Ok, here is my first attempt to post a photo. Here is our newest addition to the family.

So far things are going well. The little man is letting me get some sleep. My only issue with nursing is that my milk came in with full force and I was engorged. Ouch!!! Guess my body remembered how to do this a little too well! But now that we are getting into a good nursing groove things are much better. We had a rough night last night, DS#1 kept getting up and just as I got him back down, DS#2 was ready to nurse AGAIN. Sigh. It was a LONG night.

Baby Rocky (Pebble?) arrived on Saturday, April 26th at 5:16 am central time.  She measured 20.5" and 8 lb 3 oz, and responds to "Mia".  

Her arrival seems to have been in response to a challenge, in this case issued by my sister as she drove out of town for the weekend, who said "don't worry, it's not like the baby is going to show up in the next 24 hours".  When my water broke 3 hours later we did have quite a scramble to find someone to take care of DD but still made it to the hospital in time.  

We are home and recovering well and will post more details soon!

--R

Hi all,

After an extremely speedy, but otherwise smooth delivery our daughter Femke (say: femkuh) was born yesterday evening April 18th at 11:19 PM CEST (that's 6 hrs ahead of Eastern, 9 ahead of Pacific summer time). Both Femke and I are doing very well.

I'll check in again in a couple of days with some more details and perhaps a picture or two.

(Cross-posted at The Workin' Mom)

Oh. my. god. This story literally makes my stomach hurt.

A 20-year-old father in Galveston, Texas, was convicted today of felony injury to a child for -- brace yourselves -- putting his then 2-month-old infant in a hotel microwave ... and then turning it on for 10-20 seconds. He already had reportedly punched the baby and put her in the hotel safe and fridge at some point, according to the story that you can read by clicking here.

Oh, and I bet you guessed it already. Yep. He claimed he was insane at the time of the abuse. The prosecution’s experts didn’t buy that, and neither did the jury.

The baby, named Ana, is one year old now. She still has wounds that need cleaned every day, according to her foster mother. Officials say Ana suffered second- and third-degree burns to her left ear, cheek, hand and shoulder and needed skin grafts.

Doesn’t this make you heartsick? I think about my two precious kids, and I just cannot imagine doing something like this to them -- or to any baby, period.

And what’s the possible punishment for this guy? The story says he faces "anything from probation to life in prison." Probation?! That’s actually an option in this case? I’m shaking my head in disgust right now.

Update below the Pictures

Pictures at the bottom

So, Monday night was awful.  I barely slept, Rory kept waking up, Pablo tossed and turned.  Seems like the only one of us who slept well was Julian, sweet oblivious boy.  One of our coping mechanisms was to write in Sharpie, on the back of his head: "Handle With Care."  It amused us on an otherwise awful night.  We woke up at 5 am to shower and make tea, packed up a change of clothes, some blankets and the camera, and bundled Julian out of the house for his 6am pre-operative anesthesia appointment.

Howdy all!  

Surgery is on the 22nd of this month.  So soon!

Well, we’ve had a wealth of health information recently on Julian.  First, on December 27th we (he and I) came down with thrush.  It is a horrible, fungal infection that passes from baby to mom and back, and it HURTS.  We were getting on a train when the symptoms became really obvious, but our wonderful pediatrician called in our prescriptions to the Redondo Beach pharmacy, so we were starting to heal up by New Years.

Via Parents magazine: I thought the baby Star Wars wear on this site was adorable! I may have to surprise Eli -- okay Papi -- for Christmas.

”When Is the Next Baby Coming?” Parenting magazine, not to be confused with Parents, came up with clever comebacks to that nosey question, “Are you having another baby?” The mag’s three pat answers:

”For now, we’re just trying to get used to the new one.”

“The shop’s closed for the season. Check back next spring.”

“How about those Mets?”

Use the last one only if you really want to tell someone to buzz off. Do you have other witty comebacks to that never-ending question?

Celebrity Gossip: I can’t believe I missed this one. The biological mother of Angelina Jolie’s Ethiopian daughter Zahara dismissed a recent In Touch article that she wanted her daughter back.

UPDATE: The United Health Care Workers of SEIU will hold a conference this Saturday in San Jose, Calif., which will include a great speaker: Elizabeth Edwards! I was invited to cover the speech, but am unable to attend. Would any of you like a press pass on behalf of MotherTalkers to hear Elizabeth speak? If interested, please e-mail me at elisa at mothertalkers dot com. And of course, don't forget to write a diary on it! Thanks, Elisa

What’s on my mind? Sleep woes. Always sleep woes. Lately, the culprits include not only the baby -- but Ari. Our sweet three-year-old is quickly becoming a belligerent four-year-old (Nov. 2) who fights us all the time: in the morning, at school, during dinner, and at bedtime.

Even worse, he demands that we sleep with him at night and then gets up in the middle of the night to come to bed with us. DH usually takes him back to bed and ends up sleeping the rest of the night with him.

Everything we said we would never do -- like coddle our kid in the middle of the night and co-sleep with him -- we do. We don’t know what else to do that would not involve two screaming children in the middle of the night.  

Most recently, Berkeley Parents Network had two letters in the same edition by the frazzled moms of four-year-olds. (Apparently, Ari’s behavior is not atypical of this age.) In one of the letters, the mom complained about her four-year-old waking up every night. But I did not like the advice, which was rather harsh. One mom set up a sleeping bag and allowed her daughter to sleep in her room, unless she made noise. If the mother woke up, she would kick out her daughter and lock the door.  (I can hear Ari’s wails now.)

The other mother sounded just as sleep deprived as me: She has a baby and gets into power struggles with her four-year-old in the middle of the night. (Exactly what I want to avoid.) She won’t let him in the bed before 5 a.m. and he cries. Two crying kids in the middle of the night sounds nightmarish to me, which is why I don’t want to go the “cry it out” route yet. Of course, if I was a perpetual zombie -- I am getting there -- I would probably go the route of these moms. For now, my husband and I wake up and constantly switch beds in the middle of the night. Sigh.

What’s up, MotherTalkers?

A few more details gleaned from a quick phone conversation with Markos:

Elisandra was born around 5 p.m., weighing just a hair under 9 pounds. She is 20.5 inches long, and tiny Elisa managed to squeeze her out without tearing or needing an episiotomy. I know she really wanted to avoid either of those scenarios, so I'm really happy for her.

During labor, the midwife kept commenting on what a large baby it was, which had Markos convinced another boy was in store. Babies always manage to surprise us, don't they??

This was a much quicker labor and delivery than Elisa's first--she was already 7 cm. dilated when she arrived at the hospital around 1 p.m.

Elisandra has dark, curly hair just like her mommy's-- lucky girl!!!

I'm at a family party, and managed to sneak away to convey this news from Elisa and Markos. I am beyond happy for my dear friends.

Nine pounds, healthy baby girl. "Elisa was a rock star," says my hubby, relaying Markos' message.
Yay! Now I gotta go get them some FOOD.

Well, kos says:

Still no baby. Getting darn close, however.

Hmm....what exactly does he mean by "darn close?"  I wonder if Elisa and he have a somewhat different perspective on what "darn close" means....