Letting Go

Reality gave me a swift whack in the face on Friday morning...and my face is still stinging! Jordan spent her first morning in the "big D" (and I don't mean Dallas). I knew the day would come when I would have to trust total strangers to care for Jordan, but until now that day only loomed in the distance.

We planned ahead and put our names on a wait list for childcare (back in June) and a spot for Jordan finally opened beginning December 15th. While I am not returning to work until January 4th, we will be out of town from December 24th through January 1st, which would not afford us the opportunity for "trial runs" at daycare. So that we wouldn't be starting full time daycare "cold turkey," our only option was to bring her there while I am still on Family Leave from work.

On Thursday night we *sigh* set the alarm clock for 6:30 am so we would make it to daycare by 7:30. Careful preparations were made that night to have all of Jordan's essentials ready-to-go; a supply of diapers, wipes, spare clothes, blanket, pacifier, and her bottles, of course, were all packed.

Jordan was all packed and ready to go on Friday morning, the only problem was that mommy wasn't! I was playing all my stall cards and hoping that Jordan would be uncooperative so that we would have no choice but to call the daycare and let them know we would not be in that morning afterall. Unfortunately for me, it was a routine morning without hang-ups. We arrived at daycare on time and the moment I had hoped would never happen happened--we placed our baby in a stranger's arms and had to say good bye. I put up a galliant front while inside the facility, but once we left, the tears started flowing. I think I cried the whole way home. It was a tough morning for me, but fortunately Jordan did just fine.

She will spend a full day at daycare on Monday to see how that goes (and so I can feel confident in how much milk I will need to supply her with when I return to work). I guess I should face the fact that I haven't won the lottery yet and therefore can't stay at home with Jordan forever. It will be a difficult transition for all of us, but in the end Jordan will benefit from the interaction with other children, and we benefit from my continued income and health benefits.

Jordan likes her Jumperoo

Jordan gives us some smiles while playing in her new Jumperoo.

Jordan's First Birthday Party

Last Saturday Jordan attended her first party, a birthday celebration for her friend, Henry, who turned 1. Okay, so they had never met yet, but they might end up being great friends in the future. Jordan must not have been too excited about the party though, since she slept through the entire thing! There were kids there ranging in age from 6 months to 5 years all playing and running about having a grand 'ole time. And there was Jordan...sleeping...

We'll see if she is invited back, party pooper!

It's Bottle time!

After being on the list for about 6 months Jamie and I finally got the call that a spot has opened up at the Palouse Early Learning Center.  This was a big stress relief for both of us knowing we have a spot when we go back to work after New Years.  Then we realized that January will be here before we know it, and if Jordan wants to actually eat during the day we better see if she will take the breast milk out of a bottle.  Of course I have been waiting for this chance to finally feed our daughter, and over the past two days I kept hinting at Jamie to bring out the pump.  We decided tonight would be a good night to give it a shot.  I read up on the "proper" ways to bottle feed a baby, and read a lot of stories about babies refusing the bottle for a while before finally accepting it.  Luckily we have a few weeks before we need her to be able to bottle feed.  So with a full bottle in my hand and the little one sitting on my lap I gave it a shot.  After a few seconds of her going from why is there milk suddenly in my mouth to why is the milk coming out of this plastic thing, she latched on and away she went.  She seemed to get the hang of it pretty well and  drank about 3 oz.  With that success we will continue to giver her the bottle a couple of times a day so when she goes off to "school" she will be able to feed.  It feels good to be able to feed her, and give Jamie the ability to go out for longer than an hour or two before I am calling her to come home because Jordan is hungry.  Next week we might even take up Grandpa and Grandma Femreite on their offer to babysit for date night so we can go out for dinner.
Completely unrelated I finally brought out the sitting position guide we got.  Technically it is to be used when she gets a little older but she really likes to sit sometimes so I thought I would give it a shot.  Below is the picture I snapped while she was in it.  What a goof ball.

Comments fixed

I had heard some people were having issues posting comments on this blog.  I think I fixed the problem and you should be able to post comments.

Jordan's First Thanksgiving

We have many things to be thankful this year, but most of all is the beautiful baby girl Jamie and I welcomed into the world.  Jordan celebrated her first Thanksgiving this week surrounded by the love of her family.  Grandpa Chris and Grandma Louise made the trip over from Seattle, Uncle Eric and Aunt Kinzie were there as well as Great Aunt Kathy, and Grandpa Gary and Grandma Barb brought over a wonderful turkey dinner.

