Natalie's Room...

We have received a lot of requests to show pictures of Natalie's room for those that do not live close enough to see in person. Upon request, here are some pictures.

One month old...

Today, Natalie turned 1 month old. Wooohooo, and to celebrate Natalie has done countless number 1's. She must be really anticipating 2 months because she has left us several number 2's as well. Kaija and Josh ordered in a pizza and let Natalie watch us devour it. Don't worry, Natalie will get her portion soon enough.

Natalie has started dreaming. Actually, she may have had dreams all along, however, Kaija and Josh are not sure what she could dream about since she had no reference. We are not exactly sure what she is dreaming about now but she moves her lips back 'n' forth as if she's sucking on a pacifier. Considering she really only knows eating, sleeping and pooping Josh is sure she is having a great dream involving Kaija and an endless supply of milk.

Ever wanted to feel like a fool. One of the expert baby books says that at 4 weeks we should start making funny faces to Natalie. We have started and feel very ridiculous for doing so. Hopefully this will be one of those, 'ends justify the means' scenarios.

Just chillin...

Sat afternoon and Natalie is just hanging out with mom, dad and G'Parent D's. Did some more tummy-time today and came inches away from rolling over (tummy to back). Kaija and Josh are not sure if she really wants to be able to roll over or if she just hates being on her stomach. Maybe in another week or so she'll be able to complete the rollover...we'll see. Tonight is the final night, after two weeks, with help from G'Parents and Uncle's so back to normal tomorrow. Natalie is definitely going to miss all the lovin' and snugglin' she's received over the past two weeks. Luckily Grandpa and Grandma J are dropping by next weekend on their way to a cruise.

Kaija and Josh did enjoy themselves on date night last night at dinner. Nothing too fancy, Thai, but we continued our pact to talk about everything but the baby. We're trying our best to not be 'all baby all the time'. So far it's working, albeit, a little more difficult than first thought.

Tummy-Time...

An instrumental exercise for strengthening a babies neck is tummy-time. Even though Natalie is only 4 weeks old Kaija decided to start her regimented exercise this week. What we've found is that we have about a 15 minute window once on the mat for which Natalie enjoys this time. After that, she's had enough and will quickly let you know...sassy!! She seems to like the mirror and a little toy pineapple on her mat that she grabs hold of. Video of her first day on the tummy-time mat to the right...

Grandpa and Grandma D...

are in town for the week. Josh is in Aurora, Co for work so their visit couldn't have come at a better time. Both grandparents have had lots of time to hold, snuggle, and love with the baby. Also, with there presence, Kaija has felt much more comfortable attending several events this week. Lets see, this week Kaija has met a friend out for breakfast, attended new mom's group, watched a mommy movie in Fairfax (more on this later), conducted tummy-time at home and went to a library event with Natalie. Having family in town is the best. On tap tonight...date night number 3-

The mommy movie is fabulous. Each week (Thurs) the movie theater in Fairfax plays a new movie for moms and their babies. They leave the lights on for diaper changes and feeding time plus they have a beverage cart that goes up and down the steps. And the best part, the price...matinee. This weeks movie was Hairspray.

Un'Cole...

Uncle Cole came and visited for a couple of days with his niece. Considering that Cole has never held a baby before he did fairly well. While Cole didn't change any diapers or rock Natalie to sleep he was the point man for manning the stroller during our walks. As for who Cole thinks Natalie looks like, "she looks like a baby and all babies look alike." Not quite the response Josh and Kaija were looking for. Looks like someone just got eliminated from the 'if something should happen to us...custody' list :^)

Sign O' The Times...

There are several things that Josh is pretty adamant about not doing. On that list include getting a tattoo to getting a personalized licence plate. One thing in particular Josh has always made fun of were people that wore shirts with some comedic, or not so comedic, statement. You know the type; "I'm with Stupid" with an arrow to the right or "Its all about me" t'shirt. They seem to be popular with the younger generation but it baffles him to no end when he sees a 35 year old with said t'shirts. However, we received a package from Nicole Motsek with several great items. One of them, a t'shirt with a funny statement. Josh quickly placed the onesie on Natalie to which Kaija made a comment about Josh's hypocrisy. His reply, "this is completely different". Next thing you know, he'll be driving around in a mini-van with the license plate, "Nat's Fan".

Reading is Fundamental...

