Our newborn daughter Lena turns two weeks old tonight! I’m bummed that my paternity leave from Delta is ending in a few minutes, but I am so thankful for the time I’ve spent this past week or so taking care of Kathy (as much as she allowed me to) and our darling little baby girl.
By this point, many of my readers have been wondering (quite loudly, in some cases) why I haven’t been posting any baby updates, pictures, etc. After all, I DID announce last time that a BlogSpot delivery room recap would be posted here this week.
Friends, I have heard your cries. Lena’s lungs are doing their darnedest to drown them out each night, but I’m still listening. I briefly considered posting a caps-lock down, caffeine fueled rant about the countless hours I’ve spent trying to convince my new Nikon DSLR camera that, among other things, baby Lena’s delivery room photos were NOT taken on September 11th. Rather, I’ll keep my explanation simple:
The pictures just aren’t quite ready to upload yet. They will be soon, though. If these pictures were of anything other than our daughter’s birth, I would’ve settled for less than perfect.
Last night, I realized that I had run out of reasonable solutions to my mounting technical issues. I took a deep breath and embarked on the most maddeningly tedious process of photo adjusting that I could ever imagine. Personally, sitting in front of a computer is not how I prefer to spend my free time. But it will be a relief when I'm finally done getting Lena's baby pictures "un-messed up."
First things first, though. I think I just heard the sound of our little gift from heaven in the other room, asking for some loving attention. Daddy’s coming!
Saturday, September 24, 2011
More photos of baby Lena to come!
Sunday, September 11, 2011
9-10-11: The Day that Lena Esther Hamilton Entered Our World!!!
Last night at 10:18, Kathy gave birth to our first child, Lena Esther Hamilton! Lena is a beautiful, healthy baby who stole our hearts from the moment that we first laid eyes on her. Kathy and I will be staying here at St. Vincent Hospital for the next few days as Kathy recovers from her C-section surgery.
I will continue this BlogSpot post throughout our stay here at St. Vincent (we've been here for 50+ hours so far), uploading additional photos and telling Lena’s story. The hospital’s WiFi network is not playing nice with my computer’s security programs, so I will add each section (including this opening) and a few select photos each time that I am able to connect online.
Thank you, friends, for your prayers and supportive words as we watched God miraculously move to bring our baby daughter, Lena, into this world!
9/13/11 Tuesday update:
For the remainder of our nearly 101 hour stay in the hospital, I didn't find a good opportunity to continue this post as I had planned. In fact, Kathy and I just got home from the hospital and have put baby Lena down in her new bassinet for the first time!! I'll post a brand new BlogSpot post here early next week.
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Our Baby's Due Date Is... Yesterday?
Celebrating my birthday at Cooper Mountain
After waiting all this time for our baby daughter’s September 7 due date to arrive, the day came and went with nothing more than a small scare. When my alarm went off at 2 a.m. yesterday for my morning shift at Delta, Kathy was feeling nauseous and was experiencing irregular contractions. I called Delta to tell them not to expect me at the airport for my shift.
Later that morning, I took Kathy in to see our OBGYN. She assured us that Kathy’s condition and her false contractions were nothing to be concerned about. Before sending us home, our doctor recommended that we schedule a stress test next Wednesday, followed by an appointment to induce labor a week from this Friday. Kathy and I never really expected our baby daughter to be born by her September 7 due date, but hopefully she comes sooner the end of next week! Either way, we’ll be excited for her to arrive.
Our baby daughter’s room is all set up for the big day, and we can’t wait to finally bring her home to sleep in it.
This photo was taken by Christi Kurtz.
We have been blessed with a small army of friends and family who, when all is said and done, will have thrown us a total of seven(!) baby showers.
Our baby daughter will have enough toys, outfits, and diapers to keep her stylin’ with the best of them.
This past summer, Kathy and I have been taking advantage of our last hassle-free opportunities for uninterrupted “us” time, "me" time, and family time before our baby arrives.
Getaways such as flying overseas or driving to our family’s annual Banks Lake camping trip in July have been relaxing, but they are too few and too brief. This year, we even had to cut our Banks Lake vacation short so I could fly out in the middle of the week for Delta Care Team training in Atlanta. But next year, we’ll look forward to bringing our little one along to the lake!
We often hear about how important it is for parents to schedule “date nights” and outings with each other:
We’ll never need to be reminded to head out on the town together, but we realize that becoming parents may make our “get out” time less frequent and more complicated to pull off. Somehow, though, we’ll continue to make it happen.
Personally, I’ve been making the most of my pre-baby life by squeezing in as many hiking, trail running, backpacking, and camping trips as I can manage while juggling family, ministry, work, and social life.
Friends tell me often that, as a father, I’ll have to cut back on so many things that I love to do. I’m totally at peace with that, since we'll soon have a baby girl who is gonna need the best that we can give her. Our lives are about to change for the better!