My little Angels

Little Joe taking in Yankee batting practice at Nationals Park Little Joe is now a little over 4 months old and has been surprising us every day with changes.  Recently he started sticking his tongue out us and trying to mimic our raspberry that we do for him every day and has been laughing and smiling a lot.  Mornings are a great time for him because he seems to always wake up happy with a smile on his face and waiting for us to show him something new. He's also started standing with our assistance and rolled over this morning for the first time.  He's also trying very hard to get his knees up under him so that he can start crawling and will grunt and get frustrated very quickly that he can't.  We generally don't let him try this for more than a few minutes because once he starts to cry he can be pretty difficult to calm again. He recently topped 13 pounds which is slightly down from his pace earlier of an ounce and a half a day but is still quite healthy. ...

Little Joe will turn three months old in a few days and things have been going well, minus a few speedbumps we've encountered along the way.  He was recently diagnosed with several issues that have impacted his ability to breathe properly which has caused us to take him out of daycare after only a few days so that we can monitor him more closely.  Rachael had noticed that he made gasping sounds and seemed to struggle to breathe at times, despite the diagnosis of severe reflux from our pediatrician.  This led to some prudent online research and a visit to an ENT last week who used a camera scope down little Joe's nose and throat to diagnose the issue.  It was a very stressful week for all of us, but in the end we are happy to have a diagnosis that both accounts for the issues we've noticed and gives us a path forward.  As long as little Joe continues to eat well and his breathing issues don't get to the point where he cannot breathe we will continue monitoring h...

Little Joe is 6 weeks old today and has been doing very well so far. His original due date was last week and he weighed in at an even 7½ pounds - right about where he would have been had he been born on time. For all the worry about having a premature baby, the fact that our biggest concern 6 weeks later is the reflux he seems to get in the evenings is a wonderful thing for Rachael and I. In the last few days Joe has become a lot more responsive to Rachael and I, including looking at us when we talk and what I think was a smile last night when I was holding him. Small things, but considering that up to this point he's been mostly sleeping or crying it's great to see some personality come out a bit. Now that he's up to a normal delivery weight the pediatrician has told us that we can work some flexibility into our feeding schedule. We're trying to figure out how we might be able to get him to sleep longer overnight and we've had a few nights where we could get hi...

Little Joe is just over 3 weeks old now and doing great. From what we can tell he's exceeded doctors expectations with his health and ability to gain weight. He was 5lbs 10oz when Rachael took him to the doctor on Monday and at that rate should be over 6 pounds by now. It looks like by the time he would have been delivered after 40 weeks he'll be somewhere between 7 and 8 pounds, which is right where he should be. So far things haven't changed much with him except his appearance - he's got some chubby cheeks and a bit of a double chin. He's still feeding every 2-3 hours depending on the schedule and amount of food we put him on, and it's been working quite well. Since he's still quite early on we hadn't expected much, and at this point we're just thrilled to have him home with us. Rachael's started taking him out for walks during the day while I'm at work and we just had our first real outing with him last night when we took him out to ...

Last week on March 2nd we took Joe home for the first time. He'd gained back most of the weight he had lost to that point - he'd been down to 4lb 5oz before getting back up to 4lb 10oz - and Rachael and I have been enjoying spending as much time with him as possible. Joe spends most of his days as most newborns do - eating and sleeping. Since he is still a good deal under what doctors would like his weight to be at we have been feeding him every 3 hours night and day. It's been a rough adjustment for the two of us, especially since I went back to work this week. I've been spending my nights on the couch while Rachael feeds the baby throughout the night and I've been getting up around 5am to feed and change him before I head to work. It's definitely been more taxing on Rachael, and tonight I've offered to take care of him through the night so that she can try to catch up on her sleep. The next few weeks look to be more of the same; we don't have any ...

On Friday, February 24th, Joseph Wayne D'Angelo was born at 7:24PM. It was quite the eventful week for us; Rachael was diagnosed with pre-eclampsia over the previous weekend and was admitted to the hospital when her blood pressure jumped after our dog Mojo died on Tuesday morning. The doctors determined that the best course of action was to deliver early to mitigate any possible long-term damage to baby or mom. Joseph has been in the NICU since he was born; he was born at only 4lbs 11oz and was quite underweight for his age. Since then, he has been steadily learning to eat on his own and today was finally taken off the IV that the hospital had been using to give him nourishment. We are hoping that he will soon be coming home - the hospital is waiting for him to be able to eat regularly and to maintain his body temperature and metabolism without external assistance. Rachael was finally discharged from the hospital today, and we have spent the day planning our schedule to see ou...

It turns out we are having a boy and decided on Joseph Wayne as a name. I come from a long line of Josephs, all with different middle names and up until me all DeVaul. I wanted to honor this tradition regardless of my last name change, and we decided on Wayne to honor Rachaels father. Rachael's been getting quite big lately, to the point where she is uncomfortable laying or sitting in the same position for any length of time. She's also outgrowing most of her coats she's had and some of her maternity clothes she'd bought at the beginning of the pregnancy. She's mostly in my clothes in the evening; baggy for her but comfortable I'm sure. Rachael has been feeling Joseph kick since week 16 or so, and I was able to start to feel it around week 22. It's been getting very powerful recently, and we can even watch her stomach move when he kicks hard. It's been amazing to see, and most of me isn't quite able to process what's been going on and how w...

Last night Rachael and I decided on a Natural Birth center in Chantilly for baby delivery. She's been immersed in baby books and documentaries since we found out she was pregnant and I know that she's been wanting to find a great natural birth center. I could tell from watching her last night that she can see herself having the baby there and that she's getting very excited about all this - unfortunately we still have 20 long weeks to go. We've decided to schedule an ultrasound for 2 weeks from now to hopefully determine what gender the baby will be. Rachael's been going back and forth for some time now on what it'll be ... some days she feels its going to be a girl, but recently it's gone back more towards boy. Basically... we won't know until the ultrasound. Rachael's belly is definitely starting to show; you can tell that she's actually pregnant now and not putting on a little extra weight for the upcoming winter. She's been starting ...

Rachael and I met with Dr. Lashgari on Tuesday for our first prenatal appointment and sonogram. We were able to catch our first glimpse of the baby on the sonogram and, much to our relief and joy, the baby's heartbeat came up right away. So far the baby's growth is right where it ought to be, which gives us a due date of March 29th, 2012 and means that Rachael is right at 8 1/2 weeks as of today. At this point we're both being cautious about things; not many people know that we are expecting yet and we're going to keep it that way until after our next appointment on September 16th just to make sure we've gotten out of the first trimester without any problems.

Four weeks I came home from an evening out with Ian and the guys to the most life-changing news of my life: Rachael was pregnant, and in an instant we went from newlyweds to parents. I cried. A lot. True, some of if might have been attributable to the two or three drinks I had just consumed, but 95% of it was joy mixed with surprise and shock. I suppose that some of it had to do with the fact that I never really fully grasped the idea of me being a father. Sure, I was married; and sure, we were trying to have kids. But the sudden realization that this was real, that a new life had been created from me -- and parts of my parents and all of my ancestors before me -- was truly amazing to me. We've spent the last few weeks looking forward to our first doctor visits; our first one is tomorrow at 1130am in Arlington. We've both been reading books, blogs, articles, and suggestions from friends on what to expect, how to care for our new addition to the family, and what risks we m...