Life continues apace...

...though without cell phone service. Cingular has cut us off as they don't provide service here. Phones are on the way, hopefully we'll have the same numbers, will post again when I know. In the meantime, you'll have to email us at ape@apejoy.com or audcrane@gmail.com. Or snail mail!

Clementine has a cold--coughing, runny nose. She was an incredible basket-case yesterday. We put her to bed at her normal time, 7. She didn't sleep until after midnight. It was probably our worst night with her ever. We are trying to keep her away from Calliope without keeping her away in a way that makes her resentful or frustrated. Quite different from having just one and avoiding sick people altogether for 6 weeks.

Calliope had her 2-week checkup and is up to 7lbs 4oz! I'm thrilled to have her back at her birth weight after only 2 weeks. Hard to believe she's still a full pound lighter than Clementine was when she was born. We are just now moving from premie diapers to newborn diapers. It's interesting already how different she is from Clementine already. Her startle reflex is much less pronounced, and she likes the swing!! Yay!! Clementine hated it until she was like 5 months old.

Will post again if something interesting happens or when our phones start working, whichever happens first.

Calliope Francis...

...is her name.

Calliope \c(a)-llio-pe\ is pronounced ka-LYE-ah-pee. In Greek mythology, Calliope (Greek: Καλλιόπη, beautiful-voiced) was the muse of epic poetry, daughter of Zeus and Mnemosyne, and is now best known as Homer's muse, the inspiration for The Iliad and The Odyssey. She was the oldest and wisest of the nine Muses, as well as the most assertive. Also the name of a musical instrument typically seen at circuses and carnivals.

Francis is for San Francisco, named after Saint Francis, and where Calliope got started. :-)

We thought long and hard about this one, and while it's unusual, we think it's a lovely name, with a lovely provenance, and have already met someone who knows another Calliope!

Things are going surprisingly well, especially considering that we're on our own right now. There are really two big things that we're struggling with.

First, the washing machine went out two weeks ago. This is amazingly horrible timing. After several phone calls to Home Depot, and a promise that the machine we ordered would be delivered today, we got a call that it's back ordered and won't be arriving until mid-February!! Now we have been to the laundromat once with a huge pile of laundry, all four of us (imagining that it's easier with two grown-ups, nevermind the two kids). Let me tell you how fun it is to be in a laundromat with an infant and a two-year old, with doors that automatically slide open an dryers that take 2 hours to dry a normal load.

Second, Clementine is just a basket-case. I'm not sure if it's creeping up on two years old, or the visitors that have been coming and going, or the new baby, or most likely all of it put together. Clementine has been incredibly fragile, crying at the drop of a hat, not sleeping well, short naps, waking up in the middle of the night and being unwilling to go back to sleep. This pushes both of us to our limits within minutes of trading daughters. We're trying to keep her schedule very much the same, but of course things are different. She is incredibly sweet with her sisert, though, which is wonderful to see.

Calliope is a lovely, sleepy, hungry little newborn. I've heard various things about having two... Literally everything from having 2 is 10 times harder to having 2 is barely a blip on the radar once you have 1. So far having 2 seems to be pretty much like having 2. I can't imagine how some moms deal with this... If I was the dad, I'd have 2 weeks paternity leave and then on Monday I'd be going back to work, leaving Ryan with a helpless little infant that needs carried and nursed all the time and a miserable 2-year old. Egads. I feel like it's just as reasonable to plan our next vacation to Mars. Still, it's going much better than it did with Clementine. I think we know better what advice to ignore. And we don't expect to be able to put her down or have her on a schedule right away.

Meanwhile, I am doing pretty well. I was pretty depressed after Clementine was born, but that seemed to pass pretty quickly for me this time. I found it incredibly difficult to see Clementine upset, but it's a pretty simple thing to put her first as she usually only needs me for a few minutes and Calliope is easily distracted by shiny objects and her father's clean pinky. My biggest struggle has been how relatively quickly it all went. I was in the hospital this time for the same amount of time I was in *labor* with Clementine. I find I'm clinging to things from the hospital and the bruises (still!) from when they tried and failed to put my IV in the same way I would if I had a souvenir from a dream. It seems unreal. Of course there's Calliope, but that's way too far out to be anywhere near reality. There's no way that birth thing happens the way everyone thinks it does, I am 100% positive of that. And I was there. Trust me, it's impossible.

