Carter Greyson Demers

Our Beautiful Boy

Born Tuesday, December 16th, 2008
12:38pm
7 pounds, 8 ounces
20 inches long

(He looks just like his big sister!)

"...our son will come out, tomorrow.."

This post is me procrastinating the final few items on my "to do before baby2" list. It's a little crazy that, in less than 15 hours, our family of 3 will be a family of 4. And, no matter how hard I try to remember all the little things that I NEEDED to do before going into the hospital- all of it seems trivial and unnecessary now that our little boy is mere hours away. The carpet in the basement remains un-vacuumed, the tiny Sofie hand prints on the glass door are still there, and the dust bunnies who have set up colonies under the wine rack are procreating at an alarming rate. BUT- The nursery is ready, the clothes and diapers are washed and, ready or not, we're having a baby tomorrow. My bet is that we're ready (or as ready as we can be without access to a crystal ball) and, I must admit- VERY EXCITED.
So many questions are swimming through my brain- what will our little guy look like? Will he have those fantastic Sofie-cheeks? His daddy's beautiful blue eyes? Will he have my temperament or Pat's? What do those pokey little knees and elbows look like out from under my belly? The closer we get to meeting him- the more anxious I get to find all of these answers. But- soon enough, right!?!
I hope tonight is a quiet one, it'll be the last one for quite a while. And when I get up in the morning, it will be baby day :)

A Bit of Crazy-Pregnant-Lady Grumbling...

So, I went in to get the "hey-I'm-having-a-baby-no-maintenance-mom-haircut" the other day and what I got was this:

The"Hi!-please-don't-mistake-me-for-your-local-freaky-bartender-because-I-have-dark-ass-PURPLE-HAIR!!!" haircut. In the spare moment's I'm not spending fussing and tugging and washing my hair with ridiculously harsh shampoo, I'm busy-ing myself trying to figure out how asking for a "warm brown color, that resembles my natural color" equals "Dark-freaking-brown in the key of PURPLE!"
So, yes... I did make the mistake of not going with the very nice color I got last time, instead hoping for something a little softer and (here's where I think I went wrong) warmer. Because, apparently, to this particular stylist warmer means GOTH!
I, of course, expressed my concern while at the salon, and then went home to see if perhaps it was just this particular establishments insanely harsh lighting (yeah, right) only to find the color worse upon my arrival. So, I went back, and the lady graciously offered to "fix" it. Fix, in this case, was to do a color rinse which should have muted the red (PURPLE!) highlights. Should have, but didn't.
Another trip to the salon yesterday only yielded the option of applying baby mutating, industrial strength chemicals to strip the pigment from my hair- so, bottom line. I have ugly, dark, purple locks until such time that I am not "with child."
bleh....
I'm sure I have better things to worry about (what with war and famine and OH YEA, A BABY IN 3 Days!)- but, I'm over all of those things so I plan to grumble about this for a while.

'Santa-Baby..."

Look at this cheeky little monkey- all sweet for Santa, as if he's gonna bring her something good this year :)
I mean, com'on, how adorable can one little person be... I swear sometimes I just feel like I'm playing house with a really freekin' precious doll-baby! I'm such a proud mama :)

All things big and round...

So we all remember the frightening display that was my belly on the last go round. I am, to this day, haunted by the hushed murmuring of "...ohhh, twins, RIGHT!?!", or "... how many weeks past due are you?" all before I was even 7 months pregnant. So, Okay, I was freek-ish with the torpedo shaped, poke-your-eye-out belly. But really, it wasn't that bad right? Let's refresh our memories shall we... This was Sofie about 24 hours before birth:

Okay, yikes that was a little...ummmm... scary. But how about now? With out the previa complication I must be significantly smaller, right? Hmmmm.....

What a difference an inch makes. Somehow this time around no one is quite as worried that I will spontaneously explode, or my favorite metaphor: "POP" at any moment. Perhaps I'm just a little more adept at carrying around my girth this time- or maybe that inch really does make a world of difference. Either way, damn that's a lot of baby in there!

Here's the update: Baby two is all set to arrive shortly after noon, next Tuesday. Um, NEXT TUESDAY- which is technically really REALLY soon. To add the scientific terms- wow-wow-wowzer! 7 days, we are no longer talking weeks here, people- just days! Also- based on all kinds of uber-scientific doctor measurements and equations and stuff- Our OB seems to think this baby will be at, or around, the 8 lb mark- just like Sofie. Since the c-section is already scheduled, I am taking this as very good news- the bigger the baby, the better they eat/sleep/stand up to the flailing limbs of an older sister.

