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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.

Today marks 39 weeks! Apparently (to anyone’s disbelief who is around me), my belly is measuring small – it has been stuck at 35 weeks for awhile. So, my doc recommended that we get an ultrasound just to make sure everything was going okay. Good news is that it is… in fact, Lentil is weighing in at 7 lbs, 6 oz already. The ultrasound technician showed us her spine (which is on the left side of my belly) and her legs (which are on the right side and would explain the big bulges I get over there). We also quickly saw her open her lips – I think she was giving her Daddy a kiss.

In my opinion, she is plenty big to come out, so I’m really hoping to beat my due date! But, I’m trying to mentally prepare for up to 10 days late.

Thanks everyone for the fun comments – we really appreciate all the well wishes, esp. those for an easy labor! 🙂

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!   Certainly a lot to be Thankful this Thanksgiving.   Last night, we picked up Alex and Jira from the Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.  They had flown for well over 35 hours, from Chiang Mai – Bangkok – Seoul – Chicago, and with about 300 lbs of luggage.

Ready to pounce!

But once they arrived, they were surprisingly chipper.  Alex had made a good call and sprung for the VIP lounge in the Seoul airport (12 hour layover!), so they had gotten showers and a little rest.

We had jacket, hat and mittens waiting for Jira.  It wasn’t cold by Chicago standards, but certainly cold by her standards.  She thought it was neat that she could see her breath in the air.

Back at the condo, we celebrated with Giordano’s pizza.  There’s no better way to feel like a gluttonous American than by consuming 2 lbs of mozzarella cheese.  Erin also made some delicious and very cute “Welcome Home” cupcakes.

So great to have them back.  We love you, Jira and Alex!  USA USA USA!

Thanks to my Mom and Aunt Lisa for coming to my Chicago shower too!  One of the gifts was a cute GB Packers outfit… which they insisted on buying in the 0-3 mo size b/c they are optimistic that the Packers will be going to the Play-offs!  After the game against the Vikings yesterday, Lentil agrees!  (Although she missed it, due to nursing class!)

AND, thanks to my Chicago girlfriends who came to celebrate – it was super fun to get together.  There were some mom’s in the crowd that had helpful advice to share, such as how to discretely use a Hooter Hider and what the heck a bouncey seat is.  A big thanks to Heather for being the hostess with the mostess!  Here’s a pic with some of the girls….

Finally, kudos to me for figuring out how to insert pics into one of these postings.  That’s a “best practice” from the Kennedy blog that we just love!

Happy Early Thanksgiving!