Natalie is on the edge of her Lil’ Lion Activity Gym playset, cheering for a win against the Bears!
Cheering for a play-off spot!
(Okay, to be honest, she has slept for almost all of it, and I’m encouraging her Dad to cheer loudly so that she spends a little time awake – in hopes of us having a more restful night tonight. Between 11 and 3:30 last night, she only slept 45 minutes – thankfully, we were able to call Nana for relief, and she came down to help out!)
Amazingly, it was in the high 40’s yesterday, so we were able to take our first family stroll (a whole two blocks to the ATM machine).
Natalie made her first deposit for her college fund!
It was a super smooth ride… thanks Grandma Julie for the stroller, Aunt Becky for the car seat converter, Aunt Lisa/Aunt Jonna/Kelsey for the car seat, and Tricia/Luke for the bundle me (we went to grad school with Tricia’s husband, and they live in Evanston – Natalie is excited to meet Luke, who was born in Sept)! (We’re spoiled – thanks everyone!!!) We were strolling in style!
I know I'm biased, but could she be more adorable?!?!
This picture was taken last week – Jordan has since wised up and started using burp rags. 🙂 He has been the supreme diaper changer – burp machine…. he went from having never changed a diaper before Natalie was born to probably having changed 80+ diapers 1.5 weeks in. We are really going to miss him when he goes to work next week! Thank goodness he is only 2 blocks away, just in case we really need him (and thank goodness that Kathy will be here for most of next week too)!
My family came to visit over Christmas. My mom had bought Natalie a cute Christmas outfit, which said “Santa’s Favorite”. Turns out that Natalie was Everyone’s Favorite this Christmas!
Aunt Leah and Aunt Becky even made t-shirts. Look at Natalie’s funny facial expression!
Grandma Julie and Grandpa Dave were pretty smitten too – my Dad is holding Natalie’s foot like a trophy!
We had a wonderful visit – and everyone was so helpful…. Dad, Becky and Rob packed up our completely dead Christmas tree; Mom, Becky and Leah each woke up early one morning to hold Natalie so that we could sleep longer; they stocked our fridge; Mom did laundry, etc! God bless family. They came just in time. Without their help, we would have eatend canned soup for Christmas dinner, had many more t-shirts with burp stains and would have been a lot more exhausted. Who knew that taking care of a little one would be a 2+ person task?!?!
Merry Christmas to all my new friends!
Love,
Natalie
First, THANK YOU everyone for the wonderfully thoughtful emails and text messages. Our little Natalie is surely a very loved little girl! 🙂
Second, we’ve successfully made it through our first 24-hour period at home! Its early afternoon, and both Jordan and I are showered, and Natalie has eaten a couple times. I’m actually thankful we have a smallish condo, as its a lot easier to get around these 1,000 sq ft than it would be a 2-story home with stairs! We tried to move the crib into our bedroom, only to find that its about a centimeter too wide, so we’re still trying to figure out the best option for sleeping by Natalie.
Finally, the photographer at the hospital snapped a few shots right before we left yesterday – see Natalie at about 50 hours old! http://www.our365.com/NewbornPortraits/BabyDetail.aspx?birthid=0a8650d3-0de2-4fbf-af87-06ef7177732f I hope this links works – if not, please post and let me know. Grandparents, don’t buy any of the pics! We’ll have the complete CD with many more pics by the end of next week.
The first official day of parenthood has gone pretty well for everyone. Hopefully, Natalie would agree. I will spare everyone the full labor story (ask Erin if you’d like the play-by-play) but the summary: we went in at 11:15pm on Dec 18th and Natalie was born at 11:40am on the morning of Dec 19th.
Erin baking her way through contractions
Overall, the nurses and staff at Evanston Hospital have been fantastic. Special shout outs to Dana and Vicky for all their help. Below are a few pics from yesterday right after the birth.
First Family Portrait
Natalie less than one minute old
Who stayed up all night? We did!
Last night, Grandpa Julie and Grandpa Dave came down from Green Bay to visit. Natalie was very happy to see them, as indicated by her lack of fussing and funny noises. As if all the cutesy pink outfits, baby booties, and other baby schwag doesn’t show the spoiling she will get, Natalie is also the first grandchild on both sides. Yikes.
Grandma Julie and Grandpa Dave
Grandma and Grandpa came this morning as well to spend some time with her before heading back up north. Over the next month, Natalie is very much looking forward to meeting Nana and Pop as well as all of her aunts and uncles. Hopefully, she likes being passed around!
We will be in the hospital until tomorrow morning. Everything has been going very well, from Natalie’s health to her ability to nurse to her parent’s energy level. It will be a pretty incredible two weeks ahead with all the visitors and Christmas coming together at once. Throw in the football bowl games (including an inevitable Irish win), and I’m not sure Natalie will even be able to handle all the excitement! Thanks to everyone for the well wishes, prayers, and support.
Cheesy Hoosierhead!
Mommy and Me - don't we both look great after all that?
"These cheeks are like soft pillows. Thanks Dad!"
This morning, Sunday, December 19th, Natalie Ann Linville came into the world at 11:40am.
She weighs 7 lbs 9oz. And is 19.5 inches long. Everyone is pretty exhausted but more photos to follow tomorrow.
Today we took our 40 week picture and added it to the prego time-lapse progression.
Erin at 40 weeks
Since the week started on Wed, this is technically 40 weeks and 3 days. And if you believe the due date, then that means we are 3 days past due. Lentil is apparently holding out for a Christmas birthday, and the waiting is tough on her parents (particularly her really uncomfortable mom, despite the nice smile in the photo above). But we just had tuna salad for lunch and loaded it up with cayenne pepper…anything to get this show on the road.
Below is a picture of Erin at 39.5 weeks, which was actually two days ago. Today is Monday, December 13th and our official due date is this Wednesday, December 15th.
39.5 weeks and looking good!
Not sure what that really means, but I know that it’s going to get lively somewhere between 2 hours and 2 weeks from now!
It’s sort of like a crucial NFL game where they send it up to the booth for review and you’ve seen the replay five times but the officials are still taking way longer than you think they should. Only the booth is a uterus and the game is a baby and the head official is your wife, who will probably accuse you of making really bad metaphors. But if she did she would be wrong because it’s a simile. It’s sort of like that.
