Smiles!

Well...a smile :)  This is the first and to this point only photographic evidence we have of her smiles.  It was taken with my iPhone and in dark lighting so its not the greatest picture but it still melts my heart!  Her smiles are pretty tough to catch on camera but she has been flashing them more and more lately.  Still a bit uncoordinated but cute and fun none the less.  She has also been cooing a bit.  What a joy it is to hear baby sounds come out that aren't cries or grunts :)  When and where they happen are always a surprise...I think even to Emma!  Often she will have a very startled look on her face after a little "goo" or "ga" as if to say, "where did that come from?"

Long before the conception of our child, Melissa and I always joked that if we were to ever have an Olympian in our family he or she would have to be a curler.  This is one of the reasons we decided to live in Minnesota.  Well, it's no joke anymore and we have already started her on her own baby Olympic training program.  Here are a couple videos of Emma's training sessions.  In the first she is working on a little hand eye coordination to be able to work her broom or throw the rock (I'm sure it has a more official name than "rock").  In the second she is getting an early start on her jogging for conditioning. 

And what would a blog post be without the obligatory cute pictures.  A week ago it was hard to believe that she could get any cuter, but here is evidence that it has happened.

She usually starts by sleeping on your chest and wiggles her way down here.

 

What.


With love,
Jason, Melissa, and Emma

Trains, planes and automobiles.



Sunrise in Carroll, Iowa before departing RAGBRAI

 

Okay, well, maybe only automobiles.  We haven't had a reason to take a plane ride yet (or the nerve for that matter) but Emma has been itching to get down to Okoboji and visit Grandma and Grandpa Stull's condo.  Last week was the perfect opportunity.  I was headed down to Council Bluffs to ride a few days of RAGBRAI with family and friends, so Melissa took Emma down to get some extended family love.  We weren't quite sure how the drive would go so we called in reinforcements - Grandma Roz drove up from Reinbeck to make the trip with the girls.  According to the reports, everything went great!  My final RAGBRAI destination was Carroll, IA (where I was treated to a breathtaking sunrise) which worked out perfectly for me to swing through Okoboji and pick up Melissa and Emma for the trek home.  Per usual, Emma was exceptional.  It's a 3 hour drive between the Boj and the Cities and each leg only required one stop - on the way down for Emma to eat and on the way home for Mom and Dad to eat. Otherwise Emma slept or sat quietly with her thoughts :)

While Roz was in the cities before heading to Okoboji, we put her to good use as a babysitter while Melissa and I ventured off for the first time without our baby.  We went to Target Field to take in a Twins game.  It was a great outing; could have been better if the Twins would have won, but fun none the less. 

At the lake, Emma made new friends and met new family members.  Maybe the most excited to meet Emma was her cousin Ella who loved to play with Emma and perform puppet shows.  An exchange between Ella and Emma:       Ella: "This is a cow it says moo.  This is a sheep it says baaa.  This is a horse it says nay.  This is a butterfly....."  Emma: Silent as usual.

Emma also got to meet her Great Grandma Aileen Lister (Grandma Roz's mother). 

In true Stull style Emma was well loved during her trip to Okobji.  It's safe to say that between all the hugs and cuddles she likely never touched the floor the entire weekend - just the way she likes it :)   
As for me, it was another great RAGBRAI.  I only rode the first couple of days which just so happened to be the hilliest - but I had a great time regardless.  It was tough being away from Emma, but I enjoyed seeing old friends and family.  I think I could have done another couple of days but I don't think I could have lasted the whole week without my baby girl.  For you Facebookers here is a link to our RABBRAI team, Fat'n Tire'd: http://www.facebook.com/groups/143265539034866/.  Thanks to my mom (our fearless team leader) there are some good photos of the group this year.  Definitely looking forward to next year!!

So, what has Emma been up to the last couple of weeks?  For starters, she is starting to sleep a little more.  She will go between 4-5 hours at a time at night now.  This has been nice, even though she isn't anywhere close to sleeping through the night, we are only getting up with her once to feed.  That doesn't mean she is eating less though, as her weight and height would suggest otherwise.  I had her on the scale the other day and she is very unofficially 11 lb 3 oz and via tape measure is about 23 inches long.  She is long and skinny which has created a bit of a wardrobe kerfuffle as she is getting to be too long for her newborn/0-3 month clothes but can't fill out her 3-6 month clothes yet.  Not to worry though, this hasn't deterred her from looking cute in everything that we put her in.  Here are a few of her latest modeling shots.



Go Norse!





We think her eyes are blue!



