Discoveries

Happy 1/4th Birthday Julia!

2009-07-09T18:50:00.007-06:00

Julia is three months old today, that's 1/4th of a year! I'm still amazed that this little person is really my baby. There are so many sweet moments that I'm so glad to have with Julia. I think the best part of my day is first thing in the morning when I walk into Julia's room. I come in and unswaddle her and she looks up at me and stops crying and gives me a big grin. Or maybe it's it at night when she falls asleep and looks so peaceful and beautiful.

She's so different now than when she was born, it really is amazing how fast they change. Some of her hobbies and interests include:

-Standing up on our laps, with our help of course

-Staring and looking around. At the wall, at people, at toys, at fans, at the TV. She especially likes the ladybug balloon in her room. She has become very aware that there is a whole world out there to see and she just can't get enough of it (which means getting her to sleep and eat when we're not at home has become a little more difficult since she is always so distracted)

-Talking. She loves to babble stories to me. Yesterday I was sitting at the playground with her and she was telling me a very long story. A little girl came up asked if Julia was crying and I said "no, she's telling me a story." So the little girl said, "oh, she's telling you a story of being married to a prince." So apparently Julia has dreams of being a princess.

-Sleeping at night! It's normal for her to go 5-7 hours at a time now. It's truly amazing! And she wakes up so happy and talkative. Now we just have to work on sleeping during the day, she hates naps.

Her other dislikes include tummy time (you'd think we were torturing her), hot weather, and being forced to sit (in a car seat, swing, bathtub) when she isn't in the mood for it. She's discovered that if she straightens her back its harder for us to get her to sit.

We love our sweet baby girl and I'm already starting to "forget." You know how everyone says God makes you forget what it's like to have a newborn? Yeah, I look back now and think, oh, it wasn't so bad when she was first born, she was so adorable and sweet and little. I'm excited to see what the next three months have in store for us.

Hollywood Bowl

2009-07-06T12:32:00.006-06:00

We had a busy week last week. On Wend. we went to another Dodgers game. On Friday, as per L.A. Wheat family tradition we went to the Hollywood Bowl and saw the LA Philharmonic, John Fogerty and the fireworks show.
Note Daniel's "baby face" imitation in the background.

Then on Saturday we had a big BBQ/Pool party at our house! Unfortunately I was so preoccupied with making sure things were going okay and taking care of Julia that I forgot to take any digital pictures. Oops. We did have a couple disposable water cameras though, so we'll have to wait until we get those developed to see any pictures

Family Reunion

2009-07-06T11:53:00.009-06:00

Last weekend (end of June) we drove to Southern Utah for the Sandberg Family Reunion. It was fun to see all the new babies in the family now that the grandkids are starting to have kids. Julia loved her first camping trip (we slept in the cabin though) and met lots of new people. Julia with my dad. Everyone's wearing green because it was St. Patricks Day (we celebrated all the holidays at the reunion, we even had Santa Claus come.)
Julia with her daddy
Robert went with a group of family up to the top of the plateau above the Ranch to go geocaching. They didn't find it, but they had fun hiking all over the mountainside.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

2009-06-18T22:30:00.005-06:00

Julia went to her first Dodgers game last Wednesday. She slept through the first half and woke up during the seventh inning stretch to sing Take Me Out to the Ballgame and watch the end of the game. She's a smart girl, that's what I do too. (except I can't actually sleep during the first half. Sleeping anywhere and through any kind of noise is a nice skill babies have. Usually I just people watch.)

Disneyland!

2009-06-14T17:12:00.012-06:00

My parent's and little brother stayed with us for a week after Julia's blessing, so we went to Disneyland three times last week. (We went for three days because my dad is in the military, so he gets into Disneyland for free and he can get five people a three day park hopper for the price of one day.) It was nice not to have to rush and try to do everything in one day or feel pressured to get there too early. It actually went better than I expected with a two month old. Julia mostly slept the entire time and my Mom wanted to spend a lot of time with her, so she watched Julia while I went on the rides.

I think what made it a lot easier was that Disneyland has a baby care center where you can go to nurse, prepare bottles, and change diapers. They also have little high chairs and little potties for kids who are potty training (or just plain afraid of the "big" potties in the normal restrooms). It is a nice calm environment, not too crowded and very clean, so it takes out all the stress of having to do all that stuff at a super crowded place like Disneyland. If you're ever at Disneyland with a baby I would recommend checking it out.

Here are the pictures:

P.S. I also added a slideshow to the post about Julia's baby blessing

It's Official

2009-06-08T20:12:00.006-06:00

It's official. We all knew it by looking at her, but as of today we can now officially say we have a very chubby baby. Or in Roberts word's, we have a "fatty." Julia had her two month checkup today and she weighs 14 pounds (95th percentile). She's almost doubled her birth weight (7 lbs 10 oz) in two months. We also found out we have a short, fat baby. She is 22.5 in. (34th percentile). Of course, we all think she's still the prettiest baby in the world, even when she's looking particularly chubby, as in the photo above.

