Those Three Little Words

From the moment Henley was born, Jay and I have said, "I love you," to her many, many times a day.  Last week, she started saying it back.  She's even said it to grandma and grandpa a few times.  Although I know she doesn't really understand the meaning of what she is saying, it still warms my heart to hear her say it.  Of course, when Jay and I first heard Henley say, "I love you," back to us, we responded with a heartfelt, "Awwwww."  Now, she often says, "I love you," and then immediately says, "Awwwww."

Sweet Sixteen

No.  This post is not about how excited I am that the NC State men's basketball team made it to the Sweet Sixteen, but I am really excited.  It's about my family.  I was looking at a family photo taken at the wedding of my brother Jonathan to my sister-in-law Amanda, and I noticed for the first time that there are now sixteen of us.  The last time we took a family picture there were twelve of us, so we've grown quite a bit since then.  It was so nice to spend time with my family during the wedding celebrations especially since it had been over a year since I had seen my older brother's family.  The older I get the more I appreciate and love my family members.

Here's the picture:

Taken by Pat Spry on March 11, 2012

Steaming Cup of Coffee

One morning earlier this month, I was working in the kitchen while Jay and Henley were rolling a ball on the floor in the family room space.  Jay had placed his cup of coffee on the counter in front of me, and the morning sun was shining right on it.  As I looked into the family room to see what Henley and Jay were doing, I noticed steam rising from Jay's coffee cup and thought it was so lovely that I should try to capture it on camera.  After taking the first picture below and telling Jay about it, he took the second picture.

 

We missed Dadda!

Jay attended a conference in Savannah, Georgia on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.  It was the first time he's been gone all night since Henley was born, and we were so glad to pick him up Saturday afternoon. 

When the weather is nice, Henley and I will take walks outside around the time Jay comes home in the afternoons, so she has become accustomed to looking for Dadda's car.  While outside with her Thursday afternoon, she pointed to every vehicle that drove by and shouted, "Dadda!"  Even though she often does this, I'm usually able to tell her that the vehicle is not Dadda's but that his car will be coming soon.  On Thursday, I kept telling her that Dadda had to work all night and wouldn't be home.  When we walked back to the front side of the house, she saw Jay's car (we had driven him to work Thursday) and, of course, shouted once again, "Dadda!"

Although I managed to get everything done while Jay was gone, I definitely missed him.  Things seem to run much more smoothly when he's around to provide assistance.

My parents spent Friday night and Saturday with us, which was really nice.  Henley loves her Mama, but she understandably grows tired of just being with me.  She was so excited to spend some time with Grandpa and Grandma, and I enjoyed watching her play with them.  This was their first overnight visit with us since Henley was very little.  Just having them here to watch Henley while I went to the restroom, took a shower, etc., made everything a bit more relaxed for me.

We drove to Queens to pick up Jay Saturday afternoon, and I kept telling Henley that we were going to get Dadda.  She was so excited when we pulled into the parking lot at Queens and when she saw Jay walk up to the car.  I was excited, too. 

Henley's Playlist

So far, Henley doesn't like to watch cartoons on TV; however, about three weeks ago, she started wanting to watch videos on the computer.  I can't recall what we were doing at the time that we came across our first Sesame Street music video, but I do recall that she LOVED watching it and wanted to view it again and again.  Jay and I grew tired of watching just one video, so we started selecting other suggested videos for her to watch.  She seems to know right away whether or not she's going to like a video and very clearly lets us know when she doesn't like one.  At this point, we have eleven Sesame Street videos that she really likes and all but two of them are music videos.  Today, I finally took the time to create a personal YouTube channel so that I could start a Playlist for Henley's videos.  Now, we'll be able to just select the Playlist and won't have to click on links to each video.

When Henley wants to see her videos, she points to the computer and says, "Vibeo!"  Of course, she doesn't get to watch them every time she makes this request; however, she gets really excited when we say okay, which is probably 3 times a day.

As a result of watching the Sesame Street videos, Henley now loves Elmo, which sounds something like "Belmo" when she says it.  We went to Target the day before Valentine's, and I was trying to find a small toy to purchase for her.  As soon as she saw a tiny stuffed Elmo, she became very excited.  Thus, the stuffed Elmo and an Elmo book were her Valentine's gifts from Jay and me.

