Hey Julius! You’re almost two weeks old!!! Wow! Exciting stuff! Here are a couple photos:

And we made a video too!

For more photos of you at 13 days old, check out the photo gallery!

Love
Mom

Our little Julius,

Hello beautiful prince! You keep us busy these days, that’s for sure! We sing to you a lot because it’s one of the few things that actually manage to calm you down when you’re crying. Most of the time you cry because you swallow a lot of air when you’re drinking from your bottle (and sometimes you swallow air just because you’re excited and drinking fast and sometimes you swallow air when you’re being burped… and other times you swallow air when you’re crying)… the more air you swallow, the more you cry. It makes your tummy hurt. We’ve got a little system. It works like this:

1) First we change your diaper. You cry when we do this cause you don’t like your skin exposed to air. We do our best to keep you warm and covered in blankets or putting cloth over your sensitive parts. We usually change your diaper first cause sometimes it’s the only thing you’re crying about. But if that doesn’t work… we go to the next step.

2) Give you milk. The first two days when you were in the hospital, I breastfed you but it was too painful for me. I even had a lactation consultant come in for a couple hours and we worked on getting a good latch but you seemed to always want to grab my nipple directly. This of course, traumatized my poor nipple and I stopped. And to be honest, I think you like the bottle better for a couple reasons: 1) it means other people can feed you when mommy is sleeping and 2) you’re able to get all the milk you need whenever you want it. So anyway, we warm the baby bottle (which is an event in itself - we don’t microwave it. Instead, we microwave water in a cup, then put the bottle in the warm cup of water until it softly warms the bottle.) You love this. Usually it’s just milk that you need and it calms down your crying. However, every time we feed you, we have to burp you because it’s inevitable you’ll swallow air. There are bottles out there with bags inside them that help prevent air swallowing but you don’t seem to like them because the nipples on the bottles are too difficult for you to latch on to right now. Maybe in a month or so, we’ll see if you like them. Right now the only bottles (or pacifiers) you’ll even use are ones shaped a specific way - otherwise you’ll cry and cry until we get it for you. So after every feeding, we have to go to step 3.

3. We burp you. This is an absolute must. Your poor tummy gets to hurting and the only thing we know to do is to put you up to our shoulder and pat your back until you burp. We do this between 5 minutes to an hour, depending on how many bubbles you have in your belly. Most of the time you’ll cry at the beginning and then gradually get more comfortable as the bubbles disappear. It hurts me when you cry. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve rocked you, held your head and said, “If I could take the pain away…” or “I know it hurts… tell me what you’d like.” It breaks my heart when you’re in pain and I want to be there for you in any way I can. I love you so much. Right now we’re giving you droplets of Infant’s Mylicon Gas Relief but to be honest, I’m not convinced it’s helping. I’ll keep a look out for different methods out there to help.

4. We sing to you. When we’re burping you (which takes a long time usually) and you’re crying, we’ve found a beautiful way to calm you down, and that’s to sing to you. If we sing really quietly, you’ll stop crying because you want to hear us and your voice will lower so you can hear what it is we’re saying. The softer we sing, the longer you stop crying. When we stop singing, you cry again.

Here I am singing you “Sweet Child of Mine” by Guns n Roses - in a lullaby format:

5. We swing you. Sometimes we’ll put you in the baby swing which, ironically, you only seem to like if you’re about to pass gas. We usually put you in there if you’re having a tummy ache and struggling to get some gas out of your system. For some reason the swinging motion seems to relax your muscles and put you at ease which allows the farts to come out a little easier. After you’ve been in the swing for about 40 minutes or so, you’ll begin to cry which means you’ve made a doo-doo in your diaper… and so we go back to step one and repeat the process.

Right now you don’t seem to be a big fan of baths (wow the walls sure echo your vocal chords), but I’m confident one day you’ll look forward to the rub-a-dub-dub fun of baths when you’re older.

Your daddy and I alternate our sleeping schedules so when I wake up, he goes to sleep, and so forth. We’re hoping in a few days, we’ll get someone we trust to come over and watch you for a few hours so that he and I can go on a date and have a romantic time together. It’s so important to me that me and your daddy maintain some degree of intimacy even though we spend very little time together. Truth be told, I miss him very much. We haven’t even fallen asleep together in over 2 weeks and I miss our pillow talk One thing he and I both agree on is how much we love you and how important it is that we devote as much time to you during the first month of your life as possible. It’s crucial to both of us that we keep our little Julius happy

I took some photos of you and your daddy today! You’re only going to be this tiny once in your life, so we’re hoping to photograph some of our favorite moments. We hope that one day you’ll look back on all of this and see a glimpse of how you looked when you came into this world. You sure are a beauty!

Love
Mom

P.S. On Friday, we plan on doing some photos of you, me, and daddy together!

Hello Julius,

Here are some photos of the two of us together You sure keep me busy these days, not too much time to write! When I get some spare time, I’ll go back and write some entries about how you were born and what your first week was like. Right now you’re in the swingset and daddy is calming down your crying and I’m singing you a song. You seem to like it when we sing to you. I’m sorry your tummy hurts. Swallowing too much air is never fun. Oh cool it looks like you might be falling asleep now!

Love
Mommy

P.S. We’ve now set up a photo gallery on the site with photos of you!

Photos photos photos! You’re a week old, Julius!!!

