A Southern Boy

This is Jack going to town on some collard greens. He does his Daddy proud.

More Freeman Pics

As babies go, Freeman has been an easy one so far. We've enjoyed two nights in a row with sleep shifts lasting 3+ hours. Seems like it took weeks and weeks for Jack to get his nights and days on track with those of us who are long time residents of the ex-utero world.

We had one rather rough night. Freeman slept all day his second day home, waking only to eat for 15 minutes at a time. At one point, John and I found ourselves with one kid at school and the other one snoozing hard. Instead of taking naps ourselves, we ate chocolates in front of the bazillionth episode of Law & Order that we've seen since getting satellite two years ago. I said, "Well, Dear. Welcome to parenthood of two. I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop."

Drop it did. From about 10 pm to 3 am. Freeman wasn't fussy, mind you. He just needed company and approximately 300 diaper changes.

There is an extent to which I can't tell if Freeman is easier or if we are. Probably the latter. Jack was a good teacher, and experience has helped us avoid some of the things that were hard the first time around. To his credit, though, Freeman seems to be a pretty mellow kid.

On to the pics...

The shirt says it all.

Freeman's hair and face seem to come mostly from Daddy. It's not clear that he's got Mama's ears...it's only certain that he doesn't have Daddy and Jack's.

This is not Jack's first reaction to Freeman. Sadly, we didn't catch that on film. When they met, Freeman was sleeping peacefully in the hospital bassinet. Jack stood on a chair to view the baby. Freeman suddenly flailed his arms in his sleep, which caused Jack to pretty much leap out of skin in terror. It took a few days after that for Jack to really warm to the baby. Now (when he's not busy doing his own thing with his cars and Lincoln Logs) he's a most enthusiastic baby brother kisser.

Freeman's build is not at all like Jack's at birth. Jack was a big pot belly plus a big head with tentacles for limbs. Freeman is our more 'husky' son so far. Those may be Mama's nascent thighs. I'm sure it was a fluke, but right after this picture Big Bit managed to push himself from belly to back. He was a week old.

Freeman joins the Family

We are thrilled to announce the arrival of Freeman James Basham Chamblee, who was born on September 11, 2008, at 11:53 p.m. He is 20.5 in. long and, at birth, he weighed a healthy 8 lbs., 6 oz. Mom and baby are doing fine and Dad is the doing the blogging. Below are some introductory pictures.

Hello! from FreemanFreeman and MommaFreeman and Daddy

Pictures of Freeman with the rest of the family, including Big Brother Jack, are coming soon!