She's Here!

lol I will post a pic of my Daughter, the true most beautiful baby ever Stu!! lol

Congrats bud. It really is the best thing ever.

Did you watch the delivery? I have the weakest stomach in the world I watched the whole thing and it did not bother me at all. I have a whole new respect for my wife too. haha.

Thanks Nick.

I was there the whole time. I'm pretty good at seeing stuff most people throw up at, as my health care profession de-sensitizes me to it somewhat. This was obviously at another level, but it didn't bother me at all. If I was watching someones else give birth, I'd have a different opinion of it though! Kind of like smelling someone else's doo-doo vs your own

I knew my wife is tough, but I din't think she's that tough. She didn't yell, scream, carry on, etc. She was obviously in pain, but she handled it like a champ. The epidural helped, but by no means did it make her completely numb.

I wouldn't have been nearly as good about it as she was.

Armenouhie is pronounced ar-men-NEW-hee.

Awesome news Stu! Congratulations!!! Glad Kathryn and Kim are both doing well.

How have the nights been so far? Hope everyone is getting some sleep.

Thanks guys. The nights have been interesting. Its unintentionally worked out that I get the earlier shift, and she's got the later shift.

By earlier shift, I mean I'm on duty up until about 3 am or so. After that, I'm pretty much passed out and barely hear Kathryn. Kim usually takes over from 3 am 'till about 8 am, when we've both been up.

It's a labor of love. These are the good old days that we'll be telling her about...

.

Congratulations, Stu.

Now Stu, the most important thing to remember: Never let your kids learn to speak! Just kidding!

I feel so old, everyone has young kids and mine are in their 20s! Crazy!

My wife took a picture of me sleeping with my older son sleeping on my chest.

My older guy slept through the night from his first night home. The younger guy woke up once @ 1am for the 1st 3 months. He ate, threw up all over me and went back to sleep. I showered and got back in bed.

Stu - congratulations! Like you said, the main thing is that both wife and kid are healthy. No doubt that's a big hurdle to clear. All the best over the next 30 years!

Thanks, Dan. Before we found out we were having a girl, people would ask what we wanted to have. Our response was always the same - a healthy baby. Can't ask for more than that!

Thanks, Dak. By my father's reaction to our daughter being born, I'd say it's at least just as moving for grandparents as it is for parents. My father is old-school Armenian - shows very little emotion, has his way of doing everything, etc. The only time ever I saw him cry in the past was when my great-grandmother passed away. When he saw Kathryn for the first time, he was full of tears of joy.

I'm sure it'll get you too. Best of luck to you and your family for a healthy girl.

We were pretty conciencious of that, and didn't go until it was time. She started having contractions on and off on Friday, but nothing major or consistent. She got up to go to the bathroom at about 3 am on Saturday and her water broke. For some reason she didn't think she was supposed to go to the hospital then, because she wasn't having strong contractions. I had her call the hospital's labor and delivery dept (good thing we had the number), and they told us to come in. I knew we were supposed to when the water broke, regardless of whatever else is going on. The doctor told Kim she should listen to me more often. I guess there's a first time for everything lol!

In the hospital at 3 am, Kathryn was born at 4:30 pm. Seemed like forever, yet it flew by at the same time.

lol Your lucky Stu. Danielle's water never broke (they broke it). The last time we went it (3-4 minute contractions) she was already 8cm dialated(spelling) and we were almost too late for her to get the epidural. Thankfully we weren't. Man oh man if we were I would had of been the fastest single parent on the planet.lol.

Right on man, fight to stay home. lol. Although parenthood is no walk in the park, Danielle claims it really does feel like your on a long vacation not having to work. *sigh*

They had a few complications with the epidural but D was up and walking in a few hours after delivery. No soreness to follow, luckily. They say they keep getting easier. I will leave it up to D to see if thats true.lol. Wow.

That was same with both of my kids too, Stu. The nurses did 99% of the work, and the doctor comes in for the last 5 minutes.

