Videos of 4-month-old Samantha

Okay... it has been a long while since I've posted pics and video of little Samantha... and it isn't due to lack of material. I haven't done an official count, but thanks to the age of digital cameras (and an extremely cute subject to shoot), I have approximately 2500 pictures and videos of our daughter. They aren't exactly all award winning pics, that's for sure, but since we don't have to get them developed, I just keep snapping pictures and shooting videos... and I'll just sort through them after she leaves for college! :) I know it's excessive, but digital memory is cheap and my memory is going, so it's safer to record her life on "film" rather than in my brain! :)





So without further ado, here are some of the most recent videos of Samantha so you can get a feel for what she's like right now.

In this clip, I'm sneaking in to video Sam while she is waking up from a nap.
If we're sure to let her sleep long enough, she wakes up so content and happy!

Samantha is experimenting with new sounds she can make.
Here, she is practicing her bird calls! :)

Bath times are JUST starting to become fun for Sam.
She still isn't 100% sure about how to play in the tub, but the kicking seems to be a hit.

Samantha is starting to develop her trunk strength more and more. A couple days before this video, if we put her in the BebePod chair, she would slump a little to the side. Now, if she's awake and full of energy, she can actually play sitting up a little bit on her own. In this video, we're trying not to laugh as she tries to pick up the circles that are part of the design on the placemat in the tray.

Of course, I have a bunch of other videos, but I'll keep it to these highlights. I'll post some pictures later (but I better publish this post now or who knows how long it might be before I remember to do so!)

The Shepards are on the move…

As you know, 2008 has been a crazy year for the Shepard family… most notably due to the amazing new addition of our daughter. Well… 2008 isn’t over yet, and as it turns out, we have one more very large change ahead of us.

A few weeks ago, Sean headed down to Las Vegas for a job interview. And thankfully, Sean “wowed” the interviewers, and in October, he will be one of the newest members of the sales crew at Las Vegas Gaming Incorporated (www.lvgi.com). Which means The Shepard Crew will be moving from beautiful Portland, Oregon down to a significantly drier Las Vegas, Nevada.

We have told some of our friends and family about this recent event… and have subsequently been asked a lot of questions. We figured we’d answer those questions here:
1. How long have you known about this?
Sean was approached about the open position in mid August, but didn’t interview for it until early September. We made the final decision some time around September 12th.
2. But what about your life here in Portland?
Although the time line leading up to this opportunity has been extremely short, the decision to make this move was not taken lightly. Sean has lived in Portland since he was nine years old and Lisa has called Oregon her home for over nine years. We met here, dated here, got married here, and our beautiful daughter was born here. We have extremely amazing friends, a great church, good jobs, and a wonderful life here. (Insert tears here) There are so many things we will miss.
3. Did Sean interview at other companies? Was he looking for a different job?
No, Sean was not actively looking for another job. He loves Real Estate and has taken so much pride in building his business over the last 7 or 8 years.
4. Then why are you moving? Why is he taking another job?
There are many benefits about our decision to move to Las Vegas. Although we weren’t proactively looking for another job for Sean, when this opportunity came up, we knew we had to consider it. Although there are some sacrifices that come with Sean rejoining the corporate world, there are a lot of positives with it, and he is excited to help an up-and-coming company develop their business and increase their sales. One notable benefit is that Lisa will be able to stay home with Samantha. As much as Lisa has enjoyed being a working woman and thriving in the professional world, we are very excited about this opportunity for her to be a full-time mom to Samantha.
Another significant perk to our move is that we will be close to Sean’s parents. Anyone who has a child will probably recognize what a value that is.
We also hope that living in a drier climate will allow us to squeeze in a bit more golfing and boating! And we are also aware that Las Vegas happens to be a pretty popular place to visit… so we hope that means we will get many visits from our family and friends across the country. Who doesn't want a place to stay in Las Vegas?! :-)
5. If Sean’s not available, who is going to help me when it comes time to buy/sell my house?
Sean will be working through some of his real estate deals straight up to the time we leave… and possibly even afterwards. Even after we move down there, if you are in the market to sell or buy a house, Sean knows a couple very qualified real estate brokers that he would refer you to. Sean always took great pride in making sure you got the best service he could possibly provide… and he would only refer you to someone who will do the same!
6. Isn’t Las Vegas just full of strippers and gamblers?
All our research we’ve done indicates that LIVING in Las Vegas is VERY different than VISITING Las Vegas… and we are banking on that. There are parks, hiking trails, farmers markets and all kinds of other activities for a family. We plan on spending much of our time in the suburbs and relatively little on The Strip.
7. Did you know that the summers are really hot in Las Vegas?
Hmmm… we weren’t aware of that. Gosh… I hope it doesn’t get too hot! JUST KIDDING!! We are very well aware that it gets scorching in the summer and we’ll just get used to it the same way we got used to the rain in Oregon. We’ll embrace the good parts about the weather (i.e. October – May), deal with the bad, and try to keep our complaints to a minimum. Of course… the dogs may not have the same attitude as us… but we hope they like getting shaved!! :)
8. When are you moving down? Where will you live?
Our plan is to live with Dad & Mom Shepard until our house up here in Oregon sells (or until we drive them nuts... whichever comes first! :-) ). This will give us plenty of time to learn more about the area and find the right place to get a house. We will move down in late October, although the exact date will be decided on shortly. Wow... there is a lot to get done in the next few weeks!!
9. Are you excited?
You bet! Are we nervous and scared? Of course! Is this one of the biggest decisions we've made in our lives? Undoubtedly! But we've prayed about it, pondered it, and talked it over a lot and we believe this is the right move for our family at this time. What an adventure!

