Tuesday, September 9th 2008 will forever be the day the greatest adventure for Erin and I started.  It began at 10:15am, for what was 38 week appointment.  Dr. Tinker, OB/GYN extraordinaire, came and told us that Erin wasn’t progressing as far as we wanted her so we might have to wait until Erin was possibly 41 weeks pregnant before McKinna came into the world.  We were quite disappointed, but for good reason.  We wanted to have McKinna home with us SOOO bad.  However, we knew that God would bring her to us when she was ready and not a moment sooner.

Afterward we had lunch at Memphis Pizza Cafe’, our post appointment ritual, and discussed the rest of the week’s activities.  It was a LOOOONG ride back to work for both Erin and I.

To put it in perspective, we can barely wait to give each other presents on Christmas, by the 21st of December so you can imagine our short comings on having to wait for McKinna.  However, we both finished the work day and headed home.  It was business as usual back at casa de Wiles.  Erin went to bed a little earlier that night in hopes of making up for the lack of sleep from the night before, but I stayed downstairs to talk with my brother and finish up some stuff for McKinna’s site.  Around 9pm I decided to go to bed and talk with Erin for a bit.  I could look at her and see the exhaustion of everything in her eyes.

I closed my eyes and said the nightly Hail Mary and prayed for the safety and well being of Erin and McKinna and put the coming of the little angel in God’s hands.  Whatever He believed was the right would happen.  Not 5 seconds after I said, “Amen”, Erin leaped from the bed and ran the bathroom.

I heard her gasp and say, “Dee, you will never believe this.  I think my water just broke”.  After confirming that her water did indeed break, it wasn’t that difficult to confirm, we packed up what little ammenities that we would need at the hospital, hopped in the car and we we off.

Emily, Erin’s parents and my mom met us there.  The initial prognosis from the nurse was that it was going to be LONG night.  It didn’t matter to Erin and I because we knew that our precious gift was on her way.  Barring any complications McKinna would be born on September 10th 2008. After some initial examinations they moved Erin to the “birthing room” (237) where we stayed until McKinna arrived.

DAD TIP:

BRING A DOWN SLEEPING BAG, THE COUCHES ARE HORRIBLE.

There was a lot of waiting, beeping of machines, blood pressure taken, and iced chewed.  Finally around 1:30pm September 10th, it was Erin and I alone in the room and she was 5 centimeters dilated.  She and I fell asleep right after that.  I was woken up at 3pm with Erin telling me that she was 10 centimeters dilated and that we were about to have a baby.

Nine minutes later McKinna Claire Wiles was born.  6lbs 9oz and 20.5 in long.  Holding her for the first time brought a wave of love over me that I have never felt before.  Our blessed angel was here.

Erin and I still can’t believe that McKinna came on the day when medically the chances where so low that we would have greater luck winning the lottery.  I have to remind myself of rule #1 of the UB Rules…things end up how they start out.  We got pregnant with McKinna a lot earlier than expected so why would she not come early as well?

We are at day 2 of being at home and so far so good.  We are still adjusting to the constant blur between day and night, night and day, but it is slowly getting better.  Finding the routine that works for mommy, daddy, and baby are KEY.  Erin and I are close to finding ours, however I have a feeling that once we get used to it, McKinna will throw a kink in it.

I have added a few more videos to the site and have about 10 more to go.  It is a slow process so please bear with me.  If you have any pictures please email them to me so that I can post them.

We would like to thank EVERYONE for their thoughts, prayers, blessings, general goodwill, food, wine, M & M’s, and laughter.  It has been a tremendous help to Erin and I.

Ladies and gentlemen, friends and family Erin and I would like to introduce life’s start attraction, McKinna Claire Wiles.  Born Sept. 10th, 2008 at 3:09pm CST.  Pictures express more than I could possibly write.  Mommy is doing AWESOME.  More pictures and videos to come over the next few days.

View the latest pictures.

This has to be the longest two weeks ever.  We have waited 9 months so one would think that waiting two more weeks wouldn’t be that big of deal, but Erin and I have never been so anxious in our lives.  Sometimes we will sit in McKinna’s room talking and try to answer the following:

Who is she going to look like?  Is she going to have hair?  Will she know my voice when she hears it for the first time?  What will her first word be?

It is the uncertainty of the future that I believe is so exciting.  What will the future hold for not only McKinna, but Erin and I as parents?

