Zoe is one year old today! It’s hard to believe, I know. Here’s a photo I took this morning of her waving at me, and you can see all four of her teeth. And in case you feel like revisiting the event, here’s a link to Annie’s birth story and my birth story.
(Sorry for the delay in posting this – I’ve been sitting on the draft for nearly four months now, planning to expand it, but it’s time to cut my losses and just post it as is.)
Annie had been going to bed with her cell phone on the nightstand for the last two weeks, just in case Rose called in the middle of the night in labor. On Friday, January 26th, at 2 in the morning, Rose called and Annie got in the car right away. She arrived at about 4:45am, and got to witness the water birth. Milo was born at 6:20am. He weighed 9 pounds 14 ounces, and was 21.5 inches long. Annie said the look on Dave and Rose’s faces when they found out they had just had a boy was priceless.
I hopped a train after work and got there about 10pm, and got to hold Milo right away, while Rose was taking a bath. The thing I remember most is that he was so large and solid that it didn’t feel like holding a newborn. It was hard to believe that he was only 16 hours old – and he was noisy! He was making lots of sniffling and snuffling noises.
We stayed the night on their couch, and hung out all day Saturday as various family members and friends came to visit. The light was excellent from their sliding porch doors, so I got photos of just about everyone with the baby.
Over dinner on Saturday, Rose and Dave were debating names, and we came up with several extra ones (Hannes Olo, The Unholy Astronaut, and the Pain Salesman). Oddly enough, Rose stuck with Milo.
We stayed the night again on Sunday, and headed home in the afternoon, after watching Oskar eat Nutella Toast.
Annie and I both wrote up our birth stories, and since no one really knows where Annie’s blog is yet, I figured I would link to it and all the other baby-related content in one place. You can also find these links on baby.spaceninja.com, which will be the main spot to find this kind of thing in the future.
Note that some of those links are blank right now (like Strawberry Studios and Vimeo) but there will be content at those locations very soon.
“Hi Scott, it’s your mom. Annie’s water just broke. The midwives are on their way, and I wasn’t sure if you wanted to come home?” was how I found out my wife was in labor. I didn’t realize it at the time, though. I got the phone call at my desk at work, while reading email after lunch, and my first thought was that this is what both the midwives and our childbirth class warned us about.
Zoe Lynn Vandehey
born 3:30pm, February 22, 2007 (three weeks early)
5 Pounds, 5 ounces
19½ Inches
(More photos can be found in the “Zoe’s First Week” set, which I will be updating now and then over the next few days.)