Welcome to the Bruiser!

On February 3rd, we joyfully welcomed our third baby.  Around here, we'll call him the Bruiser. He weighed in at 10 pounds, 3 ounces and was 22 inches long.  We've been recovering well at home, and life is returning rapidly to a new form of normal.  In fact, my own recovery has been the easiest, despite the Bruiser's heft.

As I've reflected on my recovery, I've wondered what has made this go around easier than the others.  There are many thoughts running around in my mind, most of them related to the simple fact that I've done this before.  But in talking with friends, I've realized that over the years I've amassed quite of bit of information about labor, birth, and postpartum recovery.  So I've planned a series of posts about it all.  My guess is that there will be at least six of them, two each for pregnancy, labor & birth, and postpartum recovery.  It's likely that once I get going, that will be expanded, but for now, that's the plan.

Blogging took a long hiatus during the last months before the Bruiser's arrival. Between the holidays and ample contract work, I barely had time to wash the baby clothes so the new one would have something to wear home from the hospital!  Additionally, a lot has been going on with the Reader and Miss Rosie. The Reader will be officially tested for a variety of intellectual competencies next week. We discovered, with the help of his amazing preschool teacher, that he's reading at a 5th grade level. More on that later, but I've been investigating giftedness in relation to parenting - though that investigation is on hiatus with the arrival of the Bruiser. We've also been watching Miss Rosie turn into a true toddler. She has full-on tantrums like we've never seen before! But she remains our sweetest darling, too.

A few changes, some scary, some not so much

Hello, blog, it's me: your author.  Yes, I know it's been quite some time since I've bothered to visit you - or even think about you, frankly.  Sorry about that.  Life got busy, and you got shelved.  It happens, particularly when I'm spending large amounts of time at the computer writing in my actual field of expertise, which is NOT parenting.  Ironic, isn't it?

Seriously, though - we've been going through some lovely growing pains around here, ones that are very good for us, but make us feel somewhat "stretchy" nonetheless.  I am 38 weeks pregnant (WHOA!), and though I don't expect the baby to come any day now, really, he or she should show up before Valentine's Day.  We're not ready, though.  No clothing has been washed, no bassinet prepared, no empty infant car seat riding around in the new-to-us car.  Nope, I haven't even packed my bag.  Denial, you say?  Hmmm...perhaps.  I'm arguing for busy, personally, but I'll consider denial.  (Even though baby won't: the kicks are coming fast and furious. This little person needs me to wash some kind of clothing worthy of a trip home from the hospital, I think!)

A few other bits of news of note: The Runner got a terrific new job with some awesome people.  Still doing the same day-to-day thing, but without the corporate BS he was slogging through before.  AND...we hope it will eventually move us closer to the Atlantic Ocean, the general vicinity of which we consider home.  I am so happy for him, too, especially because he is happy!

The Talker has been "tested" at his preschool for a few academic benchmarks, and his reading level is apparently scary-advanced. I'm at a loss over what to do with the information, mainly because accelerating him to another grade doesn't exactly ameliorate the issue - not to mention the fact that he isn't exactly the world's most emotionally advanced human.  His darling sister is now 18 months old, and she uttered her first 4 word statement today after covering a doll with a blanket, "Mommy, baby take nap."  I am of the opinion that her language explosion (occurring during the past 3-4 weeks) is the primary reason the child was refusing to take naps or sleep at night.  Things are calming down now, just in time for middle of the night feedings to begin!  Apparently she needed to prepare herself for an entire month in the middle of the night to give me four words in a row, which despite my sarcasm and apparent denial, is downright awesome.  Either way, I'm happy to report she is currently sleeping.

Christmas was fantastic here - it snowed on Christmas Eve; we enjoyed the vigil Mass; we celebrated the Feast of the Seven Fishes with dear friends; and the Runner and I watched the kiddos open a sick number of gifts (we blame the grandparents, mostly!) for several hours on Christmas morning while drinking lots of hot coffee.  Our elf, Snickers, made it safely back to the North Pole for a much-needed respite from the Talker's frequent requests and pleas to tell Santa this or that.  It's a good thing Snickers is home now, too, because he was running out of new places to sit and watch the family behave properly all day long.

It's a new year, so I'm hoping to write more - both here and over at my other, more "serious" blog: Intentional Family.  We'll see if I can make good on that "resolution" or not.