My What a BUSY Week!

I'll start with Wednesday. We took Declan in for his first well baby visit. Everything looked good and we weighed him and such. He weighed in at a whopping 11.6! My oh my! And, the midwife told us that she was sure that he weighed in at 10.12, not 10.11. Does an extra ounce really count??? It does if you consider that they-the "they" in this instance being the American Pediatric Association-expect that babies should RETURN to their birth weight at THREE weeks!!!!

Thursday Grandpa and Grandma got here. The first night we got to go and visit Marc at work and show off the new baby to all and get my burger craving taken care of. I ate so well during the pregnancy that a burger and fries was a guilty pleasure, and I never knew how well it would go down...

Friday morning Marc made a fantastic breakfast that I am still thinking about! He makes the best guacamole! We then went to a birthday party for one of Finn's mates that was a lot of fun! The weather was perfect for hanging out in the backyard and we got to see alot of our school buddies. Man, I miss those parents! I am happy that we will get to see some of them over the summer.

After the party, we headed almost straight to the theater to see Cars. Dad let me drive, (insert evil laugh) and I think I didn't scare him too bad except for my sing-a-long with Neil Diamond and Cracklin' Rosie. Does he not realize how much I love that song.... and can anyone answer for me what a store bought woman really is? Back to Cars, it is a good summer flick. One review I read stated that Pixar could make a movie about dust and it would be fantastic, I think that is true if the movies don't get too Disneyized now with the great Lasseter marriage.



Saturday was Finn's belated birthday party. Since he had been so sick during his actual birthday he was very excited. In the morning, he got to play a game of LIFE with his Grandpa. Then off to the park to mark our territory. It was supposed to be super hot, but at the park the temperature stayed nice and cool, thanks to some well placed shade and a kind breeze.

It was a great time. Uncle Steve and Amanda came as well as Aunt Pat and Cousin Angie with her new baby Alix. Our neighbors Kate and Will-Max the Wonder Dog's foster parents-made the scene, too. And that was just the parental friends. We had a pretty good turnout given the short notice and the birthday tea party of another of his school friends. It was a nice, low-key event, with the kids playing on the play structure and the big folk just hanging out and chatting. He scored some cool gifts, which I know helped his psyche...the sweet little guy LOVES his baby brother, don't get me wrong. But he has also expressed that he is just a "little nervous" about him, as well. He has been our one and only "bug" for six years, and it is only natural for him to feel slighted by the attention required by and paid to a new baby. But he has such a big heart and a strong sense of self that I know he will come through it all well.


We spent the rest of the weekend figuring out how to keep cool and sleeping most of the time.

Better to post late than never...

So, after our lovely Declan was born, I left the house for the first time a little more than 24 hours later. Against the advice of our midwife, I went to Finn's Kindergarten graduation with our newborn. Man, wouldn't have missed it for the world. Any extra healing or time it might take for me to get up and at 'em again was completely worth seeing my boy and his peers show how much they have changed from the beginning of the year.

I love Finn's school. The staff there are fantastic, the kids are wonderful ,with great families who are involved and commited to insuring that all children at MLC receive a first-rate education . We feel so lucky to be involved in such a great community.

So, the kids walked down the aisle while the teacher sang Pomp and Circumstance, one of my all time favorites. The children each got their diplomas and spoke a few words about what made them special or what they would miss. My little boy went up and said what made him special was his little brother, who was born yesterday. I of course got the post pregnancy hormones going and shed a few tears... that alone was worth an extra two weeks of bedrest!

Man, I adore my little graduate.

Later that day, or perhaps the next-they have all blurred in together-Declan got his first bath. Which he hated, but we did get the lovely picture of my frog boys!

Presenting....the One...the Only....

At long last, the day has arrived. Our sweet wee bairn has joined us and we couldn't be more excited. He has such a mellow disposition and sweet face that he melts our hearts constantly.

I will not attempt to tell the story of Declan's birth in any voice save that of an observer-albiet an actively involved one. My wife is a rockstar with an amazing capacity to handle the great effort that birthing requires. She will post her story in her own words later.

After many trials and tribulations, including one false start that involved filling the birthtub only to have labor stall, we finally awoke on the morning of the 12th with the feeling that this was it, this was THE DAY. Kim was contracting regularly and strongly so we called our midwife around 3 pm. It so happens that she is the principle of Sunnyside Environmental School, so our timing was a bit off and she asked us if we thought that we could hang on for an hour and a half or so. "Sure", we said,"No problem". We continued hanging out, doing our thing, when...yes, you guessed it...labor stalled once again!!! It did not completely stop, and when we called the midwife to tell her, she suggested some labor-starting tips and told us she'd see us later. She arrived at 7 pm and checked Kim...she was at 6-7 cm, so Sarah-our midwife-was not really as discouraged as we were. She recommended we continue with the program, and had Kim taking a regimen of herbs to help it all along. It happened to be one of Sarah's assistants birthday that day, so she took her crew out to dinner and said they would be back to check on us later.

When the midwives got back at 9:30 and checked kim, she was at 8 cm without contracting and almost 10 cm with one. She said to keep it up, she and the ladies would grab a cuppa tea from New Seasons and be back. She also said that tonight was the night and they weren't leaving until we had our baby.




