We're still here

We haven't been hiding.



I suppose some of you have been wondering if the Denver Wilkenfelds had fallen off a cliff somewhere, never to be heard from again. That is not the case, however having a baby can have the same effect of limiting ones time to blog. We (the blog is my responsibility so this is an effort to share the blame) offer our most sincere apologies for our absence.

As you might imagine, a lot has been going on around here. Eliana is practically an adult now so let me bring you up to speed.



Eliana is a big smiler these days. She greets us each morning with a big gummy grin. There is no better way to start the day in my opinion. She also wakes up talking and laughing, which is both amazing and a little odd.



We definitely have a mountain baby on our hands, as you can tell not only from the hat but also by the amount of fleece she is wearing. We are ready for spring though. We want to play outside and show some skin (not too much of course).




"There is no Eliana, only Zule" (think Ghostbusters). Yes the girl is not just a pretty smile, she also has range. This is her attempt to hypnotize us. She is saying "take out my dirty diapers dad."



Ingenious or a hazard? You be the judge. Eliana and I go grocery shopping every Wednesday and as you can see she carries the load.

We have a very nice schedule these days. I am lucky this semester and only teach twice a week meaning I am at home with Eliana the other three. Britt has been working from home two days a week so between the two of us Eliana has one stay at home parent. I am transitioning to a full time stay at home dad for the summer. In the fall its time for daycare. Mommy has to make that paper and daddy needs to graduate already.



We have also hit some important developmental milestones. Eliana is totally interacting with the people and toys around her. She grabs toys with purpose and can find each of us from across the room. She is almost ready to roll over, but needs to figure out what to do with the downhill arm. She almost gave Britt a heart attack the first time she almost rolled over. It looked like she was going to roll over and pull her arm out of socket.



She also has head control and loves standing (with some assistance of course).



Eliana loves watching her dad fold laundry (not willing to lend a hand yet) even when he throws clothes on her.



Well that's all for now. As you can probably tell, we are a happy family.

Merry Christmas!

Wishing all of our friends and family a Merry Christmas.

All the amazing firsts

We have been quite busy over here, and Eliana has been especially busy experiencing a host of new things in a very short period of time. To begin with, even though we loved having her in our bed and cuddling her all night, we had to come to grips with the fact that she can't sleep in our bed forever (because our bed is a death trap). We moved Eliana into her crib in her very own nursery (well anyone who has been to out house knows there is not a ton of privacy in her room). She handled the move like a champ. She has been sleeping very well making us proud and sad at the same time. She is too independent too early for our taste.

Eliana wasn't done yet. She took her first bottle from her incredibly happy father this weekend and didn't seem to mind it at all. She is a world class eater and even though she loves her mommy, she seems to love the milk no matter the source.

In addition to the bottle she has dabbled with the pacifier. She is not quite sold on the pacifier just yet however.

And she wasn't done with firsts yet. Like the true Colorado native that she is we took her on her first tour of REI. She was unimpressed. What she was impressed with was our seating next to the brick oven in the pizza joint we ate at for lunch that day. All Denver parents should know that any baby will fall into a deep coma like sleep at the table closest to the kitchen at Proto's Pizza right next to the Wilderness Exchange.

Eliana celebrated her first Chanukah this week. She liked the lights but not her bib. This is the first of many embarrassing photos my dear - Christmas is just around the corner.

We also had another great photo shoot with our extremely talented, and available for hire, photographer and friend Stephanie Minior (the same Steph that took our maternity photos). The newborn shoot was a success, as you can see for yourself below. Here are some choice shots from the session.

In this last photo Eliana is laying on the blanket her grandma (Connie) made for her - the very same pattern she used for the blanket she made for Britt. For those of you that can't get enough of our precious little girl, here is a movie of all the photos our friend Steph took of Eliana a couple of weeks ago. Enjoy!

Thanks to all

Thanks to everyone who was able to join us and those that wished they could join us for Eliana's naming ceremony this weekend. You all made the naming a very special event for us. A special thanks to Kay and the rest of the Plotkin family for generously offering up their home for the event. Eliana has been soaking up all the time with family and friends. The outpouring of love has been so great and all three of us appreciate it.

Eliana has been up to so much these last two weeks and here is just a little taste of what she's been doing. She grows and develops so much each day. We hope you enjoy these few pictures.

Eliana and Britt have been spending a lot of time together. Britt is feeling much better these days and recovering very well from her c-section. Looks to me like Eliana loves her mom very much. It also looks like she wants to take a big bite out of her face.

She is so pretty in pink. Eliana and her dad already share a love of the hoodie.

