Things Fall Apart

(Jenn)

To make a long story short, let's just say that NO ONE reminded me about the cruel 2+ weeks of suffering that follow delivering a baby (how did I forget? I don't know). To me, it is one of the most brutal injustices placed upon women. After 9 months of pregnancy and many hours of the most grueling pain known to humankind, we still get to deal with the postpartum muck. And all we want to be doing is sitting on the couch (not on a donut pillow!) holding our precious babies. Why did no one warn me about this? I feel I must include my warning here, to maintain my integrity. If you want actual details, feel free to call me!


I have no idea what we would have done if my mom hadn't been here for 2 weeks. She held the baby for hours when I couldn't. She took Henry on all the outings I couldn't begin to think of taking him on. She played cars stuck in traffic on the George Washington Bridge to keep Henry from driving the rest of us crazy. She cooked delicious food. She kept our house in sparkling condition. She did laundry. She didn't complain about my endless complaining. We all had a lovely time. The time went by much too quickly, and as the boys left to take her back to the airport last Saturday, Henry cried, "I don't WANT to go to the airport and leave Grandma Lori there! I want her to stay HERE!"


His cries may as well have been mine. On Monday, reality struck. I had to take the TWO KIDS to the pediatrician BY MYSELF for a morning appointment, followed by a trip to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription for my latest complication. Let's just say the three of us were simultaneously in tears at several different points. Meanwhile, Ben's first problem sets are taking him approximately 8 hours each to complete (probably about 6 hours longer than I anticipated). Ouch!


Iversons to the rescue! Ben's parents showed up Tuesday night and resumed Grandma Lori's roles, constantly reassuring me that I looked pale and needed yet another nap. I was feeling quite a bit better by the time they left on Friday, so we were able to do a few fun things together, like a lovely picnic along the Charles River. Unfortunately, I missed the boat and forgot to take pictures!


I'm bracing myself for another reality check when Ben goes back to work tomorrow. We've realligned priorities and decided cleaning the house is no longer one of them! Maybe someday it will make its way back up the totem pole. We're just trying to stay afloat, not do any permanent psychological damage to Henry, and enjoy this stage as much as possible. It is such a precious time, albeit a difficult time to avoid "losing it." You'll see Ben and I have both found a new way of sneaking a nap in (sometimes it's the only way to get Ellis to sleep).

History of the week

(Ben)

Ben's books. Total cost (so far): $323.51

Monday: Wake up to find that Lehman Brothers has filed for bankruptcy, and Merrill Lynch has been bought by Bank of America. Having researched banks for the past two years at the Fed, these events are easily the biggest since the S&L crisis of the 1980's, and probably the biggest since the Great Depression. Add that to the fact that we already lost Bear Stearns, Countrywide, several other regional banks, and a few biggies are still in trouble, and it's no stretch at all to think of the past twelve months as the equivalent of a financial 9/11. Not only that, but Monday is also the...

First day of school! Math camp is over and now it's time for the real classes to begin. I attend Probability and Statistics in the morning and Contract Theory in the afternoon. So far, so good.

Tuesday: Attend my first lectures in the core classes that make the first year of an Econ Ph.D. what it is: Microeconomic Theory and Macroeconomic Theory. I had heard horror stories about the micro teacher, but I really like him just fine. True, he takes second order derivatives faster than most people can read this sentence, but besides that I can't complain. Macro is great, as expected.

Wednesday: More earth-shattering financial news! AIG is bailed out by the Fed, while in return the Fed receives a huge percentage of ownership in the company. This is completely unprecedented in the history of central banking, which means that no one really has a clue what the outcome will be. Still, in my opinion, it had to be done. I don't believe the Fed should save many banks (or insurance companies, in this case) from failing. But a company like AIG is just too intricately wound with the full system to allow them to just go out like a light. Instead, their problems need to be slowly unwound over time, or else the whole system would end up in a huge knot. If all goes well (and there's no guarantee of that), the American public will actually make money on the deal, and a major crisis will have been averted in the process. Let's hope that's the case.

Besides the big news, I decide not to take Contract Theory and instead I attend Psychology and Economics, which I thoroughly enjoy. Ask me about it sometime if you're interested. I'm definitely taking this course.

