Bringing Baby Home

On the second and third days at the hospital, Andrew Thomas had lots of visitors to welcome him into the world.

Grandaddy Sullivan had flown in to DC and arrived to the hospital just 10 minutes before his first grandson was born the night before!

Uncle Josh and Aunt Melissa came up to see their new nephew.

And Uncle Charles and Aunt Kimberly returned to the hospital for round two with Andrew.

As you can see, Andrew pretty much snoozed the days away, but Mommy and Daddy took our turns playing with him too. On Monday afternoon, it was time to go home. For his big debut, we dressed Andrew in the pretty day gown Mary Blanche gave him.

We were thrilled to be taking our sweet baby boy home!

He was perfectly content in his infant carrier seat--no crying at all!

And was even happier all bundled up for the winter weather in the blanket and hat Grandmama Sullivan gave him!

By day's end, Baby Andrew was finally home in my arms! And awake!

Andrew Thomas Snodgrass

Our darling baby boy, Andrew Thomas Snodgrass, arrived at 6:33 PM on December 20, 2008--the best Christmas gift ever! He weighed in at 7 pounds, 7.7 ounces and measured 20 inches long. He is absolutely beautiful, and Jacob and I are stupendously grateful that he is here at last! The last 5 days have been the happiest of our lives.

Between caring for Baby Andrew and working on my recovery, things have been mighty busy around the Family Snodgrass residence these past few days. I'm afraid I can't post all the many pictures at once (Mommy has some new demands on her time), but we'll start with the birth day and catch up with the rest soon!

December 20, 5:45 AM: We snap the last of the tummy pictures before leaving for the hospital!

It was definitely time for him to come out!!!

We arrive to the hospital at 6:30 and get settled into our labor and delivery room.

I got hooked up to an IV (on the fourth try--ouch!) and the induction medicine was started at 8 AM. I labored through the morning and afternoon, with Jacob and Mama as the most wonderful support team imaginable. Late in the afternoon, labor really began to pick up and at 5:45 PM, it was time to push little Andrew out. At 6:33 PM, he came into the world crying, so Mommy and Daddy would know he was a healthy baby! The neonatologist gave him an exam right away and he checked out just great!

Lucky 7's!

Inked and identified!
He was so nice and pink.

Andrew was so very peaceful the night he was born--completely content!

We love our Andrew Thomas so very much.His Daddy is so proud!

And his Mommy is so delighted!

We were so glad to have Mama and Daddy and Charles, Kimberly, and Lily there with us to celebrate Andrew's birth.
He's the most beautiful baby I have ever seen.

And Jacob agrees.Baby Andrew is doing splendidly. More to come soon! Thank you for your prayers and Merry Christmas!

Baby Time!

We're headed to the hospital in about an hour, with the induction scheduled to start at 7 AM. We would be very thankful for your prayers for a healthy and safe delivery. Much love to all--can't wait to post pictures of Andrew Thomas when we return from the hospital!

Lillian Rose is a DC Girl!

Little Lily arrived to DC this morning! And she brought her parents with her too! Mama and I quickly sent Charles and Kimberly out sightseeing, so now we've got sweet Lily Rose all to ourselves.Those who are longtime readers of this blog will notice that Lily is enjoying one of my favorite things: the Snoogle maternity pillow! It has served me well these past few months and makes a pretty great lily pad (get it, get it?) for the wee one. Now she can perform her floor routine in perfect comfort!

40 Weeks: Mission Accomplished!

40 weeks! For-ty weeks! We've been gestating away for the better part of a year now. What a very long time that was!

Babycenter gives the following update:

"It's hard to say for sure how big your baby will be, but the average newborn weighs about 7 1/2 pounds (a small pumpkin) and is about 20 inches long. The biggest part of your baby's body is his head, but his still-pliable skull will give it the flexibility necessary to squeeze through the birth canal. Many parents are surprised by how long and sharp their newborn's nails are from the get-go. Clipping them right away (ask a nurse for help) can prevent your baby from scratching his face."

My doctor said yesterday that this is "not the smallest baby in the world," which came as no surprise to me. She estimated he was "7 1/2, pushing 8 pounds." I, however, fully expect him to be at least 8 pounds. Actually, I wouldn't have been surprised at all if he'd ended up being a real whopper. But we'll see soon enough! Yay!

A Date Set

It's been an exciting morning! We just returned from the doctor, where we decided on this Saturday, December 20, for an induction, if I don't go into labor before then. Yippee! I can't wait! We're finally going to get a baby!

