We’re baaack!

If you've attempted to check out The Harke Herald in the last week, you probably noticed that the site had disappeared. The fault is mine, as I failed to renew mharke.com in time. Whoops.

The bad news is that mharke.com is now being held hostage by the company I registered it with, and will most likely cost me too much to get it back.

The good news is that The Harke Herald is back online at its new address, www.harkeherald.com. Easy to remember, right? So please bookmark this new address and keep an eye out for a new batch of posts and photos in the near future.

6 Months Old (and Happy Thanksgiving)!

Boy, has it been a while! November has gone by so quickly (just like the rest of the year, I guess)! Alyssa has been quite a busy bee since my last post. She is just now getting over her first cold, and I'm not sure who was more traumatized... baby or Mommy and Daddy!

Alyssa has really gotten good at rolling over. She is using the new skill to make her way around the living room. At this point, I think that she has made it around the entire floor! She likes to push up when she gets herself onto her stomach. I think she enjoys all of the new vantage points. See what I mean?!

I am also proud to say that she has learned to sit up on her own! When she wants to, she is able to stay upright for several minutes at a time! She is so proud of both of her accomplishments and grins from ear- to- ear when we tell her she is a big girl!

I will be posting baby stats after her 6- month checkup next Friday!

We hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving! I don't know about you but I am soooo looking forward to Christmas this year (could it be because this will be Alyssa's first?)!

Happy Halloween!

We hope everyone has a safe and fun holiday!

5 Months and 10 Years!

Alyssa is now 5 months old! Time flies! She is busy trying to sit up (which involves a full-body crunch as her head comes off the floor at the same time as her feet and she strains to get vertical), blow kisses (often with her tongue sticking out- very funny to watch), roll over, chew on her toes and stand up (just not at the same time). Some attempts are more successful than others, but she just won't give up!

We have been blessed with longer stretches of sleep at night, too! She is waking up once or twice over 10-12 hours and we are psyched! We've been able to have non-baby conversations and get 4-6 hours of sleep at a time. YAY!!!!!!

The latest look of the sweetie......

This week also marked 10 years together for Mike and I. We had our first date on October 25th, 1997! WOW!

Do we look young or what?

Thank GOODNESS for Family (and especially Grandparents)!

If you have been following our blog, you may remember that Mike posted about our childcare situation a while back. He mentioned that we had arranged our work schedules to allow us to share the daily baby responsibilities. We were SO thankful to be able to keep her ourselves rather than use daycare.

Unfortunately, Mike came home about 2 months ago with some nerve-wracking news. He would not be able to continue with the schedule that we had set up. I FREAKED OUT! It has always been important to me to raise my own kids, so I was distraught at the thought of having to do something different. We spent some time looking into our options... churches, in-home, etc. If they had availability they would not take an infant. Or if they would take an infant, they would only take one full-time (or we would have to pay for full-time even if we didn't use them 5 days per week). We ran into one dead end after another.

Enter the saviors... My parents decided to change my Mom's schedule to allow her to keep the baby for us! (Visualize the heavens parting to a soundtrack of the Hallelujah Chorus) I am now working at home Monday and Tuesday all day, in the office Wednesday (and Mike is home with the baby), at home Thursday morning, and bringing Alyssa to Mom at the office Thursday afternoon so she can take her home and I can work! My fabulous boss allowed me to pick up the additional at-home time and I can breathe easier knowing that my Mom is keeping Alyssa. Mike isn't working Saturdays anymore (so we have weekends together again... YAY!) and I have dinner with my parents at least once a week (and I don't think they are complaining about the guaranteed baby time, either!)

We've also been really thankful for the babysitting time outside of work. Mom and Dad have kept her overnight and multiple other times so that we can still be a couple. We've gone to the movies and dinner enough to still feel like we're married! Ashleigh has kept her with her friend Lauren and also with Steven. I think Ashleigh will be one of Alyssa's favorite babysitters... she is the only person that can routinely get Alyssa to sleep on her shoulder. I have a sneaking suspicion that they will have lots of fun times when Alyssa get older! Bring on the pearls!

Although Mike's family no longer lives in the area (his parents have been in Texas since not long after we got married, Jeff moved to Arkansas to buy his first house and start his first real job... in that order!, and John just moved to Florida), they have also put in some babysitting time! When Mike's mom came to visit in June, she and the boys watched Alyssa so that Mike and I could get dinner and a movie. After John injured his hand at work and was unable to go back, he came over a couple of times during the day so that I could work without worrying about Alyssa.

