End of Q2 and part of Q3 pictures

These links will take you to an individual picture. Click on that picture to return to the full album.

August



September : No album (yet)


October:


November:

Pictures from the Past Few Months

June


July


August

Silas at his first Mizzou Game

Silas at his first Mizzou Game from Dan Watt on Vimeo.

Silas Crawls!

Silas Can Crawl! from Dan Watt on Vimeo.

Professional Photo Shoot

Last month we had another local photographer take pictures of the family. Her pricing and release policy is a lot more restrictive than ours, but we were able to get a copyright release to 10 of the pictures that she took.

Don't Mess With Silas's Food!

I tried my hand today at making homemade baby food. I've been reading "Super Baby Foods" by Ruth Yaron. It's a pretty cool book all about making your baby's food so that you can control what goes into it. Avocado seemed easy enough... it didn't require any cooking, only smashing up the avocado with some water. I threw some pears in since they're Silas's favorite food, and the book suggested mixing something like pears or bananas in when introducing avocado for the first time.

It was a hit! Silas loved his avocado. In fact, he loved it so much that he had a meltdown when I pretended to take a bite.

Don't mess with Silas's food! from Dan Watt on Vimeo.

Silas says Da Da

Password is Silas

Silas says Da Da from Dan Watt on Vimeo.

June

Hi everyone. June has been a busy, busy month. For some reason or another, a lot of people decide to get married in June. Our business had 3 weddings in the month of June alone- 6th, 20th, 27th, followed by another one in Florida on July 3th.

Speaking of Florida, we had a wonderful Summer vacation mixed in with attending and taking pictures at a wedding. Our trip involved making quite a few stops in either direction:

1. Camped near Paducah, KY
2. Visited Jason in Atlanta, attended Wednesday study with him at Embry Hills
3. Drove like crazy to get to Temple Terrace, FL for the wedding rehearsal
4. Attended and took pictures at the wedding on the Florida College campus
5. Drove to Tallahassee, FL for the night
6. Saw the FL state capitol
7. Spent the 4th of July in the Destin, FL area at the beach
8. Got the Prius stuck in the sand at Gulf Islands National Seashore while trying to get to a bathroom - thankfully a guy with a truck pulled us out, and probably drove away thinking he saved some West Coast hippie ;)
9. Had dinner at Whataburger (pretty common in West Florida). Unfortunately they had the whole death of MJ thing on two TV screens, so we had to put up with that instead of watching fireworks while eating dinner.
   
10. Drove to Montgomery, AL to stay the night, had some Blue Bell ice cream :)
11. Worshiped at Elliottsville church of Christ near Birmingham
12. Worshiped with and stayed with some friends of ours in the Huntsville area. We attended at the Jones Road congregation, and though I was hoping to see some other friends there, their preacher had been my camp counselor when I was, oh, 13, so I made him feel old by sharing that fact with him.
13. Camped at Cloudland Canyon state park near Chattanooga, as well as visited Lookout Mountain and the Chattanooga Choo-Choo.
14. Visited Spring and Ryan in Henderson, TN.
15. Stayed the night in Sikeston, MO (sadly, the timing didn't work out to eat at Lamberts)

It was a busy trip with a lot of driving (close to 3,000 miles), but it was well worth it. Silas held up ok, but we did learn that he isn't really that fond of his car seat that was in the Prius. We have since switched to the nicer seat that was in the CR-V, which we thought would not fit the Prius, but it turns out that it fits just fine.

Pictures will be posted later.

Happy Baby

Here is another video. Password is Silas.

Silas in his Car Seat from Dan Watt on Vimeo.

Video

A friend of ours from church has been kind enough to let us borrow a lot of baby things, including a bouncy seat, a jumparoo, and an exersaucer. Silas really loves the exersaucer. The video is password protected - 'silas'.

Untitled from Dan Watt on Vimeo.

April and May Pictures

Click on one of the pictures to be taken to the album.

April 2009

May 2009

Sorry, Dad!

It's been a long time since our last post. We've been busy!

Silas took his first airplane trip Easter weekend. He did great! He loved all the sites and sounds in the airport. We flew to Washington DC because Dan had a business trip. Silas enjoyed being worn all around DC in his Beco carrier. He loved it so much, that he slept most of the day curled up against my chest! On Sunday, we made a little road trip over to Delaware so Silas and I could see the Atlantic Ocean for the first time. It didn't all go as planned, but we still got to see the ocean, and Silas got to feel the sand between his toes for the first time. Sorry, there are no pictures because I don't know how to post them. Maybe Dan will later!

Dan and I have been busy with our photography business, in addition to our "day jobs". We've been meeting and booking clients, taking engagement sessions, and we had our first wedding of the season on May 8. Silas enjoyed having Grandpa and Grandma Fleener watch him while we worked. I'm sure he looks forward to having them watch him for future events!

I took a girl's weekend trip with my friends Nikki and Kelli. We went to Kansas City and stayed at Kelli's parent's house. We enjoyed an *interesting* contemporary art museum, and shopping. I didn't buy anything, but it was fun to window shop. Then we went to Dave and Busters on Saturday evening. It's sort of like a cleaned up casino, except there's no gambling. You play games and win tickets to get prizes. It was lots of fun. Being away from Silas (and Dan) for two days was hard, but it was nice to get two full nights in a row of sleep! I know that Dan enjoyed having some good quality boy time with Silas. He even had Ben over (Nikki's husband) while I was gone. It was good weekend for everyone.

Here are some of Silas's new tricks:

* he is capable of scotting himself on his tummy using nothing but his legs, but it scares him, so he only scoots a few inches before he starts crying and stops doing it

* he gives kisses. He used to only kiss me, but he kissed Ella at a graduation party a couple of weeks ago. I'm a little jealous that he kisses other people now!

