Thursday, July 23, 2009
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Who wants more Katherine? I do!
The magnificent Katherine!
Now that we've all been home a while, and trying to get settled into some sort of "normal" routine, I figured I'd post an update on our lives with Katherine. First of all, many kudos to John for a great post about my labor and delivery. It really was an amazing experience, so much less terrifying than I expected. Sure, there was a lot of pain for many many hours before the epidural, and a lot of work during delivery, but I truly had fun getting this little bundle into this world. I owe a lot to 1)John, for his amazing support, 2)Dr. Coppola, for her mellow and encouraging manner, and 3)luck, that things went smoothly and my body worked the way I hoped it would. Katherine deserves a lot of credit too...that couldn't have been easy for her!Our first few days with Katherine all sort of blur together from the sleep deprivation and excitement. We had some great nurses at the hospital who helped both me and Katherine adjust, and get started on breastfeeding (a two-step-forward-one-step-back adventure, but so worth the effort now). Katherine is amazing, and we are so blessed to have such a sweet girl in our lives. We've also been lucky to have help at home...we've had shifts of several proud grandparents helping us keep the house in order. Not to be forgotten, Winston has also been great...he shows interest in Katherine to the point of sniffing her or curling up at my feet during feedings, but not so much interest that we are worried at all. All in all, the Campbell household has been a very happy household!
More to come...
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Katherine's first day
Ok, this is John writing for my first ever blog post. Wish me luck because I don't always understand how HTML-converting software works and so the formatting may be off.
I'm going to narrate the story of how Katherine Janice was born while it's fresh in my mind. So we checked into the hospital at 2AM on July 5, 2009. We got the penthouse delivery room with a view of the Tucson mountains:
Erin did an amazing job during early labor, making tons of progress without needing any medical intervention whatsoever. As a testament to her abilities to smile despite excruciating pain, she forced the following smile at 4:45AM:
I'm guessing she has honed the ability to smile through pain by being at public sporting events with me where Wake Forest is losing. Then, she had made such good progress we were certain this labor was past the point of no return. Pain medication ensued at 6:30AM. Things became much more enjoyable for Erin, as evidenced by this shot of her at 9AM:
Erin never needed any inducement whatsoever from the doctors throughout the labor. We think that is rare these days, because all the nurses were gathering around discussing how she was doing this without needing any pitocin. Anyway, Erin worked hard and finished dilation. Then it was time to push at 2:15pm. Our doctor (whom we loved) forced us to take a minute just before this milestone in labor to take a picture:
The nurses and doctor were very patient as labor progressed another 2.5 hours. Finally, at 4:51 PM on July 5, 2009, Katherine Janice Campbell decided to grace us with her presence. The following picture was taken at 4:53PM (the first time mother and daughter met):
They took her from mom, weighed her in at 7lbs. 5oz. (get it - 7 lbs 5 oz on 7/5), and then allowed me to meet my daughter for the first time in this picture at 5:01PM:
Yes, I'm wearing a Wake Forest hat backwards. I recognize that most Wake fans aren't so "bad", but lets keep in mind that neither of us had slept since late Friday night (2AM) and it was now Sunday afternoon...so cut me a break. Ok, so then we got the first family portrait:
Everyone was so friendly, they let us keep Katherine with us for a couple of hours before taking her away to the nursery for measurements. She came in at 20 inches in length, and then they gave Katherine her first bath (this was at 8PM):
She was flailing her arms and crying hysterically throughout her sponge bath. She must take after mom, because we all know full well how I love a good bath! Then mom and dad went to bed, and slept for a bit...and the next morning at 8:30AM Katherine was seen by the pediatricians. She passed all tests with flying colors. She was also starting to be very responsive, opening her eyes and investigating the world all around her. To celebrate her first passing grade, we brought her back to our room for a photo shoot with mom. This one was the winner:
Thats all for now. We'll post more later.
I'm going to narrate the story of how Katherine Janice was born while it's fresh in my mind. So we checked into the hospital at 2AM on July 5, 2009. We got the penthouse delivery room with a view of the Tucson mountains:
Erin did an amazing job during early labor, making tons of progress without needing any medical intervention whatsoever. As a testament to her abilities to smile despite excruciating pain, she forced the following smile at 4:45AM:
I'm guessing she has honed the ability to smile through pain by being at public sporting events with me where Wake Forest is losing. Then, she had made such good progress we were certain this labor was past the point of no return. Pain medication ensued at 6:30AM. Things became much more enjoyable for Erin, as evidenced by this shot of her at 9AM:
Erin never needed any inducement whatsoever from the doctors throughout the labor. We think that is rare these days, because all the nurses were gathering around discussing how she was doing this without needing any pitocin. Anyway, Erin worked hard and finished dilation. Then it was time to push at 2:15pm. Our doctor (whom we loved) forced us to take a minute just before this milestone in labor to take a picture:
The nurses and doctor were very patient as labor progressed another 2.5 hours. Finally, at 4:51 PM on July 5, 2009, Katherine Janice Campbell decided to grace us with her presence. The following picture was taken at 4:53PM (the first time mother and daughter met):
They took her from mom, weighed her in at 7lbs. 5oz. (get it - 7 lbs 5 oz on 7/5), and then allowed me to meet my daughter for the first time in this picture at 5:01PM:
Yes, I'm wearing a Wake Forest hat backwards. I recognize that most Wake fans aren't so "bad", but lets keep in mind that neither of us had slept since late Friday night (2AM) and it was now Sunday afternoon...so cut me a break. Ok, so then we got the first family portrait:
Everyone was so friendly, they let us keep Katherine with us for a couple of hours before taking her away to the nursery for measurements. She came in at 20 inches in length, and then they gave Katherine her first bath (this was at 8PM):
She was flailing her arms and crying hysterically throughout her sponge bath. She must take after mom, because we all know full well how I love a good bath! Then mom and dad went to bed, and slept for a bit...and the next morning at 8:30AM Katherine was seen by the pediatricians. She passed all tests with flying colors. She was also starting to be very responsive, opening her eyes and investigating the world all around her. To celebrate her first passing grade, we brought her back to our room for a photo shoot with mom. This one was the winner:
Thats all for now. We'll post more later.
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