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Monday, March 14, 2011
Sunday, March 13, 2011
What's in a name?
When you've been through all we've been through, naming the child you never thought you'd ever have takes on a pretty big significance. It was important for us to get this right. We wanted the perfect combination of something unique, something meaningful, something timeless, something we all three liked and something that fit our family. It was also really important to me that Lou take the lead on picking this name, since I got the bigger piece of the decision with Miss Josephine Marie. So, with that - we arrived at Beatrice Starling Schneider. And here's why:
BEATRICE: Meaning - "blessed voyager in life's journey; bringer of joy"
* The short version of the story is that Lou always thought it would be great to have a daughter named "Betty." For quite some time, we joked about this and Beatrice entered our vocabulary as a possibility. I wasn't too keen on the idea at all but it really did start to grow on me. And then two funny coincidences happened: 1) One of my mom's best friends left a comment on our blog about her two Aunts Josephine & Beatrix and how Bea would be a great pick for Schneider #4. We were already leaning towards Beatrice, which was a big secret so I instantly deleted the comment and called Karen Sue to let her know she had hit the nail on the head. 2) Then, a few days later, one of my best friends Kelly sent me an email with a list of top contender names (based on names most popular at the same time Josephine was peaking) and guess what her top pick was - Beatrice! (I should mention that Kelly also guessed "Josephine" so she simply had to be trusted!) Our love affair with the name started to grow. Add to it my obsessions with classic names, and Josephine & Beatrice just seemed like the perfect combination. (I gotta say, I love "old lady" names. I wanted two "porch rocker" names that guaranteed a certain longevity. Tell me you can't just see Josephine & Beatrice sitting in rocking chairs on the porch together talking about their long-gone crazy parents when their in their 90s!)
* Oh - one more thing - my top two nicknames for Josie are "Posie" and "Bug". I liked the idea of having "Bug" and "Bee." :)
STARLING: Meaning - "Little Star". Symbolism - In many cultures, starlings are seen as messengers from the spirit realms. They symbolize transitions from difficult times to the beginning of a new, more positive cycle.
* This one was Lou's pick as well, and I was on board with it after about a 3 minute internet search. We both liked the idea of a bird name (as we refer to the three babies we've lost as our "three little birds" and there was the nest good omen we found when we moved into our house and wound up miraculously pregnant a couple of weeks later).
* Lou & I both searched for bird names that we liked and he came up with Starling. (You may remember that I joked that I had to have a daughter with a "ph" in her name thanks to our years on the road following Phish, well I think that Lou's favorite singer Josh Ritter and his album "Hello Starling" might just have had something to do with this one as well.)
* As soon as I found want the Starling symbolizes, I knew it was the perfect fit!
* Another interesting note about Starling is that it means "little star." My Nana's name was Estella - which also means "little star." My sister's second child Jack is named after my grandfather & I like that our second child has a connection to my grandmother too.
And just for fun...here's the story behind Josie's name that we posted back on August 19th, 2007.
* We chose the name Josephine for several reasons. Josephine's first name originally comes from one of my favorite book characters - the oldest March sister in "Little Women." She's a strong, unique, creative, out-spoken woman -- all great qualities for a daughter & something we need more of in the world. As the story goes, I told my mom when I was just a little girl and first read "Little Women" that I would name my first daughter Josephine. (My grandma Mimi had bought the book for me & we used to talk a lot the character of "Jo" because my grandma used to say I was just like her - mostly for my shall-we-say stubbornness I believe.) Second (as hard as it is to admit), when Lou & I were housemates in Oxford and hadn't yet built up the courage to admit we were falling for each other, we used to use the tv show "Dawson's Creek" as an excuse to hang out with each other every week. The lead character in that show was Josephine Potter. When we started thinking about names for our daughter, Josephine was the first one we both agreed on completely. And, even though we tried & tried to come up with back-up names, nothing felt as right as Josephine. Oh- and so many people were sure we'd name her after a Phish song, but I decided a name that included a "ph" was a good comprimise - even though there actually is a Phish song named "Josie Wales." :)
* Josie's middle name - Marie - is my sister's middle name. She's an amazing, intelligent, driven, beautiful, and strong woman that I look up to greatly. I hope our daughter learns a lot from her Aunt Amanda.
