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Nora Caroline

Nora at 2 weeks old
Nora Caroline Shannon was born on May 4th at 545pm.  She weighed 7 pounds, 8 ounces and was 20.5 inches long.  It's been quite the few months since my last post for our whole family and, while I constantly regret not being able to get here and write down my thoughts, when I look back I understand that we've been running on fumes for months.  Rachael and I both just finished our respective undergrad degrees and I spent a month doing 60-hour weeks to try to bank some money to tide us over while Rachel isn't getting a full salary for maternity leave.

Rachael had the birth experience she wanted with Nora and I couldn't be happier for her.  She delivered at a midwife practice on King Street on Old Town Alexandria in a bedroom, not in a hospital hooked up to all the monitors we dealt with for Joe.  She was able to labor on her own and go for a walk with me around town early on and did a lot of her heavy labor standing or on all fours in bed.  She delivered in one large push and mom and baby have been doing well.

We've had our share of drama, though - Nora has had lots of problems with gas and she gets into bouts of inconsolable crying and shrieking.  Our first Saturday after she was born she got worked up to the point where she must have inhaled some saliva or milk and appeared to stop breathing and choked.  We called 911 and spent the next 48 hours in the hospital with her while they monitored her to ensure nothing life-threatening was occurring.  Nora was diagnosed with the same throat issues that Joe had - a condition called laryngomalacia - and its something we're constantly monitoring and trying to help her with being as comfortable as possible.

Joe has been great with Nora to this point.  He constantly wants to pet or hug her and makes sure to kiss her every time she is going down for a nap.  He also gets into a pretty bad state when she is upset and crying and generally tells us that we need to take her to the hospital or feed her.

Joe has been developing quite well going on about 3.25 years.  He can count to 10 in English, French, and Spanish and has been working on his German with me as well.  Rachael's looking forward to teaching him Arabic next and we practice every day when we're going up and down the stairs of our apartment building.

Joe is also mostly potty trained, although we still need to get him using the potty for bowel movements and taking the time to use the bathroom when he's playing.  He also is getting ready for pre-kindergarten and has been spending about half his day with the holder kids at day care and playing outside a lot more with them.  He also started expressing an interest in soccer and baseball, so I took him to the store on Sunday to buy a soccer ball and we spent nearly 3 hours outside playing at the soccer field together - something I've been waiting a very long time to finally do with my son.

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