Women: The Leaker Sex

In general, I love women, you could even broaden that to include most females of the species with a few notable exceptions, but I won't note them now. But anyway, life with a recently pregnant woman and a baby girl have led me to conclude that they are, simply, the leaker sex. My little girl has already peed on me more than my son ever did, and Mrs. Dave has stuff coming out of places I didn't realize had holes. Not that I'm complaining, mind you, just making an observation.

But, in other news, I can't wait to show y'all the pictures I took last weekend. There used to be a park for kids in a suburb of Baltimore (Ellicott City) called The Enchanted Forest. It closed either before or shortly after I moved to Maryland, so I never really knew what it was like, other than it had big faerie tale characters. Mrs. Dave, before she got so leaky, had very fond memories of visiting that park as a child, indeed even her parents recall visiting it when they were young. But I didn't know much about it because I was well past the target age group by the time I got to Maryland. After the park closed, everything there was pretty much left to rot. A shopping center was built in it's place, which actually incorporated part of what remained of the park. So now we have the Enchanted Forest Shopping Center instead of just The Enchanted Forest. Well, an entreprenurial farm owner had the idea to restore those old attractions and move them to his farm. It is a mighty task, but the work they have done so far is outstanding. So, keep your eyes open for that. It's worth checking out. I'd post them now, but...

It's late on a Sunday night, and I start my new job tomorrow! Yay! Can't wait to get started. As I posted on the HOW forum, I guess it all happens for a reason. I got the time off to be with Mrs. Dave and the baby and I got a job that is going to be exciting, I'll have more influence on the final product and defining the company's brand, plus they've given me everything I've asked for. I mean, at my old job it would have taken, literally, decades of raises (at the pace I was keeping) to get to the salary I have now. Plus, they have gotten a brand spankin' new MacBook Pro 17", a 30" monitor (I'll be in the glowing cubicle...), a Wacom Intuos tablet, wireless keyboard and on and on, plus what amounts to an assistant so I can work on stuff instead of worrying about other crap. What more could I ask for? So, I'd like to hit the sack a little early, or at least on time tonight. I'll have to post photos of the new workplace. It's pretty cool. I'll be working in the "Barrel Building" of an old brewery that has been remodeled into some nice office space. Stay tuned for that.

Those of you wondering about the baby, overall she is doing well. She has some tummy trouble right now that we can't seem to get straightened out. The poor thing is so gassy and uncomfortable sometimes. We haven't pinned down the culprit yet, but hope to soon. Otherwise, she has been delightful, and I couldn't be more proud.

Anyway, that's news from here for now. Hopefully I'll be able to post here a little more often now, even if it's just to share inane ramblings. ;-).

Oh! Last thing, if you're a digital photographer, whether just a cool point and shooter like me, or have a heftier SLR, check out the Gorillapod. I'm hoping to get my hands on one for my camera soon. I love the little "nature" movie they have on the site.

Enjoy!

Dave

Introducing!

My fabulous new daughter, Cora!

Now you know you can't get through this without the story. Fortunately, this was less stressful than when my son was born.

We showed up at the hospital at the predetermined time of 9 am, to get ready for the 11 am surgery. When we got there, though, they told us the doctor had been called away to another hospital and would be late. Dang. So we hung around for a couple of hours until he popped into the room like a magician. He asked if we were ready, and said we'd get started in about 20 minutes. So we headed from the pre-delivery area to post-delivery, where the OR is located. They had us get into our scrubs, put Mrs. Dave on the table, etc. Here's a shot of us just before we went into the OR.



So, we get into the OR. It's the same one my son was born in. There's something neat about the fact they were born in the exact same place.

The operation went very smoothly and at 2:41 pm on Sept. 18th 2006, Cora was born! I'm going to put a few extra breaks in here to say WARNING: The photo below is NOT for the squeamish! It's really not that bad, there's not much blood and you can't see any part of my wife because she's all covered, but it's of the baby in the precious little time the are just "natal". Not prenatal or postnatal, just natal.














Cora was 7lbs, 6 oz. and 20 3/4 inches long. It's weird, with both kids, when the doctor pulls them out, they look like rubber dolls.

Here she is at about 2 minutes old.


A few minutes later (don't worry, the blood is just cord blood, no one was hurt in the making of this photo):


Here is the proud big brother and his mommy with Cora:


And here is big brother giving his new little sister her first Pooh bear:



This one is kinda freaky, but you didn't think I'd let the opportunity to do a long exposure shot go to waste, do you? Cora was a bit jaundiced, and this is one of the ways they treat it, using light therapy. She was on this bed for about 24 hours.



Here are a couple of her on the way home. Kinda makes you wonder if they think about actual babies when they design car seats...




Here are a couple from when we got home.




She's terrific, though. She's had a bit of acid reflux and constipation, but even with that, she's not a screecher. She's quite content and happy to look around when she's not eating or sleeping. ;-). But I can already tell she's got me wrapped around her little finger! How could I not be with that face?

Dave