May Adventures

May has been busy and pretty exhausting, and it's not quite finished yet!  Here are a few photos that document some of what we've been up to.

The first weekend in May was the opening day of boating season, which includes crew races along the Montlake cut and a parade of boats.  We were invited by a friend to watch the festivities from the backyard of a home where she was dog-sitting, so we got a unique, close-up view.  Jadyn enjoyed the races, and Joseph slept through most of the event.

Jadyn and Daddy at the crew races

Joseph barely awake

The following week, Jenny and Joseph went to Wenatchee for a couple of days to attend a math conference.  Jadyn had accompanied Jenny to 2 math conferences in her first few months of life, and this was Joseph's opportunity.  At just 5.5 weeks old, it may have been a little crazy to take him over two mountain passes to listen to sessions about teaching math in WA community colleges, but he traveled pretty well, all things considered.  Everyone found him delightful!

Our little Houdini waking at the hotel

Ready to head for some sessions

Joining Mom for a beer

At Joseph's 6-week-old check-up, Dr. N was impressed with his neck strength and how active he was on his belly.  He weighed 11 pounds, 0 ounces (50-75th percentile) and measured 21.5 inches (25-50th percentile), which means he had grown 1.5 inches since birth and 3 pounds in 5 weeks.  Wow!  No wonder our arms, shoulders, and necks are tired and sore!!!  We were also reminded that his frequent eating, lack of regular sleeping schedule, and increased burping and spitting up are completely normal for a 6-week-old human.  And so we forge on, waiting patiently for his feedings to space out a little more, and his intervals of sleep at night to increase (at 6 weeks, he was allowing us a mere 2.5 to 3 hours at a time, but as of this writing we're getting a 4 to 4.5 hour stretch some nights -- yahoo!).  His evenings aren't as fussy as we remember Jadyn's being at the same age, and he finds solace in a pacifier, which she never really warmed up to.  So the sleep deprivation is just barely into the tolerable range, and we know this is a phase that will pass before we know it.

Napping in the carry pack on a fussy afternoon

Holding in the binky with his arm!

Joseph loves baths -- he hasn't cried during one since the post-birth bath at the hospital.  He also likes hanging out with his sister and/or a parent on the couch in the evenings.

Post-bath bliss

Playing air-piano

Go Mariners!

Jadyn 'reading' her Brain Quest cards to Joseph

Jadyn has been taking pictures with our digital cameras for about 2 years now, and her aim is getting much better.  These photos below are shots Jadyn took:

We're spending Memorial Day weekend in town, stopping in at our favorite coffee shop and playing at nearby parks with friends.  Here is Jadyn at a park just outside the zoo with Zoe and Rueben, two of her friends from school.

 

 

We hoped to catch a sunset on Saturday evening, as Jadyn has been trying to make sense of the difference between sunrise and sunset.  It had been sunny all day, but the clouds rolled in on the western horizon right at sunset, so we don't have wonderful sunset pictures to share.  Nevertheless, we had fun with our sunset visit to a park on a bluff above Golden Gardens.  We'll have to try it again sometime soon, but for now, here are some pictures we took of ourselves while we were at the park.

 

On Sunday we played at a different park with Alexa.  Alexa is a little older and taught Jadyn a new trick on the arched monkey bar structure.  The moms were spotters for their adventurous little girls!

Alexa pushing Jadyn

Joseph chilling at the park while the girls played

Going over the top of the arch

Descending carefully and successfully!

Jadyn still loves books and puzzles and dancing, but she is also very smitten with her little brother.  She kisses his head about 25 times a day, gives him hugs, sings to him when he is fussy, and helps with his pacifier and burp cloth.  Here are the parting shots for this post: the two of them together and Jadyn with freshly picked street flowers (weeds?).  Happy Spring!

 

More News and Pictures

Let's see if we can get you a little caught up....

Joseph, as is typical for newborns, began to be more awake in the world after a couple of weeks out of the womb.  Through the month of April, he continued to wake often at night, giving us at most about 2.5 hours of sleep at a time.  Interestingly, he's not a screamer at night; he mostly grunts a lot when he starts to get hungry.  Jenny hears the grunting and gets him fed before the grunts escalate to crying.  The frequent waking is balanced by his speed nursing, though he apparently does not eat enough at a time to keep him asleep for long stretches.  We have to work on it!  But he has a pretty sunny disposition in general, so he's not too terrible to have around.  ;-)

Hanging out, awake!

Trying to roll over, all by myself -- at 2.5 weeks!