The day started off with the boys going out for a morning Elk/Deer hunt (lots of walking no meat).  Jamie, Jordan, and Grandma Louise enjoyed a quite morning together watching Jordan kick around on her play mat.  Jordan has begun to smile a lot, and not just the "Dad I filled my diaper" smiles.  She loves to laugh at you when you make goofy faces or sounds.  With this new development she provided everyone with lots of entertainment. When dinner time came, Jordan was kind enough to sleep through it allowing us to all eat together.  Her normal behavior would be to realize mom was about to sit down to a meal and give declaration with very loud screams that it was her time to eat.

We want to thank everyone who came over for the wonderful time and giving us and Jordan some great memories of her first Thanksgiving.  We also want to thank that great wonderful turkey loaded with tryptophan for giving us a great nights sleep.  With Jordan's belly full of what we like to call "Turkey Milk" she slept for 7 hours straight that night.  And now for some pictures:

Grinning Jordan

Uncle Eric and Aunt Kinzie with Jordan

Jordan and Great Aunt Kathy

Jordan and Grandma Louise

Catching Some ZZZs

After a mostly sleepless night on Saturday Josh and I decided to try a different strategy. We both read Dr. Harvey Karp's The Happiest Baby on the Block and learned about the soothing and calming powers of the "5 S's"--that is, swaddling, swinging, side-laying, shhing, and sucking. Successful combination of the 5 S's is promised to turn on our baby's "calming reflex" and allow her to relax and eventually sleep longer at night. We had the tools, but just needed to put them to work for us.

So last night we applied the techniques to our restless and fussy nearly 5-week-old so that we could continue to watch the final minutes of the MLS Cup final. Sure enough, she was calmed and fast asleep in less than 5 minutes! This was at around 9 pm. At 10:30 we decided to call it a night, so we "topped off" the baby and were asleep by 11:15 expecting to wake up at the usual 1 am, when she usually wakes. However, with her still swaddled (which we once thought she didn't appreciate) she slept until 4:30 am! It was glorious! We hope that this wasn't a fluke and that Jordan is less confused about the difference between night and day. We'll see how it goes tonight...

Just Mommy & Me

Jordan and I had our first solo day on Tuesday because Josh had a meeting he had to be at all day. Fortunately Jordan wasn't too cranky during the day and I was actually able to get some stuff done--like the laundry, so that all of us would have some clean clothes to wear! I even did some vacuuming (turns out she likes the noise), reorganized my craft room, and even found the energy to try my hand at walking the dog and the baby, in the stroller, of course. We returned from our outing just before the rain hit Moscow, perfect timing!

One short story from our day that seemed blog-worthy involves the family dog, Cairo. That morning I put Jordan in the swing after she was sufficiently full and had a clean diaper so that I could take a shower. I was nervous leaving the dog downstairs with the baby in the swing (only because of all the stories I've read in various books about jealous pets). So anyway, I took Cairo upstairs with me and let her get on our bed and lie down, since she usually is forbidden from being on it, and would never leave it unless you make her get down. Well I didn't latch the door to the bedroom shut when I got in the shower and when I was done there was no dog on the bed, so I went downstairs and found her laying beneath the swing guarding the baby! Then the dog gave me this look like "how could you let her be down here by herself?" Cairo was obviously very concerned about the "noisy thing" in the swing. We have always known that Cairo has a very gentle demeanor and would never expect her to harm the baby, and this event certainly reassured us that she continues to be "the protector."

The Fauxhawk better than the Mullet?

Jordan with her Fauxhawk

First Month Reflections

Jordan is 4 weeks old today! In this installment of the baby blog, we will take some time to reflect on Jordan's first month of life. The first month has been both the shortest and longest month of our lives. It seems like we left the hospital just yesterday; but then we remember all the diapers we've changed, all the laundry we've washed, all the stories we've read, all the time we've spent in the swing or the bouncy seat or the rocking chair, and especially all the sleep we've lost and then the time seems like it has stood still.

