Today is the day that Baby Brother is, according to the medical community, supposed to grace us with his arrival into the air-breathing world. So far, no joy. But I have a theory: He's waiting until Thursday. Matthew was born the day after his Nana's birthday. Grandma's birthday is on Wednesday, so maybe Baby Brother is waiting for the day after that.
Or maybe he's just mocking the fact that I have said from the beginning that this baby will probably come early. I was worried I would have a baby in June. Or May. I was worried that all the stress from preparing to move across an ocean and the country, doing so, and waiting for a house deal that is
apparently never going to go through, and chasing Child #1 would send this little one running for the hills, as it were.
But maybe the opposite is true. Maybe he's waiting until things are truly settled before making an appearance. Maybe he knows that there's only chaos out here in the world and that he's got it good in that warm, dark cave. Or maybe he's just trying to mess with me.
Whatever the reason, he hasn't arrived yet. I appreciate all the calls and emails to check in on me, and I apologize that I don't have more to report. It's business-as-usual around here: mornings out with Matthew, quiet time in the afternoon, evenings spent catching up with Papa, and nights full of tossing, turning, and peeing. Speaking of which...
Before I begin to tell you about the birthday, let me say that I'm not going to be posting as many pictures as I did with Matthew during the first few months. I'm trying to learn from some of the mistakes I made the first time, and one of those mistakes was putting hobbies and friendships over nursing and sleep. But today I'm feeling good, so I'm posting just a few shots from William's birthday.
I love all of my friends and family who have commented on how good I look post-labor. The truth is that the labor went so fast this time that I didn't even break a sweat. Now, don't take that to mean that it wasn't painful. It was. Very. But the last stage of the labor, the pushing part, took about ten seconds, so I didn't have a chance to really exert a lot. And I'm pretty sure these pictures were taken after I had eaten a huge plate of hospital food (one of my favorites, seriously), so my strength is back and I'm feeling great in these shots. 
Jeff got to put Baby Brother under his shirt while I recuperated a bit, which scared the bejesus out of one of the nurses who came in a exclaimed, "Where's the baby?!" That was a sweet time for Jeff and his second son. Unfortunately, we've never been able to recreate it. Seems that William is quite alert and is no longer satisfied with a view of Jeff's chest hair.
Thank goodness Jeff's parents came to stay with us for a few weeks to help. They were able to take Matthew on the morning I had William so that Jeff could be with me. And I'm glad Jeff was there because the labor and delivery nurses were driving me nuts and didn't believe that a laboring woman could be as calm as I was. Jeff almost had to catch the baby himself because the nurses refused to call the midwife when Jeff saw the baby's head crowning and called for the midwife for the third time in ten minutes. All's well that ends well, though, and luckily a midwife was passing our room when she noticed the chaos of nurses trying to get things ready. I don't even know her name, but I'm glad she was there to make sure everything came out alright. (Ouch. Sorry.)
Matthew already loves his Baby Brother and hasn't lashed out much at all at the attention-hog. Truth is, Baby William is the calm, sweety we were hoping for - though I suppose we can't tell too much after only 8 days. Still, he turns his head in the direction of Matthew's voice and doesn't seem to mind having toys stuck in his face that Big Brother is "showing" him. As social as Matthew is, I think he's really going to enjoy having a playmate once we get this little one on his feet. Oh, and look at all that hair!
