8 Weeks Old!

As I write, Julia is trying to put herself to sleep. She is making little grunting noises with the occasional sigh and whimper. And just now she had a little giggle that scared her awake. I know that we should move her into the nursery at some point, but I will miss all of those little sounds. Except for the grunts she makes after the 4 am feeding when she is trying mightly to pass gas. I still have to figure out if I can hear her in the nursery if I am back in the bedroom when she cries. And I don't know if I can trust the cat yet.

We have our two month check-up on Tuesday where Julia will get five shots. We've been warned by other parents to bring along some infant tylenol for afterwards. And that she might sleep the rest of the day, waking only to eat. I guess that would be the infant way of dealing with trauma. We weighed her yesterday and she is 13 lbs! And 23 inches long! She is already fitting into some of the 6 month clothes that relatives and friends sent; and looking extremely cute as well. Which makes her yelling when she is upset all the cuter...cute little baby dressed in cute outfits trying to look like she is angry.

Tonight was dinner with some friends from church. They have an 11 month old, Bridget, who is adorable. And such a contrast to Julia. Bridget was crawling all around, playing with Julia's toys, making babbling sounds, trying to open cabinet doors and lots of smiles. It is exciting to see what we have in store for us. I was also comforted by Cheri saying that Bridget was also an intense baby. She said that Bridget was also very aggressive when nursing, but grew out of it in her third month. Cheri also said that Bridget ended up hitting her developmental milestones before other babies her age. So we have an intense little baby that seems to be ahead of the curve. Another friend, Carmen, said that Julia probably realizes that she is a baby, but doesn't want to be one....instead she wants to already be walking and talking, etc.

We have some video of Julia on her 8 week day, but I haven't figured out how to download it to the computer yet. She is smiling more and more, especially when I sing to her. The subject of singing came up in our PEPS group on Wednesday. Some of the other mothers couldn't remember the words to classic baby songs. I remember the words, but I end up making up new ones. Like "This little light of mine" has become "That little bum of yours" and the other day we sang about "Slip, Slide into the Onsie" to the tune of "Slip Sliding Away". Plus there is the classic "Air Bubble in the Belly Blues". Dan knows that I have this terrible habit of making up songs about anything I happen to be thinking about or doing. I think it drives him crazy sometimes. And my coworkers know that I am always singing or humming or whistling in the lab. Thankfully it doesn't drive them crazy. But the ability to sing and make up silly little songs is coming in very handy now with Julia. It doesn't seem to drive her crazy yet.

On the picture front, here are a few shots from Mother's Day. And a special note to Gramma and Nanny...we are waiting for some photos to arrive in the mail and then your gifts for Mother's day will be on their way.

Seven Weeks!

Happy Mother's Day!

Only a day late, but that is alright. We still haven't mailed out the cards and gifts we made for our mothers (sorry Gramma and Nanny). But we had a nice day yesterday...Dan made breakfast and had bought some cinnamon monkey bread from the Macrina Bakery. It was delicious bread; we kept calling it the Chunky Monkey bread. Then we went to church, sat through the 1.5 hour long mass with only a single nursing break. They were giving out flowers after mass so I was the recipient of a beautiful peach rose. The mom handing them out said it would perk right up in water and it did. We then headed home to get ready for our afternoon at the zoo!
Julia was waiting for me in the bouncer seat (Dan had gotten her changed and dressed for the afternoon) with her Mother's Day gift tucked neatly in her left hand. I didn't see it at first and Dan had to point it out. She picked out a nice pair of earrings with little blue flowers, which shows that she has excellent taste at a young age. We then spent the next forty minutes looking for a parking space at the zoo. Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo is very cute; for such a small zoo they have a lot of interesting animals: tigers, lions, bears (oh my!), snow leopards, gorillas, emus, etc. Julia didn't pay attention to any of them. She nursed for 40 miuntes when we got there and slept the rest of the afternoon. But Dan and I had fun. We were both really tired when we finally got home though. Julia was nice to me last night and slept from 9pm to 3:30am. Which meant that I slept from 9:30pm to 3am.

