Peter's Pictures!

OK, I know you've all been waiting with baited breath for over a week for pictures. Sorry! Inexcusable, I know, but we have a silly computer glitch that has kept us from downloading all the pictures, but that has gotten fixed (or mostly fixed) and so here we are! Please note that Jason and I, who are notoriously bad at documenting our lives, ran out of camera battery (for the first time ever) within 48 hours of Peter's first breath. Expect many more pictures in the future, and possibly some inane videos of Peter waving his hands or something (which will, of course, be enchanting to us). Yup, we're in love. :)

Here are some of our favorites:

Waiting for Peter (this was obviously before labor got interesting)


Peter, newly hatched. Apgars were 5 and 8 (not bad for a little guy with meconium at C-section delivery!) At first, we thought he looked just like his Uncle Nick (my brother). Now we are also starting to see our nephew Cameron in Peter's face... curiouser and curiouser!


Proud Papa.


Meeting Mom


There's Peter, all 5 lbs 6.8 oz of him!


Jason and Peter sleeping skin-to-skin. Peter's temperature stayed right up there with all the loving he got from us. We felt so fortunate to have fantastic care at the University of Utah-- a huge shout out to Phillip and Sandra on post-partum, and Kelli, Courney, Nikole and Lori on Labor and Delivery-- they were all amazing!


Lucky Peter with all FOUR of his grandparents at once! From Left, Grandma Laurie Tennessen, Grandpa Ken Tennessen, "GrandNan" Nancy Heerens-Knudson, and "Grappa" Ralph Knudson. We were so lucky that Ken and Laurie were out during a "pre-baby visit" that turned into a "get-ready-for-and-meet-baby visit"-- they did so much getting ready, and we were so happy they could meet Peter so soon! My parents flew out for a quick weekend to meet Peter and help me around the hospital (otherwise Jason wouldn't have ever taken a break) before they flew back to Wisconsin, and they'll drive out in 2 weeks for a longer visit. I think GrandNan may move in next door, though...


Frog-Man sleepy Peter. We have an amazing amount of amphibian and reptile-themed clothing, which is perfect for any kid of ours... and Jason's favorite color is green!


Peter in his awesome minimalist Norwegian designer bassinet (purchased on Ebay from the guy who wrote "Big Girls Don't Cry" with Fergie!). This thing is on WHEELS so we just wheel it around wherever we are. It's actually pretty compact, but Peter makes it look huge. He also has spent a grand total of 3 hours in it so far. It's a start... he'd better get used to it, since it expands into a crib and then a toddler bed.


Pensive Peter at 2-3 days of life. This was after Ralph walked him around the room singing Leon Redbone, and Peter was just stoked! Nick calls this Peter's "Jedi stylings." I agree. He kinda looks like an old soul.

All in all, Peter is a pretty chill little guy who keeps us amused with some of the funniest facial expressions I've ever seen on a baby. We're having a blast learning about him and watching his personality emerge. He's nocturnal (active-- read, crying-- period from 2 am to 8 am) and we're trying our darndest to remind him that daylight can be fun, too... but he's not buying it so far. He eats pretty well (now I just have to keep up with his demand), and pulls his little hands down his face when he eats, which makes him look like Edvard Munch's "The Scream" but cuter.

Jason is rocking parenthood, and is a total pro at baby-care. He and Peter have been bonding over the Brewers winning season and have had many coffees on the front porch while I slept in a bit. I think we're doing a pretty good job at supporting each other, too, even in those middle-of-the-night-crying-baby moments, and we're still laughing frequently at ourselves, Peter and the world... so I guess some things never change, even with kids.

Thanks for going on this journey with us, and for all your love and support. We've been overwhelmed with the outpouring of generosity and friendship over the past week, and we feel so lucky to have such great people in our lives. What a wonderful world for Peter to be born into. Thanks for making it that way.

Announcing... the start of The Sleepy Haze

Well, all the waiting is over, and the fun begins!

We have a little baby boy! Peter George Robert Tennessen was born on 8/19/2011 at 02:54 am. He's 5 lbs 6.8 oz at 38 weeks, and was born by Cesarian section after a darn good try at inducing a vaginal birth. We definitely got the full labor and delivery experience.

I've been measuring small in my belly growth since 34 weeks, and so we've had extra monitoring to see if Baby has been growing well, and the first ultrasound 3 weeks ago showed a smaller baby than expected, so they decided to do a repeat ultrasound at 38 weeks.

We went in for the repeat ultrasound Thursday morning (yesterday) and were told to stick around a little while longer, and then a poor OB resident who thought we knew what was going on popped by and said "Laura, your room is ready for your induction." WHOA! Surprise! We chatted with the docs and it turns out our little one hadn't grown much since the last ultrasound, and there was some evidence that the placenta and umbilical cord weren't getting nutrition to Baby.

So, we did some inducing of labor. We tried to just thin out my cervix, but the medicine made me contract a lot, but without much changing of my cervix. We did about 8 hours of pretty hard labor with our fantastic doula, and the last 1-2 hours the contractions were too close together, right on top of another, and causing some stress to the baby. Neither me nor baby enjoyed the epidural very much, and so it was decided to do a C-section to get Baby out safe. We had a great labor and delivery experience with a lot of nurses and staff that I knew from residency, and I feel that this birth was just exactly what I wanted (plus a lot more :) )

And so, I got to follow along in my head as my favorite surgeon did the C-section, and that was incredibly surreal. Peter was born and did great right away. Jason has been an amazing dad and partner throughout, and I am doing just fine. I think we're both still a little astounded at where we are now compared to yesterday, but we are so glad we have the desired end result-- a healthy family!

