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Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 1 No. 46

2006-08-22 08:45 (John) We had a good night's rest and are ready to have another try today. Kristen will go out for a walk as soon as she's had a bite to eat. We have an appointment with Dr. Tai at 12:30.

2006-08-22 14:30 (John) Dr. Tai is on duty at the hospital on Friday. If the baby hasn't been born by then, we'll go there early in the morning to have Kristen's waters broken, and if the baby doesn't come, we'll have to have a C-section.

2006-08-22 20:30 (John) We had a slight detour when Jamie and I whacked Jamie in the right eye with the end of a straw at the Second Cup. Dr. Kennedy said that no serious harm was done (the white of his eyeball has a little pink bruise on it), and she helped me remove his "dissolvable" stitch while we were there. And I should add that she stayed after hours to see us, because she is the world's best family doctor.

Jennifer went to the Big Carrot's herbal dispensary in the afternoon, and came back with black and blue cohosh tinctures, then went out and picked red raspberry leaves from our garden to make a tea. Kristen had to ask her to stop after the fourth dose of black cohosh though because she said she felt extremely strong but partial contractions starting along the bottom half of her uterus. She had three of those at 19:37, 19:42 and 19:47, then a full contraction at 20:01, a half-contraction at 20:09, full ones at 20:17 and 20:24 and then a weak but full one just now at 20:38. Herbalism, wow.

Everyone pitched in to make dinner. We had fusilli with tomato sauce and garlic bread with pesto, with ice cream and blueberries for dessert. Jamie helped me wash dishes for a good long time, and is showing his collection of trains a new set of bee-themed garden lights that Jennifer and Laraine brought for us.

2006-08-22 23:00 (John) Contractions started up again while Jamie and I were in the shower, and were fairly strong at 21:46, 22:12, 22:21, 22:30 and 22:37. It's possible Kristen is still having them, but she's asleep and I am resisting the urge to wake her up every 5-10 minutes to ask.

2006-08-23 07:30 (John) We've had a quiet night. Everyone is still asleep. Jamie is off to Hakobune this morning, and Kristen has an appointment to see our midwife Julie at noon.

2006-08-23 13:50 (John) Jamie had a good morning at Hakobune, and apparently was doing the hand gestures for the rock-scissors-paper song with partners at songtime. Laraine and I took Kristen to see our midwife Julie, who said that the baby is doing fine, that she recommends tincture of black and blue cohosh only to maintain active labour, and gave Kristen a homeopathic equivalent along with the number of her acupuncturist. As a result of Julie's examination, which showed Kristen dilated to three centimetres, Kristen had a few more contractions, but seems to be easing off again.

2006-08-23 18:15 (John) Jamie fell asleep right away in the stroller and slept for just over two hours. He woke up with me at the Second Cup, had a quick snack, then we met up with the rest of the family and spent the rest of the afternoon at Treasure Island Toys. Kristen is continuing to have mild contractions, which she says are not going away when she walks this time, so she may be spending a lot of time walking this evening.

2006-08-23 22:13 (Kristen) Well, the contractions stopped, and I'm tossing in the towel for the night. Jamie had a good time at Treasure Island, despite deciding that he "needed" the $50 collection of five Thomas the Tank Engine trains and being told that no, he didn't. He got over it quickly, and I bless again the brevity of toddler desire and memory. He had a slight 'accident' while we were there, which reminds me and John that we have to keep an eye on Jamie in this regard: he keeps forgetting that he needs to pee, and leaves himself too little time to make it to the bathroom. I understand: life is interesting, and bathrooms generally boring. At least, until you learn to read and lock the door, but that won't be for a little while longer.

We had dinner with John's parents, which was a fun, loud evening. Jamie was quite wound up by the end, and needed some calming down and curbing, as he likes to run into people, straight-armed and at full tilt, when he's tired like this. John's mom gave him a sembei* and a heart-shaped cookie on the way home, and Jamie calls them "kissing cookies" because , I suppose, he knows that kisses are often represented by hearts. It's pretty cute, anyway. He had fun playing "Grammie Season" with Jennifer driving the stroller on the way home, chasing Becky and Grammie on the way. He's downstairs now with Gary and Ayami, getting ready for his bath with John, and some Pigs. A good night's sleep would be good for us all.