This last picture showcases one of my favorite faces that Emma makes.  It's her "tolerance" face - 'I'll do this and I won't fuss but I want you to know I'm not happy about it'.  I have a feeling this is soon to be my second favorite face as Emma is starting to find her smile.  It is a little unpredictable and awkward at the present so we haven't been able to capture it in photo.  Look for a smiling Emma to appear soon on the Adventures of Jason and Melissa!

Hugs and kisses - Jason, Melissa, and Emma

Many firsts

Hello blog world.  I feel like its been a while since I've been able to sit down and reflect on all the wonderful things that have taken place over the last couple of weeks.  I suppose in the life of the newborn child pretty much everything is a "first" - and I suppose the same can be said for the life of a newborn's parents.  So here are some of Emma's and her parents first go rounds...

A while back, July 3rd to be exact, we had a Emma's first professional photo shoot with a lovely photographer named Jen Taylor.  Emma was a rock star and quite the exhibitionist - she loved being naked!  We were with Jen for a 3 hour session and she was so patient with us and with Emma.  It took a couple feedings and about 6 diaper changes before she finally conked out and slept, allowing us to move her into all sorts of cute poses.  You can check out the photos at http://jentaylorphotography.myshowit.com/emmaruth 

Emma also met a number of new friends for the first time.  Kyle Orris, a Luther classmate of ours, stopped by from Jefferson, Iowa and brought Emma her first Iowa State paraphernalia.  To all the Iowa fans, especially the Stulls, it is Iowa State gear from here on out.  We would hate to create confusion and since she was exposed to ISU first, well, you're just too late.  Thanks Kyle!

 More Luther folks stopped by and brought dinner.  Kelsey and Phil Pappano, who live about a mile away, were fantastic visitors and Emma loved every minute. 



Phil and Kelsey



Thanks also to Brett and Shannon Johnson, who are also going to have a baby girl in August, for bringing dinner as a ploy to hang out with Emma.  They were so comfortable with Emma and are no doubt going to make great parents. 

Brett, Shannon, and Emma  (not pictured: Baby Johnson)

A few of Melissa's co-workers also stopped by to meet Emma.  Barry and Lindsay Koopmann and their daughter Charlotte came over with Leah Huyser.  Charlotte could hardly wait to meet Emma and was very "helpful" while Melissa was opening Emma's gifts. (read: she opened Emma's gifts!)  It was adorable, thanks Charlotte!

From front to back: Charlotte, Leah, Emma, Lindsay



Barry n Emma

Emma continues to make new friends and melt hearts almost every day.  Well, she melts hearts every day because she has her daddy completely wrapped around her finger.  One of the things I love about her is all the noises she makes!  She is a squeaker, here is a little video of Emma sleeping with a case of the squeaks.

For this very noisy reason she spent her first night in her crib and nursery about 4 days ago.  She had been sleeping in a bassinet in next to our bed but she does pretty well in her crib.  I think she sleeps better and as a result so do Melissa and I. 

This past Saturday was full of firsts for Emma and her parents.  We kicked off the trial of new things in the afternoon by feeding her a bottle!  Up to this point she has only been breast feeding so we thought we would open some doors to allow babysitters by having Melissa pump some milk and introduce a bottle.  Emma took right to it and Daddy was able to feed her for the first time.  It was kind of a cool feeling for me and for Melissa it was a very liberating experience.  So too was going out to dinner for the first time that evening.  We took Emma along and she was a champ, she slept through the entire dinner and let mommy and daddy enjoy a night out.  We must have been in the baby section because we were seated next to a couple with a 6 week old and when they left the table was filled with a couple with a 2 week old!  Good for those parents. I'm pretty sure Melissa and I were having trouble enough finding time to shower when Emma was 2 weeks old, let alone getting ready for a date!

Probably the most difficult "first" happened sometime last night when Emma was acting a little ill.  We noticed that she had a trace amount of blood in her stool 2 nights ago and yesterday was acting just a bit unsettled and lethargic.  It was the first time that Melissa and I had really felt the vulnerability of this child and the heavy responsibility to keep her healthy and safe from harm.  Melissa took a trip to the pediatrician today and as it turns out she is healthy as a horse but has a dairy allergy.  Bummer.  Its confusing to say that she has a milk allergy because she can drink all of mom's milk that she wants to, but, Mom's milk needs to be free of cow's milk.  So, no more cheese, milk, yogurt, or...ICE CREAM!!!!   That last one could be tough.  But it's only for about another month, at which time we can slowly start to re-introduce dairy back into Melissa's diet as Emma develops enzymes in her stomach to break down the lactose in the cow's milk.  In an act of solidarity, I too have decided to boycott ice cream (in front of Melissa)....kidding, I can and probably should kick the habit for a while to lose some of my baby weight. 

