Thomas at 2 Weeks

Tom is just a little over two weeks old now. He is growing into quite a substantial little guy, and already looks a lot more like a proper baby. Of course he continues to be largely nocturnal, and he eats round the clock, but so far he's similar to Martha in how easy and natural he seems to be. The big difference of course (and for those of you who know Adrian you know what kinds of witticisms he'll be making about now) is the fact that he's a boy: nappy changing is considerably trickier and we're contemplating investing in a 'pee pee teepee.'



I'd been apprehensive about time as a Stay At Home Mom but after the three weeks with Martha I knew I wouldn't often be bored--it is really fulfilling to see her develop and to challenge her to do more. With the advent of Tom I've been anxious about how to take care of the two of them; so far I've done three whole days (!) on my own with them and we have not come to any grief. I was worried about taking them out because Martha has become very fast and on occasion has been known to run away, but after some serious conversations and admonitions she seems to have understood that this is not safe (and it makes 'mummy angry'). I have also been concerned about Martha's feelings--not wanting her to resent Tom or to feel sad because of losing the special time with Mummy. However this seems an unnecessary concern, since she's been receiving nonstop attention from all of our visitors since her baby brother's birth, and even when it's just the three of us at home I can still focus a lot on her since his conversation is limited.


Daddy needs to catch up on some shut-eye, and Tom is always happy to join in the nap!

It's interesting to think about what it means to be an older sibling, and how their birth order will affect our children. And I continue to be amazed by how profound these experiences which so many people have are. The shifting of our family from three to four is something billions have gone through. But it's huge to us!


Here's Thomas wearing one of his first hand-me-downs from big sister M...

Who finds her little brother (whom she continues to refer to as her 'little brother or sister' because that's what we called him before he was born) nice enough as a kissee but not super interactive to date...


Three Martins...


At this point we're enjoying our family of four very much and thus find the option depicted above uninviting!

Thomas Willard Martin

Born on the 14th of July 2008 at 16:51, at the Kaiser Foundation Hospital in Oakland, California.
Weight 9lbs 6oz or 4.265kg


Our new family of four in the traditional stoop shot


Inside... (taken on the 11th)


and out!


Mommy and Tommy in the hospital, feeling relieved!


Big sister Martha comes to the hospital to see her little brother


Thomas Willard Martin, in the flesh (and what a lot of flesh there is!)

Baby was due on July 15th, but because so many people had told me that the second one would likely be early, and after my prenatal visit on June 30th when the resident told me I could give birth any time, I was feeling it (as we referred to Thomas until recently) was long overdue. I caught myself in this several times, looking forward to the relief of having had the baby, only to recall that that would entail actually having a *baby* to take care of. My anticipation was of course largely due in part to desire to get rid of my really quite enormous belly and in part due to anxiety to have the pain of labor over with, once and for all. But as the days passed and there was no sign of number two, I found myself confronting two rather absurd feelings: 1) I wasn't feeling much fear of the birth pain because I was just so impatient and 2) It seemed increasingly unlikely to me that I was actually going to give birth at all. Twenty-eight hours after the fact, I think the first feeling was the more outrageous. Really, labor is AWFUL. It is hard for me to believe that we have not evolved something better. Really.

And yet I could not have hoped for an easier or quicker birth experience. Given how straightforward number one was, I was trying hard not to hope this one would be much easier. In the end, to my relief, it was. Adrian went to work in the morning; my parents took Martha to the park; I went to my prenatal appointment and then began to feel contractions at around 11:15. Called A at work; called Kaiser; we walked over to the hospital around 2:30, were admitted, and the baby was out by 5:00, almost before our nurse (excellent, just as last time) had time to finish our paperwork! Yet godawful just the same. And we have the audio recording to prove it. As I remarked at some stage during the pushing (facilitated by a rather neat bed which allowed a squatting/throne stance and a bar to hold on to when heaving), it's a good thing I'm not a scientologist!

In the end it was really fun to find out the sex of our child just as he was born--I can recommend waiting, especially if you don't mind one way or the other. Soon as he was out, he was on top of me, blood and slime and all, and Daddy cut the cord, as he'd done for Martha; the phone rang several times and we made some calls ourselves, first off to Grandma and Grandad in the UK.

My parents brought Martha to meet Thomas about an hour after his birth, and she seemed quite pleased with him. It was a huge help to know she was home with Grammy and Walter and thus not only safe, but pretty much oblivious to our absence.
After a night in the hospital and a morning of paperwork, we came home in the early afternoon, and are happily esconced as a family of four.

Carrie

Martha at 2¼ years

Well good afternoon! We have had some changes to go through in the past few weeks, and I suspect a few more ahead of us also. Carrie has decided to stop teaching for the next school year to be at home with Martha and kid #2, thereby changing from possibly the second most undervalued profession to the most undervalued profession. For Martha this change has meant she sees different people from day to day but it also means she is at home a lot more where Carrie has been very inventive at finding her things to do and projects to get involved with.


Taking care of Noah, her second cousin - May 2008


Martha and Carrie and an anteater at the Santa Barbara zoo - June 2008

Over the previous three months there has been much development of the Martha vocabulary and her ability to use it. Now she speaks in full sentences regularly, and uses present and past tenses. It is quite entertaining to engage her in little dialogues! In other areas of development, she can now run quite quickly (faster than a heavily pregnant person) and can climb steep stairs and vertical ladders. She's also got a repertoire of songs, including ABCDEFG, The Bear Went Over the Mountain, Down By the Bay, Bingo, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Old MacDonald, all of which she sings (or yells) to herself on occasion.


In the San Francisco Bay at Crab Cove on the island of Alameda - May 2008


Pulling Ryan and Peter - May 2008

We have explained that there is another baby inside Mummy and it will come out shortly and start playing with her toys, but while she understands where the baby is, I'm not convinced she really understands the implications of what's going to happen. There again, I'm not sure that I do either, and it is pretty hard to believe what I'm saying when I tell her. I do think that she's good with babies though (see picture of Noah).


Henry, Martha, Leah and Lily observe a tortoise


Martha and Matthias (husband of first cousin once removed, father of Noah) use the "telephone" - April 2008


Martha with Grandparents Martin in Oakland - April 2008


Martha reads Harry with grandma - April 2008


Reading before bed with Grammy and Walter



Return visit to Fenton's


Leah and Martha drive the tug - April 2008

And here are the YouTube videos. I know several of you are aware of this feature, but you can be alerted the instant we put another one of these unmissable snippets on YouTube by using their "subscribe" feature.



Adrian and Martha Bouncing on the trampoline - June 2008



Martha helps to construct a Pizza - June 2008



Martha arranges the Laundry - June 2008



Tea Party at our house - July 2008


Carrie less than two weeks away from full term walking with Martha in Oakland - July 2008. At time of writing (6th July) there were no further additions, though when one happens then there will be details here, just as soon as we can manage to post them.