2006-08-24 05:30 (John) Kristen just woke me up to say her water broke. She's very surprised. She dreamt that something let go, woke up partly and needed to go to the bathroom, and there it was. Jennifer is talking to her, reminding her of what happens next.

2006-08-24 05:41 (John) Jennifer was right, K just had a big contraction. Sharp and low.

2006-08-24 05:49 (John) More contractions: 05:45, 05:49, 05:52, 05:53, 05:57, 06:01 (35 s). Much nausea, some pain. Paged Julie Witmer, hospital bags by door. Talked to Julie, she's on her way. More contractions: 06:08 (80s, pain), 06:12 (60s, pain). Called my mom.

I don't believe we have Internet access at the hospital. I will try to sign off to say we're leaving when we are going, but if I don't update this for a while, wish us luck!

2006-08-24 06:40 (John) Contractions continued regularly every 4-5 minutes. After the last one, Julie examined Kristen and found that she still had most of her amniotic fluid, was dilated to 3-4 centimetres and the baby's head was still fairly high. So it's still early, but we are about to leave for the hospital because of the risk that the baby's head may bob up and catch the cord. I'll keep updating an offline copy of the blog and post it once I get back home.

2006-08-24 18:00 07:00: Arrived at Toronto East General Hospital. Laraine drove Jennifer, Kristen and me. Kristen had two contractions in the car. We went to the emergency entrance for a wheelchair, then straight up to room 710 in the birthing ward. Kristen celebrated by vomiting up some bile. Julie brought Becky, took care of the paperwork, and consulted briefly with the obstetrician on call (Dr. Badmos on duty until 08:00, then Dr. Murray Kroach).

07:10: Julie attached an electronic fetal monitor, which keeps track of the baby's heart rate, Kristen's contractions and blood pressure. The baby's heartbeat sounds strong and regular at around 120 bpm, and it's comforting to hear it fill the room.

07:15: My mom arrives by cab.

07:35: Julie took routine blood work and screening samples for cord blood banking. I didn't pass out.

07:45: Contractions are continuing nice and strong every 4-5 minutes.

08:15: Kristen tried to pee, but couldn't. Same as last time. Julie examined Kristen, she's dilated to five centimetres and the cervix is very stretchy, but the baby's head is still bobbing up and down.

08:20: Kristen's contractions were stronger when she sat up to pee, so she's sitting up on the edge of the bed, which is making for continued strong contractions.

08:30: Julie puts an IV in to help hydrate Kristen, who had been getting by on sips of apple juice so far. I help but didn't pass out.

08:50: With Kristen's consent, Julie calls for the anaesthetician to install an epidural, in case she needs to have a Caesarian section. Her contractions continue to be strong and regular as she sits on the bed. The baby's heartbeat is steady at around 125 bps through contractions.

09:00: Jennifer called Gary, who was just getting Jamie out the door to go to Hakobune. Gary was with Jamie when he woke up in the morning. Jamie fixed a bleary eye on him and said "Gary go sleep in his own bed!" followed by "Jamie need Mummy!" Gary explained to him what was going on, and our little skeptic said "Jamie *see* Mummy in the hospital?". Gary and Ayami then fed him breakfast and got him ready to go, asked him if he was being a good boy, and he said "No!"

09:10: Dr. Samahin comes by and puts in the epidural. Kristen feels very cold as she is undressed for the procedure but manages to get her shivering under control and stays still. The shivering eventually tapered off.

09:30: Kristen's sense of humour has returned, so the epidural must be working. She says her stomach is numb but itchy, and she can still feel her toes. Jennifer says she wouldn't be anywhere else in the world right now, not even for Johnny Depp. Becky confirms that she is not planning on having children for a long time.

10:00: Kristen is dilated to six centimetres now and is catheterized. The baby's heart-rate dropped down to the 80s while Kristen was on her back for the procedure, then jumped back up to 140-150 when she turned over onto her side. Julie's off to go discuss this with Dr. Kroach.

