Venturing out

With Tyler less than 2 weeks old, we decided to go on our first family outing to DC. This was a big deal considering we haven't even taken Claire to DC since we moved to the area! Our destination was supposed to be the cherry blossom festival, but we didn't actually get that far. We got distracted by a carousel and a quaint garden full of blooming magnolias during our walk across the mall. After that it was time to go because it was getting chilly! So our first DC outing was fun but way too short.

Getting along famously

The kids are getting along great. We're currently assuming that when they get older we'll have quiet car rides with the kids playing nicely. Here's several photos to prove it:

Even More Pictures

They Meet

Claire nd Tyler met and it was a fantastic experience. Claire really enjoyed the experience and was a very good albiet not very cautious girl. Amazingly she didn't seem too interested in mom whom she hadn't seen in 36 hours and was more concerned with checking out the new baby. She immediately knew who it was and called him Baby Tyler and even brought grandpa over to show him off. She really wanted to hold her brother, but had to settle for touching his toes just to make sure she doesn't give him any weird bugs too early in his life.


Claire Hugging Tyler:

The first family portrait:

Grandma getting a turn with Tyler:

More Pictures

The first night was a good one as our zen baby was calm and collected. Here are some new photos. Claire will be meeting Tyler today.

Pictures

Stats

3/16/2011 4:48 pm
8lbs 2oz
20 1/4"
Sarah started pushing at 4:43pm

Welcome Tyler

Baby's here.... details soon.

Dilation Complete

Sarah is fully dilated. Pushing and baby are imminent.

Pain no more

Sarah has been stuck in her back with a big needle and now when her uterus squeezes itself from the inside, things don't hurt so bad. That's the unscientific explanation for "She got her epidural". The most interesting thing right now is the sound the epidural medicine makes when it gets shot deep into her back. For some reason it sounds like a cat meowing. Is it possible Tyler is a cat?

Crochet Time

Keeping with the theme of "0% Natural", the doctor just came in and broke Sarah's water bag. Things are moving as she is now 4cm dialated. Sarah is currently estimating a 5pm Eastern delivery and I'm estimating around 8pm.

193 Points

Sarah just scored 193 points in a game of word twist. This is by far the highest point value she's ever received. Here are some quotes from this moment:

"Do you realize how cool I am"
"This is like the highlight of my day.... don't tell Tyler"
"This is beyond my wildest dreams"
"Maybe its the pitocin, but I just rocked my old wordtwist score"
"People are going to think we're insane"
"I think I'm going to rock this delivery today... I mean I'm not going to be dumb about it, when the contractions get strong I'm just going to be like give me the epidural, give me the epidural. I'll have this baby and then I'll play more wordtwist"
"Wait... you're putting all this on the blog"
"I think its the fruit punch, I'm on a major sugar high. Did I tell you how good this fruit punch is"
"I'm not going to say anything else... I'll regret it later"

Here is a picture:

Pitocin

Pitocin bag is dripping and the process is under way. Sarah isn't showing any signs of labor yet. She's playing wordtwist.

At the Hospital

It is roughly 9:30am and Sarah is settling in at the hospital. She's got her IV started with fluid to make sure she's hydrated. Sarah is feeling great and smiling. Here is proof:

Tyler updates will begin soon...

While I'm personally pulling for Tyler to be born on the 17th because it is both St. Patty's day and the first day of the NCAA basketball tournement, Sarah will be much happier if he come tommorow as we'll be inducing starting around 8:30am. For her sake we're hoping the delivery is short and sweet and he's born before nightfall. Either way, I'll do my part and sit by her side 55 minutes of every hour and update the blog with the latest news during the other 5. Expect detailed updates, pictures, and stats as they become available. It will be hard to track the total number of contractions, but I'll try to keep stats on things like the number of times Sarah says "I hate you for doing this to me" or the number of times the nurses come and go during the day.

Eviction Notice

POSTED: The "waiting womb" (Thanks Steve!) will undergo a significant remodel on Wednesday. To make room for nothing, 99% of the current space will be removed. Tyler.... ready or not, you're moving on Wedensday.

Ellicott City Standoff

Ellicott City, MD (Sivitz.com) - The situation in Ellicott City continues to diminish as the standoff is now stretching into its fourth day. Given the ongoing events, officials at the Sivitz household could not be reached for immediate comment, but neighbors have told reporters that the youngest member of the Sivitz family continues to hold his mother Sarah hostage. Police have been called in to take action but were not equipped to handle a young child gripping to the inside of a womb. While Sarah anxiously waits to be freed she has been seen trying to escape by doing jumping jacks and spending hours in the garden. Yesterday the situation grew tense when the elder Sivitz's attempted to smoke the baby out of his hiding place. Details of the situation are not completely clear, but it appears the family baked a birthday cake, lit candles, and sung happy birthday to their unborn child. Refusing to accept these terms of surrender, Tyler continues to holdout for a higher birthdate. Doctors familiar with the situation do not appear ready to take action, but a meeting of the minds has been proposed for early on the 14th to assses the situation and discuss potential ways to coax Tyler to raise the white flag. Until this situation can be resolved, tensions will remain high but we will continue to report updates as we receive them.