Now we are into Attempted Sleep Week #2. Since she will be going to daycare in another eight weeks, I've decided that she needs to learn how to fall asleep on her own. She can do it every once in awhile, but not consistently. I have another motive though: I would love to be able to get one of those elusive naps every afternoon. My baby sleeps, but only when I wear her in the sling or if we go for a walk. Neither option allows me to doze. Last week was somewhat successful in attempted sleep, with Julia taking a few naps during the week. Not every afternoon, but at least twice. The problem is that I usually have more things to do when she is asleep (like calling Delta about infant fares) and I do not get to nap. So from now on I am just going to lay down right away. Right after the laundry is folded. And the chicken for dinner thawed. And the mailed sorted. I promise.

Anyway, here are some more pictures....

The lineup from our Childbirth Class Reunion (l to r) Maggie, Julia, Connor, Zev, Chloe, Lucy, Johan, and Theo.

A little fuzzy, but much cuter that way.



Oh and thank you to Tina and Amy for the comments...it was a growth spurt, but she still eats about 10-12 times a day. Which would explain why she weighs 12.5 pounds. Luckily she is 23 inches long so she carries it well.

6 Weeks Old

We're a little late with the pictures this week. And we really don't have an excuse because Julia's Nanny was here from Maryland and we should have had plenty of time to get the pictures posted. Oh well. More smiling this week, although they disappear whenever the camera comes out. And Julia seems to be going backwards in her feeding times. She used to be good for at least 2.5 hours from feeding to feeding, but lately I am lucky if she makes it to 2 hours...it is more like 1.5 hours. And now she is sleeping less at night as well, which is heartbreaking. Mainly because it means I get less sleep and end up more frustrated. I've been trying to break her of her habit of using me to fall asleep (she likes to nurse until she is sleeping), but have had no luck thus far. It seems like every time I think we are making progress, we move two steps backward. She gave us six hours of sleep the other night, but we haven't come close to repeating that since then. Add to that the fact that she most definitely smiles more with Dan and saves the pouty lip face for me and it is pretty demoralizing. At least she can hold her head up.

First Smile

May 2, 2006

How do I know it was a real smile? I smiled back. She cooed. I cooed back. She promptly burst into tears.

5 Weeks Old!

Well, and a few more days. It seems that the time with Julia is passing more quickly than ever and that I have less and less time to myself. Today was full of big acheivements: our first experience nursing in the car (she behaved very well), putting her down for a short nap while she was just drowsy (she slept for about 1.5 hours and I only had to go in once at the beginning to get her to settle down), and several feedings without the crying/burping/screaming circle of dread. Tomorrow we get to attempt our first lab meeting and a doctor's visit for me. It will be a busy morning.

We've been getting out for walks around Green Lake fairly regularly now with the other girls from childbirth class. Today we walked with Jen and Theo and their dog Dixie. It rained for the first half of the walk, but we perservered in our raincoats. Wednesday we have our PEPS group again in the morning. And rounding out our week, Dan's mom arrives on Thursday for a visit. We weighed Julia yesterday and found out that she is a whopping 11.5 lbs! I had to wash some of the clothes that everyone has been sending us because I think that they will fit soon. Some of them are marked for babies up to 12 lbs, so she will not have long to wear them. If you are a kind friend or relative waiting on a thank you note, they are coming. And we mailed the annoucements on Thursday so you should have those soon too. We set a date for the baptism, June 10th, and are looking forward to welcoming the family that is coming out for that event.

Here are some pictures from the last week:

4 Weeks Old!!!

Here are some more pictures of our little miss. She has really started to change in the last few days. Now she is fascinated by her hands when they happen to wander into her line of vision. And she has started to reach out and knock around the toys we place around her. I am sure that it is not intentional yet, but it is awfully cute to watch. Some things about these first four weeks that I don't want to forget:

- her greedy little look when she is getting ready to nurse

- the little patch of blonde hair behind her ear that my mom pointed out...I had one just like it.

