Smaller Today

No, not the baby. The number of pictures - only four today!
Finally, I took some with all three of us in the frame. They are alright, but plenty of room for perfection so this will be revisited again I'm sure. Also a work in progress is the "put the baby on top of where he used to be" photo. I can't be the first person to think of this so maybe I can find some inspiration/ideas from some real artists for this one. For now it's great but I'm thinking more art quality work. We'll see.
Like I said yesterday we aren't astonished by his "smallness", we think he's rather big actually, but I will say coming home and seeing our cats - the cats look enormous! And heavy! Of course Jingle IS a bit over 20lbs, so... we'll have to stick up for Julien for a few months.. by the way anyone have advice about cats and newborns? We aren't worried but at the same time looking for others' experiences.

A cute one of Gena and Julien:


And that's it! I know, not nearly as much as the past two days, but you know what he LOOKS like now, so it's just a matter of finding those special expressions and new ideas of pictures to make.

So Gena is still doing well, she should go home Wednesday or maybe Thursday if she has to stay an extra day. The baby is doing well too, everything is fine he had tests today for blood coagulation, hearing (not sure how this one worked), and something else, and all is good.

Well, as usual this week I'm getting home rather late, so this is all you get today - I'm off to bed.

WARNING!

I should warn you.

This blog contains many baby photos.

All but a few of you may become very bored and sick of looking at the same kid over and over in similar poses, with similar expressions, and wearing the same clothes.

Furthermore, this blog is seriously threatening to continue in this manner for the foreseeable future.

But there is good news. Out of the *228* pictures I took today, I am only posting 14. Hey, some weren't of the baby (4!) and many were out of focus or blurry, so.. well I like to call myself now a competent photographer but I'm stuck in a poorly lit room using the tools I have! Is it any wonder I want a Nikkor 35mm f/2.0 AFD lens? It's amazing I can get anything publishable with my dinky setup.
Don't listen to Gena about my camera equipment, by the way.


In my opinion he's looking a lot better on his second day than his first. The marks from the tongs are about gone, his head is a much more attractive "round" shape, and now he's had a whopping two baths so I guess he's twice as clean as yesterday. By the way I'm waiting to let Gena relay the story of her labor and the birth, she'll be in the Hospital until Wednesday or Thursday - she's fine but without internet access nor free phone calls to the US. Everyone is fine!

Check out my kid's long legs! And big feet too! Walking will probably be a bit more difficult at first, but once he gets running he'll be fast! Gena said I can't train him like that 8 year old girl in China who runs marathons like every day. We'll see.



See that smile? My kid likes me!



My kid has ear hair! I'm still not clear on what hair is going to stay and what is going to fall out/be regrown. Anyone?


In the nursery today there is a (apparently) British woman. It was SO NICE to have someone explain things in a way we could understand, and furthermore be able to understand what we were really asking when we had questions! She didn't know anything about the service warranty, though. I guess they don't have that in the UK?

He's got some red antibiotic eyedrop residue around his eyes, mostly his left. It's tough to see on these tiny blog images. He gets the drops for 3 days, so tomorrow is the last. Standard procedure.

He's got his own wheeling crib, with rules like don't leave him alone. There is also some tight security measures for taking kids out of the hospital! Coded bracelets and the like. Secret things, too, so I'd better not tell so to avoid tipping off potential criminals!!




He was awake a lot today, but it's easier to take pictures when he's sleeping.

We certainly aren't astounded by his small-ness. In fact, we think he's a bit large! We can't believe he fit inside her two days ago. I wanted to do a picture of him curled up over top of where he was inside but we thought he might not cooperate and why get him all.. screamy. I'm thinking more about it now and I think I'll push for it tomorrow and see if it works.


Some people may have received a text message late Friday night - for those who didn't, or who did but need the translation from metric, Julien Michael Oliver weighed 8lbs 8.5oz, and was 21.25inches long.

By the way all of these images are downsized to make uploading easier - if you want full res files for printing or counting his eyebrow hairs (he has some, they are just light) email me at yooliver@gmail.com and tell me which one(s) you want. Most are under 10MB.
**Edited to say if you click on the pictures you will see what is basically full "size" but not as high "quality". (Saved at level 7 in photoshop instead of 12) What's the difference? Not much, and probably not visible if printed in normal sizes. I'll still give you full quality files if you want to print poster sizes!!**

Have a good day out there! Or night! Maybe more tomorrow!

