Real smiles!

Just over the past few days, Vanessa has been treating us to her first real smiles! Last night, on Nana's birthday, she gave her Nana a smile in response to a kiss on the cheek. It's so exciting to have a smiling daughter!

Evenings out with friends

Vanessa at her first game of Settlers of Catan, over at Dean's place. (I didn't mean to leave Dean out of this picture.) Vanessa handled the late night rather well, I'd say, although she needed to dance and bounce a lot.

I think John must be teasing Vanessa about how much she likes to bounce.

Over at Sara B.'s place, Vanessa gets a hug from Sara's mom. It's handy to have a pediatric nurse as a friend!

Vanessa goes to school

Vanessa in Mrs. Carpenter's hands (the most reliable and important hands to be in at Whitman Middle!)

Vanessa was very awake for our visit to Peggy's room. She was very happy to spend some time in the arms of such a practiced mom and exciting science teacher.

New bride Leslie gets a sneak peek at parenthood.

Beverly said that her teenage kids wanted her to read aloud the books she bought for Vanessa. Who can blame them? Children's literature is some pretty good stuff!

Another new bride Robyn was the first at Whitman to hold Vanessa.

Beverly is expecting to hold her own little girl in a few months!

Two grandmas napping

Vanessa just has that effect on people sometimes! Sleepy babies are so cozy.

Kalena and John visit

Uncle John watches Vanessa do her new trick of clasping her hands together. John has a bunch of nieces and nephews (including new twins!), so he has lots of experience with babies.

Aunt Kalena holds Vanessa while Vanessa practices her "Go Team!" salute. Kalena took time from her busy first-year teacher schedule to see her new niece!

Grampa makes sure that Vanessa knows that "M" stands for Michigan.

Daddy practices feeding Vanessa on the bottle on Friday. On Saturday, Vanessa stayed home while Mommy went to work. Vanessa did a good job with the bottle, and she was sleeping happily when Mommy came home.

Vanessa and Mommy snuggle at bedtime.

Getting bigger

So Vanessa went for another round of shots today and she weighed 9 lbs 8 ozs. Guess all those late night feedings are paying dividends...

Hail to the Redskins!

Vanessa and daddy get ready to watch Vanessa's first Redskins game vs. the Jaguars.

Vanessa wasn't quite sure what to make of the outfit however...

Rainbows and friends

Vanessa had her first trip to Nana's house this weekend. We went to Baby's R Us and did some shopping. Here are some pictures from this weekend.

Vanessa's first rainbow! Granted, she had trouble seeing it with her eyes closed.


Vanessa's first trip to Tippy's Tacos.
Lisa had fun playing with Vanessa. Vanessa was awake again for quite a while, and Lisa did a great job of keeping her entertained.


Don't you think Vanessa is so adorable when she yawns? Rachel clearly knows how to make Vanessa feel cozy.


The Cahill's came over to Nana's house to take a peek at Vanessa. Here, Owen inspects the new baby. "Hi baby!" he said. Also pictured here are Owen's mom and dad (Lisa and Justin), and aunt Natalie.


Vanessa in Lisa's arms.

Consciousness!

Vanessa surprised me by being awake for over four consecutive hours yesterday! Boy, my arms would have been tired trying to bounce and entertain her for that long. Good thing that James is feeling better, and Aunt Heather and Uncle Terry came to visit yesterday evening! They kept her entertained for her first long period of consciousness. By the way, James is very happy to be feeling better, and is finally no longer quarantined in the basement! In the morning, he was sitting next to me and Vanessa, waiting for Vanessa to wake up so he could hold her now that he's no longer contagious. He reminded me of a little kid on Christmas morning!

Heather helps Vanessa gain a new perspective on the world.

Vanessa swatted at some of the animals in the mobile. Coincidence, or hand-eye coordination?
We thought Vanessa might like to climb Uncle Terry's tummy. But she was too cozy, and just cuddled instead of climbing.

Sweet Dreams

Today Vanessa went to work with me again. This time, Nana came along to help watch her. Nana's workplace is close to mine, so Vanessa took a trip to Nana's work too! Vanessa got a little hungry towards the end of my workday, so she got a little bit of my milk from a bottle. That worked out OK, it seems. After work, we stopped by a Child Safety Seat Check open house. The policemen put cut lengths of Wacky Noodles (those long foam pool toys) under the seat. They say that it helps get the seat tight enough without cracking it. Wow, these technical advances in child safety these days!

Vanessa is so cute when she dreams. She makes all these funny faces, and her eyes open wide and roll all around. Here are two of my favorite expressions of hers while she dreams.

Aww... she's smiling!

Daddy's been sent to the basement

I started feeling like I had a cold last Thursday night and promptly isolated myself from Sarah and Vanessa. I then got an ear infection, a sinus infection, and conjuctivitis on top of a bad cold. Plus the Skins lost again, but that's another story.

A throat culture finally revealed yesterday that I have something called h flu, which is a misnomer since it's symptoms are similar to the real flu but it isn't really the flu. I'm finally on the right antibiotic now to fight it so I should be able to resume parenting duties in 2-3 days. Poor Sarah has had to tend to Vanessa by herself for a week while checking up on daddy as well. Hopefully I'll be able to give her a break on that front soon.

