Six, Seven, Eight

Six Weeks:

Gabe is starting to become a little person!
He makes gurgles and sounds!


Seven Weeks:

We have real tears :(
It's so sad.


Eight Weeks/Two Months:

Gabe has found his hand and puts his fist in
his mouth and sucks on it.

He also had his first laugh, laying on
Daddy's belly!

Five Weeks

More bathtime fun! Gabe loves to get a bath
and he especially loves when Daddy lets him soak
in the whirlpool.
He also loves to nap on the Boppy and Taylor
loves to sleep with him and keep an eye on him.

Four Weeks/One Month

The first month went by so fast!

He had his checkup at the doctor and weighed in at

9 pounds 11 ounces.

We took Gabe for his first "outing" to Roma on a Friday.

This pic is from his first trip to Roma:

He is more alert at one month, staying

awake longer during the day.

His Bubba finally got a chance to hold him.

And now that the umbilical cord has fallen off and

healed, he got his first bath and he LOVED it!

Daddy pretty much gave it to him, Mommy took

the pictures!

Three Weeks

• Gabe still sleeps a lot during the day :)
• Socks are way too big!
• He makes all the same expressions as Daddy!
• He thinks he can get milk out of Daddy's nose.

Visitors:

Mrs. Achenbach and Amy

Gabe at three weeks old!

Two Weeks

Gabe got a pretty afghan in the mail from the Sodaros!

Aunt Patty, Uncle Phil, Eric, and Amanda came to visit.
A personalized book from Pottery Barn is on the way for
Gabe.

Uncle Adam and Daddy try on Gabe's hats.

Uncle Adam and Aunt Lili brought a rattle from Tiffany's!

More visitors:
Eric Lipton
Nan (Gabe's great grandmother!)


The photo above is Gabe at two weeks old!

One Week

Gabe's first week of life:

Spent the first 3 days of life in Pottsville Hospital and got
many visitors:
Nana
Zeide
Uncle Adam
Aunt Lili
Jer
Aunt Patty
Amanda
Maria
Dennis
Janelle
Scott

Hopefully I didn't forget anyone :)

We were discharged on December 31, 2009,
New Year's Eve. It was snowing!

We drove home very slowly :) Taylor was
very excited to meet her "brother".

• Newborn clothes and diapers were big.
• Umbilical cord and circumcision still healing
• Gabe loves being swaddled and we call him our little burrito.
• Nana and Zeide got him a silver baseball spoon from Tiffany's
• He watched his first Eagles game with his Eagles onesie (they lost!)
• His favorite outfit is the reindeer one piece Sean & Lynn brought, so warm!

More visitors at home:

Sean & Lynn

Aunt Erin

Amy & Jer

Here Gabe is at one week old with Daddy:

Baby Lipton = Gabriel Daniel Lipton

Well Baby Lipton is here! We named him Gabriel Daniel.

Here's the "birth story":

I went into the doctor for my last appointment
on Monday 12/28. Dr. Z asked when we were
going to have this baby and we all agreed to have
him the next day!

I was told to go to the hospital for 6:00am on
Tuesday 12/29. I was up all night the night
before. It was a really windy night and between
the wind and the excitement, I couldn't sleep.

We arrived at the hospital and it was snowing
and the parking lot was covered! We checked in
at Labor and Delivery at 6:00am and were sent
to the room.

I got changed while Nate went to admissions and
checked me in. The nurse put the IV in and hooked
me up to the blood pressure monitor. We waited from
6:00am to 7:30am.

At 7:30am, the midwife came in and checked me. I
was 4cm dilated. She broke my water and started
the pitocin drip.

I made it until about 8:30am before the pain was
too much. I asked for the epidural and by 9:00am
the anesthesiologist had come and put it in. The
epidural did not hurt at all and WOW was it great.

From there on, Nate watched TV and I dozed in and
out of sleep. The only problem I had was my blood
pressure dropping a little from the epidural, but it was
nothing major. The nurse came in to check me at 11am
and I was 9.5 cm dilated! She said I could push now,
but if I waited a while (since I wasn't in pain) he might
move down and make pushing easier.

Dr. G came in at 12:00pm and told us it was time to
push. I pushed for about 45 minutes and then Dr. G
and the resident doctor put on their gowns to get
ready for delivery. The nurse was on one side, Nate
was on the other and the two doctors were ready
to catch :)

There were also two other nurses in the room that
were ready to take Gabe and get him checked out
as soon as he arrived.

After a few more rounds of pushing, Gabe arrived
at 1:02pm on 12/29/09. As soon as he was born,
they put him on my stomach and Nate and I were
amazed with him! After a few minutes the nurses
took him a few feet away to the warming station
and Nate went with him while I stayed in the bed.

Then they brought him over and we had our first
attempt at breastfeeding. After that I got a shower
and they took Gabe to the nursery and found out
he was 7lbs 14oz and 20 inches long!

Then we moved to the recovery suite and waited
for him!

That's all for now, he just started crying so
blogging time is up! :)

Here's his entry into the world. The girl is the
resident doctor and the gloved hand is Dr. G.
The bare hand cutting the cord is Daddy!




Here is our first shot as a family! I am
looking ROUGH! What do you expect!?

In the recovery suite after he was all
cleaned up and with his handmade hat:
Here he is! Chubby cheeks and
healthy as can be!

Well we have officially reached the point where
everyone is asking when the baby is coming!

We are pretty much ready. There are a few last
minute things to throw in the hospital bag, but other
than that, we're good to go!

Here's the most recent belly pic, at 37 weeks. I
thought it couldn't grow much more but looks like
I was wrong. It's sticking out quite a bit!

35 Weeks

Well we are now at 36 weeks as of this post, but
I haven't uploaded the 36 week picture yet!

Here's "mommy's" birth picture. I hope our
child takes after his father's birth weight.
I was chubby and look like my grandfather!
Here's "daddy's" birth picture. He looks like he
is trying to fix his hair or something :)

And here's the 35 week belly taken on
Thanksgiving day. It's not really a profile shot

but you can still see the large nature of the belly.

Still getting ready!

Everything is pretty much done.
This little guy has his own bathroom!
Here are the coming home outfits. I'm going
to take both to the hospital with me and we'll see
how cold it is the day we bring him home, etc.

A drawer full of blankets. The bottom two are
hand-knitted by his grandma and the top one is
the Beba Bean swaddler from Erin.




Drawers are neat. I've been warned they won't
stay this way. I think the warners are forgetting
who I am married to :)



Diapers and "grooming kit". They're so small.