hanging around

Baby keeps growing. This week's achievement is increased eyeball focusing. She looks intently at our faces occasionally now, though other objects like curtains and fans are more interesting.

Clara had her first bath recently and didn't complain at all.

We have a small handful of gizmos for carrying the baby. Our favorite, and we think Clara's as well, is the sling. If she's awake, she gives a small wimper at every step. Too cute. Then she sleeps.
Here's our trailer-car seat-bike setup. Jill is happy; maybe Clara is wishing for the sling.
The city chopped down a very large tree across the street this week. All that remains are a pile of wood chips and these branch pieces suspended in the power lines.

tummy time!

We're starting to get into a bit of a routine with the baby lately. It generally looks like this: 1. feed baby for 1 hour and 2A. baby sleeps for 2 hours or 2B. baby looks around for 2 hours. Give or take a half hour to an hour for each of those steps and you have our life. Well, the gals' lives when I am at work during the day.

The great book of parenting says that tummy time can start immediately. We tried it out on Clara, and she had a good time. She can lift her head and turn from one side to the other. When she gets tired, she drops her face onto the ground. This looks painful, but she doesn't seem to mind too much.

Mid-flight!

The great parenting book also says that babies like to look at bright, moving objects. I wear this shirt all the time now.

My birthday was Monday. A friend from church introduces me to other people with the comment that I'm older than I look. I sure am getting older, but mentally I don't feel it yet. This can be good and bad. My current favorite activities are holding the baby and riding my bike. Far down the list is work.

A bunch of friends came over to eat ice cream and celebrate my birthday. Clara was the star of the show. She turned 2 weeks old.

all Clara, all the time

Some big milestones this week. First, great-grandpa and aunt and uncle came down from MI for a short visit. Then, all our guests left us to own devices. Mom left for home and then a well-deserved vacation on Thurs. Fereshteh found a place to rent and took a short trip to visit her brother this weekend. But we still have 3; one more than was 'normal'.

We didn't take a picture because of the rain and Clara's hunger, but we rode bikes to church today, day 13. I pulled Clara in the trailer (I upgraded from InStep to Burley via craigslist this week. Big thumbs up on the Burley.). We put her in the carseat and strapped that into the trailer. By riding less than 10 mph, there was less jostling than a stoller ride. I'm quite pleased.

I'm writing this while still slightly rattled from Clara's spitting up episode tonight. After the explosions, she was quite pale with a blank look on her face. I try to be a calm dad trusting her life and health to her heavenly Father, but watching her suffer eats me up. Everyone says the worries only increase as the kid grows. Yikes!

1 Week

One week of parenting is in the books. Clara has been very kind to us. She doesn't spit up after eating. She only cries when she's hungry. She can lie around by herself and just look around (today she was considering our curtains in front of the tv). She sleeps in chunks of 2-3 hours. What did we do to deserve such a nice kid?

Here's how Clara just celebrated being 1 week old.

She's older than she's ever been and now she's even older....

at home

The 3 of us came home from the hospital on Wed. Clara seems to be at peace wherever she is, thankfully.

In my email announcements and last post, I wrote that Jill was doing well or recovering fine. This needs qualification. I should have said, Jill is doing well considering she just had the most painful experience humanly possible. When required she can walk, albeit very slowly. Sitting is not fun.

A few other loose ends should be tied up. First, Leigh Ann was the birthday prediction winner (I was off by 3 1/2 hours). The prize might be a crocheted hat. We'll be in touch, Leigh Ann.

Second, Clara's middle name is Jet. We thought you all might like to be surprised or that you would hate it. For those of the latter persuasion, it's official so there's no changing it :) Jill's favorite name initially was Clara Jane, but that sounds too Victorian for me. I think Jet has just enough edge to balance the very sweet first name.

Finally, we are overwhelmed by the many well wishes, prayers, kind thoughts, visits, notes, and gifts that so many of you have done for us. Thank you from the bottom of our overly full hearts.

My emotions have surprised me during the first 4 days. When she first appeared, I was surprised how little fondness I felt towards her. But now I'm completely smitten. When she looks at me, my heart surges to my throat. I'm in love.

Despite the bland background, I love this photo. Jill continues to be this happy.

Grandpa S is quite pleased with his first granddaughter.

Our first family portrait before our first walk around the block.

Clara

Clara was born today. She weighed 6 lb 12oz. I don't remember her height. Jill is very tired but doing well.

UPDATE: Clara was 18.5".

Nurse Tracie (sp?), below, was super. She caught Jill the first time she fainted on her way to the bathroom. The other nurse, Amy (sp?), blew me away. She has a happy, silly demeanor and was always in the background, so I assumed she was in training. Then, Clara shows up, and BAM! Amy is pulling mucus out of orifices, weighing, measuring, and doing nurse things faster than I could track. My favorite part was when she stethoscoped Clara for a second, then stuffed a tube down her throat and vacuumed out some fluid.

Grandma and Jill like Clara!
Dr. Woz holds her latest delivery. The doc, she is good!

to the hospital....

Gonna induce labor tonight. Doctor doesn't like Jill's high blood pressure. Maybe a little nervous :)

not recommended

Despite the too many college degrees in this small but soon-to-be bigger family, sometimes we don't always get it right.

For example, I wondered why no one serves carbonated iced tea. I like iced tea, and I like carbonated water so how could the combination fail? Jill cooked up some extra concentrated tea, passion fruit black tea from our Annapolis Tea Co stash. After letting it cool, I diluted it with chilled carbonated water. Then we drank and did not like. Carbonated water is slightly bitter by itself, but it severely draws out the bitterness of tea. Yuck! Perhaps carbonated sweet tea would be okay, but why not just drink a coke?

While walking in our neighborhood the other day, we saw a man and woman riding bikes. What was unusual is that the man was holding a 6 monthish old baby in his left arm and the handlebar with his right hand. Perhaps my view of safety is a touch further out there than yours, but I would strongly suggest not doing this.

Also, we sighted the previously unlocked, unsaddled bike laying in a front yard not far from our house. Still no saddle and still not locked. Maybe it's a new 'community bike'. Not having a saddle is beneficial because no one would ride it far.

* * *

Here's Jill one day shy of 39 weeks. Rumor has it that many babies are born on nights with a full moon, and that is Friday. We observed that the moon is very nearly full tonight, but I'm not sure Clara feels the full pull yet.