Welcome to the world....

Many of our friends have had babies in the last few months. So, we wanted to officially welcome into the world:

Nathan Nels Fromme (10/13)
Lily Gray Moyer (10/31)
Lena Franziska Block (11/8)
Ivan Donald Garlitz (11/12)
Conor Jacob Gordon (11/21)
Presley Sue Pate (12/17)
Mathilde Joy Guajardo (12/18)
Katherine Maya Emmer (12/21)

We can't wait for Tomato to meet each and every one of you!
Love,
Marisa, Sean, and Baby Raymond

38 weeks - getting impatient!

We had our 38 week appointment today. The baby is doing well, still head down. But, for some reason (probably because it's warm and cozy in the womb but cold and snowy outside!) he refuses to drop. Come on baby! We can't wait to meet you!!

Goodbye to the noble Papi....

The day started off so calmly. Tomato is officially full-term at 37 weeks! We had a doctor's appointment for our weekly check-up. Our last with Dr. Jones until 40 weeks (if we make it that long!) It was snowing again (gotta love winter and winter babies!). The appoitnemtn was quick - the baby's heartbeat is great and my belly's measuring right on track (fundal length is 37 cm).

Then the day got hectic.... we dropped the car off at the dealer to replace a part and when we came back.... we were told that our faithful Papi (our '98 Subaru that I got as a junior in college - formerly known as Johnny Damon until he signed with the Yankees) was on his last leg. The dealer didn't think the car would make it to the next oil change due to a bunch of engine issues. The car (who we affectionately refer to as "Papi") seemed to be running fine and both Sean and I were sure we would have many more years carpooling Tomato and his friends around in the car. But, that fear of the car dying on the way to the hospital while I am in labor was enough to drive us to the Subaru dealer on Saturday and trade in our trusty car for a new (and safer) car: a 2008 Subaru Outback.

The new car is blue so we are calling it "Bluebeard." And, we've decided that if the car was a member of the 2007 Red Sox, it would be Dustin Pedroia or Jacoby Ellsbury - fearless rookies with both great offense and defense skills.

So, goodbye Papi. We will miss you.... we had many great adventures with you. We hope that your next owner treats you well!

Our last picture with Papi and the infamous "Spank Me!" bumper sticker (we'll miss the sticker too!)

Baby Shower weekend

Despite LOTS of falling snow Boulder (see picture from Sean and Marisa's front porch), Marisa's baby shower still took place on Saturday. Aunt Barbara and Vovo Yolande flew in from New York (made it just before the snow!). The girls hung out at the Palace of Princesses (Grandma Nancy's house) while the boys played frisbee and football in the snow near the Castle of Masculinity (Sean and Marisa's house).

The baby shower was really fun and I want to thank EVERYONE who came despite the weather and those who couldn't come were with us in spirit!



Here are a few pictures from the baby shower from Yol:

36 week ultrasound

We went to the doctor today for our 36 week check-up! Everything looks good with Tomato. His heart beat was strong and he's still head down which is a great sign that he's getting ready to make his appearance into the world.

We were excited for our ultrasound too - hoping we would have another cute picture to show. But, Baby Raymond was covering his face with his hands and, because of his size and his position, it was hard to make out a lot of his features (though the doctor did confirm that he is still definitely a boy!)

Based on his head, femur, and stomach measurements, the doctor was able to estimate his weight at 6.2lbs (give or take a pound) so he seems to be growing well.

Eagerly anticipating the big arrival!!
Marisa & Sean

Getting the room ready

Thanks to Pancho and Coco, our little buddies in Breckenridge (and their parents Minda and Adam, of course), we have a crib!! We spent Saturday assembling it and, just as we were tightening the last screw, we received our first baby shower gift... a bedding set from Laurie and Keith. The baby's room is starting to come together...

Avocado belly?

Sean found an avocado at the supermarket that reminded him of my belly.
You be the judge.....

December has arrived....

December 1st... the start of the season for holiday parties. First stop.... a Wine & Cheese party on Saturday night at the home of Chris and Melissa (another NASA Postdoc Fellow at CU).

Sean was the hit of the party with his Star Wars tie and Marisa got some surprised looks while drinking a wine-colored drink (it was really flavored water).

We're trying to get in those last few late evenings (we were in bed by 11!) before BBR arrives.

First real snow!

We woke up to several inches of fresh snow this morning!!! It's our first real snow of the 2007-2008 season and just in time for a white Thanksgiving!

Naturally, we both took snow days (driving in Colorado on clear days is bad enough!) and decided to work from home. But, before settling down to a long day's labor, we decided to take the belly out to enjoy his first powder day!

