Weber Family Blog!

In the last two months we’ve been busy acquiring some koi. I promised Vee that I get her a chagoi for Valentine’s Day, but it was postponed due to lack of availability. Well I finally made good on my promise through Jacksonville Koi in Florida, and had a chagoi for Vee and a soragoi for myself shipped out. Zach at JK was kind enough to throw in an extra chagoi at no cost…awesome.

Chagoi are like the Labrador Retriever of the fish world. They love everyone, will eat out of your hand, and are great at taming the rest of the pond if the fish are skittish. They get rather large given a proper diet and will quickly outgrow other fish in the herd. Same applies to the soragoi…very even-keeled and large koi. The chagoi will mature into a dark tea green with black reticulation on the scale tips (kind of like netting). The soragoi will exhibit the same netting, but over a matte grey body. I’m including two images of mature examples to show what I’m talking about.

The 4″ chagoi is named Pickles. The 2″ one is the freebie and we named it Gherkin. The 2.5″ soragoi hasn’t a suitable name yet, so for now we’re calling it Sara.

I’ve moved them all from a 10g quarantine tank to a 20 gal tank with two lionhead fancy goldfish for now. Soon they’ll go outside in the heated 300g QT tank, but not until our other new fish have shown they’re disease free. Which brings me to the other two acquisitions.

Vee’s hair stylist has an overstocked pond here in North Las Vegas, full of metallic butterflies, other butterflies, and a bunch of mutts. She invited us over to take any fish we’d like, so after about 30 minutes of chasing a couple around, we settled on two. One is a white fish with a red dot on his head, which if it is actually a koi, will make it a tancho and highly valuable if the color stays throughout his growth. I think it’s a koi, since I can see small barbells near the mouth, but it could also be a half-breed “koimet” (half koi/half comet) and I won’t know until I observe his growth in the QT tank. I’m really crossing my fingers that it’s a tancho.

The second koi is an unknown butterfly variety, but the reticulation on the back makes me thing it’s either a shiro matsuba or very poor asagi with no orange. Either way, I’m going to see if I can put some weight on him and clear up his shiro (white) with clean water and quality food. Should be interesting to see how he develops.

Anyway, that’s the latest on the koi pond. Here are some pics.

Here is a shot of a full grown chagoi

Here is a full grown soragoi

Here is a full grown tancho

Tehya’s first Halloween was a calm one. No trick or treating this year, but she did get dressed up for some pics. Having the koi pond nearly finished we thought it fitting that she dress up as a koi/goldfish this year. Tehya also got her first pair of Vans shoes, so we had to get a shot of her in those.
She continues to grow alarmingly fast, currently weighing in at 14lb 3oz. She found her feet the other day and has been giving her best shot at pulling off her socks. She’s also starting to sit on her own for a few seconds before rolling to one side (which she loves). If there’s a happier baby out there, I’ve never met him/her. She’s all smiles.
-r

We took Tehya to visit relatives and friends in California over Labor Day weekend. She also had her first trip to a beach near Monterey, which included crying from exhaustion as soon as we stepped on the sand, followed by a 30 minute nap in dad’s arms while walking by the water. She promptly woke up upon returning to the parking lot…geez. We also lost our first sock somewhere on the beach, ending our four month streak.

Tehya also met Great Grandpa Raus for the first time and had a great time with him. He got a kick out of how aware she is and how much she likes to laugh and smile. It made for some great pictures.

We were able to spend a couple days in the north end of the state, where Tehya met her Great Grandmas Ross and Grande. Poor Grandma Grande was nursing a cold and was scared to get near Tehya, but we managed to get one picture of them together. We were able to meet Uncle Dan, Aunt Carrie and the kids for breakfast on Sunday morning, which was a lot of fun. Tehya had a good time looking at everyone, getting passed around and taking photos afterward. From breakfast we met her Auntie Diana in Willow Glen.

While at Grandma Grace and David’s house, we had a Labor Day bbq with friends/family over, many of which met Tehya for the first time.

We’re looking forward to our next trip out to Cali for Christmas! Tehya is a great little traveler.

It’s been awhile since we’ve updated. The kid is keeping us busy, but a few weeks back we managed to get some lazy Sunday-morning pictures for Tehya’s four month old portraits.

We can’t believe Tehya is already three months old! Vee almost cried when she outgrew one of her newborn outfits.
Tehya has been reaching some cool milestones like being able to keep her head up at a 90 degree angle during tummy time, making one syllable sounds (she especially likes “gooo”) and tracking us as we walk around the room. She even seems to follow the koi in the pond as they swim around. She loves being outside, and I often take her out in the backyard to get her to stop crying when she’s upset.

We took her out to a park for her three month old portrait and she did great. She lasted through a couple poses…I think we have a future baby model on our hands. Below I’ve posted some of the portraits and a video of her lifting her head up.

It’s been a loooong project (and it’s not done yet), but we were finally able to release our first round of koi into the pond this last weekend. They love it! So much room for them to swim. After a day of hiding in the murky depth, they’re now staying near the surface looking for food.

During the last week I had been building some sand/gravel filters and found about 8 dragonfly nymphs…very cool. Looks like we’ll always have some of nature’s best insect control around the backyard. One variety of dragonfly we have here are a bright orange/red and neat to watch (Flame Skimmer). I’ve set up some dried bamboo sticks in some of my potted plants near the pond, which the dragonflies like to perch on. We also have a new female hummingbird frequenting the backyard, despite not having any flowers or feeders back there. So we bought her a feeder and are hoping she finds it fine.

