"When will then be now?" "Soon."
I’m continuing on the then and now theme with Abbie. It’s exceptionally appropriate to look back because today is Abbie’s birthday, the big oh-two. So let’s travel back to the day before her birthday.
It’s May 29th, 2004. “Mean Girls” introduced a slightly older crowd to that charming Lindsey Lohan, “American Idol” crowned Fantasia Barrino as its latest can’t-miss superstar, and John Kerry and George W. Bush were locked in a fierce battle to convince a tiny plurality of likely voters that the other guy is the bigger scumbag. In our lives, a 38-and-a-half weeks pregnant Ellie graduated from med school at 10:35 that morning. We spent that afternoon celebrating her graduation at her reception.
Here she is (on the right) cutting the cake. Eight hours later she was in the hospital. I have a picture of her worn out body trapped in a hospital bed, but I’m not going to post it out of fairness to her because she certainly wouldn’t want a picture of her looking her most vulnerable plastered on the internet. Plus she’d kill me if she knew I put that picture on the blog. The hospital trip was planned. Ellie had been having some complications, and her OB declared her close enough to term to induce.
We didn’t waste that multi-hour gap between the reception and the hospital; we hosted a cookout for a couple old college friends, and showed our home to a couple of prospective buyers in that time. Sure, that was nuts, but in our defense that was one of the few times we got to see those friends since graduation, and we were really desperate to sell our home. Anyway, the harrowing scheduling prepared us for life with a newborn.
After a night on labor-inducing medication, the fun began the next afternoon. Abbie arrived around 4:30pm weighing 6lbs, 14ozs. My most vivid memory of my first hours with her is that she cried a lot. The only thing that calmed her down was the warming table in the room. I hoped they’d leave it for us to let her sleep in, but no luck.
Here she is (on the right) at 1-day-old. The baby on the left belongs to a friend. He’s 3-weeks-old at this point for comparison.
This is our favorite newborn Abbie picture. I bet you didn’t know you could do that in a Boppy. She’s 3-days-old in this picture, and it’s our first day at home. Don’t let that picture fool you, she was a horrible sleeper.
The only way we could get her to sleep in her crib was to keep her on her side. We bought a couple of sleep positioners to keep her in a SIDS-safe position. Note how she’s moved her head off the pillow, probably out of spite.
Today, Abbie is an excellent sleeper. She’s also big enough to jump on a trampoline…
Or play in a pool. Note the risqué cut on her bathing suit. Ellie says she looks like a slightly heavier Paris Hilton. The suit looks like that because it’s size 4T and apparently way too big on her. That’s okay; it just gives her something to grow into for her next set of then and now pictures.
It’s May 29th, 2004. “Mean Girls” introduced a slightly older crowd to that charming Lindsey Lohan, “American Idol” crowned Fantasia Barrino as its latest can’t-miss superstar, and John Kerry and George W. Bush were locked in a fierce battle to convince a tiny plurality of likely voters that the other guy is the bigger scumbag. In our lives, a 38-and-a-half weeks pregnant Ellie graduated from med school at 10:35 that morning. We spent that afternoon celebrating her graduation at her reception.
Here she is (on the right) cutting the cake. Eight hours later she was in the hospital. I have a picture of her worn out body trapped in a hospital bed, but I’m not going to post it out of fairness to her because she certainly wouldn’t want a picture of her looking her most vulnerable plastered on the internet. Plus she’d kill me if she knew I put that picture on the blog. The hospital trip was planned. Ellie had been having some complications, and her OB declared her close enough to term to induce.
We didn’t waste that multi-hour gap between the reception and the hospital; we hosted a cookout for a couple old college friends, and showed our home to a couple of prospective buyers in that time. Sure, that was nuts, but in our defense that was one of the few times we got to see those friends since graduation, and we were really desperate to sell our home. Anyway, the harrowing scheduling prepared us for life with a newborn.
After a night on labor-inducing medication, the fun began the next afternoon. Abbie arrived around 4:30pm weighing 6lbs, 14ozs. My most vivid memory of my first hours with her is that she cried a lot. The only thing that calmed her down was the warming table in the room. I hoped they’d leave it for us to let her sleep in, but no luck.
Here she is (on the right) at 1-day-old. The baby on the left belongs to a friend. He’s 3-weeks-old at this point for comparison.
This is our favorite newborn Abbie picture. I bet you didn’t know you could do that in a Boppy. She’s 3-days-old in this picture, and it’s our first day at home. Don’t let that picture fool you, she was a horrible sleeper.
The only way we could get her to sleep in her crib was to keep her on her side. We bought a couple of sleep positioners to keep her in a SIDS-safe position. Note how she’s moved her head off the pillow, probably out of spite.
Today, Abbie is an excellent sleeper. She’s also big enough to jump on a trampoline…
Or play in a pool. Note the risqué cut on her bathing suit. Ellie says she looks like a slightly heavier Paris Hilton. The suit looks like that because it’s size 4T and apparently way too big on her. That’s okay; it just gives her something to grow into for her next set of then and now pictures.
posted by Matt at
10:53 PM
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