10:15: Julie talked with our backup midwife Marlene Sagada, who said she would drop by after seeing a woman who's just had her baby. Kristen says she has "Drop Dead Gorgeous" by Republica running through her head; "Edelweiss" is stuck in Jennifer's brain.

10:30: Julie says the baby is doing well. Heart rate hovers around 120 bps, then zooms up to 150 bps when it gets excited.

10:35: Kristen says she's itchy all over, which Julie says can be a side effect of the epidural.

10:45: Kristen's morale is a little too high, as she, Jennifer and Becky have taken to reciting Monty Python skits, occasionally bursting into song.

11:00: Julie says she is going to check Kristen's cervix again soon, and will consult with Dr. Kroach about rupturing the rest of the membrane if the baby is still floating high. She's concerned that the head is still too far up and there's too great a risk of a prolapsed umbilical cord.

11:15: Marlene came by to see how we are doing. Apparently, we got the last bed in the birthing ward today, and other midwives are being told to just keep their clients at home.

11:30: Kristen thought that the baby had moved down a bit, based on twinges in her perineum and a change in the shape of her tummy (more ski slope, less bookshelf). We'll see in a little while when Julie takes a look.

11:50: Kristen's been on her right side long enough that she's getting the feeling back in her left leg, so she's rolling over to her left side.

12:10: Julie says that Kristen is back to about five centimetres and the baby's head is still bobbing freely. It's time to call Dr. Kroach to discuss our three choices. We can schedule a Caesarian section, try a controlled rupture of the membrane, or administer oxytocin. We're leaning toward the first choice. We tried rupturing the membrane first with Jamie and it didn't help too much, and we're concerned about the risk of cord prolapse. There doesn't seem to be much point in the oxytocin either, as she's been having strong contractions (which have admittedly been slowing down a little in the last half hour) without progress.

12:50: Dr. Kroach came by, took a look at Kristen and said "That baby's head is in Sudbury [a day's drive north of Toronto, i.e. very high up]. There's no hope in hell of him coming out. We're short anaesthiologists right now though, so we may have to wait a few hours to operate. Stay calm, don't let your waters break."

13:00: I went with Jennifer to make a few cellphone calls by the elevator. I told everyone that the baby would likely be born late in the afternoon, by Caesarian section. As we walked back to the room, I noticed that a lot of people seemed to be walking in the same direction, which was odd, because we were in a room in a corner of the ward at the end of a long hall. Then everyone started running and I heard people yelling and noticed the orange light flashing outside our room and things went a little blurry.

I ran too, Julie said Kristen's waters had broken and the baby was in distress. There was an immense amount of water. The bed was soaked, and there were puddles all over the floor that people kept slipping in. Julie had her hand up high in Kristen trying to keep the head off the cervix to keep it from pinching the cord, and kept asking for Dr. Kroach.

(Addendum: Kristen said there was an audible pop as her waters broke, and it took all of about two seconds for Julie to hit the emergency call button and get her hand into Kristen's cervix, then a few more seconds for a very nurse to arrive, take Kristen by both hands and start talking to her in a calming voice until I arrived to take over. She was very impressed.)

13:20: Dr. Kroach showed up a few minutes later, by which time the baby appeared to have settled down onto the cervix without pinching the cord, but it was still not happy. He inserted a scalp monitor to keep close track of the fetal heart rate, and found after a few tries that it was best if Kristen lay on her left side, suggesting that the cord was mainly on her right. She still needed to be operated on quickly though, because the baby could easily move and sit on the cord.

A few more minutes passed by and anaesthesiologist Dr. Mark showed up, called out of an operating room. All the medical staff ran Kristen into the prep room, Julie came back out with sterile clothing for me and escorted me back in with the operation underway. Kristen was doing fine, shivering as usual and with a good deal of stiffness in her upper body.

13:42: The baby came out quite quickly, at 13:42 according to my camera, a nice big boy weighing 8 lbs. 13.6 oz. (4015 g). We'll wait a day or so before naming him. He has more Oriental features than Jamie did at birth, thick dark hair and fine hair on his shoulders and back, like I did at birth.

