Christmas 2011, Act III: The Play

For this last entry, just some Christmas afternoon scenes with the bounty accumulated in the morning. As of press time (about 3 pm), only Papaw has made it out of his pajamas so far. Another successful Christmas indeed!

 

Christmas 2011, Act II: The Morn

Christmas Day represents the three year anniversary of the blog. Paul spent a few months making entries back to early days of the pregnancy with Clara before unveiling it to Kate that morning. I'm not sure we really expected to keep it up this long, but it's alive and kicking. We've come to enjoy keeping track of special events this way. It used to seem cliche to hear people talking about how quickly life speeds up once you have children, but we've also been caught by the torrent of passing time and find ourselves depending on the pictures, videos and stories featured here to keep our memories fresh and at least semi-accurate. So, here's to another year...

Christmas Morning...

6:00 am: Hattie had a diaper change a couple hours ago and so - considering that Kate does 99.9 percent of the heavy lifting at night (okay, and day) with infant care - it was Paul's turn to kick in. He didn't quite get back to sleep (old Christmas morning habit we suppose), and so headed down the stairs to prep the family room for the coming celebration.

Ga was in bed with Clara, so Papaw was alone in the guest room. He comes out almost immediately as Paul turns on the tree, lights the fire, and puts on a large pot of coffee. As Paul readies the tools (Christmas music, check; proper lighting, check; access to cameras and videos, check), Ted gets dressed for the day.

6:45 am: Everything is ready. Paul has grabbed the paper from outside, and he and Ted sit on alert in the front room ready to pounce at the first pitter-patter sound of slippered feet padding down the hallway.  They wait...and wait...and wait.

7:00 am: Ted breaks ranks first, heading upstairs to peak in on Clara. He comes back to report they're both snoring away. Within moments Ted, too, is snoring away.

7:30 am: Paul thought he heard some stirring upstairs. He grabs a video and heads up. Peaking first in Clara's room, he finds Ga awake staring at the ceiling but Clara sprawled out in obvious comfort and deep, deep slumber. He checks in on Kate and Hattie. Both snoring, too.

7:45 am: That was a long 15 minutes! Paul and Ted are getting restless. Both think about making some rumbling noises that might wake everyone and get the action going. But they refrain. Paul goes back upstairs. Hattie is awake, and we bring her downstairs. But we laugh that, once again, Clara saves her best morning sleep for Christmas day! She did the same thing last year, but that only required her to sleep in until 6:20 am. So, we have made some progress.

8:00 am. Finally! We hear Clara, and she's awake talking to Ga. Paul readies the video, so eager to catch the entrance. 

8:10 until 11:00 (ish) am: First, Clara observes the cookies, milk, and carrots (or lack thereof) and reads the note from Santa...

Second, upon noticing the abundance of gifts under the tree, Clara grabs a bag of Goldfish crackers she knows are for Barb. Ga gets the first gift. Then she turns to Ted and kind of apologizes that he apparently didn't get what he asked for...the same pony he's requested each year from Santa Clause since he was a child. Then, and only then, she's ready to get into the act for herself.

Well, sort of. Clara is honing a deliberate, plodding approach to her Christmas morning activities. Unlike Paul's (one of nine) and Ted's (youngest of four brothers) childhood traditions where Christmas morning was a chaotic flurry of paper flung far and wide as all gifts were bared of their wrapping within moments of the starting gun, Clara prefers to linger as she ponders each gift individually, playing with it until she's ready to move on to the next. We're informed that this has historic precedence in Kate. 

Clara did pretty well on the gift front, scoring on each major request made of Santa and even getting a few that she didn't even know she wanted until she got them.

There was, of course, the big girls bike...

The surprise of her very own house (in which, when she saw it, she immediately sought sanctuary...calling for "privacy").

A music box to store her treasures...

A yellow yo-yo, a glowing ladybug, various books about Olivia and Madeline, paint sets, fire trucks, a Cooties game, you name it...

Clara did very well by Santa Clause this year! 

The whole time, Hattie gazes around passively. Content to be part of the Christmas festivities, but a full year away from having any real appreciation for the excitement. Clara has much to teach her between now and then.

