Goodbye, Boston

We're not saying goodbye to our friends - only goodbye to dear Boston, home to Rob and me for 10 and 9 years, respectively. We'll miss you, Beantown.

Since we won't see some of our dear friends again for some time, however, Seth organized a little send-off for us at a restaurant in the South End. Food and location were fantastic, but nothing beats a room full of unselfish folks wishing you the best as you're about to fly off 1,000 miles away. I don't know if we'll ever be able to replicate what we had in Boston in terms of the quality of our friends and neighbors but...that's what Delta is for. Love and miss you all already. Here are some photos of our send-off.

Photos: Stella meets Aunt Jess

Here's Jessica's photo album of the week she spent packing all of our belongings. We love you, Jess, and we owe you BIG TIME!!

Photos: 10 days old and a budding supermodel

Stella had her pictures taken by a professional photographer at Day 10 - there were SO many good ones; I've tried to pick the best ones here for a broad representation. She was such a ham for the camera - see for yourself!

Back from vaca

We're back from vacation in Western Mass and Auntie Jess has now joined us! It was an amazing, relaxing week with Erica/Thor & Melissa/Ben/Dash, and we've decided to do it again next year. Thinking Austin, Texas, but we've got a while to nail it down!

Stella was very adaptable - she went to the beach, played croquet, and went on two hikes. Busy gal!Jess and Stella are busy getting acquainted - hopefully Stella will be in a little better mood tomorrow. She's a little tired from her adventures last week, we think!

Stella in her resort wear:

Stella meets Aunt Kylle (and wants to be just like her!)

Think we're related?

Sometimes I think she looks just like Rob, and then other times...

Photos: bath time

Will you just look at how much she's grown in 4 short weeks? I can't believe it!

Lazy Sunday

Big girl!

Well, I thought that she just went through a growth spurt and I was right! Little Stella weighed in today at 9lbs 8oz - a weight gain well above average for her age, according to the lactation consultant. And, that was hungry. We weighed her again after a feed and she was ~3oz heavier. :)

The consultant tells us we're doing everything just right. The not-so-good news is that my pain issues could have been prevented with a simple outpatient procedure during the pregnancy, which probably can't happen now until I'm through b-feeding Stella. And the discomfort is not likely to subside. This is a real bummer, but at least she's gaining well and I can fix this for future babies.

Oh, and she was very surprised to see Stella smiling at me. She said she's never seen a baby that young, even a late one, smile at 3 weeks.

Enough of the bragging already!!

Week 1 of Mel and Stella

Well, week one of Project Home Alone with Stella has gone marvelously! She's ridiculously easy to care for and has let her momma get a walk and a shower in every day, eat regularly, and even do a load of laundry here and there. Plus, she's gone out for dinner twice and had friends over another night. Such a social butterfly.

The only problem area is that we're still having a few lingering feeding issues, so I'm having a lactation consultant come over this morning to check us out and make sure everything is working as it should. Better safe than sorry, I figure.

Happy Labor Day weekend!

daddy, don't go to work!!

aaawwwwwwwww

New Stella pics

Stella's First Bottle

The experts say it's time to introduce bottles now (of breastmilk,) so we gave it a try. Eventually, she got the hang of it...although it was far from love at first sight! We're happy to report that after filming ended, Stella polished off a whooping 3 ounces and later went right back to Mommy without any issues. Hurray!

Big day of firsts

Stella, Susan and I had a busy day. Stella had her first real bath; she screamed through most of it but loved the part with the warm towel and hair dryer! Arbor seems to be protective of the baby already. When we were bathing her (and she was crying) Arbor was around our ankles meowing at us. This is totally out of character for her - we can only guess she was worried about the baby.

Then, we put her in the sling and took her to the farmers market, where we got some ice cream and produce. Around 5:00, we put her in the car and drove downtown to meet Rob at Legal Seafood for dinner. She was a champ! She slept in her car seat the whole way there and all of the way through a 2 hour dinner, awakening only when the check came. Good girl!

Susan leaves in the morning and Rob's taking Friday and Monday off for some family bonding. I'll be alone with the babe for the first full day on Tuesday - should be an adventure!

Video: Funny Faces

6 hours of sleep - a new record!

Our little angel is sleeping 5, 5.5, and now 6 hours at night! As long as she goes down at midnight after powerfeeding all evening, she's out for the count (as are her happy parents). I woke up at 6 and peeked into her bassinet to see her looking back up at me. Swear she smiled.

Mom had her first baby-wearing experience today. Dad's already gone for walks with Stella in his sling (see pic) and I took mine for a spin today down to Trader Joe's. She loves the closeness and goes right to sleep. I'll be using mine quite a bit when it's just us here and I've got to get some things done around the house.

Susan is here until Friday - she had a little adventure today on the changing table! Wet diaper, more pee on the table, and then some simultaneous spit up just to keep things interesting. Nothing beats Rob's projecting poop all over the place while he was pulling up her legs to wipe her, though. No picture of that - sorry! ;)

On Saturday, we had a professional photographer come and take baby shots for a couple of hours. Stella was a TOTAL ham and posed like she'd been down runways all her life. She would follow the camera with her eyes wherever he went and I'm sure we're going to have a LOT of keepers from the session. Hoping to get them in the next couple of weeks. Cannot wait!

Here's something for you guys to feast your eyes on - a video of Stella practicing 'crawling' during her tummy time.

Sheryl Posting: First Trip to the Pediatrician

Well, it took two adult women about 6 hours but we did it!
Melanie and I got Stella to her first appointment with her doctor.
First she wanted to sleep when we needed her to eat, then when she was in her carseat (for the first time) she was so comfortable she pooped--further slowing us down.
Then there was the incident with the car that was nearly out of gasoline and the carseat that had somehow become unbuckled. The latter promped a call from Mel to Rob that began "HELP".
We finally got to the office after finding this awesome parking spot. Afterwards we only had to pay a $55 fine for parking there.
But after all that, we got the info we wanted and expected.
Stella is perfect!

(This was taken right before the poop...click to enlarge.)

More photos - days 4-7

Happy One Week of Life, Baby Stella!

Below are some more photos to appease the masses. ;) We can't stop taking them - poor thing will probably inherit Rob's eyesight AND permanently see flash spots for the rest of her life!

Everything is going really well here. Stella's passing milestones every day - it's easy to see how the time will fly by. Today she had her first real poops, nursed on her own, AND her umbilical cord stump fell off. Plus, we're going to take her out of the house for the first time when daddy gets home and go on a walk together. Big day.

Grandma is here for just another few days. Thank goodness she came for such a long visit - we do not know what we would have done without her! The house stays clean, there's always food out to eat and laundry going, and a third set of arms to hold and change the baby comes in really, really handy. We'll miss her tons when she goes home but luckily, Mimi and Pops are coming in to relief pitch on Friday afternoon. Stella's very excited to meet her more of her family.

Signing off - enjoy the photos and we'll keep them coming. Maybe we'll give Stella her first bath today, too...see how light that hair really is!

Stella Fingerprinted