I picked him up after his APGAR tests, passed him to Julie to weigh, then picked him back up and held him against my bare chest for the next hour or so as Kristen was sewn back up, moved to the recovery room and gradually regained feeling in her body.

15:00: I'd still be holding onto the boy now, except he looked hungry. He was stroking his cheek, which stimulated his rooting reflex, and he was looking alarmingly speculatively at my nipple. I gave him to Kristen a little while ago, when she had enough arm strength to start nursing him, which he did with a little help from Julie.

16:30: Kristen has moved to a semiprivate room, and is at the top of the list for a private room. We're taking turns carrying the baby around, not quite fighting each other for the privilege. Julie measured the baby and he is 21" (53 cm, just like Jamie) long, 14" (36 cm) head circumference.

2006-08-24 24:00 (John) It's getting harder to write as I can barely keep my eyes open now, but I came home, updated the blog, picked Jamie up from Gary and Ayami, fed him a bit more dinner, then brought him to the hospital to meet his new baby brother. Jamie was an excellent big brother and took his role very seriously as he is wont to do. I believe his first words to his brother were "Mummy, the baby's out!" He put us through our paces making sure that all was as we had discussed. He made the baby nurse, confirmed that he himself was not supposed to nurse, took me for a walk around the ward with the baby to burp him, made me sing a lullaby to calm the baby when it cried, etc.

Jennifer and Laraine took Jamie for a walk around the ward so that Kristen and I could talk about baby names for a few minutes in private, and so that Kristen could view a downloaded copy of the blog to date. We agreed on a name that we think we like, but will try it out for a day before announcing it.

I brought Jamie home, Gary and Ayami took him and brushed his teeth, and I fell asleep waiting for him in the bathtub. I bathed him quickly, then read a Japanese picture book to him in bed. He said he wanted to sleep with Mom, and had a little trouble settling, but then pretended to phone the hospital and talk to everyone there, which calmed him down. I fell asleep, and when I woke up 20 minutes later, he was fast asleep beside me.

I am touched by how many of our friends and family helped to make our lives easier today. Gary and Ayami took charge of Jamie all day. Ken and Tami walked and fed Jamie. Sherrie took my brief telephone babblings and made sense out of them to relay to our Scrabble friends online. My mom, Laraine, Jennifer and Becky all worked in rotation at the birth to look after Kristen. Laraine drove us all back and forth when I was too tired or excited to drive, and put up with my navigation. Becky is spending the night sleeping on a chair at the hospital keeping an eye on Kristen and the baby. Julie Witmer is the best midwife in the whole world, and saved Kristen's life and the baby's. Dr. Kroach had the right combination of humour to break the ice and nerves and skill to pull a healthy baby out of Kristen. And of course, Kristen has given me another son, and there aren't words in the dictionary to express what that means to me.

2006-08-25 07:00 (John) Jamie woke up at 5:30 screaming for Kristen. He sometimes wakes up as it's getting light out, and if he's been having nightmares (this morning's apparently involved looking for coffee) it can be difficult or impossible to get him to settle back down. It took about half an hour, a promise that we would go see Mom as soon as we could, a few Freezies, a Thomas The Tank Engine video and a lot of help from Jennifer. On the bright side, he's eaten his breakfast, had a pee and a poo and is almost ready to head out the door, three hours early.

2006-08-25 12:00 (John) We stopped in briefly at the hospital entirely not on the way to Hakobune. Briefly because Jamie fell asleep on the five-minute ride there. The baby is having the usual trouble learning to burp, but is nursing well. Kristen's catheter is out and she is starting to walk around very slowly. Jamie insisted on buying a package of brownies and giving one to everyone except the baby, who he knows isn't allowed to eat food yet. Then he entertained us by telling us all he knows about the movie Snakes on a Plane, though who knows where he's getting it. He says "Snakes on a plane! There's a big black people on the plane getting cross at the snakes! [Scowls, imitating Samuel L. Jackson] Grr!". Kristen almost popped a staple trying not to laugh at Jamie's impression of Samuel L. Jackson.

