Sleepless in Seattle

We've been in Seattle for nearly 4 months now. I wish I could say the transition has been easy, but we're all feeling the stress lately. I've been putting in long hours at the hospital. The kids are going to bed between 6:30 (Nora) and 7:30 (Erin), so Fran has been doing the great majority of the child care and keeps our household running. She's settling in to her job as well-- 24 hour shifts and all. We've certainly enjoyed extended visits from Grandma and Grandpa Prekker as well as Grandma Beth.


Our house and neighborhood have been a pleasant surprise. We live within walking distance of the Woodland Park Zoo. Erin has identified her favorite animal (elephant), historical zoo attraction (carousel), and zoo treat (hot chocolate). Here she is climbing on a giant spider web, or maybe she's more of a turtle?



I've been lucky to be able to commute by bike to all 3 hospitals we go to. Shortest ride is 4 miles one way, longest is 10 miles. I stopped and gawked at this huge rainbow the other day. I like being close to so much water-- the pic above is taken from a bike trail on the north end of Lake Union.


Following an excellent tip from some Seattle friends, the Prekker family drove north of Seattle about 1.5 hours for our annual apple orchard adventure last weekend. This farm and orchard is in the Skagit Valley-- really beautiful and great weather too. This was Nora's first post-partum chance to go apple picking. I've since learned that Washington leads the U.S. in many types of agriculture, including the most apples, raspberries, hops, and sweet cherries produced.





Erin got to work right away and ended up picking a whole bag of apples herself (eating a few along the way!). We went on a hayride (bit hit) and made it 10 steps inside a "haunted house" before reaching the first corpse and deciding to turn around (not a big hit).

It was a wonderful day, rivaled only by the awesomeness of Fran's homemade apple pie later that weekend.

A good week

We've had a good week. Somehow I don't have any pictures of Erin this week, but Nora's cuteness makes up for it.

My first shift was pretty uneventful. I was on edge the whole time, but things went relatively smoothly and it helped that I had a low census with only 3 inpatients and 8 babies. I didn't take any new admissions and no big issues came up. I struggled with figuring out the system and am wildly inefficient, but made it through. The hard part was after wards; after feeling so triumphant about making it through the shift, I realized that this is just the start of an endless number of shifts because this is actually my job. Silly to think that this would come as a surprise, but it sort of did.


Jan and Dean are here helping out with the kids. Jan painted Erin's room this week and did a fantastic job. We moved all the stuff back in today and I'll take some pictures to post tomorrow. I picked out a yellow for the walls and it's way brighter than I was hoping for, but still a huge improvement over the dirty pink that we covered. Now I just need to work on the curtains, but it turns out that I didn't buy quite enough fabric for the job, so I'll have to pick up some more tomorrow.


Erin is having a blast with Jan and Dean visiting. She's been working on her monkey bar skills and also finally figured out how to put on the brakes on the little bike she's been riding. It doesn't sound like a big accomplishment, but it took a lot of practice. Erin started her preschool last week and so far seems to like it. The problem is that there are only a handful of kids in the class and they may close it because of the low enrollment. The upside of that is that they may roll her class into the 4-5 year old class and make it a 4 day a week program. I think that'd be ideal for Erin to be with the older class and hopefully keep her busier and more stimulated that I can at home.

Erin slept in our room while Jan was working on the painting and that was funny (ok, not funny at the time). I've always known that Erin wakes up in the night, but didn't realize that she wakes up every night at about 3:00am and is often awake for almost an hour. She is very content to talk or sing to herself or look at books, but it's hard to ignore when it's happening next to your bed every night. I also think this will make it difficult to get the girls into the same room together unless Nora turns into a really sound sleeper.


Matt continues to work a lot on this rotation. He also just informed me last night that for some reason this rotation is 5 weeks, not 4! Ugh. It seems like it may be getting slightly better as he gets more efficient and he has made it home for dinner a few more times lately. Overall, though, he is still working a ton, but continues to impress those he works with.

Nora is doing pretty well. She's now impossible to soothe at bedtime, but luckily she calms down on her own quickly after I put her down. She usually rolls onto her tummy, "complains" for a few minutes and then is out. She's gotten herself into a pretty good morning and afternoon nap schedule, but seems to still be a little short on sleep and is pretty fussy and ready for sleep around dinner time. Tonight she went down at 6:30. I remember Erin going through a period of really early bedtimes, but it's still tough to think about her going down for good that early. Maybe it'll feel better when it's darker earlier, but it's put a damper on our trips to the park after dinner. Nora is still up ~3 times every night, but now goes back down really easily for the most part.