* he has a big voice and he loves to use it!

* within the last couple of days, he has started blowing raspberries. He does it with the paci in his mouth, and just a couple of minutes ago, he started doing it on his arm. Such a funny boy!

* I think he might be getting used to having naps. This week, he has taken at least one one hour nap per day. That's a big improvement from his ten minute power naps!


Coming Up:

Dan and I will be shooting three weddings, and possibly an engagement session, in June. The first wedding will be June 6 in Jefferson City, the others on June 20 and June 27. We're going to Florida for the 4th of July weekend to shoot the wedding of our friends Brian and Vicki. We're hoping to visit our friends Jim and Michelle Knohl in Huntsville, AL and Dan's brother Jason in Atlanta on the way.

Silas will be having surgery to correct his hypospadias and chordee on July 17. I don't have a time set yet, because I only spoke with the OR scheduler in order to get his name on the schedule. They'll tell me what time the surgery will be in his pre-op appointment, but I don't know when that will be. They call me to set all of these things up. That's the way surgeons like to do things.

Okay, I think that just about covers everything. Sorry it's been so long since the last post. Hopefully we'll do better next time!

Baseball, Washington

This past weekend Silas went to both his first baseball game ever, and his first ever Mizzou game (that is, outside of the womb). He was a very, very good baby, and he even seemed to be watching the game. College baseball, at least here at Mizzou, seems to be a lot quieter than football, but hopefully he will enjoy going out to the games this coming season.

This coming weekend the family will be going to Washington DC. On 3/27 my supervisor asked me if I would go to DC for some training at our corporate headquarters in two weeks. It was really short notice, but I called Summer up and asked if she wanted to go as well. We will be heading out Friday morning, catching a 7am flight. We will have to leave home around 3 or 4 am to get to St. Louis in time to catch the flight, so it will make for a rather interesting day. This will also be Silas' first time flying.

Summer and Silas will be coming home on Monday, and I will be hanging around for training. I come back on the 17th (my birthday), and hopefully will be picked up by my parents who will be coming down to visit for the weekend.

Photos from the baseball game will be added when the upload is complete.

3 Months

It's hard to believe it's been three months since our little Silas was born! Here's a quick list of his new tricks:

* He recently has started laughing. I usually kiss and tickle his tummy when I change his diapers. He lets out a single cackle every time. On Sunday, he started laughing in his sleep. It was very cute!

* He drools constantly and sucks on his blankets so I introduced him to his woobie today. One side is made of satin and the other side fleece. I took advantage of this as a teaching moment to teach him smooth and soft. He loved having his face stroked with each side. He's lying next to me happily sucking on his woobie right now.

* He still doesn't like tummy time, but we do it anyway. He looks like he will roll over any day now!

* He got shots last week, but he was a trooper. He looked confused after the first one, then starting crying with the second. I expected him to be fussy once the initial pain wore off, but he wasn't. He didn't have a fever either. It went much smoother than I hoped.

* We've rediscovered swaddling and it has been so helpful! He was being particularly fussy during a feeding and kept flailing his arms around. Needless to say, this interfered with his ability to eat. In desperation, I had Dan get the SwaddleMe blanket out. I swaddled him tightly and our feeding problem was history. Not only did he eat, but he sleep for two straight hours (something virtually unheard of for him). I've swaddled him tightly like that for every nap and night time since and have had an easier time getting him to sleep. I'm so happy with the SwaddleMe blanket that I've ordered two more in bigger sizes. Maybe our sleep problems will finally start to improve!

Spring's Wedding

Just over a week ago the family went down to Jadwin, MO for Summer's sister Spring's wedding. This was the first time Silas got to meet several family members - Autumn, uncle Wes, several great aunts and uncles, second cousins and great grandparents.

The wedding itself was on the small side - it was mostly relatives with a few friends. I was the videographer (with the help of Uncle Kent and Mr. Fleener), and Summer was a bridesmaid. I was able to snap a few pictures between doing video, and they have been posted to SmugMug for your enjoyment.

In some of the pictures you will see Silas' new car seat. We finally broke down and bought a detachable car seat. We had said that we didn't like them, that they were too heavy, too bulky, etc. But, they do fit in the Prius, and they are a lot easier to move between different vehicles than his bigger (though designed to hold children from 5-80 lbs) seat in the CR-V. It was a little pricy, but it should pay for itself with a few trips to both sets of grandparents and a trip to Texas this year in fuel savings by driving the Prius.

St. Patrick's Day

Summer bought Silas his first holiday themed outfit - a St. Patrick's day onesie. Here is a small photoshoot that she did a couple weeks ago.

March Update

Things are settling down, including our blog. As Silas grows a bit, the time it takes to tend to him seems to be growing as well.

This past weekend was Silas' first trip outside of Columbia. We went to Salem to visit Grandma and Grandpa Fleener, as well as Aunt Spring. It was Spring's personal shower, a mere 2 weeks before her wedding. Silas was a very good boy, and slept in the car almost the entire way. He behaved pretty well for the family, and had a nice pack-n-play to sleep in. He was cuddled with a bit more than he is used to, so his sleep schedule got a little messed up. The grandparents got hit with about 7 inches of snow in about 4 hours, so we ended up staying an extra night while we waited for the roads to clear.

Sunday and Monday of this week were hectic days for us. As I just mentioned, his sleep schedule got a little messed up. I ended up taking half the day off today so that Summer could sleep - he cried pretty much from 3am to about 6am. Thankfully, he behaved quite well for me. I worked on a project on my laptop, and he went to sleep in his bouncy seat.

