dennis: "Wow. in bed before

dennis: "Wow. in bed before 11...it's official."
kate: "we're losers."
dennis: "we're parents."

our pretty christmas lights. the start of the season.

good morning!

dandy loves his new bed that ellorie bought for him. that's him in the center (i know it's pretty dark ) pawing on the side of the bed.

No worse feeling

There is no worse feeling than knowing that something you've done is causing your baby pain. I've eaten something that is really upsetting his stomach, and I feel beyond horrible about it. It's pure agony.

christmas present from great aunt denise. what a little grinch.

sweet kicks man. sweatshirt from my friends at work. sneaker socks from best friend barb schultz.

he's got a couple of tiny curls on the back of his head.

look at my long fingers!

please sleep, baby. mom is tired.

days are just flying by. it's crazy to think that 10 days ago we were spending our first night as a family.

the fam hanging on the couch.

success! got him into the moby wrap carrier on the first try by myself. peace at last...and no heavy baby hurting my arms.

i'm seven and a half days old. i've only peed on the changing table twice so far...none on mom and dad yet.

Darren's 1st public appearance

Why this is so blurry I have no idea.

Darren is in the 50th

Darren is in the 50th percentile for weight, 90th for head circumference, and 90th for height.

leaving the doc.

first doctor apppointment. back up to 8 lb 3 oz. 15 inch head. 21 1/4 inches long.

finally. we started at 9. feeding changing feeding changing feeding.

it is hard to catch that split second smile...i don't think i got it. but here's a cute picture of sleeping.

thanks, mom. i'm full.

massive milk coma! mom got smart and grabbed a washcloth. i started diaper change showers last night while dad was changing me. hah! i showed him!

day 2 home. saturday morning

grandma with darren. first night home.

going home!

kicks on. time to go home. for sure.

of course, i'm not expecting gourmet...but come on. you can't even give me the sausage patty? on my menu it says "turkey sausage-0g". someone took the best part of my breakfast...

Just got my staples out.

Just got my staples out. weird.
i'll spare you the picture, but it didn't hurt at all. it was far less traumatic than i expected.

dad and darren. last night at the hospital. 76 hours after birth. 92 1/2 hours after arriving.

74 hours old

mom's favorite part. snuggling.

what am i scheming?

sabra with darren.

he's so awake and aware!

if you want to visit today

hopefully no one out there is a creepy stalker...
The iPod is dying, so I won't be able to check the blog or my email much longer. If you want to visit this evening at the hospital, give me a call on my cell phone at 208.2125

lisa and darren.

russ with darren.

good morning, darren. you've been

good morning, darren. you've been with us now for 60 hours.

End of day 3

Hi! We've had our hands full so updating has been hard.

We are not sure when we will be leaving. Assuming it's Friday, we will take visitors Thursday from noon till 8 pm. After we return home just let us know if you would like to stop by.

Darren has been a good baby so far! He is receptive to breastfeeding, bottles, and pacifiers. He is surprising everyone with his talkativeness and playfulness.

Aunt Ellorie and Nan Larson are leaving Thursday. They have our infinite thanks for all their support, help, and once again cleaning our house! We're looking forward to Grandma and Grandpa Hodges visiting this weekend to help and meet the newest Hodges!

I would like everyone to know how thrilled I am to be on solid food again so I can enjoy bubble tea to the max. Recovery is moving along well. Dennis went back to work tonight and was happy to have a sense of routine again. His cover band is playing this Friday so we'll see how that goes.

Thanks again for your love and prayers!

he already knows how to hold his own paci in!

godparents and darren!

darren with his new friend, paci.

sleepy guy.

tony with darren. 26 hours old.

phil with darren.

sarah with darren.

molly with darren. 25.5 hours old

darren being unburpable.

Day Two drama

So today has been a little rough. We had to switch rooms because our bathroom had a slow toilet and the shower was broken (no hot water). Also, someone has not been as interested in feeding as he was last night, which is a little disconcerting. However, the hospital has been accomodating and gave us some nice things as compensation. Because of the room change his current feeding is about an hour late but he is cooperating more. Kate has gotten up to walk a couple of times and is getting used to that again. Amazingly, neither one of us is tired! And that part is a tremendous lie.

nana and darren 19 hours old.

aunt ellorie with open-eyed darren

papa with darren. 16 hours old.

another picture

dad and darren

darren mathew hodges debuts

first blog photo. more to come once we get home the 20th or 21st, and once we get him to open up his eyes on command.

it's it (what is it?)

7:37 pm- Darren Mathew, 8 lbs 6.7 oz, kind of long. Kate is recovering well, we appreciate all your love and prayers! She'll be here for the next few days resting. We will post about visiting. Hope to have a picture up soon!

Going in for a c

Going in for a c section. baby's head or shoulders are too big to move down...i'm betting it's the head!

update 3.20 pm

baby wants oxygen

update 4

It's been awhile, sorry. Things have slowed down considerably, but Kate is still doing well. Thanks again everyone!

update from Kate 1:35 pm

Everything is going really well. Despite being freaked out by the idea of having an I v and epidural, I'm now currently embracing both. Pitocin is moving things along. Ellorie is jealous of my new painfree labor.

update 2

11:39 AM - Kate just got her epidural and is about to get her water broken. The tentative estimate for baby arrival is dinnertime.

real time

P.S. Previous post was 10:16 A.M. instead of the listed time.

Hospital update

Hello all. Things are going pretty well at the hospital (I approved that with Kate). Ellorie had some snow trouble in Michigan but is on her way. Kate is going with an epidural, so we are waiting on that. She is VERY tired. Contractions kept her from sleeping at all last night. Thanks for your prayers and support.

test post from the new iPod touch

just a test post from my new iPod touch. We got our new video camera in the mail today. It's so tiny and cool looking! Now we just have to try it out before baby comes.

I'll likely be making a few posts from the hospital with this since it has wireless access, so I'll apologize now for any mispellings in the near future.

No baby yet.

full moon

Numerous people have predicted that I'll have the baby before my due date (11.15!) because of the full moon tonight.

We'll see...but nothing so far!

I'm not sure we've announced the names on the blog yet. Here's something to tide you over until the next post which will hopefully be accompanied by a photo of baby hodges.

Girl: July Elizabeth
Boy: Darren Mathew

-Kate

Listening to christmas music on

Listening to christmas music on our way to church! yay!

the big 6-0! (also, a new dishwasher)

Today is my dad's birthday! He's a sprightly 60 this year.

If you see him, say "Happy Birthday!"


Dennis decided a few weeks ago that we needed a new dishwasher before the baby arrived. Our's was not really cleaning the dishes. So we got on to my dad's VIP program pricing website for Whirlpool and bought a new dishwasher. It's coming today!

Luckily, we have a skilled friend, Greg Bergmann - godfather of baby Hodges - who came over to help Dennis take the old one out last night. He offered to come by this afternoon and help him hook the new one up, too.

Hooray! Such an exciting day!

Now we just need a birth - soon? please!
This sinus infection is sucking the life out of me, and having to be coherent and awake for 9 hours continuously each day (aka working) is just about doing me in.