Baby Foley-Murphy: August 2007

Grace--Up Close

Campbell's Point Trip

Ladies lunching--on Lake Ontario.

Finally deciding to take a pacifier--sometimes.

The Fortune/Murphy clan with its newest member.

Checking out the view of Lake Ontario from the dock at Campbell's Point, where she will very soon learning the jumping and bathing rituals of the Fortune family.

Meeting Uncle Will and his fascinating facial hair.

A very special trip to Campbell's Point

We're just back from Grace's first trip to Campbell's Point and her meeting with her Great Grandmother and middle namesake (Dorothy Fortune). It was a four generation gathering and Grace made quite the first impression. Let's just say that no one is worried about the strength of her lungs.

A signature look

The furrowed brow is a specialty of Grace's. She debuted this look in her 40 week sonogram picture. We think that her serious and thoughtful side comes from John--and the evidence of his baby pictures proves that this was a favored look of his as well in his early days.

More pics with Papa

Any family resemblance?

Don't worry about the devilish eyes--we had to turn off the red eye reduction flash because Grace was scowling in all the pictures from it.

Grace gets her first Foley family visitor--Papa

Grace has been able to meet a lot of family from far away the last couple of weeks. Starting with
Mike aka Andrea's dad aka Papa.

Grace was a bit--no, very --sleepy for the visit but he did get to see her eyes.

grace takes after her mother

a beatiful young woman with incredible fashion sense by day:

and a peaceful, on the back with hands behind head style sleeper by night:

also, a great "reader" (notice the black and white baby flashcards for vision and creativity development!)

first bathtub bath

after 2 weeks of waiting for the belly button scab stump thingie to fall off, we got to try out the baby bath tub. grace was an angel for this first bath (subsequent baths have been a little more devilish).

we have recently begun to employ the use of bibs during feedings to make baths a little less frequent. shes still working on effecient feeding style, and sports a certain glazed look to her skin during this learning phase. the bibs are adorable - keep an eye out for proof.

this picture is awesome.

the baby bjorn

this thing looks so easy when you see people cruising the streets in it (we have even seen people "walking" their dog in a baby bjorn. that's a whole nother story). newsflash: it ain't easy. there's a reason grace went to moma in the sling - she can't stand the bjorn. this morning she set a new record of a solid hour in the thing before melting down. in these earlier photos, you'll notice different versions of what "relief" looks like on john's face: careful relief:

and proud relief:

in both cases grace was going bananas about 2 seconds after the picture was taken. thank god she loves the sling (and seems to be coming around to feeling okay about the bjorn too).

grandma kip

so far we've been easing slowly into introducing our parents to their new roles as grandparents. john's mom was the first to take the plunge: here's grandma kip in full blown adoration mode.

poppa foley takes his turn tomorrow... stay tuned for his version of adoration mode (it's inevitable).

sasquatch kidnapping

at some point or other, sasquatch seems to have borrowed grace AND our camera. turns out he's a pretty good photog. and also, not a thief, evidently, as we thankfully have grace and the camera safely returned, with only these 2 photos as any evidence:

the hand looks human, but clearly those feet are not. we've already contacted the weekly world news and the sun.

first subway ride

people tend to bug out a little bit when they see us in public transportation (and i think the cab drivers HATE us because we scare them) but the amazing truth is grace sleeps harder than ever when on a moving vehicle. with the exception of her stroller.

trip to moma

museum of modern art currently has an exhibit on the sculptor richard serra. his medium is steel, huge plates of steel, that we uses to create these incredible mazelike freestanding pieces that really remind you of how small you are in the grand scheme of things. we love him. if you are in nyc in the next few weeks, check it out. if not, he's got stuff all over. keep an eye out.

perhaps it was a bit of a rushed affair but we wanted to see the show before it closes in early sept, so we marked the end of john's paternity leave by stopping by. such a crazy feeling to be inside these things feeling so small, holding grace who makes us feel so huge.

the pic does no justice at all to a) how beautiful and strong andrea is (at this point 2 weeks after c section!), b) how cool grace looks in her sling and how peaceful, or c) the power of these sculptures.

before going into the sculpture garden we had our first public meal / first real public breastfeeding at the moma cafe terrace 5. we tried out the camera timer there too:

that's grace under the pink flowery blanket. and that's the bill next to andrea's water, which was $0.00 since they loved grace so much. get ready for a lot of trips to restaurants, grace - yer money in the bank! btw, that's john's (literally) 6th cup of coffee that day in the lower right.

john copying grace sleeping

check out the matching eyebrows. she is her father's daughter! (also evident in the fact that she can sleep thru theatrics and photo shoots like this)

catching up ... not much news but lots of photos

lots of firsts in the last few weeks - first time out in the world, first meeting with grandma kip, first major exhibit at a world renowned museum, the list goes on, first public breastfeeding, first restaurant comping our meal in congratulations for the beautiful new baby, etc. i'll try to split up the photo sets into seperate posts - for once in our lives we're actually doing a good job of photo documenting our lives! not such a good job keeping caught up on sharing said photos. i think this is directly correlated to not such a good job keeping caught up on sleep - something had to give! anyway, here she is, in all her glory (and a couple pics of us and others as well)

Grace's entrance... in a little more detail

Here are some photos of the first days at home...lots of sleeping, some kangaroo care with dad, and her first walk--she's changing already. I'll back up with details of her arrival first.

On Monday night we headed to the midwife to check in and to find out what the plan would be since she'd reached 42 weeks and it was time to get delivery happening. We were anticipating a conversation about induction, but since I was already dilating and her head still wasn't engaged the conversation quickly became one about a C-section. She should have descended at least a couple weeks before so the fact that she hadn't created the concern that she couldn't for some reason and that proceeding with a natural birth could be dangerous for both of us.

So from there we were sent over to the hospital and admitted by 6pm. By 8pm they were getting me preped for an epidural and surgery. By 8:58pm Grace was born weighing in at 8lbs. 4.5oz, 20 in long.

It was a huge change in our plan for her birth but I felt very supported by the hospital staff through it and it happening quickly prevented me from getting to nervous or upset about it. After the birth our wishes were certainly honored and supported. Grace was brought to me to feed while I was still in the recovery room and she was with me constantly in my room, which allowed us to get bonding and feeding going as quickly as possible.

So even though it didn't go as I had wanted I think that it went the best way that it could.

We came home on Thursday afternoon and the first night was tough (think lots of crying) but aside from that she has been a happy baby, mostly occupied by eating and sleeping.