More pictures will be posted in a few days.

A few more albums

We have posted a few small albums to Facebook recently. Here they are for everyone else to look at. Posting to SmugMug yields higher quality and larger pictures, but takes a lot longer.

• Album 1
• Album 2

Two Apologies and an Update

I would like to open this post with two apologies. First, I am sorry that we do a poor job of updating everyone about what is going on with baby Silas, both on the blog and in more personal forms of communications. At work, my supervisor is always telling my team (and, most of the other teams as well) to do a better job of picking up the phone - we can instant message or e-mail our customers, but what they really want to see is us calling them. I am amongst the worst offenders of this, and it is not just limited to my work. So, again, I am sorry that we do not keep in better touch with everyone.

Second apology: We are also sorry that thank you cards have been so long in the making. We had hoped to send them out with birth announcements, which we finally got just a couple weeks ago. We had enough free time last weekend to get the first batch written and mailed, the second batch will hopefully be done to go out in Tuesday's mail. We have been so thankful for the many things we have been given by so many who love us and Silas. The members at Eastside provided us with enough food that Summer did not have to cook for almost a month. Friends and family have provided Silas with so many clothes in different sizes, that we have only personally bought 3 or 4 outfits out of his nearly 30 (30 may seem like a lot, but these cover newborn, 0-3mo, 3-6mo, and a few bigger than that).

Now on to the update. Here is a copy from Summer's personal blog:

I took Silas to the pediatric urologist yesterday. He will have to have surgery to correct his hypospadias, but they won't do it until he's older. It will probably be in July. Dr. Neil's nurse is supposed to call me to set it up. They didn't make a big deal out of it, so I'm not either. I think Dan is a little more worried than I am. I think it's because he cringes just thinking of having surgery on such a sensitive area! Silas was so good for everybody. I think it's because I nursed him right before we went in, so he was still on his milk buzz. He didn't care when we stripped him down to be weighed (he's a whopping 12 lbs 8 oz now!) and he only grimaced when they examined him. Dr. Neil was very good with him and he smiled and cooed at him. It was so cute! I'm glad he saves his bad side for me and doesn't take it outside of our house!

Silas has also been sleeping through the night the past two nights. He has slept solid from about 12:30 to 7:00 both nights. Now, to be fair, he might have woken up a few times last night and we did not hear him - the baby monitor has gone missing (it has a portable receiver, which plugs into a base station in our bedroom at night). But, he has gone from being fed every 4 hours to lasting 6 to 6.5 for two nights in a row. Hopefully, this will continue

Finally, we have been at a weekend meeting the past few days at our congregation, presented by Dick Modine of Kansas City. He is a lawyer, an elder, occasional preacher, school board member, father of 4, one of which died at an early age from physical and mental disabilities. Though he does not have a degree in childhood psychology, he has devoted a lot of his life to observing how children grow and remain faithful, and what their parents did right, and what parents did wrong in raising their children who became unfaithful. This was a very timely lesson, considering how many families, including ours, have young children. There were some very good thoughts, and we will probably talk about some of these here in the future.

Finally, we want to thank our friends Chris and Vanessa for watching Silas on Thursday. Summer really likes Valentines day, which fell yesterday, during our weekend meeting, so we celebrated it on Thursday. Chris and Vanessa watched him for about 3 hours while we went out for a nice dinner. He behaved very well for them (he usually does for other people), and was sound asleep when we picked him up.

The days, they have become roller coasters

The past few weeks have been full of little roller coaster rides. Some days Silas has been a really good baby, some days he has fussed all day long. Summer has been stressed, dad has been somewhat stressed, and little Silas, well, he just can't decide if he wants to cry or not. The general lack of updates and pictures is due to our trying to establish a routine, which has consumed much of our time.

This past Saturday was Barkley's first full day in the house since Silas came home. Our back yard is typically very muddy this time of year, and every time we let the dogs out they track in mud. So, we usually let them out front. Both of the dogs have been somewhat dirty for some time, and very smelly. This past weekend it finally got warm enough for us to clean both of them off. Since Bayley still isn't house trained, she was returned to the cage, while Barkley was allowed inside.

Barkley got along really well with Silas. In fact, Barkley behaved perfectly. Only when we let Bayley in one time did he start to get hyper - further highlighting the need that she needs to find a new home, since she tends to make him misbehave.

Silas also now has a bouncy seat and swing. A friend at church was kind enough to loan the bouncy seat, and so far Silas has really liked it. The swing also has helped to calm him down a few times, though he doesn't want to stay in it for more than about 15 minutes at a time.

5 weeks and counting

One thing I am starting to notice is that the week days kinda blur by. I go to work, come home, help Summer and Silas out, go to Bible study (Monday and Wednesday), unwind for a bit, then get some sleep. I really have not had much time to even take pictures during the week, so most of the pictures as of late are from the weekends.

This past weekend my brother Jason and his fiance Katy had their first visit with Silas. They were a little late (leave it to my brother to get lost even with the help of a GPS :) ), and Silas was asleep by the time they got here, but they did get to see him a little bit Friday evening. They left after lunch on Saturday, so it was a relatively short visit. Jason has been having some issues at work - he needs prayers to get through them.

What time I have not been spending helping Summer and Silas out, I have been devoting to rewriting CofCPages.org. I dont know if I mentioned it before, but a brother in Indiana sent me his software, and I am in the process of upgrading it to meet the needs of my system. It is pretty exciting stuff.

