Our Casa Lennon is your Casa

We all came home after 3 nights in the hospital.

Alexander sleeping at home first week

So far everyone, including Sophia, is doing very well. As most parents of more than one kid told us, coming home with the second was much easier. Not sure why, it just was. So far he has slept a fair amount, mostly during the day. He has had a pretty consistent habit of being awake from 10pm -1am.(I am drafting this at 1:00 am on a Sunday morning as he sits wide-eyed in a boppy next to me.) All things considered, not bad at all.

One thing that has been similar to Sophia’s arrival has been his post birth weight drop and slow rebound. At one week he weighed in at 8 pounds and 5 ounces. Still below his birth weight, but on the way up. It’s common and amazingly less stressful this time around. Maybe a it’s a “seasoned parent” thing.

One piece of advice I have for any expecting, or someday to be expecting parents: Stock up on supplies at the hospital. You’re already paying for them, may as well take them. Take those extra diapers, wipes, formula, etc. In fact, ask for more. It will save you a lot of money when you leave the hospital.

One thing I may not have communicated very clearly previously. Alexander’s announcement post may have implied that Michele did not have her scheduled c-section since she went into labor that morning. She was in labor for about 6 hours but did have the c-section as scheduled.

Alexander’s first video – Hours after arrival
(Direct Video Link)

Alexander Moving around in Hospital Bassinet – Day 3
(Direct Video Link)

The arrival of our second child is a little different than the arrival of our first. We are all, of course, very excited about our impending new arrival, but it’s a different excitement than with Sophia. When we were expecting Sophia, we didn’t really know what to expect. With the arrival of our son, not only do we know “what we’re getting into”, but we also already have many of the tools-of-the-trades first-time parents lack.  The knowledge of how amazing Sophia has made the last 2o months of our lives fills us with an excitement we could not have comprehended before.

The (expected) details of his arrival:

• C-Section scheduled for the morning of Monday, Feb. 15. (For those of you thinking, “that’s just like Michele, planning it out”, you should know that Michele was really looking forward to the spontaneous, natural experience. But sometimes even that is not something you can control.)
• As with Sophia, we will be delivering at Rex Hospital in Raleigh, NC.
• We have AWESOME friends that have agreed to watch Sophia while we are in the hospital. Though at least we learned she can visit. Yay!

Because Michele will be recovering from surgery, we ask that if you want to meet the new addition, please introduce yourself to him when we get back home. The amazing love and support we received in the hospital when Sophia arrived was both amazing and literally overwhelming.

So, how exactly is it different this time around beyond the obvious gender difference?

1. Not as much free time to prep. So the prepping is not as peppy.
   

   Crib and dresser from "his" room

   For a perfect example, one only need look at his room. For “long time readers”, you may recall the post describing her nursery. To prep for this post, I ran upstairs, moved boxes out of the frame, and snapped some pix. We simply have not been able to dedicate the same level of energy and time to his room that we did for Sophia’s. Nevertheless, he does have a bigger room, brand new furniture, and just as many hand me downs and amazing sales acquisitions as Sophia did.

2. One huge difference is the amount of combined time we’ll be taking off. With Sophia, Michele stayed at home 4 months. Dave began his 3 month leave after that. When all was said and done, Sophia did not start day care until she was 7 1/2 months old. Her brother will only have mom home for the first 3 months. It will be interesting to see how that difference plays out. Dave will be out a total of 6 weeks, though the last 3-4 weeks will be staggered as part time. (Big shout out to my boss Kevin for supporting this flexible schedule! Here’s an unsolicited plug for his site about all things Durham.)
3. Lastly, it will be….interesting to see just how different the two kids are. We, of course, think Sophia is the perfect child. So, of course, karma would dictate that he will be….different. We know it’s just being silly and superstitious, but we can’t help it. I remember a story my mother shared about when she was expecting her second child, my brother Michael. She was concerned she could not possibly love anyone as much as she loved her firstborn, my sister Elizabeth. (She was genuinely concerned about this.) But then, as soon as he was born, she knew she loved him just as much. I’m sure the same will be true for us.

This is Sophia's brother doing his best Alfred Hitchcock impersonation.

To quote a colleague from work, “the title says it all.”  We are very excited to announce that we are expecting an expansion to our family. This is even more exciting and wonderful than the addition of the Honda Odyssey to the family in May.

Some of you may already know this, but I guess the quick details most folks want to know:

• Due Date – February 20, 2010
• Boy – but we already covered that in the title
• Name – Not a clue. Leave your suggestions as comments. (We were mildly relieved when we found out the first time around that we were expecting a girl because we could not agree on any boy names.)

Mommy Michele has felt quite well most of this pregnancy. For those in the know, that is a bit a of a departure from her pregnancy with Sophia. Daddy Dave figured that was a sign that:

• this child was going to be a boy (just as sound a logic as all other gender identification techniques. I’m partial to the Drano technique.)
• This child will be more “rambunctious and spirited” than Sophia has been. (I guess we’ll all have to tune in for future blog posts to see how accurate that prediction is.)

Sophia's Bro - Straight Ahead

So far everything looks good, so we are happy. Mommy Michele is very much looking forward to her glucose test in a few weeks.  (For those who do not actually know me, you now know I sometimes inject a healthy dose of sarcasm into, well, everything.)  We have been amused by the number of people we know that we have bumped into at the OB’s office. That I can recall, we have learned of three friends’ pregnancies that way. Go figure.

One quick aside. Some of you may know that our friends (and former neighbors), the Allsbrook’s, welcomed their first child into this world the same week Sophia was born. Shortly thereafter, they abandoned us and became slumlords. (Just kidding, we love ‘em.) Anyway, we were tickled to learn that we were once again co-expecting.  (Congrats to them on the recent birth of their beautiful daughter, Harper.)

Stay tuned for more updates on “Sophia’s Brother”, past events that we should have blogged about long ago, and other random happenings at Casa Lennon.