diff --git a/taxonium_data_handling/importing.js b/taxonium_data_handling/importing.js
index acbf08b2..9cbe3878 100644
--- a/taxonium_data_handling/importing.js
+++ b/taxonium_data_handling/importing.js
@@ -8,7 +8,6 @@ class StreamSplitter extends stream.Transform {
     this.headerParser = headerParser;
     this.dataParser = dataParser;
     this.firstPart = true;
-    this.buffer = null; // Buffer to hold partial data
   }
 
   _transform(chunk, encoding, callback) {
@@ -93,15 +92,35 @@ export const setUpStream = (
   // Header parser
   const headerParser = parser({ jsonStreaming: true });
   const headerPipeline = headerParser.pipe(streamValues());
+  
+  let headerBytesProcessed = 0;
+  const HEADER_PROGRESS_INTERVAL = 1024 * 1024; // 1MB
+
+  headerParser.on('data', (chunk) => {
+    headerBytesProcessed += chunk.length;
+    if (headerBytesProcessed >= HEADER_PROGRESS_INTERVAL) {
+      sendStatusMessage({
+        message: `Processing header: ${(headerBytesProcessed / (1024 * 1024)).toFixed(2)} MB processed`,
+      });
+      headerBytesProcessed = 0; // Reset the counter
+    }
+  });
+
   headerPipeline.on('data', (chunk) => {
     data.header = chunk.value;
     data.nodes = [];
     data.node_to_mut = {};
+    sendStatusMessage({
+      message: `Header processed successfully`,
+    });
   });
+
   headerPipeline.on('error', (err) => {
     console.error("Header parser error:", err);
+    sendStatusMessage({
+      error: `Header parser error: ${err.message}`,
+    });
   });
-
   // Data parser for the rest of the stream
   let lineBuffer = "";
   let line_number = 0;