The Felix Helix

This past weekend, Felix got to meet his grandmother - or Mamie! - and his aunt Sally.  Sally was nursing a cold, which might be how she managed to avoid the obligatory candid pictures. Sunday night Felix got a double dose of grandparent affection when BriAnne's parents came over for dinner.  After a day full of cuddling, he then spent most of the night WIDE awake, until Mamie came and gave BriAnne and Giles a break (and then Felix fell asleep...).

Today is one month since Felix's birthday.  We (BriAnne and Giles, not Felix) had some champagne to celebrate (thanks, Hooters!), while Felix celebrated with some screaming and diaper filling, before passing out for a marathon 5 hours on his new sheepskin.

Felix's first Thanksgiving was pretty eventful.  We all went to BriAnne's parents' house, where the entire family was in town: all three children, with their significant others, and all three grandchildren.  Michelle, Chris and Cassidy flew up from Florida to meet Felix (and "Funkle" Giles), and Andrew, Kristin and Robbie got their frist Felix fix as well. Grandma decided she wanted a picture of all three grandchildren together, in coordinating outfits.  Unfortunately, Felix can't sit up by himself (and also seems to only have two states: sleeping and screaming), Cassidy is 6 months old and drools a lot, and Robbie is a bit too young to sit still and hold two babies for a picture.  The resulting pictures were mostly funny.  I'm not sure there were any that include all three children, sitting still, without a hand in the way. After a while day with BriAnne's family, Giles's mum and sister arrived Thursday night to meet Felix.  He's a very popular baby.

... and here are some pictures from ours (so far). The cat seems to have no problems with the baby at all.  He was a bit wary at first, but now will come cuddle up next to whoever is on the couch, whether or not the baby is there. Felix has some good nights and some bad nights, but to all the people asking if he's sleeping through the night, the answer is a big fat no.  Some nights he'll do two four-hour chunks, and that's fantastic.  Some nights he'll do two four-hour chunks, where one of those chunks is just screaming, no sleeping.  That is less than fantastic. We've had quite a few visitors coming to meet Felix, which is great.  It's still a little hard to get out and see people, so company is a very welcome distraction.

Here are just a few pictures from the past few months: some of the ultrasound pictures, a few preggo pictures, and the "nursery"(a.k.a. the corner of our bedroom).

Born November 2, 2008 7lb 10oz, 21 inches

Short (not too gross) version of the birth story: We went into the hospital Saturday night (November 1st) to get some stuff checked.  I'd been having painless contractions for several hours, about 8-10 minutes apart.  Turns out my amniotic fluid was really low, and the doctor gave us two options: either stay overnight on an IV drip and try to get the fluid back up, or induce.  Because I was having regular contractions, and was already slightly dilated, the doctor predicted I'd be back within a day or two in active labor.  We decided to induce, and started the induction medication around midnight.  Several hours and one glorious epidural later, Felix Magnus saw the light and entered the world at 8:32am.

Welcome to The Felix Helix! With family and friends around the world (and many not on facebook) we thought it would be nice to have some way to share photos and news of Felix that doesn't depend on one of us remembering to send emails.  We'll try to regularly update this site, so please check in whenever you need a bit of a baby fix. - BriAnne & Giles