The Hillian Collection

Today, Sammy is 6 weeks old. One week ago, he weighed 10 lbs, 1 oz.  Now he weighs 10 lbs, 10 oz. We’re elated to see Samuel’s growth continue to increase day by day. 

Not only is his weight changing, but also his personality.  He’s much more social this week than he’s been so far.  We can grab his attention and hold it (for a while), and on Saturday he started smiling in response to us!  What a way to melt a mom’s heart.  His coos have started too.  They’re the most precious sounds.

For the past couple weeks, Sean and I have been occasionally venturing out with Sammy on morning walks, but this week we established a schedule.  At 7am, I wake up and rouse my menfolk for our 40-minute walk.  Then Sean and I trade off watching Samuel while the other showers; then our days begin.  Come 7:30pm, it’s time to start our bedtime routine, which consists of a leisurely walk around our neighborhood followed by dancing to some loud music until Samuel is getting sleepy.  The night ends between 9 and 10pm, when both Samuel and I are absolutely exhausted and ready for bed.

Tomorrow, Samuel will meet his Aunt Abby.  She’s currently living in Seattle, so we don’t get to see her too often.  She’ll spend a few days in Gainesville with us and other friends of hers until heading down with the rest of the Shacks to Aunt Charity’s wedding on the 23^rd.  Both Sean and I are members of the wedding party, so Abby is going to get some good Sammy-time as she watches him during the ceremony. 

Samuel was baptized this past Sunday at Redemption OPC, witnessed by our families and our church congregation.  It was very momentous to stand in front of our brothers and sisters in Christ and vow to raise him in the fear and admonition of the Lord. 

It is a blessing to us as parents to have our child become a member of his church from infancy, and it is our prayer for him that he never knows a day where he does not call upon the name of the Lord.

The following are the vows we took in front of the Lord and our church family on Sunday.  Our pastor specifically emphasized the third vow to us beforehand, saying if we don’t pray for our child as parents regularly, who will?  We pray for God to confirm his baptism by allowing us to witness his profession of faith in years to come. 

1 - Do you acknowledge that, although our children are conceived and born in sin and therefore are subject to condemnation, they are holy in Christ, and as members of his church ought to be baptized?

2 - Do you promise to instruct your child in the principles of our holy religion as revealed in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, and as summarized in the Confession of Faith and Catechisms of this Church?

Yesterday marked 5 weeks since we brought our son home from the birth center.  It feels as though we’ve been together longer than just that—I can’t imagine our lives without him now.  It’s been so wonderful to watch his personality emerge as he becomes more and more aware of the world around him.  In particular, I love that he now recognizes his mommy and his daddy.  Each day we wake up he’s different than the day before.  Everything is happening so quickly.  As we blog about the goings on in the Hill household, we hope that others will be able to enjoy seeing him grow from afar.     

So what have the past 5 weeks been like? Well…

Week 1

Just Born

Samuel was born on Monday, June 6^th at 3:48pm at the Birth Center of Gainesville.  The delivery was such a beautiful experience to both of us as parents.  Sean lovingly stayed by my side the whole time; it’s nice now to look back on that as our last moment of just the two of us.  I couldn’t have asked for a better husband to lead and love me and now lead and love our child.

On Wednesday, June 8^th we took him to the pediatrician.  By her measurements, he had lost 6 oz from his birth weight; on Thursday, Samuel discovered that he loves milk!  Since we are paranoid first-time parents, we went back to the pediatrician on Friday and found that he had already regained his birth weight (gaining 6 oz in two days!).  The week culminated in Sean going to church, leaving me alone with Samuel for the first time.  It turned out just fine since we both napped. 

Ballin'

Week 2

During his second week, we were more confident in our parenting, so we ventured out on a walk to a park close by where Sean exercised by playing basketball while I sat and watched with Samuel.  I remember telling Sean how proud I was of our son.  He asked me why, and I couldn’t really say.  I was just very proud of everything about him (of course, Sean said he was too).

Week 3

On Monday, June 20^th, we went to the pediatrician for his two-week check-up.  He weighed in at 7 lbs, 8 oz, so he had gained over a pound and a half in just 10 days!  Our doc commented on how strong he was, saying, “This is the strongest 3-week-old I’ve seen in at least a month.”  Of course, we both beamed as we informed her that he was only 2 weeks old, and she was even more impressed, especially with his weight gain.  Sean and both agreed we had something more concrete than Samuel just being our son to be proud of. 

Week 4

Since, Sean is taking the GRE on July 13^th, he started laying down the law about me leaving him alone during the day to give him adequate working hours.  So I was forced into a more independent care of Samuel than I had known for the past three weeks.  I had just read a book Meme (Sean’s mom) had given us called Happiest Baby on the Block with soothing techniques for newborn babies.  Let me tell you: they work!  During week 4, the key to Samuel’s happiness was a tight swaddle.  When we combined swaddling with nursing him in a rocking chair, he would fall asleep almost instantaneously—amazing!  I finally felt ready to care for Samuel during a church service, so off to Redemption OPC we went on Sunday.  He couldn’t have behaved any better; he slept all during the service, and was quietly aware during the fellowship meal following.  Everybody got to enjoy his sweet personality and big, beautiful baby eyes.   

