LIAM AND CARTER

Liam got to meet his cousin Carter Howard Schermerhorn for the first time this past weekend. The had a little photo shoot which you can see at Carter's blog.

http://theschermerhorns.blogspot.com

CUP HOLDER

Not only is he Jamie's progeny, light of her life and link to the future, he also doubles as a nifty cup holder!

LIAM'S FIRST BATH

This took place the day after birth in our hosptial room with the help of our nurse. Unfortunately the real action didn't take place until after the camera cuts out here. Just as the bath was wrapping up we found that Liam's backside had mysterious become soiled again. It seemed to appear from nowhere!

He's continued this trend regularly on his changing table as a fresh clean diaper seems to provide the added comfort to pass what still needs to be passed.

Anyways, this portion of video is clean.

ONE MINUTE OLD

This video is of baby Liam at one minute old.

PLAYTIME

Last night Katherine and Liam met. They had a chance to play (nap) together for the first time while the adults did boring adult type things.

Of course the most common comment about kids is "I can't believe how big he/she is" but when 4 lbs makes up 35% of your body weight it can be shocking how change happens from week to week. I had not seen Katherine since before last weekend and after holding Liam for 7 days she felt like a two year old as I hard her in my arms. They were born exactly two months apart.

Also, I now know that I do not need twins at any point during my life.

HOSPITAL SMELL

Over the course of our five days in the hosptial we had a odd thing happen over and over again. It seemed as though everytime a new nurse came into our room the first thing she would say is, "It smells so good in here!"

If you have never lived with me I want to make it very clear that this does NOT normally happen.

The flowers we had accumulated from friends and family were giving off a fantastic smell and aparently we had the sweetest smelling room in the hospital. Even I had to admit that we were smelling good despite the best efforts of Liam and myself.

LIAM WEIGHS IN

This video was taken in the OR just a few moments after Liam was born.

WE HAVE NEW PHOTOS

Obviously we've taken a bunch of photos in the last few days. I have them uploaded to our Flickr account which you can get to anytime using the link over on the left side of this page. You can also click http://www.flickr.com/photos/regan-merna/sets/

Thanks to all the visitors who have stopped in.

TANNING BOOTH

We expected to be heading home today but Liam has started out a little bit dehydrated and the nurses want to keep him for an extra day to ward off any jaundice. Right now he is down the hall getting light therapy in the tanning booth. Jamie is jealous that is already more tan than she is. We'll be evaluated again tommorow morning to see if he can depart on Wednesday.

The room seems empty here without him and now the only person left to talk to is Jamie.

Liam had his first bath on Sunday and I would like you all to save this photo so you can show him in about 15 years.

DAY OF VISITORS

This morning we had a hearing test and found that both ears were working well. That means Liam heard his first Lakers championship last night.


All of his other parts appear to be working as well. He has started to nurse a bit more reliably and the diapers have been flying left and right. He can urinate about 3 feet when needed. The boy also dropped a deuce during his first bath yesterday in front of about 10 people.


He got to meet a large bunch of his family on Sunday. I need a bit more time to post all of our photos but here is a small preview from Sunday.

Grandpa GovAunt Mairin
Rico!

BABY BOY

Liam Regan Merna

Liam was born at 1:13pm today. Apparently he has a rather large head and after the ol' vacuum trick failed to pull him out he was delivered via C-section. It wasn't the style Jamie had hoped for but it did end 12 hours labor that was not all that easy.

She is currently down the hall nursing the boy and I have plenty of other details and pictures to share, but that will be a bit later on today.

PUSH!

Jamie is fully dilated and pushing!

OK... I better go!

WE ARE IN LABOR

At about 11:30pm Friday Jamie's water broke.

By 12:30am she was having contractions and then by 1:30 they were becoming significant contractions.

Our doctor told us to come into the hospital and on arrival Jamie was dilated 4cm. The pain in her back was getting really bad and she has decided to have an epidural to deal with that pain. So far that has worked out really well.

At the moment we are sitting around talking about hockey, wiffleball and celebrity gossip.

