Playing with Grandma Carol's keyboard

Play Tunnel

Christmas 2009

Thanksgiving 2009

Uncle Peter's visit ~ Nov 2009

Halloween 2009

Pumpkin Patch

October 8, 2009

September 27, 2009

August 15, 2009 - after Dara's first haircut

June 16, 2009

May 10, 2009

Dancing Dara 4-30-2009

Dara took her first steps this evening (4/27/09)

1/7/09

Joshua's 3rd Birthday

Dara 9 months old: 1/1/2009


Dara's 9 month check-up was 12/30/2008
Weight: 18 lbs 5 oz (50%)
Height: 27.8 inches (75%)
Head: 17.3 inches (50-75%)

Dara "Rudolph"

Dara's first Christmas

Dara started crawling 12/6/08

Dara 8 months old

Dara after a bath



Dara & Joshua: Halloween 2008

Dara 7 months old

Dara 6 months old

Dara at 5 months old

Dara at 4 months old

Height: 24 inches (50-75%)
Weight: 15.3 pounds (90%)
Head: 16.3 inches (75%)

Joshua's first baseball game: Frisco Roughriders on 7/29/08

Joshua & Dara - future best friends!

Joshua's big boy bed

Trip to Pittsburgh to see Mark's family (Jul 11-15)

Grandma Carol Comport, Aunt Sandy Derbish holding Dara


Uncle John Comport who let us stay with him for the visit - thanks!

Dara at 3 months old

Joshua kissing Dara

Dara's two month checkup -
Height: 22.3 inches (75%)
Weight: 11 lb 15 oz (75 - 90%)
Head: 15.5 inches (75%)

Bugaboo and Derry

My six weeks of maternity leave are over and I returned to work on Monday, May 12th. Dara seemed to do fine at daycare. Mark even survived being home alone with both kids on Thursday. I survived my first week back at work though it has been hard getting back in the swing of things. Friday morning (May 16) at 5am Dara had a fever of 102. Since she's just six weeks old the Pediatrician sent us to the ER. It was probably just a virus since her labwork all came back normal.

Dara's 1 month checkup

Weight: 10lb 1 oz (75%)

Height: 21.8 inches (80%)

Head Circ: 14.8 inches (70%)

Dara's first full bath at home

Two Week Checkup
Weight: 8 lb 4 oz (50-75%)
Height: 21 inches (90%)
Head: 14 inches (75%)

Dara's first week: our first concern was to see if Dara was born with any similar "stumps" like Joshua had on his chin. Luckily she doesn't appear to have anything like that. Our second concern was her bilirubin. On Tuesday morning her bilirubin was 6 but had dropped to 5 by that afternoon. It rebounded to 10 that evening.

Wed, Apr 2: the Pediatrician discharged her although the skin test was 12 and the blood serum was 11. He said to push feedings and follow-up with his office on Friday. We were discharged from the hospital around noon. I remembered doing too much too soon after Joshua was born so I made an effort this time to rest and do less than I thought I could. No martyrs here! Dara is a champion eater. She will nurse for 40 minutes and then take a 2 oz bottle. She had her first non-meconium diaper on Thursday and my milk started to come in.

Fri, Apr 4: we went to the Pediatrician who said she just has mild jaundice down to the chest and otherwise looks great. She weighed 7lb 12 oz (she was 7lb 3 oz at discharge Wed) so he said to limit supplemental feedings to 1/2 or 1 oz. He said babies don't usually get back up to their birth weight until two weeks. She is a piggy eater. Meanwhile, my parents left this morning to drive back to Charlotte.

Dara Grace Comport was born on Monday, March 31, 2008 @ 11:42am at Baylor Medical Center at Frisco. She was 7lb 14 oz and 20.5 inches long. As you can see she has a lush head full of dark hair.

Since my parents got into town (3/22) we have been waiting and waiting for the baby to arrive. I went to work as usual this morning. Though I had been having sporadic contractions I called the OB, Dr. Boyd, at 9am to schedule an induction for later in the week. The induction was scheduled for 7:30am on Wed, April 2nd which was my actual due date.

