More pics and a visit

Yesterday Emma had her first playmate visit from Lily Osterhaus (http://owhataride.blogspot.com/) yesterday, so that was exciting. Granted, there was no playing, just feeding and sleeping since Lily is all of 8 weeks older than Emma. Also there are no pictures of such visit because when you combine 2 mommie brains, 2 infants, and a dad who is folding clothes in the bed room while watching the Soup and laughing out loud to himself (yeah it happens), its a good thing that the right baby went with the right mom. Granted, Emma is Wasian and Lily has a bit more of a Zach Morris lineage in her, but you never know.


Emma continues her 3 AM play time. Last night I got up with her because I think Lela was starting to lose her mind. Indications of this are the fact that Lela has woken me up by hitting me and telling me she's mad at me for no apparent reason to later find out it was because I was mean in a dream, Lela waking up and thinking her Mommy boppy is Emma and being sad because she isn't supposed to be in the bed and many more. (NOTE - Lela's actually doing really well with the whole getting up every 2 hrs deal that it has been lately, and I generally sleep through it, but even she's not a machine!) So Emma and I got up and layed on our love seat that rocks and watching Superbad for the 100th time. Is there anything you'd rather do at 3:30 AM than watch a vulgur move about high schoolers while your 10 day old daughter sleeps on your chest? Well maybe watch one of the Chronicles of Narnia movies, but that's just because I like lions, God and CS Lewis.


We went for our first family walk today with all 4 of us. Cooper didn't do well for the first part as we had him on the opposite side of the stroller so he wouldn't try to jump on it. Surprisingly though he was an angel (well angel with a little bit of devil in him) when he was next to the stroller, so maybe he is going to be the protective loving dog that we had hoped. We'll see. . . In celebration of the walk and this unbelievable weather, we went out for some iced coffee and kolaches. Who would have thunk that on July 31 it would be in the 50s in KC in the morning???


Emma continues to do new things. Lately she's been humming which is pretty fun. She also kicks like a champ, so maybe we have a soccer player? I am all for soccer, I mean I did get up for all of the 02 World Cup matches and once said I would marry Mia Hamm (before her whole marrying Nomar thing), so if she's a soccer player, great. Good thing I don't get my hopes up or anything. Emma also hates baths thus far, but its sponge baths, and that's no fun at all. My dad is notorious for being the master of the baby baths, so we'll have to get him into it when they come down here. Mom is coming down this weekend so we'll be sure to utilize and appreciate her services as well!

Few other random things. How did people make it work before boppies? I mean there are so many uses for the thing and now Lela has a mommy boppy that helped her when pregnant and the aftermath. People need to give up the whole, "walked up hill both ways through the snow to school" and just say, "we had kids without boppies" and it'd be much more valid. Also, I am just going to say it, Lela's an Emma hog. Its not overly obvious, but every so often I will think to myself, wait a minute, I haven't held her for hours and Lela's had her latched on for awhile. . .

Hope everyone has a good weekend. I dropped in some pics of Emma, I haven't got the slide show or album function down yet, so they will be in my posts for now. Also the one line descriptions are cheezy, but I am just preparing for when Emma gets to be around 13 so I can fully realize the Dad who embarrasses his adolescent daughter potential I think I have.



Definitely has the ability to roll the tongue

Rolling the tongue again for show



Where are my clothes????

Up close shot of the fro post bath

Hello Miss Lady

Look at those pipes!

Really, I was made to flex! Welcome to the gun show.

Could I flex any more?

So peaceful

Yep still peaceful

Continuing in the peaceful pursuit

As I posted on FB, anyone who had an early class with Lela at Iowa know this look well. . .

Mom and baby

Soon the quote, "if you stick that lip out any further a bird's going to land on it" will be said. . .

First sleep sack

Sleeping on Dad is the best, he's gotta be good for something

Close up bed time fro

Fish lips

Dad with the fro baby. His hairline is cut out of the picture intentionally so Emma doesn't embarrass him with hers.

Wide awake after a bath

Finally, baths take forever!

Errands

Tuesday we embarked on Emma's first real field trip. Sure we had taken her on the required visit to Target and a few other minor trips previously, but this was the real deal, 4+ hours of unadultered time away from home. Lunch went well Emma slept. After we ate, Emma decided she needed a snack, luckily we were near A Pea in the Pod so Lela fed her. After she got done with her afternoon snack and was cashed out again. We then decided we'd push it and were out for 2+ hrs more. Bad idea. There was a near meltdown by one of my ladies and Emma wasn't doing well either! We got home and the Huebner women took a nap and all was right again. I must say everyone says that its much harder to go places with a baby and I had no idea it would be this hard. We basically are just sitting and waiting for her to eat and then once she has we shoot out the door. Its all worth it though to get every extra minute with her.