Snoozing in the swing, about 3 wks

At the end of April, Grandma Jeanne came for a visit.  She is a bit of a "baby whisperer" and loves holding Joseph and keeping him calm and occupied so that Jenny can do a few things here and there with a little more ease.  Jadyn took full advantage of the extra attention and activity and found herself extremely tired by the end of the week.  But a grand time was had by all!

Here are some pictures from the day we kept Jadyn home from school to go to the zoo with Grandma.

At the bear exhibit, looking at the fish!

Watching the giraffes

I sure like my grandma!

In the time that Grandma visited, Joseph's interest in objects about 4 feet from him emerged, and he became a lot more alert to what was going on around him.

Joseph and the Baby Whisperer

He attends a post-natal yoga class with Jenny on Tuesdays.  Here he's snoozing, but being the youngest attendee in class much of the time, he is also one of the fussier attendees.  The teacher is great and enjoys holding fussy babies so that the moms can do the asana practice.

His own variation of shavasana, at 5 wks

More postings to come!

Happy Easter!

Oh, we're only a month late in posting these....

On Easter Sunday, Jadyn enjoyed dying eggs at home with Daddy and hunting eggs with our neighbors.

 

 
Here is Joseph, chilling out, before we headed to the neighbors' for the egg hunt and an informal dinner.

Jadyn took to her little brother quickly and easily once he came home from the hospital, wanting to hold him and snuggle up next to him frequently.

 

Joseph saw the pediatrician about 36 hours after he was born, at which time he had dropped to 7 pounds, 5 ounces.  One week later, at his weight-check at the doctor's office, he was up to 8 pounds, 0 ounces.  Joseph has shown himself to be quite a good eater, snacking frequently, with a lot of enthusiasm (which causes a lot of burping and hiccups).

The weekend after Easter, we drove north to the tulip fields in Mt. Vernon, which we heard were beginning to bloom.  We were all pretty tired in the late afternoon, when these pictures were taken.  But with this much sun and pretty tulips all around, it's easy to smile!

 




Just in his second week of life (in the photos below), Joseph doesn't sleep in long intervals; most nights Jenny's up with him 3 or 4 times, and some wakings rouse the rest of the family as well.  We keep taking pictures though, because he's just so darn cute!

 

And the 4th J Has Joined Us!

Just after last night's post, we retired for what we thought would be our usual repose.  However, Baby Boy J had other plans for us....

Jenny woke with painful contractions about 12:40 am.  Following the advice of her doctor, we decided by 1:30 that this was the real deal and began making preparations to head to the hospital.  Our ever awesome neighbor and friend Karyn agreed to sleep on our couch so that Jadyn could sleep through the night in her own bed, and just after 2:00 we headed to Swedish Hospital on First Hill.  After parking and finding our way to the triage area for the birthing suites, we were admitted about 2:40.  Baby was monitored for a bit, and a little after 3:00 we were in a birthing room.  By about 3:15, Jenny was cleared for pushing our son into the world, and Joseph James King arrived at 3:32 am, two days ahead of his scheduled due date.  Mom, Dad, and Joseph are all happy and healthy, though a little tired due to the middle of the night event.

Jadyn visited her new brother at the hospital a couple of times today, and we are all in love.  Enjoy some lovely photos!

 

7 lbs, 12.2 oz, 20 inches long

 

We feel so blessed and lucky; thanks to all who contributed to this successful welcoming!  And now, much deserved rest for Mom, Dad, and Joseph....

And April Begins....

This morning, Jadyn complained, "Baby Brother is taking a long time.  He's still not here, and it's April!  I want to meet him."  Sounds like Jadyn has big-sister-intuition....  Dr. H saw Jenny today and all signs are indicating that our son will arrive before the end of the work week.  We ate carry out food tonight, so that we didn't have to cook, and now we hunker down and wait.

Here are some recent photos of the beloved child with us right now.  This past weekend, our weekly trek to the coffee shop was in the rain.  She ordered the frosted peach scone (she mostly just licks the frosting off), and then shared one of her headbands with her friend Madeline for part of our visit.

These coffee shop buddies are just 3 months apart in age!

Jadyn is a master staller at nap time.  This weekend, she wanted to play hide and seek under her blanket.  She buries herself under cover, then says, "Mommy, say 'Where's Jadyn?' "  So we say, "Where's Jadyn?  Where did she go?  She was just here a minute ago....  Is she under the desk?  No....  Is she in the bathtub?  No...." The mound of blanket shakes with anticipation and giggles audibly.  She just loves the game!!!  She did finally succumb to sleep, though, which is always good for everyone.
 

Before the weekend was out, she rearranged her magnetic letters on the refrigerator, as you can see.

And here is evidence that we are ready for the little one to arrive.  We hope the next post will include pictures of Baby Brother!