BEATRICE: Meaning - "blessed voyager in life's journey; bringer of joy"
* The short version of the story is that Lou always thought it would be great to have a daughter named "Betty." For quite some time, we joked about this and Beatrice entered our vocabulary as a possibility. I wasn't too keen on the idea at all but it really did start to grow on me. And then two funny coincidences happened: 1) One of my mom's best friends left a comment on our blog about her two Aunts Josephine & Beatrix and how Bea would be a great pick for Schneider #4. We were already leaning towards Beatrice, which was a big secret so I instantly deleted the comment and called Karen Sue to let her know she had hit the nail on the head. 2) Then, a few days later, one of my best friends Kelly sent me an email with a list of top contender names (based on names most popular at the same time Josephine was peaking) and guess what her top pick was - Beatrice! (I should mention that Kelly also guessed "Josephine" so she simply had to be trusted!) Our love affair with the name started to grow. Add to it my obsessions with classic names, and Josephine & Beatrice just seemed like the perfect combination. (I gotta say, I love "old lady" names. I wanted two "porch rocker" names that guaranteed a certain longevity. Tell me you can't just see Josephine & Beatrice sitting in rocking chairs on the porch together talking about their long-gone crazy parents when their in their 90s!)
* Oh - one more thing - my top two nicknames for Josie are "Posie" and "Bug". I liked the idea of having "Bug" and "Bee." :)
STARLING: Meaning - "Little Star". Symbolism - In many cultures, starlings are seen as messengers from the spirit realms. They symbolize transitions from difficult times to the beginning of a new, more positive cycle.
* This one was Lou's pick as well, and I was on board with it after about a 3 minute internet search. We both liked the idea of a bird name (as we refer to the three babies we've lost as our "three little birds" and there was the nest good omen we found when we moved into our house and wound up miraculously pregnant a couple of weeks later).
* Lou & I both searched for bird names that we liked and he came up with Starling. (You may remember that I joked that I had to have a daughter with a "ph" in her name thanks to our years on the road following Phish, well I think that Lou's favorite singer Josh Ritter and his album "Hello Starling" might just have had something to do with this one as well.)
* As soon as I found want the Starling symbolizes, I knew it was the perfect fit!
* Another interesting note about Starling is that it means "little star." My Nana's name was Estella - which also means "little star." My sister's second child Jack is named after my grandfather & I like that our second child has a connection to my grandmother too.
And just for fun...here's the story behind Josie's name that we posted back on August 19th, 2007.
* We chose the name Josephine for several reasons. Josephine's first name originally comes from one of my favorite book characters - the oldest March sister in "Little Women." She's a strong, unique, creative, out-spoken woman -- all great qualities for a daughter & something we need more of in the world. As the story goes, I told my mom when I was just a little girl and first read "Little Women" that I would name my first daughter Josephine. (My grandma Mimi had bought the book for me & we used to talk a lot the character of "Jo" because my grandma used to say I was just like her - mostly for my shall-we-say stubbornness I believe.) Second (as hard as it is to admit), when Lou & I were housemates in Oxford and hadn't yet built up the courage to admit we were falling for each other, we used to use the tv show "Dawson's Creek" as an excuse to hang out with each other every week. The lead character in that show was Josephine Potter. When we started thinking about names for our daughter, Josephine was the first one we both agreed on completely. And, even though we tried & tried to come up with back-up names, nothing felt as right as Josephine. Oh- and so many people were sure we'd name her after a Phish song, but I decided a name that included a "ph" was a good comprimise - even though there actually is a Phish song named "Josie Wales." :)
* Josie's middle name - Marie - is my sister's middle name. She's an amazing, intelligent, driven, beautiful, and strong woman that I look up to greatly. I hope our daughter learns a lot from her Aunt Amanda.
Minnie's milk
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Friday, March 11, 2011
Sleepy girl
Btw, Full report on the first few days will come soon. It has been pretty...um...well...dramatic. But, we are finally over the hump of some scary health concerns that made those first 48 hours pretty rocky. Things are looking up going into the weekend and we are super excited about our first weekend as a family of four.
Much much love for all the emails, messages, comments, etc!!
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Thursday, March 10, 2011
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
She has arrived!
Welcome Beatrice Starling Schneider. 9 lbs 5 oz of pure perfection.
