Henry VanDyke

Erin and I welcomed Henry Miles VanDyke into our family on Monday, September 21 at 12:02pm. He weighed 7lbs 3oz and was 19.5 inches long. This is part one of the three part story of the hours immediately before he was born.

Friday, September 18

Last minute additions

Yai Yai and Oppa (James’ parents) decided on Friday night that they needed to come down for Henry’s birth. We were thrilled. It also settled a number of bets. Originally they planned to see Henry for the first time in October during YaiYai’s Fall Break from teaching, but several people, including me, were going to be surprised Henry’s imminent arrival didn’t trigger a quick trip to Texas.

Since we were inducing Henry on Monday, they were able to plan ahead for the trip. We were inducing because Henry measured large during his sonograms. The doctors wanted him to come before he got too big to be delivered naturally.

Saturday, September 19

Erin and I did chores around the house to prepare for Henry. We mowed the lawn, washed the dog and cleaned the house. Then we went on our last date together before Henry. We had pizza for lunch at Campisis.

In the evening my parents arrived at our house after a 12 hour drive from Tennessee.

Sunday, Septeber 20

Tiger is blissfully unaware of Henry's coming.

We woke up early and ate breakfast with YaiYai and Oppa at Corner Bakery. Then the four of us drove to the hospital to give the prospective grandparents a tour.

Tigerman had reservations at Erin’s parent’s house to hang out with Butch for a couple of days so we  picked him up from the house and headed to McKinney.

After dropping the dog off, we met Granny and Grandad (Erin’s parents) and Aunt Toni and Uncle Mo (Erin’s sister and her husband) for lunch. We ate at Dos Charos because YaiYai likes sampling Tex-Mex when she comes to Dallas and because we’ve heard spicy foods can help move the labor process along.

New kicks for a new kid

A little post-lunch walking and shopping yielded a new pair of tennis shoes for me. I didn’t want to embarrass Henry in public on his first day with my old worn out shoes.

5 p.m. – Sitting nervously by the phone
We were supposed to get confirmation from the hospital at 5 p.m. to come in at 10 p.m. and start the process of inducing. There was a small chance the hospital would be too busy for the induction. Five o’clock came and went with no call. So, Erin and I took a nap in preparation for the evening ahead.

After napping, we kept the phone close while watching the Dallas Cowboys’ first game in their new stadium versus the New York Giants. None of us really cared about the Cowboys but it was the only thing worth watching on TV at the time.

7 p.m. – Confirmation

One last look at our pregency bellies

Finally at 7 p.m. Erin called the hospital to see if we were on the schedule. The nurse said we were the lucky winners for the evening and we could come in at 10 p.m. After months of waiting the clock officially started counting down to Henry entering our world.

9:45 p.m. – Good bye, Hello

Since YaiYai and Oppa were staying at our house we said goodbye to them and embarked on the next phase of our exciting journey.

We’ve enjoyed just hanging around the house the last few days with Henry. Here are some pictures of us just hanging out.

[Show as slideshow]

We took Henry on his first walk on Saturday morning. This was a trial run of Henry by himself – no Tigerman.

I learned that Erin is a dedicated sun blocker. At every turn she re-adjusted the shades on his stroller so that not so much of a fingernail ever spent time in the direct light.

I also learned that the international signal of baby distress is fingers spread in front of their body. Henry demonstrated this briefly every time we went over a bump. Don’t worry though, we had him strapped in securely and no baby was harmed durning the making of this video.

Henry went to his first doctor’s appointment on Friday. He’s doing great.

When he left the hospital he weighed 6 lbs. 13 oz. He was born at 7 lbs. 3 oz. and lost about 5% of his weight at the hospital. This is normal because babies who get milk from their moms don’t get a whole lot of food the first couple of days. Once the milk starts flowing though, they quickly gain the weight back.

At the doctor’s office he weighed 7lbs 0.5 oz. which means Henry is eating great. Dr. Mathieu called him a “chow hound”!

He also said his color looks good so we shouldn’t have to worry about jaundice.

Henry’s next trip is at the 2-week mark which will be October 5.

When we asked if it was okay to walk Henry with our dog that we walk twice a day the doctor kinda laughed.

While in the hospital the nurses wheeled Henry to and from the room in a plastic bin they referred to as a bassinet. It looked a little bit like a Tupperware tray but I didn’t tell them that.

It did actually work pretty well because Henry could sleep in it, we could change his diaper on it and the bottom had storage space for diapers, wipes and other supplies.

[Show as slideshow]

Erin and I escaped the house on Thursday for about 45 minutes to purchase a few items at Target. Erin’s mom has been hanging out at the house during the day to help us with Henry. We left Henry sleeping with her and headed out. When we returned, Granny said that Henry had only stretched once and otherwise laid still. Success.

I told Erin that now that we have a kid that 45 minutes out of the house with just the two of us counts as a date.

Don't worry Henry is in good hands at the house with his Granny.

Here is some video that I took of Henry while he is was still in the delivery room. He’s about 1 hour old in this video.

Henry is already scoring top marks. He passed his hearing test with a scored of 100%. Unfortunately for him, we fully intend to whip this certificate out the first time he pretends not to hear us.

They stuck a total of five cords to him for this test and assured me this wasn’t a new government spy program.

Here are some pictures to share from Henry’s big day. We’ll share the complete details once we get home from the hospital, but everything went extremely well and we’re thrilled with Henry.

[Show as slideshow]

Henry was born at 12:02pm. He is 7lb 3 oz.