Elliott's first meeting with Boppy & JJ

Elliott & Boppy watching the Chiefs

Christmas Dinner

Christmas nap

A visit from taka's godparents

Afternoon naptime

Asleep during dinner

He's on the couch between us while we eat.

Reading with dad

Absolutely ridiculous

Elliotts first visitors

Our neighbors chris and rachel.

Because yawning photos are adorable

I love my puppy

Eyes open

What the hell do we do now?

As soon as we got home we put him in the middle of the dining room
table and tried to figure out what to do next. 24 hours later he's
still there and we still haven't figured it out yet.

Just kidding. (About him still being on the table)

Elliott's first car ride

Heading home

Here we are on our way home from the hospital after an eventful three
night stay.

How many of you...

Can say that your first yawn was caught on film?

Dad and baby

Mom and baby

Elliott resting

1st family photo

Elliott Gray

8 pounds 4oz

Still pushing

Getting close.

Commence pushing

Jen is fully dilated and starting to push. Stay tuned.

Guess the time and weight

Brie suggested that we start a post where people can guess the time of
birth and the weight. I think that is a pretty good idea. Jen's guess
is 2pm and 8 pounds 2 ounces. I'll say 12:43pm and 8 pounds even. The
nurse says 7 pounds 8 ounces and born at 12:30.

Feel free to make your guess in the comments. The winner gets to name
the baby. Brie has already told me she'll name it Muffins, so please
do your best to beat her.

Jen is resting right now and trying to get a little sleep.

7:30am update

Here's a quick update. Jen is now in full having contractions mode.
After a few painful ones she had them put in an epidural. She is now
resting comfortably and everything is progressing as it should.

Early morning

We're up early in room 15. Jen's doctor was on call last night and
slept at the hospital. He called the nurses at 5am and told them that
he was ready to go. As I type Jen is getting hooked up by the nurse
with an IV and various monitors. In a few minutes Dr. Banks will break
her water and labor will begin.

Last night was a somewhat long one. Jen didn't sleep much. I probably
slept three or four hours. Jen was hooked to a fetal heartbeat
monitor all night that was hooked to a loudspeaker in the room. As we
slept the baby's heart beat at 150 bpm or so and was very audible. At
one point in the night we were both awakened by a strange recurrent
sound which as it turns out were magnified hiccups.

I've been doing all my blogging from my iPhone which means that both
jen and I are able to monitor the blog regularly. We have been
enjoying everyones comments and usually read them shortly after they
are posted.

More updates to come.

Family visit

Checked in

Jen is officially checked onto Brookwood Medical Center, Labor and
Delivery Room 15. Its a nice big room and seems like an excellent
place to have a baby.

Puppy camp

Takayama is on her way to puppy camp until Thursday. Things are going to be a little different for that pup when she gets home.

It's on!

Hi! Jennifer here. Just a quick update to let you know that we got the green light! We check in at 4pm today...yikes! Thanks for all the well wishes and we'll keep you posted from the hospital. I'm heading off for a shower, probably the last relaxing one I'll have for a while!!

The last bellypic

Here's one last pic of Jen before the baby comes out. This was taken two or three days ago. She will not be pleased to know that this is on the blog.

Welcome to the blog

Hello everyone. I'm going to attempt to do some blogging during the next week. Hopefully this will bring some of you that aren't in Birmingham a little closer to what should be quite a ride! As it turns out, Jen's hospital room has wi-fi, and I'll be bringing my laptop. I'll do my best to blog regularly. All you need to do is come to this page, hit refresh from time to time, and watch the magic unfold (not all of the magic, but some of it). Jen goes in tomorrow (Monday) morning at 10:00am for a checkup. After that, she'll presumably get the green light to come back in at 4:30pm. After hopefully getting some sleep, she'll be up bright and early (6:30am) on Tuesday to start the business of having a baby. Over the next couple of days I'll try and post both photos and updates. You can even communicate with us by replying to my posts. Enjoy!