Baby Monster is hungry!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vintage Baby Photo

This is as close as Sebastian will probably get to looking like the "Gerber Baby"!  At four months he's not very chubby or even classicaly "baby cute"; he is, however, full of personality and has a winning smile, and shining eyes that know how to find the camera! 

Even with all of that I still have to work a little to get a good shot.  I talk to him and try to get him to laugh (he usually is entranced by the camera and ignores me).  After I weed through the photos, and it does help to have a camera that can take rapid fire frames, I pick a few that I fool around with in the basic processing available in the free program Picasa.  I can't wait until I can get a new laptop and *real* photo processing programs because they are amazing!

As you can see from the first picture below the photo out of the camera is a little dark.  So I upped the highlights and then gave it a little white "vignette" border to put the focus on his face.  I then tried the new "infared" action and it suddenly made him look like a vintage photograph from the 1940's!  I'd tried the black and white but it left his face too flat.  This one emphasized his expression. 

 

 

Four Months!

 Here are a few pictures from the
past two weeks or so.  You are growing like lighting!  You still go on the same daily walks, and read the same books, but notice something new every day.

 

 

  You suddenly want to
touch everying

 

And put everything in your mouth.  Even thyme!

Something new is music hour.  You love dancing!  You dance when we sing.  Right now your favorite is "dans mee met Nijntje" --it's very cute!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20J8DUJMgA4

 

 

 

 

You love to "grip" and often grab my hair, shirt, and everything else.  If possible you then put it in your mouth!

 

Jan and Lies sent you a cute outfit.  I love Holland!

 

 
While mamma is working you get "daddy daycare" and a bottle of breastmilk.  Thanks to the lightweight silicone bottle you figured out how to hold it and drink! 
You can roll from your back to your side, and your side to your front, but haven't done both together!  You laugh a lot!  But cry a lot more now because those two darned bottom teeth still haven't broken the surface and make everyone miserable.  Teeth!!

Sebastian at 3 Months

We LOVE YOU SO MUCH!

 

You love reading, closely followed by "swimming" in the bath

You hate tummy time, but are making progress

You can hold your head up

And love going for walks to see dogs, trees, and neighbors

You sometimes cry, but mostly because your two bottom teeth will soon arrive

And you look a little bit like your mother!

Home Birth!

Our Sebastian Peter Edward Gopfrich was born at 9:17pm on a dark and stormy St. Patrick's Day.  He entered this world after a bolt of lighting and a loud thunderclap!

My water broke 24 hours before that, and luckily I spent most of the night sleeping through early labor. It wasn't until around 10am that the pain really geared up.

 

 

Can you believe this is a photo of my little cherub right after he was born? He has a wonderful personality!

The active labor only lasted a few hours and those were spent in the warm tub set up in the living room. The tub was a blessing!  My brother just asked if our tub was green on purpose (St. Patty's Day!), haha!  The active labor was less painful (but more vocal) than the early labor. We felt so lucky we were able to have him born into the water in our own home with the help of our midwife Dr. Gleisner and her assistant Sara. I'd always envisioned gving birth at home in a tub and it was such a satisfying experience (despite the pain). Later that night we all bundled off to our bedroom and slept pretty much through the next day.

Since then I've been completely and utterly exhuasted!!  Walking and sitting hurt--a lot.  Peer is doing a good job of helping to take care of everyone.  We are currently working on nursing (around the clock) and sleeping and getting to know each other. We are so grateful for all of the support and love shown to us by our family and friends.  I'm frustrated I haven't been able to respond to everyone but hopefully in time I will be able to.
I'll write more and post more photographs of our amazing little boy soon, once I've regained a little more consciousness!

 

 

 

Today we gave Sebastian his first bath--he loved it (and mommy did, too!). 

 

Happy 37 Weeks!!

Wow we are at 37 weeks today!  Baby had a huge growth spurt over the past week and my midwife estimates he gained about 1 pound in the past week alone.  The estimate is that he is about 7 pounds at this point, but I hold out hope he is still a wee bit smaller and is just long and skinny! 
As a result I've felt extremely ill the past week--very nauseated, exhausted, and heartburn prone.  It reminded me how horrible my first and most of second trimesters were!  I'm starting to feel better, so perhaps he has calmed down a little bit! 

It's very difficult to bend over......

I can't button anything! 

We are all ready to go to the baby shower my office is throwing for me!
At this point, I feel like I'm a combo of The Venus of Willendorf and Tik Tok, the rotund waddling machine from Return to Oz!


I'll try and update soon about the nursery and set up for the home water birth!