Abundant Recompense Copy

Our sweet little Bryn went to the doctor today and wowed everyone because she's already gaining weight back. She started at 5 lbs 7 oz, went down to 5 2 in the hospital, and is back up to a whopping 5 4 now. Hooray! She has a great appetite and also a charming disposition. I wouldn't recognize her cry from a distance, because I haven't really heard it since she was born. I had no idea they made babies like this! She eats, fills her pants, and goes back to sleep! And when she wakes up for a few minutes, she's happy and sweet as can be.

After several months of tossing around names from a list of about 20, we're pleased to announce that we finally decided on one that we love and that fits our teeny little girl to a tee: Bryn Annalee. Nate was definitely not lying about a great delivery. I really cannot believe how smoothly everything went. I called him home from work (which takes him about an hour and a half) not sure whether it was a good idea or not. About five minutes after he walked in the door, though, I decided that even if it wasn't the real thing, I was going to the hospital and not leaving till they made it stop. Unprepared, of course, we ran around grabbing stuff for Addison, Mommy, and one last burrito for Dad, and then booked it to the car, the babysitter, and the hospital, where we got stuck behind an "Angus Beef" truck going about 1 mile an hour. I wanted to kill him. The contractions were about 1 to 2 mins apart at this point, and they were pretty excruciating. Once the nurses realized ...

Well, I'm awfully glad we decided to postpone my surgery, which had been rescheduled for today. But had I gone under the knife, I would have woken up to a beautiful sight: HOORAY! She's 27 days early, but she's healthy as can be, at a very respectable 5 lbs 7 oz, 18.5 inches, with a shock of dark hair up top. The labor and delivery went unbelievably smoothly - I stepped off the train at 12:50 this afternoon, we got to the hospital at 1:45, Mich was dilated to a 7, and within 5.3 minutes of the doctor walking in we had a baby girl in our arms, at 4:51 pm. I'll let Michelle write her version of the thing later, lest I make it sound TOO easy. All I can say is, When am I going to learn to not second-guess my wife when she says things like, "Maybe you should come home from work early today"? I'll also let Michelle chime in when we finally getting around to naming the little lump of humanity. Hopefully that'll come before her original due date.

This past Sunday was a red-letter day. Nate's family was up visiting for a family reunion, and Grandpa wanted a tour of our garden. What a surprise when we found this: Our very first produce! We also inherited a gigantic apricot tree when we bought our house. Last year we experimented in jam-making. We probably would've just done the same thing again if we didn't still have about 10 bottles of the stuff sitting on our pantry shelf. So we got adventurous, searched the earth and bought a dehydrator, and are drying the little guys as fast as we possibly can. The life cycle of a dehydrated apricot We try to pick them when they're not quite ripe to discourage the earwigs from burrowing. Ripening on the windowsill. Then we wash them, cut them in half (and get all the gross parts off) and dip them in lemon juice. Then we wait for a few days while they transform into: the finished product. And man are they good!

Hi. My name is Michelle and I'm really really pregnant. 35 weeks to be exact. I am burning up all the time, and I can't really sleep that great these days. I can't decide if it's from getting sore when I'm in the same position for more than 20 minutes, or if it's the hourly visit to the bathroom. Either way, someone please get this baby out of me. My only idea is the neighbors' trampoline. Thanks.

We spent a few days around the 4th of July chilling with my family in Georgia. It was awesome. A few highlights were picking blueberries, taking Camden's family's boat out on the lake, no makeup, very few showers, actually harvesting something from a garden, and of course, the pool. We had a great time painting toenails and celebrating my sister Kaylyn's 5th birthday and watching the chickens (one of which is named First Gear) and cows. Doug and Russell masterminded our own personal fireworks display, and we got to see both of my Grandmas. It's the first time my whole family has been together in almost three years and it was great to laugh, sunburn, and chew the fat together. I'll keep the dialogue to a minimum because most of these pictures speak for themselves. Kudos to Nate for making awesome collages. Click to see the larger versions. The funniest thing that happened in the pool was when Camden dove through a little floaty ring about the size of a fruit loop and...

Ah yes, you knew it was coming. After a long night on the bathroom floor and barfing every time the clock struck the hour . . . and 10 minutes after the hour . . . and 20 minutes after the hour . . . ad infinitum, I was persuaded to visit ye olde ER. Don't know if it was the Crohn's or just a stomach bug, but apparently I ripped my esophagus from my manly vomiting, so I couldn't eat or drink anything. Then Dr. #1 said something about possibly having lymphoma, but Dr. #2 seemed to think that was ridiculous. Fire Dr. #1, says I. Going home tomorrow. Feel just fine and should have staged a jailbreak 24 hours ago. Ah well. Bottom 3 hospital experiences (which I realize are laughably minor. I'm counting my blessings): 3 - Shot to the gut to prevent blood clots. No thanks, next time I'll just die of the blood clot. 2 - Clear liquid diets. All menu items have three ingredients: water, high fructose corn syrup, triptomioformaldahydronicus (or some variation on the latter). ...

Well, the surgery is off until the 27th. Nice. Nate is sick as a dog with what appears to be a flare-up of his Crohn's disease - the first, I might add, since January. Seriously, what are the chances? So although I do want to be done being pregnant asap, we are now willing the baby not to come very early, since the surgery will be less than a month before the due date.

This Wednesday Nate goes back in for another surgery. It's called an ileostomy takedown - look it up if you care to know the details. We are very hopeful that this time around things will go much more smoothly than back in January - we're not in the middle of any flare-ups with Crohn's, different medication that seems to be mostly doing the trick, and we've been able to plan for this one. It will be SO NICE to have Nate's Mom and sister up here to lean on (probably quite heavily). Here's hoping for a complication-free operation and speedy recovery!

I have had a lot of people come up to me and tell me about what a fun age Addison is at and how I should enjoy every second because it will fly by. Generally this happens after a long day of church in which Addison has stunk up the entire chapel with a stinky diaper, dumped his drink all over Daddy's freshly dry-cleaned suit, and cried/temper tantrumed his way through nursery. I usually smile, nod, and secretly want to punch them in the face. I have a hard time believing them, and have actually racked my brain trying to think of things I'll miss about toddler Addison, mostly to no avail. I think a big part of this is being pregnant with aches and pains and no energy and raging hormones. But recently I've had a few breakthroughs that make me hug him extra tight before I lay him down for bed. First off, he is the cutest little guy I've ever seen. Also, he isn't smelly, other than stinky diapers and occasional stinky feet - no b.o. or any other fun pubescent chemicals ...