Probably the Best Baby in the World!

She looks like a boy in this picture, but we all know she's a girl...and probably the best one in the world!

Pictures of Allison's first Christmas are coming soon!

... and then she smiled

This morning, in the groggy cold darkness, a baby started fussing. An exhausted daddy reluctantly stumbled out of bed and took his child to the changing table. Opening the diaper, the daddy discovered unusually copious amounts of poop curds, those nasty little milky remains that cling tenaciously to the baby's skin like burs on the socks of a child running through a grassy field in the summer. Patiently wiping them away, the daddy's attention was suddenly diverted to the baby's other end, where white spit-up came flowing out of the baby's mouth. Further warning bells sounded in daddy's head with the realization that the baby, seizing the opportunity afforded by her father's distraction, had taken delivered a strategically-timed blow back down below, where a now-open diaper failed to offer much protection against the wet trickle that flowed down the baby's side, across her warm fleece sleep sack, and onto the fabric of the changing pad below. Once the now-harried daddy attended to this emergency and began to prepare for the "diaper swap," the baby launched the one final salvo, sending forth a fresh wave of liquidy poo. The daddy would have slapped the palm of his hand on his forehead if his hands weren't already engaged in the handling of diapers and cloth wipes.

Tired, bleary-eyed, and frustrated, the daddy completed the operation and fastened the final snaps on his daughter's clothes. His feet were cold from standing on the hardwood floors; his back ached from cradling his baby in his arms and from hunching over changing tables; his head throbbed from being awoken in the middle of a sleep cycle. And then she smiled, and the daddy's heart did, too.

How will we ever say no to this?!

Someone loves her stupid bears!

Tiffany:

There is a mobile that consists solely of three white bears hanging by the backs of their heads that came with Allison's Pack 'n' Play. It doesn't have a wind-up feature. It doesn't run on batteries. If you want the bears to move, you have to push them with your finger. My mom says this is "eco-friendly", but I think it's just stupid.

Apparently, I'm the only one that finds the mobile stupid. Allison loves to be in her Pack 'n' Play staring at/kicking around at/talking to the bears (see video). I'm hoping that it will take more to impress her later on, but, for now, her infatuation with her stupid bears buys me 10 minutes to start laundry, eat a meal, or go to the bathroom. Thank you, stupid bears!

Our Cloth Diapered Baby

We started using cloth diapers on Allison about a week ago and it's going great so far. It's quite a simple process and not nearly as much work as everyone wanted to tell us it would be! Tiffany also made some flannel wipes (with the help of her mom!). She made two kinds - one with a washcloth on the back (for those sticky messes) and one with a double layer of flannel. The double flannel ones even have a fancy edge to them. It was lots of fun to make them and only cost $9 to make 39 of them! Here are some pictures of our cloth diapered baby and the cloth baby wipes that Tiffany made.

She likes Mom, too!

I realized there are lots of pictures of Allison and Kevin, but not too many of Allison and me. I swear she likes me, too!

first bottle

Kevin gave Allison her first bottle on Tuesday night. She gobbled it down like a little piggy with no problems at all! She'll be getting one a day to get her ready for Nana and Kevin staying with her in the mornings when Tiffany goes back to work in January.

so cute!

Go Irish!

Who is that beautiful baby in the box?

I hope Allison doesn't become one of those girls that spends hours in front of the mirror!

Super Human Baby Strength!

We have a very strong baby. That's not us just being proud parents and making stuff up about what she can do. The doctor even said she's very strong!

Here's a quick video of her picking her head up and turning it to the other side during tummy time this morning. She's been doing this consistently since she was 6 days old. This is something you could expect a baby that is about 1-1.5 months old to do. She's already ahead of the curve!

Now, when should we start the reading lessons?

Zoolander - Blue Steel

She's on her way to perfecting the Blue Steel look from Zoolander!

1 week update

Tiffany:

Everyone is asking us how things are going and for more details, so here ya go:

Labor and delivery were terrifying and horrific, but, in the end I got a perfect, healthy baby so it was worth it. I hated when people told me scary labor and delivery stories, so I think I'll keep this one to myself. What happens at St. Mary Mercy Hospital stays at St. Mary Mercy Hospital!

