Oh am I tired

Miss Ainsley is getting to be a better sleeper these days. On Wednesday, she slept from 10pm to 2:15am-a new record! We are very excited. Last night was also a good night as she woke up a couple times and promptly went down after nursing. Our new night time routine of walk around the neighborhood, take a bath, jammies, nurse and lights out seems to be working!

Millenium Molly, Tommy and Zoe

Ainsley's awesome cousins got to visit Millennium Park on Saturday. The look like they had fun!

We had a great time with the three of them on Sunday riding bikes in front of the house and playing Ice Cream Stand. Ice cream stand, for those not familiar, is a fun game where you turn your bike upside down and crank the petals and it magically makes delicious ice cream. Nana and Papa reminded me that this is how I hurt my finger when I was about 6. I believe there was an emergency room visit involved but they may have just used duct tape to close the wound :-).

The competition was fierce as Zoe used her cuteness to try to take down the market dominator Molly, who is shaping up to be a shrewd little business person (I'm so proud of her!). Tommy just churned out excellent product. He had an excellent technique of spinning both wheels for extra flavor. His "shimmy" shake was also best in town.

Sadly, I do not have pictures to capture the event but trust me it was cute.

Another Italian Dinner

So Sunday afternoon we had a very late lunch/very early dinner at Trattoria Peppino in Melrose Park. It's right by Johnnie's on North Ave. We thought we were in the clear as Ainsley was asleep when we got there, but she woke up hungry and cranky in between the salad and the entree. We played "pass the baby" while we ate our yummy food. Jenny had a pasta dish with steak and I had baked rigatoni with four tasty kinds of cheeses. Jenny liked both dishes and ate lots of mine too!

Peppino's is now on the list of "kid friendly" restaurants-old school service, good prices and a meal at a relaxed pace on their outdoor patio. The lady behind Jen's shoulder in this picture was obsessed with Ainsley! She wants us to come back on Wednesday for their "all you can eat pasta night" so we can all order different pastas and feed each other. Yeah, thanks but no thanks. We're not taking applications for new grandmas right now.

Vowels with a Soprano

So we had an absolutely wonderful visit with Amy this weekend. Amy and Ainsley bonded immediately. Amy held her, talked to her, and even sang to her. She loved it! It was great to have Amy here to give us a quick five minute hand here and there too. Come back anytime Amy!

A Night on the Town

Hi Everyone!

So Monday Jen and I celebrated the six week milestone by enjoying our first nice dinner out of the house at Franchescas in Forest Park. This was complete with wait staff, tablecloths, and even real silverware. (Our sandwich at Jimmy Johns three Saturdays ago doesn't really count.) Our sweet watiress told us that she was four months pregenant! It was really nice to sit and enjoy a meal and talk. Most of it was about Ainsley but that's normal, right? We also had to stop ourselves from staring at her the whole time and talk to each other, but we did it. Towards the end we had to hurry as Ainsley started to stir, but overall as you can tell she had a great time.

I read her the specials but she opted for none of them, choosing to sleep right through it.

After dinner we enjoyed a gentle stroll down Forest Park's lovely Madison Street and stopped at the Brown Cow for a cone. It was so good! I had the chocolate with peanut butter and it was probably the best cone I've ever had. I'm talking about real chunks of peanut butter swireld in to the rich chocolate. Jen's cup of chocolate chip cookie dough paled in comparison (at her own admission).

It's getting better every day!

Our Six Week Old Sweetie!

Another Sunday, another week. This picture mommy took tickled me. Hope it makes you happy too.

Look at those limbs go!

Ainsley continues to get stronger and more active. She's giving us more smiles too!

Month One is Done!

Well Ainsley turned one month yesterday. She continues to delight and amaze us. The occasional smile is our new delight. She is also getting really good at tricking me in to thinking she is asleep. When she looks good and sleepy (limp arms, deeply closed eyes) I gently set her down only to watch her open her eyes and cry for a while longer. Such are the joys! We love every second of it.

Big and small

I can't get enough of this picture of Ainsley and Ellie.

Our little ladybug!

Mommy is in love with these photos and it is easy to see why. Isn't she just a little peanut? The beautiful quilt from Julie Sundstrom measures around 4' x 4'. Ainsley is about 18 inches.

Three Hours Logged

So we think our sweetie might have colic. This after crying pretty much full out from 8:30 until midnight last night. The only breaks she took were to nurse and catch her breath. She finally gave up when I figured out the winning formula-a super snug "hospital" swaddle and and some over the shoulder time.

