Conner's First Christmas

Christmas is coming!

Double Digits

Here's a quick update for you ... and Christina promises to post again soon!

Conner had a great check up yesterday -- he's 10 pounds 5 ounces and 21.5 inches long. He's officially out of all "newborn" apparel and is now in his 0-3 month clothes. And we also said good-bye to the "newborn" diapers as well. Now it's on to size 1.

A Sleepy Little Man

One month and counting

Yes, Conner is one month old today! It's almost hard to believe how quick it has been and how much he's grown and changed in such a short time. Conner's first Thanksgiving went well, which included his first accident. We're all A-OK, but we got rear-ended on the way to Bedford. Conner slept through it all and big brother Duke didn't even move in his crate.

Conner is close to outgrowing most of his "newborn" size clothes, and now his 0-3 month outfits finally fit reasonable well. He loves the Christmas tree lights -- if he's fussy, we hold him near the tree and he quickly quiets down. We're looking forward to his first Christmas and seeing all his changes over the next few weeks.

Happy holidays!

Time flies

It's hard to believe it's been more than a week since I posted, but time flies with even less sleep. The little man is pretty regular with his feedings, so we have yet to have what I would call a "sleepless" night. I'll leave the details for Christina to explain if she wants to. Conner is growing each day -- he's getting close to 8 pounds and his newborn clothes finally fit ... and will probably be too small in another week or so.

Conner will be making his first road trip this week as we head to Bedford for the holiday. It'll be a nice break for us too to get out of the house for more than a quick trip to Target.

You may have noticed that at the bottom of this post we've become a little more blogger savvy by allowing me to post through my gmail account ("posted by David H."). So in future posts if you can't tell who is actually posting, just look at the end of the post! Christina will be back to posting again soon, but most free time is still being used to get some much needed rest.

Have a happy Thanksgiving!!

Hangin' in there

I just wanted to give a quick update that everybody is hanging in there, some better than others. Christina is a bit sleepy as expected, but any frustrations are quickly erased when the coos start coming out and the funny faces are made. Duke is being a good big brother. He watches every little move Conner makes, although he still keeps his distance just a bit. For those of you who have met our dog, you know that he likes to roll around on people's feet, but we haven't had any worries about that. He's actually been much more attentive to us than usual, which is a good thing.

I, however, have an upper respiratory infection. Go figure that we're worrying about the little guy and then one of us gets sick. I'm on some good meds though and haven't had a fever, but I'm having to keep my distance just a little bit. It's a little difficult because I want to help out as much as I can, but I also don't want to get Christina or Conner sick.

Conner has a weight check tomorrow, and I think he'll be on the right road. After going to work the past couple of days and then coming home after being gone for about 9 hours, I can really see his cheeks filling out and his little legs getting bigger.

~ David ~

Sleeping his way through life

Hey everybody -- it's still your guest blogger here. I'm making sure Christina is getting plenty of rest, but she insists on putting a load of laundry in right now. If only she could learn from the dogs!! [See photo below for a perfect example of how to get some rest.] Anyway, I wanted to give a quick update on things. Conner is doing well. He had his first doctor's visit yesterday. Without going into too many details, his weight was a bit down, but we managed to shoot him up with 4 ounces overnight. The doctor was impressed today.

Christina's family left around mid-day today. It was great having them here to help out with meals, laundry and dishes ... despite our political differences. At least one of us got to vote for the president-to-be this week!

We're discussing moving Conner's life details over to a new blog and save this one for the next baby. It was created for the purpose of detailing the pregnancy, so some change may be on the way. We'll let you know what happens. And I'm sure that Christina will want to blog soon to give her thoughts on everything that's happened this week.

Thanks again to everyone who has called, e-mailed, sent messages or offered their help. We greatly appreciate it, and we're always open for someone to cook dinner. Won't you miss me when I'm done posting?!? :-)

~ David ~

Conner Comes Home

What a long strange trip this has been ... and it's only been 48 hours! Everyone is doing well. Conner is a sleepy head, but that's to be expected. He is feeding well (when he can stay awake) and has otherwise been a very quiet little guy. [Except when I was typing this we had an exploding diaper, a knock on the door and a search for something that had been put where I knew where it was but had already been moved in an hour's time ... such is the new life.]

Conner's introduction to Duke went very well. Christina came in the house first for a few minutes and then I came in with Conner. Duke stayed fairly calm. He's been great around our niece for her first couple of years and has always been great around other babies, so we figured this introduction was going to go well anyway. Duke sniffed him pretty good, and came upstairs with me when I went into Conner's room. We don't really have any major worries about Duke, but it's been a crazy few day's for him too with Christina's parents here with their dog as well.

Thanks again to everyone for their comments, notes and phone calls! Christina is probably itching to post herself, but she's on doctor's orders to get rest ... and it's up to me, her family and you to make sure she gets it!

~ David ~

A new gift to the world

In this corner, weighing in at 6 pounds 10 ounces and measuring 19 inches in length, is Conner James Hylton!

After about 13 hours in the hospital, Baby H. as he as been come to known was born at 3:37 p.m. Nov. 3. Christina handled everything well -- it was a complete natural birth. There were no major complications, although the pushing phase took longer than expected because Conner was initially facing the wrong way. Christina can offer you those details later, but everything worked out in the end.

