5 weeks, 1 day


Dinga Lorie


Great grandparents!

So today he is more than 5 weeks old now and is doing great. Chris and I are getting to know his personality and temperament - but just when we think we've started to get his schedule figured out, he likes to change things around and keep us on our toes! Some of the things he likes are baths and looking out the window or over our shoulders, being rocked in his nursery or on the swing outside and having his face and hair stroked. Of course, he loves being held and cuddled with and looking at some of his toys that have lights & sounds.

Also some big news... he started smiling this week. It hasn't happened very often, but it is definitely a real "social" smile as they say and not just him smiling to himself because his tummy is full (also very cute). I haven't been able to catch it on camera, but every so often he'll smile the biggest smile with his entire face and it almost seems like he's giggling, it is just great and I can't wait for him to do it again.

Talk to you soon,
Andrea

3 weeks, 5 days old


Getting big already - hit 10 pounds last Friday at his doctor's appointment


Family photo from this weekend


Chatting with mom


Offered a pacifier this week for first time, before 3 weeks they say it can interfere with breastfeeding


Taking a nap in bed with me


Auntie Alyson visited from Arizona this weekend


Grandma Resendes helped with a bath

Have a great week,
love, us

And the winner is...

The winner of the baby poll is Christine Fales, who is a friend of Chris and I from NH. She was very close on all areas, guessing 7 pounds 12 ounces, 20 inches, the ONLY one to guess the correct birthday, and that he would be born at 3 p.m. Good guesses!

The next runners up are Auntie Carol, Andrea Paiva, Jenn Doucett, Tracey Rocha and Grandma Lavigne. Chris was 9th and I was 19th :0(.

Here are a couple pictures from this week...


He makes the funniest faces when he stretches. He raises his eyebrows, sticks his head back and puckers his lips out. Its really funny to see.



He has had 2 regular baths and he really enjoyed them!

Andrea

15 days old...

So our little guy is already 15 days old. The first two weeks went by very quickly, and not because we spent so much of them asleep! Christopher did, he's more alert now though. He has periods where he is alert for hours. He focuses on us when we talk to him briefly which is nice, and he looks over to the sound of one our voices sometimes.

Yesterday his umbilical cord stump fell off so today he will get his first real bath. I'm guessing it will not go very well if how he reacted to his sponge baths is any indication, but we'll see how it goes!

Also today a visiting nurse stopped by and weighed him and gave us pamphlets on things. Its a service the Dept. of Health pays for I guess. He weighed 8 pounds, 13 ounces today, so he has gained 1 pound and 6 ounces since being born, putting him at + 1 pound, 4 ounces over his birth weight. Like the pediatrician did, the nurse commented on how good this is as she expected him to have regained only the birth weight lost at 2 weeks of age. I can tell how he is bigger already when I hold him!

Below are a few pictures from this week.

Take care,
Andrea

First week home...


Going for his first outing to the pediatrician at 3 days old. He lost only 2 ounces since being born which was lower than average. At his next appointment at 9 days old, he had gained 11 ounces which was higher than average, so the breastfeeding is going very well.


Taking a nap on the couch.


Hanging out with godmother Auntie Lorie


Big cousins Zach and Jacob


He loves napping with daddy.

Hello baby!


















As you probably know already, Christopher was born about a week early this Tuesday, June 12th! He arrived at 4:07 a.m., weighing 7 lbs. 9 oz. and measuring 20.5 inches long. Active labor, which is when the contractions are painful, started on Monday at 2:30 in the morning (contractions that were not painful started Sunday at 8:00 a.m. and came every 7 minutes until Monday). We went to the hospital around 4:00, but after an exam they said I was only 1 cm dilated and so they told me to walk around for an hour or so and then get re-examined. I did that and remained only 1 cm dilated, and so they told me to go home until I could not bear the contractions anymore, and that's when I should come back - so that's what we did. It ended up being 20 hours of painful contractions every 4-6 minutes before we were finally admitted, Chris and my sister Lorie were very helpful with back rubs and reminding me to breath. By the time we were set up in the delivery room at 10 p.m., that stage of labor was relatively quick as he came at 4:07.

The staff at Women and Infants were great, I really had a good experience there. I had a private recovery room that Chris stayed in with me. They had a lactation consultant come to the room and meet with us for over an hour to help with breastfeeding that was extremely helpful. The delivery went just as smoothly as the pregnancy.

So now we're home! He's doing great, he's eating every hour during the day, every 2 1/2 - 3 1/2 during the night. He already had his first appointment with his pediatrician and had only lost 2 ounces until that point, which is low so that is very good. Its all those feedings I guess! She said he's perfect, and his next appointment is next week.

Thanks to everyone who has been in touch with their congratulations, we are looking forward to everyone meeting him as soon as he gets settled in!

Andrea

2 weeks until the due date...