Jamie got a round of applause at Hakobune for becoming an oniisan (big brother), I took a brief nap at home and am on the way back to the hospital now to take Becky back (I had to buy her a new sketchbook to thank her for spending the whole night last night at the hospital looking after Kristen and the baby).

2006-08-25 16:40 (John) I dashed over to the hospital to drop Becky off and got to spend ten minutes in private with Kristen but for the presence of a nurse and a procedure involving a catheter, the less said the better. We agreed on a baby name, and caught up on our days so far.

Jamie woke up screaming for Mom, which I'd never seen him do during the day, but he calmed down quite quickly. Laraine came to take him to the hospital, and after a little persuasion involving promise of a brownie-shopping expedition they set off. Dinner at Browning tonight for everyone that can make it, then a quick good-night visit to the hospital.

2006-08-25 18:30 (John) So here is how we decided on our new son's name. In the weeks before the birth, we prepared a short list of names that we both generally liked, along with an even shorter list of names for babies with specific appearances that we thought might be possible. When the baby was born, we ruled out all but two names.

Kristen liked the name Liam, I like it but consider it a nickname rather than a proper name on its own, so we agreed that his first name would be William on his birth certificate and Liam to his friends and family.

Also before the birth, we agreed that if the baby was a girl, her middle name would be Laraine, a family tradition on Kristen's side. If it was a boy, his middle name would be Edward, after my brother and a similar family tradition on my side of naming second children after uncles or great uncles. (My grandfather, John James Chew, Sr., was named for his uncle, who was named for his uncle.) Oh, and because I think my brother is a really cool guy.

Looking at Liam, we realised that he was going to need a Japanese name too. My mother inherited the character 榮 from her father's name, so we wanted that character in our son's name. We chose 竜榮 (Ryuuei) because it starts with sounds similar to his English name.

So please welcome William "Liam" Edward Ryuuei Chew to your hearts.

2006-08-25 23:45 (John) Kristen tells me on the phone from her new private room that Liam received the following visitors today, in addition to people staying at our house: Aunt Millie, Kelly, Daniel, Gary and Ayami. Laraine also brought over a little Lamaze lion from our neighbours Karen, David and Alexandria. I can hear Liam hiccuping squeakily in the background. I'm going to paste in what Kristen wrote earlier on, when I popped by to say good night after dinner. Dinner was spaghetti at Browning. Jamie was very very tired and fell asleep easily on my arm in bed. Jennifer is spending the night at the hospital with Kristen and Liam. Tomorrow, we're off to the Saturday farmer's market as usual.

2006-08-25 24:00 (Kristen) [John: I brought the laptop to the hospital so that Kristen could write this for subsequent upload.] Liam was a wonderful baby last night, and slept for most of it, except when he woke up with a particularly piercing cry of his. He seems to have some trouble with gas, and we're working on teaching him how to burp. This is not a lesson his older brother currently needs, and I'm thinking that I should be asking Jamie to teach Liam how. It's memorable.

Observations about Liam: he cries real tears. It's a myth, people, that babies don't cry tears until after six weeks or so. My son is proof. He is a very placid boy, and has slept most of the day away. He isn't nursing much, but he is still managing to put out a week's worth of meconium. Jen and I think that his eyes are grey or brown, not blue, but he doesn't open them long enough for us to get a good look at them in bright light. My aunt left us a lovely plant, and Ted, Alice, Ian, and Amy also sent us a beautiful arrangement of house plants. Liam really likes overhead lights, just like Jamie did at this age. Liam likes it when I sing to him, and just play with his hands or pat him. I'm still overwhelmed by his presence, amazed at and thankful for the extraordinary string of events that put him into our arms safely, and glad to be getting to know him at all.

2006-08-26 08:00 (John) Jamie woke up fine this morning at 07:30 after 8.5 hours of sleep for him and 6.5 for me. We chatted for half an hour in bed and are now watching Wallace and Gromit in A Close Shave. Kristen just called to say that as she feared, Liam was up all night nursing and looking around after spending the day asleep. She'll try to rest during the day, and keep Liam up more in the afternoon and evening.

