Are you wigh dere?

The most frequent question I get now that I am a parent of two is "How's Jackson doing with the baby?" I was a bit worried about how he would respond. He had been demonstrating a tendency toward jealousy. Actually, more than a tendency. The first time he saw me holding another child, he burst into tears, ran over as fast as his chubby 18 month old legs could take him, and grabbed the face of the offending little friend, attempting to take her face off (imagine John Travolta doing an impression of Nicolas Cage saying that...obscure John Woo reference). As recent as 3-4 months ago, he came over to hit his little friend Alaina when I was giving her a hug because she was crying.

So we were a bit worried that he would be jealous of his new little sister. The whole time during the pregnancy we kept telling him that his little sister, his baby, was growing in mommy's tummy so that he could love her. And the day he saw her for the first time, he seemed to demonstrate a genuine affection.

So we're not so worried about him feeling jealous. As soon as he comes home from school, he asks for her first. I don't even get a hug any more. He puts on this falsetto voice and says "Hi baby. Are you wigh dere?" (which we think translates to "are you right there?", although we have no idea what he means by that...she's obviously right there).

But we still have to worry about how he interacts with her. You know how some people say things like "She's so cute I just want to eat her up" or "I just want to squeeze him to death"? Well that seems to be how affectionate Jackson is about his little sister. He hugs her REALLY hard and sometimes bites her. So he's not jealous, but he just can't control how to express his feelings.

I guess she's going to grow up to be one tough chick if she can defend herself from the affections of her big brother.

Clarice

A Tale of Two Families

Lawrences & Eyres

July 2006
Jackson 5 months, Harper 2 months

July 2008
Marley 8 weeks, Kiran 2 weeks

Family Picture

Due Date

Today is Kiran's due date. According to the ultrasound technician, today was supposed to be the day when she would reach the magic age to be considered full-term. Of course, I never expected her to come on time. I thought Jackson would come late. After all, I had been told that first babies tended to come late. So I didn't expect him 10 days early, on my last official day of work. But with Kiran, I assumed that she would be early. I just didn't want to repeat the delivering on the last official day of work thing (as I did again).

So we've now had her for 2 weeks on the day she would be due.

I was approaching today's date with trepidation. Jackson's labor and delivery was so hard. I had about 36 hours of contractions before active labor really started (2 sleepless nights), 3 hours of active contractions, close to an hour of pushing, and an hour of being stitched up afterward. I was a bit scared of labor and delivery again. I don't know what made me think of doing a natural birth for Jackson (Becky, Lilia, Kathy M...). I'm a health care provider. We like drugs. So this time I wanted the epidural. If you don't know the story, we got to the hospital too late. Kiran was born one hour after they put that gown on me. I hadn't even consented to treatment. The funny thing is...I was telling Ian yesterday that I can't remember what the contractions felt like. And I can't remember what the delivery felt like either. And after months and months of telling people that we're closing shop after this one, I'm wondering if we should go ahead and let another accident happen.

I was approaching today's date with excitement. I was so curious to see what Kiran would look like. I spent most of Jackson's pregnancy telling Ian how my dominant genes would absolutely wipe out his recessive genes. Then I birthed a blond hair, blue eyed boy. The blue eyes have now become this cool light brown. But the hair is still Ian's exact color. This one seems to be expressing the dominant genes I threw her... although her eyes are also the blue/gray color that Jackson's started out to be. But I have been so curious to find out what she's going to be like. And on the day she's due, I feel like I have an idea. She's fairly mellow. She has a special little yelp she makes when she's ready to eat. And I think she knows me already. As soon as I pick her up to feed her, she stops crying and starts looking at me expectantly.

I just feel blessed. We've had an extra two weeks with our little girl. Now to look forward to the rest of our lives with her.

Clarice

More Pictures

We were so blessed to have our friend Emily, mother of one of Jackson's twin sisters, come to take pictures of Kiran a few days after she was born. She brought her clan to play with Jackson, join us for lunch, and document our new little one.

