Whew!

Time flies when having fun! Sarah just turned 5 months… pictures to follow!

Around the Town in Two Weeks!

From the moment we got home with Sarah it has been non-stop, but not with the things that you would normally associate with bringing home a baby. It’s true our sleep patterns have changed a little bit, we do way more laundry and are constantly making coo-ing noises but what has been crazy is the number of condo showings we have had! With every showing it means two things 1. we have to clean the house back into “showing condition” and 2. we have to vacant for an hour. Neither of these are easy with a newborn! The three of us have always been good at messing up a clean house but adding Sarah to the mix makes us now professionals at it.  For the sake of looking back at the past weeks I have wrote up a little timeline of the events of the past few weeks! Whew!

May 1  
Beginning of Vacation, Aunt Jessie & Mike out of town at a wedding. Grandpa Zisser and Uncle Greg out of     town at opening weekend of fishing – no baby please, they requested.
May 5  
Grandma LaBrosse stayed with us
May 7 
Doctor’s Appointment in the morning, 2 cm dialated, took Castor Oil in  the afternoon! Don’t ask!
May 8   
Grandma leaves – no baby, Aunt Jessie and Mike out of town at a wedding, along with Grandma and Grandpa    LaBrosse – they all hope no baby today!
May 10 
Mother’s Day, took long walk to Michaels Frozen Custard,    worked on crib in evening, leg cramping began
May 11 
1-9 am  timed contractions at home
5-6 am Called grandparents and Aunt Jessie to let them know we  may be in labor!
9 am went to hospital triage was admitted at 4.5 cm 50% effaced
9:30 all call went out Aunt Jessie picked up soon to be big sister Victoria at school and brought to hospital
2:20 10 cm dilated 100% effaced ready for baby Zisser’s arrival!
3:38 Sarah Ann Zisser born. 9 pounds 4 ounces, 20 inches. Delivered by Dr Amanda Swenson and Dr Sanner along with delivery nurse Nikki (who coincidently went to high school with your Dad!) , Dad cut cord
3:40 + Visitors to welcome Sarah into the world: Big Sister Victoria, Grandma and Grandpa LaBrosse, Grandma and Grandpa Zisser, Aunt Megan, Uncle Greg, Aunt Jessie and Mike, later on… Cousin Chris Shepro-Stein along with her husband Kurt Stein and daughter Irie. Longtime friend Kim Loker also came for a visit.
May 12
7 am Aunt Jessie drops Victoria off back at hospital for a long day of tests, forms, hospital pictures etc. Looking forward to going home later today.
6 pm Left hospital at 9 pounds. Arrived at home! Yeah!
May 13 
8 pm Aunt Jessie and Mike cook us a spaghetti dinner – yum!
May 14 
9:00 am Doctor’s appointment for weight check. Weighed in at 8 pounds 9 ounces. 7% weight loss! Uh Oh!
10-1 Shopping, lunch. First time out in the big wide world!
1:00 pm Condo showing.
7:00 pm Condo showing
7-8 pm Dinner with Grandpa Zisser and Megan
May 15 
2:45 pm Doctor’s appointment for weight check. Weighed in at 8 pounds 12 ounces. Yeah! Heading in the right track!
4:00 Picked up Victoria in Oregon and headed to Janesville due to the condo showings!
5:15 Condo Showing
May 16 
11:00 Condo Showing
May 17 
10-11 Condo Showing
11-12 Condo Showing
12-4:30 Grandma LaBrosse, Aunt Tammy, Cousins Emily and John come for a visit!
May 18
1 Week Old! Happy Birthday!
10:45 Doctor’s appointment for a weight check – 8 pounds 12 ounces. Not up but not down!
May 19 
7:15 Victoria’s orchestra concert in Oregon
May 20 
5-7 TASC baby shower
5:15 Condo Showing
May 21  
Pack and leave for Lake Redstone for the holiday weekend!
May 25  
2 Weeks Old! Happy Birthday!
May 26 
11:00 Doctor’s appointment. Weight Check …TBD

Welcome Home Sarah!

We are proud to announce the arrival of Sarah Ann to our family! She was born on Monday, May 11, 2009 at 3:38 PM, weighing in at 9 pounds 4 ounces, stretching 20 inches in length.  Click here for more photos:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffz/sets/72157618021328751/

Sarah’s First Day Home

40 Weeks and Still Counting!

We hit 40 weeks on Friday May 8th and still no baby! We are all very anxious for the arrival of Baby Zisser. We have some very rational and logical explanations for the delay in delivery.

1. It’s a boy and like most boys we know, they never really want to leave “home” when they have it so good!

2. Because it’s a Taurus it is innately stubborn and it showing us who is running the show.

3. It is taking after his father (and sometimes its mother) and making it known that being late is a gift not a curse.

4. It is looking to break the all-time record of biggest baby ever born.

Whatever the reason we hope that the baby will bless us soon with its arrival. Until then we are finishing up the crib and getting last minute items taken care of so we can enjoy every minute with our bundle of joy!

40 Weeks

Additional Cradle Pictures!

My mom forwarded the pictures I mentioned – they are so great!

Outside? Was this the orginal "Play Pen"?

Cricket the cat, checking in on Jessie in the Cradle

37 Weeks and Counting!

A Labor of Love

Jeff has taken on a very important and sizable task of refinishing of our family’s 80 year old cradle. We learned more of the tale of this passed on treasure last weekend while visiting my parents. It is the cradle that was given to my grandparents by family friends in the early 1940’s since all of their children had out grown it, putting its origin in the late 20’s! Since the cradle’s use with my Aunt Sally, Aunt Dee, my dad, my Uncle Ralph and Uncle Tommy the cradle has been used by my sister Jessica and by Victoria.