2006-08-26 17:00 (John) Jamie ate a good deal of "honey toast" (English muffin with margarine and honey) in front of the TV and let me eat my cereal and wash up. I got packed for the market, asked Laraine to take Becky to the hospital and bring back Jennifer. They came back, I took Jamie to visit Kristen for a little while, with Jamie insisting that he play in the school playground across from the hospital instead. I told him that we could do it after the market, which led to a day in which he repeatedly asked me about the sequence of events planned between whatever we happened to be doing and our arrival at the market. Jamie then fell asleep on the way down to the market, so Becky and my mom shopped the north building, but Jamie then woke up after a mere 45 minutes, so he was able to visit all of his fans. I showed pictures of Liam on my laptop and got appropriate oohs and aahs. Nupur gave us a lovely bunch of sunflowers to celebrate. Steve gave a big grin and said "two down, four to go!".

Jamie was increasingly tired, but in maniacally good spirits. He shared a smoked salmon sandwich with me at Loblaws, which he'd never expressed any interest in before, so his taste buds must be changing again. I dropped my mom off home, unloaded our groceries, cleaned out the fridge, took out the compost, got my dad to drive Jennifer to relieve Laraine at the hospital and drop Becky and Jamie off at the aforementioned playground, then took a quick nap before going to the hospital myself.

2006-08-26 18:30 (Kristen) John is off walking with Liam while I write this, but given the tone of Liam's cries, I don't have much time before the next nurse. Observation: he has my grandmother's nails. (John taking over the keyboard here while Liam nurses.) Jennifer and I call Liam "Sprout" or "the sprout". (John: I don't.) He sucks his thumb. (John: he was sucking all of his fingers in the first hour after birth before Kristen was able to nurse him.) His digestive system is maturing quickly. His poo is turning brown, instead of meconium black. He kept me up at 30-60 minute intervals last night but stayed awake with short naps for most of the afternoon. I hope he'll let me sleep for longer periods tonight. My milk is coming in.

2006-08-26 23:30 (John) Dinner was gyoza at Pearls, with takeout taken to the hospital for Jennifer. Jamie ate well, though he has been obsessed all day with a Fisher-Price activity board that he brought home from Browning yesterday, which he calls Red Baby because of a squeaking red rabbit on it. Red Baby joined us at the dinner table, because it was apparently squeaking its hunger.

Laraine looked after Jamie long enough for me to take Becky to relieve Jennifer and downlaod photos from our camera at the hospital, then I set a new speed record bathing Jamie and putting him to bed, despite his three prodigious pees.

2006-08-27 10:00 (John) Jamie slept 10.5 hours last night and I slept 9 hours, so we're feeling a little more human. When we called Kristen at 9:00, she had already been seen by a doctor, who took her staples out (ouch) and told her that she could go home at 1:00 this afternoon. Yay! Liam slept from 23:00-03:00 last night and was not all that fussy for the rest of the night, so Kristen sounded better than she did yesterday. He weighed 8 lbs. 0.6 oz. (3645 g) this morning, so he's starting to put weight back on after losing a pound on his first day. We're looking forward to all being together at home later today.

2006-08-27 12:15 (John) Jamie spent a quiet morning eating his English muffins and blueberries while watching Japanese videos. Laraine and I are off now to bring Jennifer, Kristen and Liam home from the hospital. Gary will take Jamie out for his walk, and Millie is on her way down to take Becky home for a sleepover.

2006-08-27 15:40 (John) Liam and Kristen are back home. I took a nap with Liam, woke up when Liam was hungry, and he's nursing now. Gary should be back with Jamie soon, and we're expecting visits from my aunts this afternoon.

2006-08-27 24:40 (John) Julie came over for a house call. Kristen and Liam are well. Liam may not be peeing enough, but it's hard to tell, because we're not used to newborns in disposable diapers. (The city now accepts disposables for municipal compost, so we switched from cloth.) We'll keep an eye on it.

