Much To Be Thankful For

Kate spent her first Thanksgiving with the Speyrer's in Port Barre and Eunice. She had a great first overnight trip away from home. We learned that she loves to ride in the car, we just hope it stays that way after our next big car trip to Florence. Eight hours is a little bit more to handle than the one hour trip to Port Barre. We ate Thanksgiving dinner with Kate's Great Aunt Fanny, Great Mama Speyrer and cousins Maria, Hunter and their newest addition Connor, Vincent, Christy and Tanner and Dixie. Lunch was wonderful and visiting with family was even better. After we had our fill at Aunt Fanny's we returned to Pop Pop's house where Nanny and Parrain stopped by so that Kate could finally formally meet her Nanny. Nanny came to the hospital when Kate was born but hadn't been able to hold her yet since she was sick for the baptism. Kate also got to visit with Uncle D, Aunt B (and Aunt B's family), Uncle Sherb and Aunt T, and Great Mama LaHaye as well. We returned to Baton Rouge on Friday so that Kate could meet a few close friends who were in town for the weekend. She had a great time meeting Stewart and Amy Jolly, Tosh and Suzanne Wolfe, and Allen and Jenny Richey. We are so thankful for all of our family and friends and most of all for our precious little girl. We hope everyone had a great holiday!!

Mama Speyrer and Kate and Nick with Connor

Some quality time with Pop Pop

The proud grandparents had a rock off while Mama Speyrer looked on

Pop Pop wouldn't give Kate up long enough to carve the turkey so the electric knife was passed on to Nick. He dove right in with a little instruction from Mama

Cousins Maria, Hunter and Connor

We know Kate and Connor will be great friends in the future.

Nanny and Parrain with Kate in Port Barre

Kate loved meeting Jenny and Allen Richey. Also thanks to the Richeys for our great dinner on Friday!!

Life Without Nonna

Kate is 3 weeks old today, November 23 and I'm sure that many of you have noticed that we have not been making blog posts with the same frequency as the first couple of weeks. This is a result of our little family trying to settle into some resemblance of a routine on our own. We were lucky enough to have the full time help of Kate's Nonna (Abbie's Mom) the first 2 weeks of Kate's life. This allowed us extra time to do all sorts of things...sleep, work on blog posts, update Facebook, return phone calls and emails. The past week has left us without our dear Nonna. While we are trying to devise plans daily to coax Nonna back down to Louisiana to help out Mom and Dad again, we are just extremely thankful for the time that we had with her and for all of the help and guidance she provided in our first few days as new parents. Kate has been missing Nonna badly and can't wait for some more good quality time with Nonna and the rest of the Johnsons around Christmas.

Geaux to Hell Ole Miss

While I do feel some degree of guilt in following-up the Baptism post with a Geaux to Hell Ole Miss post, it obviously didn't stop me.

While Mom and Dad may pull for different teams, there is one thing we can all agree upon - Geaux To Hell Ole Miss, Geaux To Hell!

Happy Gameday to all!

Katherine Marie's Baptism

On Saturday November 14 Katherine Marie Speyrer was baptized and initiated into the Catholic Church at St. George Catholic Church in Baton Rouge, LA. The private baptism ceremony was conducted by Deacon Albert Ellis and witnessed by many of Kate's closest family and friends.

Marcus and Lori Speyrer are Kate's Godparents and they were chosen because of their strong Catholic faith and how they have practiced this faith as the parents of Kate's oldest nephews (Caleb and Pierce). And of course we need to explain, particularly to our family/friends from Alabama, the called names of Kate's Godparents. As customary in South Louisiana, Kate will call Uncle Marcus and Aunt Lori, Parrain and Nanny respectively.

Mom and Dad with Katherine Marie. Kate wore the same baptismal gown that her Daddy and Granny wore.

Kate with her Parrain. Unfortunately, Nanny was not able to be with us on this special day as she was recovering from a contagious illness. As you will see in the next picture, Nonna proudly stood in for Nanny.

The baptismal water being poured over Kate's head.

This was a powerful moment during the ceremony and I don't think there were many dry eyes at this point. Deacon Ellis laid Kate on the altar as a sign that we were placing Kate back in God's hands.

