and MORE pics!

My friend Danie dropped by and Mom, Danie and I took Sadie for her first stroll... Her jaundice has improved and the pediatrician said we'd be fine out in the sun for a bit... I so needed to connect with the outside world again... A deer jumped out in front of us at one point... Obi didn't even notice... Danie took these shots today...

< Mom with Sadie in the stroller...

Mom, Sadie, me and my post pregnancy poundage... Hopefully, only three out of the four of us will be around in a few months...


Me feeding Sadie... Trust me, you don't want me to post pictures of the other way I feed Miss Squirmies...


Squirmies in her car seat... Note the tiny scratches on her face... We finally filed her nails down yesterday because she kept scratching herself...

New Sadie Pics!!!

Here's 3 AM this morning. Yeah!

She is just a wee thing.

She looks ready to get home, eh?

She's here!!!

There's our Sadie Harper- born Thursday at 12:43 pm, 6 pounds, 5 ounces, 19 inches long!

She was only 36 weeks old! I had just dozed off to sleep when I woke up around 11:20 pm with contractions and my water bag had ruptured. Long story short- I had my first trip to the hospital in an ambulance. I had decided I would try natural childbirth, but after 5 hours of painful contractions, the doctor proudly announced that I had dilated from 1 to 2 cm. I folded like a cheap suit and opted for an epidural. When the epidural took effect, I told the anaesthesiologist that if I weren't already married, I would have proposed to HER.

Time seemed to fly between the time I received the epidural and when I was fully dilated and ready to push. I even spent some time on my cell phone while in labor talking to folks at work and friends. When I reached 10 cm, I took a short nap until I was ready to push her out, and I pushed for about 10 minutes, and there she was!!

Unfortunately, due to being so early and showing some symptoms of a possible infection, she was not able to come home with us yesterday afternoon. It was so hard to go home without her, but her progress has been excellent. They want to treat her with antibiotics at the Pediatric ICU for a few days. They originally said they would keep her for seven days from her first dose of antibiotic, but yesterday, they said there's a chance we may be able to take her home sooner because she's responding so well. We'll be spending much of our time at the hospital the next few days.

Mom is here and will return home today and come back Tuesday for a month or so. Dad and Debi are coming today for a couple of days. Everyone has been so supportive- friends and family. If you're reading this, this means YOU. We love you. And we can't wait to introduce you to Sadie.

We'll try to snap more pictures today. Most of the first batch either didn't turn out, or made Sadie look like Richard Nixon. I kid you not.

Redmond and me

Here's a picture of Redmond and me a few years ago, when we used to live in Raleigh. I look like I think I'm a hippified Bettie Page. Lord, that hair.

Is this thing on yet?

This is a little space we've set up to share pictures and thoughts and all kinds of other mental tschotckes.

Who are we?

I am Karen, currently almost 34 weeks pregnant and a medical librarian at Duke University Medical Center.

I am currently ginormous. That's a picture of me from my baby shower in Norfolk, Virginia.

He is Redmond, and wrangles middle schoolers daily at Macdougle Middle School in Carrboro, NC. He is the Technology Education teacher there, and is heavily involved with the Technology Student Association (TSA)

He's also an amazing musician, and can play a gazillion musical instruments, including bass, drums, guitar, trombone and the flugelhorn.

We're both into hiking, camping and traveling, though you wouldn't guess it from eyeballing that ginormous belly picture... ;-)

We both were ready to adopt a child, as we thought we weren't going to be able to get pregnant. Just when I started seriously researching different international adoption programs, BOOM, I was pregnant.

Redmond and I have been together for 14 years and married 12 of those years. We have a definite rhythm and bounce to our relationship. It will be interesting to see how adding a child to the mix changes our dynamic.