He Has Arrived

When you are told by your doctor several weeks before your due date that you are a couple of centimeters dilated, every day that passes feels like the baby is overdue. And then he comes, right on his due date, after a few hours of pretty mild contractions, a few minutes of really painful ones, and one push. Please don't hate me, but yeah, one push. And that's as much detail as the world at large needs and what you all really want is photos anyway, right?

Born on October 1 at 4:51 pm, weighing in at 8 pounds (just like his big brother), and with a head full of dark hair, here is Elliott.

Bert seems excited to have him here, and interested in soothing him and holding him, though he still needs lots of reminders to be gentle. And not jump. And not throw things. Basically stifling his boyishness, huh?

E is eating well, and sleeping like a champ for the under one-week-old set. The first night home we used the swing to help him sleep, knowing we all needed to be well-rested to deal with our rambunctious Bert the next day. The second night home we went with swaddling, and he gave us stretches of about 3 hours between feedings. The second baby is a whole different world, in that we don't fret the way we did with Bert: Will we form bad sleep habits if he sleeps in his swing? Why is there milk coming out of his nose? Should we wake him up to feed him? Is his poop supposed to be that color? Are we doing anything right? We're not experts, but we certainly aren't second-guessing everything this time around. The adjustments are more about making sure things stay pretty normal for Bert, or maybe rather that he adjusts to this new normal, and so far he is doing great. So we are just taking it day by day (and night by night), and enjoying this new phase of our family.