We saw Mickey, Minnie and Donald Duck. He loved loved loved them! It’s such joy seeing him with the characters! We left the park after that. He fell asleep in the car, and went down for nap at the house when we got home.

This afternoon, we spent some time hanging out at the house. Jeff & Jacob went swimming, but the pool, even though it’s heated, it is still pretty cool. We are used to gas pool heat, as that’s what my dad has and that’s what we had last year in our Disney house, but this one has electric heat and it only gets about 15 degrees warmer than the ambient air.

Tonight, I made my Beefy Bean Enchiladas for dinner. It’s nice having a house and not going out to eat. We’ll enjoy a few cocktails and maybe play some games or cards tonight.

Tomorrow we are off to Epcot (again), but with Jacob this time. And tomorrow night, we are going to Ohana for dinner! YUM.

On to Orlando!

2009-02-24T06:59:00.001-05:00

Sunday, February 22:

On Sunday morning, we finally got up and got over to Sugar & Papa’s by about 10 a.m. We spent a few hours with them in the morning and then Jacob napped there again. After Jacob’s nap, we (my grandparent, my mom, Jacob & Jeff, my brother & his wife) headed back over to my aunt’s house. She used to work in restaurants and is a fabulous cook. We helped her finish up dinner which consisted of greek salad, roast beef, creamed spinach, glazed carrots, mashed potatoes, cream corn. Wow. Everything was SO good. We were stuff and couldn’t eat dessert (Mississippi Mud Pie) for a while. We sat around and my aunt had a great time playing with Jacob. He loved it. It’s funny, but Jacob loves to be surprised. So, she’d sneak around the couch, and jump out and say Boo! Jacob would laugh and laugh and say “do it again!” She did it a few times and I got video of it. I will have to post the video’s later.

Jacob is still doing great with napping & going to bed.

After everyone left, I helped my aunt make overnight caramel french toast for Monday morning.

Monday, February 24, 2009:

Jacob woke up at 5:00 am again. After listening to him toss, turn and wiggle on his aerobed, Jeff and I finally told him to hop in bed with us. Even with Jacob’s knees in my back, I was able to sleep better than I was listening to him toss & turn on his bed. We all went back to some semblance of sleep until nearly 7 a.m.! Ahhhhhhhhhhh!

We got up and got going before my aunt, so we started up the french toast because we were taking it with us to my grandparents. We spent some time packing and parked Jacob in front of the DVD player so we could work on that. He was also starting to get a little bored and whiny and the DVD player did the trick.

Finally around 9 a.m. the french toast was ready and we were all heading out. We went to Sugar & Papa and fed everyone. We spent some more time visiting with them. Since my grandfather will be 87 in June, it’s so good to be able to go spend time with them. We really try to go about once a year. We went in May 2004, Sept 2005 and then because I was pregnant and all that happened when Jacob was born, we made it back in Feb 2007 when Jacob was 6 months old. Then, we went in December 2007, and now Feb 2009. We are even talking about coming back again as soon as this fall because my brother & I won free passes to Universal Studios that have to be used by Dec 2009. Anyway, it’s so tough to leave and I wish we lived closer.

We ended up leaving around 12 Noon to head to Orlando/Kissimmee, which in hindsight was not the greatest idea. The first hour, Jacob was fine. He fell asleep around 1 p.m. - which was what we were hoping - he’d take a car nap the way he did on Friday. But, this time, he woke up after only 30 minutes in a complete melt down. Poor baby. He was just exhausted and wanted to sleep. We should have let him take an early nap at my grandparents before we left. Hindsight is 20/20. He was in melt down for the next 20 minutes and not even jelly bellies could console him. He finally got interested in the jelly beans, which kept him calm until we could get to Super Wal-mart and through the first part of our shopping trip. My brother’s wife, Katherine, was so helpful in helping us with Jacob in the store (and other times too!)

We left Walmart and got to our rental house (www.vrbo.com - #51407) around 3:15 - just 45 min early. We are staying in a house in Emerald Island resort. The resort is just awesome! The clubhouse has a pool/tiki bar, a concierge, and offers things like movies, karoake night, DJ night, etc. We got our parking pass and headed off to the house. The cleaners were still there and getting ready to mop. They let us through our groceries in the fridge, and we went off to the little park down the road. After about 20 minutes, the cleaners called and said the house was ready. We got back and unloaded everything. My brother made some “welcome cocktails” for us and we checked things out and relaxed a bit. Around 4:30 ish, I popped in our Digiorno. Then, we also had a Freschetta and CPK. Hey, we like leftovers ! Katherine and I made a big salad, and we had an easy dinner our first night.

After dinner, I gave Jacob a bath and we explained his Mee-ma would be taking him to bed. Jeff and I, John & Kat, had planned to go to Epcot and visit the World Showcase because I know Epcot won’t be all that interesting to Jacob, especially the countries. So, we headed off to Epcot and got there around 6:30 p.m. Soarin’ had a 65 min wait and no fast passes, so we headed to the World Showcase. We started off in Mexico with frozen margaritas. Yum. Mine went down way too good. Then, we rode Maelstrom and had a great time being silly. We headed on, and visited Germany for a Spaten and a pretzel. We went to Japan and shopped. John & Kat bought chopsticks and sake. I bought a very pretty Japanese tea mug. Then, we headed on and went to the pub in England and Katherine and I had cider. The boys had Bodington. They have a great singer in the pub called the Hat Lady. We caught the end of her act. We really enjoyed the start of our Disney Trip!

Tuesday - we take Jacob to Animal Kingdom!

On to Florida!

2009-02-24T06:29:00.002-05:00

Saturday, Feb 21:

On Saturday, we got up and left for my grandparents house in New Port Richey around 7:30 a.m.. About an hour or so into the trip, we had to break out the DVD player and he watched some Wiggles, Blue’s Clue’s, Elmo, etc. I think he might not have known we had the DVD player on Friday, but when he saw it Friday night, he wanted it on Saturday morning. We stopped in Ocala for some donut holes at Dunkin Donuts around 10:00 a.m. That kept Jacob occupied for a little while. About 10 minutes before we were going to get to Sugar & Papa’s, Jacob was done with the DVD player, his books, toys, etc. I got out the jelly bellies again, and gave Jacob about one per minute and he did fine the rest of the way. That’s a trick I’ve got to remember! But overall, he was such an angel in the car, I still can’t believe it!

We got to Sugar & Papa’s around 11:40 a.m. and Jacob showed them how to bowl with his $5 bowling set. My brother John and his wife, Katherine were there. A little while later, my mom, Mee-ma, showed up and Jacob was literally jumping up and down when he saw her! Around 1 p.m., Jacob was getting tired, and Jeff set up the toddler Aerobed in the guest room. I put Jacob down for a nap and he did great - he went right to sleep. After his nap, Jeff and I took Jacob to Sim’s Park, which had a great play apparatus made of wood with all kinds of levels, four slide, etc. Jacob loved it. We played for about 45 minutes. After the park, we went back to Sugar & Papa’s for a little while. My mom’s sister, Alice came over too. We decided to go to dinner at a Chinese buffet and Jacob enjoyed the ice cream. After dinner, we went back to Alice’s and Jacob did some more bowling. When 7:30 or so rolled around, my mom put Jacob to bed and for the third time in two days, he went to sleep in a new place and did great.

Sunday, February 22:

He slept until 5:30 a.m. again Sunday morning. Jeff & I kept him contained in the bedroom until 7:30 and we had to turn him loose. My aunt made us oatmeal and muffins, and we also had fruit and coffee. It was nice. Jacob did some more bowling while Jeff & I got ready and about 10 a.m. we headed back over to Sugar & Papa’s.

More to come! Tomorrow we head to Orlando!

Our First Long Car Trip!

2009-02-21T06:17:00.003-05:00

We are live from Kingsland, Georgia! Our stopover on our way to Florida. We left Friday morning about 7:00 a.m.

Jacob was so excited to leave that he did not want to go to school on Thurdsay, and then even when he got home on Thursday night, he was ready to leave right then. So, we finally left Friday morning. We stopped around 9:30 in Florence, SC for a quick breakfast and got back on the road about 10 a.m. We drove on to Georgia and stopped in Pooler, near Savannah. Jacob played in the Chick-fil-a play area and we had lunch. We hit the road again around 1 p.m. and Jacob fell asleep. He slept until we were about 10 minutes outside of Kingsland, our stop. He woke up not so happy, but I was able to feed him jelly bellies until we made it here and he was happy.

Nearly 7.5 hrs on the road yesterday, and he was SOOOOOOO wonderful. Jeff and I took turns with him in the back seat and had a variety of book, games, toys, both old & new. We did not even have to break out the DVD player for this leg of the trip!

After we arrived at the Fairfield here in Kingsland, we checked in and then I took Jacob swimming in the indoor swimming pool. He loved it and he keeps saying how much he loves the pool. After swimming, we drove down to St. Mary's, which has a historic waterfront district with little shops and a great park that is waterfront. They even have a kids' play area with a climbing structure with slides, etc. Jacob enjoyed the slide. After we had been there about 10 minutes, another little boy close in age to Jacob arrived. He walked right over to Jacob and Jacob said, "Hi." The little boy started kicking sand on Jacob and then even picked up a handfull of sand and threw it at Jacob! I was shocked!! I looked for a parent and she was paying no attention. I said, "Hey, someone's kid is throwing sand." She finally came over and told him to stop. It was crazy.

A few minutes later, we left the park and went to dinner at Ruby Tuesday for dinner. We got back to the hotel about 6 p.m. and let Jacob watch the Cars movie, which apparently he has seen so he talked the whole movie. It went off at 8 p.m. or so, and we read books and brushed his teeth. Then, he went to sleep just perfectly in his new Toddler Aerobed. Jeff and I watched a movie on the Ipod Touch in the bathroom for about 30 minutes and then we jumped in bed and watched the rest there. Jacob slept on his new bed until 5:30 this morning, which is about what time he gets up anyway.

Overall, so far, it's been a great trip. We'll be leaving soon for New Port Richey, where my grandparents, as well as my aunt live. Two days/nights there, and on Monday, we head to Orlando. More to come!

Jacob Sledding - January 20, 2009

2009-01-20T19:50:00.001-05:00

We got nearly 6 inches of snow today!

A Music Video for CHD Awareness!

2008-11-03T09:58:00.002-05:00

Since my last post, Jacob & I went to the World Heart Day picnic hosted by Triangle Mended Little Hearts back in late September! We had a busy October also. Jeff & I went to the Panthers v. Kansas City game and had third row tickets! We took Jacob to the State Fair, and of course, we just had Halloween and Jacob was Mickey Mouse. Here are pictures of the fun:
www.jacobjones.shutterfly.com .

For the last two months, Jacob has been in a new school, A Mother's Love Child Care Home. He just loves his new teacher, Michelle, as well as her husband, Scott and her son, Jason! He is doing really well there!

The real reason for my post though, is this cool country music video by Mark O'Shea, who is from Australia, but now in Nashville. Here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dtxlv6Hoerw

Peds Cardiology Visit to Duke Recap

2008-08-27T15:48:00.002-04:00

We made our trek to Elmo's Diner for an early lunch. Appointment was at 12:15 p.m. We got to Duke at 12:00 and were immediately taken back for height, weight, BP check, etc. Then, we went and had the EKG and Echo. Jacob did great with the echo! I was so relieved. We were done with all that in fairly short order and sent back to the waiting room.

Dr. Rhodes got behind and I believe we waited at least one hour in the waiting room. We were finally called back about 1:45 p.m.? Dr. Rhodes came in, explained what they would be looking for. He also mentioned that he likes to do a routine cath around 8-10 years old when all studies have been fine. He would do it earlier if there were any issues. No activity restrictions are anticipated at any time he said as long as we have no complications in the future. The echo & EKG looked great and they have no concerns at this point. We were told to come back in one year for an echo / EKG. All in all a wonderful visit!!

Tomorrow....

2008-08-26T21:16:00.002-04:00

... we go back to Duke for a pediatric cardiology appointment and echo for the first time in 10.5 months. This will be our first unsedated echo too!

We last went in October 2007 when Jacob was 14 months old. At that time, the echo showed the surgical result was about as good as you could hope for.

We have no reason to expect anything but great news tomorrow. We are seeing a new doctor, Dr. Rhodes. We previously saw Dr. Delaney, but he has since left Duke. Both Dr. Delaney & Dr. Rhodes were there on Jacob's admission at about 3 hours old and both performed his catheterization / balloon septostomy an hour or so later.

Anyway, please keep us in your thoughts & prayers tomorrow!

Arterial Switch Operation Anniversary

2008-08-07T10:49:00.003-04:00

Two years ago today, at this moment, Jeff & I took turns holding our 6 day old baby boy. It was a quiet Monday morning. Around 1 p.m. the anesthesiologist came to wheel Jacob away. We walked with him all the way to the elevator that would take Jacob to the surgical suite. The tears streamed down our faces as they took him away.

Then, we said a prayer. Jeff & I then took the little Duke tram over to another part of the hospital to sort of "get away" and try to eat some lunch. We finally returned to the PICU waiting area and were joined by friends & family.

It was a long 3.5 hours before we got our first update at 4:30 p.m. that the ASO had been completed. The ASO, of course, reverses the pulmonary artery & aorta back to their anatomical position. I've heard that the heart of a newborn baby is about the size of a strawberry. Amazing work, Dr. Jaggers, simply amazing.

About 15 minutes later, they let us know he had come off the bypass and that his heart was pumping & his lungs oxygenating his blood. A while later, they wheeled him by quickly. Nearly an hour after that, perhaps 7 p.m., we finally got to go back & see him. We didn't take any pictures, which is something I sort of regret. At the same time, I can still see the image in my eye. He had tubes and wires everywhere, and a little forehead temperature thing.