In other fish news, I finally got Vee her belated Valentine’s Day present…a lovely green chagoi koi she named Pickles. If you don’t know about chagoi, read about their super friendly nature here. They range from tea/brown color to green shades, so they’re not terribly exciting to look at, but they’re commonly used to calm down and train other fish to eat out of your hand. They also get HUGE so you have to have a decent sized pond to support their piggy appetites. Along with the chagoi, the breeder sent us an extra green chagoi (named “Gherkin” for now) and a baby light soragoi I wanted. Soragoi have the same calm demeanor as chagoi, but they’re a light gray with black netting on their scales. See an example here.

Here is a video and some pics of the fish release. - Ryan

At Tehya’s two month check up she measured 22 inches & weighed in at 11 pounds. She received five vaccines, four of which were shots. After how heart wrenching it was to watch her get one shot at her one month appointment I decided to do some research on ways to avoid another traumatic experience for us both! I was able to have her doctor prescribe a lidocaine cream that we applied to her thighs. I’m completely baffled that pediatricians will only prescribe this stuff on request and don’t offer it or keep it on hand in their office. The doctor recommended baby Tylenol, which combined with the cream seemed to work. She cried only momentarily and it went extremely better than we expected. Anyone getting shots for their kids, I highly recommend EMLA cream.

She is still sleeping any where from four to six hours & we’ve even had a few times where she slept for eight hours. Of course Ryan & I didn’t sleep eight hours because we kept waking up to make sure she was still breathing. Ah, the joys of being a first time parent.

She is now smiling at us when we give her kisses or blow in her face. Some of the pictures below are during a play time with lots of smiles. The other pictures are of our first visit to the Vegas Zoo, Grandpa Bill & Grandma Kathy’s visit, & a trip to Zion National Park during the last month.

Hope everyone is staying cool this summer! ~Vee

Life with Tehya is amazing. We are both embracing our new role as parents. It is definitely a huge life change & we have been working very hard to work out a routine that balances our “old” life with our “new” one. So far the first month has been fantastic.

At Tehya’s one month check up she measured 21 inches & weighed in at 8 pounds & 14 ounces. Her doctor is very happy with her growth & gave her the clear until her two month appointment. She did receive her first vaccine since she was born & our poor baby wailed. It was heart breaking to see her that upset & I nearly cried along with her. Ryan consoled us both when it was over.

Most days she sleeps any where from four to six hours now. Though we’ve had a few days in a row of where she wants to eat every two to three hours. Our lactation consultant warned us that she would experience this type of “growth spurt” so it wasn’t a huge surprise when it happened.

Our first Father’s Day as a family was wonderful. Tehya & I treated Daddy to a massage & lunch at his favorite BBQ restaurant. We also went to Floyd Lamb State Park for the first time. It is about 10-15 miles north of our house. We toured the “divorce ranch”, strolled around the ponds, watched people fish, & enjoyed seeing all of the ducks, geese, fireflies, & birds. It is so lush out there that you forget you are in the desert.

Attached are some new photos of Tehya including the derby bout ones I promised last time.

Happy Father’s Day to all the Dads!

Vee

Parenthood is amazing. Tehya is such a good baby. We are so blessed to have such a precious little daughter. At her doctor’s appointment this week she was over her birth weight by two ounces at 7 pounds 6 ounces. We are now able to let her make her own feeding schedule. Instead of waking her up every two to three hours to eat, she now gets up on her own between three to five hours. Yes, we’re getting up to 5 hours of sleep at a time! I’m sleeping more now than when I was pregnant. It is wonderful! We’re so lucky she doesn’t take after me since I was such a terror as a baby.

She went to her first derby bout this weekend. We made her a derby onesie with her name Baby Sasin on it. We’ll post pictures soon of her at the bout. In the meantime, attached are some new pictures of her, including ones from when we first arrived home, her first bath, & when the grandparents visited. You will notice she likes to keep her arms up in her “Touch Down” pose. Ha ha.

Take care,

Vee

May 19 was a big day for us. Things started at 1am, when we arrived at the hospital to be induced. By 2am we were settled in, dilated to 1cm, and labor was started.

By 5am Vee was at 3cm and contractions were about 3 minutes apart. We tried morphine to take the edge off, which was our preference to an epidural. At 7:15am, Vee was still at 3cm, baby’s heart rate had started to drop with each contraction, and to get things moving forward, the nurse broke Vee’s water. By 10am there had been a few hours of the baby’s heart rate dropping during contractions. Indications were that either the baby’s position wasn’t right, or the umbilical cord was wrapped around a body part. We were a bit nervous since many of her ultrasound pictures showed the umbilical cord near her head and neck area. Because of the heart rate issue, the doctor advised against more morphine, and recommended an epidural to get things progressing.

By 11:30, baby’s heart rate was still dropping during contractions and we were still at 4cm. A phone call from our doctor revealed that hours of future delivery combined with the variable lower heart rate would increase the baby’s risk of neurological defects, so a C-section was the best course of action. Things then started happening rapidly.

Vee was rushed to the OR and prepped for surgery. I stood around in our delivery room, donning my surgery room moon suit, waiting about 10 minutes for the clinical supervisor to escort me to the OR. Surgery started around noon, and Tehya Willarose Weber was born at 12:31pm, weighing in at 7lbs 4oz at 19″ long. It ended up that the cord was only wrapped around her leg and wasn’t as severe of an issue as we feared. That was excellent news.

After the delivery, Tehya and I headed back to our delivery room where she got a bath and her vitals taken, while warming up in on the warming table. This is where she discovered her finger for the first time and started sucking away. She also got her first hairstyle from her nurse, a nice little faux hawk. Vee joined us in the room shortly after, Tehya got her shots, then we moved to our postpartum recovery room, where we will be for the next few days.

Here are some shots from the delivery. More pics to come soon.
R