The Magnificent Seven

Babies and Moms from our midwives' group. The five starting from the left are all boys, the two girls are on the right, wisely tilted away from the unruly dudes. Rory is the second from the left.

Best of Bath in a Bowl

Despite the funny faces, we swear he actually likes bathtime in a bowl.

Speaking of photos...

From the face he's making, you'd think he didn't like to be bathed. Truth is, he loves his bath in a bowl.

Here are more Rory photos to quench your thirst:

Rory Day Eight
Rory 9/10 to 9/15

Chillin' with my Moms

Just a couple of cute photos of Rory with his moms. We really just can't help ourselves with taking pictures of this little man. The transition to being at home with him seems to have gone well. He's doing a good job of eating and is continuing to gain weight every day. The visiting nurse came to the house yesterday and he weighed in at 9lbs 13oz. which means he's gained almost a pound a week in his first 2 weeks. Very impressive. He's eating well, although every once in a while he decides to vomit an entire feeding up just for fun, which has been great for testing out the limits of our new washer and dryer. Do you think they are supposed to run 24 hours a day?

On the sleep front, we're doing much better than I could have expected. He has so far been very good about knowing the difference between daytime and nighttime naps. At night, he feeds and goes right back to sleep usually without much fuss. During the day, sometimes he sleeps right away, sometimes he hangs out awake for a bit, occasionally he gets grouchy for an hour or so. Mostly he's just an angel though (I'm sure I'm dooming us to fussy baby nights now that I've said this aloud).

This weekend Rory will be making his Massachusetts debut, first with a stop to see Aunt Lesley and Uncle Nic, then off to Monica's birthday party where he will get to meet the rest of the Pigeons and McCormacks. If we're lucky, perhaps we'll even get to meet cousin Cadam while we're in the state.

Bathing and Dancing and such...

Mr. Rory did not enjoy his first bath at home in the little plastic baby bathtub, however, he seems much happier about BATH IN A BOWL, which must feel a little more like home to him.



Mama Bev teaching Rory how to dance.

Hormones...

Showing our pride for cousin Greg sporting the UMass Lowell onesie. Yes, he already fits some 6 month clothing. Crazy how quick they out grow newborn clothes (and how inconsistent sizing is between brands).

So, here's my crazy hormone scenario of the day:

Step 1: Feed Rory his lunch
Step 2: Put Rory in swing to nap while I get myself lunch
Consequence: Rory throws up all of milk just consumed...not just spit up, throw up entire lunch
Reaction of hormonal mother: Pick Rory up and immediately start crying because I made my baby feel sick just to get myself lunch (meanwhile, he goes happily back to sleep in my arms without thinking twice about what just happened)

Irrational, yes, but I just felt so bad for the little guy and so horrible that I didn't consider that the swing might be too much motion for a little man with a full belly. Even I, who hates to blame anything on hormones has to admit to falling prey to their evil influence. Good thing not all hormones are evil. :)

Big day for belly buttons

It may not be obvious to anyone else what's missing from this photo, but if you saw our liitle man's belly the day before, you would have seen the unsightly umbilical cord drying out and waiting to fall off. Now we officially have an "inny" and its wicked cute.

Ordering links

I've put photos from Days One through Seven on Snapfish. Here are some links in case you'd like to order some copies:

Rory - Day One

Rory - Day Two

Rory - Day Three

Rory - Day Four

Rory - Day Five

Rory - Day Six

Rory - Day Seven

Big day out

It was a big day for Rory, Bev and Pidge (Kathleen). First a trip to the pediatrician's for his one week check-in, then a leisurely walk around nearby Mackworth Island along with a picnic. More photos are on my Facebook page, click here to go there.

The Elders (in wisdom, not in age)

Granny Gabe comes to visit.
Kathleen's mom, Debbie visits LBP in the hospital.
Ninna and Papa drove up from Mass to visit and stock the fridge.
Grandpa Gabe came by the hospital as we were getting ready to take Rory home.

Scenes from Day Four

We have a reader on our hands. "Are You My Mother" gains rapt attention from Rory.
Nana McCormack holds her great grandchild. She visited with Carol, Monica, Susan and Mandy from Mass.

The first of many

First laundry load of cloth diapers ready to go downstairs for washing. Why am I excited? Oh yeah, honeymoon period....

Scenes from Day Five

Brian and Kate visit from Jamaica Plain capping a Mainely Maine vacation weekend.
Goodnight Moon: a favorite in utero and out of utero for Rory.
Not so pleased about bathtime this time round.
Aunties Smooth (Ashley) and Michelle visit from JP. Rory barely escapes being abducted by Auntie Michelle.
Granny Gabe visited Rory, Pidge and Bev for a couple days. Her delicious blueberry and apple muffins as well as brownies stock the freezer.

Today was another fun and busy day for Little Baby Pigeon. Visit from Aunts Michelle and Smooth, Granny Gabe finishing her stay and heading back downeast, Aunt Kate and Uncle Brian include a stop to see Rory on their Mainely Maine vacation trip. Not to mention a bath, visit from Shannon across the street (aka Wyatt's Mom) and topping it off with the all-time favorite book, Goodnight Moon, a gift from his Uncle Mike and Aunt Ella. Not bad for a five-day-old!

More pictures, straight up

Three little monkeys taking a nap.

Eat, sleep, repeat

As Pidge's milk comes in, we seem to be entering into a phase of eating, sleeping then eating and more sleeping. Rory is voiding himself with aplomb to the delight of his mommas. I thought diapers would be my nemesis, but to my surprise, unwrapping each diaper and seeing what lies within is great fun. Who knew?