- the smiles and giggles she makes when she is in REM sleep

- the first time I realized that she really does look like me and how overwhelming that was...it really blew my mind that another person (that I had a hand in creating) could have my face....of course this emotion could also have been due to my severe lack of sleep

- the way she looks up at me in the sling right before she closes her eyes to sleep

- how I have to be grateful for the small blessings in my life








We had our first PEPS meeting yesterday and I really liked it. Dan came with and we got to hear about everyone else's troubles with their babies. At least two of the other mothers talked about how their babies had witching hours from 11pm to 2am....that made me so glad that Julia doesn't seem to have one. She just fusses when I try to burp her and when it is time to nap during the day. And the fussing when I burp her is the most distressing. She is easy to put back to sleep at night (usually) after feeding. Last night she went 4.5 and 4 hours between feedings which was really nice. Especially because she wanted to eat almost every hour that we were home.

I also found out that one of the other couples from the PEPS group lives two blocks away on our same street. They have a little two week old girl and the mom, Sascha, will be home until mid-July. So I will have someone to take walks with once Dan goes back to work next week. I discovered that they lived there totally by accident...I was walking back from TJs when I heard someone calling my name. It was Sascha, who was also excited to see me. It was especially nice given the toughness of yesterday and how tough this morning had been too (total lack of sleep combined with baby who hates to be burped). Anyway, we've made it through the first four weeks with Julia intact. And seemingly enjoying herself. Big achievement on my part.

Trial Run

Today is a test for Julia and I. Dan went back to work to start some experiments that will run for the rest of the week and we are home alone. So far it is going pretty well, thanks to the sling. After eating, burping, sitting upright for some activity time, Julia is ready to sleep and I can carry her around in the sling until she wakes up again for another round. So we are falling into some kind of predictable routine.

Last night was a good sleeping night. We gave her a bath, then I fed her again around 8:30pm. And she went down fairly easily and slept until 12:30am or so. After that she slept again until 4:00am. She still wakes up at 6:00am or so, not hungry, but lonely. Once we bring her into the bed with us she calms right down and sleeps for another hour. This afternoon we took a nap together on the bed, which was a real blessing for me. Plus we even got some laundry done this morning and we get to make an excursion to the grocery store after she wakes up from her nap and is fed. I hope that I am doing the right thing by carrying her around in the sling with me so often. I know that she likes it (once she settles down) and I am playing with her before she decides she has had enough and starts to fuss.

Dan came home for lunch, which was nice, although we didn't get to eat it together. Dinner tonight is the lasagne we made before Julia arrived...it will provide dinners all week I think. Well, we might throw in some swedish meatballs as well. Maybe a pork roast if Dan gets really ambitious. He made a great dinner on Sunday for Easter: leg of lamb, sweet yams, and sauteed zucchini and mushrooms. I hope he continues to cook...he is really good at it. Anyway, I hear Miss Julia starting to stir. Here are some more Easter pictures....

Three weeks!!! Happy Easter!!

Two Weeks Down...the rest of our lives to go...

Little Julia is gaining weight like a prize fighter....almost 1 lb in a week! So she is up to 8lbs, 13 oz now and the doctor said I can start feeding her on demand at night. Which translates to about every 3.5 hours. Not too bad and we've decreased the overall number of feedings as well, which means more time for me to rest. She is looking awfully cute though, despite the fact that this week she discovered her lungs and crying. Julia seems to have some difficulty getting over the hump of drowsy to asleep, although thankfully this only occurs during the day. At night she goes back to sleep after eating, as long as she is wrapped in her yummy fleece blanket from Gramma.

Speaking of Gramma, she left today after her week plus long visit. We were so sad to see her go; she made our lives so much easier this week with the cooking and cleaning. She also occasionally held Julia, but she did not spoil her. We've also got the video conferencing thing up and running on our end and are just waiting for the relatives back on the East coast to buy their webcams and sign up for broadband.

This week also had a lot of firsts...Our first walk outside with the sling, first trip to church, first walk in the stroller (complete with rain gear...this is Seattle after all), first bath (really cute video taken by Gramma), and first stirrings of fussiness when trying to go to sleep (see above). It is definetly a learning experience and we cannot wait for those first smiles to come and reward us for all of this hard work.




Here we are on our first walk in the sling....we took Gramma to Kerry Park again to see Mt. Rainier and get some fresh air for Mommy. The sling is a wonderful invention....Mommy and Daddy will probably start wearing it full time during the day now that Gramma has gone back to Kentucky.