And even though they are not family, we are very lucky to have great friends and neighbors who have been so thoughtful. Our next door neighbors Jennifer and Brian have kept Alyssa for a dinner out one time, and have brought us breakfast and dinner and lots of baby goodies on several occasions. My friend DD from work brought dinner for the whole family back when I was still out on leave. And you have seen the pictures from the shower at my parents... this child has so many clothes that I don't know if she will ever get to wear them all (but I am trying!) You may not know that we also had a shower at my office and we were blessed with all kinds of other gifts (before Alyssa was born, so we didn't know if she would be a boy or a girl). We have had so few expenses for baby items thanks to all of our generous friends and coworkers!

We feel so lucky to have family to count on. I am so glad that my parents are local and are so willing to help us raise Alyssa (they are keeping us sane!) We have a very broad definition of family now, too, because we have friends that are as special to us as family. We are so blessed!

Congratulations Crissy and David!

Finally, a boy for our girls! My friends Crissy and David Gautier welcomed their first child, Evan Patterson Gautier, into the world at 7:01pm on October 2nd. He weighed 9 pounds, 12 ounces and was 23 inches long at birth. Congrats, Crissy and David! We can't wait to meet him!

I failed to post details on Alyssa's 4-month checkup on the 28th... She weighed in at 13 pounds, 13.5 ounces (53rd percentile) and was 24 inches long (27th percentile). Dr. Forte was very impressed with her progress and said that she is doing some things that are not common until 9 months! We think we have a little genius on our hands!

4 Months Old!

Alyssa is 4 months old! Time sure flies when you're on baby duty...

This milestone brings several new developments in our world. We have been feeding Alyssa rice cereal for a little less than 2 weeks now and she loves it! I assumed we would see more coming back out than staying in, but she has been doing really well with it. She figured out how to swallow it in a hurry! She gets almost frantic when we bring the spoon near her, flailing her arms and legs around. She is (occasionally) sleeping better at night and napping more during the day... it's amazing what a difference a full tummy can make!

Toys are becoming more interesting to her now. She is able to reach out and grab things that come into her field of vision, whether it be a pacifier, a teether, a toy, our clothes, my jewelry, or, my personal favorite, my hair (ouch... yet another reason to consider a "Mommy" haircut)! She has recently discovered her feet, too! Within the last few days she has realized that her feet are attached to her body and that they make fun playthings. Monday afternoon I found her with her big toe in her mouth. I knew it was only a matter of time!

Baby talk has replaced English as the primary language spoken at our house. Now that Alyssa has discovered her voice, she wants to talk (or squeal) all of the time! We'll copy her sounds back to her and she grins from ear to ear, so excited that she is having a "conversation" with us. I sometimes have to remind myself to come out of baby mode when talking to an adult since I have spent the day chatting with the baby!

We are having a blast watching her new personality emerge. I can't wait to see what's in store for us next!

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Congratulations are Overdue!

This is really the year of the baby! I mentioned back in the beginning of this blog that I know LOTS of ladies having babies this year... I believe the number was 13 back then. Two of these ladies are family! My cousin Spencer and his girlfriend Jenny (of Minnesota) had their first baby, a girl, on March 3rd. Evelyn Christine weighed 7lbs, 6oz. She looks just like him!

The other family baby was born to Mike's cousin Ethan and his wife Kaori (of Japan). Kaylee was almost 8lbs and almost 19 inches long when she was born on July 9th.

Congratulations to both families!

But where are all of the boys?!?!

Just Beautiful

Mommy, the smitten, here. Not much to say since it is late, but I just want to share a picture. Enjoy!

As Promised…

Back in June I wrote about the shower that my parents threw for us at their house while Mike's Mom was in town. I hadn't taken any pictures myself, so I had to wait until someone else sent me their pictures so I would have some to post. Thanks to Crissy and my Dad, here are some pictures of the day for your perusal...

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Busy Baby!

This little punkin is busy, busy, busy! She has started rolling from her back to her side over and over again. She has been doing it so many times in a row that she is now able to turn a full circle! It is very fun to watch. She has enjoyed flying overhead like an airplane (and Mommy likes it, too, because she has yet to spit up in the process... my opinion may change before too long!) I have been "bench-pressing" her as well... pushing her out to the full length of my arms and then bringing her in for a kiss. She seems to enjoy it and even laughed at me a little today. Not a belly laugh, just yet, but I am sure that is coming soon!

As always, it is amazing how much babies change. It is really surprising how much difference a day can make. The rolling happened from Tuesday to Wednesday of this week. You saw the pool pictures from the first try... She didn't know what to make of it. When we took her to the pool last night and she was grinning from ear to ear! Just a few days before these pictures were taken, she wouldn't wear anything on her head, and now look at her! Babies are amazing!

