Announcement Pressure

I'm trying to be fair and treat both of my children equally. I'm well aware of how second children get less baby pictures and tend to have less attention paid to them. I get that. That's why I'm so stressed out about getting Iain's baby announcement sent out. Ada got one so Iain needs one too. I don't want to cut corners with his just to make my life a little easier either. Call me a bit old fashioned, but I want him to have something nice and formal. I also realize how much work goes into making a baby announcement and sending them out. It is no small task, hence the reason I outsourced it to my friend Anne last time. This time, she's supplied me with some paper she had left over and offered to help, but most of the labor is falling back to me. That said, I've come to accept the reality that I won't have these done and sent out in the same amount of time I did Ada's. It just isn't going to happen. Why? Well...

First of all, Ada's was sent out around February fourth. She was born December nineteenth so that makes my deadline for Iain's to be sent out August sixth which is tomorrow and I haven't even started them. Whoops. I don't have the mailing list ready, the invites aren't designed, and let's be honest, all I have is the paper that isn't even cut to size and some stamps. As Scooby Do would say, "Rut ro".

Some people think this isn't really that big of a deal. And in the grand scheme of things, they would be right. It isn't. But it's important to me to do them right and be timely about it, as much as I can anyway.

I think what is holding me back most in this whole announcement process is getting the right photograph to showcase just how cute baby Iain really is. I used over two rolls of film, yes black and white 35mm film, when I was trying to get Ada's announcement photo. I wanted the control of a 35mm camera and I hadn't switched to a digital camera at that point. In the end, I was torn between two photographs, one that my mom preferred and one that my husband preferred. Knowing my mom would nag me about it forever and thinking it was more important to her, she won. In hindsight, I should have taken more pictures until I got one we all agreed on.

Delaying the photo further is the minor incident we had yesterday that left a small cut on his forehead. Not exactly the best way to showcase his cuteness. Thankfully, we have Photoshop and can fix that if we need to. Chances are it will be healed by the time I get to taking his photo at the rate things are going. And I'm embarrassed to say that my mom, good intentioned as she may be, really needs to learn that it is not okay to offer to put cover-up makeup on a baby's blemish for their announcement photo. Not okay. Never. Period. Just like it wasn't okay to cut cousin Anna's bangs while she was at the hairdresser just because they were driving Grandma nuts and she was under strict orders not to cut them. Again, not okay. I will say that she has that whole "Don't ask for permission, ask for forgiveness later." thing down pretty well. It just better not be me she's asking to forgive her if she gets too close to Ada's hair with scissors. But I digress.

Moral of the story: If you plan to have multiple children and treat them equally, consider setting the bar low to begin with so you reduce the pressure to preform later on.

Introducing Iain Kerr

Early Monday morning June 21st, at 6:11 to be exact, Iain Kerr joined our family to make us a foursome. At 8 lbs, and 21 inches long, the first thing he did outside the womb was pee on the doctoress who delivered him. Sorry about that Doc.

So far, so good. His name, Iain, is the Scottish version of Ian, pronounced E-an, and is a derivative of John. Labor and Delivery went well. I got through it without the help of any drugs or intervention, which, now that it's still fresh in my mind, was no easy feat. Natural birth isn't for everyone.

Dad likes him. Ada seems to be taking a liking to him. I'm thrilled to be done with pregnancy, childbirth, and maternity clothes. I'm excited to be able to enjoy my children and start the next phase of our lives together as a family. I have a feeling it is going to be a fun trip.

Moral of the story: Bringing home a baby is an adjustment with many good memories to be made.

Boy Oh Boy -- It's gonna be a boy

He looks like he's blowing bubbles...but that's just the umbilical cord. All is well in the land of the ultrasound. And he's almost a pound now according to the Doctoress. Pretty neat.

After a half-hour of rubbing goo on my belly and waving the magic wand, we learned that he has two kidneys, a bladder, a brain, four-chambers of his little heart, two hands and two feet, and a whole bunch of man parts.

