Pictures: Henry weeks 2 - 3.5

I'm nursing Henry (as I do continuously most nights), so you're getting many pictures but few words. All is well here and we've settled in nicely. Here's what the past few weeks have been made of.

Mayhem at bedtime and dirty bathroom mirrors:

Upper-body workouts:

Henry showing how high he can go:

Elizabeth taking lots of pictures with our camera (this is the best by a mile):

Reading books in bed while nursing:Elizabeth dressing her doll, Oliver, in Henry's clothing:My 31st-birthday celebration:My mom, GiGi, calming Henry:

Introducing Henry to basic hygiene:

Hanging out on the changing pad:

Elizabeth dressing Oliver while Henry has tummy time:

Henry being cute:)

Henry being cuter:)

Our strong-man showing his rolling skills, thanks to a strategically placed pillow:

Happy 31st, Kate!

After having baby #2, suffering through the baby blues, and fighting a sinus infection, I was figuring Kate was feeling less than beautiful. So I wanted to not only tell her I thought she was beautiful, but also show her how beautiful she is through a little slideshow.

And even though it's an utterly corny song to choose, I still liked the fact that it I can use it for her and, also, our 'beautiful' little family.

Henry's Birth -- My VBAC

As Justin has mentioned, my labor and delivery with Henry was quite different than my experience with Elizabeth. With both births, I was aiming for a no-intervention, no-medication, natural delivery, but I only achieved it with Henry.

After Elizabeth's birth, I was upset it ended in a C-section. Of course, I was glad to have a healthy baby, but her birth wasn't what I wanted. I really hoped for a VBAC (vaginal birth after Cesarean) with Henry and made sure to choose practitioners and a hospital where I had a good chance of making this happen. Overall, it was a satisfying experience and I'm very glad that everything went smoothly.

On January 22nd, at 38 weeks and 2 days pregnant, I woke up with contractions at 3:30 am. At first I didn't think much of them since I'd had contractions for the three nights prior. Regardless, I decided to get out of bed since I was more comfortable upright. I had experienced a spike in my blood pressure the day before, and had given Henry a talk about getting out soon, but I wasn't hopeful that he was as obedient as his sister (who also came when called). It took me until about 4:30 to determine that I might actually be in labor since my contractions were regular, strong, and showing no signs of slowing down.

I timed them for the next hour while bouncing on my yoga ball and playing online. The contractions were about 2.5 minutes apart and one minute long. I wanted to labor at home for a long time since I knew once I went to the hospital my movements would be restricted by monitors, so I still hadn't bothered to wake Justin.

At 5:45 I suddenly threw up all over the floor in my office (and right next to poor sleeping Pecos). In hindsight, I should have seen this as a sign I was in transition (approaching 10cm), but I didn't. After making an attempt to clean-up after myself, I realized I was going to need some help with the task as contractions were coming hard and fast, so I woke up Justin.

After he was done cleaning up and had taken a shower, he commented that my contractions were much closer than 2.5 minutes apart and were closer to one minute apart. I brushed him off and continued packing snacks for my bag. At this point, he decided to wake Bill (he and Barbara were staying with us) so that Bill could start shoveling out his car for the ride to the hospital.

When Bill got up at 6:20 I told him that there was no rush and that we wouldn't be leaving too soon. I was wrong. Not ten minutes later I was in the bathroom feeling an overwhelming need to push. It seems I was fully dilated and I was freaked out.

While Bill dug out his car, Justin packed my bag, and Barbara comforted an awakened Elizabeth, I gave myself some pep talks in the bathroom. Namely, I told myself I would not have my baby at home in the bathroom (or we would have to name him John ... sorry, Justin's joke). After my water broke, I knew we really needed to get moving. With some assistance from Justin, I managed to get some shoes on and get to the car.

With some handy and illegal driving on Bill's part, and some strategic positioning on my part, we made it to the hospital quickly and I only had to endure three contractions in the car. Justin and I made our way to labor and delivery, where I explained that I was already feeling the urge to push. After a speedy exam in the triage room, and confirmation that Henry was indeed making his way out, I was rushed to a labor and delivery room.

At first, there was much hub-bub in the delivery room as three nurses tried to insert an IV in me in three different places and an OB coached me through pushing. Once my IV was in, things calmed down, and I was able to just focus on pushing. After about 35 minutes of pushing, at 7:47 am, Henry made his entrance into the world. Henry was immediately placed on my chest where we were able to get to know each other and he nursed for the first time. It was wonderful to have an hour for Justin, Henry and I to hang out together.

Overall, this labor and delivery experience was very smooth and was pretty much exactly what I wanted. Recovery has been so much easier as has nursing. Of course, I'm still tired, but its nice to not be tired and in pain from major surgery. Regardless, I'm happy to be home with my two babies, wonderful husband (dude is seriously awesome), and my mom.

And in case you are wondering, Elizabeth is doing wonderfully with Henry. She likes to help out with diaper changes and pick out his outfits. She's not showing any jealousy about the extra time I am spending with him. Of course, that might change when I'm on my own with the two of them in two weeks, but we'll work through it.

And Henry is a pretty chilled out little guy. He's napping in his crib now, which I don't think Elizabeth did until six weeks. He mainly nurses, looks around, and sleeps, but we're excited to get to know him in the coming months.

Pictures of Henry's first week

Hi all!

We just came back from the doctor's office and Henry is doing just fine. He needs to gain more weight, as he's only gained 2 oz. since getting home from the hospital (and he should, apparently, gain an oz. a day. (Maybe Kate needs to eat more ice cream!) And we also have an appointment next Monday to look at his kidneys. But, generally, he's a healthy little boy.