In other news... Ashleigh babysat a couple of weeks ago. She had a good time, and these pictures MUST be shared!

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Gone swimming

Since Alyssa is napping at the moment, I figured I could sneak up to the computer to make a quick post. Two weeks ago, Jennie and I decided to "test the waters" a bit by bringing Alyssa to the pool for the first time. Bath time doesn't always rank as one of her favorite activities, so I wasn't particularly hopeful. Take a look at these two pictures and judge for yourself how much she enjoyed it:

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3 Months Old!

I can hardly believe it has already been three months since Alyssa was born! She is changing a little bit every day and is more and more fun. Where we were able to get her to imitate us before, she is now starting the game! She'll stick out her tongue and give us that infectious little grin until we reciprocate. She is also imitating sounds so frequently that I swear she is already saying HI!

Alyssa’s “baby dance”

Sorry about the shortage of posts recently.  Between our work schedules and Alyssa's sleep schedule (or lack of), the blog has temporarily dropped a few notches on the priority scale.

At least today's post is a fun one: Alyssa's "baby dance".  Since it is easier to show than explain, just click on the video below and see for yourself.   I might suggest muting the volume, though, as the commentary and classy noises near the end aren't up to our usual high standards:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIPLAMsH75c[/youtube]

Congratulations!

Congratulations are in order... Kristina and Dan Norman welcomed their first child, baby girl Audrey Marie Norman into the world last Friday night, August 3rd. She weighed 7 pounds, 2 ounces at birth and was 17 inches long. She is also blessed with a head full of hair!

I hope Audrey and Alyssa will get a chance to know each other and become life-long friends like their mommies!

2 months old

This post is a few days overdue, but as Mike said, punctuality has not been our forte of late.

Alyssa was 2 months old on Tuesday! She is not fitting into many of her newborn clothes and we have been curious as to her height and weight. I had to take her to her 2 month check up yesterday to find out!

She now weighs 11 pounds, 7.5 ounces (up 3 pounds, 3.5 ounces from her 2 week checkup) and is 23 inches long! Her weight is in the 64th percentile, height in the 71st percentile (will she be tall like Daddy?), and her head circumference is in the 46th percentile (so she does not have a big noggin like I did... proudly in the 80th or 90th percentile as a munchkin according to my Mom!)

According to Dr. Forte, Alyssa is performing all of the 2 month milestones... holding her head up, recognizing Mommy and Daddy, getting excited at feeding time, pushing up when placed on her tummy, smiling, and cooing.

The poor baby had to have 3 shots and one oral vaccine. She did not like them, but recovered quickly and was back to her sweet self for most of the afternoon.

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A Big Week

I had planned to write about Alyssa's first overnight just after it happened, but that was a week ago. My parents graciously offered to babysit overnight last Saturday night so that Mike and I could have a date and a full night of sleep (even though my Mom had injured her back when they got back from vacation the week before). We had a great time... we had dinner in Wake Forest and saw Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (GREAT movie. Our favorite of the series so far).

Time got away from me as we started back to work, and Mom ended up with a ruptured disc in her back that required emergency surgery on Wednesday! She went home from the hospital on Thursday and is working on the recovery process as we speak (or, as I write). Alyssa and I spent the day with her on Friday and watched some movies. We got to entertain Mom a bit with one of Alyssa's new tricks... imitation! When she is fully awake, she enjoys copying our smiles and sticking out her tongue.

Just hit 100+ comments!

Well, technically, the Harke Herald received its 100th comment a week ago, but promptness hasn't been one of our best qualities as of late. Considering that the blog has been online for just a little over 4 months, that's roughly 25 comments left per month!

Just think how exciting it will be for Alyssa once she is old to enough to comprehend just how interested everyone has been in her life. The ability to attach these thoughtful comments to names (and faces *hint hint*) will, in my opinion, help her to appreciate everyone who has been following our blog. So keep those comments coming!

Oh, and here is a gratuitous random photo of Alyssa in her swing:

Smiles for Mommy

Everyone tells me that kids grow up way too fast. That the baby stage flies by, seemingly in an instant. I understand this and, trust me, I am in no rush for her to grow up. I like to hold her and style her hair the way I like and have her wear what I pick out without an argument. There are, however, many milestones that I am really looking forward to.

For starters, I have been anxiously awaiting Alyssa's first smile. We have seen the grins that doctors say are "gas-related" since the day she was born. But I am talking about the ear-to-ear, happy-go-lucky, I like what just happened kind of smile. We have been lucky enough to see them more and more frequently since the Thursday before last. Until this weekend, though, I had been unsuccessful at catching her with a camera.