I think Silas is trying to make mommy a liar today. She was very upset when I got home - Silas had been crying pretty much the entire day. A friend from church was nice enough to take him for a couple hours this morning (this was arranged a few days ago, before the crying fit), and he behaved for her, but when he got home he went right back to crying. Now I am home, Summer is taking a shower, and I sit here typing on the laptop a few feet from his bed. He is awake, but quiet. He wants to show others that he can behave, just not for mommy.

We just might be getting into the swing of things...

I can't believe four weeks have passed already! We brought our little guy home four weeks ago today. It's all been sort of a blur up until now. We didn't really have much of a routine going on because he was just so unpredictable as to when he would want to eat and sleep.

This week started out rough. He had a visit from Grandpa and Grandma Watt this last weekend. I don't know if it was just too much stimulation or what, but Monday and Tuesday were not our best days. He refused to nap all day on Monday. He would yawn and start to nod off, but would wake himself back up five minutes later and start crying. This lasted for six hours! Dan finally took pity on me and came home early from work to relieve me. I had to run to the library to return a book that was long overdue ( I checked it out before Silas was born... I guess I sort of didn't have time to read or didn't think about returning it!). Just getting out of the house to return a book was enough "me time" I needed to feel better. Tuesday was much like Monday, except Dan didn't come home.

Finally, on Wednesday, I was able to get him to nap! He fought napping in the morning, even though his eyes were drooping and he was yawning, but I think he might have gotten about 30 minutes of sleep when I put him down. Then he napped like a champ in the afternoon. I had to actually wake him up to eat! Late afternoon nap wasn't that great, but he was quiet all through church. Then he went to bed fairly easily too. He's napping now. Hopefully we've turned the corner and it will get easier to get things done around the house now!

Hickeys and Acne

Silas is only three weeks old and he already has had his first hickey and suffers from acne. He spit his paci out on Wednesday night and it fell in the floor. Not having his beloved paci to suck on, Silas decided to start sucking on his wrist instead. This resulted in the above mentioned hickey. I can't wait to tell a future girlfriend about that! As far as the acne goes, it's normal, and it only really flares up when he gets mad.

That's about it for now!

Week #4 - Week in Review

Having a kid really is consuming all of our time. The days are somewhat blurring together, so doing a week in review gets kinda hard.

Monday: Already covered - it was MLK day, both of us were home.

Tuesday: The day of hope and change! A somewhat uneventful day at the Watt house, an interesting day at work for Dan (over 10% of our company stopped working for about 3 hours, about 70% didn't work during the actual swearing in). Summer had lady's Bible study in the evening, so I got to watch Silas for about 2 hrs. He got pretty fussy towards the end, and after I noticed that Summer was out in the driveway in the car with our friend Nikki, I had to flash the porch light to get her to come in and help calm him down.

Wednesday: We all went out for Mexican food at El Jimador for lunch. Silas was a very good boy, and slept on top of my coat which was on the booth chair. Summer called me around 2:00 saying she wasn't feeling so well, so I went home to help out. I wasn't having the greatest afternoon at work, so it was an additional blessing for me to go home.

Thursday: Im drawing a blank

Friday: We spent the better part of the afternoon cleaning up the house for my parents visit. I had to do a little work for home - a process that was supposed to analyze 4.5 million cars took a few hours longer than it was supposed to, and it had to be sent to the customer by the end of the day. I left a little early and finished it when I got home. Mom and Dad came, and we all went out to eat at Applebees. Silas and grandma bonded during the entire dinner.

Saturday: A day with the grandparents. We got a late start, eating breakfast around 9:30 or so. We sat around and talked for a while, then we all went to lunch at Sophias to celebrate Mom and Dad's birthdays (the 5th and 25th). We then went back to the mall for a bit (I think I have been in the mall now for about 12 hrs in the last month, more than I usually spend in 2 years), and then home for the grandparents to babysit for a few hours. Summer and I had a date at Outback Steakhouse, and a trip to Wal-Mart, before rescuing the grandparents. Silas actually was a pretty good boy for them, though they did get to re-live changing a diaper.

Sunday: Breakfast at Cracker Barrel - yum. We went back to El Jimador for lunch (they had been to El Maguey before, which we prefer, but Jimador was right across from their hotel). It was Dad's birthday today, so they sang to him, put a hat on him, and gave him a nice little surprise. We went home to take a family picture. Since Dad is a pretty good photographer (where do you think I get it from?), we had him take a few pictures in the living room. The results aren't quite what Summer was hoping for, but that is more of a function of the setup (in front of our fireplace, in a somewhat hurried situation) than the photographer. They are still good pictures, and I will try and post them shortly.

And, as I type, Silas is being calmed after a 30 minute crying spell. Silas is actually a fairly quiet baby - he typically doesn't cry for too long. He had eaten within the last 2 hours, and he has been going for almost 3 hours on average between feeding. He had a clean diaper, and clean clothes. Thankfully, he was not running a fever, and as we have discovered, he was just really hungry. So much for an 8:00 bedtime - we will get there eventually.

Week #3 - the week in review

Monday: A rather uneventful day.

Tuesday: Silas lost the last bit of his umbilical cord.

Wednesday: Silas had his first bath, only a short while before we went to mid-week Bible study.

Thursday: We tried something new - getting Silas to bed at a set time, 8:00. This first attempt did not go so well.

Friday: Since the Fleener family was coming to visit on Saturday, we spent some time cleaning up the house. Silas also sat down for a few minutes for us to take some studio shots of him, in the hopes of getting a good one for a birth announcement. We still need to go through the ones we took to see if any are good enough.

Saturday: Grandma and Grandpa Fleener, as well as Aunt Spring, came for a visit. We sat around the house for a good while, looking at pictures and a few gifts for Silas. A lady who we have never met, who is part of the fire department that Grandpa is chief of, made a quilt for Silas. What a wonderful gift!

