Kathryn Erin Williams

The Story So Far:

First taste of rice cereal...

25 Dec 2006

  • First taste of rice cereal...and we really like it! [Web / Reprint]

Kathryn at play...

21 Dec 2006

The song of the day is...

19 Dec 2006

  • Stevie Wonder was right...isn't she beautiful? [Web / Reprint]

Kathryn's first time in the exersaucer...

10 Dec 2006

Just hanging out...

09 Dec 2006

Finger food...

16 Nov 2006

  • Kathryn enjoying some fingers... [Web / Reprint]

Being cute is such hard work...

26 Oct 2006

  • Who will win the staring contest? Place yer bets... [Web / Reprint]
  • Kathryn looks for divine inspiration...or the toy...it's hard to tell! [Web / Reprint]
  • It's really hard work, people! [Web / Reprint]

First time rolling tummy-to-back...

14 Oct 2006

Elmo time!

13 Oct 2006

Kathryn meets Dr Smith...

09 Oct 2006

Hello there!

05 Oct 2006

Bath time!

28 Sep 2006

Oh, what a day I've had...

24 Sep 2006

Oooh, boppy pillow!

21 Sep 2006

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ....

19 Sep 2006

  • Getting a nice snooze on the boppy pillow... [Web / Reprint]
  • Don't wake her up, Nicholas! [Web / Reprint]

Our little princess graces the beach with her presence! Bow, commoners!

10 Sep 2006

The cutest sailor you'll ever see...

02 Sep 2006

Well, she IS a bit of a princess...

31 Aug 2006

Just hanging out with Grammy...

27 Aug 2006

  • Kathryn sleeping peacefully... [Web / Reprint]
  • Nicholas reads Grammy and Kathryn a story... [Web / Reprint]

There is a reason one of these pictures is infamous...

25 Aug 2006

Just a bit of relaxing...

24 Aug 2006

You know, one of your brothers did this, too!

23 Aug 2006

Sometimes the simplest captions are the best...

20 Aug 2006

  • You know, the label says it all! [Web / Reprint]

Our little snuggler...

19 Aug 2006

Isn't she precious?

18 Aug 2006

It's not that she's lazy...

16 Aug 2006

Kathryn's first sponge bath...

15 Aug 2006

Dr Hunt meets her newest patient!

14 Aug 2006

  • Dr Hunt holding her newest patient! [Web / Reprint]
  • Brother Nicholas is such a ham! [Web / Reprint]
  • She's not old enough to read, yet! [Web / Reprint]
  • Kathryn doesn't have silly brothers, does she? [Web / Reprint]
  • Self-expression doesn't seem to be a problem! [Web / Reprint]

Kathryn and Mommy are coming home!

13 Aug 2006

We're expecting the call at any time now to come collect Kathryn and Mommy from WakeMed as soon as the discharge procedures are complete. Kathryn's been bothered by reflux for the last day but that shouldn't stop her from coming home today. Wow...Mommy and Kathryn coming home at the same time without an intervening ICU visit. We'd get used to this if it weren't for the fact that Kathryn's certainly will be the last addition to our little family until grandchildren start coming along.

Her entry in the WakeMed online nursery is now available at the following link which features her first official portrait.

You know the company that does the pictures is getting some serious jack with their exclusive franchise but you never really get that first portrait again so we'll definitely be springing for the pictures again. Of course, the non-professional photos are really coming out nicely. Mommy's other recently arrived baby with a recent birthday is a Nikon D-50 digital SLR and it is doing some really nice photos. I am seriously jealous because even though it is lower resolution than the Sony, the lack of shutter lag and available of interchangeable lenses certainly makes up for it. Drooooooooooolllll...

Uh, where was I? Oh, dreaming in the land of Nikkor...

Anywho, it's been interesting seeing what a normal delivery has been like. There were some changes...like actually having to find a pump (ICU patients get loaners for free). Also, they don't do the car seat tests they did on both of the boys (another ICU requirement). We've already done the jiggery-pokery with the car seats in the Sienna (and again offered up praises for having gotten the eight-passenger version with an easy-to-reach center seat in the second row that is LATCH-capable). A word on LATCH...best thing to happen to car seats in, like, forever! Getting the seat in and out is a breeze and the tethering is much stronger than the old lap-belts that you feed through the bottom of the seat. I've gotten to hate the couple of times I've had to put a seat into the back of the F-150's cab!

[We now pause for this intermission...more to come after we go retrieve Mommy and Kathryn!]

