Aunt and Uncles and friends

It was so wonderful to have all of our family here for the birth. Even though we were in the hospital for three days and would have preferred to be home sooner, it was great to have your support and I looked forward to your frequent visits. It was a great welcome for Davis to how we do things in this family- Big and Loud!

And thanks to all the great friends who came to visit- Tim's GCRC and Lab folks, friends from church (including a special prayer time with Pastor Dan), Jay and Audrey, John and Jill, Cindy, my baby recovery coach Nick (running bud), and my new mommy friends, Elaine (who had her baby last week), Amanda (who had her baby in December) and Prov (who will have her baby in July), Rose (Rob's girlfriend who we love), Amir (our Pediatrician research friend ) and other friends. I was nervous about staying in the hospital, but with everyone coming by, it made it feel less like a hospital and more like an extended party. I know that some people want some rest after having a baby, but everyone who knows me knows that I'd rather party! Since we got home, mom has made sure that Tim and I both have gotten some rest so we will be refreshed for more visitors and more exciting firsts with Davis.

More photos......

Uncle Chase- On a crude note, Davis had his first big explosion while Chase was holding him. Chase was so proud.

Aunt Kathy- check out the super cute polka dot swaddling blanket from Emily- thanks! A close-up photo of Aunt Kathy was in the previous posting.

Aunt Kim

Aunt Heather

Uncle Rob

Audrey and Jay- and a note on photo taking from me. People on pain meds SHOULD NOT be taking the pictures. I didn't even get Davis's face in this one, and you can totally tell that I'm taking the photo from the hospital bed. Which reminds me, people who are coming off of anesthesia SHOULD NOT be emailing. Its kind if like drunk dialing- always a bad idea. I was on that laptop just hours after the birth trying to get the email anouncement out. I just wan't convinced that anyone else could get it done. Obviously, since almost no one got the anouncement, I couldn't get it done either. Oh well, I think I finally go the news out to everyone. Sorry for the wait.

John

Prov (with Davis's future friend in belly)

Jenn

He's here!!!

Its a boy!

Tim and I are ecstatic to announce that we are the new parents to Davis Timothy. He weighed in at a whopping 8lbs. 3oz., a full two pounds heavier than we expected. He is our little blessing and we couldn't be happier. Here are some photos- more to come.

When Nerds Reproduce

One of my favorite things about pregnancy has been watching Tim's reaction to the whole experience. As you probably know, Tim is PHD chemist and he has a lab at the hospital where I will be delivering. He has been incredibly supportive- in his geeky science way. The following is a summary of how his science brain is adjusting to the idea of fatherhood and all that baby gear.

1- The Literature- One of the first things Tim did was buy me both the "What to Expect" book AND the "What to EAT when you are expecting book". He was worried that my sluggish appetite and vegetarian ways might be a challenge during pregnancy. He offered to start doing the cooking, but I told him that wasn't necessary. It was a very sweet offer, but when he cooks, he measures everything to the microliter, and I really didnt want to wait until midnight to eat everynight. I agreed to start eating some chicken bc it was abvious that I was not going to be disciplined enough to eat all the veggie protien sources it would take to grow a baby. Plus, he was doing all this eye research and one of his collegues scared me to death about some eye defect caused by lack of some chemical compund (lipid?) only found in animal protien.



2-The Lead Paint- About half way through the pregnancy the whole lead paint issue came up in the media again. Well, this company that Tim works with a lot, Thermo, just happens to sell these high tech lead scanners. He looked into them, but seeing that we didn't really have an extra 20k laying around, we have setteld for the over the counter lead testers. He will have fun testing the accuracy of the lead test kits.



3- The Thermometer- Tim is desperately in search of the ultimate in baby thermometers. While most people are really into those forehead ones or the the ones for the ear- not Tim. his research indicates that these thermometers are not nearly accurate enough. At last count, we have a total of three digital thermometers, none of which have met his standards for accuracy. He just found another one on amazon and has registered for it- its a pacifier model. I'm just wondering how he is going to test that one- I will take pictures.