Thursday: It's back to the basics with Macro and Micro once again. Not only that, but I make a huge discovery: Ellis' whorl on the back of his head swirls counterclockwise!!! Only 8.4% of the general public have counterclockwise whorls, and this study links the whorl direction to left-handedness. According to the author, Ellis has about a 50/50 chance of being left-handed, while if he had a clockwise whorl his chances would be less than 1/10. Needless to say, I'm thrilled with the news, since I'm one of the lucky 10% who get to be left-handed. Jenn's mom is in the top 10% as well, and she's pretty excited too.

Friday: After spending the whole day struggling through problem sets (no class today) and putting the finishing touches on a paper I've been working on, Jenn and I celebrate by going to Bugaboo Creek Steakhouse while Jenn's mom watches the kids! (Kids! We're still getting used to the plurality there) Not only was the food good and the company beyond compare, but the restaurant also had a talking buffalo that told jokes occasionally. You can't beat that.

We're all gearing up for Grandma Lori to leave us tomorrow; it's going to be tough, especially for Henry, who will lose his full-time playmate and spoiler-in-chief when she goes home. Looks like next week might be another one for the books.

P.S. Here's a bonus picture of Ellis. He spent most of the week snoozing!

Ellis: The photo shoot

Due to popular demand, here are lots more pictures of baby Ellis! First, check out this comparison of Henry and Ellis when they were both newborns:

Henry

Ellis

And now, here's the slideshow. Enjoy!

Ellis is here!

(Ben) Announcing the arrival of Ellis Evan Iverson!! We're so glad that he's here! The important stats are in the picture above (click to enlarge). For those of you wanting the nitty-gritty (non-graphic!) details of the arrival, read on:

On Saturday night, Jenn was completely fed up with the whole pregnancy thing. I mean, Saturday was her due date, and Henry came 5 days early, so we really didn't think that she'd make it all the way to the 6th without going in to labor. So, when Saturday night came around without even a contraction, she passed the time making this neat new version of the widget that has graced the sidebar of our blog for the past several months:

Yikes!

Luckily, we didn't have to wait long! Sunday morning she started having regular contractions, although they weren't too close together. They stayed fairly light and consistent until 4:00am Monday morning when they became bad enough to wake her. Jenn roused me at 4:40 to let me know that we were on the way to the hospital. It's incredible how easy it is to come fully awake when you hear those words...

We called our good friend Daija (thanks, Daija!!) about 5:30, and she zipped up to our house and slept on our couch so that we didn't have to wake Henry up. We made it to the hospital about 6:00am, got checked in, and Jenn continued to have pretty strong contractions. By 8:30 or 9:00 she was dilated to a 4 and they told her she could have the epidural at any time, although her doctor recommended waiting a bit longer in order to allow labor to continue as normally as possible. So, Jenn bravely soldiered on for another half hour, at which point they informed us that they were installing new monitors in all of the rooms that day, and asked if they could do our room first. We said that was fine, and left to wander the halls (there are a total of 3) for another 45 minutes. By that time (about 10:15) she was in a lot of pain, so she asked for the epidural. What they hadn't told us is that they still needed to hook up an IV and get a full bag of fluid in before they could give her the epidural, so she didn't end up getting any relief until about 11:15 or so. Once she could no longer feel her legs, her doctor checked her again and was shocked to find that she was at 9 already, meaning that she had essentially dilated the full amount without any anesthesia at all. We'll definitely ask for the epidural a bit earlier next time!

Unfortunately, at that point the baby's heart rate dropped quite low, and the doctor told us that unless it came back up she'd have to do a C-section. Some of you know that Henry was born by C-section for this very reason, but we were really hoping to be able to have this baby vaginally because (a) recovery is much easier and (b) you can't have too many kids by C-section because of scar tissue build-up. Anyway, I was pretty disappointed as they threw me some scrubs and wheeled Jenn into the O.R. to prepare for the C-section.

Luckily (or was it more than luck?), his heart rate picked up again when they entered the O.R., and the doctor said she was willing to try the birth vaginally. At that point, Jenn was ready to begin pushing, and (with some help from the forceps) 4 contractions later he was born!

Jenn's (of course) quite sore and tired, but feels much better than she did after the C-section, so we're so glad that things worked out so well. Ellis has a couple of bruises from the forceps (note the line down the middle of his forehead), but he's been pretty happy so far!

