Catching Up (Months 4 and 5)

Today is Fathers Day.  My poor husband is spending his first Fathers Day in the hospital getting his appendix out.  So what better time to blog, while I am in the waiting room.  And since I am kind of rush blogging right now I am going to have to go back to this post to add pictures later when I am home.  So be sure to come back!  I have been wanting to blog since May but I have been extremely busy, and that is an understatement.  It's more like too-much-to-do-not-enough-time busy so better-not-waste-any-minute-of-the-day busy.  I realized that I am not just any new mom, I am a new mom who is in graduate school, which puts me in a whole 'nother category of moms.  I have to juggle classes, homework, practicum, my son, my marriage, my health, my family, my friends.  And so, I do what I need to do when I can.  For survival.  For sanity.  To maintain my happiness.  People tell me all the time, "I don't know how you do it?!"  When you're as driven as me and in a situation like mine, you don't dilly-dally.  You just do it and get it done.  Work hard now, play later, although recently it's been Play with Jake now and work when he sleeps.  I also believe that nothing is impossible as long as God and my support system have my back.

So, what have we been up to since my last blog...well, a lot.  I celebrated my first Mothers Day on May 8th.  I really wanted to blog about that right then and there because exactly one year ago on Mothers Day I took a pregnancy test that forever changed my life.  And that change is now 5 months old, with 2 bottom teeth.  Jake's 4th month was a time for catching up.  Catching up on his weight because at his 4-month check up he was in the lower range of the percentile rank.  He is now eating rice cereal and oatmeal and in a few weeks we will start him on vegetables/fruit.  For me, I was catching up on my dissertation, which I am happy to report that I successfully turned in the first draft of my Chapter 1 last week.

Last month was also a time for acceptance- acceptance of the fact that I was not producing gallons of milk to keep my baby exclusively breastfed, acceptance that I am not like any other new mom, acceptance that my labor and delivery was unlike most deliveries...remembering that for the first 10 days of his life my baby was in the NICU and I was having to pump, after having to endure a traumatic delivery, so of course my milk supply was going to be affected.  So now I am having to supplement and I have learned to accept that.  All things considered, our baby is happy and healthy!  And he brings such joy to our lives! 

It is amazing how Jake went from being an infant to a responsive, growing baby.  He is not even 6 months old and I'm already feeling sad about him growing up too fast.  So I try to savor each day with my baby because I know that once that day passes it is forever gone except in my memory...

Jake at 5 1/2 months:

• is very aware of his environment and actively reaches for things
• has 2 bottom teeth! (showed up at 20 weeks)
• eating rice cereal and oatmeal
• can drink out of a sippy cup
• "stands" up with our help
• coos and babbles.  A lot.
• smiles and laughs out loud
• startled by loud or sudden noise
• turns his head to sound 
• not rolling over yet, but is very close.  He will do it when he's ready.