A Couple of Firsts

This whole blogging thing has made me feel like I have all kinds of power. I have had a few people get a little upset with me because I hadn't posted any pictures in a while. I guess I just needed a little begging to motivate me to get at it again. So I have put all kinds of pictures in this post of a pretty cute little boy. I am also happy to fill you in on the past week of our life. I've learned that with a little baby around, excitement isn't what it used to be. But that's alright, because what excites us today is watching our son grow. Can't say I've seen a whole lot of growth yet, but I'm sure its there and is exciting.

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Riley is doing well. I've learned that bragging about something spectacular that you child has done is sometimes not a good idea, because it might come back to bite you in the butt. I mentioned that during one of his first nights home, Riley slept for an amazing 5 1/2 hours straight. Oh how I long for that night to come back for a visit. Riley sleeps real well during the day, and not so much at night. He likes to wake up, eat, and then just stay awake. Its not that big of a deal, I just feel that he misled his mom and I. Sarah has done an admirable of using the day to sleep as well.

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Riley got tired of staying home, so he decided it was time to get out of the house for something other than a doctors appointment. So we took him to our Small Group on Wednesday night. He was so excited he could hardly stand it. Riley decided the best way to handle the excitement was to just sleep through the entire time out. He stayed in his carrier for almost three hours, never opening his eyes to those meeting him for the first time.

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Since our Small Group was a success, we decided that we could take Riley to the wedding of Cole Ford and Tiffany Sharbine. I had been touting this as Riley's first public appearance (small group only had about 10 people, so that didn't count) and was really happy that we were able to make it. There were so many people there that had wanting to see Riley, it was great to be able to introduce him to them. Riley did such a wonderful job, he was awake for the entire time we were there, which was probably about 2 1/2 hours. He didn't get fussy until the very end, and I can't blame him, it was a lot to take in.

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We planned last week to go to church on Sunday morning. It didn't happen. Riley was up for much of the night, and to top it off, our electricity went off, which usually spells doom for me and Sarah. We sleep with the soothing hum of a wonderful box fan, and if it goes off, we wake up. Its a terrible curse. Well, this Saturday night the electricity stayed on all night, so Riley was finally able to make it to church. We go to the early service which starts at 8 am. That is so stinking early, but most of our friends go then, and it is so great to have gone to church, then class, then eat, and still be home by 12. Only this week we didn't make it all the way through class. Riley did well during church, mainly because he was in the back eating. But about halfway through class Sarah stuck her head in the door and said, "Let's go!" Two people in my family were crying. So it was time to go. But all in all, Riley did a great job meeting so many new people this weekend.

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Pictures!!

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Riley after a bath.

Riley poking himself in the eye.
He is REALLY good at sleeping. Obviously this was during the daytime.
Again, probably a daytime shot.
Partying at the wedding reception.
My mom with her new favorite person.
My Grandparents with their great-grandson.
Sarah's good friend Kyndall who came all the way from Orlando to see Riley.
Sarah's sister Rebecca who stayed with us for a few days this week. It was great having her here. For some reason she volunteered to stay up with Riley late one night, and Sarah had no problem taking her up on her offer.
Riley's Brazilian friends Brent and Jill Nichols.

Canaan, Rachel and Levi Burkett. Its crazy, but when I first went to college, Canaan was about the size that Riley is here in this picture. Its was really great to see the Burketts at the wedding.

Riley's first Camp affiliated picture. If you look real hard I think you can actually see him. I'm holding him I am standing towards the top on the left side.
Maggie getting to meet Riley for the first time.
Ty getting to meet Riley for the first time. Ty needs a lot of practice with babies since he got 2 nieces and 2 nephews in a weeks time.
First family outing
Its been a good week. We are planning on taking our first family roadtrip to East Texas this week so that Sarah's grandparents can meet Riley. I will put more pictures up of cute little Riley before we head that way.

From 2 to 3

Well, we have been home now for about a week, and I feel that all three of us are doing a good job of adjusting to our new life together. Riley is doing a great job of eating, pooping, crying, and sleeping. Sarah feels better every day. What more could I ask for. Not much has happened in the past few days. I've been trying to think of things to relay to you, but could really only come up with one story. It is pretty sad, but the most exciting things to happen in my life the past few days have involved pee and poop. And to make matters worse, its not my pee or poop. Riley is a very mischevious little child, since he has pooped on me not once, but twice. One just barely got on my fingers, but another time he shot it all the way onto my shirt. I was impressed at first, but this isn't a talent that will make me rich in 20 years. I need Riley to get good at something important so he can take care of me and Sarah in our golden years. But, shooting poop is a start I suppose. Poop is not the only thing he has been shooting lately, as I'm sure this picture will show you.