Jordan has changed a lot since that first day in the hospital. She is more alert, seemingly more aware of her surroundings, and more interactive (she will grasp your finger and other small objects with her hand, for example). Jordan seems so tiny to us still, but she has definitely grown a lot. Most of her newborn clothing is too small, and we can barely get newborn diapers to velcro shut anymore. Even her hair and eyelashes have grown! So now she is transitioning to her stock of 3-month clothing and size 1 diapers and saying goodbye to everything that comforted her the first three weeks of her life.

We are still working out the kinks with the differences between night and day, with regards to sleep habits and were hoping she would have come around by now, but it's a lesson much harder to learn apparently. The problem is not actually with the sleeping, but with getting to sleep at night. During the day, a clean diaper and a full belly with a little back rubbing is all that is required to send Jordan to dreamland. But at night these tricks and techniques are useless and seem to contribute to her alertness. It is rare that we get to sleep at night either without bouts of crying, or hours on the rocking chair. However, once she does get to sleep she will usually not wake up for about 4 hours, so I guess it could be worse.

Overall, it has been a good month. We are learning to 'communicate' with Jordan better every day and we hope she knows how much we both love her!

Jordan wakes up from a nap

...and decides to ruin a perfectly good video with a surprise midway through.

Finally!

It took a good 2 weeks and 2 days, but Jordan's umbilical cord stump has finally fallen off! Her mommy and daddy are especially excited because now they can try their hands at a real bath, rather than the awkward sponge baths they have been doing. We're guessing that Jordan will appreciate a nice warm soak in the tub as well. Okay, that might be wishful thinking, but she did enjoy her first bath at the hospital!

Depending on Jordan's reaction, we're planning to incorporate bath time into her daily routine appropriately. For instance, we had heard that having a bath just before bed can calm an active and alert baby so that she gets to sleep earlier. However, if bath time fails to calm Jordan we will do our best to avoid late night soaks. Mostly, we're just hoping that bath time is happy time and not torturous to baby or mom and dad!

Jordan Attempts to Crawl

Jordan at two weeks thinks she has what it takes to crawl...... not quite

Happy Halloween

Here are some pictures of a couple of Jordan's outfits for today. We had purchased a main bumble bee costume that was rated for 0-3 months but it would probably fit a 4 year old and the hat that came with it almost fits Jamie's head. I had to get one of her great faces she makes as well.

Finding a schedule and more pictures

Jordan is almost 2 weeks old now.  It seems like it has been both a year and only one day since we brought her home.  Now that Jordan has settled into a bit of a schedule the days seem to go by very quickly but it seems like we have been doing this for a long time.  Our days now, pending any appointments we have, consist of Jordan waking up at about 8:45 for a feeding.  I get ready for the day while Jamie feeds her then I take her downstairs while Jamie gets ready.  Jordan sleeps for about 2 hours then needs to be fed again.  After this feeding she wants to sleep and sleep and sleep.  We usually put her in the swing at about 11 so we can take a nap if needed or do other work.  She would probably sleep in this swing all afternoon but we usually wake her up at about 2 or 3 to eat.  She will nap again for a few hours before needed fed (obviously she eats and sleeps a lot and I have spared you the details on her bowel movements).  At about 5 pm she decides to wake up and provides us with some entertainment as she kicks around makes grunting noises (i.e. "Daddy I am filling my diaper") and looks around curiously at anything that moves in front of her.  She is already lifting her head up for long periods of time to check things out, which provides us with some laughs.  This is Jamie and I's favorite time of the day because we get to interact with her, however, we also know what is coming next.  The 5:00 happy hour soon leads into the 8:00 I'm pissed hour.  The first night she did this we, as new parents, struggled to get her to stop crying, however, Jamie has become the PRO at getting Jordan ready for bed.  This usually consists of feeding, a little rocking in the chair while reading a book to her, and some burping.  I gave it a shot one night but failed miserably and Jamie had to take over with her magic touch.  She will generally fall to sleep about 11:30 waking at around 3:00 am and 6:00 am for feedings.

So far that seems to be her schedule.  I would say we are pretty lucky, but I really have no room to talk as I am not the one who has to sit up and feed her when she wakes at night so Jamie may have a different take on it.  Jordan seems to be growing every day and becoming more aware of her surroundings.  We celebrated Jamie's birthday yesterday as a family.  Jordan got her mommy the movie "Nightmare before Christmas" so we watched that and had some cake and ice cream.

