It's a Hard-Knock Life!

We wanted to give you an idea of how Eliot's spending his days. Usually, we sleep in until around 11:00 am since we only go to bed around 11:00 pm and we're up at least 3-4 times during the night. After we wake up, Eliot likes to watch his favorite T.V. shows (like Martha Stewart, Rachael Ray and Jeopardy).


He gets hungry quite often and we feed him promptly to avoid any screaming. He took a bottle of breastmilk from Dad for the first time the other day! Very exciting!


After eating, he likes to watch some more T.V., but he's usually a little drunk...


... so Dad burps him and he falls asleep.


After waking up from his nap, he likes to take a ride in his swing which makes him very happy!


But it also makes him mad sometimes...especially if he has a dirty diaper.


He cheers up quickly after we get a clean diaper in place. What a beautiful boy we've been blessed with!

Cousin No. 2 has arrived!

We're so excited to announce that Berkley David John was born on March 7th at 2:22 am. He is 7 lbs, 5 oz and 20.5 inches long. Both Aymee and Berkley are doing great! Next to Eliot, Berkley looks so very tiny! Take a look at him - he's super cute:

We got to spend this past weekend in Sioux Falls with everyone. Sandy is doing well - she's ready for baby (No. 3) to come and we are too. I remember that feeling very well! The end of a pregnancy is hard! Charlie moved into her new bedroom over the weekend. It's purple and very cute! I painted some flowers on the wall and she thinks they're "pretty." Berkley will take the bear bedroom. Danny and Aymee taught Charlie how to say "cousin Eliot" which is super cool except that now she calls Berkley Eliot instead of "Birkie". It'll be so fun when there's three little boys! Charlie will have her own little posse!

Eliot's doing well - he was 6 weeks on Tuesday. Lots of changes every day. He's becoming much more interactive with us lately. He spends more time looking at us, cooing, gurgling and smiling which is so fun. He also spends lots of time every day crying because his tummy hurts. I've stopped eating dairy, chocolate, tomatoes and anything even remotely spicy. I'm not sure if it's helping or not. I think we're going to take him to a chiropractor to see if that helps at all. It's so awful to see him in pain and spitting up constantly. He does better at night, sleeping about 2-3 hours between feedings. He likes to eat alot as you'll see from the pictures. He's a bit chunky. I just love squeezing his fat rolls!

Here are some more pictures - some of Eliot in his Twins and Vikings gear and one of Eliot and Charlie:

First Smiles...

Eliot has started smiling at us when he's happy (full tummy, clean diaper, well rested...) and it's so beautiful. His face absolutely lights up and we both melt! He was NOT a happy baby during his photo session but this didn't matter - we ended up with great photos anyway thanks to our very patient and talented photographers. Here's some for you to see:

Already Growing & Changing

Mom, Dad & Baby...

Just a little over two weeks in, and we've seen quite a few changes.

Eliot is much more animated, to say the least. He's added quite a few facial expressions - he shows us a dimple on one cheek (just like dad's), scrunching of the nose, flailing of his arms and legs, the pleasure-look of finding his thumb to soothe, a furrowed brow (kind of like mom's), dreaming smiles...he's perfect. He's working through an upset tummy after many feedings, but is coming out OK after a few burps and an occasional spit-up.

Mom has seen an awful lot of changes in her sleeping patterns, and she's doing a fantastic job rolling with the changes. It's amazing that she is the sole sustainance-giving force for our new baby. I think she looks beautiful as a wife and mother. Thank you so much for bringing Eliot into the world the way you did. While watching the birth yesterday (for the first time since the real thing), I again realized how tremendous of an event it was and you were driving the whole thing. I love you!

Me? Well, I love being a dad. And, again, I think Eliot is perfect. There's nothing better than when he looks into my eyes and he's perfectly content with me holding him on my chest. I do feel like I've been on the wrong end of one of the Bodily Function Superheroes (shout out to Toots and Boogerman). I have been the latter-half feeding partner and champion of all-things burping. This has also meant that I have often been the champion catcher of spit-up - and Eliot has had some good one's in his first two weeks. I guess he's taking after his dad's alter-ego...

Thanks for all of the cards, packages, and visitors so far. We can't wait for Eliot to meet everyone else out there! Drop us a line and drop-in when you get a chance! We've got our first photos for Eliot tonight (Goos Photography link to the right), so we'll update the blog with some more photos soon!

A Week in the Life

We have had a crazy week. We meant to update the blog last weekend but we ended up being a bit more tired than we had expected. Then on Tuesday, my dad had a major heart attack, his second. This was a huge shock and very, very scary for our family. Thankfully, my mom had an opportunity to speak with the emergency responders while they were at my parents house. She was able to provide his heart history and requested that they bring him directly to the Heart Center at St. Joe's in St. Paul, rather than Hudson hospital. This is where Eliot was born last week. They complied and when they arrived at St. Joe's, he was taken directly into the cath lab, bypassing the emergency department. The cardiologist later told us that this decision saved at least 25% of my dad's heart muscle as Hudson hospital does not have a cath lab and the extra time it would have taken to get treatment could have been disastrous. A major artery on the left side of his heart (LAD) was 100% blocked and the cardiologist placed a stent which cleared the blockage. Luckily, he did not have to have open heart surgery. He was discharged this afternoon and is now at home recovering. We are so thankful and blessed that everything worked out the way it did! It could have been so much worse... and Eliot really wants to get to know his grandpa!

Danny, Aymee & Charlie and Sandy & Miah drove up on Tuesday and spent a couple of days with us. It was great to see them and have them meet Eliot, but we wish it could have been under different circumstances. If we thought we were tired last weekend, we're twice as tired now after spending our week going back and forth from the hospital. I think we will spend this very cold weekend getting some sleep and hibernating in our cozy house.

Eliot is doing great and we can't imagine life without him...it's truly amazing how much your life can change in just one week.