I admit it...

I am terrible about updating this blog!

On another note, I have a ton of updates. The first is that we have moved to Coronado! Kevin received orders for another two years here, so we thought it was time to experience San Diego at it's best, and we are LOVING it. I'll post some pictures of the new place soon, but we have so much more space here and we are just a short walk to the bay and the ferry landing. Kevin will start his new job at the end of this month. We are also so proud of him, as he is now a Lieutenant Commander Select and will be promoted in June.

Jake is doing great. He is growing like a weed and is as cute as a button (he aren't biased, I swear!). He is now in his hip brace only at night, and if we have a good appointment at the orthopedic this month, he will be out of it for good. We will all be happy to see that thing go!

The pictures that follow are from this weekend. We spent Sunday afternoon at Bates Nut Farm, where they were having a pumpkin patch as well as a Fall festival. We had an awesome time and picked out a couple of pumpkins and some squash. It was an excellent day for pumpkin hunting...not too cold, not too hot. We have planned to do this each year, no matter where we are!

Now for some good stuff....new pictures!

As promised...

Today's pictures!

Nothing new...

The physical therapy appointment went well-we don't have to go back for a month and after that appointment, he should be done for good! Yay Jake! We are doing a big cleaning overhaul on the house, so that is how we have been spending our free time. I work on Sat. so Kevin watches Jake and then we usually do some sort of project for the house together on Sundays.

We officially have everything booked for Kauai-only 19 days until we go! We are definitely looking forward to a little getaway, although I know we will miss our little guy! (Grandma Melanie will be flying in to watch him for us and we are just hoping he will be good to her!)

All in all, things have been going well and there isn't much to report. Jake has not been cooperating with picture taking, but I will try to get some new ones up soon...it is pretty hot, so we are spending most of our time indoors and the lighting isn't great inside. We hop;e you are all doing well and are staying cool!

Busy!

Hi all!

Sorry for taking so long to update everything, but things have been super busy. We had Jake's baptism a couple of weekends ago, so my parents were in town. They headed home on Tuesday, Jake had physical therapy on Wednesday, and then we left to visit Kevin's family in Kentucky on Thursday....we are exhausted!

Things are starting to settle down a little bit (at least until Kevin and I head to Kauai next month!) and we are getting back into our routine. The Jakinator is almost four months old and time seems to be flying by so fast. Kevin has received his orders and we will be staying in San Diego for another two years (yay!) and Kevin is also now a Lieutenant Commander Select...we are very proud of him around here!

Jake has physical therapy tomorrow (which will hopefully be his last one, as the therapist nor I think he really needs to be there) at 8:45 am. I hope I can get there on time. I always wondered why people with kids are always late...well, now I know. We need to like two weeks notice to be anywhere on time, and even then, we somehow manage to run a little late (and we are two people who are generally early). I will update tomorrow if there is any new news on that.

In Mid-August, he goes back to the orthopedic surgeon and the pediatrician, so we are hoping that he gets the harness off at that point...he is ready to be on the move!

I am going to do my best to do better with updating the blog more often, especially if there is anything new going on. We hope you are all enjoying your summer and keeping as cool as possible!

And now....Pictures!

Kevin's First Father's Day (and some new pics)!

Yesterday was Kevin's first Father's Day, and we had a great day! We met Adam and Nakoma out for lunch at Seaport, we did a little walking around, and then headed back to their house in downtown San Diego to hang out. It was such a nice day, and we really enjoyed their company. Jake got to wear his super cute Astros outfit that he got from Megan and Todd and he looked just adorable! We ended up getting home around 11 p.m. and we were all tuckered out. We all did a lot of Wii playing and had pizza for dinner, so I think it was a great day for Kevin. Jake had a great time and was such a good boy...he only fussed a little at the end of the night and by the time we got home, he was sound asleep. It's 5 a.m. here and he is stillllllll sleeping, this is fantastic, I forgot what it was like to get a full night's sleep! We hope you all had a great day as well, especially all the fathers out there!

As mentioned above, Jake got some new gear from our good friends Megan and Todd, so I thought I would include some pictures of our little 'Stros fan. (He also got a Florida Gators bib, but we will take some pictures of that when he isn't so angry at me for continually posing him in the same chair while trying to take a decent picture). Thanks Megan and Todd, we love the gifts!

a little out of focus-but his outfit looks great!

ummm...I think I need to find a new place for him to pose.

Have a great day everyone, we hope you are all well!

Pictures from Today!

My assignment from class last night was to take a picture of a flower-the flower is supposed to be in focus and the background is supposed to be blurred-I think I did ok! (Pictures of everyone's favorite subject are to follow!)

If you just looked at these, you would think, "Wow, they have a really nicely tended garden." However, if you have ever been to our house, you know that that really isn't the case.

Then I set up the little guy-he did a great job posing for me...he must take after his daddy!

Leave me alone Midas!

And just so there's no misunderstanding-he would like you to know how he feels about wearing his brace... ;)

"hmmm...well this is different."

"Aaaaarrrggggghhh''

"Umm..I'm not so sure about this."

"Ok, I don't think I like it."

"In fact, I hate it!"