Peaceful Days, Restless Nights

Now that Jordan is 1 week old, mom and dad are finding that adjusting to life with an infant is physically and emotionally draining. Jordan's wake, sleep, change, and feed schedule is ever-changing and therefore difficult to anticipate. She is becoming more alert and interactive than those first days in the hospital, but sometimes she chooses to do so in the middle of the night when mom and dad are most tired. It's also been a struggle to initiate bedtime sleep, as this seems to be the time of day when Jordan decides to cry relentlessly, despite our best efforts to calm and soothe her. Last night was especially frustrating, after a cycle or two of cuddling/feeding/burping that lasted from 11:00 pm until 3:30 am before she calmed down enough to sleep the rest of the night. We are hoping to figure out how to avoid the bedtime drama before we both lose our minds!

Jamie has had an especially challenging time with the transition to motherhood because she has limited mobility and lifting restrictions from her c-section that require her to be dependent on others' help--which she is uncomfortable with in general. She is feeling like a lesser member of the parenting team, and is very frustrated about it. In addition, Jamie has been struggling with the "baby blues" and readjustment of hormones, but things are improving with every day that passes. She is looking forward to being able to walk for longer durations without pain (at this point the mailbox and back is as far as it gets) and to leave the house for short periods. However, her incision seems to be healing well and she should be feeling better soon.

Jordan swinging

Yep it is another video. Jordan loves the swing Uncle Jeff and Aunt Amy got her!

Plethra of Baby Pictures

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Jordan and Grandpa Chris

Baby Jordan's first video

Jordan is holding my hand and sticking her tongue out.

Summary of the day

As Jordan's birthday winds to a close we have a very tired mom and baby.  Everything went very well.  The Dr. said Jordan was definitely in her own little nook right up in Jamie's ribs and was not that excited to leave it.  Jamie is finally at ease being able to breath better now that her ribs have gone back to the anatomically correct position.  The day went by very fast with a whirlwind of nurses checking vitals, working to get Jordan to feed, my first two dirty diapers (and yes they were full), and visitors.  We want to thank everyone who stopped by and sent wishes from afar.  Jordan has a lot of people who love her.

She is a nice big healthy baby.  Surprisingly amongst all of this commotion going on around her she has slept the whole day. We have had to wake her up just to feed.  The technique that seems to work the best is changing her diaper.  That seems to get her crying enough to realize she is hungry.  When not feeding she seems content to sleep while giving us a gamut of facial expresions ranging from sly smile to an oops I craped my pants looks.  One random event today was Jordan flipping me the bird as I tried to waker her up.

Well it is time for us to try and catch a little shut eye.  The night will be a long one filled with feedings, vital signs being taken, baby being weighed, and medicine being taken.  From our new family we would like to thank everyone who have helped us through the past 9 months to bring this beautiful little girl into the world!

Welcome to the world Jordan Jeunette

Born 8:02 am
Weight: 9 lbs 3 oz
Height: 20.5 inches

Both Mom and Baby are doing well.

Checked in

We are all checked in Jamie is getting lots of fluids through her IV. Now just waiting for 7:30 to come around. Both of us are a little nervous and very excited. Still very dark and very cold outside.

Heading to the hospital

It is 5 am and we are headed to the hospital. Stay tuned for pictures and news this afternoon.

Penciled In

It's 0fficial--since baby Jordan has not flipped head down on her own (or by the forceful hands of doctors) we were scheduled for a C-section that will occur on Monday, October 19 bright and early. This scheduled date, however, could be ignored if baby decides last-minute to flip around, in which case we might be required to let nature take its course. Additionally, there is always the possibility that labor could begin before October 19. If this occurs, I would still require a C-section if baby is still breech, it would just be under more stressful conditions.

So, while we are prepared to become "mom" and "dad" on the 19th, we are keeping the go-bag ready in the event of unplanned "labor."

The surgery will last about an hour, most of which will be spent sewing me back up. We were told that extracting the baby really only takes about 10 minutes or less (beats hours of labor if you ask me). I won't be able to hold the baby immediately after the surgery as she will be wisked away to the nursery to be cleaned up and checked out while the doctors "deliver" the placenta and get me sewn back together. Josh will be able to follow the nurses to the nursery to bond with baby Jordan, then eventually he will be allowed to bring her back into the recovery room to be with me too.