Nora is still regularly rolling from her back to her tummy, loves to play in the exersaucer and is laughing out loud more regularly. She sometimes manages to get her knees underneath her when she's on her tummy, so I think that we're probably going to be baby-proofing the house before too long for a new crawler. I'm still trying to get her to practice sitting up, but she just wants to stand all the time.



Nora has her 4 month well check next week, so we'll see what her stats are, but she certainly seems chunkier than Erin was at this age.

I've got another shift on Sunday, so I'm hoping for another quiet day/night. It's still such a shock to the system to have a "normal" home life for days at a time and then just spent 24 hours at the hospital. Maybe nothing about this is normal...

So it begins...

I'm heading to the hospital tomorrow for my first official shift... all on my own. I'm terrified, but know that I've got to do this at some point. I just wish that I could put it off a little longer! I've been into work several times for meetings and orientations, but it's hard to imagine being away from the kids for 24 hours. I went back to work when Erin was only 12 weeks, but somehow this feels a little different. Luckily for us, Jan and Dean are out here staying with us, so Erin and Nora are in good hands.

Wish me luck!

And the updates on the kids:

Nora is doing better with sleeping. She's still rolling over, but it's more deliberate and not so constant. She does roll herself onto her tummy when she sleeps, but I've just let her go since I can't really stop her. It's harder for me to get her to fall asleep before I leave the room, but she's getting way better at falling asleep on her own. Now we're down to a few minutes of protesting if at all. She's still up 2-3 times at night, but is moving her bedtime earlier and earlier. She's now ready for bed by about 7:00. She's still happy and is starting to laugh out loud more often. She is also getting better at grabbing toys and getting them in her mouth. She's still a drool monster and everything I own is stained by spit up.

Erin is having a great time with Grandma and Grandpa here. She's almost able to do the monkey bars on her own now and Grandpa is working with her on using the brakes on her bike. All in all, she's having a great time with so many adults around to play with her.

Erin remains curious about everything and loves to ask questions. She loves to ask what words mean and then use them on her own. Over dinner last night she was trying to convince me that it was a dessert night, so she told me "I had a good dinner, I have a great appitude!" So now it's become a favorite around the house, the ideal combination of good appetite and attitude. She also misheard us talk about Harry Potter and starting calling him "Harry Powder." She got one of the books and flipped through it pretending to read it, but all she said was "Harry Powder, Harry Powder, Harry Powder." Funny stuff.

Well, gotta get to bed. Not sure if there are any new photos on the computer yet, so pictures next time.

Poor baby

Nora, Erin and I are down in Portland this weekend since Matt is working all weekend and this is my last chance to be down here before I start work next week.

Weather is great down here and we're having a great time... all of us except poor Nora. She is learned how to roll from her back to her tummy and now she can't seem to help from doing it. Even when she's exhausted in bed and ready to sleep, she can't seem to turn it off and she keeps trying to roll over. Unfortunately she's not entirely proficient and seems to get her arm stuck under her regularly and actually doesn't want to be on her tummy.

Since she's been able to roll over, even in a swaddle, I got rid of the arm down swaddle a few days ago. So now she's got her crazy arms waving around and then trying to roll over! Where last week, I could just lay her down wide awake and sit with her while she sucked on the nuk for a few minutes and then walk away, now it's not so simple. Needless to say, her sleep isn't so good this week and there's been plenty of fussing and crying.

Fortunately, even with the sleep and rolling issues, her happy temperament shines through and I'm sure that she'll settle down again soon.

A few more

Here are a few more, mostly from my phone while we were in Portland.


Erin loves the monkey bars, but mostly just to hang on and then drop down.


Erin watering Gramma Beth's plants.

Naked water play.

Sleeping in the front pack.


Baby in the front carrier... yes, she's wearing some no pants.


Erin and Nora playing.
Mama and Nora at the zoo. Looks bad, but she was so comfortable like this she fell asleep.


Erin watching the raptor show at the zoo.


Erin sitting on the lion at the zoo.

Erin playing dinosaur at Gramma Beth's. She was dinosaur Bobo and Nora was dinosaur Lesper.

