First Father's Day

Henry surprised his Daddy with a T-shirt for Father's Day. The rest of the day was spent on Henry's first tub bath and the other regular baby stuff. In the evening Jim and I went out to dinner for the first time while Nana babysat. We went out for Sushi and a walk in the city. It was very nice, but of course we missed our precious boy!

Bringing home Baby

Saturday, June 10, we brought Henry home. He looked so tiny in his car seat. He didn't seem to mind the seat at all, once he got settled. The girls (our cats) were a little freaked out by him and I was a little freaked out by the fact that they both wanted to get to him at once. After a few minutes though, they grew uninterested and for the most part they have remained that way, now that they are used to the crying.

Our first night home I will always refer to as initiation night. Henry christened us into the Parenting Fraternity, by fussing all night long, not eating and not sleeping. He did a good job of hazing us and clearly established who is boss around here. After all the name Henry means "Head of the household"! But Jim and I persevered and we are pretty sure it can't get much worse. Babies everywhere can be proud that Henry got us off to a reality based start!

In Henry's first week, we have already made one trip to the Pediatrician for a clogged tear duct. Nothing major and it was good to get that first nerve-wracking visit over with. We had his first bath, which is still in the sponge bath stage, until his umbilical cord stump falls off. He was very good- and hardly cried at all. Otherwise, we are working on getting a schedule established and we are very thankful that Nana is here to help especially during sleepless nights. I am happy to report as of this Blog, we have had over 36 hours of amazing angelic behavior. He is sleeping 3 hours between feeding and has almost no fussing at all about anything. If he keeps this up, then you will all be subjected to blathering on about how he is the best baby that ever existed! I hope that is the case!

More next week!

Pictures of our Blessing

Introducing Henry Waltram Novack

Our son Henry, joined us on Tuesday, June 6, 2006 at 10:52 am. He was 6 pounds, 7 ounces and 19 inches long. Jim was able to watch him as he entered the world. Henry proved his lungs worked well by screaming for the first few minutes of his life. Then Jim cut the umbilical cord and participated in Henry's cleanup. I, on the other hand, had a little tougher go of it, as the Spinal Block triggered a severe migraine. As soon as Henry was out, the pain medicine was increased to tackle the migraine, so I don't remember a whole lot. Jim's face when witnessing the birth was priceless though, something I will never forget. He kept saying, "he's perfect, he's perfect." with smiling eyes. I have never seen Jim so happy or excited.

After being stiched up, we went to Recovery and I was able to hold Henry for the first time. I was just amazed that this was the baby I have been carrying for nine months. Due to the migraine, this time period is very hazy to me, so I am glad to have photos as a record. My Mom arrived soon after and once my legs were in motion again, we were moved to the postpartum floor, where I got the nicest room on the floor -- REALLY. One of the administrators was Russian and has a daughter named Victoria. She told us that when she saw my name and the Slovak name of Novack that she decided to assign us the best room, which was a corner room with floor to ceiling windows overlooking the Fenway area. With hardwood "like" floors it felt like a loft space more than a hospital room. It also had the largest bathroom! If you have to be in the hospital for 5 days, this is the way to do it!

Otherwise, my hospital stay was mostly uneventful. I had a couple of visitors, Brendan and Aileen, and Lilian and Kaitlyn. It was great to see friendly faces. On the last night of my stay, I was feeling really strange and it turns out that my blood pressure went very high for no apparent reason. I almost didn't go home on Saturday, but my blood tests seemed to be normal. They are still unsure why it spiked and why it continues to run quite a bit higher than my normal rate (which is extremely low). Hopefully in time, everything will stabilize.

The Childbirth experience has been the most monumental of my life. Henry is a beautiful baby with a wonderful disposition. God has blessed us with his greatest gift and we can't me more thankful and happy.

The Details

The C- Section is scheduled for 10am on Tuesday, June 6 at

Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital
330 Brookline Avenue
Boston, MA 02215
617-667-7000
http://bidmc.harvard.edu/display.asp?leaf_id=9657

We will be in the hospital until Saturday-- Call us!

Our last weekend as a Duo

This weekend we decided to embrace our last hurrah as a childless couple. On Sunday we had brunch, one of our favorite pastimes (sans the Mimosa's of course) and afterward, we attended the Dorchester Day parade. Believe it or not it was 2 hours long with all sorts of participants. Who knew that Dot was so proud! Tonight we went to our favorite restaurant in the North End, Rabia's. Believe it or not, during dinner we were still discussing names and we decided to wait until he arrives to make the final decision.

Nine (10) months has really flown by-- it seems like just yesterday that I was taking a 3rd pregnancy test to make sure it was really true in the airport on the way to Colorado Springs for Angie and Robert's wedding! We feel so blessed and I can't articulate how excited we are to meet this little person who I have been carrying with me all these months. Thank you all for your prayers and support. Next time this blog is updated it will be with pictures of our son!

The Nursery **Almost Finished**

The nursery is almost complete! Here are a couple of pictures. It still has to be accessorized (Jim says he doesn't understand what that means!) and I need to finish the window treatments. There are some shelves that will be hung as well. These pictures let you see our our new ceiling, new lighting, new molding and chair rail (all Jim's handy work) as well as the snazzy paint treatment (hand-painted by me). It is very peaceful. We had my step-Grandmothers antique rocker reupholstered for the room and it looks beautiful. I hope BBN likes it!

Anticipation

Ok, yes, it is 4:25 am and I am at my computer. I can’t seem to sleep. Not only is sleeping just plain uncomfortable lately, I woke at 3 am and couldn’t turn off all the thoughts swirling through my head. I keep picturing our son, tiny and pink. And the surgery. And all the things we still need/want to do to be fully "prepared" (which I know you never really are!). Yesterday was my last day day in the office before starting my Maternity leave. Even after working until 9pm, I still have one huge outstanding item and until I can finish it, I won’t be able to fully let go of work. Unfortunately, we had an email migration last night that has rendered me without network access until at least 10am, so instead of hammering my work out this rainy dawn, I am typing to you.

We are still on for June 6th at 10am for our c-section. However, I feel like a walking time bomb... with every new sensation I think "Is this it"? So far, everything has been false alarms, but the anticipation is overwhelming! If I keep hanging on, I will post some more information this weekend- the hospital info, pictures of the nursery, new email addresses, etc.

I guess I should just get used to these 4 am mornings… there will be a lot more of them in our future. A future we are so excited about!