He Missed Me

This vitamin bottle, with nine vitamins sitting on the cap, was on the bathroom counter when I got home from Chris and Kelsey's. To anyone else, it would have looked odd, but probably wouldn't have had any meaning. To me it said, "I missed you!"

Every morning Dan, who gets up before me, takes a vitamin, himself, and puts another one on the cap of the bottle for me so that I won't forget to take it. I was gone for nine mornings . . . thus nine vitamins waited for me there, telling me that he thought about me each morning as he got ready for the day.

A Few More Family Pictures

My first time to hold Robert

Here are a few more pictures, featuring our handsome little fellow:







On Saturday Robert was five days old, and we went for a brief outing. Chris, Clara, Robert and I sat outside, by this pretty fountain, while Kelsey went into a store to look for some baby boy clothes. Clara needed to run off some of her abundant energy. She was allowed to go as far as the yellow bricks, and then run back toward us. On each run, she expected me to take her picture. I have quite a collection of them, and here are a few. If you look carefully, you'll see that her shoes were on the wrong feet! With all of the excitement and hubbub surrounding a new baby, no one noticed it until later in the day.

Robert Fox - A Thanksgiving Blessing

Where shall I start?!

On Friday morning Chris called to say that the midwife thought that Kelsey would probably go into labor over the weekend, so he suggested that I go ahead an come on down, to be there when the time came. I scurried around, and was on a flight out of Albuquerque by 2:45 p.m., and, with the time change, arrived at 5:45.

A tired Kelsey, ready to get rid of her "shelf"

Saturday and Sunday passed without any sign of the baby. On Sunday night I said to Kelsey, "Good night. I'll see you at two a.m." Sure enough, about a quarter 'til two Chris knocked on the bedroom door and said, "It's time!"

We were at the birthing center by about 2:00. I stayed in the comfortable living room with Clara during Kelsy's hard labor, which, by the way was very fast. She only had about 20 minutes of pushing, and, according to the midwife, only three or four hard pushes. At 4:02 p.m. the baby was born. Kelsey gave birth in water, and said it was a wonderful experience. Chris dashed into the living room and said to Clara and me, "Hurry! The baby is here!" As Clara and I hurried to Kelsey's birthing room, we heard baby's first cry. The baby was wrapped up in a towel, lying on Kelsey's chest when Clara and I came into the room. That's when they realized they hadn't yet looked to see if the baby was a boy or girl. Kelsey uncovered the baby . . . a perfect little boy!


They named the baby Robert Fox -- Robert after his great grandfather (my dad). Clara got to pick between two names for the middle name, and chose Fox. Robert Fox weighed in at 7 lb. 14 oz., and was 21.5 inches long.

By 8:00, just four hours after Robert's birth, we were on our way back home from the birthing center. Kelsey is amazing! We've been trying to let her get as much rest as possible, but with a nursing baby, rest comes only in small doses.

Here's the family of four, ready to bring Robert into the house for the first time.Robert is about 4-1/2 hours old here.

Clara is very excited about, and loving toward, her little brother. She is proud to be a big sister. Still, learning to share what had been undivided attention is tough, and she's had a couple melt-downs . . . all to be expected.


Before Robert was born, we knew Chris had some sort of sinus infection going on, but we didn't know just how bad it was. For the sake of a happy birth he bucked up and put aside his own problems, and did a great job assisting Kelsey through the entire birth event. But the next morning he went in to his doctor. When they called him back to the examining room he stood up, passed out and collapsed to the floor.

It turns out that he had both chest and sinus infections, which had caused his asthma to flare up. He had a very low oxygen content in his blood. The doctor wanted to admit him to the hospital, but agreed to let him go home, as long as he was on breathing treatments every four hours. I went to the pharmacy to pick up his prescriptions which were over $350, after insurance. I'm happy to report that he is feeling much better now, after two days and nights of treatments.

A sick daddy, a very tired mommy, a big sister who is trying to adapt to a new role, and a grandma who is sometimes clueless about how to best help has made for some difficult moments. HOWEVER . . . we are all a most thankful family on this Thanksgiving Day. Little Robert (or, as Clara sometimes calls him, "Foxy Baby Robert Judd) is healthy and happy and beautiful and a most wonderful reason for giving thanks.

Chris and Kelsey have friends from their church family who are bringing over a Thanksgiving dinner with all of the trimmings later this afternoon, so we will be enjoying that good meal together, with grateful hearts.

God is so good!

Day One - 11/23/09

Day Two - 11/24/09 - Visiting the pediatrician (he's lost a little of his birth weight)

Day Three - 11/25/09 - Looking over Mama's shoulder

Day Three - 11/25/09 - Bright Eyes

Day Three - The family n front of the Christmas Tree at The Woodlands

(Have you noticed anything different? I'm done with nicknames! I just decided that, since Kelsey uses real names in her blog, there's really no reason for me not to. And after all that work coming up with new ones!)

Baby Nicknames

Awhile back I blogged about needing to pick a nickname for the grandbaby who is due any time now. With Sweetpea, the moniker just came naturally. I use Sweetpea's nickname when I talk about her on the blog, not feeling comfortable publishing her real name. But I also call her Sweetpea, sometimes, when we are having fun together. Choosing a nickname for Baby #2 has been a little more difficult, probably because we don't know whether the baby is a he or a she. Finally, though, I've settled upon two names.

If the baby is a girl, she will be "Shoog." It started out as "Sugar," but I wanted to shorten it to just the first syllable. If I spelled it "Sug," I figured that people would think it was pronounced like "Bug" but with an S - not so cute. Instead, I opted for a phonetic spelling, and now that I'm used to it, I like it!

If he's a boy, though, he'll be "Chip," as in a chip off the old block (his Daddy).

Tomorrow is Kelsey's official due date, although she thought the baby might come early, like Sweetpea did. I think it would be terrific if Chip or Shoog arrived right on time - TOMORROW. Maybe all (s)he has been waiting on was a nickname!