New Baby Photos!

We have a baby girl!!!

I don't even know where to start for this post, there is so much running through my mind that I want to share but it would take days so I'll have to settle for general info on this blog and can get elaborate individually if anyone has questions by phone or email. We wished we could call everyone with the exciting news but things have been so crazy since Thursday!

This is our new baby, Berlin Noelle Tharp!!! She was 7 lbs. 0.6 oz., 19 inches long, born on Friday night (10/10/08) at 9:41 pm. I was induced on Thursday night and finally in active labor by Friday morning. After 4 hours of natural labor and then a beautiful epidural for the rest she was born after only about 30 minutes of pushing. She's perfect and healthy, no jaundice or negative effects from the birth at all. She is sleeping and eating well, and she is doing her best to help her mommy with feedings. Her daddy Paul is in love, he has become the Master of Swaddling (which I just can't get the hang of!) and is the best at the jiggly-bouncy method of calming her down when she's upset (which is so far blissfully infrequent). My mother has been here since early last week to help out, and she and Laera have spent a lot of time with us at the hospital over the last few days. It has been so nice to have the help and support of the wonderful nurses too, and although we still feel somewhat in shock over becoming parents of a newborn we at least are armed with plenty of information and advice to help us figure it out from here.

Well that's it for now, we will write more and have lots more pictures in the next few weeks! Love and hugs to all, if any of you are close enough to visit you are welcome any time, we would be thrilled to see you. We will do our best to make the rounds of visiting everyone as soon as we get a chance. In the meantime, check back with our blog soon!

Janisa, Paul, Laera & Berlin

Puppy Love... awww!

Okay, so I know everyone loves their pets. We have two dogs, and naturally we think they are wonderful. And I think we love them both equally, but in different ways.

Ptolemy, our big hairy mutt, was our first pet as a married couple and we raised him from a puppy so of course he is near and dear to our hearts despite our failures to train him to be a well-behaved canine. He's a very dog-ish dog though, fun to romp with and very friendly.

Then there's Cotton, a miniature poodle. (Have I ever mentioned that chihuahuas and poodles were on the very bottom of my "Pets to Own Someday" list, just above snakes and tarantulas?) Well I eat my words, now I think poodles are the perfect pet. I'm sorry but he's just The World's CUTEST Dog! Well there may be cuter dogs out there but the combination of his personality and sweetness layered on top of his cuteness is the perfect combination. Not that I'm biased of course.

But seriously, LOOK at these pictures! All he wants out of life is food, a patch of grass to do his business, and a warm lap to cuddle up to. He is so easy to please. It just made my day when he curled up on my belly this morning and rested his paw on the baby, I had my mother take a picture so I could show Paul later. Usually he is the one that the dogs crawl all over, maybe because I'm not usually sitting still long enough for them to gravitate to. But every day after Paul gets home they run and swarm him, jostling for the closest spot next to (or on top of!) him. At first I was worried that after the baby comes and takes the prime spot in "Papa's lap" the dogs might freak out and misbehave, so we've been practicing with a dolly dressed in baby clothes and they've actually done great. They just sniff and then settle into the next closest spot, at least for now! We'll see how it works out when there's a real live baby along with all the smells and noise, but I'm sure they'll do fine. We've been watching all those cable shows on tv about bringing new babies home and the different challenges everyone has in the first few days, and although I know it doesn't count as official education on the subject we have some idea of how it might go and what we can do to help the dogs adjust to this new little human member of the back while still keeping the baby safe. I was thrilled to get these pictures for our baby girl so she can see how our precious little Cotton snuggled up to her even before she was out of my tummy. I'm sure in no time he will become her most devoted little protector. Priceless!

Any Day Now...

We are so excited to meet our baby girl! Although her due date is still more than a week away (October 13th) we are hoping we won't have to wait that long. I must confess that pregnancy is much less fun toward the end, but I had it so easy at the beginning that I suppose I have still been very fortunate. I think nature's mechanism for guaranteeing the survival of the species is to make the mother so uncomfortable toward the end of gestation that she will do anything just to get the baby out, even go through painful labor! At this point I would welcome some honest-to-goodness pain if it means getting past the constant discomfort of back pain, heartburn, and the other delightful alterations to various bodily functions. Yeesh! The first 7 months seemed to fly by, but now every day seems like a week. Thank goodness humans have a much shorter gestation than many other mammals though, such as the African elephant... almost 22 months on average, BLECH! But then again they have 200 lb. babies, so I guess it's a good thing they have so much time for all those cells to multiply.

I've experienced so many strange and wonderful things over the last few months, especially the physical changes caused by this new precious life. Between moving to Colorado in May of 2007 and January 2008 I had lost 40 pounds and was feeling healthier than I had in years. After I found out I was pregnant in February I kept waiting for morning sickness or some kind of unpleasantness to make an appearance but I just felt better than ever. I felt so good I couldn't believe I was really pregnant! At first it seemed like I would never see a visible "baby bump", in fact I was more than 6 months along before I was showing enough that people could tell for sure. Now of course it's unmistakable! Every little milestone has been so thrilling, even the day I looked down and realized I couldn't see my feet. And I remember being so amazed the first time I felt the baby move, in fact the first flutter happened the day of my 20-week ultrasound (the same day we found out we were having a baby girl!). But the best part by far will be seeing her little face and hearing her cry for the first time. That will be the most beautiful sound in the world!

Yesterday was my 28th birthday, and I found myself paying extra attention to every twinge and sensation in case I was going into labor early. Not that I would mind in the least sharing my birthday, but I don't suppose most kids would be thrilled about being born on the same day as their mom. Now just to make it past my sister Cara's 10th birthday (tomorrow) and then any day for the rest of October is fair game. My birthday present to myself was this blog, which we can now use to post pictures and updates as all the excitement unfolds, so keep an eye on your email for the next few days for baby's first pictures!

We are so thankful for all the love and support we have been getting from friends and family... this baby will be so blessed to have all of you in her life!