Brothers on the couch

Rockam was having a little "awake" time on the couch yesterday when Big Brother decided to pay a visit.

Stephen thought Rockam needed a little help with his pacifier.

"I wanna hold him!"

Stephen is quite interested in his little brother... he's been asking to hold him a lot lately. I have to keep an eye on him if Rockam is lying within reach. This morning I decided to let him try holding him. Stephen was thrilled, but his comment as Rockam squirmed and wiggled was "He's too BIG!"

"I wuv his little feet!"

"I'm gonna love you and squeeze you..."

Another check-up

My midwife, Rachel, stopped by yesterday day to check up on  us. Rockam is doing great! He's weighed in at 7lbs, 10 oz!!!! This means that not only has he regained and surpassed his birth weight, he's gained 2 ounces a day since last Thursday when we brought him to the pediatrician! Rachel says this is a pretty unusual (but good) gain because usually babies are considered to be on the right track if they've regained their birth weight by 10 days. I'm ecstatic because Stephen was another story.... always skinny mini and below the curve for weight. Obviously, he turned out OK :-) But, it's a relief to hear that I'm feeding Rockam well and don't need to fret about supplementing with formula, etc.

Valentine's Day love from "Bupps"

I forgot to mention in earlier posts, but my dad also came to see his new grandson last weekend. He had to leave before Valentine's Day, but sent these too-beautiful-not-to-post roses to his girls :-)

Stephen also enjoyed having an extra person to read to him at bedtime.

QT with my first-born cutie

Rockam was down for a nap and we had a touch of spring on Valentine's Day with upper 50-degree weather and warm afternoon sun. So, Grammie and I took Stephen out to play on the porch. There were lots of giddy slam dunks in his hoop from Uncle John Wong...

Some percussion serenades...

Some "I'm sliding down the pole!"

And lots and lots of dirt pouring from one herb pot to the next to the next.

It seemed we might not be able to entice him back inside once he discovered the dirt, but waving an icecream sandwich in his face eventually did the trick.

"I want some more!"

A few more photos

Stephen and I the night I went into labor... I thought it might be indigestion from the birthday meal Joe and I shared at Harper House... but I timed them all night at about 10 minutes apart. I'll be posting that yummy meal on Moody Foodie... eventually.

Rockam really looks like Stephen did in this photo.

Rockam at a couple days old. He's a pretty good sleeper--especially compared to his big brother who was (and still is) the prince of touchiness.

Rockam shares Stephen's dark complexion and hair, but I think he's got more of Joe's nose and my eyebrows and cleft chin.  And he's already getting used to Stephen's noise. In the photo below, Stephen hammers his "forklift" while Rockam dozes right through it.

Getting to know Rockam

Joe and I still need to post something about Rockam's name, (pronounced rock-um). I got a good 5 hours of sleep last night, so, here it goes! The name is an Anglecized version of the Hebrew word racham, which means mercy or compassion. Before we knew the gender of our baby, Joe heard the word "Mercy" from the Lord during his prayer times. Assuming that meant we were going to have a girl, we eventually settled on the name Mercy (as opposed to Mercedes and a few other variations, including the female Hebrew of Racham: Rachmiela.) So, imagine our surprise when the ultrasound revealed Mercy wouldn't be such a suitable name afterall -- unless we wanted to bestow on our son countless years of playground taunting and a life-long struggle to prove his manliness!

Joe felt strongly that we needed to retain the meaning of mercy in whatever name we chose... so we started spending lots of time with the Strong's concordance, which has several versions, both Hebrew and Greek, of the word "mercy." For those of you into linguistics, Racham is number 7356 in Strong's, meaning compassion and tender mercies. The vast majority of verses it appears in are in Psalms and it always seems to be paired with the phrase "unfailing love."

Joe and I feel that Stephen, which means "crown" in Greek, is like a prize or treasure the Lord gave us for running His race these years. Rockam, on the other hand, is just His tender mercy, completely beyond what we could have ever earned or deserved.

So far, this sweet little baby has lived up to his name. He's pretty tough for a little guy and full of vigor, so a manly name with "rock" in it suits him. Also, he's been a really great sleeper (something Stephen definitely wasn't)... so that's a major mercy for me!

Stephen has been an excellent big brother to his protege in the munchie arts. He's learning to comfort him with "Don't cry Little Brother" at night and he always lets me know when Rockam is crying. They're sharing a room and so far, the relationship is amicable... though I'm expecting there will be nights when they take turns waking each other up. :-)

The first hour

Some notes on homebirth to come...soon I hope.

More munchies come

From Joe: February 6, 2011 was the most incredible day. Sorry Super Bowl, you take a backseat this time. The real highlight was the birth of our second son, Rockam Victor Parrino. He tipped the scales at 7 lbs, 3 oz and stretched 20 inches from hairy crown to wrinkled toes. I will never forget watching Emily press through 17 hours of contractions to deliver this little guy at home. I will forever be thankful to our midwife Rachel who coached Emily through the "I can't go on" moments, to my mother-in-law Mamie who took care of the house and to Brendan and Jennifer Couchman who watched Stephen. God, you are so merciful.