Summer Grilling

I love grillng in the summer because a) we don't have AC so it doesn't warm up the apartment like the oven does; and b) Daniel can help with dinner while I tend to the baby.

We first tried out this marinade last summer and revisted it again a couple weeks ago and fell in love with it all over again. The original recipe is to make chicken kabobs but we recently used it on a pork tenderloin with great success.

Rosemary Ranch Marinade
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup ranch dressing
3 TBS worcestershire sauce
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp vinegar (whatever kind you have)
1 TBS minced fresh rosemary (0r 1 tsp dried)
2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1 TBS white sugar, or to taste (optional)

Mix all ingredients well and let sit for a few minutes. Then pour over selected meat and/or veggies, cover and refrigerate for 30 mins. Then grill and enjoy!

We've enjoyed some really good kabobs with cubed chicken, peppers, onion and mushrooms (all marinated in the sauce); and as I mentioned above a delicious grilled tenderloin as well.

Smiles

Dane is now 6 weeks old - I can't believe it! But it's so much fun to watch him grow and develop and become more alert. And the best thing is that he smiles and plays with mommy some instead of just staring off into space all the time.

Oh Happy Day

I finally made it back to the gym this morning for the first time in over 2 months! And it was awesome. It felt so good to excerise my body since all I do is sit on the couch all day with the baby - not that spending time with Dane is not awesome too, it's just makes me feel lazy. It's also so nice to have my body back and fully functional - if not a little weaker than it used to be. The last time I was at the gym my body hurt too much to really do anything or enjoy it. Yeah for babies being outside the womb!

Lately

I can't count the number of times I've sat down to try and write a post only to have Dane start crying and taking me away from my intended task. If fact, he sounds like he is about to wake up now... so I'll try to make this quick.

The last 5 weeks have been a blur - a sleepless, stressful blur. But wonderful too. Breastfeeding continues to be a work in progress, but Dane is gaining good weight which is the most important thing. At 4 1/2 weeks he weighed in at 7 lbs 6 oz. Here's a full body shot. The beautiful quilt he is laying on is a present from his favorite Aunt Elizabeth (Note: in this case, favorite describes Aunt Elizabeth and not aunt :) He has lots of favorite aunts).

Here is a short video of face shots from the last couple of weeks. Enjoy!

Blessing

Dane's blessing was on Sunday. Daniel gave a beautiful blessing and we had a lovely time visiting with family afterwards. When we tried to take some pictures, Dane wasn't being very cooperative (he was sleeping) so we didn't get a really good one.

Later that day we took Dane over to meet his great-grandpa Gerow and we took this wonderful four generation photo.

Dane's two-week check up was last Friday. The pediatrician referred us to a lactation consultant because Dane's weight wasn't nearly where it should have been (birth weight was 6 lb 8 oz, but he was only at 6 lb 2 oz on day 15). She kindly informed me that I wasn't producing enough milk and was basically starving our poor child. So she sent us home with a pump and a list of instructions and it's apparently been working because he gained almost 1/2 lb in three days!

One Week Old

Dane has had quite the first week of life - including 4 long days and nights under bili-lights for Jaundice, 5 nasty heel pokes to draw blood, a late night visit to the doctor's office, weight-loss, sleepless nights, fussy eating....

But the Jaundice is gone now, he's sleeping better, eating better, pooping better (I'm sure he'll thank me for publicizing that information when he's older). We are just loving having him here.

I'll relate some details surrounding the labor and birth - feel free to move on if you wish, but some people wanted to know.

I'd been having practice labor pretty consistantly for the last week or two before Dane was born. Early Wednesday morning I woke up and took note that the practice labor surges felt different than before. I could feel it more in my lower abdomen and back and not just the top of my uterus. I had a doctor's appt that morning and the doctor didn't report anything that led me to believe I would be having a baby any time soon. So I went to work and continued having the surges all day. By the time we went to bed Wednesday night, the surges had intesified and I couldn't really sleep. So I got up around 1:30 am and just went to the living room and tried to relax. Finally about 3:30 am I had decided that I wanted to head to the hospital. We arrived at 4 am and found out I was dilated to 3 1/2. But the nurse didn't feel comfortable letting me leave, so I stayed and in a couple more hours was at a 5 and they admitted me. A few more hours went by and I gave in and got the epidural. The back labor just became more than I could deal with. About 4 hours later I was complete and Dane was born at 1:56 pm on Thursday, May 6th.

I had posted before that I wanted to do a natural birth (as far as using no drugs) using Hypnobirthing. While I didn't quite succeed, I'm not disappointed with the way things went. I used the breathing and relaxation as long as I could and felt that I couldn't even have gotten as far as I did without them. I'm really glad we took the class and I plan on practicing it again for the next baby and having success.

Introducing Baby Gerow!

Dane Edward Gerow

Born: 5/6/2010 at 1:56 pm

6 lbs 8 oz, 18.5 inches

(click for more pictures)