Last Night's Dream

I haven't dreamed about teaching in quite a while, but I did last night.  The dream seemed very real, too.  One of my classes had a test scheduled for the day about which I dreamed.  Although I had prepared the test and placed a copy of it in my bag, I didn't realize that I had overlooked making copies of the test until I checked my bag just before class began.  Knowing that the clock was ticking for my students to take the test, I rushed out of the room to the nearest room with a copier (and it seems like someone from NCSU was there to help me).  Unfortunately, the copies were printing way too darkly for students to be able to read the problems, so I quickly left that room and headed for another one with a bigger and better copier (and I think that someone from Queens was there to help me).  This time, the copies came out of the printer all messed up.  I knew that minutes were passing and students were barely going to have time to complete the test.  I also knew that most would be unhappy if I had to postpone taking the test for a class period since they already had studied.  As I tried to figure out what I should do, I woke up.

It's true that the dream is not particularly interesting.  Nothing completely crazy happened.  It's just surprising to me that the topic of last night's dream was making copies of a test for students to take.  What brought that on?

Such Variety

While eating my Pacific Rose apple earlier today, I was thinking about how many apple options are available at the grocery store nowadays.  When I was a child, we primarily shopped at Winn Dixie, and I seem to recall a very limited selection of apples: Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, and Granny Smith.  There might have been a few more, but I don't remember them.  I never was a fan of the Red Delicious apples because they always seemed a bit chalky in texture and tasted bland.  My favorites today include the Jazz, Pink Lady or Cripps Pink, and Honeycrisp.  I recently tried the Opal apple for the first time (simply because I thought the vibrant yellow color was interesting), and the apple was okay but definitely not a new favorite and certainly not worth the high price per pound. 

With such variety now available at the local grocery store, it's easy to now enjoy an apple a day!

New Blog Title: Think and Wonder

I decided to change the title of my blog homepage.  The new title is a sentence in Dr. Seuss's Oh, the Thinks You Can Think, and it seems to more accurately reflect the type of blogs I post than the old title did (even though the old title perhaps is a bit catchier).  I like having a place to jot down some of the things about which I spend time thinking and wondering.

Finding Value in Cleaning House

A few weeks ago, I saw for the first time the following quote, "A clean house is a sign of a wasted life."  A picture of a woman scrubbing her tub had the statement written above her.  To my surprise, there are t-shirts, bags, buttons, aprons, etc. available for purchase that have this statement prominently featured on them.  Thus, I must conclude that many people agree with the statement, and I'm guessing that some of those people look to the statement with satisfaction when their homes are not clean.

I disagree with the statement for many reasons.  Many individuals earn their livings by cleaning homes, and their work is valuable.  I happily clean my own home and do not believe that I'm wasting my life by doing so.  On the contrary, I find the act of cleaning to be very beneficial.  While cleaning, I have time to think about problems and solutions to those problems.  I have the opportunity to get some exercise when mopping floors, for example.  I also have the great satisfaction of starting and completing a task, and I can really see the results of my labor when I'm finished.  After cleaning, I get to enjoy a clutter-free house for a period of time, which always improves my mood.  In addition, the more I clean, the easier it is to keep a clean house.

I'm sure I'll never have a spotless house, but I hope I'll always find value in cleaning my home.  Instead of thinking of a clean house as a sign of a wasted life, perhaps we should simply think of it as a clean house.

Reading Children's Books

While reading books to Henley each day, I find myself evaluating how well the books are written.  Nearly all of the Dr. Seuss books that we have are of high quality (even though I think that The Foot Book: Dr. Seuss's Wacky Book of Opposites could be a bit wackier and does not always stick to the "opposites" theme).  I also think that the author of the Gerald and Piggie books does a great job.  There are some books, however, that would have benefited from additional editing.  For example, Pooh's Party is one of the books in Disney's Classic Pooh category.  Overall, I like the book, but the last page always bothers me.  Here's what is written, "At last it is undone.  Inside is a Special Pencil Case with pencils inside.  'Thank you,' says Pooh happily.  What a Lucky Bear!"  Why did the author use "inside" twice in the same sentence?  The author could have said something like, "At last it is undone.  Pooh's gift is a Special Case with pencils inside."  We also have a book about Christmas that uses the word "okay" twice on the same page, which seems unnecessary.  Given that children's books are not very long and often are read more than once a day by caregivers to children, it seems like the authors would carefully select each word.  Of course, I'm sure that children do not evaluate the quality of books in the same way that adults do, and the books are written for the children not the adults.

Is It Better Not to Know?