Please allow me a Mommy bragging moment here, because I think this is just adorable!

Daddy reflects on his first two days alone with baby

I really meant to write this post yesterday, but I don't think I've ever been more tired in my entire life. Jennie returned to work on Monday, leaving me in charge of Alyssa ... *gulp*, alone!

You see, Jennie and I decided early on in her pregnancy that we would do whatever it takes to ensure that our baby wouldn't have to go to daycare. Much to my surprise, both of us managed to work out new schedules at our existing jobs to allow for that (thanks very much, CENT and Sir Walter!)

Anyway, I'm now the official caretaker on Mondays and Tuesdays. I somewhat expected that this new responsibility was going to be challenging, but I never would've thought that it would be more exhausting than the paying job.

The strange thing is that I didn't really have any trouble with the stuff I was expecting problems with. Diaper changes were nasty but manageable. Alyssa swallowed her vitamins without the threat of a projectile counterattack. Nap times were frequent and encouragingly lengthy. I don't even remember her crying for more than a couple of minutes or so.

What did cause me some grief were the feedings. Apparently, daddy's bottle isn't quite up to par with mommy's ... er, bottles. Between the problems with flow control (... don't ask), a too-powerful-for-its-own-good bottle warmer, an exploding bottle liner, and Alyssa's passion for eating, I'm afraid I'll never equal mommy's feeding time prowess.

The other major issue was that, in spite of Alyssa's overall good behavior, I just couldn't relax myself long enough to enjoy what little spare time I had. Everyone says to nap when the baby naps, but I'm too much of a deep sleeper to take advantage of that luxury.

So, instead of chilling out while she slept, I spent the entire time doing household chores that I've been putting off for weeks. Oh, and I also started up my new exercise routine of jogging, aerobics, and weight-lifting (as if I really needed another thing to tire myself out with). And throughout all of this activity, I constantly paused whatever I was doing to make sure Alyssa was still there, still dry, and still breathing.

So, having put in my two days of daddy-baby time, I've got nothing but extreme respect for all stay-at-home moms and dads. How Jennie managed to make it through 6 weeks of this, I'm not exactly sure. But then I remember the smile that Alyssa flashed at me while performing the diaper-changing ritual yesterday, and I think I understand.

Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho…

It's back to work I go! Actually, I started back to work from home on Thursday. It went really well! Alyssa wanted to be held more and more as the day progressed but I was still able to get all of my work done. Tomorrow I will be back in the office to work for the first time since the day I went into labor. Yikes! I hope I can handle the 10-hour days after being up for night feedings. Mike will have his first full day alone with Alyssa, so wish him luck, too!

Happy Birthday to my sister Ashleigh! Yesterday was her 22nd birthday! She came over for lunch and cupcakes with Alyssa and I and then we went to The Factory in Wake Forest for shopping and painting! We spent a few hours painting pottery and passing Alyssa back and forth. She was awake for longer yesterday than any previous day!

Happy 4th of July

From our "Little Sparkler" to you, have a great holiday!

Alyssa’s big first month bash, part 2

While Mike's Mom was in town, Alyssa and I were in for a surprise! My Mom (aka Tula) threw us a baby shower at her house! We were all invited to her house on Saturday morning for "coffee and cake," supposedly so that Pam could see the new house. When we arrived, there were a bunch of cars parked out front!

Lots of my friends were there and we received lots of beautiful baby gifts... Alyssa's closet is full to overflowing, and she has some of the cutest accessories for her very girly room. She received her first piggy bank, a silver dollar for the year of her birth, an adorable table and chair set (just her size!), and some of the sweetest baby clothes I have ever seen.

Mama (her great grandmother on my side) painted more animals to go with the giraffe (you can find the picture of this in the Handmade Baby Gifts post). I'll post pictures of these soon... my Dad is working on a way to hang them, and we have designed Alyssa's bathroom to match. It is so cute!

Tula and Seanachai gave her a very sweet board book for her Daddy to read to her, and he is very excited for a new volume in her library (Goodnight Moon is already getting a little boring!) One of the most special gifts she received was a baby- sized gardening set from Seanachai. I think he is already planning what he will plant with his little helper!

I don't have pictures from the shower yet, but I will hopefully post some later. In lieu of those photos, I will share one of my most favorite photos so far... we played with Alyssa on her gym on Friday and had a great time with her!

Alyssa’s big first month bash, part 1

Over the past few days, two major events occurred relating to Alyssa. Jennie is going to cover one of the events in her next post, so I'll concentrate on the other one: Grandmother Harke (or "Grammy", as she wants to be called) flew in from Texas to meet Alyssa for the first time.

