Two Weeks Old
Yep, our little charge has survived two whole weeks under my care! (Actually, mostly under the care of Rebecca and her mom, so it's not really that surprising.) Amelia is eating like a little piggy. She can drink more milk in one sitting, no kidding, than Lily ever has to date. She has a strong personal will, and will thrash and twist and squirm to see something or to get more comfortable. Here she is with Mommy:



Lily is taking it all in stride, too. Below you can see she is doing some research on her little sister's motives and habits (this picture was not a set-up. Lily really grabbed a magazine and plunked herself down in Amelia's car seat, even crossing her legs by herself!):

Amelia's First Movie

This kid is remarkably bright! She has a new high score on Ms. Pac Man for the Atari 2600. Below is a link to her movie (11.2 MB, may take a while):
Amelia in Baby Pac-Man

The story behind the movie: I was watching Amelia late last night after everyone went to bed. Since I was playing Atari and had my camcorder handy, I decided to have some fun. How often does anyone have access to a 6 day old baby and a 25 year old video game system?

No real babies were used in the dangerous parts of the film. It's all high tech trickery.

Home at last! (or is it at first?)
We made it! At about 2pm or so on the 13th (Monday), we checked out of the hospital. Before we left, we had to decide on a middle name for Amelia. We went with one we both liked from the start: Cate. So she is officially Amelia Cate Curtis.

Next, we packed Amelia in her car seat.


Rebecca called for the nurse to bring the wheelchair, and a few minutes later we were delighted to see a friend of ours from church, Al Levechi! He volunteers at the hospital on Mondays, and he wheeled Rebecca and Amelia out to the car. What a great guy!



So we brought Amelia home. What a home coming! Nana and Grandad had cleaned the place up and decorated it with balloons, signs, and a banner saying "It's a Girl!". There were also beautiful flowers from Grandma and Grandpa, as well as gifts from Aunt Mary and others.


I think the most touching moment was when Lily woke up from her nap and came down to see Amelia at home for the first time. She saw me give her a kiss, so she did the same! It was so sweet I just had to capture it on video. Right click the following link and choose "Save as" to store the movie file on your computer. Once it downloads, double click it to play the movie. Here is the link:Lily Kissing Amelia 550kb, MPG format. If you don't have the means or the time to download the clip, here is a still shot:



That's all for today.
-Don

Coming home soon!
Lots of progress today. Amelia is really getting better at breast feeding, and Rebecca is walking around more and more comfortably. Today was pretty quiet and restful. Rebecca even was multi-tasking! (see below, she was checking email and feeding Amelia last night).

It's looking good for going home today. The nurses and cleaning ladies know us by name and even chit-chat with us. The food lady even brought me a tray of food last night intended for a person who left early. What a great dinner, too! Roast beef and peas and carrots. Can't beat the food service here.

Amelia's second big day
Well, our littlest monster has had a busy day. She hardly spent any time in the nursery, as she was hanging out with mommy & me. She has a great appetite and can down 2 ounzes in no time flat. As long as we burp her every 1/2 ounze, there is no problem, but if we forget --look out! Mt Vesuvius! Bleeeh!

She enjoyed her second visit with Nana and Grandad, as well as her sister Lily.


Mommy is doing great. She's been making the rounds at the hospital, walking up and down the hall. She even has most of her pain/functions under control. Her spirits are high (though yesterday was pretty rough- the suffering Mommy and Nurse Sergeant Marge didn't quite hit it off).

I am doing fine. I have been sleeping remarkably well on the little sleeper-armchair they have for fathers here in the hospital. As for passing the time, I am randomly assigned tasks around here: get tea, get the baby from the nursery, pass baby to mommy for feeding, burp the baby, change the baby (well, ok, not that much) press the call button and talk to the mean nurse when she is on duty, order heating pads, make sure the nurse didn't forget the $%^* drugs, etc. I am LOVING it. He he he.

It's a girl!
Sure, we've known what the ultrasounds predicted each time, but now it's official... it's a girl! And a healthy, happy one at that! Praise God. Her name is Amelia
She was born yesterday, October 10, 2003 at 1:46pm via c-section. Here are the details:

Weight:	8 pounds, 5 ounces
Length:	21 inches

She had a rough time at first. She had her lungs partially filled with amniotic fluid and mucous and made a wheezing, cooing noise with each breath. You could see her chest kind of twitch a little sometimes when she breathed. The doctor was a little concerned, so the nursery attendants kept close watch over her. She would occasionally turn all red and her eyes would get wide, then she'd spit up some stuff and the nurses would use a bulb syringe to clear out her mouth. This went on all night, but in the morning she was perfect! The doctor was happy to see her progress, because she knew then that it wasn't pneumonia (which has similar symptoms). She is quite a happy baby now, and her similarity to Lily is quite striking.

Lily, Grandma, Grandpa, Nana, and Granddad all came for a visit. Uncle Loren and Aunt Mary came later, as did Uncle Jeff, Aunt B. , and Alex. Lily wanted to check out her new sister. She kept saying "Bay-Beee!" and poking at her eyes and face. It was cute, but Grandma kept her safe.

We've also got some pictures: