Mentioning No Names

So mentioning no names I've been nagged that as I have a couple of extra sets of hands currently with me maybe I can add a few extra posts. Well despite the extra hands Kirsten is currently sat on the desk next to me in her baby bouncer seeing how hard she can kick - trust me I have no wish to get in her way at the moment.

It's John's 40th birthday tomorrow, and I pulled off a surprise party for him last Saturday evening. There were about 40 guests in total so I was really pleased with the turnout and Kirsten was as good as gold all weekend. The extra surprise for John was that my best friend, Kerry and her boyfriend, Mark had both flown out on the Friday so that they could attend the party. They stayed with us on Sunday night before going off on a road trip on Monday for 2 weeks. I'd also booked the Monday off work for John knowing that we would all be exhausted after a sociable weekend.

Kirsten has spent the last 10 days learning to be picked up and handled by other people as up till now she's been somewhat of a "Mummy's Girl". She's getting there. Tomorrow night John and I are going out for dinner on our own to celebrate so we'll see how it goes leaving her with Nanny and Grampy.

3+ Months

I know it's over a month since last time. John's sister, Karen, and her husband, Guy have just been out and spent almost 2 weeks with us. They arrived on 25 August and left on Friday, 7 September. My parents arrive on Monday (10 September) and stay until 1 October.

Kirsten has hit 3 months and now weighs 13 lbs 6.5 oz (6.08 kilos). On Thursday she learnt to roll from her back to her front and gets very angry to find herself on her tummy. Now we've got to work on rolling back the other way. As you can see from the pictures we've also got her a bouncer. She has only been in a couple of times so far and lasts no more than 5 minutes. I have to admit that she already loves the television.

Kirsten also now sleeps through most of the night. She's typically asleep by around 8.30 pm and then wakes for her feed anywhere between 3 and 5 am. Usually it's around 4 am. The problem is that half the time she doesn't want to go back to sleep after that so that is something else I'm working on. In the last few weeks she has at least started to take a few naps during the day which means she's not quite as grouchy in the evenings as she has been. Not that I'm biased or anything but when she's happy she's got a beautiful smile. She's also quite a rare baby here in that she's blonde haired and blue eyed. John and I keep joking that we could make a fortune using her as a baby model!!

Anyway hope this brings you all a little more up to date. Best wishes to everyone and thanks for all your well wishes too.

John hits the big 4 0 on 22 September. I'm not really sure how he feels about that.

2 Months'

Time seems to go by so quickly. Kirsten hit 2 months old on 30 July. John was out of town at the annual Infosol Conference, and we survived the worst monsoon storm that we've seen in Phoenix since arriving a little over 6 years ago. Kirsten has survived and finished with colic now we're having some constipation issues which included a trip to the ER at the end of the monsoon storm in the early hours of 31 July/1 August.

We're now preparing ourselves for guests. John's sister and her husband (Karen and Guy) arrive on Saturday 25 August and stay until Friday 7 September and then my parents (Ross and Anne-Lise) arrive on Monday 10 September and stay until 1 October. You are all aware that my Mum was here for the first 4.5 weeks of Kirsten's life, but my Dad is coming out to bond. John's parents are then spending Christmas with us, arriving on December 9 and leaving December 31.

1 month old

Kirsten is now 1-month old. She had her monthly check-up on Monday and then John and I also weighed her on Wednesday when she reached 5 weeks. She continues to gain about 2 oz a day and as of Wednesday weighed in (although dressed in a clean nappy and babygrow) at 9lbs 12.5 oz. We'll be weighing her again today and suspect that she'll have reached 10lbs. Unfortunately she suffers very badly from colic and so sleeps very little, but still eats a lot. As you can see from the photo I'll stoop to anything to stop her from crying. It works, if only for short periods, but when she kicks it makes it very difficult to concentrate on playing the piano.

For those of you who haven't seen them yet here's a link to take you to pictures that were taken of us at the hospital when Kirsten was 2 days old. http://www.growingfamily.com/webnursery/babypage_view.asp?URLID=8W8T7J8Q0F

We then had another set of pictures taken last Wednesday when she was 4 weeks old. http://mystudio.kiddiekandids.com/viewshare.asp?c=60700148824UAJDPY

Enjoy

4 Weeks On

I can't believe that Kirsten is going to be 4 weeks old today. At her first check-up with the pediatrician ( Monday 4 June) after we brought her home she weighed 6 lbs 9 oz (2.98 kilos). When she was in for a check up on Monday (25 June) she weighed 8 lbs 11.5 oz (3.95 kilos). Kirsten was unfortunately born tongue tied (absolutely no movement in her tongue), but with a simple procedure this was fixed last Friday by our pediatrician. We now love watching her being able to stick her tongue out. Kirsten has also grown about 0.5 inches as she is now about 21 inches long. We get a lot of comments about her being blonde as it is a rarity around Phoenix with all the hispanics.

My mother, Anne-Lise, has been here since the day after Kirsten's birth, and I really don't know what I'd have done without her help. We're going to be sad to see her leave on Monday (2 July), but she will be back again in early September with my father so that's only 2 month's away.

Kirsten, welcome to the world!

Sigrid and I are very happy to announce the birth of our baby daughter Kirsten!


She was born Wednesday May 30th at 8:20pm Phoenix time and weighed 7.2lbs. She is a real cutie (must take after me?)

We will of course post more pictures as/when we can. Sigrid is due to come home Friday evening.

The Final Countdown

I'm now at 38.5 weeks and really getting limited in what I can and cannot do. Anne-Lise, my mother, comes into town week today (May 31st) and stays until July 2nd so we're looking forward to having her here. I now have check-ups every week and so my last one was on Tuesday 22nd. The likelihood is that something is going to happen in the next couple of days. The doctor is trying to get an appointment for an induction and has indicated that she will take a cancellation so I live minute to minute, and hour to hour. In the meantime everything is ready at the house, the fridge and freezer are full of food. Various friends and neighbours are on standby and John just awaits that call from me to say that it is "all systems go". Thankfully we've got our first bank holiday weekend of the year this weekend to celebrate Memorial Day which means that I have John at home for 3 days.

Temperatures last week were really high for the time of year (in the low 100s F which is the very high 30s C). This week they've been cooler and only in the mid-90s F (mid-30s C). Although I've pushed the air conditioning down to lower than we've ever had it before at 78F (25C) I still keep suffering from severe hot flushes, and of course I daren't use the pool unless John is home. If I'm not in hospital this weekend I'll definitely be in the pool as it is now 76F (24C).

As soon as we know any more we'll let you know. An email will go out probably within 36 hours to most of you and a select few friends and family of course will be receiving that all important phone call. We'll do our best not to forget anyone!!