Lola Barbara Christine Child

As most of you may know by now, we have welcomed the arrival of our daughter, Lola Barbara Christine Child!  She is quite a character – the most beautiful little girl in the world, who can make some really funny faces but can also cry the house down.  She’s definitely not afraid to tell you when she’s annoyed!  Luckily, she doesn’t cry all the time and although she hates having her diaper/nappy changed, most of the time she’s a very happy baby.  She LOVES to stare at the Christmas tree lights at the moment.

She had a tough first week of life – she spent seven days in the Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU) on a course of antibiotics and extra oxygen to boost her levels.  It was really scary to see her hooked up to so many wires and tubes, but each day another one came off and we came one step closer to having her come home.  Lola finally came home on Sunday, 12 December, and it was such an amazing feeling to have our little family finally all together at home.

Yesterday it snowed a little, so Lola got to see her very first snowfall.  She’s been meeting a few people over the past few days, and has even had a Skype video conference with Grandma Barbie as well as Grandpa Lee and Grandma Sharon.

Here are some photos from the past two weeks; we can’t wait to see her continue to grow and develop into a strong, healthy girl!

Lola in the incubator

naptime

Hearing test (she passed)

Cuddle with Daddy

leaving the SCBU!

first bath

Getting Ready…

As we get more and more things for the baby, it’s starting to feel more real!  Mom (Lara’s mom Barb) bought us a swinging crib for the baby to use. If you’re from my side of the family, you already know about the family crib, so you can skip to the next paragraph   But my great-grandfather (Bion Barger, Sr) made a crib that nearly everyone in my extended family has slept in as a baby – it even rocks/swings.  I think my cousin Denise has it right now, but I’m not sure.  Anyway, shipping something like that from the west coast of the US to England is a bit impractical, so Mom got a swinging crib for us to use for our baby.  I suppose we can start a new tradition, UK-side.

Sam practicing his baby-rocking skills

As you can see, the crib fits in our room (just about!) so she can sleep in the same room for the first few months; apparently that’s what’s recommended.  Sam decided he wanted her on his side of the bed, so we’ll see how that goes – but we’re open to moving it around if we need to!  Thank you again Mom for getting this great gift for us!

Baby Training

Last week Sam and I got to meet the sweetest puppy – Breeze!  She’s a 12-week-old west highland terrier and was the cutest thing.  She belongs to Kate, a friend of Christine and Richard’s, and she has three other westies.  Hugo (Christine and Richard’s dog) was very jealous of all the attention!

Sam really bonded with Breeze, I think, and it looks like he got in some good baby training holding the puppy!

You can see the video on YouTube here:

I can’t believe that in just 11 weeks (or less) our little girl will be here.  We’ve both had dreams about her already and can’t wait to meet her.  Everyone also thinks that  she will arrive early – I just have a feeling that she will, and Christine and my mom (Barb) both have a psychic inkling that she’ll be a November baby.  Even in Sam’s dream she had been born in November!  My last day at work is 19 November, so maybe she’ll be really sweet and show up on the following Monday.

We should really start getting the baby’s room in order, because at the moment it’s kind of a mix between “nursery” and “place where we keep random crap.”  These last few weeks are going to fly by, so we’d better get started!