The Training Wheels Come Off - the Cavalry Departs

Grandpa Bob received Shelby Foote's three-volume history of the Civil War for Christmas this year. During the Civil War, cavalry were used to search for the enemy and, significantly, to shield the main body of the army from enemy reconnaissance efforts. In this way, the opposing army would not know exactly where the main body of the army was located or how it was deployed. Robert E. Lee, for example, lost the battle of Gettysburg in part because he did not properly use his cavalry to ascertain the Union Army's location and strength - while Union cavalry were able to stall his forces long enough to prevent them from capturing Seminary Ridge on the first day of the battle.

This morning, we lost our cavalry.

Grandma Kay and Grandpa Bob headed back to Massachusetts this morning. They will be greatly missed by both of us. We can't say enough about how helpful it was to have them here to offer the voice of experience, have nice hot meals ready for us, and generally reassure us that we haven't lost our minds (yet).

Before the cavalry rode off into the sunset, we had the second night in a row of colicky behavior by our little girl. She slept pretty well the first few nights that she was home but Friday and Saturday she was crying inconsolably for what seemed like forever. We tried just about every trick in the book to get her settled down to no avail. We welcome any advice and input from more experienced parents!!!

About the only thing that worked was to have her fall asleep on daddy's tummy on the leather recliner in the living room (Grandpa Bob's tummy once again proved its worth - daddy needs to step up to the plate if he's going to be able to compete). Unfortunately, this approach worked too well so daddy has spent the last two nights "sleeping" in the recliner with Madeleine. Mommy and daddy are feverishly reading up on alternative approaches today!

During the daytime, she sleeps like a champ - but only in her carseat. When she's fully bundled up in the carseat, she reminds me of pictures I've seen of the last empress of China (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:The_Chinese_Empress_Dowager.JPG) in this photo? If only she had her footmen in imperial regalia to parade her around.

Family Resemblance

A number of family members on the B family side have commented on family resemblance issues. What do you think? Here's the daughter....

And here's the father (insert joke here about the black and white photo). Thanks to Molly B for the photo.

What's in a Name?

We've been very touched by all the compliments we've received on our choice of name for the Baby B - but we've also received a lot of questions about it. So, below are some of the FAQs we've received on Baby B's name.

Q: How and when did you come up with Madeleine?

A: Hannah and I started talking about baby names once we got past the 12 week mark in the pregnancy. Being the planner, I went out and bought three baby name books and started poring through them. I also asked my dad for a copy of the B. family tree to see if there were any good names from the past that we could use (Hannah ruled out Jean-Baptiste B. right away - that didn't stop me from teasing her about it throughout the pregnancy but it wound up being a moot point!).

I had always thought it would be fun for us to each put 10 boys names and 10 girls names that we liked into an envelope and then exchange the envelopes - I also wanted our names to be a complete surprise to each other. If we had any commonality, we would focus on those names.

Hannah, being a little more free spirited, preferred the approach of throwing out questions like "What do you think of xxxx?" or "Isn't yyyy a cute name?"

At the end of the day, compromise is essential to a strong marriage, so we used a hybrid approach. Hannah would continue to throw out questions but I would offer feedback -- and eventually, toward the end of July/beginning of August, we sat down and did the envelope exchange. About a third of the names overlapped between the two lists. Madeleine was tops on both of our lists for girls.

Q: You guys knew all along that you were having a girl, didn't you?

A: We both suspected all along that we were having a girl, but we didn't know until we saw her in the delivery room. We had asked the ultrasound technicians and the doctors to keep the information about the gender from us until the big day.

In terms of the name, we were prepared for both results and narrowed down the process to 4 names that we liked - a primary and a backup on both sides (we figured that we needed to be prepared in case the baby didn't look like a "Madeleine" for whatever reason).

Q: What was the boy's name? What were the runners-up?

A: We're not telling in case we decide to break our vows of celibacy and have a second child.

Q: What is the significance of the name Madeleine? Frankly, we both liked the way it sounded.

We also preferred the French spelling of it to go with her French last name. Yes, for those who didn't know, our last name French and it comes from here - http://www.interfrance.com/en/fc/do_besancon.html

As her mother and father can attest, she's going to spend years of her life spelling both her first name and her last name for other people. But she's going to learn to spell at an early age!

It also had the added benefit of having a family connection - Brian's great-grandmother (who we called Nana) was named Madeline Jaycox.

Q: What does Madeleine mean? We actually had no idea when we picked it. And, there's conflicting information depending on which baby book or website you read.

Here's a short summary online that seems reasonable enough to us:

http://www.thinkbabynames.com/meaning/0/Madeleine
(there's more info on the name when you go to the "Madeline" page)

Bottom line: We've seen "tower of strength" and "woman from Magdela" as possibilities - we've also seen it described as variously being of Hebrew, Greek, or French origin. We have no idea of which one is right but the name's "meaning" had no role in our decision. WARNING - SPOILER ALERT: No, the Da Vinci Code had no influence over the selection of the name.

Q: How are you pronouncing Madeleine's name? It's MAD-a-linn with the last syllable rhyming with "in" instead of "line." And, if you're one of those people who hasn't heard it pronounced, the last name is pronounced beh-SAWN-sen-ee. (Ah, yes, I'm having flashbacks to the first day of school from the time I was 6 years old until I was 21.......)

Q: Have you given her a nickname like "Maddie" yet? Nope. We're sticking with Madeleine unless/until something strikes our fancy.

Q: Did you name her after the children's story Madeline or a Madeline doll? Or a celebrity named Madeleine? No, no, and no. After the big day, Grandma Kay did go out and get us a copy of the classic Ludwig Bemelmann children's story Madeline, and she is on a quest for a Madeline doll as of the time of this posting.

