Rachel is three weeks old today. She spends so much time eating and sleeping, I barely have any pictures of her with her eyes open. I tried to get some today and the photo shoot didn’t go too well, but here are two that I thought were funny.
Danielle and I had to do errands today that took us in different directions. She took Rachel and went into DC for the morning, and I had to go south past Old Town. I wanted to find something fun to do with Joseph while I was down there, and on a whim decided to go to River Farm, a large historic home with nice gardens on the Potomac, about half way between Old Town and Mount Vernon. It is also the home for the American Horticultural Society.
Danielle and I had been there once before, and we had walked from the house down to the Potomac to see the nice views from the river. This time with Joseph I walked along some nice paths through the gardens, and stumbled upon a children’s garden with tunnels (he LOVES tunnels) and a boat that he climbed on, and many plants and sculptures that are labelled and kid-friendly. It was a real find, and lots of fun.
Unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera today. But we were sorting through some things in the basement yesterday and I snapped a couple cute pictures of Joseph. We bought this skunk costume at Halloween last year, but he didn’t want to wear it at the time. We stumbled upon it yesterday and he was happy to oblige this time around.
I was very pleased to discover on Friday that it was Memorial Day weekend this weekend – not that I am pleased about Memorial Day, but pleased that I didn’t know about it. Renee asked me if we had any plans for the holiday and I had no idea what she talking about. I mentioned this to Danielle and she was also blissfully unaware. We ended up meeting the Stetzers at Gravelly Point for a picnic, where I spent too much time running after Joseph in the heat trying to keep him from kicking his ball into the water.
Joseph’s fever lasted less than a day, but his runny nose lingered and we cancelled our play dates for the rest of the week last week. We drove out to Great Falls on Thursday and had a nice time walking a short stretch of the trails and watching the falls.
Rachel had her first bath recently and tolerated it fairly well – she’s actually had a couple now. We think that she is starting to fill out a little and I am very curious to hear what the doctors report about her weight at next week’s checkup.
The meals keep rolling in and the visits keep coming – a scheduled one from Alisa, a bonus lunch from Sonya and Libby, Eric stopped by to admire Rachel and play with Joseph a little, and we enjoyed an awesome dinner from Lynne and Harland.
The lack of sleep is catching up with us a little. When we first came back from the hospital we had a family outing every day to a playground, play date, park, or errand. Recently we’ve been dividing and conquering a bit more. Danielle is taking Rachel for long walks around the neighborhood in the early morning while I handle Joseph’s morning routine. I’ve had more solo excursions with just Joseph in the last week too.
Yesterday he didn’t nap so I took him to the bank with me in the afternoon. I had to make some account changes so we had to go and sit in the officey area where the desks are, and Joseph sat patiently in his stroller drinking water and eating snacks. At one point he looked up and saw a man answering the phone at a desk next to us, and he announced very loudly to me, “man working!” Then he looked around and saw another one across the aisle and said, “‘nother man!” The he looked right at the guy I had been talking to for the previous 10 minutes and pointed at him and said, “‘nother man!” I thought it was really funny, and even more amusing was that the guy who was helping me didn’t blink or acknowledge Joseph at all.
We can’t decide if we have an easy baby or not. For the first week she was extremely easy, unprecedented from what we can tell. She slept for long stretches and ate well.
After about a week she started to wake up a lot more, with more grunting and squirming and spitting up. We had a couple days earlier this week where she just seemed very uncomfortable and we had to hold her a lot, rock her, let her suck on our finger, move her around in different positions. This went on for hours at a time, or more. Danielle was up much of the night a couple times. We had pretty much decided that the honeymoon was over, and we might have a bumpy road ahead.
However, today she was an absolute dream. She slept basically all day – with the exception of two feedings late morning and one mid-afternoon. Danielle spent much of the day at home with Rachel relaxing and catching up on things around the house.
We really can’t decide who Rachel looks like. When we first saw her we had a couple different theories, but now just 12 days later we just don’t see either one of us in her, or any immediate family members. We both think she looks a little like Vizzini, the character played by Wallace Shawn in The Princess Bride. But that isn’t too flattering, and she’s a lot cuter.