Later this week we get a visit from Granddad and GrandPam (Dan's dad and Pam). We've also been getting about a package a day from family and friends and are very grateful for all of the nice gifts you've been sending for Julia. We especially like the quilt that Auntie Em made and the dalmation blankie that Ann sent from Madison (we're going to name it Kirby). We'll try to keep the pictures coming.

1 week old... and looking a bit grumpy!

Julia Anne Klein

March 23, 2006
11:13 pm
8 lb. 1 oz. 21.5 in.

Are We Done Yet?

Well, it looks like the birthday sweepstakes will get more interesting this week. Most people guessed dates within the next week. Dan also pointed out that between our two families, this next week has the highest chance of a double birthday occuring. And it might be this week. My boss guessed that I would go into labor sometime this weekend, but it hasn't happened yet. We managed to walk 2 miles yesterday and another 2 miles today and I am still feeling good. But this week could be the week.

I saw the doctor on Thursday and I am now at 3 cm, 50-70% effaced, and still at zero station. I am going to see her again on Wednesday (her on call day) when she will strip my membranes in an attempt to jump start labor. So Claude/Maude might just arrive this Wednesday. Or Thursday. Or keep us waiting for another week.

The important tasks have been completed though. Dan submitted his paper. He submitted his abstract for RNA Society. We made lasagna. We made stuffed shells. We froze lots of mozzarella cheese for pizzas. I finished sewing the laundry bag and the diaper stacker. We actually put diapers into the diaper stacker. I grew my final protein cultures (but have yet to spin them down..tomorrow's task). We now have a daycare slot, but not until September 5th. So we will have to do some creative scheduling through July and August to make it work. I finished the last painting, but now have to wait for the mat to be cut. Dan even cleared the cobwebs up around the apartment.

So we just keep waiting. And I just keep smiling when people ask, "Are you still here?" It seems as though a lot of people we know are surprised that I am still working. But what else would I do? I am not allowed to sit in any position except upright or leaning forward. I can only lay on my left side for so long. And although the knitting is keeping my hands busy, it also tends to put me to sleep. So I might as well work. Anyway, we'll keep you posted.

Three Weeks and Counting

Well, we have entered the final countdown sequence and are awaiting the arrival of Claude/Maude anxiously. Not too anxiously though because I am sure that I will be pregnant for another three weeks. The doctor doesn't seem to think so, but everything about this pregnancy has been textbook thus far and it doesn't seem likely to change now. I was 2 cm dilated at 36 weeks, but there has been no change in the last week and the baby is head down at zero station. And I am getting tired of being pregnant.

We finally got the car seat installed (thanks for all of your tips, Tina!) and will have it checked tomorrow. So barring any labor tonight, we will have made it to the car seat check. The baptism class on the 25th is another matter though. The house is ready, although I still think that it could be cleaner. And don't get me started on all of the weeds that need to be pulled in the yard. Dan and I agreed though that it was too cold to start pulling weeds and we should wait for a warm and sunny day.

The cat has started regressing in her training. Since the weather has been warmer, more cats have been coming into our yard and this is causing her to jump on the kitchen counter to look out into the backyard. She gets down when I say her name in the threatening mother tone and sometimes even when I look at her. But I liked it better when she never jumped up there in the first place. I think that the sticky tape comes out this weekend. Dan has been using the vaccuum technique to keep her out of the nursery and that seems to be working very well. Of course, once the baby arrives and the vaccuum no longer lives in the nursery all bets are off.

Work is still going great as well...we're both rushing trying to get experiments done before the big day arrives. My labmates keep teasing me that I shouldn't set up any overnight experiments in case I won't be here to finish them. I was kind of hoping that Claude/Maude would arrive before this coming Monday so that I wouldn't have to give journal club, but no such luck this far. Besides I already have experiments planned for next week.

Baby Shower Pictures

Here are the baby shower pictures from the party at Sharona's (my boss) house....

Sharona with her youngest, Yael, who just turned 1 in January....

Becky and Dan chatting away with other members of the lab and their spouses....

Li and her husband Cary, and their son, Ed (who is six months old).

Opening gifts.....A bouncer! Now we can mesmerize and vibrate the baby at the same time!Opening more gifts (I think this one was the breast pump accessory set).

