Calista cooing... and so much more!

Two months ago today, I was in the hospital. It was a long day, and I'm glad it's over - partially because it means I now have a beautiful two month old baby! She has grown so much in the last two months, it's amazing. She is so entertaining and beautiful, and we love her so much. Now, for some pictures of Calista, because I can... and because my mother will love them.

Four weeks old

This is while we were sleeping on an air mattress, while in the process of moving. Not an ideal situation, let me tell you. But, hey, it's a cute sleeping naked baby!

One month old

I feel like this picture deserves a really good caption. Sadly I don't have one. Anyone want to come up with one?

Five weeks old

Kyler and I are still sleeping on the air mattress - actually it's our only piece of furniture, so we're living on it all the time. Isn't this a cute picture of Calista asleep in Kyler's arms?

We have furniture! Calista is asleep in her crib (yes, she's on her tummy. We don't let her sleep that way all the time. Let's move on.) and I thought the angle of her hand was really funny.

Six weeks old

Sadly, this outfit doesn't fit anymore. But she sure was cute in it!

This is her passport photo for the next five years. Sorry, Calista!

Seven weeks old

Ready to go to church! Calista had a bit of a cold, so her eyes are a little red, but I still think she looks adorable.

Tummy time!

The outfit she wore to the US Consulate, to apply to get her passport. The receptionist-type person said Calista looked so cute and that she loves it when people dress up their babies to come visit - it makes the people at the Consulate feel special!

Calista has started grabbing onto things more, like the sides of her changing table or the crib, as above. She also has starting turning, so sometimes when I come in after she's woken up, she's at a 90 degree angle from where we put her down. Silly girl.

She's starting to be able to use the bumbo. She's still a little wobbly, and starts to fall over after a few minutes, be she likes it until then. Plus, she just looks so dang cute in it!

She is starting to notice the things around her more, but she still doesn't really grab at them, unless it's accidental while she's flailing around. Calista enjoys looking at them, though, so we let her have her fun.

Eight weeks old

Kyler got Calista dressed one Saturday, and this is the outfit he picked out. He claims he didn't notice what it said until after he got it out of the dresser, and by then, he didn't want to pick another outfit... too much effort to grab something else out of the dresser!

More fun in the bumbo! This time, I put my gloves on her hands to see what she would do. Nothing really, as it turned out. She didn't really care.

More sleeping baby! How can one go wrong with pictures like this?

2 Months - today!

I asked Kyler what she should wear today, since she was two months old. He said, "Something that says 'I love Mom' or something." All right, whatever you say!

We'll see if this works... this is a video of her today, cooing and kicking and having a good time. Enjoy!

Calista is such a joy to have around, even when she's fussy and crying - which is generally only when she's hungry, dirty, tired, or having a bath, so no complaints there. We love her so much.

Losing sucks

The other day, Calista was enjoying some tummy time when she lost her pacifier... she's still working on controlling her sucking. Because I'm a mean mommy, I let her struggle trying to get it back.

The blanket when I put her down was flat. She worked and worked, and once even got the pacifier back - and promptly lost it again. Eventually it got pushed (by her) off the blanket where she couldn't pull it closer to her, and she gave up and fell asleep.

I could've given it to her, but it was so fun to watch her struggle and fight for it. Like I said, I'm a mean mommy. Plus, I think it was good for her.

Smile like you mean it

Calista has started smiling, and I've been working on getting it on camera. She has not always been helpful, however... she'll smile right up until the camera actually takes the picture, and then she'll look something like this instead:

Cute, but not quite a smile. So I keep working on it.

And so she puts her hand in front of her face.

Drunken smiles...

...and half smiles. I gave up trying for the night.

The next day, I wanted to get a picture of her in the outfit my mom bought for her.

She was looking so cute and was in such a good mood, I decided to try getting her to smile again.

I love the one with her hand in motion. She moves so fast she's a blur. It's a bird; it's a plane; it's SuperBaby's hand!

Finally I said to her, "Calista, I just want to get a smile on camera!" The next picture I took:

She just need to be told clearly what the objective was! Once she understood, she cooperated fully. Thanks baby!

How blessed we are

Last Sunday, September 4th, was Calista's blessing. We were so grateful to have so many family members come up for it, they helped make the day very special.

