more pictures posted, but many lost!

This morning I had an "oops!" moment when I went to take pictures off our digital camera memory card. While copying them to the hard drive an error occurred, and I lost over fifty pictures from the past couple days! They have disappeared from the memory card, and though I have tried several methods, they appear to be irretrievable.

The sad part about the lost photos is that many of them were of Jana and Drew! You might have noticed a lack of pictures with Drew's lovely mom in them, so I was hoping to remedy that situation. However, I was able to get a couple pictures that weren't lost, and I'll be sure to follow up with more.

I'm so happy that the photo below made it because Jana is definitely more of an MSU fan than a UofM fan. Oh, the irony! Jana and I made a trip out for dinner last Friday night to Texas Roadhouse while Grandma Gezon watched Drew for us. It was nice to get out of the house with just the two of us.
I had planned a more complete photo series depicting the wonderful creation described below, but they are lost for now, so I'll make do with this picture of the "Pee-pee Teepee." The pee-pee teepee was a generous gift from Meg, and it is designed for the "sprinkling wee wee," which Drew definitely has! He has gotten himself (in the face) several times. He has hit the wall (several times). He has gotten our hand (many times). It has been quite amusing to Jana and me, so we have had a lot of fun using the teepee. Here is an excerpt from Bippity Boppity Baby's website describing the creation:

Pee-pee Teepee:
Changing a baby girl is not all glitz and glory.
Changing a baby boy is an even bigger horror story.
You hold his feet in one hand, and the diaper with the other,
The whole time praying "Please don't pee on your mother".

The pee-pee teepee for the sprinkling wee wee. This cone shaped cloth product makes diaper changes dry and easy. 100% cotton. Each pack contains 5 pee-pee teepees. Fully washable and re-usable.

I have included a picture of one of Drew's teepees, and I'll try to get a future picture of this product in action (I had some on the camera that were lost). It very nicely fits over him while we're changing (and protects his modesty), and it quite effectively deflects the pee. I'm definitely going to need to save this post to show his girlfriends some day :)

the week of 2/20/06 in pictures

Jana and I have been busy taking more pictures this week, so here are some of the pictures from the past week. We have no new events to report other than that Jana and Drew are both continuing to do well.

After being at work all day, I love to grab Drew and spend time with him in the evenings. It's the best part of my day!

Of course, as soon as I grab Drew that means that Jana reaches for the camera to get some photos of the two of us. Drew must think that he is in a photoshoot every night!



After a long night of watching "American Idol," both of us were pretty tired. Somehow Drew manages to work a hand out of his pajamas and out of his blanket. I think he just wanted to hold my hand! :)

While Drew is not always happy to be in it, Jana and I enjoy how tiny he looks in his car seat. He's getting bigger, but he has a ways to go to fill out the car seat.

update and photos

On Friday, February 17 Drew had another checkup with the nurse to see if he is gaining weight, and we were thrilled to find that he was up to 6 lbs. 14 oz.! He is bigger than when he was born! It was nice to hear that all the feeding efforts were paying off. Friday was also a big day because Drew finally got over the hump and fully figured out breast feeding. He had been getting better and better, but his stamina wasn't good enough to do it for the amount of time to get enough food. Now that he has the hang of it, we can put away the cups and finger feeder. Feedings are so much faster now! Yeah!

This weekend was also a big weekend for Drew because he had his first outing. On Saturday afternoon we braved the bitter cold temperatures and went to Grand Rapids. His first visit was to see great-grandma Gezon, who was thrilled to see him for the first time. Next, we took him to Grandpa and Grandma Aupperlee's house so that the Vryhof side of the family could see him. He had a very big day, and we found that Drew loves to ride in the car (as long as it is moving).

Of course, I can't merely give an update, but I have to include some photos as well. Here they are:We still strip Drew down to his diaper for feedings, but he is getting close to being able to eat fully clothed. I get to help with getting Drew ready for some of his feedings.
And I get to do some of the burping afterward.
And I help keep Drew calm while Jana is getting ready to feed him. He loves to suck on a finger! Look at how small his hands and feet are!
Fortunately, that isn't a significant digit he has raised here (I didn't teach him that!).
I do like playing with his hands though.
I finally captured Drew mid-yawn. We love his yawns!
I'm not going to recommend this as Drew's look for the beach, but the diaper/hat/socks look seems to be working for him here.
Drew gives us a lot of these serious, contemplative looks. We're still guessing about what he might be thinking.

Grandpa Gezon

Jana pointed out to me that I had yet to post a picture of Drew with Grandpa Gezon. Here is a photo to remedy that situation. He was very excited to meet Drew too!

It's been a busy week!

Here is Drew with his eyes wide open for Grandma Sue. How does she get him to do that?Yeah! Here I managed to get him to do it too!We'll have to see what side Drew takes eventually, but he doesn't look too happy in his UofM shirt from Grandpa Bill. Is he destined to be a Spartan fan?Here is Drew getting ready for his first trip out of the house. On Thursday he went to the pediatrician's office with us and got a very good report. His weight is started to come up and his head is rounding out a little, so he actually lost some height and gained some head circumference. All in all, it was a very good visit because we got a new method for feeding Drew and we got permission to do a four hour feeding interval once each night. YES! We have moved on from cup feeding and are now supplementing Drew's breast feeding with finger feeding. Here I am below taking my first try at it. It's so much faster than cup feeding!
The milk comes out of the holder and goes through a tube that runs along my finger. As Drew sucks on my finger it pulls milk down the tube and into his mouth.
This is one of the problems with breast feeding: Drew likes to fall asleep during the middle of it! We have to be mean to him and flick the bottoms of his feet to keep him awake.
Drew is working on his "Zoolander" male model pose!
Isn't he adorable?!!
We gave Drew a sponge bath on Friday night (our new Friday date activity?). Here are a couple pictures from his first bath at home. Don't worry, no baby nudity here!


All this activity from us tired Drew out! Here I managed to catch him mid-yawn in his hooded duck towel post-bath.
Keep visiting for more photos (when I get the chance). We are continually thrilled about Drew; we just hope to catch up enough on sleep so that we can take the time to enjoy him! He's keeping us busy!

More Drew Pictures!

Drew came home on Monday afternoon from the hospital. We are so happy to have him home! This first picture is the outfit he wore to go home in.


Here is Drew's snowsuit for his first cold weather experience. He has room to grow!
Here I am holding Drew in our living room for the first time.

Here are a bunch of pictures of Drew sleeping (he sleeps a lot . . . thank goodness!)



Occasionally, he wakes up and shows us his eyes!
Drew is slowly getting the hang of breastfeeding, so for now we have to supplement with cup feeding. He's starting to bulk up now though due to all our efforts.

The first pictures of Drew

Below is Dr. Maurer, our doctor, and the med student, Abigail, who assisted him in delivering Drew.

Here is one of the first pictures where Drew is opening his eyes. At first they were dark brown, but by Saturday morning they were blue.

Here is our first family picture!
Look at how small Drew's footprints are!

Drew doesn't appear to happy to be held by me. I was happy to hold him!

Drew was tired out after all the night's activity and so were we! But that didn't stop us from staring at him as he was sleeping.

Here's Drew without his hat being held by Grandpa Aupperlee.

Grandma Gezon was overjoyed to hold Drew for the first time!

Grandma Aupperlee had the magic touch with getting Drew to open his blue eyes for us to see!