The Student Surpasses the Teacher

We were so overjoyed to receive so many great gifts for Sophie from friends and families, but this one took the cake. A friend of mine from college by the name of Amanda Perron crocheted this cute little Puritan-style cap for Sophie!

The story is, I started crocheted just before my freshman year of college. I had broken my leg, so I got my Grammie to teach me to crochet since I didn't have anything better to do. I got pretty good, but always kept it a secret from my college roommates. Then, I decided to "come out of the closet" and they were so open to it. I even got one of my roommates hooked (no pun intended). Amanda was another friend that joined our little crochet club and I taught her everything I knew. She has now surpassed my abilities and has a legitimate and enviable skill. It was so thoughtful of her to put all the time and thought into making this cap and booties. Also, be sure to check out the latest photo album here.>

SOME PHOTOS FROM SOPHIE'S BLESSING
(JULY 1, 2007)

Clearly not one of her finer moments, but she still looked beautiful!

Sophie ended up pooping all the way through the beautiful dress my mom made. We tried to get a couple of pictures before we had to change her.

My sisters came all the way to California for the event

HANGING IN SAN FRANCISCO

Half Moon Bay...It was FREEZING!

What a view!

We waited an HOUR to ride this trolley

Sophie and grandma

So Far So Good...

We had another great week. We didn't mention that Sophie went in for her two-week appointment and weighed 9 lbs. 14 oz. and grew an inch. This is good considering that babies typically lose about a pound after birth, so she essentially lost a pound but gained two back. Now, she is probably well over 10 lbs. and I start to feel that when I carry her in the car seat. I am going to have a massive shoulder muscle from carrying that thing. I can't figure out why they don't invent something better to carry her, maybe some sort of strap that hooks onto the car seat that you sling over your shoulder.

Speaking of inventions, we were watching "American Inventor" this week, and I saw that a guy stole my idea! It was the baby bidet! I was surprised that they didn't give the idea much air-time. The judges and/or producers of the show must not have changed many diapers, so they don't have an appreciation for the baby bidet.

We took Sophie to church today, which was great. We saw a lot of friends and felt really good after, and Sophie behaved quite well(mostly slept the whole time). Life is great!

The Honeymoon is Over!!!

We have been spoiled! We had Lisa's parents in town for the first week, and my parents for most of the second week. This week, we will brave it all alone. Hopefully we can make it! We were trained well for parenthood (plenty of friends and family who have kids, Kaiser classes, and parents there in the first couple weeks). There is no way we can fail now!

It was a lot of fun having our folks here. I got a chance to golf once with my Rubert, my father-in-law, and twice with my dad. We also got the crib put together, did some shopping here and there, and just had a nice relaxing time. It was also a great opportunity to be with my folks before they head out on their 1.5-year mission to Brazil next month. It is strange that next time we will see them in person, Sophie will be a year and a half. We plan to make use of modern technology so we can talk, email pictures of Sophie, and maybe even get webcams set up so we can chat through Skype, but we'll see if my parents actually are able to do that. At any rate, we'll find some way to keep them in the loop about her development.

Gramsie and GrandBob

They both sleep much prettier than I do...I usually have a little drool coming out of my mouth

This baby does not like to be swaddled...she prefers her arms free!

Bath Time!

We finally did get around to giving Sophie a bath this week. She didn't like it too much. She does like the warm water, but not the cold air around her.

We have this little foam pad that has contours to her body. It is really nice because it keeps her in place, and she is slippery when wet!

We still have to be careful about her umbilical cord. We just use a rag to sponge bath her, but in a couple weeks, when the umbilical cord falls off, we will be able to submerse her. The umbilical cord is pretty weird. When she was born, it was really long and looked like twisted surgical tube (the stuff water balloon launchers are made out of). Now, it just looks like some dead skin though.

One of our first family photos

Nothing like a sleeping baby!

We were lucky to have grandma and grandpa with us during our first week as parents

What an Invention!

Have any of you seen the Diaper Genie? It is a great invention! Why didn't I think of it? It is basically a covered garbage can for diapers (to keep the smell down), but it also has an innovative way of packaging the diapers. It is just a long tube of plastic. When you put another diaper in, you rotate it so it twists the bag and seals off the offending diaper. It is nice because the plastic is also scented so it keeps the odor down quite a bit. Sophie's poopies aren't very stinky right now, but I have already gained an appreciation for the Diaper Genie, and I am sure I will even more in six months when she starts eating solids and the poop gets really interesting.

I actually picked this one up for free through http://www.freecycle.org/. Lisa is always opposed to my scavenging ways, but successes like this add ammo to my cause. It is basically a Yahoo Group where you get emails of people in your area that are giving things away for free. You just go pick it up at their house. It is great!

