The Joys of Swaddling

After a few weeks of Mom and Dad claiming that Lauren could not and did not want to be swaddled. Her swimming legs and arms made it very clear that this was not was right for her. Well Mom and I are here to praise the wonders of swaddling. Up to yesterday Lauren would sleep for about an hour, generally less, and then would be up and keeping us up. This was most enjoyable between 1 and 5 AM when it would take 30-40 minutes to get her back to sleep.

Then we consulted The Happiest Baby on the Block per our pediatrician's advice and read the step-by-step instructions on how to swaddle. For the first 24 hours, Lauren seems to be a new person. She slept very well last night and took a couple great naps today.

We are very hopeful for tonight and will keep you up to speed on how this all works out. After our best night of sleep in four weeks Mom and I are ready to tell the world about the joys of swaddling.

Lauren's First Thanksgiving

Lauren ventured out of Richmond for the first time for Thanksgiving. She was kind enough to sleep the entire trip to Harrisonburg to see Sara's family. We arrived late in the morning and by the end of the day Lauren had 21 visitors. Her visitors included her Ammy and Grandad, Aunt Kerry, Uncle Brent and her cousins Justin and Tyler. Other visitors were Mom's Uncle Sam and Aunt Donna Kay and her cousins' Carol and Jana's families. She was great and slept almost the entire day. We think Lauren was playing a trick on Kerry who had not seen her awake in three visits. She did wake up for a while on Friday morning and opened her eyes for Kerry.

On Saturday morning we packed up the car again and headed down to Williamsburg to see the Winterhoff clan which included Grams and Poppy, Matt, Anika & Maya, Mark, Carrie and Winnie. It was a great day and everyone enjoyed taking turns holding Lauren. We made the trip over to Chambrel to visit Great Grammy and Great Grandad who enjoyed seeing their fifth great-grandchild. On the way back to Richmond we decided to introduce Lauren to her 31st and 32nd visitor of the trip and see Aunt Kathy and Uncle Bob.

Overall it was a great first Thanksgiving and everyone enjoyed meeting the newest member of the family.

Every Story Has a Beginning

This story begins with a great event, the birth of our daughter Lauren Elizabeth, on October 26, 2006. She decided that she could not wait the full 40 weeks to join our family and made both her mother and I so very happy. This blog will help us record and share the experiences and events that we will share as a family.

So why the title? On our first venture out of the house as a family, we made it to a local Mexican retaurant. As we waited to pay for our bill a gentlemen waiting in line also looked into the carseat Lauren was in and simple said "Don't Blink". He went on to explain that he was a father to seven girls and that over his 25 years of being a parent the best advice he could pass along was that if you blink for even just an instance you might miss something. Thus the name of our blog. This is our attempt to enjoy and share our memories with you.