Allison is very mellow and easy to please. She's taking to breastfeeding like a champ and sleeps beautifully through most of the day. We get up with her about 3 times every night, but she eats, gets her diaper changed, and goes right back to sleep with minimal screaming (mostly just when she's naked and cold!). None of us feel too sleep deprived (yet??). I find that I can't stop staring at her. She's just so perfect and amazing to me.

My body is healing slowly, but surely and I feel about 75% right now. Kevin took the week off of work and just went back today. He was so helpful and got all the laundry done, went grocery shopping, cleaned the house, and cooked me some great, healthy dinners. Since I am solely in charge of feeding responsibilities, he has also taken on most of the diaper changing responsibilities. He is a great father already and it makes me love him in a whole different way to watch him with his daughter. I think I chose my life partner well.

More pictures to come soon! We've been a little crazy with the camera and just assume that everyone else in the world is as amazed by our daughter as we are!

A few more pictures...

Sleeping in the hospital -- Day 2

Waiting for the contractions to intensify

Tiffany and Allison bonding

Say Cheese!

Happy Birthday, sweet little baby

Kevin:

Allison Emilia Baron Trovini was born this morning at 2:58 am. She weighs 8 pounds, 11 ounces and is 20.5 inches long. She has a fair head of hair--brown in the back, and increasingly blonde toward her forehead. She has a strong grip, a cute squishy face, and a large big toe like her daddy.

Welcome to the world, little one.

pumpkin baby

Which looks bigger - the belly or the pumpkin?

38 weeks! Progress??

Tiffany:

I just had an appointment this afternoon and I am 1cm dilated and 90% effaced. I guess that means that, despite how it feels, I probably will not remain pregnant forever. Last week I was measuring about 4 weeks ahead, so the doctor sent me for an ultrasound at the hospital to make sure everything is OK. Everything looked fine at that appointment and they determined that, besides just being a giant baby, Allison has very long legs! As of today's appointment, I am still measuring about 4 weeks ahead. The doctor told me that based on those measurements and the measurements from the ultrasound, she would estimate this baby to be about 9-10 pounds at birth. That is a really, really HUGE baby. Maybe she was just trying to scare me for Halloween?

A little, old lady at the post office yesterday told me "that baby girl comin' on Sunday". We'll see if she's right! Until then, you may admire me in all my gigantic glory!

Kitty Bouncer

Tiffany:

Think Rafferty likes the new bouncer? We were so kind to get it for him!

Baby Shower/Pregnancy Update

Tiffany:

The baby shower was absolutely perfect! The weather was fabulous (upper 70s, sunny), my mom's house looked great, the food was amazing (a dessert shower is TOTALLY the way to go when you're pregnant and craving sweets!), and it was so wonderful to see people that we love all in one place. We got so many great gifts and so many things that we need for this baby. It was very overwhelming to realize how loved this baby already is. She is going to have a very happy life with so many people to take care of her and, if the kinds of gifts she got at the shower are any indication, spoil her!

I've been working hard to wash all of the tiny, little baby clothes that we have for Allison and to get her nursery all ready for her. I think we're definitely on the way with that. If she came home tomorrow, I think we'd be able to manage. Of course, I'll take all the extra time I can get to get things even more ready for her to come home!

As far as the pregnancy goes, I feel very, very, very large and quite uncomfortable. I am now just over 36 weeks pregnant and have less than 4 weeks until my due date. I can't believe that we have less than a month until we will be parents. It is surreal to say the least.

This past week has been rough on my body and slowing down has been a lesson for me to learn. My swollen feet, Braxton Hicks contractions, and sore back are all evidence of just how difficult it has been for me to slow down! I would love to not be pregnant anymore, but I know that Allison needs as much "cooking" time as possible. I can handle being uncomfortable if it means she's even healthier.

Here is a link to the pictures from the shower at my mom's house and some pictures at the end of us opening some gifts we received from Kevin's family. Unfortunately, their package was mistakenly identified as HazMat by the post office, so it didn't arrive until after the shower. We were a little nervous to open it in case they sent us some uranium or something for the baby, but, despite the stickers, the box was full of great gifts!

http://tinyurl.com/5lf5v8

And, finally, a picture of me almost 2 weeks ago at 35 weeks pregnant:

Shower Today!