Christmas 2011, Act I: The Eve

Hattie's December arrival brought with it an upheaval of ordinary Christmas traditions. Rather than pile in the car for the long drive to Lock Haven, we brought Pennsylvania to us in the form of Kate's parents. For Clara, this meant her first of three Christmas away from PA; for Kate, her first of 33; and for Barb her first of 60. 

Change is never easy, but rather than mourn the end of long-lived records, we set about exploring some new traditions.

Christmas Eve is, in a two-year old's mind at least, an interminable tease. Clara has waited oh so long for the day ("THE" day), enduring explanation after explanation of why she must wait just a bit longer. And now it's so close she can almost reach out and touch Santa's bushy beard...but...not...quite...yet! For one more day, our little eager one, you must pace yourself. The end is nigh! So Christmas Eve becomes about mounting distraction on top of distraction to keep the little one's mind occupied and away from mischievous leanings.

Easy enough during daylight, but more difficult the darker it gets outside.

5:00 pm: Clara attends the children's service at White Memorial Presbyterian Church with her grandparents. For this brief time, she is willing to exchange thoughts of Santa Clause for those of baby Jesus. She stands tall on the pew, ringing loud her bells and watching the parishioners sing the hymns and carols with which she is all too familiar. She comes home beaming, fingering a glow stick in each hand, bragging how she waved them around during the service once they turned out the lights. 

She behaved with her grandparents and was very pleased with herself. 

  

6:30 pm: A bath is always a good diversion. For most of her nearly three year life, baths have been a struggle. But two weeks ago we re-introduced the idea of bubble baths and stumbled across a little serendipity by turning a chore into recreation. She creates a bubble beard for herself and mimics the ho-ho-ho's she expects to hear from Santa late tonight. 

7:30 pm: Bargaining time. If you put on your pajamas without a fuss, you can stay up and watch "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town," one of those stop-motion cartoons that pop up each Christmas on all the networks. Why was this animation technique so popular in the (what era?) 1950s? It can be kind of creepy. Irrespective of all that, it worked. She put on her fuzzy pink pajamas and rushed downstairs to learn all about how Santa came to be Santa (though I doubt this is a North Pole sanctioned birth story). 

8:30(ish) pm: Go to bed, take one. After the cartoon, Clara announces she's going to her room, climbs the stairs, and is out of sight. We can say with authority this has NEVER happened before, Clara volunteering for bed! If we had fewer scruples we would really milk this Santa thing for what it's worth. Kate and Ga follow. 

Paul and Papaw note that Clara didn't even take the time to put out a spread for Santa and his reindeer. Rather than leave good enough alone, Paul - in all his brilliance - grabs a pen and paper and heads upstairs, too. He finds her settling nicely into a bedtime routine, blinking with heavy eyelids, and yet does not hesitate to break the rhythm by asking Clara if she would like to dictate a personal note to Santa. Cue the groans from Kate and Ga.

Clara's eyes brighten, but she declines, grabbing the pen for herself and scribbling the words in her own toddler script. Of course she then insists on coming back downstairs to help lay out cookies and milk for Santa and carrots for Rudolph and Dasher (sorry other reindeer, you have no standing with Clara). 

9:30 pm: Go to bed, take two. Kate finally has Clara back in bed. They read a quick story. But before Kate can even finish a single Christmas lullaby, she hears the soft growls of Clara's snore. You know, visions of sugar plums and what not.

Sweet dreams...

A Portrait of the Big Sister

Clara had a good run, nearly three years as undisputed center of our universe. The difficulty in ceding that status is not that you drop from 100 percent spotlight to an equal 50-50 split with the newcomer, but that the nature of the competition - what with her pooping and crying and nursing and midnight wakings and so forth - demands such a big portion of Mama's and Daddy's time that the drop in attention on the first child can be precipitous.  

No matter how many cardboard story books we read to explain the changes to her, no matter how we try to introduce the concept of a new child gradually and with minimal threat...no amount of preparation has her ready for the ton of baby sister bricks that fall when the new addition comes home from the hospital. 

And so we look to Clara to see what kind of coping skills she's developed at a young age to get her through this shake-up of the universe. In short, her performance deserves a medal for valor. Bravo young Clara! We have thrust you into this role of Big Sister, and you're rolling with it!

