Happy Birthday Papa and Nana!!

Sebastian wishes his Papa Mike and Nana Marjorie the best of birthday wishes today.  He promises he will never, ever forget their birthdays in the future. 

Today and yesterday were pretty calm days although Sebs did have a feeding frenzy of sorts last night.  We spent a lot of time in the house but Matt and I were able to take a little walk around the block yesterday which was really nice.  Nana watched Sebastian while we were gone so that the new parents could get a little bit of alone time.  Fall is definitely coming to New England.  The days are getting shorter and the air is crisp.  Within a mere few days, we have gone from trying to keep Sebastian cool enough to trying to keep him warm enough. 

Baby boy is definitely filling in a wee bit.  His arms are getting a little meat on them and he already looks bigger, although he is still definitely a peanut.  He slept through his first Rosh Hashanah dinner last night.  Nana, Matt, and I had a delicious meal prepared by Nana which included plenty of honey, apples, and wine.  We wish everyone a happy and healthy new year.

I am including a few photos of Matt, Sebs and I hanging at home.  Nana went to services today so she missed the photoshoot.  Sebastian is going to attempt his first trip to a restaurant tonight.  He will be in his Moby wrap.  Wish all of us (and the other diners) good luck on tihs one!!

Poop Day!!

When Papa Bear dresses me, I look AWESOME

Just another day on the farm...  The big news is that Sebastian finally had a bowel movement.  We knew he was hooked up appropriately because he had had a few BMs in the hospital but he hadn't taken a dump since we left the hospital on Thursday.  Despite the fact that his pediatrician's office thought that this wasn't a big deal, we were eagerly awaiting the day our baby would actually evacuate.  Well, on his 1 week birthday, he decided to truly celebrate in style.  He had a massive blow out!  Daddy was so proud.  Pictures NOT included.

We also took a field trip to The Diaper Lab today where we, yet again, had another tutorial on methods of folding our cloth diapers.  Believe it or not, we are actually finding the cloth diapers to be much more useful than the disposables.  In fact, the worst urinating issue as of yet occurred in a disposable.  Speaking of urinating, Sebastian did us the honor of peeing all over the wall this morning... he barely missed one of Nana's paintings.  We are working on our strategies to control his desire to pee every time a cool breeze hits him.

Sebastian is settling into life in Medford.  He is sleeping ridiculously well at this point and appears to be a very happy baby.  He even braved his first sponge bath like a champ.  Unfortunately, Daddy and Nana decided to give him his bath in front of an open window which wasn't very nice.  Half way through the process someone said, "Hey, this open window might not be the best idea."  Sorry, Sebs!  We are all learning how to best meet your needs.

Sebs in his whale tub courtesy of the Bianconi family

Um... Please close that window...

Daddy is drying me

Flipping the bird... How Feldman

Big brother Fred tolerating Sebastian from a distance

Can't believe it has been a week already!  Wow.

The Waltmans Come to Visit

Great grandparents, Irving and Frances Waltman, and great uncle, Laurence, came to see Sebastian yesterday.  And, Nana Marjorie arrived to meet her first grandchild.  Julian- If you are reading this, Mom and Dad said Matt and I are getting everything because we produced the first grandchild.  In your face!  But, we are generously going to give you all of Dad's debt, a tractor, and a shotgun for use on rodents.

We had a lovely visit with everyone.  Sebastian was on his best behavior (he slept the entire time and made adoreable faces).  Everyone had the opportunity to meet the most peaceful baby on the block.  Matt and I were watching the scene thinking, "Perfect.  He is going to be a terror tonight."  I explained to Nana that Sababy's witching hour appears to be between 11pm and 2am.  When we went to bed, I put Nana on the ready to deal with Sebastian's crying at some point during the night.  To our complete dismay, Sebastian barely let out a peep all night.  We woke him for feedings and he quickly quieted down afterwards and went back to sleep. 

Nana, Sebastian and I are now sitting on the couch while Papa Bear enjoys the luxury of sleeping in.  Although I have promised Matt that I will not post pictures (they are really bad), he has been having horrible hives on and off again for the past month or so.  Last night was particularly horrible so we are giving him the chance to sleep and feel better.  Poor Daddy, or as The Grand Poobah (Howard) likes to call Matt, "Puff Daddy."

Three generations... We totally dropped the ball and didn't take a four generation shot.  Oops!

Great grandparents and Sebastian

Zaide, Laurence, and SHD

Bubie and Sebastian

Labor Day Weekend Happenings

While we haven't been getting out much (barely at all, actually) we managed to make it over to our friends Erica and Eric's (E1 and E2) for dinner last night.  The Es welcomed baby Echo Cadence into the world on August 30th, a mere 21 hours before Sebastian arrived.  Damn you Erica!  You may have  won this round but we will beat you next time...  We got a few shots of the Sebs and his buddy, Echo, with the new proud parents.  I will get the pictures up as soon as I figure out where I put the camera. 

Also, it has been brought to my attention that I failed to put up Sebastian's stats.  I honestly can't remember what I did and didn't tell any given person so I will post everything on the site.  Just remind me to do so because my memory ain't what it used to be!