4- Alignment-

Tim is completely obsessed with having the car/jeep porperly aligned. I look over when he is driving and he is constantly taking his hand off the wheel slightly monitoring even the tiniest sway left or right. Then he asks if I have recently jumped the curb or backed into something to cause the faulty alignment, which I usually have. Upon the arrival of the Bob stroller, he took it into the long gallery hallway and, I kid you not, tested the alignement of the stroller. When I asked why he was rolling the stroller up and down the hallway and not holding on to it, he said that he needed to test that the stroller was properly aligned and he was quite satisfied that it was. Well, we'll see how long that lasts. If my driving record is indication of my strollering capabilities, I'll have that Bob aligment outta whack in no time. Tim was quick to show me the safety stop mechanism in case the stroller ever got away from me.

5- The Gear- Since I didn't want to have to make sure that all my baby gear (diaper bag, carrier, etc) was manly enough for Tim to carry, we decided to get Tim his own baby gear. that way I can have all the frilly, loud, luscious fabrics I want, and he wont get stuck carrying them. So mom gave Tim this great, manly diaper bag for chritsmas. Its by Fleurville, the mobi Rerun bag- army green, has an Ipod jack and holder (to drowned out the sounds of baby screaming?) and it made of recycled plastic bottles. Tim loves it and has already found that it fits his laptop perfectly.

He also has his own carrier, as he informed me he would not be wearing the polka dot Hotsling that I registered for. His carrier is made by Combi (Combi Urban Carrier) and looks alot like his North Face hiking pack, except that you can slip a baby in it. It has water bottle holder and fat zippers and all kinds of pockets for his nerdy gadgets. I can't wait to see him and the baby in it.

6- The Delivery- Since Tim's lab is at the research hospital and I already have docs at that hospital, we decided to have the baby there. Tim's first thought was that this would be perfect- he could be running experiments even while I was in labor- perfect. Well, he now relaizes that this plan won't really work that way, but I do take some comfort in knowing that all his nurses and stuff are right down the hall.

Only a two days to go. I will try to load the "Jenn Gets Fat" video that Tim made in the next post. Of course thats what I call the video, he refers to it as his documentation of fetal growth. He took pictures of me about once a week throughout the pregnancy and made them into a video. int he mean time, here are some pics that my grad school prof and good friend Susan Tate took when we met for lunch last week. She took one with mom, too.

jenn

Sure, I'm Having Your Baby, But I Love You Enough to Go to the Movie Theater For You

Its True- Last night, with only 7 days to go in the pregnancy, I went to he movie theater for the first time in over 7 years. For those of you who know me well, you know I don't go to the theater, EVER- FOR ANYONE. I am terrified of the dirty seats, wierd smelling carpet, people making mouth noises with their popcorn and candy, cell phones going off, poor indoor air quality, its too cold in there, stupid previews, and I sometimes have a hard time staying awake long enough to make it through a movie. Yet, Tim loves the movies, which is why we compromised and bought the projector. But in a temporary moment of insanity (due to the pregnancy, I'm sure) I thought that it would be something special I could do for Tim on this last Valentine's before the baby arrives. I have mixed feelings about the experience.

We went to see Juno- which was a great movie to see, especially when you are pregnant. More on that later. Unfortunatley, Juno was only playing at the really small/old theater by the mall. This was bad- very bad for me. We passed by the snack counter which still had the super over priced popcorn and candy I remebered from years ago. Luckily, I have a huge purse that is full of candy these days. So I cautiously proceeded to the movie seats. It was aweful- the carpet was incredibly dirty and the circa 1979 seats were worse. Tim could tell, I was freaking out. Thank goodness mom had caught wind of my big idea to go the movies and supplied me with a black trash bag. If it weren't for that trash bag over the seat, I would have been so out of there. As it was, I made Tim strip down as soon as he got home so I could wash everything that came in contact with those seats- not exactly the strip down Tim might have imagined on Valentine's Day.

Ok- so the movie begins and my cell phone goes off. Even though there were only about 7 other people in the theater, I was mortified. Not only was I at the movie theater, I had become the person I hated there. Anyway, Juno was actually such a good movie that it almost made up for everything else that was so wrong at that place. The story was great, the actors were talented and the set/props were amazing. The following are my favorite props in the movie.

1- Hamburger phone (Not to be confused with the Ketchup phone I had... ok, I still have it)

2- Alphie Robot

3- Slinkie Shirt

4- Zircon/Malm Fireplace

Jenn

Neurotic Nesting: Paper Trail

The following is my account of what happens when you go on maternity leave after you have already finished the nusery. It is my personal example of "Neurotic Nesting".