She did pretty good during her shots, she only cried frantically for a minute or so and then she calmed down and fell asleep. This evening though, we have a very unhappy baby on our hands. I've never seen her cry right after she finishes eating! The entire house feels bad for her, no one likes to see a baby so obviously unhappy. I gave her some Tylenol and she's fallen back asleep now. Poor baby!

Julia's Baby Blessing

2009-06-08T08:28:00.010-06:00

We had Julia's baby blessing yesterday. She did great, she was awake during the blessing and just looking around at all the guys carrying her. Afterwards we all came back to our house for some lunch. It was a party! We didn't have a lot of people around (compared to what I'm used to at family events since I have 16 aunts and uncles and their families). My family came down from Utah (and will be spending the next week with us) and Robert's Uncle Steve, Aunt Wendy, cousin Daniel and Grandpa Wheat came out from West L.A. Them, plus some friends from the ward and we had a full house for lunch.

This is why mommies need more than two hands

2009-06-04T17:06:00.006-06:00

you can't carry baby and other things at the same time, so you improviseJulia's sporting her three month old clothes now
and this is just because we don't take enough pictures with the parents in them.

Time for an Update

2009-05-23T20:40:00.008-06:00

It's been a couple weeks since I posted, but really there's not much interesting going on around here...so I'll just have to bore you with the mundane details of our lives and post a few random pictures. Julia's still getting big. Everywhere I go people think she is older than she really is because she looks so big. She actually stays awake now for a while after she finishes eating, but still managed to sleep all through church today and through most of the BBQ we went to yesterday. She seems to want to save her grouchy time for only Robert and I =) .

Robert took a couple days off of work this week to sand down the frames on our windows so we can paint them after we replace all the actual windows in the next few weeks.

The big excitement today was some idiot speeding down our street, lose control of his car, and run into a tree a few houses down from us. I looked out the window to see what had happened and saw someone running down the street, so I looked to see where he was running to when the neighbor across the street ran out of her house screaming at him not to ditch. Turns out it was the driver running away.

We're looking forward to our summer plans visiting family. We have my family reunion in June, my brother's wedding in July, and Robert's sister's wedding in August, plus Robert wants to do a camping trip in September. Any tips on traveling with a two/three/four/five month old? We'll be driving ten hours in June and flying for both the weddings.

Okay, here's the pictures.Julia gets lots of kisses from Daddy.
And lots of snuggle time with me. And this is her being pretty in her Sunday dress. We have a picture with the full dress too, but she was screaming in that one, so not as cute. BTW, can you tell how she likes to be held best? Half the time she's crying I just put her up on my shoulder and she stops.

Homeless Families

2009-05-14T12:33:00.000-06:00

This CNN video is about a lady staying at the PATH homeless shelter in Los Angeles, which is one of the sites where I used to work back when I worked at two sites. Families like this, homeless with no place to go, would come in and I would help find them a shelter to stay at. This lady is one of the lucky ones who gets to stay at the PATH. PATH is clean, in a decent neighborhood, and allows residents to stay for six months. Unfortunately in Los Angeles even shelters that are in places like skid row and have a 30 day stay are almost always full. Back when I was still working we were seeing a lot of families with children come in who we couldn't place in shelters right away.

Other Highlights

2009-05-13T06:18:00.000-06:00

Other highlights from the past week:

Baby Shower in West L.A.- Aunt Wendy threw us a baby shower in West L.A. so all our old friends could come and see the baby. I was kind of nervous that Julia was going to be fussy since it was in the evening and Julia has started to get fussy a lot in the evenings. She ate literally right before the shower though and slept in the arms of grandma the entire time. The shower was great and it was so fun to so all the friends that we haven't seen since we moved. We are so blessed to have so many people who care about us!

Mother's Day- Robert made breakfast for me (first time since our anniversary that he's cooked anything) and then we went to church for the first time since Julia was born. It was a little nerve wrecking wondering what I was going to do if she woke up and started crying, but once again, she slept all through sacrament. (One day I'll look back and laugh about being nervous to take her anywhere.) After that we skipped out on the rest of church and went to West L.A. once again for dinner with family and to take grandma to the airport. It was wonderful having Robert's mom here (actually, even though I missed Robert when he was in Chicago, it was a lot better than having Robert here since grandma is good with babies and is a wonderful cook.)New Den- We did a little rearranging in our house this week. We got a new sectional couch and made the open part of the kitchen into the new TV room, and moved the table to the middle room to make it the dining room. Here's Julia enjoying her new digs.
Chicago- Robert went to Chicago last week for training, however he specifically chose to go to Chicago for training this year so he could go to both a Cubs and a White Sox game. I'll let him post more about his trip if he wants, but here he is at the Cubs game.