The expected recovery period following a C-section is about 6 weeks including 2-3 days in the hospital. I'm hoping that the surgery won't put me totally out of commission for the entire 6 weeks! That being said, I plan to follow doctor's orders to the "T" so that I minimize the risk of injury to other areas of my body that may be compromising for my healing abdominal area.

So barring some unforseen circumstance, we are penciling in baby Jordan's birdate as October 19, 2009!

External Cephalic Version: Unsuccessful

Thursday morning I received a call from the doctor to schedule the external version. While I wasn't expecting this to happen until October 6th or 8th, it was scheduled for Friday morning (yesterday). Here's how it went:

6:00 am- arrive at the hospital, check in. I am asked to change into a hospital gown, after which I am hooked up to the usual monitors (one for fetal heart rate, the other for uterine activity). I am given an injection of a medication to relax my uterus, as well as an IV for precautionary measures.

7:00 am- Dr. Guida and Dr. Richards enter the room and explain the procedure to me again. They explain the potential risks of the procedure (breaking bag of waters, fetal distress, inducing labor) and the success rate (50-60%). I was assured that the procedure is safe and in their 25-30 years of experience they had seen the water break once, and fetal distress once. I was feeling okay about the risks.

7:05- procedure begins. A quick confirmation of where baby's head and hips are and a starting fetal heart rate is determined using ultrasound. Dr. Richards works on pushing from baby's hips, while Dr. Guida attempts to manipulate the head out from under my ribs. Both doctors are really digging in and kneading at my stomach to try and turn the baby.

7:10- procedure ends after 2 or 3 unsuccessful tries. The doctors decided to stop trying because the baby's heart rate started to decrease a little and they didn't want to endanger her. At this point my abdomen is very sore and feeling bruised in certain spots. The doctors were pushing so hard that their arms were shaking. ouch.

7:15- I am hooked back up to the monitors again and monitored for another hour.

8:30- Baby seems to have taken the stress well and is back to "normal." I am discharged and will see the doctor again on Tuesday to schedule a C-section.

Tracking Baby's Progress

Well, no big surprise, baby Jordan prefers to go against the norm and remain in her cozy apartment upright instead of the usual head-down position. So now our doctor, Kim Guida, will enlist the help of one of her colleagues in attempting an external cephalic version--fancy words for "let's flip the baby!" We are anxiously awaiting a call from the doctor to schedule a date for "the version," but were told it would most likely be either Tuesday or Thursday of next week (October 6th or 8th).

This procedure will be done at Pullman Regional Hospital, where I will be hooked up to some fetal monitors and given an IV should the need for an emergency Cesarean occur. Guided by ultrasound, the doctors will attempt to manually manipulate the baby into the head-down position. We were told they will know within 10 minutes whether they will be able to turn her or not, and won't force the issue and risk sending me into labor or causing fetal distress. (Though I don't think I would mind too much to have the baby early) The success rate for this procedure is about 50%, and should it fail, the doctor will not attempt to deliver her breech, and will instead schedule me for a Cesarean.

Jordan is a very healthy weight (which I cannot share because it would provide an unfair advantage for those of you reading this who are participating in the baby pool at work) and would probably not have any problems if she was born early. In fact, some might say she is a chunky baby. I will say this: (for those who remember that day fondly back on October 30, 1981) that "little" Jordan has already surpassed her mother's birth weight, with 24 days left in the womb!

Nursery Part II

This is part II of the nursery. We finished decorating/reorganizing it. We want to thank everyone for the gifts we received. Jordan will be living in the lap of luxury.

The Big 3-0!

It's official...I have reached the 30 lb weight gain milestone! Ironically, I am watching The Biggest Loser as I blog about my weight gain hahaha.

Keeping us on our toes

Holding to her pattern of keeping Jamie and I on our toes Jordan decided it would be a good idea to spice up this pregnancy journey yet again last night. We went in for the first NST (non stress test) at the hospital.  We were able to get it scheduled right before our birth class which is also at the hospital.  For the NST they hook Jamie up to the machine that they would when you go into labor, it monitors the babies heart rate and the contractions.  Jamie was given a little Jeopardy style thumb clicker to hit each time she felt the baby kick or move.  So we arrived, Jamie was hooked up and the nurse stepped out of the room for a minute.  The following is as close as I can recall to the conversations that took place next, presented to you in Play format:

Enter Nurse:
Nurse to Jamie:  "How are you doing?"
Jamie:  "Fine"
Nurse: "Are you feeling any contractions?"
Jamie:  "No?"
Nurse:  "Ok well we will have you on this for about another half an hour."
Exit Nurse

Jamie sits in the bed while Josh meanders around the room rummaging through cabinets and the refrigerator trying to pass the time.

