Spooky

We love Halloween and Cece is well on her way to loving it, too. Last Friday we carved pumpkins with Cristine, Brit, Tina and Steph. Here are some pictures from our carving party!

Yummy

Cece has started eating solids. She's become pretty good at rice cereal and loves to hold her own spoon. She's so independent.

Cece 3 month photoshoot

Four Months Old!

It's hard to believe Cece's already four months old! Today, she had her four-month check-up. As we suspected, she's ahead of the curve, already rolling over, holding onto objects, cooing, laughing, and following movement by turning her head. She was in the 27th percentile for weight, 47th for height, and 71st for head circumference. That's consistent with where she was for her last appointment. She's now 24 inches long and weighs over 12 pounds.

Since she's such a big girl now, we decided it was time for her to get an exersaucer. Here she is playing in it:

Back to Work

This week, Bridget went back to work (working part time) and Cece spent some quality time with her nanny, Laura. She's doing just great adjusting to the new routine. Bridget gets to work from home a few days a week so she's not really missing out on all of Cece's exciting changes. On Wednesday, we went to visit Cece's new cousin, Leah. We brough J & H some pulled pork sandwiches and just hung out. Phil came over, too. It was his first time meeting BOTH girls! Leah was such a sleeping beauty, while Cece was her usual social self...such a party animal!

Baby Bjorn

We just couldn't resist sharing a few pics of Cece in the Baby Bjorn. We used it for the first time at the State Fair and now she loves going on walks in it. Our plan for today - a hike out in Afton (one of our favorite hiking places) with Cece and Ole.

No longer the youngest

This week Cece got a new cousin, Leah Grace, daughter of Jeff's youngest brother John and his wife Heather. She was born on Thursday (9/10) and we went to visit the new family in the hospital Friday afternoon. She's a little peanut and makes Cece look like a monster! Was she ever that small? Hard to believe she was once that size, she's just getting bigger every day. Here are a few pictures of Cece with her new cousin, Leah. We're sure they'll be fast friends.

On a Roll

This weekend Cece has learned to roll! Grandma and Papa Winberg babysat on Friday night when we spent a much needed night away to see Jim Gaffigan at Treasure Island. According to Grandma, Cece was having "tummy time" when Grandma gave her a hand rolling over onto her back and again onto her tummy. Cece gave a look of discovery as if to say, "oh, that's how you do it." On Saturday she was rolling all over the place on her own. She now loves to roll onto her tummy and pick her head up and then flip back over. In fact, Saturday night we put her to bed with her head facing North and she did a complete 180 to face South. Cece is also discovering her feet now. Good thing she has cool new shoes to keep her entertained!

Firsts

As of yesterday (June 30th), Cece is one month old! Her first month has gone by so fast!

Here are some pictures of her first bath:

She did a great job in the tub.

Here are some other cute pictures we recently took of her:

Cece's First Video!

Here's our first of many videos of Cece:

Home!

We got to go home last Wednesday. We were excited for Cece to meet Ole and get used to her new home. Here is Cece meeting Ole for the first time:

Ole is very good with Cece. He licks her face and feet. Here he is cuddling with her:

We've had several visitors since coming home last Wednesday. My mom came over on Thursday and watched Cece while we took a nap and ran some errands. Thanks Mom! Bridget's mom came over last Friday and brought us a delicious meal and helped us clean a bit. My folks came over on Saturday to help us celebrate Cece's first week. My cousin Nick and his wife Leah came over, too. It was great to see everyone and thanks for the Dairy Queen cake!

Here's a parting shot of mommy and Cece cuddling. Bundle of joy indeed!

More Hospital Visitors

Sorry this post is so late. We've been adjusting to life at home with Cece. I am proud to say that we're getting into a good rhythm. I give Cece a bottle around 11 PM so that Bridget can get some sleep. That's been working well.

Anyway, I promised to post pictures of other visitors we've had. John and Heather visited us a week ago Monday. I threatened to make John change a diaper. It was an empty threat, but John and Heather did get a good preview of changing a newborn's diaper. Here are John and Heather with Cece:

Heather is due late September, so we're very excited to meet the newest Christenson cousin! We left the hospital on Wednesday (a week ago today).

First Visitors

Naturally, because little Cece is so precious, everyone wants to see her and hold her. First, we got a visit from Grandma and Papa Winberg:




















Then, Grandma and Grandpa Christenson visited us and got to hold their newest grandkid! Number 5 is alive!















Chris, Katie, Caleb, and Hannah got to meet their newest niece/cousin. Hannah thought she was "oh coo" (so cute).




















Matt, Sarah, Paige, and Kyla showed up right at the same time, so all the Christenson cousins were in our room at the same time. Pretty cool. Kyla even showed off her handwriting in their card for us. Nice job Kyla!















Last but not least, Cristine and Brit stopped by. Brit was excited to see his new cousin. He asked if he could play catch with her, named her Caillou and then Fifi, and then made sure everyone had enough snacks.















Today, we got a visit from John and Heather. We'll post pictures of them with Cece tomorrow.

Cecelia's Birth Story

Wow, what a couple days!

