Cute. Cute. Little Baby.

IT'S A GIRL!

Announcing the arrival of Miss Hollie Margaret "Spooky" Grover, born October 23 at 6:57 p.m., weighing in at 8 lbs 4 oz, measuring 20 inches long. She's got feet the size of a small rabbit's, and her fingernails are already far longer than her nail-biting Mom's and Dad's.

Here's the quick stats:

Duration of labor: 18 hours
Epidural: Yes (did you read the above stat? The nurses told me to brag that I lasted 12 hours without one.)
Number of stitches Mom got after labor: They're afraid to tell me.
Number of nurses who stayed late on their shift in order to see Baby Grover born: 2
Number of nurses who showed up just as things suddenly got exciting: 2
Number of ice cups and popsicles the doula brought me since hospitals are crazy and don't let laboring women eat anything: 4
Number of naps David and I took after the epidural set in: a billion
How much sleep David and I had before going into labor Saturday night: 0 hours
What time David and I had woken up Saturday morning: 6:00 a.m.
How much sleep David and I have had since then: Does sleep even count if it's only for forty-five minutes at a time and you spend your dreams thinking about the baby?
Number of times I've had to call the lactation consultant 24-hour hotline since coming home: Just once. It's a miracle.
Number of bags of groceries Grandma has bought since coming to Texas last night: somewhere between 25 and 30, including several pink things for Baby Hollie and her room
Number of hours of schoolwork I've done since Baby Hollie arrived: 0 hours

Okay, here are more pictures:

Peanut Spooky



Mom and Little Spooky Hollie (It ends up brushing your hair becomes quite the impossible dream when you have a 2-day-old. Ditto for brushing teeth.)


Baby Hollie meets Grandma Hollie

The Final Countdown and, also, Pictures of the Apocalyptic Dust Cloud That We Survived

No but seriously: we have considered putting "The Final Countdown" on our song list that we will play when it comes time for Spooky to come out. Somehow, though, I'm thinking the song will be a little too upbeat for me as I strive to find my "focal point."

[A note on focal points: I want to try to have this baby with all the feelings that come with it, but I also don't want to panic and stiffen up from the pain that is supposed to be greater than anyone can imagine until it's all over everywhere around them. So apparently breathing, relaxing, and having a "focal point" helps. My problem is that I can't ever decide on a focal point, so they get all jumbled. My doctor said her focal point was being on a tractor, riding off into an endless sunset surrounded by the fruit tree groves she grew up on. Ina May Gaskin, a totally hip and scholarly midwife whose book I read, said she just imagined she was a mountain lion. When David and I practice breathing together (so adorable, I know, and pretty necessary for this periodically hyperventilating crazy wife) I imagine he and I are at an Asian bath in a cabin in the woods only it's also a Miyazaki film (because some of our song tracks are "relaxing piano" versions of Miyazaki film theme songs) and also sometimes it's snowing and sometimes there is a campfire and sometimes it is night, sometimes evening, sometimes morning, sometimes we're snuggled up in warm clothes, sometimes we are in swimsuits, and sometimes I'm suddenly in the baths in my ski trip outfit and it's too hot for sweaters anyway and David is tapping me on the shoulder and telling me I need to relax. Maybe I should just go with "I am a mountain lion. I am a mountain lion. I am a mountain lion..."]

Here's a picture of David jumping behind our house. I'd show the front of our house, too, but I'm too lazy right now to photoshop the house number off the picture. And the last thing we need is some weird internet stalker.

But here's Davie on our front porch:


Anyway, I have no time to write this blog post considering that I'm basically a ticking time bomb and could go at any time, but I wanted to tell everyone that this Grover fam is still alive and well, and also, some of you might want to see the apocalyptic pictures of the Lubbock dust storm from yesterday. It was awesome. David and I stayed inside and sang Beatles songs while leaves, garbage, grackles, pumpkins, and small cows slammed against our sliding glass doors.


P.S. These pictures were taken at the same time of day as the other pictures in this post. And, as I have mentioned earlier, I have no time for photoshopping. This was the color of our world. And quit making fun of the duct tape on our car.