The Mallorys Online

Reliving a happy time in her youth, Jennifer went to the New Kids on the Block concert last night in Sacramento.  She was a giggling little schoolgirl as the New Kids sang and danced like they hadn’t aged at all.  One of the coolest parts of her night was meeting Natasha Bedingfield backstage, getting a signed CD and taking a pic with her!  Enjoy the shots of the concert.  There are 42 total, but I can only display 30 here.  You can see the full gallery in our photo album.

We are all recovering from a nasty, lingering cold. Jacob was running temps of 100+ for a few days. I have had head junk going for a while and think I’m finally on the tail end.

Jacob has been in a new day care, actually a close friend is watching him during the day. They have a one year old boy so Jacob has a buddy. We are very happy with the situation after a negative experience with his first day care.

Jennifer and I are still getting used to balancing being parents, spouses and working. Putting on so many hats in a day can be challenging, but I think we are doing a great job going with the flow.

The Mallorys had a very eventful weekend!  We started the weekend off with my buddy EJ’s birthday on Friday night.  It was a surprise and his wife arranged for his friends to drop by for dinner.  We played Scattegories and had a great time laughing at our absurd answers.

The next day we dropped Jacob off at the Wixoms and took my mom out to Napa Valley aboard the wine train.  We enjoyed some great wine and really good food (mom had the salmon, Jennifer and I had the best beef tenderloin I’ve ever had!).  The train left the station at 11:30 and cruised at a leisurely 17mph to St. Helena where it stopped for twenty minutes or so before turning back around. On the way back to the station we had dessert and various dessert wines.  It was great to get out with my mom and share some conversation about life without all of the distractions.

After the wine train we picked Jacob up, dropped my mom off back home and rushed over to the Parish’s for their son’s three-year birthday party.  It was surfer themed and they created a water park in their backyard.  The cake looked like a huge wave, too!  Jill is always so creative with family events.  It seemed like there were more kids there than adults and Jacob quickly became irritated with all the noise.  We took him in the backyard and he fell asleep in my arms.  The poor guy had been to a birthday party earlier in the day with the Wixoms and had enough at this point.

The next day we relaxed early in the day and ran errands.  We then hosted our friends for a Labor Day BBQ and played some Scattegories.  Jacob looked adorable in his “This is How I Roll” onesie that Uncle Tuna got him and his “Skate or Cry” hat that our friends in SoCal got him.  We got some great pictures of Jacob and his hat.

Monday was a low-key regroup day.  After everything Jacob had been through he was noticeably more fussy and just needed some calm home time before starting day-care on Tuesday, but that’s for another post.

We took Jacob in for his two month checkup and his first series of vaccinations on Friday.  First things first, his stats from the two-month checkup:

Height: 22.5 inches - he’s grown 4 inches in 9 weeks
Weight: 11lb 1.6oz - he’s gained almost 5lbs in 9 weeks

The pediatrician gave us some advice for his face because he has baby eczema on his right cheek.  It flares up whenever friends or family hold him and they have perfume on or clothes washed in scented detergent.  Other than that he’s perfectly healthy and right on track with his development milestones.

The checkup was the easy part.  Jacob also received his first round of vaccinations.  With so much conflicting information floating around regarding vaccines and autism, we spent some time going over the shots with the pediatrician.  In the end we decided to go with the standard schedule for the two month vaccines.  The shots were given in the same room so we didn’t have to take Jacob to the vaccine department down the hall.  Mom stayed close to Jacob and the nurse made quick work of the shots, administering them all in about 30 seconds.  When the first needle poked his thigh Jacob had a huge look of surprise and then he turned tomato-red and screamed.  The screaming quickly subsided when Jennifer picked him up and comforted him.

We were prepared for the worst that night.  We gave him Tylenol and kept an eye on his temperature to make sure he didn’t get a high fever.  He was fussier than normal in the evening, but not unmanageable.  The next day he slept like he was a day old again.  For the last couple weeks he has been up for most of the day and sleeping very well at night (6-7 hours during his first “nap”).  His body fighting the vaccines wore him out big-time.  Here is a pic of him passed out from the shots.

Michelle and Adam stopped by this week to hang out.  Jacob and Adam are four days apart and will basically grow up as brothers barring an unlikely move by us or the Wixoms.  Jennifer first put them right next to each other until Adam accidentally landed a spinning backfist.  She then realized it’s not good to put two little flailing two month old boys within arms reach.  They laid on their backs and coo’d at each other and touched hands.  Here are some pics of their first time together where they could actually recognize there was another baby to play with.

