Welcome, Baby Moses!

(This is daddy's take on the events of the last two and a half days. I'm sure Mommy will provide her own take once she gets home).

Hey everyone, this is the first I've had the time and alertness to sit down and write out a longer-than-a-Facebook-status update, so thanks for bearing with us.

Katie started getting contractions Sunday night. She couldn't sleep because of her pain, I couldn't sleep because of my nervousness; we called the midwives since we were doing a home birth and didn't want the baby to come before they were here. In retrospect, we should have just headed to the hospital then because Baby was huge and, in the words of the doctor who delivered him, "[Katie] couldn't have pushed that baby out even if she had 20 years." But, without the aid of retrospect, Katie carried on with labor all through Monday and the following morning until she, the midwives, and I collectively came to the doctor's same conclusion around 11:00am on Tuesday. We headed over to Alexandria hospital, Katie received a C-section around noon, and that's when Baby came onto the scene.

They put Baby in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) for fear that he ingested some meconium on his first gasp of air and possibly suffered some head trauma from all of the futile pushing. But, thank Jesus, everything looks good for him; he didn't take in much meconium at all and, although he does seem slightly stressed from the ordeal (as he sleeps he'll occasionally crinkle his face and shudder), his major organ systems appear to be functioning properly. All babies must stay in the NICU for a mandatory 24 hour minimum, so hopefully they'll move him out very soon. They were hinting at him staying longer just so they could be doubly sure of his progress--I'm sure their caution is sincere but I wouldn't be surprised if they were also trying to prove a point since the doctors were none too pleased that we had attempted a home birth without the presence of professional OB/GYNs.

I'll just say that I'm truly thankful that we live in a country that gives us the freedom to attempt to have a child the old fashioned way AND has an exceptional medical system available for us when the old fashioned way would have resulted in anything less than Katie and the baby being wholly OK. And I'm truly, deeply thankful that both Katie and the baby are recovering nicely and will both be back home by the weekend. Thank you for all of your prayers and support for I know for certain without God's intervention things would have turned out worse. In fact, as they were wheeling Katie into the operating room, I felt the peace of God and I knew things were going to turn out well.

Here are the stats:

Birth date: 2/17/2009 at 12:17pm
Weight: 9 lbs, 14 oz, Height: 22"" (he looks especially ginormous in comparison to some of the other babies in the NICU)
Name: Moses Franklin Wolf

When Katie was first pregnant, we told the Caleb and Joshua that there was a baby in mommy's tummy. They would sometimes refer to the baby as "Baby Moses" because they were accustomed to that phrase from one of their favorite pop-up books, "The Story of Moses." The name stuck; it also was relevant since Moses, Caleb, and Joshua were contemporaries. To boot, Moses Wolf is a very manly sounding name in my opinion and will sound especially good when prefixed by "Dr.," "Chief Justice," or "President." Franklin is the middle name of two of Moses' great grandfathers, and is incidentally the last name of the head midwife, too.

Thanks, everyone, for your prayers and concerns, we're touched by them and appreciate them greatly.

Korean Caleb

Even though Joshua has the Korean middle name, and even though his features tend to look slightly more Korean than his brother's, it's becoming increasingly evident that Caleb is the more Korean twin. For example, Caleb now eats kimchi, the quintessential staple of any Korean's diet. Today I made Korean bibimbap for lunch, which the boys both enjoy, since it consists primarily of rice and fried eggs. Caleb, however, kept asking, "more kimchi? more kimchi, Mommy?" He just couldn't get enough of the spicy fermented cabbage, which he ate by itself and washed down with apple cider.

While Caleb's love for kimchi is a more recent development, he has been a huge fan of bulgogi for quite some time now. He often asks if we can "go eat gogi?" and when we do, he really goes to town. He certainly gets his money's worth, especially since the restuarant has yet to charge us for the boys' meals, and we're kind of afraid to ask them when they'll start doing so! By my best estimate, Caleb probably eats just as much if not more bulgogi than Joe and I each do whenever we take them to the Korean buffet. I think the Korean waitresses really get a kick out of seeing this little blue-eyed boy earnestly begging for "more gogi!" Joshua, on the other hand, does not share his brother's passion for gogi and instead opts for shrimp tempura and other deep-fried specialties favorable to the typical American palate.

I'm quite certain that the only thing preventing Joshua from sharing his brother's passion for Korean food is his stubbornness. I hope that someday he'll be able to put it aside and finally acquire an appreciation for what Caleb has been enjoying all along!

Playing Midwife

Caleb and Joshua love going to visit "Midwife Peggy". She is probably one of their most frequently-requested people. As usual, at my appointment yesterday, the boys joyfully chirped, "See baby brother!" as soon as I laid down on the bed and uncovered my belly. Their eyes were affixed while the midwives palpated my belly, measured the fundal height, and listened to the baby's heartbeat. Midwife Peggy remarked that Caleb and Joshua definitely display more interest in these proceedings than most other boys who accompany their mothers to prenatal appointments.

