Just Pictures

3 Days Old: He was a little yellowish, so he was sunning, and Daddy was keeping him company.

4 Days Old: Getting his first full "sponge" bath from Mommy. He is NOT a fan of sponge baths.

Getting some comfort from Daddy.

5 Days: He loves his mobil.

He can already hold his paci in. He loves that thing, much to Mommy's chagrin. Hopefully it won't be a huge battle someday!

6 Days old: Streeeetch!

I love these little knit pants.

Daddy and Danny both like to sleep in the car.

8 Days Old: Starting to chunk up!

Relaxing with Mommy... My mom came home with this cute little outfit. I love the pants.

Meeting some of his cousins... Wyatt loves him. He carried around his picture all day the day they got the pictures of him.

Wyatt, Kayli, and Dawson

Giving Momma a sweet little smile.

9 Days Old: Snoozin' with Pawpaw Quentin

12 Days Old: Funny faces with Daddy

12 Days Old: Posing in his Dr. Seuss diaper cover:

A new little Cardinals fan... Arthur got me this bear when we were dating.

His new best bud:

Welcome Danny!

This is a very late announcement that our baby boy is here! He arrived at 4:40 PM on October 9th. He weighed 8 lbs. 4 ounces and was 22 inches long. He was a big boy!

This is his first picture:You'll have to excuse his mommy's very frazzled appearance, but it had been a rather long day. You can see how proud his daddy is in this picture! Arthur got to "catch" the baby. That was really special.

Warning: The following section contains birth details. They aren't terribly graphic, but if you don't want to hear them, skip this section.

I had the baby at Columbia Community Birth Center. That was a really positive experience. Even though it was a really long labor, I feel like it was the best it could have been (with the exception of some of the early parts of labor when I hadn't quite gotten the hang of relaxing yet). We got to the birth center late Thursday evening. The midwife said it was still early, so we should try to get some rest. She went down the hall to the other room to get some rest and told us to come get her whenever we wanted her, and otherwise she'd check on us in the morning. Things started getting really tough early the next morning, so Arthur went and woke her up. She came in and taught me how to relax and breath through the contractions and showed Arthur how to help me, and from that point on, I felt great and knew we'd make it fine. It really did not seem like it was so many hours later that he was born. I guess the focus I gained at that point made the time fly. I pushed for around three hours by Arthur's calculation (that was made so long due to a cervical lip), and the baby crowned for a full hour! He was born in water and started breathing on his own very soon after being pulled from the water by his daddy. For those of you who think they were crazy for letting things go that long, I was clearly doing fine and was making progress, and the baby's heart rate was excellent through the whole thing. I had excellent care. The midwife and doctor were both very helpful and attentive to my needs. With their support, and with the wonderful and invaluable support of my husband, I was able to do the whole thing completely naturally and drug free. I would do it again even if I knew it would be as long, though I hope it's not! :o)

Okay, that's the end of the birth story stuff. Here are a few more pictures if you're interested:
Holding Daddy's finger:

Arthur cutting the cord:

You can't really tell from these pictures, but he was a very alert little guy. He studied everyone's faces. Right after he was born, I was sitting in the tub holding him, and Arthur said something. He immediately got alert and turned toward Arthur. The doctor and midwife had been talking, but he didn't pay any attention to them, so he clearly recognized his Daddy's voice. That was really neat.

These pictures are at home the next day (actually, I guess the first three are from the day after that):

In his co-sleeper, and holding that paci in:

Watching Daddy:

Reading a story:

Being held by his cousin:

At the birth center shortly before we left:

My mom took some good pictures too, and if she doesn't use all of them, I may post some of hers. :-) I have a lot more recent ones on my camera that I'll get to eventually, but I don't have tons of computer time right now. :o) Thanks for checking in on us!

Hi! Yes, I'm still here, and the baby is still in there! In case anyone is wondering, my due date IS October 5th. The original date was Sept. 30, so that's why the counter is off. Add 5 days to that to see how many days until the due date.
There's plenty I'd love to write about, but for now, I'll probably just post a few more pictures. Maybe someday I will update. :-)
This picture was taken about a month and a half ago. For more current pics, you can hop on over to Crystal's website to see some of the pictures she took for us. I still haven't loaded those on my computer, but she did a beautiful job. I'm so glad to have a cousin who's such a great photographer! Thanks, Crystal!


Here's a new shot of the room now that it's a little more finished.

This is on the other wall, so you can't see it in the picture of the whole room. My aunt and uncle bought us this great organizer. I told Arthur, this baby has more stuff than we do already!
Arthur picked this shirt for the baby to come home in. We ordered it off the internet, and the lady would put anything we wanted on the back. I thought it turned out really cute.

My Grandma finished the quilt. She does such a great job! She called to tell me she finished the valance too, so when I get that, I'll have to put it up and post pictures of the finished bedset.

Here's the quilt on the bed.

And here it is hung over the side:

Here's a little activity mat. At first, you use it like this. Later, you can fold up part of the bottom and move the toys down for a "tummy time" mat. Then you can put the mat over the arches to make a crawl through tunnel.

Here's a growth chart my mom got with some other stuff at school. She laminated it for me to hang on the wall. If you can't quite read it, it says, "A person's a person no matter how small. Each month that goes by, I'll watch you grow tall!"

I took another picture of these guys because there's a new guy in the middle. Meet Sam-I-Am!

As you can see in the picture of the whole room, I hung these on the wall between the dresser and the bed.

My mom picked up this little seat at a Just Between Friends sale. If you've never been to one and you have kids in your life, you should go!

This is my diaper pail. I think mom got these window clings at school too. Since the baby's room actually has no windows (no we are not keeping him in a prison. There just aren't any windows on the side of the house), I put them on the diaper pail. I kind of liked the result.

And here's the top:

I know some of you are totally uninterested in my nursery, but some of my family wanted to see all my stuff. Next time, maybe I'll have real news to share! If not, you'll probably get Labor Day pictures of another sort! (the kind with tents and fish and campfires)