I almost consider August 7 to be a kind of "birthday" for Jacob. It's the day his heart was fixed by the talented Dr. Jaggers, so that he could go on to live a long, happy, normal life.

My Baby is 2 Today....

2008-08-01T10:56:00.003-04:00

Where have the months gone? The days & weeks seem to go by so quickly and all of a sudden, our baby boy is 2.

I woke up at 5:30 this morning to the sound of our little man sort of screaming (he's usually pretty patient in the mornings, but not this one, I suppose.) Jeff turned to me and said, it's Jacob's birthday. I said, "yep, two years ago at this time, he was being life-flighted." And, so it begins that I try to remember the first 24 hours of his life. The first 3-4 hours are pretty clear, but the remaining hours of his first full day are a blur. We are certainly thankful and grateful to God that Jacob is such an energetic, full of life two year old. But on his birthday, it's hard to not remember those early hours and days.

Today Jacob also completes his first full week of childcare in a center. He was with Ms. Chrissy before, who kept him in her home, from the time he was about 2.5 months old until just a few weeks ago. We thought it sounded like a good idea to put him in a regular childcare center now that he is 2 for various reasons. It's been a rough transition so far. Rough on Jacob and rough on his mama too. I cried Monday, and managed not to cry Tues, Wed, or Thurs, but I think I've already cried about 4 times today. I picked him up on Tues & Thurs this week. I'd peek in on him before going into the room, and he'd just be sitting at the little tables they have, sort of slumped down, coloring or playing with a puzzle. Today, when I dropped him off, I had to take his bag to another room, so I went back to look in on him before I left. Five other kids were happily clapping, singing & stomping around to a CD. He stood in the middle, sort of looking at the floor. It was so depressing.

He is such a tough little guy. I think they think he is doing well because he's not crying all day, but he's just being tough. At the same time, he's not himself, because he is a happy, outgoing child who has never met a stranger. Yet, this week, one of his teachers told me she thought he is shy. He's never been described that way. I'm hoping that this is just a transitional phase. At the same time, I think he is going through a little bit of separation anxiety being away from us.

I can't wait to pick him up today and tomorrow we'll celebrate his birthday with family & friends.

Recapping March 2008!

2008-05-06T16:32:00.005-04:00

What does one say when one hasn't blogged in two months? Oh dear!!

Let's review:

March 8 - our Holly Glen Easter Party featuring Stacy Clearman's Littleland Band - we took Jacob & our friends, Kim & Steven and their son Sterner joined us. Jacob loves the band. We bought him the CD and now he sings along in the car! Pictures of the fun Here.

March 20-24 - we headed to Wilmington for the weekend and Jacob's "Me-ma" (what he's calling my mom now) watched Jacob Friday & Saturday night so Jeff & I could go celebrate our five year anniversary. Our anniversary was March 22, that Saturday, and we stayed at Carolina Beach and had a relaxing day taking the Fort Fisher Ferry over to Southport and checking out a festival they had going on. It also seemed like we ate good food all day long! There are some pictures of Jacob hunting for Easter eggs around my mom's living room in the link above. And also pictures of Jacob hugging Caitlin, Heather's daughter, and playground pictures.

March 30 - Jacob had his first haircut at Snipits in Apex. He wasn't so sure about it at first, and then as he got more comfortable, he kept saying, "Wow," over and over, it was pretty cute. I've got a video of it too I'll try to post. Haircut pictures also in the link above!

In the meantime, Jacob's language skills keep improving. He's say so many words & phrases now! I'll recap April later!

March for Babies!

2008-03-04T14:48:00.005-05:00

This will be my third year walking for the March of Dimes walk, formerly Walkamerica, now more aptly named "March for Babies." Of course, the March of Dimes current campaign is geared towards premature birth, but I like to think they still help with research for birth defects as well.

Not to mention, I have a number of friends who have been affected by premature birth. My friend Audra, lost her twins at 23 weeks; my friend Vanessa has a 27 weeker who is now 16 months old and doing well; our sitter, Chrissy's twin sons were born at 32 weeks, and the list could go on and on. It's definitely a worthwhile cause!

The walk for the Triangle area is April 19th, so I'll be trying to raise $$ until then. If you feel like it, throw $5 or $10 my way! Online contributions make it so easy! Thanks!

Story of the first ASO performed at Duke....?

2008-03-02T20:45:00.002-05:00

The other neat story I have from the Radiothon was from a Duke employee who helps organize Radiothon. She mentioned that she has a friend that she has known for several years through sports their kids play, etc. and that she had just recently learned that the friend's 22 year old daughter, is a TGA kid and was likely the first Arterial Switch Operation recipient at Duke in 1985. Twenty two years later, she is doing very well with no complications! It's a short & sweet story, but another one that made me very happy and left an impression!

Story of a 44 year old Transposition Survivor...

2008-02-20T12:35:00.003-05:00

Do you ever feel like God puts you in the right place at the right time and you just happen to talk to the right person... I had one of those moments at the Duke Children's Radiothon last week. A little background... I spent a few hours in the morning working on the "phones". I ran into one of Jacob's nurses, Mary Jo. She was a PICU nurse for 17 years and left PICU for the "clinic" just last year. We had a very interesting discussion about the history of CHD and all she has seen. She relayed that many years ago, TGA babies were the sickest she cared for. HLHS babies were basically sent home because nothing could be done. She has seen an amazing amount of advancement in the treatment of CHD.

Later on in the day, I volunteered at the "Merchandise Sales" table, which I loved because I got the chance to talk to lots of people. Anyone who knows me IRL knows I love to talk! One woman, I'll call her, "Lynn" came up to peruse the T-shirts, and other items we were selling with the Duke Children's logo. She was wearing a shirt that said, "I got my New Heart at Duke."
Here is a part of our conversation:

Me: I like your shirt!
Lynn: Yep, 21 months now.
Me: My son is a Duke heart patient.
Lynn: I have been a Duke heart patient many years.
Me: My son has a congenital heart defect.
Lynn: So do I.
Me: Really, which one?
Lynn: Transposition of the Great Vessels.
Me: Wow. That's what my son has.

We went on to discuss that Lynn has had 5 open heart surgeries and two strokes, culminating in the heart transplant 21 months ago. She told me she was born in 1963!! This would make her around 44 years old. She had her first surgery, the Mustard, in 1975. She related she has spent a lot of time in hospitals and her health has obviously not been great. I told her that of course, Jacob had the arterial switch operation, and as she was well aware, that was the only "planned" surgery he would need barring no complications. She was off to work the phone bank, but it was a less than 5 minute conversation that I will NEVER forget. How different Jacob's life will be only because of the advances made in medicine. Dr. Jatene - we thank you & salute you!!

I believe "Lynn" to be one of the oldest living survivors of Transposition & the Mustard/Senning. I did some good ole Googling and found several people who are 35 and claim to be the oldest TGA people. I did find one 44 year old gentleman too. If anyone knows of an older one, I'd love to hear about it.

I do have another Transposition "survivor" story.... it's a good one too. I'll save it for later!

Happy CHD Awareness Week! - Feb 7-14

2008-02-10T11:02:00.009-05:00

The reason I started this blog was in part to chronicle Jacob's adventures, but it was also to raise a awareness about CHD and to share Jacob's journey with CHD. As many of you know, he had a very scary start in this world and we are so lucky that we have him with us today. He has a smile that lights up the room.

Tomorrow, on Valentine's Day, I will spend a good chunk of the day volunteering at the Mix 101.5 Radiothon for Duke Children's Hospital. I hope you will take a moment to make a donation, even if it's just $5! 100% of the money raised goes to programs for kids at Duke Children's: sending a DC kid to a special camp; buying toys; computers; magazines; research & development; etc.

Also, in honor of CHD Awarness Week, I hope you will visit this fabulous Learn About CHD Blog:
(and thanks to Emily's blog for making me aware of it!)

Happy CHD Awareness Week!

Monday's Adventure at Epcot

2008-02-01T12:45:00.000-05:00

Before I go into the rest of our day at Epcot, I feel like I need to explain why we decided to take a 16 month old to Disney World. Of course, I realize he won't remember the trip. We've been to Disney before and we enjoy it and we hoped it be about having family memories for Jeff and I. I also think that when Jacob gets older, he'll appreciate having pictures of himself with Mickey & Pooh, and at Disney. I'm sure we'll go back, it's not the only trip we'll take, so there will be plenty of future trips when he is older.

The trip was originally hatched in January 2007, when Jacob was but 5 months old. My friend Heather, is a huge Disney fan, and we've always dreamed of taking a trip together. Disney was having a sale for specific dates in 2007 that included 40% off room rates. Some dates were in December, and I had not been at Christmas since I was a kid. Heather's daughter, Caitlin, is exactly 9 months older than Jacob, so Caitlin was going to be 2 and Jacob 16 months. So the original reservation was to go with our friends in December 2007. In February 2007, we flew to Florida to take Jacob to visit my grandparents who are unable to travel to NC. They just loved him to pieces and since we had a trip to Disney planned for December, we told them we'd see them in 11 months, and they were excited we'd be back so soon.

Over the course of 2007, Heather, Jed & Caitlin had to bow out of the trip for various reasons. Since we'd promised my grandparents, Jeff & I decided to forge ahead and invite my mom along. She was agreeable to going. At some point, we realized it was no longer going to work for the Jeff, Jacob & I to stay with my grandparents in their small 2 BR house. So, we decided to rent a house for all of us to stay at. Might as well get one with a pool too! So the trip became about spending time with my grandparents and for my grandparents to spend time with Jacob. Disney ended up being the secondary reason for the trip. I found the right house, then delayed in booking and missed out on staying there for the first two days of our trip, so we booked the Hilton. There!

Back to Epcot on Monday, Dec 10!
So, after the Epcot Character Spot, we wandered around aimlessly some more. At this point, I remember thinking Jacob felt like he was starting to run a fever, poor baby. He was also having a lot of nasal drainage. He was acting okay though. We went to check out Land of the Living Seas - he loved the aquariums and we had the place just about to ourselves, so we let him roam and we followed him around. He was so funny. Finding Nemo was broken, so we couldn't ride it. : ( We went over to Fig's Journey into the Imagination and we did ride that, but Jacob was not much interested. He just wanted to run free! He did not like being held or cooped up on a ride. He was okay however in his stroller! Thank goodness for that. We went back and Nemo was still broken. Jacob seemed to be fading, so we headed out of the park. You'll see the pictures of him slumped over the front of the stroller. Little Mr. Independant refused to lay back and sleep in a comfortable position and decided that leaning forward was better. He slept that way on the entire stroll to the car. We got him loaded into the car, and our plan was to head back to the hotel, load up the car with our stuff, check out and then go back to Epcot to kill time until 4 pm when we could check into the house.

So we did. And of course, like previous days, Jacob fell asleep immediately in the car. We were able to keep him sleeping in the car while we stopped at a beach type shop and I ran in and tried on a few swim suits and bought one. Then I ran into Qdoba and picked up lunch for Jeff & I. Jacob still sleeping in the car seat. By the way, we bought a Cosco Scenera cheap car seat for $50 for the trip - it's only 9 lbs, easy to install, etc, and apparently, Jacob found it very comfortable for sleeping! So, we headed back to the Hilton, ate our lunch, tried to get Jacob to nap, but he refused. We finally got checked out by about 1 pm and headed back over to Epcot. When we got back, Finding Nemo was finally open. We attempted to get in line and Jacob did not want to be held through the line. He wanted to walk. Walking was still novel to him, he'd only been doing it about 2 months! The problem was he also didn't want to hold our hands though. We waited through the line hoping he'd cooperate, but he refused, so we jumped out of the line at the last minute. After strolling around, he seemed happy & in a good mood. We gave it another shot. We got back in line for Nemo. He was okay through 90% of the line and did not really freak out until we actually got into our clam-mobile. Then, he threw a fit through the entire ride and wanted to sit on the floor of the clam-mobile. Jeff and I decided that would be the last ride we tried to take him on! We loaded him back up into the stroller, and he was fine. We decided to take a spin around the Worlds of Epcot. First up, Mexico. Jeff and I split a frozen margarita. Oh how have we missed this delicious conconction at Epcot all these trips! It was wonderful!!! We completed our tour of the worlds and it was finally about 3:45 p.m. so off to our house - Shrek's Hideout - we headed!

Disney Continued - Sunday and into Monday...

2008-01-28T20:18:00.000-05:00

So, we left MGM, or whatever you want to call it now. We got Jacob loaded into the rental car, and he fell asleep literally before we could get out of the parking lot! Jeff suggested that maybe we could try to go and walk around another park and he'd just sleep in the stroller. So, after short discussion, we headed towards Animal Kingdom. As we arrived, Jacob was still sleeping. We tried to ease him out of the car seat and into the stroller. He kept sleeping... at first. We did not get far at all and he started crying pretty good. No Animal Kingdom for us! Back into the car, and I think he fell asleep again. So we headed back to the hotel. But of course, by the time we got him back there, he didn't want to sleep anymore.

We headed back over to Downtown Disney. By this point, I realized that I had forgotten my swimsuit! Yes, that's right, we had rented a house with a pool, and I had no swimsuit - not going to work. We decided to check out the suit options at DTD. In a word, not good. Expensive. Only one store had it - Team Disney. We walked the entire DTD. We did stop at McDonald's for a $3 shake and $2 fries - everything is more at Disney! A Double Cheeseburger meal is about $6 or $7! Crazy! So, after looking in earnest for a suit, we abandoned the cause and headed back to the hotel. I'm not sure what else we did that day. I think we weighed dinner options. Considered Benihana (in the hotel) and decided against it. We opted for some take out food from the hotel's sandwich/pizza shop. It was okay, but not great. Jacob went to sleep okay, maybe another 5 minutes of crying, but again, we had to be so quiet.