It's inevitable in life that we are not going to be liked by everyone.  It's just not possible, and that's okay.  There are, however, individuals in all of our lives with whom we would like to find favor.  But, what if we don't?  What if these individuals don't like us for reasons that are beyond our control?  If circumstances require that we have some type of relationship with these individuals and if we aren't going to be able to change their opinion of us anyway, is it really useful to know that they don't like us?  Or, is it preferable to be kept in the dark about it and to go through life thinking that they like us?  The older I get the more I think that I would prefer not to know.  After all, if we aren't going to be able to change their opinions of us, knowing that they don't like us just makes us miserable when we are around them and/or think about them.

Having It All

About two weeks ago, I read the following blog: What if Some Women Don’t “Want It All”?, and it has crossed my mind several times since then.  The idea that a woman (or man) must have a successful career, spouse, and child(ren) in order to "have it all" is the author's focus.  I found this blog interesting for many reasons, but I also found many of the comments to the post useful.  It's been helpful for me to recognize the following: (1) there is no single definition of "having it all" that applies to all women (or men), (2) it's okay if we don't achieve whatever our idea of "having it all" is, (3) we might be able to "have it all" just not all at the same time, and (4) our definition of "having it all" likely will change over time.

With regard to (1), I know that many people have no desire to marry and/or have children; however, these individuals might very well be able to achieve their life goals and, in doing so, satisfy their definitions of "having it all."  What I'm trying to say is that "having it all" need not be limited to those with a certain marital status and/or parental status.

I could spend a lot of time writing about this topic, but I'm out of time for today. 

More Than Last Year

I noticed that I only posted six blogs last year.  Thanks to my goal of writing more quickly, I already have posted six this year, and we're not even halfway through the month of January.

New Perspective

Some people are able to make choices and never look back or question whether the choices made were the best choices.  Unfortunately, I am not one of those people.  Although I carefully consider options when making decisions regarding both significant and insignificant matters with the hope of making the "right" choice, I still catch myself thinking about the other options after the choice has been made.  (Of course, I should emphasize that this is not the case for every decision I make.)  I have noticed, however, that I do not spend as much time questioning significant choices from the past now that I am Henley's mother.  It occurred to me sometime after giving birth to Henley that every (significant) choice I made prior to becoming pregnant made it possible for Henley to be my daughter.  Had I selected other options when making important decisions, it's highly likely that I would have either become pregnant at some other moment in my life or I would not have become pregnant at all.  If I had become pregnant at some other moment, I would have a child but that child would almost certainly not be Henley.  I find that really amazing, but it's true.  Now that Henley is a part of my life, I cannot imagine it without her.  As a result, I'm much more comfortable looking back on decisions made years ago without needing to ask "What if?".

Free to Roam

Henley started taking steps independently just a few days before she turned 11 months old, and a week or so later she was officially a toddler.  It's fun to watch her roam about the house throughout the day.  I often think that adults would look quite crazy if we seemingly aimlessly walked from room to room all day long.  As Henley roams throughout the house, she often stops to take inventory of the items in the lower cabinets in the kitchen and then carries some of those items with her to other locations.  Jay and I considered child safety locks for the lower cabinets, but we ultimately decided to move any dangerous items to other locations and continue to give Henley the opportunity to play with the remaining items.  Thus, a couple of times a day I find myself returning food items such as jello boxes or popcorn boxes to their designated places in the kitchen.  Henley's also becoming a bit more independent, and she often roams to another room when I have my back turned for just a moment.  As a result, I find myself saying Henley's name throughout the day and then going to search for her at her favorite spots.

A Bit Too Orthopedic

My younger brother is getting married in March, and I recently ordered a pair of black Clarks Unstructured shoes that are fairly dressy with a small heel in hopes that they would be suitable to wear with a gray dress that I'm planning to wear to the rehearsal dinner.  I was excited to see that the shoes were delivered to me just a few days after ordering them.  That evening, I tried them on and immediately noticed how comfortable they were and initially thought that I had made a good purchase; however, the more I looked at the shoes on my feet the more I felt that they didn't look quite right.  What was wrong with the shoes?  They certainly were comfortable enough and were a take on the Mary Jane style that I usually like.  As I looked down at the shoes on my feet, I couldn't help but think that they looked a bit orthopedic on my feet even though they didn't look orthopedic off my feet.  After Jay looked at the shoes on my feet for a minute or two, he agreed.  Since the orthopedic look is not what I'm going for, I decided to return the shoes.  Last night, I ordered a pair of Anne Klein shoes that are completely different in style from the Clarks Unstructured pair.  I hope they look good on my feet, feel good on my feet, and look right with the dress.  Otherwise, I'll have to start searching yet again.

