Catching up with the vital statistics...

Olivia in a moment of quiet contemplation. Suzanne is happily thinking about how much weight Olivia is gaining...





Olivia attempting to make room for more breast milk!

In spite of Olivia's excretionary efforts, she continues to gain weight rather well. The health visitor came again today and weighed Olivia in at 9 pounds 6 1/2 ounces! She remains in the 90th percentile in weight gain. What a beast! (as I type this she's sitting next to me on the couch, growling and snarling through another big meal- rowr- ack- mmrrrff!!)

In other news, we're thoroughly enjoying the last fleeting days of my Christmas vacation, as on Monday I'll be back at work with no more paternity leave in sight. It's been an incredible privilege to be able to be with Olivia as much as I have in the past 2 months.

Winding down from the Holidays...

Here are Suzanne and Olivia in front of the tree Christmas morning. Olivia has on the great Christmas sleeper (or 'baby-grow' as they call it over here) with matching bracelet and hat sent by Grandma and grandpa Steffens. Olivia is really starting to spend time looking at and studying our faces- and we occasonally get actual smiles!

The Grandparents and Aunt Beth headed back to London yesterday, amid a flurry of snow; there was more snow on the ground this morning as well. It was a great visit but there was much too-ing and fro-ing so it's nice to just have an early night, sleep in, and relax at home (which we're doing to the fullest today- it's hard enough to just write in the blog!)


Olivia in her Christmas outfit, with her Christmas snowman (another gift from the Steffens Grandparents)- how cute can a little girl get?

Here you can see that Olivia really does understand that she's got a good thing going! (and so do we, for that matter!)

We even got time for the elusive afternoon nap today- a great day all around!

These are only the barest sampling of the pictures we've been taking over the holidays, so Suzanne is going to post a bunch more over at our photo hosting page, at www.flickr.com/photos/hawley. Cruise on over there and check them out!

Grandparents and smiles!

Grandpa gets to hold little Olivia- it's great to have the admiring grandparents here! Today we shoehorned everyone (except me- I rode my bike) into the Peugeot 106 (that's 4 adults and Olivia) and went to the Scott Polar Research Institute to have a look at the displays and to see my exciting office... it was a grand day out as it were. Hopefully more looking around town and the colleges tomorrow!


And here's the family picture in front of the Christmas tree- Baby's first Christmas!

So the big developmental news for today is that she Smiled, on purpose! It was fleeting, but it was a real smile, and we both saw it! We're looking forward to more of the same in the days, months, and years to come.

Multitasking!

Parenthood seems to be an exercise in multitasking- especially at mealtimes. I couldn't resist putting this one in. The Whoozit on the ear was Suzanne's idea- a great gift from cousin Vicki.

Olivia's Grandparents arrived today, Dad/Bob, Mary, and Beth, fresh from their whirlwind tour of London. They'll be here through Christmas; It's really nice to have them here.

But the real news of the day is the latest weight; Olivia had an appoint for her first round of immunizations today, and when we got there they were conducting a "well baby clinic" so they weighed Olivia and stuff. She came in at 8 pounds 14 ounces! Somehow she just keeps on growing. Sometimes it surprises me that she is putting on so much weight, given how much milk ends up coming back up on her outfits!

The vaccinations also brought something else new; a very cry-ey baby. You know how when you get a teatnus booster your arm is pretty darn sore for a while? Imagine if you had no idea why someone just jabbed you in both legs with a needle, then an hour later why that spot seemed so sore- you'd probably cry too! Fortunately, several hours later, she seems to be herself again. But we have another round of shots in 4 weeks. Not looking forward to that!

Dad gets "Nappy Knee"

Changing a nappy at Olivia's "Changing station". It's on the floor, which works really well- she sure can't fall off the floor! Or if she could, we'd have to consult a physicist I think. It also keeps us used to changing nappies on the floor, since when we're out and about there isn't always a changing table available (although there are changing facilities all over the place; the first time I used one it was definitely odd to do it standing up!)

One of the occupational hazards, however, seems to be that it turns out to be a bit hard on the knees, and I've come down with a case of what I'm calling "Nappy Knee". The symptoms are, well, a picture is worth a thousand words, so:

This is what Nappy Knee looks like. If you find you have been changing a lot of nappies or have just been kneeling a lot, look out. It's not as painful as it looks, although Suzanne says I'm starting to look like their old black lab. It's not clear why I'm developing this symptom and Suzanne isn't, since we do both change her, but my theory is that I do the nighttime nappy changes, and I tend to have just gotten out of bed, and therefore I'm not wearing long pants.

The cutest baby there is.