We'll keep you posted on this crazy development in our lives, but until then... Viva Las Vegas!!!

Lots of Hugs,
Sean, Lisa, Samantha, Charlie & Sadie Shepard

Slideshow of Squishee growing

During Lisa's pregnancy, we had a slideshow of Lisa and Squishee growing on the right side of this blog. But "Squishee" is now Samantha and she's almost 3 months old. So it is time to move that slideshow to an "archive" post, rather than in its prominent position on the right hand side. Here it is...

Coming Soon: Updated Pics of Samantha

Check back Saturday evening (8/9/08) as I hope to have this post published by then.

In the meantime, check out Samantha's first photos in the July blog posting
http://theshepardcrew.blogspot.com/2008/07/portraits-of-our-newborn.html

Videos of Samantha: 4 - 7 weeks old

For those of you out-of-towners, here are some videos of our precious Samantha. Here's hoping these videos are playable on your computers... this is my first experience uploading videos to the blog!

When playing the videos, you need to click on the video to activate it. Then, you click on the "play button" (triangle button) in the bottom left of the video screen.

TIP: I have found that it is more enjoyable if you wait until a lot of the video has been buffered before starting to watch it. To do this, I click the "Play button" (triangle) and then immediately click the button again to pause the video. After a decent amount of the video has been buffered to your machine, click play, and you can watch the whole thing continuously (rather than having it stop and start while the video tries to catch up).

Samantha looking around - 4 weeks old
Video Details: 7/8/08 26 seconds 24 MB

Sam Loves Panda
Video Details: 7/20/08 15 seconds 14 MB
For the first few months, babies see Black/White and bold, contrasting patterns really well, which helped her develop a bond with Mr. Panda.

Say "Hi"
Video Details: 7/21/08 7 seconds 7 MB
A short clip of Samantha "saying hi". In the video, she is about 6 weeks old, and starting to experiment with her voice a little more.

More excited talking with Panda
Video Details: 7/21/08 11 seconds 10 MB

Coy Smile + Jabbering = Adorable
Video Details: 7/26/08 19 seconds 17 MB
Yes, we are currently in the process of getting wrapped around Samantha's little finger! :-) In this video, Sam is 7 weeks old, and well on her way to stealing our hearts.

Some of Sam's other visitors...

In the last post, we told you about all the helpers who have come from out of town to help take care of us over the last 2 months, but we've also had the pleasure of introducing Samantha to so many of our other friends and family. If you aren't pictured below, it's because we either haven't had the chance to see you... or the picture just didn't turn out! :-)

Here are pics of some of our wonderful visitors:

Stacey Hatch came to visit us in the hospital (with her husband, Don)

We also spent some time with the Hatches out on our back deck.

