Week 6: Cooing, Smiling, Eating (loads!), etc. etc.

James turned 6 weeks old this past Tuesday. He is working on smiling and cooing - not quite mastered but getting there! He is also demanding a lot of mummy and daddy face time (what a clever lad) which is an indication of his little brain developing normally! James eats...and eats...and eats. He is now weighing 12.5 lbs. and is long, lean, and lovely! When he was 4 weeks, we FINALLY moved him into his own room. Wow. What a difference. We also have a video baby monitor that is completely brilliant! What a time we live in to have such amazing baby paraphernalia! James had his first commercial audition this past week. He did a fine job sleeping whilst I pretended to bathe him. No word yet as to whether or not we did a fine job auditioning. Nathan and Nana Jocelyn also auditioned with us - the client wanted to see a real family. :)

Likes:
Mum
Dad
Nana Jocelyn
Papa Reed
Skyping with his English family
Being held
The piano (I need a resident pianist to play...James wants to be held when I play thus rendering any attempts at proper playing useless)
His Tournee du Chat Noir art poster above his crib
Dr. Quinn (mostly through classical conditioning...I watch this whilst he eats. :) I can’t watch any other programs because they are not relaxing enough. I find that “Quinny”, as Nathan has named it, is easy to watch whilst nursing.)
Light from outside
bath time
pooing
sucking his pacifier

Dislikes:
nappy changing

Well, I only have 3 weeks of maternity leave left. Then, life will become more challenging! Up all night (mostly to feed - James really is a great sleeper), work all day! Ahhh!! In addition, I am preparing for a few modeling gigs coming up which requires me to start exercising again (it has been nearly a full year!) Ah, well. This current semester of my master’s program has been a blessing in that my professor is allowing all of our exams to be open book...*sigh*...God certainly has been merciful!

We absolutely adore James more and more everyday. Parenthood is amazing.


This is James at 1 month. He looks like Max from Where The Wild Things Are. :)


We took James to my dear friend Regina's wedding a few weeks ago. He was a champ - slept the whole time! James and I did, however, do one session of breast feeding in the corner of the 9th floor lobby at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building... THAT was exciting.

James' first photoshoot (one of many, I'm sure)

My friend Amy Hess took these lovely pictures of James when he was 2.5 weeks old. He is so gorgeous! Amy did a brilliant job! I will post more when the rest are finished.

Week 3 with the lovely James

James getting ready to visit the doctor. :)


James had his 3 week doctor visit yesterday and we are happy to report that he’s doing a fine job of being a baby. :)

Week 3 stats:

Weight: 9.8 lb. (70%)
Length: 22.4” (91%)

James is developing some definite “likes” and “dislikes.” Here are a few:

Dislikes:
being cold
having his head washed
having his nappy changed (he really does not enjoy this and fights us with strong legs)
floor tummy time

Likes:
being warm
napping
eating
being held
music
interaction
interesting patterns
his pacifier

We finally purchased a baby monitor! This is to allow us to sleep in a different room to James. Although, I still think we’ll be just as paranoid and find ourselves dashing into his room at the slightest sound. *sigh* If only he was a quiet sleeper. We’re considering changing his name to "Grunter" Stevens. :)

Nathan is doing a fine job of being a dad! He is does well changing nappies and can burp James with ease. I’m still trying to figure out how to accurately swaddle James. It’s always obvious who put James to bed based on the neat appearance of the blankets (Nathan) or the jumbled, flailing appearance of the blankets (Britney).

We are continuing to enjoy being parents. It’s quite the adjustment but we are coping with the transition. What a wonderful experience it is to have a child. I HIGHLY recommend children! :)

Can anyone tell me how I will know when to move James to the next size of nappies (diapers)?

Weeks 1 & 2 with the most gorgeous boy on the planet

Well, we have survived 2 weeks with James! He is absolutely delightful and SO lovely. James is a good sleeper but his parents are light sleepers - this makes his grunts, snorts, whimpers, sighs, loud dreams, constant hiccups (a souvenir he brought along from the womb), toots, and poops difficult to ignore. Therefore, we take turns with night duty. Well, Nathan is mostly the one sacrificing his precious sleep. He lets me go into another room for the night whilst he attempts to “sleep”, only waking me for feedings, or for an emergency projectile poo clean-up operation. Actually, upon reflection, I think I’ve only awoken him for emergency projectile poo clean-up operations.

James had his first outing to visit the family doctor for his week 1 check-up. The boy is doing great! He had lost some weight in the hospital (to be expected until mum’s milk came in) but has been gaining it back. :)

Stats at birth:

weight: 9 lb. 2 oz. (89%)
length: 21.5” (97%)

Stats at week 1:

weight: 8 lb. 8 oz. (68%)
length: 21.25” (85%)
head: 14.9” (78%)

James is the greatest blessing in our lives. We adore and love him deeply. We stare at him constantly marveling at his perfection. What a treasure he is and as all new parents do, we resolve to provide the best mortal life we can for him.

His eye colour seems to be remaining blue, even when wearing brown. There are moments when James looks like me, but his features are very much Nathan at the moment. I expect we’ll be seeing a nicer mix as James grows. :) James has been a great eater since day 1, which has been brilliant. My milk arrived on the Thursday morning the week of his birth. I’m grateful that I seem to be able to provide enough milk to satisfy him. Yay! Oh, his umbilical cord came off after only 8 days. Now, we take regular baths instead of those awful sponge baths (he didn't like those).