One Month!

2009-05-12T12:54:00.007-06:00

Today Julia turns one month old! It's amazing how time flies by with a little one (I think its because the days all meld together from lack of sleep). She is doing great. She's finally figured out that nighttime means its time to sleep and will usually only wake up once at night, and then she eats and goes right back to sleep. Of course, that's usually what she does during the day too (and yet she is still so much work!), but she's started being nice to me and sleeping for longer stretches at night.

You can probably tell from the pictures that she is getting big. She seems so smart to me and I think of her as her own little person. She's got her own personality and I really look forward to when she will be able to interact more with us. It's going to be so much fun to get to know her. Even though mommyhood has been much harder than I expected it to be for me, I still am loving it and loving it more and more everyday as I get used to this new lifestyle.

I still don't know if I can officially say Julia is smiling for real, but she does seem to smile a lot more than she used to when Robert and I are talking to her. The cutest thing she does is smile and chuckle in her sleep. I don't know what that all is about (is she really smiling and laughing?) but it sure is adorable.

Family Resemblance?

2009-05-11T16:01:00.005-06:00

Melarie
Julia

Check It Out Daddy

2009-05-05T22:12:00.005-06:00

Hey Daddy! I went for a walk today in my "Cadillac of strollers" (grandma's words). I loved all the new sights and sounds and the fresh air. I even stayed awake the whole time. (And check out our green grass.)

What I Did Today

2009-05-04T22:15:00.003-06:00

Dear Daddy,

Today was another fun filled day with grandma and mommy. I ate, slept, ate, slept, ate, slept, ate slept and then watched grandma and mommy eat dinner. After dinner I was awake so they took more pictures of me. I must be famous because I get a lot of pictures taken of me. Then I ate, and ate and ate and finally went to sleep. It was a tiring day.

Love,

Julia

Dear Daddy

2009-05-03T22:43:00.009-06:00

Dear Daddy,

Mommy says we have to do lots of blog posts this week since you are in Chicago and missing us. Since you left Grandma Wheat came to visit us. I really like spending time with her and am very well behaved (except when I'm hungry, which is actually pretty often). Here's a picture of me hanging out with grandma.Today I went on my very first outing (not counting doctor visits). We went to West L.A. to visit at Uncle Steve and Aunt Wendy's house. I really liked the long freeway drive. In fact, I slept the whole way there!I liked meeting new family members today and was actually awake a lot of the time so they could see me. Mommy says I'm getting big so fast so she took lots of pictures of me today. Here's me with Aunt Wendy.

We miss you Daddy and can't wait until you come back next week!

Love,

Julia

P.S. I'm three weeks old today!

Julia and the case of the hiccups

2009-04-26T11:13:00.005-06:00

Well, I set Julia down on the floor this morning (two weeks old now) and decided I was going to film her really quickly wrapped up in her Winnie the Pooh blanket. So I grabbed the camera and started filming and I noticed she was having hiccups. She seems to get them all the time. Of course I think every little thing like this, and sneezes, and farts are great so hopefully I will also get some videos of that as well to share with you. Here is Julia with her congenital hiccup problem.

Julia's First Video Montage

2009-04-24T23:58:00.010-06:00

Last Christmas, I told my wife that we needed (yes needed) a new computer and video camera to record Julia's life in vibrant color. What he did not tell her was that he really wanted the computer to play video games (but that's another story). So with Julia finally here it is time for me to make good on my promises. Here is the first video I have created. I know it's not much but it actually took me a lot of time to put together (sad I know).

As you can see, I have a small problem because I recorded everything in 16:9 ratio and the smallest youtube embedded object is still too large for this blog. I'll have to work on that sometime. (Hopefully embedding it in Blogger has now fixed this problem. I think I might see about editing the blogger page layout by making in wider so the youtube files fit.)

Next I will have to start creating video's of the rest of her life. This is probably going to take some time but we have a few activities planned over the summer which should provide us with plenty of opportunities for additional video montages.

A Few More Julia Pictures

2009-04-18T16:28:00.006-06:00

Picture Updates

2009-04-13T15:02:00.003-06:00

Julia kept us awake most of the night and has slept most of today (She seems to have things backwards). So after catching up on sleep this morning I just wanted to let everyone know the Julia and Mom are still well and good. Here are a couple additional photos that some of you have requested.

Introducing Julia Grace Wheat

2009-04-12T22:47:00.003-06:00

The wait is finally over and Melarie is finally feeling more comfortable. Julia Grace Wheat was born at 8:33 PM at Pomona Valley Hospital. She weights 7 lbs 10 oz. and is 20 inches long. Both Mom and Baby are doing extremely. After a short 10 hour labor and 30 mins of pushing, we have the following pictures available.

