Paul comes to Visit... James is born

[Jeremy] As I am writing this blog entry, Jody is in Haiti doing some work for the breastfeeding project she got grant money to work on.

The day she left, our good friend Morgaine went in to labor. Her husband is away on a summer internship and she had a friend visiting from France (Gaelle) who took her to the hospital... taking care of her 2.5 year old son Paul, was our responsibility. Saturday morning, Morgaine sent me an URGENT text message about 9:00am or so saying that it was the day (8 minutes between contractions). She brought Paul over at about 10:00am, and he stayed at our house the rest of that day, spent the night, and then left the next day after diner. It was a bit rough at points (2 two-year-old boys...) but it was also a wonderful experience for all of us and I was overwhelmed at the trust that Morgaine and Paul had placed in Jody, Ethan, and I.

Jody stayed until after bath time and then drove to Boston to stay with a friend. I put Ethan and Paul to bed and the crashed, exhausted. We started the next day at about 5:30, and played hard all morning. It was so hot outside that we had to spend most of out time indoors which made things a little more difficult. But, by the second day Paul and Ethan had gotten used to each other and were playing much better side by side, and were both doing a much better job of sharing.

Paul does not quite have the stamina that Ethan does (he usually gets up much later) and fell asleep in his bowl of yogurt at about 10:00. I wiped off his face and poured him on to the bed. He slept a solid 2 hours. Ethan went down a bit later, and slept a good length as well.

The visit was a bit of a wake up call for me. We are hoping to have another child soon and 2 are a LOT more work than one. And since, I am gonna probably be the primary caregiver for the next few years... much of that work is gonna be mine.

Nonetheless, I try to envision myself as some manner of Renaissance super-dad, that jogs in the morning, makes breakfast, cleans, shops, fixes stuff around the house, tends the garden, works on the house (with help from two munchins), cooks diner, supports my partner, makes art, plays rugby and chillaxes... we'll see.

Anyway, on to the goods... below are a few pictures from Paul's visit (the one of them napping just makes my heart melt):









So, Morgaine went to the hospital at 10:00am and James (her new little marshmallowly cute American born French-bred nugget) was born at 12:10. He came joined the outside work weighing in at 4.4 kilos! Morgaine and James are doing just fine... Hot and sweaty, but fine.