One Week Update

So this time last week I was in the hospital waiting for my doc to come break my water. A quick 5 1/2 hours later Leland was here! It's weird seeing pictures of myself pregnant now that she's here.

This past week has been a good one. Our first night home from the hospital was a little scary. We were wondering why we didn't stay at the hospital a second night, but we were just two scared parents not really knowing what to do with this new little person. Anyway, we had the help of family all weekend, which was wonderful. Since Sunday night, Stephen and I have been on our own with the little bean and things are going great. We are trying to not just sit around the house. We take a walk everyday, and yesterday we even went to Meijer and Leland did great. She slept the entire time.

Tonight I think we might take a walk to "Rockin' the River" A free concert down along the river by city hall. The weather has been beautiful so that has been a blessing. It would have been a difficult week if it was 90 degrees and humid.

Anyway, here are some more pictures.

Some more Leland-related pics (if you can believe it)

Some of The Girl's family gathers 'round.

Leland with Grandpa Tait.

Linsey and Leland on the way to the Y, where Linsey turned in her time card. Under doctor's orders, Leland got some quality time with sun on her face; tomorrow we will walk to the farmers' market, which is actually in those white tents on the horizon, and buy some vegetables or fruit. Perhaps both.

Leland with cousins Alden and Cassie and Aunt Kim.

Leland asleep.

Leland asleep with Aunt Christina.

Leland asleep with Aunt Shelby

Leland Nora Tait

This is Leland Nora Tait, fairly fresh out of the womb. She weighed 8 pounds, 1 ounce and is 21 inches long. So far as we can tell, she has brown hair and indistinguishable colored eyes.

This is right after being delivered, laid underneath some sort of amazing heat source and welcomed to the world with a piece of cold metal stuck to her chest. Welcome!

This is Linsey and Leland feeding during her first morning at home. As expected, it was a somewhat rough night (why can't kids just speak English right away?) but eventually Linsey and I and Leland got the hang of it. (Right now, as of 6:55 a.m. Saturday, Mom and The Girl are in bed -- one with a stomach full of colostrum and fast asleep; the other eating up some of the relief.)

We got a little smirk from her, too. Which made us happy.

Cake and things

Linsey spent a part of the afternoon making a Texas Sheet Cake -- a chocolate treat she's been dying to make for days.

It may look quite plain, but I can assure you that this is a delicious, rich, artery-clogging dessert from which there are few equals. Pair it up with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a cup of coffee, and I can think of almost nothing more enjoyable -- from Linsey's point of view anyway. For me, I can think of several things more pleasing: an ice cold beer, scotch on the rocks with a splash of soda water, a homemade taco or a handful of peanuts with the shells still on (unshelled?).

As requested: The Room

This is The Girl's dresser, surrounded by various clutter: a dirty clothes hamper, a basket with quilts, a changing table pad with a basket on top that holds burp clothes and G-Diapers, a box with a car seat base -- yet to be installed -- and a forest green diaper bag for me (Stephen) that aims to offset some of the pink and maintain some semblance of manliness.

This is The Girl's bookshelf. Many of the people at the baby shower gave us books, which is quite appreciated. Also, Linsey's mom saved about 18 or so baby books from Linsey's childhood, which, I guess, are now The Girl's books.

These are some of The Girl's outfits. Above these dresses and sweaters are bins with clothes she'll wear when she's older -- each bin marked neatly with an age-appropriate sticker for when The Girl is likely to wear the clothes.

This is The Girl's crib.

The End is Seriously Near

I love waking up and crossing the previous day off the calendar I hung on the fridge with everyones baby predictions written on it. It's satisfying to have made it through another day and night knowing that it's one day closer to The Girl being here!

I went to the doctor this morning, and it looks like Dan, Caleb, Chad and Cassandra have the best chance of winning. She said there is almost not a chance I'll make it to my due date! I'm 2cm dilated and 80% effaced. The baby has dropped pretty much as far as she can without actually being born. Stephen told me not to get my hopes up that it will happen soon, but I can't help it! I'm ready, she's ready, the room is ready, I'm pretty sure Stephen is ready... everyone and everything is as ready as it's going to be. Let's just get on with things. Waiting for this kid to be born has been like waiting for Christmas to get here when you're a kid, times a million. But the thing about Christmas is you actually know when it will be here! If I make it to my due date or not, it's still a good feeling to know that things are moving along so well. Hopefully the next post will be about her arrival... but don't worry, I'm not getting my hopes up :-)