Julien Michael Oliver September First

Home Alone

Hi Everyone,
It's Josh again. I'm home, but Gena is still at the hospital. They will induce her in the morning if nothing happens before then. We waited in the hospital all day, they gave Gena something in the morning to uh warm her up I guess for the induction and she eventually started having some small, irregular contractions. Midwife said I could go home, they were going to charge me 50€ to sleep there, and I'll sleep better at home and with the cell phone by my head.

So, sounds like the baby should be born tomorrow! 31st!

Here's a cute picture of Gena from today. I'm gonna get some sleep while I can!

One last pregnacy post

I think this will probably be the last pregnancy update for our blog. After this it will be all baby news and maybe even something about US!

I have my last monitoring tonight for the baby and my blood pressure. If everything is fine I will spend tonight at home. I am scheduled to report to the hospital at 8 AM Thursday to start the induction process. I believe it will be a gel to start and then some medicine through an IV. The baby should come sometime Thursday or Friday, maybe Saturday. I didn't really get a clear answer on how long it will take, I only spoke with the midwife as shifts were changing. I plan to ask the doctor Thursday. I was assured once I went in Thursday I would be having the baby before going home.

Today is going to be a long, long day as I did all the last minute stuff yesterday! I am praying a lot for a healthy baby and an uncomplicated delivery. I am also slipping in some prayers about him not being TOO big! Josh is at work today but he will be with me the entire time in the hospital and then all next week. I am so happy he is able to take some time to spend with us in the very beginning.

We should be home Sunday or Monday, I believe they keep us for three days after the birth. Josh has TWO cameras, multiple batteries and thousands of pictures worth of space so I am sure he will post plenty of pictures next week.

Have a good weekend and the next post will be about the BABY!

Vraiement bien tôt!! (Really very soon!)

Hi Everyone!
It's Josh this time. No, no baby yet!
But I come bearing pictures. We did a little photo session last night (might be the last chance!) and you can see Gena, above, in between pictures. I'll also put one of both of us at the bottom. The photo shoot was a brief one and honestly the lighting wasn't excellent this time - so just a few "keepers"! Don't worry there will soon be hundreds (thousands) of baby pictures for your viewing pleasure! We'll open a new flickr account just for baby/family pics I think.

So, like Gena said, we go in tomorrow night for another blood test and baby monitoring. If all is good we'll come back home, otherwise I guess they'll induce/begin the induction process tomorrow night. Now we are REALLY close! The doctor certainly said he would be out before the weekend.

So I guess we should sleep while we have the chance! Hope everyone is doing well out there, and we'll try and keep in touch.


Josh

Finally, some baby news!

We finally have some baby news! I went in this morning to have the baby monitored and my blood pressure checked. Once again the baby was perfect, moving around a lot and with a strong stable heart rate and my pressure was 116/56 (C'est parfait, as the French are so fond of saying). While I was there I also saw my doctor who has returned from vacation. He is slightly concerned because my uric acid is higher than normal and rising with each blood test. Tomorrow we go back for another blood test and monitoring. If my uric acid is still going up he will give me a gel to soften my cervix and then he will induce labor on Wednesday. If the blood work is okay I will go in Wednesday night for the gel and he will induce Thursday. Of course I can still go into labor at anytime but no matter what happens it looks like we will have the baby by this weekend!

We are so excited at the thought of having the baby soon! The hospital requires that I stay for three days following the birth so we should be home Saturday or Sunday. Josh will take off next week to help with the baby. The following week my mom arrives for two weeks so I will have plenty of help for the first three weeks.

We do have a new problem with one of our cats, Jingle. He seems to think we have set up the babies bed for him. We keep finding him curled up asleep in the bassinet. We have had the bed set up for weeks and he just discovered it. We are now trying to come up with a plan to keep him out of the bed. Besides for that I think we have everything ready at home for the baby. He has lots of clothes and plenty of blankets and a few toys. I am sure we will have to go shopping once he gets home and we realize the things we have forgotten. We have a baby store about two doors down and another one a couple blocks up from our apartment so there should be no problem.

We will try to keep everyone posted about the birth, if I come home tomorrow night I will post. Otherwise I will be at the hospital having the baby!!