4 Generations - Granny, Poppa, Momma, Baby Kate

4 Generations - Mama Speyrer, Pop Pop, Daddy, Baby Kate

As we mentioned, we were honored to have so many of Kate's friends and family with us. The following individuals attended the Baptism - Granny Johnson, Poppa, Nonna, Uncle Donny, Aunt Kay, cousin Audrey, Mama Speyrer, Mama Lahaye, Pop Pop, Parrain, Aunt Fannie, Uncle D, Aunt B, Aunt Dana, cousin Braxton, cousin Karoline (our Godchild), Uncle Sherby, Aunt T, and Mom and Dad's good friends Uncle Scott, Uncle Matt, and Aunt Jesse.

A baptism party followed at our House. While keeping with the old-school Catholic tradition, we found it important to baptize Kate in the first few weeks in her life. While we are really glad that we did do this, having a party for 30+ people less than two weeks after having baby number one may have been pushing it. But we had a lot of help: Poppa smoked what seemed to be 400 pounds of pork for some good ole fashion redneck pulled pork sandwiches (we literally have 25 packets of frozen pork if anyone wants a sample), Nonna cooked some baked beans and put up with Daddy's OCD behaviors leading up to the party, Aunt Kay brought tons of goodies (homemade hummus, cake), and Aunt Dana picked up the cake that her sister made for us. All of the food was great!! We appreciate all of the help!

Aunt Fanny holding Kate. In the background are Uncle Donny, Aunt Kay, and Audrey. They live in Mobile and drove in for the day. We were really glad that they were able to make and they claim we are their closest relatives (most of their family still remains in Florence). Since this is the case, we assume they'll take some babysitting turns here in the future.

What a Difference a Week Makes

Kate was one week old on Monday November 9. It is hard to believe that just a week ago, she was not yet a part of our family (other than just in Mommy's belly). We both feel that this has been the absolute best week of our lives. We knew that the experience of parenthood would be special but we had no idea how truly awesome it would be. While it is impossible to capture how overwhelmed, blessed, and proud we are to be Kate’s Mom and Dad, below is a snapshot of some of our thoughts and reflections over the past week:

· We never knew how much love we could feel for someone the moment we met them for the very first time.
· We never knew how unimportant so many of the little things that used to keep us busy and stressed out really were.
· We didn't fully realize how our parents must feel and how much they love us until we understood the love we feel for Kate.
· We feel so lucky to have been blessed with our little miracle.

In honor of her one week birthday, we thought we would share some pictures from an amateur photography session that we held with Kate. She was very patient and cooperative and we thought we got some really neat pics if we do say so ourselves.

Kate's First Football Weekend: A Little Family Rivalry

Kate's first weekend was a big one in the Speyrer household. As most of you know, Nick is a HUGE LSU fan and Abbie cheers on the Crimson Tide so it was fitting for Kate to arrive just in time for the family rivalry football game. There has been much debate throughout most of the pregnancy and especially during the week leading up to the game as to which colors Kate would be sporting on the big day. We finally agreed that she would support both teams by wearing each school's colors at some point during the day.

Daddy kicked off the day by getting Kate all geared up in her LSU stuff.

When Mommy went to look for Kate's Alabama outfit it was no where to be found. She thought maybe it was packed away somewhere else. She asked Daddy if he knew where it was and received what she thought was a sincere, "No babe. I have no idea where it would be." The more Mommy looked, the more she began to realize that the AL outfit had been hidden. She searched high and low and finally uncovered Kate's only Alabama duds in her toy chest in her room.

As quickly as possible she was changed into her Alabama outfit with no help from Daddy.

Lucky for Daddy, Kate wears a onesie under her harness at all times and Mommy was nice enough to leave the LSU onesie on under the Alabama outfit. Here's Kate showing support for both teams.

Overall it was a great day for the family. Daddy even got over his unhappiness at Kate's Alabama outfit and snuggled up with the enemy for a nap.

