A week and a day

Julia is one week and one day old today.

To celebrate, we took her out for her first walk, carried inside the "baby sling":


We then recovered with a good nap.


A little poopy, a little feeding and another nap.


Good weather for all this: cool and sunny.

Hat

For those on the other side of the "pond" who are impressed with our baby hats: here's one of the nicer ones.

Indoors on a Quiet Rainy Day

Here's a couple of hatless pictures:




Roxi educating herself.


Proud mama:


Barkly's been developing an interest in the new house-mate. He's no longer leaving as soon as she cries, but still seems unconfortable with the noise. However, he seems to really like her smell (most of the time, I'd agree with him).

Important Sequence

Sitting on daddy's lap yesterday:



Guess what happened after....

Bonding

Yes, daddy needs a shave.
What he needs more is to bond a little bit before he has to go back to work.

Great way to wake up

Roxi and Julia found a better way to breastfeed during the night: side-lying. We all got tons of sleep and feel great this morning.

There is nothing like waking up and looking at your 4-day old daughter sleeping in front of you:

...and in the Afternoon

A little change of scenery: from the bedroom to the dining room. Barkly is happy to be able to join us on the couch, as he's not allowed up on the bed.


Julia seems to be "looking" around much more, and often gazes towards open windows.


By the way, thank you everyone for the nice emails and messages. Sorry if we don't reply to everybody right away - we will sooner or later.

Julia in the Morning...

Julia's first weekend. Seems like things are getting into a routine. Julia feeds and sleeps almost at the same time, occasionally fills a diaper, and sometimes has longer deeper naps (2 hours or so). Most of the time she is "snoozing" at the boob, not fully awake, not eating very eagerly. She seems to be doing all the right things. Only cries when we do something wrong.

Here is a sequence of a big yawn (daddy taking pictures is old news, apparently).


Little feet...


A picture of Barkly, so that he doesn't feel left out. He's been sniffing her and actually wagged his tail when doing so, which is a good sign. He's a good boy.

A few more from Day 2

Looking at the sunlight coming in through the window.


Peacefully coexisting with Barkly.

Julia, 24 Hours Later

Julia is still learning to breastfeed, but sleeps very well, on either mom or dad (but preferably mom).

Barkly is mostly indifferent, although he seems concerned/annoyed when she cries - he often will come look at where the noise is coming from, and then goes to lie down in another room. He was great during the labour, just stayed quietly in the Subaru, in the garage.






Right now, mom & baby are having a well-deserved nap. Dad is coming to join them. Barkly, as usual, is also napping somewhere.

Julia

When we least expected it, she was ready. Last night we had no clue. Roxi woke up at 12:30, in the middle of the night. Labour wasn't easy, but she made it look that way.

Long story short, Julia was born at 10:25 this morning. Everyone is healthy and happy. One day I might try to explain what it was like to participate, in a small way. Now I'm off to bed, hoping for a few hours of sleep. :)

August 23rd

3 minutes old, family portrait:


8 minutes old, extremities still a little purple:


Already 20 minutes old, adjusting to the light:


4 hours and 10 minutes old, getting the hang of this:


A strong woman:

Fun Day

Saturday the 19th - no kid yet...

... in the meantime, we went to the birthday party of a son of a friend. The friend is Kal, and his son is Shaan. Shaan was turning two years old, and his parents decided to invite a ton of people to a big party, and all of them had a great time. There was a little beach, activities, mini golf, and great Indian food for all. We went with Marcia & Andy, and we met up with Raluca, Ed, Sena and Aiyana.

Here is the birthday boy, with Grandpa, not too sure about Robo the Clown:


Sena and the other kids thought Robo was pretty cool:


Aiyana is above such things.


Sena could not get enough...


Then, the beach, even though the water was a little cold.




Warming up with aunt Roxi.


Here is Andy, attempting a tricky shot in Mini Golf.

Para a minha mae

Roxi spotted the first one of these, just hanging under one of our tomato plants. The eggs made it easy to find. She said "I just saw the ugliest caterpillar ever! Want to take a picture?" Of course. This is the only way to show it to my mom.

The first one:


One we found without eggs:


One of the smaller ones:


We probably didn't get all of them - we'll keep looking...

Funky Bug

All from this past weekend.

Saw a funky bug around the rain gutter:


Another bug: a nearby ant.


And yet another bug, who came over to play with us (and with Roxi's big "birthing ball"):

Belly Pic

By popular demand, now that there is about 1 month before the "due date".

Incidentally, the "due date" is at conventionally set at 40 weeks from the last period, whereas the average first pregnancy delivers at 41 weeks + 1 day. So the "due date" being Sept 3rd, statistically September 11 is more likely...

In any event, here is a belly, and a melon.