You've got mail

Bluet got her first piece of mail Friday! Joe the doorman was very pleased to give it to me to bring upstairs. It was no ordinary mail but airmail from her grandmother Collins! Bluet's adorable new pals are shown next to her on the sofa.

No Sleep Til Brooklyn

Our plan is to go to Williamsburg today to some hipster baby shops. There
are thunderstorms in the forecast but it looks like they will be fast moving.
Hopefully if we encounter one we will be able to duck in somewhere quickly
to avoid soaking the baby Bluet, who is now resting up in preparation.

What You Readin' For?

We are so proud - Bluet read her first book today:

As you can see, her book taught her all about animals. She is now scared of Zebras.

Next on her reading list is 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar'. Then she will start working her way through this fine selection of contemporary literature.

Monday morning

Sorry if anyone is offended by the umbilicus but I thought maybe you wanted to see our baby when she was awake.

Spring (was) here...

...on Sunday at least. To celebrate
we walked to the park and had a
Mr. Softee (ice cream from the
ice cream truck). Ben actually does
have a baby in that carrier...she is
just so small you can barely see her.

London Pride/Bluet's first visit to the pub

Sunday afternoon we went to have lunch in a new neighborhood British pub called Jones Wood Foundry that Ben found on one of his many trips back and forth to the hospital. They were really into (in a completely tongue-in-cheek way) the upcoming royal wedding, including a lifesize cutout of Will and Kate. I had eggs benedict and a Fuller's London Pride which were both delicious. Food tastes great to me these days for the first time in 9 months. Bluet slept the whole time.

Bluet's first doctor visit

This is Bluet during (video) and after (photo) her first visit to the pediatrician Friday. She gained around a quarter of a pound in the two days we were home from the hospital and this pleased the pediatrician greatly. I think this feat ranks among those of which I am proudest in my entire life. She was still lighter than her birth weight which is funny to think about as I hold her and realize she was bigger when she was on the inside. The way things are going I suspect that when we go back to the doctor on Tuesday this will no longer be the case.

Thanks to Bluet's grandfather Collins for the hip kiwi car/stroller seat. More on the remarkable properties of kiwifruit later.

to Bluet (clink)

We toasted Bluet's arrival with this California sherry, in keeping with Collins family tradition (the sherry part, not the California part). We didn't manage to get to this on the same day we arrived home from the hospital, as was the case on the day Ben was born, but it was still really nice the evening after.

What a difference a week makes.

I marvel at how long ago this seems. You can see how tired and serious we are after the events of April 15 - 17. Rest assured that our collective sense of humor has been completely restored.

Blue(t) Moon

Happy Easter! Bluet is a week old today and her mother has finally resurfaced to contribute to this blog!

Bluet had the good fortune to be born under a full moon early last Sunday morning and we have been so pleased to have her with us one week before her due date today, which is not nearly as exciting from a lunar astronomy perspective. Last night was a waning gibbous moon, and while myself and my dad do know what this means, we are probably the exception, at least for people that appear to be normal otherwise. (Whether we appear to be normal otherwise is up to you, the reader, to decide.)

Image of the real full moon on Bluet's birthday courtesy of Robert-Paul Jansen's photostream

Coming Home

The creepy corridor outside our apartment

Yesterday, we made our big trek home and for those of you who don't know New York well, here is the map You can see googalized views of the trip here:

Packed up and ready to go

The trip was uneventful, and carefully slow.  Despite being just days recovered from major surgery, Emily made it with ease. We had to stop twice, once at the pharmacy (drug store), and then at the off license (liquor store) to buy some sherry to toast the baby; my parents stopped on their way home with me from the hospital to have a sherry at a friends house, so it is now a tradition.

Then we ate sushi as apparently it is what pregnant New York ladies miss most when they aren't allowed to eat it (A fact confirmed by one of the nurses at the hospital)

Since then, Bluet doesn't really seem to have noticed she is somewhere new - she only woke when she was ready to feed through the night (although there was a rather traumatic hour before my bed time when she refused to settle down). She seems to like gazing out the window, probably because it is bright and sunny, rather than because she appreciates the view. OK, now you can look at some more pictures.

Purposeful Strolling

I think Daddy stopped to buy booze

I think that we need this (Emily doesn't)

A 5 piece new born Mets gift set - if anyone in Missouri is still looking to get us a present

We Are Home

Everyone is doing well, so here is one last video from the hospital whilst we recover from our arduous trek home

PS this is a 30 second respite from a 30 minute crying spree caused by an unavoidable interruption of feeding. I think we all learned an important lesson there.

Good News, People

In a few hours Bluet is coming home for the first time. We will be walking very slowly from 68th and York to 79th between 2nd and 3rd - about 20-30 minutes of outside. We hope it isn't traumatic for her to leave the hospital room where she has spent most of her life - it certainly won't be for us.

OK, I'm off back to the hospital to pick up Mum/Mom and Baby. More pictures and video to follow - the internet is not being very co-operative at the moment

I'm New Here

Hello, cruel world

Greetings from the hospital. One of us has been here since Friday morning, two since Friday night, enduring an ordeal that makes the Odyssey seem like something much shorter and less arduous, whilst the third member of our party did not arrive until early Sunday morning. High blood pressure at the regular appointment led to [unnecessary detail deleted - Ed]. Suffice to say, the whole process was rather like traversing the Atlantic on a delayed flight - no idea of the time of arrival, with your life in the hands of others, food served on a tray, and drinks in those weird plastic pots with the silver lid you have to peel back. The whole process was somewhat tedious and drawn out, and we could've done with some free booze, but as with a long flight, there was an extremely worthwhile destination in the end. Appropriately the weather outside was a thunder and lightning storm, and quite dreadful.

Hold the Front Page

After a trip to the OR, baby Corse Collins was born at 2:43 am on the 17th April in the same way as Julius Caesar. Noble beginnings. She cried before she was even out, as the doctors exclaimed

"we have a big baby in here" with some surprise

Weighing in at 3.4 kg (or 7.5 lbs and 19 3/4" tall in old fangled measures), we had our new baby. And she seemed so very small and very delicate. And after so much waiting in the hospital, it was all slightly strange and overwhelming. And a great relief that she was finally here. The weather had turned much nicer.

What we learned first was that she likes to stick her tongue out. This turns out to be because she is very good at eating - almost certainly a sign of future greatness. She also passed her first exam, of hearing, which I am sure is a unique achievement at the first attempt. You can find out the progress of this child prodigy in our future round robin Christmas letters*

 *Note, due to unforeseen circumstances, we will be unable to send any Christmas letters detailing childhood achievements this or any other year.

So yes, she is very small, and very cute as you can see from the myriad photos here. She appears to have my hair and Emily's nose, with dark blue eyes. The doctors and nurses keep telling us how cute she is, and I'm sure they don't tell everyone that. So far, she's been mainly well behaved, not crying too much, unless there really is something wrong (i.e., she is hungry). 

So, the next thing she needed was a name with which to face the world. My two suggestions (Wilhelmina Kate, as a tribute to the upcoming royal nuptials, or Siobhan, pronounced as spelled, rather than the more conventional 'Shivaughn' were quickly vetoed.)

And instead, she will be called Bluet Corse Collins, after a flower found at the Sam A. Baker State Park in the Ozarks of Missouri, a favourite family holiday destination of Emily's, and also a character in a book by Eudora Welty called 'Delta Wedding'. Everyone tells us that it is very pretty. We certainly think that it is, and unique too. Which is great, as I was unable to secure ben@gmail.com.

More news and photos to follow.

PS all the links in blue above are informative and worth visiting.