Karen and Alexandria dropped by with watermelon and homemade soup. My older son loves watermelon, and I love him, so I am willing to sit beside him and wipe the juice off his hands before it gets sticky, despite the fact that I loathe the stuff myself. K and A were very helpful in keeping Jamie amused while Julie was here.

My aunts Nobuko and Tomoko came by bearing gifts and food. Jamie was particularly delighted to see Tomoko, and dragged her off to play until dinner time. I took a short nap before getting ready to make our regular salmon dinner at Browning. Kristen slept until dinner was ready.

We got home a little later than I'd hoped, but it was nice to have dinner with our friends at Browning to reestablish a sense of normalcy. I gave Liam his first bath (he didn't enjoy it as much as Jamie did his), then bathed Jamie and then we tried a variety of sleeping arrangements of the four of us before finding one that seemed to suit both Jamie's demands and basic requirements of safety. Neither boy was ready to sleep for a long time, due I think in each case to a combination of being too excited and having to poo.

Liam is spending a lot more time with his eyes open, and he's just marvelling at everything he sees. I can tell he's thinking "First there was this hospital thing, now all this; what could possibly come next?"

2006-08-28 14:30 (John) Jamie woke up around 08:00 and Kristen took him downstairs to play and eat breakfast. Liam needed a diaper change around 08:30, so Laraine got up and took him downstairs too. I got up, moved Jamie's pack-and-play downstairs in preparation for its use as a change table, then started laundry because it's sunny today and supposed to be rainy tomorrow when Trifina comes. I managed to spend half an hour processing registrations for the Mike Wise Memorial Scrabble Tournament in between various household chores, then made lunch for Jamie and Kristen and took Jamie out on his walk. As I write this, he's been asleep for half an hour, and I'll see what other work I can do here at the Second Cup.

2006-08-28 21:30 (John) We've been wandering about like zombies as the cumulative effects of sleep deprivation settle in. Laraine and Jennifer went out to have dinner with Millie and Becky. My mom came over to keep an eye on the kids so that Kristen could have a shower and I could make soba for dinner. My dad got his first at Liam with his eyes open. Liam is still sleeping whenever he isn't hungry or in discomfort, and I'm envious. Our earlier questions about his eye colour have been settled, sort of: as best as I can tell his eyes are a slightly brown-tinged deep baby blue. Bathtime for all the boys now!

2006-08-28 23:09 (Kristen) John, Liam, and Jamie are all asleep together in bed right now, and I'm up typing. Surrounded by men, I'm hiding out with my mom, my sister, and my niece for some support! A lot of people are asking me how Jamie is making out with Liam: is there sibling rivalry, etc.? Jamie is making out very well with his new brother: he talks about him, knows his name consistently and asks me if he can touch him. When he does, he smiles, and tells me that Liam is soft. He comes by and checks on him, makes sure that his crying has a reason for it, and seems to be generally getting along. He does object to some people holding Liam, and we're not sure if he's being possessive of his relationship with the person, or of Liam. The only signs that he is having some difficulty adjusting is in his bedtime routine, and in his eating. He still isn't eating without being monitored or actively fed, but he did start this before Liam was born, so it's not entirely obvious if one is related to the other. He needs lots of people to play with him, more so than usual, which means that we're being social. The big thing is bedtime. He usually snuggled up to me, but as I was holding Liam last night and tonight, he spends a great deal of time wriggling, and doing things that he isn't supposed to do in bed or that we ask him directly not to do. Last night he was awake until almost midnight, after I put Liam on the other side of me and we fell asleep cuddling (holding hands, actually) after our usual traditional goodnights. Tonight, I had Liam on my right shoulder and Jamie was to my left: after twenty minutes of last night's behaviour, I tried to get Jamie to cuddle up into my left side. He wasn't really interested, and so I let him alone. Finally, he asked me where Liam was: I said that he was on my shoulder, but I had enough arms for both of them. He seemed to accept this, and fell asleep with his head on my left side. I'm doing what I can to accomodate both. We're still working on sleeping arrangments that work well for everyone.

* For the benefit of Scrabble players, words that are not in the Scrabble dictionary are marked with an asterisk.

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