Now, there are two things we should highlight about the process of Clara adapting to the role (at least these first three weeks anyway).

First, we have had a lot of help in the transition. We have many friends and family members more sensitive to the plight of the displaced older sibling than we possess. In their visits paying homage to Hattie, they are focusing at least as much effort in making Clara feel special, too. She is scoring gifts galore! Big sister shirts, Christmas tree ornaments, stuffed animals, treats, etc. They all ask how she likes being a big sister, saying how exciting and important that job is. Clara beams, taking it all in. 

And we have a few friends that have gone above and beyond the call of duty. To Clara's delight, she learned that there exists a creature known as the Big Sister Fairy. This wondrous giver of gifts showed up at our house each day for a week bringing notes and presents for Clara, reminding her how special it is to be a big sister. She even got her very own chocolate big sister cake out of it, several pieces of which she devoured proudly (only for her, of course, not for baby sister). 

These friends also threw a Big Sister Party just for Clara, complete with games, art projects, cupcakes...you name it. Hattie was permitted to attend (though the party was originally scheduled for the day Hattie was born), but the attention was fully on Clara. 

Second, Clara's behavior is not coming without her own raging internal battle of good versus naughty. There are times when you can almost see the devil on one shoulder and the angel on the other. That devil makes such enticing promises, knowing that Clara wants attention so badly. She feels the itch, she has that need, all she needs to do is scratch it a little...throw a fit, toss some food on the ground, refuse to get dressed, insist on getting between Mama and Hattie. And sure, she scratches it from time to time. She's human! But by all our counts, the devil is getting his way only about 6.3 percent of the time. 

That other 93.7 percent has Clara listening to her better angels. She is helper extraordinaire. For example, she has learned through trial and error that when Hattie is howling on the changing table, she is somehow calmed by looking at rolls of polka dot wrapping paper. This discovery came after Clara had tried dangling at least a dozen other things in front of her sister's eyes with little effect. Now, when Hattie cries during a diaper swap, Clara rushes to her room for a stepping stool, grabs the wrapping paper from the closet, and climbs up next to her sobbing sibling to hold up the soothing distraction.  Thank you angels!

Now, we know the devil can be mighty persuasive and is a persistent bugger. He will get his victories. In no small part it's because we see that sharing the spotlight does not come easily to Clara, that she's having to work at it to be a gracious big sister, that she's having to make tough decision after tough decision to choose the angel over of the devil...these things make us so proud of our little girl and and even more excited to see the relationship develop (with all its beauty and all its warts) between these sisters. 

Christmas Updates

How can a two year old pace herself? Each day Kate reviews with Clara the list of events that must happen before Christmas is here. Because the concept of "still ten days" makes no sense to her. But going to school two more times, Papaw and Ga coming back for a visit, one more Coach Scott soccer practice...all of that puts it in context. Of course we've been doing this for a couple months now. In November it was...after Thanksgiving, and after Baby Sister comes, and after your grandparents come to visit...then it's Christmas.

The Crabtree Mall Reproduction

Now, Clara spends a lot of time at the foot of the Christmas tree. It has become de facto bookshelf for all the Christmas story books. Each morning we wake up, rush down stairs, turn on the lights, and spend several minutes reading her favorite Christmas stories.

We're now had our second and third Santa visits. Number two was at Crabtree Valley Mall (where they cling to the antiquated practice of forbidding your own cameras...you must buy their overpriced film. And it's a print. There are no digital files handed over. So, we make do. Grandparents pony up for the priceless souvenir and Daddy takes a picture of the picture for the blog.) It should be known, Clara tapped deep into her wellspring of courage to march straight up to the imposing Santa and tell him exactly what she wanted. This while other kids in queue wailed in fear of the Great Bearded One. Clara was a bit scared too, but she wouldn't let that stop her.

Santa at North Hills. At a bagel shop no less!

The number three visit was at Bruegger's Bagels at North Hills. Clara jumped right on Santa's lap, shared with him her Christmas requirements (outlined below), and then made googly-eyes at him the rest of the morning whilst chomping on her bagel.

The Christmas List Clara Started in November

Hattie...Two Weeks In (um, or Out?)

