Baby Sebastian

On March 10, our son Sebastian was born. I hope to write up the complete birth story soon.

He's now 12 days old, and he is already growing and changing. For the first week, he was very sleepy, and we had to visit the pediatrician several times with some challenges (his bilirubin was being monitored, they wanted to keep an eye on his weight gain, and he needed antibiotic eye drops), but starting at about 10 days old, I've noticed he is more alert, and able to drink for longer periods of time. He's gaining weight (we rented a baby scale, so we can check it daily) and is doing well. We are still working on getting the nursing down perfectly, which will make long journeys away from home easier, but we will get there! I'm working with him on it every day.

Earlier in the week, Sebastian met his Falke grandparents, and tomorrow, grandma Liberatore arrives for a visit.

As his belly button is almost completely healed now, we will all be able to give him his first real bath this week :-)

So far, being a mom is a mixture of exciting and exhausting. Feeding, diaper changes, etc. take a long time, and the classic advice to try to sleep when the baby sleeps really IS good advice. It's difficult to find time for other things, like blogging, sending mail, reading/studying, but we are going to work on creating more of a formal routine over the next few weeks.

I hope we have some more beautiful weather next week, because I've been imagining taking him downtown for a walk through the Schloss/Botanical Gardens and having Kaffee und Kuchen (coffee and cake) in a Café. So far, he sleeps very well when taking walks in the stroller (the bumpy motion is said to soothe babies), so my goal is a nice peaceful outing.

Welcome home, Sebastian! We are incredibly blessed to have you in our lives.