Introducing Simon Thomas Roth!

After 18.5 grueling hours of labor, Simon Thomas Roth was born on 11-19-2008 at 1:45 PM. Simon weighs in at 8 lbs, 7 oz. and is 21 inches long!

Susan and the baby are both doing well.

More soon, but for now, here are some pictures!

The Nursery is Ready!

Hooray! It's the end of the nursery saga.
Our nursery furniture arrived earlier this week and yesterday Mark and I put the finishing touches on getting everything ready. Everything looks super-cute and most importantly, now the baby can arrive!
Of course you are welcome to see the nursery in person (especially when the baby arrives) but in the meantime, here are some pictures. Enjoy!

1 Down and 9 to Go

With just 1 more day until my due date, things are getting anxious. I had my weekly doctor appointment this morning and Dr. V was encouraged that I had made some progress - I am dilated 1 cm! Just 9 more centimeters to go .

She is practical though and also made an appointment for induction on Monday, November 24th but everyone's fingers are crossed that the baby will come before then. The induction procedure sounds like it can make for a long day as apparently it can take hours before they see you and then 4 - 12 hours to get the contractions going.

We will see but I'm betting he'll be here before then .

One Week Until My Due Date

Just one more week until my due date!

I had a doctor appointment yesterday and I haven't progressed very much. The baby has yet to "drop" so it may be a few extra days until the baby arrives. We asked the doctor if there were ways to get things moving along and she suggested walking was a good way. So tomorrow when the weather is nice I'll be in the park walking and walking .

I've been reading all sorts of posts on the Internet about other women that dropped the day they delivered so I'm not going to get too discouraged, especially because I've been feeling so good.

In other news, Mark and I have been eating out a lot and resting up so we'll be all set when the baby does decide to make his appearance. We can't wait!

New Baby Gear

We finally decided on our stroller and car seat!
After many months of long deliberation and discussion, we finally went with the Baby Jogger City Mini and the Graco Snugride. Hopefully our little guy will enjoy everything as much as we do. We are pretty jealous of how comfortable these items seem to be (just ask Bear - he loves them) .

Susan's Last Day at Work

Today was my last day at work for a while! I will be working from home until the baby arrives. I'm so looking forward to some extra sleep and avoiding the subway although I will say that most New Yorkers have donated their seats when they see me .

My co-workers were great and threw me a surprise baby shower with delicious food, beautiful flowers and a generous gift card to BuyBuyBaby (our new favorite store).

Here is a picture of me at home with my beautiful flowers which I will get to enjoy.

Final Sonogram

Today, we had our final sonogram to help determine the baby's weight! Unfortunately, the images that we received from it weren't very flattering. There is hardly any room in there and we mostly saw the baby's smooshed face .
We did see and learn some very important things though:

1. The baby is a boy for sure.
2. The baby has hair on his head. We don't know the color yet but he will not need a baby toupee.
3. The baby was opening and closing his eyes
4. The baby now weighs 6 pounds 7 ounces (give or take a pound). I am hoping his growth slows to less than 1/2 pound per week otherwise it will be like delivering a turkey for Thanksgiving.

We can't wait to meet our little butterball - just over 3 weeks until my due date!