At home, Caleb and Joshua will often play their own version of "finding the heartbeat". They will find a small block or similar object and gently rub it against one of their stuffed animals' bellies or against my belly and say, "I'll make it feel better." For some reason--perhaps because they associate the midwife with the doctor--they seem to have assigned healing properties to the midwife and her ultrasound equipment. Yesterday, for example, I observed Joshua take a Gameboy game that our neighbor Lily had left lying out (which is plastic, grey, and actually somewhat resembles a piece of medical equipment) and press it up against one of his stuffed bears, saying "I'll make it feel better, bear, I'll make it feel better". I asked Joshua if he is a doctor, and he replied "Yes, I'm doctor!" I guess Joshua will have to settle for being a doctor since I have never heard of a male midwife :)

By the way, yesterday was my unofficial due date. My official due date used by my midwife is February 9th, but when I first found out I was pregnant, an online due date calculator told me that my due date was the 5th, and at the time I thought the earlier the better! But now that February 5th has come and gone, I'm quite content to let our baby boy stay inside of me a little while longer, although preferably before my own birthday two weeks from now!

Washing Machine Massage

I'm thankful to have a washing machine, but ours leaves a lot to be desired. My biggest complaint is that it lacks a rinse option, so when I wash the boys' diapers I have to run a full wash cycle three times per load, when all I really need is a pre-rinse, wash, and post-rinse. I'm sure that the excess water and electricity wasted every time I wash cloth diapers totally negates our good deed of sparing the landfills. Oh well.

Our washing machine is also somewhat unstable and shakes violently during the spin cycle. Caleb and Joshua have recently discovered that if they lean their backs against the washing machine during the spin cycle, they get a nice back massage. I always get a kick out of seeing them standing against the washing machine side by side, their little bodies trembling, with big grins plastered across their faces. I guess it just goes to show that you are never too young to appreciate a nice back rub!

Straight-talking Joshua

If Joshua doesn't like something, he will let you know it. This morning I heard the boys stirring in the bedroom so I went in the greet them. Caleb and I were snuggling on the boys' bed while Joe (who is working from home today because of the snow) came in and prematurely attempted to wrestle with a groggy Joshua. He quickly decided that Daddy's wrestling antics were interfering with his morning snuggle time with Mommy, so he pointed to the door and half-asked, half-commanded, "Daddy, go out there?" Joe dejectedly exited the room, but I assured him that he shouldn't feel that bad because it happens to the best of us. Last night while the boys were watching a few Old School Sesame Street clips, I started to sing along to one of the songs. Joshua turned to me and said, "Don't like it?" which is his way of saying, "Mommy, will you stop singing?" Another example is when we were visiting Granny and Babo over Christmas, Granny thought it would be fun to run back and forth with the boys across Aunt Nancy and Uncle Andy's porch. Joshua apparently had other ideas and did not hesitate to tell Granny to go back inside.

While we realize that Joshua needs to be taught that being so blunt can hurt people's feelings and is not always the best way to get your point across, we also admire the fact that he is a straight-talker. Combined with his bossy tendencies, we think he'll make a good political leader someday. Not necessarily the kind of politician that Americans have recently shown themselves likely to vote for, but a good one nevertheless!

No More!

While it's no secret that we're less than thrilled with our nation's most recent choice for president, we do recognize the historic nature of this year's inauguration and therefore set aside some time to watch the festivities on TV. The atmosphere in our house was pretty low key. Unlike the inaugural crowd who shamelessly booed our outgoing president, we believe that God commands us to respect our leaders, and we accordingly maintained a respectful attitude while watching Obama take office and deliver his first speech as president. So you can imagine that we were taken by surprise when, in the middle of the speech, Joshua marched right up to the TV and proclaimed, "No more! No more!" Shaking his head, he turned off the TV and reiterated, "No more!" Surprised, amused, and maybe even a little proud of our 3-year-old son, we couldn't help but laugh. And Joshua broke out into a big mischevious grin, as if he knew exactly what he had done.

Night Chocolate

It's well established by now that Caleb's a chocolate fiend, but his cravings reached an unprecedented height the week before Christmas.  Shortly before bed, Caleb wandered into the dining room and asked to see a tin perched on top of the hutch.  I obliged, primarily because I was relieved that I had finally identified what he wanted ("Want this. Want this." *aimless pointing towards the hutch* "Want thissss!").  In retrospect I should have used more prudence since the tin was full of Ghirardelli chocolate squares.  Of course, his next demands were "Want choc'late.  Want choc'late." but I firmly refused to open up one of the squares for him.

Later, while I was tucking him in bed for the night, I noticed he was still clutching a mint chocolate square. "Maybe I should take it away," I thought, but I figured that it was well sealed and that there'd be less commotion if I just let him keep it until he fell asleep.

As we all lay in bed, it wasn't long before I heard the crinkling of chocolate wrapper. I remained confident the wrapper was impenetrable, but after a minute of constant crinkling, I began to suspect otherwise.  So I leaned over to where Caleb was laying and was immediately greeted with the smell of minty chocolate.  We turned on the lights and noticed chocolate all over his hands, his face (which was also adorned with an ear-to-ear smile), and the pillow.  Although we reprimanded him as we washed him off and re-brushed his teeth, I could tell he was pretty pleased with himself.