Monday, Dec 11:
In case you don't know, Jacob is an early riser - like 6 am, which helps when you are trying to get out the door, but isn't good when you want to sleep in. However, I seem to remember that on Monday morning, we did not hear a peep out of him until about 7 AM. It was bliss.

So, up we got. Epcot was on the plan for the day. Also on the plan was packing up our stuff, checking out of the hotel, and into our 4 BR house, where we would meet my mom & grandparents later in the day. Off to Epcot we went. One of the first things we did was the Epcot Character Spot. We thought we'd wait in line and get Jacob's picture taken with Mickey. As it turned out, we actually got to take pictures with about 5-6 characters! It was awesome. We got great pictures and I've uploaded a lot of them to Shutterfly if you want to peek. www.jacobjones.shutterfly.com Jacob loved the characters!! However, he did not love much more about Epcot...

More on our Disney Trip - Saturday & Sunday

2008-01-27T20:50:00.000-05:00

First, I really want to get better about blogging. I really enjoy going back to read up on what we were up to a few months ago, etc. Right now, I feel so behind because I feel like I need to post more about our Disney trip, and then of course, Christmas!

So, here goes... I'm going to try to post more!

Okay, so back to Disney...
Saturday Dec 8:
We arrived on a Saturday. As indicated, we checked into the Hilton Walt Disney World in Downtown Disney. Great location - walking distance to all the Downtown Disney fun. We got all checked in and since we had 6 day passes, after our trek to the grocery store for supplies, we went over to DTD. It was nearly dinner time at that point, and since it was Saturday, it was quite busy. We ate at Earl of Sandwich and Jeff fed Jacob outside while I fought the crowd to get us some grub. I've heard such great things about this place, but was really less than impressed on food quality, value & portion size. Oh well... Afterwards, they had a high school band playing, and we checked that out for a little while. Jacob seemed to enjoy the music. We finally headed back to the room, and put Jacob in his crib in our interior hallway. Okay, that sounds like we stuck him outside the door, but really, this room had a fairly long hallway from the actual door to the room. We were able to put the crib in the hallway and put a blanket up to give him some privacy. He only cried about 5-10 minutes and went right to sleep, but we felt like we had to be very quiet. It was a little tough.

Sunday Dec 9:
The plan was to get up and go to Disney Studios, formerly known as MGM, and now to be known as Hollywood Studios, which is pretty odd considering I think of Hollywood as being in California and not in Florida. Now, Jeff and I have had two big trips to Disney since we've been married and each time, we've been those commando types who get there 15 minutes before the park opens and then when it opens, we high-tail it to whatever major attraction... We managed to get up and get out to DS prior to opening. So we were waiting with everyone for the park to open... and then it opened, and of course, everyone heads to Tower of Terror and Rock N Roller Coaster, but we really aren't thinking we'll be doing that stuff, so we kind of just wander around, not knowing exactly where to go. So, we headed straight, where everyone else headed to the right - if you've been there, you know what I mean... Jeff mentions, let's go check out the Great Movie Ride. It's something we did on our first trip in 2004, but it did not merit a repeat visit in 2005 - well, frankly, we found it boring! But, it seemed docile enough for Jacob to ride, and maybe he'd enjoy it. We had our first experience trying to figure out where to park the stroller, and quickly learned it's often near the ride exit, not necessarily the entrance. After figuring this out, we bumped into Goofy, Chip & Dale who were heading for a character meet & greet. This turned out to be Jacob's first character encounter. He was a little shy around them, so we weren't sure how he'd do when he met the rest of the characters. After goofing around with Goofy, we headed into the Great Movie Ride. While we were in the queuing area, they show a little movie and Jacob enjoyed running underneath the metal posts that people can queue through (though it wasn't that busy so there were not people there.) He was so crazy and I suppose that was a preview of things to come... fun, fun, fun! On the Great Movie Ride, he was okay at first, and then a little antsy. At one point, there were strobe lights, and they seemed to make him temporarily freak out a bit. He just seemed very excited and did this thing where he clinches his fist & face and shakes a bit... it was odd, but in a funny way.

After the Great Movie Ride, we basically killed time until the next Playhouse Disney Live show, which was basically the only thing Jacob would really be interested in. He's a Playhouse Disney kid - loves Ooh and Aah, the Wiggles, all the shows on Disney. At least they had TVs in the line showing Ooh and Aah. He enjoyed that. Then, we finally got in after a long wait. If you ever go, don't sit down in front on the left. You can't see anything from the front row - they are puppets for crying out loud, and they put them on a stage about 3-4 feet off the floor and some of the puppets are only a couple of feet tall! It's a cute show from what we could see and most of it, he was pretty interested, though he wanted to run all about, which of course is not allowed. You have to stay within these boundaries. We made it through almost the whole show, but toward the end we were ready to leave. Despite there being doors everywhere, you can only exit through the ones at the opposite end of the room. Annoying! We finally got out, and went to lunch at Primetime Cafe (after a brief detour to try to do the Muppets movie, but Jacob wasn't having it.) This was our third time eating at Primetime and by far, this was my least favorite. The food quality just stunk and the prices are outrageous. I mean $13 for a Fish Sandwich and I had a meatless Ratouille dish for $12. Jacob's kid's meal was $7 I think. Ridiculous. I mean, I know Disney food is expensive, but it could at least be edible! Grrr!!!

Well, after lunch, we left the Studios b/c Jacob was ready for nap and then we made a huge mistake.... (to be continued...)

Disney in December!

2008-01-03T13:03:00.001-05:00

Another month without a post! And it's not like I don't have anything to talk about! But maybe that's the problem!

We were in Disney from Dec 8-15. Disney with 16 month old - reviews are mixed. Of course, we had already prepared ourselves this would be a different kind of trip. At the same time, I'm not sure we were prepared for our child to completely FREAK out without ANY notice whatsoever, since he has never done that before. Freakout #1 happened on the airplane on the way down. Miserable! We were in a hotel room the first two nights & Jacob was in the hotel crib in hallway area that was in our room. It worked okay, but Jeff & I felt like we couldn't do anything at night! On Dec 10, we checked into our rental house - which was great - 4 BR, 3 Baths, swimming pool, game room, baby equipment, everything. It's called Shrek's Hideout and it's no more than 7-10 minutes to the parks. We could not believe how close it was to everything! My mom arrived and brought my grandparents - we all stayed in the house that week and this allowed Jeff & I to go to Disney a few times without Jacob or to go out to dinner, etc. More to come later!

Is anyone still reading this blog? November!

2007-12-02T20:17:00.000-05:00

Five weeks without a post. I'm so disappointed in myself. What can I say? Life with a 15 month old is busy! Let's reflect, since the last post, we had Halloween - Jacob was a monkey and a cute one! The next weekend (Nov 3-4), we went to Wilmington for the weekend to visit family since I had a Friday mediation down that way. Then, the following weekend, Nov 9-12, Jeff and I attended a Charity Ball on Friday night, drove to Charlotte on Saturday morning (3 hours), went to a Panthers game on Sunday, drove back home on Monday. My mom watched Jacob Friday to Monday for us. We had a great time. Nov 17-18, I can't even remember what we did, but Jeff's birthday was that Monday. We probably ran errands and checked out the new Super Walmart that opened down the street on Nov. 14. Then, it was a short week and Thanksgiving. Back to Wilmington. My grandma (dad's mom) and my dad's brother were here. We had Turkey with my dad and family. Then, Jacob swam with his Grandpa in Grandpa's pool! He loves swimming! Friday, we went to see Jeff's mom and did some shopping. Saturday, we went to a birthday party for Caitlin who was 2. Sunday, we went back to my dad's and drove back to Holly Springs. Throughout Thanksgiving weekend, Jacob was completely off his usual napping schedule, but he was such a good boy. On that Friday, he slept a total of 45 minutes in the car for his only nap all day. Not something you want to do all the time, but he really is a laid back, go with the flow child.

Whew! This weekend, we've been to: Kid2Kid, BJ's Wholesale, Target, Kohl's, Panera, Harris Teeter, Super Wal-mart and Food Lion. And, we managed to get the tree up and the interior decorated! Jacob was such a little trooper. He is the best child!! I hope he stays that way.

I'm in shock it is December already. Christmas is in 22 days. We are taking an entire week out of that and going to Disney. Considering "Christmas" will "start" for us on the 22nd with our trip to Wilmington, and a week in Florida, that really leaves us more like 12 days to prepare. Finish Christmas shopping (I finally did start this weekend!) Wrap gifts. Get Christmas cards in the mail. And that's not even including all the busy stuff at work going on! What were we thinking to take a vacation a week to two weeks before Christmas? I've got serious vacation anxiety!

I'll try to find the time to post lots of pictures from the adventures in November!

And the echo results are in....

2007-10-23T16:16:00.000-04:00

Jacob's heart is functioning beautifully!

We got up early this morning, made our trek to Durham, had a yummy breakfast at Elmo's Diner. Then, made our way to the Children's Clinic at Duke. They did a weigh & measure - Jacob was 30.5 inches and just over 23 lbs (he'd just eaten A LOT!) His vitals were fine. We then made the walk over to the hospital and to the 7th floor Echo lab. First, we tried just sedating with chloral hydrate, but after 30 minutes it was obvious that wasn't going to work, so they gave him 10 mg of Benadryl and he was out 5 minutes later. The echo itself was very thorough and performed not by an echo technician, but by Dr. Trivedi, a cardiology fellow who followed Jacob from admission in August 2006, right up until his discharge 16 days later. He apparently is now on a rotation in the echo lab, so it was very nice to see a familiar face. After about 45 minutes of taking echo images, Dr. Trivedi checked with Dr. Barker, who came back in and took several more images. Then, they told us everything looked very good, and that Jacob's pulmonary arteries and coronary arteries look great, about as well as one could hope after this type procedure. Then, we were sent back to the clinic to see Dr. Delaney. After quite a bit of waiting, we finally saw Dr. Delaney, who was also very pleased with Jacob's progress and heart function. He told us we don't need to come back until Jacob is TWO! So, we made an appointment for August 12, 2008 - nearly 10 months from now! It is such a relief that his appointment went so well!

2007-10-19T12:26:00.001-04:00

Cardiology Follow-Up on Tuesday, October 23

2007-10-19T11:54:00.000-04:00

I can't believe it has been six whole months since we've been to Duke for an echo and to see Dr. Delaney. Time flies. I remember back in April, when Dr. Delaney said that Jacob was doing so well, they would not need to see him back for 6 months. He couldn't even detect much of a murmur listening to his chest. Previously, we'd been told we'd be going every 3 months, so that was really good news! Jacob was 8 months old at that point, and I tried to imagine what he would be like in 6 months. I really had no idea!

Here we are now, with our 14.5 month old, and he is so much fun. He can now walk, he talks, he throws & rolls a ball, he can go get Elmo or Pooh, or other toys. He loves light switches and lights. He loves to open & close drawers & doors. He loves to crawl (fast) down our hall! He loves bath time and splashing (and ducks!). He loves to eat, especially any kind of veggie with roasted red pepper hummus on it! He also loves any kind of fruit, grilled cheese, and grilled chicken. And, he loves Fruity Cheerios and Goldfish. He is growing up before our very eyes. He is such a cuddly boy and gives great hugs! He loves his Slugger and his Lambchop puppet and sleeps with both every night. He still takes two naps a day and goes to bed at 7 p.m. He does wake up around 5:30 a.m., but he talks to himself and plays while mommy & daddy sleep another 45 minutes (or try to!). He loves the Wiggles & especially Dorothy (which he calls "Dor-tee") He is truly our little blessing and we love him so. I can't imagine our life before him or without him!

Anyway, I am confident we will have a report of continuing good health on Tuesday! I hope you will be thinking of us and praying for us on that day!

Walking!

2007-10-08T09:28:00.000-04:00

Where do I start? Since the last entry, of course, we have been busy!

We attended Elizabeth's 1st birthday party on September 8! Elizabeth is the daughter of Barry & Sandra, friends of ours who live about an hour away. Jacob had a good time and enjoyed having cake again!

The following weekend, September 15 - we went to Wilmington to visit my mom, my dad and Jeff's mom. They all enjoyed playing with Jacob.

It's hard to remember, but the last two weeks of September were busy ones for Jeff and I at work and I remember working quite a bit on the weekends. They were also filled with the usual trips to Target, the grocery store, etc. Boring stuff!

However, as indicated in the title of this post, we had a momentous occasion last week! On October 3, Jacob took his first solo steps! Jeff picked Jacob up from Chrissy's and took several steps to Jeff. Then, after they got home, we had a great time trying to get Jacob to take more steps! I'm going to try to post video here.... If this doesn't work, shoot me an email and I'll send you the link or video. Please post and tell me whether or not this works as I can't see it!

Pictures from August to Labor Day

2007-09-07T13:47:00.001-04:00

Here is the link to the pictures from our recent trip:

http://www.jacobjones.shutterfly.com/

Back from Mini-Vacation to the Mountains!

2007-09-04T14:19:00.000-04:00

We had a great Labor Day weekend in the mountains of N.C. We were fortunate enough to be offered a free place to stay at a beautiful condominium belonging to the parents of my dad's wife at Sugartop. We couldn't say no, so Jeff & I took off work on Thursday & Friday and we left on our adventure on Thursday morning. We stopped in North Wilkesboro for lunch and then on to Sugar Mountain, which is about 20-30 minutes from Boone. After we got checked in, we got settled and went out for supplies & provisions. By the time we got back, we just played with Jacob a little while longer, then fed him dinner. We put him to bed and despite being in a new place in a pack n play he had never slept in, he only cried for eight (long!) minutes before going to sleep!

