Jake's webpage

http://ourvisionsofhope.com/

Jake's Benefit

For those of you that have shown an interest in donating to the silent auction, if you could send me a message with your email address that would be great. I will pass it on to the girls in charge of the benefit so they can contact you. They would like to have donations collected in the next couple of weeks. Thank you all for all your help and support.

Love, Kim

6 Months

This week Jacob turned 6 months old. WOW!! Where does the time go. He has developed such a great little personality. He is very vocal. He loves to coo and yell just to hear himself. He has now mastered rolling over and is working everyday on sitting. Because of his blindness he still doesn't hold up his head. He can but he chooses not to. It drives me nuts when I am trying to take his picture. He also doesn't open his eyes that much. You will notice when I post his pictures that his eyes are closed a lot. I've found myself taking multiple pictures of him in the same spot just trying to get one with his eyes open.
Jacob had his 6 month check up and he is growing wonderfully. He is 26.5 inches long and 16.4 pounds. His weight is a little low but the doctor said it could be because of his surgery. Unfortunately Jacob has developed a nasty rash and we can't pin point why. We have been lubing him up with cream and giving him meds but nothing seems to make it go away. He is VERY itchy.

Jacob has started to sleep really good at night. He sometimes sleeps 10 hours in a row. There are still nights where he is up a lot but he is growing.

Here is a list of what Jacob likes to eat.
Pears
Apples
Bananas
Beans
Peas
Peaches
Oatmeal
Sweet Potatoes
Carrots
I love that he likes everything that he's tried. He is also taking about 5-6 ounces of formula every 4 hours.

His favorite toys are still his plastic rings but he also loves his teething beads and teething cloth that Nana Donna brought him while he was in the hospital. He is really good at entertaining himself for periods of time as long as we continue to talk to him to let him know that we are still there since he can't see us.

Next week Jacob has a pre-op appointment, an infant massage and a procedure with the surgeon and the eye doctor. He is going under for his procedure which makes me nervous but it's the only way they can really get in and do what they need to do. He is also getting fitted for his glasses next week. How exciting. He's going to look soooo cute. After he gets his glasses the therapy can finally start. On top of the therapy we have a develop mental specialist as well as a vision specialist that comes out once a week. We also have an infant massage person that will be coming out often.
Once we get him settled in to his routine we would like to travel to Michigan where there is a doctor that specializes in Jake's condition. He comes highly recommended and I would love to hear what he thinks about Jake's condition.

Although my little man has been through sooooo much in his short 6 months he is a VERY happy baby. No matter what obstacles we face we will face them as a family.

After dinner

Tummy time

Hanging at Auntie Rachel's

Starting to like Johny Jumper

Big B and little B

Sleep?? What is that??

Sleep is a thing of the past for Brent and me. With B having to work so early and with the baby refusing to sleep, sleep is non existent for us these days. Last night the baby woke at 10 pm and was up every hour after that until 6 am. Brent has to get up for work at 3:30 am so he was a walking zombie at work today. I am on robot mode.

I am not sure if we will ever figure out this sleeping thing with buggy but we are determined to try. His thing is the swaddle. He has a love hate relationship with it. He wants out but then when he is out he wants back in. Tonight I put him in a sleep sack and am attempting to get him to sleep without a swaddle. I know that if I am consistent he will get it down eventually.

His surgery has him all out of sorts. He just started to open his eyes last week which was such a treat considering we really haven't seen his eyes since his surgery on 7/17. He still won't hold his head up. The vision specialist says that it's because he has no reason to look up. We know that he can hold his head up he just doesn't because he can't see anything. We've been to the surgeon twice since his surgery and she said that because she had to remove his lenses his pupils are no longer normal looking. She is not sure if or when they will go back to normal.

Next month he will be put under to have a full exam and to be fitted for glasses. The surgeon said that until he has glasses he will not be able to fix or follow anything. His eyes are 6 months behind on development and his brain doesn't know how to use them so it will be a lot of therapy to teach him. The surgeon is still unsure how well of if he will be able to see. It's all just a waiting game.

We are hopeful and pray everyday. I hope all is well with everyone. Maybe someday soon I will have time to sit down and catch up on all the blogs that I miss so very much and actually get to comment.

Kim