Let there be hail at the beach...

We're hanging out at Cannon Beach for new years and we can't seem to avoid weird weather. The last two nights we've had serious hail which has set off my car alarm 3 times. Like I need another reason to wake up in the middle of the night. It's sunny now and hopefully it'll melt the hail soon.

The exciting news for us is that Alex finally slept really well last night. He had three, 3 hours stints. Thank you Kiddopotamus, you are the best. As soon as we get back, we'll post some pictures of Alex hanging out with his cousin Ezra and Aunt and Uncle. In the meantime, we are going to continue eating excessive amounts of beach junk food to end 2007 and then try to lose the extra weight in 2008.

White Christmas? Seriously?

It's snowing somewhat heavily right now. It took 30 years of my life before I got a white Christmas. Alex gets one in year one. Lucky...

I am concerned that this could put a major glitch in the Chinese food plan.

Merry Christmas to all...

Sorry to everyone that it has been so long since we've posted anything to the blog. So here it goes.

Today is Alex's first Christmas. We will get him used to the family tradition of eating Chinese food and watching movies. Today Alex also turns 4 weeks old. We think he's going through a growth spurt since he's been eating constantly and rarely is as happy as he looks in these pictures. As a result though, he's now over 7lbs (I'm coming after you, Ezra).

He's now officially been in 2 of the 50 U.S. states with his trip last week to Portland where he got to meet a lot of his family and friends. Below is a great picture with his great-grandma Alice. He'll be spending the new year in Cannon Beach.

Alex also had his first new hairstyle the other day. He was feeling a little punk so we gave him a mohawk. While Dad thought this was really funny, nana (also known as grandma) wasn't nearly as amused.

All Alone

Jess has left me alone in Seattle and taken Alex and Sampson to Portland. Hopefully she comes back at some point. :) While I'm excited to have absolutely no responsibility over the next couple of days, I miss them already. Alex was just starting to have more awake time during the day and was getting interesting.

So you might envision a pretty rough ride to Portland with a 3 week old baby that eats constantly, a dog that whines constantly and about 200 miles of boring highway. Turns out they all slept the entire ride (not Jess, she had to drive). I'm sure that will make for a fun night of fussiness tonight.

Pathetic

Sometimes Sampson reminds us that he's not the only baby in town.

On my own. . . Sort of

Rob went back to work on Monday, which was very sad for me. Luckily I had my mother-in-law coming later that day to help out so I only had the first part of the day on my own and let me say, it isn't easy. It has been a great help having Sheila around. I am able to shower without worrying about Alex and get a decent nap in the afternoon.

Today Alex had his two week check up. I am proud to say that he has been eating like a champ and now weighs 5 pounds, 13 ounces. I know it doesn't sound like much but he has gained 10 ounces in the last week. He received a clean bill of health and the doctor says he looks great.

Tomorrow Alex is going to visit his dad at work and see what he does all day long, while mom is going to drink lots and lots of coffee. Should be a fun time.

-Jess

Back to Work

Unfortunately, I knew this day would come. I'm going back to work on Monday. It's not that I don't like work, I'm just gonna miss the little guy and I don't want to miss him doing things for the first time. He did his best to make it easier by giving his mom and I a very sleepless night on my last night of not having to wake up early. He teased us the night before with a great night of sleep and we thought things were improving.

When he is awake, things are getting more fun. The other day he got to play with his two month old cousin, Ezra. Unfortunately, Ezra had to fly back to L.A. He's very Hollywood.

Member of the Tribe

On Wednesday afternoon Alexander Joshua Stern became an official member of the tribe. All things considered, he took his circumcision very well. We were very grateful for all of our family who braved the flooded roads to make it to the ceremony and for our friends who attended. It made the event very special for our family.

We were especially excited for Alex to meet his cousin, Ezra, who is just 2 months old. Though Alex and Ezra only stared at each other we know the years to come will bring lots of fun times for them. Hopefully Alex will catch up in size.

Mom, dad and Alex are doing well. We are learning to cope with a few hours of sleep here and there. Next week dad goes back to work which means mom gets to handle all of the night time changings. Thankfully Sheila is coming up to help for the week which means naptime for mom and a decent shower.

