Hospital Pictures

Jonas came out squawking like an angry parrot. Mom and Dad Harker knew the instant he was born because they could hear him from the end of the hospital hall. It was an amazing feeling to have a full grown baby laid across my stomach. We instantly felt like we belonged to each other and Jonas seemed to recognize my voice right away.



Everyone says Jonas looks like me- and he is quite Stoddard with his big hands/feet and long fingers/toes. He undoubtedly has my funny protruding upper lip and Matt's folded ears. I'll have to wait before I can decide about that cute nose though.


This is Dad after a rough first night- we'd only slept two hours.


This was taken right before we took Jonas home from the hospital on Tuesday afternoon. We were so excited to show him his new home!

Jaundice

Poor baby Jonas can't seem to stay away from the hospital this week. We stayed an extra day after the requisite 24 hours because his bilirubin levels were high but not quite high enough to qualify for jaundice. So then we were allowed to come home for a day and half before being re-admitted yesterday morning because his levels had increased. He was such a good little sport about it though and after 24 hours under the blue lights he is doing better so we are home again. Hopefully we can stay here, his bilirubin levels need to be tested again tomorrow.

HE'S HERE!

Jonas Matthew Harker
born Sunday, March 7 @ 4:00 p.m.
7 pds 5 ounces
21 inches

Confessions of a frustrated sew-er...

I chose a very simple project to motivate myself to learn to sew. I wanted to create a baby mobile to go over Jonas' change table like this one I saw on Etsy. I bought the felt, needle, and thread, and eagerly got to work.

Except after hand-stitching one of the raindrops it didn't look quite right. I asked Matt for his opinion, to which he didn't need to verbally reply because his expression confirmed that my uneven hand-stitching resembled the clumsy handy-work of a child. Blast! I tore the stitches out and tried again. Still that dubious expression. That was it, I tore the stitches out and pulled out the hot glue gun. Anyway here is the finished project, which I think at a distance looks respectfully like the inspiration (insert dubious expression here).

The Bump

35 weeks

Being 34 weeks pregnant...

makes me want to:

1) crush ice with my teeth something fierce (also I have to restrain myself from sneaking a swipe of snow and jamming it in my mouth whenever I am outside)

2) organize everything in the apartment to an obsessive degree (is it weird I have created a catalogue of everything I own and planned exactly where it will go in the house?)

3) soak in the tub every night while I stare at my tummy to see the baby move

The Big Exam

My old grade three class have been in school for a week now and I really miss them. I felt ready to go back to the portable and keep teaching after the holidays ended but the other teacher is back from her maternity leave and so it is time for me to take mine. I have to get ready for a move and a baby within the next 5-7 weeks and while I feel superbly confident teaching a class of twenty-four eight year olds, I do not feel confident in my knowledge or skill regarding caring for a newborn. I have been so busy with teaching I hadn't really slowed down to notice how stealthily the due date was approaching- not until I found myself standing in a delivery room (during a prenatal class tour) at the hospital on Saturday. I admit, I started to feel just a tinge of something like panic. So I will be cramming for a baby, or at least studying baby books feels a little that way, until the big "exam" on March 2.

Here are a few of my teaching highlights from the past four months: