Videos Pt. II

K, so I'm having fun with these videos, enjoy.

MILK COMA, or at least the transition toward a milk coma.

Peyton hates getting dressed, HATES IT.  I am hoping deep down that this means she will hate shopping for clothes, shoes and the dreaded PURSES.  I'll probably have no such luck, but this is a funny thing she has done a few times.  We put a little blanket around her while we are changing diapers and getting her clothes ready to put on.  This seems to keep her from going ballistic, but not always.  One thing that has worked everytime is when she hooks her little arms under the blanket and pulls it over her head.  Then its lights out, and so is the crying until we're done.

Don't worry folks, we are always standing right there and when we put her to bed or nap, we make sure that she can't do this and possibly suffocate.  Just a weird little thing she does.

Have a great day.

Andrew

Video extravaganza

Well, Peyton is one week old today and we've had a great week at that.  We've been home about 4 days and every night has gotten a little bit better.  Peyton is feeding really well (breast) and now that she is getting good meals, she sleeps really well between feeds.  

I'm gonna post some pictures soon, but I wanted to share these two videos which I really enjoyed this week.

The first is a clip I shot about 5 minutes after Peyton was born.  Jaynah had the C-section and after the baby was born, I had to accompany the nurse to the recovery room so that she could get the baby all cleaned up, put a tag on the baby, a tag on me so there would be no switch-a-roo, as well as get the baby's weight and measurements, etc.    The cool thing was that someone had taken all the stuff the nurse needed out of the recovery room and so while she went and gathered everything, Peyton and I had several minutes, just to ourselves, to get introduced.

*I had been up for over 36 hours straight and so my days were confused.  Peyton was born on 5/20/09.

Next, my brother had been following Twitter since we'd gotten to the hospital, and decided that I needed some support since we hadn't made it to the "birthing class" prior to Peyton's arrival.  He put together 3 videos of tips for a successful delivery and sent them to my phone.  Probably the funniest thing I've ever seen besides SNL's DIAB, and ML.

Thanks brother.  He and his wife also totally surprised us showing up to the hospital right after the baby was born.  He'd originally fed me lies about he had to work yada, yada, which was totally fine, however we were so excited to see them.

More to come, hope everyone is well, and thank you again for all of your love, gifts, support, prayers, and encouragement, not only during the birth, but throughout the whole pregnancy.

THANK YOU!

Loving it.

Andrew

Always Count to 10...

I was in the tenth grade, finally not a freshman any more, thank goodness, and it was football season.  I had decided not to play football after ninth grade because the football program and soccer program hated each other at Upson-Lee.  The football coach told me I would not be allowed to play both because of Spring football practice (two weeks in the middle of Soccer season, mandatory) and so I had to choose.  I said, "That's fine, soccer it is," and steam began to rise from the little mustached man's ears.  Don't worry, he'd get his revenge, but that's another story entirely.

I mention the above story because that was the beginning.  That decision put me on a path of good fortune that I still reap the bounty of daily.

So, yes, football season.  I found myself in the stands with my buddies to help cheer on our Black Knights.  I was having a great time, wishing perhaps an iota that I was down on the field, but okay with the fact that all my friends were there and we were having a blast.  Halftime rolled around and out comes the marching band.  We, think nothing of it and decided to take a trip to the concession stand, but I realized how crowded it would be up there, and I'd never seen my brother perform (clarinet), so I decided to stick around.  I find my brother, looking good, looking good, flag corps, dance-line, majore........

LIGHTNING BOLT...LIGHT-BULB

Who is that???  The beginning....

Fast forward a few weeks and I had found out her name, she was a freshman, and she had been dating a good friend of mine. He was a guy I'd played soccer with since I was 8 years old and things seemed good with them.  Oh well, I thought.

A few months later, she and soccer boy had broken up, Joy!, but quickly she had started dating another of my best friends that I'd been in school with since kindergarten. I still hadn't even met her, blast!!

A bit later, my friend dating mystery girl gave me a call and said he wanted to hang out, go over to someone's house, eat, watch a movie or something.  I said it sounded good, but I'd have to drive (since we were going out of the county, Dad's rules).  He said that was fine, but that he was bringing mystery girl, so I could just follow them.   I should have known something was fishy at that point, but I was excited I was going to meet mystery girl.  We went out to her house, where my friend was greeted by mystery mother, and her dog, Bear.  I should have known when her mother kept squinting, pointing, and asking, "Who is that out there, who else drove up with you, what kind of car is that, do I know him?" but again, I was just excited to meet mystery girl, finally so my judgement was clouded.