Erin at the wadding pool at Green Lake.


Nora trying to roll.



Erin at the fountains at Ballard Commons.


Happy summer girl.

The pictures

Somehow we haven't managed to take all that many pictures recently, but here are a few:


Erin loves to play with Nora in her bouncy seat and Nora loves to give Erin her biggest smiles.

Nora is getting great at tummy time and has rolled from her tummy to back many times. Yesterday she rolled from her front to back a few times!

Nora is a drool monster. She is always wet from chin to navel. The diaper burp rag is a constant companion to mop her up.
Serious baby.
This is more like what we usually see. She's a very happy, smiley baby.

Erin playing with her "puppy."

Our dining room.
Our playroom.
Our kitchen.
Our living room.

Pictures of upstairs are coming, but somehow it's always a mess up there with a sleeping baby to tiptoe around.

We are alive!

I've been looking at the computer this week each day feeling guilty about our lack of posting. Not only are we away from family and friends with a rapidly changing baby, but this is also the only "baby book" that we have. Will Nora think that we didn't pay any attention to her from weeks 5-14?

I suppose we have plenty of excuses, but I still feel bad and also overwhelmed with the idea of trying to chronicle all that has happened since we left for the lake on July 1. So, I'm going to start fresh and catch up as I can.

Nora is 3 months old now and a fantastic baby. She continues to have a nice even temperament and each day gets more and more entertaining. About 2 weeks ago, she discovered that she could blow raspberries and spit. Now she spends so much time blowing bubbles and spitting that her shirt is usually wet from her neck down to her belly button. She doesn't seem to mind and gets so much joy from it. She also discovered her feet 2 days ago. She's now working on trying to grab them (those legs have a mind of their own) and get them into her mouth.

Right before we left Portland last week, she had an evening when she rolled over about 5 times in a row. Mom was there, so I know that I wasn't making it up. However, since then she hasn't come close. It's like the idea hasn't crossed her mind again. She is getting really strong with tummy time and tolerates it way better then Erin ever did. She actually seems so strong all over- she never wants to sit these days and is much happier standing. To get her to sit on your lap, you have to bend her in half, which she actively resists. Silly baby.

She continues to coo a lot and is very smiley and we've even heard her laugh out loud a few times. Erin is very good at getting her to smile and Nora loves to watch her big sister flit around the room. What great entertainment. Generally our only issue with Erin and Nora is that Erin loves Nora TOO much and wants to always be right there in her face kissing and hugging. I suppose there are worse problems to have.

Although Nora is a very easy going baby, she is not quite the sleeper that Erin was at this age. I suppose that I can't complain too much, but Erin ruined my expectations! Nora is now up 2-3 times at night. And this week, I finally convinced her to go to bed before 9! She's now been asleep by 8:00 for the last 3 nights and getting up around 8am. Not too bad. Nora does have Erin beat in the nap department though. If we are home all day without big disturbances, Nora takes a 2-3 hour morning nap and a 1-2 hour afternoon nap and then a variable late afternoon snooze. Erin was way older before she got on any kind of nap schedule, so this is great. If I'm lucky, I get the afternoon naps for Erin and Nora all lined up and get an hour or two to myself in the afternoon which is amazing.

Nora is still a great nurser and has no trouble taking a bottle. She's quite a chunk and is working on multiple forearm rolls and a forth chin. I'm not sure if it's because she's eating more volume lately, but Nora has become a champion at covering everyone and everything in spit up. My shirts are all covered in spit up by the end of the day and I've experienced the horrid spit up down the cleavage a few too many times to count. Ugh. I'm just holding my breath that she starts to outgrow this soon. We started Erin on rice cereal at about 4.5 months mostly out of curiosity, but I think that we'll hold off for Nora. No reason to make even more of a mess.

We're still not sure who Nora looks like, but seems to be keeping her own look. I went back and looked at pictures from her first month and she looks just the same, only bigger. She is getting more hair and sometimes it looks a little reddish. Her eyes are still very blue and she may actually keep them so we'll have a blue eyed and a brown eyed girl. Where's my green eyed baby?

