Eliza Rose

Eliza Rose McGlone Weaver

Needless to say, we did not need to be induced. Molly endured sporadic contractions all day Monday, was in significant pain by 3 a.m. Tuesday, was in the car by 3:45 a.m., and gave birth to Eliza at 4:33 a.m. The hospital paperwork labeled it “precipitous delivery.”  I saw a bit of panic in the eyes of the triage nurses and doctors. It’s presumptuous of me to speculate, but I think Molly was in a lot more pain during this labor than during the other two- but she hasn’t contradicted me on this point, and I think she also feels it was a fair trade-off- a bit more agony for a shockingly short labor. The staff at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania were great once again- we chose to delivery naturally, without meds, and they supported us completely. Of course that detail may have been moot- they probably couldn’t have opened a baby-safe bottle of painkiller before Eliza was born.

So many thanks to our friend and housemate Tanya, who watched after the boys when we took off in the middle of the night. Not worrying about who would take care of the kids was a huge relief- beyond huge. I actually made it home in time to take Silas to school that morning, and came home to the whole house having breakfast, like nothing extraordinary was going on. After taking Silas to school, our friend Margaret came over to watch after Asher for a few hours, then my mom came down on the train to help out for the next day. We are part of a really awesome village- I can’t help but think how much harder this must be for so many people- epically, unfairly… almost impossible.

We live just a few minutes from the hospital, so I was back and forth for the next day, taking Silas to/from Kindergarten, and trying to snag a nap in between. Molly and Eliza were released to come home Wednesday evening, which was quicker than we expected, thank goodness.

We’re settled down now, though we’re tired and baffled, trying to figure out how this little girl works. She nurses every hour at night, and the boys have slept erratically the last few days. We’re textbook new-parent-tired (though on our third kid.) Perhaps it’s worse that Eliza’s our third, because we’re arrogant, having done this before- like we can watch Netflix until midnight and somehow get away with it.  The night we brought Eliza home, Asher woke up at 3:30 in tears- he said he was hungry, and commenced eating two yogurts and a banana in the middle of the night. Of all the nights to get the munchies.

Molly was a champion- we’re just trying to take things slow, especially since she’s recovering more quickly from this birth than from the previous two, and there are so many temptations to jump back into work, or tussle with the boys, or help me with my house projects. The nurses suggested she should stay in her pajamas and refuse to leave the house for two weeks. Those who know Molly can laugh now.

This week was incredible- our friends Rebecca and Keith, whose due date was the same as ours- gave birth to their son Simon 22 hours before Eliza was born. And my brother and sister-in-law- who were due a week before us- gave birth to their second child Kellen a day and half later. My parents are absolutely up to their eyeballs. We can’t wait to see the other kids- they look gorgeous.

People keep asking how Silas and Asher are reacting to Eliza. I had simply assumed the boys would be great with the new baby, and they’ve proven me right. Silas dotes on her completely, and sings to “Eliza Rose” while we change her diapers. He did kick her in the head once, but it was an accident. Since Asher isn’t two yet I assumed he wouldn’t understand this life-change, but he is fascinated by “Baby Liza,” seems concerned when she cries, and hasn’t done anything bone-headed to her yet, so that’s an “A” on the scorecard so far.

Molly won’t be back in the office at all until January, and then part-time for a bit after that, so there’s another reason for us to feel lucky- we’ve got that much time to figure out our zone defense. People have said that going from 1 to 2 kids is much harder than going from 2 to 3, but so far I’m doubting that- this seems pretty hard.

Thanks for everybody who has supported us (and will be supporting us,) and we hope you all get to meet our sweet baby someday soon.

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Dog gone

This weekend we said goodbye to our dear dog Ella, who Molly had adopted in the fall of 2001 from the pound, which made her 16-17 years old. She slowed down year by year, in linear fashion, and by this year was mostly deaf, mostly blind, fell down the stairs too often, and her reasoning was leaving her. I thought telling Silas would be the hard part- and it was pretty hard- but nope- the vet office was heart-breaking, even though we were confident in our decision. We took a few photos late this week, which felt morbid. She was such a sweet old girl.

Silas wondered if we could go buy a new dog Saturday afternoon, but he has thankfully let that go for now- I don’t want to further injure him by telling him there is no earthly way we’re getting another dog. We are going to have more than enough dependents here in another week or two.

And a week or two is what this pregnancy is down to. The hospital won’t let us go past the 30th, so we have a date on the calendar. We really don’t want to get to that date. Nobody thinks we will make it that long- as Molly is popping- check out the picture below, in which Baby Golly is stretching Molly’s belly into an un-sphere. Molly claims this is definitely the most uncomfortable pregnancy she’s had.

Silas is still thriving in Kindergarten- they say that kindergarten is the new first grade- but a few days ago Silas, unprompted, described the difference between fiction and non-fiction. Seems like kindergarten is the new sixth grade.

And even though Silas has Spanish class on Fridays, Asher seems to pick it up just fine from Go, Diego! I was in the kitchen a few days ago when he ran up to the baby gate, and started shaking it, yelling “Help! Ayuda!” And I have drilled the meaning of Vaminos! into his brain.

I was repairing some plaster in the kitchen earlier today, and left the white bag of joint compound sitting in the corner- for the third time tonight I just noticed it in the corner of my eye and mistook it for Ella- there hadn’t been any brown left on her beagle-body for at least five years.