We then ventured out for his first dining out experience. We all went to Fazolis, and he behaved quite well. Silas and the ladies then went to the mall, and Dan and Grandpa went to Circuit City - they are going out of business, and Grandpa was looking for some deals for his new camera. There were no deals to be found - closeout prices at an overpriced store are still overpriced. We went a few other places, before returning to the mall to wait for the ladies. Silas spit up all over his outfit, so Summer bought a new one for him while they were at JC Pennys.

We then went back to the house to restock on diapers and for the Fleeners to pack up, then we went out to dinner at Ruby Tuesdays to celebrate Bev's birthday.

Sunday: Sunday morning was not a good time for mom or baby. For whatever reason, Silas does not sleep well on Saturday night. He was very hungry once we were all up, and wanted a second (or was it third, or fourth) serving around the time we have to leave for Bible study. I had to teach the high school class, so I went by myself. At the end of class, I called to find out that Summer was still feeding Silas, and it did not sound like she was doing well. I left before services started, but not before Susan Corley gave us some BBQ for lunch. Summer and Silas napped most of the afternoon, and both were feeling a lot better afterwords.

That evening we were able to go to worship. The Sumphonia group was in town working on the hymnal, so Charli Couchman was able to meet Silas, as well as Steve Wolfgang, who now preaches where my parents worship. Charli gave Silas a gift - a CD and book of children's hymns that she wrote.

We ended up being some of the last to leave, which was fairly normal for us before we had him, which resulted in us staying even later because we ran into his dinner time.

Monday (MLK): Dad had the day off, so we got to spend the day as a family. We didn't get up and start doing things until after 10, so we had a very late breakfast and lunch very shortly thereafter. I spent a good part of the morning working on some plans for cofcpages.org - including talking to a brother who has set up some very nice software for his congregation that might serve as a replacement for the aging software I have at cofcpages.

We made a trip to Wal-Mart, and this time the greeter gave us a cart that had a child seat in it. Silas slept the entire trip. We ran into one of my coworkers, who now is the first person at CARFAX to see Silas - she was very excited. Silas had another bath today, and those continue to go very well. Mom and Dad had a very big steak dinner, probably our last relatively unhealthy meal before we go back onto Weight Watchers.

Pictures are still uploading, so check back if there aren't about 200 in the latest album.

Belly Button!

It's official... Silas has a real belly button now! I changed his diaper in the middle of the night and noticed his cord was gone. We were very excited!

Since he has a real belly button now, he got to have his first real bath yesterday. He loved it! He looked like such a big boy getting his first big boy bath. To see pictures, go to Dan's Facebook page. I'll have to ask him to put some pictures up here too.

First Bath

Silas had his first bath today. Summer was very excited to find that he had lost the last of his cord, leaving him with just a belly button. Since you are not supposed to bathe a baby until the cord is gone, it took until today, his 15th day, to have a real bath.

And wow, he sure liked his bath. He was looking all around, was wide awake, and didn't make a single sound of not enjoying the bath. He didn't like being taken out, but after being held by daddy (as you can see in the pictures) he was all better.

Week #2 - Week in Review

Monday - Silas went to the doctor, and was given a clean bill of health. Later that night, we tried out grandpa Watt's new webcam, to with grandma a happy birthday. The video was very choppy, but the important thing is that they got to see Silas.

Tuesday - Summer's first day home alone with Silas. The day went fairly well.

Wednesday - Phil and Casey brought a very yummy tater-tot casserole. We were a little late to worship services, and stayed fairly late as well. Some women on the congregation decided to disclose a little TMI in Dan's presence - I guess since I am a father now, certain topics can be discussed in my presence.

Thursday - We went to Shaun's place to watch the BCS Championship game. Silas spent a lot of time being passed around to the many other guests, and behaved himself quite well. He even wore red and white to cheer on the Big 12. Ultimately, the Sooners lost, and dad hummed The Eyes of Texas as we were leaving.

Friday - Silas and Summer had a quick doctors visit today. It looks like he is eating quite well, and has regained most of the little weight that he lost in the first week. Preston and Kelli called us up wanting to do something, and they came over and we all played Scrabble. Summer and I didn't go to bed until almost 1 am, probably the latest we have been up since Silas was born. Silas didn't have the best of nights either, waking Summer up many more times than the rest of the week.

Saturday - Today we all ran some errands. We spent about 2 hours at the mall, making some returns, mailing a few things, and looking for a baby gift. Silas decided to get hungry and mess up a daiper, so almost 1/3 of our time at the mall was spent taking care of those needs. We then went to get Summer a dress for Spring's wedding, dropped a book off at the library, and then to Home Depot to pick up a replacement drain for our bathroom sink. Dan spent about an hour fixing the sink - now almost 2 months later we can finally use our sink.

A lot of the evening was spent taking some B&W pictures of Silas. I recently acquired a 'monolight' flash and umbrella, so we spent a couple hours taking pictures of him. The results are now available in our Smugmug gallery.

And now, for your viewing pleasure, some of the pictures from tonight, animated at animoto.

A Few More Days

We had a busy weekend, hence the lack of updates. Saturday was rather uneventful. We had some wonderful food provided by Dallas. The wonderful thing about people from the congregation binging you food is that you get to try some things that you never would think to make yourself.

Sunday went rather well. Silas decided to leave a present for Summer right when we got to worship. I had to teach class (this quarter I am working with our friend Chris Hill to teach the Sermon on the Mount to the high schoolers), so Summer had to change him. When I came in for the worship service, he slept in my lap the entire time. Though I was happy to not have to get up with a fussy baby during worship, afterwards he was very, very hungry, and very fussy. It took about 20 minutes to get him to start eating. We didn't leave the church building until almost 1:45.

