A few more photos of Robbie & co.

Robbie's first few days home have been great. I'm sure a lot of that is because my sister, Mary, just sort of makes messes disappear and holds the baby when Jack and Ellie need mom's attention or takes care of Jack and Ellie when Robbie needs mom's attention. I can't convince her to stay for a month. Darn her having a job and a life. My friend, Mareva, took my kids to the park today and I've used my precious time to add to this blog. I can do that instead of nap because Robbie slept through the night but for the one hour I woke him up to eat. Sleep is amazing. Anyway, these pictures came up in the reverse order from how I wanted to show them. So, please scroll down and look at them backward. :)

Bob and his little clone. That would be baby #7 for him, for those keeping track. :)

Again, just because Ellie is cute...

Ellie warms up to baby Robbie.

Daddy and the boys on our first day home. Mom and dad were tired, the kids were not.

Jack has no issue staying still and posing for the camera. Robbie seems tolerant.

Ellie still can't sit still. Yes, Bob trusted Jack to hold the baby all by himself.

Daddy and the kids. Bob also had had no sleep. Ellie can't stay still.

Excuse me for looking so, um, tired. Hadn't had much sleep at this point.

And in my defense, I had just given birth. But aren't my kids cute?

Ellie is so cute and is way more interested in the cell phone than her brother.

Jack and Ellie meet their brother for the first time. Ellie actually wouldn't come to me until Bob took the baby first. She hasn't gotten a lot better about it. Hates to see me nurse the baby. Poor kid.

Robbie and my super midwife, Ann Judkins. She's amazing.

Robbie's first moments as an air breather

Welcome to the world, Robbie!

You voted. We listened!

Robert Hammon Lonsberry, Robbie to the rest of the world, joined the Lonsberry family at 7:35 a.m. Sun., July 27. He weighed in at 8 lb, 8 oz and was 20 3/4 in. (with a 14" head...ouch.) We're all doing great...at least as great as can be expected with a 3.5-year-old, 18-month-old and a newborn at home. Fortunatley, so far, he likes to sleep...excpet between about 3 a.m. and 5 a.m., but I can't complain too much.

My labor was unusual. It started at 1 a.m. with contractions 5 minutes apart. It ended with him born 6.5 hours later with my contractions never coming more than 5 minutes apart. I actually had to push him out without a contraction. Any woman reading this who has given birth or is thinking about giving birth...contractions are useful. I joked a few hours in to my rather non-existent labor that I'd like an epidural. My midwife, Ann Judkins, quipped back, "Amanda, they usually give those to women having contractions."

All's well that ends well.

My sister is here taking care of us for the week and we are very grateful for Cinder-Mary-ella's efforts. We'll post more pictures later.

On Gardening

I wrote a column for my husband's website about gardening. It's not nearly as boring as you think. Read it here http://www.lonsberry.com/writings.cfm?story=2424&go=4.

Baby names explanation...

So, 11 votes on a name and I'm left wondering who voted for what. Probably, explanations are in order. First of all, my husband comes up with the worst names humanly possible. I suggest something sane like "Daniel" or "Samuel" and he comes up with "Johnny Cash" or "Brigham Augustus." We hoovered around "Aaron Joseph" for a while, but because of its lack of signficance, Bob vetoed it. Thus, we've been driven straight to family names: His name, "Robert," my maiden name, "Hammon." Dry, but we'd call him Robbie and I am trying to convince myself that I can live with that. "William" and "Ronald" are our grandfather's names. We'd call him "Will." "Max" is a single syllable name like Jack and Lee and it's the only name I really like that Bob has a tolerance for. "Canisteo" is his hometown, a Seneca word meaning something about "headwaters." It was sort of a peace offering for suggesting "Max." Anyway, we're lost. I'm practially in labor. He's out of town. My baby will come home from the hospital nameless unless someone posts a better suggestion. So, if you vote "other", let me know if you have something better for us.

First blogging attempt

I don't know who will care about this, but since I like looking at other blogs, I figured, why not? This was a lot easier to set up and fiddle with than I thought it would be. So, here is 30 minutes of effort and a promise that if anyone is really interested, I will add more. Thanks for stopping by!