When Daddy Goes Back to Work

After 16 days at home (and at the hospital) with Sarah and Rory, I went back to work on Monday. It was extremely hard to say good bye to my two ladies. Fortunately ...

Rory's grandmother Nona arrived just as I was leaving, and she has provided Sarah with an extra pair of hands ... with which they went straight to the mall!
Rory made her first purchase, at Nordstrom's. The event was clearly exhausting, as she went to sleep thereafter.
Rory gives us several hours of alert play time each day, and we have been blessed with a baby that (heretofore) sleeps well at night.
Rory is our "little miss sunshine", and you can see that Sarah has already made t-shirts with her nickname.

Rory Really Goes Ape

Of course, every father thinks his child is gifted, but should I be proud or scared that my daughter thinks she is a little monkey?
We had good news from the pediatrician's check-up today. Rory has crested the 7 pound mark and is now gaining weight like a good little monkey should.
In this shot, Rory "apes" a rastafarian with her cool head gear. Rory got to hang out with her aunts Jenny and Chelle (whose lap she is sitting on) and her uncles Mike and Allen.

Rory at Two Weeks Old

Today, Rory turned two weeks old. Unfortunately for Rory, part of the celebration included a trip to the pediatrician's office for the first of her vaccines. Fortunately for us, Rory is fairly easy to console. In fact, we have been blessed (thus far) with a child of moderate temperment. She hasn't been gaining weight quite as quickly as we would like, so we've started her on a new routine to "chubby" her up. We think that's she's been too nice to let us know that she could use a few more calories in her daily diet.
Each day, Rory gives us several hours of alert, play time. Sometimes she enjoys staring off into space, other times she likes to use her daddy as a jungle gym -- she's a squirmer (with great muscle tone, the doctor says). When she's unhappy, Rory has a nice repetiore of sounds with which she communicates. There's the "pig snort" ("hey guys, I want your attention"), the "rapid-fire sniffs" ("I-sniff-am-sniff-very-sniff-serious-sniff-about-sniff-what-sniff-I-sniff-am-sniff-trying-sniff-to-sniff-say"), and a whole range of short chirps.
Best of all, she's a good sleeper. When she's down for the count, she stays sacked out. Typically, we need to wake her for her next feeding (something we'll be doing a little more frequently across the next few days).
And when my two ladies are snuggled close together, there isn't a more beautiful sight.

The Escape Artist

Rory's First Sponge Bath

After a week in the hospital, it was time to scrub our baby clean.

For the most part, Rory enjoyed the experience ...
... especially when she got the towel rub down by her daddy.
That didn't stop her from giving us some funny looks.
But she emerged a clean, sweet-smelling baby.

Our First Weekend At Home

We settled into first weekend together as a family with some new routines (breast feeding and diaper changing) as well as some old ones (reading the Sunday Post on our living room couch).


Here, Rory has fallen asleep on Sarah's chest as we watched an hour of television (our first for quite some time).



Here, Rory plays in her daddy's legs.
Tim has already mastered the multi-tasking life of a yuppie father ... computer on his lap, newspaper in his hand, and baby in the sling around his chest.



Rory looks a little bewildered after her first sponge bath.

Rory's First Week: A Photo Album

If the shots on this blog aren't quite enough to sate your pictorial appetite for all things Rory, then click here for an online Kodak album. Enjoy.

Rory's First Week: Day By Day

Rory was born at 11:31 p.m. on August 10. In this picture, she is 10 minutes old.
Rory's first "real" day in the world.
Day Two.
Day Three.
Day Four.
Day Five.
Day Six. No, she hasn't broken her arm. The splint is used for the IV.
Day Seven ... Finally at home and in some of her own clothes!

Rory Meets the Family

Rory's first introduction to her mommy was a little ... uh ... messy. Both of my ladies had been through a lot.
Their second meeting the next morning was under slightly better conditions.
Rory's father got to accompany her to the NICU. The next morning, Rory and her daddy had a proper introduction.
Rory's grandfather ("Pops") was the first of Rory's relatives to meet the little lady, arriving on Friday afternoon.
Rory's two grandmothers doted on their granddaughter. Here, "Nona", introduces herself.
And here, "Grandma" calms her first granddaughter.
Rory is blessed with many aunts and uncles. There's Aunt Sydney,
Uncle Mike,
Aunt Chelle,
Uncle Allen,
Update: On August 26, Rory's Aunt Jenny was declared "contagion free" and was able to see Rory for the first time. (Jenny was getting over a bad case of tonsilitus.)

Pippin Meets Rory and Finds a Bassinet of His Own

Rory spent much of her first week of life in a nice, snug bassinet in the NICU.

Even when we brought her home, she travelled in a nice, snug car seat.

And she swung all day in her nice, snug swing.









That's when Pippin first took a real notice of Rory, for he had been eyeing that swing for weeks, wondering how he might score some time in that nice, snug place.


So, Pippin sought a nice, snug place of his own.


And he found it ... a nice, snug drawer where Tim stores his underwear!

How Rory Catherine Becaome the Healthiest Baby in the NICU

Although Rory Catherine scored a 9 out of 10 on her Apgar Score (surely, a prelude to stellar SAT scores and a first-class ticket to Stanford), she had a fever like her mommy, and so the doctors decided to admit her to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) as a precaution.

As most of you know, Rory had to stay in the NICU for a week. Dr. K had (correctly) diagnosed Sarah with a chorio-amniotic infection as she was delivering Rory. When Rory also spiked a fever and experienced an elevated heart rate, Dr K worried that Rory had been exposed. And so, Rory was admitted to the NICU so that she could receive a week's worth of antibiotics.

Fortunately, Rory's fever went away almost immediately, and both mommy and baby's vital signs were completely normal in just a few hours.


The bad news is that we didn't get to take her home on Saturday when Sarah was discharged. The good news is that Rory quickly became the healthiest baby in the NICU, surrounded by preemies and other babies with much more serious conditions.

Sarah and I got to see her whenever we wanted, and Sarah began breastfeeding successfully despite the less-than-ideal circumstances. We basically got a week's worth of "as-needed" baby care instructions, which we are extremely thankful for. In addition, we were able to leave Rory in the nurses' care each night so that we could get a full night's sleep (well, almost). That's the bright side of the situation. The reality is that it is very hard to say good bye to Rory each night. We couldn't wait to bring her home.