Henry Quotes (January 2011 Edition)

DADDY (coming out of our tiny powder room after helping Henry): GOD, I do *not* fit in that bathroom!
HENRY (yelling from the bathroom, without missing a beat): GOD, I *do* fit in that bathroom!

ME: Henry, please put the quarter you got from Grandma in your money jar.
HENRY: Why does it always have to be ME?

Henry was grumbling about something in the family room when I left to change Silas' diaper. From the next room I heard him yell, "I'm still complaining!"

HENRY: I want to go to Infinite Gym (a gymnastics facility we go to every week) but I don't want to leave the house.
ME: If we had it in our basement we could go whenever we wanted. It would be Infinite Basement.
HENRY: Ha -- [pause]. That's not a good one.

Baby Chuckles

I heard Silas laugh for the first time today! We were giving him a bath and he chuckled once when I washed between his toes and again when I washed behind his knee. It could be the cutest thing I ever heard.

The Many Faces of Silas

Eight weeks old:

Silas, Six Weeks Old

Here's Silas at six weeks and five days old:


And here's Henry at six weeks:


I love that they're so different. It's exciting to watch another little person develop.

Newborn Photos

My friend Allie of Proud to Introduce Photography took these photos at our home when Silas was only five days old. Just gorgeous.

From My Sister's Perspective

My sister Karen wrote a blog entry about her experience taking care of Henry while I was in labor:

New Baby in the House (But not my baby, and not my house...)

Monday morning at five AM, I received a phone call from my brother-in-law. "Something is definitely happening," he said.

That was all I needed to hear. I ate breakfast, got myself ready, and packed a bag of activities for the day. At the last minute I went to the closet where we keep my nearly-grown-up kids' childhood games and grabbed the board game, Mouse Trap, to take along with me.

I arrived at my (much younger) sister's house at 6:30 where she was hard at work laboring to bring a new life into this world. Two midwives and an assistant had already arrived and were giving her their full attention. A home birth had been planned and I was in charge of keeping my five-year-old nephew occupied while this was happening.

Henry and I went upstairs to his room, hunkering down for what I feared could be a long, long time. Luckily, Henry showed a great interest in Mouse Trap, and since his aunt is a complete putz it took some time to figure out how the Rube Goldberg type contraption fit together. We did it though, me reading the directions and him actually figuring out how it all worked. He is one bright little boy.

I have to admit that I had my concerns about combining a five-year-old and a home birth, but Henry was well prepared and very content to hang out with me upstairs. His dad came up periodically to keep us updated, which was nice.

Henry was happy I was playing with him, because generally I have a "no playing" policy. When my own kids were little I would read to them, bake with them, take them places, push them on the swings, etc and so on, but I found it excruciating to pretend and build things, so I just didn't. I have three kids so it was never a big issue. They played games with each other and with their dad. But Henry's mom is way nicer than me and they do it differently at their house. Knowing my policy, Henry often tries to trick me into playing with him. It's become a contest of wills with us, and I hate to admit it, but sometimes the five-year-old will fool me and I'll find myself talking to a plastic figure or putting together LEGOs. Not for long though, because he can't resist gleefully saying, "Aunt Karen, you're playing," which is my cue to be outraged and stop.

For this special occasion, I'd overturned the no-playing policy. We played Mouse Trap and then moved on to a discussion of super powers. Henry asked what super power I would want given a choice, and I said I was torn between flying and being invisible. When I asked what he'd pick, he said, "I'd want to heal people," and I got an immediate flush of shame. Bested by the selflessness of a little kid.

At about 8:30 AM, while we were reading a book by Shel Silverstein, Henry's dad came up to ask if we'd like to come down to see his new brother. "No," Henry said, keeping his eyes on the book. Wisely, his dad didn't push the issue.

Unlike a lot of kids, Henry knows that being an only child is a good deal and he wasn't so sure he wanted to give that up. Not that he had a choice.

Ten minutes later, I told Henry he could stay up in his room if he wanted, but that I was going to go see the baby. Before I could get to the door, he'd already beat me down the stairs.

My new nephew, Silas James, is absolutely adorable. Eight pounds and twenty-one inches long. Mother and baby are doing fine.

We have a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving Day.

To everyone who celebrates the holiday--Happy Thanksgiving! To everyone else, have a wonderful day.