Calista slept through the whole blessing, which was rather convenient for everyone: Kyler didn't have to worry about holding a screaming baby, and the rest of us could actually hear what he was saying.

Here we are outside of the church after the blessing.

This is a better picture of Calista's dress. My mother made it using the material from her wedding dress, including the lace that was handmade by my great-grandmother, Calista's great-great-grandmother! It was the same dress her cousin Lilia was blessed in, and the same one her newest cousin Ivy will be blessed in next month.

After church, we had everyone over to our apartment for a lunch and pictures.

The Rasmussen clan. I would go through and say who all of them are, but man that would take a while.

My parents drove from Oregon to be with us (and for Dad to meet his granddaughter!)

Calista is screaming in this photo. She was hungry, and once we finished taking pictures, she got food and was happy again.

So, in case you can't tell from the two pictures above, we had quite a few people in our apartment! It was standing room only, but we fit everyone.

Carter, our 15-year-old nephew decided he wanted to take a nap. There wasn't any room for him to do so except...

...under the coffee table. He was out of everyone's way, didn't need to fear getting stepped on, and got to take his nap. Everybody wins!

To our new home (and native land)

So, what has happened since I last blogged?

Oh, that's right - We moved to Canada.
We packed up all of our stuff - thanks to some awesome help, since I'm still not allowed to lift heavy things - and put it all in a big trailer that some one else was going to drive for us, and then left behind our apartment for the open road.
Calista was actually pretty good for the whole packing/cleaning process. She fell asleep during the end of the cleaning.See the completely empty and freshly-vacuumed carpet?A close up of the napping, because moving is hard work!


Once we got everything out and in the car or trailer, we got Calista ready for her first roadtrip.
Car seat? Check. Adorable sunglasses? Check. Pacifier? Check. Calista's right ear? Check - she made certain of the last two!

With our baby ready to roll, we headed out. Traveling with her was really good. I pumped in the car while Kyler was driving, so we could feed her on the run. She slept almost all the time we were moving in the car, waking up to eat when we stopped to eat, too. We made it to the border on the second day, and that is where we begin to find that anything that can go wrong on this trip... will.

First, we didn't have our marriage license. We didn't really think we'd need it. The immigration officer at the border thought differently, and he made me cry talking about, "well, why is it in a moving truck?" and "we need proof you're eligible to apply for permanent residency." Me saying I've already turned in the application apparently didn't matter... except in the end, the lack of a marriage license apparently didn't matter, either. Grumpy Immigration Officer said, rather huffily, to go sit down and he'd do the paperwork, and a few minutes later, lo and behold, there is paperwork stapled into my passport and he sends us over to the counter for declaring our belongings, including the car.

Second, we didn't have our car title with us. We had the most recent registration, but not the title. This immigration officer implies that without the title, we can't bring the car into Canada, so Kyler spends 20 minutes looking in the car while I'm having a bit of an emotional meltdown while holding Calista inside. Finally, Kyler comes back in, sans title, and we ask another immigration officer what we can do. We decide to bring the car in under my visitor's visa, so it doesn't need the title. Once I get permanent residency, then we have to import it. This nice officer clears the rest of our goods and sends us on our way. Whew!

We spend a couple of days in Raymond with Kyler's family, taking car of some business. Like, we want to add me to Kyler's bank account, and also add about five grand of our money into the bank account. We write ourselves a check and go to the bank. Well...

Third thing to go wrong, Kyler's account was inactive. Not too big of a deal, but moderately annoying. They activate it, but then we find (when we go to pay for lunch) that the card still doesn't work. He has to go back the next day and get a new card, as well.

Fourth, there is a 30 day hold on all foreign checks, regardless of amount. Kyler and I are slightly worried about this, since that means we will have no money for a month. Eventually, an old friend of Kyler's from high school, who is the officer or whatever at the bank we are talking to about adding me to the account, initials our check and tells us the bank tellers will deposit it now without a waiting period. And they do! Win!

Fifth, I don't have a form of ID they like to add me to the account, since I'm not Canadian. Eventually we decide a passport works, and we go back to Kyler's parents to get mine. Finally, I am on his account.