After services we had to run to Wal-Mart (Silas' trip #2) to pick up a few things we missed on the previous trip. We ran into the Bradleys from church - their 2yr old son was so excited to see Silas again. We finally got home for a very late lunch, and then were visited by Becky Popa, who brought a nice care package for Summer and Silas. Back to services Sunday night, and again, he was quiet the entire time, with the exception of one little scream during the closing prayer.

Silas had his first checkup today, and he is as healthy as can be. I am taking this one last day off to help around the house, before going back to work tomorrow. 2 loads of laundry done, 1 load of dishes done, 2 more loads of laundry + dirty diapers to go.

Silas James Watt's Birth Story

The following is a copy from Summer's personal blog at pleonast.

Sunday morning around 1130 pressure waves started (PW is a positive Hypnobabies term for contractions). I casually mentioned it to Dan, not wanting to get my hopes up too much, although I had been walking a lot to try to move him down so I could avoid the induction my doctor scheduled for me on Tuesday night. Sunday afternoon, we had lunch at Pete and Doris's and then a second course of dessert at Craig and Joetta's. By evening services, the PWs were coming every ten minutes. I timed them all through services on a contraction timer program on Dan's iPod, but had to flip it over every time we stood up to sing a song because I didn't want a certain person sitting behind me to notice what I was doing and get too excited. Dan's parents were coming through Columbia on their way back to Chicago from Texas and we met them at their hotel after services. We went out to dinner at Olive Garden. By then, the PWs were coming every five minutes. We didn't tell his parents about it and made plans to have breakfast together at Cracker Barrel on their way home. Dan and I contemplated going to OB triage because the waves were every five minutes, lasting about 90 seconds each, and had been doing this for over two hours. I decided instead to try to get some sleep and to continue listening to Hypnobabies tracks on my iPod.

I woke up for almost every wave on Sunday night, although I didn't consider them to be painful. Part of my Hypnobabies training was to convince myself that they were not painful but just pressure (hence the term pressure waves). It worked, and I wasn't in pain, but I did feel the pressure. I moved around the house all night long. I would listen to my affirmation tract in bed, then I would get up and go to the rocking chair to listen to another, then to the recliner, the birthing ball, etc. I tried to stay hydrated and change positions every hour. I even snacked in the middle of the night because I knew giving birth would be hard work and they wouldn't let me eat anything in the hospital before he was born. When Dan's alarm went off at 0700, I told him I wanted to go to OB triage to get checked, even if I wasn't ready to stay because his parents would need to stay in town if Silas was going to be born soon.

We checked into triage at 0730. I wasn't able to keep my iPod on the whole time because there was just too much going on, but now that I think about it, I think I had turned my "lightswitch" to center, allowing me to continue in hypnosis with my eyes open. I maintained my focus and the waves continued to feel only like pressure. The resident came and checked me and I was at 3cm and 90%. He suggested I take a walk around the hospital for at least an hour and come back. I put on the super attractive hospital gown and matching robe and we walked laps around the hospital. Unfortunately, Columbia Regional isn't a very big hospital, so there wasn't much to see. After an hour, we went back, but I hadn't changed so I went home. You have to either be 5cm or have broken your water to be considered in active labor and to be admitted. The nurse was very nice and she said, "I'm sure you'll be back to have that baby later today."

We called Dan's parents and told them we wouldn't be at breakfast, but they should stay in town because we would probably have the baby within the next 24 hours. We went home and I went back into deep hypnosis. I don't remember much about Monday. I think I spent most of it in my bedroom with the lights down low and in deep hypnosis. The waves progressed up to every three minutes, lasting about 90 seconds each. Dan's parents brought dinner over to the house and I managed to eat, but then went back into my hypnosis. The Alamo Bowl game was on, but I wasn't interested in watching it. Good thing we DVR-ed it! By that point, I needed lots of concentration for my hypnosis. We went to our bedroom and lied on the bed. My ears were sore from wearing my earbuds for 24 hours, so Dan hooked the iPod up to speakers so I could listen to the Hypnobabies tracks while he rubbed my back and watched the game with the TV muted.

After about three hours of doing that, the waves increased in intensity and were coming every two minutes apart, lasting more than 90 seconds. I only had 15-30 seconds break between waves. I remember whispering to Dan, "I don't want to do this much longer." Assuming this was transition, we went back to OB triage. I think I was in center switch still, because I don't remember being in pain, just feeling like the waves were very powerful. I kept whispering one of my affirmations over and over "I am safe and my baby is safe no matter how much power flows through my body." That kept me focused and mostly pain free. When the nurse asked what my pain level was, I still only rated it at 4 out of 10. The resident came to see me and he was very very nice (not that the last one wasn't, but this one whispered when he spoke to me and he was very gentle). I was still at 3 cm and 90% effaced and a -2 station, so he called the attending I had seen earlier. The attending suggested walking some more, so that's what we did. They didn't want to do too much since I had my induction scheduled for the next day. We walked, having to stop frequently for me to lean on Dan and focus through each wave.

When we went back to the triage area, they checked me and I still hadn't progressed. The doctor gave me Visteril, a medicine to help me relax and get some sleep. He told me I would need to get some rest if I were going to make progress. We left the hospital and I lost my focus in the car and started crying. The pressure waves almost immediately became painful once I lost my focus and I began moaning. The more I felt like I'd lost focus, the more upset I became, and then the pain would increase. This was the fear-pain-tension cycle I had learned about in my Hypnobabies course.