We got to our destination, and it was just four of us, not a group of people like had been alluded to  earlier.  We had some food and some laughs, then we turned on the movie: '8 Seconds'....seen it, he dies in the end.  Then finally everything came together:  this was a SET-UP!  Mystery girl and kindergarten friend were trying to set me up with mystery girl's best friend!  I played along, but knew that I was there because I had gotten to meet mystery girl, and she was funny, good looking, smart, and sarcastic...oh the humanity!

I didn't see mystery girl, or mystery girl's best friend again for a while, winter was changing into spring and that meant soccer was in full swing.  I had heard through the grapevine that kindergarten friend and mystery girl had broken up, Joy! Unfortunately, another of my best friends, the hopeless romantic, was head over heels for her, and they had been hanging out some, blast!  Soccer became my focus, and it felt good to be out there again (having missed most of my freshman year with a fractured vertabrae in my low back, now healed up). 

Turns out, that since I'd decided not to play football that year, mustached man, in a moment of evil wouldn't allow me to take weightlifting (which had previously been marked in ink on my schedule for my 9-12 years by the athletic dept.)  I was told to leave, that I was now in regular PE, and to go enjoy my badminton and tiddliwinks.  This was fine by me, I had a buddy in PE right then, we'd have some fun, destroy the volleyball competition, it was no big deal. 

A few days into my PE exile, I saw a beam of light walk and sit in the bleachers.  It was Mystery girl!  She had her 'health' class (actually a classroom class taught by PE coaches) at the same time that I had PE and whenever they finished assignments early, they were allowed to go hang out in the gym until the bell rang.  I got excited, but I was generally a shy guy, especially around girls, and especially moreso around girls I liked.  So I took my time, pulled the 'accidental throw of the frisbee near her' and her friends so that I'd have an excuse to interact.  Gradually (over weeks) I worked up to a, "Hey girls, how's it going?", then to a, "Man I'm tired, I need to rest. What are you girls doing in health class right now?"

This went on for weeks and weeks and finally, I was comfortable saying I was friends with mystery girl.  We then began to chat every so often on ICQ (I-seek-you).  Anyone remember that?  During one of these chats, she invited me to a pool party at her house she was having to kick off the beginning of summer.  I went, and it was fun, but still no definite sparks.  I had to finally work up the courage to ask her out, something casual, I thought.

She said yes, and it was set, after her spring dance recital, we would go and grab a bite to eat with some friends, then I'd take her home, it was a school-night after all.  Finally, we were in the car, alone, together, riding around our small town and I was dreaming the whole time of what could be.  We ate, I took her home, met her folks, said hey to Bear and then went home. We chatted that night on ICQ until our parents kicked us off.  Before we had to turn off the dial-up 56K, we settled that we would go out again, our first real date.

I picked her up, visited with her family, we went and grabbed a bite to eat at the local drive-in, rented a movie and headed back to my place.  (Our town has a one-screen, roaring '20's era theatre that at that point in time was at risk of collapsing mid-show).  The movie we rented: The Faculty, absolutely the worst movie I've seen, ever, and we both chuckled about how bad it actually was.  

At some point during the movie, toward the end, I gathered the courage and said, 

"Hey, what are we doing right now?"

"Uhh...watching a movie.." (characteristically sarcastic while knowing exactly what I'm asking)

"You know, I mean, are we 'friends', are we 'talking', are we 'dating'?"

"I don't know, what do you think we are doing?"  (again avoiding the obvious, driving me nuts)

"Well, I hope we are dating."

"Well, you haven't asked me..."

"Well, then, will you go out with me?"

"Sure, I'm having a pretty good time."

That was May 21, 1999, 10 years ago today, and since that time it has been the single best thing that I've done.  If I only knew then what I'd be writing today, I wouldn't have believed it and I have the little red-faced mustached man to thank for it.  Thank you, Senor Mustache.

Thank you mystery girl, Jaynah Hamby Morgan, for the best 10 years of my life.

Love,

Andrew

*The photo at the top is the first photo taken of Jaynah and I together at some point during that Spring of '99 while hanging out in the gym bleachers.  

Click here to browse my Flickr albums that I put together before our wedding of our adventures together to that point.

A Blessed Day

Our little girl is here! Had C section but mom and baby are great. 7 lbs. 14 oz. Much more to come.

Thanlk you to all for prayers and Praise the Lord for this miracle!
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Just add baby and stir.....

