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I just read through the last few entries and noticed a few things that I haven't updated on, so I guess I'll start there.

Sadly, breastfeeding came to a screeching halt about two weeks ago. I accidentally skipped a day of having Jacob "try" for a few minutes before any of his feedings and the next day he was absolutely horrible with screaming, crying, and pushing away from me. So, for now I'm hanging on to the double-electric breast pump that I rented from Walgreens and pumping as much as I can. Which isn't often seeing as the majority of my day is spent holding him, feeding him, changing him, and playing with him. When Dave and I do get free time, we have to use that time to rush around preparing bottles, washing/drying/folding baby clothes, and fixing ourselves something to shovel down our throats before the baby wakes up again. Anyway... so I pump when I can in an attempt to get some of the benefits of breast milk in his little system. Since I'm not able to pump very often, there's really not much milk left... but at least there's a little.

We're still doing the dark corn syrup thing in his bottles to try to help with the constipation. The poor kiddo struggles with this so much. I feel so bad for him, but there's not much else we can do right now. I guess formula causes a lot of babies issues with constipation and gas, so it's somewhat reassuring to know that at least Jakey's not the only one. He has major issues with gas, too, so I did some "research" and found a formula that's supposed to be good for combating gas and fussiness. The poor guy must spend almost half of his waking hours fussing, screaming, and squirming along with his gas. I started him on that yesterday with a 75/25% ratio with his current formula. It was suggested to ease babies onto new formulas by giving them 25% of the new formula for two days, 50% for the next two days, and finally 75% for the final two days. So, by Tuesday of next week he'll be on the new formula exclusively. I really hope that it works. My little guy could really do with having less discomfort in his life. I read somewhere that it can take up to three months for a baby's system to get used to formula and trying to break it down. Knowing that makes me feel even worse that breastfeeding didn't work out for us.

Hopefully this new formula will live up to its claims and Jacob can spend more time being happy instead of being upset and tormented by his gas. When he's NOT being harassed by gas, he's so fun and cute. We've been putting him on his Boppy Newborn Lounger pillow for playtime and spend the time singing and talking to him, making faces and silly noises at him, and letting him feel different textures and look at different toys. I try to do a few minutes of "tummy time" each day to help strengthen his neck muscles, too. I read that babies aren't really able to hold their heads up independently until about four months! I really need to look into finding some kind of baby seat/rocker thing so that we can put him down semi-inclined for a few minutes at a time to allow us to do a few things here or there without having to hold him constantly or worry about him possibly rolling off of his pillow. He still hates laying down if he's not sleeping, so we don't get much hands-free time yet and are constantly doing the baby trade-off so that the other person can grab a bite to eat or use the bathroom or whatever.

The days fly by and are all melding into one. It's all about BABY, and we generally have no idea where the time goes! Before we know it, it's eight o'clock in the evening and we haven't even had dinner yet. We need to try to figure out some kind of schedule and start it next week since I'll be going back to work the week after that. I'm sure we'll probably end up just "winging it", though, and making adjustments along the way. I'm still not completely comfortable with having to be the one to work full time, but at least Dave is here and we don't have to think about leaving our baby with a complete stranger... and paying that stranger to raise our kid... for eight hours each day.