Gavin Month 1

Finally getting some time to get pictures off of my phone and onto the blog! There are some more on Facebook, for those who follow us over there.

This is me right before going into the hospital--the most pregnant I ever was.

This was the whiteboard in the delivery room. Melissa was the nurse who coached me through labor, and she was awesome! I just love the "Plan of Care."

Gavin, looking super-cute in close-up after just getting home from the hospital.

Snuggle time with Curtis.

Wiggling around in the ThinkGeek onesie that Alex Hodgson got for him. Thanks Alex!

Overall we're starting to get the hang of things. It was wonderful having Shiho, my sister-in-law, visit from Maine. She helped us soooooo much! She went back to her three kids early Tuesday morning, and since then Curtis and I have been figuring out our new routines. It's been challenging, but we're figuring it out as we go. Gavin continues to be a great baby. He probably weighs close to 9 pounds now, and is eating like a champ. He's also been very good about waking up for night-time feedings: usually one around midnight, one around 3-4 am, and one closer to 6 or 7. That's really good, and with Curtis and I switching off we're both able to get a decent amount of sleep.

A Big and Fateful week

It has been quite week in the Potterveld / Burnham household. At the beginning of the week we said goodbye to Amama and Grandpa. They had a lovely visit with us, but it was time for them to head home. We are so happy that they made it out here for Gadget's Birth and Homecoming. It was a big help having them around to watch Gadget and help around the house. Grandpa and I even managed to clear out the guest bedroom.

On Tuesday we brought our pups home from the kennels to introduce them to Gadget. Unfortunately, we did not get the reactions we where hoping for. Medium dog (who we had been more worried about) reacted fine. She sniffed around, very submissively sniffed Gadgets toes, licked them a little and then went and laid down. Big dog on the other hand was very intensely interested in Gadget. Not aggressive, nor anxious, but focused on Gadget. Any time Gadget would move or make a noise, Big dog would try to nose his way into Gadgets crib. When introduced to Gadget, Big dog very determinedly and repeated nosed him.

Both Karen and I released that this is the same behavior he would display towards a new toy or small animal. This troubled Karen and me greatly. It was not at all the behavior we expected. Big dog had always been very good with children at the dog parks, but newborns act and behave quite differently from small children. We talked with a few animal behavior experts and they agreed that this was not good behavior. But it is also instinctive and could not be trained out.

While heartbroken over this, Karen and I both agreed that we would need to place Big dog outside of our family. We are fortunate in that we found a no-kill rescue shelter that specifically work with Big dog's breed. The agreed to take him in and find him a new home. They have a very nice facility where they will work with Big dog. There he will get to socialize with horses (they are also a horse rescue) cattle, pigs, goats, and other dogs. They have a very strict adoption policy and very good placement success rate. They even encourage us to go visit Big dog while he is with them. We think Big dog will be quite happy up there. For more information you can find them at:

http://www.spindletoppitbullrefuge.org/

In happier news, Karen's sister-in-law came to visit us on Saturday. It is great to have Shiho down to visit, even if Med. dog is still a little unsure of her (it's been a big week for Med. dog).

Arrival!

Sorry for the belatedness of the post (I hope that most people have already heard from Facebook or Twitter) but Gavin Paul Potterveld is here! His birthday is August 30, 2011 (4:42 pm) and his statistics are: 7 lb, 14 oz, 20.5 in long. There's some debate as to whether he is blonde or red haired/strawberry blonde--apparently it depends on the lighting. We'll have to wait and see what it settles on once he has a little more actual hair. Thanks to everyone for the well-wishes; we're planning on printing out all the congratulations from Facebook and Twitter so we can show Gavin someday that people from all over the world were rooting for him!

He was a little past due, so my OB decided to induce. I went in on Monday night, and he was born on Tuesday afternoon. Everything went smoothly from my vantage point (thanks to the epidural) but he was only just barely small enough to fit through the normal channels. In his early pictures there are marks on his head that look like a forceps delivery, but apparently those came from my pelvis bones. They had to take me to the OR afterwards to fix all the damage, and kept me in the hospital an extra day. But the Dr and nurses were awesome: they waited until I got a chance to hold him for a few minutes and start nursing a bit before whisking me away.

We brought him home on Friday, and he's really been incredibly mellow about everything. We got him into the car seat and he barely even woke up. He didn't see any of the car ride home, either. He's a little charmer, all adorable.

Since then we've been learning what works and what doesn't in terms of feeding, diapers, sleeping, etc. The grandparents have been visiting and have just been wonderful, especially with making sure us adults get fed. There are more (and better) pictures to be had on Facebook, especially if you follow any of the Potterveld clan, who know what they're doing when it comes to cameras.