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 :-)

The End is Near

Tomorrow I'll be 36 weeks pregnant! 29 days till my due date! About 4 weeks to go! However you look at it the arrival of The Girl is near. Holy cow. It doesn't really seem like it's going to happen. I still don't even really feel like I'm actually going to have a kid soon, even though she is constantly moving around in my belly. Even with a crib set up, baby clothes washed and organized and a hospital bag packed, it doesn't really seem real.

I went to the doctor today and I'm 1 cm dilated and 30% effaced. While the baby hasn't dropped yet, she's in a head down position. She's probably not going to be a very big baby (unless I pack on 20 pounds or so in the next few weeks, which my doctor said she has seen happen!) so Christina's guess of an 11 lb. baby is probably not going to happen :-)

I'm actually feeling pretty darn good. The weather has cooled off a bit which means I've been cooking and I can blow dry my hair. I've got some energy, I can still sleep pretty comfortably... not a whole lot to complain about. So that is the latest. Can't wait to meet this little girl.

Baby Shower

My mom and sister threw me a wonderful baby shower a few weekends ago! It was in my parents backyard, which was a perfect setting. My cousin Carrie blogged about it and I stole all these pictures from her post :-) Thanks Carrie!

My dads sisters, my cousin Carrie, Shelby and my Grandma.

Shelby, me and Carrie

I received lots and lots of great books! I can't wait to read them to The Girl.

Mary made me this amazing quilt!!!

My mom cooked all the food, made all the cupcakes, had fresh squeezed lemonade and even a non-alcoholic beverage she called a Tait-tini! It was wonderful!

First Family Photo

Well, it's July 7 already. Stephen and I took a "family photo" on our third anniversary, June 16. Can't believe that was three weeks ago already! Anyway, I was 30 weeks pregnant and I had a doctors appointment that morning. Everything was great. I have another one tomorrow and I'll take another belly picture and try to post it tomorrow.

This heat really stinks. We don't have air except in the bed room so I've been spending a lot of time in there. Last night we got slurpees, sat in our room, read and listened to the Tigers on the radio. We've also been swimming at the lake a lot in the last few days.

Saturday was an awesome day of just hanging out at the beach. We made a picnic lunch, and just swam and relaxed, swam and relaxed, ate and swam and relaxed some more. It was a totally "Pure Michigan" kind of day... I could hear Tim Allen's voice in the background all day saying "Where there isn't a cloud in the sky and the water is crystal clear. The boardwalk and the dune grass go on for miles." I'm sure we'll be at the beach a lot this summer, so I'll remember a camera one of these times.