More photos!

Now that we've given all the really good photos to family for Christmas as gifts, we can show them to the rest of you. We have the cutest baby in the world. I'm not biased. It's just true.

More photos from 3 days of Christmas

Here are a few more photos.... and the steady flow of quality photos will continue because Barry, very generously, gave us the Nikon Digital SLR camera for Christmas! Thank you Barry!

Family portrait:
Keira playing with Beh-beeee!

Holden testing out his new car seat cover.... ooooooooo yeah!

This is Ralph, Barry's dog. Holden can't walk yet, but he's already riding dogs. Ralph was a good sport and hung out with us all day on Christmas.

Boxing Day

Boxing day meant a visit to my Mom and Dad's house. It was a lot of the same people who were at our Christmas Eve get together, only fatter and with less energy a couple of days later.

More pictures coming soon, but our camera's battery has died from overuse so I will have to download the rest once the battery is recharged.

'Hey Papa, Got Milk?'
Hey, I'm so cute... look at me! Look at me!

Christmas Day

Christmas Day marked the beginning of a new Christmas tradition in our new home and with our new baby Holden. Nicole, Barry and Ralph (Barry's dog) spent the day with us and we had a really great time with good food, great company and excessive gift giving.

Proud Grand-Maman:
Father and Daughter:

Hanging out with Grand Daddy

Dinner is served:

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve has become the focal point of the Churchill/Davis Christmas celebrations over the last decade or so and this year we all gathered together at my brother Gerry's house. Stephanie's Mom Nicole is visiting from Montreal and joined in the festivities. While we have hundreds of photos - here are a few highlights....

The Big Line:

Nanny makes the blog AGAIN!

Two mothers hanging out....

Paula and Jeff.... foreshadowing?

Cole takes it to Daddy

Keira being Keira

Lisa finally gets a moment with Holden

Twas 3 days of Christmas....

While we haven't been posting over the holidays, we HAVE been taking pictures.... lots and lots of pictures. Hundreds of pictures, in fact, so..... brace yourself. We basically had 3 Christmas celebrations:

• the 24th with the Churchill's, Davis' and Nicole.
• the 25th with Nicole and Barry
• the 26th with Churchill's and Nicole
  

On the 24th, instead of completing my household chores in advance of Stephanie's Mom, Nicole, arriving to spend Christmas with us, I decided to go off script and build an epic snowman. Initially, my intentions were good. Some exterior work was needed due to all the snow and sudden rise in temperature. I had to move some snow around and clear some drainage to minimize the risk of water damage.... and suddenly realized that I could make a HUGE pile of snow on my back deck. Everyone knows that huge piles of snow are good for two things. Snow forts and/or snowmen. While I'd generally lean towards a fort, it was raining, so I opted for the less messy project and built a snowman. I even strung some lights on him so we can appreciate him out the back window at night.

Gerry and Cole dropped by to check him out, so I took a picture of them with Holden and the snowman.

Family Photos

Here are some more photos of Mommy and Daddy with Holden.

Stephanie is looking extremely hot already despite the lack of sleep and bathing that comes with caring for a baby 24/7. She's a down 20lbs from her PRE-pregnancy weight and looking like a total MILF.

Holden is an extremely good baby. He's good pretty much all the time, with the exception of 7-10PM where he has a tendency to flip out. I guess we have it pretty lucky if he's difficult for only 3 hours a day.

Holden finished his Christmas shopping this weekend and is excited to share some presents with family on Monday and Tuesday!

Holden Climbs Mount Everest

Okay... so its not Mount Everest and more like I threw Holden on top of our snowbank to take a picture. Yes, I suppose if you want to be a stickler, he's not *actually* on top. As cool as it would have been to have little Holden on top of that giant mountain of snow.... Stephanie pulled out her veto and we compromised by sticking him into the snowbank about half way up.

Isn't that snowbank crazy!??! Apparently we set a record for snowfall on Sunday and with a few other small snowfalls expected before the end of the week, we may have as much snowfall in December of this year as we had for the entire winter last year.

