Life is Beautiful!

What a blessing it is to have family and friends! I cannot tell you how nice it has been to have people helping us every step of the way. From meals, to visiting with Clare, to helping around the house, to gifts, to thoughts and prayers.

They say that this first few months is like the fourth trimester. Clare is getting used to the idea of life outside of mom. She has been carried for 9 months and the thought of being set down in a bouncy chair or a crib, or on the roof (ok, we would never do that!) is totally foreign to her. She is used to being carried 24-7 and we would love to do that to help her transition from womb to life outside but realistically, at some point both Elizabeth and I need free hands to do things around the house. The other day we had family around and Clare went an entire day without ever being out of contact with people until she went to bed. How awesome that was and how I wish we could do that for her every day.

Well, she is doing well. Clare has had several doctors appointments to make sure that she is at the propper weight. She is still low but is gaining pounds (ounces) at the rate that she should be. That is a load off for mom and dad. We were not overly worried but it is nice not to have weigh-ins every two days.

Clare went to Church on Sunday. She didn't make a peep! She slept in the moby with mom (mom didn't sleep) and woke up right after mass. we had a talk and I am sure that she will be much more attentive next week :-)

Without further adoooooo... the moment you have all been waiting for... pictures and video.

Witness the amazing bottle feeding marathon!

Here we have the amazing hiccuping baby! There is nothing cuter! If I had kept the camera rolling for another few seconds we would have caught a third bodily function. Use your imagination!



Spending my days listening to baby noises...
living the dream!

24 hours seems like a lifetime!

Every day seems to bring a host of new things and I almost feel as though I can't even recap all that has happened in the past few days.

First, I have taken a few days off from school. I have never used a vacation day and it is so very odd to me to know, in the back of my head, that school is in session and that I am totally preoccupied with all that is happening here at home and completely unable to wrap my head around both school and home right now. Does that even make sense? I have a number of things happening at school during the time that I am not there and I have left them in the capable hands of the rest of the school. Being the eternal perfectionist that always falls short, I want to ensure that everything will go perfectly and so leaving it in anyone else's hands is hard for me.

Here at home, life is precious (as it is at school). Clare is sleeping in her bouncy chair next to me right now and she is cute as a button.

Of course, no sooner do I type that last sentence than she wakes up and poops herself! she is still cute as a button.

So I was asked if we ended up deciding to go with cloth or disposable diapers and we did go with the cloth diapers. We have prefolds, they are pretty much the least expensive cloth diapers and they have been awesome. We have a few of another type that we thought would be more convenient for on the go and for night changes, but after a few trial runs with the kissaluvs fitteds, I am happier with the prefolds! We use thirsties diaper covers and they are perfect. Clare doesn't seem to have a preference between the diapers. She likes clean and dry ones and not ever being changed!

We got our diapers from Green Mountain Diapers and Nikki's Diapers. I couldn't be more pleased with how they are working for our little munchkin.

In other news, baby is hitting the bottle! Yeah, she was a bit underweight at her last two dr. appointments and so we had a lactation consultant come and help us out. She was so helpful and charged relatively little for the plethora of help she provided. She has us pumping (and by us, I amd not counting myself) and bottle feeding for the next few days. I won't go into great detail...

I fed baby Clare today! How exciting is that! So she has been eating more today and pumping is a lot less stressful. We are still excited to go back to nursing as soon as we can.

I will leave you with Clare waking up to the world just before a feeding. She and I have so much in common!

We both love waking up so we can continue
Living the dream!

I've been delinquent

Sorry it has taken me so long to post again... so much to say, so little time. Here goes.

We are at home. We got back Sunday and it is a bit different when you don't have the nurses to take care of everything and room service bringing meals although it sure was nice to have a few meals taken care of by friends and family, both at the hospital and since getting home. Makes life easier. Thank you!

Baby poop is greenish yellow! This is a pleasant development from the meconium (tar-like poop that is a pain to clean off Clare's cute patoot!)

Mamma is nursing so well and BabyClare is loving it.

I am loving the invention called the moby wrap! I spent three hours yesterday (in chunks) with Clare wrapped to my chest and when she moved or hiccuped or kicked, it felt similar to how I would imagine it would have been like in the womb.

Today I fell asleep with her on my chest... we had tummy time and it is amazing how having someone present with her makes he sleep like, well, like a baby. When she is alone, she is struggling to soothe herself. So she stirs and wakes in five to fifteen minute intervals throughout the night.

No offense to all you parents out there, Clare is the worlds cutest baby ever. Exception: Me when I was a baby!
I started writing this last night. taking over 24 hours to write a short blog post. Too busy
Living the dream!

What they don't teach you about parenting!

How awesome it is!

The past couple days have been a roller coaster. Since she was born, Clare has learned to breastfeed, she has taught us that she likes to be danced with.