Peppermint Bark

Mama and I spent some time this weekend making Christmas goodie bags for the members of my apartment building's staff. We had struggled with the choice of goodie...cookies seemed boring, fudge seemed risky for two inexperienced candymakers, anything with peanut butter is frowned upon these days since so many people are allergic. And then we hit upon peppermint bark! It's yummy, it's festive, it's easy, and it's without common allergens. It turned out so well that I thought you might enjoy the recipe, which we culled together from a bunch of recipes we found on the 'net.

Peppermint Bark

2 lbs white chocolate morsels (we used a mix of Ghiradelli and Toll House, which turned out well)

1/2 tsp mint or peppermint extract (we used mint)

24 full size candy canes

1. Crush up candy canes to about 1/4 inch-size pieces. We did this by putting the candy canes in a heavy duty Ziploc bag atop a plastic cutting board and pounding them with a skillet.

2. Line two large baking sheets with wax paper.

3. Pour white chocolate morsels into a large, microwave-safe bowl. Heat the morsels in the microwave at 1/2 power for 2 minutes. Remove and stir. Return to microwave for 30 seconds at 1/2 power. Remove and stir. Repeat until the mixture becomes smooth when stirred. We found that this took about 3 of the 30-second sessions. You definitely don't want to over-microwave the morsels because they will burn, so stir for a while after each microwave session to allow the mixture to melt to its fullest extent.

4. Once morsels are fully melted and mixture is smooth and shiny, pour in crushed candy canes and mint extract and combine all ingredients.

5. Quickly divide mixture between the two baking sheets and spread with a spatula to about 1/4" thickness. The slab will measure about 9" x 13".

6. Allow to set up in the refrigerator for 45 minutes.

7. Peel wax paper from the back of the candy slabs and break the candy into pieces of varying sizes.

Doesn't it look tempting? I can promise it's delicious!

We made two batches of this recipe (4 pans' worth), which gave us enough peppermint bark to make 6 generously sized goodie bags and have more than a full cookie tin's worth left to enjoy at home (a critical consideration!). A word to the wise: if you make two batches and reuse the baking pans from the first batch, allow the pans time to come up to room temperature. We couldn't figure out why our second batch was setting up so quickly and thickly until we realized the pans were still chilled.

We wrapped each staff member's portion in clear cellophane wrap and tied it up with a ribbon and a tag. Perfect for teacher, neighbor, and hostess gifts, as well!

Enjoy!

Still Waiting...

Well, there's not a whole lot to report. We're still waiting, but doing so quite actively! Mama, Jacob, and I just did a speed tour of the National Portrait Gallery and the National Museum of Art, hoping that a little walking would encourage Baby Andrew to get a move on, as well. And I've been spending some time on the big Swiss exercise ball. But so far, Baby seems to be quite content just where he is. Fingers crossed that very soon he'll begin to feel differently! We can't wait to see his sweet little face!

39 Weeks and a (Last?) Belly Pic

It's hard to believe we've reached the end...and yet still have so far to go!

Here's the update from babycenter:
"Your baby's waiting to greet the world! He continues to build a layer of fat to help control his body temperature after birth, but it's likely he already measures about 20 inches and weighs a bit over 7 pounds, a mini watermelon. (Boys tend to be slightly heavier than girls.) The outer layers of his skin are sloughing off as new skin forms underneath."

Finally the fruit matches the feeling! Yes, indeed, I have a watermelon in my tummy. And I wouldn't describe it as all that mini!

Would you???

We call this photo "Cookie Monster Has a Baby!"

Mama has arrived to DC to camp out for the delivery. It's so wonderful having her here! I can't wait until Daddy, my brothers and their families, and my inlaws arrive over the next week or two. It's going to be the most fun!

Mama and I are headed to the doctor in a bit and hope to receive a report including signs of progress!

Insomniac

So, does insomnia mean the baby is coming soon??? I sure hope so! 3 of the past 4 nights, I've been wide awake at way too wee hours of the morning. And can't fall back asleep for at least a couple hours. Here's hoping this is a sign that more worthwhile sleeplessness is coming very soon!

Reading List

I'm soliciting recommendations for good books! If you have any titles to recommend, please leave them in the comments or drop me an email. Thank you ever so much!

The Nursery

In truth, we really have a few nursery "areas," more than one devoted nursery--we just couldn't bear to give up our guest room capacity when we've been fortunate to have so many visitors--so we're doing the best we can with the space we have! And now, we've finally got our nursery areas all pulled together!