Yesterday I went to the Doctoress for my 20 week appointment, which is just a checkup and a chance to hear his little heartbeat. It was also a chance to get the official Ultrasound results and reconfirm that all is well in the womb. Turns out, all is well. Also turns out that having an appointment late in the day on a Monday wasn't such a great idea. I rushed to get Ada up from her nap and even called to say I'd be five minutes late. What I should have done was called before waking Ada up to see if they were on schedule and then let her sleep another hour and rescheduled. Oh well. I'll be sure to try that next time.

Since I took Ada with me to the Doctoress' office, and we had to wait a long time, she got to be a bit unruly at times, but all and all was really good for me not having brought any entertainment since we were rushed out of the house in order to get there on time and --wait for an hour. She played with some other patient's coin purse -- that later spilled Tylenol onto the waiting room floor --oops! And danced in the waiting room. She sucked on a Starburst that she got from the receptionist (Don't give my kid candy, or crappy additive-filled unnaturally orange fake peanut butter crackers for that matter. Even if you ask me if it's okay--I always say "yes" just to be polite but I'm thinking "no" is a better answer since she always gets suckers I'm afraid she'll choke on or candy that will rot her teeth. It isn't good for her and you're a Doctoress' office for Pete's sake. Go with chocolates or rice cakes. Or chocolate dipped rice cakes even. Or carrots, celery and organic graham crackers. Yum.)

So here we are waiting in the reception area. Then we get to wait in our exam room. I visit the loo and pee into a cup as always first. Once in the exam room, Ada starts playing with the stirrups. Then she plays on the scale (she's 35.5 lbs). Then she heads over to the sink and the desk area with the tube of lubricant that is on the counter, and the other fun things she shouldn't be getting into. I lifted her up onto the exam table to sit by me and she made it into a slide since it is inclined for us preggos. That got old and dangerous fast. Then it was back to the stirrups and she had a long session with the button that locks and unlocks the door.

Finally the Doctoress appears and apologizes for the long wait. It's just one of those days. She reviews my paperwork, as Ada takes my folder from her and reviews it too. All is well. Time to hear the baby.

The wait was worth it for this picture alone. For those of you who may be unfamiliar with recent baby technology, when you go in for a checkup, they have this microphone on a cord that they push on your belly and it amplifies the heartbeat and gives the Doctoress a reading on the baby's beats per minute. It sounds kind of like a really fast whoosh, whoosh, whoosh -- like 140 beats per minute fast. So that's all the Doctoress had to do at this visit. Up with my shirt, on with the goo, she touches the microphone to my buldge, and Ada looks at me like "What's that mom?" She gets to her knees on the table to have a better look. Then she takes over for the Doctoress by grabbing the microphone and moving it around on my belly and we start laughing and predicting that she's going to be an OB/GYN when she grows up--which terrifies my Doctoress since she thinks it's a nutty profession with no life. I get all cleaned off and sit up. We move Ada back to the floor... and she goes right into OB mode. She even lifted her shirt up first!

Unfortunately, she doesn't realize that she won't get a whoosh, whoosh, whoosh because there is no baby in her belly. But I give her credit for trying.

Moral of the story: Good things come to those who wait, and having a camera phone handy when those good things come is always nice.

Now available in a Book

For those of you who follow my blog, my father insisted that I compile it all into a book. (He's also insisting I hand deliver it to Oprah at Harpo Studios but I know they have MANY levels of security preventing such silliness so that's out of the question.)

So here it is. Volume 1 is available featuring Ada's first year, minus the 3 months it took me to realize I should blog about all of this mom stuff. Volume 2 will be available shortly.

It's a softcover book. Rick designed the cover - and accidentally left my brother out of the photo montage so we'll be paying for that for the next decade... oh well. :)

http://stores.lulu.com/store.php?fAcctID=29779246

Feel free to pass it on to friends who are expecting or just had their first child, or who are considering procreating. This just might scare them silly. It could be a great contraceptive if needed as well.

Thanks to all for your support. (and sorry for any typos. i'm my own editor and my grammer ain't the best.)

Amanda