The birth anouncement- so important and so many choices. Of course, I will want to let people know right away, so a paper anouncement by itself won't be enough. Many of our friends have sent out emails to let everyone know the general stats. Email seems to be a logical choice for letting people know ASAP, but of course, that leaves me wanting to design both the digital email anouncement and the more formal paper anouncement. I was talking to Tim about how I needed to get on this before the baby gets here, he mentioned that he really wanted the anouncement to be something clever. Hmmm. Digital, paper, creative, and clever. He was thinking something like my Altoid business cards. I thought, "Ok, well if we name the baby Timothy James Garrett, II, then I guess I could try to do something with Junior Mints or something". But I don't want my baby anouncement to be commercialized like that- and I dont want anyone calling him Junior- and what if its a girl, and what if we don't end up using Tim's name? There are just too many unknowns in that situation. and what if I want a photo anouncement? Should I choose color or black and white or sepia or spot color?

How can I make it sophisticated and clever? Well, I'm not sure I can, so I've decided I'll be doing two anouncements, or wait, maybe three. One digital that we send out the day of, one sophisticated that we send to everyone, and one that is a little more fun and clever that we will include with the anouncement to family, close friends, and anyone else that's into that kind of thing. I know, its totally overboard- but I just can't decide on just one. And the scariest part is that I have actually picked out two of each of them because I dont know if we are having a boy or a girl. I'm embarrased to admit that I have six anouncements picked out- its crazy, but I love picking out this paper stuff and I just can't narrow it down. I have become obsessed with the details of it- I want to use the custom stamps from USPS with the baby's picture (but not on every anouncement, the shape isn't right for each of them), the Eames stamps on others (if the USPS will ever get them in stock- I waited for a half hour at the 34th st post office for them the other day and they werent there yet- nor had anone there ever heard of them). I may need to order return address stickers for some, others will be printed on the envelope. And so many addresses I need to get together- the grand email list and our paper address list, and Mom and Dad Scott's address list and Mom and Dad Garrett's address list. I'm completely freaking out about it! Last week my nightmare was that I went into labor and I hadn't gotten my hair done yet. Well since I got my hair done mid-last week, all I can think now is that this baby is going to get here and by gosh I'm not going to have all the anouncements figured out. And as you can tell, this anouncement thing has turned into a highly complex operation that I will need to master before I'm up all night with a newborn. I have called in reinforcements- my sister Kathy. We have discussed this anouncement thing over and over-- emailing different ideas back and forth and discussing the appropriateness of each one. I'm not going to tell you which ones we have picked out, but I will post the following websites that I thought were goodresources andhad at least one announcements that we considered.

https://www.fabulousstationery.com/usstationery.com/

http://www.morethanpaper.com/

http://www.imag-inations.com/

http://www.bayberryannouncements.com/

http://www.invitingsmiles.com/ (They did Amanda P.'s super cute anouncement)

http://www.metrobabycards.com/

http://www.sassybabydesigns.com/

http://storkgrams.com/

http://www.tinyprints.com/

http://www.magneticmessenger.com/ (This one has some groovy magnetic anouncements, but this sparked a whole new array of descisions to wade through. Magnetic would be cool, but it could end up looking tacky. Whats the print and color quality like? If people have a stainless refridge, where the heck are they going to stick it? Although we will have the most beaustiful baby ever born, it has occured to me that not everyone is going to put my baby's mug on their refridgerator, so is this a little presumptuous? The sizes are smaller than standards size- argh.)

jenn

Its Finally Done- The nursery

Here are the final pics of the nursery. It is still missing the child's rocking chair (my dad's when he was little- its still a the upholsterer) and I want one more thing for above the changing table, but its done enough to photograph.

My Fav Things in the nusury

1- Orange Abstract Dog- An original by designer Eero Aarnio- available at http://www.unicahome.com/p17653/magis/puppy-by-eero-aarnio-for-magis.htmlmagis.html

2-Textiles- Draperies/pillows- It was a long and difficult search to find the right textiles, but I'm really happy with them. Thanks for sewing the drapery panels, mom! Available for view at
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/20113015Katrin Fabric. Available for purchase at the Orlando store.

3-Bookcase- Antique- thanks for saving it, dad.

4- Scientific Images- These are some of Tim's Mass Spec images of the human eye. With his help, I juiced up the color in photoshop and had them printed at Harmons Photo Lab. Each color is representative of a different chemical that is present in the eye.

5-Sun Sconce and Leaf Canopy- The most literal references in the nursery- I chose these in place of a traditional mobile. Available at http://www.ikea.com/

jenn