Tiffany:

Today is our baby shower at my mom's house. I am so excited to see everyone and share all the joy of this pregnancy with them. I am already overwhelmed with the number of people that are coming and the messages and gifts we've received from the people that aren't able to come. This afternoon is going to be great!

I'll post pictures as soon as I can.

33 Weeks -- Our Baby is a Pineapple

Kevin:

The latest installment of our comparing-a-child-to-exotic-fruit saga has us in the land where palm trees sway:

Crib, Stroller, and 32-week update

Kevin:

The nursery is really coming together now. We have the crib, a glider and ottoman, a four-shelf bookcase, a six-drawer dresser, and a three-drawer dresser that will double as a changing table. The furniture is all dark wood; although the pieces don't all match exactly, they all have a reddish hue and go well together.

Crib

The crib was fairly easy to assemble, but I had to walk away from it when I tried to attach the front side. It's a drop-side crib, which means the front part of the crib can be lowered to make it easier to pick up and put down the baby. This is done by lifting up the crib rail while simultaneously pushing in the bottom rail with one's leg; the side can be dropped with only one hand, so you can hold the baby with the other. The directions weren't very clear, so I couldn't tell which way the gate went or how the spring mechanism was to be engaged. I decided to walk away and figure it out later rather than try to force the thing and end up breaking it.

Dan B., a math instructor at HFCC, told me a crib story when I related my frustration to him. Some relative of his -- I don't remember the connection -- was expecting a granddaughter and put together a crib in his garage. When this fellow loaded it into the back of his pickup, he failed to notice that the top of the crib was higher than the garage opening. When Grandpa backed out of the garage ...

Anyway, the crib is assembled and just needs a mattress to be fully completed. Tiffany's mom and dad purchased the mattress for us (thanks!), but it's still at their house at the moment.

Stroller

My mom and dad purchased the stroller/carseat (thanks!), which Tiffany and I were able to pick up from our local Walmart. They took advantage of Walmart's Site-to-Store feature, which enables out-of-state family to purchase gift registry items without having to worry about shipping. As long as Tiffany or I are listed during the ordering process, along with our e-mail addresses, items purchased this way are shipped to our nearest Walmart location. One of us can then pick it up free of charge. (If anyone is thinking about this, I should mention that our closest Walmart is store #2631, located at 29555 Plymouth Rd, Livonia, MI 48150.)

The stroller was very easy to assemble. We are excited about it; the matching carseat locks on top of the stroller while Allison is an infant; it has locking wheels, a storage bin, and a retractable cover; and it features an attractive black, white, and brown pattern. Best of all -- get this! -- it has cupholders! (Insert manly Tim Allen grunts.)

We still have to read the directions for the carseat to make sure we understand its features and how to properly buckle it into the car, but we're having fun in the mean time with our "practice baby," an infant-sized stuffed bunny rabbit Tiffany made with her mom at the Build-A-Bear store this past May.

As it turns out, our practice baby is evidently a Notre Dame fan. Imagine that! Interestingly, I am posting this blog entry on the day of the Notre Dame-Michigan State game, the one day a year Tiffany does not root for ND ... Our long-standing tradition is that the fan of the losing team buys dinner for the fan of the winning team. I'm sad to say it, but I've purchased her more dinners over the course of our relationship than she has for me. In recent history, the visiting team has come out the victor, which perhaps bodes well for ND since the game takes place in East Lansing this year. But, I digress ...

32-week update

On Wednesday, Tiffany and I took a tour of the Miracle of Life Birthing Center at St. Mary Mercy Hospital in Livonia, MI. It was great to be able to see where we plan to deliver and get a sense of what to expect on "game day" (sorry, I guess I still have football on the brain). We plan to attend a breastfeeding class next Thursday, too.

Tiffany is definitely getting to the uncomfortable phase of pregnancy. She's been having back and hip pain ("Pelvic girdle pain," I'm told) and difficulty sleeping, too. According to Babycenter.com, our little girl is the size of a jicama, whatever that is. Tiffany is convinced that there is a produce-industry conspiracy to educate expectant mothers about different fruits and vegetables by comparing baby size to oddball edibles. The web site claims that "[Our] baby is taking up more and more space in [Tiffany's] uterus and weighs as much as a large jicama -- about 3 3/4 pounds. (Length: about 16 3/4 inches, head to heel.)"

