All is well

All is well here in NewBabyLand. Everyone got a great night's sleep. NewDad was declared the smartest man on the ward for having an Aero bed. Perhaps there could be a side business here...selling Aero beds in the waiting room? We woke up several times for Christie to feed the baby and for the nurses to check Amy, but we got excellent rest.

Several commendations are in order here. Thanks to the grandparents, Julius and Julia, for swooping in when Christie went into labor and taking care of Evan while we went to the hospital . Christie went into labor around noon on the 3rd, and we went to the hospital around 9 PM. Christie wasn't far enough along to be admitted, so we came back home to rest and wait. Around 1 AM, "not-kidding-around" contractions started and we went back to the hospital and were admitted.

Thank you to the nurses and midwife who helped with the delivery. They definitely studied up on bedside manner, as they made us feel like part of team that does this every day. The labor went without any complications, and Christie was the only person delivering a baby for most of the time, so we got lots of attention. This is in contrast to Evan's birth, when the entire ward was full of women in labor and Christie's doctor arrived in our room right as Evan was being born. I'm not sure of the name of the nurse we had that night, but let me tell you, she knew her stuff.

Thanks to Dad again, who came along to the hospital on the 1AM trip and sat in the waiting room. He brought his camera and computer equipment, and within thirty minutes of Amy's birth, had multiple pictures posted on his Picasa website.

Thank you also to Kevin and Stephanie, who hosted Evan's pre-birthday celebration last night. Kevin and Stephanie's son, Morgan, now shares Amy's birthday on July 4th. Christie had this great idea to get Evan's birthday (July 26th) celebration out of the way before her due date (July 19th). That way, we'd have the party done before she was 40 weeks pregnant or had actually had the baby. You see how well that turned out. =) I was able to go to the party for a while, and Dad and Julia brought Evan. Everyone had a great time!

Amy is doing well here at the hospital. It looks like we will be able to come home tomorrow, assuming that the results of some blood tests continue to go in the right direction. She is having some bilirubin/jaundice problems similar to the ones that Evan had when he was born, but so far, she's responding much better to the light treatment than Evan did. We may have to take the bili-blanket light home with us, but we'd prefer that over staying in the hospital for 4 days like we did with Evan. She is sleeping well, nursing well, and looking cute.

I've added a box at the top of the page. My email address list that I use to send out messages is getting unwieldy, so I'm experimenting with setting up a real mailing list. You can subscribe to the list, unsubscribe yourself from the list, change your email address, etc...without having to go through me. I will continue to send out the regular email list a few more times, but after that I will go to the user-managed list.

That's it from here. I'll post more after we get home.

Born on the 4th of July!

Amy Grace Ariail arrived on the scene at 7:23 AM. She weighs 7 pounds, 13 ounces. Christie was in labor for about 17 hours, but had no complications. Amy Grace started crying immediately upon arrival, but quickly settled in for a snack and was quite content. Now she is in the nursery getting her first bath. More to follow...

More pictures will be added at my father's photo site in the 2008-0704AmyGraceAriail folder.

Evan Goes Blueberry Picking

In an effort to give Christie some rest this morning, Evan and I went blueberry picking. He loves to eat blueberries, but has never seen them growing. When he got out of the car, he walked over to a blueberry bush and got a very excited look on his face. He pointed at the bush and proclaimed "Buberr!" I could not be prouder.

Check out the video of the morning's events.

Let the Waiting Begin

Christie finished week 34 on Tuesday, and reports that she is ready for this whole thing to be over. For those of you who are not oriented to pregnancy math, the end of week 40 = due date. Delivery before 38 weeks is "premature," but anything after 38 weeks is "normal." Anything past 41-42 weeks doesn't happen much anymore, because most doctors feel the need to "do something" at that point. Scientific studies are inconclusive on whether the "do something" need is caused by the 42-week pregnant woman grabbing the doctor by the collar and saying "DO SOMETHING!" or not. Although I think pregnant women might be able to survive past 42 weeks, I'm not sure their doctors would. More research is needed.

Christie has been busy nesting over the past few weeks. For you fathers-to-be out there, "nesting" is a polite term to describe how everything you thought about the way things should be for the new baby is wrong. Seriously, the quickest way to figure out the best arrangement for baby furniture is for the father-to-be to pick the arrangement. That way, the worst possible arrangement (WPA) is immediately seen and the mother-to-be can see clearly to the best possible arrangement (BPA). Note to fathers-to-be: The BPA can and will change...sometimes daily.

On a more serious note, Christie really does have things coming together here. The nursery is 90% put together, the car seat is in the car, and the hospital bag is packed. Newborn diapers are stocked (have they always been that small?), and the infant toys have been unpacked. Soon we'll start cooking some food to throw in the freezer. That's for the nights to come when achieving cold fusion looks easier than cooking dinner.

In other news, Evan is saying lots of things now. Our favorite is "stop" and "go." He knows what red and green traffic lights mean, so he is quite happy when he sees one while we're out and tells us what to do. Occasionally at a red light, he gets impatient and says "go," and thinks it is funny.

Evan's second birthday is rapidly approaching, and NBG's due date happens to be about a week before that. We're doing all we can to get things taken care of while being mindful that we could actually have a second child anytime before, on, or after Evan's actual birthday. To that end, we're celebrating his birthday a few weeks early with one of his friends whose birthday is on July 4th. Evan's only two, so I don't think he's got the actual date of his birthday pegged in his Blackberry just yet.

Christie has also set up a registry for Evan (and NBG as well). We're experimenting here and trying out myregistry.com. Please understand that we're not asking for gifts here...it's just a way to answer that question of what to get if you were planning on getting something but hadn't yet. On the main page, you just put in first and last name (Evan or NBG, Ariail) and the appropriate registry comes up. It's pretty neat, and Christie reports that it was very easy to set up.

Other than that, we're keeping busy here with Evan. We're enjoying the last few weeks of one of us being able to take a break while the other one plays with Evan. According to knowledgeable friends, that period of life is going to come to an end very soon. We'll take it while it lasts.