Joseph and I were out most the day at music class and a playground, and then after his nap doing errands and swinging by Gravelly Point to watch airplanes take off. On the way home from Gravelly Point he was unusually needy and clingy and whimpery in a very pathetic and fragile way. I also noticed that his eyes were watering quite a bit, though he wasn’t crying. It was weird. When we got home he was even worse, and then I realized that he was feeling really warm so we took his temperature and sure enough he had a fever of 100.4.
Jess stopped by with dinner and while she visited Joseph sat on the couch clinging to me and looking very much not himself.
We gave him chicken soup for dinner and a generous dose of Tylenol and I managed to coax some laughs and smiles out of him, though he was still out of sorts. He crashed hard and hasn’t made a peep since he went down. Last time he had something like this – months ago – he kicked it in less than a day. I’m hopeful that happens again.
I went climbing this evening for the first time since Rachel was born, which I think is a good indication that we’ve adjusted to life with the baby and we’re getting back to business as usual. Although I guess that is easy to say when dinner keeps arriving at your door every other day and you don’t have to worry about shopping or cooking. This past week we’ve had some nice visits and great meals dropped off by Susan, Ivy, and Sonya and Malcolm – leaving us with a full refrigerator of leftovers.
I’ve been reading and enjoying A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson, about his experience hiking the Appalachian Trail. It is funny and interesting, but includes many depressing statistics about the thousands of species of trees, plants, birds, and other mammals that have become extinct in the last hundred years or so. With that in mind it was nice to go to the National Arboretum this morning, which was one of the last things on my list of major destinations in the DC area that I wanted to see after leaving my job.
The Arboretum is over 400 acres of trees, shrubs, gardens, and trails, and it is just a couple miles from the Capitol. I’ve driven by it many times but never realized how big and how nice it is. It’d be a great place for walking or running if you had more time. With a two year old and an infant we weren’t able to cover too much ground.
Rachel slept the entire time in a pouch that Danielle was wearing. Joseph tore around the trails with plenty of energy. In the background of this picture you can see some old columns that were part of the U.S. Capitol for a long time, and were moved to the Arboretum when an extension to the Capitol was built in the 1950’s.
It was a gorgeous day – high 60’s, sunny, breezy. I was grateful to be unemployed and outside. It was so nice I went back out with Joseph this afternoon for a long stretch at a playground.
We’re enjoying a nice weekend with visits from my parents and Lisa and Marc. Joseph is obsessed with “Uncle Marc’s pickup truck” and is getting loads of attention. He isn’t napping much these days, which is cutting into my afternoons when I usually sit in front of the computer catching up on news and email, and blogging.
Marc got this picture of Lisa with the baby yesterday which might be the best one of her yet.
Rachel slept for over five hours this morning. We were shocked at how long she went.
We went over to Renee’s for the playdate with Cameron, and Adam came home for lunch so that we could show off the baby to both of them. We had a nice visit, but she never woke up while we were there. She conked out at around 9am before we left, and woke up after 2pm when we got home.
In other news, Pickle, the company I was using to host all of my personal videos, closed its doors to consumers today. I know the guys who own and run Pickle and like them, and had partnered with them on various projects in my last couple jobs. But they were bought by Scripps Howard last year and are focused solely on corporate projects now.
So I have moved all of our home movies to YouTube. Here is the link of our home movies. Also, because I can, here is an old video embedded below of Joseph when he was six months old.
We did our usual Wednesday morning routine today with the baby in tow: music class and then a playground before lunch.
This afternoon I wanted to take Rachel outside to get some pictures, since we haven’t gotten any good ones of her with Joseph. He is generally very good around her, kissing her on the head and being sweet. A couple times he has been a little too rough near her but so far we have kept it under control.
This was the most time he had spent in direct contact with her. I held her on his lap for a couple minutes and he seemed very happy to be getting a closer look.
Rachel’s first doctor’s appointment went well today – she has passed her low point in weight and has put a few ounces back on.
We’ve been getting out with her a fair amount – yesterday was raining and all four of us went to two different kid-friendly coffee shops in the neighborhood – once in the morning, once in the afternoon. It was a little strange to be sitting there chatting and watching Joseph playing with toys, and then to think that we have an infant sitting in a car seat at our feet who is only two and a half days old.
Today was beautiful weather and after our play date with Susan we all walked her back to her house in the double stroller. We also had an afternoon trip to a playground, so Rachel is getting plenty of fresh air as are the rest of us.