Dear Unborn Tyler

Dear Unborn Tyler,

Today is your due date. This means that today you are supposed to exit the womb and join your family in the world. We're not bad people. In fact, we're very good and nice people. Let me take a minute to introduce us. Sarah, your mother, is a kind, caring, and beautiful young woman who will nurture you, feed you, and make you feel better when you get a boo-boo. Claire is your sister. She is a 2 year old ball of energy who loves to laugh and smile and has been practicing caring for her brother's arrival by pushing Pooh bear in the stroller, putting him in your bouncer, and pushing him in your swing. She has promised your mother to help as much as she can, but unfortunately she still doesn't know how to change diapers. Actually, that is something you'll both have in common. Aside from giggling and playing, her hobbies also include going wee-wee and woo-woo in her pants. I'm sure the two of you can share stories and bond while filling your pants together. I, Brian, am your father. You are not my father; you are my son. William Sivitz is my father. He's not your father, he's your grandfather. The world is confusing with things like this, but I promise to help you learn these things, teach you to play sports, and to help you find your place in this world. So you see, the world is a cool place. We live in Maryland which is a state within a country called the United States. The USA (an abbrevation for the United States of America) is on a planet called earth within a solar system made up of 8 or 9 planets. There is some debate about the number of planets in our solar system. This debate is not because we lack the technology to find planets, but because of semantics. Semantics is an advanced concept, but I'll help you learn this too. Either way, please come out soon as we are all anxiously awaiting your arrival. Our original plan was to force you from the womb today through a medical procedure called "inducing" but the doctors seem to think that you should come naturally. It's too bad the world hasn't advanced enough to accurately predict a newborn's arrival. We've done pretty good with weather, so let me see if I can give it a try and assign a % to the chance of baby today. First let's explore the factors involved.. About 50% of second born babies come before their due dates and about 50% come after. Most babies come within 2 weeks of their due date and the shape of that curve is very much like a bell curve where the due date has a higher percentage chance than any other day. But then you've got to add in the factors we already know. Because you didn't come before your due date, the odds you'll come today actually go up. Probability change is a source of confusion and lots of fun discussions in our world and is sometimes called the "Monty Hall paradox", the "Bertranad's Box Paradox", or the "Three Prisoner problem". Read here for more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Hall_problem. Anyway, taking all of that into account, I'd put your odds of arrival today at roughly 18%. However, that only takes into account the physical, if you take into account the metaphysical you have to lower the odds. Since we really want you to come today, you probably won't. This is known as "reverse psychology". Also since both your mom and dad were born on the 11th of the month, you will more likely be born on that date. Additionally Grandma and Grandpa Koster won't be arriving until tommorow and you'll probably wait out of respect for them . Therefore taking into account both the physical and metaphysical, I put your odds of arrival today at 5% and tommorrow at 38%. Either way, you should come soon so that our blog readers can see pictures of you rather than suffering through more rambling posts like this one.

Love,
Dad

Welcome to the Family

The Sivitz family is proud to announce a new arrival today. We were graced with his presence at 9:42am on March 5th. Weighing in at a whopping 312lbs and a length of 69 3/8 inches our blessed bundle of joy arrived after less than 30 minutes of labor. So please join us in welcoming Chilly "High Tech" Samsung to our family. His arrival is bitter-sweet. Today we mourn the loss of Smoky "Wild Hot" Maytag. Fortunately he is in a better place after a long illness. He had good days and bad days but has never fully recovered since his internal temperature spiked to 60 degrees in early January. Chilly is a beautiful addition to our family and while he is curently bald and will likely never grow hair, we can already see a special shine about him that Smoky never had. Here are some pictures of the delivery:




Shortly before Smoky's Death:

The void left after Smoky was buried:

The arrival of Chilly:

Our Family Portrait

We took a family portrait this week. Most people nowadays sit for a photographer. We decided to go old school and sit for a portrait drawn by hand. It just so happens this particular artist used chalk. Here it is:

Counting and Jumping

Claire has perfected counting to 10. Well, in her own way that is. Counting to ten is usually 1-2-3-4-5-6-8-9-10, but as you might be able to discern from the video below, she sometimes shortens it to 4-5-6-8-9-10: