A letter to family and friends post birth.

Dear Friends and Family:

First, we want to thank all of you for the support, the advice and the love you have given us during the last 9 months. We’re not sure anyone is really ready to become parents, but we guess, we’re as ready as we will ever be and we are blessed to have each of you in our lives!

As we embark on the last few days before the baby arrives, we want to share with you some of our plans (and the hospital’s new policies) for the big event and beyond.

Due to the H1N1 virus hospitals are now limiting the number of visitors/support people allowed in the labor & delivery & recovery rooms. This includes Kaiser Sunnyside, where we are planning to have the baby. Unfortunately, only 4 people are allowed to log in at the hospital! This means that unless you are Sue, Mary Ann, or a sister, you will not be permitted to visit while we are at Kaiser. Although we are not thrilled about this new policy, it is better than the 2 people that other hospitals are allowing and we are thankful for the extra safety procedures designed to keep our newest family member safe.

Willie will be doing his best (and/or as much as Beth will allow) to update his facebook and Twitter page with any and all updates about the labor and delivery. Don’t worry, it won’t be graphic! If you are not on facebook or twitter, they are easy to join and free. Willie's Twitter tag is @wsmith74 .

We do not know how long we will end up being at the hospital (hopefully not too long!).

We’ve also heard from so many of you how excited you are to visit and we are looking forward to seeing you all (Okay okay, we realize it’s really about the new baby…) However, once we started to do the math and look at the calendar we began to realize that there won't be enough hours in the day to see everyone in the first few weeks as well as settle in to our new roles as exhausted parents. So, at the advice of many new mothers and fathers we know, we hope you will understand that we will be limiting how many visitors we have each day and length of stay. It may even take us a few days to settle in after we return home. We hope you won’t think us rude and we apologize in advance for any inconvenience. It has absolutely no bearing on how much we appreciate and love all of you!

Our doctors have also given us a bevvy of warnings regarding H1N1 and the seasonal flu. Although both mom and dad have been vaccinated, our new little bundle will be extra susceptible and we are listening. While we know this is common sense, it makes us feel better to write it down: So…If you are not feeling well, have people around you that are not feeling well, have the sniffles, a cough, or any other cold or flu symptoms, please delay your visit until you are at least 48 hours past your last symptom. Keep in mind that you are contagious up to 24 hours before you show any symptoms of being sick. Also, we’ll probably be religious about having people wash their hands and/or using Purell before interacting with the baby.

Willie will be the main point of contact for finding good times to come over and visit the family. The best way to get him is e-mail: wsmith74@yahoo.com. In anticipation of new challenges and sleep deprivation, we are likely going to be turning off our phone ringers a lot for the first few weeks after the birth, so e-mail, e-mail, e-mail!

Thank you again for everything and we look forward to seeing you all as we start the next chapter of our life’s journey!

Beth, Willie, and at least for the next few days “Peanut”.