Julia’s week started out with at trip the hospital to have her tongue clipped. Emily went to play at a friend’s house so Julia had the attention of both her parents. Julia was unsure of everything that she saw, not surprising for one of our cautious girls. She did warm up after she got used to seeing people in hats. They gave her “silly juice” to help her with saying good-bye to Mommy and Daddy and to make her memories foggy of the time. Julia disliked the effects of the silly juice. She kept trying to control things that she couldn’t control. She ended up being pretty upset over it. She refused to wear her gown and kept pulling at it until we just took it off. While she couldn’t control much, at least we could grant her control over the wearing of the gown. When it was her turn she went back with a few tears, but then that was expected too. The procedure was very quick and the doctor felt that she would be feeling back to normal in 2-3 days. She had a few stitches that would need to heal and would have some swelling. When we got to go back to see her after the procedure she was upset. She had woken and not found a face she knew. They had rockers in recovery and we got to rock and cuddle for a while. She only threw up once while we were there, and after she had settled and was back in her jammies, we were released to go home. She fought a nap most of the way home, but gave in and took a great nap. The rest of the day she was a little off because of the medications, but by the next day she was running around like usual.

Then, today we went for Julia’s speech assessment. Julia liked the idea of playing games, but got tired of the ‘performance’ aspect of the assessment. With a little bribery she got thru it, although it took the whole time. The general assessment of her speech is that she is pretty far behind. The therapist said that the fact that she doesn’t say the middle and ending sounds of words is a tough thing for them to learn if they don’t start off saying them. It is like she is missing association of the rest of the sound to the word. She said it will take lots of repetition and practice of making sounds that she doesn’t already make. Although on a good note, she seemed very bright and would be able to learn them. It will take a few weeks for us to get a set therapy schedule, but looking forward to seeing Julia be challenged and grow in this area.

This is our first family photo and today it is one week old. This week has gone by so quickly! Well at least the daytime portion of the last week. We are still up for a while each evening with feedings and day/night confusion.

Even though we have had Julia for one week it seems that I can’t spend enough time with her. Emily also can’t get enough of Julia. She gets so excited each time she sees her. She asks if she can hold her and wants to fit in your lap if you are holding her. Today we figured out how to feed Julia and read Emily a book at the same time. The only trick is that Emily has to turn the pages of the book and that can be an interesting speed and order. It is best to make up the story as you go along and then the page order doesn’t matter so much.

We love to bundle our babies up!

Say hello to our newest baby girl, Julia Regan. She was born at 10:22 this morning and weighed 6 lbs. 13 oz. and was 19.5 inches long at birth. Both mother and daughter are doing fine.

Emily Meets Julia, originally uploaded by Robby Edwards.

Our baby girl arrived this morning. Her name is Julia Regan and she was 6 lbs. 13 oz. and 19.5 inches long at birth. Both mother and daughter are doing fine.

Here she is meeting her big sister Emily for the first time.

Isn’t She Sweet?
Originally uploaded by Robby Edwards.

…And Lovely, Too!
Originally uploaded by Robby Edwards.

Here are some more photos of Emily, taken a couple hours after birth. By this time she had taken her first bath and was showing us that she had developed a taste for her fingers. 🙂

Mommy and I are slowly adjusting to life with a newborn. We came home from the hospital yesterday, and gave Emily a tour of her home. She wasn’t very excited by that, though she slept just fine in her bassinet.