The cats are getting more desperate for attention these days. When my lap is free I often end up with someone furry trying to cuddle with me. Fred likes to rub his head on Josies feet while she’s nursing. Ezzy likes to sit on any books I attempt to read or settles for laying on the burp cloth. Mio is standing over the keyboard as I type. George is even willing to permit the baby to sit on him, so long as he’s on my lap too.

Josie is 4 weeks old tonight. What has changed? Lots since she first arrived on the scene! She’s been putting on weight, getting some pudgy baby legs and arms. She has gotten good enough vision to LOVE her mobile above her changing table. Sometimes we put her there with the mobile on just to get her to stop crying. She sleeps less now and is awake more of the day. She nurses much more efficiently and now gets a meal in under half an hour. Here are lots of pictures, including some from the visit with uncle Javi from this weekend so you can see the changes for yourself!

One of the most frequent questions we’re asked is “how are the cats handling it?”. Quite well actually, although each has their own strategy. The previous photo shows Fred’s approach to the baby which amounts to “can’t we all just take a nap?”. He appreciates all the time spent in bed and on the couch. Kaya has taken a different strategy which amounts to trying to claim all new things that come into the house. She sleeps on the changing table, uses the diapers we leave conveniently on top for a pillow. She has also learned how to sit in the bouncy seat. Below, she claims my parent’s stroller which they brought over to try out (with the baby).

Somehow the pictures we post seem to give the impression that Josie is big kid, and while she is long, she’s nothing compared to some of the six month old 20 lb’ers we see. She weighed in on Friday at 7 lbs 4 oz, so she’s probably back to her birth weight by now (Sunday) and gaining weight steadily. Here she is compared to Fred (16.5 lbs). Maybe it’s the cloth diapers that make the rear look so big?

…that I should probably be sleeping rather than posting here. But I couldn’t resist showing off our little girl some more. The last few days have been difficult as we work on learning each others’ signals and putting some weight on little Josie. The weather has turned gorgeous again though and we’ve managed to get some nice sun. That livened everyone up. Enjoy some more photos.

I started having rather consistent Braxton-Hicks contractions about two weeks ago. Some nights they even seem like they might amount to something, but then they fizzle away eventually overnight. So we continue to wait on pins and needles, but have no baby yet. She’s not officially due until Tuesday anyway and first babies are on average a week late. We’ve finished up our baby preparation activities but I’m a little behind in my pictures. Below you’ll see the complete set of matching baby decorations I made, the nightlight, the quilt, the lamp, the curtains and the changing table. My dad originally made the changing table for me when I was born (albeit a few weeks late) and he recently updated the fabric to match my color scheme! Mio is on the right of the changing table, George is on the left. Mio is in the windows, while Fred is in the lower right hand corner.

For the last several midwife appointments they have been concerned when they measure the outside of my stomach that the baby is getting “too big”. Despite the fact that they say that babies are generally within 20% of their mother’s birth weight (mine was 6lb 3oz and Jordi was small too). I really didn’t believe her though as their tape measure was obviously measuring belly fat too. After several weeks we relented to an ultrasound to check on this as they started to voice concerns about me using the tub for labor and delivery and shoulder dystocia (shoulders getting stuck and broken on the way out).

The results are in, and we were right, she’s completely on track. On Thursday at 37 weeks, 2 days, she is at the 49th percentile for weight, 6lbs 13 oz. Plenty of fluid and the best possible position, LOA (head down, back out and on the left side). Hopefully she won’t change positions in however many days we’ve got left. And they still say she’s a girl.

Gratuitous cat photo:

Last weekend we put together the baby seat that uncle-to-be Javier and his girlfriend Roxy gave us. It took about a week, but Fred finally figured out how to use it. Surprisingly he isn’t bothered by the fact that it bounces if he moves. Unfortunately we are a little bothered by the fact that Fred is over the recommended weight limit for the seat, so it has been moved back into storage. This weekend, we put together the baby swing and will leave that out for the cats to get comfortable with it. Somehow I don’t think I’ll be posting a picture of a cat in the swing next week. Baby is about 35 weeks now, so that means we’ve got somewhere in the range of 2 to 7 weeks to go for a full term delivery!

We’ve had a busy few weeks! One new item in the house is a rocker/glider/recliner chair for comfortably rocking and nursing the baby (and for video game play when otherwise not in use). Kaya has decided that this chair is her chair and for the first three days she barely left the chair ever. She didn’t come to bed, she didn’t spend time looking out the window, she just sat in the chair all day and all night. She’s sitting in it behind me right now. In this house, as a cat with 4 siblings, whenever something new arrives, you’ve got to stake a claim early and often or someone else will.

Perhaps she’s just admiring the newly painted baby’s room which Jordi and my dad painted last weekend? It looks great, but it isn’t very exciting to show you a picture of an off-white wall, so I won’t. Instead, here is a rare picture of someone other than Kaya (Ezzy) in the chair.

It’s been a little while since we’ve updated because we’ve had some busy weekends. Jordi turned 28 last week! And then we had a weekend full of housewarming, birthday, and football parties. Unfortunately I managed to forget the camera for all of these events and so there are no new baby pictures. During that time we have accomplished a small amount of decorating progress. The picture below is of the finished baby quilt with Kaya. Jordi also hung new window shades in the baby’s room and a curtain rod. Now I just need to make the matching curtains out of the green fabric in the quilt.