The first gallery below is an interval series I programed to shoot once an hour while I was at work one day in 2009.

Molly, Ella, and Silas in-utero 2009

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Huggy

Our boy Asher is officially on the mend, with his digestion behaving as god intended, and his appetite fully restored. His first words each morning this week have been “I’m huggy!”

In other news, Molly and I spent the wee hours of Monday morning in triage at the hospital- back with the hard-core false labor.  Thank goodness Tanya was home to watch over our kids while they slept (and as they woke up.) It occurred to us as we sat in the hospital at 3 a.m. that we hadn’t really prepared Silas for this- that he’d wake in the night, stumble into our room, and find it empty. Fortunately Tanya caught him as he woke up and panic was averted. I called my dad at five and asked him to drive down to help us out- we weren’t sure how Silas was going to get to school, and who was going to greet the roofers when they showed up at our house first thing in the morning. Silas made it to school, and a new roof made it on our house, and the hospital sent us home around breakfast-time, so it all worked out. It would have been a week or three early for Golly to join us on the outside, so I’m glad she stayed inside.

Tanya left town for vacation mid-week, and we were terrified that we’d go into labor in the middle of the night with nobody around to watch the boys, so we asked my mom to come down for the weekend to back us up. The kids loved spending time with her, and Molly took them all to the Please Touch Museum on Saturday (they all burned themselves out) while I stayed at home and put down baseboards. Dad came down today to help me remove air conditioners, and hold the big ladder for me as I did some wood repair way up high. Dad even discovered the cause of my browning azaleas- he found some lace-winged flies on all the plants in the front garden- I’ve got the Neem Oil pesticide ready to go for tomorrow, and hopefully the azaleas can recover a bit before the cold weather arrives.

Yesterday our block had an art-themed party, with bands, painting tables, a pottery wheel, face painting, food, and a Big Wheel (which Asher horked from a neighbor kid.) We couldn’t hang out long, and the weather suppressed turnout a bit, but it was great all the same, and reminded us that we live in a cool neighborhood.

The weekend was coming to a graceful close this evening, up until the moment that Silas and Asher were playing in the bath and Asher bit Silas right on the nose. Silas cried for half an hour. I think he was desperately confused.  Asher was fine, and made the “scrunchy face” portrait down below just a few minutes later.

I was standing on our third floor bay window roof when I usually take the kids’ chair photos, so we skipped it. I’m not happy with the light setup I’m using either, so I may try to change that for next week so we’re ready for Golly’s arrival.

Asher got tired of looking at Orangutans

Please Touch Museum

Halloween preview

Block Party face paint

Night Rider

Scrunchy face

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Runnin’ on empty

Poor Asher has been sick all week- he has the scoots, he does. Friday we ended up at the doctor, after we realized that a week of that is a week too many. The doctor mildly chastised me for not giving Asher Pedialyte on day-one. His directive started out, “Give him Pedialyte and infant rice cereal for the first 24-36 hours.” But as the appointment wore on, the list of approved foods grew longer, and eventually included Pop-Tarts. I have not given Asher infant rice cereal or Pop-Tarts (rice and cereal bars working just fine), but he seems to be improving, and his appetite is better. His first words this morning were “I’m haggy!”  I asked him what he wanted to eat, and he said “waffles!” That’s my boy.

Molly is in week 36 of the pregnancy now, and people have started asking if we need anything. The short answer is “no,” but Tanya and Rob had a nice thought, and took our precious kids off our hands for the day so we could get some work done. They took the whole tribe out to a pumpkin patch (which I believe was more of an autumn extravaganza wunderland.) We were leery about sending Asher off in his current condition, but if there was any unpleasantness we were not informed. The kids were excited to go in the morning, and were still jazzed when they arrived home. I was less than happy by the time they returned though- we’re putting down the new floor in the back room (which needs to get done before we can have the radiators re-installed) and the floor stapler crapped out (I rented it from Home Depot.) Nobody else had one in-stock locally so I bit the bullet and ordered one from Amazon next-day delivery. If the stapler works correctly I can have that floor finished in a few hours. While I thrashed about with my defective stapler, Molly was out on the porch painting baseboards and window trim. It looks great and is ready to go whenever the floor is.  I bought the lumber on Friday, somehow thinking that Asher would tolerate watching me chose baseboard and moulding profiles. Five minutes into our shopping trip he let loose with “I want to go home!” and kept yelling it for the 20 minutes it took for me to write out an order. He articulated it so well that I laughed the first few times he yelled.  I was never so glad as when I loaded the wood in the van, and hit “play” on the dvd player to quiet the boy. Tague Lumber is the bomb, btw, to any Philadelphia-area home-improvers or hobbyists.

I hope our struggles against the roof leaks will be over (for 2014 at least) as the roofer is coming by tomorrow to tear off a section off our attic and re-shingle it. He’s also making a few other repairs while he’s at it. We’ll be so relieved if it goes well- obviously to have the necessary repairs done, but moreover to have found a trustworthy contact for our e-rolodex so that we can relax a bit in the future, knowing somebody who is skilled and fairly priced. Having the critical contacts and advisors is about the most important asset when owning an asset such as an old West Philly house. Or does it own us?

Spoiler

Dragon says knock you out

Where’s Baby Golly

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