Whew!  How quickly one forgets the demands of a new born. It's like we're learning all the little stuff anew. 

With Clara we remember keeping a rough check list in our heads, running through most likely to least likely parental action to solve the puzzle of infant yelps. It became almost reflexive in that Clara would cry and one of us would pick her up and unthinkingly begin...One, does she want to be held? No. Okay, two, is it a gas thing? Twist her. Turn her. Bounce her. Burp or toot? No. Three, dirty diaper? Stick nose to bottom and inhale deeply to get through the five or so layers of blanket, swaddle, pajamas, onesy, diaper that leads to bare bottom. Nope. Four, hungry? Hand her to Mama. 

The real challenge comes when the answer is either none of the above or some hard-to-discover ratio of multiple choice that requires (and yes, this has been done) something along the lines of simultaneous bouncing, feeding, and diaper changing. Motherhood has turned Kate into a brilliant contortionist.

Well, we're having to reconstruct that check list with Hattie. It was completely vanished from our muscle memory but seems to be slowly reassembling in our minds. 

Hattie is reminding us of all the little things that were lost in the foggy three-year-old memories of first time parents. Such as...

Daddy and Hattie...Modern Day

Poop. Lots and lots of poop. How exactly does the milk go into Hattie as a white substance with only the slightest of sweet aroma but come out of her mustard yellow and stinking of vinegar? It's like her gut has the ability to take inert particles and turn them radioactive. She is a wonder of physics! Not to mention that poop's unwillingness to be corralled by the force of diaper or any other form of protective clothing, which leads us to...

Daddy and Clara...Nearly 3 Years Ago

Laundry. Lots and lots of laundry. The machines run on a constant basis. The poop cannot be contained no matter what tricks we try with the diapers. This is where having winter babies puts one at a distinct disadvantage. The more layers of clothes to warm her, the more loads of laundry. And when Paul changes her, he has a knack for inspiring Hattie's urination reflex. Which means adding the changing pad and wipe-up towels to the already mountainous load of laundry. And since the pee usually comes while he's in the middle of putting on a new diaper, another soiled diaper goes into the pail, leading to so much more...

Trash. Bags and bags of trash. We reminisce nostalgically about the one bag of trash the young married couple might go through in a week sans children. We thought it odd that anyone might need such large roll-away garbage bins to manage their rubbage. We were, of course, morally superior and more footprint conscious people than our neighbors and their copious garbage production. But now we're thinking of installing a dumpster in our front yard, serviced by a commercial dump truck, since this city-supplied bin just can't keep pace with the volumes we generate. We recall our innocence with Clara, thinking we would use environmentally friendly cloth diapers. (Wow, we were smug!)  But they added extra steps and extra expense and extra laundry, all of which cost time, and extra time could (potentially at least) be spent sleeping. Now we hardly give a second thought to the environment and toss disposable after disposable into the heap with cavalier disregard. 

But enough about the parents, let's talk Hattie. Our little chow hound! She came out eating, and has hardly let up. With Clara, at two weeks, we were still trying to get back to birth weight. She had no natural talents for the suckle, always falling asleep within moments of going on the breast and never quite getting enough to eat. The pediatrician read us the riot act. If she doesn't gain quickly, he said, you'll have to use formula. With that, Kate started pumping to supplement Clara's regular feeding. The weight came soon enough. 

Hattie, on the other hand, is a natural. She was almost back to birth weight at the first appointment, and she's not slowing down. Little pudge rolls are beginning to form at the top of her otherwise chickenly legs. She will eat at the slightest hint of breast availability.  

We're reminded that with infants, every tear is a waterfall. As our pediatrician put it, they have no sense of proportion. The slightest discomfort produces the loudest wail she can summon. The worst comes at diaper change time because it lasts the longest. She begins screaming as soon as the cool air touches her previously warm toosh and continues until she crescendos with a sound identical to the bleating of a billy goat. 

At times she shows hints at the ability to self-soothe. We noted at her birth that she had a blister on her lip from sucking her thumb in womb. (In fact, we captured it on an ultrasound.) When she cries now, she flails her hands around, smacking her head and face in an attempt to get that thumb back in. The few times she succeeds, it's a godsend. She calms down quickly. 