Oh yeah, we went to visit the midwife today and Holden is 10lbs 13 ounces!

Holden World Tour II - Back for more

Holden enjoyed last weekend's world tour so much that we decided to do some of it again. While we didn't do the full rounds, Holden did visit with his Grand Daddy and then Nanny and Papa. We were really happy to find that Gerry, Lisa, Cole and Keira were also visiting at Nanny and Papa's, so it made for a really fun day.

The day started at Barry's. Stephanie and Holden stayed with Barry, while I took care of some Christmas shopping. I eventually met up with everyone and had a nice visit. Holden was really comfortable at his Grand Daddy's and had a great sleep!

Later that afternoon Holden had an opportunity to get to know his cousins a little better at Nanny and Papa's. Keira was still sick, so we had to be careful with her, much to her disappointment. She was very intersted in the 'Ba-by!'.

Here is a picture of Nanny and Cole with Holden. Cole is showing off his favorite new hair product - bubblegum.


Cole and Holden getting comfy with one another

Cole showing off his bandaid and Keira looking adorable!

Poor Lisa, having to put up with those whacky Churchill boys

Holden and Uncle Gerry getting to know one another.... though Holden seems far more interested in eating his hand.

Woah, Dude, what a day. I'm NEVER drinking that much milk ever again...

Holden's World Tour

We were getting a little stir crazy at home with little Holden, so we went on another road trip last weekend. It was very cold outside, but we bundled Holden up and he was content to snooze in his car seat as we took him from place to place to show him off.

On Saturday we spent the morning with Barry and Ralph (Barry's dog). For the most part, Ralph wasn't very interested in the baby - though he did nuzzle and smell him a couple of times. We had a very nice visit and Holden was on his best behaviour

Saturday afternoon was spent at my parents place. It turned out to be very good timing because Gerry and Lisa were there with Cole and Keira, so Holden had a chance to meet his cousins!

Keira had to keep her distance (much to her disappointment) because she was sick. Cole took a few minutes, but eventually warmed up to Holden and showed off his Spiderman socks. I'm sure Cole will be the cool older cousin that Holden looks up to.

On Sunday, we visited Kay and Paul Davis. Kay is my great-aunt and Paul my second-cousin. Holden was on his best behaviour... almost too good because he slept through almost the entire 3 hour visit!

Adorable little fatty and random notes

I forgot to mention that our trip to the midwife revealed that Holden has gained over 2 lbs already. As of Monday he was at 9lbs 14 ounces.

Also, he has been very peaceful the last two nights. Hopefully this is a trend that will continue. Mommy and Daddy have appreciated the extra sleep.

We've noticed a huge change in how alert his eyes are - possibly because his vision has improved. He now loves to be held in a sitting/standing position facing the person who is holding him so he can make faces and go all googglie eyed.

Thanks Aunt Paula!!

Aunt Paula got Holden this awesome Babyhawk carrier. He loves it! And dad looks cool in it too!

Mommy loves Holden

I'm so cute

Amanda got us this cute knit outfit from BC. It's organic!

Holden's First Road Trip

After 2 weeks of having Mommy and Daddy cramp his style, Holden had his first Road Trip today!

He celebrated by getting all pimped out in some mad threadz - dark blue overalls - have they EVER been out of style? - , powder blue leisure (snow) suit - complete with animal ears - and his teddy and train blankie. Note: no actual animals were harmed in the making of his leisure suit.

The trip was mostly a blur but definately a huge success. Highlights included:

• shotgunning milk in public! - the midwife's waiting room
• getting naked and passing out! - the midwife's office
• hitting up all the ladies at Steph's work - sorry, no photos. All rights now belong to 'Babies Gone Wild'.

After a very memorable day and meeting lots of new friends, he was happy to return home to crash with his Mommy - afterall, he's still a Momma's boy.

Merci Grand Maman!

Holden misses his Grand Maman already!

Stephanie's Mom was nice enough to come and stay with us for a week to help guide us through our crash course into parenthood. Aside from all the great cooking and helpful cleaning, Grand Maman also gave us much needed breaks to go nap in between feedings.