Conner was very alert when he came out and only cried for about 10 seconds. He seemed very observant of the world around him already. He was very wide-eyed and was responding to our voices very well. As many of you know all we've been saying is that we wanted a healthy baby -- a boy or girl didn't matter -- and we have that healthy baby.

We're very lucky that he decided to come a few weeks early. The doctor said that if he went full term that a natural child birth probably wouldn't have happened. Christina was damned determined not to get an epidural.

If you're wondering where the name came from, Conner (and that particular spelling) is the maiden name of my great-grandmother Craighead (my grandmother Angel's mother) who passed away in early 1996. We actually picked that name out a long time ago. When Christina was first pregnant, we saw a family book that my great uncle had put together, and we both immediately said that would be a good boy's name. Once we found out we were having a boy, there was not much discussion about the name, only that we'd keep it a secret from our families. No offense to our families, but the name picking was very personal and we did not want any input from anyone. (Thanks to our former co-worker Jeremy for that advice!) The middle name, James, is my grandfather's name. Some of you may know him as Ed -- Edward is his middle name. Edward has actually been passed along to my uncle and one of my cousins, and James seemed to roll off the tongue well. James actually wasn't decided until about 8 a.m. yesterday. It was a toss up with a family name on Christina's side, but we both liked the way James sounded. I like the initials C.J. too. For the next baby -- which we have no immediate plans for -- will likely have names from Christina's side. Family is important to both of us and we feel that carrying on family names in some sort of way is important.

Thanks to everyone for their comments on here, on Facebook, phonecalls, etc. Christina will surely offer more details and thoughts very soon! There's lots more to tell!

Baby H is on his way

Hey everybody. Guest blogger here ... better known as Baby Daddy. Just wanted to let you know that Baby H. is not going to be a Thanksgiving a baby after all. Long story short, Christina is in labor ... the early stages of it anyway. I'm just home for a quick break and to let Duke out. Have no fear, she's not alone - my mom is with her for the hour I'm gone. I'll post an update as soon as I can!

~ David ~

Let the count up begin...

Beginning yesterday, I'll have doctor appointments every week until Baby H decides to arrive. Dr. Smith said everything looks good. In fact, it was kind of an exciting appointment -- I'm 1 cm dilated! I asked, "So what does that mean?" and he said, "It means you're 1 cm dilated." Ha. Basically, I could stay like this for the next few weeks, or I could keep dilating. I'm just "ahead of the game," as Dr. Smith said.

During the exam, Dr. Smith could tell that Junior's head is "way down there" -- which isn't surprising to me since, as I've said before, his hiccups kind of give him away. I'm continuing to gain weight, and the baby's heartbeat is still going strong. He was moving around again, and the nurse had to follow him with the monitor to get his heartbeat. As active as he's been all pregnancy, I have a feeling he's going to keep us busy from the beginning.

While counting up the centimeters, the days are counting down... it's hard to believe that we're less than a month away from meeting our little guy!! It seems like there is so much to do -- install the car seat, pack a hospital bag, pick out his "going home" outfit. We went shopping at Sam's the other day and stocked up on frozen foods, and I hope to make some meals to stick in the freezer too. I still need to find a pediatrician, not to mention everything I need to do at work and with Mary Kay to prepare for some time off. I know everything will be fine, though. I'm not worried :)

I have slowed down a lot in the past few weeks, though. Which is tough for me because I'm used to being on the go all the time. I suppose it's good for me to slow down a little! I just feel too tired to do things I need to do. I guess what needs to be done will get done, so again, I'm not too worried. It would help if I could get comfortable at night and sleep all the way through :)

Showered with gifts (part 2)

OK, here they are. :)

My wonderful sister-in-law Heather threw us a fun shower in Bedford at my equally as wonderful mother-in-law's house. The theme tied in with our nursery bedding and decorations. We received a lot of nice things. It was funny to see the difference in what we got at this shower compared to what we got at the first one in Ohio -- fewer clothes, more books, for one example.

Enjoy!

The cute -- and yummy -- cakes.

My two moms :)

My Bedford, Va., family -- mom-in-law, grandma-in-law and sister-in-law with our niece (who actually live in Richmond...)

A good view of all of our gifts.

Hat made by mom-in-law.

Diaper bag from mom.

Aunt Elaine and cousin Nicole came down from Ohio with Mom. I just love her face as she checks out the English-, Spanish- and French-speaking octopus!


First bank I opened, painted at a pottery place by my brother Allan and his wife Leslie. So cute!

Second bank I opened, painted by niece Eliza. Very cute as well -- can't have too many banks, especially in these economic times!

Eliza tells me about how she painted the bank for her baby cousin.

I just love these swim trunks that Eliza picked out!

Baby H's Great-Grandma Angel made this beautiful quilt using a crib sheet from our registry so it would match exactly. It's so nice, and I'm sure the baby will treasure it as he grows up!

A stroller with built-in infant car seat from David's dad and step-mom.

"So, I'm supposed to smell this?!" David's step-mom's sister is playing the game that Heather had set up for the guests -- guess what candy bar is smashed up in the diapers. It was fun to watch people stick their noses in to see what they were!