Because Size Does Matter

We had a successful two week well-child appointment today. Other than Boone's hatred of the car seat he was perfectly behaved on our outing, and came in with some impressive stats. He was born 8 lb 1.5 oz, lost about 10% of his weight in his first 3 days (which is normal), then managed to come in at 8 lbs 15.5 oz today.

2 week Height: 21.5 inches (78 %)

2 week Weight: 8 lb 15.5 oz (55%)

2 week Head Circumference: 15 inches (71%)

All the family is doing well. We survived our first weekend with a 1:1 child to adult ratio. Well, we barely survived. Harper has decided to stop napping the most inopportune time. She really should have waited at least 6 more months. So she plays in her room for a few hours in the afternoon. Based on the noise from her room her "play" involves a herd of elephants, a chain saw, and a pogo stick.

Update, and more importantly, more photos!

So, things are settling down. Grandma Susu was here for 2 helpful weeks, and departed tearfully, but leaving us with lots of wonderful food in our fridge! As a result we hadn't had to prepare our own meals, clean them up, deal with both kids with just the two of us, etc. yet. Thanks Susan!
So, last night was our first night of that, and it went well. Having good food that just needs to be heated up makes a big difference. Harper has also been great, although yesterday she was rather "3". I can't believe how mercurial she is. For example, last night she was eating delicious turkey meatloaf, then just screeched in anger because a couple of the bites split into too small of pieces when she stabbed them with a fork. Stab, screech, stab, screech. Fun.
Then we gave Boone his first bath (his umbilicus feel off earlier that day), in the little infant tub with the hammock in the big tub with Harper in it. Pretty cute. We shot a video of it, but given little kid parts I'm not posting it online. Feel free to ask to see it when you come visit. I might try to extract a photo or 2 from it or something.
We also got a chance to shoot some posed shots of Harper and Boone together that are pretty good. Sometimes you can see the "posing" done by Mama's hands, but c'est la vie. Here they are: http://www.s9s.net/BoonePhotos. Let me know if you need higher res versions for printing.
Sleep has been going pretty well. Last night I got to lay on the couch and watch football with Boone sleeping on my chest. What more could you ask for?

Birth Story

One way to sum up Boone's birth would be to say that our car was parked in the Emergency drop-off lane from when we arrived at the hospital until 30 minutes after his delivery. It was very, very quick.

Harper, Grandma Susu, Rick and I went for Vietnamese food Saturday night hoping that some good spicy papaya salad would get things moving. Harper was being a bit of a non-listening three-year-old during dinner so I took her outside to sit on the curb and when I squatted down I felt a little trickle of what could have been my amniotic fluid. So we paid our bill, took our left-overs and headed home. It was about 7:30 PM and I hadn't felt any real contractions.

Rick put Harper to bed while I relaxed. Around 8:30 I started having contractions just a hair more intense that Braxton Hicks. I was settling in for what I thought would be a long night. Then around 11ish I had a slightly more intense contraction and had some bleeding. So, just to be safe Rick packed the car, I lay down in the backseat on my side and we headed to the hospital. It was around 11:30. Well, in the backseat things started to gear-up. I was laying on my right side, with my right-leg on the seat and my left-foot resting on the driver's side head-rest. And my contractions started getting stronger. I could still breath through them, and even laughed a little when a contraction and a right-hand turn coincided. Then we got to the ER.

Rick parked in the emergency drop-off. I waddled inside. Oh, my contractions were about 3 minutes apart and lasting about 90 seconds. And I was pretty much just moaning, really loudly through them all. Really loudly.

If at this point in the story you want to cut to the chase just imagine the stereotypical sit-com birth.

It took forever for the stupid check-in process. So much for preregistration. And the check-in, paper-work lady didn't seem to be in any hurry, but got terribly upset when I just up and left to use the restroom. I guess she wanted me to pee on the floor while she copied my insurance information.

Then an equally annoying ER nurse came with a wheelchair to take me up to labor and delivery. Well, at this point I could not sit. Just not physically possible. So after a bit of arguing and eye-rolling they let me walk. And every few minutes while walking through the ER halls I would have to start moaning and yelling and hold onto Rick. Many ER nurse's eyes were rolling I think.

Well, we made it to Labor and Delivery where they put me in the triage room. I think it must have been around 1 AM. I answered more ridiculous questions and now my contractions really got going. I could barely breath. They checked me and said I was on 2cm. Then the nurse left the room for 20 minutes. And for 20 minutes I pretty much just screamed and cried, and yelled "Why won't anyone help me?" In hindsight I was probably scaring the crap out of any other laboring women in the unit. I was REALLY yelling. So, after 20 minutes I yell at Rick, "I need to push! I need to push! Why isn't anyone helping me." Rick goes out to find a nurse. She comes back in and in 20 minutes I have gone from 2 cm to 5 cm.

