Breathe a sigh!

We are beginning to breathe a sigh (or maybe gasping for air).... I will offer a piece of insight to those of you with one (or no) children: two definitely becomes more intense. It's not like we didn't expect this, but until you've experienced it, you really have no idea!! I don't understand how single parents do it (or those relationships where one spouse is never around). "Spare time" is a relative phrase these days...when will it be normal again!

Shepard is quite the "talker". When he doesn't like something in his environment, he let's you know...loudly! Both Shana and I don't remember Samara expressing her discomfort as much...or as intense. Maybe the new "Whiskey Plan" will alleviate that...

We had a semi-rough 1st month or so (as evident by this posting 2 months after birth) with Shep's sleeping habits. You see, Shep would get his day and night mixed up for some reason and would be awake from 1:30 AM to 5:30 AM (approximately). One day, we made sure he was awake for 6+ hours during the day...futile effort. But now, he seems to be getting on track.

Speaking of sleeping, our children are belly sleepers. One of the nurses at the doctor's office about gave birth when Shana explained to her that Shep sleeps on his belly. "Oh! We really don't recommend that." Fine, give us your number and we'll call you at 3 AM when he's not sleeping. Come on, we're not robots here...at least we're not feeding him crack! Jeez.

Big sister loves her little brother. She tries to sing to him when he's crying; she is constantly hugging and kissing him. As a matter of fact, she gave him his first cold several weeks ago! She also was infected by a virus when Shep was a couple of weeks old...took her to the doctor...and the doctor said "stay away from little brother". For the next week or so, she ran around saying "the doctor told me to stay away from Shep" and resorted to blowing kisses...

And just to keep notes, the little guy has a case of thrush that we haven't been able to get rid of...here comes the purple stuff!

Shep had his 2 week checkup on May 4th:

Height: 20 1/2 inches
Weight: 8 lbs. 12 oz.

Now, don't ask me how the child can lose 1 1/2 inches from birth! Maybe he's a mutant...


Funny stories:

Shep was sitting in his "bouncy chair" crying, Shana was cooking, and I was paying bills. Samara decided that she was going to try to calm Shep down and began singing to him and rubbing his head, etc. After several futile minutes, Samara became frustrated and yelled "STOP IT!!!" Take it easy Samara....She now has a tendency to cover his mouth up with her hand...or she tries to stuff his burp rag into his mouth...

We went to the annual Red Earth festival on June 5th, which is a showcase for Native American dancers and artists. We had set down to eat lunch...corn dogs, roasted corn, indian tacos...and Shana got up to go to the bathroom. Well, Samara and Shana don't exactly have the same skin color...and when Samara got up screaming and ran after mommy, who had already migrated through crowded area, all of the bystanders became worried when Samara caught up with Shana and grabbed her hand (thinking Samara was lost). Shana heard "I think she came from over there"...and "Where are you going to take her". About 5 or 10 people were willing to help Shana find the parents of this lost child. Finally, through all of the advice, Shana was able to say "She's my child!"...or something like that. I wasn't there, so I'm not sure if Shana used explicits or not...


Finally, he shut up...here's some pictures:

Samara at a birthday party...


Shepard and great-Grandpa Adams...


Samara at the park...with that cheesy smile...


Samara and cousin Tori. Tori was just a little agrevated that I was including Samara in the picture...


Oma and Shep...She hasn't sit on this one yet...


Our boy...


Our girl being a Big Sister...


Grandma and Shep...

Snoozin'...


Big sis helping out after a diaper change...


I'm not sure you can see in this photo, but Shepard has my forehead...more specifically, the wrinkles...


I shot the rest of these at home with a black and a white bed sheet:









Take care!

Round 2!

Round 2 has begun!

Shepard Nocona Lewis Neel was welcomed to this world at 9:12 AM on April 17, 2009! At 8 lbs 8 oz, he wasn't nearly the size of his older sister when she was born (9 lb 4 oz). However, Samara was 10 days past her due date and Shepard was born 11 days before his due date! Shepard (Shep) was 22 inches long, which is longer than Samara's length when she was born.

