Tonight we discovered something very important. Ada loves Yanni. In fact, she loves him so much that she immediately goes into a trance and then falls into a deep sleep after being introduced to his sweet, soulful melodies.
This is going to come in handy.
It feels like we dropped off the face of the earth! Maybe we have. Time certainly doesn’t seem to exist any longer. (Thanks, Ada!)
I’m still trying to get back into the swing of this blogging thing. For now, please enjoy some photos of Ada’s first… everything. It’s easy to have firsts when you’ve never done anything before 🙂
Ada’s first…
… nap outside the womb
… time being held by Uncle Michael
… visit with Grandgodmother Ann
… trip to Target
… coffee run at the Local Blend
… flower shopping experience at the greenhouse
There are many more firsts to come, naturally. And a million other stories for us to share with you! We’ll get there one day, but right now I hear a baby crying for food…
The announcement is a bit delayed (We’ve been preoccupied with something…) but on Friday, April 17th Steve and I welcomed little Ada Lorraine Ruprecht into the big, bright world! She was born at 8:36 in the morning, weighed a solid 9 pounds 2 ounces, and was a whopping 22 inches long. Everything went extremely smoothly and we were lucky enough to make it out of the hospital and home for rest/recovery within 36 hours of checking in.
There will be more to come in the near future regarding our birth and hospital experience, but for now, here are a couple of pictures of the little lady:
Please enjoy this fine compilation of things which have vanished in the past few weeks and things for which I have a new-found appreciation. There are many.
FOUND:
LOST:
LOST AND FOUND:
There you go. I’m sure there are millions of other qualifying list items, but there’s just no time for that right now!
*Note: I don’t really sleep anymore. At least not more than a couple of hours at a time. Practice for waking up all the time to feed Winky!
We haven’t just forgotten to announce the arrival of our little bundle of joy to all of you. Winky is still making us wait patiently. Today marks 8 days past our “due” date. Whew!
Why do they give you a due date or guess date anyway? It just makes all the time immediately following that big star on the calendar go by at half speed. The wait would be so much easier if they never told you a date and gave a range instead.
On the bright side, baby is happy and healthy – simply refusing to come out into the real world yet. We had a couple of appointments on Friday to test things like amniotic fluid levels, Winky’s heat rate, breathing function, and movements. All is well!
I spent most of the weekend alternating between walking for miles around St. Paul, bouncing on an exercise ball, and taking naps. And Steve worked. And worked. And then worked a little more.
That’s all we’ve got for you! Both Steve and I are spending another Monday at work. Maybe we should tally the number of times we get the “Oh, you’re still here.” comments from our colleagues…
I don’t know why I’m posting this instead of Steve, but here it goes. Please enjoy this lovely poem written for Winky the other night:
It’s April 5th – Easter and the day Winky is “supposed” to join the outside world. Sorry to disappoint, folks, but it seems that we’re going to be waiting a while longer for the latter to happen.
In the meantime, please enjoy another series of photos in which Steve and I run around and have couples fun while we can (with ease!):
On our way to the SPCO concert on Sunday (We really are getting out a lot!) we were stopped by a man named Isaac on the street. Isaac – he pointed out – as in Abraham and Isaac from the Bible. He assured us that he didn’t need much of our time, but was curious about when we are having our baby. We explained that it could come at any time now and Isaac eagerly told us that God had spoken to him and told him that we should have a natural birth without any drugs. A natural birth has been our plan all along, which we told Isaac. He excitedly delivered high fives to both of us, and then we all continued on our way. The things that happen on the streets of St. Paul. The end.
It’s been a busy one! We’re sitting happily in that Jackie-is-full-term-and-just-waiting-patiently window now and I’m trying desperately to fit in as many experiences pre-baby as possible.
We had our final prenatal meeting with our doula, Kathy, on Monday evening. It was mighty strange to bid her farewell at the end of the night saying, “See you… when the baby comes?” I’m confident that we have things in order as much as they will be on that front, though. We’re excited to be able to call her at some point soon to let he know her help is needed!
As some self-assigned homework, Steve practiced his swaddling skills on Flicker (who, clearly, enjoyed every moment of it.)
Tuesday evening, the Nelson siblings ventured out on the town to enjoy The Decemberists at the Northrop. I’ve seen them before on a couple of occasions and they never fail to impress with their live performances. Mick and T will probably agree with me that it was an OK time. Even with the “gentlemen” in front of us who talked and wiggled through the first half of the show until I confronted them. Mom mode!
On Thursday, Steve and I enjoyed a lovely date night. I managed to snag an evening off (amid multiple 10-12 hour workdays) and we took full advantage of it! Dinner at Buca followed by The Illusionists at the Ordway. Food was delicious and the show was a riot. At the end of the night we agreed that it was worth sucking it up and staying out past our bedtime.
Outside of this fun, we’re both working. And then working some more. At this rate, maternity leave (and caring for a newborn) is actually going to feel like the best vacation ever! Wish us luck in these final days… Or weeks… Whatever the universe has in store for us.
This past weekend, both Steve and I had the pleasure of enjoying some down time with our parents. March (thus far) has been a fairly hectic month for both of us, so it was great to just get away for a couple of days.
I can’t speak to how Steve spent his time, but I know that mine ended up being the perfect combination of productivity and relaxation back in Garfield. And possibly some strep throat, but let’s not talk about that right now.
Clearly, the best way to start our Saturday was by checking out the brand new natural baby store in Alex – Bamboo Babies. MH and I may have spent too much time there, making us late for our lunch date with the men of the family. Oops. It’s such a great little store, though, and owned by who we think is the perfect person for the job: a mom and local doula who has tons of first-hand experience with the product she carries. Go Kris! They even sell used cloth diapers if you’re into that sort of thing.
After filling our bellies with Mexican food (and our souls with laughter courtesy of Mick), MH and I headed over to Ella’s to get matching pedicures.
The remainder of our day was spent prepping freezer meals so the Ruprechts will have delicious food to eat even after Winky arrives and we’re both too exhausted to put any effort into cooking. We put together quite the variety of cuisine, so it will be interesting to pinpoint some favorites.
Oh! Oh! And I got to go on a movie date with my parents! Even sat between them and held the bucket of popcorn. Lots of responsibility in that position.
Sunday was utter laziness. Lots of (decaf) coffee was consumed. A few episodes of Parenthood were watched. Some last-minute meals were prepared. And then The Janager did my laundry. I’m spoiled.
On the way back to St. Paul, I swung by Rockville to pick Steve/Tivo up and enjoy a lovely grilled dinner with a majority of the Ruprecht family. Thanks, Ruprechts! I mean, it was no Burger King Original Chicken Sandwich (which is what we’d planned on eating on our way through Monticello), but who am I to turn down home cooking?!
As usual, Monday came too soon, but boy was it a weekend well-spent!
Ruprecht Family Matters 