One Month Old Already!

Jake is now one month old. That means I am one month closer to sleeping more than 3 hours in a row at night. That's the way I have to look at it, or I will get depressed. Jake continues to be a very good baby. I would say the only time he's fussy is when he is tired, hungry, or needs to poop or burp. Oh, and when he's in his car seat, which he doesn't like too much. He just doesn't seem to cry for no reason, and he's usually pretty easy to calm down. I should maybe knock on wood, since he is only one month old- maybe this all will change. I don't know, though. When I was pregnant with Jake and would hear his heart beat at the doctor's office, it was always very slow- like in the 120's or 130's. Many times the various doctors commented on how laid back of a baby he must be, and so far that's been true. I do wish he'd sleep in longer segments, but I feel like I'm dealing with the lack of sleep much better this time than I did when Drew was a baby.

One day last week I fed Jake around 5:30 in the morning. By the time he was done, I decided I'd better just get up and get showered. So I just laid Jake on my bed (don't worry, he's nowhere close to rolling over) while I showered. He was sleeping peacefully while the boys and I ate breakfast, but I heard him fuss just a little, so I went up to check on him. Sleeping peacefully again, but I could see why he had been fussing. Looks like he had a little bit of spit-up.

Thankfully he doesn't normally spit up a whole lot. A little here and there after eating, but that's it. I hope that stays the same, too!

Sometimes Jake just falls asleep wherever. Maybe he'll be like his Aunt Becky and be the kid who always sleeps in the car and just falls asleep really easily. Here he was one day before he and I went down the street to visit our neighbors.

And yesterday he was laying on his back and I decided to flip him over for some tummy time. He was out in about 2 minutes.

Again, don't worry, I don't put him to sleep on his tummy- always on his back. The boys and I were just there in the kitchen, eating lunch, and Jake took a tiny snooze on this blanket for about 20 minutes. Drew and Zach laid down next to Jake to talk to him while he slept. I only was able to get a decent picture of Drew and Jake, though. So sweet.

Speaking of Drew, I've decided that since he is almost three, it's time for him to start helping out around the house. He chose vacuuming as his new chore. Works for me!

We think Jake started smiling on Saturday. If you asked Zach, he'd say Jake's been smiling at him and his Star Wars figures since about day 1. He of course does the little smiles in his sleep, but on Saturday Mike and Zach were singing to him and he got a huge, open-mouth smile. I feel like 4 weeks is a little early for a real smile, but maybe not. Since then we've gotten the same reaction maybe two more times, but I'm still waiting for it to be more consistent for me to be really convinced. I tried to get a picture, but this was the best I could do.

Sunday was a big day- Jake got baptized! We asked Mike's little sister Katherine to be Jake's Godmother, and she left for a semester in England yesterday, so we knew we either had to squeeze the baptism in before Jan. 10 or wait until she's back in late June. We decided to hurry up and get it done, and I'm glad we did.

Here we are at church in front of the baptismal font.

One proud aunt/Godmother with her youngest nephew.

Here I am with a nice fake smile. The baptism was supposed to be following the 11:00 service, and we took pictures after the 11:00 service at the baptismal font. In this picture I'm probably thinking to myself, "Where are the other families with babies being baptized? What minister is doing this baptism, and where is he/she? Are we supposed to be somewhere else?"

So then we saw one of the church pastors walking around, so I had Mike go ask him if we were in the right place, and it turned out we weren't. We were supposed to be in the chapel for the baptism. So we hurried in there and were greeted by Pastor Caroline with, "You must be the Burggraafs?" How embarrassing! However, in my defense, the 11:00 service is in the big worship center (where we were taking pictures), so I assumed that's where the baptism would be. I looked back over all the emails that the baptism coordinator and I had sent to each other, and nowhere in there did it mention the baptism being in the chapel. Plus, Drew was baptized after the 11:00 service a few years ago, in the big worship center, so we assumed that's where Jake's baptism would be, too.

So, considering we almost missed Jake's baptism altogether, things actually went very well. Zach and Drew wanted to go up to the front of the chapel to see Jake get baptized.

This picture cracks me up, but it looks like maybe Pastor Caroline is saying a prayer, but notice that Drew is about to knock over the little table. That really would have made it a memorable day!

Finally, Jake's one month pictures. Each of the boys has had their pictures taken every month of their first year in this rocking chair. Here's Jake in his own room, which isn't finished being painted yet. I requested vertical stripes, and Mike's taking the tortoise approach (slow and steady wins the race) to getting it done. He is doing an excellent job, though, and I know I'm going to love it when it's all finished! Hopefully I'll get to post pictures of the room soon.

Now, off to feed Jake and sleep for hopefully 4 hours straight. Last night Jake slept for 4 hours, but of course, an hour after he and I both fell asleep, I awoke to shouts of, "Mater! I need to go potty!!" Drew had to potty, and wouldn't you know- Mike didn't hear him yelling. So my chance at 4 straight hours was ruined. It must be great to be the dad and get all that good sleep. :-)