Spiked Hair

A Happy Boy

He's been smiling for some time now, but I've never been able to catch them on camera. I was finally able to catch a bunch of smiles this morning. I was so happy that he was smiling, I just kept on taking picture after picture and he just kept on grinning away. It's amazing how fleeting his emotions can be though. One minute he can be perfectly content and happy, the next minute he decides that he wants to be held. I'm learning to decipher his cries and body language as well as anticipate his needs before he starts informing the media of them. It's quite rewarding as a mother to be on top of it, when I am.

Sleepy Baby

I just liked the play with stripes in this picture.


I had to wake the little guy this morning around 7:30 to feed him. He woke up once during the night for a brief feeding before we were back to sleep until morning. Two days ago, Eli slept all day and all night. I couldn't believe it. He fell asleep before 11:30 that evening, and didn't wake up until I got him up around 6:30 the next morning. I absolutely couldn't believe it.

No Excuse For Pictures

Baby's First Bottle

I began pumping on Saturday. I must say, I was quite nervous about the whole process. I seriously felt like a cow. But once I got the hang of it, I was fascinated and loved it! I can pump so that Dan can feed Eli! We took a bottle to his parents' on Saturday and Dan tried feeding him for the first time. He took it right away. I couldn't believe it. He drank the whole thing and then I needed to feed him some more. Our little guy has one rambunctious guzzler, I tell you what. It's no wonder he's growing so fast. I have no way to guage how much he eats unless I pump. It's fun to share the tasks of caring for Elias with Dan. As you can see from the picture above that Dan thinks so too!

Here's Chris enjoying his time with the family... or rather his piece of ice cream cake. I must admit, Dairy Queen does have delicious ice cream cakes.

The Bearded Bald Guy

Last week was Dad Simrak's birthday. He and Mom returned from the Bahamas on Friday evening. We celebrated his birthday together with the rest of the family and friends on Saturday. While he was gone, he grew a beard! He has a very distinguished look about him. I wish I had a better picture of him.

Bedtime Ritual

It's taken some time to figure out how we should do our bedtime ritual. With a newborn, nothing can be set in stone, but I've found that it's good to at least have something to work towards. After a week of long nights, we are finally starting to get things back to "normal" -- whatever that is. Tuesday night was the worst with each night progressively getting better. He's no longer crying inconsolably at night (occasionally in the evenings he will), but he's just hungry or more interested in being held and looking around than he is in lying in his crib and sleeping. However, I must say that now that we are more consistent in putting him in his crib, he is used to it and often doesn't mind lying in it awake.

To start off our bedtime ritual, I usually begin by feeding him. Then Mommy and Daddy together give him a bath using lavendar and chamomile bathwash. The scents from the warm water and the lotion I put on him afterwards tend to make him sleepy and relaxed. The lights go low, the white noise maker from the pack 'n play goes on (with the soothing sounds of night, complete with crickets), and Eli and I settle down in the nursery for one last feeding before bed. This is generally his longest stretch of sleep. If we can get through the last feeding without falling into a dead sleep, I try my darndest to get him to burp. Otherwise, I will pay later with the cries of a baby in pain and discomfort. The drops have definitely helped. I can tell a noticable difference when I neglect to give them to him. Hopefully, with the consistency of our ritual and with my persistence in putting him back in his crib after every night feeding, he'll slowly start sleeping longer. I'm encouraged that we have a ritual and that he is doing better in the night.



Aunt Tiffy gave these to Eli. We love them. They are so cute.

Our 9-lb Porker

I love Central Bucks Pediatrics. Everyone is so kind and helpful and they seem to all have a well-balanced view of things. For example, while they aren't breastfeeding nazis, they do promote it and prefer it over formula. I took Eli in today to see the nurse practitioner/breastfeeding consultant to have him checked out and to ask all the questions I posted in my last blog entry and then some. At 2:30, I was her last appt so she was able to extend our time for as long as I needed. She assured me that Elias is a healthy growing boy. He weighed in at 9 lbs! From 7.11 at birth to 7.4 when we left the hospital to 7.9 at one week and now at three weeks, he's 9 lbs even. What a growing boy! Being three weeks old, he's at the growth spurt time where he's going to be cranky and his eating/sleeping habits are going to change for a few days; they say to give it 48 to 72 hours for this to pass. Nancy Roe, the nurse practitioner, said she'd call in a few days to see how he's doing. What great service! She really instilled quite a bit of confidence in me telling me I was doing everything correctly and that we just needed to wait this out. Simethicone drops may help him or they may not. And they most definitely will not harm him whatsoever.

Thank you for your prayers. I was able to sleep a little this evening with the little guy on me. Dan came home and made dinner which was nice, so that I could continue sleeping. I hope we sleep better tonight...