All signs indicate that we are just hours away from delivery.

WRITE-IN QUESTION

What is worse for Jamie - waiting for the baby or the Yanks losing?

Jamie: "Waiting for the baby because the Yankees can't win EVERY series or game, but baby HAS to come out. The Yankees don't give me pain in June and the baby does. If I were expecting in October and their season was over and I would no longer have anything to watch on TV, I would have more of a debate."

WHAT DON'T YOU KNOW?

I really can't think of much more to talk about today. If you have any questions about Jamie's pregnancy email them to cmerna@gmail.com and I will then answer them here on the blog.

NOT YET

Jamie found at her appoitment today that the baby had moved back up away from the birth canal a bit. He has made it very clear that he is not ready to come out just yet and Jamie seemed very clear that this was not acceptable.

Now I'm thinking that he's waiting for the day that the Lakers win the title and after last night he decided to retreat a bit. The new prediction is that he'll be born on Sunday night sometime between 8pm and 11pm.

Other notes from the visit were that he is shaping up to be around 7-8 lbs and that Jamie is still dilated to 1.5 cm

DELIVERY ROUTE

Grandpa Gov (gg) was in town last night making a delivery. (Not that kind of delivery.) It gave us a good chance to review his map and plot the fastest route from Potsdam to Highland Hospital.

I do have my route planned out which is down to a 5.4 mile trip. Jamie might be able to make it even quicker if she can convince Officer Weech we should get a police escort on the way.

BABY NAME VOYAGER

This is a great site for research on the usage of names.

http://www.babynamewizard.com/voyager

Type in your name and see how it's usage has risen or fallen over the years all the way back to the 1880's. Try typing in the name "Sunshine" and see if you can guess when it peaked.

If you switch over to link at the top for NameMapper you can see how the popularity of names changes across the different states of the U.S.

IN SEASON

Jamie's belly seems to be getting firmer and I test it every day like I'm checking fruit in the produce isle. Today she felt ripe to me.

NOT RECENT BABY PHOTOS

A trip to gramda's house (soon to be great-grandma) in Utica gave us a chance to get out the old photo books. I was able to locate a baby photo from sometime earlier last century of pending grandfather William Merna, much the same way Jamie aquired a baby photo of me from my mother. We also have a photo of Jamie from way back so that maybe you can get a preview of what the new one is going to look like.

Bill Merna

Colin Merna

Jamie Regan

DOCTOR SAYS

Jamie just got back from seeing the doctor today. An uneventful visit is always good and so the highlights are a bit average.

• Jamie is dilated a little over 1cm
• Baby's heartbeat is good and the baby is active
• Jamie is fully effaced
• The doctor gave a *wink*wink that she didn't think Jamie would make it until June 20th
• According to the doctor Jamie's fat feet are apparently not as bad as they could be

I expect that I will still be massaging the feet tonight no matter what size they are. I also have to say that the feet have been amazing. They are not simply fat, they seem to change with the weather as if atmospheric pressure is the cause of the size change. One day they look like normal human feet and then the next morning they look as if they're about to burst at the seams and then the next day back to normal.

CNN Weather says we should have a high pressure zone moving in for Thursday/Friday so I would assume that to be good news.

(Good luck to the OFA Blue Devil baseball team tonight against the evil Potsdam Sandstoners.)

HITTING STREAK

Some soon-to-be mothers play Mozart through headphones on their belly to give their baby a taste of the fine music before birth. Some read their favorite poetry out loud in the hopes that the sounds will give their babies little brain a headstart coming into the world.

If any of these things actually work then our baby is going to be an expert on the sound of Derek Jeter slapping a single into right field because he hears that seven to eight times per night. (Jamie likes to use the DVR to watch her favorite plays from the game seven to eight times.)

READY FOR STROLLING

Thank you to Aunt Kathy, Aunt Sharon, Aunt Barbara and Becky who got us the new stroller. It also came with the baby carrier that can be mounted into the stroller or into the car seat frame. I've already installed the car seat so that Jamie isn't pulling a Britney Spears and driving home from the hospital with the baby on her lap.