Ok, so we're biased; but it's a fact. Olivia is officially the cutest baby there is... Here she's wrapped up, you guessed it, ready to go for a walk. Hope these "going for a walk" posts don't get too tiresome, but it's pretty exciting for us to get out of the house! Anyway, it's nice to be here at home and getting into the holiday spirit. This morning we sat in bed and sang christmas carols, then later we had a nice walk; this evening we've been drinking eggnog(spiked!), listening to Christmas music, and stringing popcorn and cranberries for the tree.


Here's the sunset, along the same stretch of road (to Grantchester) that we encountered on our walk this _afternoon_. Yes, it was about 3:30 when we took this picture. Turns out England is actually pretty high lattitude. The good news, though, is that the solstice is right around the corner.

Oddly enough for a baby who seems to grow really fast, Olivia actually seems to have been going through a growth spurt; it's been a difficult few days with feeding her practically constantly, and she's been uncomfortable and not sleeping as well; having more trouble holding her milk, too. It's always a bummer to see her spit up the results of a bunch of breastfeeding; although we hear that the amounts always seem like more than they are and this sort of thing is more of a laundry problem (which it is!) than a real health problem.

8 weeks on- It's beginning to look a little like Christmas!

Ok, allow me to apologize profusely for the silence on the blog over the last few days. As you may know, I was back at work, and so had not a heck of a lot of extra time. Additionally, the visits from various health people have slowed down and so there are fewer weighings to report... and although every day for us as parents is an adventure, not all of it would make great reading :)

Ah heck. Just excuses. We're back now. I'll be home for the next 2 weeks through a combination of unused vacation time and the Christmas closure at the University (we're actively discouraged from coming in because there is no heat and no support...).

First, a Big Happy Burrito Birthday Wish for Olivia's Grandpa Steffens today! Arrrriba!



Today we went christmas tree shopping with our friends Toby and Olivia- here we are at the local spot, Burwash manor farms. It felt very Christmasy in amongst people choosing their ideal tree (different kinds from what we're used to!) and the cute little shops swarming with holiday shoppers. And it turned cold today! About 1.5 degrees Celsius, just above freezing.

We also ran into another SCBU parent there, Anna's mom. Anna had been in the spot next to Olivia in the SCBU, and it was nice to hear about her progress. She's home from the hospital, gaining weight, and breastfeeding well. Way to go Anna!

As mentioned in the title of this post, today also marks Olivia's 8-week birthday! In keeping with tradition, here's the picture with the Duck. I feel like I can tell she's really growing longer; in addition to growing out of clothes, I put her in her Moses basket today and with her feet to the end of the basket, her head came up a lot farther than I'd remembered! I guess it will simply be that way.

Well as I mentioned earlier, we picked up a Christmas tree today, so now we need to clear out some space in the house for it. I'll try to put up some pictures of it tomorrow.

Olivia's "Birthday"!

Sorry no pictures today- I've been busy back at work this week (yes, busy already and it's only Tuesday...).

Today Olivia is offically full term! she was due, depending on who you asked, either today or last Thursday. The Ultrasound indicated last thursday based on size at 12 weeks, we negotiated out a few days based on our, um, understanding of when conception could have been. Our interest in getting her due date pushed back was to avoid the possibility of induction. Guess we didn't need to worry about that!

But the news of the day is the new weight- Olivia was weighed yesterday by the health visitor and now weighs 7 pounds 12 ounces, nearly 4 pounds over her birth weight. Go Olivia!

And she's still the cutest little thing in the world. Ok, all for now (short post I know, but that's the way it is today!).

7 weeks!

Olivia's 7 week portrait with the Duck. Also note the real nappy she's wearing. Take a look back at the November 16 post, and you'll see that last time you saw her in the same nappy it kind of enveloped her. Now we're able to use them finally! This is big progress. They are still pretty bulky and kind of make her look like an Oompa Loopma, but at least we can use them. We actually don't use them at night, partially because they would make her sleep with her head pointing down! We also have to dress her in larger clothes to accomodate the bulk. It'll be fun to watch the progress as she grows into them, and eventually grows out of them (hard to imagine that at this point in time!).

Last Sunday of Paternity leave. Tomorrow it's back to work for Dad. I've managed to get a couple of week's back vacation time, though, and between that and the holiday closure at work (the Scott Polar Research Institute), I'll have another couple of weeks off after next week. Loving the European style of holiday time!

Dinner at Trinity!

The England Hawley family, ready to go out to Christmas dinner at Trinity College. We were invited to the dinner because of Suzanne's work, the Cambridge Trusts. They are affiliated with Trinity College, and so had their Christmas dinner here. It was quite a fancy do, with an incredibly impressive meal. I think there were 6 courses in all! We even managed to find the correct forks for everything!


At dinner, with Olivia nestled comfortably in the festive red sling. She was an angel during the meal, only getting hungry or squirmy twice, so that by tag-teaming we were both able to enjoy the whole meal. After the meal the other guests commented on how well behaved she had been, and everyone liked the festive sling as well (a couple of people at first thought it was simply a decoration I was wearing before realizing there was a tiny head sticking out...).