Erin is doing well too, just not changing as quickly. She's still full of questions and non-stop chatter during the days (and nights too). Overall she's doing well adjusting to life in Seattle, but I think that she's a little bored and eager to have more kids to play with. Since we've bounced back and forth between MN, Portland and Seattle this summer, we haven't met as many kids here as we'd like to and so it's a lot of Mommy and Erin time and man is Mommy boring. We are planning to have her in a community preschool 2 days a week and also sign her up for a few classes to keep her busy.

As I mentioned, Erin is a great big sister and her only downfall is over exuberance over Nora. It's been hard to keep her as gentle as needed with both Nora and Duncan when they are both just so exciting! Erin seems to love her role as the big sister and a few weeks ago asked that we refer to her as "the big sis." She also loves to talk about herself as "the big girl," and will ask, "what is the big girl doing now,'" and "what is the little girl doing now?" Erin also nicknamed Nora "the squawker" when I told her that Nora was just squawking as she cried in her car seat.

Erin has more interest lately about taking care of her baby dolls. When I asked her the other day what she was going ask for from Santa this year, she told me she wanted a pump (a real one, not a pretend one Mommy!) so she could feed her babies. Today she was pretending to pump for her babies, but told me "my pumpers don't work today... maybe tomorrow."

We have an elementary school 2 blocks from our house and it has a great play structure. Erin has gotten more and more adventurous playing there almost daily. It amazes me to see her climbing around like a monkey and flip over the bars by herself. She is also working on riding a scooter and a bike with training wheels. We've got a ways to go, but she is certainly making huge progress this summer.

Our house in Seattle is working out great. It's a great central location that is close to lots of stuff. We've been walking to the library, the wading pool, the zoo, the farmers market and the grocery store. I've been getting spoiled with the great weather here this month and it's going to be hard to give it up when the summer ends soon. But, I'm hoping that we can still get our rain gear out and continue to enjoy the neighborhood when the weather turns.

Matt has been working a lot and usually is leaving the house by 6:30am, but luckily he's been able to make it home for dinner most nights and has always been able to be home to get the girls to bed. I'm still not sure how he's able to survive on minimal sleep, but he keeps ticking day after day. He's been biking to work and it's been great to incorporate his exercise into the daily routine (something I need to do ASAP). So far fellowship feels (to me) a like residency- like we're doing the same thing just in a different location.

I guess that while there are some fantastic things about Seattle, it still doesn't feel like home and it's hard to imagine it feeling like home. I miss Minneapolis and I miss Portland. The first few days here were some of my worst and it felt hopeless trying to figure out how I was going to make it another 3 years here. The hopeless feeling is gone, but it is still very lonely here. I think part of it is the shock of being home full time with the kids, but a lot of it is that we still don't know many people here and we're not hooked into the community yet. Making new friends has never been a strength and now I'm trying to do it as a (mostly) stay at home mom. Not going so well so far.

Just to add some more to the mix, I'm starting my new job soon. My official first day is September 1, but I won't actually work my first solo shift until September 11. I'm still slogging through paperwork and hoops to jump through. Turns out that being affiliated with the UW, CUMG, Seattle Children's, Providence and Evergreen is more than a little complicated.

I did my first orientation at Providence last Monday. I guess that it went well, but man this is going to be tough. It occurred to me how challenging this is going to be to relearn medicine, practice solo and try to be efficient while learning a whole new system. On top of that, things are done a little different out here and so I'm going to have to spend a bunch of time trying to sort out the way I've learned things vs how things are done here... like the evidence behind giving everyone 1/4 NS!

We're also trying to figure out how to make child care work. Mostly I'll be working ~4 24 hour shifts/month. We're going to have Gramma Beth come up for most of them, but still need to work out a back up plan. Yet another thing for the "to do" list.

The back drop of this whole summer has been Papa Joe. I'm not sure that I've ever mentioned on here before, but Dad has early onset Alzheimer's. He was diagnosed 3 and a half years ago, just before his 60th birthday and has had a very rapid decline. Just after I came up to Seattle for the first time this summer, he got sick and stopped walking and started needing even more personal care. It became obvious that he was no longer safe at home and we (Jeannette and the kids) couldn't continue the round the clock schedule that we were working through, so we needed to move him to a care home. He went in and out of the hospital a few times and is now settling into his adult care home, which is great. However, he rarely knows who I am anymore and we all know that the next crisis is coming soon... It's funny that these weeks can all be distilled down to a few sentences, but it's been a stressful, miserable and heart-wrenching time.

Ok, I've rambled on for long enough. More to come soon.