Week Seven

This week, Opal started to hang out in some of the her chairs and other devices more than she has in the past. She's growing up and getting independent! She also attended an event her mom was reading at on the occasion of Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day (she waited until the fourth of five readers to lose it!), hung out with her grandparents, attended a new moms group run by a postpartum doula, and met her baby friend, Sebastian, who was born only two days after her. Sebastian is a sweet chill baby; hopefully Opal learned a little bit about hanging out without freaking out from his example! We sat in Washington Square Park with some ice cream after the visit and had a great time. 

Week Five

This week was pretty exciting. Smiles, a visit to Cole Haan, growing out of her tiniest clothes, and more! 

Week Two

Opal turned two weeks old the day of her father's birthday. She celebrated with family, smoked fish, and gluten- and dairy-free cupcakes. She surpassed her birthweight this week and will now sleep for tiny chunks of time in a contraption called the Daydreamer, recommended by our friend Sara because it did the trick for her first tricky sleeper. 

Week One

During baby Opal's first week at home, she did a great job at being a newborn. She would only sleep in our arms (that lovely bassinet from her great-grandmother hopefully will get use at some point...), screamed, kicked, cried, and we loved her anyway. At her first doctor's appointment, she had lost a bit too much weight so we wound up having to give her formula and pumped milk as supplements, which wasn't in the plan, but anything for baby! We made a visit to a lactation consultant in Tribeca on Saturday night--very hip. On March 8th, Opal got a special visit from her Grandma Jill and Uncle Greg on his birthday. He was thrilled to have a niece as a gift. Opal also got a visit from her aunties Lindsay and Katherine and more love from her family. 

March 5th, 2017

Opal Judith Selzer was born at 12:56pm on March 5th, 2017—her due date! The delivery, though a bit traumatic for her parents (four hours of pushing!!!) went well. Dr. Lajoie—our OB—has a pink streak in her hair and our L&D nurses, Sumi and Emma, were the perfect team of strong, competent, inspiring women to help bring Opal into the world. 

 

Before we were pregnant, we had a random conversation one day about the name Opal and how we both liked it. It is similar to the title of a Syd Barrett song, "Opel," that Dan loves and is Nicole's birthstone. We considered a long list of other names, but kept returning to Opal. For her middle name, we tried a million combinations, at times desperate to incorporate a Bruce Springsteen reference (Wendy? Sandy?), at other times, hopeful about citing a mid-century artist (Anni? Ray?) Eventually, we landed on Judith, after the groundbreaking queer theorist and intellectual Judith Butler and the self-taught artist Judith Scott. We knew that there was a chance that Opal would be born with a hearing impairment (as far as we know now, her hearing is not impaired) and so were particularly drawn to the Judith Scott reference, since she was Deaf and had Down Syndrome. We also liked the Jewishness of the name, as well as the Klimt painting it conjures. 

While at the hospital, Opal got to meet her grandparents Jill and Vahram and Carol and Michael, as well as her Aunt Jamie and Great-Aunt Nancy. After a two nights staying at NYU Langone, we came home to Queens!