The Birth of Silas James

In the early morning hours of Monday, November 22nd -- the night of a full moon -- I found myself unable to sleep. I had an ache in my lower back and could not get comfortable in bed. After getting up repeatedly to use the bathroom, I finally just stayed up and wandered the house.

When I noticed a crampy feeling in my lower abdomen I wondered if I might be in labor, but I waited another hour or so, until 4:11am, before deciding it was time to wake my husband. I still wasn't sure if this was it, but I was feeling “off” and wanted him with me. We went downstairs, leaving the baby monitor on so we could hear Henry when he woke up.

At 4:35am I called Christy, my midwife. I told her about the backache and the cramping, which had started to come and go. I was able to talk to her through all of it, so I wasn't sure if it could be labor. She said that it wouldn't hurt to fill up the birth tub -- we could always drain it later if it were a false alarm -- and to call her back when we knew more. In about half an hour the contractions had grown so intense that I didn’t think I could talk on the phone and my husband called Christy back to ask her to come to the house.

My husband worked to fill the birth tub and at 4:58am he called my sister Karen, who we had lined up to watch Henry during the birth. She asked if she had time to shower and eat, and we thought she did. Henry was still sleeping at this point anyway.

At 5:25am Christy arrived, and soon after Deb, another midwife she works with, and Brandy, Christy's apprentice, came too. By this time the contractions were getting painful. I had taped a sheet of reminders for myself on the wall of our family room telling me to relax my mouth and jaw, breathe slowly and deeply, make low-pitched tones, and to trust my body. Every now and then my husband reminded me of these, but just having thought about this in advance and knowing the sheet was there was enough.

During Henry's birth I strained my throat yelling and tensed my body up so much that afterward I felt like I'd been hit by a Mack truck. I was convinced that if I'd been able to relax at all and be more in control of my reaction to the pain things would have gone more smoothly.

Henry woke up at this point and my husband went upstairs to get him. He was pretty upset to find out that the baby was about to be born, but calmed down when he heard that Karen was on her way. He came down and said hello to me as I braced myself through the contractions, which were starting to get more intense.

The birthing tub was finally filled, after my husband had drained the water heater and boiled countless pots of water on the stove, at 6:30am. I was so grateful to be able to climb into it; the water really helped make the pain more manageable.


At 6:40am my sister arrived and went upstairs with Henry to his room. She brought the board game Mousetrap and he had a lot of fun playing it with her. At one point he ran downstairs to see me, but he was fine with being led back up after only a minute or two.

At about 8am the midwives wanted me to empty my bladder, so despite my desire to stay in the tub my husband helped me out and walked me to the bathroom. It was a Herculean effort.

At 8:32am I dropped an F-bomb. Up until then I had been moaning through the contractions, able to remember my own advice to use low tones and breathe through the pain. But the pain was getting to the point that I was wishing I’d scheduled a c-section. I asked Christy, “How much longer?” She said that if I wanted to get out of the tub she could check me, but I wasn’t willing to get out again.

And then suddenly, at 8:37am, I felt like everything inside me was plunging downward. I started yelling and all the midwives rushed toward me with their equipment. It was incredible. I had no choice but to push when I was having a contraction and I could feel the baby moving downward as I did so. At this point, at 8:41am, my water broke.

Deb told me to wait and push with the next contraction, and when I did, at 8:43am, the baby‘s head came out. One more push and his whole body was in the water, at 8:45am.


I had been kneeling on the floor of the tub, hanging on to the side, and I turned around and the midwives handed the baby to me. He was pink and crying. The water level in the tub was so high that I had trouble keeping his head above the water, so the midwives helped me out of the tub and onto the futon mattress we’d set up nearby.

They laid the baby on my stomach and he immediately latched on. (In fact, he stayed latched on for an hour and fifteen minutes, until Christy decided she needed to do the newborn exam.) At 8:53am the umbilical cord stopped pulsing and my husband cut it.


Silas was 21 inches long and 8 pounds even. His Apgar score was a perfect ten.


The whole experience was so different from my labor and delivery with Henry. This time I could feel each contraction; last time I felt constant pain that never seemed to ebb and flow. This time I could feel when I was at the pushing stage; last time I never really felt a strong urge to push. This time I could tell that pushing was accomplishing something; last time I didn't know if I was even doing it right. It was the perfect textbook labor and delivery, and despite the pain I felt much more in control of everything.


I'm so glad I had this opportunity to do it again. It was an amazing experience.