In better news, Sarah tried out her breast milk pump for the first time this week and was able to pump without a problem. Vanessa didn't want anything to do with the bottle the first time, but a second try yield some results. It'll be nice when Sarah isn't the only person who can feed Vanessa. We may give it a try for real this Saturday as Nana (my mom) is going to watch Vanessa as Sarah goes into teach. It's so nice to have such eager help so close by!

Vanessa didn't get a bath as planned on Friday. Instead, it wasn't until Sunday when Nana and Gerri Beres (enough of a friend of the family that we'll call her Nana Two) came over that Vanessa finally got her immersion bath. The two Nanas also watched Vanessa so that I could go grocery shopping -- it was fun to get out of the house on my own for the first time.

Vanessa's eye infection has completely cleared up, and she's doing just great.

Nana and Nana Two giving Vanessa her bath.

Gerri really enjoyed holding Vanessa.

Ken is a real pro at holding babies -- he has lots of nieces and nephews.

Bethany says that so many of her friends are having babies recently, her whole fridge is covered in baby pictures. I like to think that Vanessa stands out as the very cutest one.

Vanessa goes to work

I decided to teach math for a program called Quest on Saturdays this fall. I teach about 20 gifted students to whom I taught science over the summer. I figured it wouldn't be too hard to teach once a week, and it would help keep me in the teaching circuit. Vanessa came with me to the staff development on Friday. I put her in my baby wrap (see Sept. 10 post for picture), and she didn't make a peep all day! I plan on pumping milk for her on Saturdays, but I wasn't ready to do that for my first day of teaching today. So James brought Vanessa by during my 20 minute break between classes for feeding. It worked out pretty well, all in all, and some of my students got to meet her. They were really excited about her! James has a bad cold at the moment, and he did a fantastic job of keeping Vanessa content while avoiding coughing on her! I hope he feels better soon.

A meeting of brothers and their special girls

Brian and Joanna visited on Friday. They brought their puppy Kyra with them. Between Kyra and Vanessa, there was unprecedented cuteness in our house!

Uncle Brian loves his little niece!

Joanna thought that Vanessa's tiny ears were so cute! (and I have to agree)

Kyra needed some attention too.

Some video clips

I have limited server space for video, but I managed to post a few short clips for those of you who haven't had a chance to see Vanessa yet, or haven't had a chance to see her when she's awake. Check out http://filebox.vt.edu/users/ssatterl/vanessa/videolist.html
Please post comments if the link doesn't work for you, and I can help troubleshoot. (James changed the settings so you can post without a blogger account -- thanks James!)

Two weeks old!

Vanessa is two weeks old today! Her umbilical cord fell off early this morning. To celebrate (or rather, because it's OK now), she'll get her first real bath today. Hopefully she'll stay warmer being all the way in the water.

Yesterday was a day of mix-ups for me -- I went to a doctor's appointment that I didn't have to go to and asked my father-in-law to come over to fix a nonexistent problem with my clothes dryer. I guess my brain isn't at peak performance at the moment. Well, I had fun taking Vanessa on a trip anyway, and I was glad to see my inlaws!

Here's some more recent pictures.

Hmmm... I don't remember this picture being taken.

Vanessa likes her stroller, despite the lack of head support. I guess we better get her a pillow or something.

James looks like a real trendy daddy with the chic jogging stroller travel system and sling-back diaper bag.

Vanessa poses with her grandparents.

Grampa got to hold Vanessa for a few minutes while Nana wasn't looking.

Nana and Vanessa are looking pretty in pink.

Growing so fast!

Vanessa had her second checkup at the pediatrician's today. She's doing great. She's already seven pounds! The doctor was impressed with her overall health. We're supposed to put medicine in her eye for a week, but it doesn't seem to be much to worry about. Her eye is already looking better (pun not intended).

A grandfather and great-grandfather birthday

These are some more pictures from Saturday, when my Dad and Grandfather celebrated their birthdays.

A picture of all of us at the party.

Phyllis (shall I call her great-Nana?) might have held Vanessa all day, if there weren't others who wanted to share.

Hannah wasn't so sure about holding Vanessa, but she managed just fine.

Grampa, three of his granddaughters, and a very special one of his great-granddaughters!

Aunt Teri holds Vanessa in the swaddling blanket that she got for us. Vanessa does like to be swaddled when she's sleepy. When she's grouchy, she thinks it's fun to kick off her swaddling.

A rough day

So Vanessa had her first trip to Urgent Care today. Apparently her tear duct in her right eye was partially blocked and it looks like it allowed mucus to build up and get infected. She got some medicine for it and she'll have to see the doctor again tomorrow morning. Luckily, she was going to see the pedatrician tomorrow anyway.

A busy weekend

Grampa holds his granddaughter for the first time.

Donna holds Vanessa while Aunt Hannah examines her teeny niece.

We actually hold our own daughter sometimes too.

Hannah reads "Are you my mother?" to Vanessa while Vanessa relaxes in Uncle Terry's arms.

Sandra was excited to meet Vanessa.

I really enjoy carrying Vanessa in my baby wrap -- it keeps my hands free and keeps Vanessa very cozy.

James takes Vanessa for a walk in the Baby Bjorn. Father and daughter both enjoyed the beautiful weather.