Daphne

Originally uploaded by Photo-Mojo

Since Daphne was born I think we’ve taken a few thousand pics of her. She’ll definitely have a well documented childhood. Today we attempted to get a good shot for her birth announcement. Easier said than done.

While doing research on birth announcement photos Chris made the comment that a lot of newborn pictures really suck. Today we found out why. Since babies just don’t pose or cooperate it makes it difficult. Out of the 200 or so initial pics we took only one or two were even something that we wouldn’t delete. If we needed a picture of her yawning, frowning at us, waving her little fists right in front of her face.. then we’d have 199 to pick from. A decent shot of her looking at the camera? More elusive. Another thing working against us? Daphne’s weird body hair. Daphne, like a lot of babies born early, was covered in fine hair, or lanugo. In Daphne’s case it was the same color as the hair on her head, so if you look at her back and ears she looks like a little wolfman baby.  I had plans of putting her in a little diaper cover with an attached tutu for one shot.  From the back she looks like a little monkey, from the front you can see all the loose skin on her arms and legs (girl needs to fatten up just a bit and fill out).  So that photo idea was quickly squashed.  We’ll keep trying to get a good pic of her.  In the meantime we used this picture for her announcement.

The Lomo Garage

Originally uploaded by Photo-Mojo

Check out this month’s Birmingham Magazine which features a short bio on Chris and one of his pics, The Lomo Garage. The magazine profiled several other members of the Magic City Flickr group as well. Daphne and I are so proud!!!

Daphne is 2 weeks old today.  What a crazy 2 weeks it’s been!!  This time (4:30pm) on 8/28 I was shivering from the effects of the epidural and almost dilated enough to start pushing.  Since then it’s all been a blur of holding Daphne, feedings, hundreds of diaper changes, getting used to being up every 2-3 hours, learning how to care for an infant, bath time.. oh yeah, and recovering from the actual birthing process myself.  In a way I’m glad 2 weeks have elapsed, each day I feel a little bit better physically and now am almost back to normal. I can almost go without any painkillers now.  Yippee! On the other hand I’m trying to savor each day with Daphne.  I know she won’t be little for long.  One of the lactation consultants at St. Vincent’s told us to appreciate each day with your newborn.  Right now they want to be held and want you close, but too soon they will be older and off doing their own things.  That hit home because I definitely have a tendency to not live in the moment.  Right now Daphne is curled up in my arm, her body resting on the desk, her head in the crook of my left arm.  My other arm is around her body, leaving my hands free to type this post.  Life is Good!

Daphne REALLY Likes Her Swing

Originally uploaded by Photo-Mojo

Sorry it’s taken me a while to add more details on Daphne’s arrival.  As you can imagine things have been a bit hectic.

Daphne was born Tuesday, August 28th.  I had my regularly scheduled Dr. appt Tuesday afternoon, where my Dr. found I had dilated to over 5 cm and was 100% effaced, and according to the monitors was having contractions, although I wasn’t feeling anything.  So, I was admitted immediately and walked across the building to the birthing suite.  After a frantic call to Chris to go home and get all the bags I was hooked up to an IV and started getting Pitocin.  They broke my water 30 min later (around 3:00) then Daphne was born at 7:37.  So it was a pretty fast delivery for a first baby.  All I can say is THANK GOD for epidurals.

After a little trouble with jaundice, Daphne is doing very well.  We are very glad to be home. She has gorgeous thick dark hair (the pics don’t do her justice) and looks just like her Daddy.   Keep checking Chris’ Flickr account for pics.