Knock on wood, Jacob has been a very good baby the last couple days.  He is sleeping very well and his time awake is filled with much less grunting and more happy baby.  I don’t know if it is the gripe water we’re giving every other feeding or his little tummy is maturing (or both), but he seems to have less gas and upset tummy.

Today Jennifer’s old boss, Cindy, came by for a visit and Jacob was on his best behavior.  He laid on his back peacefully on the couch staring at “picture” while the two ladies caught up.  In the evening we took Jacob to El Torito to meet my work team.  Jacob is 7 weeks old and he’s already hanging out at bars during happy hour. He did great until we tried to push it and go to the mall to grab something for Jennifer.  He went ballistic when we got out of the car to walk around and get him so I stayed in the car with him while Jennifer ran in for twenty minutes or so.  He slept in my arms in the car while mommy shopped.

I go back to work on Monday and I’m very thankful for the time I was able to spend at home with Jennifer and Jacob.  Jacob is sleeping longer and eating better, which should make the transition easier for Jennifer when I go back.  I went into work yesterday to see Steve Poizner speak and it felt like I had been away from the office for a long time.  I guess seven weeks is a long time to be away from work, but it doesn’t seem like I’ve been home that long.  I’m going to be thinking about the little guy all day long as I sift through 1000+ e-mails (no exaggeration).

It’s been too long since I posted an update.  A few amazing things have happened since the last post!

The first amazing thing that happened is Jacob discovered his smile.  On May 28 during a late night feeding Jacob was staring attentively at his daddy while daddy coo’d and baby talked to him.  Jacob was waving his arms around in excitement and then unleashed the most beautiful smiles at daddy.  It instantly brought me to tears.  We caught some pics of him smiling today.

The second amazing thing is the amount of weight Jacob is gaining.  Today with his clothes on he was 10lbs 1oz.  I would guess he is at the upper end of 9lbs since his outfit didn’t weigh much.  Both his mom and dad have short legs and long (average) torsos and sure enough Jacob is wearing 0-3 month tops and newborn pants!

Here are more pics of him just because…

Jacob had his two week checkup today. Jennifer and I were excited to see how much he weighs now. We plopped him down on the scale and were amazed to see he weighs 7lbs 5oz! That means he gained 21oz (1lb 5oz) in less than two weeks. Jacob is definitely making up for his slim birth weight by eating every chance he gets.

We switched to Dr. Brown bottles to try to get his gassy belly to calm down. He hasn’t had a fit since the switch so hopefully we’re on to something. We tried Avent, Playtex VentAire, Playtex Drop-ins, and Breast-flow bottles and all of them gave him bad gas.

Yesterday Jacob discovered his toys and he had a great time batting at it while papa dangled it in front of his face. Here is a pic of the action:

I’ve been walking around with him in the Baby Bjorn a little bit and he seems to like it. He likes to gaze in amazement in the backyard.

Jacob has been increasingly fussy in the evenings after his late feeding. We were struggling to get him to sleep and getting very frustrated, not to mention exhausted. Yesterday we had a visit from great grandma. After raising five children, she learned a few things about babies. She schooled us on baby gas and what to look for. It turns out Jacob was just gassy and needed a little help getting it out. We can’t thank great grandma enough! Here is a shot of four generations.

Great Grandma, Great Grandpa, Jacob, Papa, and Grandma (Nani)

Earlier in the day we gave Jacob another bath and his hair is getting much lighter! Unfortunately for him his parents both have thin hair and he does, too. Isn’t Jacob’s mommy gorgeous?!

We finally got out of the house today for a real outting and went to the mall. We kept Jacob covered up in his stroller the whole time and he slept his way through the stores. Jennifer is so happy to finally be able to walk for more than two minutes and I’m happy to be able to spend time with her walking around.

Jacob is getting bigger and learning about things he likes and doesn’t like. One of the things he decided he doesn’t like is the first nap around 10:00pm. When he’s just about to fall asleep he fusses awake. It’s like he fights the sleep. He also decided he didn’t like the Avent bottles for a day. Thankfully Nani Karla brought us some different bottles a few days earlier.

Jennifer loves putting his outfits together. Here is Jacob popping his collar.

Grandma Barbara stopped by for a visit and surprised us with a knitted blanket. It was a very sweet gift and I’m sure Jacob will take many naps with it.

Jennifer noticed we had some tiny bugs in the house so we called Terminix for a housecall. We had to leave the house for two hours after the treatment to allow the pesticide to dry. We ventured out to Target. Here is Jacob in the cart. He’s not big enough to hit the normal car seat head bumpers so he likes to sleep on the “Ely” strap pad.

Today Jennifer is going to treat herself and get a manicure/pedicure. She’s still pretty much on bedrest after the delivery so she deserves a day out.