On Friday morning, we waited until after his morning nap to get a start on the day. We headed over to the original Mast General Store in Valle Crucis. It's probably one of our favorite things to do, they have lots of neat stuff. We also went by the Annex store as well. As we were walking around, I showed Jacob a Lambchop puppet like this one. He took to it immediately and hugged it as we walked around the store, so of course, we had to buy it for him. [By the way, Lambchop has now moved right up their with Slugger. Jacob slept with his little arms wrapped around them both last night. It was adorable.] We went to lunch at Woodland's BBQ on Friday and it was pretty good! Jacob enjoyed his first BBQ and ate almost a whole hotdog too! We did some other shopping on Friday, but mainly tried to just get Jacob adjusted. We also went to the indoor pool at the condo on Friday and Jacob really enjoyed that too. We have an inflatable whale infant float that we bought before he was even born, and we finally got a chance to use it! Oh my, he loved it. Jeff took him out at one point, and he wanted to get back in!

On Saturday morning, we took a chance and left early before Jacob's morning nap, hoping he'd sleep in the car. He did okay, but not great with that. We were headed to Linville Falls. It was very foggy on the Blue Ridge Parkway. At one point, it was difficult to even see the yellow double lines on the road!! We considered turning back, but pushed on through the fog. We made it to Linville Falls and tried out a LLBean Child Carrier borrowed from some friends. It worked well and we hiked about 1.5 miles round-trip to see the falls & take pictures. Jacob seemed to enjoy riding during our hike. I even carried him on the way back and it wasn't too bad. After leaving Linville Falls, we headed further south on the Blue Ridge Parkway to Little Switzerland, an adorable little town in the mountains. We had a delicious lunch at the Switzerland Cafe, where our waitress asked us if Jacob just love to smile all the time. If we learned anything this trip, it's that Jacob likes to eat in restaurants! He loves looking all around at the people! After lunch, we went by the Orchard at Altapass and had some ice cream while listening to a band play mountain music. This is one of those attractions you don't see in the guidebooks, but we stumbled across it and we have enjoyed visiting a few times now. Unfortunately, it wasn't quite apple season yet, but the store and the music are lots of fun. Saturday was one long day, and we
actually went back out to the Mast General Store again. It was a lot more crowded than the day before, and we picked up a few more things.

On Sunday, we headed over to Beech Mountain, which is the highest incorporated town east of the Mississippi River. Wow, those were some STEEP and WINDING roads to get up there. I'm pretty sure the brakes weren't really fond of coming down either.... Anyway, they were having a Mile High Kite Festival. They even had free kites for kids, so we made Jacob a kite that read "Jacob's First Kite" and included the date. Then, Jeff & I tried our darnedest to fly it! We had a nice time and took some great pictures of Jacob sitting in the grass! I'm going to get all the pictures posted in a few days. When we left the Kite Festival, we went on a 2 hour expedition looking for lunch without any luck at all. Everything was SUPER busy because it was a holiday weekend and the weather was beautiful. We ended up giving up and hitting the McDonald's drive through on our way back to the Condo. For the record, Jacob wasn't too fond of chicken nuggets, and I couldn't be happier about that.

On Monday, we started packing up and headed for home around Noon. We stopped again in Wilkesboro for lunch (at the same Applebee's, no less!) and got home around 4:30 p.m. We had a great time on Jacob's first vacation, even if it was a short one!

Jacob's One Year Check-Up

2007-08-21T10:48:00.000-04:00

Jacob had his one year check up with his new pediatrician, Dr. Ramsdell with Ramsdell Pediatrics yesterday. First off, it's a long story why we switched, but I couldn't be happier. Jeff really likes her too, and Jacob seemed to take to her as well. At one point, he reached his arms out for her to pick him up! I can't say he ever did that with his other doctors!

His stats were 20.14 lbs (19th percentile); 30.25 inches (63rd percentile) and I think his head was around 18 cm (57th percentile). We talked about his development and she feels he is just fine in that category as well. He knows 4-6 words pretty well, responds to his name, seeks approval, claps, drinks from a straw/sippy cup, feeds himself etc. He's not walking yet, but he will in his own time.

He couldn't get his shots yesterday though. He's come down with a cold, complete with snot & a nasty cough that is mostly present at night and keeping us all awake. She put him on Xopenex by nebulizer for the next week or so and gave us a new prescription for that. She ordered breathing treatments every 4 hours for the first day or so, then back to every 6 hours as needed. She said he was fine to go to "school," as long as he wasn't running a fever, so we sent him on to Chrissy's today with his nebulizer.

It's funny he is so skinny because I really don't think he could eat any more! Lately, he is loving fruit of all kinds. Last night at dinner he had sprite melon (similar to a honeydew/muskmelon/cantelope), raspberries, grapes, bananas, and applesauce! He also had some veggies & about 1/2 of a turkey sausage.

Birthday Recap & Roseola!

2007-08-10T08:52:00.000-04:00

Wow, it's already Friday - where did the week go? At this time last week, we were getting ready for Jacob's party which was last Saturday. I took a half-day Thursday to do some birthday party shopping. My brother, John, & his fiancee, Katherine, flew in on Thursday night from Austin. My mom picked them up from the airport. They got in too late to see Jacob, but on Friday, they pretty much spent the day with him while Jeff and I shopped for food for the party. We got lots of stuff from BJ's (like Sam's, Costco), including burgers, hot dogs, appetizers, lots of food! We spent the rest of the day getting various things ready around the house and preparing as much of the food in advance as we could. I had numerous lists to keep up with all the details! After all, we were expecting around 35 adults & kids!

Friday night, after Jacob went to bed, we decorated the house with ducks galore, duck garland, streamers, etc. Saturday morning, he was up bright & early. I was chopping fruit for fruit salad at 6 a.m.! The party was scheduled for 11 a.m., and Katherine and I went to the Farmer's Market at 8 a.m. for some produce for the fruit salad & pasta salad. (Yes, I'm crazy to wait until the last minute!) I sent John & Jeff on the mission for the cake, ice, balloons & a propane tank! Somehow we got everything ready by around 10:15 a.m. and had a brief moment to shower & change. In the midst of all the activity, Jacob only took about a 40 minute nap and would not go back to sleep. He was pretty fussy.

Guests began arriving, and we served veggies/dips; chips/dips; tortilla chips/salsa; pinwheels, etc. Jeff started grilling hamburgers around 11:30 a.m. and they took longer to cook than we expected! We had 23 hamburgers and they were gone as soon as he could grill them. He then grilled about 24 hot dogs and most of those were gone quickly as well. We also had the aforementioned pasta salad, fruit salad, and baked beans. Everyone ate and the kids played in the living room. We got lots of great pictures. Jacob was really getting tired & yawning, so I knew we needed to get on with gifts & cake! I told Jeff's cousin-in-law, Holly, to tell everyone gifts in 5 minutes! Then, I told her to tell them to come on now because Jacob was seriously tired. Jeff held Jacob while I "helped" open presents. He got lots of great toys and some clothes too. He also received lots of books, which he loves! All the kids were very good while he opened his presents! Then, we quickly moved on to cake! I decided last minute not to get Jacob his own separate cake and just to give him a slice of his ducky cake. Even though he was tired, he didn't pass up on the cake. He dug right in and we gave him 10-15 minutes to enjoy it. Here he is right before I took him up for a bath:

After his bath, I put him in some comfortable clothes, and we came downstairs and he told everyone good night because he was off to nap. I put him down for a nap in his crib upstairs and we turned on the surveillance camera on our TV so everyone could watch him while he went to sleep! He was so exhausted, and I was so happy he didn't freak out during the party. Our guests began to leave, and we all finally relaxed. I was glad we had the party early in the day.

Later that evening, Jeff, John, Katherine & I went to dinner and to see the Simpsons movie. We had a great time. Sunday, we did little more than venture out to Trader Joe's, and had eastern Carolina style BBQ for dinner at my brother's request. Jacob was still very tired, and he was now running a fever.

Monday, Katherine & John flew home. Jacob still had a fever, my mom stayed with him. Tuesday, I stayed home with him. On Wednesday, he broke out in a classic Roseola rash. He's still more tired than usual, but the rash is starting to fade a little. Whew! What a week!

Here are the rest of the pictures from his birthday week: http://www.jacobjones.shutterfly.com/

Our Family.... Simpsonized!

2007-08-06T12:15:00.000-04:00

I'll give the recap of Jacob's birthday shortly, but first - over the weekend Jeff and I went to see the Simpson's Movie with my brother, John, and his fiancee, Katherine. Sunday, while sitting around, we saw the Burger King commercial for "simponizing" yourself, so we simpsonized everyone, and John put us all in the same shot using MS Paint! Here's the picture:

From Left to Right: Katherine, Me, Jacob, Jeff, John and my mom!

Jacob's Story - Part 6 - A Happy Ending

2007-08-01T14:27:00.000-04:00

Gradually, over the next few days, he started eating more and more; he also started shedding more of his tubes and wires. Here is one of the first pictures of his little face without any tubes or oxygen!

We continued doing chest PT on him. By Tuesday morning, miraculously, his congestion had cleared to the point he didn't even need a chest x-ray! On Tuesday, he was also switched to oral medications. He also started gaining weight. He had made it back to his birth weight on Tuesday evening.

We were discharged on Wednesday, August 16. Jeff and I finally were able to bring our baby boy home with us. It was a very happy day. This is Jacob and I on the day of discharge:

We have had outpatient visits at Duke in August, September, November, January and April. At Jacob's last appointment, on April 24, 2007, his echocardiogram looked great, and when the cardiologist listened to his chest, they could not even detect a heart murmur. For the first time in his short life, they told us we wouldn't need to come back to Duke for 6 months. In fact, he was 11 months old before he had a month without seeing a doctor!

Thank you for reading!

Today, August 1, 2007, Jacob is one. He is the happiest baby.

We are so thankful to our friends and family who supported us so much during Jacob’s first weeks and throughout the last year. The outpouring of love, kindness and prayers from near and far has been amazing. We are truly blessed and our prayers have been answered.

I hope Jacob's Story has helped to raise

awareness for Congenital Heart Defects.

My little man is one today....

2007-08-01T10:46:00.000-04:00

August 1 has finally arrived. One year ago today, we were overjoyed to have a 6 lb. 9 oz., 19.75 inch baby boy, and unsure what the future would hold. We are blessed!

(The final chapter will post in a little while, but you already know the ending anyway!)

Jacob's Story - Part 5 - Surgery & ICU

2007-07-31T13:53:00.000-04:00

On Monday, August 7, Jacob was scheduled to be the second surgical case. We spent all morning with him, and stayed until they came to get him, around 1:00 p.m. We walked with them as they wheeled him to the elevator that would take him to the surgical floor. It was a very emotional and tear-filled moment when they took him away. Our last picture taken before surgery:

We got our first update at 4:30 p.m., three and a half long hours later. They had completed the Arterial Switch and were in the process of taking him off the heart/lung machine. About 15 minutes later, they called back and said his heart and lungs were working perfectly. Fortunately, they were able to close his chest too. Around 5:15 p.m., the surgeon, Dr. Jaggers came and told us everything went well. A few minutes later, they wheeled Jacob by. They had told us it would take about 45 minutes to clean him up. We waited almost an hour and a half until 7 p.m. to go back to see him. He had tubes & wires everywhere. It was so hard to see him like that, but he also looked the pinkest we had ever seen him!

About 24 hours after surgery, they took him off the ventilator. I remember one of the younger doctors saying on rounds, that he was a "rock star," and ready to come off the vent. But, we still couldn’t hold him because of lines that were delivering medicine to his heart. That evening, they put a CPAP mask on to assist him with breathing, but after a few hours of that, he didn't like it and he took it out himself! They put him on nasal cannula oxygen, and he did fine. We continued visiting Jacob as much as we could the remainder of the week. On Wednesday, the doctor gave the order to have the last line removed that was running to his heart, but it was late in the day, so they wouldn't remove it until Thursday. We had left for a little while and came back, and Jacob was wearing clothes for the first time! This is a preemie-sized outfit!! (The head I.V. is just lovely, don't you think?) Also, look at how pink he is compared to just before surgery!!

By Thursday, the lines were removed and we were finally able to hold him again. We started feeding him from little two ounce bottles. We brought his own clothes to the hospital and started dressing him up! This was taken on Thursday - the doctors who rounded on him just loved it....

Jacob was delayed in getting out of the PICU by fluid build-up from surgery that caused chest congestion and a partially collapsed lung. We were taught by the nurses how to do chest PT. After nearly a week in PICU, on the Saturday after surgery, August 12, we were finally transferred to the pediatric floor around 6 p.m. We were very happy because we could now "room in" with Jacob. It was quite a change for Jeff and I because we pretty much started caring for him around the clock. But, here's two more picture, one from Aug 11, and then from Aug 12, from the last day in ICU...

Jacob's Story - Part 4 - Catheterization

2007-07-30T10:20:00.001-04:00

The Lifeflight team took Jacob to Duke, where Jeff was already waiting to fill out the paperwork. Of course, I wasn't there, so I'm not fully aware of the details. After arrival, Jacob was initially admitted to NICU, and since he had a heart defect, he actually was eventually admitted to PICU, the pediatric intensive care unit. All babies are in NICU at Duke, except heart babies, they go to PICU.

After Jacob was admitted to Duke, an emergency echocardiogram was performed. (Later, towards the end of Jacob's stay at Duke, the echo technician told us she remembered his admission and that they called her in an hour before her shift normally began to perform his echo.) The echo confirmed the Transposition diagnosis.