Oh, and here's Elizabeth. She's adapting just fine to being second fiddle for a while.

Here are a few shots of her at her last day of gymnastics (the "show off" class). She's grown to love gymnastics, but it took about three months.

And here are a few of, well, just life this past week, like... protecting the baby from Pecos;

Going out to dinner for the first time since Henry was born;Trying to keep Elizabeth from rolling over on the munchkin;

and sitting down to have Elizabeth watch her first feature-length movie (Finding Nemo). She only made it through the first five minutes because she had a complete sadness meltdown after Nemo's mom was eaten by a shark. We then attempted to press on, only to have Nemo suddenly taken away from the only parent he had left. We stopped there, realizing quickly that just because a 27-month-old can understand the story doesn't mean she is old enough to deal with it.

Henry comes home - and is greeted by Pecos and Elizabeth

To much fanfare from both Elizabeth and Pecos, Henry arrived at home today at about 4 p.m. Sorry that the video is a little dark.

All is well with our little family. Henry got medical clearance today to leave the hospital. His heart is A-OK and his kidneys are still a little dilated, so he has an appointment later this week to find out how serious the situation is (no one seems to think it's very serious, but it's worth looking into).

Henry comes into the world

At 7:47 a.m. on Jan. 22, 2011, Henry Aizcorbe Ward came into the world at 6 lbs, 15 oz. Happy Birthday, little man!

Henry - The name comes from my Opa, Heinz. We figured Henry was more palatable in the US of A than Heinz ... although they do make good ketchup.

Aizcorbe (roughly: eyes-CORE-bay) - Kate's paternal grandmother's maiden name. It's Basque meaning from the town of Aizkorbe in northern Spain.

Ward - Boring truncation of Warshavsky (or Wartofsky or Wardefsky) ... a Lithuanian Jewish last name meaning "From Warsaw, with love"

Henry's arrival into the world was tame compared to Elizabeth's. Well, tame is not the right word. Easier, simpler, smoother, less worrisome ... those would all be better terms. Although I'm sure Kate will be glad to give you all a first-hand account of every detail, here's my side-by-side comparison:

Warning signs:

Elizabeth - none. Kate just went into spontaneous labor the night before Elizabeth came.

Henry - a bunch. Kate was having contractions (not intense, just little rumbles) since Wednesday night.

The Labor:
Elizabeth - 16 hours, with the last three or so particularly painful because the doctors were telling Kate to NOT push, as Elizabeth wasn't aligned correctly.

Henry - About 4.

The Delivery:

Elizabeth - Horrible. Emergency C-Section after three hours of NOT pushing, which, I'm told, is extraordinarily difficult for laboring moms. Plus, obviously, drugs.

Henry - Complication free. Kate pushed for about 35 minutes and, shamwow!, Henry popped out. No drugs.

Immediate Recovery:

Elizabeth - The C-Section was pretty traumatic for Kate, with lots of pain and limited movement. A language barrier also prevented her from getting pain meds. And the nurses were as unhelpful as nurses could be, providing little to no help in the middle of the first night for Kate, who was trying desperately to nurse.

Henry - Less pain, more movement, and helpful nurses.

Early Nursing:

Elizabeth - Try as she might, Kate and Elizabeth couldn't figure this one out for a few days, resulting in a lot of baby tea and formula consumption for Elizabeth. Lots of tears were had by both parties.

Henry - He latched successfully within the first few minutes. And then every time again he tried. Bingo, bango, booby!

So far, Henry seems to be in good health. He had a pediatrician check him out shortly after birth and we haven't heard any negative reviews yet. The baby cardiologist is coming tomorrow morning (1/23) to give his heart a better listen, but we're pretty hopeful.

More later. Time for bed!

A Brooklyn Wonderland

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. We hope you all had a good Winter Solstice celebration and maybe even took the time to don your most festive apparel. We certainly did.

No baby news yet, although everyone here (including Elizabeth) thinks it'll happen soon. Here's Elizabeth's reaction to us telling her about all the attention we'll have to give Henry after he's born.

And here's us trying to make a snowmama and baby in an attempt to explain the mama-baby connection (the baby is breastfeeding on the post-partum mama).

This picture isn't as weird as it looks. Elizabeth is watching her daddy slide backwards down a hill on her snowtube while Pecos is growling at some new enemy (probably a mylar balloon stuck in a tree. Mylar balloons always give him creepy stares). That's Staten Island in the background.

I started a new New Year's Day tradition: Donuts! This is Elizabeth's "don't steal my donut" face.

Elizabeth's friend Ethan came over for donuts on New Year's Day but filled up on the much healthier clementines. Rookie mistake.

Words can't explain.

Uh, this one is a little easier. She's a mummy.

And here she's helping daddy find screws that he keeps dropping while trying to raise the crib for a newborn.

Kate put on more Christmas weight this year than most. And now Elizabeth thinks that all photoshoots include a few belly shots.

Hence this shot.

This was Elizabeth's first snowman of the season, which graced our front steps for a few days.

And this is our Elizabeth getting ready to play in a parking spot.

And here are a smattering of photos from our Winter Solstice celebration, including Elizabeth's first gingerbread house of the season (as well as her first bite of one) and her first time seeing Santa this season. Enjoy:

And here are a few shots of the NYC Transit museum.

Kate was worried about having to listen to Henry eventually complain about how his "Oh the places you'll go ... in utero" book pale in comparison to Elizabeth's. So she's been thinking of interesting places to visit ... like this museum. Just as great as the Dolomites, right?