Its never too early to start reading. After days of reading People Magazine and Us Weekly to Natalie we decided to change the pace a little. By the way, Natalie is a big Mandy Moore fan...who knew. Anyway, we started tonight with Goodnight Moon and The Very Hungry Caterpillar. She doesn't really understand or look at the pictures but it appears that Kaija's voice is soothing which in turn helps put her asleep. Baby books say that a baby is supposed to hear 5000 or so different words by the time they talk so really this is a win-win situation for all.

New moms group, date night, and new outfit oh my...

Kaija attended the new moms group with Maggie Ivey for the second time today. She had a very good time again and even went to lunch with several of the gals afterwards. The group had a visitor from the library that came and gave out several free baby books to all in attendance. We're all about books...especially free books.

Kaija and I decided to leave Natalie with Grandma J and hit up a local restaurant this evening for our first date night. We didn't go far but enjoyed a little time to ourselves. We managed to make it through dinner without bringing up the lil' one back home.

Here is Natalie in another outfit compliments of Lauren Williams. Kaija and Grandma J really enjoy playing dress up with Natalie. If it were up to Josh she would stay wrapped up in her Halo Sleep Sack all day...possibly for another 21 years.

Grandma and Grandpa J...

are in town for the week, which means Natalie gets spoiled once again. The extra hand has been nice especially during the day or when Kaija and Josh need to run errands. Not to mention Natalie is definitely enjoying the extra attention and singing, something her mom and dad rarely do. Check out the new videos on the right. Mom and dad are also planning a date night on Wednesday to celebrate Kaija's belated Birthday. Things couldn't be going much better...

Famous last words. On Sunday we had a photographer over to take pictures of Natalie in different poses. In the beginning Natalie was behaving and even focused on the camera. However, once it was time for her to take her family pictures she became fussy. So, we decided to take some sleepy photos. For 3 hours we tried to get Natalie to go asleep. She never did...until the photographer packed up her bags. Perhaps another trait from her dad...defiant.

Anyway, we definitely recommend Stephanie Zbindon for those of you looking for a photographer for any occasion. She was flat out amazing, patient and had the perfect demeanor. As a matter of fact she agreed to come back for another photo shoot to try to get some of those sleepy pictures for us. For a sampling of some of her photos, http://www.thehipstudio.com/.

Expanding The Family Trees...

Here are some of our favorite pictures of the recent additions to Josh and Kaija's extended families. Below (from left to right) are Henry Dean Mauser, Landon Hayson and Sonja Pennington. Missing but not forgotten is Macy Golob. Please click on her link, right side below, to check out all of her pictures.

Bigger and better things...

Newborn diapers and outfits are so yesterday...quite literally. Today Natalie has been bumped up to the next size diapers and 3 month clothing. This is actually a good thing since we have a lot more 0-3 month clothes than newborn clothes. Josh started plotting her weight on a graph and, according to his math and recent trends, she should be 10.3lbs by the end of this month. We'll revisit this projection by months end. Josh would like to note that he is an extreme optimist.

Kaija and Natalie also ventured into a 'new moms' group today at 9:30am. Very adventuresome to say the least. She did have familiar support from Maggie and Sydney. The outing went very well and a few of the 'new moms' grabbed lunch afterwards. Kaija is already looking forward to next weeks get-together.

The forgotten one...

Hokie has been fantastic so far around the baby. We were a little worried considering he was the spoiled one around the house for 2 years. Now that our time is centered around the baby he has willingly (not like he really had a choice) taken a back seat. He seems to be interested in Natalie and will follow us room to room as we walk around the house with her. However, he does keep a safe distance between him and the noise maker at all times.

Sleepy times...

One of the first questions we receive from everyone is, 'how much sleep are we getting'? Well, some nights are better than others but we've been getting between 5-7 hours sleep a night. So far Natalie has been going right back to sleep after nursing which we've been doing every 3 or so hours [sounds of Josh knocking on wood in the background]. She has also been taking 2-3 hour naps during the afternoon so we are able to catch up on any missed sleep from the night in that span.

When she does get fussy we can generally put her in her stroller or rock her. And, if that doesn't work, Josh will relinquish all rights to his pinkie finger. What about a pacifier? We're trying not to allow a pacifier since we both realize that we do not have the patience to help her kick that habit later down the road. Its a personal thing and as long as she's not putting up an uncontrollable fuss we'll continue to leave it out of the repertoire.