We had a great time and really appreciate the time and sentiment of everyone who came. We had a good spread of food for dinner (potluck) with Dan voting the sushi rice as his favourite dish. I liked the carrot cake that Carmen made.

Only 4.5 more weeks to go (or so they say) and we are getting more and more excited. We tried to put in the car seat on Saturday. Notice I said tried. I now understand why 80% of parents have them installed incorrectly. There just seems to be no way to get the thing tight enough so that it doesn't move around. And this was even after Dan kneeled in the car seat, putting his entire weight into the thing as I tightened the belts. We may have to try the latch system. And figure out a way to move the back seat further back so that the car seat is not resting on the front seats. We have the car seat inspection in another week or so, but I really think that we should be more ready than we are. Especially because Dan thinks that I should have had my bag packed already.

Don't forget to enter the Birthday Sweepstakes! The winner will receive our undying admiration for their psychic abilities, a place in history as the correct guesser of Claude/Maude's birthday, and the recipient of one of the first phone calls after Claude/Maude makes his/her appearance. Just drop either Dan or I an e-mail with your guess!

Pictures!!!
I promised and here they are! Only a day late....



The growing belly......who would have thought that I would get this big? Certainly not me....
The nursery pictures show our almost finished room. Also they show how small the room is. Hopefully babies spatial skills are not too developed. But it is looking really cute. The two outfits are for coming home from the hospital. Dan got to pick out the girl outfit and I picked out the boy outfit. Whichever we don't use will be returned. Or maybe saved for the next one...









The walls look a little bare, but I am working on pictures. Since they are watercolours they take a little bit longer, but they will be done in plenty of time. And they look pretty cute too. I am hoping that after the baby comes we will get some letters and spell out the baby's name above the crib. I've also thought about hanging up a crewel work picture that my mom made for me when I was a kid. I have to find it in the basement though.

Baby Showers and Playing Hooky

Well, I am not really playing hooky. Today is President's Day and the U is officially on holiday. Plus the shuttle buses don't run. Plus I have a lot of joint pain and thought it would be best for baby and me if I rested at home today. I have another 5 weeks to go until the official due date and don't want to spend them on bed rest. I met up with some of the other women from our childbirth class on Saturday and walked around Green Lake again, but ended up in more pain than I started the day with. The doc said it is just one of those pregnancy things and I should stay comfortable (which means limiting my walking), drink fluids to keep the baby floating higher, take a warm bath (which I would love to do, but they regrouted and caulked our tub this weekend), and try a maternity support belt. The maternity store is open today so I will be going there this afternoon to see if that helps at all. Plus I needed to pick up some camisole nursing tops for after the baby comes.

We had a baby shower given for us last Saturday night at my boss's house. It was really nice of the lab to plan the shower for me and we had a good time. It was a potluck dinner, which meant we were treated to Mika's sushi rice (everything but the fish) and Carmen's carrot cake (sooooo delicious!) I have just a few pictures from it, but I need to get them off the lab server to post them correctly.

We spent this weekend trying to finish off the nursery. We put together the stroller and the bouncer and actually put a sheet on the crib. I took down all of the office pictures and hung up a few baby pictures. With today off I am also finally painting my watercolours...they don't look too bad so far, but I don't think anyone will be beating a path to my door to commission their own set. Dan had a brilliant idea with the cat training as well. Since our cat is only so smart, he put the baby gate we purchased for the bathroom in the door to the nursery. This has stumped the cat. She just cannot figure out that she can jump over the gate and get into the room. She has discovered that she can jump onto the chair next to the doorway and gaze into the room, but still hasn't figured out how to jump over the gate. And this is the same cat that this morning jumped from the window to the TV to the top of our 8 ft. bookcase. I don't get it. We filled the bassinet with the rest of the balloons and she is staying well away from it. Next weekend will be the great car seat installation, with the inspection to follow in a few more weeks. I promise to post some pictures of the nursery before the end of the day. Really.

Let the Balloon Training Commence!