"Take it off noooooooooowwww!"

After this, we stopped our photo shoot and jake had a snack....the world is right once again!

Congenital Hip Dysplasia Explained...and more updates!

As promised, I'm going to attempt to explain Hip Dysplasia, why it happens, and anything else that I think of. Jake is asleep and I'm pretty bored, so I'm just going to write whatever comes to mind. (OK, well, I'm kind of going to copy and paste this next part, as I think it explains it better than I can and I'll highlight what is applicable to us).

What is developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH)?

Developmental dysplasia of the hip is a congenital (present at birth) condition of the hip joint. It occurs once in every 1,000 live births. The hip joint is created as a ball and socket joint. In DDH, the hip socket may be shallow, letting the "ball" of the long leg bone, also known as the femoral head, slip in and out of the socket. The "ball" may move partially or completely out of the hip socket. (Jake has the shallow socket-the brace should help grind the ball into the socket, causing the socket to deepen and stabilize the hip)

Anatomy of the hip joint

Here is a simple illustration of a normal socket vs. a shallow socket-This is almost exactly what Jake has minus the dislocation.

What causes developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH)?

Hip dysplasia is considered a "multifactorial trait." Multifactorial inheritance means that many factors are involved in causing a birth defect. The factors are usually both genetic and environmental. Often, one gender (either male or female) is affected more frequently than the other in multifactorial traits. There appears to be a different "threshold of expression," which means that one gender is more likely to show the problem than the other gender. For example, hip dysplasia is more common in females than males. One of the environmental influences thought to contribute to hip dysplasia is the baby's response to the mother's hormones during pregnancy. A tight uterus that prevents fetal movement or a breech delivery may also cause hip dysplasia. The left hip is involved more frequently than the right due to intrauterine positioning.

What are the risk factors for developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH)?

First-born babies are at higher risk since the uterus is small and there is limited room for the baby to move; therefore affecting the development of the hip.

Other risk factors may include the following:

• family history of developmental dysplasia of the hip, or very flexible ligaments
• position of the baby in the uterus, especially with breech presentations
• oligohydraminos (low amniotic fluid level)-we had this at he end of the pregnancy
• frank breech position

• c-section birth

Prognosis:

In 90% of cases, developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH) resolves without consequence.
In 10% of cases, there may be long term problems, including pain, stiffness and arthritis.

Congrats on reading all of that-you are now a pro!

In other news-I started a photography class last night, which is the best thing that I have ever done for myself (aside from marrying kevin, having jake, and getting the pugs!). So be on the look out for lots of baby and pug pictures (and maybe some of Kev) as I try to perfect my skills behind the camera!

Jake's Terrble, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day!

Yeterday was quite a day for little Jake. First we went to see an orthopedic surgeon, for those that don't know, we were referred because Jake's pediatrician thought that we should be safe and check out his hips since he was a breech baby born by c-section (I will explain all of this further in another post, but for now I just wanted to give his latest update). When he was born, the hospital pediatrician thought he may have felt a click in his hips, which would mean a dislocated hip, three exams later by three different pediatricians had different results-no hip clicks. We had an ultrasound done on his hips in late May, his right hip is completely normal and his left hip had what they described as a shallow socket, but no dislocation. We were referred to the orthopedic surgeon by our pediatrician and went to see him yesterday. Jake was diagnosed with left hip dysplasia and a very mild torticollis (basically a stiff neck on one side)...these two things usually go hand in hand, so neither one was particularly shocking since we suspected them early on.







Now on to the fun stuff-his treatment for the hip dysplasia will be a Pavlik Harness. This is what the Pavlik Harness looks like:

Basically, he will wear this for 23 hours a day for the next three months. He gets to have it taken off for baths and to wash it, but that's about it. He can wear a onesie under it and big, baggy clothes over it, you can change his diaper without taking it off, and he can wear baby leg warmers on his legs to keep the straps from irritating him. It's really pretty easy to deal with once you get used to it, but currently...he HATES it! For his neck, we will be doing physical therapy twice a week for six weeks and then he should be good to go. We will be following up with the orthopedic surgeon on July 1st for another ultrasound...cross your fingers that he can get out of the brace before three months!

We also had the two month visit to the pediatrician yesterday after he got his brace. We were there for 2.5 hours, probably 2 of which were spent waiting...fan-tastic. His pediatrician said he is doing great, he is up to 11 lbs. 4 oz. and is ahead of where he should be developmentally, which is great! He also got his shots-three in the legs and one oral-he was NOT happy! So, all in all, we had a big day of adjustments and shots, an afternoon and night of fussing, but we think he will be happy again tomorrow once the shots wear off and he gets used to the brace. If you have any questions about any of this, please feel free to ask us. My update tomorrow will be more in depth in explaining hip dysplasia and some pictures of Jake in his brace.

Thank you for coming to check out Jake's Blog!

I am probably a little late in starting this up, but since everyone lives far away, I thought it would be a good way to provide updates, pictures, activities, etc. So, I'll start with some pictures!





Hi! I am ten days old in this picture!

Look how I've changed! I'm a month old!

Yay! Here's me at two months!