Cerin Amroth

I realized the other day that I wasn’t posting pictures here as often, not because they weren’t being taken, but because it was getting to be too much of a bother to post them. Despite the existence of any number of picture-hosting sites, I’ve still been manually resizing and uploading pics to the blog and then inputting pictures numbers and captions into a template for the text.

Time for a change. From here on out I’m going to post pictures to a Picasa web album. Here is the link:

Bruinooge Kids Web Album

They will be selected and captioned in traditional CA fashion, though they’ll probably arrive in more of a stream and less in clumps than previously. If you’re so inclined you can bookmark the photo page or subscribe to its RSS feed. But I’ll still post here periodically with a link to the most recent pictures, like this.

Enjoy!

Dominic had his two week doctor’s appointment today, so the stats are in: 8 pounds 14 ounces, 22 inches, 15 head circ. A pound and a quarter since birth, not too shabby. The nurse said he was just 50th percentile for weight, though, which made us wonder if they finally got around to changing the scale. 75th percentile for height, with big feet and long fingers — we think he’s gonna be a tall one.

Good ol’ baby acne is spreading across his face, which will soon give him the goblinish appearance that Ella had around this age. As with so much else the second time around, having been through it before and knowing it won’t last makes it seem like not that big of a deal. His digestive system is still quite sensitive — if you don’t coax that burp out of him after feeding, you can be sure you’ll have a squirming, red-faced gentleman on your hands down the line, and sometimes you’ll have that even if you _do_ get the burp. Still, he seems easier to settle down than Ella was in that respect. I’ve lost some hours of sleep bobbling him around in the middle of the night, but at least he’s quiet when being properly bobbled.

He’s still very much in that sleep-poop-cry-eat-repeat mode. For the first couple days of his life I was worried that, while of course I loved him very much, I wasn’t going to be fully engaged with his life until he was older and more interesting. I had been through all that baby stuff with Ella, after all, and I knew from experience how much I enjoyed each new phase of her life better than the one before it. I worried that I was going to spend the first year of Dominic’s life tapping my foot waiting for him to walk and talk. And then, at some point in the first couple of weeks, that worry just sort of went away. Not sure why, but I found myself falling into those familiar baby-care patterns quite easily. Maybe it’s an instinctive thing. Maybe two kids at home doesn’t leave you much space for idle introspection.

Ella loves him to death, and gets way more upset than Suanna or I when he cries. I’m probably reading too much into his expressions, but the look on his face when he hears / notices each of us goes something like this:

Suanna: “Ah, source of all that is wonderful and bounteous in this world! I’m thinkin’ snack time, whaddaya say?”

Nate: “I guess you’ll do.”

Ella: “WHAT the . . .”

For the first time in 13 years, we stayed in the DC area this year. It was a nice change of pace not to travel, to make our own celebrations, and to enjoy the festivities in our local community. On Christmas Eve, we went to our church’s children’s pageant. It’s done in the classic way with children playing all the roles and reading the nativity story, interspersed by singing all the great carols. The organizers had asked us if Dominic could play the role of baby Jesus. However, the prospects of a 12 year-old holding our 2-week old and Dominic surrounded by a lot of potential germs made us decline. Fortunately, someone else offered their 6-month old on their way into the service, so people were not disappointed by a doll Jesus.

After that, we went home to open our stockings. The next morning, we went to the 10 am Christmas service. We were part of the faithful few, which was quite a contrast to the standing-room-only nave the evening before. It was a very intimate service, which was very nice. At one point, our Assistant Rector said it was nice to have 2-week old Dominic there as a reminder of baby Jesus.
Faced by a mountain of gifts under our tree, we decided to space out the present opening over the course of the day. Ella opened two gifts in the morning before church, two gifts before lunch, one gift before her nap, and the motherload after her nap. We were all amazed at everyone’s generosity — and we still have some presents waiting back in Michigan.

If there were a Contest to Entertain Ella, MarMar and Gumpa (Suanna’s parents) would take first and second prizes. The clear winner of the day was a game called Cariboo. It’s the right combination of opening trap doors, discovering treasure, using a key, and learning letters, colors, shapes, and numbers. Nate wins Father of the Year for playing the game at least a dozen times with Ella. She played it by herself even more times — gee, I wonder where she gets that from? The second prize was an unexpected contender in this category — Dominic’s wooden grasshopper on a string. Ella has spent half the morning pulling it around the apartment. She insists that it’s a caterpillar. I think this is because it’s the same colors as the Hungry Caterpillar. Third place goes to John, Cindy, and Elia for the wooden stamp set. Ella went down for her nap with pink stamps all over her cheeks. Somehow, that was more interesting than using the paper. (Now she’s standing on my chair putting purple rainbows on my cheeks.)