Letting My Hair Grow

Several weeks ago, I was flipping through an Eddie Bauer catalog and noticed a long hair style that I liked.  It's been quite a while since I've worn my hair long, and I decided that now is a good time to grow it out.  For the past two weeks, my hair has looked awful.  My short hair style had lots of layering, and the lower layers have not been cooperating as they have been getting longer.  Yesterday, I finally had a decent hair day, so I'm hoping that the worst is behind me.  I think it will take at least a year for my hair to reach the desired length.  We'll see if I make it that long before missing short hair.

New Year's Eve Dinner

A while back, Jay received a gift card to The Cheesecake Factory.  We decided to use it for an early dinner on New Year's Eve.  After Henley's nap, we drove to Charlotte and arrived at The Cheesecake Factory around 3:15, I think.  We were seated about 15 minutes later at a table that had tables directly beside us on each side (the type of table where one side has a very long booth that runs the length of several tables and the other side has two chairs).  Although I would have preferred a more private table, I was happy to get seated fairly quickly.  As we were taking our seats, a couple was arriving to be seated directly beside of us.  When the woman saw that we had a child with us, she made it very evident that she was unhappy about being seated next to us.  I figured that the couple was on a date and that the woman was worried that Henley would interrupt their privacy; however, I knew that wouldn't happen because Henley is always very good at restaurants (partly because she loves to watch people and partly because we try to take her at appropriate times of day for her schedule).  Well, it turned out that the couple was rather loud while looking through their menus and discussing every type of cheesecake, the man spilled his drink all over the table and himself, and the woman talked to us several times during the meal.  She commented on Henley's good behavior and let us know that her two year old son would never behave well at a restaurant.  I found it interesting that the woman had assumed Henley would disrupt her meal simply because Henley is a child.  Meanwhile, she and her husband ended up doing what she thought Henley would do. :)

The 15-Minute Blog

I've been thinking that I really would like to start blogging again.  It's been nearly six months since my last post, and that's way too long.  I often thought of a topic about which I would like to blog, but I never seemed to find enough time to do so.  Now that Henley is taking just one long nap a day instead of two shorter ones, I'm thinking that I should be able to find 15 free minutes to blog during most of her naps.  I think my biggest challenge will be convincing myself that I do not need to spend a lot of time editing what I'm writing.  I'm even having difficulty typing this post quickly because I continually want to change a sentence or word that I just typed.  Limiting my time, therefore, should be a good exercise for me.  I'll have to say what's on my mind and then move on.  Speaking of...

Oh, the wonderful sounds...

I can't recall what used to run through my mind during a day.  Nowadays, I catch myself repeating Dr. Seuss's clever rhymes along with familiar nursery songs.  In fact, I was able to extend my jogging time yesterday by silently reciting Dr. Seuss's ABC: An Amazing Alphabet Book!, which I now know by heart.

Where's the Dad?

I only have a few minutes to write about a topic that bothers me: the notion that dads do not participate in caring for young children.  I know many dads who take very active roles in their children's lives (and not just during playtime).  Jay is a wonderful father who enjoys spending time with Henley.  He and I recently purchased Playtex's "The First Lil' Gripper Twist 'n Click Straw Cup" for Henley after she began to show interest in sipping water from a straw.  She loves the cup, and I do, too; however, I do not like what was written on the packaging material for the cup.  Here's a link to a picture of one of the Playtex cups in its package: http://www.playtexstore.com/cgi-bin/item/PLA05908.  Notice that the package says, "Mom Squeeze here!"  The features are listed on the back of the package and state that the cup was designed for child and mom (along with the reasons for each).  There is no mention of dad anywhere on the package.  Is it so unreasonable to think that a dad might help his child learn to drink from a straw?  Instead of writing "Mom" multiple times on the package, couldn't Playtex have written "Parent" instead?

A Thousand Words

If it’s true that the worth of a picture is a thousand words, then pictures from the first five months of my life contribute no more than five thousand words to my life’s story.  That’s right… I have fewer than five pictures capturing the early days of my existence.  As the third of four children in my family born about 26 months after my older brother, it seems that there was little extra time to have my picture taken.  Of course, I was born in 1977 when digital cameras for household use were merely a dream.  Still, my siblings were captured on camera much more often than I was.  Interestingly, Jay has very few pictures from childhood, too.  Our dearth of photos as babies makes it quite difficult to know whether Henley favors either one of us very much.