A huge thank you from John, Stephanie and Holden. We really appreciate your help!

Grand Maman's cooking was so good that we had to steal a few of her recipes.

Update on Holden's late night difficulties: He has been amazing for the last two nights. While he still cluster feeds, he has toned down his frantic wailings. We've also incorporated situps to manage gas. Stephanie picked up this tip from her friend Diane and so far it has worked like a charm. It helps him get rid of the gas and even when it doesn't result in a burp, he seems to like it so much that 12 situps calm him right down.


One more photo of Holden and Grand Maman

Poll and Sleep

It looks like Stephanie is taking the resemblance poll in a landslide. I can't say I disagree, I voted for Stephanie myself!

While the nights are still difficult, we're becoming a little more aware of his cues, so we better understand the causes of his discomfort. So far we've learned:

1. he doesn't like to stay in the same diaper over night. No matter how convenient that would be for his parents and no matter how absorbent his little diapers are, its non-negotiable - frequent changes are mandatory. Now, if I wore diapers, I would think that not having to get out of bed to change would be a key advantage - Holden hasn't come around to this line of thinking... yet
   
2. the cluster feeding thing late at night is quite common. My brother, who apparently moonlights as a lactation consultant, very convincingly explained the mechanism by which breast milk fluctuates creating the conditions for night time cluster feeding.
3. Digestive problems after cluster feeding are quite common. Apparently most babies handle this discomfort better on their tummies, but that is a SIDS risk. Last night, I tried out a new method - laying him face down on my belly, where he could sleep on his tummy without risk of suffocation. It worked like a charm... hopefully it wasn't just a one shot lucky deal.
4. Dads have it easy. While we can roll over and go to sleep once the feeding starts, Mommies have the truly difficult tasks

1 week and counting!

Its been a week and I barely remember what life was like before little Holden arrived. After 7 days of having our lives revolve around him and his whims, I still stare at him in awe and find it hard to believe he's real.

While he was initially an angel and still is during the day, he turns into a little (cover your eyes , Dad) fucker come 10PM. I don't know about the 10PM part, but I'm pretty sure the fucker comes from me. He has decided that 10PM-4AM is primetime for cluster feeding, cluster shitting and vocal calesthenics. Although, as difficult as it can be to suffer sleep deprivation, its pure joy when you wake up to an image like the one above.

Our lives have been consumed with talk of breasts, shit and piss... pretty much status quo for me, so I've adapted well.

We moved into the cloth diapers today for the first time and so far so good.

We want to sincerely thank all our amazing family and friends who have been unbelievably supportive with their time, cooking and care packages. We really are lucky to have such incredible family and friends.

First Bath

Photos!

Isn't he adorable!? Props to Laura for the killer outfit.

New Photos coming soon

Barry was kind enough to lend us his really nice camera, so more photos are coming real soon, by popular demand. Stay tuned.

HELLO WORLD!!!

Holden Smith Davis Churchill was born on November 19th @11:35 PM 7lbs 12 ounces and 52 cms long.

He is a beautiful and healthy baby boy. We've been staring at him in awe for 3 days straight now.. While he's been an absolute dream since coming out, he didn't make it easy on his Mommy during labour. He was a posterior baby and that made his Mommy's labour very difficult - 26 hours! After 26 hours of labour and 3 days of no sleep and Holden resisting every effort to turn him, our midwife had to transfer care to hospital staff for a c-section. The c-section went very smoothly and both Mom and Holden are very healthy and happy.

I want to say how incredibly proud I am of Stephanie. She really rose to the occasion and worked so very hard, going above and beyond everything the midwife, nurses and doctors asked of her. She was far tougher than I could have been in that situation and I really admire her. Holden is lucky to have such an amazing Mommy.

Because of the unexpected c-section, we were at the hospital a little longer than expected. We returned home Thursday night and introduced Holden to his home.... and convince ourselves that this all really happened. Wow, what a surreal experience!













































And here's a video!