We don't know if Don made Samantha cry or if it's the other way around. Either way... they both look pretty scary.

Technically, they aren't visitors, but here are pictures of Samantha's 4-legged sisters, Charlie and Sadie. After 8 weeks, they still aren't 100% sure about this little being we brought into our house... we think they're waiting for the "owners" to come pick her up and take her home.



Soon after we got home, our friends Anne Marie and Dave Mills came over to visit. Not only did they meet Samantha, but they brought us a bottle of wine... and Lisa could finally have a glass!!! :-)

Great Grandma Shepard came up from Corvallis when Sam was about 5 days old. Samantha is her 6th great grandchild, so she's a veteran with these rascals.

We had a surprise visit from Lisa's second cousin, Bart, and his new wife, Holin. Samantha was about 8 days old... and the new Mr. and Mrs. Wilbanks were passing through town on the way to Seattle to attend a friend's wedding. Sean and Lisa hadn't seen Bart for about 6 years, so it was a treat to get to introduce them both to Sam so early on in her life.

Our former next-door-neighbors, Rob & Teresa came by to bring us food and meet the new Shepard. Their sons, Brayden and Noah, also came to visit, but we didn't manage to capture a picture of them. Give it a few years, and we're sure Samantha will have a crush on their adorable sons. :-)

When John and Julie Kinney came by to meet Samantha, we snapped this picture of them. John is 6' 5" and Julie is Thai, so we think they should send this picture in their Christmas cards next year... and spend the next year explaining how they wound up with a tiny, non-Asian baby. :-)

The Scott family came by to visit and Samantha was more than happy to share her pack 'n play with their daughter Lucy. Lucy is exactly 4 weeks older than Samantha, so she's our constant "preview" of what's to come! Jake and Sarah's son, Finn, was too excited with Samantha's toys to catch a shot of him with her!

A few weeks later, we captured this adorable pic of Sarah and Samantha over at Jake & Sarah's house.



When Papa and Nana came up from Las Vegas for the PWC golf tournament, they brought family friends, Russ and Robbie with them. It was fun to watch Robbie and Nana wrestle each other for the next turn at holding Samantha! Meanwhile, we had to talk Russ into holding such a small baby, but he did a wonderful job and Samantha was instantly smitten with him. Sam is very lucky to have "surrogate" grandparents like Russ and Robbie.

Our friends, Warren and Toni, brought us yummy food and wonderful company when Samantha was about a month old. We call Toni "The Baby Whisperer" because she just has a way with babies that calms them right down.

Samantha also got to meet Warren and Toni's gorgeous daughter, Emma, who was about 6 months old. We are smitten with our daughter, of course, but when you hear little Emma giggle (something Samantha isn't doing quite yet), your heart just absolutely melts. We know Emma is going to be a wonderful friend to Samantha as they grow up together.

After things had settled down a bit, and we were ready for more visitors, our friend Darci came by to meet Samantha. Darci and Lisa have been friends since 4th grade and she introduced Sean and Lisa, so of course, she takes full credit for the arrival of this little munchkin! :-) Darci is studying to be a nurse and had just completed her rotation in Labor and Delivery, so she had first hand experience with some of the hilarity we call "giving birth".

Lisa's coworker, Jake, stopped by to meet Samantha. Of course, as soon as Samantha was fussy, Lisa made him hold her. He looks like a natural, doesn't he! :-)

Samantha's Helpers

Sean and I want to send out a huge "Thank You" to all the helpers that came to stay with us over the last couple of months. Sean and I made a pact before Sam was born that we would only allow people to come visit if they didn't expect to be waited on or entertained since we knew we'd have plenty of other new duties to keep us busy... and we got "visits" from some of the best helpers around. Look below for pictures and highlights of our "Supporting Cast"...