Right now, I am typing with one hand and cradling a sleeping child in the other! what a life. Sorry for delay in postings; contrary to popular belief, she is not usually sleeping!

If this video works, it is Clare and I dancing last night while Mamma was on the phone! Enjoy...I did!



Sleep has been hard to come by but really, would you rather be sleeping or dancing with this adorable child of God?!?!?

Highlight of the day, napping in the rocker with Clare. I guess I never knew what it meant to be
Living the Dream!

You monkey voters were right!

Ok, she is not a monkey but she will be our monkey!

Clare Elizabeth
Born January 16, 2009 at 9:44 AM
7 pounds
21 inches
10 fingers
10 toes
1 tail
1 banana

One more Brzeski
Living the dream!

No Baby yet!!!!!!!!

Well, it is our due date and we are still waiting. You may know that I am not one who basks in the limelight, but it has been quite fun to have the opportunity to share the daily waiting game with coworkers and students who check up on me regularly.

How about this....school canceled tomorrow, Friday, and a half-day on Monday to finish exams! Crazy weather. Maybe we'll have a baby in the next four days and I'll go back to school
living the dream!

No Baby yet!!!!!!!

Not yet, but we did go to the doctor tonight. Elizabeth's blood pressure is higher than last week so we'll go in again on Thursday. If it is still high or higher than today, we might talk about being induced (again).

In the meantime, I am practicing for fatherhood by staying up late (I never thought I would say that being awake at 10:20 would qualify as being up late).

It is cold, but I guess it only bothers me in that I know there are people who don't have the luxury of being in a warm school all day and coming home to a warm house.

Having a house with a working furnace...
living the dream.

No Baby yet!!!!!!

When are you coming baby? We're waiting!

Well, at school today I had a really nice conversation with a coworker. He said that every morning he is excited to hear the announcements, waiting for the day when I am not there to do them (because there is a baby). He is a recently had his second child and it has been fun comparing notes with him.

We are still on baby-watch and there is no sign that baby is coming (other than the roundness of the lovely Elizabeth's belly!)

Doctor appointment is tomorrow. We should be scheduling a date when we would be induced if baby does not decide to come on baby's own within about a week and a half of the due date.

In other news, snow, cold, snow, colder, colder yet. That is what it looks like over the next few days. Global warming... who does Al Gore think he is?!?!?!

Gophers B-ball = 15 and 1...
living the dream!

No Baby yet!!!!!

Does it count as mallwalking if you go with the intent of mallwalking but end up purchasing? Hmmm. Well we went to the mall tonight to do a little walking in hopes that the baby might get the message! I laughed when one of the first couples I saw appeared to be doing the same thing!

I would like to point out that if you have any clothing needs, right now is the time to go to the mall. You know when you are doing Christmas shopping and you see something you like but you don't want to buy yourself something because it is not the reason you are there? Well, I happened to see a few things before Christmas and I thought to myself, first, they are too expensive and second, you are not shopping for yourself. Well, I am sure that there are usually sales after Christmas, but I did not expect to get almost 70% off! Unreal. Items that were overpriced became more than reasonable!

Anyway, walking did not give the baby the message!

I would just like to point out that clearing the snow off the driveway and sidewalk took half the time today. Loving it and
living the dream!

No Baby yet!!!!

We got home tonight and Elizabeth asked "what do you want to do tonight?" I am sure it is no surprise to you that my smart answer was "have a baby... get going!"

We're still waiting!

Fun fact for the day:
Do you know what the shortest grammatically correct sentence in the English language is?
Go.

How fun is that?
Go. Find your own fun fact and you too can begin
living the dream.

No Baby yet!!!

But we did have a doctor appointment today and they said the baby is still in there! So that is good.

The baby has dropped a bit more but there does not seem to be any dilation yet.

On an unrelated note, I had stuffing for dinner.
Living the dream!

No Baby yet!!

That's all that matters. Not yet.

But if you are interested, today was my first day back at school. It is funny. I already had the 'Sunday Blues' on Friday and Saturday but this morning when I woke up, I was happy to go back to school.

I think that may be in part because I have a ton of big events in January and I felt like I needed to hit the ground running this morning. I enjoyed hearing about everyone's breaks and I was honored today when a few alumni visited me. I always think that is the neatest thing. Year after year, students come back to visit old teachers and younger high school friends. Do students do that at all high schools or is that something unique?

One young man stopped in at school because he had to pick up his sister but dropped in by me since I was still around. I think it is beautiful to see how young men and women from our school hold on to their virtues and continue to grow and mature as they go off to school. Hearing about their new life experiences when they come back is a gift.

In other news, my dad asked me the other day how my Gopher basketball team is doing this year and I said that if they were playing anything like previous years, probably terrible. Then I was watching the ESPN and I noted that they are ranked 21st! That was confirmed today when I was informed that they are, in fact, 13-1. So dad, they are doing pretty well... I lied.