Shepard and Shana are doing well! We arrived at the hospital at about 6:40 AM on the 17th...Shana was a bit aggravated, to say the least, that we were 10 minutes late arriving! Everything went well and by 10 Am, we were showing him off to our families!

To say the least, the 1st 24 hours with Shep was definitely easier than with Samara. There have been no latching problems and we actually were able to sleep somewhat last night!

Samara has been a great big sister! We couldn't be more proud of how well she has adjusted (so far). She always wants to hold Shepard and make sure he's ok when he cries. Once, when the nurse came in to get a blood sample for a glucose test...Samara has just woken up...Shep started crying after the nurse "stuck" him with the needle. Samara instantly started crying and reaching for him (although she was about 10 feet away)...yelling "my baby (brother)"!

So, some may wonder how we came up with Shepard. Well, we (I) wanted to stick with the same basic format that we used on Samara. Yes, I am that much of a nerd! So, a space-related name, a comanche name, and a family name.

Shepard was about the only space-related male name Shana and I both liked. Shepard being the last name of the 1st American astronaut in space; Alan Shepard.

Nocona is a variant of the Comanche Chief Quanah Parker's father, Peta Nocona. As with Quanah, Peta Nocona was a great leader for the Comanche's whose name means "he who travels alone and returns." Nocona simply means, "wanderer".

Lewis was taken from both Shana's and my grandfathers. Shana's grandfather is Lewis Albert Adama and my grandfather was Frank Lewis Palmer. We didn't hit on this name until a couple of weeks ago; we had Shepard and Nocona nailed for the last several months...

There's the story! I'm sure I'll be subjecting you to more spam in the future. I hope all is well. As always, photos:

Sounds like a Gremlin!!

The last week and a half have been interesting. It all started with a coworker asking if I liked knowing the birth date. I thought about it for awhile before I came up with an answer: I do not! The logic: when you don't know the date, you wake up every morning with a taste of excitement and thinking, "this could be the day!" I can now say that knowing the date takes that excitement away. Even though labor can happen at any time, the perception of knowing the date changes everything. Now, and over the last week or so, there has been a steady, constant climb to the apex. Coasting. Last week I was very anxious...tough to concentrate at work...maybe a result of knowing the date..but who knows?

Preparing for the arrival of our families, we cleaned the house last weekend...spotless. Shana bought enough food to feed an army (and subsequently stuffed it into her new freezer)...and that may not be enough after thinking how much my nephew and brother will eat. And, we have enough space this time around to house our own cult, if need be. Speaking of a cult, we may have to subdue my father...or as my niece calls him, "Crazy Grandpa".

Shana is doing ok...a lot of Braxton-Hicks...consistently! The baby has been moving around, causing pain every once in awhile. She's "pretty quickly irritated"...in her own words. Oh, Shana got a pedicure last week...pretty red toe nails!! If I say anymore, I may end up sterile.

We have 99.9% decided on a name for our son. Interesting story about that, for posterity's sake: Over the course of the last 8 months, the naming game consisted of me finding names and Shana shooting them down (for the most part). So, when our doctor was late for our last appointment, Shana and I were able to nail out a name within the several precious moments that passed.

And the name is:

You'll have to tune in! But I can tell you initials: NLS (or some variant).

Speaking of our last appointment with the doctor, we were talking with her (our doctor) about when to show up at the hospital. "Show up a couple hours early." Which, by the way, means: show up at 6:30 AM for an 8:30 AM procedure!! She then added, "No food after midnight." To which my reply was, "Sounds like a Gremlin!"

"Bright light, bright light!"

And, these are a bit overdue, but here are some ultrasound scans. Unfortunately, the quality of the images are not as good the ultrasound(s) with Samara. The 1st image shows the baby looking straight at the "camera". The second image shows a profile view. It's been interesting to experience the differences between the doctor in Colorado and the doctor this time around. Our current doctor doesn't do the "extra" ultrasound that the doctor in Colorado preformed.

Some images from the last month:

A nice shot of Shana...of course, she'll probably do bodily damage as soon as she finds out I posted this one!

These last three are of Samara at the local park.