Emma continues to pack on the weight - she tipped the scales today 10 lbs 6 oz!  Here are some parting pictures of the pretty baby with just the right amount of chub in her cheeks...our Miss Emma!

Love to all - Jason, Melissa, and Emma

The 4th of July - a retrospective

So I had planned on updating the blog on the 4th because it seemed like a nice milestone and a special holiday and all that good stuff; but with a 2 week old ruling the roost it has turned into a restrospective piece.  Lets take a look back at the last week:

Emma continues to make new friends and meet new people.  We had quite a few visitors this week including 2 of Emma's great aunts and uncles - Larry and David / Jeanne (both L&D are my Dad's brothers).  Thanks to Larry for bringing lunch on Friday and to David for keeping us well stocked from their garden! 



Great Uncle Larry



Great Aunt and Uncle Jeanne and David











A few Luther friends also came to meet Emma this week.  Melissa's golf team mates Jenna and Lisa stopped by...some night this past week (its hard to keep them all straight) and brought dinner. 


Hello Lisa



Hello Jenna



Sarah and Dan also brought us dinner this past week.  As it turns out it was the last time that we saw them before THEY HAD THEIR BABY!!  Sarah and Dan welcomed a very healthy and beautiful baby boy into the world around 5 o'clock on July 4th.  (two weeks after Emma)  For those of you keeping score at home that means that the pregers posse, which once was 4, is now down to only one.  After months and months of intense debate and threatened household shut down, they have decided on a name - John William Karlgaard.  We (Melissa, Emma, and I) had the chance to get a sneak peek at him in the hospital today while we were there for an appointment.  We weren't going to pass up the opportunity and Emma couldn't wait to meet her new friend.  Both Mom, John, and Dad are exhausted but doing well.  Here is the last picture we have of Sarah pregnant and then a picture of Emma getting ready to eat John!  Seriously, it's amazing how much difference 2 weeks makes (well, four really because John was two weeks early)

As for our Fourth of July - it was pretty chill.  It was a beautiful day so Emma and I took a walk while Mommy napped.  In the late afternoon we packed up and headed over to a barbeque at Emma's friend Cole's house.  We had great food and a great time - thanks Lindsey and Chris!  Emma missed most of the party because she was snoozin but I could tell she was having a good time. 

Emma being the life of the party

 

Emma and Mom in their Fourth of July outfits!



That is all the good news.  The bummer news is that I had to return to work today.  I hated the idea of going back to work and leaving Melissa to fend for herself.  There are a two things that really made me feel better though.  The first and most important is that I know Emma is in the hands of a very capable - like the best - mother.  The second is all the joy I get when every single one of my patients tell me what we already know - that Emma is perfect and cute!

Love to all,

Jason, Melissa, and Emma

1 week check up

We went to the pediatrician for Emma's one week check up today and were reassured again that she is as healthy as can be.  The doctor didn't have any concerns for her which is always music to our ears.  As it turns out, she has been getting plenty of Momma's milk!   Newborns are expected to gain about 1 oz per day.  Our little piggy has been gaining about double that.  She was born at 8lb 12 oz; was 8lb5.5 oz when we left the hospital on Wednesday; and tipped the scales at the office today at 9lb 6oz!!  That's a little over a lb!  She is a long lean eattin machine :)

So there are no cute pictures from her doctors appointment but I do have some in stock from her first bath!  We were both holding our breath and waiting for screams of displeasure but to our surprise she appeared to love it.  I think she was putting on a show for Grandma Roz and Auntie Megan because we gave her bath number 2 today and got more of what we expected out of bath #1 - an unhappy and cold baby.  Nothing a little milk and cuddle time couldn't fix though.  So here she is hamming it up at her first bath...

Here is a link to some additional pictures we put up on picasa.  More Emma photos  Enjoy!!

Hugs and kisses from Emma and The Crew

Welcome Emma Ruth Burgart!

Hooray, hooray - our baby girl is here!!!  She arrived on June 20th, 2011 at 4:17 in the morning.    Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you!  Happy Birthday sweet Emma!  Happy birthday to you!!  Today we are celebrating her 1 week birthday. And quite a week it has been!  We'll start from the beginning. 

