Déjà Vu?

Same blanket, same curtain pattern, same happy daddy - but a lot has changed in 2 and 1/3 years.

They now use Swaddlers instead of cloth diapers. This change is just fine with me. I remember trying to get the safety pin through; sweating bullets trying not to stab my newborn daughter. The cloth diapers are still around, though, in the role of burp cloths, towels and changing pads.

No longer do they provide or encourage the use of pacifiers. They used to provide Soothie Pacifiers, which we had to order more of bacause that's all Hannah would use. Now if you chose to use a pacifier, you have to bring your own. I don't see what the big deal is - Hannah did just fine.

Another minor change is that they wash the babies with Johnson's Head to Toe Baby Wash instead of Neutrogena bars.

So it's not really Deja Vous, I guess. The miracle of life is no less amazing, though, no matter how the hospital changes.

Happy Birthday Benjamin

After a mere 38.5 weeks of gestation, Benjamin James has finally arrived. While he was born 10 days before his due date, he had to wait an extra two hours longer than planned. An emergency C-section early this morning bumped back all the scheduled appointments. In the grand scheme of things 2 hours is a short time to wait. The mom and baby that caused the delay came out alright, too; so the wait was well worth it.

This picture was taken an hour and a half after he was born. Under that hand-made, donated hat is a full but thin head of brown hair. As it is only about 1/2 an inch long, we won't know for a while if it will stick up like his cousin Evy's. His skin is still very pink and he's got a lot under it - notice the extra roll under his chin. He keeps trying to open his eyes which are a dark, baby blue but probably won't stay that way.

Both mom and baby are healthy which is all we would ask for - and Stacey is recovering much faster and more comfortably than she did with Hannah. Ben weighed in at a whopping 7 pounds 14.4 ounces, making him only 1.6 ounces lighter than his big sister when she was born on her due date. This also makes Brian the winner of the baby poll without a need to go to the height tie breaker. We are still planning to find out the height tomorrow even though it doesn't count for anything.

We appreciate the love, support and prayers we have recieved and look forward to introducing him to everyone in person.

Baby Poll

So despite the fact that we knew the date and sex going in, it turned out to be an interesting poll. There are 6 weights that would cause a tie and even some cases that would come down to the time. Keep in mind that the contest is closest, not closest without going over. The other thing to remember is that the result will probably be rounded to the nearest ounce, the nearest 1/4 inch and possibly the nearest 5 minutes.

I'll try to let everyone know the results of the poll (and the birth, of course) as soon as possible tomorrow.

Pool's Open

It's that time of year again. "Hazy, Hot and Humid" is the forecast and it's not quite summer yet. Whoever said Syracuse only gets snow must have missed the fact that the A/C manufacturer Carrier used to be headquartered here.

Anyway, the pool is out again. Hopefully we will be able to stay cool until the snow starts to fall again.