Life at Home

Elijah is busy adjusting to life at home. Last night he was so excited to be here that he couldn't sleep and was awake all night. Needless to say, we are learning what life with a new baby is like! But the more we get to know him, the more we love him! Osk and Papa went to church this morning, but Elijah and Christina needed to sleep in after their big night. But Osk has faithfully and courageously gone back to the books and spent most of the day studying. He still has his finals looming before him and regretfully has to study. Elijah doesn't understand the law yet, otherwise they could do it together!
We love your comments--keep 'em coming!

Going Home

These are my first clothes!
What a big day for our little guy! We finally got to bring him home after 2 days in the hospital. Baby and Mom were given the all clear from the medical folks and arrived home about the same time that Elijah was born. So far he and his Pop have done a little male bonding: drinking beer and watching sports on TV. Bini, the dog, has no clue what Elijah is but she is quite curious and likes to smell him. Papa is out grilling us a long awaited home cooked meal.
Most of all we are happy to be home together. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers!





















In my carseat

Hanging with Pop

Happy day day, Elijah

Thank you for your thoughts prayers and comments. Here are some more pictures. We are trying to post pictures, but new babies take lots of time and we want to enjoy every minute with him. Enjoy the pictures, we should be able to go home by tommorow afternoon!

Habemus Filium

It is with great pleasure and joy that we announce to you: we have a son!

Elijah Jean Baptiste Klaas. Elijah weighs eight pounds four ounces and was born at 4:52 central time. Here he is with his mom. Christina is well and so is Elijah. They will be in the hospital a few more days (until Sat.).

Here is Elijah right after his cord was cut.

Elijah and his pop's hand




















Elijah visiting with his Opa

It's D-day...

She speaks:

As the day progresses, it appears that this baby will choose to make a late appearance. Not surprisingly, but now the waiting game is official and it technically could be any minute. Are you on the edge of your seats? Osk is studying for finals, but understandably remains a bit distracted. He was hoping for the baby to come all weekend, but God has other plans. Please pray for him as finals are stressful enough but dealing with an overdue pregnant woman could send anyone over the edge! As for me, I faithfully trudge to work tonight--time passes faster there anyway. The cheering squad, Papa Tom and Bini the dog, arrive after a long drive this evening. Maybe with their arrival the baby will decide that we're having too much fun without him and decide to crash the party. Does anyone know a name that means late and stubborn?

Request for clarification

There are some posts on this blog site that are causing great confusion to both O and C and perhaps the entire Klaas Baby blog community. To that end we want to request some clarification on who's who with the grandparents. Grams, papa, opa, oma - Oh my! All these names makes your comments like playing a game of Clue. Do you mind giving us all one (a clue)?

Easter Sunday has passed. We had Easter baskets. We had Easter Candy. We had Easter dinner with our friends Karen and Chris. But we had no Easter baby.

Chris and Karen have graciously accepted to be our honorary doula and doulo. A doula is a person trained in the arts of midwifery, but does not deliver the baby; she aids and comforts the laboring mother. Doula is a greek name, we are not sure if it has a meaning or is simply descriptive of a sound. Karen will not be in the delivery room, quite possibly making her the least effective doula in history.

Chris will be our doulo. Doulo is a word made up by osk. Since it is made up by a guy from Idaho it is not really greek at all. In fact, the duolo is responsible for only three things: cigars, libations and taping all the TV shows his buddy misses during the labor.

This is Chris and Luke's mustache

Karen and Chris

Osk attended the release of a seasonal beer crafted at a local brewery, Summit (http://www.summitbrewing.com/home.php). It was a good chance to relax for a while before the big push (get it? big push!) and drink some free beer. Although he found the beer needed an orange slice and smelled faintly of rubber.

Christina, for her part, is currently trying to decide what her first beer back will be. She leans toward a Blue Moon, but likes shiner bock and wishes she could get her hands on a Sam Adams winter. She also takes her mind off her discomfort by trying to recall the taste of Diet Coke and blue cheese.

We also hope that because our child is born so close to Lake Woebegone

does not mean that he will look like this guy.

Update

We had an appointment with a nurse practitioner this morning. Health wise everyone looks good. What we found out is that our hoped and prayed for delivery date of May 9th will not come to fruition. They don't want Christina to carry two weeks over the due date of April 25. So, if the baby hasn't arrived by May4th, labor will be induced. So, if you have a date later than that in the pool, take it up with the health care provider. That May date provides some unique challenges as far as finals go, but it will all work out.

Will the Easter Bunny Beat the Stork?

We find ourselves on the Paschal vigil, and still no little man yet. Osk would love to have an Easter baby. Christina wouldn't mind, although she much rather he be later. For one, Osk is very fond of a particular name for an Easter baby that she is not enamored with in the least. We won't mention the name in case Osk is persuasive enough to change her mind.

The weather here has been wonderful. Yesterday was sunny and neared eighty degrees. We took advantage by doing some yard work- raking the leaves leftover from last fall. Christina discovered some volunteer rhubarb along our fence line. Hopefully the feral rabbits won't make the same discovery (although we are not sure that rabbits even like rhubarb). We also learned that our back fence has a grape vine growing up and down its length.

Osk took advantage of the weather with a run through the nearby park. Being close to this park is one of the best features of where we live. Not only does it boast a beautiful little lake and golf course, but a solarium and small zoo as well.

Christina continues to work at the pediatric intensive care unit at one of the local hospitals. She plans to do so right up until she delivers. Yes, she is one tough lady, but that may not surprise a lot of you reading this.

We wish you all joy in our resurrected Lord, Jesus Christ.


The photo on the left is Christmas time at the Lloyds'. Grandparents and Uncle across the back row. Great uncle, aunt and cousin through the middle.
The picture on the right is another from Luke's visit, on St. Patrick's day.

More pictures

Here we are on St. Paddy's day at a local pub called the Nook.

Still no little man. Christina saw the nurse practitioner and has a good bill of health. Oscar had oral arguments today, it went well. He now has one class done. Please leave a comment below, name suggestions still accepted.


This is a picture of our halloween costumes. Osk was a baker and Christina was the oven with a bun. It was taken in our old apartment in Mpls.



Here is a picture from Uncle Luke's visit. It was great to see him. We had a great time and some good food at this German restuarant www.gasthofzg.com


The next week we had a visit from grandma and gramps (previously known as Norma and Tom). They drove out a car to leave with us and then flew out Washington D.C. to visit Uncle Tom (please no cabin jokes) to see the cherry trees and battle Japanese tourists.


Last week we had Uncle Tom and his girlfriend, April, here over night. They were on their way to a wedding in Fargo. The fact that God is trying to flush the town off his planet did not deter them.



Here are the two Oscars. Nick and Jess Vogel showed their appreciation of osk by naming their little puppy after him. Osk chooses to take it as a compliment.

We are still waiting

We are still waiting for the little man to make it. We are excited and nervous. It would be great if he could wait until after osk's finals, but he hasn't been on board with his folks plan yet. As far as we know, he is very healthy and Christina's tummy measures right up to the health standard. Mom and baby are looking good.

We put the finishing touches on the nursery this weekend, and managed to brew some beer on the same day. The hospital bag is packed, we are on stork stand-by.

Leave some name suggestions, please.

We will post some more pictures soon. This is in front of our house, on March 19th.

O-n-C