Enter Nurse
Nurse to Jamie:  "Are you feeling any contractions yet?"
Jamie;  "No, but I really don't know what they would feel like so I am not sure."
Jamie looks at Josh confusion on both their faces as to why the nurse is so hellbent on contractions

Nurse:  "Well according to the machine you are having regular contractions about two minutes apart."

Josh and Jamie look at each other again and the confusion has intensified to complete bewilderment.
Nurse:  "I need to contact your doctor to see if she wants to come in and examine you."
Josh and Jamie in a confused voice:  "OK"
Exit Nurse

Josh:  "What the hell is going on, are you randomly going into labor right now?"
Jamie:  "I have no idea, I don't feel anything.  That nurse sure seemed a little on edge"
Josh:  "I know good lord what are the odds that you come in here and then go into labor"
Josh can hear the nurse talking out side the room to another unknown man.  He is telling her that Dr. Guida is actually out of town and she needs to call the other doctor.

Josh:  "So seriously what the hell is going on.  This is sort of crazy.  See I told you we should have packed your "GO" bag a month ago.
Jamie (sort of laughing):  "Yeah no kidding, apparently everyone was right about this baby coming before October."
Enter Nurse
Nurse:  "Well the doctor said that he doesn't think he needs to check you, but you need to watch for any signs that you are going into labor like (note:  gory details of symptoms omitted from this play).  So if you notice any of that you need to call us and come back in right away.
Jamie: "Um, ok"

The nurse unhooks Jamie from the machine and we leave and go down to admitting to get pre-registered.
The End.

So yes in hindsight we should have asked some more questions to find out what was actually going on, and was this normal for a woman still 5 weeks away from her due date.  Both of us were to shocked at the moment to really think of anything.  Luckily we had our birth class right afterwards and talked to our instructor after the class about it.  Her reaction did not help the situation.  I believe her exact words when we told her that she was having contractions two minutes apart was (in a voice of total shock) "WHAT".    No one seemed to concerned but it set the tone for the night of wondering what could happen.  Needless to say when we arrived home I made Jamie pack a go bag just in case, charged up all of the cameras and video recorders, and cleared a path to the car for a quick evac if needed.

This morning has come with no changes.  Jamie feels like she has for the past few months (pregnancy pain) and we both set off to work.  It seems this time it was a false alarm but Jordan sure likes to keep us on our toes.

Big Belly

Rub the Buddha belly for 10 years of good luck!

(shown at 34.5 weeks)

The Road Home Has Many Turns

Our last doctor visit revealed that baby Jordan is the only one who can determine her birthplan. She has stubbornly decided not to assume the vertex (head down) position within the womb yet, thus complicating the birthing options and ravaging mom's ribcage with the top of her head. If, by our next appointment, baby Jordan is still breech then we will have to undergo a procedure called external cephalic version in which the doctor will attempt to manually rotate the baby by not-so-gently massaging my belly. The purpose of this procedure is to try and avoid going into labor while the baby is breech (since vaginal deliveries of breech babies are extremely dangerous to the baby). However, this procedure is only successful 50% of the time and does not come without its own risks, including premature labor, premature rupture of the bag of waters, damage to the placenta, and the pinching and or twisting of the umbilical cord--all of which can lead to an emergency C-section.

If the external version is unsuccessful and the baby remains in the breech position then we will go ahead and schedule a C-section for approximately 1 week before the due date. But if the procedure is successful and the baby remains in the vertex position, we're back on track for a "normal" delivery.

I received a handout describing a few different positions that I can try (mostly old wives tales) to try and influence baby Jordan to rotate on her own, but so far those haven't worked. I don't necessarily have any reservations about having a C-section, but it is a major surgery and there is always a risk when undergoing surgery--not to mention a longer recovery time! It would sure make things interesting for the work baby pool though if I knew my date and everyone else had to try and guess!

