Holy smokes it’s almost Friday! It’s hard to believe that it all started exactly one week ago about this time – Jess started having contractions (not entirely certain that that’s what they were), went on to teach all day Friday (contractions and all), and then the good stuff on Saturday! The sobering part of the deal is that I had to look at the calendar on the computer to figure out what day today is… I thought for sure it was only Tuesday or Wednesday?!

Today was a very good day here it the Unger household. Will slept like champ last night and was very settled in between feeds, which gave Jess and I the opportunity to get a good night’s sleep (about 5-6 hours – woo hoo!) and get some things done around the house today… including… (insert drum roll here)… give Will his first full sponge bath here at home! And… (insert ill-timed crashing symbols here)… he REALLY didn’t like it. At least not most of it. Once we got his clothes back on it was all good again. Unfortunately, he beared-down and filled his diapers about 2 minutes after we had him all cleaned up and dressed… and if you’ve ever seen a 5 day old’s “jobs” it ain’t no laughing matter. Although he did feel much better after getting that out of his system. Literally.

After an afternoon of nice napping and feeding, some friends stopped by for their first introduction to Will. After an initial couple-minute crankiness, Will settled right into Chuck and Rebecca and cuddled right up. As much as I have enjoyed being holed up with our little family these past few days, it was nice to see good friends and talk (however briefly) about things going on around us.

Okay… I have now spent the last 5 minutes typing and retyping this last paragraph trying to come up with something witty or philosophical or clever and it just isn’t happening… So I will just leave you with this: sometimes it feels really good to fill your diaper right after a sponge bath.

Time is already zippideedooda’n right along as we have pretty much wrapped up Will’s second full day home. And we had our first post-hospital doctor’s appointment today to boot! Woo hoo! We’re cookin with gas now! (sorry, a little sleep deprived ya know)

The doctor’s appointment went great. Will weighed in at his “discharge weight” (how much he weighed when released, which was right around 7lbs 6oz), he isn’t jaundiced or overly baby-rashed up, and is in general good health. And he poops alot. Which is also good. We don’t have to see the doctor again until Will is 1 month old (which I am sure will fly by), so that is also a great sign.

Now that our new little family has been home for 2 full days and we are settling into our new lives as parents (sleep-deprived at that), there are a few things we have quickly realized:

1. No matter how exhausted you are, seeing the little guy always makes us smile.

2. Babies have their own schedule which you have absolutely no control over.

3. Babies do not reveal their own schedule in any straight-forward, quick-reveal way.

4. Babies have the right to change their own schedule (which they may or may not have revealed in whole or in part) at any given moment. Literally.

5. It doesn’t matter how confident you are. You are gonna get scared and there are gonna be doubts. (reference #2, #3, #4)

6. Nothing in the world beats the feeling of your own baby snuggled into you. And this makes everything worth it.

Good night for now.

Will’s first full day home is nearing an end and I can’t believe how fast time has already flown by. It seems like just yesterday we were all at the hospital… errr… wait… we were just at the hospital yesterday. Did I mention how elated we were to get out of that place?

Yesterday afternoon and evening were quite the whirlwind of emotions. Jess and I were talking about it today and the closest example of those intense feelings we shared all afternoon yesterday would be those handful of minutes when we said our vows to each other at our wedding. Except instead of a handful of minutes, we were awash in them for about 4 hours. Now that was one Magic Carpet Ride!

Late afternoon yesterday Will started getting a bit fussy, as though he had gas in between feedings and he was only sleeping in short fits. We thought “Oh boy, here it is. Those no-sleep hours that everyone has been warning us about.” And as new parents, all of the classic worries starting bouncing around: is he getting enough to eat?; is he getting anything to eat?; was Sunday night’s episode of Desperate Housewives a rerun or new? You know, the typical things one worries about when you have a brand new baby you are responsible for. Well, once we determined that Desperate Housewives was indeed new and once Jess’ milk starting coming in around midnight (it previously had been something called colostrum, a high-carb, high-protein which has multiple purposes for Will), everything began to brighten right up. Apparently Will had had enough of the colostrum and was ready for the entree! Ever since his feed at 1am this morning, Will has pretty routinely eaten every 2-3, fusses only when he has gas (and really, who wouldn’t want to cry out when you’ve got a big fart knocking around inside of you) or dirty diapers, and falls asleep pretty quickly. We are not fool enough to believe that he is going to do this all of the time, but right now it is bliss!

So now that we have had a workable amount of sleep and are half-way through watching the latest episode of Desperate Housewives (did I mention it was new?), we are fully appreciating the warmth of a family snuggled in together for their first full day home.

I snapped a few more pics today, but forgot to switch the camera back to color mode. I will work on remembering that tomorrow!

Oh yeah… a huge, heartfelt Thank You to everyone who has sent their congrats and well wishes. You all are just more reasons why we are such a grateful and blessed family.

NAME: William “Will” Steed Unger
BORN: 12:00PM on 02/12/2005
WEIGHT: 7lbs 12 1/2oz
LENGTH: 21 inches

He’s here! He’s finally here! And its the best Valentine’s Day that Jessica and I have ever had! We are both pretty tired and very emotional, but here’s a quick summary of the events that finally brought beautiful little Will into our arms:

Jessica started having contractions last Thursday night (2/10) that continued all day Friday while she was teaching!! That’s one helluva woman, wouldn’t you say? When she got home around 5:30 Friday evening and finally relaxed a bit, we realized the contractions were much closer together that we thought. We timed them for about an hour and sure enough they were lasting about 1 minute long and coming about every 4 minutes! We held out for awhile longer (and 2 phone calls to our doctor) until heading to the hospital around 9:15pm. She was in active labor all night long, but it took quite some time for her to fully dialite (she was only around 3-4cm when we went in). The doctor broke her water at about 8:30am Saturday, but the dialation process was still progessing slowly. At 9:30am a little shot of pitosin got the ball (or baby, in this case) rolling and she began pushing at 10:50am. Exactly one hour and 10 minutes later Will made his grand entrance and immediately our hearts filled up.

The remainder of the hospital stay was trying at times (a whole other story that I will tell at a later date) and we were quite happy to leave this morning and introduce Will to his new home.

As I said earlier, the day has been quite an emotional one for both Jessica and myself. No one really mentioned that tidal wave of warmth that washes over you when you walk into your home for the first time as new family. Many tears were shed and every moment treasured. I told Jess a short time ago that I think our bodies are so full of love that the tears are being pushed out to make more room. And it’s true.

I have posted quite a few pics from the experience, starting with Jess posing in front of the crib prior to leaving for the hospital Friday evening and concluding with Jess holding Will in his nursery. I took a few video clips that I will edit together sometime and post that as well. Also, the pictures are all pretty large as I haven’t had time to resize them yet…. I will try to do that in the near future. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I already have.