Some Fun and Not-So-Fun Firsts

Annika's had a lot of new experiences over the past two weeks!

First, the not-so-fun. Annika got sick a couple of weeks ago. I came home from a work meeting and found her sleeping. Within a few minutes she awoke, started throwing up and continued to do so several times over the next hour. Ultimately the pediatrician advised us to take her to the emergency room. Here she is lying on the emergency room bed.

 We ended up being in the hospital all night while they ran tests to rule out some serious things. Here's a tired dad with his tired baby.

 Annika endured many uncomfortable firsts, including the first (and hopefully last) tube shoved down her nose and into her stomach.

Fortunately, all serious possibilities were ruled out and Annika improved nearly as quickly as she had become ill. We were scheduled to go to Utah later that afternoon, but we were nervous about flying with her so we postponed the trip for a day. 

She did great on her first plane flights to and from Utah and slept almost the entire time. The Utah trip deserves a post of its own, but here are some pictures of her on the plane trip home.

She appeared intrigued by the sound of the baggage carousel.

Once we returned to New York I had to return to work and Annika started daycare. Here she is in the car, ready for her first day.

So far it is going well. I like the woman who runs the daycare a lot and she has been very flexible and allowed us to ease into it. I picked up Annika on the first day and took her to work with me for a lunch break.

Annika also had her first entire evening home alone without her parents. Scott and I went to wedding while Aunt Haha (aka Carly) and Uncle Justin babysat. 
Annika had a great time.

She really let loose (sorry guys!)

We hadn't been out that late in a long time and were pretty tired the next day. Luckily Annika enjoyed sleeping in with her dad, so it wasn't too painful.

The most exciting of the firsts came this morning. We have struggled to get in enough tummy time because Annika hates being on her stomach. We laid her on the floor playing on her tummy while we were both getting ready for work. Suddenly Scott said "look!" and we watched Annika roll herself over to her back. While she has rolled off a pillow a couple of times and has had a few daddy-assisted rollovers, this was her first totally on her own. She immediately started screaming -- guess her world was literally turned upside down!

Tonight I had to go to another work meeting so Scott stayed home with her. He put her on her tummy and she rolled over repeatedly. This is one way to get out of tummy time!

Annika and her Father

Annika loves spending time with her pops!

Annika and her mother

I'm experimenting with embedding slideshows. Clicking on the pictures will show the captions, I think. Look for "Annika and her Father" coming soon!

Two months!

Annika turned two months old yesterday! To celebrate, Scott and I hired a babysitter and went out for a quick bite to eat. It was strange to be together without her, but she did great while we were gone, so we're going to do it more often.


Now that she is two months she is apparently old enough for jeans and converse.

Over the past month we've seen a lot of changes. My favorite is that she can now hold her head up. She is increasingly alert and loves to look at new things. She is beginning to smile at her mom and dad and at the animals on her mobile. She hates tummy time so much that she'll kick until she pushes herself forward or over to her back. She's also gotten a bit chubbier and a bit longer. She still sleeps through most of the night and loves to travel.

She was really fussy yesterday, but we were able to get a few pictures of her in her "newborn outfit" for comparison.


Sleeping peacefully at two days old:

Screaming at one month:

Screaming at two months:

First Father's Day

We tried to make Scott's first father's day special! First, he requested that he be able to sleep in. I don't know why -- he seems to be sleeping pretty well!

So Annika, Grandma, and I hit the road. Here's Annika ready to go (this might be my favorite picture of her):

We met Aunt Carly and Bianca for the annual father's day walk/run in Central Park. Senator Chuck Schumer was there, and Bianca and I were able to get a photo with him. 

Grandma Joan carried Annika for most of the walk (you can see a picture of them here), but I got to hold her at the end. She even got a ribbon after crossing the finish line!

Afterward we headed home, enjoyed brunch with Scott, and then all headed out to Scott's hockey game. His friend and hockey teammate Alfred snapped this picture.

Annika gave Scott a few presents: A stroller mug holder and coffee mug for weekend walks in the park, and an assortment of dad-themed outfits.

Scott has been a wonderful dad so far, and so I was happy his first father's day was a success!

On the Train

My friend Astrid was in town for work this week, so Annika and I took the subway in 

to Manhattan on Thursday to meet up with her. Annika seemed to like the train 

and slept pretty much the whole way.

I couldn't get a picture of her first subway trip because she was attached to me, 

but here's a self-portrait after we got out of the train.

After we met up with Astrid I realized that we weren't far from Scott's office, 

so we got a visitor's pass and stopped by. Annika screamed for the few minutes 

we were there -- it seemed that the elevators to the 42nd floor bothered her ears.

We then went to Grand Central for dinner before heading back home. 

Annika was happy just hanging out with her dad.

She's now a subway pro -- we took another ride today.

Working from Home

I had to attend an important training for work on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, so Scott agreed to work from home and stay with Annika. At first, it seemed like things might not go so well. I left the house around 8 am, and by 9 am Scott sent me a text message saying she was fussy and regretting that he didn't just take a vacation day.


A few minutes later, I got a picture of Scott "working from home":

Luckily, Annika gave Scott a break. When I asked how our "fussy buss" (one of our many nicknames for her) was a bit later, Scott sent a picture and replied, "Fussy buss is sleepy bus! Letting-daddy-work bus!"