It has been a labor of pure love, and one that Jaynah and I have really enjoyed doing together. I don't like to think of myself as a girly man, but I guess if there is a little girl on the way, I'd better find some in there quick. Honestly it has been fun working together with Jaynah to design, shop, install and arrange all of the things needed to properly welcome a baby into our home.

I realize, even if Jaynah doesn't, that by the time the blessed child is old enough to realize how awesome her room is, she is going to want to plaster the walls with purple sequined feather boas of 'Hello Kitty' or something of the sort. This is for us more than for the baby, and for the past several weeks if we can't find one another, or Daisy, for that matter, we just take a stroll back to the nursery.

Daisy is either lying on the new, soft, rug, or under the crib. Jaynah can usually be found opening and rearranging drawers incessantly until she gets them just so. I prefer to just go, stand, twirl, smirk, and nod in approval and excitement.

The last piece finally arrived and the nursery is officially complete. The chair and ottoman will certainly be a favorite place for us at all hours over the next several months.

Daisy, not sure if she is allowed on the new furniture. She is. Until baby arrives.

Also new is artwork on the walls, all made as gifts. We told my mom of our monkey ambitions and she said, "Don't worry, I'll take care of it."

These turned out awesome.

My mom had been planning to paint this picture for years for a grandchild. She was like a kid in a candy store with her painting studio all set up.

This was a total surprise for Jaynah, my mom made this name sign as well. I got to help with this one, cutting to size and routing the edges of the white board. Cool thing is the monkeys and trees are removable when the little one wants to be a bit more sophisticated.

Clothes hamper. For completeness' sake.

I definitely saw this at the store and threw it in the buggy while Jaynah wasn't looking. She didn't put up much of a fight but made some smart comment about being wrapped already or something.

I hate to admit publicly, but I wore a dress home from the hospital. And it's hanging on that door-knob in the picture. The bib was a gift from Jaynah's mom and has Peyton's initials on it.

The pMa picture over the dresser was painted for us by an old high school classmate of mine who works with Jaynah's mom.

Almost here. If you are reading this, then we are probably at the hospital, maybe pushing, because I am speaking to you from the past. I had to give you something to read while we are busy.

Work Hard, Play Hard. PUSH HARD!

Ready for the Little Lady

We just got here and got all checked in, answered a million questions and saw the Dr. Started the cervical softening meds tonight and will start contraction induction meds tomorrow about 5:30 a.m. and so hopefully tomorrow will be the big day. (Depending on how much of the Hamby 'stubborn' genes she gets.) ;)

Updates will be posted to FB and Twitter and will hopefully post some pictures here pretty quickly after.

Thank you everyone for all your love, support and well wishes. Keep Jaynah and the wee bairn in your prayers over the next few days.

Andrew
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

I Heart Faces

So this is my first entry into the I Heart Faces weekly challenge.  I was introduced to the site by my friend Becca at The Stanley Clan and am excited by all the fine work there.  With a new little one nearly here, a new lens in the mail today, I'm sure that I'll be enjoying the site a lot more.  

This week's challenge is for participants to submit their best/favorite face shot EVER for a book that the website founders are putting together.  I don't know if this is the best face shot I've ever taken, but when I read the challenge today, this one immediately popped into my head.

A family member has the two cutest little girls and at a recent family gathering asked me if I'd take some pictures of the two of them together.  They were perfect little ladies, and enjoyed being in front of the camera.  We had a great time, and as sometimes happens, one of my favorite shots ended up being this test shot of the youngest, Emily.

I am submitting this photo into the www.iheartfaces.com Blurb book photo contest. If chosen, I grant I ♥Faces permission to use my photo in a printed version of a book for commercial use and possibly advertising of a photo book on both the Blurb and I ♥ Faces web sites.

Work Hard, Play Hard.

Andrew

Take two, and call me in the mornin'

Last week I had the pleasure of sharing a momentous occasion with my extended family. It was graduation week for me from Medical School and Jaynah and I had a fantastic time hosting family and friends during the festivities.

In preparation, I was psyched that I actually had some time to get to many of those projects that the farmboy in me had been pleading me to find time for. So after some gardening, landscaping, pressure washing, painting and some carpentry work it was great to welcome everyone for a visit.

After we passed on the baseball game due to tornadoes and hail, we had a great time catching up with classmates at our graduation reception and banquet. Open bar = classmates that were only a legend showed up. Great time, food and company.

The hooding ceremony is a separate event only for the School of Medicine graduates and their families where awards voted on by the class are given to outstanding students and faculty. It is held the day before graduation and is a lot more intimate than the full graduation ceremony with the entire MCG crop of graduates from nursing, denistry, physical therapy, etc. At the hooding ceremony we receive our doctoral "hoods" which aren't really hoods but a funny looking sash time thing.