Kathryn and Mommy are now home after an interesting ride home. Kathryn rode in the middle of the second row (facing the rear) and Alexander was seated to her right. At one point, he reached over as if he was very protective of his new sister. That lasted about as long as it took for him to notice that she had a blanket and he didn't. Mommy caught the gleam in his eye and suggested that he not even thinking about the five-finger discount method of getting her blanket. He wisely complied!

Getting home, it's now a matter of time to get back into a routine that has been massively disrupted. We'll get there when we can...and sleep where and when we're able.

But for now, it's just time to enjoy the ride.

Kathryn's first day!

12 Aug 2006

Compared to the excitement of yesterday, today was for trying to recover a bit (and admire the cuteness that is Kathryn). The bruising has pretty much resolved and she's now about as pink as her bedroom (a very girl-friendly habitat!).

She's not sleeping as much as we would like and the suspicion is that we're probably doing the Prilosec hat trick for chronic reflux. The only times she seems to settle down (and that for relatively short periods) is when she's laying on your stomach or is in the bouncy seat (which she did in the nursery to give Mommy a little break).

Mind you, we don't mind the cuddling in the slightest (neither does Kathryn, for that matter!) but she does need to sleep on her back a lot more than she's currently doing.

She's starting to get the hang of feeding (though we've had to supplement a little) and the first week or so is always the most trying and frustrating.

She also had her hearing test and passed with ease. It's an interesting test where they send a bunch of tones at her and watch a particular area of the brain known as the auditory brain stem. If they see activity in time with the tones, they know she heard the tone. What they can do these days when it comes to the brain is nothing short of amazing. Not that we've had any experience with that at all...

But the most important thing was that our little miss got to meet her two older brothers today. I think it's safe to say that both of them were instantly hooked...it's kind of hard to blame them when we all fell in love with her at first sight and it's only gotten worse ever since. :)

Both of the boys seemed particularly fascinated with her. Dr Nicholas dutifully inspected her to ensure she had all of the required fingers and toes (she passed that test!) and we were just waiting for him to essentially give no doubts as to what his specialty in practise is going to be. After all, he knows what he has and he did have a phase where he'd ask various people if they had a penis. But amazingly after he watched a diaper being changed, nothing was said of the fact that something wasn't quite the same down there. We're sure it's coming soon enough, though... ;)

Alexander wasn't quite sure what to make of her but he patted her on the head nice and gentle. We guess he comes by that honestly considering what's happened to his head over the past 18 months!

The boys enjoyed their visit but it was time for them to head back to the house with Grammy where hopefully they could all get some rest. The boys were initially in the delivery room on Friday but then went home where Grammy's friend Robin kindly agreed to be driven mad...I mean... driven to the brink of exhaustion...uh...be charmed by two energetic boys ( that's the story and I'm sticking to it!).

That left Kathryn with Mommy and Daddy for some quality time. What's felt a little bit weird about this is how much time she's spent in the room. Honestly, we've never known what it's like to have a delivery that seems to be going by the numbers. Nicholas and Alexander were in ICU during their first week by this time so we didn't get much time with them out of necessity. But Kathryn's been in there pretty much as long as we've wanted her with brief forays into the nursery for measurements and baths, etc. Tonight that'll change so that Mommy can hopefully get some rest because she's not had much since the contractions started on Friday.

We soon settled into a routine of change diaper, attempt to feed, cuddle, admire how beautiful she is...then repeat as needed with Mommy catching at least a little rest.

So this is what a normal first day of life is like, eh?

We're certainly glad someone answered our prayers to give us at least one of these. We've certainly earned it... :)

Surprise! It's a girl!

11 Aug 2006

It's not much of a surprise but Kathryn deciding to grace us with her presence today certainly was! The last checkup on Wednesday indicated no appreciable changes in status. Dr Smith didn't exactly say that Dr Bass was smoking some serious weed but he did suggest that Dr Bass has a habit of making up the numbers as he goes along!

So, of course the calls yesterday were condition green, all is well. You'd think we'd know better but hope springs eternal in the optimist and all that.

The contractions started for real at 0300 to 0500 (as opposed to the couple of contractions a couple of days ago and the Braxton-Hicks contractions before them). If you want to know the difference between Braxton-Hicks and the real thing because you're not exactly medically inclined...Braxton-Hicks actually stop!

By 0630, we were calling her doctors who, with their advanced degrees, figured out we were on the up and up and it was time to come to the office for a check. At 0900 at said office, Mommy was at 3cm and everyone was then heading off for the hospital to go have a baby.