I started tracking my contractions at 9am since they seemed stronger than the ones in the past two weeks. They went from 10 minutes apart to 5 minutes apart over the next half hour. Then around 9:30am they switched to being an average of 3 minutes apart. I thought I must be getting the times wrong since that seemed too close together. I thought I'd see if they stayed like that but meanwhile I still had some work I wanted to get done.

Around 10:15am I decided I had better head for home soon in case this was real labor. Tracy Otto who works next to me insisted on driving me to the hospital which ended up being a good thing. The contractions were still about 2 1/2 minutes apart but now were getting much stronger. Tracy moved Joshua's car seat from my car to hers since we would need it to pick him up in the afternoon.

We left for the hospital around 10:40am and I called Mark and my parents to tell them to meet me at the hospital. I also called my best friend, Cheryl Jones, who luckily doesn't work on Mondays.

Tracy and I arrived at the hospital a little before 11am and I was taken back to a Labor & Delivery room. My water broke in the hospital bed and they checked to see how far along I was. Everyone was surprised that I was more than 8cm dilated already and then things got hectic. Nurses rushed in to get me and the room ready. There wasn't even time for me to sign my own consents for treatment and anesthesia. I got my IV at 11:10am and the epidural around 11:30 (wish that had been sooner!). Dr. Boyd arrived and the baby was crowning. After four pushes Dara was born (less than an hour after I walked in the hospital doors - talk about a precipitous delivery!). Dara didn't need the vacuum like Joshua did. The nurses said if I have any more children that I need to schedule an induction since this one came so fast. My parents and Cheryl and her girls made it to the hospital before I delivered but we didn't get a chance to see them since it all happened so fast.

The good thing was that I didn't even break a sweat. I prefer a short labor and delivery like that than a multi-hour affair. I tried to call Tracy back at work from the L&D room while I was recovering but accidentally called a Code Blue. Oops! Turns out they don't expect new mothers to be making phone calls so soon after delivering. For even more excitement we had a fire drill that afternoon and we were horizontally evacuated for a tornado warning. Frisco's tornado sirens were going off. I still had a foley catheter in since my epidural hadn't worn off so they wheeled my hospital bed down the hall and into the OR.

I thought that Dara would look like a male version of Joshua but she doesn't seem to resemble him much. Everyone says she looks like me though without my coloring. She has a very round head for a newborn - not pointy at all. She is blessedly chubby with creases in her arms and legs.

My parents (Bob & Cynthia Dunegan) arrived Sat, March 22 in anticipation of the baby. Joshua loved getting reacquainted with his Nana and Papa. They were so helpful to have here helping take care of Joshua, painting, putting up shelves, run errands and lots of other odd jobs. We cannot thank you enough!!!

Frisco Easter Egg Hunt - Saturday, March 15, 2008. Joshua got the hang of it this year and picked up a ton of candy and snacks.

Frisco got snow twice in one week. We got about 4 inches on Thursday, March 6. We let Joshua got out and play in the backyard.


Joshua got out of the snow by climbing in the dog house. He thinks it's his own little clubhouse.

Elizabeth (L) and Cheryl (R) threw me and Baby Girl Comport a baby shower on Sat, Feb 23.





We had a cute and delicious cupcake cake!


Jeanine Bruen & Cheryl Jones




Kim Newman, Jeri Cliff and Lynn Corbin

1/6/08: Joshua's second birthday!

Christmas 2007: Joshua was much more into opening presents this year although he still played with the wrapping paper a lot!

11/22/07: Thanksgiving 2007. Dunegans came for the week. This is the picture we used for our 2007 Christmas cards.

Halloween 2007: Curious George

Sept 9-12, 2007: Sara won a trip for four to Canyon Ranch Spa in beautiful Tucson, AZ. Below is video I shot of several wild Javelinas passing through the grounds of the Spa right before dusk. They walked within just a few feet of us.