Sixth, we want to get Canadian cell phones. Let me tell you, American ones are way better. With Canadian companies, you have to pay extra for call display and voicemail. How ridiculous is that? But that's not the problem we encounter. Through this event, we discover that Kyler... has no Canadian credit. None. This means no cell phone company will give him a contract. Eventually, we work it out to be added to Kyler's sister's family plan, and we are so grateful to her and her husband for helping us figure it out.

Seventh, the truck is supposed to be in Calgary on the Friday. Before they can deliver the truck to our place, we have to clear our goods with customs up there. But before we can clear our goods with customs, we need a form from the truck company, which will then need to be returned to the truck company after customs. The truck isn't supposed to get into Calgary until later afternoon... and customs closes at 4, and of course isn't open on the weekend. So on Friday, we head up, pick up the form from the truck company, and go to our apartment ready to spend 3 nights on our air mattress. What fun.

Eighth, when the truck finally gets here on Monday afternoon, no one is around to help us... Kyler's dad drove up from Raymond and gets here after a bit, so it's just Kyler and him, since I am pretty much useless between the baby that needs attention and the body that is still recovering from said baby. Kyler and his dad are exhausted by the end, but the truck does get emptied.

Ninth, kind of, our casualty list includes two goblets and a bookcase. And lots of dings and scratches on our pantry cupboard, headboard, bookcase, etc. Not too shabby, considering.

Through it all, Kyler and I took the Kurt Vonnegut approach to things:

Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward.

And, guess what? We survived. We have money in our bank account, cell phones in our hands, stuff in our apartment, and a beautiful baby girl. What more can we ask for?

What Dreams May Come?

So tonight we're staying in Dillon, Montana, about halfway to Raymond, on the way to our way to what will be our new home in Calgary. The next few weeks\months will be a time of turbulence and anxiety, but this blog post isn't about that. This blog post is about the dream I had last night.

We had made it to Raymond, and had set up Calista in her bassinet in my parents room. Right next to the bassinet, Suki had her dog bowl. Without warning, Calista starts being really fussy, and we can't figure out why. She cries for several minutes and we try everything, but nothing calms her down. It's then that, at one month old mind you, she stands straight up in the bassinet, walks over to the dog bowl, picks it up (which is a feat in itself. In the dream, the dog bowl is bigger than her), and says "It stinks!" and then tosses the bowl away. We are all dumbfounded.

Then I wake up, with Calista between Jeanette and I on our hotel bed, with Calista her non-talking, non-walking newborn self, and I am glad that such antics will be a long time coming.

Vampire Baby strikes!

Our baby girl is three weeks old today! How time flies... and how much better I feel now than I did 3 weeks ago, even with nighttime feedings and diaper changes.

Calista is seriously the cutest thing ever. We call her all sorts of things that aren't actually her name (who knows when she'll recognize it) including:

Bright Eyes
Baby Girl
Turtle
Salamander
Peanut
Pumpkin
Beautiful
Melon
Doll Face
Vampire Baby

Some pictures of the last couple of weeks...

3 days old:
Tummy time with Daddy. Calista actually loves tummy time, it's kind of strange. But, hey, no complaints from us. She is trying to crawl already, although not experiencing much success - thank goodness! I don't want to have to baby-proof our place just yet!



4 days old:
Ruffle bum! We think she looks really good in this color. Plus the ruffles are just so dang cute!



1 week old:
Still very much in love with her hands, Calista nearly always has them by her face. She loves the flail them around, claw at herself, suck on them... I guess I shouldn't be surprised, since in all her ultrasounds, she had at least one hand by her face, and she was born with her hand there, too.




9 days old:
See? She's enjoying tummy time while sucking on her hands! Can life get any better than this?



2 weeks old:
After a bath, it's a naked baby! See her up on her knees? And even better, see her curly-when-wet hair?


Just hanging out with Daddy. Does she have hair like his, and will it stay that way?


After a nice meal. She is generally an excellent eater, which makes my life so much easier!



15 days old:
I just think Calista is so beautiful. I am so lucky to have her in my life.



3 weeks old (today):
A couple of pictures for Loradona, Jill, Kari, Kristina, and Rachel. I think it's accurate, since they are all absolutely beautiful women.


