Stats, musings, upcoming visitors and hurricanes, etc...

Jared says I am going overboard with posting Leah pictures, so I figured I'd take a bit of a break from that and just ramble on a bit instead. In slightly outdated news, Leah had her first doctor's appointment on Monday and weighed in at 6 lbs and 12 oz, and was 19 1/4 inches long. Considering she was only 5.5 lbs when she left the hospital a week and a half earlier, I'd say she's doing pretty good in the growing category! The appointment was long (ok, the wait was long, the appointment itself was rather short), and while waiting for the doctor to come in the exam room, Leah managed to pee, poop, or spit up on every blanket, burp cloth, clothing item, etc we had brought with us. Poor kid had to wear dirty clothes and was wrapped in an air-dried pee blanket until we finished our errands and got home later that day. Oops. We're not bad parents, I promise.

I have to say, I got my first inkling of parental protection at the appointment because they did the PKU (heel prick) test on her again. As soon as I heard that click of the needle going in her heel, those little lungs let loose. I felt TERRIBLE and managed to keep the tears (yes, I'm a sucker) from squeezing out of my eyes as I heard the little nugget shrieking. (After all, I'm the parent, so I'm supposed to keep it together, right?) What I wanted to do was knock the nurse over, grab my kid back, and run out of the office never to return again. What I did was stand there and wait patiently until they handed my crying baby back to me. Luckily, she calmed down rather quickly and forgot about what had happened.

While leaving the exam room, I saw a scale in the office and took a deep breath and stepped on. Surprisingly, at exactly 2 weeks post delivery, I was only 2 pounds above my pre-pregnancy weight. Go me and go nursing.

In between all this baby care-taking, Jared and I have been watching lots of movies and playing tons of ping pong. He's been home from work for the most part as well, and it's been awesome. It'd be great if the two of us could be home all the time. Heck, it'd be great if one of us could be home all the time, but we're just not at that point right now. (One day!) Jared also braved the ridiculously hot temperatures and painted our front and back fences, which we'd been planning on doing for quite some time now. They look great, and I'm extremely appreciative of him for working on that. And of course, I'm also extremely appreciative of all his help with Leah (that goes without saying, but it doesn't hurt to mention it). Our house is certainly not a wife takes care of the baby and all household duties kind of house, and it's great to have someone to share the responsibilities (and frustrations) with.

In other news, we've got visitors coming this week! Dinah is flying down just in time for Hurricane Gustav to meet Leah and spend some time with the fam. We're excited, and hope the weather doesn't prevent her visit or make it miserable. And shortly after Dinah leaves on Friday (and by shortly, I mean one hour later), Leah's grandmother will be arriving for a weekend visit. Jared and I are both really thankful she will be able to make the trip. Hopefully Leah will be a good host for her!

Speaking of Hurricane Gustav, he's a Category 4 storm right now and is expected to make landfall on Wednesday. The stupid "cone of uncertainty" ranges all the way from Alabama to Corpus Christi, so we have no idea whether or not we should be sorta prepared, or board up the windows, pack up the pets and head to my parents prepared.

Lastly, I threatened to throw our daughter out the window the other night/morning (this was at 5:30, after a 3 am, 4 am and 5 am wake up call. You'd have felt the same way.). I think that makes me a bad parent. Or that makes me a normal parent. I haven't figured it out yet.

Tomorrow we are going to the Bark Park Alvin Festival with Heidi, Rowdy and Leah. This will either be an adventure, or a fiasco. Either way, there will be pictures!