Dan was great and he kept rubbing me, trying to get me to regain my focus. He wasn't giving me the right cue word, but bless his heart for trying. We went back to our bedroom and he put on a track for me. I was trying to tell him it was the wrong one for what I needed at the time, but I couldn't make coherent conversation at that point. He rubbed my back until he fell asleep to the hypnosis track playing. I don't think I slept at all. Even though it was the wrong track, it helped me regain some semblance of focus. Rather than moaning through the waves, I began humming in a low tone, sort of like one would do in yoga. The humming gave me something to focus on and I felt a little better in control. The waves were still painful, but very manageable.

Around 0400, I began feeling the urge to push. It was so strong, and not where I thought I would feel it. I was later told I had back labor (I had no idea at the time that's what it was) and that's why my pushing sensations were a little off. The urge to push scared me because I assumed I was probably still at three centimeters. I didn't realize how much time had passed since we'd gone to bed. I knew pushing at any point when you're not complete will cause a lot of harm to your body, so I again lost focus and started fighting my waves. The fear-pain-tension cycle kicked in again and I could barely walk to the car for the almost continuous pressure wave and the strong urge to push.

I don't remember the drive to the hospital at all, all I know was that I had officially lost it. Dan went inside to get me a wheelchair and I went straight to labor and delivery. The same resident from my second OB triage visit was there and he told me I was six cm. They hooked me up and I was screaming like a crazy person. I hated feeling crazy and I kept apologizing to everyone in the room. My doctor came in from home and I remember yelling at her and my nurse, "I'm so sorry! This is not me! I AM A CALM PERSON!" At another point in time, I could hear Dan talking to someone on his cell phone and I guess I didn't think he should be doing that because I started yelling at him to get off the phone.

During all of this, my blood pressure was high, my heart rate was high, and poor baby Silas's heart rate was very high. They started giving me fluid boluses and oxygen to help his heart rate but nothing was working. Finally, my doctor told me that she needed to get him out because she was worried about his heart rate. I was coherent enough for the nursing part of my brain to work and I agreed that his tachycardia was definitely not good for him, so I told my doctor I would take an epidural if it would get him out faster. Luckily, the anesthesia attending was right there and I got my epidural shortly after six.

I remember her putting it in and injecting, and I don't remember much else because I fell asleep sitting on the edge of the bed. I had been awake at that point almost 36 hours and had been having pressure waves for almost 48. I was thoroughly exhausted. I think that's why I went crazy there at the end when I was fighting the urge to push. The nurses put me back down and I'm told I slept for about fifteen minutes before it was time to push. I guess they checked right before the epidural and again right after and I went from 6.5 to 10 in less than fifteen minutes. They woke me up and I pushed him out in about an hour. When they held him up for me to see, I remember telling the nurse, "He's a chunk!" He weighed 9 lbs even and was 22 3/4 inches long. He has the biggest newborn baby feet I think I've ever seen! Because I had lost a lot of blood and my blood pressure was low, I didn't get to hold him for almost an hour. I had to lie flat on my back with my feet up and got some Pitocin to help stop the bleeding. I got to watch Dan hold him and it was cute. Dan had probably only held a baby for a total of five minutes in his life leading up to that.

Even though things didn't go exactly as planned, I still consider my Hypnobabies program to have been successful. I didn't anticipate 44 hours of labor. More than 36 of those 44 hours of labor were pain free, and I know now what I could have done differently to have made the last eight hours better. I don't regret getting the epidural because it allowed me to get a few minutes of rest so he could be born healthy and we could avoid a C-section.

Night #2

Night 2 went a little bit better, at least for me. We both slept a little bit better, though we are both still tired. Summer is having some more pain from some of the interventions that they performed to get Silas out, but hopefully it will heal in a few weeks.

We continue to explore the different kind of cloth diapers we bought. I am doing very well with the "Indian Prefolds" - though the ones we have are a little bit big for him. We also are having great success with using the much more expensive all-in-ones by Bum Genius at night - these are a lot easier to get on and off, something which comes in handy when we are sleepy. Summer tried a different kind of all-in-one, Deam-Eze, and we had a big leak - it seems like the urine went everywhere but the diaper. I am thinking there is a little confusion, since we have two kinds of Dream-Eze : one has PUL (plastic) on the outside, one doesn't. The ones that don't need a cover, and I am thinking the kind that didn't work out so well today is the kind that needs the cover. Regardless, the Dream-Ezes that we have are a bit too big for him, so it looks like Bum Genius and prefolds for now.

Our trip to Wal-Mart last night went well. I was going to take some pictures, but since I was carrying Silas (Summer is not supposed to carry too much while she recovers), I didn't get a chance to get the camera out. My back was hurting by the time it was all over, mainly since I am not used to carrying 10 lbs at chest level.

I did something that most guys would not do - I actually needed to go to the fabric department at Wal-Mart. We bought 2 6'x3' blocks of fleece, one in black one in white, to use as picture backdrops. Each one cost about $8, compared to about $30 from photography stores. We might try using them later tonight, but I had a lot of success taking some test pictures of one of Silas' stuffed animals against the backdrops.

Today we had some issues with our business. The check that we got for the wedding we did in November bounced. I have done a poor job of opening mail since about Thanksgiving, mainly due to getting ready for Silas. Had I of opened the mail around the 4th of December, I would have found out sooner. Instead, I have made 3 purchases (1 for our SmugMug photo sharing account, one for a new SB-600 camera mounted flash, and one for a flash+umbrella kit), each of which was assessed a $28 overdraft charge. So, I spent the better part of the morning going to the bank, filling in the almost $-300 balance, and calling the client's bank to fix the situation. Evidently, if you have the returned check (which we were charged $4 for by our bank), it is still considered a legal check. I faxed a copy to her bank, and once her account has sufficient balance, the bank will immediately take the balance out of her account and send me a bank check.

