Let the sun shine in....

The baby is adjusting to home life by becoming a tan junkie.

The baby had a bit of breastfeeding-related jaundice, so she's been hooked up with a little tanning bed to use in her pack n' play. She looks like such a little Paris Hilton tanning it up. The good news is, her jaundice is clearing up and this should be the last night on the machine. Here she is tanning:



Our daughter is, as expected, rather precocious. She's very curious and constantly surveying her surroundings. She was trying to hold her bottle at 3-days-old and trying to lift her head up to look around the room at 4-days-old. Last night she didn't make a peep for FIVE HOURS in the middle of the night. I even got up and checked on her around 3:30.. She was awake and looking around quietly while we slept. What a kid! She's already working on her impressions. So far she's doing a pretty good Christopher Lloyd and a FANTASTIC Dana Carvey.

As for the rest of us, we're exhausted and proud and so very excited to have our daughter at home. The c-section recovery has gone fairly well. My blood pressure is still an issue, but hopefully that will clear up soon. I'll be interested to see what happens with the gestational diabetes. I plan to ask about that at our doctor's appointment on Friday.

Most of the Eliza pictures have been taken by family members. While we wait for those to roll in, let me show you a couple of my favorite pictures from our time with Eliza.

Brian at the hospital taking care of the baby while I showered:


Eliza on the way home:


The BEST picture. Ever:

She's here!

At 11:45 p.m., Aug. 28, 2008, Eliza Jane Smith entered the world via C-section, as Janie's induction failed after more than two days.

Janie developed a slight fever from her water being broken around noon, and that, combined with her cervix not moving at all in about six hours, led Dr. Hodges to take her back for a C-section around 11:20. Janie had fortunately gotten an epidural earlier in the evening, so they were able to crank it up for the section.

Janie's recovering right now, and apparently everything went well when they closed her, so she should heal pretty well.

Pictures to come once I've actually got some (I was in the OR and then took Eliza into the nursery, so I couldn't get any myself.)

Any minute now. No, really!

Water is broken, so we're leaving here with a baby one way or the other. Brian's having Chick-fil-A and I'm checking in with the internet. I'm still pretty comfortable, but the contractions have gotten slightly more painful. Updates as events warrant or we have a baby to show you.

It's EARLY.

It's 6:25, I've barely slept, Janie slept less and we are DOING THIS.

The Cervidil doesn't seem to have done much, but they've got the pitocin started and we're rocking along. Janie's chowing down on ice chips, I'm waiting for my breakfast to arrive and my mother is already making pictures.

So the waiting game begins.