This Week of Sean

Sean's 3rd week of life has certainly been full. He has gained about 8 oz. since last Monday. This morning, during tummy time, he rolled himself over from tummy down to back down twice! He is strong, with good neck and back muscles.

Tummy time takes the place of the "old fashioned" practice of letting babies sleep on their stomach. With the advent of concern about Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) babies now sleep on their backs. This has caused later development of crawling and walking skills. So, now, 2 5-10 minutes sessions of "tummy time" are recommended each day.

Sean made it all the way through Mass today with little fuss.

Sean's first bath. He is not a happy bather.

Suzanne, Kerry, and Suzanne's son Paul come to visit

Sean's first trip to the Pasta Grandparent's house. Dioxin (their cat) walks over to investigate

Uncle Joe and Sean

Dziadziu and Sean

Just the Stat's, Ma'am, the Stats

Today was Sean's second Dr.'s visit, his next is in six weeks. Dr. Hayes was very pleased with his progress. The stats?

• Weight: 8 lbs. 3 oz. - 50%
• Height: 22.125" - 90%
• Head Circumference: 14.25" - 25%

For those without kids - the percentile means ranked v. other boy children his age, e.g. 90% of 2 weeks old boys are not at tall (long really at this point!) as Sean.

Tonight the Johnson's came over for dinner (thanks for the pizza!) The kids are impatient for thier own little sibling to be born.

Mackenzie holding Sean (while Dave hoovers)

Abbie and Sean

Mommy is Famous!

Go to Danskin Orlando site HERE and then scroll down to the 13th picture. There is a picture of Mommy 5 weeks pregnant with me! (Sean) Thanks to Aunt Joanne for finding the picture.

Also - Thanks to the whole Pasta clan for feeding us several times since Sean was born!

Weekend Outings

Just a cute picture of Baby Sean. His eyebrows are starting to come in. He is establishing definite wake periods (well for three days now) of 9am-noon and then late afternoon.

We went to Jenn and Dave's Engagement Party for a little while on Saturday night. We saw several old friends for the first time in years - Steve, Gloria, Laura, Lisa and Nancy - some were surprised to be introduced to Sean!

Sean went to Mass for the first time, tonight at Sacred Heart. He made it through just the second reading before he woke up and started making noise - so, we spent most of Mass in the entry way and back of the church. Sean made three new girlfriends, including the new Sacred Heart director of education. The announcement was also made that Sacred Heart had an agreement to purchase the old Federal Reserve Bank building located one block north of the new co-cathedral - to be call Cathedral Center and house classes, meetings, offices, etc.

We welcome the Carter's to the Blog-o-sphere. They have just purchased a new house and are gutting and remodeling it. HERE is their story.

Kimmy, Jenn's sister, holds Sean.

Cool new cross walk lights located on light rail cross streets downtown.

David trying to figure out why baby socks have no-slip designs on the bottom (here, of baseballs.) Is this just in case a 1-month old starts to walk? Maybe for a 1-year old with really small feet?

David's Birth Photo

David at birth. I see a lot of resemblance - round head, similar eyes and nose.

Mexican Food, Finally!

First... I am still trying to figure out the picture posting problem. As far as I can tell these should show-up fine. Let me know if they do not!

It has been a busy week. We had really cold temperatures for several days and rain and dreariness throughout the week. Kathleen and Ted went home on Thursday. I cannot even begin to say how much of a help they were as we learned to live with Sean. Thank you!

We continued to have concerns around breastfeeding and then Friday (do I speak too soon?) it all suddenly seemed to click. Sean definitely seems to be getting enough food, as attested to by two poopy diapers in a row this morning. (Don't bug me about getting excited about diapers - I have a light saber!) We did buy a baby scale, just for peace of mind, to weigh Sean before and after each feeding. Think of the wonderful new graphs that will result! In four feedings today he is averaging 2.6 ounces in weight gain (with a standard deviation of 0.20 ounces.)

As you can see in the picture above Barley is finally settling in to the new baby reality.

Barley checking on the baby (or maybe trying to figure out how to whack him.)

Friday we took Sean out to eat for the first time. Barbara was getting house crazy and craving Tex-Mex so we and Aunt Joanne went to Los Cucos (visit their website, Los Cucos, it is pretty slick.) After dinner Kerry came by and we all chilled eating brownies in the Baby Room. Right now I (David) am spending my first solo time with Sean. Joanne and Barbara are out taking care of their nails.

1st Dr. Visit Redeaux

Re-post of previous post. Still having problems with Blogger posting new pictures. Click HERE to see a Picasa album with the same cute pictures.

Ok. I admit it. I dropped the baby. I was tired, I was on drugs (Benadryl for 15 ant bites), I fell asleep and dropped the baby. Yes, I did not wake up afterwards. It has now been 2 days and I think that Barbara has finally forgiven me! He is OK with no bruises.

Sean made his 1st visit to Dr. Hayes today. Everything was fine. She was a little concerned that he weighed in at 7 lbs. 8 oz., 1 oz lighter than at hospital discharge. It helped allay her concerns that during the visit Sean had two very wet diapers!

Picture Link Problem

For some reason pictures uploaded using Picassa to the Blog are not linking correctly for most viewers. I will fix it tonight!