Not much to note the last two days although we have noticed that Natalie, much like her dad, continues to enjoy sleeping on her side. Makes mom nervous...makes dad smile. We have also picked up on another trait. She sneezes three times consecutively just like mom.

The big '29'...

Kaija turned 29 today and to celebrate we left Natalie with a 15 year old baby sitter and hit up Adams Morgan in DC...just kidding. We just stayed in, had some friends over, and had another excuse to dress up Natalie in a cute dress. We plan to celebrate Kaija's B-Day with a big night out when Grandma and Grandpa J come up on the 14th. And by big night, I mean a sit down dinner where we both eat together without 7-mile stares in our eyes.

It's been a really busy week with a birthday, July 4th and, oh yeah, a baby. Hard to believe we are 29 and 32. We still feel young and, for the most part, still act young. I really think that 40 is the new 30. Well, thats my story and I'm sticking to it regardless.

Happy 4th of July!!

Natalie's first holiday! Our day consisted of lots of sleeping and eating. We stayed in but felt it necessary to dress up the lil' one in this outfit (compliments of Jen Doyle). We have discovered that Natalie likes Daddy's humming and sucking on his fingers. We hope everyone had a wonderful and memorable 4th!!!

The First Bath...

Four days of poopy diapers is all Josh could take so we decided to give Natalie a much needed bath Sunday evening. She miraculously did not fuss a bit even when we accidentally poured a glass of water on her face. She is still a good candidate to be Josh's scuba buddy.

Coming Home...

We left the hospital at 4:00 in the afternoon on Saturday, June 30th. Before we departed for home, we had to dress Natalie in her ever important "going home" outfit. Natalie slept the whole mile from the hospital to the house. Sort of the silence before the storm. I'm guessing that is Gods way of having fun at our expense because things have not been quiet since. Hokie (our cat) is not quite sure what to make of this new noisemaker.

Baby Pictures

The consensus among visitors so far is that Natalie most resembles Josh as an adult. It must be the chubby cheeks!! Let us know who you think she looks like :-)

Friends and Family...

Kaija and I are very fortunate to be surrounded by such good family and friends. Thanks to everyone who stopped by to congratulate us and welcome our new addition.

The Hospital Stay...

After delivery, the grandparents excitedly came in and showered Natalie with hugs and kisses. Both sets cooed and smiled ear to ear while waiting their turn to hold the baby. Holding a baby must be like learning to ride a bike...they were experts right off the bat! Soon after, the nurses whisked Natalie away for her bath and vital checkup. The nurses noticed a slight irregular heartbeat but did not seem too concerned. After our doctor's appointment earlier this week we were told that the issue had resolved itself, so that was a relief.

The Build Up...

A sonogram on Tuesday, June 26th showed that "Baby J" was going to be a big girl (estimated at 8lbs 15 oz). Rather than wait and increase the chances of a c-section, we decided to be induced later that evening.

We checked into The Birthing Inn at Loudoun Hospital at 8:00pm and Kaija was immediately hooked up to monitors (for both baby and mommy). Soon after Kaija received the inducement medicine and we went to sleep thinking that the next day we would be parents.

Wednesday, June 27th started with a few contractions. However, after a day of resting and no significant changes in Kaija's body, we realized we were in for a long haul. That night Kaija received another dose of the inducement medicine and off to sleep we went.

Thursday, June 28th started off much like the preceding day. The contractions were a little bit heavier, for lack of a better word, but Kaija's body was still not ready for the baby to come. In the early afternoon we met with our doctor to determine whether we should call off the inducement and just wait for things to naturally occur since, up to that point, we were only slightly further along than the day before. We concluded that we would wait a little bit longer to see what would happen. Soon after Kaija's water broke, dilation began, and Josh's blood pressure shot through the roof. By 6:15pm Kaija began pushing and after 4 long hours (Kaija was still in good spirits) at 10:22pm, Natalie Caroline Johnston was born.

The New Addition...

Hello everyone!! Kaija and I have finally come to realize that we are not the best at keeping in touch. Therefore, we've decided to dedicate a blog to our special newborn, Natalie Caroline. We'll try to keep a weekly (maybe more often) update on the well-being of our little one. Be sure to bookmark and check back often...