Week 1

With Priya Athai (Aunt Priya) Bonding with Mommy
With Grandpa Shewman
Eyes wide open!
Enough said :)

Resting with DaddyPlaying with Mommy
Caedmon's first bath at home! Although it was not his favorite, he does really enjoy having his hair washed!
The cutest little buddy in the world!
Can anyone say "food coma"? :)

With Grandma ShewmanThe toy basketball is larger than Caedmon's head!
He is often intrigued by the "other baby" that always seems to need a diaper change at the same time! With Aunt Meg and Uncle Jon
Couldn't resist how cute this outfit looked on him :)

Welcome to week one with Caedmon Raju Terrance and what a week it has been! Thank you for all of your e-mails, notes, calls, and cards of congratulations, well-wishes, and prayers! He is the most adorable, precious little buddy!

He has been back for a couple of doctor's visits since his birth and his progress so far has been great! His birth weight was 6 lbs and 1 oz. Though he did drop a small bit to 5 lbs and 13 oz after a couple of days (completely normal) he has already gained it back and then some (he weighed in at 6 lbs and 4 oz today). Daddy has been keeping track of his stools and wet diapers...and he is a champion in that department too!

Earlier this week we were a little concerned that he may be jaundiced, but after a bilirubin count, we were told that his levels are well within the normal range. Apparently, some say that half Caucasian and half Indian babies will often have noticeable yellow skin tone in the beginning while their pigmentation is being "figured out" :). In any event, he is so far very healthy and happy!

Rebecca is also doing well. Other than everything that goes along with a sudden entrance into motherhood, Rebecca is doing really well. Her strength impressed the midwives and nurses during the delivery and impresses me on a daily basis! After witnessing the birth of Caedmon, the physical and emotional strength of a woman is unmatched, in my (Praveen) opinion.

We are both indeed really exhausted. But we have had the help of family, who were there for us during the first week in really tangible and meaningful ways! We have also been so blessed to have friends around us willing to help in any way that they can. Thanks to all of you. We're looking forward to when you can meet the baby! Stay tuned for pictures from Week 2...

Our beautiful baby boy is finally here!! He arrived right on his due date, August 18th at 12:47pm. He weighs 6 lbs and 1 oz. and is 20 inches long. Perfect litte guy. He is ridiculously adorable and very precocious (we're not biased). Both mommy and baby are healthy and well, just tired though. Rebecca's delivery was good...she was an amazing fighter all the way through. The actual delivery was relatively fast, but we ended up staying at the birth center for quite a while to make sure he was doing all right with nursing, etc. Needless to say, all three of us are really pretty worn out right now from all of the excitement, lack of sleep, and lack of food. Thanks for all of your well-wishes and continued prayers!

And now, the moment that many of you have been waiting for. His name is…

Caedmon Raju Terrance Sethupathy

First name

Caedmon (Kayd-min) – In Irish tradition, it means "wise warrior." In English tradition, it means "poet" because Caedmon was also the name of the first known English poet who is famous for his expressions of faith through vernacular hymns honoring and praising God. Further, we have grown to admire the band Caedmon's Call (named after the poet Caedmon) because they have used their fame and talents to love and serve the needy of the world. They especially have a heart for India. We really liked this name because "poet," "wise warrior," and "Caedmon's Call" together capture the gentle and humble expression of the strength of conviction that we pray he will have in serving God by loving others. Finally, the name reflects that he has part-English/Irish heritage (Rebecca).

Middle names

Raju (Rah-joo) – In Sanskrit, "Raja" means "king". "Raju" is a variant of this name. We liked this name for two main reasons. First, it reflects that he has part-Indian heritage (Praveen). Second, it is also a shortened form of Praveen's dad's name.

Terrance (Tare-ence) – As many of you know, the late Terrance Bernard was one of Praveen's best friends and accountability partners. We believe that Caedmon was conceived on the day before we learned that Terrance had passed away from a tragic car accident. Furthermore, Terrance's birthday is only one day prior to Caedmon's. It means a lot to us to have Terrance's memory live on through our son.

Hope that you enjoy some of the attached pictures!

Showered with gifts

As we mentioned before, we are feeling so blessed right now. We have some wonderful friends and family around us. Through all of the baby showers, we have received everything that we registered for! Below are some pics (courtesy of Guru Periappa) from the most recent baby shower, thrown by Priya, Amy Jo, and Matt K. They really did a great job and we had a great time fellowshipping with all who were able to come! And the food was amazing :).

