I always feel like blogging after I finish reading Trisha’s blog, but that doesn’t mean I do as good of a job of it. I also don’t change Ingrid’s blog design on a weekly basis either. Sorry!
In the three weeks since Ingrid’s birth, we’ve taken a lot of pictures of her, along with a few videos. Picasa, with its magical face-recognition voodoo, claims I have 42 pictures of Ingrid. I won’t post them all here for you, but here’s a few favorites.
We gave Ingrid her first “real” bath, and as new parents we were very careful not to boil her alive. Our fancy baby-sponge mat (thanks Beth!) has a little sticker on it that’s supposed to change color at 104 degrees so you don’t hurt your kid. A little science experiment reveals that ours changes color at about 97, so we’re more in danger of freezing Ingy to death than boiling her.
As our first, Ingrid will likely have far too many pictures taken of her. We’re documenting her growth versus the size of a rather large bear. (That’s week 2 on the left, week 3 on the right)
And we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention our cats are a little jealous. The only attention they get now is when I shoot at them with my double-barreled dart shotgun, or when they’re being funny.
Seeing as babies don’t do much, that about sums it up. Here’s a video for you to enjoy, and you can also follow along at home with periodic video uploads to our YouTube channel.
As an FYI, we’ve got ourself an HD webcam and are currently duking it out between Skype, Logitech Vid HD, Google Chat, and Live Messenger to figure out which one works best. If you want to meet Ingrid, give us a holler!
At about 1:00AM this morning contractions started, and at 2:30 Lisa and I were headed out for the 45+ minute trip to Gothenburg, NE to deliver a baby. Our new baby had picked the single stormiest day of the winter to be born (though, also the last day to qualify for 2010 taxes 
), but my many years of ditch-touring experience during the winters of North Dakota had prepared me for a rather uneventful drive.
When Lisa had gotten settled in for the long haul they asked her what she thought about epidurals. Her response: “How soon can I get one?” 45 minutes later her IV and all were prepped for the procedure, but the doctor needed around an hour to get between her impenetrable vertebrae. After profuse apologies from him in regards to the duration and pain of it all, Lisa was glad to forgive him as the pain melted away.
Just about as soon as it wore off it was time to push. The Dr. gave her a quick tutorial about how to push, and then for some reason thought it was a good idea to trust me to coach and count. When he made it back a little over a half hour later he said it was time to change into his jammies and catch. At 11:00AM Ingrid Anita decided to make her grand entrance, and we had our long-awaited daughter!
…alien! At least, that’s what one grandpa said upon looking at the ultrasound pictures. I, on the other hand, had a different reaction. I thought our dear Eustace Clarence looked an awful lot like Emperor Palpatine (from Star Wars). Is that a bad thing? Click on the thumbnail below to see what I mean:
OK then, enough fun with look-alikes. You probably want to see the other ultrasound pictures, and find out if Eustace Clarence is a boy or a girl. Just click here to see!
It wasn’t many weeks into the pregnancy that we had an ultrasound to make sure everything was OK (and to satisfy a little curiosity as well!)
Eustace just wouldn’t sit still–the doctor kept remarking how active he was, and it took a while before he settled down enough for her to get the heartbeat read. Looks like he got my ADD!
If you haven’t already heard, Lisa and I are expecting the first addition to our family to arrive this December. If you do the math and you’re knowledgeable in such things, you will know that we can’t possibly know the gender of our unborn child yet, BUT…
In the tradition of the Tim Pulls, we have decided to give our child a rather odd in utero name: Eustace Clarence.
For those not in the know, Eustace Clarence Scrubb is the protagonist in C.S. Lewis’ The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
If you’re still not clear of the connection, I highly recommend you read The Chronicles of Narnia
It is common to find most editions of the series numbered in absolute chronological order. However, I experienced them first in the order they were published, and I recommend you do the same: as with many well-written stories, saving “earlier” information for later discovery adds a lot to your literary experience! Thus, the “proper” order:
- The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
- Prince Caspian
- The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
- The Silver Chair
- The Horse and His Boy
- The Magician’s Nephew
- The Last Battle
The order of original publishing also makes more sense as you read because of authorial comments that refer to things you already should (or shouldn’t) know from reading “previous” books that you wouldn’t have read yet if you read them in Chronological order. Wikipedia, that source of all unproven “facts”, has a good explanation if you want specifics.