We we attended the Infant Safety and CPR class in December, the instructor spent a little time talking about pets and how to adjust your pets to having a new little creature in the house. It seems like most of the problems that can arise do so with dogs and cats are fairly benign. Knowing that our cat is anything but benign, we asked about training the cat to stay out of the crib and bassinet. The instructor said that we had three options, ranging from mild to extreme. The first is to fill the crib with balloons. When the cat tries to jump into the crib, it will pop a balloon or two and become so traumatized by the noise it will never approach the crib again. If you cat doesn't quite get the whole one-trial learning thing, you can move on to Method #2. This involves buying a sensor that is hooked up to an air can. When the cat jumps into the crib, it gets blasted with air. And then, if your cat is unfazed by puffs of air (I am sure Sierra would be as she is unfazed by water spraying), you can try Method #3. This method uses another purchased product that consists of a blanket you place into the crib. When the sensors in the blanket sense a change in weight (i.e. when the cat jumps into the crib), it gives the cat a small electrical shock. About what you would experience from static electricity. Very annoying to the cat, but sure to provide entertainment for the adults.
At first I didn't think that Sierra was going to even attempt to jump into the crib. She didn't like us putting it up and seemed to spend a lot of time sniffing it, then running away. But then I discovered her sleeping in the crib one night as I was making dinner. Right on top of some nice warm baby blankets. She looked at me like I was crazy when I told her to get down (I am sure she thinks that we have set this crib up just for her to take naps in) and I decided that we needed to try the balloons.
It took forever to find balloons. Seattle, unlike most of the country, seems to think that balloons are not one of those staples that should be carried in grocery stores. We have noticed this with other products as well, like risotto, pignoli nuts, and barley. Even the little card store, which had an entire wall devoted to party supplies, did not carry balloons. I guess they are not that popular for birthday parties anymore. We finally found some over the weekend and filled both the crib and the bassinet with balloons. Sierra was terrified of the balloons as we inflated them...she usually doesn't like anything that moves on its own. Especially if it is about her size or larger. But now she seems even more curious about the balloons in the crib. Two of them have popped in the crib, seemingly spontaneously, which has really scared her. But she has discovered that she can climb up into the changing insert on the bassinet, look out the window, and be totally unbothered by the balloons. I think we will have to line it with aluminum foil...something else that cats are not supposed to like.

Happy New Year!!!

Lots of big exciting changes await in 2006! Only three more months until Claude/Maud makes his/her appearance and we have been getting ready. We went baby shopping this weekend, picking up several things. We got our cool stroller so that we can take lots of walks around the neighborhood. We also picked up a chest of drawers for storage; the unfinished furniture store was having a "No Sales Tax" sale so it was like having a 9% off coupon. We also got some onesies for newborns, a dust ruffle, and more little socks. I am contemplating making some little flannel pants, especially since the fabric store has the flannel on sale right now. We are waiting until Christmas is over to start putting the nursery together.

We had a pretty quiet Christmas, once again forgetting to take any pictures. It was different not to have a bunch of family around this year. But we had a nice breakfast with two of the other women from the church choir, then went down to Olympia for dinner and to spend the night. I made way too many cookies (so they might be appearing in lab this week) and also date bars. I have concluded though that Seattle is too humid to make date bars properly as the powdered sugar kept melting. Maybe I will get to watch Granny make them next year and see what secret tricks I am missing out on.

New Year's was quiet as well, although we did walk down to Kerry Park to see the fireworks shooting off the Space Needle. Today was another day off of work (although we both went into lab for the morning) and another day spent watching football. Both Louisville and Notre Dame lost. Playoffs start next week though and we will be watching the Bengals play and eating the "Who Dey Bar" that my Aunt Dotty gave us for Christmas.

Here is a picture from our baby shower in Maryland where I am opening Bobby's gift of a Ravens sleeper. I said that we would have to get a little Bengals sleeper as well. Especially since the Bengals were playing the Ravens that day and beat them soundly. At least it wasn't a Duke outfit. It was a nice shower though and Dan's family was very generous. Our favorite gift though was from Uncle Chuck, who gave us a little horse stuffed animal. We promptly nicknamed him Charlie Horse. We also recieved lots of Pooh things, which will only aid in converting our small nursery into the Hundred Acre Wood. I will be starting on the drawings I have planned later this week.