I still fly my U of M flag high and proud.
Go Gophers Men's Basketball... you keep
living the dream!

No Baby yet!

This is how I find myself starting all phone calls these days. I have made the mistake of starting some phone calls with a "hello" or "Hi there." Biggest mistake of my life... starting a call with "Happy New Year." Little did I know that all of these greetings imply that there is news about the baby! At least, that is the case when you are 38 1/2 weeks pregnant. So now I begin all conversations with the disclaimer that we are not on the way to the hospital and/or there is no baby yet.

I guess in some fashion those are both untrue. I feel like we have been on a nine-month long journey to the hospital and surely there is a baby... he/she is just trapped in Elizabeth's belly!

So I have this program hooked up to this blog that tells me how much traffic comes to the site. I have noticed some trends and have used my training in interpreting statistics to make a marvelous discovery of correlation. I have noticed that as we get closer to the baby's due date, there seems to be an increase in visits as well as visitors at this blog. At first I was totally confused by the trend but after much thought, I have figured it out. I looked back at my posts over the past few weeks and found out what correlates to this increase in site traffic. My writing has improved exponentially. That explains both the higher number of visits and visitors. As you find the writing more and more thrilling, you share with your friends, family, and even strangers you meet at the mall this incredible source of joy and fulfillment that you find in this blog.

Ok, I am sure that is not the case. You probably are just looking for the latest update on the baby but I hope you are enjoying your stay. No baby yet. Baby is still in mamma's belly...
Living the dream.

Well Happy New Year

Happy New Year All!

Have you ever been at a seminar or some training session where you are asked to tell about a good customer service experience? I have had this type of opportunity several times and each time I think really hard, knowing that I have had some, but I struggle to name one in particular. Well, two nights ago, I was getting ready to go out to dinner with the fam for the first evening of our family Christmas/New Years party celebration extravaganza. You may recall that on that day I had no luck in obtaining a Wii system for our get-together. So I am getting ready to go to dinner when I get a phone call from an Illinois number. Hesitantly, I answer the phone.

On the other end is a gentleman calling from Family Video. He says that the company has some sort of internet tool set up that informs them when Family Video is named on the internet somewhere. So he found himself on my blog reading about my desire to bring a Wii to the family extravaganza. And so I am thinking to myself, "ok, who is pranking me now?" The gentleman says that he read back on my blog and it seemed like I was a decent guy and he wanted to help. (Now, I don't know if any of you have seen Seven Pounds, but if you did, and I tell you that I just went to see that movie the other day, you might understand why I interject that particular fact here.) He says that he wants to try to get a Wii for me for the party. "You're kidding!" I say. He tells me that he had a bit of a hard time tracking me down as I don have any contact information on this blog but through some investigation he was able to track me down. Sure enough, he has someone out buying a Wii to rent to me that night. He asks me if I'll be around for a little while because he doesn't want to promise it until he knows the system is in the store. I say I'll be around and he says he'll call back.

What organization has ever gone that far out of their way to make your day? Unreal. I am still disbelieving until he calls back on a conference call with the manager from the local Family Video. They tell me to stop in when I can and that they'll "take care of me" which, apparently, means that they will go out, but a Wii, give it to me for free for two nights along with several games (also comped) and that they won't even ask for a deposit. Unreal! So as you know, if you have seen me in the past few days, this story is about all I want to tell. I told my fam that I was absolutely taken aback that they would go out of their way to make my day, but then I also recounted the fact that I had never been to another store where they gave me a tour of the place the first time I came in. Seriously, the first time I came in to that store, I was walked around the place and told where to find the best deals, the best movies, and how to save an extra buck here and there. All around, what an impressive organization. Well, next time you are asked about an amazing customer service experience, you now have a story to tell.

So needless to say, we had a blast at the family Christmas extravaganza yesterday. I think I ate more food than any human should eat in one day.

If you have read Elizabeth's facebook status, you know that we had our doctors appointment today to see if she would be induced into labor tonight. Notice that I am sitting here blogging and not hanging out in a hospital room... she is not being induced. Yes, apparently her ASVU's are at 13 rather than the low 7.43 that we were looking at on Tuesday. That is a relief because that means no induced labor (and the C-section that would accompany it) and we are back to the waiting game. I had totally prepared myself to be in the hospital tonight and figured that by tomorrow night, I would be a daddy. I had psyched myself up and was so ready. I still am but now I am a bit more restless because it is back to anybody's guess as far as when the baby will come.

No ultrasound pictures this time though we did see the baby's nose, which looked like a pig's snout from the angle we saw! So lets just say that 'monkey' may not be that far off the mark.

Well, I should run. Gotta get some sleep. Who knows, might be a daddy soon!

Family Video...
living the dream!