Sunday, September 14, 2008

So far so good with the new addition! Although we've had a few sleepless nights, the transition seems to be going as smoothly as possible. Here are a couple recent pics of the little guy:





And here's Emmylou smothering Miller with kisses:



Today we got together with my cousin Billy and his wife and got to meet their 8 month old son, Alexander. They live in Houston and evacuated to a friend's house near Austin for the hurricane.





Carol and Erin hanging out with Miller:



And Emmylou in a hula costume Carol brought over!

Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Emmylou and her brother are already playing in forts together!



And here's Emmylou taking care of Miller's new present from Alex and Carlo, the modern puppy (thanks, guys, we LOVE it!):

So a few people have been wondering: what happened to Finn?!

Let me try to explain...

As many of you know, Gary and I had pretty much settled on the name Finn for the little guy a few months back. Gary was sold but I wasn't 100%. I mean, I liked the name, but for some reason it just didn't seem totally right. I thought it might be a bit too trendy but since we couldn't come up with anything better I just went with it.

Names were hard this time around, mostly because naming our daughter Emmylou made things difficult. See, if Emmylou was a boy, he was going to be named Cash. But now that we have an Emmylou, if we named our boy Cash it would sound like we were raising the Grand Ole' Opry. Same thing for our other top boy names: Will might turn into Willie (Nelson), Henry would turn into Hank (Williams), and Lyle was a 'no' because of Lovett. When Gary suggested Merle and Waylon I think I laughed in his face.

So anyway, a couple of weeks before the birth, the name Miller came to me out of the blue. It fit my criteria: a simple but unique name that sounded a little old-fashioned and went well (I thought) with Emmylou. When I ran it past Gary he loved it and we decided that unless the baby came out looking definitively like a "Finn," he'd be named Miller. Of course that plan was almost derailed when I read in People magazine a week later that Matthew McConaughey's crazy redneck older brother, Rooster, has a son named Miller Lyte. Uggh. Obviously we chose to ignore that fact.

So once he came out, the little guy looked like a Miller to us and that was that. The funny thing, though, is that he didn't totally escape the music connection, and luckily there's a tie with his name to one of my all-time favorites. Emily pointed out the other day that Lucinda Williams' father's name is Miller Williams and that he happens to be a former U.S. Poet Laureate who spoke at Bill Clinton's 1997 inauguration. I checked out some of his poems and thought I'd share one about his seeing his granddaughter on the day of her birth:

A Poem for Emily

Small fact and fingers and farthest one from me,
a hand's width and two generations away,
in this still present I am fifty-three.
You are not yet a full day.

When I am sixty-three, when you are ten,
and you are neither closer nor as far,
your arms will fill with what you know by then,
the arithmetic and love we do and are.

When I by blood and luck am eighty-six
and you are someplace else and thirty-three
believing in sex and god and politics
with children who look not at all like me,

sometime I know you will have read them this
so they will know I love them and say so
and love their mother. Child, whatever is
is always or never was. Long ago,

a day I watched awhile beside your bed,
I wrote this down, a thing that might be kept
awhile, to tell you what I would have said
when you were who knows what and I was dead
which is I stood and loved you while you slept.

From Living on the Sun Face (Louisiana State University Press).

So, that's the story!

Thursday, September 04, 2008

We're home! I thought we weren't going to be able to leave the hospital until tomorrow at the earliest, but my doctor gave us the go-ahead for this evening so we happily took it.

Getting everyone inside:



Here's Emmylou feeding Miller a bottle (we're having to supplement breastfeeding with formula until my milk comes in):


And here's another photo of Emmylou holding Miller in the hospital:



And a couple with Emily since she's always the one taking photos and rarely in them (thanks for posting the great photos, Em!):





And here's what Emmylou wore for her very first full day of school (thanks, Leslie!):

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Auntie Em here with some photos from yesterday!


Emmylou got her very own camera:


Meeting Miller for the first time! He's about five minutes old here:


The nurses took him to be measured and cleaned:



The nurses fed him some milk because his blood sugar was a little bit low (which is typical for big babies). Notice the aforementioned fat rolls - adorable!



We all visited with Becca and the baby while they were in the recovery room:



Emmylou thinks her new baby brother is cute!


And she told him that she loves him.


Mimi and Granny were there for the birth and got to meet him too:


Grammie with Miller:


Miller in his UT cap, in a picture similar to one they took when Emmylou was born:


Miller's first birthday party! Thanks Carol, Gina and Evan for making the cupcakes. We started this tradition when Emmylou was born:


Lizzie holding Miller:Emmylou holding Miller:


"Hi, Mom."

So tired...it was a big day...

Tuesday, September 02, 2008


BABY UPDATE

He's here!

Miller William Stephens was born at 2:58 this afternoon. He weighed in at 10 pounds, 1 ounce and was 21 inches long and is doing great!

Photos and more to follow soon...

Thanks to everyone for their well wishes and support!