After she woke up they were even able to play a bit. Annika loves the monkey!

One Month Ago Today...

The past month has been incredible for all three of us.

 

Today Annika celebrated by wearing the same dress she wore home from the hospital.

That was then,

This is now...

She's Here!

And she's amazing!

Annika Joan was born at 12:40 am on May 29th, two weeks early! She was 8 pounds (so glad she was early!) and 20.5 inches long.

I had a doctor's appointment the morning before she was born. Luckily I convinced Scott to come to the appointment with me instead of going straight to work. The doctor said something like, "I think you're in labor. You need to go to the hospital now and this baby needs to come out." So we changed our plans, played hooky from work, and went to have a baby instead.

First, though, we went to this store/restaurant across the street to get an egg sandwich, since I'd heard they wouldn't let me eat at the hospital. The service was SO slow -- it's hard to be patient when you're in labor!

 Eventually, though, we got our sandwich and sat in a traffic jam before finally making it to the hospital. 

Once we got to the hospital, we waited for hours in an exam room because there were no free labor and delivery rooms. As you can see from this picture, I was ready to pop. Although I was bored, the pain wasn't very bad at that point. My sister Carly snuck in some pizza and kept us company. In the end, I was glad I had to wait for the labor room because it made the labor seem really fast.

The labor room was great -- nicer than a lot of hotel rooms! I took a shower and we all hung out for awhile. Carly got a final pregnant photo of me:

Shortly after this I had an epidural, which was amazing. I never felt any pain worse than stubbing my toe. At one point I feared that the labor wasn't progressing and that they would kick me out of the comfortable room, but a nurse reassured me that the contractions were coming strong. Scott took a nap to rest up for what we thought would be a long night and day, but it was all much faster than we anticipated.

Shortly before midnight the doctor came in and told me to start pushing. The pushing was intense, but fun in a way. The doctor and the nurse were screaming at me, "C'mon, Jennifer, push Jennifer!" over and over.

About an hour later, Annika arrived!

 

Getting ready for baby

So much has happened since our last post -- we returned from Vancouver, made a quick trip to San Fran, enjoyed the company of friends and family, got married, went to Spain, etc., etc. Funny how there's not enough time to share the big stuff -- maybe we'll play catch up later.

For the past few weeks, though, most of our energy has gone into getting ready for the baby. We're now almost as ready as we can get -- the hospital bag is packed, the clothes and bedding are washed, and we're trying to enjoy life as a couple as much as we can since we know things will change when the baby comes.

We're lucky that my sister Carly and brother-in-law Justin are in New York. They have been a huge help. Carly came over last week and helped me sort and set up a bunch of things. This past Friday Carly and Justin helped set up our crib, install an air conditioner, and fix a bunch of broken things around our apartment (they have handyman skills that Scott and I just don't possess).

Now the baby's room is pretty much set. For now, it is also our guest room/office/bike storage room, but I'm sure that will change over time.

We're realizing just how much stuff comes along with having a baby.

 

The wall hanging in the corner is something my mom made around the time I was born. I remember it hanging near the rocking chair when my little sisters were babies.

We also found a spot for a wall hanging we got in Guatemala last summer.

And the Baby's Name Will Be...

... a secret.

Except that we've discovered we're pretty bad at keeping secrets. Maybe keeping the pregnancy secret until January was all the secret-keeping we could handle. People keep asking us what names we're thinking of, and we keep accidentally telling them. If you're one of those people, please keep it quiet! Since we already found out the gender, we wanted there to be some surprise left when the baby comes...

So far, we are leaning very strongly toward the first name we ever discussed, which kind of bores me, but there hasn't been another name we like as much. After thinking about the names we both like, I realize there are a few key criteria:
*Three syllables or more
*Nickname friendly (nicknames that come from the second or third syllable are a bonus)
*Not too common, not too strange
*A name that reminds us of important people in our lives, without necessarily being exactly the same

Have any ideas? Share them with us!!!

Winter Olympics

Jenn and I are at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. It is quite an experience. Everything is well organized and my hometown has never been so lively. Ostensibly winter, the weather is a sunny 50 degrees which is great for everyone except the skiers.

Event tickets were very difficult to get, but we have managed to see a few things. While we were not at the nail-biter between Canada and Switzerland, we did see an incredible hockey game between Russia and Slovakia later that night. Slovakia, huge underdogs, tied it in the third and won in penalty shots, as Slovakia's goalie held off Russian stars Ovechkin and Malkin.

The atmosphere was like an international soccer match, with the small number of Slovaks making a tremendous amount of noise.

This clip shows a Slovak shootout goal, and the next one shows the lively crowd.

Overtime shot:

Cheering crowd (not sure what the Swedish guy is doing):

Clearing the Camera -- October

October was a bit calmer, although we did have some guests, including April, my high school friend. Unfortunately, her visit was one of the many times we should have taken pictures, but forgot. Other than that, I worked a lot and we hung out at home a lot, too.

Here are two of my favorite living things, chillin' at home. I think Lucky had just licked Scott when I took this picture.




In October we found out that we'd become parents this summer. We had hoped for this and soon learned that few things are as surprising as wishes becoming reality.



Here we are on the day we found out that we are expecting. Can you see the excitement (and fear) on our faces?