Ahnika's Take on The Donald, Baby Smiling & Beverage of Choice

Alright, now it is Mama's turn to post some of her favorite pictures while Dad is at work supporting Ahnika' future shopping habits and I'm at home changing exploding diapers and trying to keep from getting puked on. (We're working on that one; although today I encountered all three of the bodily fluids in a 5 mintue time frame splashed across my right hand and arm).

In this picture we were just watching Celebrity Apprentice and Ahnika was showing her deep lack of enthusiam for "the Donald".


They say that babies can't smile in the first couple of weeks, I think this picture proves otherwise.

Two words: "Got milk?"

We like to call her "the little blue burrito" when she is all wrapped up like in the picture below. Sometimes it's "the little purple burrito" depending on the blanket color.

Unfortunately though, typically it is a burrito full of explosive beans that are anxious to get out, espeically if Ahnika's "Baby Sonar" detects Dad's presence and the feel of cool air.......

Mom Update & More Pictures

Every day Jaci is feeling better and is really looking good. She is recovery well and the 30+ pounds of retained fluid weight that she has dropped has really made her feel better (now that we realize how much weight she was retaining from her body swelling with fluids, it makes me feel a little bit guilty for giving her a hard time about what she was eating towards the end of the pregnancy..... only a little though......)

Ahnika looks so comfortable, that I have now gone to sleeping on my back with my feet twisted together and elbows bent up with my hands against my face.....

Ahnika got her 1st walk yesterday, all the way around the circle (hey its a start when you're recovering from a C-Section......). You can see the excitment in Ahnika's eyes!!!!

Ahnika's 1st time in an official "Swaddle Me" blanket..... A bit big, but works well.... Lets see you try and get an arm lose from there.....

Although, Ahnika does have a little "gangster" in her..... No matter how we put her hat on, she always seems to wiggle one arm free and pull it down to just about over her eyes....

Misc. Photo's of Ahnika

Below is Ahnika's signature "wink"........ Most common translation is "If you give me another bottle of breast milk, I might go more than 2 hours between feedings tonight, okay?".....

In case there were any doubters, proof that Ahnika is a "Daddy's Girl"...

Action photo of Ahnika, or at least most common action.......

Helpfull Tips from Google Applied

Late last night, I was doing some research on helping to get your newborn to sleep and be less fussy when I read an article that was talking about various "things" that you can add to your baby's bottle to help them sleep. I was skeptical at first, but figured that Google would never lie to me and be wrong. So we tried it, and as the pictures below, Ahnika wasn't very fussy at all, actually she almost seemed a little drunk.....

Okay, before anyone calls Social Services, we didn't actually spike Ahnika's breast milk bottle, but based on the pictures above, I am wondering if it is now possible to get drunk on breast milk? I may have to investigate....

Changing Diapers Will Never Be the Same Again.....

Sometimes, when your tired, you don't bring your A game and you pay the price..... Last night, around 2:30 am Ahnika woke up crying. So step 1, change the dirty diaper. Being that it was early in the morning and I was very tired, I was not quite moving with a lot of urgency. Usually, before I start a diaper change, I have everything out and ready. That was not the case this time.



After taking off Ahnika's diaper, I then proceeded to lift her butt up and wipe her down. And then the crucial mistake, I did not have the diaper ready and instead set her back down on the changing pad and went for a diaper. After grabbing a diaper and expanding it out, I then grabbed Ahnika by the legs again and lifted her up. By this time, she had been exposed to lots of cool air in the wrong places....



As if she was waiting for the perfect moment, once I got her butt elevated to start to slide the diaper under her, she let out a blast. Not a squirt, a blast. As indicated by the red arrows below, the poop blast actually cleared a good 16 inches remaining of the changing station, about 3 feet of carpet and a portion made it onto the bed. Luckily, being the good soldier that I am, I was positioned perfectly to take the brute of the blast. Afterwards, Jaci and I just looked at each other in amazement and laughed hard, until Ahnika, butt still up in the air with her legs in my hand, let out another warning shot, thankfully it wasn't a full blast. At this point I scrambled to get the diaper on her to protect myself.