Q: Did anyone guess the name? No. At both of Hannah's baby showers, the hosts came up with a fun game. Each guest was asked to submit a boys name on a blue sheet of paper and a girls name on a pink sheet of paper -- and anyone who guessed the name would win a prize. But, of the 50-60 people who played, no one guessed any of our "Final Four" names. So, no one wins a prize.

We were really kind of surprised that no one guessed it. Grandma Kay actually guessed one of the Final Four names when we were up in Maine last August -- and Hannah, not having much of a poker face, had a reaction that made her think she was onto something. But thankfully, it was late and she had already forgotten by the next morning. One other relative (who shall remain nameless since they might remember) guessed a Final Four name a few weeks before the big day -- but we're not telling them in case we decide to use it in the future!

Q: What is the significance of "Ann" as a middle name? Hannah and I have both been blessed to have aunts named Ann with whom we have had very special relationships. So, we decided to honor both of them with our choice of middle name.

Hannah's Aunt Ann is one of Kay's sisters and has been a big part of her life - even before Hannah was born! She served with the Red Cross in Vietnam and was best friends with a woman named Hannah who was later killed. That Hannah was an inspiration for our Hannah's name.

My Auntie Ann was my godmother, but she passed away last summer from cancer before we had a chance to tell anyone our big news. Auntie Ann was one of the kindest people I have ever known and she is still greatly missed by the B. family. Ironically, as my grandmother reminded me the other day, Auntie Ann didn't even have a middle name!

Q: Is Madeleine a "popular" name? Our friend Dave, who runs the very entertaining site Suburban Daddy (http://www.suburbandaddy.com/), shared this tidbit:

"According to the social security website, Madeleine was the 337th most popular baby name of 2006."

Dare to be different!

Settling in at Home

After a very long and exhausting day, it's nice to settle down a little bit. Especially when someone is there to hold you and burp you.

The Yellow Sea

So, of course, after our adventure this morning, it's been a festival of #1. Here's a picture before the Great Flood Part Deux - you can see a bit of the yellowish coloration......

.... and here's one from after with a lot less of the yellow. (Yes, dad finally submitted to a photo)

Watch out, Dad - Godzilla attack!!!

Baby's First Checkup/Mom & Dad's First Panic Attack

Madeleine went in for her first visit to the pediatrician this morning.

First, the good news - she's in good shape. She's definitely gotten the best of both worlds - daddy's girl in terms of height and mommy's girl in terms of weight. She checked in at 21 inches and 7 lbs 14 ounces. That puts her in the 90th percentile for height and the 51st percentile for weight.

Then, mom and dad got their first baby health scare. The doctor had been concerned about jaundice and the fact that she hasn't been making as much of the #1 as the doctors would like. (As an aside, Brian made up "In" and "Out" charts to keep track of feedings and evacuations during the first few days since he knew the doctors would ask - the doctor was impressed with the effort and asked him to continue but offered a few refinements to the style)

Mom and dad knew that most babies are a bit jaundiced in the first few days as their livers play catch-up, so we hadn't been overly alarmed at her coloration knowing that she would see the doctor today. (for more information on this, there's an excellent resource at http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/infant-jaundice/DS00107 - thanks for sharing, Felisha!)

At the end of her exam, the doctor mentioned - almost nonchalantly - that he wanted us to go the emergency room to get her bilirubin levels tested. We kind of did a double take on the words "emergency room." The doctor explained that a third of babies experience jaundice at this point in the process, and about 1/30th of them have something medically significant that's causing it. So, off to the emergency room we went.

We hadn't expected to be back at the hospital so soon, so mom and dad explained to Madeleine that we weren't taking her to the returns department! The hospital staff let her in right away and they were terrific the whole time. The technician who came to draw her blood, who was reasonably close to Brian's size, got choked up at the thought of making her cry and tried to find another tech to take the blood. When he couldn't find one, he came in and did it and got a little teary eyed during the test. Thankfully, mom and baby were right there with him.

We had to wait awhile for the test results to come back in - probably the longest hour of any of our lives. At the end, the emergency room doctor came back and told us that her test was fine. On the bilirubin test, 4.0-12.0 is considered normal - and Madeleine was a perfect 10, just like she is in the looks department. We have to take her back to the pediatrician in two days but we don't have to put her under a lamp or anything like that, thank God.

Then, as her way of telling the medical community what she thought of today's excitement, and to prove that her liver is working, Madeleine promptly made #1 all over the emergency room bedsheets while her parents were trying to change her - and threw in a fresh #2 for good measure.

After a very stressful morning, mom and baby went home and zonked out, although Madeleine woke up long enough to prove the strength of her liver again with a fresh #1. Dad still has enough adrenaline in him now to power a small city (hence this post!).

Happy New Year!

Well, she wasn't quite Baby New Year, but Madeleine spent her first night at home last night. She has very quickly established herself as the dominant force in our household, as everyone has been at her beck and call. Mom and Dad now know why more experienced parents have been warning them about sleep deprivation, as they may have gotten 4 hours of sleep between them.

And, when a half-awake Dad did a half-awake job of putting on the 2am diaper, we were treated to a special historical moment at 4am -- the Great Rosemont Flood of '08.

In the meantime, baby's first bouquet arrived from Grandma Kay's family yesterday. Dad already anticipates the day (many, many) years from now when she starts getting other bouquets too -- and looks forward to towering over some pimple-faced sixteen year old boy and telling him, "So, you WILL have my daughter home by 9:00 pm, RIGHT?"