One Month Old

Today marks Milo's entry into a whole new month. December dawned cool and foggy here in Berkeley, but Milo stayed warm and "snuggy". In fact we discovered that he can tranform himself from mild-mannered Milo to "Super Snug", a superhero capable of snuggling to sleep just about anywhere. Here he is cold chillin' in mom's lap ->

But eventually he wakes up and is alert...or fussy.

Week 3

Life with Milo is starting to have tones of normalcy. Ben went back to work this week. Julie and Milo have run errands on their own. We even cooked a meal for ourselves!

That being said, every day is still filled with "firsts". We had our first picnic in the park at the Berkeley marina.


We gave Milo his first real bath. His copious hair gets curly when it's wet. Like REALLY curly. This cracks his mom up.


And it's still nice to take it slow. Nothing like blogging with baby and breakfast in bed!


Trying out different outfits is fun, though some of them are difficult to put on.


Julie Beck and Kate came over for a visit. The Becks provided the inspiration for our blog with their excellent chronicle of Kates adventures. http://littlestbeck.blogspot.com/


The neighborhood girls have taken an interest in the local babies. Phoenix (center, rainbow hat) lives across the street and came over with her posse to scope out the babysitting business prospects.


Today we're going to attempt our first video skype call with Milo's grandparents. If anyone else wants to get in on the action, let us know!

Halfway Through Week 2 Already!

It's been a good few days in Miloland. We've got so many cute pictures I can't decide which to post here.

We had another pediatrician appointment on Tuesday. Going out is fun because we get to dress him up. Except some of his clothes are a little big, not to mention his car seat :)


















All was good at the doctor except his biliruben (a measure of jaundice) was a bit high, so we had to go in again yesterday for another blood test. This meant another heel prick, which is as hard or harder on mom as it is on Milo.

We got a call yesterday evening from Dr. Gray (we like her) who said that the billiruben level had gone down significantly and we had nothing to worry about. He does seem to have a slight cold, but it's already getting better.

Besides that, it's all about napping, nursing, and changing. It's amazing that such simple existance could be so time consuming...and so enjoyable.

Visitors liven things up, though. Here is Milo with some of his new friends...

Notes on Using the Blog

A couple things about the Blog:

1) If you click on one of the photos it will show the full high resolution photo in a new window. Then if of you right-click on it you can save it and print it, etc.

2) I forgot to "allow comments" on some of the previous posts, but I've been remembering on the last two, if you feel so inclined. All the comments prior to this are lumped together under the comments for the very first post.

That's it.

Friday

Ok Miloholics. You asked for it, so here are some more pictures. Life in Miloland has been pretty exciting. That is, if you find bodily fluids exciting. And Milo certainly does, especially breast milk. Julie and Milo are both getting the hang of breastfeeding, which is hard work for both parties. Milo is definitely a bit of a "nipper napper". He takes a few sips and then naps for a bit, and takes a few sips more. This stretches out the process to over an hour, which is all fine and dandy when you're having tea in the mid afternoon, but it's hard on Mom at four in the morning. It seem like he's getting more efficient, though. Hopefully this trend will continue.

We're still not sleeping a whole lot. We've got bags under our eyes...but hey, we're not the only ones. Who you callin' sleepy? Are you talkin' to me, tough guy?As we've mentioned before, Milo likes getting daily sunlight time for vitamin D and jaundice reduction. He's looking much better in this department. Tonight Grandpa Frank and Grandma Karen came by with some dinner. Frank gave Milo the rundown on politics, baseball, and gardening, while Karen warmed up dinner. Milo paid close attention.

Day 3

Well today's actually day 4. But this post is about yesterday. But what do days and nights really mean anyway...they blur together. It seems like weeks. Yesterday Milo had a big day. James and Sarah came over and Milo met Dexter, who passed along some breastfeeding tips--good to get some advice from a big guy.


Then we went to the pediatrician -- our first trip into the outside world. He's got a clean bill of health besides a little jaundice. So we let him nap by the window to catch some rays, which should help with this.

In the evening Milo was glued to the TV watching the election returns. Well, actually he slept. But he did have is eyes open long enough for us to capture calm alertness on camera. Now that the color barrier to the presidency has been broken, Milo has his sights on breaking the age barrier. Perhaps he could be America's first "child president" in four years? Ok, maybe eight.

Two Days Old

Wow, thanks to everyone who has sent congratulations and signed up to bring us food. We are feeling the love.

The past couple days have been great. Milo is getting used to the air-world and his parents are getting used to their new world with him in it. Right now he's sleeping (imagine that!). Our midwife Beah paid us a visit today and said everything looked good, and tomorrow we'll go for his first visit to the pediatrician.

Milo is has met a few new friends, and he's looking forward to meeting a lot more in the weeks to come. Give us a call if you'd like to come visit, but don't fret if we don't get back to you for a few days. We're still taking it slow.

A Name...

His name is Milo James Gallant. Milo means peace (So said one baby book, good enough for us! Milo's also the little boy with the big imagination in "The Phantom Tollbooth") He's 24 hours old right as I type this and he's doing great. All systems are fully operational! Julie's also recovering really well.

Eight Pounds, One Ounce

He doesn't have name yet, but he sure is cute (even his pointy head). Here are some pictures. All three of us are pretty tired (I'm writing with my eyes half closed). Julie did an amazing job, as did her support team. The pushing phase was long-ish, which explains the pointy head--he's got a lot of hair and it looked like he had a beehive hairdo when he first came out. But it's already rounding out.

He's Born

Born at 5 pm. Not weighed or measured yet. Mama and baby are healthy and happy.

moving along well

Beah & company are here. Everything's going well. 6cm.

Beginnings...

November 1st, All Saints Day, right on time! :) Julie's water broke this morning at around 4:30 am. We rested in bed, got up and ate some breakfast, rested some more. Now we're eating some more breakfast. It's a peaceful rainy day. We're excited. Stay tuned!

First Post

No baby yet. We're due November 1st, but we're now well within the "window" of possibility. Julie's healthy and feeling pretty good...and pretty pregnant.

We finished our birth classes and we have all the supplies that we need for our home birth collected. We're seeing our midwife weekly now. On Friday our Doula Kathleen is coming by to review some labor techniques.