First Dr. Visit

Ok. I admit it. I dropped the baby. I was tired, I was on drugs (Benadryl for 15 ant bites), I fell asleep and dropped the baby. Yes, I did not wake up afterwards. It has now been 2 days and I think that Barbara has finally forgiven me! He is OK with no bruises.

Sean made his 1st visit to Dr. Hayes today. Everything was fine. She was a little concerned that he weighed in at 7 lbs. 8 oz., 1 oz lighter than at hospital discharge. It helped allay her concerns that during the visit Sean had two very wet diapers!

Winnie The...

Pooh!

1st Trip to the Dr.! (and too cute)

Sean and Uncle Tadd

Repost of Previous Pics

Below are three pictures from Saturday that did not link well. Here we try again. Also, the onsie I described as an Atwatter Prairie Chicken was actually a red hawk my father photographed in his back yard!

Sean at Week's End

Sean wakes up in his Attwater Prarie Chicken shirt (Courtesy of Dziadziu)

Sean awake

Sean reading Put Me in The Zoo

Click HERE to see new photos.

Sean has been a little more awake and is now stretching out his legs a lot. He likes to kick himself out of position while his mother is trying to feed him. Barbara read Put Me in the Zoo to him, and he seemed to like the all the bright colored dots on the, uh, dog? (Further research HERE indicates that it is a leopard! It took me 37 years to figure that one out.)

He went for his first stroller walks yesterday and today. We did about a mile today and went to the house the Carter's are renovating. The Carter's and Johnson's came over last night. Keri, oddly enough, really enjoys "snorffing" his hair. There does not appear to be anything illegal or immoral about it, so we let her continue (plus her new house has a pool!) Abigail (3 yrs old) was very excited to see the baby again and also declared the his baby room was "very nice."

P.S. Attwater's Prairie chicken is an endangered sub-group of grouse. One of two remaining protected habitats is located across the road from ISP's Texas City plant (were Dave works) and the road the plant is on had its name changed from Industrial Rd. to Attwater Ave.

Relaxing Baby

Sean Relaxing on his Major Food Source (Mom)

Sean is doing awesome. He is now also stretching his legs out of the fetal position and kicking, especially while feeding. I am already thinking we may have another strong legged, early walking, champ like his cousin Elissa. Feeding (breast) is a little frustrating sometimes, but everything is working well. (Except dad can't make a spreadsheet of amount of milk consumed.) Look for a poopy diaper graph in the near future - data is being collected!

For Sean Album #2 click HERE. Although there are lots of pictures of sleeping people, it does not really seem to happen that often around here. Dave did, however, take his annual nap today (allotted for 2008 - the 2007 allotment was used up Monday) - this may be a problem.

Dave is really enjoying a life of baby care and working just 2-3 hours a day. Too bad it ends Monday.

A note: Dave's father has been appointed Dziadziu, Polish for Grandpa. It is pronounced approximately as JaJu. Other Grandparents have been appointed Grandma and Grandpa.

Day 2 at Home

Sean David arrives at home yesterday.

Sean is doing great! He is feeding regularly (once every 3 hours) and remains calm. He did sleep through the Ohio State slaughter last night but is happy to hand the championship trophy to Abbie and Mackenzie. Congratulations Gators!

Sean cries only when hungry or cold, which is easy to figure out. He is stretching his arms out of the fetal position on his own. He is also spending about 1/2 hour in alert awake state every other feeding or so. He just looks around and tries to focus on what is around him.

There have already probably been more pictures deleted of Sean than are taken of many kids. Click HERE to see more pictures. Hint: don't try to delete pictures of Sean if Aunt Joanne is looking over your shoulder - it won't be pretty!

National College Football Champions (Until 10pm Tonight!)

Go Florida Gators!

Sean is Home

We finally got released at 1pm.  Sean woke up and ate like a champ.  Once we got home all 3 Pastas celebrated with a nap.

Barley is not quite aware of what is going on.  She has noticed something else lying on Mommy's chest that is not her and that she is not allowed to approach the strange object.

Mom is sore, but feeling better all the time.

Monday Morning

We are still at the hospital.  Everyone is discharged, however Sean needs to feed one more time before we go.  He was circumcised this morning and just wants to sleep right now. His blood sugar was just checked and is fine, so we will wait anothe hour and try again.

Picture Site is up and running

http://picasaweb.google.com/dpastalaniec/WelcomeSeanDavid

Follow the link above to pictures of Sean David!

New Room

We are moving to a bigger room - 454.  Our new phone number is 713-363-5454.

As soon as we finish I should be ready to post a bunch of photos.

Thanks to all our well wishers and visitors!  The smoothness last night and today more than makes up for the first two days here.

Sean is quite a cutie!

Afternoon Update

Sean is feeding pretty good.  Mom and baby are still doing well.  The now official stats are 8 lbs 0.9 oz and 19.5 inches. So far he is a very quiet boy.

Day One

We got Sean back from NICU at about 5am.  Everything is fine.  He fed for a while and was taken back for his pediatrician examination - which checked out fine.  He came back to the room at 8:30.

Mom and I got pretty good rest overnight.

We are in room 280 at 713-363-5280.