Born at 1:08 pm with lots of support from louie, our doula, my family, and great doctors & nurses. Another hypnobirthing success story!!
Pictures posted later. It's cuddle-in-awe time now.
Born at 1:08 pm with lots of support from louie, our doula, my family, and great doctors & nurses. Another hypnobirthing success story!!
Pictures posted later. It's cuddle-in-awe time now.
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Monday, March 7, 2011
Remembering Camille
Tomorrow...Tuesday, March 8th is the one year anniversary of losing sweet baby Camille. It was exactly one year ago that we thought we had not only lost our third baby but that we had lost the possibility of ever having another child. (You can read the original post by clicking on that link above.)
Wednesday the 9th will be the anniversary of our trip to Good Samaritan Hospital where I had to have the D&C and we had to say good-bye to her. (One of the reasons we opted for an induction Monday night instead of later in the week because we just couldn't imagine getting through Wednesday without this birth first.)
I will not even begin to pretend that we understand the amazing synchronicity of the fact that we are headed to the same hospital to deliver our miracle child on the same exact day that we lost Camille and gave up all hope of ever having another baby. I can tell you that we don't think it is just a mere coincidence and that we do know there are amazing, powerful and unbelievable forces at work here.
It is - all at the same time - beautiful, tragic, miraculous & awe-inspiring. And it has left our heads and hearts reeling! (Remember we never ever thought we'd get to March with this baby. Considering that she has been coming "any day" since Christmas, it is even more amazing that she has chosen now to make her appearance. And I only came to the realization that this was happening recently when awaking from a deep sleep and suddenly being hit with Camille's memory and baby Roly Poly moving around my tummy.)
It's definitely a big WOW. And it's an incredibly-powerful reminder of how far we've come, how much we have to be grateful for and how important it is just to trust that, in the end, everything is going to be alright.
With that, it is just after 11pm and we are leaving soon to head to Good Sam where we will meet our doula, head up to L&D and start the second wave of our induction (after membrane stripping this afternoon that didn't kickstart labor as much as we hoped).
We feel the love and support of all of you that have shared this journey with us over the last year. And we can't wait to share the good news with all of you. Thanks for keeping us in your thoughts!
Wednesday the 9th will be the anniversary of our trip to Good Samaritan Hospital where I had to have the D&C and we had to say good-bye to her. (One of the reasons we opted for an induction Monday night instead of later in the week because we just couldn't imagine getting through Wednesday without this birth first.)
I will not even begin to pretend that we understand the amazing synchronicity of the fact that we are headed to the same hospital to deliver our miracle child on the same exact day that we lost Camille and gave up all hope of ever having another baby. I can tell you that we don't think it is just a mere coincidence and that we do know there are amazing, powerful and unbelievable forces at work here.
It is - all at the same time - beautiful, tragic, miraculous & awe-inspiring. And it has left our heads and hearts reeling! (Remember we never ever thought we'd get to March with this baby. Considering that she has been coming "any day" since Christmas, it is even more amazing that she has chosen now to make her appearance. And I only came to the realization that this was happening recently when awaking from a deep sleep and suddenly being hit with Camille's memory and baby Roly Poly moving around my tummy.)
It's definitely a big WOW. And it's an incredibly-powerful reminder of how far we've come, how much we have to be grateful for and how important it is just to trust that, in the end, everything is going to be alright.
With that, it is just after 11pm and we are leaving soon to head to Good Sam where we will meet our doula, head up to L&D and start the second wave of our induction (after membrane stripping this afternoon that didn't kickstart labor as much as we hoped).
We feel the love and support of all of you that have shared this journey with us over the last year. And we can't wait to share the good news with all of you. Thanks for keeping us in your thoughts!
Sunday, March 6, 2011
"I-Day"
March 7th, 2011: Induction-Day
It's been a good weekend with Tia, Tio, Lyla, Jack, Grandma & DD here to distract us from the fact that Roly Poly is running behind schedule. For one thing, it took away all the fears I've had for the past 41 weeks that they wouldn't make it to Cincinnati for the birth and it's kept a very impatient Josie preoccupied as well.