By the way, to make matters worse, when I had rolled out of bed awakening to Ahnika's cries, I haphazardly tossed my pillow to the end of the bed, which then was knocked to the floor and you guessed it, served as protection to the carpet....



Lesson learned, even when your tired, you have to bring your A game to diaper changing, otherwise you'll end up having a sh*tty game.....




Picture above is re-enactment of the setup at the time.

Baby 1st Doctor's Appointment & Update on Mom

This morning, after carefully planning on how we could get showers in and ready to go without interupting Ahnika's feeding schedule, we made it over to our 1st appointment with the Pediatrician.... Although we didn't actually get to even see the Pediatrician... Instead, all it was, was an appointment to check Ahnika's weight.... 30 seconds later we were back out the door.... Good thing we chose the Pediatrician's office that is located 30 minutes from our house.....

Ahnika weighed in at 5 pounds 2 ounces this morning, just 2 ounces less than what she was friday night when she was discharged from the hospital. All in all good news, especially considering that Ahnika burped up at least a half-ounce of breastmilk onto me this morning.....

Best thing about the appointment was it gave Jaci a reason to get all put together and show off how much better she looks (Jaci is already down over 20 pounds from the baby and more significantly, passing of fluids that has swollen her body).

That's One Good Looking Kid!

I think I actually got 5 hours of sleep last night, so I'm feeling pretty good and starting the day with a lot of energy.... Still don't have time to post much, but I thought I would post Ahnika's Hospital picture..... Picture will be posted on the Huntsville Hospital Website and I'm sure will be the star attraction!

JACI & AHNIKA ARE HOME!!!!

Too tired to post much right now, maybe after a few hours of sleep tonight, in my own bed, I will feel like writing more tomorrow. Until then, Jaci and Ahnika are doing well (Jaci is improving every hour in her recovery) and the fashion show of Baby clothes has begun......

Video of Tim & Ahnika

Shamrock Baby Ahnika Arrives

Not much time to post much, but after 31 hours at the hospital (trying to induce Jaci because of pre-clampsia/toximity), the doctors decided that a C-Section would be best for her. Ahnika was born at about 9:30 pm last night and was 5 lbs 7 ounces. Both Ahnika and Jaci are doing well right now at the hospital (mom is just very, very sore and tired). Baby Ahnika is breathing fine, has her eyes open and is very hungry!

Below are some baby videos that were made (nothing X-rated)........

Trying to Keep Busy While "Waiting" for Baby Ahnika

I was getting a little stir crazy being inside of the house with Jaci, so I decided to finally start tackling some outdoor projects. I spent a few days working out on the driveway making some Cedar planters (from treated 2x4s and Cedar fence boards), when I realized that I like working out on my driveway but I don't like standing on my driveway and looking at the back of my neighbors house. I also don't like looking at the back of my neighbors house as I drive up my driveway. So I decided that I needed to start to block out my neighbor.

By the way, the image above is taken from maps.live.com. For those of you who have never used it before, the "Birds Eye" view feature is pretty awesome.

So just as I did last fall, I went back to the nursery and purchased 5 more Thuja Green Giants (fastest growing Evergreen trees that are perfect for privacy sceeens). Luckily, they still had some overflowing 7 gallon trees on clearance for $25. Right now, they are only around 5 feet tall, but hopefully they will put on a foot or so this summer (the growth of 3 to 5 feet is once the roots have established).

It is hard to tell from the picture above, but the trees are actually planted in two seperate rows (which visually really makes a difference). The 2 in the front row are offset forward 5 feet from the back row. If all of the trees were lined up, they would be 7 feet 2 inches apart on center (I actually used 3 different tape measures to determine the exact placement of each tree). The far right tree is spaced 8 feet from the right property line and 8 feet from the rear property line. The far left tree is 8 feet from the edge of the neighbors fence (everything in life looks better when it is centered, sort of like a nose).

In true Engineer Tim fashion, I went out with my measuring tape and recorded all of the heights of my 11 Thuja's (including the 5 that I planted last year). As the summer goes on, I will put the data into Excell and make a couple of plots to see if the trees really do grow as fast as they are advertised to grow.....