One final note from Daddy - Research tells us that Kate's eyes are physically capable of seeing just fine right now, but her brain isn't ready to process all that visual information, so things stay pretty fuzzy for a while. As her brain develops, so does her ability to see clearly, giving Kate the tools she needs to understand and manage her environment. Though the baby starts out life being able to see only as far as our face when we hold her, Kate's range of clarity grows steadily, month by month. Why do I bring this up? Well clearly the refs at the Bama/LSU game have similar issues. Either that or they were paid off by the boys in Birmingham. We'll let you decide. Until next year...

Speyrer/Johnson Bowl
establish 2004
Speyrer - 4 wins
Johnson - 2 wins

Weekend Visitors

Kate has been showered with love from family and friends since her arrival. We had many visitors in the hospital and continued to have a few over the weekend.

On Friday Kate's Pop Pop, Aunt Dana and cousins Braxton and Karoline visited.

Friday night Candace and Adi Levy stopped by for a quick visit. Kate was so excited to meet one of her new friends! She can't wait to play with Adi more soon!

Pop Pop also stayed with us over the weekend so that he could hang out with Kate and watch football with Daddy on Saturday.

All the Cool Kids Wear Harnesses

We had our first doctors appointments for Kate on Friday. Our visit with the pediatrician went very well. All babies lose a little weight after birth and then are expected to gain it back over their first couple of weeks as they get their feeding schedules established. Kate weighed 7 lbs, 1 oz at birth and she was 6 lbs, 10 oz on Tuesday in the hospital. At the doctor on Friday she was already back up to 6 lbs, 14 oz. Everything else looked great as well!

Also, the pediatrician that examined Kate in the hospital ordered an exam of her hip joints. Since Kate was breech (head up instead of down) and her feet were up by her head for so long before she was born, it is common for babies to have hip joints that aren't formed properly at birth. The ultrasound in the hospital showed that hers needed to be further examined by a pediatric orthopedist. We met with the orthopedist on Friday as well and he did diagnose Kate with hip dysplasia. Since they were on top of it from birth, this should be fully treatable and taken care of before Kate is even 8 weeks old. She now wears a harness at all times (except when she takes a bath) to hold her hips in a position that will allow her hip joint to form properly. To adults, the harness may look like some sort of torture device, but sweet little Kate couldn't be happier with it on. She is still as laid back as ever. Daddy has decided that he likes the harness as well because Kate doesn't feel so fragile anymore. It holds everything in place and makes her easier to carry. We just know that our "followers" may notice a difference in her pictures for the next several weeks because she looks like she has football pads on under her clothes so we wanted to let you all know. No need to worry though, this is no big deal at all.

A Couple of Firsts

Pictures of the first bath and the first night of sleep in the bassinet.

Bath Time

Getting ready for night-night

Swaddled Up

Out like a light

Home Sweet Home

Much to our surprise, we were released from the Hospital on Wednesday and were able to come home for the first time as a family. Equally as pleasant of a surprise yesterday was the fact that Nonna (Abbie's Mom) decided she would remain in Baton Rouge to lend a helping hand for Mom and Dad and love on Kate. Originally Nonna planned on returning to Florence, Alabama on Wednesday and flying back down to Baton Rouge on Monday (November 9th) to help out once Nick went back to work. But this is much better. Nonna will remain through the weekend of November 14th when Poppa will return for Kate's Baptism.

We were very sad to see Poppa, Aunt April, and Aunt Anna leave, but were very excited and thankful to have them with us this week. The support they were able to provide will not be forgotten and will forever be appreciated.

Also a special thanks to the tremendous staff at Woman's Hospital. They were wonderful with Kate and Abbie.

As for the true star of this blog, our sweet little Kate continues to leave us breathless. We are blessed with a healthy little girl and we think she is absolutely beautiful and perfect. It is like we have known her our entire life and love her more than life itself. Everyone told us that this would happen, but seeing is believing.

Thanks to all for the well wishes, prayers, and support. We will continue to keep you posted through the blog.

Now for some of the latest pictures:

About to load Kate and Mom to head home

In the Backseat of the Car

Dad and Kate are finally Home

Our precious little Kate

(in the going home outfit that Nonna and Poppa got for her)

Sweet Dreams