Furry siblings

Brother Cooper and Sister Audrey (feel free to let the dulcet tones of Night Ranger's "Sister Christian" float through your head for awhile) meet Rory for the first time. Cooper remains unconvinced, but isn't hiding in a closet or shaking uncontrollably, so we're calling it a win.

Leaving the hospital

Having a bit of trouble with the postings...here's the photo of the family of three leaving the hospital. First car ride for LBP. And no, I didn't go 20 the entire way home, I actually managed to drive the speed limit. Rory promptly fell asleep in his car seat.

First things first

We've been enjoying a lot of firsts with Rory in the past 3 days since he was first born into this world.

The following photos are:
Rory listens to the Beatles for the first time. We chose the album Revolver as his introductory lesson. I think he liked it. Both his Mommas enjoy music and look forward to sharing different artists, genres and rhythms with him.

You want details about LBP? You got 'em! In the course of tracking intakes (breastfeeding) we are also charting output (wet and soiled diapers). Here's Rory's first poop, it's a gorgeous study in meconium. Hooray, go Rory!

And here we have the first time we dressed Rory. It's hard to cover up his precious little body, but we can't go around encouraging nudity at such a young age, can we?

And here we are leaving the cocoon of the birthing center and entering the world for the first time as a family of three.

rory meets his furry brother and sister for the, you guessed it, first time. Cooper is skeptical but Audrey is okay with the Roarer as long as Pidge lets her burrow into her hair while she sits on the couch.

First bath for LBP. I asked the nurse, Kristin if we could sponge him off a bit since he still had birth remnants on him, she said we could give him a bath. This was way more hands-on than I expected, but I guess that's having a baby. I was still holding him like a porcelain doll at this point.

Check out this Facebook album for more LBP photos:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=116049&id=729971440&l=4ed6225964

Roaring Rory video

This was just after he was born.

The boy who named himself

For the first 6 months, Pidge and I were convinced LBP was a boy. When she first told her extended family in Mass about her pregnancy, her aunt Tracy stated knowingly, "it's a boy, I knew you were pregnant at Thanksgiving." So perhaps we had that seed planted in our heads, but for most of the pregnancy, we talked about "he" and "our little guy" in utero. About three months ago, we changed course in our thinking.

I remember being in Denver at a LightHawk board meeting and talking about Pidge's pregnancy with one of our board members and all around fabulous person, Merry. She said, "you're having a girl." Perhaps for me, that was what started a growing thought that LBP was a girl. Pidge also had several girl dreams about LBP and only one boy dream wherein she was second-guessing the nurse who told her she had a boy.

So it was perhaps no surprise how utterly surprised we were when our eyes feel upon the unmistakeable parts of a boy as the midwife held him moments after Pidge gave birth and just before he was placed on Pidge's chest. I remember saying, "I can't believe we have a boy" through tears of joy and amazement.

So on to the name and how a minutes-old LBP sealed that deal. Without too many medical details, when Pidge's waters released we knew that when he was born, if he wasn't "vigorously crying," the nurses would have to take him aside to suction out his lungs so nothing that didn't belong in his lungs ended up there. Our hope was that we'd have him placed on Pidge's chest skin-to-skin so bonding could begin and we could begin our favorite pastime - staring at LBP and cooing.

So, as we looked down on him after he made the transition from being a part of Pidge, to being an independent being in this world, we both silently implored him, "cry, cry!" Like a good little guy, he waiting a couple seconds, then let out a huge wailing cry. And be careful what you wish for: an intense desire to hear our child cry turned into a long (10 minute?) series of car alarm bursts, or roars from LBP. Once he felt we were satiated in hearing him cry, he settled down immediately and began eagerly taking in the world around him and putting faces to the voices he'd heard for 9 months. "Oh, you're 'Goodnight Moon' lady."

In our surprised of the sex of LBP, we had a stable of about 5 boy names galloping around vying for position, but nothing we had settled on for sure. The girl's name had been decided and settled upon almost at conception. As we refreshed our memories about the boy names we narrowed the field and began trying them on for size. A dark horse contender from the back of the pack was remembered and we thought, "Rory would be appropriate since he came into this world roaring." We laughed and continued looking at LBP saying, "are you an Angus?" "are you a Stewart?" "I guess you're not an August anymore, and you're probably not a September, huh?"

The more we sat with LBP, we thought about how he had chosen his own name in how he entered the world. Even now at one day, four hours and15 minutes later, if he's upset, he'll let out a big, full-throated roar rather than a subtle, building cry. It's only appropriate that we let him name himself since he was so willing to give us that big roar when we asked him to.

The stats

42 hours of active labor
8 lbs 3.2 oz
21" long
Immeasurably adorable

Introducing Rory

It's a BOY!

Little Baby Pigeon is an 8lb 3.2 oz, 21" long boy!
He's adorable and healthy and currently sleeping on Momma Pidge's chest.
A few pictures to whet your whistle. Warning: express interest and you'll be inundated with baby pics.

Oh, name is still to be determined...we were convinced it was a girl!
We have a short list and we'll announce our decision soon.

thanks for your good positive energy and thoughts.

And huge, massive thanks to the Back Cove Midwives, especially Laura and Jen, and the Mercy Birthplace nurses, especially Moira, Sandy, Meghan and Kristin. And we couldn't have done it without the wise and natural guidance of our doula, Nina Gargan.

Bev, Pidge and LBP