Mommy with Baby Julia about 30 mins after birth. She (Julia) was so content to be held by mommy. I got a great video of it the first time Melarie held Julia. I will post it as soon as I have time to go home and do some editing (probably a week).

Daddy with Julia, she only crys when I hold her but here she is calm with both eyes open.

First time grandma, Fatima Sandberg, holding Julia for the first time. Julia did cry for her a little only after being passed to her from Robert.

Easter Baby??????

2009-04-12T13:37:00.009-06:00

Some of you may be aware of this already but for all others here is a quick post to let you all know that Melarie has been admitted into Pomona Valley Hospital this morning at 10:30 AM. She is currently resting comfortably in bed waiting for the baby to come. The nurses have told us to expect an Easter baby (we really hope it does not go any longer than 12 hours). So I will be keeping everyone posted here and let you know how things develop. Mel will probably log in later and correct my post to meet her liking but right now I am free to run a muck.

We got a little nervous around 12:15 when Melarie was getting uncomfortable after sitting on her back for over an hour. In moving around she went into a contraction and the baby's heart beat dropped slightly. The nurse came in and nervously tried adjusting the monitor straps and could not get the baby heart beat to speed back up so they put Mel on oxygen and set her on her side

The heart beat came back up after a couple minutes but they left her on oxygen for thirty minutes to be safe. At 12:45 the nurse came in and took her off the oxygen and both baby and mother are doing well. Here is a look at the baby heartbeat monitor. Melarie does not like it much but still thinks it is a good idea to have around.

4:00 PM Update

Melarie has continued to progress slowly since around 2:00. She received an epideral at 2:15 and has really enjoyed the absence of pain. Just before the epideral she had dilated to 5cm. She was originally admitted after a 4cm dilation. This progress has been slower than the "normal" progression of 1cm every 90 mins so the doctor recently decided to give her Pitocin, which will speed up the delivery process. We found out how to turn the baby monitor down so we don't hear the constant heart beats.

We are thankful for the monitor now because Julia's heartbeat has occasionally dropped to unhealthy levels during some of Melarie's contractions . The contractions are occasionally very long, which can cause increased stress on the baby, possibly accounting for the drop in heart beat that usually follows these long contractions. The nurses don't seem overly worried about it, so we try not to worry either.

6:00 PM Update

Everything is progressing slowly but time seems to pass by really quickly. I am really hoping for an Easter baby so I hope she comes before midnight. Melarie has spent the last couple hours resting and trying to get some sleep. She is now back on oxygen because it seems to help keep the baby's heart beat higher. Our OB nurse, Marissa, has started getting the room ready for delivery by putting stuff all over the room. Melarie is now dilated up to 7 or 7.5cms. Also to note, they have decreased the Pitocin drip because Melarie's contractions have not been as regular/frequent since the drip started. Next update to follow in a couple hours.

8:00 PM Update

The Dr. is on the way and Melarie is fully dilated to 10cm and has started pushing the baby down. The nurse expects delivery by 8:50 because she has pushed the baby all the way down. Things are looking really good.

8:33 PM Update

Julia Grace Wheat has officially arrived at 8:33 PM PST. She weighs 7 lbs 10 ounces and was 20 inches long. Pictures will be available shortly.

Contraction Master!

2009-04-11T07:29:00.004-06:00

Since I can't sleep I thought I'd write a little about a fabulous invention that I am much appreciative about right now. Back when I first got pregnant I was watching A Baby Story on TLC and the couple was timing the contractions using a website. At the time I thought it was kind of ridiculous, I mean, can't you just look at your watch? Well, yesterday evening I started to feel more regular and stronger contractions than my daily dose of Braxton Hicks contractions (those were getting pretty annoying) and decided I better actually time the contractions. I thought back to that episode and it dawned on me how useful that might actually be. So I did a google search for "contraction timer" and the first site that popped up was Contraction Master. I set up the laptop on my nightstand and tried to fall asleep. All I had to do to time the contractions was push a button when one starts and push it again when it ends. So now I have this online log telling me how long and how far apart my contractions have been since about 10:00 last night (except for about 2 hours it looks like I did fall asleep) and all I had to do was sleepily push a button. They started out about 20 minutes apart and are now down to about 7 minutes apart.

Update: Darn it, they died down again. A very restless night for nothing? They were definitely very regular. I think I need to go walk around the mall, after I take a nap.

More Belly Shots

2009-04-10T13:05:00.004-06:00

28 weeks
36 weeks

40ish weeks- showing off the little basketball I have hidden under my dress

Some Belly Shots

2009-04-10T12:17:00.004-06:00

Today

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