Rowan's birth and first two weeks of life
Little baby Rowan, Ray's and my son, has been with us for 2 weeks already. So now I have finally got to posting about his arrival. Had to take care of first things first, such as finish a story and submit it for ArmadilloCon (local science fiction convention) writers' workshop before the deadline.
Rowan's birth date was 11 days after his due date, and my labor had to be induced, as the doctor didn't want to let me go much more beyond 41st week of pregnancy. (Especially not at my "advanced maternal age".) When I got to the hospital on a Sunday night there were indications that an early stage of labor was already starting, but probably would have taken days to speed up on its own. So we went ahead with the induction in the morning. It went a lot like my first induced labor 6 years ago with Erika: not much happened at first, but when the nurses noticeably ratcheted up the dose of pitocin, contractions became fast, furious and very close together. Luckily, this being Monday and not Saturday, I got an epidural within about half an hour of asking for one. The previous time it took more than 2 hours, because a doctor and an anesthesiologist had to be phoned and then had to drive to the hospital.
A very grumpy-looking baby Rowan on the day of his birth. Must not like camera flash in his face.
Erika meets her baby brother for the first time and symbolically "gives" him a bottle as Ray holds him.
Anyway, Rowan Tempest Daniel was born on June 20th, 2011 at 5 pm, 22 1/4 inches long (56.6 cm) and weighing 10 pounds 6 ounces (4.71 kg). Yes, he's big. In some ways it's like having a two month-old kid. :-) From day one he could raise his head and hold it up for a few seconds before it flopped down to one side. He also has been making attempts to crawl: he tries to push himself forward with his knees and feet, but mostly he just succeeds moving sideways in a wiggly worm fashion. Also, if he gets his arm trapped under him, he rolls over on his back. That's probably because his heavy head pulls him to one side, assisting a rollover. Here is a video of Rowan "crawling". The more he tries to crawl, the more his squawks of annoyance become cries of outrage.
He resembles a wasabi root sometimes (the source of the image on the right is http://www.prawnco.com/upload_images/wasabi%20root.jpg), but isn't as fussy and difficult to raise. By now he wakes up to eat only once a night, not counting a late night 10-11 p.m. feeding, but I'm still awake at those times; the next feeding is usually about 4-5 a.m. The last couple of nights he slept as many as 8-9 hours without getting hungry, but we don't know if this will last.
He also sometimes briefly laughs in his sleep, though it is anybody's guess what a newborn might find funny.
Erika has been getting along well with the baby, though she makes a point to scrunch her face in disgust whenever his diaper is being changed. She also likes to watch me breastfeeding Rowan, and even asked me to breastfeed her. Which I'm absolutely NOT going to do, ick. :-) Overall she's bored at home (she's not going to day care until I'm back at work, which should be August 1st). My mom and Ray have been doing much to help her boredom, like taking her swimming and bike riding, but I can't help her much with that. A couple of times I took her out for some entertainment, but I can only do that for short periods of time while the baby is asleep and my mom is home with him. I don't want to take a baby this young out in public. Immune system and all that. Mom will leave in 10 days, and then Erika, baby and I may be stranded at home until August 1st; it may get rough, but it's only temporary.
More pictures of Rowan and Erika are in my photo gallery.
Rowan's birth date was 11 days after his due date, and my labor had to be induced, as the doctor didn't want to let me go much more beyond 41st week of pregnancy. (Especially not at my "advanced maternal age".) When I got to the hospital on a Sunday night there were indications that an early stage of labor was already starting, but probably would have taken days to speed up on its own. So we went ahead with the induction in the morning. It went a lot like my first induced labor 6 years ago with Erika: not much happened at first, but when the nurses noticeably ratcheted up the dose of pitocin, contractions became fast, furious and very close together. Luckily, this being Monday and not Saturday, I got an epidural within about half an hour of asking for one. The previous time it took more than 2 hours, because a doctor and an anesthesiologist had to be phoned and then had to drive to the hospital.
A very grumpy-looking baby Rowan on the day of his birth. Must not like camera flash in his face.
Erika meets her baby brother for the first time and symbolically "gives" him a bottle as Ray holds him.
Anyway, Rowan Tempest Daniel was born on June 20th, 2011 at 5 pm, 22 1/4 inches long (56.6 cm) and weighing 10 pounds 6 ounces (4.71 kg). Yes, he's big. In some ways it's like having a two month-old kid. :-) From day one he could raise his head and hold it up for a few seconds before it flopped down to one side. He also has been making attempts to crawl: he tries to push himself forward with his knees and feet, but mostly he just succeeds moving sideways in a wiggly worm fashion. Also, if he gets his arm trapped under him, he rolls over on his back. That's probably because his heavy head pulls him to one side, assisting a rollover. Here is a video of Rowan "crawling". The more he tries to crawl, the more his squawks of annoyance become cries of outrage.
Click to viewHe resembles a wasabi root sometimes (the source of the image on the right is http://www.prawnco.com/upload_images/wasabi%20root.jpg), but isn't as fussy and difficult to raise. By now he wakes up to eat only once a night, not counting a late night 10-11 p.m. feeding, but I'm still awake at those times; the next feeding is usually about 4-5 a.m. The last couple of nights he slept as many as 8-9 hours without getting hungry, but we don't know if this will last.
He also sometimes briefly laughs in his sleep, though it is anybody's guess what a newborn might find funny.
Erika has been getting along well with the baby, though she makes a point to scrunch her face in disgust whenever his diaper is being changed. She also likes to watch me breastfeeding Rowan, and even asked me to breastfeed her. Which I'm absolutely NOT going to do, ick. :-) Overall she's bored at home (she's not going to day care until I'm back at work, which should be August 1st). My mom and Ray have been doing much to help her boredom, like taking her swimming and bike riding, but I can't help her much with that. A couple of times I took her out for some entertainment, but I can only do that for short periods of time while the baby is asleep and my mom is home with him. I don't want to take a baby this young out in public. Immune system and all that. Mom will leave in 10 days, and then Erika, baby and I may be stranded at home until August 1st; it may get rough, but it's only temporary.
More pictures of Rowan and Erika are in my photo gallery.