I need a hand

... that works. Because both of mine are seriously out of commission. Towards the end of my pregnancy I was dealing with some swelling and numbness in my hands, but the doctor assured me that it wasn't pregnancy-induced carpal tunnel and that it would go away once the baby arrived. Well it did, for a few days. But soon came back again in full-force. Both my hands go numb off and on during the day, especially when I'm holding the phone or trying to write (not so good since I started back to work this week). But the worst part has been at night. My stiff joints are keeping me up in the wee hours, which is not good when I'm already getting minimal sleep, and make it very difficult to pick up Jack, change his diaper or hold him while he's nursing. I have to admit, 9 or so hours of labor is much more preferable to these past four weeks of arthritic-like pain. I bought a wrist brace but it doesn't seem to make much of a difference. I stopped taking the calcium supplements the doctor gave me and that seemed to help for a day or two but now it's back again. This morning I called the nurse hotline, she said she didn't know what it was and to put ice on it. Gee, thanks for the help. So if anyone has any insight I'd be happy to know!!

I'm pretty sure that people don't read my blog to hear about my hands, so I'll throw in a little Jack update. First off, he's getting big, especially his cheeks! We tried to figure out his weight by using our own scale at home, but despite what Jon may think, I'm pretty sure he's not 13 lbs! Jon also says that Jack has a sixpack, I'm not sure about that but he can definitely hold his legs up for a lot longer than I can, and he's also pretty good at tightening his tiny, little butt cheeks whenever it's time to change his diaper. You'd think he'd like the experience ... We also really like listening to all those newborn grunts and noises he makes, our personal favorite is the horse whinny. He's surprisingly loud, in many different ways, but it always makes us chuckle.

Here's a picture of Jack at 3 weeks. It was his second visit to church. The first time he slept through the entire service, this particular week we were not so lucky.

In addition to church, Jack also loves shopping with mom (I'm goimg to enjoy it while it lasts), long walks through the neighborhood, and eating out, especially at our favorite diner. He's turning out to be quite the ladies man, and I'm trying to get used to all the extra attention brought on by life with a baby.