Here is a picture of Riley sleeping with his favorite Mommy.
My grandmother Dorothy came over on Wednesday. She was at the hospital when Riley was born, but didn't get to hold him because she needed to leave so she wouldn't be driving in the dark. Well, she made up for that, and held onto him tightly. She is in love.
He is a REALLY good sleeper.
He is also really good at giving a blank stare.
Riley started down on my lower chest here, and climbed all the way to the top of my shoulder. What strong legs he has.
I am proud to say that for the past two nights, Riley has woken his mommy and daddy once. He slept for over 5 hours straight two nights ago. This was a very welcomed suprise for me and Sarah. I don't really know what we did to cause this, but we like it. Hopefully it is a sign of things to come. Riley has his first doctors appointment tomorrow, and hopefully the doctor will confirm what me and Sarah already know: that he is perfect.

Riley's First Weekend at Home

After spending four nights in the hospital, I can't tell you how great it has been to be home for a few days. Don't get me wrong, our visit to the hospital was by far the greatest hospital trip I have ever made. Everyone from nurses, to doctors, to technicians, to custodians were unbelievably nice and treated us so well. But four nights there was way more than enough. Riley told me more than once that he was really excited about getting to go home. We were released around 4:00 Friday afternoon, and got home about 15 minutes later. You know how you always see new dad's driving slowly when leaving the hospital with their new baby for the first time? I did that. Except Riley was asleep and I wasn't worried about him. I had to drive slowly because Sarah was not a fan of the bumps. She was pretty sore. Too bad we had to go over railroad tracks first thing out of the hospital. Oops. But we made it home just fine, she wasn't bleeding, or even crying, so I think it was alright. When we got home we had Sarah's mom here waiting for us with a well-stocked pantry and fridge. She was a huge help our first couple of days at home with Riley. Unfortunately she had to leave early today to go see her newest grandchild, Norah Taylor Dean, who was born this morning.

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Sarah picked out Riley's "going home outfit" months ago, and was very excited to finally dress him in it. She knows that I pretty much only wear Nike, so I think she decided to start the whole "Like father like son" thing.

Sleeping in the car seat and he's still in the hospital. I guess that's just a baby reflex. Carseat...sleep.
Ok, two of us are really excited to go home. Can you guess who they might be?
FREEDOM!!!!
Coming home together for the first time.
Part of the whole baby process is getting to see so many people who come to see the baby. I like to think that maybe they also have a little bit of desire to see me and Sarah as well, but the way they react to seeing Riley tells me that they don't care about us. I decided to post a few pictures of friends and family that came to gander at Riley. If you are reading this and don't see your picture, its because you didn't come see us. If you had, maybe you would see yourself on this blog.

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This is Sarah's really good friend Sarah and her husband Ty. They came all the way from Fayetteville, AR to see Riley. I just won't mention that they just happened to be in Ft. Worth on the day he was born.

Here are my grandparents Louie and Marilyn. Riley is their first great-grandchild.
Here is my really good friend of 25 years Caleb Panter and Addi. They came from Edmond, OK with Luke Panter to see Riley. I think Addi left ready to have a baby. Sorry Caleb.
Aunt Rachel has been to see Riley twice this weekend. Tack that on to the times she saw him in the hospital, and she is easily winner in the "trips to see Riley contest".
Sarah's parents so goodbye to Riley
Finally, I know that all you really want to see is Riley. So here he is. Nothing but Riley Daniel Smith. I'm biased, but my goodness he is pretty stinking cute.




I have tried so hard to figure out how to get a video on here, and just can't do it yet. I am closer today than I was a day or two ago. I want to get it directly to the blog, but the link should work.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvLnKdxOdDo

This is the video of most of the family meeting Riley for the very first time. I think it turned out great.
Tomorrow I will post a picture of what Riley did to the wall today.

Hanging Out at the Hospital

One more night. That's it. I am starting to feel as if this hospital is becoming my home. I can't imagine what it is like for Sarah being stuck in the bed for 95% of the time. Well, and I would imagine that Riley thinks he is home, since the hospital is where he has spent his entire life. Sure, that life has only been 48 hours long, but its been spent in the hospital. Even though we are all getting hospital fever, it has been the best hospital trip I've ever had. Tomorrow when we go home we get to take a cool toy home with us. So far this toy only does about three tricks...Eat, sleep, cry. But we love all three tricks. Sarah is doing great. The doctor came by today and looked at her staples and said she looks very good. She is still sore, but first thing she said this morning was that she already felt better than at any point the previous day. It has been a lot of fun to have so many people come by and see our new son. I know many of you who came will read this, and we want to tell you thank you very much. The hospital can be a very boring place, but your visits have brightened our days. I didn't get to take many close up of Riley his first day, but we have tried to make up for that.

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Here is Riley with his deep blue eyes looking right at you.

