Welcome to the world, Baby Dylan Michael!

Hello everyone!

For those of you who don't know me, I am Kate. I am married to Mike (for a little over 10 years). We have a daughter, Emily, who will be 6 in January and is in Kindergarten (and LOVES everything about it!), and another daughter, Abby, 3 1/2, who we adopted through China's special needs program in May of 2008. You can read about that journey at www.ouradoptionjournal.blogspot.com. She is currently going to a special education preschool (which she enjoys). She has made a lot of progress since coming home, and we have a visit with the Columbia Presbyterian Hospital genetics department set up for 2/16, which will hopefully give us some more answers in terms of how we can help her meet her full potential (more on that to come). And of course, we have two pets (Ruby, our very old dog, and Miles, our very cool cat).

And now...........

We are pleased to announce the birth of the newest member of our family, Dylan Michael. He was born on 11/29/09 at 4:57 am and was 7 lbs, 6 1/2 ounces and 20 1/2 inches long. We all feel incredibly blessed that he is here with us and healthy.

The labor and delivery was smooth and quick (only about 4 hours of active labor), which is quite a change from my first, 23 hour long labor. But this one was "au natural", sans drugs (I admit that I did actually ask for an epidural, and they even placed the line in my back. But there was a problem "kink" with the machine, so I didn't get the drug and then things just went too quickly, as Dylan wanted OUT!). So, it ended up being a natural labor. It was funny, too, because my parents were staying with us for Thanksgiving and were still at the house. So we went to a holiday fair in town, and came back home around 9 pm to have cake and tea. This is when I declared to everyone that Dylan was never going to come, as there were just no signs that I would go into labor any time soon. Well, an hour later my water started to break. And a couple of hours later, the contractions started. By a little after midnight, I was in active labor, and the rest is history. :)

As I said, Dylan is HEALTHY, and I must admit, he is a handsome little guy. And he already has QUITE the personality! :) And a TON of blonde, blonde hair....platinum, actually. Everyone in the hospital fell in love with him and his stylin' hair and all commented that they have never seen so much blondie blonde hair on a newborn baby before. What can I say? He is a rock star! :)

We did have a little drama in the hospital, though. Dylan was born with a port wine stain birthmark, which goes from his left upper lip up to his temple and around his left eye (across the lower lid). This is due to a lack of nerve supply to the blood vessels, so blood pools there making the red mark. Anyway, Dylan was followed by the NICU staff, because there was concern that, due to the proximity to the eye, the port wine stain could cause increased pressure in the eye and affect his vision (for some people this causes blindness/glaucoma). So Dylan was a busy little boy, and was seen by Neurology, Neonatology, Dermatology and Opthamology, and had a CT scan in the hospital. He had a few appointments after we got home as well. Well, everyone agrees that his eye looks good now, but we should treat the port wine stain to decrease any pressure that could be on the eye. And apparently, the earlier it's treated, the better. So we did our research and found the "best of the best" doctor in Manhattan, and little Dylan started laser treatments about a week after coming home. He will have somewhere in the neighborhood of 10-20 of these treatments, going every 3 weeks. Each one lasts about a minute. And the doctors feel that, because Dylan is starting these treatments early, they should be able to decrease the port wine by about 90%. He will still have to have regular opthamology follow-ups to always check the eye pressure, but the laser treatments should help a lot. The only down side is that, for about 10 days following each procedure, Dylan's face looks a bit bruised, so for 10 days out of every 3 weeks, he will pretty much look like we beat him.... :( As we go through the treatments, I will post some "before and after" shots. Even though he has only had one treatment so far, I do believe it is already making a difference.

Emily and Abby are both excited to be big sisters to their little brother. Emily is quite the doting "mini Mom", just like she has been all along with Abby. And Abby is quite affectionate with her brother, and loves to say hi to him and give him kisses....although she was a little on the jealous side in the beginning (all normal stuff)....but she has definitely "come around". :)

Anyway, I am going to post some pictures now of our little man. :)











In this photo, he looks pretty bruised still (about a week after his first laser treatment)....but I had to post it. He was latching onto my chin and it was just too funny!



And now presenting (drum roll, please)....the many faces of Dylan!

Sad (he really lays it on thick here)...




Sleepy....



Content....