Cecelia Anne's birth story started out on Friday evening (5/29). Bridget's mom was up to help us clean the house (thanks again) and we grilled out for dinner. After dinner, we were tossing around the idea of making a Dairy Queen run, but Bridget thought she was leaking amniotic fluid, so we called the doctor, who suggested we come in and get her checked out.

The doctor tested her and she wasn't leaking amniotic fluid (or wasn't anymore), but said she was showing some signs of pre-eclampsia (swelling, high blood pressure). The doctor recommended Bridget stay overnight so they could monitor her. We thought there'd be a pretty good chance that she'd get discharged the next day, if her symptoms subsided. I went home while Bridget stayed at the hospital for observation.

I got a call around 6 AM the next morning from Bridget, saying her water had broke and she wasn't going anywhere. I hurried to get the dog walked, get our bag together, and hussle to the hospital. She was in active labor when I arrived, and the contractions were getting stronger. The doctor started an IV (a difficult task, given Bridget's swelling), put her on a dose of pitocin (to help induce labor), and called in an anaesthetist to give her an epidural (also a difficult task).

With the pitocin drip and epidural in, we were advised that there was a chance Bridget might have do to a c-section, and when she stopped dialating, that became our best option. The doctors quickly prepped Bridget and off she went, while I waited in the post-op room for them to come get me so I could be with Bridget while they performed the procedure.

I got to hold Bridget's hand while they worked at getting the baby out. It was a joyous, tearful moment when the doctors said "it's a girl" and held little Cecelia up over the drape for us to see. She was, is, and will always be, beautiful. She was officially born at 4:12 PM on Saturday, May 30th.

The doctors quickly towelled her off and put her under a heat lamp. I asked if they could weigh her there. Yes, they could. 8 pounds, 14 ounces. Big girl! I got to go over and cut her umbilical cord, and then we brought the baby over to mommy. Here's the picture the anaesthetist took of our family (thanks to Kevin at my work for suggesting getting a doctor to take pictures):

















Little Cece was whisked away, then, while they stitched Bridget up. I followed Cece into a room where a nurse washed her, measured her (21 and a half inches), performed the Apgar test (9 of 10), and put a diaper on her. I got to play with Cece the whole time. Then we brought baby to the post-op room to reunite with mom and try feeding.

The next 24 hours were kind of a blur. We slept fitfully, tried feeding (Cece keeps getting better), and managed Bridget's pain from the procedure. Here's another picture of our adorable little girl:

Nursery

We've been more or less done with the nursery, but last night we put most of the finishing touches on it and took a few pictures. We'll give a prize to the person who first correctly identifies the number of monkey faces in the picture of the crib at the bottom of this post.

Here's Jeff swinging from the vine:














Artie was nice enough to help us out:














Here's what some of the decals look like:














Here's Bridget telling the baby where he or she is going to be staying:



















More pictures of the nursery:



















The last thing we need to do for the nursery to be complete? The baby. Details to follow.

Doctor's Orders

Bridget had her doctor appointment today. Starting now, she'll go in every week until the baby is born.

Anyway, her doctor told her she works too hard. We all already knew that, but it was news to Bridget. So, now she has to limit her time sitting at a desk to 15 hours a week. It will be a bit of an adjustment, but it will obviously be temporary and a good transition for her before the baby comes.

We also talked to a representative from Merry Maids today to get a quote on cleaning our house. They want $300 for the first cleaning and $100 for each additional, bi-weekly cleaning. What a deal, huh? We decided, though, that we don't need to spend that kind of money to keep the house spotless. Baby's going to be throwing up all over the floor anyway.

We're going to make an effort to post some pictures in the near future of the nursery, etc. Just be prepared for primate overload!

Prologue

Greetings!

As you might imagine, Bridget and I are creating this blog to keep track of our adventures as parents, primarily. I've offered to be the main author, since Bridget writes creatively as part of her job and I don't want to use up her creative writing mojo here, especially since I (hopefully) will have plenty to spare.

Here's some background. We found out we were pregnant last October. We had decided to stop trying not to get pregnant instead of trying to get pregnant and voila! It was amazing how well that worked! I remember Bridget calling me with the news and being very excited. We shared the news with our families around Thanksgiving. Appropriate, right? Here are some pictures of how we shared the news with my parents.

Planners as we are, we have been busy since then getting ready for the baby (Bridget is due June 4th). We have the room ready, which involved moving our office upstairs, re-wiring it for cable and internet, sheetrocking, and painting. A lot of effort, but it feels good to have most of it done.

We've had three baby showers and there are two more to go. We've received all kinds of great gifts from amazing family, friends, and co-workers. If there is one theme underlying the gifts we've got thus far, it has to be monkeys. We think we may have set a record for number of monkeys in one baby's room (clothes, lamps, nightlights, stuffed monkeys, actual monkeys (?)). I just hope our kid doesn't grow up making wierd noises and throwing feces. If it does, I'll just blame Bridget.

So, now we're prepared for this baby but probably not ready for the lack of sleep, exhaustion, and overturned schedule that he or she will present, according to the many who have gone before us. As my boss put it, "welcome to the world of not sleeping at night."

I'll try to keep this blog up to date as we welcome this new baby into the world!