Making Lemonade

Hi all, I know you have been enjoying frequent blog updates from Joshua. Unfortunately, there will be a pretty big slow down. We were forced to move (AGAIN!) yesterday to a new temporary apartment. They were roofing at our old one (starting at 5:45AM) and the sealant they were using was emitting more fumes than any of us should ever endure...so we moved. We don't have internet at our new place but there is a community center with a lab we will use as often as possible.

If possible, please don't send stuff to the address for our old apartment. If you need an updated address, just shoot us an email and we will respond when we can.

Believe us, on the list of things we wanted to do the day after returning home from the hospital, moving was not high on that list.

Alas, we persevere...there are munchkins to enjoy and dissertations to finish! (Well, just thankfully one of the latter.) There are lots of pluses to the new place and we are working on a Top 10 reasons it's a good thing we moved so you will have that to look forward to at some point.

Evelyn and her loving family are all doing well despite the chaos.

We will update more as we can and promise to keep taking pictures...even if it takes a while to post them.

Thursday Craziness & a very cute baby

Thursday morning Evelyn was still cute, imagine that.

And even cuter in her Purdue leaving the hospital outfit with her Gene Keady comb over look.  Her PU booties from Sydney and Megan went perfectly with the outfit.

The discharge process was unfortunately drawn out and we had an extremely busy afternoon trying to get situated back at the apartment, but more to come about that soon.  We are home from the hospital and headed to Evelyn's first check-up this morning with our pediatrician.  We hope this finds everyone well and we appreciate the continued support during this extremely exciting time.

Awake some

There has not been a ton of awake time for Evelyn yet, but here are some picture and videos from a period this evening that she was awake. From the videos you can see she looks like she is trying to work out seeing things but still not much noise or expressions yet. She and Elizabeth are getting some needed sleep now.

She is big, but still so small.
Finger toes courtesy of me, which are not Elizabeth's favorite trait I have given both Evelyn and Sydney.



She looked like she was trying to touch her nose in the 3rd video, or at least right before I tried to capture the 3rd video.

3rd Day Birthday Meal

The 3rd day has gone well and been a little less intense. Sydney visited for both breakfast and lunch and ate with us at the hospital. The new hospital that we are at has a "Celebratory" meal for the family, including siblings so we used that as a chance for lunch together for the first time. We had overcooked filet mignon with better deserts than the rest of the meal. We were told after that we could have had the lobster too, but we have learned the mid-west knows meat more than seafood. It was a really nice time together and we celebrated Evelyn's actual birth day together as well with Sydney leading the singing. (Another, more uplifting than yesterday, non-baby update is at the end of this post.)

Here is the setting, Evelyn is in the back sleeping and was not impressed with the solid stuff just yet.

Sydney opted for the sibling chicken finger meal...
but had a hard time concentrating on it when this cupcake creation waiting for dessert.
The whole thing wiped these two out.

And a chance for me to get some quality time.Here is Sydney's rendition of the Happy Zero Birthday! She was louder the first time but every time we go to video and sing softly ourselves she tries to follow us.



We are excited that our real estate attorney told us today that the seller of our NY house finally agreed to take down the decrepit pool in the yard, which was the last hang-up for our contract so we now can move ahead with the purchase and closing date of June 30th to live in Tillson, NY-who would have thunk it? not us.

2nd Day in Hospital-May 25

Here are some pictures from last night(the 1st 2) and today. Evelyn has been hanging out in the same swaddle so the days blend some. She is doing well and has slept for a few chunks to let us also get sleep. Elizabeth and I both managed a shower today and had 2 visits from Sydney, all in a days work for what ended up being a busy and emotional day. (see note at the end of post for non-baby related update)
She is sporting some eye crusties, but I suppose that comes with the cute sleeping baby territory.

You'll notice in all pictures she is hands out, just like her big sister. The nurses actually told us that they needed to swaddle with hands in (after I swaddled her with hands out and told them she didn't want them in) and then after they tried they said she was having none of it.
A visit from Brenda and Kristi, a couple of the very supportive friends from Elizabeth's program.
Megan brought Sydney and got some quality Evelyn time while I went exploring the hospital with Sydney.

Sydney requested a shot as well to not be left out, and then demanded to see the instant gratification on the camera.
Sydney giving Evelyn's bear from Nana and Papa, Dora the Bear(named by Sydney) a big hug.


On a sadder note from today, we had to make the very difficult decision to euthanize our 16 year-old cat Dumpling today while she got extremely ill while staying with my parents. The signs pointed to possible cancer and she will be missed greatly as we continue on with this next exciting chapter for our family.

Evelyn's Actual Arrival

You too can look this cool, all you have to do is pay the hospital thousands of dollars and they give you this jumpsuit to strut around in, and you even get to keep it, Halloween or painting anyone?This is Evelyn's first picture ever, she doesn't mind the camera as much as the foot printing after a heel prick to test blood sugar because she was larger than the range for her gestation. (this prick had to be repeated 2 more times, and the blood on her footprint memento is already intimidating the other babies here)
Elizabeth and Evelyn's first meeting. I think they both look great for having been pulled from/getting her pulled from Elizabeth's stomach.
I think I may move to France and become a painter, the look is very becoming.
The 3 of us together. One minute, no baby, the next minute, baby-such an extraordinary process.

Sydney is still a ham

This past weekend Sydney showed that she has plenty of energy, even after bath. This was her last weekend before being a big sister and we didn't get a chance to post this, but she practiced her "rockstar" pose while being diaper baby. And yes sunglasses do seem to add to the show.

May 24th, 2010 at the hospital

We will try our best to post updates over the next few days. Evelyn is doing great, she has already pooped more in a day than Sydney did in a week, and most babies do in their whole hospital stay, or so the nurses say. She is also eating well. Elizabeth is feeling and looking good, tired and not on solid food yet, but found this time less exhausting without days of labor before the same end result.

Here are some highlights from our day, minus the actual delivery and recovery pictures, which include more naked baby and mommy than the blog can handle.

Sydney thought Mommy in the hospital bed taking pictures was pretty interesting.As was baby sister Evelyn.

Elizabeth and her girls.
Sydney giving Evelyn a card and cute Purdue booties, which Megan graciously orchestrated.
Very cute, she does not like her hands strapped in.
Our Indiana family, and Sydney's caretakers for these few days, Megan and Catherine.
Sydney did want to play the part of the cool big sister and kept her sunglasses on for a chunk of the visit.
Another cuddle shot.
Sydney is re-creating the making of the card/envelope.
Our family of 4.
Sydney wanted to try out the bassinet, but may be too big.
Evelyn did some great posing for her tennis themed birth announcement.


Her bassinet card.
The envelope and card from her big sister.
Her first Celtics game/sporting event, but without the desired result.
The videos below show Sydney's first reaction to her little sister, albeit a stoic and unsure response, and then requests for her to be the one in the bassinet.