Papa & Nana Shepard came to Portland soon after Samantha was born. Nana was en route as Samantha was entering into the world... Papa flew in a few days later. This timing worked out wonderfully since it gave Lisa a few days in the hospital to try to get breastfeeding under control before she had to even attempt to be discrete! :)

Papa stayed for 4-5 days and Nana stayed for about 10 days total. We really took advantage of all the help!




When Samantha was 2 weeks old, Nana and Papa came up for a second visit. They came to play in the 21st annual PWC Children's Charity golf tournament with Sean and family friends, Russ and Robbie Roth. THEIR TEAM TOOK FIRST PLACE, so we got the pleasure of hearing Dad and Russ sing "We Are The Champions" for a day or two. Samantha and Lisa were able to go to the dinner after the tournament to show how proud we were of our family of golfers.


















Grandma Broman came to help at the end of June (Samantha was about 2 1/2 weeks old) and stayed for a week. Grandma Broman helped us with the cooking, laundry, and even managed to navigate around the area while doing errands! Even though we were 3 weeks into this new job of ours, we were still very much in need of plenty of help! This was a great transition week for us as we started to feel a little more confident in our parenting skills and started to get a little bit of a handle on how to accomplish things during Samantha's naps! :-)



















At the tail end of Grandma Broman's visit, The Mitson family drove into town for a couple of days. Channing and Charise were very excited to meet their first human cousin! Unfortunately, Samantha slept most of the time (when she wasn't eating or crying), so she wasn't quite as much fun to play with as her cousins had hoped. Channing and Charise were excellent helpers though, and went they weren't swimming/playing with our next door neighbor, Sarah, they helped out a lot with changing diapers and getting Aunt Lisa baby supplies while her hands were full.

Aunt Lorna (Lisa's sister) and Uncle Justin were instantly smitten with their niece... but who can blame them? In these pictures, they're holding her before we headed off to an Independence Day party and our next-door-neighbor's house. It was Samantha's first holiday celebration!!




















The very next weekend, Sean's cousin, Cristy came to help for about 5 days (Samantha was around 4-5 weeks old). Cristy showed up and started scooting around... running to the grocery store, tackling laundry, and cooking us yummy food. She even made a scrumptious appetizer for a party that we all went to. The running joke throughout her stay was that Cristy was Lisa's personal assistant since Lisa couldn't remember anything if it wasn't written on a note right in front of her. And we were only partially kidding... Lisa is really missing her assistant... why do you think these blog updates haven't been getting done?! :-)


A few days after Cristy left, Lisa and Sean's friend from Florida showed up for a 5 day "shift" with the Shepard family. Just like with Cristy, Vera showed up and started cruising around the house getting to work. She even came with a pre-planned menu for her stay here!!! Since Lisa had already deemed Cristy her personal assistant, Vera became known as our fabulous Asian chef and nanny! We really know how to find good help, don't we!! :-)




















Papa and Nana Shepard managed to visit a third time by coming to Portland at the end of a month-long road trip they went on. They arrived the last weekend in July and Papa stayed for a week before flying back to Las Vegas the next Sunday to get back to the real world (i.e. work!) and Nana is heading out tomorrow (Friday, Aug 8). During this visit, they watched Samantha grow from a tiny 6 week old to a big girl (8 weeks old!). Samantha is mastering the art of smiling and cooing... which has enabled her to start the process of getting Papa wrapped around her tiny little finger! :-)

As you can tell by the impressive list of people in this cast of characters, we had a lot of wonderful helpers during this transition into parenthood. We probably would have gotten by without all this help... but we would have been crazy to try! :-)

THANK YOU TO YOU ALL!!!!

Sam's first photo shoot

When Miss Samantha was just 6 days old, our friend Don came over and took some baby "portraits" of our little girl. What an experience! This was Don's first time photographing a newborn and we are in awe of what he was able to capture. We will treasure these newborn pictures forever... and we have justifiably nicknamed him Don Geddes (long lost step-brother to Ann Geddes, reknowned children's photographer).

Here is a slide show of some of those priceless pictures...
(scroll your mouse over the pictures to pause the scrolling and see captions)

Pictures from Samantha's first week

This week has been crazy... we can't believe we're parents of a 10 day old!! We've had some questions about how we're doing, so we thought we'd answer them here.