From Wednesday the 27th to this past Sunday, Grammy spent nearly every moment with her first granddaughter. Thankfully, this included changing some nasty diapers. Grammy even babysat Alyssa on Friday night with my brothers, so that Jennie and I could go out for a dinner and movie (Ocean's Thirteen, which incidentally wasn't too shabby).

Oh yeah, and Grammy came bearing gifts. Lots of gifts. You see, my mother has always wished for a girl in the family, so that she could buy lots of girly stuff. Now that Alyssa is here, she finally has her chance to go crazy (sorry, dad). I'll let Jennie discuss the specific items, since they relate to the other event I mentioned in the beginning of the post.

A Month Old!

Boy, the time really flies by! Alyssa is one month old already! She is beginning to smile (other than what looks like it might be brought on by gas!) a lot more, although I have yet to catch her with a camera. She is spending more time awake each day and is more and more interested in seeing new things. She noticed the mobile over her swing yesterday and saw the spinning night light during a 2am diaper change yesterday morning. We have also noticed that she focuses on certain things really hard and looks like she wants to reach out and grab them. She is changing so much every day!

As a little side note about me, I went to the doctor on Thursday for the post-partum check, and everything is looking great. I have lost all of the pregnancy weight! Now, if I can just get my stomach to look less like a Jell-O mold, I'll be thrilled!

This is an archived post

Don't worry, I'm not trying to mislead you with the title. This post, along with everything else Jennie and I have published since the beginning of The Harke Herald, can now be found in the new archives page:

If you are a relatively new visitor to our blog, the archives probably won't be all that useful. However, if you've been following the Herald for awhile, the archives page is a great way to find a particular event or photo without having to wade through the entire blog. Best of all, the archives page automatically updates itself when we make a post, so it will always be current.

By the way, if you haven't already checked out the photo gallery, try it now. I think I've managed to fix all of the Internet Explorer related display problems that plagued the gallery's first few days online, but please leave a comment here if you are experiencing any errors.

Father’s Day

We had a nice time yesterday. We made a barbeque lunch for the new Dad and Grandpa Seanachai, and we had fun passing Alyssa around. Mom and I had been to Pier 1 kids on Friday and bought some pretty butterfly decorations for Alyssa's room, so we all got into putting them up. It looks so girly!

Mike and I got a much-needed nap in the afternoon and took Alyssa for a long walk around the neighborhood in her stroller (twice compared to our usual once around). It was a really nice day!

Happy Father's Day, Dads!

3 Weeks Old!

Lissy spent her 3 week birthday with Tula... her favorite babysitter! She got a nap, a snack, and a bath all in a few hours time! She looks different every day, mostly because of her hair, and she is so cute!

A Real Bath

We gave Alyssa her first tub bath the night before last. She loved it! We have a cool tub with a sling that sits her right in the water with a pillow and some toys attached. I wish they made them adult- sized!

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On a side note, I was visited on Sunday by a couple of my friends from work, Amy and Laura. Laura got married on Saturday, May 19th (Congrats, Laura and James!), and I was lucky enough to attend the wedding. We had a great time and the wedding was beautiful! Laura brought her pictures with her when she came to visit. They were great!

I was particularly... interested(?) in two photos from the reception. We had all joked that it would be most memorable if I went into labor at her wedding. These pictures make it look like that could have happened! Flattering or not, they are pretty funny, so I thought I'd share!

Sleeping Angel

I know this is probably just me being biased, but I think Alyssa is about the cutest baby I have ever seen. She is so good, too! She is sleeping the day away here, and I can't do almost anything because all I want to do is stare at her! So that you know what I am looking at, here is a picture of our sleeping angel... maybe you agree with me?

Excited to announce the new photo gallery

Don't you wish all of Alyssa's photos could be accessed from one page? No problem! I'm proud to announce the addition of the new photo gallery.

Nearly every photograph that we've uploaded since Alyssa's birth can now also be found by selecting the "Photos" link at the top of each page.

Eventually, we'll be adding photos to the gallery that have never before been seen on this blog, so please remember to check in on it from time to time.

2 Weeks Old!

Up for a feeding here in the wee hours, I thought I'd update the blog!

My Mom and I took Alyssa for her 2 week old checkup with the doctor today. She had gone down to 7lbs, 10oz by the time we had taken her home from the hospital... today she was already up to 8lbs, 4oz! She has gotten 1/4 inch taller, too. She's 20.25 inches now! Dr. Gessner said that she looks great and is obviously eating like a champ! She has a 6 week reprieve from the doctor because they don't need to see her back until she is 2 months old. Yay!

