A Sort of Homecoming

Today was a big day. With doctor's approval, Marcy and Lily were allowed to come home today, a day early. The insurance company was surely grateful and Marcy seems to be glad to be back home in her own bed. Lily just appears to be glad not to have the nurses perpetually putting a thermometer in tush. Perhaps Marcy can take her temperature tomorrow for ol' time sake.

Anyway, Lily had a great night last night. She slept well and woke up for feedings at 10 p.m., 1 a.m., 5 p.m. and 9 a.m. She is eating like a champ, a little bit more each time. Interestingly enough, she seems to be continuously setting chow down records when Grandpa Tom feeds her -- he must have a light touch with the bottle.

So, after lunch we came home. Lily was fine in the car. She really looks lost in her car seat as you can see below. She seems to have adjusted to being home and she and Marcy are upstairs sleeping. Lily will be getting up at 10 for her next feeding and then hopefully she will be back in her big crib for a restful night. Considering that her crib in the hospital was a glorified piece of tupperware, she is really styling now in her fancy crib. After her 7 p.m. feeding, conducted by her Grandpa Tom who stopped by on the way home from work for dinner, she passed out. It seems that she is adjusting to being home. We are keeping our fingers crossed that these good sleep patterns stay in place -- I am not sure that we will be so lucky but we can hope.

P.S. -- Lily sends out a special hello to her Great Bubbie who has used a computer for the first time this week to check out her pictures and to type her a comment. The rumor mill has it that Bubbie might be getting her own computer one of these days -- I promise to figure out how to put video up on the site by then.



Lily with one Grandma Gail...


Lily with her other Grandma Phyllis...


Lily with Grandpa Tom ...


Practicing for future games of peek-a-boo.


Hanging out with Mom ...


Killing time with her Dad in the hospital.


Another rough day, Lily in her going home outfit. A onesie made especially for her with her name on it from our neighbors, The Purvis'. (Proving how much she liked it, she did not spit up any formula on it all day!)


Another view ... her hat was hit with the hospital folk. No one there had ever seen any other baby with one like that.




The nuclear family getting ready to go home. Lily is sporting Auntie Dora's hand knit sweater for the car ride home. Thanks Auntie Dora for the great sweater.



Jumping into her cool new car seat for the first time.


Ummm, Dad, I am a little small for this seat. Can we make some adjustments?


Much better.


In her big crib for the first time.


Feeling kind of sleepy.

Doubling Her Life Span in The Blink of an Eye

Hello everyone. Thanks for all your calls, messages and good wishes.

Here is the quick update. All is going great. The first night was a little tough because I failed to realize that I was not feeding her (Lily, although some of you know how Marcy can get when she doesn't eat) enough and she kept waking up hungry ... Every two hours. That made it a little tough to sleep. We figured things out by about five and now she is eating over an ounce and can make it 3-4 hours between screaming out like a hungry banshee for food. Lily slept most of Saturday and was great all day. I mentioned to her that there were some good college football games on but she didn't seem interested. I am off to a rough start in finding a football watching buddy but I will not be discouraged. The Redskins opener is today so we will try again, maybe the NFL is her bag. Is it a bad sign that her mittens are more attracting to her than the game?

We put some little mittens on her hands to stop her from scratching up her face with her long nails and that seems to have done the trick. She still like to try and shove her hands in her mouth though -- no gloves are going to stop that.

Last night she did great. We fed her at 10, 12, 3, and then she slept all the way until 7 a.m. That was fantastic because Marcy and I were really tired.

Marcy is doing much better. She is up and moving about on her own and she is very excited about taking a shower today. She is doing great as a Mom too, changing diapers like a pro (and it is amazing how much "stuff" can fill a diaper already!!!), feeding Lily and getting the best burps out of her you can imagine.

Here are some more pictures for those of you who need your fix. I am printing out the comments every day for Marcy to take to the Hospital -- she will be there until Tuesday -- so feel free to drop her a line that way. Juan Carlos from Spain did, and we don't even know him!

Thanks again and we'll post again tomorrow. More pictures of being held by all the grandparents are promised. I seemed have not gotten shots of Tom and Gail and my mother holding her yet. That will be remedied today.



Good morning everyone.

Here she is in her fancy hat.

Hanging out with dad.

Here is Aunt Tracy feeding Lily.

Holding her own with a stuffed hippo sent to her by her Great Grandmother, Great Aunt, Great Uncle and Cousins.

Ahh, nothing like being held by Mom.

In this picture you can actually see her wrapping Grandpa around her little motioned finger. Tubby the hippo working table security in the background.

Welcome to the Planet

Lily Serena was born on September 10, 2004 at 3:34 p.m.
She weighed in at 7 lbs. even and is 18 1/2 inches long.
Mom and baby are doing great.
Marcy is recovering well from the surgery and the baby is eating like a champ.
More details to follow but I need to get back to the hospital to hang out with the gang.



One of Lily's first pictures . There were earlier one's but I couldn't seem to get the camera in focus.


Lily getting ready for her first bath. She has some cool looking hair.



Lily all clean after her bath.


Lily and Mom aka "Marcy" hanging out.



Lily chowing down on Saturday's "breakfast".



Catching some zzzzzs.

Thanks for everyone's good wishes. More postings will come over the weekend. Everyone comes home on Tuesday.

Rounding Third

Almost exactly 60 hours and counting.

This planned birth thing is kind of strange. First of all, when people ask what your due date is and you tell them that the baby will be born on Friday (THIS FRIDAY) they kind of look at you strange. It's a sort of "how do you know" kind-of-look or they say "you think it is going to be Friday". The next question invariably relates to whether Marcy is being induced which naturally needs further explanation ... a longer explanation than either expected (and maybe wanted) ... Now this is okay with family, friends or co-workers but can be a little weird with the grocery store cashier clerk. So now we use self check-out.

The other weird part about the process is that it is so regimented. That is unless plans change. In other words, there will be no mad rush to the hospital. Relatives will not be dropping things and careening around the Beltway to get to the hospital on time. No chance my cellphone will ring in the middle of meeting. Perhaps most unfortunate of all, no chance for labor on the Metro with delivery conducted by a complete stranger taking instructions over a choppy cell phone connection under Washington, D.C. Marcy has probably watched "She's Having a Baby" eleven times since she found out that she was pregnant (the beauty of HBO repeating their lineup over and over again) but there is little chance I will be able to leave for the hospital on Friday without her -- a-la Kevin Bacon leaving without Elizabeth McGovern. By the way, and I am sure Marcy will disagree, this is truly a horrible movie after viewing number three.

Anyway, they tell me that the posts will get more interesting on Friday.

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