Pictures of Baby Theo!

The first pictures of the not-so-little guy, approximately twenty minutes after birth. The classic scale shot shows him at 9 lbs., 2.6 oz. He was 22 inches long and his head was 14 inches in diameter. The labor was long and arduous. Our midwife was out of town so we ended up with her backup doctor, who was everything you might expect in a absentee male OB circa 1960: short infrequent visits to tell us medical intervention was the only course and arguing with us even through contractions. After almost 40 hours of labor Julie was only partially dilated and physically exhausted. She finally agreed to a C-Section. At least our doctor was skilled at the operation—from much practice no doubt—and baby and mother are happy and fine. Thank goodness we had support—Julie’s sister Becky and our Bradley childbirth class instructor Jen was there through the labor and gave us much needed support.

Theodore is named after Julie’s Great Uncle Ted, who’s notorious for his cheesy jokes (when told of his namesake, Ted told Julie “you can’t do that to me!,” i.e., that he wasn’t in the grave yet.) The name “Theodore” also holds distinction as the 301’st “most popular boy name”:http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames of 2002, so he shouldn’t have to share it with half his class. Julie insisted that we needed to decide on a nickname for him, and after much back and forth we’ve agreed to Theo. He has Julie’s last name (her maiden name).

The new family: Martin, Julie, Theo and Becky (Julie’s sister). Julie’s dad Tom checks out his new grandson. Martin’s mom Liz shows off her talent for putting futzy babies to sleep.

Theo has quite a future in opera if he pursues it.

Alternatively he could be one of the next Lollipop kids in a Wizard of Oz revival.