Hi everyone,

It’s been quite a crazy 2 weeks. Brigitte arrived Sunday July 19th at 8:30am and joined our family.

Linda and I had prepared as much as possible (Some of it was really useful to reduce the stress of the first couple days — but other stuff went through my eyes and out the back of my head), we both knew what to expect, but reading/talking can’t really get your emotional side ready for the shift/’smack across the face’ you’re about to get.

Here’s just a couple of my random thoughts about the past two weeks:

• By far breast feeding has been the toughest part — it makes all the other parts of caring for a healthy newborn seem easy. Linda has a lot on her shoulders and she’s been doing amazing — she’s letting me take care of almost everything else which is working just fine.
• We absolutely love our daughter — the connection was instant — funny that it would seem obvious but shocking how strong a bond is formed so quickly.
• She’s got some werewolf or vampire blood in her — every night she’s starts getting restless around 10 or 11 and really won’t settle down ’til 2 or 3am. We’ve shifted our day for night schedules. Linda making sure she sleeps in ’til at least noon or later to not be so exhausted. I’ve been still trying to wake up early as I will be returning to Plank one day soon !!
• We’ve been shut-in’s with lots of friends, family and visitors. Even minor expeditions take a LOT of energy. We’re planning our first walk in the park if this rain ever lets up for later this week. Thankfully we have a great sunny front porch we can at least get some air on.
• The cat has been less than impressed — mainly due to us having to shut him in the back half of the apartment so he won’t wake us up during those precious few hours when we get to sleep.
• Quick diaper changes are essential especially near feeding time and near bed time.
• White noise (a 1:30h mp3 track) has worked great at muffling the surrounding distractions.
• I can barely remember 16 days ago. Every day seems so long, fun and full of different stuff that the weeks have really slowed down. And I thought it would fly by !! ;-)

We’re so happy it’s embarrassing to always be gushing.

Tons of photos here