All we have to do now is wait.

Receiving and purchasing gifts for McKinna is always a fun little adventure.  Though the presents are for her opening them is 3/4’s of the fun.  However, having to return ANYTHING to Babys R Us or Target is a royal pain.  They have the worst return policies we have ever run into.  The latest misadventure came yesterday when Erin and I tried to return a duplicate gift back to Babys R Us (Wolfchase Location).   What should have been a 10 minute task turned into an hour of what exemplifies the lack of corporate efficiency in this country.

We went to the counter and explained the situation: duplicate gift that was purchased online and we didn’t have a gift receipt, but it was on our registry.  First, the lady couldn’t locate the item on our registry and then alluded to the possibility that we wouldn’t be able to return it.  After getting the manager involved he said that the product wasn’t in their inventory database at all even though it was purchased from their company.

Mind boggling.

Finally, after 35 minutes of haggling with four different employees who couldn’t find their way out of a paper bag, they were able to lookup some inventory number and locate our purchase in their system.  Unfortunately, they were going to give us $7 less than what was paid for online because they had marked it as a clearance item.  So we had to argue that point.

At long last we got everything straightened out and took our gift card to purchase the two items that we really wanted which are a M and a W wood letters.  Guess what??? They where sold out of both those letters.  Can you believe it?!

Erin is going back to the other location to see if they have her initials.

What a misadventure!!!!

Throughout my life I have had the privilege of having great wisdom past down to me and now I present these to my daughter.  The U.B. Rules:

1. Things end up how they start out.
2. A man convinced of his will is of the same opinion still.
3. Always live on 50% of your income.
4. Get ready to hurry up and wait.
5. Life is the ultimate teacher.
6. Always strive for an A and the worse you’ll get is a B.
7. Low-fat cheese doesn’t taste the same as regular cheese.
8. Nothing in extremes is good.
9. Choices are what makes life fun.
10. Always be young at heart.
11. If you play with snakes long enough you will get bit.
12. No matter how important or insignificant a person is in your life they will have an impact.
13. Sometimes you have to forget the budget and recover afterwards.

Welcome to McKinna-Wiles.com

Erin and I can only hope that when McKinna grows up she will have friends as great as ours.  This past Saturday Allison Brownlow, Emily Gray, Katie McKarthy, Blair Phillips, and Ashley Tubs hosted our couples shower.  It was an absolute blast.  Not only because of the wonderful gifts that McKinna received, but just being able to spend some much needed adult time with our friends was priceless.

Things are really coming together with McKinna’s room.  Her room is roughly 90% complete.  The biggest item, the crib, is completely setup and I must admit…it looks GREAT.

Erin and I only have ~5 more weeks before the stork brings our little bundle of joy.  We definitely want her to be healthy, but at the sametime McKinna can’t get here fast enough.

Don’t forget over and check out the new photos.

Of all the pieces of furniture that soon-to-be/new parents receive or purchase, nothing is more iconic for babies than the crib.  Most mom’s look forward to receiving them and most dads dread putting them together.

After a month of Baby’s R Us cancelling the order that my Mom placed (after that charged her of course), having to replace the order, Niki and Stephanie GRACIOUSLY picked up the 100+ pound crib and brought it to our house.

Erin isn’t like most moms…she definitely likes to be involved with putting things together.  So the next day we open the box, laid out all the pieces and started down the dreaded assembly of putting the crib together.  We got 97% of the way through without any problems then the last 3% hit.  We had the side rail to attach and that stubborn thing did not want to corporate.  We finally figured out that the instructions where incorrect.  Step 12 (final) should have been step (10) and vice versa.

None the less we accomplished our task and are VERY happy with seeing McKinna’s bed now snuggled up in its final resting place.  Her room has more furniture than ours.  She is already spoiled and hasn’t even arrived yet.

I guess things end up how they start out.

Without music life would be a mistake.  ~Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Life would be a mistake if there was no music to experience. (Have you ever been experienced…well…I have).  I have started playing music to McKinna at night to hopefully get her used to the “colors” of sound that await her in the world.  To make sure that she has been exposed to the best possible music, the selections are taken from her daddy’s playlist.  So far she has heard Bob Marley, Frank Sinatra, and Dean Martin.


Upcoming artists will contain Allman Brothers, Credence Clearwater Rivial, Ella Fitzgerald, and Billie Holiday.