16 Months

My little man is now 16 months old. I can't believe it. Just a little over 1 year ago we brought Jacob home from the hospital at a little over 8 lbs. He is now 22 lbs and 2ft 6 inches long. Jacob is in the 20 percentile in height and 9 percentile in weight. He makes so much progress every time we go to the doctor. He's growing like a weed.  He is literally half my height! Jacob is also walking! It's just amazing one day he was struggling to take a step and the next day he's off and I can't keep up. We are experiencing many many bumps and bruises but he is taking it like a champ. I've seen him bounce off walls and just keep on walking.

Yesterday we participated in the Walk for Babies to support the March of Dimes. It is a great cause to help one day end prematurity and you would think that with it being held in May the weather would be nice, you guess wrong. It was roughly 35 degrees yesterday and I saw snow flakes. Can you believe it May 1 and snow. Unfortunately, Jacob is not feeling well so we decided it was best to leave him home with grandma. Bradley, his 4 year old cousin did walk (got pushed in his stroller) with us. Bradley is a real trooper you could tell he was not happy and cold but I didn't hear him complain. Mike and I were joined by my parents, my sister Hanh, her daughter Julie, Mike's sister Minh brother Mark and Amber and Ricky. Somehow it took us almost 2 hrs to walk four miles. :)

Our New Life

So many changes since the last time I blogged.

I got a new job. It was a really difficult decision because I really enjoyed working for the League and I loved the people I worked with but I was offered a position working for Governor Mark Dayton. First DFL Governor in MN in over 20 years, I just couldn't pass it up. And wow has my life changed!

And so has Jacob. He is now 28.5 inches and 19.2 lbs. He's still only in the 1 percentile for kids his age but he's on the growth chart!!!

He is also a little monster! Not really but that is what Mike and I like to affectionately call him.  He is into everything now.  He's 14 months old, but adjusted he's 11 months old, and getting into everything. He's crawling around, standing while assisted, and pulling himself on to everything. He'll push his walker around and practice walking but hasn't attempted to let go and do it on his own yet. We are experiencing a lot of bumps and bruises these days. We spent Sunday baby proofing the house because he is also getting into drawers and pulling things off counters.  It seems like just yesterday that Mike and I were worrying about him being able to breathe on his own, now we worry about the things that normal parents are concerned about. 

My dad has been taking care of him during the week and it's been great.  Jacob isn't able to go to traditional daycare due his prematurity and the concern for his underdeveloped immune system.  We've been really lucky to have such a strong family support system. And I think he might love grandpa more than me, or at least he knows how to play us. When he sees grandpa in the morning he always has the biggest grin on his face, that's because he has grandpa wrapped around his finger. Grandpa holds him while he sleeps and  carries him around most of the day. Which has unfortunately resulted in him sleeping with us now because he doesn't want to sleep alone. I know I should move him into his own room but I want to hang on to my baby for a little while longer. Mike keeps reminding me that we got to have him small a lot longer than other people, but I don't care to me he's always going to be my little micro preemie.

I was just thinking that this time last year we were still in the hospital hoping and praying to bring him home. It's amazing that he hasn't even been home a full year yet. I don't really remember life without him, nor do I miss it.