So we’ve quickly adjusted to life with a newborn, though it certainly helps that we have great friends who keep bringing us dinner. Tonight was Libby, who got a little baby-time in return for an awesome meal that she dropped off.
The division of labor has been pretty clear cut: I’m pretty much 100% on Joseph duty, while Danielle is focused on the baby. We’re enjoying it immensely – having Danielle home now and having Rachel with us finally is great. If Danielle is sleep-deprived she isn’t complaining about it too much. My back has been hurting but other than that I don’t have any complaints. I haven’t gotten my hands on Rachel as much as I did with Joseph in the first week, but this evening after putting Joseph to bed I lay down on the couch with her on my chest and we both snoozed a little.
We’re back from the hospital. The whole experience was amazing and overwhelming. It was a busy night at the hospital, and the doctors told us they’d had lots of complicated deliveries. They were thanking Danielle for being so easy. It took six hours from the time they started the pitocin, and it was only three hours of serious labor and contractions.
Rachel is healthy, sleeping a lot, feeding well, and passing all her exams with raves from the doctors. Danielle is feeling pretty good, moving around, and looks great. I feel lame for not doing anything special for Mother’s Day, but it is pretty cool to come home on Mother’s Day with your wife and newborn daughter who is barely 36 hours old.
Joseph has adjusted extremely well. Danielle and I both missed him while we were at the hospital and were happy to be back in the house playing with him. He did really well yesterday at the hospital, saying “Baby Rachel” repeatedly and kissing her on the head. He seemed to really enjoy the time with his grand-mere, and he was his usual joyful self last night when I came home for his bath and bedtime, and again tonight.
Renee dropped off an awesome home-cooked meal, and we were able to enjoy a nice dinner with the new expanded family. Now Joseph and Danielle are both asleep and I am sitting at the computer with the baby in my lap, sorting through my pictures from the weekend.
Rachel is three weeks old today. She spends so much time eating and sleeping, I barely have any pictures of her with her eyes open. I tried to get some today and the photo shoot didn’t go too well, but here are two that I thought were funny.
Danielle and I had to do errands today that took us in different directions. She took Rachel and went into DC for the morning, and I had to go south past Old Town. I wanted to find something fun to do with Joseph while I was down there, and on a whim decided to go to River Farm, a large historic home with nice gardens on the Potomac, about half way between Old Town and Mount Vernon. It is also the home for the American Horticultural Society.
This time with Joseph I walked along some nice paths through the gardens, and stumbled upon a children’s garden with tunnels (he LOVES tunnels) and a boat that he climbed on, and many plants and sculptures that are labelled and kid-friendly. It was a real find, and lots of fun.
Unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera today. But we were sorting through some things in the basement yesterday and I snapped a couple cute pictures of Joseph. We bought this skunk costume at Halloween last year, but he didn’t want to wear it at the time. We stumbled upon it yesterday and he was happy to oblige this time around.
Joseph’s fever lasted less than a day, but his runny nose lingered and we cancelled our play dates for the rest of the week last week. We drove out to Great Falls on Thursday and had a nice time walking a short stretch of the trails and watching the falls.
I’ve been reading and enjoying 
destinations in the DC area that I wanted to see after leaving my job.
Joseph tore around the trails with plenty of energy. In the background of this picture you can see some old columns that were part of the U.S. Capitol for a long time, and were moved to the Arboretum when an extension to the Capitol was built in the 1950’s.
We’re enjoying a nice weekend with visits from my parents and Lisa and Marc. Joseph is obsessed with “Uncle Marc’s pickup truck” and is getting loads of attention. He isn’t napping much these days, which is cutting into my afternoons when I usually sit in front of the computer catching up on news and email, and blogging.
This afternoon I wanted to take Rachel outside to get some pictures, since we haven’t gotten any good ones of her with Joseph. He is generally very good around her, kissing her on the head and being sweet. A couple times he has been a little too rough near her but so far we have kept it under control.
We’re back from the hospital. The whole experience was amazing and overwhelming. It was a busy night at the hospital, and the doctors told us they’d had lots of complicated deliveries. They were thanking Danielle for being so easy. It took six hours from the time they started the pitocin, and it was only three hours of serious labor and contractions.