Henley will be five months old on Sunday.  With technology so readily accessible to capture images for future recall, it should come as no surprise that Jay and I have taken several hundred pictures of Henley since she was born.  In addition, we have captured many moments during the past five months on video.  I am confident when I say that we already have more pictures of Henley than I have from my ENTIRE childhood.  Isn’t that really amazing?  How many photographs of Henley will we have taken by the time she goes off to college?  Will she ever be interested in looking at ALL of them?  Further, how many words will each picture be worth to her?

Below are two recent photos of my sweet Henley that are worth at least one thousand words each to me.

The Name Game

For as long as I can recall, I have known why my parents chose the name Rebecca Maria for me as well as why they chose the names given to my sister and brothers.  My sister's name Danita Jane is a combination of the feminine form of my father's name (Daniel) and my mother's name (Jane).  My older brother has my father's name, so he's a "Jr."  My younger brother's name Jonathan David combines the names of two best friends in the Bible.  I was given my maternal grandmother's first name (Rebecca) and a slight modification of my paternal grandmother's middle name (Marie).  Although Rebecca is a very common name, I think I have always liked it.

I'm sure Jay's parents had a reason for giving him the name Jeremiah Brandon, but he doesn't know what the reason is.  I think I asked his dad about it once, but I don't recall what he said.  I do know that he goes by Jay because his sister started calling him Jay when they were children.

How did Jay and I settle on the name Henley Elizabeth for our daughter?  It wasn't easy.  I know that some people decide on names for their children many years before they have any.  Some think it is very important to use family names.  Others choose trendy names.  Although I like my mother's first name for many reasons and believe it is a good choice for a middle name, the combination of our mothers' names didn't work well.  Since we didn't feel right about choosing just one mother's name, we decided that it would be best to avoid family names.  We also decided that we wanted to select a first name that didn't bring to mind other people that we know, which is quite a task given that we have taught hundreds of students.  We looked through so many lists of names before Jay mentioned to me the name Henley.  I immediately liked it, and we couldn't think of anyone we know personally who has that name.  Its origin is English, and BabyNames.com states that the meaning is "High Field."  We searched the Web to find out more about the name Henley (and its many uses).

Since Henley is considered appropriate for females and males, we decided that a feminine middle name would be best.  Settling on a middle name proved to be the most challenging part.  For a month or two, we thought we had decided on our daughter's full name; however, we never felt completely comfortable with the first middle name we had chosen, and we continued to mention other possible middle names.  My favorite female character of all time is Elizabeth Bennet.  Further, Elizabeth is considered to be a powerful female name.  Early on, we had ruled out Elizabeth as a possible first name, and I thought Jay did not want to use it at all.  One day, he mentioned it as a possible middle name, and it did not take long for us to agree that this middle name would be much better than our first choice.

So, there you have it.  After many hours of careful thought and consideration, we settled on Henley Elizabeth Wills.  Jay and I like it, and we hope our daughter will, too.

Henley's Mom

My sister sent me an email this past Tuesday to wish me a happy birthday.  She included the following birthday song, "Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to Henley’s Mommy. Happy birthday to you!!!!"  With the exception of our visits to see Henley's pediatrician, I think the song was the first time I have been identified specifically as Henley's Mommy.  Prior to December 15, 2010, those acquainted with me would likely have thought of me in terms of some combination of the following: spouse/wife of Jay Wills; daughter of Danny and Jane Smith; sister of Danita, Daniel, and Jonathan; friend; student; professor; and mathematician.  I couldn't be happier to know that my identity now includes that of being a mom -- specifically, Henley's mom. 

Henley is over four months old now, and she brings so much joy to my daily life.  I love being her mom!

12 Weeks Later

It’s been quite a while since my last post --- over 12 weeks!  I had hoped to write this post much sooner, but my days have been quite busy since the arrival of my daughter, Henley Elizabeth Wills.  The story of Henley’s arrival picks up right where my last post ended.  I finished writing my last post on December 13, 2010 at 7:38 p.m. during the time that I was holding a couple of evening office hours at Queens while Jay gave a final exam.  We arrived home quite late that night.  Just before we went to bed, Jay helped me with a few of my physical therapy exercises for my hips.  He was so tired that night, but I seemed to have more energy than normal.  In fact, we joked about how much energy I had and how we wondered if that meant that I would be going into labor soon.  I climbed into bed right around 11:00 p.m., and just a few minutes later my water broke.  Since my doctors had been monitoring my amniotic fluid level closely and since I also needed an antibiotic (for Group B strep) before delivering my baby, Jay and I knew that we would have to make our way to the hospital even though my contractions had not started.  We got dressed, called our OB hotline, grabbed our bags (this time we were ready), and headed to the hospital.  We arrived about 10 minutes later (we didn’t speed… the hospital is that close to our house).  After checking in, we spent the next hour awaiting confirmation that my water had in fact broken.  Then, I officially was admitted.

