Brandie and Josie came home from the hospital this morning, around 11am. After lunch Sophie opened some presents from Grandma & Grandpa, to help her get over the new baby hump. She's been somewhat interested in the new baby so far, and seems happy to have her mom home.
For a brief while all three girls were napping, but then that 5 minutes passed.
I'm happy to report mom and baby are still doing great, Josie is nursing well and slept most of last night. Sophie & I spent the morning with them today, and Sophie got a chance to catch up with her mom. Everyone's napping now, so I uploaded the pictures. Remember, the login and password are both 'friend'!
Thanks to everyone for the well-wishes and phone calls, and especially to Grandma Sue & Grandpa George who watched Sophie all day yesterday!
Josephine Grace was born at 3:49 this afternoon, 7lbs15oz and 20.5" long. She is a happy, healthy little girl and Mom is also doing great. More details and pics to come later, I just came home to spend some time with Sophie, who was very excited to meet her new sister!
So I met with my doctor today who said that the baby is healthy and doing great. She also scheduled my induction date. Currently I am not showing any sign of progressing toward labor so she wants me to come in on Thursday and she'll check my progress. If I am still not progressing then I will check into the hospital that night for ripening (don't ask) then I will be induced in the morning with some pitocin. If I am progressing on my own then I can sleep at home Thursday night and then check in to the hospital in the morning for induction. I'm not really sure how long labors are that are in induced but I am guessing that the baby will be born on the 28th if not sooner! As my doctor left the room today she said "It's alright if you go into labor before then." Ha! I told her "Thanks for your permission." She started laughing.
Jacob has been spending some quality time with his daughter. Other than the fact that they are attached at the hip, the most obvious side effect is her speech. The other day I came upstairs and Jacob asked Sophie to tell me what she had learned to say. "Shire. Baggins." she spit out like a mocking bird. Now she loves yelling "Shire!" at random points of the day. It brings a smile to her dad's face no matter what. I enjoy their bond as well and encourage almost any movie quotes that he can get her to say.
The Easter Bunny made an appearance late last night and left some great loot for Sophie and her cousins. He must know that Sophie isn't allowed to eat chocolate yet so he left her a bunch of toys instead. She was delighted to unpack her basket that consisted of a maraca, a recorder, a kazoo, a clacker, a watering can, a small rake and a stuffed bunny. Then she also received some books and a lady bug Easter basket from Aunt Sarah and Uncle Anthony along with another easter basket from Grandma and Grandpa with a stuffed chick and bunny. In total, Sophie received 6 stuffed animals this Easter. She loves kissing and snuggling with them all. Thanks to everyone who gave her one.
She missed the main egg hunt as we didn't want her breaking the plastic eggs open and eating chocolate or money so we fed her breakfast while her cousins scoured the house for good easter loot. Then she grabbed her lady bug easter basket and set out collecting her own eggs. It didn't take much coaching, just showed her one egg and she was off finding them all and placing them in her basket like a pro. She then decided to line them up on the window sill to admire them.
She also ate in the correct holiday fashion. Two breakfasts! First consisting of oatmeal and a banana, the second was eggs, bacon and toast. Then for our early supper, she had lamb chops, stuffing and some green beans. She polished the day off with dinner of macaroni and cheese with some spinach and goat cheese pizza and an orange slice. Now, this is well beyond what she usually eats. Usually we get one good meal in her a day and then she picks at the rest of her food. I'm not sure if it was the extra activity due to playing all day with her cousins or if she is stocking up for the winter. Either way we were happy that she ate so well today and tried all of the new foods we gave her.
We hope everyone had a wonderful Easter. We were very lucky to be able to spend yet another holiday with our family.
Ever since Brandie's birthday a few weeks ago, when we practiced singing together, Sophie has been wishing nearly everyone (or at least everyone whose name she can say) a happy birthday. Whenever and as often as the opportunity arises, several times a day even. It's not quite discernable as "Happy Birthday" to the uninitiated yet, but more like "Abu et day, Mama."
"I love you" is almost there as well, we're just missing the "you" part now. I imagine it's tough because that word is so close to "Eulie!", whom she is great friends with these days.
She's also been "spelling" by pointing at letters on various things (her Avent bottle, Wegmans balloons, etc.) and saying "ay, ooo, oh, Mama." Apparently almost everything spells "Mama" now.
Sophie loves practicing her words, it's usually the first thing she does upon waking. Sitting by herself in her crib she'll run through all the words and phrases she can think of.
