Playing Catch-Up

Hey new baby,
There is an article in Time magazine this week that examined favoritism among siblings.  The basic premise of the article was that even though parents pretend not to have a favorite child, they almost always do.  One survey found that 65% of mothers and 70% of fathers showed a preference for one child.

The bad news for you, future younger child, is that the favorite was usually the older child.  So, before you are even born you're starting out with a natural disadvantage.  But, don't be intimidated!  Think of this as your challenge: to be the best super-baby you can be!  Sleep all night after two weeks!  Potty train when you are one!  Land a lucrative endorsement deal with a cloth diaper company!  It's a uphill battle to be the favorite, but you can do it!

By the way, the studies also say that parents should never ever reveal which child is their favorite.  Even if you don't succeed in the things I listed above, we'll never let on.

Ready For Your Close-Up

Hi Baby Huntling,
OK, it has taken me exactly one month to scan and post your first-ever pictures.  They are pretty great though!  Once you develop hand-eye coordination and computer skills, you can click on each one to see the bigger version.  Off we go!

1.  Here is your huge dome, a hand and a foot too!

2.  A butt!  Some legs too, but whatever.

3.  Another foot shot.

4.  This one is cool, it looks like you are holding your hands together.

5.  A leg, supposedly.

6.  I think the ultrasound tech was just making this one up.

7.  Whoa!  Whoa!!! You can see your spine!  Your face too, kinda, but look at those vertebrae!

So that's it so far.  Head, arms, hands, at least one leg, a spine, a face, and a butt. You are pretty photogenic so far!  See you in five months!

Leapling

Hi baby,

Even though all good advice tells us to ignore due dates, we couldn't help but notice that your due date is really close to February 29th. 2012 is a Leap Year, so your birthday could come around only once every four years. This seems like a great deal for parents but a terrible deal for a kid. According to Wikipedia, someone born on February 29 is sometimes called a Leapling...perhaps we have finally found your name! Leapling Hunt!

One More Time...

When we found out we had a baby on the way in 2008, we kept a mostly-weekly blog of pictures and thoughts, for friends and family to follow along. It was an exciting time, since Sam was our first child and we had been married less than a year.

It was also a time to learn a lot of new things and make a lot of decisions: cloth or disposable diapers? New crib or hand-me-down? Doctor or midwife at delivery? What kind of car seat? Drugs or no drugs? Water birth, home birth, birthing ball, birthing stool? Circumcision? Vaccines? What would a baby mean for our relationship, our work, our lifestyle?

Now three years later, the result is a precocious, talkative, curious little boy. His two-year birthday seemed to be a milestone- after that everything seemed to progressively get a little easier. He slept through the night (mostly), fed himself sometimes, walked without support, used fewer cloth diapers, let other people take care of him, and became less of a helpless infant and more of an autonomous toddler. Now at three, Sam has started nursery school, can almost dress himself, and swims on his own (with a float, natch).

So of course, we had to go and throw all that progress out the window and start from scratch with you, tiny new baby.

We always wanted Sam to have a brother or sister to share his childhood with, even if he may not really want this for himself. Both of your parents hold their relationships with their siblings as some of the most important in our lives, and wanted Sammy to have that experience too. In the winter of 2008, during a snowstorm, we cross-country skied through the streets to buy a pregnancy test, In 2011, we walked through the cemetery across the street (a little morbid, but really lovely), to get a test. And with the little plus sign appearing on the stick, we are off for another 40 weeks.

The feeling this time is different- we have a nursery in our own house, bins and bins of (boy) clothing ready to go, and the knowledge that we've done this before. But the biggest difference is probably the little guy running in circles right now tooting like a train. How will he handle a new member of his family? How will we juggle two kids at the same time? Are we crazy to potentially forsake the small amount of grown-up lifestyle that we have slowly reclaimed? Some people say that adding another child doesn't double the amount of work; it increases it exponentially. Terrifying!

But, the genie is out of the bottle now, or in your case little baby, the genie is in the womb. As we set off down this path again it feels less intimidating and more familiar, but no less exciting. We hope that some day you will be able to read over these entries and feel what life was like for you at the very beginning of your life. But mostly, we can't wait to meet you, and there is a world of people out here who feel the same way. See you in about 24 weeks!