The Euro-Condon Web Log

Well, we are home now. The three of us came home yesterday. Everything is going well. We’re having the typical new parents joy, learning curve, and frustrations. The only big problem we are having is that Kostas is not latching on. We are expressing milk and bottle feeding now. We have a midwife coming each day, for a while. That is real common in Germany. We are going to keep trying to breastfeed with the help of the midwife. Wish us luck. It is a strangely wonderful feeling having a newborn in the house. Of course, the night-time feedings aren’t that much fun but overall it’s damn cool! We have bought most of all the baby stuff we need. I rented a hospital-grade breast pump yesterday and bought a few last minute things like some more bottles/nipples, a bottle warmer (too slow, might get another one), and a digital ear thermometer. Migle’s Mom is coming to visit starting today for four weeks. We’re real excited about that - for multiple reasons. It’s a big deal because she hasn’t left her home town or flown in 40 years. I realized today I have 8 voice mails on my Charleston Voice over Internet Phone. I will go through them all today. So if you are one of the people who left a message, I’m not ignoring you, I have literally had my hands full.

Along time ago, we decided that our child’s last name would be mine and American (Condon) and their first name would be Lithuanian - sounded good, fair, and multinational/multicultural. But it was not as easy a process as I thought it would have been. I read about 6,000 Lithuanian names and found tons of girl’s names I really liked. But finding the right boys name was tougher. All boys names end in “as”, “ius”, “is”, or “ys”. And the Lithuanian Alphabet has more letters than the English Alphabet. And some letters (like j) are pronounced differently. We were trying to find a name that we both liked and that would be pronounced in English as it is in Lithuanian. We started with tons of names and had trouble narrowing them down. We pared them down to 10 on Saturday. Then 4 on Sunday. And then spent some time with our newborn to see which one fit the best. So, on Monday, we picked Kostas … Kostas Condon …

Here are some more pictures!

Here is a picture I snapped last night. Not a great one but it will allow you to connect a face with a name. Now that you mentioned a name … It’s not that we don’t have a name, it’s that we have four. We’ll finalize one today after having spent a little time with him and having a peek at his personallity. Migle is doing well but still tired.

Migle and I are proud to announce the birth of our son. He was born at 8pm. Weighs 3.1 Kg (6.82 Lbs) and is 52.35 cm (20.45 in) long. He has all his fingers and toe and the doctor said everything seems good to go. Migle was a trooper and is doing great. Take care, Jim and Migle

Natural contractions started around 03:00 last night. It’s 09:00 here now and they are coming about 5 minutes apart. Her cervix is not dialating yet thought. They are going to hold off inducing for now. 

Yesterday evening, I met Tom, William, and Skylar at the French Food section of the Spring Fest in Stuttgart. Tom was out of town on his birthday and this was the first chance we had to get together. Migle decided to stay at home – being 40 weeks this weekend. I got home around 23:30 and, not being tired, we decided to watch TV. At about 01:00 Migle’s water broke and we quickly headed off to the hospital. We were there in 10 minutes – it’s only a few miles from our house. The doctor decided that, indeed, her water broke but that her contractions were not that strong yet and that she should spend the night at the hospital and I should go home and come back in the morning. I got home and got to bed 05:00. I got 3 hours sleep and went back to the hospital (welcome to the reduced-sleep world of parenting).

I spent the morning at the hospital and came back to eat lunch and grab a few hours of sleep. I am heading back this evening. Since it has been more than 12 hours since her water broke, they are giving her some form of anti-biotic and, if she doesn’t start by morning, then they will give her medicine to induce labor.

We spent the morning narrowing the choices for the baby’s name. We got it down to four names. That is pretty good!

I will post more info tomorrow …

Migle and I would like to wish everyone a wonderful Easter! I spoke with my Mom, Tom and Stephanie, Chris, and left Dad and Dale a message. Hopefully I will talk to them later today. Last night, Migle dyed eggs while I made pizza by scratch (homemade crust and all). Turned out pretty decent for my first attempt. And, of course, her eggs dyed with all natural things (like onion skins and sage) were as beautiful as always. If you haven’t seen this Lithuanian tradition, you should check it out someday. Today (Easter) I made her grits. She has never had them before and she liked them. She is roasting a chicken, along with a bunch of other stuff, for Easter dinner. Well, off to eat…
Love, Migle and Jim

And now for a little dry Easter humor … click on the image to see it better …

Migle is at 39 weeks today. We could have the baby any day now. So I am not traveling and am staying close to the house or celphone. She is doing very well other than the normal aches and pains. We have been going to the doctor alot for checkups and everything is good so far. We will do some immediate family calling, email everyone else, and post a picture or two and the announcement here once he is born. Exciting times!

We dropped some cash today on a cool stroller - the Bugaboo Cameleon.

This was the first year I did not go out on St. Patrick’s Day and drink far more pints than was good for me. We had a bunch of friends over for Irish Food, Beer, and Whiskey. I couldn’t find draft Guinness in the can so I got bottles. An OK substitute. I bought a nice bottle of Irish Whiskey. And Migle made a delicious Shepard’s Pie. A good time was had by all.

Big John’s on the other hand, had its record night!

Well, I tried condonj@googlepages.com and didn’t like it so then I stood up Wordpress at condonj.wordpress.com and loved it. But then I wanted to manage the blog myself vice have it hosted at Wordpress.  So I grabbed the domain name jimcondon.net and some web hosting through Dreamhost and here it is. Please let me know what you think.