The gift that keeps on giving...

At the baby shower, we were spoiled rotten!  I never thought we would be able to dress our kiddo for the next year just with the "loot" we received at the baby shower.  Personally, I think we received extra goodies since we had Miss Sloane.  You wanna hold the baby?  Contribute to her ever expanding wardrobe (we accept monetary contributions, as well...)  Just kidding!!!  

Aunt Cold gave us a gift that continually showed up for the next four weeks.  She and Aidyn decorated an entire pack of newborn diapers with drawings and messages for Daddy and I.  Some of them were hilarious (This Looks Gross or R U Sure You Want To Open This?), some were doggone cute (I Heart You and Princess!), and some weren't able to leave the house (Aidyn Was Here with RED marker all over the diaper.  Don't know about you, but I was not interested in anyone seeing the giant red stain through Sloane's onesie).  

Please enjoy...

Pinch My Buns...

 

Please Change Me, Daddy!

The Great Sloanedini

Our new resident escapologist just cracks me up.  When we try to calm Sloane, we put her in the papoose.  During the day, Sloanedini will kick her legs until the blanket loosens up a bit, then BAM!!!  Her arm will be free and she will start the process over until both arms are free.

We left her in the stroller to prepare everything for a bath.  I promise we did NOT prop her for this photo...

Who knows if she will be a lefty or a righty.  Doesn't seem to be an arm that she favors, to free...

Not sure if we have enough pink or prints here.  Anyhow, I think we need to videotape these escape acts to save this precious memory (until we catch her sneaking out of her room at 16...)!

Welcome home...

What a wonderful day it was, Monday, 25 July, as we were able to bring Sloane home!  Whoo hoo!!!

She is so tiny!  I feel so bad "locking" her up since the bar sits right under her chin.

How adorable is this little munchkin???

Hi-yo, Silver, away!!!

During the first night of Sloane's sleepover (at NICU), Auntie Kay sent us an email, giving Sloane the nickname of Sloane Ranger.  As we were heading into see our little love bug, we were giggling about the name.  Apparently our daughter received the message, too...

We were delighted to receive a book from Auntie Kay.  Check out the cover...

A little history on the name:  Sloane Rangers, or latterly just Sloanes or Sloanies, are upper class and fashion-conscious but conventional young people, living in the more expensive parts of West London.  The term Sloane Ranger is most often applied to young women.  Lady Diana Spencer, prior to her marriage, was the archetypal Sloane.  Wealth, and an upper class, although not necessarily aristocratic, social position is a pre-requisite.  The term, Sloane Ranger, was derived in the 1970's from Sloane Square, an expensive and fashionable square on the borders of the Belgravia and Chelsea districts in London.  Who coined it isn't clear, although it is often associated with Peter York, previously the Style Editor of Harpers & Queen magazine and the co-author of the Harpers & Queen's The Official Sloane Ranger Handbook.

In case you haven't had the pleasure of meeting our family mascot, please let me introduce you and share the history.  Chicken joined the "family" when I moved to San Diego and discovered this chicken amongst John's stuff.  As the agreeable, completely flexible, understanding girlfriend that I wasn't, I asked for this chicken to either disappear or for a new home to be found for it.  Imagine my surprise, a few hours later, to discover Chicken crammed into a Valentine's Day decoration.  Since then, Chicken has shown up every month and at most important special occasions...like hanging at our wedding, sniffing my bouquet.

Would you believe Sloane Ranger has her own Tonto Chicken???  Don't be jealous that chicken got to love on Sloane before you did...

Biliruben - is he the guy who created the sandwich?

We were forewarned, upon arriving at the hospital four weeks early, that our baby might have jaundice, as the liver is the last organ to mature in the womb.  Our doctor dissuaded us from saving the umbilical cord, letting us know there might not be enough to bank.  He  recommended pushing the blood back into the baby's blood stream (just in case the baby was anemic)...the only drawback - pushing the blood back in would result in more red blood cells entering the blood stream, causing jaundice.