My hospital room was very nice except for the fact that the bathroom was about 50 degrees.  We had problems with the temperature during our entire stay.  In fact, the hospitality representative at the hospital visited our room and gave us a gift card to Target because of all the trouble we had with the temperature.

I could post pages of details about everything that happened between the time I was admitted and when I eventually gave birth at 12:25 a.m. on December 15; however, I’m going to try to only include the major points of the delivery. 

•  Except for my first nurse, all of the nurses I had during my stay were terrific.  Nurses really do make a huge difference when you’re preparing for and recovering from a rough delivery.
• To start my contractions, I was given pitocin.  After 24 hours of labor, it was determined that a C-section was necessary since I was not dilating past 6 cm and since Henley periodically showed signs of being under stress.
• My least favorite doctor of all that I saw at my OBGYN performed the C-section.  Although she’s very nice, she has never been gentle with me, and she wasn’t during the hours that preceded the C-section.
• I opted for an epidural early in labor.  I always thought that if a C-section were required, the epidural would at least prevent the need for general anesthesia.  I was wrong.  While in the operating room, the anesthesiologists started preparing me for the operation.  As they administered drugs, the doctor would poke my belly to see if I could feel anything.  I always could; however, the anesthesiologists were confident that what I was feeling was normal and that I was ready for the operation.  They called Jay in to be by my side, and the operation began. I remember holding his hands. The pain was unbearable, and I remember asking if the doctor was pulling my baby out already.  I heard someone say something about feeling better in just a minute, and then I saw heads popping in and out in a weird way with a very bright white light.  I honestly felt like I was dying.  The next thing I remember is waking up in recovery in excruciating pain.  I have never moaned the way I did while there.  I kept asking what they were doing to manage my pain because it was awful.  I also wanted to know where Jay was and if my baby was okay.  Someone came in during my recovery to ask if it would be okay to give my daughter some formula (since I was planning to breastfeed), and then the person asked what type of formula I wanted to give her.  I had no idea, so I told the person to ask Jay.  When I finally returned to the room, I requested that I be able to spend a few minutes with just Jay and my daughter before our parents returned to the room; however, I can recall seeing them in the hall as I was wheeled into my room.  There was so much concern on all of their faces.  Jay says that the first thing I did after entering the room was request that “that man” be turned off of my TV.  For some reason, Glenn Beck was on (our parents like Fox), and I do not like him.  After spending a few minutes with Jay and Henley, our parents returned to the room to see me before heading home.  They had been at the hospital for many hours and needed rest.  Although I was still hooked up to lots of things, I finally held my sweet girl for a few minutes.
• Henley was 8 pounds, 1 ounce and 21.5 inches long at birth.

I spent the next few days recovering in the hospital, and Henley and I were finally able to go home on Saturday.  Jay was as wonderful as he always is.  I think he changed nearly every diaper during our stay.  Other family members were very helpful, too.  Although I was glad to go home, I knew things were going to be crazy for a while.  I still had to grade final exams and report final grades, and the registrar’s office wanted the grades ASAP even though everyone knew about my delivery and recovery.  In addition, I had so much swelling that it made sitting in a chair for any length of time very uncomfortable.  I was so swollen that I could not wear any of my shoes and pregnancy pants.  My mom had to buy me some pajamas so that I would have something to wear.  I wore the pajamas and bedroom slippers to Henley’s first checkup and to my first visit with the lactation consultant.  After several days, the fluid finally started leaving my body, and I lost 16 pounds in a 3-day period.  My legs felt so much better!

Life was quite challenging for the first 5 weeks, but Jay, Henley, and I survived.  Henley is doing quite well now, and she is so much fun to be around.  Hopefully, I soon will have a chance to write more about the past 12 weeks, but this update will have to do for now.  I’m just happy to finally have something written.  I have included some pictures below.

Early on -- not so bad!

No more smiling or popsicles!

Jay prepares for the OR.

Jay meets our sweet girl!

I finally meet precious Henley.

My favorite picture of me with my daughter

My favorite nurse

Going home!

Off to see the doctor!