Jason's parents are here (for a planned pre-baby vacation... which changed into a baby-vacation!) and my parents are flying out for 2 days tomorrow... then they'll come back in 2 weeks. We feel so fortunate.

I know everyone is dying for pictures-- we can't synch the camera with the computer we have at the hospital, so check back in a day or two.

We're not going to be taking visitors at the hospital for now (we're focusing on catching up on sleep and strength right now), but we'd love to have folks at the house starting on Monday, in the evenings, from 6 pm to 8 pm. Or just call and we'll figure something out.

We do have a meal calendar to sign up for if you are so inspired-- let me know if you're interested! We'll take all the help we can get. :)

Love you all!

Goofin' off...

We have had a blast goofing off these past few months... here's a sampling.

This is a video of me and Dad playing violins, but with our arms interlinked. We thought we were exceptionally cool, but now that I look at the video... maybe not so much.

And the other one needs a precursor:

I woke up one day suddenly feeling much more "waddly" than I had before, and catching a glimpse at myself in the mirror, I thought that I looked like a penguin.

Jason captured that moment for posterity, and now (because I have no shame) we share it with you:

Preggo pics

Visiting with Kate, 34 weeks

4th of July Fireworks-- 32 weeks

Henna from Craig and Kana's wedding-- 30ish weeks
Hike at 20ish weeks
Finding out...

Apocalypse Averted

"Apocalypse Averted" was Jason's favorite name for the blog, so we compromised and I promised we'd name the first post after his death-defying desire. So here it is. He explains his favored title as "now that we're having a kid, I'll put off my evil mad scientist plans for a little bit."

Hmmm.

So, it's 35 weeks of pregnancy and counting, and we haven't really done a great job of sharing pictures (there actually aren't many to share... we are not good historians) or stories. I figured it's easier to amend this now rather than later, when we have a little poop-machine to scoop up after. As soon as pictures get organized, I'll start posting preggo pics and other significant fun shots, and then we'll hopefully be more adept at this so that we can easily post once the kiddo gets here.

A few basics about the expected adoration:

Due Date: September 2.

Gender: Unknown, on purpose-- it'll be like Christmas in September

Nicknames: "Baby" (Laura and Jason), "Bean" (Nan and Ralph, and sometimes Laura), "Skeletor" (Laura and Nick), "Kiddo!" (Laura when baby kicks hard)

Expected Future Employment: Jason is starting early by calling our baby the "Astronaut-President". Laura adds "-Poet" to the end.

Is Laura Still Working?: Yup. I'm going to try to work until the due date. I don't get FMLA until October (because that's when I started my job) so we'll eek out as much time as we can. We'll be fine if the little one comes earlier, though.

How is Laura feeling?: Pretty well! Some heartburn, needing to keep up on fluids and sleep, and a little frustrated that I can't do EVERYTHING I want to as easily as before-- and that I have such a long stinking commute!

How is Jason feeling?: I think pretty well, too! He seems to be taking everything in stride, including my mood swings and increasingly odd sleep positions. He is definitely excited about this kiddo!

Are you guys ready?: Can you ever be? Yes, we've got most everything now, including a carseat, a cool Norwegian oval crib on wheels (so it's portable!), a pack and play, a place to change diapers, some cloth diapers, and more adorable baby clothes and wonderful baby books than I ever thought possible. Since we kinda half-planned to just dress our kid in old lab T-shirts and burlap and use the backyard as a diaper, this is a bit overwhelming. It'll be fun!

Are you guys nervous?: Yup. We are terrified, excited, nervous, happy, impatient, enjoying every moment of time with just the two of us, and pretty much every other emotion there is as well (except rageful. No rage.) I think this is standard-- folks just don't talk about it much. But you know, we're honest. :)

What's your baby song?: I sing just about anything that comes to mind to this wee one, often defaulting to the Welsh Lullaby and making up songs randomly. Grandpa Ralph (wow, that's the first time I've written that down) WROTE a beautiful song called "Busterflies and Bumblebeezus" which I will somehow figure out how to share on this blog-- it's great. We also are a big fan of "The Hippopotamous" which is an old-timey song introduced to us last Christmas by our fantastic neighbor, Craig. The lyrics are as follows:

The Hippopotamus Song

A bold hippopotamus was standing one day
On the banks of the cool Shalimar
He gazed at the bottom as he peacefully lay
By the light of the evening star
Away on the hilltop sat combing her hair
His fair hippopotami maid
The hippopotamus was no ignoramus
And sang her this sweet serenade

Chorus:
Mud, mud, glorious mud
Nothing quite like it for cooling the blood
So follow me follow, down to the hollow
And there let me wallow in glorious mud

The fair hippopotama he aimed to entice
From her seat on that hilltop above
As she hadn't got a ma to give her advice
Came tiptoeing down to her love
Like thunder the forest re-echoed the sound
Of the song that they sang when they met
His inamorata adjusted her garter
And lifted her voice in duet

Chorus

Now more hippopotami began to convene
On the banks of that river so wide
I wonder now what am I to say of the scene
That ensued by the Shalimar side
They dived all at once with an ear-splitting sposh
Then rose to the surface again
A regular army of hippopotami
All singing this haunting refrain

Chorus

And there you have it. Glorious, glorious mud.