Playing video catch-up

Prepare for a long post. Despite the pain in my butt that is video editing, rendering, and uploading, we will now be all caught up on the past 3 months of Hayley's life. Unfortunately, we weren't actually recording for those 3 months. You may notice a significant age gap between the first 4 videos and the rest. Miranda and I were too busy taking pictures. Silly mommy and daddy. We are doing are best to bust out the video camera as often as the regular camera now, so hopefully I'll get to post even more as time rolls on. Anyway, let's get started.


Still in the hospital, this was our first video update since the night of Hayley's birth. Our lives had drastically changed in just 2 days. Each of us was both overjoyed and exhausted.


2 more days later and it was time to go home. This video is actually multiple clips put together, much like the birth videos in the previous post. I was able to just get it within the YouTube time limit, so I didn't have to split it into 2 parts. I think my favorite part of this is the ceremonial placing of the Baby On Board sign.


Here we are 3 days after going home from the hospital, celebrating Hayley's 1 week of age. The highlight was capturing her smile on camera for the first time.


I think this is the next day. Hayley is enjoying her inaugural time in the bouncy chair. This kid knows how to relax. We get the first on-camera yawns. This video would have been much more entertaining if she had still been hiccupping by the time I was recording. Oh well.


So here is the big gap I mentioned. Hayley is about 11 weeks older than in the last video and it shows. Not only is she much bigger and more developed, she's talking! No, not really talking, just baby babble, but it's still awesome. Luckily she hasn't outgrown that bouncy chair yet.


Here we finally got Hayley snoring on camera. This is something we've been delighted by for weeks. You might have to turn up the volume for this one. I like to call it "sawing twigs".


Something else we have been loving for a while, now digitally immortalized: Hayley waking up and stretching in the morning. Over the last month, Miranda and I have managed to settle Hayley into a bedtime routine. Now that she has grasped the day/night cycle, Hayley is sleeping for at least 8 hours a night without waking up. Not only is this a HUGE help for everyone's health and sanity, but it means we all get to happily wake up together on weekends. The best part is watching Hayley stretch her little limbs after being swaddled all night.


Another video from that morning. Cuteness all around. That day (May 25th) marked 3 months since bringing our beautiful daughter home from the hospital.


Lastly, here we have the latest Hayley development: true giggling. She had actually been giggling for about a minute before the video starts. We weren't expecting it and the camera was not close at hand. Still, we caught some, and it's the greatest sound I have ever heard.

It seems like each day, week, and month that comes brings new and better things. Parenthood is quite the undertaking, but the rewards are priceless. I can't wait to see what my baby girl does next. Hopefully, the camera will be nearby.