Back home with our two boys

Well here is the obligatory first picture of Benjamin with his big brother Daniel. As you can see, they are quite sweet together, and in fact, I also want to share this picture which we took a few minutes after arriving home with the baby. When Danny saw Benji asleep on the couch he decided that he needed a nap too and climbed on up to lay down with his brother. Beyond cute right?

 

Everything is going great. We did manage to have Benji in the midst of one of the biggest blizzards we’ve seen in DC in a long time, and were basically trapped at the hospital which went into a big lockdown at 2 pm on Saturday. This means that the thousands of workers there could not leave and had to bunk down and take over shifts for those who could not get in. Patients were also basically prohibited from being discharged as the city had declared a state of emergency. The roads were horrible. In a way it was kind of a cool, “we are all in this together” sort of mentality and it was fun hearing everyone tell their story of how many hours they’d been there. One nurse joked that it was sort of like a slumber party, except with no music, and bland food.

We actually arrived there on Thursday not even knowing a storm was heading our way. By Saturday though, there were 18” of snow on the ground and it was still falling.

We were not concerned about being trapped there for two reasons. The first being that Benji was born via an unplanned C-Section so Su needed a few days to recover. And secondly, becaue Danny was in good hands with his Nana who got here from South Carolina before the first snow fell. Good timing Benjamin! I was actually able to get home every night except one to put Danny to bed which I think helped, and he did a great job on the night that I was unable to get home because of the storm (thanks Nana!)

Back to Benji. I think it is safe to say that his birth was rather stressful. He was stuck very much like his brother Daniel had been, and after hours of pushing, it was decided that for the safety of the baby it would be best to do the C-Section. It was not the birth we imagined, but it was the birth we got, and I know that we are both just so grateful that he’s okay and that Susanne is okay too.

The baby also had jaundice which is pretty common but it also means that he had to be nursed every two hours to keep up his hydration. He was also put under big lights in the nursery for about 20 hours. The lights work to break down bilirubin in the blood. We knew the procedure since we'd gone through the same thing with Danny, but you do forget how tiring it can be. Since you time the feedings to be two hours apart from the start of one feeding to the start of the next, you don’t get much rest.  I can’t complain though. I’m not the one who had major surgery and then has to do this over and over again on little rest. I’ve been there every minute, but Su’s job is much harder, bless her heart. She is amazing.

We are still doing the feedings every few hours but everything is just easier now that we are home.

Anyway, just wanted to post a bit more about the birth of our beautiful little boy. Happy Holidays everyone. We are happy as can be that Benjamin came in time for us all to celebrate baby's first Christmas this year! Yes! -M

Welcome sweet boy--we've been waiting for you!

Weighing in at 8 lbs. 1 oz., the incredibly adorable Benjamin! He was born yesterday afternoon, and we are so incredibly happy!  Anybody else out there think he looks an awful lot like big brother Danny did as a newborn?

Su and baby are doing fine. She can tell the birth story later. Happy day everybody!!!! -Monica & Susanne & sons

Candy Canical Order

Keeping busy. In the best possible ways...

This weekend our favorite group of Peace Corps buddies threw a "White Elephant/Baby Shower" party and it was a blast. The final present selected for the White Elephant portion of the event was a dollar store gum ball machine with big box of gumballs. As you can see, there was no question but that this gift would leave in the hands of little Danny.

He hasn't managed to open the box of gumballs yet thank goodness. But he's got the "machine" all taken apart and loves it even though the little door mechanism where the candy comes out out snaps his finger like a turtle.

This morning his first words upon waking were "gumballs mom!" He is a single minded little guy like that. We're not actually going to let him have gumballs we've decided. Maybe some more healthful snack can come out instead. We'll see.

And here he practices being angelic for our church Advent Play yesterday.The two year olds were the hit of the show in my somewhat biased estimation!

Hope you all had a great weekend too. -Monica

P.S. In case you're wondering, no sign of the baby coming anytime soon.

Last night at 10:46 pm

“Aaaaand…breathe.”

“Good, that was excellent. Just relax now.”

“Ready? Here we go again…”

“Three, two, one…okay—stop, stop.”

“Last time now honey. You can do it!”

And with those words, Susanne and I finished filling in the blind cc section of an empty draft e-mail that is now ready to send once the baby comes. Su was holding down the Ctrl key and selecting the names, and we agreed to stop and add groups after about every twenty names so she didn’t accidently let go of the Ctrl key and lose everything we’d been selecting. It’s a lot of pressure to keep holding down that key without slipping up. So it was good to relax in between sets to get ready for that next group of names.

You didn’t think we’d had the baby already did you. ;-)

-Monica

May I have this dance?

Those of you who follow this blog have surely figured out already that I am crazy about our boy. Seriously, our Danny makes me laugh, makes me beam with pride, and makes me feel all mushy and dreamy inside like 95% of the time (well except for those times that he’s testing my patience of course.)

Yes, he is a gift beyond compare to both me and Susanne.

And as I think about this, I think about something our friend Erin mentioned when her second child was born earlier this year. She said that she never realized how hard it would be to no longer just be a mom to her older toddler daughter. That relationship had to change once little brother came upon the scene. Erin, if you read this feel free to correct my memory of this, but I think you communicated something about how in a way the family had to grieve the loss of the life you’d had with just mom, dad and little AG. Of course now months later, AG probably can’t remember what life was like without her wonderful little brother, but I think that you were on to something with your use of the word grief to express how it felt in transition.

Danny has had our undivided attention for his whole life. Well. Maybe not undivided, but he has only known a world in which we are not too distracted by anyone or anything else. This of course will change soon.

He’ll be a great big brother and we’ll work on strategies to make sure he still gets lots of attention and love but this life that we have known together is going to shift gears.

Yesterday he was home sick after running a fever in the night. I happened to be rereading our copy of the “Happiest Baby on the Block” and was reminded that the same techniques that make babies feel content work for big people too. That’s why swinging in a hammock or listening to the ocean feel so soothing. Danny was starting to get cranky but but really needed to take a nap, so on a whim, I up and did something I haven’t done in a very long time. I hoisted him up onto my left shoulder and holding him tight, started swaying back and forth just like I'd done so many times when he was a baby. We do plenty of rocking in the rocking chair now as he’s grown, but I can’t remember the last time we danced like this.

Our big 27 pound "big boy" melted into my arms and was fast asleep in minutes.

And even though he seemed to get heavier with every passing minute, I couldn’t stop myself from dancing with him just a little while longer. -Monica

P.S. A pic of my very first dance with our number one son on the day he was born in 2007.

Not even remotely capable it seems...

So Danny loves remotes. Oh the joy of pushing buttons! But unfortunately, when he does, I am often reduced to a blubbering mass of total confusion. Let's see? Something about something needing to be on Channel 3, but make sure that the VCR/DVD player is on (or off?) and that the Line 1 or Cable button is properly pressed on the grey one. Or is it the black one? No, no! This TV has a "universal" remote except that it's not very universal.Or is that the one upstairs? Argh!!!

 Okay. I think I got it.

I don't got it.

And this ladies and gentlemen is why I knew Susanne was the one for me. 

Thank you honey for once again making everything right with the world. And Daniel? If you're going to insist on tracking those remotes down no matter how carefully I think I've hidden them from you, it's time for you to sit down with mama and learn the secret of "fixin' the problem". Clearly I'm a lost cause, but I have a lot of hope for you son. Love, Mommy

P.S. Sounds like my great niece ittle Johanna will need to stay in the hospital a bit longer. Maybe home Thursday? Let's hope so.