My mom and sister left yesterday, so now it's just me and the babe during the day. Well, at least until we move... on Saturday. After that, Kyler will be around for a couple of weeks until school begins. I'm looking forward to spending time with him.
I am not looking forward to packing all our belongings up and then driving a thousand miles with a 4-week-old. And then unpacking all our belongings, yikes!

One day at a time... and today, my baby girl is beautiful.

And then there were three...

On July 26th, 2011 at 11:23 PM (23:23 military time!), Kyler and Jeanette welcomed Calista Elizabeth Rasmussen into the world. She was 8 pounds 10 ounces and 20 inches long.

Her coming was a long process, and I don't mean 9 months long. I mean I started having contractions every 6-8 minutes around 10 PM July 24th.
By noon the 25th, they were every 3-5 minutes and we decided to go to the hospital.
By 5:30 PM, the hospital had sent us back home, telling us to come back when the contractions hurt more.
By 1 AM the 26th, I decided they hurt more and we went back to the hospital... where they told us to go for a walk.
By 5 AM, the hospital was going to send us home again, just as soon as they had finished monitoring Calista's heart rate (which they had to wake her up to do).
However, by 5:30 AM, my water had broke, and by 6:30 it was confirmed and we were on our way to labor and delivery. Yay!
By 8 AM I had an epidural, though it didn't exactly last as long as would've been preferable.
By 3 PM, they decide to augment my labor with pictocin... and my epidural ran out while the anesthesiologists were in a c-section. I was having contractions every 1.5-2 minutes without any pain relief. It was fun. Kyler and I got to really practice my breathing, and discover that Kyler is a great support. Eventually I get the epidural back and it's all good.See? Pain management exists again, and life is pretty good!

By 8 PM, I am fully dilated and effaced, and the doctors decide it's time for me to push, which I do, with all the energy and effort I have... for 3.5 hours. During which my epidural runs out again, not that I have the strength to care; my entire focus is on pushing. Kyler said the longest sentence I utter in these 3.5 hours is "Even if I take a break, my body will just want to push."
By 10:30 PM, doctors are starting to offer options like vacuum and forceps. I desperately want to be done, but I look at Kyler and he says, with love and confidence in his eyes, "Just two more pushes. You can do it." Two pushes later, he says "Just one more! Try just one more!" And I do. And she's still not out. And I accuse Kyler of lying. But the doctors are now convinced I can do this, even though I'm doubting it more and more.
As I mentioned before, by 11: 23 PM, she is finally out. I am exhausted, more tired than I have ever been before in my life. I pushed with everything I had, all the physical and mental strength I could summon, and I had absolutely nothing left.
But I had my baby girl.
All goopy and cold, so the nurses covered us up with blankets.



Naked on the table to get measured. She's grimacing, annoyed by the camera interfering in her personal space.



We came home on July 28th, my actual due date.
We're getting ready to leave the hospital, and we are both dressed in our civvies.




At home, asleep in the bassinet.




And, of course...
Spending quality time with her daddy.

Our little baby girl is absolutely adorable, and I'll post more pictures soon.

Bullwinkle would make a good baby

The other day, I was in an elevator at work when a patient asked me when I was due.
Me: "In about two weeks." (July 28th, in case anyone forgot).
Patient: "I hope you don't give birth to a moose!"
Me: "Uh, yeah, I hope not."
Patient: "My niece just had a baby, and it was over eight pounds!"
Me: "Well, I was 9 pounds, 8 ounces when I was born."
Patient: looks me up and down and gestures with her finger, "Yeah, but you look like your body could handle it!"
Me: "Maybe, we'll see!" and I got off the elevator, thank goodness.

I'm not all offended, because it's too much effort, but I'm kind of thinking that somehow, telling me I could handle giving birth to a moose is a bit of an insult. Are you calling me fat?

I'm not nesting, just making messes.

Today, I...

• Took Kyler to work
• Went grocery shopping
• Ran the dishwasher
• Made two pans of enchiladas
• Made two pans of lasagna
• Made the apparently now-traditional Canada Day "trifle"
• Cleaned the kitchen
• Ran the dishwasher (again)
• Took out the trash

...all before noon.

I think it's time to sit down for a while.