We pose beneath an enormous portrait in the Old Combination Room, which became our makeshift nursery during the meal.

I realize I haven't blogged in a couple of days- Thursday we had another big day of moving around, taking Olivia to her 6-week pediatric appointment, meeting our pediatrician for the first time. Olivia was given yet another clean bill of health, which was great. Thursday evening we went for dinner at our friends Kate and Wim's house, which was great. So two evenings out in a row- that would have been a lot for us even before having Olivia, so was quite something _with_ her! We'll be staying in for a while now- don't want to tax that beautiful little girl too much!

6 week checkup!

Olivia sleeping soundly after a long night of breastfeeding and nappy changes. Note that she is sleeping supervised- we wouldn't leave her this way! We couldn't resist the picture because she is just so darn cute!

Well, Olivia had her 6-week checkup today, and weighed in this time at 3.38 kg, or 7 pounds 7 ounces. Not bad gain since Tuesday!

Yesterday we had some other firsts as a family- we went into town for several hours, visiting both of our offices to show off our little bundle and having lunch at our favorite little lunch place in the Market. This involved our first "out and about" nappy change, and our first time breastfeeding in a big public place. The great quote from that is from the manager of the restaraunt. We asked if we could have a table where we could breastfeed Olivia, and he said "Ma'am, you can breastfeed that baby anywhere you like, and if anyone says anything to you, have them come to me." Very civilized!

Olivia certainly seems able to make friends wherever she goes. Everyone wants a better look at her, and wants to know how old she is (it's fun telling them she's minus 1 week).

Tomorrow, we'll have our first time wearing our baby as accessory at a fancy do. Suzanne's work, the Cambridge Trusts, is having a Christmas dinner at Trinity College, possibly in the very hall where Issac Newton ate! Stay tuned for pictures of _that_ grand event!

Over 7 pounds!

This is Julie, one of the Neonatal community nurses, weighing Olivia. Olivia's doing so well that they decided it was time to discharge her from thier care! You heard right- Olivia was weighed today and came in at 7 pounds 3 ounces, or 3.26 kilos! I know if you've been reading this blog you have heard stories of massive weight gain, but this is 50 grams a day, which is great. When plotted on the 'centiles', the curves which show expected weight gain and such, her weight gain is far more than expected. She started out just below the 50th 'centile' and is now well above it!

With the discharge from the Neonatal community team, Olivia's now on the 'normal' baby track- so she's really gotten to the point that the NHS feels she's in great shape! The only lingering thing from her prematurity is that we stilll have to give her extra vitamins every day until she's 12 months old. This is a pretty difficult thing to do, since they can't just be mixed with her milk... Up to now we've been using an oral feeding syringe to try to give them to her, but that's been hard. We're going to try to give her some Expressed Breast Milk from a bottle and mix the vitamins with that. If she'll accept a bottle from me, then Suzanne might be able to go off for a couple of hours while I look after Olivia- I guess some babies have no trouble with it, but others, once established with breastfeeding (which I think we can safely say Olivia is), won't take a bottle. We'll see!

Back to where it all began...

This is the old Roman Road, just outside of Cambridge. As absolutely straight as all Roman Roads were purported to be, it's now a public footpath. About 6 weeks ago we set out to take a walk there to clear up the slight cramps that Suzanne was feeling. To make a long story short, we ended up turning back short of our planned destination, and actually passed most of labor in these woods. In hindsight, not too bad a spot for the first stage...



Today we managed to get out for a good long walk on the Roman Road, with Olivia bundled snugly in the sling. It was another rare nice day (this being both December _and_ England), and though the breeze was chilly the sun was warm. Olivia slept peacefully through the whole thing- guess we'll have to wait a while longer to show her where she started telling us she was ready to be born!

Another week and more paternity leave!

Look at that face! She spends actually quite a lot of time in this state- quite relaxed and, well, rather unconscious!


This is the week 6 shot. we actually took it this morning, rather than yesterday, so it's 6 weeks + 1 day. Oh well...

One of the reasons we didn't get it taken yesterday was because dad had a bit of a tough day of being a dad. It's hard to say, but for whatever reason it seemed like every nappy change was difficult, the mess in the house was piling up, and I (Bob) was getting to feel overwhelmed with everything I'd put upon myself to do. Not to have a "down" entry, but it was kind of a tough day. Today has been much better- partially for the fact that we didn't put as much on our list to do, and we managed to stay in bed until 10 which as kind of a treat (even if we _were_ up at 6, and 3, and 12, and and and...). In any case, we got out on a walk today in the beautiful weather with Olivia snuggled in the sling and so all was right with the world. And in the evening our friends Sophie and Chi came over for tea (although since we're all expatriates, we had coffee), and some delicious chocolate and pear cake that Sophie had baked.