Introducing Brian!

Gwen and I are proud to announce that our son Brian was born Friday, January 23rd at 6:03 pm Korean Standard Time, prompting us (with a little extra prodding from certain family members!) to finally get going on our blog (thanks Ben and Liz!). Brian weighed in at 7lbs 15oz and measured 20.25 inches (having done the conversions from kgs and cms to lbs and inches in my head late the night of the delivery, I erroneously (though understandably I think) announced his weight and height to some as 7lbs 14oz and 20.5 inches (thanks to family mathematicians for the correction!). He is healthy and beautiful, as you can see from the picture.

Any thoughts on resemblances? We still think he looks most like my brother Bill (baby picture pending), and he definitely has Sprunger hands (wide hands with short fingers--thanks Alex for the pic)...

...but we can also see a lot of Gwen in him (thanks Tom for this vintage pic):

Gwen was a champion laborer:  triumphant, exhausted, and HUNGRY when finished.

The hospital stay was nice, though we weren't too thrilled that the nursery took Brian all night and only allowed Gwen in to nurse (I could only look in through the window!).

In an interesting twist, the hospital dishes matched Gwen's mother's Corelle from her wedding!

We were grateful to have my parents visiting when Brian came.  They made it to the hospital just in time to see him before the nursery took him for the night.  It was great to have them to help us get adjusted the first several days.  Brian also enjoyed some high quality "Grammy and Bubba" time.

Things are finally starting to settle down.  My parents left on Monday, and we're slowly getting used to our new situation.  Fortunately, Brian is pretty easy going.  He doesn't cry much (yet) and isn't very fussy.  His sleep schedule is a little backward (sleep all day, party all night), but we're working on that--he actually slept quite a bit last night for the first time (we'll see if that lasts!).

Gwen is still a little sore, but overall is doing pretty well.  We are both grateful to everyone for their support, well-wishes, gifts, etc.  We can't wait for Gwen's parents to get here next week (and not only because they might be willing to help with diaper duty!), and we look forward to introducing him to many of you in person this summer.  We're hoping to split about six weeks between Utah and Maine (July-August).  Hope we can see you then.

For more pics, see our Picasa web album of Brian's first days.