She is vaccinated.
And she has grown.
Now she weighs in at 10 lbs 14 oz and is 22 inches long.
And its official - she has dry, sensitive skin with eczema, hence the constant pimply "heat rash" as I referred to it on her shaina punim (beautiful face).
And I was SO glad to have left the office just then to take her a it gave me a chance to cool off and think a little more rationally after my big discovery.
I've been focusing some of my last posts on Jonathan. I noticed and don't think I've gone and hidden Yaeli in the closet or forgotten her somewhere in the midst of all our shopping lately.
The truth is that Ms. Squeaky Nutella just hasn't been very noteworthy as of late. She's still sleeping a lot during the day, still eating (or rather drinking), still pooping and pretty fussy at night - especially when we're trying to get Yoni to go to bed or on long car trips.
But she has started cooing and gurgling and making all kinds of especially cute faces and noises. There are some definite recognition smiles in there - I don't care if they call it gas.
And tomorrow I hope to take her to "visit" the nest at the daycare at the JCC and hope to help make that transition as smooth as possible. I'm sure she'll be fine, eventually, but it's more for me to get used to the idea that she won't be with me all the time. Remember, she's been with me constantly during the pregnancy (since last February) and I have left her for only breif spells with the relatives - and even then I was generally nearby or at least within phone call and a 15 minute ride to get to her.
And I need to find out exactly what she needs to have at the school - how many changes of clothes, bibs (ridiculous) and passifiers (she still chokes on them whenever I try to get her to take them) How many bottles, how much food they expect and a backup plan when I can't get her enough boob juice.
These people do this for a living - I expect them them to know more about it than me since I was lucky enough to be with Jonathan for the entire first year of his life (and then some).
On a slightly different note,
I never thought then name Yael would be so hard for all these Texans to pronounce or comprehend. I remember there being at least one Yael in public school when I was growing up and it never seemed hard to pronounce. But the people at work mangle her name. I get strange looks and then Yale or Yell or some variation thereon. Netanella I can understand - I made it up and it's pretty random - although for some reason I seem to recall a Spanish language soap star who either is named that or it is her character's name or it is something really similar.3
So there you are - an entire post about Yael - her posting label count is growing
So when we last visited the Namer family, we were discussing the options regarding the fact that Yoni probably needed to see the "dahktoor" and about the difficulties with Mom trying to decide (some things never change) which route to take to seek medical advice on Mr. J.
Ms. Yael made that decision so much easier.
She kept even her pooped papa from getting pooped-on (I couldn't help myself) by intermittently deciding to breathe (or rather stop breathing and choke and gasp) throughout the night. So I called her doctor at 7AM (after we survived the night and upon the urging of Eran) to see what to do about a newborn (I keep forgetting that she's still so little, to me she seems so big already) in this predicament. She sent us to the ER anyway - what fun.
Dr. B suggested that since her lapses in breathing were never more than 20 seconds and she was not turning blue, that she probably had RSV - doesn't that sound scary. She also suggested that it made more sense to send her to the ER since they could hook her up with oxygen if necessary and get blood drawn and X-rays and the like.
While I was there I had Jonathan evaluated too, just for good measure, and basically demanded they do an X-Ray to rule out pneumonia since his symptoms were that of the last time we were admitted - diminished appetite, intermittently feverish, vomitting after bouts of coughing, etc.
Of course, since I was taking Eran to work and apprehensive about the whole damn trip to the hospital with the kiddos, I didn't arrive there until 10AM and I know that because that's the time stamped on the valet sticker. (It never fails that the parking lot is full when I get there!) It also gave me time to prepare for the long haul - I had diapers and wipes and extra outfits and blankets, and muffins and cookies and juice boxes as snacks, as well as cars and crayons and blocks and a Channukah bear for toys, not to mention my thank yous for baby gifts and the list of who they go to, and a book - in the off-chance that I actually would have time to read, ha ha.
On the positive side - I did get to spend three whole days not in the hospital with Yoni.
In the end it turns out that they both have the same virus (Jonathan's sicky school friends are to blame here, but his X-Ray looks good - Yippee, no pneumonia) which means there is nothing to do about it but let it run its course. So I get to torture my infant by spraying stuff up her nose (Saline drops or mommy-milk, whichever I have on hand) and break in the new bulb aspirator thingy for Ms. Princess and then try to suck out whatever mucus is loose in there, she is most displeased and I am pretty unhappy to have to do it. Yoni is still holding steady at 25 lbs (11.5 kilo - a good healthy almost 3rd percentile for him) and Yael is a hefty 4.49 kilo (9.88 lbs - you figure it out)
We finally sent Yoni to school today - it being Friday and them doing all sorts of fun things on Shabbat and compounded with the fact that it is the first night of Channukah. So at least he'll get to be in on some of the partying for that - how much fun can that be for a bunch of 2 and 3 year olds? Will let you know if any more Yonisms come out of it.
