The Wait Is Over!

Macon Raynor David made his much-anticipated arrival at 5:38 a.m. today. 6.5 pounds, 19.5 inches, and cute as cute can be.

Mom and baby are doing great, though Mom is itching to post a few hundred photos of the big day, but we'll all have to settle for this first handful.

Meanwhile, Jed's long nightmare is just beginning.

waiting

Waiting for bd2 is boring.

Apparently, Uncle Brian found waiting (albeit 3 years in advance) for the original bd2 equally boring.

checking in

If you're checking our blog for bd2 updates, you're going to have to keep checking. Who thought we'd make it this far? Certainly not us! But we're just a day short of 39 weeks and bd2 continues cooking, despite weeks and weeks of mild contractions that have now become almost a week's worth of painful contractions. The kid is more than welcome to keep hanging out (sleepless nights thanks to an uncomfortable girth are better than sleepless nights thanks to 3-hour feedings), but the contractions and the requisite question, "is this it?" need to either stop or get started and stay started!

turkeys

Lately, we've had a few false starts at our house. The early hours of Monday found us hospital-bound with contractions coming about every 3 to 4 minutes, following hours of contractions that were steadily increasing in frequency. It seemed like the real deal, but they petered out shortly after we got to the hospital, and they booted us out at 3 a.m.

Later that same morning, Jed woke up and seemed to feel pretty bad. He's had a cold for several days, but over the course of about an hour after he woke up, he became more and more lethargic to the point of scaring us into our second trip to the ER in less than 12 hours.

Naturally, he started perking up as soon as we got to the hospital, but, as with the contractions, things appeared to be serious, so taking him in seemed like the best option. I'm happy to report that aside from the cold, which continues, he seems to be back to his high-flying self.

Today, no hospital visits (yet, at least) for anyone, but we did have a very good Thanksgiving lunch at Jed's school. Grandma and Grandpa and Teddie joined us and Jed's class did a good job of coming out on stage and waving their turkeys around while their teacher told us what each child was thankful for. His classmate Madeline was thankful for macaroni and cheese (who isn't?) and Jed was thankful for fire trucks (again, who isn't?).

a popsicle in the ER room, doctor's orders

Jed's Thanksgiving posse: Teddie, Grandma, and Grandpa

turkeys waving turkeys

parade

This morning, we took Jed to our Christmas parade. Here's a transcript of his commentary:

"Home."
"Stroller."
"Home."
"Too noisy."
"Home."

Sunday morning updates:
1. Bd2 did not arrive overnight. Will today's full moon work its magic? I am doubtful.
2. The first words out of Jed's mouth this morning were "no parade."

yard work

This morning, in an effort to enjoy the weather and maybe move bd2 along a little bit, I raked up a very small quantity of leaves. Naturally, Jed assisted.

Thankfully, I suppose, my efforts didn't pay off (or they haven't yet) because our main route to the hospital was blocked.

Um, Jed, some people find using the wheel part of the wheelbarrow helpful.

draw

After Jed finished breakfast this morning, he promptly escaped from his pajamas and diaper and happily played in the buff while I was cleaning up oatmeal and egg and banana and smoothie. From the kitchen, I heard him ask me to "draw train tracks," to which I responded, "Let me finish cleaning up first." Well, apparently, I took too long.

bd2's nursery

Several people have asked me about bd2's nursery. Basically, he's just getting a crib in the corner of the guest room until he's old enough to share a room with Jed, but I do have some pictures for you. (Don't worry if you're a likely guest of ours; we'll move him into our room when you visit!)

Eric's great aunt gave this sweater set to Marlene and Toby when either Brian or Eric was born, so bd2 will probably come home from the hospital in this, unless it's 80 degrees.

Teddie gave Jed his first teddy bear and she's done the same for bd2.

a look at his corner of the guest room

the keek

If you have noticed from past posts that we have a very small front yard and that outdoor pictures of Jed are only taken there, you may have concluded, correctly, that the only yard we have is the tiny front yard.

We accepted such a small yard because there are numerous open spaces near our house, specifically a small park and a beautiful, rolling cemetery. I know it seems morbid to think about a cemetery as a play space, but for starters, if you were spending eternity underground, wouldn't you want to hear children running around above you? Additionally, Caroline and I frequently played in cemeteries when we were kids, so I'm comfortable with the notion. Plus, the one Jed will grow up with is a salubrious park, complete with open green lawns and a creek.

Thus, today, we made our first venture to the cemetery creek, or "keek," as Jed called it. Despite the day's clouds, it's warm, which turned out to be lucky because it only took an instant for Jed to become intimately acquainted with the keek. I don't have any pictures of him right at the water, but I think you can see the fascination on his face.

