Sunday, December 14, 2008
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Friday, December 5, 2008
Thanksgiving in Florida
Lydia meets Granny Wilhelm
Lydia and Evan Cook
Nap time on Connie Jean
Smiling at Granny
Ponte Vedra Inn & Club
Lydia's first trip to the beach
Papa and P-Willy
Smiling at Granny
Ponte Vedra Inn & Club
Lydia's first trip to the beach
Papa and P-WillyFriday, November 7, 2008
Monday, November 3, 2008
Her First Visit to the AT
Natalie and Lydia went on a nice hike on Saturday with our friend Angie and her son Patrick to Max Patch on the Appalachian Trail near Hot Springs, while Sutton watched college football (and had no clue how beautiful it would be!). We'll definitely be going back here!
Lydia's First Visit to the Mountains
On Friday, we took Lydia to the mountains for the first time and her Georgia grandmother Sherrie met us at NOC. It also happened to be Halloween day!
Here they are in my office, both dressed up for Halloween (and yes, that's a giant photo of her on the computer monitor behind them...).
Note her cat suit and pumpkin hat...
Here they are in my office, both dressed up for Halloween (and yes, that's a giant photo of her on the computer monitor behind them...).
Note her cat suit and pumpkin hat...
Her First Snow
Believe it or not, Asheville had its first snow this week. Much of it melted before we could snap this quick photo of Lydia's first snow...
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Monday - Heading Home
After seeing the pediatrician early Monday morning, we were released to go home. It took a while to pack up our belongings after living in the room since Friday night. Here's a photo of Natalie and Lydia right before our departure. It felt good knowing we were heading home.
Two wonderful volunteers came up to the room and helped us to our car. Here we are riding the elevator down to the lobby.
Here we are getting ready to leave the hospital and get in the car.
Lydia slept the entire ride home, her first car ride, all 10 minutes of it. On the way home, we stopped by Natalie's office, which was on the way, to show off Lydia to her co-workers.
As you can see below, she didn't appreciate the house and all of our hard work preparing it for her right off the bat. We, however, were certainly appreciative of the beautiful flower arrangement given to us by Tara, Tyler, and Tessa (our next-door neighbors).
Feeding time
Sleep time - for now! She truly prefers sleeping during the day and, well, not sleeping at night!
And bath time. She didn't like that very much.
It's much better being clean.
Here's a picture with her great-grandmother
Two wonderful volunteers came up to the room and helped us to our car. Here we are riding the elevator down to the lobby.
Here we are getting ready to leave the hospital and get in the car.
Lydia slept the entire ride home, her first car ride, all 10 minutes of it. On the way home, we stopped by Natalie's office, which was on the way, to show off Lydia to her co-workers.
As you can see below, she didn't appreciate the house and all of our hard work preparing it for her right off the bat. We, however, were certainly appreciative of the beautiful flower arrangement given to us by Tara, Tyler, and Tessa (our next-door neighbors).
Feeding time
Sleep time - for now! She truly prefers sleeping during the day and, well, not sleeping at night!
And bath time. She didn't like that very much.
It's much better being clean.
Here's a picture with her great-grandmother
Update from Sunday
Sunday was a relatively quiet day for us. We had a few friends come and visit, including our good friends Lindsay and Eric. Here's a picture of Eric doing a Heisman Trophy pose with the baby...
Our room at the hospital had a great view (it is Asheville, after all). Here's a good fall shot looking out of our hospital window...
Our room at the hospital had a great view (it is Asheville, after all). Here's a good fall shot looking out of our hospital window...
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Our Story
(note: if you click on any of the photos, you can enlarge them)
As the saying goes, apples don't fall far from trees.
It all started at the VIP reception for the grand op
ening of the brand new Asheville REI on Thursday night. On Tuesday, we met with Natalie's physician and we were all prepping for an induction and perhaps a c-section on the 23rd because the baby was big and there hadn't been much interuteral progress.
However, that all changed soon after we walked into the new REI and Natalie's eyes gazed upon a set of pink Smartwool baby booties and immediately felt a strange feeling. Apparently, Lydia was extremely disappointed not to be able to participate in the festivities at REI that evening or shop at the pre-sale that night. During the speeches by the REI management folks, Natalie kept elbowing me asking me to time these "strange feelings." Totally prepared for a next week arrival, however, Natalie and I continued looking around the new store.
We went home that night, watched Grey's Anatomy, and went to bed.
