These past few days have made me realized how truly blessed we've been with a healthy baby so far! This was the first time that Jacob has really been sick. Sure, he's had a couple small colds and one bout of pink eye, that luckily we caught right at the beginning and it was gone in just a couple of days. But this time, we had a sick little baby on our hands.
We noticed on Saturday morning that Jacob felt a little warm and when we took his temperature, it was higher than normal. Unfortunately, it stayed high all weekend and Jacob wanted to spend most of the weekend cuddling or just sitting or laying in someone's lap. Normally, he is a very active baby, always wiggling around and wanting to play.
By Monday, Jacob still had a fever, a pretty bad sounding cough and a very runny nose. So it was off to the doctor for us! He had gotten a virus, which also caused a small ear infection and luckily we were given some medicine to start helping. But even with medicine, it was Wednesday before his fever was gone completely and he still had a runny nose and a small cough.
During these past few days, it broke my heart to see him sick and just cuddling/laying there, looking miserable. I so wanted to make him feel better, but didn't know how. The days were also exhausting. While Jacob did want to just cuddle and sleep, he couldn't always find a comfortable position. He would lean into me to cuddle but then sit back up crying. Then after a few seconds, he would cry again and lean in to cuddle. During the night, he would wake up screaming and crying and a couple of times, it took a long time to calm him down enough to get him to eat or back to sleep.
He would also scream bloody murder while giving medicine or getting the snot out of his nose. No fun. Although, we did learn a little something about Jacob. He likes to know things and/or have control of things. Example: when we first started giving him Tylenol for his fever I would come with the syringe and when I tried to give it to him, he would fight it and scream. If I brought over the medicine bottle and showed it to him, let him watch me put medicine in the syringe and then show it to him again before offering it to him, he would almost always open his mouth and let me give him the medicine willingly. Granted, this hasn't worked every time, but he's a smart cookie.
I really enjoyed being able to spend some extra time at home with Jacob, even if he was sick. And by Wednesday, he was feeling much better and wanting to play a lot more. And he is soclose to crawling! He will get up on all fours and rock back and forth before going back on his tummy. His head is also still a little heavy. :) But his overall balance is just awesome and if he falls over or onto his back, he is almost always able to get himself back into a sitting position! He also loves to try and pull himself up to a standing position! He does great "walking" across the room with us holding him up as well. Very soon, we're going to have a very mobile baby on our hands! Spring can't come soon enough so we can just have him run around outside!
Jacob also has a new favorite word! "DADA"! It's all I hear some days. :) And when I try to get him to say "mama", he will smile and laugh and say "dada" again! Silly boy. Although, I did use this to my advantage one day. I asked Jacob, "Jacob, who do you want to change your dirty diapers all day?" To which he answered, "Dada!" Good boy. :)
In other news, we will be seeing some change again soon. Seems like we can't ever have a year go by without something changing or something exciting happening or us moving. :) Some of you may know that I wasn't completely happy at my current job at Maple Manor (a nursing home and assisted living facility). I just haven't felt that I got all the necessary training to help me be truly successful in my position. So I was applying for other jobs. Well I am happy to announce that starting March 13th, I will be in a new position.
Even though I risk being disowned by my family - haha! - I will be the new Marketing Coordinator at P&K Midwest, a John Deere implement in Eastern Iowa. They have nine locations and I'll be responsible for the marketing for all nine locations. It's going to be a huge job and one that I'll need to hit the ground running, but it's going to be much more similar to what I was doing at Kruger Seeds and it's in an industry that I feel much more comfortable in. I'm very excited to see where this opportunity will take me.
For the time being, I'm going to be based out of the Waterloo office, but by summer, they want me based out of Mt. Vernon, which is about an hour and half south of us right now. So yes, we will be moving again. We really don't know all the details yet on where and when. Austin has already decided that he doesn't want to teach at D-NH again next year as he didn't feel like it was a good fit for him there. So he's looking into some possibilities closer to Mt. Vernon. After all, we figured I've followed him for his last two jobs so now it was his turn. :) The good news is that we'll only be about 30 minutes from Austin's parents but the bad news is that means we'll be farther away from my parents. So we've promised them many trips up to Minnesota. I joked with my mom that we'll just have to get a cabin in Minnesota to spend our summers there and she said "Yes, Megan's house!" Sounds like a plan to me! :)
So with this new adventure, I'm sure there are going to be challenges. But we've had a lot of challenges in life and I'm confident that God will provide and will be there to help us make this transition as smooth as possible. I'm hopeful that with these changes, better things will come for our family.