Today Yael went to the doctor for her checkup. Here is the pertinent info including charts to track her growth
Weight: 8 lbs 8.5 oz = 3.86970991 kilograms
Height: 21 inches = 53.34 centimeters
Head Circumference: 14.5 inches = 36.83 centimeters
Next dr's appointment is in January when she'll get her next round of immunizations
This post is an addendum to Mrs. Carlye Levine's, previous post on her blog. Since I don't know how to upload pics to Snapfish or some other venue this is just a snippet of the 24 pics I got developed this afternoon.
Aunt Carlye and Uncle Sam holding Yael in her oversized blanket.
Eventually she'll grow into the adorable monkey suit outfit you got for her and we'll post pics of that when she wears it.
Aunt Carlye holding my loveable little camera hog Jonathan.
Barb can handle and hold even the smallest of babies and here's the proof - We're so proud that you could hold Yael at a few days and Jonathan at a few months old. Thanks for being part of our celebrations.
And also thanks for getting the TMX Elmo. Hope you all enjoyed seeing him and his antics when you were here.
Yael, Saba and Safta and I all went out for a few hours to my downtown office today. For me it was mostly to check on the status of things at the office and to pack up my stuff so that no other poor schlub had to do it for me, since we are moving to the taller building next door.
It was the first time Yosefa and Avi have seen skyscrapers up close and in person and I made sure they got a really good look. We drove around a bit near my building so they could get a sense of the concrete jungle where we live and work. I then took them to my building. I took them first to the 44th floor where they got a good look out of the "executive" conference room window. They were impressed (among other things) that they could see the Aquarium where they had gone over the weekend with Eran and Yoni. (see pic)
Then we went up to the 52nd floor so we could pack up my desk and work area, where we were summarily accosted by all the ladies - in order to see the newest Namer.
We came during lunchtime, on a short week when most of [the engineers in] my dept were out (except of course for those most diligent worker bees - including most of the friends I wanted to see anyway, and my immediate supervisor - good business sense for him to see both me and the babe at the office! I was hoping that we wouldn't cause too much commotion, but who was I kidding, boy was I wrong about that - almost everyone wanted to see us both and stopped by to give the proper praise to the Princess.
This sculpture in front of my building reminded Avi and Yosefa of another sculpture in front of one of our miserable old houses in Jersalem, "The Mifletzet" in Kiryat Yovel. Now that you mention it, I wonder if they had the same weird artistic influence. You be the judge
So here's the latest yummy Yael news.
Yael is officially her own person. Her last link to me (the remnants of the umbilical cord) fell off yesterday morning at the first diaper change.
She is making all the proper baby movements that "the books" tell you about - rooting, sticking out her tounge, mouthing "ohs" and getting wide-eyed at all the appropriate things.
She is also already lifting her heavy head some and making what could be construed as distinctive sounds other than cries - my little prodigy.
I can tell when she is focusing on things like the difference between our navy blue couch and the stark white wall behind it, or when she is studying my face and the silly expressions I am showing her in the middle of the night when no one else is awake.
Her fingers are still long and the nailbeds are even longer, but she has only managed to inflict minor injury on herself - is it too early to order her custom-made Raabs (that was for you Daddy)?
We have to protect her from her over-loving big brother who wants to hold her hand (better than her soft head) while she eats or sleeps or gets any attention whatsoever. He has only actually climbed into the bassinet once - while it was on the floor and she wasn't in it, but he tries to hold her hand in the mornings before I am totally awake and I am afraid she will be squished or something wihle my back is turned.
We have misplaced our digital camera at the moment and don't have the proper software loaded on the home computer to download the pictures anyway - so pictures will be forthcoming eventually.
We're so excited to welcome our new addition to the family on November 7, 2006.
You can see the first family photos on my sister-in-law Carlye's website here: http://gracefullysocial.blogspot.com/ and I'll find some others and post them later on this site
Here is the link to our daughter's very own webpage:
http://www.growingfamily.com/webnursery/babypage.asp?URLID=1S5J3V1R0I
password: Namer
She was ready to enter the world quite quickly when she finally decided to join us and we're happy she waited for the doctor to show up. She was a healthy 6 lbs 13.7 oz and 19 inches.
And NO we don't have an official name for her yet - but we will very soon - I hope!!!
The Namer in-laws from Israel have landed in New York and are currently on their way to Houston for the next few weeks - It's gonna be a full house around here!!!