Baby's bassinette, which will be right next to our bed for the first few months:

The view of the nursery/guest room/study from the door.

From another angle:

The nautical decorations, hanging to the side of the guest bed. (I went with a light blue, satin ribbon for hanging them.)

The view of the room from the head of the bed.

The wall above where Andrew's crib will be, once he's graduated from the bassinette.

The changing table/dresser in our bedroom, with baskets for baby stuff storage.

I think we're really ready! You can come any time now, Baby Andrew!!!

It's Christmastime in the City!

We decorated for Christmas this weekend! Ordinarily, I'm a fan of decorating a bit later in December, but wthought it best to go ahead and get it done now this year. You know, just in case something comes up.

Last year, we were grocery shopping about a week before Christmas and realized we hadn't gotten our tree, so we grabbed one from the grocery display. Unfortunately, we made the mistake of buying what turned out to be a Christmas tree-looking bush, rather than a tree with a central trunk. There were four primary limbs of the bush and when we put on all our ornaments, the limbs each drooped in a different direction, so there was a gaping hole in the middle! Jacob ended up tying all the limbs together in the center, but we then had to rotate the Christmas bush every few days to keep it from tipping over from the weight of the tied up limbs. A couple times, we forgot to do the required rotating (hey, we were working pretty hard!) and our Christmas bush toppled over, spilling ornaments and potting soil. It was not our most successful decorating venture. This year, we were very certain to get a Christmas tree!



We found a short, but very full, potted tree that is just perfect for our little space. And it doesn't droop one bit!
Isn't that a good-looking star that my hubby made from cardboard and foil?!


After trimming our tree, we put up our Nativity scene on the window sill!


A few other touches of festivity around the apartment and now we're all set!

38 Week Update

We're at 38 weeks now and babycenter.com has the following to report:

"Your baby has really plumped up. He weighs about 6.8 pounds and he's over 19 1/2 inches long (like a leek). He has a firm grasp, which you'll soon be able to test when you hold his hand for the first time! His organs have matured and are ready for life outside the womb. Wondering what color your baby's eyes will be? If he's born with brown eyes, they'll likely stay brown. If he's born with steel gray or dark blue eyes, they may stay gray or blue or turn green, hazel, or brown by the time he's 9 months old."

The coolest development this week in my opinion is that Baby Andrew now responds to touch. His little heel or knee will be poking way out and I can give it just a little nudge and he'll move it and it will pop out somewhere new. Jacob joked that it was like playing Whack the Mole! Maybe this would have been happening for a while if he'd been feet-up before, but it's new for us and very exciting to be able to interact with Baby!

Artsing and Craftsing

I decided Andrew Thomas' room [/the guest room / the study] needed a couple more dashes of pizazz, so I pulled out those blue paints left over from my wall letters project and got to work.

First, I made drawer knobs for the dresser in his room. This dresser originally was my Aunt Cacky's and was passed on to me as a child. I think it later did a stint in the KA house with Brian. When Jacob and I got married and returned from our honeymoon, we drove a U-Haul of wedding gifts from Birmingham to Charlottesville. Just before we closed up the U-Haul and hit the road, I mentioned that we had no real dresser for our new abode. Mama and Daddy scrambled up into the attic and brought this one down. In Charlottesville, I painted its blonde wood white and added black iron drawer pulls and it served me very well for the past two years. Now, it's making yet another transformation to nursery furniture!

One knob, all primed and ready for paint:

All the knobs, with their first coat of blue paint:

And now, bespeckled!

In place, following hubby's installation!

After finishing the knobs, I noticed that the wall opposite the crib wall seemed rather blank. So it was time to make some "art." My dear friend Laura Ann gave us a beautiful white throw pillow with sailboat sketchings on it, which looks just perfect on the eggshell blue guest bed coverlet. Her pillow inspired me to go nautical. I found some coloring book pages online, with simple drawings of a sailboat, a captain's wheel, and an anchor. Unfortunately, they were too small to use as a stencil, so I had to freehand the design onto some heavy paper:

And then cut out a homemade stencil for tracing:

After pencilling the designs onto the blue-painted canvases, I filled them in, added a few decorative bits and...Ta-Da!

Now my baby's room has a theme! The canvases are very thin, with no obvious way to hang them, so I think I'll get some lengths of ribbon (or maybe twine?) to attach to the backsides and hang on hooks on the wall. Easy greasy, and made with supplies I already had on hand!