What Am I?

Well, I graduated law school. It was pretty painless overall. The ceremony went well and the speakers were all interesting. In addition to Liz, Emma and I, my parents and brother and Liz's parents made the trip. It was a great time for all. On top of that, Aaron, Mike, Shawn, et al were in town, so I met up with them and Donnie (and later Heather). A great time was had by all

I wish I could say that life has been nice and relaxing since graduation... but if anyone has had a kid, they know better.

As for Emma... well, pictures say a thousand words, so I won't bore you. Emma is doing great though. As for her exact height and weight... i don't know. the room where they do the measurements was under construction, so no update. sorry. but, she continues to grow both physically and mentally. she smiles ALOT now... and she also is a bit more assertive in letting liz and i know if everything isn't going her way.

We also have a pulmonary appointment tomorrow... (thursday). hopefully we lose the oxygen all together, but liz is guessing the oxygen requirement will just be limited to overnights.

Now... onto the pictures.

Emma and her dad... napping on the futon has become something we both look forward to.

Pictures after Emma pulled out her feeding tube... while it is a good thing that her manual dexterity is improving, and while Emma is always proud when she pulls out her feeding tube, she HATES having it put back in.

Emma and the amazing shrinking piglet

Emma andPooh

Emma and her sleeping dad (redux)

Ok... i had to throw one graduation picture in there...

Emma and her mom napping...

Good bye everyone!

Oakland

Well, life has been interesting since I took my last final. most of my time consists of taking care of Emma. a couple nice things have come of this... first, i get to spend time w/ emma. she has gotten huge (i know, i promised more pictures and video... but not tonight). second, i have gotten reacquainted with the news in the world... and it appears that a lot has gone on this week.

another nice thing that has happened is that I take the late night feedings, so i've been watching some of the nba playoffs... normally, i wouldn't care about a golden state / utah matchup, but after seeing the behavior of golden state in the last 5 minutes of tonights game (which could only be described as 'thugish'), i decided i have to finish watching the game. it's almost like watching a hockey game...

back to updates... everything here is going well. emma pulled out her feeding tube, so we have been feeding her totally by bottle. amazingly, it has been two days and she is doing well. actually, let me clarify that. she is getting close to, if not all of the calories she needs (or we say she needs). however, i spend a significant portion of may day dedicated to the feeding process... heating, feeding, cleaning, preparing, etc. sometimes i honestly spend the entire morning and early afternoon performing tasks solely regarding emma's food.

Emma continues to grow... i swear she is getting a lot taller. i can't wait to see how tall she is... last i knew, she was ~ 21 inches... that was almost two weeks ago. when she is on her stomach she can push up with her arms and hold up her head, she can move around (kind of), she can hold her head up when being held, and impressively, she can support her full body weight on her legs for shorts spurts (note... she does not have the body control or balance at this time to stand up on her own or with limited assistance, but her legs are getting stronger).

Update (but no pictures) - A month?

So, here we are. I'm posting again after a long layoff. I'd like to say that because I finished my last law school final that we won't have long breaks between posts again, but I'd hate to promise something that I know won't happen.

So, I finished my last final. Amazingly, this is the only final that I've worried about passing. It's not that I didn't know anything about free speech (the subject of the class). It's more that I know that if I fail, I can't simply make it up next semester. A groundless fear (hopefully), but a fear nonetheless. I guess we'll see.

On a happier note, but still law related, I received some good news. Both the state of Illinois and Wisconsin say that I have the character required to practice law in those states. One response to that statement has been "they don't know you too well..." However, you'd be amazed by how detailed they get in their questions. I had to call my hometown's police department to get information on a bike ticket I got for riding w/out a light. (by the way, the charge was bogus and I will argue that I shouldn't have gotten the ticket to this day. but, that is not the point). So, I'm good to go. All I have to do is get a passing grade on my final for Wisconsin, pass another test for Illinois, and not have anyone claim that I'm evil for the US Patent and Trademark Office.

Now, I get to relax a bit before graduation. I have a lot of little things to do, but no big things. It's about time. The most important thing I have to do this week is take care of Emma while Liz works... a wonderful time, but definitely something that will occupy a bit of time and require some planning.

Speaking of Liz and Emma, everything is good here. We had Emma dedicated at our church this weekend. It was a great time. We decided to do this because we love our church here in Madison, and we have no idea how long it will take to find something we like in Chicago. We initially decided to have it just be Emma, Liz and I, but Liz's brother's wife (Jenny) came down last weekend. It was nice having someone around while I was taking my final. Jenny may or may not admit this, but she needed to escape from her home for a couple days last weekend. She is currently ~34 weeks pregnant with a 16 month old at home... and Todd, her husband, has to leave for three weeks later this week... After taking care of Emma for a month now, I can understand why she wanted some time away.

Other than that, Emma and Liz are doing well. Liz is back at school and is readjusting to that (as am I). Emma continues to grow... I think she just went through a growth spurt. she is really tall now. We are going to the doctor on Thursday, so I'll update on the length / weight then. she can roll over (sometimes) and when laying on her stomach she will push up on her arms and look around. Look for pictures / videos in the next day or so.

Hopefully everything is going well for everything out there and everyone had a great mother's day. By the way Mike, Liz enjoyed your message.

Long time...

So, it's been a long time since the last post. Needless to say, raising a child is a lot more work than I thought. Go figure.

Emma has been doing really well. First off, Emma's eye exam went well... her retinas are fine. Unfortunately, the eye doctor informed us that she is still at risk for a laundry list of things... one thing at a time, I guess.

Emma's lungs continue to do well. She pulls out her oxygen regularly, but she does fine. The doctor recently told us that Emma only needs oxygen now when she is eating or sleeping. For those of you who have had a child, a "6 week" year old baby doesn't do much aside from sleep and eat. But, it is a step. (on a side note, the home health people's machine said Emma wasn't doing as well as the doctor's machine said... but, i don't believe the home health people's machine). hopefully she'll be off oxygen all together by the end of the month.

Emma continues to grow, and she is now 9 pounds 12 ounces (almost 10 pounds!). She is eating much better now... after her doctor switched her to a "cow product" free formula. her stomach sounds better and she eats MUCH better. it gives us some hope that she may get rid of her feeding tube at some point (although we aren't holding our breath at this point).

Liz and I are doing well. Liz has to go back to school next week, which she is not 100% thrilled about... but, I can't imagine she is alone in feeling that she doesn't want to return to work after the birth of a child.

On the house front, we are moving forward, which is a good thing. I graduate in two weeks, which will also be nice. I just have to make it through my final next saturday...

Emma and her mom...

Gotta love that smile...

Emma has been smiling so much lately...

Ok... Emma can really move around now. When we put her to bed, she often wakes up in a different part of the crib, and often in a different position. So, I had to take a picture when I got up to feed her at 3am and I found her "kissing" her rabbit. Hmm....

On a side note, Emma does have a blanket and stuffed animals in her crib. I know that you aren't supposed to do that with babies. However, Emma has had blankets, animals, etc in her crib her entire life. And, she has oxygen going into her nose. When we discussed with the NICU if it was ok if we put stuff in her crib, they informed us that normally, no it isn't ok... but, premies are exceptions for many things, this included.