Melissa began having contractions on Sunday the 19th, Father's Day, at around 5:30 in the morning.  I thought, "how cool would it be to have our baby on Father's Day?"  Best Father's Day present ever!  Well, as you already know it wasn't meant to be.  She ended up being the best day-after-Fathers-Day present ever. :)  So, Sunday morning gave way to the afternoon and Melissa's contractions were becoming consistently longer, more regular, and closer together.  We did all the things normal parents-to-be do; I went outside and mowed the lawn and cleaned out the gutters and Melissa baked a delicious pan of cookie bars!  Around 2 in the afternoon we both knew where this was headed and between contractions began to tidy up a bit and gather our hospital things.  At 4:30 pm it was go time!  So we loaded up and headed to Abbot Northwestern Hospital were she was checked for dialation and admitted right away.  We were put in the delivery room and Melissa labored for a couple more hours before having an epidural around 7:30 pm.  Emma was what they called "sunny side up" or "posterior", meaning that she was facing forward with her head against Melissa's spine and tailbone.  This isn't ideal; normally for a baby to move smoothly through the birth canal they should be facing the mother's spine.  When they are posterior, mothers often have "back labor" which is classified by extreme back pain during contractions.  Melissa will tell you that symptomatically this was the case.  Needless to say, the epidural was effective and very welcome.  Melissa had had enough at that point and the epidural allowed her to comfortably continue labor as her body did what it needed to in terms of cervical dialation and dropping farther into the birth canal.

To this point Melissa's water had not broken and the baby was still quite a ways up in the birth canal.  The plan was to have the epidural to relieve pain, then the doctor was going to break Melissa's water to allow the baby to descend and speed up labor.  Nature intervened however, and Melissa's water broke on its own not a minute after the anasthesiologist had left the room.  Things seemed to progress slowly for us first timers but we were re-assured by the people in the room who had done this a couple hundred times that everything was normal and right on schedule.  At 2:20 a.m. Melissa was given the green light to begin pushing, and pushing she did!!  She was an all-star!  She pushed on and off for a little under 2 hours until the sweetest miracle in all the world began to cry at 4:17 a.m.  Emma was a little bluish right away but the nurses were pro's and cleared her lungs; she pinked up in no time and we got to finally meet our precious child. 



Emma weighed in at 8lbs 12 oz and was 20 inches long. 



 



The plus side to having a baby at 4:17 in the morning is that it buys you an extra day in the hospital which we took full advantage of.  The nurses were wonderful and helped us figure out how to operate this little machine.  During our stay we had a few visitors, none more excited or proud than Emma's new grandparents - John and Roz Stull.

I'm not sure if I have mentioned Melissa's pregnant posse in previous posts but they all visited and brought dinner on Tuesday night.  The posse is a group of 4 women and their husbands with whom Melissa and I run around with quite a bit.  Three of them, including Melissa, are Iowa Law grads and were in the same class and the 4th is a Drake Law grad who they met while studying for the bar exam.  As you might have guessed, they are all pregnant and due within 2 months of each other.  Chris and Lindsay have blazed the trail with their son Cole and the other two are within weeks of having their boys.  It was so much fun to have them visit and we are looking forward to donig the same when they are hungry and sleep deprived!  Here is a great picture of the group (taken with an auto timer!)





I don't think any of my friends were more excited to meet Emma than Peter and his wife Ana.  Pete was almost beside himself when I handed her over. 

We were discharged on Wednesday afternoon and made the long drive home.  Well, it is 5 miles only, but it might as well have been a 100 mile drive along a shear mountain cliff - it almost gave me a heart attack!  Emma loved it though, she was wide awake and very curious about the outside world.  We managed to make it home without incident and showed Emma her new digs.

I think she likes the place.  When we got home Melissa's mom was here and her sister, Auntie Megan, wasted no time coming up from Dubuque.  It was a life saver having them around to help us get settled in.  Those women were machines at cleaning, cooking, and doing just about anything else that could be done to ease our troubles.  They left us on Friday and my parents came on Saturday for a quick visit to meet the princess and to fill our freezer with frozen casseroles.  Its no surprise that both sets of grandparents are completely smitten by this little kitten.   



The girls doting.



Dad is reading her a book called On The Farm

I feel like Melissa and I are finding our rhythm - as much as can be with a newborn.  Our days have consisted of feeding her every 3 hours or so, changing her when she poops or pees, trying to find time to sleep, and being awed by her every cute little expression and squeek.

A quick shout out to my wonderful wife and Emma's terrific mother - Melissa.  They say you can't pick your parents but Emma has hit the mommy jackpot.  And it is true, you can't pick your parents but in my case I did get to pick my partner and I've picked well.  Melissa is the best mother, wife, teammate, and best friend a guy could ask for.  Between Emma and myself we ask a lot of her and she handles it all with grace and a loving smile.  One thing that has been really fun for me and that I've enjoyed is watching her be a mom. 


Hugs and kisses from Jason, Melissa, and of course Emma!