New Job

This photo is from when Brenda and Nathan's Grandma Pat were here visiting recently. I just wanted to include a picture. I will post more from their visit later. So, I really, really need to update this thing more often! I thought I would be better about it than I am. My goal is to put a couple posts up with pictures of Ben by the end of the week or over the weekend.

I started my new job this week. I had orientation yesterday and today. I also have a training tomorrow morning. Since this has happened so quickly, we did not have childcare lined up yet, so Nathan took vacation days and has been at home with Ben. Ben has not been adjusting very well so far. He hasn't wanted to eat from the bottle for Nathan, so he waits until I get home to eat. I'm sure he will adjust soon, but it is stressful nonetheless! I have lined up two babysitters to care for Ben until a spot opens up at the daycare center that is a part of the hospital. I have one girl, who is a stay at home mom of a 1-year-old boy, who is going to watch Ben on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I have another girl, who is a college student, and the sister of our weekend babysitter, who is going to care for him on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Ben will meet them this week and will stay with them next week. I begin training next week. I am not sure if I will be working the week of Thanksgiving or not. I hope to find that out tomorrow or very soon. I am excited to start a new job, especially since I will be working flex time, so I will only be filling in when the others need time off. I am officially at social worker at Ephraim McDowell Hospital! I am really excited because my job is right here in town and is like a 5-10 minute drive from home!

September 12, 2009

Here are some more pictures from Kandace and Jared's wedding day. I love the ones of Nathan and Ben in their Iowa State shirts watching football together. Male bonding starts at infancy :)

3 Month Pictures

These are some of the photos we had taken of Ben at JC Penney in September. He was much happier in the beginning when we was dressed. Then he got hungry, then I fed him, and then he was kind of crabby and it was more difficult to get him to smile. We thought the pictures turned out pretty well considering they only took like 20 minutes or so.

2 Month Pictures

Here are some pictures from when we were in Iowa visiting family and friends in August. Better late than never!

Sick baby...again

Well, I am really starting to dislike Fall! This is unfortunate because Fall is my favorite season (Spring is a close second). My birthday is in the fall. Halloween is in the fall. And sickness in babies is in the fall. For some reason, I had myself convinced we could avoid a lot of the fall sickness because I stay at home with Ben right now and he isn't in daycare. They also say that breastfed babies don't generally get sick as frequently as formula fed babies...which makes me wonder how sick he would be if he wasn't breastfed! He has eczema and the doctor said that babies with eczema are more likely to have allergies and so forth later on in life. Nathan and I both had eczema when we were little and we both had allergies and asthma, so am I really surprised? No, but one can always hope!

We had to go to the doctor at 8:30pm last night because Ben had a fever of 102.5 and had a hoarse voice. It turns out he has an upper respiratory viral infection and an ear infection. We started antibiotics today. It makes me sad that at 4 months old, my baby already has to have antibiotics. Today, he has developed a slight cough as well, which is to be expected. The doc told me that the virus would have to run its course. We have to go back in 2 weeks to make sure the ear infection has cleared up. I have read that babies that use pacifiers are more prone to ear infections, which makes me wonder if we should get rid of the pacifier.

I thought he had a hoarse voice over the weekend, but he hadn't felt warm, so I didn't take his temperature. Now I feel like a bad mommy for not checking it sooner! He is doing very well despite being sick though! He has still been playing, smiling, and laughing like normal, which is why I wasn't sure if he was sick. He has been sleeping more than normal and gets crabby when he is tired, but otherwise is dealing with being sick very well. He woke up crying a few times last night, but still slept fairly well. Hopefully he will get better soon and stay healthy!

4 Month Check-up

Ben had his four month check-up on Thursday, October 15 and it went really well. He weighed 16 pounds, 1 ounce, was 25.5 inches long, and his head was 42 cm. He was in the 90th percentile for height and weight and in the 75th percentile for his head circumference. He is a big boy!!! He had his 4 month shots and did much better this time. He only cried a little bit right after he got them this time and was smiling by the time we left the doctor's office. He is growing up so fast!

I had taken a picture of Ben the day of his appointment, but I haven't taken it off of the camera yet, so here are a few pictures of Ben playing the other day instead. He is definitely teething! Notice the drool all over his shirt and the fact that he chews on anything he can get in his mouth! His favorite thing to chew on his exersaucer is the giraffe but he likes the elephant too! He has now figured out how to move all of the toys and make noise with them. He has a lot of fun playing in his exersaucer and plays in it every day.

Boyd Orchard

Melissa and Clayton came on Saturday to visit and stayed until Monday morning. On Monday, they left early to drive to Virginia to visit Melissa's friend Courtney, her husband Nathan and their new baby Sophia. Sophia is two weeks old and I hope Melissa takes pictures while they are there so I can see what she looks like! They will be back here on Wednesday and will fly back to Iowa on Saturday.

We are hoping to get a babysitter for Friday night so we can go out to dinner for my birthday. We will know on Wednesday whether or not the girl, who is a high school student, will be able to babysit or not. She came at the recommendation of our neighbors Dick and Kim, who we love and who are awesome. They also recommended another high school girl, so I am excited that we might have a babysitter once in awhile.

On Sunday, we made a trip to a nearby apple orchard per my request. I want it to become a family tradition to go to an orchard every year and buy apples, apple cider, pumpkins and whatever else catches my eye. Since it was a relatively nice day (it ended up being a little chilly because it got cloudy), I wanted to go on Sunday in case there aren't any more nice days this fall. I can't wait until Ben is old enough to ride the wagon and pick our own apples. I bought some apples and a caramel apple. Nathan got an apple dumpling, a cider doughnut, and apple cider to try. They were all yummy but the star of the show was definitely the apple dumpling, which had caramel sauce on top. It was delicious and I am not a huge fan of cooked apples!!!

We took a few pictures while we were at the orchard. We took pictures of Melissa and Clayton too, but we took them on Melissa's camera, so I don't have any of them to post right now.