Interpretive Dance

Week 5

July 4^th was the day Samuel turned 4 weeks old.  We were able to weigh him using the baby scale our friend Loren lent to us; he weighed 9 lbs 6 oz (another two pounds in two weeks!).  Meme and Papa (Sean’s parents) came up from Orlando with a handful of baby-friendly fireworks (i.e. non-screeching) and Sean grilled a very American steak dinner for the four of us.  Grandpa Shack (Megan’s father) told us a fun idea would be to record Samuel’s first year in one frame, holding 12 photos, each of Samuel at a different month of age.  So, come July 6^th, I snapped about 30 photos of Samuel doing what Sean called an “interpretive dance.” Finally, on Sunday, July 10^th, Samuel was baptized at Redemption OPC.  Both our families came to Gainesville to witness the occasion.

Living in the Moby

During week five, Samuel and I discovered our love of the Moby Wrap.  We use it go walking in the morning (he falls asleep after about 10 minutes); we use it to do tasks around the house (he falls asleep in about 10 minutes), and we use it to soothe him (he falls asleep in about 10 minutes).  The only time it doesn’t work in 10 minutes is the end of the day when he’s completely wound up (then it takes a 2-hour dancing session to Led Zeppelin in, of course, the Moby Wrap).

Week 6…to be continued…

June 6, 2011

Samuel,

I am writing this as I enjoy the last of the bottle of Penderyn Welsh Whiskey that I've been saving to commemorate your birth.  It's 10:30pm and Mom and Grandma Shack have both gone to bed while you do your deep sleep.  You had a lot of people praying for you today and I want you to know about it, so I've written it here.

Mom's water broke around 1:00 this morning in her sleep and she had short contractions throughout the night about every half hour.  We had a preexisting appointment at the Birth Center at 9:00, so we called Grandma Shack to tell her we thought it was time for her to drive down from Tallahassee and then went to the appointment.  They tested Mom's fluid and found that it was amniotic, so the midwife told us that we should be seeing signs toward active labor by 1:00 pm, twelve hours after the water had broken.  If we went more than 24 hours without entering active labor, we would have had to take Mom to the hospital to induce her, so we went home to take a walk and asked our friends to pray that you would come.  We told Pastor Joel, who told our church family, and Meme Hill told some of her close friends at church and some of her relatives while the Shackelfords and the Hills prayed for you.  When we got home from the appointment, Mom was hardly dilated at all, but by about 1:30 pm when we went back to the birth center to deliver you, she had already gone to 9 cm.  When the midwife examined Mom and found she was already 9 cm, she said, "After today, I don't know anything about giving birth," patting Mom's leg with a laugh to reassure us she was exaggerating.  We had already named you "Heard by God," and your delivery was another testament to God's faithfulness to you.  It was unusual in how quickly Mom began active labor.  When everyone prayed for you, God answered by bringing Mom's labor to the point it needed to be. 

At the Birth Center, they had this New Age relaxing background music playing.  I couldn't stand it, but Mom didn't mind, so we let it play. Thankfully, we couldn't really hear it when we got to the tub where Mom labored for about two hours with you.  We kept giving Mom water, flavored coconut water, and fruit and nut mix between contractions.  After she'd been laboring for a while with the help of a coach, she was having trouble progressing with you in the tub.  The midwives decided we should move Mom to the bed where she could be on her hands and knees and push you out from a different position.  Halfway to the bed, Mom had another contraction and couldn't walk, so I carried her to the bed, which the head midwife said she'd never seen before, surprisingly.  The word "knight" may have been used in a postpartum description of me.  The midwife said that she was hoping to get you to crown by having Mom walk to the bed, but when I carried Mom in, the midwife saw a beautiful head starting to come out already.  Once we got to the bed, the labor was very advanced and painful.  I could tell that Mom was running out of energy and we had to deliver you in the next few pushes because your heart rate was too low.  Mom told me later that she imagined herself speaking to you then, saying, "I'm not going to hurt you, Samuel, just because I'm not giving it everything I have."  We had seen your little head poking out and Mom had felt it with her hand in the tub.  It was already covered with hair to ensure that you were good-looking when you came out.  I didn't watch you come out because I was standing next to Mom since that's what she wanted.  I'm glad that I was because after a few exceptionally painful pushes, we both saw you at the same time.  Grandma Shack and all the midwives kept telling Mom what a good job she was doing and how close you were.  After your head came out, I think it was extremely quick.  Nothing could have prepared me for seeing you for the first time.  I look at everything differently now.  On our drive home, I looked at Gainesville differently, because it was not just the city where we went to school, but the city where you were born.  You were a very handsome and loud baby.  While all babies are at least somewhat loud, the midwives commented on your extraordinary volume levels when you were interrupted from trying to suckle.  You scored a perfect 10 on your just-having-been-born test.  Already a high achiever, as Grandma Shack noted. 

Of course, we had Chopstix takeout as our first meal after you were born.  Mom had planned to eat a vegetable stew that Grandma Shack had made this morning, but our plans changed when the scheduled home birth had to be moved to the Birth Center since another mother was laboring with only one midwife on call.  Everything that happened today brought us a beautiful baby boy in just the way God wanted.

                                                                                   

Love, Dad