So...here are the details (don't read on if things like a gal's cervix freak you out). At 1pm tomorrow we have an appointment in our doctor's office to have my membranes stripped. (Note: this is the exact thing that we had done at the 40 week mark with Josie and feel like it was the reason for our long and difficult labor with her.) As far as induction techniques go, this is widely considered the least invasive of medical interventions - and just trust me when I say we've tried all the non-medical methods. **Hopefully** this will kick things into gear and we'll shortly be in labor ourselves without further intervention. It worked with Josie, so we are confident it will.
If not, at 1am tomorrow night (technically 1am Tuesday 3/7/11) we will be officially induced at Good Samaritan Hospital. (Yes, 1am which is crazy but they schedule them every two hours 24/7 - don't get me started on the insanity of this. Likely the topic of a later post.) And here is where I reach out to all of you for your advice - if things haven't started on their own by 1am, I will have the choice between having my water broken or starting on pitocin. Does anyone out there know which is the lesser of two evils? (My gut says go for broken water over pit but my water broke with Josie with my fourth contraction and I labored for 18 hours sans water & have heard that labor after broken water is more intense than labor with water. So - I guess the question is: would it be better - knowing that we are going for another natural, unmedicated birth - to go on low-dose pit with my water intact or to break my water and hope I don't have to ever have the pit? Thoughts?! Experience? Anyone?)
So - that's the "plan". In other news, please send Josie some love. She's a super-emotional, way-more-sensitive-than-usual, pretty-darn-freaked-out-about-the-whole-thing little girl right now. Luckily, she's great at communicating with us and we've been able to address some of her fears (which range from thinking cousin Lyla is going to take Roly Poly with her back to Chicago to believing that Lou & I are going to have to stay at the hospital for 100 days). It's a pretty emotional time for the Schneiders. Thanks for the love.
We will keep everyone posted here and on facebook. Stay tuned...
(Oh - I forgot to mention - there is actually good reason for this induction tomorrow. I'm not going to actually go into it right now, but I promise you all that you will agree with our decision 100%.)
It's been a good weekend with Tia, Tio, Lyla, Jack, Grandma & DD here to distract us from the fact that Roly Poly is running behind schedule. For one thing, it took away all the fears I've had for the past 41 weeks that they wouldn't make it to Cincinnati for the birth and it's kept a very impatient Josie preoccupied as well.
So...here are the details (don't read on if things like a gal's cervix freak you out). At 1pm tomorrow we have an appointment in our doctor's office to have my membranes stripped. (Note: this is the exact thing that we had done at the 40 week mark with Josie and feel like it was the reason for our long and difficult labor with her.) As far as induction techniques go, this is widely considered the least invasive of medical interventions - and just trust me when I say we've tried all the non-medical methods. **Hopefully** this will kick things into gear and we'll shortly be in labor ourselves without further intervention. It worked with Josie, so we are confident it will.
If not, at 1am tomorrow night (technically 1am Tuesday 3/7/11) we will be officially induced at Good Samaritan Hospital. (Yes, 1am which is crazy but they schedule them every two hours 24/7 - don't get me started on the insanity of this. Likely the topic of a later post.) And here is where I reach out to all of you for your advice - if things haven't started on their own by 1am, I will have the choice between having my water broken or starting on pitocin. Does anyone out there know which is the lesser of two evils? (My gut says go for broken water over pit but my water broke with Josie with my fourth contraction and I labored for 18 hours sans water & have heard that labor after broken water is more intense than labor with water. So - I guess the question is: would it be better - knowing that we are going for another natural, unmedicated birth - to go on low-dose pit with my water intact or to break my water and hope I don't have to ever have the pit? Thoughts?! Experience? Anyone?)
So - that's the "plan". In other news, please send Josie some love. She's a super-emotional, way-more-sensitive-than-usual, pretty-darn-freaked-out-about-the-whole-thing little girl right now. Luckily, she's great at communicating with us and we've been able to address some of her fears (which range from thinking cousin Lyla is going to take Roly Poly with her back to Chicago to believing that Lou & I are going to have to stay at the hospital for 100 days). It's a pretty emotional time for the Schneiders. Thanks for the love.
We will keep everyone posted here and on facebook. Stay tuned...
(Oh - I forgot to mention - there is actually good reason for this induction tomorrow. I'm not going to actually go into it right now, but I promise you all that you will agree with our decision 100%.)
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