Wednesday was a nice day at home for the Huebners. We went on a 45 min walk because it was so nice out and then just did stuff around the house.

Few other observations at this point.

1) Emma's favorite time of the day is from 3-5. . . AM. For some reason that is the time each day when she decides to play.
2) Emma likes to go "ear muffs" while she eats. No pics though, not exactly PG at this point!
3) Why don't have adults have bigger versions of kids stuff. For example, I would love to sleep in a giant cushioned swing with no pants and a blanket on.
4) In one week we have watched more Will and Grace than I have in my entire life. Its the only show that we can DVR all the time, is short, that we both enjoy and that Lela hasn't seen to the point where she has every line memorized (see Friends). Yep, threw that in there because I know you care.

We'll post some more pics of Emma this afternoon, but right now we need to get stuff done!

Getting settled in

Well we are starting to get settled in. We finally got Emma's room done so that was nice! We had everything but just hadn't yet organized it, so it's nice to have that done. It's funny how every milestone is now really exciting for us. Who knew how the first trip to Target or the first stroller walk could be so exciting!

As we were told in our birthing class, there is a lot of info to download after that day about the day she was born. We are always saying, "remember when this happened?" Anyway here are a few highlights.


1) When Lela woke up and was having cramps, I told her maybe going to the gym would help. I know, I sound like an a-hole, but in my defense on days when Lela didn't work out she generally felt sick, so I thought that might help. Good thing she didn't listen to me!

2) We hit every single green light on Shawnee Mission Parkway on the way in, never stopped once. For those of you who don't live in Johnson Co. KS, that's a feat right up there with the Hawkeyes going 13-0 in fball - you think some times there's a shot but it never seems to materialize.

3) I had to go to work to fax our stuff to the doula, and we had agreed I should stop by target to close out our registry on the way back. While at Target, Lela called and said, "GET HOME NOW." Again, I was not acting on my own when I decided to go there, but listened and tried to get out of there. I may or may not have come near a flip out when the customer service person at Target was being slow even after I said, "MY WIFE IS IN LABOR, I NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE NOW." He and I were not friends.

4) Maybe it was just Lela, but we couldn't figure out how people argue in the delivery room. Lela said she didn't have the energy to be mad, and I must say she was just focused, not so much angry. Again, she was amazing through it all.


Lela is doing really well. Since Emma lost weight (like all babies do) Lela has been feeding her all the time it feels like. We had a doc appt today and Emma gained the weight we needed her to. Lela was having to wake her up in the middle of the night, which is even less fun than getting up at night when the baby cries. I think its also funny how Lela is the type who wants to be soooo prepared for every little detail, and though a lot of the info she read before the baby was very important, a lot of it just seems natural for her. Dad on the other hand, not everything so natural. . well besides naps:)


I am just going to state now that thus far I am not so good at changing diapers. Hopefully I improve as it just gets worse as it takes me longer and Emma is generally less than thrilled when I take so long. I may have also been accused of hanging Emma like a turkey from her feet. . . I am good at swaddling, so maybe that's my claim to fame.


Cooper is adjusting well, though his freedom is mostly gone. He gets a lot of fetch now as we are home all the time, so he's very happy about that. The baby crying weirds him out for sure. He also seems very intent on licking Emma, which we haven't let him yet. Hopefully as time passes we can let him interact more and more with her.

Below are a bunch of pics I think Lela put on Facebook, but I thought I'd throw them out here for the non FBer's.


Tummy time #1

Loving the car seat and by loving the car seat we mean she sleeps generally

Getting ready to leave the hospital

Grandpa and grandma's pic with Emma

Who knew this would be the last belly pic????

Love the boppies, the greatest invention ever. Well its up there anyway

Room Pic #1

Room Pic #2

Room Pic #3Room Pic #4

Room Pic #5


Room pic #6

Room pic #7First bath at home
Cute little feet

Sleepy Emma

Some day we'll hold that head up

Enjoying some time on dad's chest

Eyes wide open!

Gnome on dad's chest

This is our favorite pose, arm up!

Big Yawn!

Tummy time

Days 2 and 3

Well the first few days have flown by! We came home yesterday afternoon, Lela hadn't left that hospital room for almost 48 hrs (something about "do you think I really want to walk around the halls with a gown that flashes people all the time????") so it was nice for her and Emma just to get out.

