Falmouth House Update

A few weeks have passed and everything is good on the home front with Abby. She is three weeks old today and the time is flying by. She is eating extremely well and growing like a weed. Some of the preemie cloths we grabbed when she was first born (slightly small) are starting to get tight. Melissa is doing great, too.

This post was originally going to be a Falmouth house update, but we don't have any recent pictures to share right now. This picture was taken the weekend before Abby was born when I made a quick run to the Cape to shuttle some stuff out of the Rochester house and visit with our friends Crissy and Billy (Crissy and I went to high school together). I was standing in the garage when I took the picture. The large holes in the foundation at far end are for large basement windows where our home office spaces will eventually be. Since then, they started framing and the are so far along now that they started to assemble the roof this week. My folks took some pictures last week, but they don't have their internet connection active back at their summer residence yet.

One of the questions I get asked a lot is where is this house we are building? It is in East Falmouth, MA which is my hometown. In fact, this house is about dead center between the house I grew up in and the elementary school I went to (3/4 mile to each, as the seagull flies). The two images from Google Earth below give you an idea where we are (or will be). The first image gives you an idea of what Cape Cod looks like (click on the image to see a higher res version). Falmouth is at the "base" of the Cape in the lower left.

This image is a blow up of East Falmouth. We are the marker in the upper center of the image. The house my sister Wendy and I grew up in is the marker closer to the center. We are about 1 mile from the beach and 700 ft from the pond (which is connected to the ocean).
So that should get all the non-Massachusettes people situated. I will make sure to get some pictures of the house up here as soon as we get them. Trust us, we want to see them too!

Our First Week as Parents

It has been a busy week for our family. Melissa's Mom (Grandma) was one of the first "out of towners" to arrive on Tuesday night (the night Abby was born). Melissa and Abby were released on Thursday around lunch time to come home. Melissa's Dad (Grandpa) arrived on Saturday after a long journey from Florida. He left on Monday to work in Syracuse for a few days before heading back to Philly. Melissa's Mom has stayed around this week to give Melissa a hand around the house. Melissa was supposed to minimize lifting heavy things (even as small as Neko, our cat) and going up and down the stairs due to some minor birth complications. Grandma has been a real life saver by helping our with the wash, making some meals, etc. But, she will head back to Philly this weekend too, and then it will be just the two of us. Until my parents drop in for a quick visit next week. They are currently baby sitting their other grand daughter in Richmond VA while my sister Wendy and her husband Greg take a short vacation out west.

So how has it gone so far? Abby has been very good so far. At discharge she was down to 5 lbs 10 oz (the typical after birth weight lose) but at here first checkup on Friday she had already gained an ounce or two which was great news. We will see if she is still gaining weight this Friday. Everyone has commented how strong she is, especially for a little one. She has very good head control and strong push in both her arms and legs already. Good news for a Dad that wants a pro soccer star in the family. She nurses well (Melissa and her are quickly becoming pros) and she sleeps decently. I get up for feedings with Melissa and do things like get a beverage for Melissa, change diapers, fill in the feeding and output log (everyone knows I love taking data), etc. Just another time that the Dad feels pretty helpless to help out.

By Monday, she was becoming more alert and opening her eyes more. This also marked the time when she started to stay up after her mid-night feeding. She is getting more play time during the afternoon and that seems to help. Some nights are awesome and some are pretty sucky. Overall I think we have had it pretty good so far, but we are prepared for it to get worse.

Neko (the cat) has been very funny about Abby. We figured when she started screaming he would freak out and run away. Instead he is very curious and will come over and see what is going on. He sleeps with us and when we get up to tend to Abby, he comes over and hangs out for while we do that. Then he comes back to bed with us. And for those freaking out, no he is never alone with her.

I took off all of last week, but I have been back at work for pseudo half days most of this week. It seems I never leave after a half day, which will shock almost no one. Melissa is taking her 6 week leave offered by Xerox and then another 6 weeks unpaid after that. When she goes back to work in July it will be at a reduced load for a bit (4 day weeks).

That's all for now. In other news, the Falmouth house construction is moving along real well. I will make sure to post some news on that next. And for all those asking, I will also do a post about progress on finishing my Ph.D.