I love you so much… I am so so so so so grateful you’re in our lives!
Love
Mom

Hello Julius,

Aren’t you just adorable in your bassinet! My my my you are just the cutest In these photos, you are 6 days old… you sure do grow up fast!! Right now your Grandma Velara is staying here to help with post-partum. She’s rocked you, fed you, burped you, diapered you, and helped me and daddy get more sleep. She’s even made some delicious lunches and dinners which has been a real blessing these days. We’ve needed an extra hand! She spent many many months knitting you a handmade blue baby blanket, matching blue booties, blue baby bottoms, a blue baby hat, a baby blue sweater… wow… they look so good too! They were designed for you to wear around 6 months old (or whenever they’ll fit you) and we think it’ll be PERFECT because it’ll be right around the time the holidays get here! I can’t wait to take photos of you wearing the things she made. We’re going to pull out the blankie too cause it feels so warm

I love you I love you I love you
Love
Mom

Hello Julius,

I am soooo glad you are here!!! These last few days have been bliss, I must say. Holding you in my arms. Talking to you in person. Seeing your gorgeous eyes, the expressions on your face… listening to the rise and fall of your breath… it’s magic. Every day is such a blessing. You know what’s interesting? You look exactly like I did when I was your age Your dark hair, rosebud mouth, cute little cheeks… everyone says you look like I did when I was a newborn. You’re sooo adorable! It’s easy to see why I want to hold you all the time.

You’re soooo cute! You’re mommy’s little philosopher

Love
Mom

I love you so much, baby.

Mom

Julius, you’re here!!!

Born August 13, 2009
8 lbs. 8 oz
21.5 inches

I love you…

Mom

Hello little Julius,

Any day now I expect you’ll be coming out into the world! The doctor said a couple days ago (Thursday, Aug. 6th) that I am 1cm dilated and your head has dropped considerably. That’s a great sign! I started having contractions pretty consistently on Friday night (Aug. 7) about 5 minutes apart but unfortunately they were really mild in strength so it was considered a “false labor.” Your daddy and I have been trying natural methods to induce labor cause I am sooo ready to meet you! We’ve made love and today I drank castor oil mixed with orange juice. Neither so far have induced labor, however I can tell that my contractions have gotten a bit stronger!

I’ve been listening to Hypnobabies recordings that get me in a “zen place” where I meditate on my connection with you to minimize the pain. My favorite part about listening to the recordings are when I imagine myself reaching into my belly to cradle you in my arms. When I do that, the pain from the contractions turns into manageable waves of pressure.

Sometimes I wonder if you can hear me playing piano in the mornings… and can you tell that I’ve gotten better? LOL. You motivate my creativity in ways that words fail to describe. I love you so much and can’t WAIT to bring you into a world of happiness, positivity, and culture. For months and months I’ve been researching gentle and loving ways to bring  a child up in the world using positive reinforcement and redirection. I can’t help but feel mentally ready for this awesome challenge! I would think that many parents out there would probably jump at the chance of raising their kids from scratch again if given the opportunity to make amends. This is such a great experience to be able to lay a smooth and strong foundation for you from day one so that you live life not only feeling good, but surrounding yourself with enriching environments that stimulate laughter, creativity, and positive learnings.

Above anything, I can’t wait to hold you in my arms. I’ve dreamed this moment for so many years. My eyes water just thinking about it. I just want to hold you. Walk with you. Talk with you. Be your life companion, parent, friend, leader, and button pusher

Your great aunt Eileen (my aunt) surprised us today with a cool scrapbook/photo album and a generous gift card to Target so we can document some memorable moments of your early years. How sweet! I’m going to send her a thank you note Also today your great aunt Kat (my aunt) gave us a generous donation so that we can afford some things you’ll need in the upcoming months. I haven’t really talked to her since I was like 8 years old, so this was truly an unexpected pleasant surprise. You’ve got fans, buddy! I’ll send her a thank you note too

You are so loved, Julius. Not only by your parents - but by our very large, extensive family. When you’re old enough to talk, hopefully I’ll have also shared with you different ways to show gratitude to those who have blessed you. You are seraphic in my eyes, a true angel.

Who knows, maybe I’ll go in labor tonight or tomorrow. Any day now.

Love
Mom

Hello little Julius,

Wow boy, you must be getting ready to come out pretty soon cause I felt several contractions this morning, back to back! This is so exciting! I can’t wait to meet you. I have dreams where I’m holding you, singing to you, talking to you. And other times it’s just so fun to imagine what kind of personality you’ll have when you begin to talk, run, jump, and play!

We’ve assembled every possible baby thing imaginable. Even the baby swing is ready to go. My maternity bag is pretty much packed all the way now (which is really the only last thing we’re waiting on in preparation for your birth) - just gotta finish writing and recording my hypno-birthing meditation scripts so I can place them on my ipod. After that, I can place it in the maternity bag - and we’re all set! I’ve been working on some scripts for several days which will help me get focused during birthing. These contractions have come at an interesting time - mostly when I’m writing the script! It’s like you connect with what I’m writing. On an etheral level, it’s completely possible that at this point in your life, maybe you’re secretly aware of what’s to come. Who knows? But you gotta promise me not to come out until the recording is complete! I gotta be mentally prepared, you see. I should have it done in less than 48 hours. After that, come out whenever you want!

I’ve been playing piano a lot lately - and you seem to like it because you seem to “float” more than kick and it seems as though you’re just gliding inside my womb.

I can’t wait to meet you.

Of all the things there are to learn, I secretly can’t wait to introduce you to the moon, the sun, the sky. I can’t wait for the day when I ask you where you think the earth comes from.

I am so eager to meet you, squish and hug you…

Love
Mommy