Anyway, there are more photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/audcrane/. Thanks everyone for the flowers, food, lovely baby gifts and notes. They help! I am writing thank-you notes!!!

No name yet...

...though we are close. I promise to post when we have it.

All is going well, we are sleeping much better than we did with Clementine (not all night by any means, but better) now that we know what advice to ignore. :-)

Things seem to be under control, though our last help (Thanks Mom! Thanks Todd and Jessica!) just got on a plane. Now the rubber hits the road...

Still no >gasp< name...

... but we're working on it. No, really we are.

Baby made her first trip to The Wal-Mart today. I, Ryan, won't set foot in the place (except when a child needs something in the middle of the night and there is actually no other choice), but it is my child's duty to thwart and oppose me. France has 24-hour pharmacies in every town, we have The Wal-Mart, which, though open 24-7-365, does not have a 24-hour pharmacy. Pork rinds and Motrin. Mmmm...

Lest anyone confuse my pseudo-political, semi-socialist blabber with what actually happened, Audrey went to The Wal-Mart with Kid #2 in search of a car seat this afternoon. No one is sick, and no one needed pork rinds or otherwise in the middle of the night. You see, we were loaned a car seat which happens to be the very same model that tends to fly off its base in a collision as reported very recently by Consumer Reports. Of course the people that loaned us the seat did not know this as their child grew out of it some months ago (before the left wing wackos at CR began their attempt to undermine corporate car seat manufacturers). Being left wing wackos ourselves, we are uncomfortable with this and feel we must spend more money on more plastic from a different profit-driven organization, with whom we will partially and not insignificantly, entrust our child's safety. What else can we do?

sfx. fanfare...

Announcing the birth of _________, a girl, born at 4:42am, January 15th and weighing 6lbs. 14oz.

Mom and baby are doing great.

Photos here:

http://flickr.com/photos/audcrane/sets/72157594484143367/

I hope to write up something more informative here soon.

Ryan, the proud, outnumbered papa.

2:17 AM...

... going to hospital

...

Nope...

... ok, not nothing, but not THE thing either. More intense, more painful contractions, but no real action.

... waiting ...

No...

Nothing doing.

Went swimming today. Just getting in the water halfway up my belly feels incredibly good. I'm so glad babies float! Did a few laps, it's so wonderful to have all that weight taken off and be able to move normally!

I am at the point where pregnancy is not just something people notice about me that everyone has -- like hair color. It's more like multiple painful-looking facial piercings. People don't want to look, but they can't help it, and then end up in this weird facial battle where their eyes won't peel away in spite of everything their eyebrows are doing to get them to stop staring. This is the most true of the first-time fathers I see in the OB's office. They're so obviously terrified that their wife will be my size someday; they just can't believe it. Poor dears. Never fails to make me laugh. :)

Zilch...

...sorry, folks. Ultrasound was fine, I feel just the same as ever.

Clementine did get a haircut and is very, very, very cute. That's about it!

Zippo...

...today. The ultrasound was somehow mis-scheduled, so I'll get in for that tomorrow, which should be fun. Other than that, life continues apace.

Clementine has taken to saying "Baby sister come out soon." Well, it's more like, "Baby shusher comout soon." (She's convinced it's a sister, though today she said something scary about "Baby brother first.") Anyway, it's cute. That's about all the news though. Clementine is cute. There you have it, folks.

Nothing...

...except that it's 1:00am and I simply cannot sleep for anything. Which is great, since so many restful nights lay ahead. I'm not that uncomfortable except for my upper back, which is hurting again. I just can't sleep.

>sigh<

Different doctor yesterday pooh-poohed the need for an ultrasound, which is fine except I'm more comfortable with the doctor that wanted it and I don't understand how someone else in the same practice can just blow off her opinion that it's warranted.

>sigh<

Off for some warm milk...

Nada

Nothin' doing today (so far).

On the something-is-happening front, Brenna Freestone had her baby, 2 weeks early! (picts)

Nope...

...nothing.

Sorry kids. :)


If you want some excitement, try apple.com.

Time for another countdown...

...now that it's the day after my due date, more synonyms for "nope".

All is well, no signs of anything although I'm very hungry and able to breathe, so I think the baby is dropping a bit. This could happen weeks before, don't get excited.

Another dr. appt on Wednesday, probably with an ultrasound if I make it to then. I'll keep posting....