At any rate, we are both very excited as the due date draws ever nearer. We're still some eight weeks out, but we both definitely feel more like expectant parents and are giddy with anticipation. I just hope I can tell my baby girl someday that Notre Dame beat both Michigan and Michigan State the year she was born ...

30 weeks!

The baby's name

Tiffany:

After much discussion and debate, we have decided to name our daughter Allison. We've found several different meanings for the name including "Little Alice" and "truthful one". The middle name is still up for discussion, but we're leaning towards Emilia.

Here are a couple of pictures of the letters I made for the wall over her crib and a close up of the S so you can see the detail.

First Day of School!

September 2, 2008

coming home outfit

Tiffany:

We just about have everything together for the baby's coming home outfit. I want to get a long-sleeved white sleeper to put on her under the jersey.

I know she's a girl, but she'll be born during football season and being a girl doesn't get her out of being a Notre Dame fan! I'm going to try to find a way to get some pink bows onto the jersey/hat so the rest of the world realizes she's a girl :)

Crazy Dreams

Tiffany:

I had a very vivid dream the other night that I went in to the doctor for a routine appointment and while the nurse was taking my blood pressure, she said, "It looks like he's doing great!". I was confused and told her that she was mistaken because we were having a girl. She told me that she could see his...ahem...boy parts with the blood pressure machine (and that is a very sensitive blood pressure machine if you ask me!). The nurse called the doctor who promised me an ultrasound to double check the baby's sex. After many really screwy situations, the doctor got called away and I never got the ultrasound.

So, now I'm a little nervous that I'm actually having a boy and not a girl. I hope he's OK with a purple, flowery room!!

Nursery Progress

Kevin:

We've been working on converting the guest bedroom into the nursery, and it finally feels like a baby's room. The full-sized bed and deacon's bench are out, while two new dressers--one six-drawer and one three-drawer--are in, along with a glider and ottoman.

The most difficult part of the process, installing baseboards, is now complete. When we first bought our home, we had a two-week overlap between receiving the keys to the house and having to turn in the keys to the rental home. Since we had the luxury of time, we decided to have the hardwood floors refinished while we packed and cleaned at the rental. In order to allow the workman to refinish the full floor surface, we removed the old baseboards throughout the entire house.

Now, three years later, our home has come a long way. We removed the rotted, carpenter-ant-damaged Florida room at the back of the house. We had the roof repaired and re-shingled. We had the floors refinished. We installed a new toilet, vanity, and mirror in the bathroom and had the tub reglazed. We've done vast amounts of yard work, ripping out overgrown bushes, eradicating poison ivy, edging sidewalks, weeding, mulching, and planting. We jackhammered the basement floor to repair a rainwater drain blocked by extensive root growth. We had new windows installed throughout the house. We had new gutters and siding installed, too.

The baseboards, however, have been sitting in the garage this whole time, waiting to be installed. They were purchased in bulk shortly after we moved in, but other projects have always been higher on our priority list. I was determined to have the nursery be truly complete this summer, however, so I borrowed a miter saw from my brother-in-law and set to work. This, too, has been a drawn-out process, as we've had quite a busy summer with lots of travel. As of this weekend, however, the baseboards and shoe molding have been installed, patched, caulked, and painted. Once we cleaned the floors and moved the furniture back in place, the room felt like it was ready for a baby.

Now, every time I walk by the room and see the glider in the corner, I secretly get excited. I can't wait to rock my daughter to sleep in her very own nursery!

Visible Kicking

Kevin:

Now I can not only feel the baby kicking but see her movements as well! Last night, Tiffany noticed a particularly active little baby moving around inside her, so she called me over and held still so I could try to spot the baby kicking. I could, and quite easily!

25 Weeks!

Tiffany:

Can you believe it? This baby is about 13.5 inches long and 1.5 pounds (according to babycenter.com at least). The nursery is coming along and should be just about set pretty soon. This is all very exciting!

25 week belly picture in the garden

Baby's Room Bedding/Theme

Tiffany:

You saw the purple color that's already on the wall in the baby's room the other day. This is the fabric that my mom is going to use to make a set for the baby (bed skirt, valences, bumper, blanket, pillows, etc.) . It's girly without being frilly and matches the purple without being too matchy, matchy. I also think that the flower pattern would be rather simple to extend into other areas of the room without being too themey. In other words, we think it's perfect!

