A day in the life

So yesterday was an interesting day. It started out lovely with a brief visit from our friend David, who, along with his wife Angela, have been a godsend. This time, David brought us a nursing pillow in order to help Jessica by providing support for her arms during feedings. We then had a good time with Morgen on her playmat (another item borrowed from D & A), where we tried "tummy time" for the first time (see picture above). In the afternoon, we had our 3-day checkup, and that is when things started to turn. The checkup was surprisingly emotional. Morgen is fine, aside from a mild case of jaundice. The stress stemmed from our discussion of some feeding difficulties and, most importantly, our own sleep deprivation. Then, after getting home, Morgen started to show us what she can really do with that digestive system of hers by soiling five diapers in the course of an hour - and by "soil", I mean the explosive, how-could-so-much-come-from-someone-so-small kind of soiling. This kept us busy well into the wee hours, but we did finally get some sleep.

Today has been quite a nice change from the second half of yesterday. No doctor's appointments, no diaper-changing marathons. Just a lot of sleeping, both for Morgen and for her mom and dad. We did, however, find time to dress Morgen up in some cute clothes. In the picture below, she is sporting the latest in fashion provided by her grandmothers. The onesie is from my mom, and the blanket was knitted by Jessica's mom. Note how well they go together (the color is a bit off in this picture, but I think one can still see the similarities). Are the grandparents on a wavelength or what?

Sleep? We don't need no stinkin' sleep!

This picture says it all, really: Mama and baby sacked out at about 10:00 AM. We had our first taste of real, on our own parenting last night, and remarkably little of it involved sleep for Mom or Dad. Currently, Morgen seems very uninterested in sleeping anywhere except in one of our arms. And last night, she was feeding almost every hour. As a result, we had to take turns holding Morgen while she slept and sleeping ourselves.

Still, we made it through, and this morning Morgen and I had so much fun playing our new favorite game, rubbing noses. The rules are simple: I make silly faces and noises and make a general fool of myself. Then I bend forward to rub my nose side to side against hers, and she makes a face at me. Jessica pointed out that Morgen probably thinks my nose is a nipple and is trying to suck on it. She also seems to like the vibrating Link-a-Doos chair; she sat in it quite contentedly for 25 minutes or so, while Mom and Dad played the aforementioned rubbing noses game with her. Here are two pictures of her in her chair, a close-up and one of the two of us playing rubbing noses.

Guten Morgen

... and finally, after a nearly two week delay, we would like to introduce the new star of this blog.

Morgen Lovett Hammel was born at 7:29 PM on Tuesday, May 27, 2008. She weighed 7 lbs. 12 oz. and was 20 inches long. Her journey into the extrautero world was a relatively brief one (10 1/2 hours from having the water broken by the doctor as part of the induction process to delivery), though Dad (and, for that matter, probably Morgen herself) felt each moment go by ever so slowly. In any case, with the help of the friendly and helpful staff at St. Joseph's Health Centre, Mother and Baby are now recovering and in fairly good shape at home.

Since we just got home a few minutes ago, we will have to save further details for a later time. Here, however, are two pictures of Morgen when she was just about 4 hours old. More to follow.

For Harvey and Sebastian Matt

Dear Harvey and Sebastian,
Your mom says that you have been visiting this blog to see a picture of the baby. I should be able to take some pictures of her in a few days - she is not here yet, but it won't be long now. While you are waiting, I thought you might like to see some of the baby animals who live at the High Park Zoo. Gavin and I didn't have our camera with us the first time we visited (sorry about that). We weren't able to convince the baby Wallaby to come out for a picture, but here are two of the other baby animals for you to see. Can you name them?

We hope you are both having lots of fun in Ottawa. Please give your mommy and daddy hugs for us.

Sincerely,

Jessica and Gavin

Animal babies

Our daily walk took us to the High Park zoo yesterday. The second pen had two baby goats in it (Gavin said "aww"). The third pen had a baby wallaby in it. The little wallaby is getting too big to stay in its mother's pouch, but it kept hopping in and out, mostly for entertainment, I think. Another pen had a very small baby bison still shakey on its knobby legs, and we also saw a baby llama (I'm omitting the technical terms for all of these infant animals, but when you visit the zoo with us next time you are in the neighbourhood I'll point out the newly revised, kid-friendly signage that contains all the info). Thinking we'd seen it all, we turned around and headed back out of the zoo, up the long steep incline to the main road - but then we spotted a family of red foxes playing in a half-hidden pen towards the back of the enclosure. 
Although I only saw four, a watching local informed us that there were six baby foxes and two adults - all somehow living the free life in the city-bound park. Two of the babies were tossing the body of an unfortunate squirrel back and forth between them while their proud parents looked on. I don't know why, but this reminded me of Caroline's practical approach to farm 'pets'. Hopefully our own baby will take the hint and come out to play sometime soon...I also hope that, next time we trek into the High Park zoo, we remember to bring our camera. Despite feeling sorry for the larger animals, I find the zoo a cute place to visit at this time of year.

Spot the birdie with the hat

So, we're still pregnant...."due date" my @$$. And so I'm trying to keep myself busy.

Today I painted for the first time since grade eight. Gavin says that I should comment on how much I've improved since then...well, to be honest, I'm glad that we've got nothing to compare this with in order to find out. I'm guessing that the baby won't be judgmental (at first) - but I suppose we'll learn that soon enough.

Almost-A-Mother's Day Bouquet

Gavin and I came home from a long walk in the village today to find this enormous bunch of flowers waiting outside our apartment door. The picture doesn't really do them justice.
It's funny to think that there is a new set of "holidays" to celebrate now...thanks Mom and Dad!

So the digital camera saga has finally been resolved. No, we still haven't fixed our standard digital camera. That will take a number of weeks and requires us to mail our camera off to Mississauga. Instead, we went out and bought a digital memory chip for our camcorder, which enables us to take still shots on that.

This is one of the first pictures I took with it, and I thought it appropriate that my first post on our "baby blog" - or for that matter on any blog whatsoever - start off with a picture of mama and baby pre-delivery. Cute, huh? I especially like the fertility symbolism inherent in the picture of my pregnant wife surrounded by spring flowers. This was taken in our front yard. You can see our front window in the background. Actually, Grendel (our cat, for any of you who don't know) also tried to get in the photo. A few seconds after this shot was taken, he appeared at the window. Apparently, he doesn't want to be forgotten in all the baby madness.

OK, so this was a fairly boring post. Things should get livelier when the little rugrat arrives. Bye for now.

Is this the most inactive blog in the virtual-verse?

Possibly. But we've got an excuse - there is something wrong with our camera. So, while we sort that out (hopefully before the arrival of baby Lovett Hammel), here is a picture from bygone days that somehow is still relevant to the current situation. I fell in love with this sign while waiting for a train in Bamberg a few years ago.