Friday, November 26, 2010

D-Day

November 27, 2010 = D-Day

What's D-Day, you say? Why, it's baby William's due date! That's right, today was the projected big day. Today, our little man finally caught up with time. He celebrated in style:



Setting up the Christmas tree with Daddy. William seems to have the easy task...


Getting even more into the Christmas spirit at the local Christmas parade, although he slept through the appearance of Santa and Mrs. Clause, and even more importantly, Santa's caribao. I quote the emcee, "Reindeer aren't fans of humidity, so when Santa comes out here to Guam, we get a caribao for him. You get good gas mileage, too AND you can take it off-roading."



Celebratory dinner at Jamaican Grille. William seems to approve of Mommy's dinner selection.


Comparing size with the table decorations. At a husky 9 pounds, William wins! Oh, and someone appears to be in need of a diaper change...


Other activities on this momentous day, though not picture worthy, were a walk/swim this morning and a good bath tonight. And presently, William and Daddy are doing their favorite thing - dozing in bed:
Someone seems to have wet the bed...and on Mommy's side, too! :(
Time for Mommy to get some shut-eye now, so I leave you with the lighting of the local Christmas tree. William slept through that, too, but someday he might want to see, right? (Apologies for the sideways video...)




Happy D-Day! :)

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Friday, November 19, 2010

A message from William

Hafa adai family and friends!

Greetings from my new home on the island of Guam. I like it here - it's pretty small, but still much bigger than my first home (Mommy's tummy, that is). I was ready for a little more space to spread out - that's why I decided to come early, you see. I didn't want my nose to get squished any more than it already had...

(This is my very first picture, by the way! I came a little too quickly for Mommy and Daddy to take pictures in the delivery room. Those silly people left the camera in the car - they didn't seem to think I was in the kind of hurry I was to see my new home...)


Anyway, since I took my parents by surprise, they've been playing catch up since my birth. And now, even though she PROMISED that she would, Mommy is far too sleep deprived to expend the mental energy to blog about my first days of life (which may or may not be a result of my ongoing confusion between night and day...). So, since it seems I'm to blame for this delay, I thought I'd make it up to her by creating a photo diary of my time in the hospital. Here are my favorite memories from Tuesday, October 19 to Saturday, October 23, 2010:

Doing my best impression of sleeping like Daddy. Aren't I talented??



The hospital was super cold! I figured out how to work the system, though - I kept letting my body temperature drop so they would plop me underneath these awesome warming lights. Now that's a place to relax... (On a side note, how do you like my sense of style? How many people do you know that wear diapers on their arms? Probably only those that have IVs and don't know better than to pull them out...)



What's for breakfast, Mommy? I hope it's not Spam...again. Do all hospitals serve that?



Gee whiz - don't these people know that it's not fashionable to wear diapers on your foot, either? I'd rather have the IV in my arm...



Hanging out under my disco lights, though I think Mommy and Daddy called them phototherapy...



Jaundice does have its advantages - this setup was almost as cozy as the warming lights in the nursery...



Jaundice also has a great disadvantage - those darn goggles. Get them off me, would you?! I'm not under the lights now!



Daddy says this is his favorite picture...



And Mommy says this is hers...



But personally, I think this is a more dashing photo! (Mommy likes to pretend I'm smiling at her here, and I don't have the heart to tell her otherwise...)


Mommy is clearly excited to be going home, but I seem to be pouting about her choice of attire for me. In retrospect, I did look pretty handsome for the occasion...



My first life milestone - making it outside the doors of the Mother/Baby Unit!



Ah, my first taste of the Guam sunshine!


A little more sunshine at home. It doesn't look like I'm very impressed, but I wouldn't have been sleeping so peacefully if I wasn't so warm and cozy, you see...



Home Sweet (messy) Home! (Did I mention that our house minorly flooded while we were in the hospital? Daddy had quite a surprise waiting for him when he went home to pick up a few things for Mommy...good thing Mommy hadn't packed her hospital bag before I was born!)


And to wrap things up (haha, good pun!) - here I am happily swaddled (in one of Daddy's very own baby blankets, no less!) and settling in for the long haul at home.

Hope you enjoyed the photos! Mommy's on her own for the next post, though - I've got more pressing matters to tend to...like eating, sleeping, and well, you know...

Can't wait to meet you all!

Love,

William

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Intro to parenting...

Tomorrow, November 6, 2010, has been a date etched into Josh's and my minds for many months now. Why? Well, November 6th concluded the all-important 37th week of my pregnancy - the full-term milestone. If I could make it that far, then our baby boy would be fully developed and welcome to arrive at any point thereafter. We had many discussions with him about this significant date and trusted him to comply. However, we had our first introduction to parenting when baby boy chose not to comply with these directions and instead came on his own timetable, much earlier than Josh or I had planned. Now that we're over the shock of his early arrival, we have decided his non-compliance is indicative of his future intelligence - it was wise to take the upper hand from Mommy and Daddy from the get-go...


Nevertheless, Josh and I are proud to announce the arrival of

William James Cornthwaite,



born October 19, 2010 at 7:43pm in Agana Heights, Guam.



William was large for a preemie (34 weeks, 3 days) - he weighed 6 pounds, 8 ounces and was 20 inches long. He is happy and healthy, and given his size, I've forgiven him for the scare of a premature birth. If he had stayed inside of me another 6-8 weeks, I could have ended up with a monster baby... Suffice it to say, that would have made the birth process much more uncomfortable. Yes, we're quite content with our 6 pound little man.


Welcome to the world, baby boy!!