We arrived at WakeMed at 0940 and up to the room we went (guess that's one nice thing about stopping at the office first, no sitting round in patient registration having contractions!).

We were definitely committed at 1010 when the internal heartrate monitor went onto Kathryn's head and the membranes were ruptured. One way or another, she's definitely going to be born on the 11th.

At 1220, we were only at 4cm and -1 station so Dr Smith is reaching for the pitocin which is the pogo stick. That should help move things along right quickly because there is no point in doing it the hard way. Well, it's either the pitocin or a F-150 with not the best suspension in the world but I think they'd take a dim view of us leaving for a bit of a ride in the country. And we'd have to go get the truck and we don't exactly want to miss this... :)

It didn't take long for the pitocin to push Mommy over the edge because within an hour we were at 7cm and were at 9cm about ten minutes later.

Kathryn Erin joined us at 1335 local time after a very quick pushing phase (to the tune of about five minutes...that's got to be some sort of record!). She weighed 7 pounds 11½ ounces at birth and had first and five minute APGARs of 9/9. Mommy also had the dubious distinction of getting the first golden shower from Kathryn (Katie... you are supposed to do that to the delivery staff!).

When you look at her pictures, particularly the early ones, you might well wonder if you've suddenly crossed signals with a broadcast of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory...or at least that bit of the movie devoted to Violet Beauregard. You know the one I'm talking about...she chews the gum that is like a three-course meal only to turn into a big blueberry because the formula wasn't quite right. Kathryn was a quite blue from bruising in the face but that was already starting to resolve within a couple of minutes and should be gone within a day. Trust us, it had nothing to do with lack of oxygen because the girl was singing at the top of her lungs!

But other than that, she's absolutely gorgeous (easily the most beautiful baby on the floor and they're having a lot of them today!). Dr Smith did a good job catching and that's two of the children he's delivered (both on the 11th of the month).

Her first bath was at 1530 hours but prior to that she was more than happy to tell them how to run the nursery...at the top of her lungs. Self-expression doesn't seem to be one of her problems! Two hours old and already she thinks she's chief of this here boat. She's probably right...

After her bath (and a bout of the pouty bottom lip that she's already done to perfection), we got the other two numbers we were interested in: length of 19½ inches, head circumference of 13¼ in (34 cm). They put the stuff in her eyes to ward of germs and a jab (Vitamin K?) and she was ready to start settling in. Our little diva certainly rules the nursery but now it was time to make some calls while Mommy slept off the effects of the drugs.

That meant it was time to make some calls and make Cingular awfully happy. Good thing we had all of those rollover minutes... :)

The rest of the evening consisted of cuddling and occasional feeding (she was reluctant at first but toward dinner time she seemed to get the hang of it...hopefully she's easier to feed than her brothers were!).

Good night, Kathryn! We've waited SO long for you... :)

Kathryn's on the move!

04 Aug 2006

It won't be long now, folks! At today's checkup, the numbers were 80% effaced, 1 cm dilated, and little one was at -1 station (on a scale of -2 to 2). There is still some time but we're definitely within two weeks of having our daughter join us!

We're not at all excited...can't you tell?

But we're close enough that we are converting a good portion of Mommy's CD collection to MP3 so she can have two CDs at her disposal...one that's nice and calm and mellow and the other one, well, not so much.

Of course, that also means that we're scrambling to put the finishing touches on a certain girl-friendly habitat...the curtains are up, the mural is being painted (which features three of the Disney princesses...Belle, Cinderella, and Aurora...and this mural rocks!) and everything in sight is kitted out in the Disney Princess theme.

But no, we're not really excited at all.

Now, if only I can get the moat filled in time... :)

Crafting a girl-friendly habitat, part deux...

02 Jul 2006

We weren't really being paranoid but as long as you're looking anyway... :)

21 Jun 2006

Crafting a girl-friendly habitat...

03 Jun 2006

The X chromosome fought a pitched battle with her arch-nemesis the Y chromosome and WON!

20 Mar 2006

It's a GIRL!!!!!

Kathryn Erin Williams is due to join us on 27 August 2006 (my mother's birthday but we know we'll never last that long! :)

Everything ultrasound can see looks good (no nasties like Down's or tri-13/18 or spina bifida could be seen). We'll be thrilled with healthy and happy (especially after Alexander)...but yeah... you can imagine that there is a lot of happiness that Mommy will be able to finally go nuts on pink clothes, girly furniture and a Disney Princesses theme for the baby's bedroom.

No more "targeted ship, sank truck!" for us... :)