The 2nd night was a bit harder than the first. Emma decided to have a slumber party, and by that I mean like a 5th grade girl slumber party where nobody sleeps. She basically was hungry from 10-2:30. I am sure Lela and I would have given each other the "what have we got ourselves into" look but we were so tired we just zombied around. We have since gotten rest though on all fronts, so we feel like humans again! So far Emma seems to enjoy eating a lot, I think she'll be a good little foodie for us. She has also enjoyed laying on my chest, which is quite possibly the most fun thing ever. I mean if she would want to just do that 24 hrs a day, I would be fine with never moving, who cares about muscle atrophy right? And yes, I don't know why I pulled muscle atrophy into this, just did.

Mom and Dad were a great help while here, they took care of a ton of stuff around the house so we could just come home and relax. Knocking on wood here but Emma seems to like everything and once she gets into her car seat for walks or rides she is fine.

Cooper is adjusting you could say. We tried to let him sniff Emma while she was in her car seat still, but he decided she smelled good and tried to get a few licks in. He seems a bit edgy since, but is doing fine. He got into the cilantro in our garden, so maybe that's it too. That happened Wednesday and I can literally still smell it on his breath, I bet he would like chipotle burritos since they throw it in there. . .

Anyway, more pics to come, right now mom has been enjoying her first full shower and I have been too lazy to go get the camera.

Surprise!

Well I can honestly say that I don't think any of us went to bed on July 20th thinking the next day we would be meeting our little girl. Emma Grace, much like her mother, decided she was bored in there and came out on the 21st. It was my mom's bday so about 10 as we were heading to the hospital I called her to say, "You might not want to go do your bday stuff, I think you are going to get a different surprise today from what they are telling me".

I must say the whole day was surreal. I won't go into details other than any husband who sees his wife go through that and isn't amazed is well stupid. It was terrible on me, I can only imagine what it was like for Lela. Lela went no epidural and on top of it pushed Emma out sideways and did it all with contractions starting at 7:30 and getting her out of there by 4, which I am told is pretty fast. Basically, it again confirmed that Lela's a bad a-- mofo. Lela's IV wasn't working very well (on pre-req of having an epi is to get through a full IV) and none of us had the heart to tell her she wasn't going to get an epi if she wanted, but she never really asked. Again, she was amazing and a trooper and when Emma finally came out, Lela's response was "Thank you for finally coming out!" as she slid back into the bed. Then as they laid Emma down said, "you are a gross little girl aren't you" so she was still sane enough to keep a sense of humor as that got a laugh from the room. And yes, for those of you who don't have kids, by the end there is like 8 nurses and doctors in the room, so there was a loud laugh.

Everyone I know says that day is indescribable and now I know what I mean. Whether it was trying to fight back tears as Lela was going through another contraction and hating it myself, trying to keep her positive when she looked me in the eye and said she didn't have another push in her and thinking to myself I don't know how you keep going myself or fighting back yet more tears as I got to hang with Emma while they cleaned her. Sorry run on sentence - It was just unreal, and yes, I can't explain it!

Emma was kicking right away, just like she was inside of Lela, so the nurses found that amusing at first. She also has a mop that would make the Jackson 5 in their prime proud. Is there any doubt she is Lela's daughter on top of being clearly Wasian?????

I am pretty wore out as the hospital bed cot is about as comfortable as sleeping on, well something really uncomfortable. Plus you know, we have a new glorious blessing right there so even though she wasn't making a peep we were playing, "Are you asleep yet? Yeah me neither . . " followed by banter about random topics. Plus the fact that nurses and doctors are strolling through like 24-7 aids to no time to rest.

Mom and I ran errands today since you know, we don't have everything that we want, just what we need and Dad put up a ceiling fan for us in Em's room while we gave mom and baby some time alone. It was fine to see the sun for a bit, but after awhile it was like, holy crap, let's get back there how can we spend more than 5 min away from her!!!! I don't think the grandparents disagree.

Anyway, life has changed, its Emma's world we are just lucky enough to join her in it. Hopefully everyone who hasn't seen pics enjoys them. For now she even has me agreeing to allow pink Hawkeye gear.

Friday post

I figured I would start out a post with Cooper related news. Cooper has been doing pretty well overall but apparently has come down with a yeast infection in his ears. We tried to treat it ourselves but to no avail, partly because it was made worse by an allergic reaction to the yeast infection. Additionally, let’s just say there were gastrointestinal problems along the way. We finally decided to just take him into the vet and got some stuff and hopefully that helps. Basically we were freaking out the past week or so about it, so Mila had better be ready for some parental freak outs as I am sure every little thing that happens will be over analyzed!

