At Home

As the visits, emails, and phone calls die down, we are readjusting to our day-to-day lives. Travis went back to work this past week and the boys and I are learning how to manage the daily routine with as little screaming as possible. In fact, things have been moving so smoothly that I have agreed to start teaching again this fall to fill in for another professor.

The smooth adjustment has been mainly made possible by the fact that Caleb sleeps. I never expected to have such a good child, though perhaps getting Noah though infancy was a trial by fire that I somehow passed and am being rewarded for. Noah had to be held every minute and even that wasn't enough to keep him from screaming or resolutely resisting sleep for hours on end. Until Noah was 10 months old, the most Noah ever slept on his own was 10 minutes. In fact, up to December, we still held Noah in the rocking chair all through his naps. Caleb, in contrast, will drift off and, after I lay him down, will stay asleep for 2 hour naps. Needless to say, I am really loving this.

Things have also been easier than I expected in terms of Noah welcoming the new baby. He doesn't seem to be too jealous, though he does order us to hand off the baby when he wants our undivided attention. From the first few days when we brought the baby home, if Grandma Beran was holding the baby, he would push her to me and tell her to hand the baby over so he could take her to play. Overall, though, he accepts that when no one else is around, he has to share his mom and is generally patient...well, as patient as a toddler can be.

He even has his moments of protectiveness. A few days ago my mother and I went shopping at SuperTarget with both Noah and Caleb in tow. My mom and Noah went around into the next aisle as I lingered over the diaper bags. All of the sudden Noah broke into cries of, "baby, baby, no! Mommy, baby!" and hear my mother trying to calm him. As I came around the corner I saw Noah pointing at a man holding a baby, perhaps two months old. It took a few minutes to get his attention, but we finally showed Noah that the stranger was not holding his baby brother and Caleb was still safe with mommy.

This is a story worth holding onto for after Noah and Caleb's first fist fight.

Caleb's Quick Arrival!

There is nothing predictable about having a child. Though this is probably a truism, we were not at all prepared for what transpired in the wee hours of Sunday morning. For the past couple of days I had been having contractions, but they were irregular and, for the most part, weak. Of course the midwife said to wait to go to the hospital until they were 5-7 minutes apart. As Travis left for work Saturday night they were a bit stronger, but I decided to sleep through most of them, trusting that when we needed to go to the hospital I would know. I woke up around 2:30, but was still able to doze through most of them, so I held off on calling anyone until 4 am. I called Travis at work and told him that though they were 10 minutes apart, we might go to the hospital when he got off work at 7 since they were getting stronger and uncomfortable. He called me back 15 minutes later and said he would just come home now and we would all try and get some sleep "just in case". Thank God he came home when he did. Travis was home a little before 5, and since my contractions had stopped for 20 minutes, I figured we had plenty of time to rest.

However, at 5:30 I had a contraction that doubled me over in bed and I grabbed Travis' hand saying "maybe we should go now..." When it was over I decided to see how far apart the next one would be before I called the midwife to let her know I was coming in. The next was 7 minutes, but as I stood up to get the phone I doubled over, looked over at Travis and said, "You're not going to believe this, but I feel 'pushy'." I made my way to the bathroom, no later than 8 steps away, and felt a certain need to push. I tried to hold back, but my water broke as I told Travis, "The baby is coming now." He replied, "We have to go to the hospital." "No," I breathed, "I have to push now." He asked me what to do and I told him to call 911. As he did so he hopped around the bathroom on one foot, in a state of panic that actually had me smiling...or as close to smiling as I could be. He got on the line with the emergency responder at 6:00 and was giving them our address as our second son was born at 6:02.

It all happened VERY quickly and I soon was cuddling our new baby downstairs in the dining room as the fire truck and ambulance pulled in front of the house. At all of the commotion of people arriving at the house, Noah woke up, not upset, but delighted to have his own personal fire truck in his front yard. He didn't even notice the baby as he pointed out the window chattering happily, "fire, wee-ooo, fire truck." Of course as I climbed up on the gurney and was taken to the ambulance, he became upset, but Travis, in a moment of inspiration, grabbed him a doughnut, which Noah found just as exciting as the fire truck.

So, Caleb Adam Samuelson dropped into our world amid very unexpected circumstances. He is 7 pounds, 8 ounces and 18 and a half inches. Big brother Noah is still uncertain as to what is all going on, but I am sure when we return home tomorrow with the new baby there will be some surprise at how everyone's lives will be changing. We will be home as of Tuesday afternoon and we would welcome people to stop by the house for a visit in the afternoons over the next week or so between 2:30 and 6:30. You can also give us a call or an email if you would like to visit at any time. We can't wait to share our joy and excitement with friends and family!

Making Preparations and Picking Names

People always talk about the strength of the nesting instinct in the last weeks or days of pregnancy. A woman at the park the other day told me that she was washing up her salt and pepper shakers and knew at that point she was ready to have her child...and went into labor 12 hours later. Of course, I didn't admit that I polish our salt and pepper shakers every month, baby or no baby. However, over the past couple of days, in a burst of productivity, I have prepared and placed in our freezer: lasagna, a tray of manicotti, taco bake, enchiladas, bean and hamburger bake, teryiaki chicken, corn and cheese cassarole, a dozen salmon cakes, and one and a half dozen banana bread muffins. It took me hours to put it all together and there is no more room in the freezer, but I am energized by the thought that I will have little to do when making dinners right after the new baby arrives. So energized, in fact, that I think I will spend the next few days scrubbing floors and cleaning ceiling fans.

According to my midwife, things are looking very good and the baby is healthy. Somehow, I have had more energy recently than the past few months and am taking advantage of this by finishing up projects around the house and taking Noah out to a park almost every day. I'm not sure how long this "second wind" of energy will last, but we are taking advantage of it now.

Travis, in the meantime, is working on names for the baby. He has a small list for our new little boy, but goes back and forth on his favorites every few days and brings in new ideas every now and then. I have turned the naming responsibility over to him almost completely. Partially, it is because I trust his judgment and like most of the names he is considering. Then too, I also know that I will retain the right of veto in the delivery room after giving birth. Travis has been really through in his considerations. From matching up middle names, checking initials, to practicing each name in cursive to see how hard it will be for the child to learn to sign, Travis is examining names from all the angles. Of course, he has enlisted Noah's help as well: Noah is regularly asked to repeat baby names as we explore what he can and can't say...and what just sounds adorable. Eli, for example, is pronounced (by Noah) as "why," while Emmett comes out perfectly. To keep things interesting, I always throw in Tenzin, a tibetan name meaning "upholder of truth" and the birth name of the Dalai Llama. To our amazement, Noah has no problem pronouncing this "foreign" name, even though half the time we ask him to say Will it comes out "wheel". Perhaps we'll just have to have Noah name the baby, though his top choice when we ask is usually Tractor.