More pictures at her website. There are still more. If you're interested in seeing more pictures of the little one, let me know.

Clarice

Valiant Little Dog

I've been awaiting the birth of a very special nephew (whose pregnancy I blogged about a bit here). I have two other very special nephews and a niece (whose antics are recounted by their parents here). This eagerly anticipated nephew is my little brother's first child, making him a blood nephew. But more than that, this little one is my brother's child.

My brother is very special to me. We used to be as different as could be. I was the band geek/honor student, who had the pretense of being a good little girl. Little brother was the athlete/fraternity boy, who had the pretense of being a baaadasss. I don't think we're soooooo different these days. And he's the only person in the world with a shared growing-up experience, which gives him a window into my soul that few others have.

Weeks ago, when I was wrestling with the possibility that Bright Flower (now known as Kiran Jasmine) might come a bit early (at 36 weeks LMP instead of the ideal 40 weeks), my brother and his wife were so supportive and encouraging of me and my concerns. Then on the day that Kiran was born, my sister-in-law was on the way to the delivery room to join me when she felt a "gush". It turns out that the gush was amniotic fluid. My little nephew was threatening to come into the world much too early - at 31 weeks LMP. That would make him about 3 lbs and without full lung development. So what I was worrying about with Bright Flower is happening with my nephew.

My sister-in-law was admitted to the hospital one week ago. She has been been prescribed bed rest with full fetal monitoring under the watchful eye of her physician until the baby is born. The goal is to get to at least 34 weeks LMP, which is another 2 weeks.

My brother and his wife have already given their little one a name. He will be Riley Madden Law. Riley means "valiant or courageous" and Madden means "little dog". So this is my prayer for nephew - that he would fulfill his name and be a feisty little fighter, like his chihuahua "siblings" that no doubt inspired his name.

So hang in there, valiant little dog. Auntie Clarice loves you and wants you to come into this world healthy and strong.

Clarice

Bright Flower's Arrival

Announcing the birth of Kiran Jasmine Eyre on July 1 at 6:10 pm at the Ronald Reagan Medical Center at UCLA.

Kiran came 15 days early and surprised us all. Clarice started contractions at about 4 am on Tuesday morning, her last official day of work. We both promptly cleared our schedules and took advantage of a few hours to finish our mental and physical preparations. We arrived at the hospital at 4:40 pm, and Clarice got settled into a bed at 5 pm while the triage nurse was completing admission proceedings. Six minutes later she felt the urge to push and her water broke. At 6:10 pm, after only 20 minutes of hard pushing, Kiran squeezed into this world with a panicked cry and then settled into looking around and blinking. She is beautiful, perfectly formed, and has dark hair; more than Jackson had by one year of age. She has great grandma's nose, just like her brother, and much less of Daddy's pronounced cranium. She is even more mellow-tempered than Jackson was and makes little squirrel noises. Mom is doing exceptionally well due to a much shorter and easier labor and delivery than last time (less than half).

The family is all home together now. Jackson has been very tender with Kiran and surprisingly not jealous. He was very excited to give her the giraffe plush he bought her and was very excited to receive the surprise that Kiran "bought" for him (more train set additions).

Kiran means beam or ray of light and Jasmine is a fragrant flowering vine (we thank all of you who offered opinions about her name). Kiran's birth stats were: 7 lbs, 5 oz and 21 inches long. For comparison, Jackson was 6 lbs, 4 oz and 19.5 inches long at birth and he came ten days early.

We were so blessed to have our good friend Emily (mother of one of Jackson's best friends) present to document Kiran's arrival. Those pictures are posted at her website. More of our own pictures are posted at our family web gallery:

Thanks for your thoughts and prayers. We are exceedingly excited and grateful for God's provision and blessings.

Ian, Clarice, Jackson, and Kiran