When did we come home from the hospital?
Samantha was born on Tuesday, June 10th at 6:30 pm and we came home from the hospital around noon on Thursday, June 12th. Lisa was resisting such an "early" release because she was afraid to lose the 24/7 access to nurses. But they booted us out of there anyway!

How were the first couple of days?
We're not going to lie... the first couple of days were tough. Lisa was a hormonal wreck! Breastfeeding was very scary! And Lisa's Type-A personality was very confused and unsure about how to care for this new little bundle of joy. If Sean was scared at all, he didn't let on and was steady as a rock while we waited for Lisa's hormones to level out a bit! :-)

How are we doing now?
We are doing much better! As Lisa's hormones have settled down and as we've gotten to know our daughter a little more, we are really enjoying this time. She is SO beautiful and like all new parents, we just love staring at her and seeing all the goofy, lovely faces she makes.

How is Samantha doing?
We had our first pediatrician appt on Monday, June 16th. Samantha was 6 days old and was already 4 oz over her birth weight. This was really good news and a great sign that she is eating well. At this age, you also judge a baby's health by how much she's pooping and peeing and Sammy is EXCELLING in that department! :-) Thank goodness this method of grading health changes as we get older! :-)

Are nicknames ok for Samantha?
Yes, nicknames like Sammy and Sam are perfectly fine for our little girl. Although we know other nicknames will develop (like Munchkin, Precious, Sweet Pea, etc.) we'd prefer if you DIDN'T call her nicknames like Poophead, Dork, etc. :-)

Is Sean working during this time?
Yes, Sean is squeezing in work as much as he can. Although he is definitely taking time to spend with our little girl, Real Estate is an interesting business and at this time, it just isn't feasible for him to ignore clients for a large chunk of time. He is definitely changing diapers, taking some night duty with Sam, and spending quality time with his daughter, but he is also squeezing in work at the same time. I'm very proud of how he's handling the schedule so far!

Are we getting any help?
Sean's mom has been here since the 11th and just left today. This was a huge help (especially during those first few days) since we were able to concentrate on taking care of Samantha and trying to get rest... while laundry got "magically" washed, lunch got "magically" prepared, and dog hair got "magically" vacuumed. This week will be interesting as we try to adjust to the schedule without our fearless helper! Lisa's mom is arriving in a little over a week and we know we will definitely be ready for the reinforcements to show up! :-)

We have also been getting wonderful help from friends who have dropped dinner by and are continuing to do so this week while Lisa and Sean are "without a helper". I had no idea how wonderful and helpful that is and I now know what new parents will appreciate in the future. Obviously, we will need to start preparing our own food in the future (I don't suppose we can get people to bring us food until she leaves for college!), but during the first few weeks as brand new parents, it is a Godsend.

Hey... where are the pictures?
Okay, I won't keep you waiting any longer. Here are some of our favorite pictures from our first week with Samantha... You should be able to click on them to see them bigger.

Family Portrait

Getting some fresh air

Curling up with Daddy

Mixing Business with Babysitting

Sammy with Papa and Nana (Sean's parents)

Sammy with Nana

All clean after Samantha's first bath at home

Strapped in the swing

Ready for her first car ride (besides coming home from the hospital)

Hey Paparazzi... leave me alone!!

Samantha Burrito

Another Samantha Burrito

So tired!!!

Woe is me...

Welcome Samantha Ryan Shepard!!!

On June 10th, we proudly welcomed Samantha Ryan Shepard into this world. She was born at 6:29 pm, weighing 6 lbs 8 oz and she was 19 1/2 inches long... and immediately we knew she was the cutest baby we'd ever seen!

Our Labor Story
[You can skip this part if all you want to see are pictures! :-)]

The day was definitely different than we expected, but ended with her exciting arrival. When we had talked to the doctor prior to getting induced, we were under the impression that the first part of the day would be a little slow and boring (we even brought magazines and movies!), then when the water broke, the labor would probably progress quickly, with a long round of pushing since this is our first child.

