Lucille Louise [Lucy or Lulu] was born at 1:08 AM [after the time-change] on November 2nd. She is 6 lbs. 9 oz.—just one ounce less than Charlie at his birth—and 18.5″ long. Everybody is healthy and happy, enjoying some rest and getting to know each other. Charlie spent some time holding, hugging, and kissing his new sister before asking to go back to the fish tank and toys in the waiting room.

Labor was relatively quick and easy. Once Andrea’s up for it, I’ll have her fill you in with all the lovely details.

Thanks so much to all of our family and friends who supported us throughout the pregnancy and brought us gifts and delicious goodies in the hospital. You are all great.

Here are a few more photos:

First of all, Happy belated Halloween. Even though Andrea spent most of the day hobbling around the house practicing her breathing skillz, we were still able to get Charlie out to enjoy his first ‘real’ Halloween. And by ‘real’, I mean that he fully understood that he was not only allowed, but encouraged to disguise himself and steal candy from strangers. He loved it.

Charlie’s a bat. We are half-assed Juno.

Today, we dropped Andrea off at the hospital to have a non-stress test. The doctor decided it was best if she just stayed for the duration of her pregnancy. I took that to mean that Charlie and I would be bachelors for the next couple of weeks. I was wrong. As usual.

I’ll try to update progress through the evening.

8:15 pm
Water is broken, contractions are intensifying.
Hospital ‘fishnet’ undies are HAWT!

9:15 pm
Epidural is in. Andrea can no longer get me ice chips from down the hall.
In related news, Mike Rowe is delivering a baby calf on Dirty Jobs.

11:01pm

tubes.

1:15am (post time change), Nov. 2nd
I woke to some nurses rolling carts and equipment around, calling for the doctor, slipping on rubber gloves. Thought maybe I should get up. After a few short pushes—~15 minutes, Betababy has arrived.

Mom and Baby are doing well. More details and photos to come.

Happy Birthday, Baby Girl. Welcome to the world.

This morning, when we asked Charlie how old Mommy turns today, he proudly said, “ONE”. Given another chance he said, “TWO”.

“…How old?”

“ONE….TWO…ONE!”

I figure it must be some sort of toddler binary he’s picked up from PBS. Either way, Happy whatever’th Birthday WIfe/Mom.

Recently, Charlie found our point-and-shoot camera in his diaper bag and has claimed it as his own by marking the lens with a greasy thumb print. It took him almost no time at all to learn how to turn the camera on and take pictures. However, he either doesn’t know what direction to aim the camera or he does and he’s just completely narcissistic.

work it!

34 weeks

Not much new happening in the pregnancy arena over the last few weeks. I am huge—although decidedly smaller than I was with Charlie—and starting to feel all the regular aches and pains that come about when you spend your days walking around with an extra 15 lbs. sticking out in front of you. Oh, and did I mention the insomnia? Currently 4:50 a.m. and I have given up on sleep for the night. Too bad the rest of the city can’t open this early so I can get some stuff done.

As far as preparations go we are pretty much set—nursery:check, car seat:check, drawers full of sickeningly pink clothing:check. Now all we need is a baby to come home and utilize all this gear we’ve accumulated. I will say that it has been much easier this time around to focus on what we really need and filter out many luxuries and/or space-takers we can live without.

Here is a list of a few of our essentials:

A good baby swing—We have the the Fisher Price Baby Papasan, which we love…and so did Charlie.

Non-leaking BPA free bottles—Since we switched over to Born Free with Charlie, we’ll use those this time around as well.

Soothie Pacifiers—Crossing our fingers that this one will actually use one for the first few months.

Robeez—Essential for holding on those annoying little socks.

Swaddling Blankets—Charlie was a lover of the swaddler. These light weight ones look great for the winter months when she’ll be bundled up in warm p.j.’s

Ergo Baby Carrier—This may be a little harder to use, but once you get the hang of it, it is truly a backsaver.

BOB Revolution Double Stroller—This thing might be the size of Alaska, but it is pushes so smoothly you stop caring about what a pain in the ass it might be to get in and out of the car.

Alice? Babe? Clara?…

We’re now a mere weeks away from the arrival of Betababy. The other night, while reading some books with Charlie, I got to thinking that we should really consider a name for his sister. We’ve got plenty of baby name books and have studied them thoroughly. But, while reading Charlie’s latest favorite book, I realized that it was the only resource we needed. In case you’re not familiar with Hooper Humperdink…? Not Him!, let me give you a brief synopsis: It’s about this super-popular, rich kid—ironically, remaining nameless—who has a party and invites everybody he knows. Everybody, that is, except some total loser named Hooper Humperdink. The entire book is spent listing the invitees and belaboring the awesomeness of the party. I won’t give away the end; but let’s just say there’s an unexpected twist.

“Charlie” made it onto the invite list and I’d hate for his sister not be invited to nameless popular kid’s party. So, unless anybody has a better suggestion, I think maybe we’ll just randomly select a girl’s name from from Hooper Humperdink… and call it good.