Calming the Storm

Question of the week: What do you do when your 3-week old son is crying hysterically because of gas pains? How do you calm him when you've tried everything you know of to get rid of the gas? How do you remain cool, calm and collected when you're working on two hours of sleep in the past 24 hours?

OK, so that's more than one question. But I'm allowed. Seriously, the infant I have seen for the past couple days is not the same calm and content baby we brought home from the hospital. Last night was misery. The poor guy couldn't sleep for long periods of time without being woken by his little tummy hurting. The thought has crossed my mind several times: does he have food allergies like me? I know when my stomach hurts from eating the wrong foods, I want to cry. Just think of a little tiny baby having the same stomach cramps from his mommy eating the wrong foods! I've read and heard that researchers are saying that the foods I eat won't affect him as much as they once thought they would. But now I wonder if they weren't right in the first place. I've tried different burping holds, rotating his legs bicycle-style, warm water bottles, laying him on his tummy, laying him on his side, laying him on his back. I've even been giving him simethicone drops that my friend said worked wonders for her. To be precise, it "saved their lives." They seem to work better than when I don't use them. But even then, he has woken up, cried until it passed, then fallen back asleep. My heart really aches for him. All I can do is just hold him, cry for him, and pray. I'm taking him to the doctor today. Perhaps they will be able to give me some sort of advice and/or insight into the situation.

Prayers from you guys will be heard. If Christ can calm a storm by speaking to it, then He can calm the storm in Elias' body -- and keep me calm in the eye of it. I'll keep you posted.

Our Adorable, Silly Son

"First" Things

Everything is a first these days. With a new little baby in the family, dynamics have changed considerably. Dan and I are learning the art of "togetherness" even if there is a little one demanding so much attention. "Blessed are the flexible, for they will not break." But with the compromises and adjustments, we still find ourselves in awe that we are parents and that Eli is the perfect combination of Dan and myself. (We hope, anway. I suppose time will tell how "perfect" the combination really is.) Yesterday, we went to church for the first time as a family. Dan was holding Elias while we sang in worship. I looked over at him during one of the songs and saw that he was getting choked up as he looked at our sleeping son in his arms. He looked at me and said "I'm going to cry." Then of course, it was all I could do to hold it together. Sing louder. That always helps. It was just amazing for us to be in church together with our son for the first time singing praises to the Father realizing how blessed we are. We have so many reasons to be thankful. It's overwhelming.

Last Wednesday, we took our first family road trip to visit my family in upstate New York. Tim and Melissa were flying in from IL to see the little guy. Elias did very well: he slept or sat quietly the entire time we were in the car. We stopped once for a feeding and diaper change then booked it the rest of the way. We made great time considering it was our first time with Baby. We got a late start as we are still trying to figure out how to manage our time when it involves feedings and baby equipment.

As I mentioned above, another first was making the less-than-a-mile hike to church yesterday. To our surprise, we made it to church on time (though, barely). But we both acknowledged the fact that we were still earlier than we would have been without Eli. We knew we had to get up earlier and plan for more time. When it was just the two of us, we tended to sleep in to the last minute...or later.

Uncle Tim holding his first nephew for the first time.
Aunt Melissa holding her first nephew for the first time. She held him many many times in the next couple days. Eli really took to her too.

Aunt Angela holding a sleeping Eli. (Dan has labeled her "Aunt Peg" although she has never gone by Peg in her life.) My apologies for the poor quality of this picture.

It was nice to have people hold him while I got extra sleep or enjoyed other things. However, it caught up with us. I think Eli got tired of being held by so many people eventually. When we got home on Saturday, Dan went to work and I was home with a very clingy baby. By Sunday, he was back to his normal well-behaved self. I think a good deal of his fussiness is due to gas pains. Sometimes he seems to be clearly in a lot of pain from it. I just heard that laying his across my lap on a warm water bottle should help to soothe those pains. I need to get to a drug store to find a water bottle and try it before I'm up again during the wee hours of the morning trying to comfort him and work the gas out by working his legs and patting his tummy. Poor little guy. I feel so bad for him.

Random Pics

Elias and Friends

As you may have heard, Becky and Josh Sorensen had their daughter, Abby, on Elias' due date, Feb 12 - four days before Eli was born. And our other friend (that's right, we only have two friends), Wendi and Paul Johnson, had their son, Reed, on Feb 25 - nine days after Eli was born. Here are pictures of Eli's first meetings with each of them.

Poor little guy was overcome with emotion... Abby pretended not to notice him. Already she's playing hard to get.

As you can see, Reed and Elias took to each other right away. You know a good friend when silence isn't awkward.

Projectile What!?!