It should be noted that Clara could never do this. Nor did Clara find comfort in a pacifier. We're hopeful Hattie can, so we're encouraging this thumb-sucking now. But early attempts with the pacifier have inspired more ire from the baby (i.e., hey, there's no milk coming out! Is this a joke?!) than comfort. 

Regarding sleep, Hattie has been fair to good when compared to her big sister at the same stage. She showed early flashes of napping brilliance. And because we're destined to repeat our same parenting mistakes over and over again, we extrapolated this trend into a belief that it represented a cardinal trait. In other words, she took a few good naps and we took that to mean she is a good sleeper. Not so fast. Not so simple. While she doesn't seem to fight the very concept of sleep (like her sister did and does), good sleep seems very dependent on having a sated belly and a gas-less gut. 

Managing Clara's sleep at the same time has created some interesting new routines in our home. Last week Kate's mom stayed and slept all night in Clara's bed with her. This was a balm for tired parents that needed to focus on the infant's sleeping and feeding. The thing is, we've found with Clara that she will invariably wake each night between 3:00 and 4:00. If no one is with her in bed, she either yells out for assistance or walks to her parents room. Sometimes she will go back to sleep without much trouble, but about half the time this wake up leads to middle-of-the-night tantrums. With Ga's help, we discovered this can be headed off if someone is in bed with Clara when she wakes up. She simply turns around, sees the person there, touches them for verification, and rolls over to go back to sleep. 

With Kate's parents back at the beach, the task now falls to Paul. Kate will put Clara to sleep with stories and songs, and then Paul will stay with her through the night while Kate tends to Hattie. It's far from ideal, but it works and - since the first few months of a new baby is about survival as much as anything - we're sticking with it. 

A serendipitous outcome? For the first time in her young life, Clara is sleeping straight through the night, in her bed, until 7 am. She's getting about 11 hours of uninterrupted sleep. Wow. We thought the day would never come! 

So we've (and especially Hattie) all survived the first two weeks, and can you really ask for more at this stage?

Harriet Mae Dryden

Hattie from Franklin Golden on Vimeo.

Harriet Mae Dryden ("Hattie")

Born December 2, 2011 at 5:17 am

7 lbs 15 oz, 20 1/2 inches

Healthy and beautiful!

Baby Sister, The Birth

10:00 pm, Thursday, December 1, 2011

The braxton-hicks contractions have been popping up sporadically over the past several days. It started feeling different tonight. The contractions have spread over the full belly. 

Kate's parents came into town yesterday and while Ted carried on to the beach, Barb is sleeping with Clara just down the hall. Kate finished work on Tuesday and was looking forward to a few days downtime. We thought we might actually sneak in one last date night. At her 39-week appointment on Wednesday the doctor told Kate it looked like the baby wouldn't come for another week or two. Baby Sister is still riding high, Kate is only 1 cm dilated, and there are no other signs of impending labor. He examines her belly and says he expects this to be an 8+ pounder.

But all those best laid plans are in doubt shortly after Kate and Paul settle into bed for the night. No sooner do we turn off the light than an intense contraction grabs Kate. This happened last night, too, but it wasn't nearly as strong. Tonight the first is followed soon by a second and a third and...Kate sends Paul downstairs for a stopwatch to start tracking the waves. She turns the lamp back on and pulls some reference material from the bedside table, "How to know when you're in labor."

We monitor it over the next hour and decide to call the OB on duty, Dr. Richardson. We report what we see, and she tells us to head over to the hospital. 

Kate has a bag packed already. Paul rushes to throw a few of his things in there and grabs the camera and computer. We sneak into Clara's room. She's snoring away. We wake Barb and tell her it's time to go. We're feeling very fortunate to have her there.

11:53 pm

We're checked in at Rex, waiting now in the triage room. We caught two red lights on the drive over, making it a six minute trip. There's one nice benefit of our new neighborhood...proximity to the hospital.

