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