Well, I thought that I had seen it all. I really did. I mean, I'm kinda young and all, but I've seen a lot and I feel that up till this point that I had seen a lot of people, places, and things, but tonight my eyes were opened.
Here's the stage, Aunt Mary volunteers to change Elias. Elias our mild mannered son is quite docile at this point and gives no objections. Geniene and I finishing up our dinner offer our sincerest thanks and continue to eat.
Mary gets started on the diaper change and I quickly suggest she cover him up so that he doesn't pee on her. Alas, my warning was too late. Without notice a stream of pooh comes flying towards Aunt Mary and she dives out of the way.
Somewhat stunned, we all take a moment of silence contemplating the preceeding moments happenings.
Did that just happen? Did Elias just projectile pooh? Suddenly before my eyes are weird variations of the Exorcist. Is my child possessed? Now mind you, that this all happened within the space of about 45 seconds, and at this point he is still docile and content.
Fortunetely, the moment passed quickly and I realized that my dear child was not possessed. This was just one of those moments that we'll remember in the future and laugh. In the end everyone was okay; Elias kept sleeping, Mary was safe and the carpet was cleaned.
There is a moral here. When changing your baby, cover him up!

Daddy getting ready to change his son's diaper. He's so good about it. Dan, who has never changed a diaper in his life, took quite naturally the position as soon as Elias was born. It's amazing to see him so relaxed when he holds a crying baby. He has so much fun with him.


I needed a walk last night, so we bundled little Eli up and hit the sidewalk. Dan insisted on carrying him as opposed to putting him in the stroller, and since Eli is still too small, we aren't able to use the Baby Bjorn just yet. He absolutely loved the walk. He was awake for half of it, content just to be held by Daddy and hear our voices as we talked and the movement of us walking in the crisp evening air. About halfway through, he fell into a deep sleep which lasted for quite awhile.


These are just some cute pictures I took last night. I'm constantly taking pictures. I realized yesterday that I wasn't in any of them since I'm always the one taking them! So here is one of me. Not the best, but at least it's something.

I know most of you have been eagerly awaiting pictures of Elias and I just haven't had a lot of time to post them. The pictures are easier to post then to write about how everything is going.

Here are some pix of him today after his first shower ever. He was great...absolutely adorable. He actually really loved the shower! I had this adorable puppy dog robe that we wrapped him up in. Shortly thereafter, he fell fast asleep in his crib. So cute.

Every night gets better. Last night, I only woke up once to feed him. He doesn't like sleeping in the crib at night. I think it's b/c he wants to be close and the crib is so big for him now. I put him in his car seat last night and he slept better than ever. It allows me to rock him to sleep too without having to worry about putting him down and waking him up. I think we'll go with that for a little while. We'll see how it goes.

Mom is here for the week. I don't know what I'll do when she's gone. My sisters, Angela and Tiffany, are coming down for the weekend. They can't wait to see their nephew. Eli's Uncle Tim and Aunt Melissa (also his godparents) are flying into Albany next weekend to see him, so Dan and I will drive up there for a couple days. So at least we'll have events to keep us busy for a little while still.

I'll continue to post pictures as I get them. He really is so cute.

Jonathan Elias Simrak

Jonathan Elias Simrak came into the world at 7:02pm on February 16, 2006. He weighed in at 7 lbs. 11 oz. and was absolutely perfect. We are all three doing well.

My Valentine

As I was leaving the Sorensens house last evening after dropping off dinner, I got a call from my dear husband on his way home from work asking if we had enough money in the grocery budget to grab a light dinner at the Drafting Room in Springhouse, PA. After assuring him that we certainly had enough for Drafting Room Nachos (the best nachos I've ever come across), we decided to meet there.

As I watched my dashing Italian husband walk across the room to our table for two, I self-consciously realized that he was still in his nice work clothes, complete with tie and shiny shoes, while I, his 10-month pregnant wife, was wearing excercize pants and his Las Vegas t-shirt. Nevermined the fact that I didn't have conditioner in the shower this morning, so my hair was especially poofy. I quickly forgot (as I hope he did) when he leaned over to give me a kiss and handed me a card he had made for me.

On the front of the card was a blurred outline of a woman in a wedding dress, very much like mine. Behind her were the words of Abe Lincoln: he had sung these lyrics in his sister's wedding when he was a boy.

The woman was not made from one of the bones in the man's head in order to make it possible for her to lord it over him, nor was she made from one of the bones in his foot in order to enable him to trample and crush her. On the contrary, she was made from one of the bones in his side, so that they might share life together in mutual protection and concern and love and care.

We walk side-by-side, hand-in-hand, with Christ in the center. We are enabled to love each other so deeply and so strongly because of Christ's foundation. Valentine's Day this year marked one-and-a-half years of marriage for us. As Dan pointed out, it's been fast, but great. I don't know where I'd be without the blessing of having him as my husband.

A Valentine's Baby?