The "temporary fix" is to perform a balloon septostomy via a catheterization - they go up through a vein the groin and into the heart, where they place a hole between the atria of the heart to allow the non-oxygenated blood to mix with the oxygenated blood. As soon as the Transposition diagnosis was confirmed, Jacob was rushed to the cath lab. I believe it was around 7 a.m. by the time the ballon septostomy was completed. Here is Jacob after that procedure...

The balloon septostomy was successful. Jacob's oxygen saturation levels went from 55% to 98% almost instantly. Jeff called me after the procedure, and told me Jacob was doing a lot better and that they had taken pictures. I told him to hurry back with the camera so I could see them. My friend, Heather, took the camera and had all the pictures we had taken of Jacob so far printed and she put them into an album and brought it to me at Rex. There was a very noticeable improvement from seeing him in the special care nursery to after the catheterization.

In the meantime, the nurses at Rex were telling me I would be discharged that morning (of August 1) so that I could go be with Jacob. By the time my doctor rounded at 11:00 a.m., he basically suggested I stay put, having given birth less than 12 hours earlier. There was nothing I could do for Jacob except rest. Well, that, and I had starting pumping. Rex kept me overnight, and I was discharged on Wednesday, August 2.

Jeff and I drove straight to Duke to see Jacob. I remember being so excited to see him, and yet so scared about everything that was happening. He was sedated, and on a ventilator, but he was still with us!

In a wonderful twist of fate, his nurse the first two days was Mary Jo, who is a friend of friends, and I had met her before. We caught the doctors on rounds that Wednesday afternoon. They were hoping to do surgery on Jacob the following week. They explained he would need open heart surgery to fix the defect. Fortunately, there is only one surgery needed to "fix" most cases of Transposition - the Arterial Switch Operation. It restores the heart to as near as anatomically correct as possible, with just the risk of stenosis and scar tissue, which would be standard with any open heart procedure. The amazing thing is that the ASO has probably only been done for about 25 years. Prior to that, another surgery was performed - the Mustard or Senning procedure, and children could have serious heart problems as adolescents.

Jeff and I didn't want to go home without our baby. We live forty five minutes away, but that was too far for us. My dad made arrangements for us to stay at a nearby hotel for the first week. We were so grateful that we didn't have to worry about driving that far every day.

They left Jacob on the ventilator on August 2 and 3 because he had a brain MRI scheduled for August 3 and it was safer for him to remain on the ventilator during the MRI. While he was on the ventilator, we could not pick him up and hold him. When we arrived on the morning of Friday, August 4, Jacob was on nasal cannula and had the ventilator tube out of his mouth. Since he was finally off the ventilator, we could finally hold him!! Yes, this is the first time I had held him since he was born!!

On Friday, August 4, we also got the results of the brain MRI, and it was completely perfect!

On Saturday morning, we arrived at the hospital, checked in and went to the room he had been in the past few days, and there was no baby there! They had moved Jacob to a room with all babies - it is a NICU nursery with probably 8 NICU beds and 4 PICU beds. We had a lot of visitors on Saturday. I had many friends come by and Jeff's entire family, his mom's 6 brothers & sisters, some of their spouses & kids all came by and met Jacob. On Sunday, I spent lots of time holding and cuddling him! Sometimes, I even left Jeff, or one of our moms hold him!

Jacob's Story Part 3 - LifeFlight

2007-07-27T09:14:00.000-04:00

Quite frankly, from that point forward - the next 12-24 hours, everything is truly a blur. The entire experience was surreal. I could not believe this was happening to our baby. Dr. Barrett finished up with me and went to check on Jacob. She came back and told me Jacob was very sick, but she did not know any details.

My delivery nurse told me that Jacob would need to be transferred to another hospital and Jeff would have to go with him so he could admit him. I would need someone to stay with me. They wanted us to call our parents, but we couldn't call them at 3:00 a.m. with this news and risk them driving in the middle of the night all upset and worried. We decided to call our friends, Katie & Daniel, who lived pretty close by, and are familiar with Rex. I'll never forget calling them in the middle of the night. Daniel answered the phone, and I told him Jacob had been born, but he wasn't doing well. Daniel told me they would be there as soon as they could and passed the phone to Katie. I briefly explained things to her, and she said they were on their way.

At one point, Dr. Barrett took Jeff & I (me in a wheelchair) to the nursery to see Jacob. As they wheeled me past the other babies, I remember thinking that even though those babies were in special care, they looked like they were doing so much better than Jacob. We reached the end of the long nursery, and Jacob in a hospital bassinet surrounded by nurses and doctors. A nurse was using a bag to breathe for him. He was blue. We touched his little hands and face. Tears streamed down both our faces. It was almost unbearable. I remember hearing later that his APGAR was 9 at one minute, and 2 at 5 minutes - one point for respiration, and one for heartbeat, and that was it. He was completely unresponsive.

There was a neonatologist on staff who examined Jacob. They did a chest x-ray. He pulled us aside and showed us the x-ray and told us his heart was not enlarged, which was good, but he felt like Jacob had a heart defect. They suspected it was one of three defects, but could not diagnose him without an echocardiogram, and they did not have those facilities. He told us they had begun administering prostaglandins to keep the patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) open, which would help if it were one of the three defects. Essentially, this saved Jacob's life. Soon after he was born, his PDA began to close, and that's why he was blue - we later learned he had Transposition of the Great Arteries. The aorta and pulmonary artery were switched, so the heart was pumping the "blue blood" from the body, back out to the body, and the "red blood" from the lungs was going back to the lungs. The very little bit of red blood getting to the body and brain was from the PDA being open, and then from the PDA being kept open by prostaglandins. Prior to the prostaglandins, Jacob's blood oxygen levels plummeted to 30-40%. After giving him the medicine, it stabilized around 55%. At some point, they took me to my new recovery room. Katie & Daniel had arrived, and we explained what we knew so far.

After settling in, Dr. Barrett came back and took us for a second visit to the Special Care Nursery. One of the nurses told us that Jacob would need to be transferred to either Duke or UNC, and that the transport team would bring him to my room so I could see him before he left. Then, another nurse shook her head, indicating no, that he was too critical for the side-trip to my room. Ironically, a few moments later, the Duke Life Flight team arrived, and they ushered us out of the special care nursery so they could prepare him for transfer. They took me back to my room, and Jeff left with Daniel to go on over to Duke.

I think it was around 5:30 a.m. that the Duke Life Flight people did come by my room with Jacob. I was so grateful. Katie grabbed the camera and snapped pictures. The two pictures she took are below. Truly, I did not know if this was the last time I would see my newborn baby. It was a somber moment. As they took Jacob away, Katie hugged me and I just cried my heart out. Then, we said a prayer for Jacob.

Jacob's Story, Part 2 - The Delivery

2007-07-26T11:06:00.001-04:00

I think I was in labor on July 31, but I wasn't sure. Around lunchtime, I didn't feel very well. I continued working the remainder of the day, but I left work around 4:00 p.m. so as to avoid the traffic in case I went into labor. Around 6:30 p.m. I finally called the doctor. I was pleased to learn that my favorite doctor, Dr. Barrett, was on call that night. Since it was my first pregnancy, she told me it would be fine if I wanted to come in to the hospital to be checked.

Jeff and I packed a bag, and called our moms on the way to Rex Hospital. We told them we were pretty sure I'd be sent back home. Since they both live over 2 hours away we told them not to come just yet. We had planned to tell them to come once we knew I was in labor or was admitted to the hospital. When they checked me at the hospital on Monday night, I had not had much progress from the previous Wednesday's OB appointment - I was still around 2 cm and 80% effaced. The doctor said it was close, and I might be 2.5 cm. They let me walk around for an hour or so. I finally saw Dr. Barrett again around 11:30 p.m. At that point, she decided to keep me overnight and if nothing was going on by morning, they would discharge me. It was late, so we decided not to call our parents and get their hopes up. At 12:15 a.m. Dr. Barrett checked me and I was 3 cm and she decided to break my water. I was pretty happy because that meant I would not leave the hospital still pregnant!

Breaking my water certainly got things moving. Every 15 minutes, the nurse would come in and check on me, at 12:30 a.m., 12:45 a.m., etc. and each time, I would tell her I was managing without pain medication. Finally, at 1:30 a.m., I decided to ask for Stadol, but I still did not want an epidural. When the nurse checked me, she told me I was 9 cm! I had progress from 3 cm to 9 cm in one hour and fifteen minutes! Apparently I was in labor! By that time, I couldn't have gotten an epidural if I had wanted one, but they did give me Stadol.

By 1:50 a.m. I wanted to push, but had to wait until a little after 2:00 a.m. to be fully dilated. After 19 minutes of pushing, Jacob was born at 2:27 a.m. I remember they put him on my stomach and I felt such awe looking at him. I noticed a little angel's kiss over his left eye. A few minutes later, they whisked him over to the warming table to check him out. Jeff was snapping pictures left and right. As they were examining Jacob, I heard a nurse say to get the special care nursery team right away. There was something wrong. I had no idea what was going on. Then, I remember them saying, "bag him," and knowing I had heard that on T.V. before, I knew he was having trouble breathing, and things were not good. Then, they rushed him away to the special care nursery since Rex Hospital is a smaller community type hospital, and does not have a NICU. The confusion was just beginning...

Update on Nicole's Dad

2007-07-26T11:00:00.000-04:00

Nicole's father made it through last night, which they weren't sure he would. He's had some good things happen, and the doctors have gone from "Not Optimistic" to "Encouraged." He has a long road though, so please continue to pray for them.

7 days & counting.... Jacob's Story

2007-07-25T11:31:00.000-04:00

I've written Jacob's story and next week a shortened version should go up on the http://www.kidswithheart.org/ website for his first birthday. I'm going to share the story in parts over the next few days since it is kind of long... Part one follows:

Jacob's Story

Jeff and I had been married for about 2 and a half years when we decided we were ready to start a family. We got pregnant in November. Towards the end of November, and beginning of December, I felt different, and I thought I might be pregnant. On Saturday, December 3, I took a home pregnancy test, and it was positive! I showed Jeff the test and had to explain the results as he woke up Saturday morning and needless to say, he was thrilled. We surprised our parents at Christmas with our big news. In January, we told our friends and family.

On March 8, we had an ultrasound and found out we were having a baby boy. We were very happy and had already picked out a name, Jacob. At the March 8 ultrasound, Jacob was in a funny position and they could not get a clear view of his heart. The ultrasound technician mentioned that they may send me back for another ultrasound to try to view the heart at a later time. I had my next OB appointment a week later, but it was hurried, and I forgot to ask about the ultrasound. At my April appointment, I asked the doctor about the ultrasound. He hurriedly went over it with me. I asked him about the heart not being visualized clearly. He said since there was no family history of heart problems, that a repeat ultrasound would not be necessary. Of course, we had no reason to suspect anything unusual, so we did not press the issue.

The remainder of my pregnancy was very normal. It was quite a hot summer, but I managed by drinking milkshakes whenever I could! In July, by 36 weeks, Jacob had "dropped" into position, and one of my doctors said that meant I probably would not go past my due date of August 11. At my 37 week appointment on July 26, I was 2 cm dilated, 80% effaced, and Jacob had dropped from negative 1 to 0 station in the pelvis.

To be continued...

Nicole's Dad...

2007-07-25T11:28:00.000-04:00

The father of my very good friend, Nicole, had open heart surgery yesterday. A triple bypass was scheduled, but the surgery did not go well as an unexpected aortic dissection was found. The medicine given after surgery made this condition worse, as more stress was placed on the aorta. Her father is not doing well and the family has been told that the doctors are not overly optimistic about his chances. Please keep them in your prayers.

Jacob's One Year Pictures

2007-07-20T14:12:00.000-04:00

Oops - thought I posted this last Friday!

Hold your hats! It's a whole two posts in one week! And stay tuned next week, when we start the birthday count-down - I have a surprise for my faithful (and occasional) readers!

I'm posting some of my favorties from Jacob's Portrait Innovations pictures last Saturday. You can see the whole lot of them at http://www.jacobjones.shutterfly.com/, but here's a couple!

Father's Day & July 4th Pictures!

2007-07-17T11:41:00.000-04:00

As promised: Link to lots more too.

And July 4th:

And one more of my handsome guy!

Three Weeks & Counting!

2007-07-11T15:55:00.000-04:00

I can't believe Jacob's birthday is in three short weeks. The party will be the following Saturday and I'm so happy my brother & his fiancee are coming from Texas! Here is the front of the invitation. I love Shutterfly! They printed, addressed & mailed them! It could not be easier!

I encourage you to stop by http://www.kidswithheart.org/, as well as to return there in a few weeks. There is a good chance that if I can get Jacob's "story" written in time, he will be the feature story for August. Right now the feature story for July is posted about a little boy named Cayman who was born on July 22 and lost his fight with CHD on the day Jacob was born. It's not a happy ending, but it is one that potentially could have been had the defect (Coarctation of the Aorta) been detected. [See Mayo Clinic - treatment for Coarctation of the Aorta] Congenital heart defect awareness is so important. I think Cayman's story shows that even medical professionals still need to be educated!

Eleven Months Old!

2007-07-06T09:51:00.000-04:00

Duh! I forgot to post earlier this week that this past Sunday, Jacob was 11 months old! I cannot believe how fast he is growing up! He will be a one year old in just 26 days!

We are so excited about his birthday party! I designed invitations on Shutterfly and they went out earlier this week! I'll have to figure out a way to post the front of the invitation!