Before I left, my brother wanted to take some pictures of me. He's gotten into photography recently and has had Excalibur on loan. I really liked his idea for this shot.

Before Hooding, we had our official class picture, in front of the perfect Old Medical College which you might recognize from my previous post.

After the class picture it was time to line up in ABC order. Despite a class of 180, it took almost no time because it was easy to find our first year Gross anatomy lab groups and then get in between the groups that were at cadavers on either side of us in the lab way back in '05

My man Tim above, recently married, and bound for the Wake Forest Pediatric program and I have been through a lot since the depths of UGA biochemistry hell in the '03, physics lab, genetics, and oh yeah the entire Medical school application process, and the medical school after that. It was fantastic that we both ended up at MCG, and with the name Moore, we started out in the trenches in the anatomy lab together. Big day for both of us.

I recognized a few people on the way into the auditorium.

Mom and her boys, ready for some baby back ribs.

The Morgan Men, blue eyes for the lot of us.

Lining up before graduation with my brothers in arms. R to L : Dr. Vanags (Duke Neurology), Dr. Green (Wake Forest Radiology), Dr. Moore (Wake Forest Pediatrics)

Almost 1000 graduates, every name was called to get their diploma which was great. Medicine was last so there was lots of time to kill. I wish I'd had my Blackberry a few days sooner.

My Dad found me as we were walking in and waved, then he lost me. It was hilarious to watch him try and get the attention of a random Dental student for about 10 minutes. He took lots of pictures of this Dentist as well. Finally my brother called me, we had a chuckle and he walked across the arena and turned my Dad 45 degrees to the left. Hilarious.

Grabbing the diploma before they changed their mind. I've never been on the big screen before.

3 Generations: (c/o '84, '09, '44)

We had to repeat the cross-handed shake:

White coat ceremony 10/05

Fishing buddies.

Glowing

I love these Hambys.

Another thumbs up to my brother, Ben

All that for a piece of paper. It was worth it.

Work Hard, Play hard.

Hayes Maternity Shoot

Greetings.  

I've briefly mentioned before that one of my New Year's resolutions was to start shooting my pictures RAW and dive into post-processing.  Considering how long I've loved photography, I have no idea why it took this long.  Needless to say, like any new skill starting out was a challenge. Oh yeah, that is why it took this long; whenever I got inspiration to convert, I quickly got frustrated and immediately went back to my JPEG loving ways.

My lovely wife bought me a great RAW processing program (Adobe Lightroom) that sat almost untouched for a year.  Sorry honey, but med school might have contributed to that as well. 

So this was the year, since Jan 1 I've gradually been increasing my reliance on RAW and really delving into Lightroom.  The learning curve has been steep, but finally, I'm getting to the point where I feel comfortable, nay, enjoy working with RAW photos and finally see what all the hububb (sp?) is about.  Literally a whole new world of photography has opened up.

This new found excitement, and free time coincided well with an email I got from an old friend who lives locally in Augusta.  Coincidentally she is pregnant, and had wanted to have some pictures taken to remember this special time.  I was happy for the opportunity and we had a great time with Jennifer and Barrett shooting in downtown Augusta.

Barrett is a lifelong Augustan, and Jennifer a true Southern Belle from none other than Thomaston, GA.  We met one weekday afternoon after everyone got off work and had a beautiful Spring afternoon for Jaynah and Jennifer to compare notes on pregnancy, and Barrett and I to commisserate about how we know there is no way we, mere males, have a clue what is coming.

In front of the Old Medical College, home of MCG starting in the 1820's.

This was some type of bell tower that had once been on top of a building somewhere, but was now planted in front of a museum.

I'm a sucker for old growth trees, you can ask Jaynah.

There's a baby in there.

The Presbyterian Church has some beautiful grounds that we really enjoyed exploring.

We found this fantastic brick wall downtown right after we got some pictures with the King of Soul, James Brown (bronzed)

The Riverwalk seemed like a perfect place to end with our last bit of light.  When Andrew has to start cranking up the ISO, it is time to call it a wrap!

You can look at  the rest of the images and slideshow of these two glowing parents-to-be by clicking the link below.  

Hayes Maternity

Thank you so much, Jennifer and Barrett, for letting me be a part of this milestone.  Jaynah and I had a fantastic time.

More posts coming....I graduated, Jaynah is 38 weeks, the lost Savannah adventure, and next Tuesday we are scheduled for induction.

Living the dream.

Andrew E. Morgan M.D.