The rest of the day has been spent cleaning up. Summer has been putting things away around the house, and I have been taking down Christmas decorations outside. I bought probably 900 lights on clearance the day after Christmas, and another 900 icicle style lights (36 feet worth) to hang on our gutters for next year. One strand, thankfully of only 100 and one that has 2 independent 50 light circuits, was half dead, and the box was clearly marked as "DOES NOT WORK". I guess Wal-Mart figured someone else would have luck with the strand, which I did. I went through 40 of the 50 lights on one of the circuits and finally found the broken bulb.

Chris and Vanessa should be coming over some time tonight, and it sounds like Craig and Dallas will be bringing us dinner.

Lets Try Some Video

Here is a short little video that was taken just within Silas' first hour.

First Night Home, Day 4

The first night home did not start off so well. In fact, it is kinda a blur. We both went to sleep, only to be woken very quickly by a crying baby. I went in to take care of him for a while, with little success. Mom was summoned to feed him, which helped, as I went back to sleep. 2 hours later, when the alarm that I had set for the next scheduled feeding went off, I went to find that Summer was still in his room, only this time with a few pillows on the floor. I asked how those got there, and evidently she had snuck back into our room, grabbed the pillows, and returned to Silas' room, while he was crying, and I never woke up. As you probably know, I am a very light sleeper, and somehow all of these things did not wake me up.

I took over for tired mom, and spent almost 1.5 hours with a crying baby. We took walks around the inside of the house, I tried rocking him, checked his diapers numerous times - nothing worked. Finally, I put him to bed and ignored his cries for about 20 minutes. He would cry for about 3 minutes then stop for a few, only to resume a couple minutes later. After about 20 minutes of this, and not hearing any very highly pitched cries of pain (we have been able to at least figure out that pattern), I joined mom in bed. He actually stayed asleep and quiet for a couple of hours.

Evidently mom woke up a few more times to go take care of him, never waking me up until about 9. Like our friend Chris Hill, it seems that I have been blessed with ears that tune out a hungry, crying baby at night, but unfortunately I am still bothered by snoring and other lower pitched noises.

So, we did manage to get a good night of rest. After about 2, Summer had to get up about every 3 hours to take care of him. We both were up by about 9. We have spent the day just hanging around the house, and right now are watching the Cotton Bowl. This is Silas' first live football game to watch (he got to see a little bit of the end of the Mizzou game last night, that we had recorded from Monday night).

We might be making a trip to Wal-Mart on Conley Road later this evening as a family, so for those of you who have yet to meet him, be on the lookout.

Day 3 - New Years Day

Day 3 was our going home day. We did not leave the hospital until around noon - it took quite a while for them to get us our discharge orders. Going by the chimes in the hallway intercom, there had been at least 3 births that morning, so the staff probably had their hands full.

When we got home, Silas decided that it was time for another fussy hour. Summer had just laid down to get some rest, and I placed him in his Moses Basket (thank you Dave and Angela). He slept for about 20 minutes, frequently trying to suck his thumb (only to just suck the entire side of his hand). Then, the crying streak started. I took him upstairs to his room to examine the diaper, and sure enough, it had been soiled. So, I started to change him into his first cloth diaper. I should have known this, and indeed I was told it, but you are supposed to keep baby boys covered while you prep the next diaper. Needless to say, a wet mess was created on his shirt and on the changing table.

After this fit, he finally settled down for a couple of hours. Summer and I watched the last few minutes and overtime of the MU game, even though we knew the outcome. Lori, Vicki and Brian brought us a wonderful dinner, and we were blessed with some quiet while we ate.

Silas has done fairly well the rest of the evening. We have tried to let him sleep unattended a few times, and it looks like it will probably be a long night tonight, as he starts to wonder where he is after about 20 minutes.

As with the earlier post, click on the picture to view the full gallery. This gallery covers all of day 2 and half of day 3.

Day 2 - New Years Eve

Summer and I decided it would be best to stay at Regional one additional night. Neither of us had much sleep the nights before Silas was born, so we kept him in the nursery while we got some additional sleep. Grandma and Grandpa Fleener stayed in town and came for a second visit before going home.

Silas had a minor surgical procedure, that in some cultures happens on the 8th day but in America is done on the first two, which was followed by several hours of loud fussiness. He ate several times, but refused to sleep and instead decided to cry for the better part of the afternoon. Ben & Nikki came for a quick visit before mid-week Bible study, and Ben offered a prayer for Silas' health and well being. Thank you guys for visiting.

I went to study, as I was down for leading singing and didn't really have the time to call someone else to fill in, even though someone probably would have noticed that I was on the duty list and would have done it for me. It was very encouraging to be there, and I was given many congratulations. And, for those of you at Eastside - yes, the meal list was for us, not for Doris or the Hills, though I am sure they would appreciate meals as well. I just felt weird being up there announcing "Oh, and the Watts have a meal list out in the foyer".

I will close with a verse (actually a prayer) from one of the songs that I lead:

Little children, from above,
Sent to us, with joy and love,
Bring a hope, so clear and bright,
Father, help us raise them right.

He's Here!

Silas James was born at 7:56 AM on Tuesday, December 30. He weighed 9 pounds and was 22 3/4 inches long. He has very long feet and hands too. Summer had no idea she was carrying such a big baby!

Here he is being held by Summer for the first time.

Click on the picture to see the full gallery of Silas' first day outside the womb.