We capped off the day by watching Babe, which Ella received as a gift all the way from Manila from Theressa, Benoy, and Dev. She didn’t grew disinterested toward the end of the movie. I don’t think she is old enough to follow the story. Her favorite part was the singing mice that read the chapter names.

All in all, it was a very nice Christmas. It made me feel incredibly blessed.

I woke up in the wee hours of December 9 with horrible lower back pain. It didn’t feel like distinct contractions — more of a constant pain. I took some pain reliever, got the heating pad, and tried to go back to sleep. After tossing and turning for an hour, I realized I wasn’t going to sleep, so I got up and tried to finish a project for work that I wanted to get done. After not being able to focus on work, I sought relief in a hot bath. By the time I got out, it was 5:30, so I knew Ella would be getting up soon. Oddly enough, I didn’t feel overly tired, just annoyed that I didn’t get any sleep. Once Nate woke up, I let him know that Lil’ Nipper (Dominic’s gestational name) would be arriving that day.

With Ella, I was induced early because of gestational diabetes, so I didn’t have any experience with the sensation of going into labor. The any-time-any-place concept really freaked me out. I really liked knowing the date in advance, being able to calmly get things in order, and driving into the hospital without any trauma. I fretted a great deal about the prospect of going into labor at work or somewhere else out and about. So it’s pretty ironic that Dominic announced his coming in the middle of the night and in the comfort of my own bed.

Saturday morning was full of almost constant lower back pain and punctuated occasionally by a more intense pain that I assumed was a contraction. While I was glad that he would be coming soon, I was also going nuts over all the things I thought I should have finished — work projects, Christmas shopping, and getting the house ready for Lil’ Nipper’s arrival. I wanted to lie down and get some relief, but my mind would not stop racing. So while Nate occupied Ella, I went into the bedroom to do a few things for work. Then I tried to decide whether to go to Costco to do the last of my shopping. At one point, I started getting dressed thinking I would go, but then the idea of having my water break at Costco made me crawl back in bed. For some people, nesting involves cleaning the house and getting the baby’s clothes together. For me, it involved work and errands. … Hey, at least I recognized this about myself!

By 1:00, I had two or three contractions that were half an hour apart. In addition to the distinct contractions, I was having what felt like mini contractions in between. So I wasn’t sure how to time them. I had my doctor’s office page the nurse midwife to give me a call. Nate called our Ella watchers (David, Colette, and Hannah) to let them know that today was going to be the day. At 1:15, I had another contraction that was the worst yet. I couldn’t sit or lie down. The only thing that brought me relief was to keep walking. Another contraction came at 1:25. Even though they weren’t the obligatory 5 minutes apart, I knew I had to go to the hospital — to get an epidural to endure the pain, if nothing else. Nate called D/C/H back to ask them to come right away to get Ella. By the time they arrived, I had another 10-minute-apart contraction and was eager to get going.

I walked down to the car and was prevented from getting in by another contraction. The thought of sitting down through a contraction was horrifying. Fortunately, my next one didn’t come until after we were in the hospital parking lot. By the time we got up to the L&D floor and were signing paperwork (now 2:00), I had another contraction. By the time we were in the room, I was feeling them every 2 to 3 minutes. As I was pacing back and forth, my water broke. The nurse came in and asked me to lie down on the bed so the nurse midwife could check my progress. The nurse midwife (Patrice) checked me out and said I was ready to start pushing. …. That’s when I learned I wouldn’t be having the epidural. I wanted to turn back the clock or tell them that Lil’ Nipper could surely wait, but the nurses told me that I was through the worst of it anyway.

With Ella, I think I only pushed around 10 times, and she was out in about half an hour. I also had an episiotomy with Ella, which I’m sure helped contribute to the shorter exit time. With Lil’ Nipper, the pushing was definitely more intense, accompanied by feeling the pain of the contractions. After half an hour, I was ready to ask for the episiotomy, but Patrice was committed to seeing me through without it. In retrospect, not having it has sure made the recovery easier, but at the time I was ready to call it quits and ask her to just pull him out. At one point, Patrice told me to stop pushing and look directly at her. She kindly informed me that I wasn’t pushing at all and that I needed to focus my energy. She also instructed me in yoga breathing, which helped a great deal.

