April 29, 2007

Its hard to believe how much our lives have changed in only one short month! For Deanna, it means virtually a career switch as she cares for Delanie at home during the day. For Dave, it is the additional role of father which seems to consume his mind even when he is at work or school. For Delanie, it is adjusting to life outside the womb.

As you can see, Delanie (the most important one) is adjusting just fine. She is spending more time awake and smiling, and is starting to give her lungs some much needed rest.

She recognizes both her parents by sight and voice now, and we are already arguing over which one of us she prefers. Truth be told, its the person holding the bottle. If Charlie (our dog) could hold the bottle, he would be Delanie's favorite.

Delanie currently weighs 11 lbs, 11 oz and is already in 3-6 mo clothing. We packed up her 0-3 wardrobe and put it into storage on her 1 month birthday, 4/28, in hopes that one day maybe a "LITTLE" sister (or cousin) can enjoy all the beautiful outfits for more than a few weeks.

We are looking forward to month 2 as a family!

Delanie - 4 weeks

Here is Delanie at 4 weeks!

Delanie continues to spend more time awake and alert, giving us some facial expressions and noises. The last two days she has been very fussy, she is clearly uncomfortable. We think its gas, not sure if it was something Mom ate or what... So, we are trying to treasure those precious few awake-but-not-fussy moments.

Supporting the Hokies

It is always hard to hear tragic news like a school shooting... but when you
have a personal connection to the school or the community, it hits especially hard. That was the situation we found ourselves in this week
upon hearing about the shooting at Virginia Tech, Dave's alma mater. Here are some pictures of us sporting the VT colors to show our support.

I get a much needed bath to get rid of
the milk mustache! This is the first time I didn't cry (much)!!

More Pictures

Here are some more pictures of Delanie as I learn how to better use this website!




Delanie chillin' in the Bjorn with Daddy

Delanie wearing her "Kiss Me I'm Irish" onesie before she outgrows it - it might have fit a little better had she come on March 17 as planned... :)

Delanie with Papa Dave, Nana Cindy and Uncle Patrick. She is in her character "froggie" pose, I swear she has not yet learned that those legs are part of her 22 inch height.

April 15

We had a very exciting weekend with lots of visitors! Grandparents, great-grandparents, great aunts, great cousins all took turns holding, feeding, consoling Delanie while Deanna and Dave had an opportunity to rest their arms (and ears) and get some much-needed sleep. Delanie is in the 96th percentile for height and weight for her age, according to her 2-week check up. Although she is only 2 weeks old, she looks and acts several weeks older. She has pretty good head control and has strong arms and legs (I could have told you this before she was born). And, due to her size, we are working hard to let her wear all the great 0-3 clothes at least once before she outgrows them!!

Delanie's First Easter!

Delanie celebrated her first Easter today ... asleep. After staying up until 1 am, she has been sleeping wonderfully since. I guess we need to continue to work on meshing her schedule with Mom and Dad's. She continues to eat well and gain weight. She is now over 10 pounds, which officially puts her in the category of "no lifting heavy objects" in terms of Deanna's c-section recovery. We just won't tell the doctor.
It's great to get comments from so many people, from close family to old friends. Keep the comments coming! We don't get an email address when you leave a comment, so please leave that as well, and we will try to get back in touch with you soon!

Delanie is one week old!

Delanie is already one week old! We are enjoying every moment with her, just taking in everything she does. She is a very good baby (knock on wood), she wakes every 3 hours to feed and spends very little time fussing.

She had her second doctor's appointment today - a follow up because she had lost a lot of weight after birth. She is back up to 9 lbs 10 oz, so doctors were very happy with that. She has almost grown out of her newborn diapers - we may be able to use them for a few more days.

Delanie has had so much mail and so may visitors! She loves meeting new people! We have had some great meals that others have cooked, so Delanie is tasting a lot of new and interesting foods via her mom's milk. And she is so excited about all the flowers and gifts that keep arriving each day. I tried to tell her that it might not be like this for the rest of her life, but for now, she is enjoying the attention! Thank you to everyone for all the support, all three of us are grateful for everything!

The Delanie Daily

Delanie came home with us mid-afternoon on Saturday. She barely fit into her 0-3 outfit that we had picked out for her (you know, in case the original newborn sized outfit didn't fit). This means that she will probably need to change clothes 6 times a day to get through her 0-3 wardrobe (mommy went a little overboard at Gymboree, see previous posts)!

Delanie was greeted by grandparents, her great grandmother, her aunt and uncle and her fur-siblings. We had to calm some jumping and excitement, but were happy that it wasn't coming from the dogs.

Deanna is slowly recovering, but as usual, has a hard time staying still. Dave gets a vote as #1 Dad as he handles most of the burping and diaper changes, in addition to helping Deanna with so many daily tasks.

We are happy to be home, but are also a bit overwhelmed by our new role as parents. We are very grateful for all the help we have been receiving, and thank you to everyone for all of the phone calls, emails, cards and well-wishes!