Most of the following pictures are from the other night... we had a great time with her being so alert and interested in everything. She loved to rub her head on her Grandpa's beard! The spiky hair pics are from today (really yesterday since it is 2:45am!) That was just Mommy having some fun with her!

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We’re starting to get some sleep!

We're not sure if this is a fluke or not, but Alyssa has nearly slept through the night for a few days in a row. She still wakes up somewhere in the middle of the night for food, but only once! I've read that newborn babies generally wake every few hours for feeding, so you can probably imagine our surprise (and relief) at this.

On a possibly-related note, the last couple of days have been exciting for an additional reason. From the very beginning, she didn't seem to be aware of us unless our faces were right in front of her. Now, however, Alyssa appears to be focusing her eyes on specific objects. Better yet, she'll turn her head to watch something moving and track it with her eyes.

All of this is happening earlier than what Jennie and I have read, so we're very impressed. My guess is that Alyssa's activity during the day is making it easier for her to stay asleep at night. Of course, that still doesn't explain why she doesn't need to eat much during the night, but perhaps her pediatrician's appointment tomorrow will clear some of this up.

Alyssa has hair! Really.

According to one of our readers, we haven't posted enough photos showcasing Alyssa's hair. I'm surprised to hear that, seeing as how I had just recently posted those bath time pictures with us washing and combing it. Nevertheless, I need to give the fans what they want, right mom?

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A Week Old!

Not that we have forgotten, but the time keeps getting away from us! Our sweet baby girl turned 1 week old yesterday at 1:33pm. It is amazing how quickly the days pass when you are busy doting on an infant!

As I am sure you can imagine, I am pretty much wrapped up in taking care of Alyssa most of the time. My sweet husband is busy taking care of both of us and doing laundry, making meals, cleaning house, and making sure that all of our needs are met. I will try to post when I can, but I will have to continue to rely on him to keep you updated on our progress!

Bathing baby

Alyssa is only a week old, and she has already experienced several "firsts". Her first day (and night) home, her first car ride, her first doctor's visit, a few firsts that I won't relate here (to spare her future dignity), and her first bath(s). Actually, I believe bathing might rank up there as one of her favorite pastimes (after eating and sleeping, in that order). Too bad diaper changing isn't this easy...

Alyssa’s hospital gifts

I'm not going to lie, this post isn't going to be spectacular (as usual). For one thing, I'm pretty sure my eyes are only staying open due to sheer willpower. The other (more important) reason is that my current stockpile of baby photos isn't huge by any means, so I'm trying to ration them out slowly.

Finishing off my batch of hospital pictures that aren't R-rated, here are the gifts that Alyssa received during our incarceration ... er, spontaneous vacation:

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News from the homefront

Finally, a chance to jump on here and report some news (I'm going to blame exhaustion for the delay).

Alyssa, Jennie, and I were discharged from the hospital yesterday around noon. We were dreading the car ride, but it turns out even babies don't mind cruising down the highway (in other words, she slept the whole way). She was a little bit more cranky once we got home, but overall Alyssa seems to be a very easy-to-please baby ... so far.

Since I could probably turn this post into a novel, I think I'll spread this stuff out by posting in themes for the next couple of weeks.

It’s a Girl!

Alyssa Paige Harke was brought into the world at 1:33PM on May 24th, weighing 8 lbs. 1 ounce and measuring 20 inches in length.

I don't have much time to post at the moment (I'm on my way back to the hospital). I apologize, most of the photos were taken in the delivery room and aren't public safe.I promise some will be posted soon.

Baby Countdown: T-minus 7 days!

If the doctors are correct in their calculations, the baby's gender (and name) will finally be revealed around this time next weekend.  Of course, such estimations are far from an exact science -- the baby could decide it wants out tonight.  Anyone want to place bets?

On a completely unrelated topic, Jennie and I recently created our MySpace profile pages.  While we still intend to focus primarily on sharing our baby news on this blog, it couldn't hurt to try and take advantage of MySpace's popularity to lead family and friends here.

If you have a MySpace account, add Jennie and Michael to your friends list and we'll accept as soon as possible.  If you haven't signed up with MySpace, well ... think about doing so.

Congrats to Jeff and Mothers everywhere!

This weekend was big for not one, not two, but three reasons. Heh, okay ... maybe just two after all -- the baby decided to take a rain check on being born this weekend. Probably out of spite. *shrug*

Anyway, first shout-out goes to my brother Jeff for graduating from N.C. State on Saturday. The exciting world of paper and pulp (and probably the smell, too) awaits him near the end of the summer in "Twice as Nice!" Texarkana, Arkansas. I guess that slogan also describes the photos of "the bros"

... or not. I don't know why John and I are making exactly the same face.

