Happy New Year!!!

We've almost made it through the holidays, and what a crazy time it's been! December has been a month of firsts for Nicholas. He has had his first: visit with Santa, case of the sniffles, and snow storm. He also met his little cousin Jenna for the first time this month. It was so great to see the two of them together on Christmas Eve. If they only knew how long we have all waited for them to get here! There is no greater Christmas gift in the world.

His first visit with Santa went great, although he slept through the whole thing! Actually, sleep seems to be his favorite activity lately. Maybe it's the little cold that he has, or maybe he's just too busy growing to do anything else but sleep! We went to the doctor yesterday, and he's weighing in at a whopping 11 lbs 8 oz and measuring 22 1/2 inches! None of which is surprising considering the fact that he's already filling out his 3 month clothes. He had 3 shots yesterday and handled it like a trooper! Dr. Friedman worked very quickly, and after turning bright red and letting out one good scream... it was done. Five minutes later he was asleep, and no fever to speak of. Phew! I think it was harder on us than it was on him.

We would like to thank everyone for all of the love and support you have shown us this year. We are so lucky to have so many wonderful people who care about us. We truly believe that without your prayers and thoughtfulness, Nicholas would not be here. Also, we are overwhelmed by everyone's generosity. He has received so many gifts, and we thank all of you so very much. We would like to wish all of you a very happy and healthy 2009. Happy New Year!!!

Now there are two!

Nicholas has a new cousin! Her name is Jenna Rose Giuffrida and she's the cutie all swaddled up to the left. She was born last Monday (12/8). I'm sure the two of them will be swapping stories from the womb over a warm bottle very soon!

Nicholas has been doing great. He's getting soooooo strong! We've been doing some tummy time. He has been pushing himself up and trying to move around. He's also making some great cooing noises. Oh yea, did I mention he slept for 5 hours last night? Yahooooo!!!

Other than that it's been very uneventful last week and a half. We're just getting ready for Christmas and the arrival of Santa. Nicholas doesn't have a doctor appointment until the end of the month so we are not going to have any info on his size and weight until then. I did do a very rough weigh-in with him the other day and he was around the 8 1/2 lbs. give or take a few oz.

More to come soon!

I'm getting bigger by the day

Sorry, I know it's been a while since I posted. Seems there was some technical difficulties on this website and I've been working quite a bit. Here's a few new pictures and a video for you to check out.

Here are the major events from the past week or so.....
Kristin brought him to the doctor to get his nagging jaundice problem checked. They drew some blood from the little man and he acted like a tough guy, no problem getting stuck. I think it was bigger problem for mom than baby! We still haven't gotten the results back but he's looking much better over the last couple of days.

The Holidays went well. He spent lots of time with everyone and did well being passed around. I was worried he would catch a cold or something from someone. That didn't happen thank goodness. It was funny that after being passed around we could smell the cologne and perfume of every person that had held him.

He's become a real fan of taking a bath. He's so relaxed while getting washed. I have some funny pictures of his first couple baths, they're tucked away to show later in life.

He's just started a major growth spurt. He seems to have developed an appetite that can not be satisfied! I'm guessing he's up to8.5 - 9lbs. He's getting heavy to hold and there is a lot more beef on his legs.

He has quite a bit more awake time during the day. He's been stretching his time between feedings to 3.5 - 4 hrs at nights. Feels good to only get up once during the night.

Well That's about it for now. I'll try to be better at getting things up in a more timely fashion!

I'm a month old!

This kid has the knack to relax! What a good kid he has been. The only time he fusses is when he's hungry. That's genetic though, get is from he dad.

Nicholas went to the doctor yesterday for his one month visit. Can you believe he's been here a month already! Time flies..... He's packing on the pounds. He's up to 7lb 5oz. He also grew about half an inch. He's also almost doubled what he eats during a feeding over the last couple of weeks. Dr. thinks he's going to be a taller than both his parents! I can only hope he gets a little athletic ability to go with the size. Other than that there is not much new to report!

Who is cuter than me?

Who has got it better than this kid? He's cute, cuddly, and doesn't have a care in the world at this point. He's been out and about lately. We've been taking small excursions and he's been well behaved. He's had much more awake time over the last couple of days and he's even been sleeping longer through the night...... Thank god! We tried putting him into his first cloth diaper today. That didn't go so well. His tiny legs need to get a little more beef on them before they'll work. That's about it for now. Just the typical growing baby stuff going on here! Here's some more adorable pictures of him.