Arrival Tuesday, August 31 at 12:07pm
Weight: 6 lbs 11.6 oz
Height: 20 inches (but the peditrician demoted him to 19 in when he was remeasured a few days later)
IQ:  Off the freaking charts

Nana Feldman is arriving today!  She was scheduled to arrive in a few days but due to an emotional outburst by Matt (okay... maybe it wasn't Matt), she decided to bump up her arrival by a few days.  Admittedly, it has been much harder to make it through the past 5 days without family than I had every imagined it would be.  We are really looking forward to having some help and support.  My grandparents, Zaide and Bubie Waltman, as well as Great Uncle Laurence will also be coming for a visit today.  And, Grandma and Grandpa Dooley will be out on the 17th.  We can't wait to see everyone.

Love and screaming,

Sababy (Our new favorite nickname for Sebastian coined by Auntie Breanne's father), Papa and Mama Bear

Erica, Eric, Echo, Anna and Sebastian

Tufts Med School M'11- Way to reproduce!

Settling in at home

We left Mt. Auburn Hospital at about 11am on Thursday.  After initiating Sebastian to his car seat (which actually went surprisingly well), and getting Starbucks for Mom and Dad, we arrived back at 43 Windsor Road.

In response to earlier questions about Fred...  He did not spend the entire day baking in the car while I was in labor.  Auntie Lotus picked him up at the hospital about 1-2 hours after we arrived and brought him back to his air conditioned apartment.  Thank you to Lotus for taking care of Fredly while we were bringing Sebs into the world.  When we got home, Fred was very attention starved.  But, despite the fact that he greeted us at the door, he seemed completely unaware of the new addition.  He continues to be rather underwhelmed with Sebs but he'll come around.

Life at home is hard.  Sleeping, eating, and finding time to bathe are all new challenges.  Sebastian is completely nocturnal it would seem.  We have started doing shifts to keep him quiet for short periods of time so the other can sleep.  In case I haven't said this often enough, Matt is fantastic.  Watching him take care of Sebastian makes me love him even more every day...  I won't make everyone nauseated but I will say he is the only person in the world I could ever go through this experience with and he is a wonderful father already. 

I am adding a few pictures below of the first few days at home.  We have only including pictures of Sebastian the Angle (when he is asleep or quiet) because we don't want to snap pictures of the poor lad when he is screaming... that would be mean.

Love,

Sebastian the Sailor... my favorite outfit as of yet

Skin to skin with Mama

Before

After

He loves the bouncer!  And I think he looks just like Grandpa Mike here.

Two Sleep Deprived Parents and one little peanut

Sebastian Henry is here

After my first post, Sebastian Henry decided to schedule an early arrival.  Although he was due on September 3rd, he came into the world on August 31st at 12:07pm. 

Unfortunately for mommy, labor started some time between 12am and 2am while we were down in Rhode Island... a whooping 2 hours away from the hospital where we were planning to deliver.  At 4am, I got out of bed to realize that labor was definitely in progress.  I woke Matt up and we started packing up all of our stuff (and there was a lot) to head back toward Boston.  We got on the road a little after 5:15 am with Fred in the backseat and Matt's bike strapped to the car.  Everyone had said that first labors take a while so I wasn't planning to go straight to the hospital.  I thought we would get back to Boston, drop Fred off at home and maybe have a few hours at home to labor before heading to the hospital.  At 5:20 am we started timing my contractions and they were already 5 minutes apart (or less!!).  Let's just sum up the car ride by saying this... it was VERY uncomfortable, there was vomiting involved, there were many times when we considered stopping at a closer hospital, we hit horrible traffic at the 95/93 junction but we made it to Mt. Auburn!  I only called Matt a "bastard" once and I was relatively nice about it. 

We got to Mt. Auburn at 7:30am and I was quickly admitting to the L&D floor with my very own view of the Charles River.  The nursing staff and doctors were excellent.  I showed up 8 cm dilated and puked a lot more but everyone was fantastic.  I got my epidural placed after three attempts and was able to relax, entirely pain-free, for the next few hours before pushing out our little guy in 20 minutes!  Dr. Charles Kawada, the chair of Obstetrics delivered Sebastian and was the most adoreable doctor in the world.  He even sat by the window with Matt and enjoyed the skyline while I babbled on in my Fentanyl induced haze.

We are now home, enjoying the bliss of our new baby burrito.  We can't wait to introduce him to everyone!  We may be bias, but he is pretty stinking cute.  See pictures below!

Much love to all,

Look at his big hands!

Sebastian's hearing test... He passed!

First family photo

Arrival at home in the car seat

The Dooley Crew

Waiting for Godot

Today is Saturday, August 28th, 2010 and still no baby.  Well, yes... the due date is September 3rd but we were hoping for an early arrival.  At my last OB visit on Wednesday, I was 2 cm dilated, 80% effaced, and the baby was at -1 station.  The doctor said that it was "very likely" that the baby would come in the next few days.  Needless to say, the doctor was wrong!  While there is no certainty to these predictions, I think the doctor gave me false hope.  Oh well, that's life.

In the meantime, Matt and I are celebrating his having finished his first two rotations of the his 4th year of medical school.  Matt is relieved to have a break, even if it will be over when the baby arrives.  If we can figure out this blog business, we will get a few preggo photos up soon. 

Love to all!

M&A