Kate has changed into the standard-issue powder blue gown. The biggest struggle is keeping her backside covered while walking down the hall. Ruth the nurse is handling the admission. She straps Kate with a half-dozen plugs, takes her temperature, and then snaps on the latex to go in for a look-see. 3 cm dilated. Plus the contraction waves keep coming hard and closer together. Ruth calls Dr. Richardson to relay the vitals. She's told to admit us. We're sticking around to have this baby girl.

12:20 am, Friday, December 2, 2011

We've been handed off to Amber and escorted to room 239 for labor and delivery. There's an empathetic nature to our new nurse, obvious from the get go and a good trait for the lady who will be our guide for the next however many hours. She makes an effort to explain everything to us in great detail as she hooks Kate onto the IV and attaches a penicillin drip. Her shift lasts until 7 a.m. Hopefully Baby Sister will come out before Amber clocks out.

12:45 am  

The contractions are intense. Kate toyed just briefly with holding off on the epidural until she just had to have it. Forget that! Her back spasms with each wave. We decide to get the anesthesiologist in here pronto. He does his job swiftly, but - just as Kate recalled from Clara's birth - the process of putting the epidural in might be the most painful part of labor. But then that sweet numbing sensation....Ahhhhh.....

2:00 am

The epidural has done its job. The laboring continues, but Kate is able to doze off, her uterus contracting on its own without bugging anybody with the painful details. The lights are off. We listen to the sound of Baby Sister's heart beat, a rhythm that fills the room, punctuated periodically with the whirrs and clicks of various IV pumps.

2:45 am

Nurse Amber is back in the room for a check-up. We fired up the computer and are looking at some of the blog posts from Clara's birth. Has it really been three years? Always the proud parents, we make Amber suffer through our reminiscing. She obliges cheerily.

What are we going to name this child? Kate speaks through the short-list of candidates, listening to the sound of each combination, hoping one just jumps out at us. Not yet. We did the same thing with Clara. We didn't really decide until after she was born. 

We recall that Clara was born on a Friday. Amber reminds us that labor with the second child can move much more quickly than the first. With four hours until shift change, we hope that applies to Baby Sister and we get to meet her sometime in the early morning.

3:16 am

Nurse Amber said the baby has moved lower. The epidural is in full force now. Kate can only tell she's contracting by looking at one of the monitor tracks her pulse. The water hasn't broken. We take another stab at the names. Nope, not yet ready to decide. We talk about when to bring Clara to the hospital. Kate bought her a special "Big Sister" t-shirt that we'll remind Barb to put on her for the visit.

4:02 am

First visit from Dr. Richardson a little while ago. She went in for an exam and discovered that the water did break at some point after Kate went on the epidural. That should speed things along even though we're still only 4 cm dilated. Baby Sister is a little sideways right now so they decided to pull out one of the bed stirrups, flip Kate on her left side, and plop her right leg high across her body in a technique called the Texas Twist. This should get baby straightened out.

Another check-up in 30 minutes or so. At that point they'll broach the question of whether we want to introduce some petocin to speed things along.

4:30 am

7 cm dilated. Apparently that Texas Twist helps. Nurse Amber liked it so much, she flipped Kate on her other side to make another stab at getting Baby Sister all straightened up before the pushing begins. Check again in 30-45 minutes.

5:10 am

Nurse Amber makes another feel. "Oh yeah!" She says. Wheel in the table. Page Dr. Richardson. Time to have a baby!

5:15 am

Nurse Amber transforms the bed, taking off the end and flipping up the stirrups while Dr. Richardson suits up in her scrubs. Within seconds Kate is leaning forward in bed with her hands wrapped under her knees. "Push!" says Amber.

5:17 am

Two contractions and six pushes later and Baby Sister is out! The cord is wrapped up in all funny ways, but Dr. Richardson was quick to pull it back and twist Baby Sister out by shoulders. The crying started immediately. She has a set of pipes. Nurse Amber puts her immediately on Kate's chest while rubbing her with a blanket to get the circulation going. We take her over to the heating station. More crying. She slowly turns from a grayish hue to that healthy pink.

We bring her over to the weigh-in station. 7 lbs 14.7 oz. The same size as Clara three years before.

As soon as Kate is stitched up, Baby Sister is back on her chest. With only the slightest of prompting, she latches on and is nursing. Hurray! She's a natural!  Kate breathes a big sigh of relief.

