Andrew & Mommy Come Home

Back at the ranch (New Year's Eve)


The remainder of Tania's hospital stay went as well as these things can and the care was fantastic. And it was tremendously helpful to have Tania's parents around to visit and to be there for T and Jake. Also our dear friends Stefan and Ann stopped by with their kids (Derick and Maya) and some Thai food, which made the last night there a very social affair and helped to occupy Jacob.



















We made it back to Chez Suster yesterday without much fanfare. It was a cold and windy day and we were all exhausted so as expected baby number two didn't get any homecoming pictures taken. We have the feeling that this is just the beginning of a life-long bias toward Andy not getting quite as much attention to detail as Jake did. So we are going to try and make an effort to take the same number of pictures, compile as complete of a baby album as we did last time and to appreciate every "first" (smile, roll-over, crawl, walk, talk) to the fullest. But if Tania's pregnancy is any indication, where we seemed to forget that there was another human life on the way, I think we will sink into the habits of 99% of all other parents. But pictures the day after the homecoming are really just as good - aren't they? Humor us.

Andrew is learning to breast feed. Last night we were awake much of the night teaching him how to "latch on" and by today he was in full swing. But not before a nearly sleepless night for Tania and only slightly more for me. But when you see this little helpless creature experiencing every bit of life for the first time it is hard to be anything else but elated. See?

Jacob and I are off the Stefan and Ann's tonight for a New Year's Eve party. They came up with the greatest idea to celebrate it at East Coast time (e.g. 9:00 PM) so that all the kids can be there and enjoy the celebration. Going out should provide a much needed break to Tania and her parents. Okay, Jake is pulling on my finger and saying "you have to play with me" so I guess I'm off. Happy New Year. And if you visited the blog (well, I guess you did or you wouldn't be reading this!) push the comment button below and say "hello". I read the comments out to the family and it is great to hear from everybody. Tania promised me that I could publish pictures of her in just a few days so stay tuned.

Andrew David Suster (Andy)

From El Camino Hospital - 8:00 PM

Wow what a different experience from the last one! For starters I am sitting in the hospital in Mountain View and they have Wi-Fi where I can access the Internet from Tania's hotel room - amazing! In stead of delivering at 2:00 in the morning and being tired for days, Tania delivered at 3:27 in the afternoon after a great night sleep. 15 hours of labour was reduced to 5 hours of labor and 1 hour 41 minutes of pushing was reduced to "just" 40. The staff were amazing and our midwife stayed an extra half hour after her shift (ended at 3:00) because she wanted to see the baby be born.

When we got back to the maternity hospital room (rather than delivery room) the staff were handing out freshly baked chocolate chip cookies, the TV had cable, the room was temperate and all was copacetic. In London we didn't have our own bathroom, the room had no air conditioning, the refrigerator in the room had a perpetual buzz, there were 3 TV stations (all crap) and I had to sleep on a blow up swimming pool air matress.

So how the name? Well Andrew was the great grandfather of Tania (her father's mother's dad was Andrew Novak - no relation to the now infamous columnist!). But we like Andy so we're going with that and he can change it to Andrew, Drew or even A. Diddy when he is older. David was the middle name of my grandfather (my mom's dad). And as much as I liked my grandfather, the name Harold just didn't make the cut even for a middle name.

So thus brings an end to the family's longest running negotiation in which Tania broke me in the 11th hour. Just kidding - I loved the name Andy. And I got the first round pick in the next baby draft. Jacob was a charm. He was totally sweet with the baby and didn't fuss at all when it was time to come home. He just announced, "see you tomorrow, Mommy, when we wake up from sleep."

Okay, I'm shagged. Over and out.

Muphy's Law / Sod's Law

Gush ... If you are still in child rearing years and are someday looking for a way to accelerate your wife going into labor I have the sure fire way. Stay up really late learning how blogs work and looking up all of your wife's family and friend's email addresses and she is sure to wake you up early in the morning announcing, "my water just broke!" Doh. Off to the hospital. Could be quick or could be 24+ hours - you never know. Jacob was induced (Tania had low amniotic fluid) so we never went through this experience the first time. I guess it was a lot easier when the doctor just called and said "why don't you come in and have your baby tomorrow."

Anyway, at least we are sneaking out of the house before Jacob wakes up. He is in the good care of "Papa / Kay," his maternal grandparents. Jeff, Tania just announced, "Uncle Jeff must think 'he's the man'. " He just called yesterday to tell us that Tania would be having the baby tomorrow. You da' man.

By the way, any of you that are new to blogs you can always write to us by clicking below any post and clicking on the "comment" button. That way you can leave us little notes (e.g. as in yesterday's post when I said "help us decide the baby's name!")

Soliciting Names ...

Okay, so now I have the blog site live and running. Somebody mentioned that they liked the following picture because Tania was wearing red and you could actually see that she was pregnant for once. Sorry, T, I know that no 9-month pregnant moms like their pictures but you look great! We also loved this picture because we love Aunt Jan.



So ... after 6 months of hard-fought battle in the trenches over the name of number two Tania & I have reached a consensus, which is ... that we agree that we can't agree. Anybody have a fantastic name we should consider? We also thought of auctioning the name away to anybody who is willing to pay for his college education ;-)

Help! Baby Suster doesn't sound like a very appealing name. Nor does "Baby Daddy," which is what Jake wants to name him.

Time to Start Blogging

Baby #2 due at any moment, so I thought this would be as good a time as any to start a blog. We're all waiting anxiously for the baby to arrive, including Jacob who keeps announcing, "baby coming soon!".

Had a false alarm recently and went in at midnight as the date turned into the 24th December and Tania had contractions. Turns out we were a bit early but better safe than sorry.

Here is a recent photo of Jacob from Thanksgiving (standing against the window) and one from Chrismakkah, where he wore his Bob the Builder Tonka hat and played with his trucks from Uncles Joe and Tom.

Off to bed - I might need the sleep.