We kept at it hard until about 12:30, when Kim was checked and was at 9 cm without a contraction, and we opted to have her water broken. We had to continue with the manual contracton starters for another hour and a half or so, but then Kim took over and they came on hard and strong all on their own. We worked in a variety of positions and placements until Sarah said that the only thing holding up the birth was a small crescent of cervical lip, and with some manual adjustment the lip slipped and with three good, strong pushes out came baby!!!!

I cannot say enough about the astounding reserves of strength my wife has and her ability to perform miracles. WOW!!!!

He's Here!!!!!!!

The little man has finally made his appearence. He came to met us at 3:28 am today, June 13th, 2006. He tipped the scales at 10lbs. 11oz. (ouch!) and measured 21 1/2", with a 15" head.

His rockstar mom is holding up quite nicely, having delivered Declan after a quick but intense labor. Her amazing performance not only reaffirmed my deep love and devotion to her, but my admiration and respect for women all over the world.

We will be adding the birth story and photos of the wee bairn after we all catch up on some sleep.

Bits and Pieces from the Nether Regions

O.K., so sitting around for long periods of time while waiting for your child to be born and nursing your other one back to health can lead you to places that probably shouldn't be visited. I refer of course to the gossip sections of various websites, feeding society's ravenous hunger for all things "celebrity".

On this particular journey, I was brought up to speed on the riveting topic of the fruit of the union of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. While their child is a most welcome addition to the world, the handle granted them by whatever hack writer was assigned to the story is NOT. In an embarrassing display of lack-of-creativity-itis, the story endowed the happy couple with the title "Brangelina", in the style of the more deserving "Bennifer" (more on that in a bit).

Firstly, Brangelina is not a cute couple nickname, it is a twisted mutation of a banjo, a mandolin, and a concertina. This brings to mind images of dwarf gypsies locked in a musical duel for the fate of the soul of some poor wayward traveler, not warm fuzzies for the over-priviledged.

Secondly, the blending of names might possibly work with a couple where one of the two is of slightly (or signifigantly) lesser stature than the other (Kittany, anyone?). In the not-so distant past where women were largely the quiet stay-at-home wife types, they were often referred to as Mrs. John Doe, etc., losing their own identity and being assimilatd into the couple's. But in the case of Brad and Angelina, where both seem to have a fairly equal amount of fame-or notoriety, if you prefer-it makes no sense to have one absorb the other. All this in addition to the fact that this archaic valuation of people is crap best relegated to the dungheap of history.

Which brings me right back to Bennifer. Just what the hell did Ben Affleck do, exactly? Oh yeah...he happened to help write a pretty decent movie that was directed by a talented director, and it happened to win one of those little gilded men. So, why wasn't he dubbed "Men"...or "Batt"? Rampent sexism, if you ask me. Bear in mind, this was in a pre-Brokeback Mountain era...

I was also brought current on the state of affairs in the marriage of Brittany and Kevin. It seems that K-Fed is feeding inside info to his peeps for them to sell to the tabloids-never forget where you come from, Kev. Keep it real! This has caused Britt to withhold vital info from her hubby. For example, it appears that he learned of her pregnancy with #2 at the same time as the rest of the late-night viewing audience of America when she announced it on Letterman. This desire to help his homies out with some quick tabloid cash, along with other questionable actions, has led one Spears confidant to impart that, "the trust is gone." Hmmm...let's think about that one for a minute...trust. I know, let's call his ex in as a character witness!!! You know, the one with whom he had a child and she was preggers with his second when he dumped her for Britteny?

Well, I suppose that there are worse ways to pass ones time than tracking the comings and goings of our pop icons, and Kim can't stay pregnant forever...as Finn pointed out to her the other night, "Mom, you can't have a grownup in your belly."

And Now for Something Completely Different...

Well... DeclanWatch2006 still continues, and Finn is recovering...But wait, there's more!!!!

It was a fairly normal Tuesday-as normal as you can get after such an exciting holiday-with Finn seeming to be on a normal post-surgical recovery path (notice the recurrent use of the word "normal"? Filled with a sense of impending dread yet?).
After a pretty good day he conked out around 4:00 or so. Tried to wake him for dinner to no avail. Woke up around 6:30 in the morning, gave him his antibiotics which promptly came right back up. His temp read 103.8 so we called our Doc and brought him in. He took some blood and sent us right back to the ER at Emanuel. Poor guy was super dehydrated so they hooked him up to an IV-to which he responded," I've been poked too much already!"-and gave him some morphine to help with his discomfort. They took another CT scan to check if his nodes in his throat had abscessed. Fortunately, that came back with an "all clear", but in the course of all this poking and prodding it was discovered that our little man had MONO!!!!!!!

The upshot of all this is that Finn is FINALLY recovering well, though recovery from mono can be a fairly long process. It should be said that it was never our intention that this would evolve into Finn's Medical Blog...who knew? So I am confident that future postings will contain matters not so focused on the health of our fine young son. As a matter of fact, I have some ranting and raving to get off my chest concerning certain elements and personages of pop culture...but that's another time...