Last night we paid a visit to the ER after I slipped on the stairs while carrying Sophie down from the bath. Fortunately my back took most of the bruising but her right foot got some too. It was slightly swollen afterwards and she cried when she put any weight on it. Actually she didn't stop crying until we were en route to the hospital, and then she seemed fine. By the time we were checked in she was smiling and flirting with the other patients in the waiting room, and soon she was running around like normal.
The ER was packed and had an estimated 4hr wait. I overheard one patient say they had been there 8 hours. Around 10pm Sophie was still up (well past her bedtime) and starting to lose it, so we consulted with the nurse and opted to head home for the night.
In the morning her foot still seemed a little sore so we took her to the pediatrician, where they had her foot and ankle x-rayed. Thankfully no fractures, so it's just a little bruised.
Tonight we took Sophie to Yellow House for her first ice cream cone.
Yellow House is a local icon, at least to my family, dishing excellent soft serve, sundaes, shakes, flurries and all kinds of toppings out of the ground floor of a nearby home. The prices are also great, we paid $5 for 3 cones (and I even splurged for a peanut butter version of 'Magic Shell').
Sophie seemed more interested in holding her cone than eating it, but she enjoyed the few licks she had. Here's to many more!
Today we took Sophie to Story Time at the local Barnes & Noble and then made the trip up to the Babies 'R Us in Syracuse, a little over an hour's drive away. We were in the market for a double stroller and couldn't decide based on the web reviews and limited availability here in town.
The drive up was great, past the town of Marathon where the Maple Festival was last weekend. For some reason that stretch of I-81 seems nicer and more picturesque than most; not just the highway and adjacent properties, but the farms and houses you can see in the valleys from the road. It could also be the newness of it, since I've rarely driven that way in the past, but it seems better kept and less run down.
After trying out several double strollers, including the Peg Perrego and Graco, we ended up getting the Combi Twin Savvy. It folds up nice and compact, and is lighter than most doubles on the market. Sophie had a ball trying out all the toys on display, and we came home with two that she liked the most.
While shopping we stopped to have lunch at a nearby deli, where Sophie tried some of my orange-flavored sparkling water. As you can tell from the video she liked it quite a bit, but then again she's enjoyed the lime-flavored club soda from our glasses at restaurants for months now.
There's some debate whether this counts as Sophie's first soda, which I guess technically could be any sweetened, fizzy drink. At our wedding, in 2002, my father gave our niece Julia her first sip of soda (she was about Sophie's age now) and she's been somewhat addicted ever since. We've had a watchful eye on him these last few months, figuring he would try to work his soda wiles on the latest granddaughter. The floodgates may now be open!
Our friends and former Petaluman neighbors Mark and Julie are parents of twins as of 10:50am PDT today! A boy and a girl, names are still to-be-determined, weights are roughly 3 and 4lbs. each. They're going to be in the hospital for another 4 weeks, but Julie will get to go home on Friday. Keep on eye on their website for more news!
Saturday morning we sat down for breakfast and browsed the usual news sites, which involves a visit to Slashdot. The first story that caught my not-quite-awake attention was an announcement from Lucasfilm involving a new line of adult-themed Star Wars books. Now that the third prequel was out they were apparently expanding the license outside the family-oriented content of the films.
I remembered thinking parts of the Shadows of the Empire book were pretty racy, but this was surprising. I read some snippets from the story aloud to Brandie, and we both had a good chuckle. "Hoo boy," I thought. "What will they think of next?"
The next story was sourced from one of my favorite magazines, The Economist, and involved scientists trying to make dragons. "Awesome," says I. "But what if one of these things gets out?" asks Brandie. "Don't they think of anything?" We both shook our heads and sipped our coffees, marveling at the inanity of the world.
It wasn't til much later, when IM'ing a friend and former co-worker about the Star Wars article, that I noticed the name of the Lucasfilm spokesperson (Dirk Merdespieler) and realized what an idiot I was.
I somehow grew up never having attended or even hearing of this excellent spring festival in nearby Marathon, NY, but don't plan on missing it again if given the opportunity. Special thanks to our friend and stalwart attendee Dan for inviting us, and convincing us to try the chicken barbecue!
Due to some morning showers and an unprecedented (but very welcome) 3-hour nap by Sophie, we arrived too late to participate in the 9am pancake-eating contest but still managed to enjoy ourselves with a $1 hayride pulled by very big work-horses, sugar shack demonstrating how maple syrup is made (with free samples), maple cotton candy, maple cream, maple candy, apple cider, fried dough (or frybread to our Western readers), several nice craft displays and the best $7 barbecued chicken dinner ever.
On our way out of town we also got a chance to see Dan's new custom Harley Davidson motorcycle, pictured above. It's a beautiful machine! We'd also like to express our admiration for Trina's willingness to brave the early spring weather from the back of the Harley.