Nice! Congrats. Now it's time to keep your hands and legs inside the car at all times and hold onto the bar!

I remember the birth of both my kids. It truly is a life changing experience. Now it's time for baby steps, for both you and the little one. With each one comes reward and future challenge.

Sleeping through the night. (For both the child and you and your wife lol)
Eating solid foods
1st B-day
crawling
Walking
Talking
Getting out of diapers
Getting themselves dressed
Bathing themselves
1st lost tooth
1st day of school
Riding a bike
1st best friend
1st broken bone (Usually comes after learning to ride the bike)
1st boyfriend/girlfriend
Learning to drive
1st accident

Ect, ect, ect lol. Your in for a ton of firsts. Glad you and your wife enjoyed another one of yours.

Thanks Paul and Chris.

My hifi priorites are almost down. We've been putting on some kid's music for her, especially during the 3 minutes or so of "tummy time."

Gotta get a new DAC, then I'm done for a long time. I've been putting some extra money away for a while, and I figure that'll be my last personal costly purchase for a long time.

Dave loves Barney and barbie on the hifi.

Oh no! Not Barney! I don't miss him one little bit! I hope my grandson never gets into him! He likes Olivia. I can deal with her.

Good point Nuck! Lots of poopie clothes for awhile.

I remember when Connor (my first one) was a few months old, I changed him after a blowout, got him all cleaned up and dressed, and we went out for lunch. At the Tim Hortons, this is where I realized I forgot to put a diaper on him when I dressed him. Oooops. Back home we went.

Good that you got what you paid for them though.

Couldn't swing a dac in the deal, huh, Stuie?

Bless you all for the first Christmas.

My old landlord is the kind of guy every renter dreams about. It's too bad their wasn't enough room for our new bundle of joy. Had there been, we'd have never left until we bought our own home.

Still trying to figure out the new one. Nice guy and all, but he's not exactly on top of things.

That ain't gonna happen. He'll tell me he'll be by tomorrow, and I won't see him again.

When we moved in, our mailbox was in 3 pieces on the ground. He left a note in the apartment saying he'd be by the next day to fix it. 3 months later, he finally got around to replacing it. I could have bought a new one and taken care of it in 5 minutes, but it was the principal of it. I felt like leaving my rent check in it so when he'd call and ask where it is, I'd say it's been in my mailbox waiting for you. Cooler heads (aka my wife) prevailed on that one.

Not all wives are better suited to handle every situation. I remember our first condo we rented. My landlord conveniently lived in the condo directly above us and we shared access to a 2 car garage. Took a few months before I realized his kids were helping themselves to food in our pantry, our kids toys and sometimes never shut the garage door, leaving everything exposed to prying eyes during the day.

"Let's talk to him" my wife would say. Talk??!! Heck no. Locks went on the pantry and our son's toys got stored in a locked shed out back from that day on.

Then when we started getting $300+ electric bills I had to do some investigating to see where the juice was going. I mean no 2 bedroom condo should have THAT high of a bill. Turns out our electric water heater was malfunctioning, which he refused to replace. Cheap b@stard. So during the day when we were at work I would shut it off completely to help. Turns out when I cut the breaker off to the heater it also killed power to our electrical outlet in the garage.


Stay with me.


Little did I know that my landlord had been secretly tapping into that outlet to power his 2nd freezer in our shared garage during the day when we weren't home. He would run extension cords into the house as well to power god knows what else on our dime. So the battle begins. I'd turn it off on my way to work and he'd go back out in the garage to turn it back on after I left. All the time my wife kept preaching to not over react. What would YOU do?

Naturally we looked for another place but we signed a 3 year lease that the SOB wasn't going to let us break. Thankfully we found out that he stole and spent our security deposit a month after we moved in. We found out due to the bank statement in which the money is supposed to be sitting in gaining interest got mailed to us by mistake. Our lawyer had a field day with that bit lol.