One week and counting

We've managed to survive parenting for one week. Alex's weight dropped down to 5 lbs even, but is now rising back up quickly and he's gained 3 ounces in the last 3 days. This may not seem like a big deal, but when you are that size, every ounce counts.

At seven days old, we are starting to figure out routines. He appears to be the normal baby and sleeps really well during the day and fusses and feeds at night. We'll see how he reacts to what happens on day 8.

Speaking of day 8, Alex's bris is planned for tomorrow. He's very excited. We have family coming to join us from Portland and LA which we are excited about. Unfortunately, the rain came and we didn't have time to build and Arc to get all of the family to Seattle from Portland. Believe it or not, my parents and grandma took a detour since I-5 is closed that took them through Yakima. That's a long way to go for Miner Burger (if you know what that is). We are very happy they are willing to deal with the excessive drive.

Baby Hercules

There are lots of exciting things going on in this post, most of which is only exciting to Alex's parents. First of all, we had our post partum appointment and Alex is doing great. He's now only 5 lbs even, but that is acceptable weight loss. We learned that he not only eats well, but he guzzles. Jess is doing well also. She's a bit uncomfortable, but nothing out of the ordinary.

Tummy Time is very important we've learned for a baby to develop their neck muscles. This is important to me because I become much less scared of a baby that can hold its head up. Turns out that Alex's neck was borrowed from superman. On day 2 I was able to put him on my chest and he can basically hold his head off my chest as long as he wants. Good job Alex. While this is a positive, it does make it harder to feed because he can turn his head away and hold it that way with pretty incredible strength.

Also because Alex only weighs 5 lbs, nothing we have fits him. Below is our first picture of Alex in an outfit. This is a very cute preemie outfit that his grandparents bought him. You'll notice that he still swims in it as his foot is sticking out where his leg is supposed to be.

Sampson Update: Sampson is getting so much better. He has gotten used to Alex and doesn't have to be all over him constantly. The only problem is that Sampson doesn't quite understand that he weighs 65 more pounds than Alex. He has always like to rest his chin on things like people and couches. In the picture below he decided to rest his head on Alex (all of him). Alex slept through the ordeal like a champ.

We're back home

We got back from the hospital last night and are now getting Alex used to his new home. We are also getting Sampson used to the bigger family. Sammy is SUPER curious and he whines constantly. He's slowly getting better, but it's going to take time for them to get used to each other.

Our first night at home was fairly sleepless. I think that was to be expected. Alex is a great feeder when we want to be sleeping and he's a great sleeper when we are awake. The daytime sleeping allowed me to re-learn this one important fact...daytime television is TERRIBLE.

We are all doing great and happy to have survived our first day at home as new parents.

17 hours old

We made it through our first night with Alex. We learned a couple of things about him. He likes to sleep...a lot. He doesn't like getting his foot pricked, but he does like going back to sleep afterwards. We aren't sure if we'll be leaving the hospital tonight or tomorrow.

We got a little sleep last night and getting our stomachs filled back up. Things are starting to make a little more sense. Rob can do a pretty mean swaddle and Jess and Alex are doing great at learning how to feed.

Thank you to our family who came to visit in the hospital. Everyone else will be welcome to visit once we get back home. If you choose to come and visit, you are required to spend some of your time playing with Sampson so he doesn't feel totally neglected.

Welcome Alexander Joshua!

We did it! Alexander Joshua Stern was born at 6:55pm this evening. He's just a little guy. 5 lbs, 6 ounces and 18 inches long. He was born at 37 weeks on the day that he reached full term. Mom is great, but tired. Dad is in the same shape.

Fully dilated

Jess is now fully dilated. We will probably be pushing within a half an hour. Jess has gotten and epidural and is extremely happy right now and things have calmed down. She is the toughest girl I have ever met.

-Rob

December 18th? I don't think so.