Dominic was born at 2:53 pm after 45 minutes of pushing and more pushes than I can remember. Patrice put him directly on my belly, and a few minutes later I was trying to nurse him. As with Ella, I was amazed that such a huge baby was inside of me, and seeing him made it all worthwhile. He cried only briefly and had his eyes open and was looking around for most of the time. He stayed right with us in the room for the next couple of hours while they monitored me and cleaned him up. It was wonderful to have that time together. By 5:00, I was headed up to my recovery room, and we dropped Dominic off at the nursery.

When the first nurse came into my room to see me, she asked if I was the Stop-and-Drop from downstairs. I told her that I had, indeed, delivered rather quickly after checking in, but no one had used that term with me. Every nurse who came in to care for me expressed amazement that I had delivered without an epidural. I assured them that it wasn’t by choice. In retrospect, I definitely wouldn’t do it that way again, but it’s nice to be able to say that I delivered a baby the natural way. I’m just glad it went quickly. My mom told me later that she also delivered my brother (her first) really quickly. The doctor actually told my dad he could go home to get something, and my brother came before he got back.

Remember my page to the nurse midwife that never got returned? Patrice came back after I delivered and said that the office had just called her to say that they were sorry for not paging her after I called. I told her that I was calling to help determine whether I should come in and that my contractions were 15 minutes apart at that point. She said it’s probably fortunate she didn’t get the page because she would have told me to wait at home. … The only thing worse than not having an epidural — having your husband deliver you at home because you couldn’t get to the hospital in time. Thank God the office was inept with the page! The thing that amazes me about the whole process — how much my body took over and my instincts told me what to do.

“34″:http://www.polytropos.org/mt-static/de/de34.jpg — Ah, the joys of morning nude finger painting!
“35″:http://www.polytropos.org/mt-static/de/de35.jpg — Daytime naps are now universal around here.
“36″:http://www.polytropos.org/mt-static/de/de36.jpg — He is not yet ticklish. I suspect we will know about it the very day and hour that he is, though.
“37″:http://www.polytropos.org/mt-static/de/de37.jpg — Guy on left: “If you fall asleep, _I_ can fall asleep too. What do you say? Please? Pretty please?” Guy on right: “Am I always going to have to spend this much time and energy working on making poops? ‘Cause that would suck.”

Ella has assumed the mantle of Big Sisterhood with grace and love. For the most part. She has been frustrated, from time to time, at the lack of attention being paid to her, and on a few occasions this has led to some textbook Acting Out. The biggest example: one afternoon, after trying without success to get somebody to pay attention to her, she went into Suanna’s purse, got her chapstick, and used it to “paint” (as she explained it matter-of-factly afterward) on my laptop screen.

It was hard to be mad at her, because I was so impressed. She picked out the one thing that Suanna always tells her not to do (get the chapstick without asking) and the one thing I always tell her not to do (touch the laptop screen) and combined them into one simple act of rebellion. Her expression of frustration couldn’t have been more aesthetically taut.

Today, when, lacking attention, she drew on the wall with a pencil, I said, “Ella, Ella, Ella. Drawing on the wall? So prosaic. Too . . . how shall I say . . . “on-the-nose.” I know you can do better. Can you think of a more elegant way to let us know you want attention?”

Ha! Just kidding. I didn’t say that. But I thought it.

“26″:http://www.polytropos.org/mt-static/de/de26.jpg — Three drinkers.
“27″:http://www.polytropos.org/mt-static/de/de27.jpg — The (not uncommon) Incredulous Expression.
“28″:http://www.polytropos.org/mt-static/de/de28.jpg — Typical chilling-out. This pic makes his hair look darker than it is — or at least darker than it is today.
“29″:http://www.polytropos.org/mt-static/de/de29.jpg — Sleepin’ baby.
“30″:http://www.polytropos.org/mt-static/de/de30.jpg — Hanging out with daddy.
“31″:http://www.polytropos.org/mt-static/de/de31.jpg — Ella and Marmar, finishing up those Christmas cookies.
“32″:http://www.polytropos.org/mt-static/de/de32.jpg — The kids, prior to a after-dinner pajama walk in . . .
“33″:http://www.polytropos.org/mt-static/de/de33.jpg — the new stroller!