Samara holding up an Easter egg she found at school...

Samara during her egg hunt at home!

Samara was playing one day after work and I was able to catch the sun illuminating her...great shot.

Samara and Shana leaving school...

And the ultimate 1st date photo!!

An old Samara story before I go: We were driving home one evening from Best Buy and Samara asked if we were going home. We both replied "yes" and continued to talk. A few minutes later (while Shana and I were still talking), Samara intruded again and asked, "Are we going home?" To which an annoyed Shana halfway shouts, "YES!!! How many times do I have to say it?" Samara promptly shouted, "TWO!!"

Take care all! We'll post some pictures of the baby this weekend!

T-minus 4 weeks

T-minus 4 weeks and counting; well something closer to 25 days. That's how long we have to magically pull a name out of the hat. Twenty-five days to prepare ourselves for the newest arrival. I must admit, I'm not as worried as Shana (as she complains on a daily basis..."we need ____ and we need ____" (feel free to fill in the blanks...be creative, this may be you last chance).

We scheduled our c-section for the morning of Friday, April 17 (just in time for the weekend nightlife). I am a bit disappointed that we were not able to schedule for April 22nd (Earth Day); I'll get over it...maybe. Everything seems to be going well. However, from my limited observations and experiences, Shana has been experiencing a bit more discomfort than the last pregnancy. Shana feels like the baby could come any day, which, I must admit, frightens me a bit. But, if he's anything like Samara was when she was born (i.e. sumo wrestler attributes), everything should be fine.

Samara is excited for her new brother to arrive. After watching the Big XII Championship and seeing Oklahoma State's mascot, she wants to name the baby "Pistol Pete"! And as names are concerned, we've been discussing the possibility of the following names: Romulus, Gunther, Sagan, Archimedes, Klaus, Icarus, Mowgli, and Bill (along with a slew of other names we are actually considering). You'll have to wait 25 days ...or for a small fee, say college tuition, you can have naming rights. So, if you ever wanted to name a kid Yukon Cornelius, here's your chance!

As always, some photos of Samara are below. Over the next several weeks, I'll scan in our ultrasound photos and post them here. Take care!

Samara painting some pots...

Reading a book...

Getting ready for our new one with Glenda and Caleb...

Shana taking a break during a recent field trip...

Samara at her 1st bowling trip...

Taking it easy...

And one from January...

Make-up!!

There are many things a father has to prepare himself for when raising a daughter. Most of those items occur around the glorious Age Of Puberty: dating (and everything associated with that), kissing boys, breasts, etc. As parents, that’s when we discover how difficult we were as children. Fortunately, parents have at least a decade to prepare for those days halcyon days. Unfortunately, parents are rarely ready!

So, this leads us to the “joyous”…I mean stressful… time before Christmas: lights, trees, and joyous songs. The time when you aren’t sure what to buy your favorite relatives and hope that what you get them is adequate. And, if you have enough cojones, you “slyishly” ask them what they want. Well, for a 2-and-a-half year old, you never know…unless you ask. My mistake! Samara’s answer: “make-up”! Panic attack for Daddy…puberty is around the corner!

Other Christmas photos:

Samara's new Princess clothes...

As a stocking stuffer, we gave Samara a set of Tinkerbell underwear. She must have loved the gift because she undressed herself (relatively quickly, I might add), stripped off her underwear, and put on her new Tinkerbell underwear. I have never seen a child act so enthusiastically toward underwear, ever.

This is an awesome gift for the 2-3 year old. It definitely makes brushing more fun! However, Samara still likes to suck the fruity flavored edible toothpaste off of the brush before brushing!

Samara and cousin Samantha...

Samara watched Sponge Bob for 3 weeks straight! She especially likes to walk around in public singing the Spnge Bob theme song. We get a lot of giggles from innocent by-standers...

One of the other items on Samara's Christmas list...baby doll's...

Samara and Cousin John...

Samara with Cousins Tori and Jasmine along with Aunt Shannon...

Good luck to everyone and your New Year's resolution(s). My resolution is to loose 5 pounds...hey, you gotta start small!