Moving on. On Sunday, we celebrated Mothers' Day by taking the moms (and mom-to-be) out to Kanki at Crabtree Valley Mall. The chef was entertaining, in a "I don't know what the heck she just said" sort of way. The food was a hit, too.

So, there we have it: Happy Mothers' Day moms, and congrats for graduating Jeff!

OH MY GOSH!!!

Long before I found out that I was pregnant, I decided to try to take "friendly advice" with a grain of salt. I fully expected to get lots of comments and advice, but I had no idea how many people would have thoughts to share.

So far, I have gained less than 30 pounds through the whole pregnancy. I have had some trouble with swelling ankles, but I am told it is normal. I am mostly carrying straight out in front and still have some people tell me that they can't tell I am pregnant from behind.

So imagine my amusement today at the grocery store when the cashier shrieked "Oh, my gosh! You look like you are about to drop that baby right now! Please don't do it here because I was in the hospital when my cousin had her baby and it was so disgusting that I don't ever want to have a baby myself!"

Mike and I looked at each other and laughed because I have had similar (but slightly less graphic) comments since I started to show! "Oh, my Lord, you're HUGE!!!" or "Girl, you're not even going to make it to your due date, so you might as well put that in your pipe and smoke it!" or the ever popular "You look like you're ready to pop at any second!" I have felt pretty good right along, so I generally just laugh it off. But what if I was a bit self-conscious? Nothing like a few "wide-load" comments to put a hormonally-challenged pregnant woman into a regular sob fest!

I thanked the cashier for the joke and for putting thoughts of a gory delivery into my husband's head, helped the woman behind us pick her jaw up off the floor after she caught sight of my stomach (so that she could make another colorful comment about how I'll never make it another 3 weeks), and laughed all the way to the car. Mike thought we should stop by on the cashier's next shift to deliver the baby right on her conveyor belt.

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What I learned at baby school

I had meant to comment on the baby delivery classes a week ago (while it was still fresh in my mind), so you'll have to forgive me if this post seems a little ... unfocused. Anyway, speaking only for myself (I'm sure Jennie absorbed more than I did), here is what I learned at baby school:

• Baby school is long. Really long. 9 hours of unpaid work. I'm still looking for confirmation of my credit hours in the mail


• The videos aren't as scary as you may have imagined. The forceps that may have to be used during the actual delivery, on the other hand ...


• However, the videos apparently used to be as scary as you may have imagined. According to our instructor, a now-retired video (thankfully) on C-sections once caused a guy to jump out of his seat and lose his balance on his way out into the hall to vomit, ending in a coma (and probably a lifetime of heckling)


• Yep, the other fathers-to-be looked uncomfortable to be there. You would be too, having to learn more about female anatomy in 10 minutes than you've probably heard in your entire life


• Babies don't really care about what we learned regarding child delivery. Lucky them


• I can never look at an exercise ball the same again. If you have to ask why, consider yourself fortunate


• The biggest surprise for me was just how much a baby can fill his/her first diaper. I'll probably be scarred for life once I can visually confirm this

The most important thing I learned from the two classes, however, is that I'll probably end up acting like the mushy, crying fathers shown holding their newly-delivered babies for the first time ... and I won't mind.

Old Wives Tales

As promised, here are what the old wives tales say about my symptoms:

1. Citrus fruit and chocolate cravings suggest... Girl!

2. Carrying out front suggests... Boy!

3. Heartbeats consistently over 140 suggest... Girl!

4. Minimal weight gain/ shape change in the face suggests... Boy!

5. Back and forth pendant swings over my hand and circular swings over my stomach suggest... Boy!

6. Carrying low suggests... Boy!

7. Young looking grandma-to-be suggests... Girl!

8. Hair- free husband suggests... Boy!

9. No morning sickness suggests... Boy!

10. Daddy-to-be gaining weight suggests... Girl!

The old wives tales lean towards Boy, 6 votes to 4.
Votes in the blog comments are unanimous... 5 Boy!
The baby pool that they are running here at work is leaning the other way, though! 8 girl to 6 boy so far.

Whichever one we get will be great... we can't wait!!!!!!

One month to go!

According to the blog's countdown clock, we have roughly 30 days left to wait. Officially, the due date is May 28th, but there is always the possibility of something happening before then. Thankfully, once Jennie and I finish our class tomorrow at the hospital, we'll be certified baby delivery experts and everything will go exactly as planned ( ... or so I hope).