The doctor on the unit is attending another birth. Thank goodness that woman delivered at 1:30 AM. Dr. Adawadkar arrived at 1:40 and I was at 8cm, and then they finally realized how quick this was happening and wanted to get me out of the triage room and into a delivery room. Of course they offered the stupid wheelchair again, and after demonstrating that there was no way in hell I could sit I walked to my room.

It's probably about 1:55 AM now, and I am screaming for an epidural. Well, they need to get a blood sample to the lab before they can get an epidural, and since they didn't realize how fast this was all happening no one had bothered getting a hep-lock in me. I have no visual memory of them trying to start an IV, but apparently it was comical, and resulted in a pool of blood after much inept fussing with needles, but I guess they got a sample. Then I screamed that I wanted a narcotic. Well, since the IV wasn't really working they had to give me a shot of Nubain intramuscularly. It must have been about 2:15 now.

I two point I tried biting down on anything to help with the pain. Well, the anythings I bit on were my husband's hand and arm. He still isn't too pleased about that.

Dr. Adawadkar checked me again, and I was fully dilated. So, no epidural; I was pretty pissed about that, and I was really pissed that the Nubain was going to take 15 minutes to take effect. I think I kept complaining about why the narcotic wasn't working, and they kept saying "5 more minutes." Well, Boone was born at 2:38 and I am pretty sure that the Nubain never took effect.

So, the pushing was actually the most pleasant part, and went very quickly. Boone is happy and healthy. So am I.

We're Back!

 So, we got home from the hospital at about 10:30 on Monday. Mom and Dad relaxed and got a little rest. Boone did what he does, sleep, eat, cry, pass meconium. Susu helped out with lunch, etc. A little after lunch we went and picked up Harper early from school. I got to witness the CH3 kids enjoying lunch, astonishingly peacefully. It shouldn't amaze me any more how good Montessori kids are, but it always does. Anyway, I brought Harper home to be with baby brother and Mama. Harper had really been stressed the night before after meeting baby bro in the hospital, although possibly not for the most obvious reason. When she got home she cried to Susu because she wanted baby brother home so she could play with him, not because she had been usurped as the center of the McTodd universe. So, when she got home to see Boone we were wondering how it would go.
First she plied him with gifts, literally piling on little stuffed animals, rattles, and teething trinkets:

 Then, when we moved upstairs she practiced her whispering, and chilled in bed while mom fed Boone:

 Then she resumed the gift boonanza by piling them into his crib, running up and down the stairs to retrieve them. She only held back a couple of her absolute favorites.

 Group photo from standing on the bed:

Mostly she was amazing, although once in a while her "threeness" (inability to stay quiet and/or gentle) showed through. Her's Diana trying to keep her from smothering Boone:

Wellfleet Trip

Rick, Harper and I returned from a week in Wellfleet, MA. Photos here.

The trip started with an unexpected detour for me to Asheville for my grandmother's funeral (see posts below). Rick and Harper drove to Arlington, VA Friday night and stayed through Sunday morning with Uncle Bill and Aunt Danielle. I am very jelous that Rick was able to take Harper to her first "spray park": a playground with water jets and fountains.

Rick and Harper got on the Acela train in Washington DC Sunday morning, and I got on a plane in Charlotte, NC and somehow we all met up with Rick's sister in Boston and drove to Wellfleet.

Rick's mum found a really wonderful rental house on Long Pond where we all stayed for a week. We were joined by our family friend Paula. And across the lake were old family friends who vacationed in Wellfleet with Rick's family when he was young.

A typical day:

1) Wake up wayyy too early as Harper never sleeps in on vacation.

2) Play with Harper until everyone else gets up.

3) Go play in the water, either the pond or the ocean

4) Lunch

5) Harper naps, Rick and Diana either nap or get some exercise.

6) Another swim with Harper

7) Dinner

8) Harper to bed, followed soon after by everyone else.

We did go to Provincetown (aka "PEE town" according to a t-shirt I bought for Harper). I LOVED this little town. While Rick, Kate, Paula, and Dixie all went whale watching I ran a mile long jetty out to the very narrowest part of Cape Cod. It was beautiful. The running on the jetty was probably pretty stupid, but I survived.

Our travel home balanced out all the relaxation. Dixie drove us to a bus station. The bus took us to Boston's Union Station. The Acela took up to Washington DC's Union Station. A cab took us to Bill and Danielle's house where we left our car, then we drove the 3 hour drive home. Total: 15 hours of travel.