Around 6:30 the next morning, Natalie woke me up by saying calmly, "Get up, it's time to go." Disoriented, I thought I had overslept for work because there wasn't a lot of urgency in her voice. However, it was because her water broke and those "strange feelings" were contractions, and the contractions were two minutes apart.
We got to the hospital around 7:00 and Natalie was taken upstairs. Contractions were now one minute apart. Natalie's friend, Angie, arrived around 9:00 am and stayed with us all day.
After progressing quickly, and around 11:00 am, we realized that it might be best to go ahead and start the epidural. What a difference that made for everyone. I can't imagine having a baby without one - and we only lasted about three hours before starting ours!
By around 3:00, we were almost fully dilated at 9.5 cm. We thought the baby would be here before we knew it and Natalie's parents were racing up from Florida, frantic that they may miss the delivery. They arrived around 3:30 in time for this three (soon to be four) generation shot.
Fast forward to around 7:30, still at 9.5 cm. After talking with the physician, we felt that we would give it a few more hours but decided that a c-section would be our best option and the safest option for the baby, since we had been at the hospital for over 12 hours.
We went back for the c-section around 9:30 that night. Here's dad in the bunny suit outside of the operating room. It took no more than about 10 minutes of surgery before we heard Lydia's voice for the first time (officially, 10:27 pm).
This is what she looked like when I first saw her.
Here I am cutting her umbilical cord.
Here she is on the weighing table (yes, the scale says 8 lbs 2 oz, for those keeping score at home). All the while, poor Natalie is still on the operating table as the doctors finished the procedure and I am getting alone time with the baby!
A close-up.
Mother meets baby.
Some close-ups...
Lydia meets her friend Scout (our friend from NOC, Ashley's new baby, born on 10/13)
Lydia meets her Florida grandmother
And then she meets her Georgia grandmother
Lydia wearing the gown that her great-grandmother, grandmother, and father wore
Lydia celebrates her one day birthday
We're still at the hospital and should be heading home in the morning. More later...
As the saying goes, apples don't fall far from trees.
It all started at the VIP reception for the grand op
ening of the brand new Asheville REI on Thursday night. On Tuesday, we met with Natalie's physician and we were all prepping for an induction and perhaps a c-section on the 23rd because the baby was big and there hadn't been much interuteral progress.However, that all changed soon after we walked into the new REI and Natalie's eyes gazed upon a set of pink Smartwool baby booties and immediately felt a strange feeling. Apparently, Lydia was extremely disappointed not to be able to participate in the festivities at REI that evening or shop at the pre-sale that night. During the speeches by the REI management folks, Natalie kept elbowing me asking me to time these "strange feelings." Totally prepared for a next week arrival, however, Natalie and I continued looking around the new store.
We went home that night, watched Grey's Anatomy, and went to bed.
Around 6:30 the next morning, Natalie woke me up by saying calmly, "Get up, it's time to go." Disoriented, I thought I had overslept for work because there wasn't a lot of urgency in her voice. However, it was because her water broke and those "strange feelings" were contractions, and the contractions were two minutes apart.
We got to the hospital around 7:00 and Natalie was taken upstairs. Contractions were now one minute apart. Natalie's friend, Angie, arrived around 9:00 am and stayed with us all day.
After progressing quickly, and around 11:00 am, we realized that it might be best to go ahead and start the epidural. What a difference that made for everyone. I can't imagine having a baby without one - and we only lasted about three hours before starting ours!
By around 3:00, we were almost fully dilated at 9.5 cm. We thought the baby would be here before we knew it and Natalie's parents were racing up from Florida, frantic that they may miss the delivery. They arrived around 3:30 in time for this three (soon to be four) generation shot.
Fast forward to around 7:30, still at 9.5 cm. After talking with the physician, we felt that we would give it a few more hours but decided that a c-section would be our best option and the safest option for the baby, since we had been at the hospital for over 12 hours.
This is what she looked like when I first saw her.
Here I am cutting her umbilical cord.
Here she is on the weighing table (yes, the scale says 8 lbs 2 oz, for those keeping score at home). All the while, poor Natalie is still on the operating table as the doctors finished the procedure and I am getting alone time with the baby!
A close-up.
Mother meets baby.
Some close-ups...
Lydia meets her friend Scout (our friend from NOC, Ashley's new baby, born on 10/13)
Lydia meets her Florida grandmother
And then she meets her Georgia grandmother
Lydia wearing the gown that her great-grandmother, grandmother, and father wore
Lydia celebrates her one day birthday
We're still at the hospital and should be heading home in the morning. More later...
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