victory

last night the baby slept for eight hours. in a row. meaning that Gavin and I also slept for as close to eight hours as our work and life schedules would allow.

love her.

my best friend's mom told me that my best friend was sleeping through the night at four weeks. so here's to hoping that Juniper will have a similarly glorious temperament.

so sorry

I have completely failed at my goal to post every weekday. I could say that it's just too difficult to type with one hand. but the real truth is that I'm too busy enjoying her to write about her as of yet. so far, I'm just amazed at her. even now, as I'm writing this, I keep sneaking into the next room where she is sleeping to make sure she's still there. as my friend Stacy said, it's christmas every day.

but already I'm starting to forget, and I don't want to. she's one month today and I want to record the moments of the last month before they fade completely. so next week, I try again. until then, we're off for the weekend. enjoy!

more photo ops

I'm going to start writing up Juniper's birth story tomorrow, but here are some photos to tide you over for today. she has been a very sweet baby so far, cuddly and consolable and truly a delight. we'll see what the next few weeks have to offer, however.

here is the closest thing to a smile we've gotten so far:


Juniper's swaddling blankets (thanks, Jen!) make her look like a little burrito:


true to schedule, she developed baby acne to match her mother's at two weeks of age:

back on the information superhighway

sorry the silence has been so deafening. every day I plan to get online; there's so much to share and record. but somehow each day passes in a blur of feeding, napping, and enjoying the strange little creature we've dubbed "Gollum." but I'm determined to catch up, to tell the stories of birth and the past few weeks before they fade into memory. so stay tuned.. I hope to get back to my plan to post every weekday. for starters, here are some shots of the little alien over the past few weeks (click on the image to see a larger version):

looking cute in a gifted outfit from Julie. she's actually not too fussy about the whole car seat issue so far (a good thing when you have an older kid--not getting in the car is not an option):


a recent photo that kinds shows you how tiny she still is (in spite of being a week late and now two and a half weeks old, she still weights less than I did at birth!). also: isn't her daddy dreamy?


and although we certainly think she's the best little newborn in the whole world, she occasionally does her best to rid us of that notion:

we're home!

hi all! thank you all so much for your sweet comments, text messages, and phone calls. special thanks to Jen for keeping up with the blog for the last few days and even posting a photo. (no thanks to Gavin for his nice little joke ;).) also, Maudie has posted some additional photos here. our friend Jeff took some as well and I'll chat with him about how to make them visible to you. we are so very grateful to all our friends and family and so thrilled that the baby is finally here.

I will write more about everything that happened soon, once I get a little rest, but here is the info you've all been waiting for:

Juniper Grace Easa-Murphy
6 lbs 14 oz
19 3/4 inches
apgar scores: 4 at birth*, then 9 at five minutes

*we had a little scare in the first minute--more info on that soon.

in the end, after reviewing about 200 of our favorite names, we came down to the old favorites: Juniper, Violet, Hazel, Thistle, Sadie, Grace. we each had our pet name that the other needed to veto (Thistle for Gavin, Sadie for Leila). I gave Gavin final say between the last three options (Juniper Grace, Violet Grace, and Grace Thistle--Grace was my mother's middle name). in the end, I was happy he picked Juniper since we basically went into labor as the calendar flipped to June (well, actually a few hours earlier) and then spent the first quarter of the month trying to get her out! we think it's spunky and fun, but you can feel free to call her June or Juni if it's too out there for ya. and I think Gavin will always call her Thistle, at least when I'm not listening. (and Gavin says you're all welcome to call her Thistle, even when I am listening!)

ta da!

hurray!

the baby arrived at 1:25am. Mom, daughter, and Gavin are all well and resting.

Details to follow in due course.