Jaci's Belly Buldge at 35 Weeks (March 5th) & Additional Tidbits

First off, lets start with what the audience really wants (less words out of me and more pictures of Jaci's beautiful belly). There it is at 35 weeks!


Now, today was a very interesting doctor's appointment (not because we had to wait for nearly 1 hour in a tiny room), but because of what happened during the 5 minute meeting. When the technician came in to check on Ahnika's heart beat (which had decreased to 135 from 142 - that is a good thing), she found the heart beat up near Jaci's ribs. Lately, Jaci had noticed that she often times has pain near her ribs on the right side from Ahnika. We were suspecting that maybe Ahnika was already a bit of a trouble maker and not in the proper position to be "pooped out" (I don't care what anyone says, after hearing nurses in Child Birth class say that you use the muscles for pooping to push the baby out - the baby will be forever pooped out to me). So when the doctor came in, we told her that we were concerned about Ahnika not being positioned right. To see what was going on, the doctor had the technician do an ultrasound that showed that Ahnika was in the proper position (she just must have some strong, long legs). What was really exciting, in addition to the technician saying everything looked great with Ahnika - heart, kidneys, etc - was that we got to see her face on the ultrasound again. What was even more exciting, so much so that the technician had to take a picture of it for us, was that Ahnika has a ton of hair on her head. This is great confirmation that the baby is definitely taking after me since she is hairy, however I don't think I would look very cute as a female so I am a little worried now...... Hopefully she will have blond hair to help hide it and more Jaci features than Tim features......

WARNING - THE CONTENT BELOW THIS POINT IS PG-13, INSTEAD OF THE USUAL G RATED CONTENT THAT JACI PREFERS

Now, your probably wondering what the picture below is for? The picture below is of our "messy" master bedroom which shows the Pack N Play to be positioned adjacent to the bed. That is where Ahnika will be sleeping for the 1st couple of weeks after she comes home. What is also important to point out is that where Zeus is laying right now, is where he might be sleeping, because I will be on the other side of the house. Follow along.....

Jaci and I have been taking Child Birth and Parenting classes through the local hospital. After 2 months of classes, I thought that Jaci and I had been told about everything about being new parents and thought about skipping our last class, but I am glad that I went. During the last class, our instructor asked the women where the baby will be sleeping and where the husband will be sleeping. She then made a desperate plea to the women to let us men get some sleep and sleep in another room for the 1st couple of weeks. It is bad enough for the wife to be a stressed out, insomniac, it doesn't do the husband any good to be this way as well. So she told the women to suck it up and let us sleep. In case I didn't already want to get up and hug the instructor, she then said something even more memorable.

For an exercise during class, she had the men list their top 5 things that were going to change in their life once baby comes home. After telling her our number 1 and discussing it, she jumped in that our number 2 biggest, most important change was probably not getting sex from our wives. It actually wasn't, but pretty funny that she offered that as our 2nd and discussed it with the class. Then the famous words came "Fake it to make it". She told the women that the husbands job is to be the rock and take everything our wives throw at us for the 1st couple of months (including post-partum depression which was described as PMS times 100 - I'm really hoping that is an exaggeration) because they will need us to be strong for them. She then discussed how important it is for us not to have sex for at least 4 to 6 weeks while our wives our healing. However, after that, the instructor told the women that at that point, the last thing they will feel like is sexy and wanting to have sex, however the husbands need it, and then the famous phrase. If our wives want us to continue to be their rocks and take there abuse, they need to give us sex. "Fake it to make it", until you actually feel like and then want to have sex with your husband.

Jaci is not very happy with me right now for typing this. However, since those were the honest words of our instructor (not exaggerated at all), I feel that I am doing my duty to society by passing along the teachers words of wisdom about what is important for new parents to know and practice =-).

Fun facts about Ahnika this week:

• Now over 18 inches long
• Tips the scales at 5 1/4 pounds
• Kidneys are fully developed
• Liver can now process some waste
• Most of her physical development is complete (will just spend the remainder of weeks putting on weight)