One Month Birthday

Elias is one month old today. We have really enjoyed our new addition to the barrel. Although it has been challenging raising a newborn, it has been rewarding. Oma left the barrel last Friday and now Mama and Daddy are on their own. Elias took his first bottle at 4 weeks and downed it like a champ. Although it was 4 oz, he still managed to nurse for an additional 45 minutes. He has put on another pound and weighed in at 10 lbs last Thursday when he went to visit the Brilliant Pediatrician and Dr. Shapiro (hemophilia hematologist). He also grew one inch, putting all his measurements in the 75 percentile. Here's Elias wearing one of Daddy's old outfits:


He has more "good" sleeping nights than "rough" ones, which consists of waking up once between 2 and 3 am from 11 am to 5 am. However, cluster feeding nights still occur every few nights and we are trying to figure out if it's growth spurts or something Mama ate (we have cut out dairy, chocolate, and wine much to Mama's disappointment.) Elias is "talking" a lot more with hilarious goos and gurgles. He also has figured out how to spin the shape on his Ikea gym.

We think he is brilliant, but then again, we are his parents. Happy Birthday Elias from the barrel!

Father's Day

Daddy got to celebrate his first Father's Day. After an 8 hour study session in preparation for taking the Indiana Bar, we all met Daddy down by the law school at the canal. Here's some pictures taken by Oma of the proud Pappa:

Growing boy!

Elias continues to grow more and more each day. This week at breastfeeding support group, he weighed in at 9 pounds! That's over two pounds since birth! Elias has shown his new weight mostly in his limbs and face. The excited thing about being at 9 lbs, is that he is now big enough for his cloth diapers! We have chosen to try the cloth diaper route for a couple of reasons.
1. Economical. Although up front cost of building the cloth diaper stash can be a bit expensive, especially if you want the nicer brands, the cost over the first year of a babies life is half for cloth diapering. One can expect to spend over $2200 on disposables for the year. With cloth diapering, one can easily do it from $700 to $1000 over the year. We also have a new HE washer and dryer that makes doing dirty diapers much easier and not as expensive energy wise. These days, we can all save a dollar or two!
2. Environment. We all know that disposables do not biodegrade, or do VERY slowly. Hundreds of years from now when archaeologists are digging up our trash, what will they find? Diapers! Disposable diapers make up the 3rd largest item of trash, following newspapers and beverage containers. I wonder what our descendants will think--we are a society of babies who read the paper and drink Coke?
3. Health. There are less chemical irritants in cloth diapers as compared to the "super absorbent" disposables. Babies bottoms are able to breathe better, leading to less diaper rash. Babies who are cloth diapered are on average able to potty trained sooner, so they say. We can only hope.
Now we are slowly transitioning into cloth and still use disposables, especially for going out on the town as he is still a champion pooper and wetter.

Here's Elias modeling his new cloth diapers (thank you to those who helped us build our stash!!!).

We are big fans of two methods. Bumkins covers with a chinese prefold (unbleached for more absorbency) and Bumgenius 3.0.

Elias' favorite activity still remains to be bath time.

"You are baptized!"

We still continue to exercise daily and he is getting to be a very strong little man!

Kisses for Daddy...

Lastly, this week Daddy went to the Phish show here in Indy. Elias wore his new tie-dyed onsie in hopes that Daddy would bring him along, but alas he was too sleepy to go.

Happy third week everyone!

Woche Zwei

It's been a busy week here in the barrel. Elias continues to grow and fill out from his Mama's good nourishment. By Tuesday he was up to 7 lbs and 13 oz at breastfeeding support group. He also has been working on his exercising with daily tummy time. He's able to hold his head up longer, prop up on his elbows on mommy's chest, do a froggy jump off Mama's belly and rolled over from his tummy to his back! All in a weeks time. Mama (being the physical therapist she is) is very proud of her little monkey!


Elias was able to meet another family member, his uncle D. Uncle D is in town to see Phish shows and visit friends and family in Indiana. Elias is jealous that he cannot go to the famed Deer Creek (now known as Verizon Wireless Music Center) to see the Phish show in a week. He very much enjoyed his time in Virginia. Hopefully someone will stream the concert online and we can watch it on the internets.


