Detroiters Visit

We were glad that our friends Mike, Amy, and Lucy were in town visiting family in Joliet from Detroit. And they came over to meet Julian. It was great to have them here for a short visit.



Lucy was born on November 13th last year, so it was fun to think of Julian being as big as Lucy. It's hard to imagine but fun to speculate!



And just for kicks, this was the sunset that night out our window.

Thanksgiving

We knew that we would not be up for cooking a big Thanksgiving meal this year. We weren't even sure that we'd be up for socializing with others, but I emailed James and Jason anyway and invited ourselves to their Thanksgiving dinner. They were happy to have us there, and we were happy to spend our first Thanksgiving as a family with good friends.

JB did pretty well - and even let us eat - once he was asleep. And Amanda got to feel motherly while holding him.



What you don't see is that he's wearing an outfit (Thanks, Becky!) that says "Thankful for Mommy and Daddy." Too cute!



Nicole made homemade butter...absolutely yummy.



Thanks, James and Jason, for letting us crash your Thanksgiving dinner. It was delicious!


(Sorry we didn't get better pictures of you!)

Sweetie

When my mom was a little girl, her father called her "Super Sweet." Pa'Pa' gave all of his kids nicknames that they loved into adulthood. So, when my sister became pregnant for the first time, we asked my parents what they wanted to be called. It took my mom no time to say she wanted to be called Super Sweet.

We tried hard to get Jonathan (my oldest nephew) to call Mom Super Sweet, but it was really too much of a mouthful for a little one, and so it ended up as "Sweetie." It is still really cute to hear my nephews say, "I got that from my Sweetie" or "my Sweetie is coming to visit."

Sweetie had been with us since we came home from the hospital last Wednesday and just left today. I have to tell you the truth: I am not sure how we would have survived without her here. While she was certainly here to love on JB, her primary role became caretaker to me and Vince. She made sure we ate and napped. She washed dishes and walked the dog.



She did her fair share of Julian care as well. She changed a bunch of diapers and sang a ton of songs (and even made up quite a few). She got to change the worst diaper in JB's short history and has been the only one to experience his diaper fountain. AND she let us wake her in the middle of the night to take a shift with Jules so that we could get an hour of shuteye.


(Sweetie's handiwork.)

Thanks for coming, Sweetie! Sure you can't stay for another month or so?

Confessions of a first time parent

I have a feeling that this is only part one of a continuing series that will be upon the McGel household. Today is day five of our new lives together, and we are constantly learning what we know and what we don't know. We are also realizing that there are things we just haven't thought of.

So, here's our first confession:

We had a doctor's appointment for Julian at 8:30am (who knew that was early!) on the morning after we got home. Now because I am still recovering, and we live on a third floor, the midwife said that we should go through a check list of everything we need to take with us. We run it through our minds and head out the door.

We get to the appointment on time (without the showers we thought we'd have time to take, of course), and we have to strip Julian down to his birthday suit to get his weight checked. Just when we get to the diaper, Vince turns to me and says, "Did we bring any extra diapers?"

At this point we both burst out laughing. Not only did we not bring any extra diapers, we had not even thought about packing a diaper bag. It never once occurred to us that we were leaving the house with a baby, and we might need to give him a change...even though we knew he would be getting naked. We were lucky that JB had a clean diaper, and we were able to put it back on after his check.

So, we have a lot to learn about this parenting thing. The one thing that is certain...Julian will never be without loving parents. We may mess up in a million other ways, but he will always be loved! Naked, but loved!

(More pictures to come...)

Welcome, Julian Blake!

Well, after 31 hours of labor, we welcomed our son, Julian Blake, into our arms. Mom and baby are both doing well (can you believe no pain killers were involved?). Julian was 7 pounds 13 ounces and 20 inches long at birth. We will post more later, but for now we are still at the hospital. So here are just a few pics to whet your appetite.

Julian Blake

Mom and baby

A little daddy time.

How cute is he?

Tomorrow's the day...or is it?

Well. I've almost made it. Tomorrow I will be 40 weeks pregnant, and our little (big) Jellybean will be due. The question that is on my mind (or perhaps more accurately...on my bladder) is will our child show his or her face tomorrow? To this question I do not know the answer.

I know that JB's mom is MORE than ready to welcome him/her into this world. And while I have used many a breath to compel JB out, McGlothins have never been known for their submission to authority figures. And for that matter, we have never been known for our patience either.

So to all of you out in the blogosphere, pray for the JB to make an appearance soon, and pray for his/her mother's patience. And especially pray for JB's dad, who has to deal with JB's mom. He's really getting the brunt of it all!