Look at me play!

Here's a video from a few days ago. Notice the hand eye coordination. It's almost flawless! Not much new here. He's still eating and growing. We've been taking him out on small excursions and it's been going well. He made his first visit to the firehouse the other day. Very exciting stuff!

Look at me, I'm growing!

It's been a few days since the last update so here is the latest.

First we would like to thank everyone for their generosity. The gifts we have received from the shower and others have been amazing! We have had such a great time going through everything, and look forward to watching little Nicholas enjoy all of his "goodies!" He is such a lucky guy to have such special people in his life that love him as much as you all do.

Second, Nicholas had a checkup with the doctor this morning. He is now 20 inches long and up to 6lb 3oz! That's a 12oz jump since last week. Not a big surprise considering how much the little chow hound eats now. We consider ourselves lucky if we make it a full 2 hours between feedings. So... needless to say, the sleep deprivation phase of parenthood is kicking in big time!

Nicholas is really coming into his own now. He is making deliberate movements and playing with some toys, and we can tell his eyes are able to better focus on things. We also went for our first walk in the stroller today - something we didn't think we'd be able to do until spring, considering his expected December arrival!

That's it for now. I don't have any new pictures right now to put up. I do have a video that I need to downsize. I'll get that up as soon as I can. So, keep checking. More to come.

Kris & Todd

Look at me I'm a moo cow!

I know I'm biased but I'm pretty sure we have the cutest kid on the planet! What a lump. This isn't the greatest picture but it's the best we could get. Kristin turned Nicholas into a giant moo cow for Halloween!

Not much new to report here. He's been getting much more alert and eating and eating, and eating......... Oh yea, he poops too. Tomorrow he's going to the doctors again to get the jaundice checked. He started looking like a banana again this morning so we just wanted to have him looked at. Other than that he is cool, content and figuring things out. Today he discovered he has feet while he was getting a diaper change. It was pretty funny to watch. He was screaming and crying and when he reached up and grabbed his foot curiosity took over.







We just found out out next door neighbor is 17 weeks preggers so Nicholas is going to have a little friend his age to play with. If we stay here they can get together and do yard work together while their daddy's have a beer on the deck!

So that's the exciting world of the Cutler's right now. He's being such a good baby I can't even believe it! Hopefully it stays that way.

My many faces

Today we learned how to express our emotions while watching our favorite sporting events. This is the face we use when someone slams a double off the Monstah!

This is how we tell the ump he sucks!

This is the face we use when we see Timlin coming in from the bullpen in the ninth inning when we are up by 2!

This is the face we use after too many hot dogs and beers at the park...

Sleep is for the weak!

Look at the little man! This is him in his car seat leaving the hospital. He's got some room to grow into!

Our first night home presented some challenges for all of us. He was getting to know the place and feel things out while being uncomfortable from one of the most disturbing procedures he will every have. I can't even discuss it with out shivering.......... None of us slept very well last night is what I'm getting at.

Today has been a different story. We've all sort of found our way and place in the family. Seems to have settled down nicely. Even the animals are figuring things out fairly well. Nicholas had his first pediatrician visit today. Somehow I was the one who ended up getting a shot from the doctor. It's almost flu season! Dr. Friedman said he is doing well, just wants to see him pack on the lbs. If he keeps up the pace he's at it feels like he'll be eating a 1/2 gallon of milk in a feeding. Only other concern with him is the Jaundice. He's still got a touch of it so we're going to keep an eye on that over the next week.

He is really the most well behaved baby. We couldn't have asked for anything better. We're hoping it stays that way. It has been nice just having the 3 of us here today. Everyone is relaxed and getting to know each other. We're working on a routine still, but we're getting there.

If anyone wants to come visit just give us a call. A couple of ground rules before coming: If you have the slightest sniffle, cough, or twitch of any type of sickness, please hold off. This little guy would be devastated if he got sick right now. He would end up in the hospital again. There will be plenty of time to get to know him when he gets to be a little bigger and stronger. Waiting a few days would be the best for everyone. You will be put through a thorough decontamination upon arrival! I don't want to scare you, but you will have to get naked at the door.

It's time for a feeding so I'm off. Hope everyone is well.

Mom I'm Home!

