Amelia Goes For Her First Swim

K & Amelia


In Goes Amelia



Legs All the Way


Going In


Berkeley & Zack Join the Party


Berkeley Shakes Off

Bottle

This weekend we gave Amelia her first bottle, it was a truly amusing experience. As is normal for her she was howling with hunger when I presented her with the bottle. She howled even louder because the bottle was not what she wanted, then I squeezed the nipple so a little milk shot it to her mouth, the look of shock on her face was priceless. To her the idea that milk could come from somewhere other than mommy was totally mind blowing. It was fun to watch her try to process this new development.

Berkeley and Zack Heart Amelia

Berkeley & Amelia

One of things that we most worried about before bringing Amelia home was how the dogs we react to her, we need not of worried. The dogs love Amelia. They took to her almost instantly. Zack is thrilled to have a new purpose in life, protecting Amelia.

One can almost always find Zack positioned very near where Amelia is sleeping keeping watchful eye over her. The minute she starts fussing he goes crashing though the house to find us to let us know about it. He is just so thrilled to have some to protect. Berkeley has always lacked a protective instinct, but she does like to be as near to Amelia as she can.

Though they have been thus far foiled by the diaper vault, the dogs are present at every diaper changing, just waiting for that one time that the diaper gets improperly placed in the vault. There two favorite things to eat are poop and paper products, there could be little else as appealing to them as combo of there two favorite snack items.

My Two Favorite People

I love this picture

Back to Work

Gratuitous Baby Picture

I have gone back to work for a few hours a day. and finding it kind of a surreal experience, as unlike my home life where everything has changed, nothing has changed at work, the same massive piles of unorganized papers sit where I left on my desk, the same dozen windows that I left open on my computer on the 16th where still open on my return this morning. Sitting back at my desk I could have been just down the hall getting a cup of coffee rather then being gone for 11 days having my totally changed.

In some ways this is a welcome comfort. Becoming a dad has been the most wonderful thing that has ever happened to me, however on some levels it is all unnerving. There is no easing into parenthood, a little person shows and boom, you are a parent. It kind of feels like being asked to drive in heavy freeway traffic during a blizzard the first time you ever got behind the wheel of a car. It is nice to spend a few hours where everything familiar and I feel like I am in total control. However I would still much rather spend all my time with Amelia.

Amelia's First Bath

Yesterday Amelia's umbilical cord stump fell off, so we were able to give her first real bath. Nothing like the smell of clean new baby. Now if only the dogs were so easy to bathe, which is today's task.

The Arrival of Amelia

K Mowing at 6:00 AM

The Friday before last while at dinner K began to have ever more frequent and strong contractions. We thought she was about to enter labor, my mother booked a flight to come to town the next morning, then contractions stopped.

The next morning I woke at 6:00 AM to K mowing the front lawn in some sort insane nesting/labor inducement bid. It must have worked because when she came in she noticed that her shorts were all wet, her water had broke. In what amounts to truly amazing timing that was right when my mother showed up and we were off to the hospital.

Off to the Hospital

At the hospital it was confirmed that her water broke and she was admitted. We were told that because her water broke that Amelia would have to be delivered within 24 hours. However she still was not having contractions, so we just spent the afternoon just sitting around waiting for it all the begin.

Waiting

Early Saturday evening they decided to induce labor, it was also it this point that K got an epidural. The contractions started coming fast and furious. However thanks to the epidural K says that the only reason she knew she was having contractions was by watching a monitor that she was hooked to that showed such activity, a major relief for her. According her from the boobs down she felt nothing. Then sometime around 10:30 it came time for the pushing. Sadly the epidural did little to block the pain of this as K was quickly in tears of pain. But in a short 20 or so minutes the tears of pain were instantly changed to tears of joy when Amelia was born at 10:56.

K Meets Amelia

Meeting my daughter for the first time was an experience amazing beyond words. The second that she wrapped her impossibly tiny hands around one of my fingers, I fell totally and absolutely in love with her.

Amelia Grabs My Finger

Amelia

Happy Family

Me and Amelia