So, I think I am beginning to see why second children always seem to get the shaft. This poor child is not even born yet and somehow he already gets the "eh, he'll be fine" brush-off. "Prepare for the new baby?? Us, noooo.... eh, he'll be fine." With Sofie, I was on top of every single pregnancy detail- two or three weekly updates, subscriptions to all the 'what-not-to-do/eat/think/come with in a square mile of'-newsletters, I could rattle off exactly what this little growing baby was up to at each moment of each day ("today she's growing eyelashes, honey). And Now!?! Not so much. Some one asked me, not long ago, how far along I was and my best response was "Um.... I'm due in December" but eh, he'll be fine.

I do, however, know two things: 1. this time around we're having a boy (in a mere 7 days- did I mention that?)- which dramatically changes the game, and 2. once you have a second kid- all the rules change. I already love this little guy more than I ever could have imagined- it just seems to look a little different this time. I know that he may not get quite as many uninterrupted hours wide-eyed adoration from mommy, or months and months of nothing but constant attention- but maybe that's a good thing. I just can't wait to see how this all works out- and yet I know that it will. I guess what I'm getting at is that I'm really starting to get excited.... and it's a good thing coz there's really only 7 days of coherant thought left before all hell breaks loose!

BTW: this blog post by Amalah is by far the most encouraging thing I've come across throughout my entire pregnancy- In a world full of people who seem to want to make sure I am acutely aware of just how hard having 2 babies is... this is a sweet baby-breath of fresh air. http://www.amalah.com/amalah/2008/12/the-angel-in-the-details.html

Thanksgiving

What a fun and crazy holiday we've had. It was such a different experience this year (as I imagine will be the case for at least the next few years, as Patton and I continue to through monkey-wrenches [... I mean, babies] into the mix). For the first time since Pat and I have been together we didn't host the Demers for Thanksgiving- Instead, we made the family rounds. On Thursday, we headed over to my parent's house for a traditional McConnell family T-day feast. It was very nice to spend the evening with my Mom, Dad, Lucas and BOTH sets of grandparents. It was also nice to enjoy all the flavors of Thanksgivings past- the sweet southern dishes that I've missed over the last 4 or 5 years; carrot pudding, jello salad, pineapple soufflé and cornbread stuffing. Sofie seemed to really dig the eats as well- she had both a perma-grin and the roundest little baby belly I've ever seen!

On Friday, we headed out to Denise's for the Demers Family Thanksgiving. The traditional Demers fare was a wonderful way to round out the T-day festivities- I love that sausage stuffing!! We really enjoyed spending Friday with Diane, Denise and Matt (and missed seeing Karen and the kids).

As if TWO thanksgiving dinners in a row was not enough- we decided to fill up the weekend with more visiting- On Saturday night we took a trip out to Herndon to catch up with the Devine's. It was so nice to see Lea, Chris and the kids; who all seem to be doing exceptionally well. They are quite possibly the most adorable family on the planet :)

Whew.... Thanksgiving always seems to come with an exceptional amount of planning, prep and clean-up. We send may thanks to all three familys who hosted us this past weekend. And somehow, while we ourselves didn't actually do any of the hosting this year- we still ended the weekend pooped from all the activity. And for reasons unrelated to pilgrams or turkey there was still plenty of planning, prep and clean-up :)

Of Stepping and Kicking...

I think I may have mentioned last month about this time that our little bug took her first steps. Well, it did not take her long to master the art. She is truly, truly walking now. Back and fourth- to and fro- around in circles.... endlessly. It is so amazing to watch her figure out that she has the Independence to get where ever she wants to go- without our help. She, of course, still has the 'arms-in-the-air-I-need-my-balance-monkey-walk-thing' going, but boy is it adorable. And while I completely understand that every child hits this milestone at some point or another- I can't help but feel overwhelmingly proud of her. She's such a big girl now :)
Here's a sample from a couple weeks ago:

Meanwhile, in the womb... It seems our littlest one has mastered the art of break dancing. Or at least that's what it feels like, what with all the spinning, flipping and random poking-jabbiness. He really feels strong and healthy. I can't wait to meet these little elbows and knees- though with only a few weeks left, I know it won't be long.