Amanda and Ryan from the corner bakery made a visit. Ryan wouldn't allow mom to visit until they had a gift from Wilder, pretty funny. I said if they give us free chocolate croissants they can come over whenever they want...ha

Jenn makes the blog, finally (but still no Lorna, sorry, ugh)

cousin Molly was talked into giving Wilder a hold

Wilder in Action

Wilder is feeling good as you can tell. He is eating all the time and gaining a ton of weight, really. Excited to see what it'll be the next time we go (Kate thinks his fingers are fatter...). Kate is starting to feel better and today was able to have jeans on (maternity jeans but you can hardly tell, shhh). We are having Thanksgiving here at our house for the first time with both sets of grandparents coming and a cousin and Gram, pretty exciting. All that fun and we get to eat on our brand new dining room table from Gish's furniture (nice place, people, furniture).

an uneventful but cute video

Uncle Larry from California stops by

good timing for an East coast visit Uncle Larry

More Visitors

Gram (Ivan's wife) from New Hampshire gets a turn

Jonathan and Danielle drop off some homemade grub, much appreciated

Denison (check out his new album at http://www.myspace.com/denisonwitmer, it's real good) and Jennie stop by. Sorry we didn't name him after you Denison but you did get his birth date...

Kate's sister's family makes a visit from Maryland

cousin Evan is a little blurry but really excited to hold Wilder

Aunt Sue

a new video

taken at 5:50 today, i like how he's reaching for the camera

Dopey Daddy

wow, that is one bad photo, looks like I had eye surgery or got stung by a bee on my eyelid or something
at least he looks cute, as always

Wilder's Weight

So we went to the doctor on Monday of this week and Wilder has gained a lot of weight, 13 days previously he had started his time in the world at 7.13 and now he is up to 8.75, phew. The doctor said that is the #1 sign of a healthy baby. So no worries there...getting burped, one of his favorite times of the day

He has been holding his head up even more than ever lately. When you hold him on your chest he plants his hands on you and pushes back as far as he can. I have a feeling he's going to be pretty hard to hold as he gets bigger (which he apparently is bound to get very quickly).

Couple More Pics and story of the name

So the name Wilder came from my (adam's) great grandfather. He also had a son named Wilder but most people called him Jr. I guess it's normally thought of as a last name, we just watched the movie Sunset Boulevard by Billy Wilder, but we figured the precedent has been set with my great grandfather so of course it is okay.
His middle name Ivan comes from Kate's grandfather who passed away about 3 years ago. I didn't know my great grandfather but we knew Kate's Gramp really well and miss him a lot. He led a very admirable life and set a good example for us to live by in his relationship with his wife and children. One of my favorite stories is when he would work on Christmas Eve so his co-workers with children could be with their families, just one of the ways he was so kind-hearted.

More Visitors and a Video!

Chloe gets a turn holding Wilder, thanks Maya and Chloe for the nice card for Wilder.
Here's a late night video , pretty fun, even get a yawn out of it.
Even Matt visited from Wilmington, thanks for the Johnny Cash lullaby CD (and the personal letter from Johnny).NAE!!!!!!!!

first week visitors

yay Emily!!!!

yay Ben!!!

yay Paul!!!!

yay Craig!!!!

yay Steve!!!

fussing...

PICTURES!!!!!

The First Week Home (and visitors)

The first week has been really rejuvenating for Kate and I. We've had a lot of help from family (my parents were here for a week b4 we got home getting everything ready and making stuffing and then Kate's mom came Wednesday to help out, and ended up staying up until 1 in the morn in the process...). He's able to pick his head up much further than it seems he should be able to. Mom loved it.

Friends have been dropping by and bringing food but the best part is introducing Wilder to his world of friends to be (well, his parents friends at least...). Steve/Lauren, Bobby/Lorna, Steve/Julie, Jenn, Emily, Ben, Mark from Mr. Martino's (go there, it's the best), Amanda/Nicholas/Ryan from the greatest bakery in Philadelphia, Artisan Boulanger Patisserie, and our dear friend Debi.

Getting Out of the Hospital!

The week of Wilder's birth was a hectic one, with mom getting surgery for a hematoma and then getting a blood transfusion of 4 pints and Wilder in the Intensive Care Nursery for spitting up some grassy-green stuff (still not identified)! crazy...
But finally, after working with the GREAT doctors, nurses, and midwives at Pennsylvania Hospital, the whole family was able to come home late Saturday night.


This is Kate trying her hardest to smile in an exciting, scary, but mostly for her in this moment, painful, moment.
At home we were greeted by all of Wilder's grandparents and a turkey dinner with all the trimmings (and this ugly bow from Steve and Lauren, don't worry, they picked it off the street from the world's largest pinata site).

New Beginnings

Sorry, this is the standard "I never did this before so be kind" opening. We'll attempt to update Wilder's blog at least once a week but hopefully more than that.
Wilder Ivan Nicely was born Election Day at 10:33 AM. Throughout Monday night Kate was going through some pretty tough contractions and got about an hour of sleep total by Tuesday morning. She took some Nubane (endorsed by her sister) and got an hour or so of sleep in before the real pushing started.