6:02 am

The APGAR test. A platoon of be-scrubbed nurses descend upon Baby Sister from all directions. They poke. They prod. They measure. They bathe. And the child wails. It's a hardy holler that makes her parents feel good. At each check of her vitals, they declare her healthy.

7:00 am

Nurse Amber is off-duty. We thank her profusely. She leaves, and so does the rest of the platoon. Finally, we get Baby Sister to ourselves. We hope for a few minutes alone before being wheeled out to the recovery room.

7:32 am

Text message from Franklin, "In lobby. Can I come up?" He snaps pictures for the better part of an hour, helping us transition into our recovery room. Baby Sister sleeps the entire time. As we walk down the hall, nurses keep telling him congratulations. He does not deny paternity. More importantly, he facilitates consensus on the name. By the time he leaves, we think we've settled on Baby Sister's official name.

Kate talks with her mom. Clara gets on the phone. She wants to know what Baby Sister's name is. We suspect the question was a plant given that she has insisted for nine months that the child shall be christened  Baby Sister and known by no other name. She also tells Kate, "Now I can sit on your lap.  And, and, and you can carry me now." The belly has been in the way.

8:23 am

It's quiet in the recovery room. We've ordered up breakfast. Kate is working over Baby Sister's finger nails with an emery board. Her finger and toes are so long, and her fingernails are even longer. As soon as she was separated from Kate for cleaning and testing, she started going after her fingers for suckling. A nurse looked at a blister on her lip and said it means she spent a lot of time doing that in the womb. Unfortunately, the long fingernails are taking a toll on her cheeks and nose. So sharp!

9:20 am

Clara comes in, fitted in her "Big Sister" shirt, with Ga and Papaw to meet Baby Sister. She is interested in the baby but a bit cautious. Kate sweetens the encounter with a handful of lollipops. Over the next hour, she edges closer, gives her little pats on the head, and spends some time holding her with Mama. She becomes more bold and more comfortable by the moment.

We use this visit to announce the decision. From this point forward, Baby Sister shall be known as Harriet Mae Dryden. Or Hattie for short. Harriet was the name of Kate's maternal grandmother. Mae has antecedents on both sides of the family. 

Welcome Hattie, our precious little bundle!

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

We meant to post this duet a couple months ago. Clara and Kate sing Somewhere Over the Rainbow. Eat your heart out Dorothy!

The Home Stretch

Thanksgiving night Clara went to bed early and with only minor cajoling from her parents, giving Paul and Kate a rare chance to relax before heading to sleep themselves. During our conversations, Kate informs Paul that she is officially finished with nesting in preparation for Baby Sister. The itch has been scratched; the compulsion has been satisfied. This after the bulk of trimester three has been gobbled up by Kate's Tasmanian devil-like whirling to pack up an old house, move into a new one, turn it into a comfortable home in no time flat (i.e., no signs of moving boxes after just two weeks of being here), and get a nursery situated just right to satisfy those demands of an expecting mother that her infant will be cozy and comfortable from the get go.  

The nesting urge is either complete or exhausted. Either way, the point being, Kate feels ready. Due date is December 6th, she stops working after tomorrow, and she hopes to spend that week (if Baby Sister decides to comply with the schedule) relaxing and getting a little extra QT with Clara.

Kate is now seeing the OB each week for check-ups. She went in for her strep-B test last week, and when the doctor checked her weight he noticed she remains a few pounds behind the curve. As they say, she is all belly. He gave her precise instructions to remedy that.

Doctor: I need you eating more protein. Double up on those meat portions.

Kate: Well, okay.

Doctor: I need you eating more fat. Get more of that in your diet, too.

Kate: Well, okay.

Doctor: And I want you to eat ice cream every night. Have as much as you can get down.

Kate: Sweeeetttt!

We have our emergency help team scheduled through the end of November in case Baby Sister comes early. On December 1, we get some help by way of Barb and Ted going to the beach via Raleigh. Kate managed to rope her mom into camping out with us until the baby comes, being our go-to lady for attending to Clara's needs when we have to rush off to Rex Hospital.