In a great turn of events the doctor let Nicholas come home early today! We couldn't be any more thrilled. The doc said there was absolutely no reason for him not to come home today unless we were not comfortable with it. He passed all his final exams at the hospital today and convinced everyone he is fine. Right now he is coo coo cooin' away in his bassinet. I'm guessing filling a diaper.

We arrived home around 6:15 to the wet sniffing noses of the cats and dog. They are doing great dealing with his arrival. Tigua keeps sniffing his little head and has managed to control himself very well. He is laying right next to the bassinet. He's such a good dog!

Lastly, here is our one request. We would like to have tomorrow (Tuesday) to ourselves as a nice quiet family day. If you could all please hold off calling or coming over until Wednesday, we would really appreciate it. We haven't been able to be alone with each other yet! Visiting hours will go back into effect Wednesday morning :)

That's it for now. Hope everyone is well.

Eat, Sleep, Poop - Repeat!

It's been a couple of days so here is what has been going on! Nicholas is doing incredibly well. He's happy as can be and moving around like crazy. You wouldn't know it from these pictures though. He does like to sleep! He's already picking up his head and stretching out his feet pushing against things. He's making good eye contact, even smiles and laughs. I thought he was smiling at me, turned out to be a happy fart...... He's up to 5lb 6.5oz which doesn't surprise me with how much the kid is eating. You can even see the difference already in the pictures. Today he had his second bath and seemed to like it much better than the first one. Rumor around the nursery is that he's coming home tomorrow night (Monday) or Tuesday. I'm thinking he'll be here Tuesday. There are some things that need to be done still that I think will push it to Tuesday.

Kris and I are tired and ready for him to come home. I've been going up to see him after work for a couple of hours the last three days which has made for some long days. Thank goodness my set is over. When I go to work and want to sit around it never happens. Kris has been spending the better part of the days up at the hospital feeding the little man. Sorry to say, I don't have a ton of new photos. I'll work on that tomorrow.

All around things seem to be going very well...... More tomorrow!

Can you believe he is here!

Wow! I'm not quite sure where to begin... What a week and a half it has been!

First, thanks you to everyone for all of your warm wishes and help over the past week and a half. It has meant a lot to us and made our lives easier. Second, I decided to give this blog thing a shot to update everyone. Trying to keep everyone up to date with a combination of e-mails, text messages, and phone calls has gotten extremely hard and time consuming. I figured one central spot for info and pictures would work better. So if your interested keep checking back. I'll make improvements and keep it up to date as I can. OK..... Lets recap the events of the last week and a half! Nicholas Alan Cutler made his grand entrance into the world at 6:31pm on Saturday October 18th. Six weeks early. He is named after a bunch of people. His great grand dad, grand dad, and dad are all named Nicholas, we just have different middle names. Alan we borrowed from his other grand father! He's the cute guy in all these photos. Weighing in at a featherweight 5lb 1oz and 18 inches long! Kristin's water broke EARLY Wednesday morning (3:34am is the time I saw when I went running down the hall to see why she was screaming my name.) So we called the doc and off to the hospital we went. They checked her out and did an ultrasound on the baby, everything was in good shape. They gave her some steroids to help Nicholas's lungs, brain and intestines advance as much as possible before his arrival. Then they gave he medication to hold off any labor. This went on for two days. Friday morning all medications were stopped and they let nature takes it's course. Did I mention that every time they did an ultrasound his size put him a week ahead. So, although he was 33 1/2 weeks he was measuring almost 35 weeks in size! That helped him a lot. Early Saturday morning I got a call from Kris. It was time, this was going to happen today. Off I went to the hospital. Many labor pains, and an epidural later. We had our son Nicholas. What can I say about Kris - she made it look easy. Since then Nicholas has been in the NICU at New Britain General Hospital. The staff there has been amazing. We can't say enough good things about them. Nicholas has been fine since birth. He hasn't needed any interventions other than some IV fluids and light therapy for billiruben (sp?). Like his dad, he's eating way to much way to fast! Today he weighed in at 5lb 3.8oz., a good increase since he had dipped into 4lb territory, which was completely expected. Today we received more good news. He is coming out of his heated plastic hut into an open crib tonight, and best of all, it looks like he's coming home Mon night or Tuesday morning! We can't wait! Well that's about it for now. I'm going to get more images up onto the web so everyone can see. It may take a day or two so check back for directions! Hope all is well and than you all so much again. Not really sure how we would have done this without you all!