Henry VanDyke

One unknown when we brought Henry home from the hospital was how Tigerman would react to the new addition.

Well, he basically ignores him.

He’ll sniff Henry a couple of times a day, but that’s about it. Tigerman, like Erin and I, is adjusting to a lack of sleep. He’ll wakes up with us to check on Henry. Plus, we’ve been at home all day every day to keep him up.

Henry cries whenever we change his diaper so Tigerman associated crying with Henry’s room and started avoiding his room. We decided to combat this by giving him a treat every time he comes in. It may have back fired though because Tigerman now wags his tail every time Henry cries.

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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.

Henry’s Play Yard came yesterday. Despite the instruction book we were able to put it together. I’ve always called these contraptions a Pack ‘n’ Play but apparently they are also equated with the grass covered area surrounding a house. I think this is our last big purchase in preparation for Henry so we’re getting excited.

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My co-workers threw Erin and I a shower last week. It was great.

They took us to one of our favorite pizza restaurants, Campisis. They also decorated the tables with ballons, confetti and Hersey Kisses that all said, “It’s a boy.”

When it came time to open presents they really went overboard. I think they must have given us half the items that were on our Target registry. One of my favorites was the digital baby monitor. This is is very important because you never know which of your neighbors are listing in on your baby crying with a radio scanner. Luckily the digital versions prevent eavesdropping. I guess they’re also better at preventing interference but I think we all know which of those is most important.

It was all extremely nice. They even got Tigerman the one item he was able to sneak on the registry. I told him he needed to say thank you but as you see below, he wasn’t overly cooperative.

Pictures from the party (most photos courtesy of Katy Scott).

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Erin and I helped take care of our neighbors rabbit, Samantha, while they were gone for about two weeks earlier this month. They thanked us with a little bit of money and told us to buy something for Henry with it. So, we bought Henry a car seat. It’s supposed to snap into our stroller which we’ll have to get around to buying at some point.

Tigerman is standing in for Samantha even though he never actually met her.

Henry’s future room has been making some dramatic changes in the past week.

Henry’s room started out as James’ office. However, we wanted a room for guests to stay in while visiting Henry, so the office got the boot. The first step was selling our desk, which we did on Craig’s List. Then, cleaning and painting ensued.

We chose a cheerful baby blue for the room plus, as we mentioned earlier, a chalkboard wall. The magnetic primer for the chalkboard wall smelled awful and the odors stayed in the house a good 24 hours after we finished painting.

We woke up early on Sunday planning to just tape off the room for afternoon painting, but we just couldn’t stop once we started. In what is likely one of the most productive mornings on record, we completely painted Henry’s room. I still need to finish up the chalkboard wall but here are some pictures from start to mostly finished.

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Dad finally got Henry his pants

While visiting for my graduation, my Mom and Dad stopped by Baby Gap to pick up Henry some pants. Apparently Dad had been refering to his impending grandchild as Henry “No Pants” VanDyke.

When picking names it was important that we picked one that was not prone to nicknames. This is why it was imperative that corrective action was taken.

The aforementioned pants are brown cargo pants sized 0 – 3 months.

We bought Henry his first clothes this week. A t-shirt and hoodie with numbers made the cut to enter Henry’s fledgeling wardrobe. Erin’s mom contributed a pair of shoes and a pack of bibs later in the week. So far it appears he’ll be foregoing pants though.

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