Patio furniture, July 4th, Snot, & Eczema

2007-07-06T09:17:00.000-04:00

As I posted last week, my mom came up last Thursday and stayed with Jacob on Friday. I know they enjoyed their time together! On Saturday, Jeff and I did a marathon shopping trip - we got a new umbrella for the deck, as well as new chair pads. Then, on Monday, Jeff found a great deal on a set of deck furniture on overstock.com that is black metal. We ordered the six-top table & six chairs. The furniture was scheduled to arrive on Monday, but Jeff just called and said it just arrived today!

We had a great 4th with Chris, Nicole, Devyn & Megan. They came over around 4 p.m. and the kids all swam in Jacob's little pool. We got some great pictures that I'll post soon (with Nicole's permission of course!) They had fun splashing around for about an hour, and then we got them cleaned up and fed Jacob & Megan dinner, while Jeff & Chris grilled hot dogs, brats, burgers & portobella mushrooms. (You would have thought we were cooking for twice as many people, but hey, we like leftovers!) Jacob actually ate his first meal all by his big-boy self - he fed himself goldfish, about a half of a hotdog and about 3/4 of a banana, plus 2-3 animal cookies.

Thursday morning, Jacob sneezed about 7-8 times before we could get him out the door! He seemed to be pretty happy, and the drainage was clear, so we proceeded on with our day and dropped him off at Chrissy's. Jeff wasn't feeling well himself, so he stayed home from work. I told Chrissy if Jake seemed to not feel well to call. I ended up picking Jacob myself around 5:00 p.m. Chrissy said Jacob had just started seeming tired and not feeling good in the last hour or so, and she figured we would be there soon, so she did not call. He slept pretty restlessly last night and seemed pretty tired this morning. Jeff decided to stay home with him today. So, I have a sick husband and child at home today.

The other thing Jacob has had going on lately, is eczema on his legs, arms, back and torso. Through diligent use of Vasoline Creamy ($2.47 Target!) 4-5 times a day, we have the back, torso & arms under control, but his legs are still red, splotchy & dry. We are now trying Baby Eczema Cream ($8.59! ouch!), but I can't say it's worth more than 3 times the price of the Vasoline so far!

Beach Weekend & Bumped!

2007-06-28T11:22:00.000-04:00

Another week between postings!

Since last Thursday, the Threejones headed down to the beach. I had a girls' beach weekend getaway, that was lots of fun. Jeff stayed one night with his mom nearby and then went and stayed one night with my mom. Our sitter Chrissy is on vacation this week, and unfortunately, one of our main "back-up" sitters, has been sick this week! Get well Nicole! So, Jeff and I eached worked half-days both Monday & Wednesday. Another friend, Angie, kept Jacob Tuesday & today. My mom is coming up tonight and will watch Jacob tomorrow as planned! Whew - it's been some week!

This morning, I maybe left five minutes late, but then traffic was at a crawl, making me probably more like 15 minutes late. Then, I got bumped from behind by a Saturn, whose driver was looking for a CD apparently. I actually saw her in my rear view mirror just after she hit me come up with 2-3 CD's in hand. Jacob was fine, the car was fine, and I'll be okay also. Since I was running late and damage to the car looked minimal-to-none, she and I just exchanged insurance information.

Week and a half Recap! & Jacob's Clothes

2007-06-21T08:52:00.000-04:00

You know you need to post to your blog when your husband says, "Honey, you haven't posted anything in over a week!"

Sorry to be MIA Jacob fans! To recap since the last post, let's see

6/13 - I had a mediation in Greensboro - it settled;
6/14 - I had Bunco - I lost.
6/15 - I had a mediation in High Point - it didn't settle - grrrr.... but, I did make an afternoon of it and stopped at Peaches-N-Cream and got Jacob the most adorable outfit for his birthday!

I also went to Carter's which is having a great 40-70% off sale, $5 polo shirts, sunsuits, etc. Great deals!

6/16 Went to the Farmer's Market, BJ's, etc. We had our friend Katie & Daniel over for dinner that night, which was really great to be able to socialize on a Saturday night since Jacob goes to bed so early. They are special friends - they came to Rex at 3 a.m. when Jacob was born. Katie stayed with me and Daniel drove Jeff to Duke.

6/17 Jeff's First Father's Day. He absolutely loved his present and has been showing it off all week. If you'd like to view the photobook I made him on Shutterfly - click here.

6/19 Tuesday - mediation - yet again to Greensboro. However, the plaintiff's attorney failed to notify me before my arrival he had not talked to his client since MARCH! He did realize this last Thursday, but felt it was too late to tell me! Grrr...

Last night, I was laying (or is it lying?) awake at 4 a.m. drafting a blog post in my head, but now of course I can't remember it. I was going to write about how shopping for clothes for Jacob is really more fun than even buying clothes for myself. I remember when I found out we were having a boy, a part of me wanted a girl because I wanted to be able to dress up a little girl in cute dresses. They make so many cute girl clothes. But, I also tend to think that boy's clothes are getting way cuter too. I'm a sucker for buying them all! Today, Jacob is wearing a very cute shortalls with a blue polo - the shortalls have little fishes embroidered on them! Wow, I just found them on Overstock! I got this outfit for BJ's and I think I paid maybe $10? This is not good. I didn't realize Overstock sold baby clothes! I'm really in trouble now! Look at this outfit!!! ADORABLE!!

Jacob has so many clothes for summer in size 12 months that he could probably wear a different outfit just about every day of the month. I wish I were exaggerating! Fortunately, he is growing a lot slower these days than in the early days, but he is so long, that some of the 12 months outfits are getting too short. We virtually have no 18 months clothes, so I did buy some Carter's Polos at the outlet last week that he'll wear this fall probably. His birthday is coming up too in just less than 6 weeks!

And of course, in his just 10.5 months, he's outgrown many, many clothes, in fact, more than three large plastic containers full! What to do with all these clothes? Save them? Sell them? Consign them? Give them away? What do you do with your kids/babies too-small clothes?

Tuesday Ramblings...

2007-06-12T09:15:00.001-04:00

My mom came up on Friday night to visit, and on Saturday morning, we went to the Farmers Market again. Between my mom & I, we bought strawberries, green peppers, banana peppers, three loaves of fresh bread(!), two pints of homemade strawberry jam, and two basil plants. It is so wonderful having this so close by, I'm sure we will go every week! I can't wait til the tomatoes come in!

After the Farmers Market, mom and I went to Target with Jacob. He's such a good boy. He is happy even when he's tired and is so good in stores! I'm a realist though, and I know this might not last! We bought him the cutest little beach chair! We were actually looking for one of those hard shell baby pools for him, but Target, nor Lowe's had one. After an hour or so at Target, we headed on back home. Jeff got back from Farmers Market around the same time. After some lunch, Jeff and I headed back out to find Jacob a pool! We went to Rose's, but the pool was too big. Then to Walmart, which of course, has everything. They had 3 sizes and we bought the smallest one. We came home and filled it up on our deck. It's nice because the deck is mostly shaded, so Jacob is out of the sun. We put him and his rubber duckies in the pool, and he loved it! He splashed and chased the duckies around for a good 45 minutes. We got lots of great pictures, which I'll post soon.

On Sunday, two of Jeff's aunts came to visit for the day from Greensboro. They had not seen Jacob since he was 4 months old (at Christmas)! These are probably Jeff's two favorite aunts, and one of them also is dear to us because she came several days when Jacob was on the peds floor at Duke and sat with him and read him books so that Jeff and I could escape the hospital for a couple of hours a day. It's so nice that Jeff has a big family that all live pretty close by since he is an only child and since Jacob's only uncle (and future aunt) live in Texas!

Jacob continues to sleep pretty well at night. He did cry for about 5-10 minutes around 9:15 p.m. last night. We watched him on the surveillance camera, and he did not seem to wake up. I think maybe he was having a bad dream, but he went back to sleep pretty quickly. This morning, I went in his room and he was lying there so quietly, I thought he was sleeping! He saw me, and his little head popped right up!

Randomness

2007-06-05T14:44:00.001-04:00

This past weekend was the first Farmer's Market in Holly Springs. Jeff has been working on this project with some other staff now for about a year. Everything went really well. Since Jeff had to basically work 7 A to 1 P on Saturday, I got to spend the morning with Jacob, which was nice.

Around 9 A, Jacob and I went out to the Market and ran into some friends of ours. We bought new potatoes, strawberries, and homemade meringue cookies. Jeff came home later on with some shrimp. Everything was so good. The strawberries were very ripe & sweet. I must have eaten a half-quart just standing in the kitchen. I bought angel food cake later, and we hardly had any left!

Sunday was a quiet day around the house. Storms were predicted, so we did four loads of laundry!

Jacob has mostly been sleeping through the night 6:30 P to 6:00 A for a good month or so. Jeff and I are spoiled. Friday night, and last night, Jacob woke up in the middle of the night and cried/fussed for a little bit, maybe 10 minutes. Then, he'd be quiet for 15-20 minutes, and you'd hear him fuss for a minute or so. Repeat. For an hour and half. Both Friday & Monday nights. And he was up at 5:00 A and fussed for a minute or two. I'm not sure what is going on with him sleepwise, though we do think he is starting to cut two more teeth on top.

Jacob started eating banana chunks this weekend and arrowroot cookies. These are the first foods other than puffs or wagon wheels he has been able to feed himself really.

Lastly, I'm very excited about Jeff's Father's Day present. And, I'm proud of myself for planning ahead. It's already ordered and will be shipped later this week. I'd love to tell you all about it, but you'll have to wait! Now I just need to figure out something for my own Dad!

Quick LG update

2007-06-04T15:29:00.000-04:00

We were told today that LG has been released from the hospital and is continuing to recover at home! What a wonderful ending to this story!

Cruisin' - 10 months old!

2007-06-01T08:57:00.000-04:00

Today Jacob is 10 months old! He is growing up so fast. He pulls up on furniture in a matter of seconds now. He's also cruising. I watched him cruise the length of Chrissy's couch this morning.
I cannot believe he will be a year old in just two months!!!!

Pictures from the end of May have been posted here:
http://jacobjones.shutterfly.com/action/

More pictures to come! Just downloaded them from the camera last night!

Memorial Day Weekend!

2007-05-29T11:50:00.000-04:00

What a great weekend we all had!

We went down to Wilmington on Thursday morning, so I could go to a mediation in Jacksonville that afternoon. Jeff stayed at my mom's with Jacob and Jacob truly wore him out! He's into everything! We semi-babyproofed mom's house using pillows to block off the dangers. On Friday morning, I had a mediation in Wilmington, and Jeff took Jacob down to see his mom in Ocean Isle Beach. Jacob had a lot of fun with his Grandma and Jeff reports he liked riding their black lab, Sissy. Jacob was so dirty, Jeff had to give him a bath before he brought him home! I had to put stain stick all over his outfit before we washed it!

On Saturday, Jeff and I went over to my dad's pool and swam for a bit. It was a nice and relaxing afternoon. That evening, we went to Heather & Jed's for a cookout. We had some wonderful steaks and baked potatoes! It was like eating at a steakhouse, but better! Thanks guys!

On Sunday, Jeff and I had planned to meet some friends at dad's pool, but Jacob had other plans to nap during that time. He slept the morning away, and finally we went over to dad's for around an hour to let Jacob swim a little bit. He loved it. We'll post those pictures soon!

Sunday night, Jeff and I checked into the Wilmingtonian. It's a quaint all-suite hotel in downtown Wilmington. We last stayed there on our wedding night. We didn't have the exact same room (it was booked), but we did have the room right below it! We did some walking around downtown that afternoon, and to our surprise, Front Street Brewery had reopened. This is one of our favorite places to grab a beer, and we haven't been in two years. In the meantime, they had closed for 8 months and just reopened last September! We love the Raspberry Wheat ale! After a little browsing around downtown, we found the Little Dipper, where I REALLY wanted to eat dinner. It's a fondue restaurant, and the menu looked wonderful! We made a reservation, and went back to our suite to rest up and shower. We went back for dinner around 8 p.m. and started with wine on the deck overlooking the river. Then, our table was ready, so we moved inside. We had a Tuscan Sun-Dried Tomato cheese fondue, which our waiter aptly described as "pizza-dip." It was very good. We both had the chef-salad, also very good and rather big! For dinner, we shared the Dinner for Two - Surf N Turf, with filet mignon, shrimp, and lobster-stuffed ravioli. It was so much food, we could not finish the filet mignon! For dessert, we had the "Half-N-Half" - one half smooth peanut butter and one half dark chocolate. This was the best chocolate fondue I've EVER had. They even give you a cinnamon-sugar-graham cracker mixture to dip your dippers in after dipping in chocolate. Delicious!!!! I can't wait to go back!

On Monday, we leisurely slept in until 8 a.m. How wonderful! We went back to mom's, and had planned to meet the Prince William Tall Ship. My dad is the President of WHET in Wilmington. He and other WHET members have been working for a couple of months on getting the ship to stop in Wilmington. About a week ago, the captain of the boat invited my dad and other WHET members, as well as the media to board the ship in Morehead City on Friday and to sail around for the weekend, arriving in Wilmington on Monday. The ship arrived around 12:30 p.m. We made it downtown a little after 1 p.m. and met my dad and his wife. After spending a little time with them, we headed on home.

It was a great weekend all-around. The best part is, we kept Jacob on a great "sleeping schedule". He slept great at my mom's in the pack-n-play. Jeff gets a lot of credit too for putting Jacob down for naps in the pack n play right away on Thursday! Her house is just two bedrooms, so Jeff and I actually set up camp in the living room, so as not to disturb Jacob's slumber! It worked though!!! For several weeks now, he's been sleeping 10-11 hours a night! Knock on wood!

Peace College Reunion Weekend!

