And we're off!

No longer a dull moment in the Karlin household.

Baby pull-ups

Jacob has learned to pull himself up. Good for him. Bad for us. Time to lower the crib!

Giggle Monster Pt. 3

This was filmed after we got home from Chicago. It was around 10 or 11 p.m. — way past Jacob's bedtime. He slept during the entire flight, though, so he wasn't tired. But he was in a giggling mood! He was already laughing his head off for a few minutes before he decided to record it. It's hilarious to us to see what he finds side-splitting hysterical.

He slept like a baby that night.

Best friends

Now that Jacob is developing a playful personality, he's really starting to grow on Dolly. She still runs away when we try to lay him against her, but she's definitely more comfortable going up to him now than when he was younger. She loves giving him kisses, and he loves watching her run around.

It's starting to blossom into a lifelong friendship of trouble-making and mischievousness.

7 MONTHS OLD!

Jacob is 7 months old today! A few milestones he has met in the past month
- getting on all 4's and crawling backwards
- putting himself to sleep
- eating finger foods (usually Mum Mum's)and a little bit of bread
- the consonant M is used a lot
- getting into the sitting position from being on his tummy or all 4's
- pulling himself up from the sitting position holding on to fingers or a low table

He amazes us everyday with something new!

Chicago trip No. 2

With all the sky miles Jacob has racked up, it's a shame he actually hasn't paid for any of them. He could've earned us a family trip to Disney World by now.

We took the little one back to Chicago last weekend for my cousin Rebecca's Bat Mitzvah. It was his third flight in the six months he's been outside the womb and he'll take to the air two more times before the end of the year when we go to Dallas over Thanksgiving and again in December. He's also endured a 12-hour road trip from Dallas to Clarksville and a roundtrip from Dallas to Houston.

Phew! That's a lot of traveling for a little dude.

But he's one heck of a trooper. Never did we think a 6-month-old baby would be so calm and easy-going as Jacob was. Rarely did he let out a peep as we rushed from the truck to the shuttle to the airport and through the metal detectors, all the while shlepping a ton of baggage (mostly baby stuff). On the plane he was even better. Nobody wants to be stuck on a flight with a crying baby. With Jacob on board, that apparently will almost never be a concern. We fed him a bottle on the way up and he slept the whole time!

His easy-going personality continued to shine throughout the hectic 48-hour visit. Despite his sleep schedule being way off, he simply went with the flow of the weekend, including staying up way past his bedtime Saturday night at the party.

He's such a great baby! We love the little guy.

Sleepless in Tennessee

Jacob has reached another milestone: soothing himself back to sleep. Of course, every good thing comes with a price. Ours was consecutive sleepless nights.

This hellacious anecdote dates back to last week. It was time when -- I say this with the utmost of love -- Jacob was absolutely horrible. He wasn't eating well -- he was fussy and squirmy as he sucked on his bottle -- and he was sleeping more than usual during the day. He just wasn't his usual smiling, happy self. As a result, he was waking up in the middle of the night -- every... single... night -- like clockwork, around 2 a.m. Some nights we just had to rock him back to sleep. Other nights he was a wide-eyed, little night owl who wanted to play.

To his defense, he was coming off a fever from the flu shot he got the previous week, and we thought at the time he might've been suffering from a sore throat (hence the fussiness while sucking down formula). Regardless, he was exhibiting nocturnal tendencies that were driving us eye-twitching, head-pounding, fighting-over-who-would-stay-up-this-night crazy. At 6 months, he should be sleeping through the night. We had absolutely no clue what to do.

Late in the week, as he was tugging on his ear, we decided to take him to the doctor. We thought maybe he had an ear infection that was causing his irritability. Of course, as soon as the doctor began to examine Jacob, he miraculously perked up as if nothing was ever wrong. The doctor said his throat was a bit dry, but his ears were fine.

So we took him home. That night, as usual, we woke up to the midnight squeal coming through the monitor. And, like usual, we both let out a grunt of disgust. I looked at the clock. 3 a.m. We remained prone, staring at the silhouette of the ceiling fan, waiting, hoping, praying the crying would stop so we could go back to sleep. It didn't. It got louder.

Finally, Erin got out of bed and went into his room. No rocking. No cradling. No feeding. She just put his pacifier in his mouth and walked away.

Silence.

HE FELL ASLEEP! Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! God bless that little piece of a plastic with the rubbery nipple!

We had talked about whether he was old enough to soothe himself, but we weren't sure if would work. I guess when you're against the wall is a good a time as any to try anything new. Luckily for us it was successful.

Since then, he occasionally wakes up in the middle of the night, but all we have to do is put the passy in his mouth and he does the rest. He even puts himself to sleep while he's playing on the floor. We hope soon he will be able to find the passy himself while lying in bed and become completely self-sufficient in the soothing department. But we'll take what we can get, and we got back our happy baby!

We're also happy to report that the past few days have yielded, what Erin believes, a bit of a growth spurt. Along with sleeping through the night, he's been eating more, both solids and formula. We think he's ready to increase his bottle amount from 5 to 6 ounces per feeding.