Hi everybody, I've managed to go 38 weeks with out posting anything on the website, however, I am very excited to be a Dad and can't wait for Christopher's arrival. I have scheduled a lot of time off this summer and I look forwarding to spending a lot of time with him and Andrea (and Molly of course). Andrea has done a great job with the pregnancy and has been very happy being pregnant. She managed to maintain a 4.0 average in school, work and do research depsite being tired from lack of sleep and making a baby. I am very proud of her. I know she will be a wonderful mother to Christopher. He is very lucky to have her. I look forward to seeing everybody after Christopher is born, have a nice summer, Chris

"I won't lie to you, fatherhood isn't easy like motherhood." -Homer Simpson

Full-term baby!





Taking a little nap... this is of his face, the top of his head is facing towards the right, and you can see his nose sticking out.



This is at Chris' cousin's wedding this weekend on Boston harbor.


So now that Christopher is 37 weeks along, he is considered full-term. While the due date is June 18th, 95% of babies are not born on their due date, so it does feel like he could come along anytime he wants now. At the doctor's visit last week, they confirmed that he is in fact head down which is great. They also estimated his weight to be about 6 lbs 12 oz, so almost 7 pounds already. They also said he's got a head of hair - maybe he'll be like me when I was born with a head of big black hair!

We're all doing well and eagerly waiting his arrival. People keep asking me if I'm nervous about the delivery and I'm not feeling nervous. I know as much about it as I can without having gone through it, and the rest we'll take as it comes. I'm not sure if I've been having Braxton Hicks contractions or if its just some discomfort since his head has turned down, but nonetheless I've heard a lot about real contractions and that its hard not very hard to recognize them. So we're just waiting now. I hope he waits until his due date or afterwards to be honest, so he's nice and big and ready!

Have a great week!

Andrea

4 weeks to go!

Hi there,

Nothing much new to write about this week. We finished getting the nursery ready this weekend - Chris did at least 5 loads of baby laundry and I sorted everything and finished putting everything away. We're all ready, we just need the baby!

This past weekend we had a class on caring for a newborn. It was pretty good in that it was practical, but again with the classes there's nothing you either haven't heard before or wouldn't figure out pretty quickly. There was one other couple in the class, and she and I had almost the exact same due date. The funny thing was how absolutely miserable and cranky she was. Chris and I felt bad for the instructor, this lady had to wait outside 10 minutes because the door was locked and no one heard the end of it for the 5 hour class. I have one more class left that I was debating whether to do, the one on breastfeeding, which I suppose I'll just go ahead and do in case I learn something new.

In a few days we have another appointment and this time with an ultrasound which will be cool. The ultrasound is to make sure that he turned over, which I believe he has but don't know. We'll also be getting an estimate of his weight, so I'm not sure whether I should advertise that for those people who haven't voted yet on the baby pool! I'm thinking I gained weight over these past two weeks, there was another spurt I think because today a few people were completely shocked when they saw my belly which was pretty funny. According to a baby website, he should weigh about 6 pounds and be about 19 inches long.

Hope you have a good week, will post some ultrasound pictures next week when he'll be considered full-term :0)

Andrea

5 weeks to go...









Hi there,

Thought I'd post a few updated pictures. The nursery has so much stuff in it, I've been told there's no room for a baby in there - this doesn't include any of the equipment like the high chair, swing, etc.! Most of those things are set up and are around the house. I don't know where to fit everything, some things are down in the basement and we'll bring them up as we need them. If you look on the chair to the left of the picture of the nursery, you can see one of the piles of laundry to wash, there's so much stuff and its all so cute!! Today Chris' parents and my family came up for a Mother's Day BBQ, so I put a couple pictures from that up. It was a beautiful day out, I'm very excited for the summer.

Last week at the doctor she said I had lost a pound over the past two weeks, which was surprising because at the previous visit I had gained 7 pounds in the previous two weeks. She said it's just water weight and not a big deal. I wonder how much of not gaining this past week had to do with being sick, so maybe I was a little dehydrated or something? I did hear that in the few weeks before delivery women will lose a few pounds, so maybe that's all it was. She believes he did turn upside down, but in two weeks is giving me an ultrasound to be sure. That'll be neat to see, I haven't had one since early in the second trimester. My sister Tricia is able to come to that along with Chris so that'll be great.

Hope you had a nice Mother's day!

Andrea

6 weeks to go!

So this week I am 34 weeks along, the end feels near! Our birthing classes finished this past Friday. They were OK, nothing terribly surprising or anything, but I'm still glad we did them. I had actually watched so many videos online that I had already seen some of the ones they showed in class, but they were all new to Chris. The overview of medication options and when to go to the hospital were the most useful pieces of information.

The week before last I went to the doctor's, and I'll go again this week because now it is every two weeks. At the last appointment, she was a little concerned about the amount of water weight I had gained in the previous two weeks, because I had also complained of a headache. She did bloodwork and everything was fine. I guess the concern was about preeclampsia which has to do with blood pressure, which was fine. So she ended up saying I haven't been resting enough and need to rest more laying down with my feet up. That hasn't been too easy though as last week and this week are the final weeks of school, and I have exams and presentations. So needless to say I haven't rested enough and as of yesterday came down with an awful sore throat and cough. It'll all be done in a couple days though and I'll be able to take it easy until the baby comes.