My Kindergarten Class

Tiffany:
I had a very sweet (for the most part) class this year. In April, we were studying how animals grow and change, life cycles, etc. and I asked the kids to bring in a baby picture for show and tell. Each kid had a chance to show the picture and we would discuss how he/she had grown or changed since he/she was a baby. On the last day of April, I was supposed to bring in my show and tell. Well, I forgot. And then I forgot the next day, too. I knew my class wouldn't let me get away with forgetting two days in a row, so I ran down to my friend Renee' who I knew had an ultrasound picture of her grandson in her bag. I admit, I used someone else's ultrasound picture to announce to my class that I was pregnant.

At first, they didn't get why I was showing a picture of a baby "inside its mommy's tummy" (the perk to teaching kindergarten is that there are typically at least 3 or 4 pregnant moms every year so the kids were pretty familiar with ultrasound pictures). Then, it dawned on M. and she yelled out, "Ms. Baron's going to be a mommy and that's her baby!!". Kids were screaming and jumping around. It was nice to see how excited they were.

Well, from that point on, the kids became very involved and very protective of my pregnancy. One little boy, T., decided right away that I was having a baby girl and that her name was Amy. He came in every morning for the rest of the school year and said, "Good morning, Ms. Baron. How's Amy?". He'll be crushed when he finds out that we aren't naming her Amy. He was onto something, though. In a vote, 26 of the kids in my class thought I was having a girl and only 5 thought it would be a boy. I guess kids are a little psychic - or T. was a powerful influence in the class!!

On one particularly crazy day, I was starting to lose my patience with the class and M. - the little girl that finally figured out the ultrasound picture - stood up with her little hands on her little hips with her little head swinging back and forth and said to the class, "Ms. Baron's angry. If Ms. Baron's angry, her baby's angry. And if her baby's angry, I'm angry, so y'all had better shut up!" I had to turn away because it made me laugh so hard. And finally, on one of the last days of school, another sweet little boy, C., brought me this picture he drew of my girl baby. Notice my big, empty stomach (because the baby wasn't in there anymore!) and the natural beauty of our baby girl. I think she looks like Kevin in this picture!!

Tiffany:
It may seem tacky to post links to our registry (and maybe I'll decide later that it is and take them down), but I've had several people already ask where we're registered. So, here are the links:

WalMart Registry

Babies 'R' Us Registry

amazon.com Cloth Diaper Registry

Pregnant Belly!

Tiffany:

Here's a picture of my belly just this evening at 22 weeks. You can see the wall color of the nursery in the background. Luckily, we had good taste the first time around when we made it a guest room and won't have to repaint for the baby's room!

It's a girl!

Kevin:
Tiffany and I are officially expecting our first daughter! Below are pictures from our first ultrasound (at eight weeks) and our most recent exam (at nineteen weeks). I oriented the first image such that the baby appears in the same position for comparison. In both images, our baby girl's head is on the left side:

8 week ultrasound (click to see larger image)

19 week ultrasound (click to see larger image)

15-week heartbeat recording

Kevin:
Several weeks ago, we recorded our baby's heartbeat using a portable Doppler heart monitor:

15-week heartbeat

The BIG ultrasound

Tiffany:
This Thursday, June 19, we will be having our big ultrasound to make sure that Baby Trovini is growing all of his/her body parts correctly and to find out if we should expect a he or a she come November. My parents will be coming with us to the appointment and my sister is flying in that day for a week long visit. It's nice that she'll get to be a part of this excitement, too.

We're still working on getting some belly pictures up and getting the wav file of the baby's heartbeat up for everyone to hear. Once school is officially done for both of us, we'll probably get better about figuring out all the blogspot nuances!

Our baby, the bell pepper

Kevin:
We are now in Week 18 of the pregnancy. It seems that most books and web sites about pregnancy love to compare the size of the child to some sort of fruit or vegetable. We've progressed through poppyseed, lentils, and blueberries, past grapes, figs, and limes, and beyond apples, avocados, and turnips. We're at the bell pepper stage now.

I think it's time for a system of comparisons geared towards men: hex nut to washer to golf ball/poker chip to shot glass to hockey puck to baseball to softball.

That sounds much better, doesn't it? Our child is the size of a softball.