Well... Samantha had slightly different plans. Sean and I showed up at the hospital at midnight to get my dose of Cirvidil. In laymen's terms, this was done to get my body in a favorable state for labor (there's no point kicking the contractions into gear if there's no way the baby can get out!). We planned on resting until the afternoon, when my doc would show up, give me Pitocin, break my water, and kickstart us into labor. Sean and I went to sleep and got as much rest as we could.
I woke up around 7:30 am with some pretty significant contractions... but I wasn't sure that's what they were because they weren't going away at all. I'd always thought you have a contraction for about 60 seconds and then you wait around 5 minutes for the next one to come. But mine were just coming one after the other... so I called the nurse to confirm that that was the pain I was feeling. Sure enough, we were having progressive contractions about 1-2 minutes apart. So much for those magazines, card games and movies!!! Although we will never know for sure, the doctors hypothesize that I was probably going to go into labor in the next 1-2 days on my own... which is why the Cirvidil did the job of kicking us into labor.

Sean helped me walk around, sit on an exercise ball, and just breath through my contractions for a couple of hours. Then the nausea hit! About every 3 contractions, the nausea would take over and I'd get sick. What fun!!! The contractions progressed for a few more hours and around noon, we ordered the epidural. Best move I've ever made!!!

It took the doc 3 tries to get the epidural in, but I gotta tell you that I really didn't care at that point. The "pain" of the epidural was like a raindrop compared to a bucket of water. The funniest part about the whole epidural process was that the doctor STARTED SPEAKING IN AN ENGLISH ACCENT during the third try... I guess he thought that voice would be more calming and soothing??? If Sean wasn't there to confirm his new accent, I'd assume I was just delirious, but Sean agrees that he did do a Madonna impression during that third attempt!

From about 12:30 or 1:00 to about 4:00, I just slept, still feeling the contractions, but no pain. Feeling contractions without feeling much pain is a very weird concept to me, but it was perfect!! My doctor showed up around 4:30 and I was dilated about 7 centimeters. At this rate, it looked like we might start pushing around 10:00 pm. Doc was going to head home and then come back as I progressed. Well, she checked on me again around 5:45 pm and I was dilated to 10 centimeters, thus canceling her dinner plans! :-)

So now it was time to push. All feeling disappeared from my hands. Even though it had taken 9 months to get here, I was so nervous and I didn't know if I was ready for what was coming! Our doctor headed to her office across the street to get some work done while the Delivery nurse started the pushing process with Sean and me. Yeah, that sounds weird, but since this was my first child, the doctors usually let the nurse take the first hour or two of pushing, and they show up for the last part.

About 10 minutes into pushing (about 4 contractions), the nurse abruptly told me to stop pushing. WHAT? But there's still a baby in there... what do you mean stop pushing? She said "I see the head. The baby's coming. I've never caught a baby before and I don't plan on starting now". So they paged the doc and we waited through contractions for 5-10 minutes while we waited for the doc to get there.

Our doctor came running into the room, jumped into her scrubs, threw some gloves and glasses on, and the pushing resumed. About 4 contractions later, Samantha showed up in all her glory. I will never forget the first time I laid my eyes on that precious face... our daughter was here!!!


PICTURES
So... since this is what you're really here for, let me post some of Samantha's first pictures. Please don't look at her mom... she didn't quite have a chance to get freshened up before the cameras started clicking! :-)

Lisa during early labor trying to work through the contractions. Nice outfit!!!

Nice hairdo!!! A little Flintstones hairstyle to get it out of the way for pushing.

You tell us, Samantha!!!

We both earned a good rest, right!? :-)

Our precious bundle

In this corner, weighing in at 6 lbs 8 oz...

Working with two laptops to try to get an email out to people...
Not something we recommend after a long day of watching your wife go through labor!

This is about 10 hours after Sammy was born...
Lisa was doing more research on how to become Baby Wise!! :-)

Affectionately termed "Our Little Troll Doll"
Give her some green pigtails, and you have to admit there is a resemblance!

Getting ready to go home from the hospital.
Samantha is wearing the hat her 8 year old cousin, Channing, made for her.

Much love from the new and improved Shepard family...
Sean, Lisa, Samantha (and of course, Charlie and Sadie)