Well, my faithful friends, while I would like the day to be today, I would think it a bit gay (excuse the expression) to have a son born on V-day. Cute for a girl, but not so much for the boy. Thus, the waiting game continues. I have had absolutely no desire to update the blog unless I could announce the arrival of our dear son, Elias. But alas, I felt the need to do it anyway lest I lose my viewers and get emails and phone calls asking if it's happened yet. May I just say that it gets rather exhausting to keep telling people that we have not had the baby yet? Mostly because everyone's eager to know and we're more than eager for it to be done with. And still it hasn't happened.

My due date came and went last Sunday with no exciting news from the Gregson-Simrak clan. HOWEVER, Becky called me bright and early that morning to say, "Well, Geniene, it looks like February 12th is a good day to have a baby." (I happened to think so too, but no avail for me.) I was overjoyed with her. She had been waiting for 6 days since her due date, Monday the 6th. She delivered a 9 lb, 1 oz bundle of pink girly girl at 7:35 that evening. Naturally, it occurred on the second day of the biggest snow storm in recent history. Her name: Abigail Elisabeth Sorensen. What's even better is that she did it without any medication whatsoever. Her first out of three children. That's definitely something to aspire to. My mother delivered 5 children w/o medication and I admire her for it.

As my dad pointed out, inspite of his own eagerness and anticipation of the impending birth of his first grandchild, there is reason to rejoice. Just in December, we all thought that Elias would come early and that his health was in jeapardy. How sad it would be if I wasn't able to carry babies to full-term! Although I was dilating early, they were able to stop it. Now he doesn't want to leave the dark, close security of the rapidly shrinking space between my pelvis and rib cage! We can rest in the fact that carrying other babies shouldn't be too worrisome for me and that Elias is a healthy, perfectly-sized bundle of joy (we hope) who will light up our life once he decides to join us. He has already begun to bring us joy, even though we wait with baited breath and eager anticipation for his arrival.

It's not easy living life in limbo. I suppose I should just relax and enjoy the time I have to myself to rest and get things done that I wouldn't otherwise have the chance to do. I've been contracting regularly for several days now (more intense than previous weeks). His head is as low as is possible. I'm effaced about 80% and as of yesterday, a good 1 cm dilated. It sounds like I'm progressing and I know that the time is drawing near. It could be tonight, it could be next Wednesday when they induce me. Hopefully, it won't come to that. I'd like this to be as natural as possible. Please pray with us that when the time comes (hopefully it will be very soon), Eli's birth will be smooth and complication-free.

Thanks for your concern and your enthusiastic interest. I really do appreciate it.

Yo' Baby!

For those of you who are faithfully checking in to see if you should welcome Eli into the world, the answer is still an emphatic not yet.

This new experience of being pregnant for the first time has caused me to reflect on a lot of new ideas and even re-think previously thought through ideas about myself and my future. Nothing could have prepared me for the whirlwind of emotions when I looked at the home pregnancy test and saw that it was positive! Even after years of someday wanting children of my own and thinking how "glamorous" (?!) it must be to be a mother, I was in shock. Sure I suspected I was pregnant, which led me to take the test in the first place, but I was still in shock. I seriously must have looked from the test to the box and back at the test again to make sure I was seeing correctly for a full minute (minutes can be really long in some situations) before asking Dan to come in the bathroom to look at it. He confirmed that it was positive. Then it wasn't just me who was going through the whirlwind of emotions. Our whole lives had to change drastically from that day forward. We were back to the drawing board. Like I said, nothing could prepare us for pregnancy, even though we knew there was a strong possibiilty. But not once did we wish our little unborn child to go away. Sure we wished a lot of things to go away, like nausea, hormonal mood swings, exhaustion, pain and the uprooted plans, but we have loved this child from before conception.

All growing up, I've dreamed at various times of being a mother and what it would be like for me. Since I did so much babysitting, daycare, and preschool teaching, I thought it would just come naturally for me. Now, I'm not so sure. How can I be ready for the next 20 years of caring well for someone so dependant on his parents? How will I know the right decisions to make when it comes to discipline and loving him? How do show him our dependancy on Christ and live out the gospel everyday, not only to him, but as Jack Miller once said, "Preach the gospel to yourself everyday." I thought about how much I would love my children and what it would be like when they called me "Mommy" or came to me for comfort. But now that I have my own son inside me, and I can feel him moving around, I think how much more precious Eli is to me than all the previously thought of scenarios of me with my children. You see, in all my dreams growing up, there was never the father to consider. Sure he was there, but he was a vague outline of someone I didn't yet know. He wasn't real. What makes Eli more precious to me now is that he is a part of Dan and a part of me. He is real. He is moving inside me and he recognizes both our voices. He knows his parents. He is fully made up of the intricacies of my beloved husband and me. He is the best gift God has given us. He is a pure miracle.