My life

My name is…Baby Jeneric………………………………………………….


childhood ambition……eat more than I poop………………………..


fondest memory……breakfast………………………………………..........


soundtrack…………suck, suck, suck, waaaaaaah!………………….....


wildest dream………dinner…………………………………………...............


proudest moment……last night’s poop……………………………..........


biggest challenge……last night’s poop……………………………….........


alarm clock…………my tummy…………………………………….................


perfect day…………eat, poop, sleep and repeat…………………….........


first job……………milk taster………………………………………..................


indulgence…a tall glass of milk chased down by a tall glass of milk


last purchase………diapers……………………………………….....................


favorite movie………The Legend of Sleepy Hollow……………….........


inspiration………Mom & Dad………………………………………..................


My life…a challenge, but someone’s gotta do it!………………………….

Baby Jeneric

My life. My blog.

We Broke the Baby!

Well, not really. Wily Jeneric likes to exaggerate on occasion. But news we have! Baby Jeneric’s umbilical stump fell off, leaving an icky hole that will eventually become a very cute belly button.

In honor of this loss, we celebrated by giving Baby Jeneric her first bath!



If you think she disliked the bath, you’d be correct! Baby Jeneric kept her calm for about 2 minutes before letting us know what she really thought of all that water, soap and being naked.

The umbilical stump loss also means we’ve switched from disposable diapers to cloth diapers. The continuing small stature of Baby Jeneric means that many of the ‘newborn’ diapers do not yet fit her, especially around her tiny little legs. We’ve found the Chinese prefolds work very well with a tiny cover to help contain the mess. Baby Jeneric has enjoyed the transition and continues to not complain about wet or messy diapers. We’re sure this will soon change!

Burn the Books!

Well, don’t burn all your books. You might want to reread Gödel, Escher & Bach and a charred copy will do you no good.

No, we’re referring to those ubiquitous baby gifts: parenting books. Aïe, aïe, aïe! In the two weeks we’ve been parents (!), we’ve read seven books, several pamphlets and countless web sites. Topics we’ve researched include dry skin, breastfeeding, poop, and pacifiers. What we’ve learned: no two information sources agree. Let’s take an example: pacifiers.

Pacifiers are either the spawn of the devil or a parent’s best friend, depending on the ‘authority’. They will confuse your baby and interfere with breastfeeding or they will provide for a baby’s natural inclination to suck. A pacifier might or might not interfere with tooth development. It can become a crutch so a baby won’t pacify herself at night… or it might not.

In honor of the confusion, we present more gratuitous photos of Baby Jeneric!

Cue the Peanuts Music!

It was a dark and stormy night. No really, it was. The flood warning in New Jersey had just expired when another little flood began. Wily Jeneric were afflicted with colds. Eric was fast asleep while Jenni was medicating yet another night of insomnia with late-night television. Then, at 1 am (EST) on November 9, Jenni’s water broke. She yelled out for Eric to help. No response. She pounded the walls and hollered again. Nothing. She hobbled upstairs, calling for help along the way. Eric snored on. Finally, with a whap on the arm, Eric woke up. “Huh? What’s wrong?” “My water broke.” “Huh?” “My water broke!” “Oh!”

After an adrenalin filled trip to the hospital, Jenni was quickly admitted (huzzah for pre-registration!). With a wrist tag on her left wrist (linked to two teeny tags!), she was quickly in bed, laboring through the wee hours of the morning.

Dawn broke and we realized we could see the Rutgers stadium. For those not familiar with college football, Thursday, November 9 was a monumental day for Rutgers, as the Scarlet Knights smacked the pants off #3 Louisville (let’s not talk about the defeat they just suffered at the hands of Cincinnati). In the glow of the stadium, Jenni continued to labor.

Fast forward past the gory bit about laboring, medications, pushing, screaming, crying, etc. to 2:13 pm, when Baby Jeneric* hollered her way into the world. At 7 pounds 13 ounces, she seemed big, but when stretched out to her full 20 and half inches, she turned into a lean, mean, pooping machine!

Only 3 minutes old!

Super Baby!

Ah, to sleep...

Since Thursday, we’ve been quite busy with feeding, diapering, crying, loving, etc. We’ve learned a lot and have so much more to learn. Lesson # 1: as new parents, we talk a lot about poop - the quantity, consistency, color, etc (if you’re curious: random poop schedule, rather runny, and the color of deli-style mustard).

Welcome to the world, Baby Jeneric!

*Yes, Baby Jeneric has a name, but we respect her privacy and will refrain from using it here. We ask you to do the same.

Still Pregnant

Indeed, the bump in the front is still very much with Jenni. We can’t decide which side of the family this tardiness represents. To wit:

On one had, we have the folks who are not known for being early or on time.
On the other, we have a tribe of freakishly timely individuals, who tend to shy away from change and new situations.

But perhaps the delayed arrival is more related to the wicked cold Jenni has (Eric likes to share). Perhaps nature is taking a hand by letting Jenni get over the worst of the cold before her life’s work really begins.

In any case, is it alarming that it seems second nature to Jenni that her stomach should twist, punch and squirm?

For those keeping track, still in the race for predicting Baby Jeneric’s birth date and time:
Teresa: November 9, 5:40 am
Springob: November 9, 5:41 am

Thoroughly Unscientific Eggheadedness

With just four data points and no replication whatsoever, we present to you the findings of our latest study on when Baby Jeneric will arrive.

No News

It’s been a week since our last post and besides the girth of Jenni’s belly, not much else has changed. We’ve been taking care of a few last-minute things (that really shouldn’t have been last minute), including:
Ordering diapers
Taking the car seats to a safety check*
Hanging a few more decorations in Baby Jeneric’s room
Washing several loads of laundry

Here’s a quick little FAQ, gathered over the last two weeks:
Q: Are we ready?
A: Probably not, but we’re deluding ourselves into thinking that we are.

Q: Are you ready to be done being pregnant?
A: Of course I am!

Q: Is it a boy or a girl?
A: It’s a surprise.

Q: How big is the baby?
A: Umm, about as big as Jenni’s belly? The doctor estimated about 7.5 pounds – a normal weight.

Q: Do you have any names picked out?
A: Yes.

Q: Oh! What are they?
A: We’re not telling until the baby is born.

Q: What’s been your favorite part of being pregnant?
A: You mean physically? Umm, erm, well, nothing. I do like having Eric wait on me, though!
A: Eric would say reading to the baby and having the baby recognize his voice. All together, now: awww.

*Seriously, are you embarrassed that an engineer and scientist could not manage to install a car seat correctly? Shocking, but true. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, as many as 85% of all car seats are installed incorrectly. I’d like to hazard a guess why, based on where we went wrong: incomplete information about car equipment. We installed the car seat in the center ‘seat’ using LATCH. The fit was tight, the angle correct. Unfortunately, the US Government requires that all seats in the back have LATCH equipment but the center is NOT a seat. Therefore, the LATCH tethers we used were spaced too far apart. So we switched to using the seatbelt to harness the seat and were good to go in under 10 minutes. Neither the car nor car seat manual discussed the proper placement of the car seat in the back seat. Trust us, Jenni scoured them both for that information.