on names

Names are important things. They help us to understand what something or someone is or is not. In the case of a baby, does the name define the person, or is it the other way around? Cassidy is still in the early stages of discovering who he is and creating a meaning to go with his name.

He has four names, so I thought I'd briefly explain why we chose each of them, from simplest to most complicated.

Brooks: My last name. There was a little discussion about whether he should have my last name or Holly's, but this seemed simplest.

Pierce: His first middle name. We just liked the sound of it. No big symbolism.

Barrett: His second middle name. This was Holly's dad's last name at birth. He was later adopted, and became Severson. We thought it was good to keep it around - Severson and Schultz (his grandma Rachel's last name) are already being carried on by cousins Sara and Kali. Plus it's Irish-sounding.

Cassidy: his first name. We wanted something a little unusual - no John or Jim or Steve or Thomas. Nothing wrong with those, it just didn't fit for us. Cassidy's also got the Irish sound, which is nice.
The proximal inspiration is the Grateful Dead song quoted on the right - it's a really beautiful song about birth, death, and rebirth, and finding your own way through and joy in life. I highly recommend Suzanne Vega's version, which can be found on the Deadicated compilation. The Grateful Dead version on Without a Net is also very good.

The song is primarily about a baby, Cassidy Law, but also makes allusions to Neal Cassady, who served as an inspiration to two generations of artists (the Beats and the Pranksters). Howl is dedicated to him, and he's the basis for most of Jack Kerouac's work. Neal the person was a complicated and flawed man, but Neal the Icon is something else - he represented breaking down barriers, stepping outside the boundaries of conformity and the rules of society, of seeking joy and adventure in life, and ultimately valuing love, passion, friendship and experience. There are worse inspirations for a little guy these days.

come let us adore him

Cassidy got lots of visitors this weekend, many bearing presents. (No frankincense or myrrh, though.) Kim and Sean came to see him on Friday and brought us burritos, which were much appreciated. Then, he got to meet his cousin Kali and uncle Tracy over the weekend - they brought him a sheep puppet and a book. (He likes books.) And then Nancy and Rudd came to visit and brought an apple pie, which we ate on his behalf. All in all, a busy weekend for the little guy.

Another big milestone - his umbilical cord came off today. I hear that in some cultures that means you're officially a man. We considered saving it for him as a memento, but decided against it.

fashion plate

One of the fun things about little babies is that you can dress them up in cute clothes and they can't complain, or aren't yet aware of things like embarrassment and looking silly. In many ways babies have this figured out better than adults.

Cassidy here is modeling his Santa hat, along with jammies sent by Grandma Rachel. Soon after his photo shoot, he barfed up his dinner all over them. Luckily, baby formula comes out easily, and since he doesn't know about embarrassment, he was just happy that his tummy felt better.

We also have an appearance here by Flannery, aka the Squirrel, aka the Formerly Cutest Creature In The House. She's having a hard time adjusting to not being the unquestioned number one any more. In addition to not having her mom's undivided attention anymore, she's quite annoyed that she hasn't been able to drink any of Cassidy's formula (even when it spills on the floor) despite her best efforts. Little does she know that in a few short months he'll go from being a sedentary and mysterious new addition to the family to a crawling, grabbing, squealing tormentor.

how are we not extinct?

Holly raised that excellent question Tuesday after a four-hour crying fest. I found myself asking the same question last night after he woke up at 2am to eat (expected) and stayed up until 4:30 fussing and crying (less expected).

We're learning some tricks to deal with Cassidy's less charming moments, including the football carry (shown below) which helps when he's got gas, and the swing he inherited from cousin Freya, which he's quite impressed with. There's also the fact that he's got his moments of incredible cuteness and charm.

We're now to the point where two full-grown, college-educated adults can (barely) keep up with taking care of him :-)

He's awake! I'd better go fill his ravenous maw!

these babies sure do poop a lot

So here's the latest on the Cassidy front:

We're home, and trying to get settled into a routine, which seems to involve a fairly rapid eat/poop/cry/sleep cycle. Holly and I are doing OK so far; it's been a little overwhelming, but we're starting to figure things out.

Cassidy got some very nice presents from his Aunt Barb, Cousin Sara, and Aunt DD, Uncle Mike, and Cousin Freya. He's admiring the panda book that DD, Mike and Freya gave him.

We had our first trip to the pediatrician today. Everything seems good, and Holly and I got some parenting questions crossed off of our seemingly endless list.

He's also discovered the joys of the swing, and spent a couple of hours blissing out in that this evening. Here, he's demonstrating his new "evil genius" face.

One unexpected result of his arrival: our cats, Flannery and Muffy, who'd previously been in a cold war state, have forged a truce against the new common enemy who's displaced them from the top of the cuddle pyramid. They've pretty much kept their distance from him, but have been oddly friendly to each other.

And now, the pictures.

home

Hi all -

We made it home safely. Cassidy was discharged this morning, and we made the journey back to San Francisco without too much drama. We're all well, he's doing fine, and we're starting to settle into the day-to-day of baby care.

We probably won't update this quite as frequently (although we'll keep adding pictures) and hopefully the news will be more about cute accomplishments and less about medical results.

Thanks again to everyone for all your words of love and support. It's really meant a lot to us to know that so many people are on our side.

12/13/08 - Saturday!

Hi all of Cassidy's adoring fans!

So it looks like Cassidy is going to get to go home tomorrow. Yay! The doctors still need to make a final discharge in the morning, but the neonatalogist we spoke to today said that he's looking good and should be ready to go home.

He got his last dose of antibiotics this morning. When we came in to see him this morning, we found out that the IV in his leg had gone bad and they had to move it to his scalp, which looked gruesome but didn't hurt him. That's out now and he's as handsome as ever. He's been a really tough little guy with all the stuff that's happened to him in his first week of life.

We also got to give him his first bath today. He was OK with the water on his face and head, but got a little freaked out when we actually put him in the tub. He got another visit from the physical therapist, who showed us some exercises to help him strengthen the muscles in the front of his body and improve the range of motion in his legs. I can't wait to get him home to start doing baby yoga.

Everyone here at Sutter Memorial has been really great to us. All of the nurses have been incredibly supportive and helpful, and are always willing to answer all our questions and talk us through these basic parenting skills.

So hopefully the next post you see will be from the comfy confines of home. We're not too excited about the 2-hour drive back to San Francisco, though. We're going to have to time the feeding and pooping schedule pretty carefully.

And now, baby pictures!