Nesting

Not me, but Mike! Other than the day that I HAD to clean the shower from top to bottom, I haven't been motivated (or had the energy) to do much of anything. Mike, however, has been very busy! He always likes to keep the house clean, but he was on a mission this past weekend!

Even when he said he was too tired and lacking in motivation, he cleaned and organized the garage. He was busy hanging chairs and mops and such on the walls for quite a while. I thought that would be the extent of his efforts for the day, but he went inside and vacuumed the house from top to bottom and STILL wasn't done!

Thanks to his energy burst, we now have the stroller, car seat, and high chair all assembled! I think Mike had a good time putting it all together because it gave him an opportunity to be involved in the preparation. It was fun to watch him put it all together... I think it is getting as real for him as it is for me! This baby is really coming soon! It was sweet to see the Daddy side of Mike. I can't wait to see him in action, finally!

Our e-wedding album, revisited

Browsing through the visitor stats for the last day or so, I've noticed that the wedding album hosted on my other blog has been getting some traffic.  Kind of a surprise, considering how long ago I had placed it online.  So, for anyone who missed seeing the album the first time around, here it is again:

Boy or Girl?

Just because we have chosen to wait until delivery to find out if this is a boy or girl doesn't mean we aren't having fun speculating! Every time I think I have it figured out, someone will tell me about another "Old Wives Tale" that suggests the opposite of what I was thinking. Here are my results on a few of the things I have heard... please leave a comment on your guess for the gender! I'll post what the tales suggest in a few days, so make your best guess!

1. I crave fruit more than anything... especially oranges and orange juice! Chocolate has also been high on my radar!

2. I have carried the baby straight out in front for most of the pregnancy... only within the last little while have I gotten any wider!

3. The heartbeat has never been under 144 bpm at any of the appointments... 158, 158, 148, 148, 152, 144...

4. My face has not really changed shape at all, but I look like I am in the middle of puberty again (how fair is it that I have to have acne with everything else?)

5. If I hang a pendant over my hand, it swings back and forth. If I hang it over my stomach, it swings in circles.

6. I am carrying very low.

7. My Mom's hair is NOT gray!

8. My husband is not hairy!

9. I did not have any morning sickness.

10. Mike has put on some weight during the pregnancy.

We want names for the baby…

...blog, that is. While "Michael & Jennie Harke's Blog" adheres to the strict rules of the English language, it isn't the catchiest thing around.

Basically, this site is about Jennie and I. Judging from the content of the posts, however, I suppose it is really about the baby. So, time to scrap "Michael & Jennie Harke's Blog" for something more family-friendly.

Personally, I like "For a baby, by at least one baby", but I'm sure the eye-rolling collective (possibly including you, the reader) disagrees. So help a desperate web monkey out and leave a comment with a better name. Thank you.

Oh, and sorry ... the names for baby are still safe and securely hidden.

P.S. As a general rule, my posts are not to be taken seriously. So, if you don't understand what I'm rambling about in this post (like my readers from Texas), pretend I'm typing all of this with a stupid grin on my face.

Handmade baby gifts

Most people know I am pretty crafty, so it goes without saying that I love handmade items. Some of my most favorite gifts we have received are the ones that our friends and family have made for us. Take a look at how special each gift is... we have some VERY talented friends and family!

Belly shots

I went to the doctor today for a regular checkup, so today is as good as any to give an update on how I look! As requested by Mike's Mom, here are some pictures of the growing stomach! The first was taken just prior to Christmas, a couple of weeks after I started to show, and the latest was taken today!

The checkup went well, and I got some very interesting news... if I go into labor anytime after next Monday, they will not try to stop it! Also, as I suspected last night (based on locations of baby hiccups and some swift munchkin kicks), the baby is now head down!!!! He or she is already getting ready to be born... the question is whether we are really ready ourselves!?!?

Nursery in progress… nearly ready!

We have been collecting baby stuff for several years and it is nice to have a place to put everything! In January we bought a crib and a glider and had a good time putting together all of the pieces. Since then, we have been working on a sponged animal border and other wall decorations. My friend Amy has been very generous and given us all kinds of baby toys and clothes. She even gave us a changing table! The room is really starting to look cozy for the baby... now we just need the tiny occupant to arrive!

Baby on the way!

We're finally coming into the home stretch! We are less than 2 months from the due date and we are so excited! It is hard for us to imagine that the baby has gone from what we saw on the ultrasound in October:



to what we saw in January:



and then some!

We had a 3D ultrasound done in February and got to see the face as well!

We can't wait to meet the little one that has been the focus of our attention for so many months!