Zero hour has arrived. Jess' water broke last night around 1 in the morning. It was not obvious like in the movies so we didn't call the hospital until 6am. When we got here they said that it had broke and we wouldn't be going home. After several hours of no activity, Jess has been induced and the contractions are starting slowly. At least slowly enough that she's not upset that I'm blogging. I'll update this as time or situation allows.

Spider Bear, Spider Bear

We have been spending so much time organizing that we decided to play with Baby Stern's toys for a few minutes. When I was a kid, we just had bears. Now the bears get to play dress up. Sampson couldn't have been more confused by this.

Almost time

We had our much anticipated doctor's appointment today. Looks like things are progressing nicely and baby Stern will probably be making an early appearance. The doctor seems to think it could happen within the week but also said it could be up to two weeks. Now we play the wait and see game. Needless to say, we are very excited and a little anxious. We have our bag mostly packed and should be fully prepared when the time comes. I hope there is not a repeat in the weather we had last year at this time and we have no problems making our way to the hospital.

-Jess

Thanksgiving visitors

My parents are up for Thanksgiving from Portland. Sampson is a traitor and no longer cares about his parents. We hope our baby doesn't abandon us so quickly.

Less than one month

We are officially under the one month mark to go. Jess got her email saying "You are now 36 weeks pregnant". I'll paraphrase what it said for everyone. The baby is getting bigger...you are really uncomfortable. Oh yeah, and you can't do much about that.

We are looking forward to the short week. Thanksgiving may be our final holiday without a baby (Hannukah is listed as questionable on the roster).

-Rob

34 Days and Counting

I cannot believe we are almost at the one month mark for baby Stern to make his appearance. Rob and I are so excited for the next phase. We have been shopping like crazy to get everything we think we need, but we really don't have a clue what we are doing. Luckily we have brothers and sister-in-laws to bounce all of our questions off of.

As for being pregnant, I am ready for it to be over. If anyone were to come to our house they would think we were having marital problems, since I now sleep on the couch for most of the night because it is the only way I can get comfortable. I feel gigantic despite my husband who always tells me I am small for the stage of pregnancy I am in (I feel he is obligated to say those things). All and all it has not been terrible but I am ready.

We look forward to sharing all of our stories and pictures with everyone, but until that time comes you will have to endure more cute Sampson pictures because we have an abundance of those.

-Jess

Best Buddies

Jess's parents are up in the LFP (Lake Forest Park) for the weekend. This is especially exciting for Sampson as he gets to spend the entire weekend with his friend Ainsley who constantly tortures him. This is an old picture, but it pretty much represents what happens most of the time.

Baby Stern's Growing Home

We figured that people who haven't seen Jess lately might want to see how she is doing. The pictures below answer the question, "Where exactly does such a small person fit a baby?" As you can see, she is still smiling although Sampson looks skeptical. You might be asking why her most recent picture has the biggest smile? For those who know Jess, I think it is because she has moved into living in pajamas which is basically her favorite outfit.
-Rob

Beat My Score

Air Force Test

This is potentially the simplest and most addictive game since Tetris (with the possible exception of Dr. Mario). I'm convinced that it's the result of an evil genius from Canada whose goal is reduce American worker productivity thus inflating the value of the Canadian Looney.

Supposedly the US Air Force uses this as a test for fighter pilots. The object of the game is to move the red block around so it doesn't get hit by the blue blocks or touch the black walls. If you can go longer than 18 seconds, you are really good. My personal best is 20.9 seconds. I'd have scored higher, but I came to the realization that Starbucks actually pays me to work.

Post your best time in the comments section.

-Rob

Hello and Welcome!

Hello everyone and welcome to the adventures of the Stern family. We put this blog together for three reasons.
1. So that our friends and family who don't get to see us much can keep updated with things that are going on.
2. To post cute pictures of Sampson and our soon to be baby so that our parents get their grandkid fix.
3. Peer pressure. Aaron and Shana not only blogged their pregnancy and their daily activities, but they even blogged the labor and delivery. Unfortunately, our parents have the expectation that we are nearly as tech savvy as Jess's brother who builds lasers.

I'll kick it off with this...
I think Jess is ready to have a baby. As a result, she's been torturing Sampson.

-Rob