My mom mentioned she has a picture of my dad in the craddle and I know there are one of Jessie as well that I will try to find and post. Here are ones of Victoria and the progress of the refinishing!

Victoria in cradle

Step 1 - Get it to Madison - Thank You Routan!

Step 2 - Get it "dipped and stripped" - Thank You Mr. Stripper in Janesville

Step 3 - Let the sanding begin, no thanks to power tools!

A few more steps to go with re-gluing and clamping but progress for sure!

What a Belly!

With the birth being literally any day now – the pressure is on to “get everything” all set. An impossible task but am thankful for anything we get accomplished in these final days is one less thing we will have to worry about when our baby arrives! I believe that this is the offical “nesting” stage that I have been practicing for the last nine months.

With the turning of 37 weeks, I truly believe that I can see my belly growing larger every day! We have begun our weekly visits to the doctor’s office she believes everything is on target and we should not be worried that I will be giving birth to a 20 pounder! What a relief! But on second thought how great would that be to not have any weight to lose after…

37 Weeks

Pregnancy: 30 Weeks through 35

Ladies and Gentleman – Your Guesses Please!

10 weeks and counting. Now is time to have some fun with our family and friends impress us with their intuition! We have set up an online baby pool. We are thinking of what prizes to offer the top guesses – perhaps the ability to babysit baby Zisser for the weekend should be first place? We’ll get back to you with those details a little later. Click here to enter your guess!

30 Weeks

Preparing for Baby

We have so much to prepare yet but we know that when the time comes it will all get done. We have been reading up on baby care – Jeff found this perfect book that proves that babies do come with a manual!

The Baby Owner’s Manual, written like an electronic gadget manual uses words such “your model” or “the user”. Our favorite is Chapter 4 – Programming Sleep Mode – we will be sure to have that memorized before long!  

First Major Baby Purchase

On the way home from my parents we stopped by the Lullaby Shop in DePere. We were window shopping for cribs and changing tables when the shiny strollers and car seats caught our eye. We were looking at the coveted Phil and Ted’s loaded strollers when the helpful and knowledgeable salesperson-Dave came over to explain all the ins and outs of child restraint gear! Dave spent over an hour with us, answering our questions and filling us with confidence that we could navigate the rough waters of baby gear. Here are the fruits of our labor for the day – that is once Jeff finished putting it together.  We even tested out to see what carrying around a 25 pound baby would feel like - good thing we have to work up to that!

 

Assembly by Jeff

Victoria and “the baby”

25 Pounds and Counting

Chicco Travel System

Got Cravings?

The weeks 23-29 went by slower than all of the other previous weeks combined! There was a lot going on but not all was that exciting. We got a call from the doctor that my 1 hour glucose test which test for gestational diabetes came back high and would need to have further tests. The test itself wasn’t that bad – four hours wasted but it was the anticipation that was painful. Thinking about all that gestiational diabities would mean for the remainder of the pregnancy and possibly after and for future pregnancies… thankfully a week after the test results came back “that I am normal” (yes it said that I was normal!) and there was no need to continue to worry so much about that!

With a sigh of relief and the long overdue desire to have a little sugar run through my veins – we stopped at the grocery store for some real pregnancy cravings. The beer was not my craving…

Got Cravings?

Pregnancy: 20 through 29 Weeks

23 Week Ultrasound

We were fortunate enough to be able to have an ultrasound this past week. It was an amazing experience! We got to see our baby in live 2D action! There was the drawn out yawn, the doggy-paddle kick and the hello-parents wave that made us smile!

We held strong and did not give into the temptation of finding out the gender of our little one. At the end of the session, we said to the lab-tech “so, you are the only one in the world who knows what we are having.” She laughed and said “yes, I have a pretty good idea what you are having.” We will have to wait and see if she is right!

23 Week Ultrasound

Routan Boom

We are guilty. We put a baby in my belly just to have German engineering in our driveway. For those of you who don’t understand watch:

Brooke Shields won’t be happy, but so far we are very happy with our decision. The extra room, the remote start and heated seats make having a baby worth it!

The Routan Babymaker 3000

The clever marketers came up with a way for parents to see what the product of their efforts would look like – we will have to compare to the actual baby Zisser, but according to Volkswagon here is what he/she will look like:

Routan Babymaker 3000

Lastly here is us, being a “Becky” and buying our first new car at the Zimbrick Volkswagon Dealership in Madison.

Picking Up Z-Bus

Do you know what you are having?

This seems to be a common question people ask. We are in the minority of parents who plan on not finding out what we are having before the big day. It does seem to be getting tougher though as we frequent baby supply stores – but that is the beauty! We have been able to walk out several times without anything in hand!

This hasn’t stopped us or others from getting a few things in preperation of the baby’s arrival.

Baby Gifts

• Auntie Megan gave a University of San Diego bib and hat
• Uncle Greg gave an adorable “Tauras” oneize
• Grandma and Grandpa Zisser gave books titled “Five Cheeky Monkeys” and “Gallop!” a moving picture book
• Grandma and Grandpa LaBrosse  gave 3 Wisconsin Badgers onzies “Smallest Fan”, “Fan Since Birth”, and “Future Fan”. In addition a winter baby duck, mittens for next year and fuzzy socks
• We bought for the baby – a classic Winnie the Pooh Bear and a “Kiss me I’m Irish” onezie

 

20 Weeks – Belly Picture

Half Way to Baby in May!