Sabina

In response to Jason's post, and other questions, Sadie's middle name Sabina comes from my Dad's maternal grandmother, Sabina Steckel. She was a sweet lady that I wish I could have gotten to spend more time with. What I remember most was her kindness and her skills in the kitchen. I still remember being around 4 years old and tasting her potato knishes, stuffed cabbage leaves, and most of all, her rugelah cookies. She didn't have any written recipes, but luckily my Mom watched her closely and recorded an approximation of her rugelah recipe.

We did a little research on the history of the name, which comes from the Sabine tribe that populated the hills north of Rome in ancient times. Many of the stories depict the Sabine women as selfless peacemakers, marrying Roman men to end years of bloody wars with the Romans. Other stories are less pleasant, questioning the "choice" the Sabine women had in that arrangement. In any case, we'll tell Sadie the happy version and she can go to Wikipedia when she's older.

First Night

Here's Sadie at about four hours old. She's all cleaned up and resting in our room with us right now. It's pretty quiet here on the maternity ward tonight, even though it's a full house which the nurses all swear is because of the weird weather pattern that rolled in today.

This is a tough post because my head is still spinning from everything that happened today, and the fact that I've been up for about 20 hours. There's so much to say, so I'll have to just go over the highlights:

So far, Sadie has impressed us with her beautiful face, curly dark hair, long toes, and her terrific eating habits. She definitely looks different than Jake did as a newborn. Size-wise she's 1/2 pound lighter and only 1/4 inch shorter than Jake was at this age. If she grows at Jake's rate, she'll be able to put up a good fight when they're old enough to start arguing over the Sit-n-Spin.

A HUGE thanks to our Moms and Dads (especially the Dads) for taking good care of Jake today. We missed him, but we knew he was having fun and that was a big relief. It was so great to finally see him at around 7 tonight. He seemed like such a big boy, not just in comparison to little Sadie, but in how he was gentle with recouperating Mommy and how he wanted to show us he was ok leaving us and going home with Gram and Poppy tonight. He seemed to handle this crazy day in stride, which bodes well for the crazy future we have in front of us.

Funniest moment of the night: The baby nurse came by around 10:30 to go over the baby basics: Input, Output, Troubleshooting, etc. In the middle of her talk, we hear this tinny, loud crying baby. "Hold on a sec," she says, "I have to take this call". Yep, that was the Baby Nurse's cell phone ringer.

Sadie Sabina Edelstein

!!!!

Mom and Sadie are doing great!! Pictures soon!

7lb 14oz, 21 1/2 inches

Born 5:17p

!!!

Wish I had more to report

Things are progressing nicely, but no big announcements yet. The nurses
all say Ali is the best patient they've had.

Jake is at home with his Grandfathers and apparently missed his nap -
something to do with eating six handfuls of cupcakes with green icing??

This drive was different

OK, we're relaxing in our room waiting for the action to start. I don't think I'm supposed to be using this blackberry but I just read a study from Canada that said all those prohibitions on cell phones were bogus - that they interfered with hospital equipment as much as chewing gum does.

Anyway, this drive to the hospital was much different than last time. We talked about the rainy weather, our excitement, our family trying to get the baby's name out of us, etc. When we were on our way to the hospital to have Jake, the conversation was a lot different: "WHY ARE YOU DRIVING SO FAST!? ARE YOU TRYING TO HIT EVERY POTHOLE IN THE STATE OF VIRGINIA?!"

Here she comes!

Ali had a checkup today and everything looks great and we're going in tomorrow morning at 7am for an induction! Well, Ali's getting inducted. But not like a Hall of Famer. I should say induced. Don't worry, this does not invalidate all the March 16th guesses. We didn't decide until a few hours ago, so it's still a surprise to you, our loyal readers.

My mental state is:

20% tired from Ali's tossing and turning

60% excited
5% nervous
15% curious about Jake's reaction

Ali's mental state is:
80% tired of being pregnant
90% excited
40% nervous
75% curious about Jake's reaction

I know Ali's numbers don't add up to 100% but I didn't want to be the one to tell her.

Thanks for everyone's well wishes. Keep your fingers crossed for us tomorrow over your coffee and donuts. But, be careful not to spill your coffee with those crossed fingers. Youch!

Baby Sister knows how to build anticipation

Well, the due date came and went yesterday, but not without some excitement. Steady contractions in the late afternoon got me out of work early. On the upside, I got out of work early. On the downside, the Current Baby Count is still stuck at 001. The contractions lasted well over an hour, and we were just about to get in the car when they started to subside.

Aunt Kate arrived last night from China to relieve Cousin Kaitlin who heads back to the Garden State today. Kate said she read a study in JAMA that showed pedicures could successfully start labor in pregnant women so I think they'll be busy working on that project today. Maybe Kate will be able to try out some of her Chinese at the nail place. "NEE HOW! WE WOULD RIKE TOENAIL PAINT PREASE!"

Cul-de-sac

Here's Jake and his neighborhood buddies on the new double stroller. The box said it was good for two, but we proved it can handle four comfortably, as long as everyone's friendly.

The ratio of girls to boys in this picture (4-1) is pretty representative of the actual ratio of kids in our neighborhood. We figure Jake will be ambivalent about this at first, then not like it, then really like it, then really not like it and then be ambivalent about it again eventually.

Still waiting...

Ali's contractions settled down a bit, so I'm at work now. Luckily, cousin Katilyn is with Ali today to keep her company and to drive her to the hospital if necessary. I drove the scooter in to work just in case I need to make a quick getaway. "It is so choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up." - Guess the movie or click here for the answer

Due date

Today's the day. Ali's having some contractions this morning, but we're waiting to see how consistent they are before I decide to go into work or not. The probability of a baby being born on his or her due date is somewhere between 3 and 5 percent. Jake was born on his due date, so the combined odds of two babies being born on their respective due dates would be somewhere between 0.9 and 2.5 percent. Not very likely, but Ali did win $200 on the first quarter she ever put into a slot machine. Stay tuned....

Racecar

After going to the St. Patrick's Day parade downtown on Sunday, Jake's new word is "Racecar". We watched the Irish step dancers and the marching bands and firetrucks, but I think his favorite part was the shriners driving in their little go carts. And to be honest, that was my favorite part too. These guys drive with the precision of the Blue Angels, and not one lost his fez through all the turns and manoeuvres.

When we came home Jake saw the neighborhood kids playing in their little kid car and he got a serious look on his face and calmly said "racecar", as he marched towards it. Here he is, engine idling.

Ali's last day

Here's Ali on her way to work last Friday. Do you smile like that on your way to work? How about when you're nine months pregnant? Ali's amazing, isn't she? I don't want to get too sappy here, but I sure am proud of this girl. She's the best mom and the best wife a kid and husband could ask for.

The last weeks of a pregnancy seem to be the hardest, but Ali's doing great. The closest comparison I can think of is our recyclables bin. I carry that thing out every Thursday night and sometimes it's pretty heavy (newspapers, bottles of champagne, etc) but I sure am glad to put it down and come back inside. So I guess it must be like carrying around the recyclables bin all the time, chasing after a big recyclables truck that never stops. Speaking of cool jobs, that guy seems to have it made. He doesn't have to get up as early as the garbage man, gets to hear that smashy-glass sound all day, and is probably a lot more popular with his friends now that Al Gore's movie is winning Oscars. I think I got off on a tangent here. In summary, "Go Ali!".