James, my boy, you are the best!

Here are some new pictures and video of the little man. :)



1 week! James and Mum



In this one, he looks like me in one of my baby pictures! Yay! I'm in there somewhere!



Beautiful, sleeping babe.



First bath in his new tub!



Short video of James being swaddled by his dad. I LOVE his huge pacifier and sucking sounds.

Our New Arrival

James Barrie Taylor Stevens was born on 11/01/11 weighing 9lbs 2oz and was 21.5 inches long. With Britney's final check-up on Tuesday it was deemed necessary to take James early as he was not looking happy in there. This was instead of waiting until the scheduled date of Thursday 13th. Being a Halloween enthusiast Britney was hoping for a baby delivered on the 13th but still thinks a birth date of 11/01/11 as quite cool (01/11/11 for those in The US reading this). Mother and baby are well. Both came home on Friday evening and are sleeping as I write this update. James is, as you can see, utterly gorgeous and kept his Mummy up with him from 11pm - 3am and his Daddy up with him from 3am - 8am on his first night home. Despite the usual discomfort associated with a new baby's gut James is quite a content baby. We feel tremendously blessed that he and Britney coped well with the caesarian.

See new pictures above =)

Ps. I think it is wonderful being a Daddy!

And the winner is...

In fact, there were five winners. =)

Here is the hastily cobbled together poem I submitted for a geeky online poetry competition. I know the punctuation leaves much to be desired and perhaps I'll fix that at some point but for now, here it is:

http://www.geekmom.com/2010/12/winners-of-the-fantasy-freaks-and-gaming-geeks-contest-with-ethan-gilsdorf/

http://www.geekmom.com/2010/11/geek-author-ethan-gilsdorf-talks-names-games-and-giveaways/comment-page-1/#comments


GEORGE LUCAS IS GOING IN MY AXIS OF EVIL

There once was a galaxy far, far away
Where sunsets were binary, Jawas would play

The story was epic and struck all the notes
Pulling on heartstrings and winning my vote

It told of a Jedi: young, noble and brave
Who fought with the rebels. Their chances were grave

We were captured as viewers by dazzling sights
And immersed in the cause and the allies great plight

We cared for the characters, thrilled at the plot
But then there were new films which set in the rot

The prequels destroyed all the intrigue and fun
George Lucas thought “Cash cow! Take money and run!”

Did he think “They won’t notice as long as I use
Lots of special effects to charm and amuse”?

We baulked at Jar-Jar and the painful screenplay
And even the actors all squirmed in dismay

Explaining the force was quite hard to take:
Replacing the mystery with science half-baked

At least Lucas left the first three films alone
Oh wait no he tinkered – now Solo will moan

“I once was quite edgy – ask Greedo he’ll state
I shot with my blaster and sealed his fate

Before he could blink, before he could twitch
My quick trigger finger had scratched on the itch

But Georgie, he just couldn’t leave it alone:
“Let’s make Han more “goody” – we’ll have him go prone

To dodge Greedo’s bullet…Yeah! Have him shoot first
Then Solo responds with an accurate burst”

“No, no!” We all cried, “You’ve ruined it G!”
We liked it already. Why can’t you see?

The great “No way!” moments like “Luke I’m you’re Dad”
Are ruined forever oh this is so sad!

Watched from the beginning we all then would see
What’s coming because it was Episode III

That told us Luke Skywalker’s Darth Vader’s son
And Leia’s Darth’s daughter. George, what have you done?

You took what was precious and heavenly sent
And turned it into a Star Wars Fan’s lament

october/november bliss

i'm a slacker when it comes to posting updates. so whilst i'm on a 10 minute break from class, i will post a brief update with some pictures. :)

my dear friend kristen bought me a ticket to the alice cooper/rob zombie concert in october for an early birthday present. it was divine! we were able to sit in the disabled section because i was pregnant - sweet! this allowed us to sit down the entire concert with the perfect view of the king of shock rock (alice) and the king of vulgarity (rob). it was a brilliant. i think james enjoyed it. ;)

mr. cooper


mr. zombie


the lovely kristen - thanks woman!

i celebrated my 29th birthday on the 26th of october. i asked for the ultimate gift from nathan to celebrate the last year of my 20's... the entire series of dr. quinn medicine woman. i know. it's just that i've had a crush on jane seymour since i was a teenager. i met her once *sigh*. nathan was a good husband and indulged this particular oddity. i plan to watch the entire series during maternity leave. suh-weet!


halloween was lovely and perfect. i must confess that this is the first time EVER that i've wanted it to be over... JAMES completely occupies my mind (and uterus) and i can think of nothing else. speaking of james ~ he is currently 5.5 pounds with 6 more weeks to go! i've now gained 37 lbs. and feel like a bloater. nathan rubs my back every night (literally every night - he's so lovely!) to help me relax. i wake up about every hour to "turn over".

this year was the "away" year for my siblings during thanksgiving. since nathan's family does not celebrate thanksgiving (though they should because it's awesome), our "away" year consisted of porking out with my parents, my brother and his family, and our dear friend kristen. we also saw harry potter on that day. :)

there are currently 4 women in my family that are pregnant (me, brianna, kathy, joni). my parents will have gained 6 grandchildren within one year (jane and treyson have arrived already!), bringing the number of grandchildren up to 26! they certainly have joy in there posterity.