Tomato helped Marisa make a snow angel while Sean showed off his incredible balance...

We hope that the little guy will enjoy both these activities when he gets a bit older.

Stay warm and happy Thanksgiving!

33 week OB visit

We went for our bi-weekly appointment last Thursday and met with Dr. Jensen, the OB who will be on-call during Christmas (in case Baby Boy Raymond decides to come early). Everything seems to be going great. The baby was head down but, according to the doctor, he can still turn around if he feels like it. So far, though, it seems like he is more interested in stretching out his legs and arms (right into Marisa's kidneys and bladder!) than in flipping his whole body. His heart rate was great! It was in the 130s until the doctor "shook his head" to see if he'd respond and, sure enough, his heart rate went up to the 170s as expected. This little boy doesn't like to have his head shaken!

We also got to go on a tour of the birthing center where BBR will be born. There is a TV with a DVD and VCR in the labor room and a jacuzzi tub. You'd think it was a hotel! There is also internet available in the postpartum room so we will be able to post pictures right away. Stay tuned.... only 7 more weeks to go!

32 Weeks - time to start getting ready!

We are officially in the third trimester! Sean and Marisa are starting to get excited and nervous for Tomato's arrival. No more procrastination about fixing up the baby's room....

Sean building the new computer desk for the nursery/office:


Marisa resting on the couch... watching Sean work can be quite exhausting! Though, so is trying to get up off the couch! :)


We also went to Babies R' Us this weekend to look at furniture and other stuff for the little guy. We spent about 45 minutes test driving the strollers before deciding that we liked the first one we looked at the best. It was fun but exhausting so we also tested out some rocking chairs while we were there.

We have a doctor's appointment on Thursday so we'll post more then.

Enjoy your Sunday!
M, S, and Baby

Back from China

Hi everyone,

Sean here. I am back from my long trip -- a few days in Seattle (taught two classes and gave a talk), a meeting in Suzhou, China (outside of Shanghai) and a few days with Alex and Laura in Hong Kong. I missed Marisa and her belly quite a lot while I was gone, so I kept this photo on the camera and looked at it a lot:

Her belly is now 3 weeks bigger than it was when I took this photo, and she can't stand upright anymore.... it makes the baby angry. :)

Anyhow, my trip was fun. I had a really fun time in Shanghai and Suzhou with a few good astronomy friends. The conference was really interesting -- all about the latest developments in extra-solar planets. I even stayed up really late one night trying to get World Series tickets while the Rockies' server crashed. But China changes you -- being around thousand mile-long canals and 2000 year-old pagodas wakes up something deep inside you and makes you contemplate things and be very serious. In this photo, Kaspar and David and I are caught in the "Suzhou trance". We were rescued 2 hours after this photo was taken by a passing beer salesman.

My last stop was Hong Kong with Alex and Laura. An interesting place, HK. Mountains in the center of the island, and huge buildings everywhere that it is flat enough to build. In this photo, Alex is talking business on his cell phone up by "the peak", a pretty spot to view HK. In the background you can see the jungly mountain-side, some of Hong Kong, and Kowloon in the distance across the bay (still part of HK, but not on HK island -- I was told it's like Brookyln is to Manhattan: part of the city but not quite the "city").

On my second night in HK, we went to Halloween party. In the spirit of becoming a parent, I dressed up like a pregnant lady. I did my best to look like Marisa. Alex was a Monkey and Laura was an angel. We were the stars of the party!

HK was lovely. We saw a humongous Buddha on Lantau island the day after the Halloween party. Then Alex and I went bowling and we met up later with Laura and a friend (also called Laura) at a Belgian restaurant. Schnitzel! I had to include this photo of A&L in front of their apartment building, the Happy Mansion. And Alex wanted me to announce to everyone the big news: he is also pregnant! Very noble of him to carry the baby.

I had a good trip, and I was really happy to get home to Marisa and the baby. Alex and I watched the start of game 4 at Happy Mansion but it wasn't until I arrived in SF that I heard the excellent news, that the Red Sox won! Hooray! I didn't get to celebrate like in 2004 (lots of shouting and tequila and knocking over chairs), but it warmed my heart. I would have rooted for the Rockies against anyone else.

Ooh, dinner is ready

Cheers!

Sean

Sean's Home!!!!

Sean got back from China on Monday afternoon. It's his last trip until after the baby is born. He has some great pictures of his trip which we will post later. But we are all very happy that he is home!!!!

