The New Life of Ellis Reed Gitelson!

We are so excited to welcome our sweet baby boy Ellis Reed Gitelson to the world. Ellis was born on April 15, 2012 at 1:27am. He weighed 7lbs 13.5 oz and measured 20.5 inches. He is scrumptious!

Ellis is batting 1000 so far. He gave me a comfortable pregnancy and a labor I really can't complain about (in retrospect anyway). Here is an abridged version of his arrival into the world. On April 14th we went to see our friends Sarah and Eric, and their wonderful children Jordan, Madeline and Juliet. I was having some uncomfortable contractions, but felt fine. We had bagels, Owen played with the kids in the jumpy castle and it was a really nice morning. As the day progressed the contractions came and went. Never particularly painful or terribly consistent. We went to "Heather's Playground" that afternoon. This is the playground Owen usually goes to with his babysitter Heather and her son/Owen's best buddy Matteo. We greatly enjoyed watching Owen playing with a group of 7 year old girls. The girls were playing a game called "Mastermind" which somehow involved gummy bears as a reward. I don't know how Owen played the game (we watched from afar). Mostly he looked tentatively at the girls, then at the candy and was rewarded with many gummy bears. He was in heaven. A quick stop at my parents house to borrow walnuts and we were on our way home. At this point it was 5 pm and contractions were 5 minutes apart. I could walk talk and bake right through them. I still didn't believe they were the real deal. I let Owen know that the baby may be born that night. His face lit up. We were baking at the time and he actually put down his batter spoon to squeal "Tonight? the baby is comin' tonight? Oh YAY!!"
We put Tante on alert and she came in from Brooklyn. By 8:30 the contractions were starting to hurt. I called the doctor on call and he said "Call me back when you have contractions you would rate at an 8-10 on the pain scale, for an hour." I have certainly never heard of THAT as a means of knowing when to come into the hospital. When the contractions reached a level 6 on the pain scale for an hour, I called him back, told him they were a 9 and he told me to come in. An hour after getting to the hospital I was 3 cm dilated. They asked if I wanted to go home or stay and walk. I opted to walk. Lucky thing too-- as Ellis was born a mere 45 minutes later! If you are going to have a drug-free birth, I highly recommend the 45 minute route. The next morning was a day Eric and I had been waiting for for 9 months. Owen got to meet his baby brother and we were together as a family of four. Thankfully, Tante was there to document the day.

The boys opted to take the train and bus to get to the hospital. Ellis' birthday was a glorious spring day with temperatures in the mid 70s, and lots of beautiful sunshine.

Before coming upstairs, daddy, Owen and Tante went to the gift shop. Owen picked out two "Baby Boy" balloons, one for Ellis and one for himself. The following day he went to the gift shop with Nanny and Poppy and scored the same deal. We have a house full of little balloons that are not likely to deflate for a year or more.

Owen was truly overjoyed to meet Ellis. He smothered him with kisses and wanted to hold him right away.

Owen took such care in holding him. He looked Ellis over and gave him the nickname "Love Pie."

Daddy is a big fan of Ellis too. After 3 years, Eric still has the magic swaddling touch.

It was a day filled with so many sweet moments.

The hospital bed was also quite exciting.

Owen thought life at the hospital was good living. He said it felt "like a hotel." He luxuriated in eating and drinking in bed and watching the wall mounted television. If we could have brought the hospital bed home, he would have been over the moon. We took the baby home instead,and he was pretty cool with that.



All in all, it was one of the best days of my life.

Happy birthday Love Monkey poopyhead!