“18″:http://www.polytropos.org/mt-static/de/de18.jpg — Open eyes, and a good capture of Dominic’s “contemplative posture.” When he is awake and not crying or eating, he looks around serenely, just like Ella did.
“19″:http://www.polytropos.org/mt-static/de/de19.jpg — Helping Marmar make cookies.
“20″:http://www.polytropos.org/mt-static/de/de20.jpg — Extreme flour-on-nose close up!
“21″:http://www.polytropos.org/mt-static/de/de21.jpg — This appears to be Dominic’s favorite sleeping position … a fact that bought me at least an hour of extra sleep last night.
“22″:http://www.polytropos.org/mt-static/de/de22.jpg — What’s going on here is that Ella is washing mama’s hair. Apparently sticking the tongue out helps concentration.
“23″:http://www.polytropos.org/mt-static/de/de23.jpg — Making peace with our inability to turn a normal receiving blanket into a proper baby burrito with any consistency, we bought one of these things yesterday. It actually keeps the guy wrapped up, which he likes most of the time but not always. Note the contemplative posture again.
“24″:http://www.polytropos.org/mt-static/de/de24.jpg — He favors his left index finger over his thumb, and sticks it as far in as it will go.
“25″:http://www.polytropos.org/mt-static/de/de25.jpg — Dominic of the Long Toes.

With Ella we knew her name and her nickname long before she was even the whisper of a thought — it was one of those “If we ever have a girl . . .” things. Not so with this guy. For the longest time Suanna and I had no agreement whatsoever. In the final weeks there did exist a “short list,” but at the moment when Dominic was born we still weren’t 100% sure he would be Dominic. After watching Suanna go through it all, so suddenly and so _au naturale_, I told her she could name the baby whatever the heck she wanted. Within reason.

What is not in dispute is that it was Suanna who kept coming up with name ideas over the months, and me who kept shooting them down. In her version of the story, she was the creative force coming up with ideas and I was just a big wet blanket who couldn’t decide what he wanted. In my version, she was the one who was tossing out names willy-nilly — stuff even _she_ didn’t want — just so she could enjoy being able to say she was the one coming up with all the ideas. We did agree that if we could never agree the kid’s name would default to “Maximo,” and perhaps that was what, in the end, provided sufficient impetus to find common ground.

So, yeah, Dominic. It’s from the Latin, _Dominicus_, which means “of the Lord.” There’s “a saint”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Dominic, and a couple “cool”:http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0922035/ “actors”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominic_Monaghan with the name, but none of those had anything to do with our choosing it. We just kind of liked it.

Michael means “who is as God.” It is the name of the greatest of all the angels, according to the lore of the Christians or the Jews or the Muslims (who spell it “Mika’il”). It is also the name of my father, whom I love and admire. Plus, we just kind of liked it.

Bruinooge still seems like an unpronounceable mouthful, but hey, Ella can pronounce it, and she can’t even pronounce “yellow.” So how bad can it be?

“8″:http://www.polytropos.org/mt-static/de/de8.jpg — Dominic and Marmar.
“9″:http://www.polytropos.org/mt-static/de/de9.jpg — “Please! No pictures! I just want to be left alone! You people just don’t understand the nature of celebrity!”
“10″:http://www.polytropos.org/mt-static/de/de10.jpg — Dominic and Gumpa.
“11″:http://www.polytropos.org/mt-static/de/de11.jpg — Ella watching football with Gumpa. Yes, those are her socks on her hands. We have two kids now, stuff like that is just gonna have to slide.
“12″:http://www.polytropos.org/mt-static/de/de12.jpg — Back at the hospital, Daddy and sleeping Dominic . . .
“13″:http://www.polytropos.org/mt-static/de/de13.jpg — . . . and more sleeping Dominic with sleeping Mommy.
“14″:http://www.polytropos.org/mt-static/de/de14.jpg — On day 2, Ella had the courage to actually climb into the bed and hang out a bit.
“15″:http://www.polytropos.org/mt-static/de/de15.jpg — Ready to go home! Yes, Suanna looks amazing for having just been through childbirth. Yes, it is going to be a struggle to keep her from trying to do too much in the next couple weeks when she should be taking it easy.
“16″:http://www.polytropos.org/mt-static/de/de16.jpg — Ye Olde car seat, back for another go ’round.
“17″:http://www.polytropos.org/mt-static/de/de17.jpg — Supposedly safe at home, and then — Bear Strike!