2007-05-23T09:03:00.001-04:00

This past weekend, May 19-20, I attended the Peace College reunion with my 3 roommates from Peace, Kim, Heather & Jenna. We had such a wonderful time! This is Peace's Sesquicentennial (150 years, founded in 1857) Year, so the Reunion weekend was much grander than usual. They offered alumnae the chance to stay on campus, but it was rather expensive, so the girls, at the suggestion of my husband, opted to stay at a nearby Embassy Suites. I'll try to post a few pictures of us as soon as I can get them downloaded from the camera!

The other "interesting" thing going is on that Jacob has not been to Chrissy's since last Thursday! Her son, Evan, has been sick, and has even had two hospital overnight stays due to dehydration. (He is doing better now though.) Fortunately, Nicole kept Jacob 1/2 of Thursday, all day Friday, Monday, and Tuesday. Today Jacob is at Angie's, another friend who is a SAHM. She is the sister of my law school friend, Katie, but also a friend of mine for the last few years now. I'm so fortunate to have such great friends to help out! Tomorrow and Friday, Jeff had already planned to take off work because I have mediations for my work in Jacksonville & Wilmington, so we are all going to Wilmington on Thursday morning and staying through the holiday weekend with my mom. Jeff will probably take Jacob to his mom's on Friday and I imagine we may go to my dad's on Saturday or Sunday. Jeff and I are contemplating sleeping in my mom's living room and giving Jacob the guest room to try to keep some semblance of normalcy to his sleep schedule! He slept until 6:30 a.m. this morning! His sleep is WONDERFUL right now! Keeping fingers crossed this continues!!!

Jacob's first pool pictures!

2007-05-18T15:43:00.001-04:00

Pool Pictures from this past weekend at my Dad's house!

LG Update

2007-05-17T12:24:00.001-04:00

Ms. LG underwent her transplant surgery on late Monday/early Tuesday and the 2nd part of the surgery was completed about two hours ago! So far, she is not out of the woods, but her recovery is going well. Thank you for your thoughts & prayers!

7 Random Things 'bout Me

2007-05-15T20:56:00.000-04:00

Nearly a week ago, I was tagged by Emily to give 7 random facts about myself... a meme (an idea shared from blog to blog.) Well, I'm finally getting around to it. Emily's son, Gabe, had heart surgery yesterday (he's doing well!) - that's his cute mug right there at the top left of this page!

So, without further adieu, my seven random facts:

1. Drew Barrymore was enrolled in my third grade class. (She was filming Firestarter.)
2. I was born in Ohio and we moved to Carolina Beach when I was 8 years old. We lived 3 blocks from the ocean.
3. I've been to London.
4. I cannot stand having my face wet, in the shower, pool, etc.
5. I've lost 50 lbs since January 2001.
6. I'm one-quarter Swedish. (My Grandma Elsa was born in Sweden.)
7. I scored a 4 out of 5 on the AP Calculus exam, but I couldn't tell you the first thing about Calculus now!

And now I must tag others.... Kellie, Tracy, Christine, Julia, and Terri. I hope some of you will decide to play!

Mother's Day Weekend

2007-05-15T08:44:00.000-04:00

First, some pictures!

Jacob Napping

Making a mess at dinnertime!

New use for the pacifier he doesn't like?

He prefers boxes to his toys!

He likes boxes!

We all had a good Mother's Day weekend. Jacob is still fighting off this cold. He had his 9 month (well) check up on Friday. He was about 18 lbs, 2 oz and 28.5 inches long. I'm not sure the weight is quite right because he was squirming and the scale they use is too small for him now. He did drop down a few notches on the growth charts, but this was to be expected since he is so much more active now. He pulls up all the time and is crawling everywhere!

On Saturday, we went to a birthday party for our friend's Chris & Nicole's 2 year old daughter, Devyn. She is so cute! They put the cake in front of her to blow out her candles, and she said "Where's a fork?!!"

For Mother's Day, I got a lovely card from Jacob and another one from Jeff. I also got a Mother & Son keepsake box by Willow Tree and a necklace to wear my Mama-Baby charm on that Jeff gave me when Jacob was born. (My other necklace broke in February!)

Later, we drove to Wilmington for the day to see my Grandma Elsa who is visiting from Florida. Odd, since it was Mother's Day that we were with my Dad! But, our moms understood. My mom was here the previous weekend, and Jeff's mom will be here this weekend. We let Jake swim for about 10-15 minutes in Dad's pool with his new baby float.

This thing works GREAT! He loved, loved, loved it!

I don't want to jinx us, but Jacob has been sleeping soooo good for about 2-3 weeks now. He's going to bed at 6:30p to 7:00p, and he sleeps until the next morning around 6:30a. He did wake up at 9:30p last night, crying, but I went and checked on him and no fever, no wet bed or anything. He settled back down and stopped crying. I don't think he ever actually woke up though. Maybe he had a bad dream?

Somber Day

2007-05-11T10:30:00.000-04:00

It's somewhat of a somber day around my office. For those of you who don't know, I've worked in State Government for a little over 2 years now. When I first started, a coworker, we'll call her LG [she's a very private person, so I want to try to protect her privacy], showed me around and even attended some of my first meetings with me, riding 2 hours in a car each way together. Shortly after, LG switched jobs, but was still in my Section, so I'd still see her, but we didn't work together.

About a month ago, we found out LG was in the hospital. She's young, around 29 years old. Apparently, she was born with some type of congenital condition with her liver. She had reached a point that she was in desperate need of a new liver and had been placed at #1 on the Duke liver transplant list. This all came as somewhat of a shock to our coworkers, who had no idea she was sick. About two weeks ago, we all took a picture of our entire staff wearing Duke t-shirts, framed it and gave it to her because she is a huge Duke fan, and in fact is at Duke right now. She was very impressed, especially because probably at least 1/2 of our coworkers detest Duke sports, and love UNC or Wake, etc.

Today, we were told that if LG doesn't get a liver in the next few days, she will not live. She's reached a critical point, and her kidneys have failed. In a conversation just yesterday, I was talking to some other moms a few years older than I am. (They have teenagers.) One was telling us that she has found that even when things are grim, you have to count your blessings, and pray that God's will be done. That is so hard, but right now, I just keep thinking, Thank God that LG is still healthy enough to receive a transplant. The Lord has a plan for all of us, and he does work miracles. I would ask that you keep LG in your prayers, as well as her family at this difficult time.

Nine Months Old!

2007-05-03T09:19:00.000-04:00

Jacob was nine months old on Tuesday. That evening, he had a "first." He pulled himself up to standing at the bottom of our stairs! (Of course, Jeff and I were standing right there in case he fell, but he did it all by himself.) I think it's entirely possible he will be at least "cruising" before he is one. He has also been sleeping just great from 7:00 pm until about 6:30 a.m. He will occasionally cry out during the night, but he quickly goes back to sleep on his own. We are SOOO lucky!

Jacob has been on antibiotics since Thursday and he seems to be doing better. He's been going to Chrissy's this week, and you can tell he is so happy to be there! Yesterday, when I dropped him off, I put him on the floor with Sam. He went to crawl over Sam, remember - Santa baby, and he got stuck because Sam's belly is so big! Chrissy helped him crawl on over. Chrissy says they are so funny playing together and that it reminds her of little puppies! Jeff said yesterday when he picked Jacob up, he even cried a little because he didn't want to leave!

I've been on the road for work - Monday in Wilson; Tuesday in Statesville; and Wednesday in Fayetteville. Also, Monday through Wednesday, we had our house painted. We thought we had picked a shade of tan (Sea Sand by Porter Paints) that would be darker than our yellowish tan, but it looks almost like the same color. On one hand this is a little disappointing, because it's not what we were going for, but on the other, we will not have our HOA breathing down our neck for not getting the color approved ahead of time! In any event, we are glad it is done, because it needed painting! We have hardiplank, but the house is 10 years old this year!

It's all in the family....

2007-04-27T08:30:00.000-04:00

Yes, it was bound to happen. After three days of your little one sneezing on you, coughing on you, and generally using your clothes as a snot rag, you are going to get sick yourself.

Jeff and I started feeling the effects of what little Jacob has been going through yesterday afternoon. Lots of congestion, sore throat, general fatigue, headache, etc. I think it is hitting Jeff a little harder than it is hitting me today. Either that, or I've found a right combo of meds with taking that psuedo-Sudafed (the on-the-shelf variety) + 600 mg of Ibuprofen. I decided to come on into work and get as much done as I can today. I was supposed to attend a dinner tonight, but I don't know that I'm going to make it in light of having a sick husband and sick kid at home by themselves all day.

On a good note, Jacob did sleep through the night last night for the first time this week! He awoke at 8:37 pm and cried for one minute. Then, quiet. About 8:42 pm, cried for another minute. Then, silence. The entire night. Not even a cough from him. At 6:00 am, I went in and he was lying there quietly. As I opened the door, he lifted his head and crawled towards me in his crib. You could almost hear him thinking.... Mom, pick me up! Mom, pick me up!

Sick once again...

2007-04-26T14:18:00.000-04:00

Starting on Saturday, Jacob seemed to be coming down with something. He went to WalkAmerica with me, but wasn't himself. He was very quiet. By that afternoon, he felt hot, and I took his temperature - 102.5. Gave him some Infant Motrin and it went away. Sunday & Monday, I don't remember him feeling hot, but he started sounding congested - just upper respiratory. Tuesday, same thing, congestion, no fever. I think it was Tuesday night he woke up and felt hot. He was also very lethargic from the sedation they gave him at Duke. We decided to stay home with him on Wednesday. Needless to say, Jeff and I slept very little Tuesday night. We were so tired Wednesday, Jacob went to bed at 6 pm and Jeff and I were shortly behind him at 8 pm. That is the earliest I've gone to bed in my life. Even growing up, bedtime was 9 pm! We were asleep by 8:30 pm. Jacob woke up howling at 9:30 pm. He was HOT. I took his temperature - 103.4. We gave him some Motrin and spent 2 hours trying to get him to sleep in his crib to no avail. We finally let him sleep with us around 12 midnight. When he awoke at 5:30 am, he was not hot, and it had been more than 6 hours since we gave him Motrin, so I figured the fever was over. But, he was having major sinus drainage. I've even seen some green drainage near his eye! By 7:30 am, he was ready to go down for a nap. I called the doctor at 8:30 am and they said to bring him in at 9:30 am. I went to wake him up at 9 a.m. to get ready to leave, and he was hot again. By the time we got to the doctor, his temperature was 102.5. The nurses were very concerned about this and immediately gave him Tylenol drops. Dr. Ryan examined him and his ears & throat were fine. She sent us down for a chest x-ray since Jacob had pneumonia at the end of February. She also ordered blood work. Fortunately, the lab & the x-ray are all in the same building as our peditrician's office. We have already taken advantage of this on multiple occasions. It took approximately one hour to get the lab work & x-ray completed. Believe it or not, the chest x-ray was much more stressful on both Jacob and I than drawing blood! Drawing blood was over in a matter of seconds. The chest x-ray required Jacob be placed in this plastic contraption with his arms straight up over his head and the whole thing tightened around him. He screamed the entired time. The technicians reassured me... don't worry, we get better pictures when he is crying because his lungs are filled with air. Needless to say that did not make me feel better. It was one of those times you want to run in and get your child and run out of there. Finally, after that was over and we went back upstairs to see Dr. Ryan & get the results, which were good. The CBC was normal and the chest x-ray, based on her unofficial reading, looked fine, and was definitely better than February's x-ray. She had already told me that with his history, regardless of the results, she was going to give him an antibiotic. So, Amoxicillin for Jacob and I had to go to Kroger to fill it on the way home. What an exhausting morning! On a good note, we go back for his 9 month check up in 2 weeks - I made the appointment. I noticed the only "item" for that appointment is a blood count. I asked Dr. Ryan as we were checking out if we could use the blood work we did today and not have to stick him again in 2 weeks and she said that was fine and to remind her of that!

I'm so hopeful he will start feeling better. The poor kid is just not himself. When he has a fever, he just moans and moans. I am glad we decided to take him on to the doctor though.

A visit to Duke Children's Clinic

2007-04-24T16:15:00.000-04:00

Today, we took Jacob for his 5th follow up visit since his discharge from Duke on August 16. We see Dr. Delaney, who is Jacob's pediatric cardiologist. Dr. Delaney is also an interventional catheterization specialist - he was there the morning Jacob arrived at Duke and performed Jacob's balloon septostomy along with Dr. Rhodes. Dr. Delaney also sat down with Jeff and I before Jacob's surgery and detailed Jacob's condition and surgery and let us ask questions. He is a good doctor and has a good "bedside manner." Anyway, on to the visit...

After our traditional breakfast at Elmo's, we arrived at Duke at 8:45 a.m. We were taken back for a height & weight check. Jacob's length was 28 inches and his weight was 18 lbs, 7 oz. Then, it was over to the main hospital for the echocardiogram. This was Jacob's third outpatient echo, so Jeff and I thought we had the routine down. We arrived on the 7th floor to find a sign that said something to the effect of wait by the elevators for x, y, z and peds echo. That was odd. The paper we were given at the Children's Hospital said to go to the waiting room at 7416, which is where we usually went. We walked towards the waiting room anyway, and found doors covered in plastic. Something was definitely different. We went back to the elevator area. A nice woman we'd seen on the elevator figured out we were there for a peds echo and offered to tell them we were waiting. A little later, they came out and walked us back to the echo room. The nurse explained that they had a pipe burst in the waiting room and it was being repaired. It's funny because the Children's Hospital receptionists had no idea about this.... Anyway, so we get back to the echo room, and we wait.... and we wait... and we wait. It was 10:00 a.m. before the doctor overseeing the echo labs came in to examine Jacob. He recognized him from his treatment last August and noted how great Jacob looked. This happens to us pretty frequently at Duke. Nurses & doctors that we don't necessarily remember, remember us and remember Jacob. While heart defects are 1 out of 100 babies born, transposition (a.k.a TGA) is seen about 1 in 1000, so Duke sees maybe about a TGA baby a month (a nurse told me this), so they tend to remember those patients.