Oh one more thing about the doctor's appointment. She felt my belly and said Christopher is still upright, I guess most babies turn by 35 weeks and if they haven't by 37, the doctors will manually turn him around. The other day I felt him doing a weird waving motion side to side though that I haven't felt him do before, and Chris and I could even watch my stomach going side to side, so maybe that was him trying to turn!

Finally, last week was my shower and I'd like to say thanks SO much to everyone who came and for everyone who helped put it together. You did a great job! Below are just a few pictures from it, there are many more I will email out soon.



This cake from my mother was really cute - and good.



Chris' mom highly overestimated the circumference of my belly, more than anyone else!



My sisters and I



Zach, my mom and Sophia



My friends Angela, Tracy & Liz



My friend Jessica (also a big overestimator!)



Jessica's son, Sergio



Me & Chris' friend Christine, Chris' aunt & grandma

So thanks again and I hope everyone has a great week!

Andrea

8 weeks to go...

I thought I'd post some pictures of the nursery. Its pretty much all set as far as the basic furniture and bedding. We finished hanging up his letters yesterday, that was not easy! Trying to get 11 letters straight and centered took several tries, it is close enough though. The border wasn't nearly as hard to do!

A big thank you to Chris' parents who got this crib for us!



Chris did a great job assembling the crib and the changing table...



and apparently just watching Chris do all that work tired Molly out.



We started our birthing classes last week which were pretty good. It was very basic stuff, probably because it was the first class. There are two more, and tomorrow I also have a breastfeeding class (that Chris gets out of going to because he's working :0). In this class they just covered the stages of labor, what the partner can do to help (they said a lot of "don't take what she says personally when she's in pain") and just basic stuff like that.

Hope you enjoyed the weather today! Chris and I took Molly for a walk on the beach which was nice. It was a nice slow walk, as I don't move too quickly nowadays!

Talk to you soon!
Andrea

31 weeks (9 to go)...

Hi everyone,

Thought I'd post a picture of Chris and I this week. We've done a lot of work on the nursery, but its not all arranged yet, so I'll wait until we do that to post pictures of it.

I went to the doctors and the glucose test was normal so there's no need for the follow-up test for gestational diabetes. I'll be going again at the end of the month, then every two weeks, then every week.

This week also starts our birthing classes, will let you know how it goes next week!

Have a good weekend despite the bad weather we'll be getting!

Andrea

30 weeks along! (that means only 10 to go!)

So only ten weeks to go as of today, can you believe that. I started realizing the other day that fairly soon I won't be pregnant anymore, and how much I will miss it. I really love having Christopher with me all the time. Whenever I'm sitting in a meeting or class, or doing work, he moves around and reminds me he's right there and I will miss that. It's been very precious to me being pregnant, I've been lucky that things are going smoothly and I'm feeling great.

As far as the semester with school, there's three more weeks of class and then some exams and that's it. I have a lot of work to do on my master's thesis before he arrives, realizing I won't do anything with it this summer. I've been very busy and will keep it up as long as I can before he comes.

My sister Lorie who will be Christopher's godmother came up with an idea to start a poll guessing the baby's weight and birthday. I figured since I already have this website set up we might as well do it from here - so feel free to click on here and enter your guesses. I already put mine in!

http://www.expectnet.com/games/GuessDateWeight

I also thought I'd upload a couple of pictures that Chris' mom gave me yesterday on Easter. I like the one taken the day he was born!

On his birthday


At 15 months old

I'll have to get some pictures of me as a baby too at some point! Hope you have a nice week and had a great Easter yesterday.

Andrea

11 weeks to go...

Hi everyone,

So there's only 11 weeks left to go. I've been in the third trimester for a few weeks now, and up until the past few days I continued to feel great. The last few days though I've been pretty exhausted again, I feel a little like I did in the first trimester. I know its common to feel like that towards the end, but its a little too early for that now so I think it might just be that I've been too busy with school and work. Hopefully I get more energy soon!

Last week I had my doctor's appointment and everything is great. I don't know the results of my glucose test yet. After the next visit, I go to every other week. It's funny to think that Christopher would survive if he were born now, it makes it seem like he could come any day now or something!

The nursery furniture arrived at Babies R Us and some friends with a truck helped us get it this weekend. Chris set up the crib yesterday and the furniture looks great. When we set up the room I'll post some pictures of it.

Below are a few pictures from dinner at my family's house this weekend I thought I'd share. My nephew Jacob, Chris, and my sisters Trisha and Jenn all managed to avoid getting their picture taken...



me and Lorie


My brother-in-law Peter. We're due around the same time.


My nephew Zach


Mom & Sophia


Cameron

Have a wonderful week,
love, Andrea