Henry is so happy to have Ellis finally here! He's still figuring out a few things (no, you can't touch his eyes, Henry), but he's excited to be the big brother. Once he gets those details worked out, I think things will go pretty well.

As for me, I'm hanging in there! I can't tell my right hand from my left, and I'm skipping math camp right now. I hope that I'm put back together a bit by next Monday when real classes start! Mostly, I'm just excited to be the father of two little boys!

Birth Announcement

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for!

Announcing the birth of . . .

Nina Iverson!

That's right, folks, baby Nina has finally decided to come out of Henry's belly! After nearly 9 months of carrying this child, showing off his belly at opportune moments, and talking about all of his plans for baby Nina, Henry has decided that Nina's day has arrived!

Date: August 28, 2008. Yes, she was born about a week ago, but I was waiting to announce it until I knew Henry was for-real about Nina and wasn't going to change his mind. It's a pretty done deal.

Size: Roughly 1 yard by 27 inches. Nina came out in the form of . . . Henry's favorite blanket! She is light blue fleece with a cowboy design on her. Henry has been carrying this "blankie" around and sleeping with it since he was very small, and so it's pretty natural that such a beloved part of our family would become Nina.

The "Birth": Labor and delivery went very smoothly. Henry just stuck the blanket up his shirt and then pulled it out and said, "Nina came out of my belly!" He was very serious about this event, and she has been referred to as "Nina" or "baby" ever since.

Proud Parent: I'm not sure exactly how the logistics work, but although Henry gave birth to Nina, he insists that he is neither the mommy nor the daddy, but the brother. Probably a good thing.

Since she was "born," we have taken Nina with us nearly every time we've gone somewhere in the car. She has sat with us at family meals, storytime, and playtime. Henry is very conscientious of her needs, including when she needs to be held, when her diaper needs to be changed, and when she's sleepy. He gives lots of love and hugs to his little baby. He often brings her to my belly to let her give hugs to "Frankie." I have a feeling Henry is ready to be a big brother, and he's going to be a pretty good one. Now, if we could only Frankie's birth could be so abrupt and easy!

Nesting, Nesting, and More Nesting

(Jenn)

In fact, I'm getting a little tired of nesting. Notice, there are 3 days to go until my due date. Henry was born 5 days before his due date, so at this point, I feel very overdue. I'm DYING!!! I'm running out of ideas to keep myself occupied. I've cleaned the house and gone grocery shopping "for the last time" three times now! Every morning I get dressed thinking, "This will be the last maternity outfit before the baby comes," so I try to choose carefully. Then every night I check my hospital bag to make sure it's completely ready so I can just grab it when I go into labor in the middle of the night. And then somehow, I wake up in my own bed at 7 in the morning and realize that once again, nothing has happened. I'm dumbfounded every time! I wonder what that baby countdown widget does when you reach your due date. Probably something cruel and taunting.

So yes. Everything on the checklist is crossed off. I really don't want to clean the baseboards and windowsills again. I'm getting desperate. That's why we decided to make Henry his very own traffic light! I think it is pretty cool, actually, and it kept us busy for a day. I'm proud of Ben for cutting out the wood and putting it together (all with a manual saw!). In the home I grew up in, my mom could say, "Honey, will you make a _________ (bookshelf, picture frame, miniature tricycle . . .) out of wood?" and my dad could whip it out in a manner of minutes. So I grew up thinking that's what dads do. Lo and behold, Ben is answering the call. Henry and I did the painting together yesterday (you can see he took the assignment very seriously), and now we can tell our cars when to stop, when to go, and when to stop and go at the same time (Henry's personal favorite). Hopefully it will alleviate all the "cars stuck in traffic" that has been going on around our house recently.

First Day

(Jenn)
Here is Ben leaving for the bus on his first day of school! Isn't he cute? This week, we say goodbye to that beautiful summer work schedule and hello to lots of homework and busy days and nights. Ah, well! It was fun while it lasted. Actually, Ben gets a little bit of a transition into the real world of grad school. For the first two weeks, he's attending "Math Camp" (doesn't that sound like a party?), so his real classes haven't started yet. It turns out that Math Camp isn't too bad, because it involves things like luncheons and Duck Tours in the middle of all the calculus and analysis. And there's no homework!



And to brighten up your day, I couldn't help but throw in this dramatic photo of the Iverson brothers that I ran across the other day. Purely for your enjoyment (and because Ben's not here to stop me!).