With the nesting instinct satisfied, Kate is turning her considerable gestating energy to wrapping up this slow deliberation of Baby Sister's actual name (no, Clara, we're sorry...we won't be calling her Baby Sister forever). We think we've settled on a handful of options that we'll take with us to the hospital. Much as we did with Clara, we'll just have to see which one (if any) seems to fit our first impressions upon meeting this little girl.  

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas...in November

Clara is developing a fixation with the princess-pushing pig Olivia. (Today, in fact, she and Kate went to Clara's first ever movie, Olivia's Wintertime Cheer, in the IMAX theater at Marbles Kids Museum.) Among her favorite readings for the moment is a book called Olivia Helps with Christmas in which the little pig family does all its Christmas preparations, including cutting and decorating a tree, on Christmas Eve. Indeed, we're told that this was common practice back in the day.

Quoth our Clara, "Not on my watch!"

Today, one full month before Santa's visit, we purchased our Christmas tree and prepared it for all the trimmings to come. (Upon viewing it, Clara says "I think Santa will like this.") If it comes down before the new year - and if it comes down without much wailing and consternation from a certain two year old - Paul will be very surprised.

If one wishes to front load one's Christmas celebration into November, Raleigh provides plenty opportunity. This we discovered in a quick three day sprint of Santa Clause at Cameron Village (Thursday, November 17th), the Raleigh Christmas Parade downtown (Saturday, November 19th), and the North Hills Mall Tree Lighting (Saturday, November 19th).  

For the first visit with Santa, Paul and Kate were nearly hauled before Child Protective Custodies for the severely neglectful act of forgetting to bring a camera. We stood in line for 20 minutes, Paul musing that Clara would become timid in the face of the GREAT BEARDED ONE, stick her hand in her mouth, and clam up without making the much anticipated gift request.

Not so. Clara plopped herself firmly on Santa's lap, he asked her what she wanted, and she didn't hesitate: A big girl's bike! Santa even tested her with a follow-up question. What should you wear on your head while riding a big girl's bike? Uh, uh, uh. A helmet! Here's your mini-candy cane kid. Hey parents, seriously, bring your camera next year. Don't you even love your child?!

Clara on her way to the Raleigh Christmas Parade

Saturday morning, as we were rushing to get into the car for the parade, and Clara was pulling her pokey routine, we reminded her that Santa Clause would be at the parade, too. A new Santa, she asked? Uh-oh. It would seem our two-year-old was nearing a discovery that might require a parental discussion on par with birds and bees and that cute little animals have go to heaven someday. We hesitated to hear how she might explain to herself the reason why the various Santas we see look different and are clearly not the same individual.

While we can't recall the exact words, Clara provided a thoughtful discourse along the lines of...the real Santa is busy at the North Pole and these are his helpers. Ah, there are few better examples of cognitive dissonance and the lengths we go - even the youngest of us - to resolve conflicts when the reality we prefer locks horns with the reality we observe.

Clara meets Rudolph at North Hills

Thanksgiving 2011

We gathered around our table, this little North Carolina branch of the Dryden and McKnight families, preparing to launch ourselves at the mini-feast of turkey and fixings we prepared together, and paused for a moment to reflect on all the things we have to be thankful for. They are many. 

We miss our extended family over the holiday, but we have come to enjoy the quiet of staying home for Thanksgiving, a practice we have observed for at least six years. We had beautiful weather, making for a nice stroll to the park, a game of soccer with Clara, and some time just lingering in the warm sun. 

We opted for putting a turkey breast into the slow-cooker, starting the process around 8am. It didn't make for the exact same photo-op we've recorded with Clara the previous two years, but she begrudgingly consented to sitting beside the Crockpot for a couple pictures. Paul loves making the year-by-year photo comparisons...

Dinner was at 3:30. Clara took a stronger interest in eating out of the serving dishes than she did her own plate. Nonetheless, she nearly allowed Kate a full meal before demanding her attention elsewhere.

Clara went down early tonight. A benefit, we think, of all the fresh air she breathed today (plus some tryptophan). Putting on pajamas is never a quick process, almost always requiring interruptions, diversions, side-projects, and trickery. Tonight, Clara wanted to perform ballet for us.When you get a recital like this, how can you not comply...

Much to be thankful for, indeed.