Well, jaundice is exactly what our munchkin ended up having.  Sloane was extremely ruddy and the liver hadn't thoroughly flushed her blood leading to deep purple hands and feet.  When they showed me the baby, I presumed they "accidentally" dropped her hands and feet into an inkwell.  (Obviously I was still high from the epidural to think the hospital still used inkwells...)

The best way to show her extreme ruddy coloring is to compare her to Aunt Michelle...

We were told to keep an eye out for the yellowing of her eyes, as well as her skin to turn a "pumpkin-ish" color.  In other words, I gave birth to Rainbow Brite...

The pediatricians recommended the use of bili lights to help flush out the jaundice.  We were okay with this until the nurse informed us Sloane would be sleeping in the nursery (NICU).  The rules were we were allowed to visit every three hours, feeding for one hour, then go away for the next two.  Poor, poor Uncle Fern, who was visiting us, had to deal with my buckets of tears, once the nurse left.  John was quick to point out it was better to have the baby deal with the jaundice now, versus taking her home and having to bring her back.  Okay - we were just a few doors down.

How many babies can say they had a sleepover only 24 hours old?

Where's the baby?

I appreciate the two "followers" we have to this blog have already emailed me looking for pictures of the kiddo.  Are you kidding me?  I am a proud mama who probably was a Japanese tourist in a former life.  I can't speak other languages, with the exception of "CHEESE"!!!

This is one of the first pictures of our little angel.  I call this her 'Aunt Jemima' look...

A very proud father was created on Thursday, 21 July, 12:29 pm.  We were completely unprepared and uber nervous, but you can see the elation is evident!

I like to refer to this photo as "holy cow - would you look at what we made?".  I did not endure the 9th month of pregnancy, when you beg anyone, no matter how they do it, to remove the child from your womb.  When the nurse asked who we wanted in the room during delivery and kicked everyone out, upon hearing my response, I had a minor panic attack.  Surely this baby was better off in the baby cuzzi of mine.

I love this look!  Papa (my dad) has a tendency to drift off to sleep, while watching television.  When you try to get his attention, the most he can muster open is one eye.  Sloane and I are trying our best to imitate him (true Hovde girls, we are)...

The nursery

This is the nursery, when you first walk into the room.  We discovered the lights when we were visiting Uncle DougO, Aunt Susan and the kiddos in Park City.  Daddy and Nanny created the dots mural.  (Mommy and Daddy had the idea, but couldn't put it all together.)  I tried to prop up one of the quilts, but it kinda looks bad.  Under the birdie quilt is our changing table / dresser.

We hired a seamstress (a friend's aunt) to create our baby bedding.  We had picked out the materials and apparently, came up with a boring quilt.  Our fairy seamstress created this bird for the baby.  Not sure if you can tell, but she created "feathers" for the bird.  What we were blown away by was if you see the bagillions of circles in the multi colored material?  Faye, the fairy seamstress, outlined every single one of the circles.  Must have taken countless hours!

Our fairy seamstress was worried we wouldn't like the birdie, so she created a second quilt.  I love that the quilts vary so much.  This one has rounded edges, using the cord, with a wavy purple outline.  The blocks are awesome - they incorporate all of the materials we gave her.  A-MA-ZING!!!

I didn't take photos of the rest - we found leatherette "toy chests" at Target, which we are using for the cousins toys, as well as a bench for visiting folk.  We also have a fabulous rocking chair, with an ottoman, on order.  It was set to arrive around the same time as our baby.

Why can't things just happen on the day they are scheduled to arrive???

It's been four weeks and...

I still don't know what I am doing.  I feed her, I burp her, make sure she is in proper sleeping position to slumber, I change her diapers, all of that good stuff.  Now how do I get our house back in order?  How do those Super Mom's do it?  I haven't the foggiest.

Sloane Victoria was four weeks early.  How can anyone directly related to John and I be early?  Completely on time.  Yes.  Late.  Absolutely.  Early?  INCONCEIVABLE...  We had a crib, a dresser and an outfit if she came out a boy, but had not found an outfit for a girl.  We had not purchased the baby bedding, car seat, diapers, dang near anything else!  Yikes!!!


I plan on using this blog to update family and friends on how adorable this munchkin is.  Please don't expect too much and you will certainly be pleased.