Riley crying. He has done that a lot today. I think its because of a little snip-snip that happened this morning.
Sarah had to go 36 hours without eating, so this reaction to her first meal as a mommy should come as no suprise.
I showed you one picture of Riley doing one of his tricks, crying. Here is another one of his tricks, sleeping. I won't show his third trick, eating, for decency reasons.
One more picture of Riley sleeping. He does it a lot.
The reason that I didn't take many close-up pictures of Riley his first day was because I was filming many of his first. I thought it would be really cool to have on video all the family members first reaction to meeting Riley. I thought it turned out really fun. Everybody was so excited, and it was really fun to go back and listen to what everybody said. Now, I tried to put the video on here, but it never finished uploading. So if any of you out in blogland would like to tell me how to do it, I will be all ears.



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Riley will go home on Friday and get to meet all kinds of family and friends this weekend. It has been a great start a new chapter in our lives. We know it will only get better and can't wait to see what God has planned for us.

Riley's Birth Day!!!

Alright here it is, exactly what everyone wants. I will let you look at all of the pictures first, and then I will tell you about our day at the end. I know the pictures are what you're here for anyways.

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Here I am, ready to enter the world of fatherhood. It must be a messy world, because they gave me this sweet scrub/coveralls hybrid.

They gave Sarah a sweet hat to wear to welcome our son into the world.
Our last family picture that only invovles 2.
Sarah had no idea what was going on behind the curtain. Probably a good thing.
Riley is in there somewhere.
There he is. Ignore the exposed manparts.
I'm pretty happy!
Mommy and Baby!
First family picture involving 3.
There's a good shot of Riley and his head of hair.

Proud Dean grandparents.

Proud Smith grandparents.
AUNT Rachel.
Granny.
Here I am after my first night of being a daddy. You can tell how much I love my hospital chair/bed.

Alright, here is the story of how Riley Daniel Smith's birth day went. Sarah and I came to the hospital 4:00 on Monday afternoon, to prepare for an induced delivery on Tuesday. Sarah's nurses came in and told us what to expect during the night and into the next day. Other than some problems with Sarah's IV, it was a fairly uneventful night. At 6:00 the next morning the nurse came in and started the induction process. It wasn't long afterwards that Sarah started feeling contractions. Around 8:30 our doctor came in and checked to see how far along Sarah was. And the answer was, not very. She was only about 1 centimeter dialated. She went ahead and broke Sarah's water, and said we will see what happens. At that point Sarah was hurting pretty bad because of the contractions, she ordered what I believe to be the 8th wonder of the world, the epidural. Wow, Sarah went from being in lots of pain, to sleeping. AMAZING!! At this point everything was going pretty good. But, the next 7 hours were unbelievably BORING. Nobody told me how boring the day would be. Once that epidural kicked in, it was nap time for Sarah. Which meant it was boring time for me. I was expecting some excitement, but instead I would watch some TV, take a little nap, walk to the waiting room, listen to some music. The doctor came in after lunch and checked Sarah. She had made a little progress, up to almost 3 centimeters dialated. The doctor said it was going slowly, but that the baby was coming today no matter what. After the ckeck, it was nap time once more for Sarah, which meant it was boring time again for me. We waited for a while, and not much was happening, which led me believe that we were looking at a C-section. A little after 5:00, the doctor came in, checked, and nothing had changed. She said it was baby time, and we headed off to the OR. I had to put on my sweet scrubs/coveralls hybrid and waited for them to prep Sarah. When it was showtime, I was retrieved, and headed to the operating table. Sarah was there waiting on me, with a big curtain draped in front of her. I sat down beside her, and listened to all the sounds going on around her belly. I was not real excited about seeing Sarah all cut up, so I stayed behind the curtain, and was very happy there. But when it was baby debut time, the anasthesiologist made me get up and watch him come out. I was glad I did. Riley was pretty nasty his first few seconds in this new world, and was not real excited to be here. He was crying, and fussing, but had no choice, he's here to stay. After he came out, I watched them clean him off. If I may, I'm going to go on a tangent for a minute. People always say "What's wrong with the world today?", and I have an answer. Babies are abused when they are born. Riley was twisted and turned and tossed and scrubbed and wiped down with so much more vigor than I would ever think was appropriate. When I told this to my family, they laughed at me and said babies are that fragile. Oh well. After Riley was born we waited for Sarah to be sown up, and then headed to recovery where Riley got to eat for the first time. After about 30 minutes I got to wheel Riley down to the nursery, and got to show him off to all the family for the first time. It was really funny to see them all jump up and run to see Riley smiling. After a couple of minutes of looking at Riley, the nurse took him to the nursery and we got to watch him be washed, and measured, and all taken care of. The family got to hold Riley for just a few minutes before they got kicked out.

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That's Riley's birth day in a nutshell. I hope these pictures can hold you over, and I will do my best to put as many pictures up everyday as possible. Like I said last night, thank you so much for all the prayers and well wishes. We will be in the hospital until at least Friday, so if you are in or around Grapevine and have nothing to do, you can come meet Riley and Baylor Grapevine. Talk to you soon.