At the end there are a few extra pics of the Rajasethupathy family (taken last year).

Two weeks to go!

Yum....

Joel, Larry, Kobby, Priya, Joy, Shiny, Sarala, Jeremy, Rebecca, Christie, Ladan, Mark, Theresa

Opening gifts

Matt, Jake, Praveen, Joel

Priya Athai, Thatha, Kobby, Larry

Looking through our album

Erum, Ali, Rebecca, Praveen

Rebecca, Priya Athai, Guru Periappa

Priya Athai, Guru Periappa, and Praveen

The last month

Well, the expected due date of Baby Sethupathy is now less than three weeks away and the anticipation is building! Thankfully, both the baby and Rebecca have progressed really well and continue to be in good health. The baby is now "head down" and we hope he will choose to stay that way until the delivery. He is also more active than we ever imagined he would be. He finds the loveliest places to punch and kick (tender spots of internal organs, in between ribs, etc).

These past few months have been emotionally exciting, but physically taxing, for Rebecca. As you mothers know, the home stretch is often the hardest stretch. She is really quite uncomfortable and has had a lot of difficulty sleeping. But despite all of that, she feels that the pregnancy as a whole has been relatively smooth and for that we are thankful! We've finished all of our birth classes, breast-feeding classes, etc. We have also been really blessed by friends and family with showers of gifts to prepare for the baby. So now, we are just waiting :).

Below are some pics from our trip in June (the babymoon) to Williamsburg, VA and also a cute tummy pic of Rebecca and our friend Theresa Boon. Theresa and Jake are expecting their second child (a girl) only one month after our boy arrives, so this is just an all around exciting time!

Update + Hamlin Baby Shower

Sorry that there haven't been many updates since April. It's been a very busy and exciting time! Rebecca has now finished the school year at TCA. Her tenure there was really quite a blessing, and we are thankful. We also just celebrated our third anniversary this past Tuesday! We also plan to travel to Williamsburg, VA in a week or so -- we are looking forward to this time away (the 'baby moon', as they call it).

Our baby boy has been very active and healthy. He is kicking mommy quite a lot and the his movement is now easily visible! Almost 7 months into the pregnancy; the day is fast approaching. We are about half-way through the childbirth classes that The Birth Center offers, and we are enjoying those. Learning a lot about the birth process and how we can prepare better. We are definitely happy about the holistic approach at The Birth Center; they do a good job with encouraging a natural birth.

We have started talking to and praying with our boy, so that he will recognize our tones and intonations when he finally arrives. Somehow we hope to also teach him Tamil, so Daddy is trying to speak Tamil to him as well. Maybe we can throw Spanish, Hindi, French, and Japanese in there too....and while I'm at it...maybe I will start sharing my dissertation work with him too...I'm sure he'll enjoy that :).

Meghan and Jon threw us a shower two weekends ago in Hamlin, NY. It was a great time and people really showered us with wonderful gifts -- it made a significant dent in our baby registry! So our living room is now a bona fide baby pad, full with swing, toy bin, glider, activity gym, etc. These pictures from the shower were taken by a relative, Elsie Menz. Thanks to Elsie for sharing these pictures with us! Enjoy the pictures and look soon for more...

Pics from our last visit with "Aunt Meg and Uncle Jon"

Meghan and Jon visited over the Easter weekend as they were touring and performing in the area with Houghton's College Choir. We took the opportunity to take some pics of the two babies! Meg and Jon brought us our baby's first "boy outfit," and Praveen enjoyed using it for a decoration and hanging it from our lamp for a few days:)

Our baby has a cousin!

We are told that we now have the freedom to put this up on our blog: Rebecca's sister (Meghan) and her husband (Jon) are also pregnant! Sisters pregnant together!! Meghan is ~15 weeks along and doing well. We were not at all expecting this wonderful news, so we were really pleasantly surprised to find out! Meghan & Jon live in Houghton, NY -- so we don't get to see them very often. They came to visit us in Philly toward the end of February and broke the news then by taking us through a flipbook of pictures of their kittens with their first ultrasound picture randomly thrown in! Jon had the camera handy to document our surprised reactions...here they are :-).

We're excited that our boy will have a cousin the same age to play with! And with Jon being a blond, blue-eyed, curly-haired, 6'5" track star...and with Praveen being a brown-eyed, black-haired, 5'7" Indian-American...these two cousins may look nothing alike!! We'll post some more pictures of Rebecca and Meghan soon.