Grandparenting 101

You know by now that Tony & Vanessa came to visit a few weeks ago, well it was Tom & Ann's turn last weekend. They arrived midday Saturday full of vigor and excitement to spend time with their first granddaughter! We gave them a quick tour of the new additions to our apartment (dirty diaper holder, stashes upon stashes of blankets & burp cloths) and took off for the Big Gay Ice Cream shop. You'll remember this was Sloan's first outing , so she was pretty excited to show the place off. Mimi and Go Daddy loved their ice cream and were really impressed at how hip this little baby already was. After a quick stroll through Thompkin Square Park to see the crazy Halloween parade, Mimi and Go Daddy headed home to babysit while Kerri & Barry went to watch football with friends...

Go Daddy makes a new friend 

K & B came home around 11pm expecting both grandparents and baby to be asleep...but much to our surprise they were all crying! (only kidding, sort of.) Turns out the first bottle was a huge success, but the second bottle was leaky and set off a series of miscues that resulted in a wet baby gown, a too loose swaddle, a screaming child and a burnt potholder (don't ask). In the end, Mimi and GoDaddy decided they got a C in Grandparenting 101, so they'll need to study a bit before 102 starts...

The rest of their trip was a complete success though - full of snuggles and holds.

GoDaddy says he is the "JV Team" of holding

Mimi with the burp

We took a quick stroll through Washington Square Park...

And, finally...this photo was too good to not post. Somebody was pooped - and it wasn't Sloan...

                         

Hurricane Halloween...

I guess it's becoming an annual tradition...hurricanes in New York City! Last year it was Irene (who ended up being pretty boring), this year it's Sandy. Five letter women just do not like NYC in the Fall. I think there's a joke in there about the storms earning another five letter name, but I digress...

So far the storm has been pretty tame for us. We are Zone C or D, which means we're not in any sort of danger of flooding. However, with the subways shut down it is a ghost town out there. Just in case we lose power we have plenty of water and crackers...and some wine. We're just hunkering down til everything blows over...

Speaking of "hunkering down"...Sloan's first Georgia-Florida game was this weekend! She almost ate through kickoff, but Mom reminded her that when Uncle Verne comes on it's time to get serious. 

Sloan's gameday finest

As you can see, Sloan wore her best gameday attire (shirt/burp cloth courtesy of Mrs. Casey, and shoes of Uncle Bernie). She even had on a pair of Silver Britches! I'm pretty sure this is why we won the game. So, from now until the end of time, she will be required to wear this exact same outfit for every UGA/UF game.

For anyone that did not watch, it was quite a game. The first half alone gave us six turnovers (forget the O Line, Aaron Murray should take the Defense out for ice cream this week) and approximately 8,472 personal foul penalties. Things got pretty heated out there and Evil Richt came out. I'm a pretty big fan of Evil Richt, and now Sloan is too...

Gators Wear Jean Shorts!!!!! 

All's well that ends well though, and the Dawgs prevailed 17-9 despite every effort to lose the game. Sloan stayed up for most of it and was nice enough to behave herself so Mom could really watch it.

Afterwards, cousin Emily came over to babysit so Mom and Dad could go to a Halloween party. A huge Thank You to Emily - she was an excellent babysitter and Sloan slept for a full 4 hours for her!

Bacon and Egg

The next day we went to a neighborhood Halloween party thrown by a group called Bowery Babes. We only knew one other family there, but met a few others. It was definitely an eye opening experience - and glimpse into our future - to be around all the kids singing 'Wheels on the Bus go round and round'. Our crayons were a hit though, and a big Thank You to Sloan's Grandma, Vanessa, who made the purple outfit!

Red + Blue = Purple 

Finally, a quick update in Sloan's progress: she is weighing in around 7lbs now and has outgrown her preemie clothes (!!!). It's all Newborn sizes for this little girl!

2 Month Check In

Today is Sloan's two months mark...Sloan and I (Kerri) celebrated by going to a breastfeeding/new mom's group up at NYU Medical Center. It's a pretty great thing to have - not only is it a great excuse to make yourself get out of the house (I'm being braver about taking her outside), but the camaraderie can't be beat. Today there was a a 6 day old baby there, but outside of that Sloan is still the smallest baby...she's also the prettiest & most awesome, but I digress. 

Some quick 2 month stats from our Dr appointment last week (the % are adjusted for her 32 week gestation):
Head: I think she said 10 cm? (~35th %)
Body: 19 1/4 (50th%)
Weight: 6lbs, 1oz on Wednesday (10th%) and today we were closer to 6lbs, 6oz!

Yeah! I'm 2 months old!

This picture is cute and all...but two quick things to point out about it. First, it only looks like an easy picture to take. She is so small, floppy and upset in the 1 month picture that its not worth posing. And here is tonight's first attempt at taking the 2 month photo: 

FEED ME NOW! 

And finally, my favorite part of the night. I came into the living room to my two favorite people just like this on the couch:

 I mean, seriously, does it get any cuter?!!?!

Shots!

In the first of many attempts to purposely make Sloan cry, we had our first round of shots yesterday. All things considered, she did a great job.

Here's a pic of Sloan-Dog on the table getting one of the four shots of the day.

And, in a super weird coincidence, when we left Dr. Hes' office, this song was playing in the lobby (maybe not in reality but in my head anyway.)

Happy Birthday, Sloan

Today, October 8, was Kerri's original due date.

Somewhere between the 3:00 AM feed (which really was 2:37 AM) and the stirring/grunting/crying at 5:59 (yeah, it was supposed to be 6:00 AM, that felt great). My mind started to go through what this day would have been like for us had Sloan not come into this world eight weeks early. The thought didn't last long as I was juggling a bottle in one hand and a squirming (yet cute) child in the other but I wondered what the day would have been like.

Would Kerri have jumped up in the middle of the night, a strange pain in the lower half of her body and the immediate concern of how quickly we would get a cab and traffic conditions taking over otherwise calm sleep?

What would she have told me as I certainly would have been in deep sleep myself? Would it have been a yell or a gentle nudge (can you guess?)

Would I have had a bag ready by the door and a pre-written email in my drafts ready to be sent with a single screen touch?

Would Dr. Feldman be on call at NYU or would it have been one of the other Drs from the practice that we had come to know in our weekly appointments leading up to today?

Would it even have been overnight? Why not 11 AM, 2 PM?

As it has been documented (probably ad nausea to many), our baby girl came to town on her own schedule 56 days ago. It took us a three days to name her and a five weeks to spring her from the NICU but Sloan is in our world and making Kerri and I stronger every day.

I thought it would be fun to share one of the first noises I heard from Sloan (then Warby) in the hospital.

We're only getting started, Sloan. Happy Birthday.

Playtime

Sloan has started to stay awake a bit more during the day, so we finally broke out our activity mat...I think its a hit! 

And a close up of the cuteness for good measure...