Chicks Dig Him

Yesterday brought lots more visitors, and Simon seems to not be too picky as to who can hold him. He's really been pretty easy thus far; he's breastfeeding great and only gets fussy for a little while before feeding. Once he's done he's fast asleep for quite a while. We've had to wake him up to eat.

W/Dr. Amanda Robertson, residency classmate of Rachel's, and Dr. Dustin Brown, second-year resident in the program







W/Dr. Susan Rim, a good friend and attending physician at the hospital. Dr. Rim was one-year ahead of Rachel in the program, and was also the last OB/GYN resident to have a baby here, so she knows what it's like to work 80 hours/week and raise a family.



Don't worry about this photo. He had his first hearing screening yesterday and passed with flying aurals (now don't email me and say this is not a noun; I've already researched but it sounded good).



Wink and you'll miss him



W/Dr. Seetal Adhikari, a good friend and attending physician at the hospital. Dr. Adhikari also trained with Rachel and was in the same residency class as Dr. Rim.



Once Dr. Valfer finished rounding on her patient we had to snap a couple more photos of Simon with the lady that brought him into the world.





The new patient tower at Lutheran General has a fantasic family room (Rachel calls it the Titanic room b/c when you walk to the end you feel like you're standing on the edge of something with a big drop below). I took this photo early this morning as the sun was coming up. And shame on you if you can't identify the skyline in the distance.

Simon the Dominator

I have a feeling most of the photos going forward will have the kid in them. Here's some more from the last day or so.





We've already had a lot of "interested observers." Here he is with great aunt Kate Bosley and first-cousin-once-removed Sarah Bosley.



The arrival would not have been possible without the expert work of Dr. Regan Valfer. Regan has been unbelievable througout the pregnancy, labor and delivery. She is a dear friend and went well above the call of duty for this one. Thanks Regan - we LOVE you!



He's already quite a ladies man. The lucky gal in this photo is Dr. Kristie Bennett, another friend of ours who trained with Rachel in residency.



With "GG" (AKA great-grandma Barbara Bosley)



We were also lucky to have Linda Pienschke on hand. She doubles as a photographer in addition to her full-time nursing gig (Linda took all of the pregnant yoga photos of Rachel that you've seen on the blog).









W/Dr. Brenna McCrummen, a friend and second-year resident in Rachel's program



W/Dr. Ian Jasenof, a friend and attending physician at the hospital



Sleep has been a little tough but it's all about adrenaline, baby!

Simon Says!

Well, folks, life has forever changed for us. But before we get into that, here's a cute photo of Rachel and Theo before heading to the hospital this morning.



Ok, now on to the hospital. We arrived at 8am and Rachel was feeling pretty good.





Next we have the birthing ball. It helped Rachel a great deal during the rough patch of labor, but she couldn't use it until it was put together. Here's the master engineer at work.











This is the last picture of Rach with baby in womb. She has a smile on but labor was getting rough here.



Rachel was a serious trooper during labor. She arrived at the hospital one centimeter dilated and after 12 hours she made it to about four centimeters and then opted for the epidural.

After a few minutes the baby's heart tones became very low, so we headed to the operating room for further monitoring and to prepare for a C-section just in case. The heart tones improved a bit but not to a level that our doctor was comfortable with, so she advised the C-section and we concurred.

So, at 8:10pm CST on 12/26/2009, our little Simon Oscar Laven was born. He was a robust 7lbs, 13oz, and measured 19 1/2 inches.









With Grandma Janet

Almost There!

My wife made sure I put in the disclaimer: this was taken post-call at 38 weeks and two days.

Destruction of a Toy

Theo's great uncle and aunt, Mark and Karen Bernstein, sent him a Hannukkah present. As you'll see from the sequence of photos it didn't last long (first photo taken at 6:07:35 pm; last photo taken at 7:21:51 pm).