We are home!

Christie and Amy were discharged from the hospital this morning. Christie is doing very well, and Amy is continuing to look cute and sleep a lot. She has to use her bili-blanket for another day or two to help with the jaundice, but at least we're home!

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.