Aunt Tesha came to visit all the way from Hawaii

Sophie loved the sling, but quickly outgrew it!

I didn't think Sophie ever really looked like a newborn. She is only 10 days old here, but looks like she is at least a month or two.

Looking a little mischevious!

Second Night Home Waaaay Better!

Okay, now we are figuring things out. With the help of Gloria and Rubert, we kept Sophie up late last night. First, we took her out for her first outing to Target to get the glider chair and ottoman, which will come in handy at night. We weren't able to find the crib, but we don't need that for a while. She just sleeps in a bassonet, which she is still adjusting to since it is open and doesn't really feel like the womb. She did poo all over it too, so maybe that was a message.

Anyway, we kept her up at night, not letting her sleep, and it paid off. She slept for about 6 hours only getting up to nurse. It was a great night compared with the night before. We are pretty stoked! It is amazing what gets us excited now!

My babies!

She loves those hands

Reality Hits!

Lisa's parents made the 12-hour drive from Utah to come help take care of Sophie. It was a good thing they drove because they were able to bring a bunch of the gifts we couldn't bring back from the baby showers in Utah.

We had our first night alone with Sophie on Sunday night. She slept all day on Sunday, so she was up all night! She is a night owl! We are going to have to change this party girl's sleep patterns because it is killing us! We went to bed around 11 PM, and got up around 10 AM, but we probably only slept 3-4 hours each in that entire span. Our bodies really need to adjust to getting 1-2 hours at a time! We didn't appreciate the hospital nursery as much as we should have!

Anyway, it was a reality check of how things are going to be for the next little while, and also how we need to have a little more discipline in keeping her awake in the day, especially in the evening, so she will sleep through the night. You live and learn!

Sophie has always loved sucking on her hands. Right after her birth, she began sucking on her thumb wich wasn't too hard to find since she has HUGE paws.

Home From the Hospital

We made it home from the hospital today. It was a little weird putting Sophie in the car seat and actually driving on the freeway. Lisa made me go 55 MPH, even slower than my normal 62 MPH (optimal fuel efficiency speed). I safely navigated us home, and it was a lot better than being in the hospital. Now we have privacy and we don't have people waking us up every couple hours.

Because this time of year is pretty busy for babies, the hospital was very full, and we ended up having to share a room for some of the time. That was a pain, especially hearing our neighbor's baby cry all night and the husband snored louder than Lisa's dad! Luckily, I sleep through anything so I actually got some pretty good rest, but Lisa sure didn't! She is a light sleeper, and every time a nurse came in, a baby made a noise, the light flipped on, etc., she would wake up. Hopefully she can catch up on some sleep one of these days!

We also filled out the birth certificate and committed to the name Sophie Grace Newman. We chose Sophie because we liked it, and also because it is Lisa's great grandmother's name. We chose Grace also because we like it and because it is the name of my Grammie. She has a great heritage to live up to given these names.

I had a chance to upload the pictures from our digital camera now that we are home, so now they can be viewed by clicking the following link:

Click here to see the Sophie Birth Photo Album

Labor was Hard but Worth It!

After 26 hours of labor and being more than a week overdue, Lisa finally gave birth to Sophie Grace Newman at 8 pm on Friday, June 1. She is a beautiful blue-eyed, brown-haired girl weighing 8 pounds 14 ounces and is 21.5 inches long. She is beautiful and well worth the wait! We just kept our eyes on the prize and we were rewarded big time!

It was an emotional roller coaster. We were supposed to go in at 6 am on Thursday, but the hospital was so full and Lisa was lower priority since she was being induced. The seemed to take forever, but finally Kaiser (our medical provider) called and said we could come in at 5:30 PM. It was finally here!

Lisa went on Pitocin and was on it all night. By 5 AM the next morning, she still hadn't progressed much and was only dilated to a 2 1/2 - that was depressing because we didn't see light at the end of the tunnel, had fears of a possible c-section, etc. Then, things started moving on Friday morning and we were excited but Lisa felt a lot of pain, until she got the the epidural - we love drugs! She started pushing around 7:40 and 20 minutes later, Sophie popped out. It was exciting that it was so quick, but because it was so quick, and since Sophie was big, Lisa was torn a lot (4th degree tearing). She will have a rough recovery and we will be in the hospital until Sunday night as a result.

We thank you so much for your thoughts, concern, prayers, and love. We have felt it in the events leading up to this moment. Thank you for supporting us as we face this new frontier and phase in our life!

Making myself comfortable while waiting the 27 hours for baby Sophie to arrive

Matt is practicing the "baby burrito wrap" on himself first

Proud papa!