Sunday, March 29, 2009

"Wait, she said she was going to update it every week, right?"

Ahh, yes. I'm still learning what it means to be a mom. My new motto is "No promises."

Anyway, sorry for the long delay in posting! I have no excuses except Lucy is dang cute-- it is more fun to watch her and play with her than it is to blog about her. But, here are some updates and photos from the past few weeks...

(I have no idea how to flip pictures on this thing... can someone enlighten me?)

First off, Lucy's first bath in the tub. Clearly she was not a fan. Please note that in this picture, the water had not even touched her yet. She got so upset when I actually started washing her that I didn't have the heart to take any more pictures. I'm looking forward to the days when tub time is a little more fun...

Lucy and I have also been enjoying the stroller quite a bit lately. The beautiful weather has made it impossible not to! Her very first stroller ride was in the mall. My friend Amanda came to visit us and meet Lucy, and we ventured to the mall to find an Easter dress for Lucy (you'll have to wait until after Easter for pictures of that!). After some success at the mall, we headed over to the St. Louis zoo. It was so nice to finally get outside and do some walking! Lucy expressed her utter excitement at being at the zoo by passing out completely and sleeping the whole time we were there (about 2 or 3 hours).

(Lucy on the left, Abigail on the right)

Later that week, we went on a play date with our friends Ruth and Abigail. James and I met Ruth and Michael at Wash U's Catholic Student Center sometime in the middle of pregnancy. We had to laugh when we found out that they had been married within a week of our own wedding, and were expecting a baby right around the same time too. Coincidentally, we all ended up in the same birthing class and got to know each other better. Abigail was born about 5 days before Lucy, and Ruth, Michael and Abigail happened to be at the hospital for a checkup on the day that Lucy was born, so they were one of her first visitors. Ruth and I took the girls for a stroller ride around the Central West End on yet another beautiful day.

Lucy also had an echo cardiogram this week to check on a heart murmur that she was born with. I am happy to report that for now, all is well. The murmur is due to a hole in the wall between two chambers of her heart, which is fairly common for newborns and tends to resolve itself with time. Lucy will have another echo in about six months, and if it's still there, then we'll probably be sent to a cardiologist. But for now, we're not going to worry! During the echo, Lucy was such a champ. Here are the reasons Lucy usually cries: if she's not being held; if her clothes are off; if something wet is touching her. Laid on a table with her shirt off and the gel stuff all over her, Lucy did not say a peep for about a half hour. Then, when the nurse was about a minute away from finishing, Lucy woke up and was sure to tell us what she thought about this whole experience. Poor girl! We spent the rest of the day cuddling and napping to make up for it.

Okay, I think that's all the news I have from the past three weeks. It's so hard to believe that Lucy is already a month old. I'm feeling like such an old person saying, "Where does the time go?" Anyway, here is a 1 month photo shoot of Lucy.

*Please note: I wrote this post and saved it as a draft about 3 weeks ago, with every intention of uploading pictures and posting it that night. And here we are 3 weeks later!)

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Welcome Lucy!

So now that Lucy is two weeks old, and we've figured out how to get pictures on the computer without the use of the photo cord that I may have lost, I'm ready to start blogging! My hope is that I will maintain this thing often enough to give all of our faraway family and friends frequent updates on daily life, and of course, lots of pictures! My goal is at least one post a week. This post may be quite long, because it's been a very busy two weeks!


Lucy's first photo!

We had a really great birth experience. I first thought I might be going into labor on a Saturday evening, right before we were meeting our friends Abbie and Ken for dinner. I didn't want to get too excited so we went about the evening as planned and then went to bed that night. Sunday morning I woke up at 4am with contractions. Unable to go back to sleep, I got up and started timing them. They were 5 minutes apart for about an hour and a half, then they got really sporadic. We went to mass and hung around the house all day. Meanwhile the contractions got stronger and stronger, but were still as far apart as 2o min sometimes. FINALLY at 10 pm, they were all of a sudden 4 min apart. We packed up the rest of our bags, and headed to St. Anthony's. From there, things went pretty quickly. Lucy was born at 4:59am on Monday. I was very happily able to deliver naturally with no medication, which is what I had been hoping for the entire pregnancy. Months of preparation, and James' excellent support were what made it possible. We were also really blessed to have a great doctor and nurse helping us along.

7 lb. 2 oz. and 20.5 in.

She was born with the cord wrapped twice around her neck, and once she was out she was sure to tell us what a traumatic experience that was!

Among Lucy's many visitors in the hospital were Uncle Jeremy and a very proud cousin Taylor.

Finally at home.

After many many attempts, we finally got a good family picture!

I love this one.

Most of the time, Lucy is a great eater and a great sleeper, which makes everything a lot easier!

So, check back for more little updates on Lucy, missionary life, and life with us in general.