Seems like it's a little damp, mama.
(Unfortunately, this still image does not communicate Jed's awkward, stiff-legged gait.)

With dry socks, pants, and shoes, we proceeded to the "normal" park.

37

Today marks the beginning of week 37 of bd2's pregnancy. While our due date is still 3 weeks away, bd2 is now technically considered full-term! Hooray!

How did we celebrate? We breathed a sigh of relief! And I took a long, brisk walk this morning. Even though I was not on bedrest, my doctors began telling me to limit my activities ten weeks ago. Thus, I have been avoiding all exercise, only going on very short dog walks when absolutely necessary, so it was extremely refreshing to get out and enjoy the fall air. I'm already dreaming of hitting the gym, going on a 3-mile pre-dawn run, and finally beating Jed in a front yard race.

free at last! free at last!

For a long time now, Jed has been able to open the front door. As a result, we've made a habit of keeping the deadbolt secured because he can't reach that, despite trying to use a broom to flip it, but even if he opened the door, I could remain calm in the knowledge that he couldn't open the front gate.

Over the last few days, however, he's perfected his gate-opening technique, but I still had the deadbolt.

Or so I thought.

This morning, Jed moved one of his little benches into the front hall and got to work. At least he'll have to make noise dragging furniture to the door before he lets himself out, but it looks like he's found a soft spot in our security.

hhhuummm . . . a locked door . . .

this should do the trick

push the bench back and . . .

catch me if you can!

and finally, a random picture of some itsy-bitsy spider action at breakfast this morning

the winning name

Eliot Raynor topped our name poll with 16 votes! But that sparks a new question: Eliot or Elliot?

Macon Raynor's 5 votes won second place, followed by Raynor Crim (3 votes), and Macon Francis and Francis Raynor with 2 votes each.

So how did people make their decisions? One of our voters cast her ballot based on the name's initials, and you can click here to check out Caroline's post documenting Henry's elaborate, "scientific" calculations concerning our name choices.

Also, here are some answers to your questions about the origins of the names:

Eliot/Elliot: just a name we like, free of family connections
Raynor: middle name of Sarah's father, grandfather, and great-great-great (or more greats?) grandfather
Macon: Sarah's great-uncle's name
Francis: a surname from Eric's mother's side of the family
Crim: Sarah's maternal grandmother's maiden name

As I said in the post introducing the poll, we (or more specifically: I) need to see bd2 before we name him, so the real winning name won't be revealed until we can report a delivery, which could be tonight (but only if things change very, very rapidly) or in December! For the record, Caroline and Jed's preschool teacher are predicting that we are very close to a birthday. Personally, I cannot report that I feel any differently today than I have for weeks now, but who knows?

go time?

This morning, Caroline called to see if we were in the hospital because she dreamed that bd2 had arrived. Later in the morning, Courtney emailed to say that last night, she dreamed that I'd delivered bd2 and his twin, bd3.

I did go to the doctor this morning, but just the regular doctor to get some help getting over a cold. However, I have been having some contractions that, at points, have become regular and painful for one or two hours. I have no idea how long this could go on, so I assume there is still a chance to make our due date, but bd2's rumblings are getting louder.

The good news, however, is that we've held on to bd2 for several days longer than we made it with Jed and with each day we get tantalizingly close to 37 weeks (this coming Sunday), which is technically full term.

We'll keep you posted!

bad idea

I know this is how tragic accidents with children and cars start, but he was having so much fun while Eric, prompted by a near-trip to the hospital last night, installed the second carseat that I couldn't stop him. When asked where we were going, he responded, "grocery store."

Monday morning update: Jed was still thinking about driving this morning. When we went in his room to get him up, he was in his crib "driving" the "tittle char," or tickle car. What a tickle car is, exactly, remains a mystery, but it seemed like a lot of fun.

Here, he's pointing that we're going "up driveway."

And on a totally different note, here are some good ideas for all my crafty friends and family. The caterpillar almost makes me want to learn to knit. Almost.

the name game is here!

Finally, the poll you've waited for: Name that Baby!

We hope you like our ideas, but in the spirit of full disclosure, I cannot promise that we will name bd2 based on your votes (as was the case with Jed's naming poll). Eric and I have our favorites, and I know Eric would love to settle on one, but I can't imagine naming him without first seeing his little cone head!

Happy voting! We're curious to see who wins!

workin' man

Jed spent part of yesterday repairing our threshold.

And he spent the other part of his afternoon taking a rare tumble down the front steps, resulting in a "moo-moo" above his right eye.

you've spoken

The votes are in, and surprisingly, 3 people actually think we'll make it into December! Three people also voted for late November, but the majority (11) think he'll show up in mid-November (November 11-20). We're starting to think he might arrive in early November, which no one picked, but only time will tell. Thanks for voting, and we'll keep you posted!