The vet did thing Cooper seems to be developing well. I attribute this to Coopers love for all kinds of food, with the definition of food being whatever he eats. In the past week I have caught him chomping on leaves on the bottom of the tree, a few weeds that sprouted in a bare spot in our lawn that I am grappling with, some weeds we pulled from the garden, some of his hair that we have brushed off his never-ending coat and grass clippings. He picks up other miscellaneous stuff along walks, with the goal obviously being he not pick up that stuff, so needless to say Cooper enjoys partaking in many kinds of foods! He still enjoys his carrots that are his treats as a filler in between his chances at the outdoor smorgasbord.

Everything is going well with Lela and Mila. Apparently Mila is a low rider now (can you hear the song in your head yet?) and is doing great. Another funny thing is you start discussing things like dilation and effacing like they are nothing. I mean if you think about it, are these things that you would normally discuss with your mom, let alone talk nonchalantly as if you are talking about how it rained today? Pregnancy is a weird phenomenon I tell you.

Since joining a new gym about a month ago, I have also noticed some new things that happen at every gym but I likely notice because they are new.
1) A lot of personal trainers are REALLY obnoxious. “I said run not jog.” That coupled with the obnoxious things they make people do seems a bit ridiculous makes me never want to use one! I mean do the personal trainers themselves ever do weird jump things in between sets of weird pushups? I bet the answer is they look like the rest of us at the gym that are trying to get a workout without drawing attention to ourselves in a freaky way.
2) Swimming is an interesting dynamic. There’s fish lady who is in the lane next to me doing the breast stroke faster than I can crawl (not how its supposed to work). Also guy who does the butterfly – yeah we get it, you can do the butterfly, but can you please come in weird hours to do it so you don’t splash 2 lanes in either direction?
3) Guy fitness group. We have a group of guys that are in our gym that do a bunch of random exercises in the basketball court each morning. Basically, they do what people do in the classes just try to make it more masculine and abstract because they are too manly to just admit they do the same things as the females in the fitness class in the fitness class room. I could go on longer about this, but shall refrain!
We enjoy our new gym a lot though and all it has to offer, its just interesting seeing all of these new or revised things.

Hope all is well with everyone out there. Enjoy this lovely weather!

Happy 4th

Sorry I haven’t been very diligent about writing lately.

First of all we are finally finished with birthing classes. They were very informative and not as gross as I thought they’d be, so I’d highly recommend taking them for any dad’s to be. It has been a relief to not have to rush home every Monday and then get home at almost ten with a pregnant lady who still wants to get up at 5 to workout the next day and somehow get 8 hrs of sleep. . nobody said pregnant women are logical. Additionally some members of our class wore on me a bit so I won’t miss those either. For anonymity sake we will call them guy who pops the collar and never shuts up and wife who thinks guy who pops said collar is funny. You get my drift. . .

Lela’s still doing well. She is still running (along with general working out) which I think is helping her sanity. The upcoming heat wave is probably going to challenge that will to run, but hopefully it doesn’t last too long. That goes for me too as I don’t deal well with heat, so it’s a good thing we live in KS where it never gets hot for any periods of time in the summer I am doing well by the way. . .I just noticed that I don’t get a paragraph about how I am doing and people don’t ask me how the pregnancy is going. Its going well for me, I think I can do this again if you were wondering.

We Huebners finally joined the facebook world. Its been interesting thus far, I haven’t really had time to post much, but its nice to see what the rest of the world is doing. There are a few people I know who aren’t on it yet, so I am not too bad of a geezer.

Our 4th holiday was filled with what else but prepping for the baby. There are some organizational things around the house we have been putting off for approximately 3 yrs that are now finally getting done. I also really enjoyed the fireworks everybody in the surrounding neighborhoods shot off on various nights after 10. Yep, going old man style, but does anybody know that pregnant people go to bed early so you need to stop?:) Anyway, a trip to Babies R Us, PBarn Kids and Target was made and it sounds like that trip will likely occur weekly once we get our new addition. I would go with a Will Ferrell quote from Old School here, but its been done and I don’t want to be that guy, I’d rather be the cranky old guy who yells out his window at kids who make noise after 8. . .I didn’t really do that by the way.

Cooper is doing well though still endangers his life daily when he tries to mess with a 8 month pregnant Asian. We haven’t taught him anything new lately, so I think its time to get back on that. I have been running with him once a week, which based on the amount of saliva that accumulates around his mouth he loves. It sure would be nice if he would stop shedding one of these days, we try to brush him daily, but we can’t use the good brushes as allegedly it will ruin his coat.

We’ll get some pics here one of these days up again.