It's been HOW long since we slept?

Donovan here. Things are good, but I don't mind saying that we've had our ups and downs. For awhile, Rayna absolutely refused to sleep at night. She'd start screaming around 9:30 PM and would keep it up pretty much non-stop until dawn. We handled it well at first but sleep deprivation and stress finally started to take a toll. We've made a few changes to how we feed her and results have been positive. I'm hopeful that we've successfully weathered our first storm.

Other than that, things are going pretty well here at Castle Lambright. Rayna and I enjoy watching the Kansas City Chiefs on TV even if they lose more often than they win. We've discovered that Rayna likes car trips and we've taken her out a few times just to get out of the house. Last week, we all went to the mall. Nicole, Mona (Nicole's Mom), and Rayna went Christmas shopping while I hid in Barnes and Noble reading. It was a nice getaway. I'm told that Rayna was a big hit with the shoppers. :-)

Yesterday, we went to SELCO (where I work) for the annual staff Christmas party. Once again, Rayna was the belle of the ball and we all had a good time. I went back to work today after taking two weeks off. I'll work two weeks and take two more off, which should work well for both us and the office.

Rayna has been keeping her eyes open more and seems to be getting better at tracking large objects. She seems to know our voices and will turn her head in the direction of the speaker when one of us talks. It's pretty cool.

I've posted some new pictures on the photo page (link is located on the right side of the screen). There are some pictures of Rayna's first bath and some other random shots that I added to the "Rayna" photo album. Now that we are all well-rested, I'll try to do a better job posting. :-)

Pictures are up!

There are a few pictures on our photo page (see the link to the right sidebar). They're in the photo album labeled "Rayna".

We're home

We're home now. Rayna has been sleeping and feeding a lot. We're all pretty tired but it's good to be settled in here. Not much else to post right now. We'll get the photos posted to our Flickr page later this evening.

Welcome to the world, Rayna

Rayna Kay Lambright arrived yesterday, 12-06-2005, at 1:23 PM. She's a tiny little thing, weighing in at 5 lbs, 13 oz and measuring 18.5 in. Mother and baby are just fine. When I left the hospital last night, Nicole was getting ready to take a warm bath and settle in for a much-needed rest.

I know that one shouldn't use the words "easy" and "labor" in the same sentence, but it was all pretty quick. Nicole woke up around 5:00 AM with contractions and we got to the hospital about 10:00. Things got a lot more intense around noon and Rayna made her grand entrance about an hour and half later. Note to anyone out there who is planning to have a baby: That breathing thing sounds silly, but it really does help Mom focus on something other than her contractions.

I don't have much else to add right now. I'll be heading back to the hospital this morning and will be there all day. We'll post more tonight or tomorrow.

Before I go, I want to send a big Thank you out to all who have called, emailed, sent flowers and gifts, and been thinking about us. Your love and support mean the world to us.

Looks like this is it

Donovan here. Looks like this might be it. Nicole started contactions this morning. We're still at home but will probably head to the hospital in the next few hours. Stay tuned...

Welcome!

Welcome to the Lambrights' corner of the web! If you are reading this, you probably know that Nicole is due just about anytime now. We've got our bags packed, the stupid infant car seat is installed (more on that horror story later), and now it's all up to Rayna.

Rayna, as you may or may not know, is the name that we've settled on for our little girl. Rayna Kay Lambright (if you're not into the whole brevity thing). What were we thinking? Well, Nicole's middle name is Raye. My middle name is Ray. It just sort of worked out that way. Kay is a reference to my Mom, Kathryn.

So, we're just waiting. I'll post more as soon as something happens. In the meantime, I've posted some pictures from our wedding over at Flickr. More photos will follow.