Anyway, Jacob finally got the sedation medicine, chloral hydrate, about 10:00 a.m. For the next 15 minutes, he went from crying, to babbling and doing raspberries. He was quite funny. We noted he was a funny "drunk." Finally, we went to sleep about 10:20 a.m. and they began the echo. After taking echo pictures for about 25 minutes, the technician went out to discuss everything with the doctor. The nurse came back in about 5 minutes later and said we were all done. We headed back over to the Children's Clinic and were immediately taken back to the exam room since our appointment was 11:00 a.m. with Dr. Delaney.

A little later, another doctor came in. He introduced himself, but all I caught was "Roddy" was his first name. He talked to us about Jacob's last 3 months, and then went to discuss with Dr. Delaney. A little later, Dr. Delaney came in and said that the echo results were "excellant." Everything is flowing along just great. Of course, they are keeping an eye on the pulmonary artery, as well as the arteries (?) to the lungs for stenosis, but so far, so good. They were very pleased that Jacob doesn't even sound like he has a murmur on exam, which would be typical. The best news is we don't have to go back in 3 months! They told us to return in 6 months and Jacob will have another echo at that point. For probably the next 2-3 years, they will want to echo him every 6 months, but in January, he mentioned they would want to see him every 3 months in between echos, so this was good news! Dr. Delaney did mention that Jacob's weight had fallen down a notch on the growth curve, but this is likely due to Jacob crawling and becoming more active. We have Jacob's 9 month check up with his peditrician in a couple of weeks, so I'm sure we can address that then. From what I understand, that isn't all that out of the ordinary.

So, the bottom line is Jacob gets an A+ on his echo and no return for 6 months!!

He slept until 12:30 p.m., had a bottle, a little lunch around 2:00 p.m. and passed out again at 2:30. He's still asleep at 4:45 p.m.! I need to go wake him!

Good Monday Morning!

2007-04-23T09:43:00.000-04:00

Our weekend went pretty well! Jacob slept great! He even let us sleep in until 7:30 a.m. on Sunday! Wow!

Saturday morning, Jacob and I went to March of Dimes' WalkAmerica at Nortel Networks. I ended up raising $230 of my $250 goal. Not bad! Our team raised $3,240 so far, and our goal was $3,000! We walked the 3.1 miles. Jacob was such a good baby! He didn't cry one time. I don't think he was feeling very good on Saturday - he was rather quiet. When we got home, he was running a little fever, but seems to have beat whatever he had. (Keeping fingers crossed!) Since he was running a fever, we skipped the birthday bash across the street and the wine festival. My mom ended up taking herself to the airport. So the rest of Saturday and most of Sunday were pretty quiet.

Last night, Jacob did not want to go to sleep. After 45 minutes of trying to get him to sleep (reading, rocking, back-patting), he still wanted to cry whenever he was in his crib. I finally gave up. We had to let him cry. From 7:45 p until 8:15 p, he cried off & on. For example, he would cry 6-7 minutes, and then stop for 5 minutes, then repeat until about 8:15 p. He did sleep the rest of the night without a peep. This morning, at 6:30 a, he was awake and cheerful.

Tomorrow, please keep Jacob in your thoughts & prayers. He has his appointment at Duke with Dr. Delaney, his pediatric cardiologist. Prior to seeing Dr. Delaney, he will have to be sedated for an echocardiogram. These appointments seem to get more difficult the older he gets, and I think that will continue to be true. I'm praying we continue to get the good news we've had at his last 3 appointments in September, November & January.

I've uploaded March & April pictures to shutterfly. They will be added to the collection really soon! I just need to do some editing!

Cars, UGH!

2007-04-20T13:19:00.000-04:00

Just got a call from our mechanic....

My 2005 Escape not only needs new brake pads, but also new rotors, servicing the rear brakes, and a brake fluid change, plus an alignment. At least he's going to rotate the tires while he's at it...

Total cost $595.00. On the bonus side, Jeff found a $10 coupon - so it's only $585.00 now. :D

T.G.I.F.!

2007-04-20T10:35:00.000-04:00

What a week....

Sunday night, Jeff & I attended the A.P.A. opening reception at the Grand Hall of the PA Convention Center. The reception took place on two different levels and approximately 6000 people were there! They had lots of fun foods from Philly & a great band!

Monday, we recovered from Sunday night, and toured the U.S. Mint where they make coins.

Tuesday, I flew home and was so happy to see Jacob!

Wednesday, Jeff flew home, and I picked him up at the airport. After a quick BJ's run for diapers, formula, baby food (do you also run out of everything at once?), we went to pick up Jacob from Chrissy's. He was very happy to see his "da-da."

Thursday, first semi-normal day this week, except Jacob did not sleep well again Wed. night - he decided to be up from 11:30 p.m. until 1:00 a.m. when we finally gave up fighting and let him sleep with us. And, I had to go to Greensboro for work.

And, now it's Friday. The weather will be beautiful this weekend! Jacob slept great last night! He did wake up crying at 8:15 p.m., and for the first time, we let him cry. He only cried about 15-20 minutes and went back to sleep. We did not hear from him again all night! Around 6:15 a.m., Jeff went into his room, and Jacob was awake and said, "Hi Dada!" He says, "Hi," and "Hey" and adds in Dada too! He also says "ba-ba" and he means it! It's so precious!

Tomorrow, Jacob and I will be doing the 5K walk for WalkAmercia for the March of Dimes! In fact, it's not too late to contribute! www.walkamerica.org/jennimc1975 is my walker page! I think we can take contributions for a few weeks after the event. I'm walking for my friend Audra's twins, born 2 years ago, who did not survive; my coworker Vanessa & her 27 weeker, born in October, who is doing very well; my sitter Chrissy's twins who were 30 weekers and also doing well now. Another friend, Laura, is an aunt to a 32 weeker. So many preemies! And of course, I'm also pleased that March of Dimes supports congenital heart defect research, though of course, there focus is prematurity. P.S. - Thanks to all of you who have contributed already!!!

Also tomorrow, we have a belated birthday party at our neighbors for their son Gavin who turned one a few weeks ago, but was quite sick on his birthday. And, we are taking my mom to the airport - so she can fly to Texas to see my brother, and then we are going to the Great Grapes Wine Festival, which I won tickets to this week!

I will try to get more pictures uploaded here & to Shutterfly this week!
If you haven't checked it out - Jacob's Shutterfly link is www.jacobjones.shutterfly.com

Pictures of Jacob & Caitlin

2007-04-15T09:24:00.000-04:00

Jacob meets Caitlin for the first time in 7 months...

At first, she's not too sure about him...

After much persistance on his part, she starts to warm up to him...

And, a little while later, even gives him a little peck on the cheek!

The truth is, this is about the 3rd kiss she gave him - we finally captured this one on film!

Good Morning from Philly!

2007-04-15T09:13:00.000-04:00

Friday night, Jacob continued to improve! He awoke at 11 p.m., but went back to sleep in his own crib with his old pacifier as a chew toy until 6:50 a.m. I dare say that is the most we have slept in now in 8 months! Jeff & I woke up and went to check on him and he was awake and chewing on the handle end of his old pacifier! Whatever works!

It's quite rainy today!
Yesterday, the weather was just fine. Flight was good, took the R1 Commuter Train from the airport to downtown, and walked 2-3 blocks with luggage to the hotel. Not too bad actually. It was mid-50's and we got checked in, then walked to the Convention Center to get Jeff registered for the APA conference. Next, we walked on down to the Independance Mall area. We saw the Liberty Bell - security was tighter there than the airport! We walked back and went to the Independance Brew Pub (www.independancebrewpub.com) for dinner. Checked out the WaWa for snacks & soft drinks for the room... reminded me of an urban Sheetz without the gas station of course.

We called "Gram" this morning, who is staying with Jacob at our house. She reports that he slept 11 hours straight last night from 7:15 p.m. to 6:15 a.m.! I hope he continues because that is how he used to be!!

The weather is pretty rough here today. LOTS of rain and flooding forecast. I'm going to take a cab to meet Jeff for lunch at the Convention Center. Not sure how much sight seeing I'll get to do today, but I'm hoping to do this Philly Tour thing tomorrow. www.phillytour.com.

Jacob's Latest Stats

2007-04-13T16:30:00.000-04:00

Jacob had his last Synagis shot for the season today! Seven shots - seven months. And we get to do it all again next fall-spring...

They get his weight each time because they have to measure the dosage... so today he was 18 lbs and 2 oz. He is just shy of 30 inches long! We'll have his 9 month appointment in a few weeks so we'll have the official numbers then.

Meanwhile, he slept "better" last night. Woke up at 11 p.m., but I got him back to sleep (in his own crib) until 4:11 a.m. Took about 45 minutes to get him back to sleep at 4 a.m., and by then it was almost time to get up!

Jeff and I are preparing to leave for Philly tomorrow! Not sure of what kind of internet access we'll have but I'll try to update when I can!

And I think we have an answer....

2007-04-11T12:32:00.000-04:00

Last night, more of the same... but first, Jacob did eat really well - an entire 4 oz jar of Vegetables & Turkey plus a 4 oz jar of bananas and most of his bottle. He has a lot of formula during the day too. I'm glad he's eating more because he needs to fill out a little!

Anyway, he went to bed okay according to Jeff. But at 11:00 p.m., he started with his little whimpers. Those progressed and we finally went in and gave him a bottle (water again... no more formula in the middle of the night... bottle cavities and all); changed his diaper, etc. I actually got him back to sleep on 3 different occasions between 11:00 and 11:20 p.m., but within a minute of me stopping the back-patting, he'd wake up and whimper. Back to patting, stop, whimper. Finally at 11:20 p.m., I returned to the bed to find Jeff snoring. At 11:22 p.m. he was whimpering again. Then, it stopped. Started again about 11:30 p.m. Stopped again. Started again at 11:40 p.m. Got progressively louder and was now full out crying. Jeff and I got up again about 11:45 p.m. Gave him teething gel. (He had Ibuprofen before bed, so couldn't have more until 2 a.m.) Jeff spent another 10-15 minutes getting him settled and asleep. Finally sleeping and it's 11:55 p.m. But no. More whimpering by 12:01 p.m. Now that this had been going on an hour, I told Jeff I was going to just put Jacob in bed with us because I could not stay up any longer. We put him in between us, got him settled and he was sound asleep within minutes. He then slept 6 straight hours and did not awake until 6 a.m. This is particularly impressive since he is usually up like clockwork at 5:00 a.m. So, now the theory we have is:

Teething pain from the molars/sleeplessness + Separation anxiety/sleeplessness + crawling/developmental milestone sleeplessness = two sleepy parents and one happy infant sleeping between them!

It's not that we ever wanted to be "co-sleepers" but I'm just not going to try to beat all those problems on a Tuesday night!

*****

The rest of the Easter wrap-up is that Saturday Jeff and I went shopping in the morning. Later that afternoon, we went to visit my dad. My dad got Jacob a baby float for the pool for Easter. Nancy (a.k.a. Nana) got Jacob a singing bunny rabbit. He sings "Bunny Rock Hop," and his ears flap up and down.... so cute!

Sunday, we went to Dad's for a breakfast of Shrimp & Grits.... Dad is a REALLY good cook too! Then, we went to church and introduced Jacob to Bob, the pastor who married us and who had been very nice to check on us several times when Jacob was at Duke. This church, Grace UMC, prayed for Jacob and had him on the prayer list for several months, so it was very special to be able to take him there and have the congregation see him in person finally! Jacob did fairly well in church. He got a little excited with bouncing in his dad's lap and giggling during the sermon, but that sure beats crying! After church, we went back to my Dad's for Easter dinner of pork tenderloin and other yummies! We finally made it home by about 4:30 p.m.

Sleepless Nights

2007-04-10T10:08:00.000-04:00

Jacob was up from 1 a.m. until about 3 a.m. last night. He is cutting his top teeth and I think that is the reason for his restlessness. Normally when he awakes at night, he doesn't usually cry. However, last night, he started off fussing, and he got progressively louder. He doesn't go back to sleep without a bottle, so last night I decided we'd start putting water in the bottles instead of formula. He did not care one bit.

We finally got him back to sleep & resting about 1:40 a.m. By 1:52 a.m. he was awake and about to begin crying again. Jeff went in and rocked in for a little while and we went ahead and gave him infant Ibuprofen. I think that must have helped but it was another 30 to 45 minutes later before he finally went back to sleep. Then, he was up at 6:20 this morning, so none of of slept well last night!

***********

We had a good trip to Wilmington over the weekend. On Thursday night Heather brought Caitlin over to see Jacob. We realized we have not had them together since Jacob was one month old (Caitlin was 10 months then). They were very cute together. Jacob crawled right over to her and tried to get her pacifier. Now, he does like pacifiers when we've tried to give him one (believe me, there are actually times I wish he would take one!), but when he sees other kids with them, I think he thinks it's a toy and he wants to play with it, or chew on it.... Chrissy informed us that Jacob does the same things with her twins & their pacifiers.... not too thrilled about that... Anyway, back to the story. Caitlin and Jacob are now friends. Caitlin gave Jacob several "kisses". I'll have to get the pictures posted!

Friday, we went to see Jeff's mom! Jacob got a shirt, sandals, and a blue stuffed bunny for Easter, bringing the Easter bunny talley to two. We went down to the outlet stores in Myrtle Beach and just had to buy Jacob more clothes! He should be well dressed this summer! Of course, it's been so darn cold around here lately, that I'm running out of things to put him in that still fit him!

More later on our weekend!