Sophia's First Christmas

Everything was new to Chrissy and I this Holiday season. Everything that we usually do like gift shopping, wrapping presents, Christmas cooking or heading to a family members home needed to be planned to a nap time and took double the usual time.

And as the keeper of a newborn we were popular! That's new - People actually wanted to visit us :) Us, being Sophia, but Chrissy and I will take it.

Highlights of the Holiday season included birthday parties, many meals with family, getting spoiled by multiple Grandparents, and friends coming by to visit:

Christina, her Gido (Grandpa) on his 92nd birthday and Sophia:

Christmas was in Edmonton this year and we were treated to multiple massive meals at Chrissy's parents, grandparents and aunts houses. With all of those meals came family all to eager to give Chrissy and myself a break by holding Sophia.

Cross-eyed to read the writing on her jumper :)

Shortly after Christmas my Mom accompanied my sister Monica's family back from Saskatoon to meet Sophia for the 1st time. Sophia, although gassy, was pretty well behaved for Grandma.

Mom of course is a pro with a baby. I am guessing her calm that comes from experience was picked up by Sophia. We haven't gotten her to burp so well or sleep so well in this position since Mom showed it to Claire and Ren.

Mom and her baby's baby

We haven't been the most mobile, so we have felt fortunate to get sp many visitors. I never even thought to grab pictures from the first few visitors (Monica, Mark, Alex, Markiana, Chris and Tara Foster) but did smarten up to get some from the later visits.

Below is a picture of Rob and Carryn's daughter Justine holding Sophia. It was a bit surreal to see as I still remember the day that Justine was born. We collectively celebrated quite late into the night and my Sociology 101 test the next morning was a bit of an adventure. Justine was a natural with Sophia.

Shortly after Ukranian Christmas we were visited by Andrea, Ryan and Tekyla (9 months).

Teklya was very interested in "the baby", I am thinking that over the years they will find some trouble together, not unlike their mothers.

With all the food eaten, visitors gone and tree put away for the year we look forward to more firsts and more memories.

Introducing Our New Baby Girl: Sophia

Christina and myself are now parents!

On December 6th at 2:38 am Sophia Frances Kehrig was born. 

In the short time so far getting to know each other she has been extremely cute, maddening (the midnight witching hour...shudder), confusing (hungry, gassy, cold, all of the above?) and an absolute joy for her two happy parents.  

Ever since it was confirmed that Chrissy was pregnant we have been waiting to meet her. So, I don't feel too bad documenting the pregnancy through pictures before we get to what you really want - baby pictures.

Our first glimpse of her was in ultrasound and 3D imaging form at 11 Weeks.

Week 16

Week 18

Week 23

Week 28 Pregnancy Pictures courtesy of Monica Kehrig Photography

Week 31

Week 38

Christina's water broke at 7:11am on December 6th and she calmly informed me "it's go time". We headed to the hospital  and she was hooked up to a monitoring machine.

The baby's heart rate was strong but the contractions were extremely small. We were told to head home, relax and then come back at 6PM.

Once we were back at the hospital they hooked Chrissy up to the same machine and then gave her a stimulant to induce labor. It took an almost immediate effect and it was truly "go time".

After a few hours of contractions, a complication and some excellent nursing and Doctor attention we found ourselves to be parents...and it was a girl.

Throughout the pregnancy we declined learning the gender of the baby. As it would be a surprise we deliberating for weeks on names. Well, that isn't exactly true - we deliberated on boy names. We always knew that if it was to be a girl, she would be Sophia, after her Grandmother. We also knew that the middle name would be in homage to both of our fathers Frank and Francis. Hence, Sophia Frances Kehrig.

And here she is!

60 Minutes Old

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As the baby was cesarean born we stayed in the hospital for a couple of days so Christina could be monitored. I stayed with her during that time to make sure her and Sophia were well taken care of. I needn't have worried. The staff at Sturgeon Hospital were amazing! They nurses were extremely kind, personable and professional. I can't say enough how thankful we were for the service they provided. Truly amazing.

We tried to keep visitors at the hospital to a minimum and were a little silent in sharing the news right away with people as we wanted little Sophia to ourselves and wanted to ensure Chrissy got time to rest and heal.

Exceptions were of course granted for family. The dark Kehrig hair and eyes are her most striking features and a bit of a fascination for the fair haired family of Chrissy. It has been the first thing commented on by her family almost every time. Monica, my sister and 'on-call' professional photographer visited us in hospital and took a couple of cutie pie shots for us.

Her Father's grimace

After our 'luxury stay' at the hospital (the nurses were so good it felt like that) it was time to go home.

I am not big on tradition but one of the traditions I wanted to maintain was based on a receiving blanket. Every one of my siblings and many of my nieces and nephews have been brought home from the hospital wrapped in the same receiving blanket. With care we wrapped Sophia up in her car seat and left the hospital.

First stop when we got home was the Christmas tree with the family blanket. Just look at the joy she possesses to be home :)

The first night at home was a bit of a sleepless gong show,. This was followed in the next few days with jaundice and fussiness. However, everyday continues to get better and we are enjoying our feed, stare at baby, nap, repeat schedule.

It would be remiss if I didn't stop during this post and proclaim just how impressed I have been by my lovely wife through the whole pregnancy, delivery and early motherhood stages. She has been brave and strong beyond words. Sometimes I just have to stop and marvel at how fantastic she is and how lucky I am to have her in my life.  I love her more everyday.

For the rest of my life I will strive to be as good of a father to Sophia as Chrissy is a mother. If I can achieve that I think she will be alright.

Christmas 2014

After being away on our honeymoon for Christmas last year we were looking forward to being able to celebrate the season here in Edmonton with Chrissy's family and in Saskatoon with mine.

Chrissy loves having a Christmas tree up and if I would let her she would keep it up for 11 months straight only taking it down so she could re-decorate it

All through our year long honeymoon adventures Chrissy and I sought out Christmas ornaments to decorate our tree with (note - the bows in the picture above were pew decorations at our church ceremony). When we laid out our decorations it truly dawned on us that we had a good year of travel.

Chrissy was tasked with stringing the ornaments while I made sure the hockey game in the background got watched.

All through December, Chrissy and I tried to get out and about to see the many displays set up through the city.

Probably the most impressive display was this crazy home in the Northeast of Edmonton. My camera couldn't get the full display in one shot so I stitched a few pics together.

Christmas Eve for us was celebrated with Chrissy's family at her Auntie Joyce's house in Saint Albert and like any Ukrainian event the perogies were out in full affect.

After way too much food and too many presents we settled in to get up early for Christmas morning breakfast at Chrissy's parents place. After stuffing our faces we headed out directly to Saskatoon and arrived at my brother Lawrences place just in time for supper. It was us at our most gluttonous.

Saskatoon was remarkably cold and dry so to get our exercise, and celebrate my brother Randy's birthday, we headed out bowling with the family.

My niece Amelia destroyed us all. Our only solace was found in enjoying copious amounts of mom's cooking in the good company of my family. I know...pretty rough life.

Our visit with mom got extended as she accompanied us back to Edmonton to see Monica's new house and to hang with the grandkids. It was great having her in town as it seemed to really extend the Christmas season.

Overall it was a pretty great first Christmas at home as husband and wife.