Game 1: The littlest Sox fan

Marisa and baby watched Game 1 with soon-to-be-Uncle Michael. The Sox won 13-1 with some help from their big bats as well as the Rockies' bullpen.














Baby Raymond was very excited, particularly when the Sox came up to bat. This is a picture of what I think he looked like during the game. He definitely takes after his dad!

Sox vs Rox World Series Ticket Adventure

With Sean coming back from China in time for "Game 5 (if necessary)" of the World Series, Marisa and belly spent 2 hours on Monday trying to get tickets from the Rockies' website before it was officially announced that their servers had crashed ("due to an external, malicious attack" or so they say).

So, here were are, 24 hours later, waiting again to try to get tickets. The only difference this time is that the Rockies' website is overwhelmed by people who want to buy the tickets only to sell them on Ebay for 10x face value. It is quite obvious that the Rockies are novices at this post-season tickets sales thing!

But, even if we don't get tickets, we will have fun introducing the littlest Raymond to baseball in utero. Besides, Sean will probably be incredibly jet-lagged when he returns and it will probably be less stressful on Baby Raymond if Marisa is lying on the couch while screaming at the TV instead of jumping up and down at the stadium. Not to mention that he won't have to see his father get beat up by all the bandwagon Rockies fans when he walks into the stadium in his Sox Nation attire.

UPDATE: Well, we didn't get tickets but we are still excited to trash talk with all our friends who have jumped on the Rockies bandwagon. So bring it!

Baby's Heart Beat at 28 weeks

We had our 28 week check-up today and got to hear the litle one's heart beat again. Just like his little feet, this little boy's heart was kicking! We made a recording of the heart beat to share...

Baby Raymond's Heart Beat October 15, 2007

Kisses and kicks!
Sean, Marisa, and Baby

Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day

October 15th is National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day.

While we are very excited about the baby boy growing inside Marisa's belly right now and what the future holds for all of us, we will never forget the pregnancy we lost last year. It's amazing that something that was so small and that we only knew about for a few short weeks could have had such an impact on our lives.

So, we just wanted to take a moment today to celebrate and remember our little Fusion. We would not be who we are or where we are today if you hadn't been in our lives.

NLDS 2007

As many of you know, October was often a volatile time during the early years of Sean and Marisa's relationship (see Wikipedia, "Baseball Postseason" for any of the years between 1996 and 2004). But things are a bit different now that we live in a National League town. Here's a picture of Marisa and belly at Game 3 of the 2007 NLDS at Coors Field - the day the Rockies swept the Phillies to clinch the division. GO ROCKIES!

Note: The Rockies are 2-0 when Baby Raymond is in the stands! He must be good luck!

Growth of the belly

Just a little update to show you the current size of Marisa's belly. This photo was taken last weekend (Sep 30 or so) by Yol when she was in town.

More later -- baby is hungry...

Marisa & Sean

Welcome to new blog (UPDATED)

Hello to the millions of people who will probably read this blog! (Or, at the very least, hello to our parents who we hope are reading this). We started this blog to post pictures and our thoughts as our family grows.

Here's a picture when it was just the 2 of us...

Now, Marisa's belly is growing and we have a wee one on the way! Baby Boy Raymond (aka BBR or Tomato or Balthazar) is entering the third trimester of his growth in Marisa's belly. Though we haven't seen him on ultrasound for almost 2 months, we can tell that he is there by the frequent belly-jiggling kicks.

Here are our earliest pictures of Tomato - before we knew he was a boy:

9 weeks: The head is on the right. If you look closely, you can see arm buds! This ultrasound was the one that set our due date as January 4th! 13 weeks: From our first trimester screen. The baby was sleeping during the entire appointment and refused to wake up so the techs could take the measurements they needed! He finally moved after more than 30 minutes when he felt like it. Marisa's reaction: "This baby DEFINITELY takes after Sean!"

After showing this picture to Marisa's brother, Michael said he could tell the baby was a boy. What do you think?

And, here is the last picture we have of the little guy. It was taken at 19 weeks. Marisa thinks he looks a little monkey-esque. Sean, however, thinks that he is simply preparing for a career as a tromboner or perhaps a male model (he seems to be in the process of perfecting his imitation of Derek Zoolander's Blue Steel look).
This is also the appointment where we learned Tomato's gender. We can tell it's a "he" because we saw his penis, aka the "distinctive turtle sign", on the ultrasound. (We won't post that picture because we don't want to be censored.)

Anyhow, that's all for now. We will post more as we post more.

kisses and kicks,
Marisa and Sean and Baby