In the meantime, I will be doing a weekly "non-stress test" at the hospital before childbirth class to monitor the baby's heart rate and make sure she is not under duress. I have never done this, so I don't know what to expect...so stay tuned!

What's in a Name

Naming your child is one of the important decisions you make before (or in some cases soon after) they are born. The name will follow them for the rest of their life. It must withstand the verbal creativity of those elementary kids, and as they grow older you want their name to not sound like they are still three. As we scrolled through book after book and online "best of (insert year here)" lists we wanted to find a name that was somewhat unique yet not so far out there that no one could pronounce it since she already has to deal with explaining to everyone how to say and spell Femreite. A while back we found a name that just seemed right, when we both heard it we looked at each other and said "I like that one!". After hearing others tales of finding the perfect name only to find another one they liked better later, we thought it best to just wait and see how the name we liked so much stuck. After a few months of saying the name and looking through other lists, books, dictionaries, thesauruses, ancient scrolls, and seeking the advice of a spiritual lady named Zelda, no other names have sounded so right.  Then comes the middle name.  Do you pick something random, use a parent name, grandparent, great grandparent, or even the family pet's name?  We decided (before we knew the sex) that if it was a boy we would give him the middle name of Thomas after my eldest living Grandfather.  If it was a girl she would have the middle name Jeunette after Jamie's eldest living Grandmother.  So without further ado, we introduce to you:

Jordan Jeunette Femreite

A BIG Surprise!

At our ultrasound on Thursday, August 27, we got some BIG news...literally! At just shy of 32 weeks gestational age, Baby Femreite is weighing in at a whopping 5 lbs 2 oz! To put this in perspective, the average weight for a fetus of this age is normally about 4 lbs. Additionally, in the 8th month a fetus will normally gain around 1/2 lb per week and in the 9th month normal weight gain is 1 lb per week. At this rate, after a full term, or 40 week gestation, Baby Femreite could weigh upwards of 11 lbs!

After confirming that I have not developed gestational diabetes, both the ultrasound technician and the visiting doctor explained that women with diabetes tend to give birth to high birth-weight babies. I told them that if I had diabetes I would probably be dead by now (due to my sweet tooth, haha). Therefore, it's possible that we will need to have an additional ultrasound in a month or so to check Baby Femreite's growth.

As a side note, we weren't able to get any clear pictures of Baby Femreite's face because she had it buried into to side of the placenta. However, we were able to see that she already has a lot of hair. The only question is...what color will it be?

Decorating the nursery

Tonight we finally got in and started organizing and decorating the nursery.  The three canvas tree animal scene we painted was hung above the crib.  On the other wall are three metal flowers.  Getting everything in its place and making sure the room has the proper feng shui (yeah right!) has been fun, and we still have a ways to go.

Josh's work baby shower

August 25, Deary Idaho

My co-workers threw me a very nice baby shower during work today. It was akward being surrounded by pink, but I know that baby Femreite will definitely appreciate all of her new gear. I was excited to get home and show Jamie all the baby gifts. Thanks to I-DEA for helping us new parents get baby Femreite off to a great start!

Surprising Symptoms of Pregnancy

I’ve found that no matter how many books you read about a subject, there’s always going to be surprises waiting for you. I am aware that my body is constantly undergoing many significant changes as it progresses through pregnancy, but some of these changes have caught me off guard. My hands and feet, which previously could have been described as “icy” are now always hot, though not swollen (yet). Weird. My efforts to keep some kind of fitness regimen have been thwarted due to hip, tailbone and pelvis pain. Walking has become burdensome, though I had been used to running for miles. Strange. Most recently, after enjoying an afternoon outing to watch the WSU soccer team play Idaho, I noticed a new mole on my left kneecap that I’m sure wasn’t there just days ago. For fear that I had developed some kind of melanoma for not wearing sunscreen that afternoon I Googled “sudden appearance of moles” and learned about my newest and most surprising symptom of pregnancy yet--the darkening of existing, or sudden development of new moles due to hormonal changes while skin is exposed to sun. As if I need any extra moles! Who knew!

Original artwork for Baby Femreite's nursery

Acrylic paints on a series of 3 canvases

it's no Diego Riviera, but it'll do....

Josh making friends with the forest animals

New Crib

The completed new crib!

Ultrasound Pictures

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Showing the Man Skills

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