Eliana's first bath.

koo koo kachoo

No more pictures please.

Stay tuned.

Happy Thanksgiving Everybody!

Eliana's story

We are home from the hospital now and have had some more time to heal, rest and most importantly spend all of our time with lovely Eliana. Now that we have had some time to relax we can finally share the exciting story of Eliana's entry into the world.

The first signs of labor woke Britt up at about 5:30 AM Sunday, November 11th. At that point Britt was having contractions every 20 minutes or so. We patiently timed them for much of the morning until we were comfortable admitting to ourselves that Britt was indeed in the very early stages of labor.

Nervous and excited, we tried to carry on about our day. We read the paper, watched Meet the Press and cleaned the house. I need to stress the point that by mid to late morning the house was spotless. The significance of this point will become evident later in the story.

By the afternoon the contractions were coming every 15 minutes and were beginning to pick up in intensity. We still had a long way to go before we could even think about going to the hospital, but it was starting to ramp up. By 4:30 PM the contractions were no more frequent, but definitely more painful. It was at that time that a particularly powerful contraction caused a mighty wave. Britt's water broke and everything was about to shift into high gear.

Within 20 minutes after her water broke, Britt's contractions jumped from 1 every 15 minutes, to 1 every 3 minutes. Where is the transition we heard about? Britt tried to take a bath to manage the pain and to determine if this new pattern would persist. Indeed it did. It was about 5:15 or 5:30 that we packed up to go to the hospital.

Now, every doctor, birthing class instructor, and woman who has had a baby herself will tell you: "it's not like it is in the movies." I would like to amend that statement to include the following disclaimer: "except when it is exactly like it is in the movies."

After Britt's contractions started to come every 3 minutes I turned into Hugh Grant in Nine Months (yes its a terrible movie but the imagery is important here). We had our bags packed and ready to go, but I was an amped up idiot. I couldn't find anything, i started packing new bags, and I furiously started throwing everything I could into the car. I also slammed my finger in the car door. We (the royal we, it was all me) managed to completely destroy the house we had cleaned all day in a matter of minutes. It turns out it is not easy seeing your wife in pain. It wasn't until about half way to the hospital that I - not the one in labor mind you - finally started to calm down.

When we arrived at the hospital we found out that Britt was 4 centimeters dilated and progressing nicely. She labored in the room for a while before the nurses started to conduct tests and everything was going well (says the one who didn't have a single contraction, but the booboo on my finger hurt pretty bad). After every nurse in the maternity ward tried and failed to find a vein in Britt's arm, Britt decided to get in the jacuzzi to relax for a while. It wasn't until Britt was in the tub that a nurse anesthetist finally located a vein in Britt's wrist.

At about 6 centimeters Britt had passed her goal of laboring naturally through 5 centimeters and kindly asked for an epidural. I cannot stress enough how polite Britt was during labor. She apologized on more than a few occasions for burping and swearing. The epidural brought instant relief, however things were about to get interesting.

Not long after the epidural took effect the nurses started to look concerned. It turns out that each new contraction caused Eliana's heart rate to drop significantly. The nurses attempted to correct this problem by changing Britt's position regularly hoping whatever was causing Eliana's stress would subside. Nothing worked.

The doctor was called to our room and he said we were out of options and soon to be short on time. We needed to get Eliana out of there before here heart rate fell too low for too long. He recommended a c-section.

A c-section was obviously not in our birth plan, but it was medically necessary at this point and all we cared about was the health of our daughter. We consented to the c-section and we were rushed off to the operating room. The operating room is by definition controlled chaos. There were at least 10 doctors and nurses in the room and each was busily prepping Britt and their instruments for the procedure. Britt was numbed from the chest down and a curtain was drawn to prevent her from seeing the cutting that was taking place. The doctors were amazing, especially Murphy the nurse anesthetist who I credit completely with keeping Britt and I calm and focussed throughout the process.

At 11:59 PM, just one minute shy of her due date and less than 30 minutes after being told we needed a c-section, Eliana was born. Her umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck and her lungs were full of meconium. After the doctors suctioned all the goop out of her lungs and an hour and a half in the transition nursery she was happy as a clam in her mothers arms.

We all spent three days, counting Sunday, at the hospital recovering. We are home now and we are a complete family. We spend our days staring at Eliana and wondering who this beautiful girl is going to be.

Just a few pictures

Okay we heard you all - you want pictures - so here are just a few. We are not up to much these days. Britt is healing up nicely and baby Eliana is just great. We probably wont be leaving the hospital for another day or two but we have really been loving the time together. In the meantime, enjoy the pictures.