Listening to her cry was tough after a while, but we knew there wasn't much we could do. Her temp is normal (we bought a rectal thermometer, which thankfully she didn't mind). We burped her until there was no way she had gas. All the other stuff (diaper, outfit, comfortable temperature) was fine, so hey what can you do? Even after she went down I found it hard to sleep. I could still hear her cry in my head and my fingertips were throbbing as I felt so bad for all that sobbing and screaming she did. She seems okay now but it should be a fun weekend.

Under Construction

This blog seemed like a good idea when I started it. I'm sure it still will be but I've had some technical issues as well as some time management issues what with a new baby and all. So I'll get some posts up soon.

Recap of the first week home:

• It went really fast
• I'm really tired
• Grandparents are really smart and helpful when it comes to babies
• We don't exactly know what all her cries mean yet
• We really love our baby

That's it for now. More later.

Grandparents Weekend

Well we had a wonderful weekend with all the grandparents at the house helping us with Ainsley. Not only can an extra pair of hands be helpful, our parent's extensive knowledge of things you didn't know they knew is very useful. Ainsley loved it too. Thanks everyone!

We're home!!!!!

We finally got clearance to come home today. There were many exciting moments as we got closer to the big moment. My favorite was was when they finally took her baby monitoring system off her leg. For an uncerimonius moment it was very exciting. We could actually take her off the sixth floor!
My favorite moment by far was getting her in the car seat. I sort of struggled getting the straps the right lenght but eventually I got it. The thing I will never forget is bracing to pick up something very heavy. And when I picked up Ainsley to put her in the car for the first time, I'll never forget how light it really was. It was like lifting air. Having our baby with us is going to be a lot like lifting the car seat for the first time-seems like a big challenge but it will come so naturally that it will be no effort at all. I can't wait.

Welcome home, dear Ainsley Frances Avers.

Weekend at the "airport"

So today we completed day seven of ten of Ainsley's antibiotics. Jen and I spent the entire day with her essentially locked in a supply closet. We equated it to an airport delay for many reasons:

• We really can't do anything about it-we just have to wait this thing out.
  
• The accommodations are weak at best.
  
• We have three rocking chairs that really aren't that comfortable.
  
• We have whatever snacks we can smuggle in there.
  
• We have very little natural light.
• We keep finding ways to amuse ourselves.
  
• We watched a movie (Uncle Buck) on our Ipod today. That was fun.
  
• We read the weather page of Friday's WSJ for about 45 minutes. We went through the cities and tried to figure out what country they were in. Mind you, this was without the internet.
  

Most importantly, we were with our baby. And she is doing great and we'll be home soon.

Higher Education Aspirations

OK I would say give this one 20 seconds before it gets interesting, but you will see that she has a poker face when it comes to where she wants to go to college. My guess is she got the poker face from Papachino.

This is the baby in question

This was taken Sunday about three hours in to her wonderful life. She was in the NICU for observation after her traumatic birth, but come on we all know she is perfect. They just need to hang on to her for a while. Better to be safe.

Welcome to our blog

Hello and welcome. We are heavily influenced by brilliant people. And Farah is a brilliant person. Her amazing blog has been such a joy to check once in a while-like finding a $20 spot in jeans out of the dryer. Or discovering you DON'T need gas yet because American cars have lots more in the tank once it says "E" (OK maybe it's not like that but isn't that cool?)

So we want to get our own blog going. It should cut down on the emails and give us a chance to post pictures, videos, insightful writing, etc. all in one place. We hope you enjoy and look forward to your comments.

Love,
Scott and Jen

What to do at 4am

[Editors note: This was my first attempt to write for the blog. I thought it was lost forever but Farah helped me find it. Thanks Farah]
OK so it's supposed to be 3am. Maybe even 3:30. We really did set the alarm. Wow the third time we have to get up to provide for our child is tough. But it will be seem like nothing when she gets home.
The good news is that Jenny can count. Really well. She saved our sweetie from another heel prick yesterday and told the nurses that this was actually day five (5) and not three (3). Seems they forgot to count the first two days when her chart was with the NICU. Oops. Score one for us.
Then she counted down the fact that ten days might actually be Tuesday and not Wednesday. And our ultra-conservative pediatrician actually agreed. That's right-she may be home in time for the Home Run Derby. Score two baby.

By the way, welcome to our blog. A future of super cute pictures, videos, and hopefully insightful, funny and inspiring posts awaits. I figure you'll like this more than my "dadmails". Enjoy.