Also this week, Elias' cord fell off to reveal a most perfect "innie." This event also signaled a "First" of getting a real bath. We were all prepared for him to scream bloody murder and did all the necessary preparations like feeding and getting his bowels all emptied. However, after the initial shock of being lowered naked into the warm liquid, he loved the bath! We think we have a little water baby in our hands...look out Michael Phelps. Since swimming is a recommended sport for those with hemophilia because it is a non-contact sport and can keep his muscles strong to protect his joints, we hope that the love of water continues. His uncle T was a swimmer growing up and still uses it when completing triathlons.


Tomorrow we celebrate Father's day with the Flora clan, so many more pictures will be taken. Elias is a very good model as shown here by his "strike a pose" picture:

Our birth story

Many have requested our birth story. So we are gonna share our amazing experience. On early Tuesday morning (5/26) Mama woke up with some contractions about 15 minutes apart. They lasted long enough for her to not see her patients scheduled that morning, but then fizzled out around noon much to Mama's disappointment. Then nothing for the rest of the day. She tried everything--walking, playing with another baby, drinking water, eating pineapple, but nothing. At least until Wednesday morning around 3:00 am when contractions began again at about 15 minutes apart and much different in sensation. Mama was very excited and again tried to keep things going. So Mama took a few laps in the neighborhood which helped bring the contractions closer together. However then they lasted for about 6-9 minutes apart and were manageable for most of the day. She could cook dinner, talk on the phone, watched the Champions League Final (go Barcelona!) and So You Think You Can Dance until about midnight.

By midnight a thunderstorm rolled in while Daddy helped Mama through her contractions. By 2:00 am they were 4-5 minutes apart and off to the hospital they went! At the hospital-hotel, they checked in and got us our room. Unfortunately the natural childbirth room was not available, so we were not able to get our tub. Our doula arrived and helped Mama and Daddy with their labor. We are so very thankful for our doula. She was a Godsend. Well worth the money and much cheaper than an anesthesiologist! She helped Daddy by giving him breaks and Mama with techniques to progress labor and to make her more comfortable. Active labor lasted about 15 hours with an included 1 1/2 hours of pushing. Mama did the entire process naturally (without an epidural or pain medications). We are fully advocates of natural child birth in that it was a beautiful and positive experience. Mama felt great within hours and needed no more than a couple of Tylenol pills over the next few days. Elias also did really well during the whole process and never distressed once. The OB doctor was impressed by Elias status throughout. He was born on Thursday May 28th at 5:16 pm.

Soon after he was sent up to the NICU for a 4 hour observation to assess if he experienced any birth trauma since we did not know his hemophilia status. Mama is a carrier of Hemophilia, so there was a 50/50 chance Elias would have the blood disorder. Diagnosis is made by a sample of his cord blood. The results were not available until the next day (which we found out he does have hemophilia.) Gram, Granddad, and Daddy went with Elias up to the NICU while Mama finished recovering and eating some food--boy was she hungry after not eating and giving birth! Those cheese and crackers with OJ were the best that her doula brought her! We only had to stay in the hospital for two days and were waiting mainly on Elias' metabolic screen. But we were able to leave and head home only to another thunderstorm. We picked up Oma on the way home and started our adventure of having a baby with no manual.

Week One

Hello Everyone! I am officially one week old today and it's been a busy week so far. I have become a master eater and pooper, as well as sleep from 1-4 hours at a time. (Mommy wishes it were more, but hey...I'm a growing boy with a tiny tummy!)

I am spending sometime getting to know Page the cat.

I met the nice pediatrician earlier on Tuesday and gained 8 ounces from my discharge from the hospital-hotel. And today at the specialist I broke the 7 pound mark, weighing in at 7 lbs and 2 oz. You might be wondering why I went to a specialist. Well like my uncle T, I have severe Hemophilia A, so Mama, Daddy, Oma, Granddad, Gram and I went to meet everyone at the Indiana Hemophilia Center. They were all very nice people even though I slept through most of the meeting.

Today I also got to meet two new friends, Asaiah and Sage. I know we are gonna be the best of friends and spend lots of time with our Dads.

Thanks for checking in! Doing well in the barrel.

Here I am!

My birthday

Meeting Daddy

My coming home outfit. Thanks to Summer and Jackson downunder, Gram, and Oma.



Yeah, I'm a ham. Actually, I'm dreaming of boobies...