Veterans' Day weekend

My friend Jenny made the trek to Boston from California for Veterans' Day weekend to meet Meghan (and spend time with me). We walked around Harvard College and Cambridge a bit, drank warm beverages (us California girls are wimps to the cold autumn breezes), and hung out with MJ. Here are some pictures she took while she was here:

Harvard boathouse on the Charles River and JFK Bridge.

Peaceful Meghan bundled in her stroller.

Mama fishing for smiles...

Slept through the night!

This little bright-eyed girl slept through the night last night for the first time. She snoozed for a whopping eight hours straight. I am the one who kept waking up so I checked on her a couple of times but she was a-okay, albeit very hungry in the morning!

Misc. Meg pictures

This is my new favorite picture. I made it the wallpaper on my computer; feel free to do the same on yours.

Tummy time!!

Sweetness in motion (outfit courtesy of the Collins family).

Grandpa, opa, gramps, pop, daddo, kind-older-man-that-LOVES-his-granddaughter -- moniker TBD

This past week we were fortunate enough to entertain a visit from Dick (Andy's dad). Although the Morse family will be coming to Boston for Thanksgiving, he just could not resist meeting his first grandchild sooner!

Fast friends
(Meghan just adored him, she cooed and stared at him and was on her best behavior (aside from a little spit up here and there) for the duration of his visit.)


Dick was not afraid of strollers or any other baby transportation contraptions that we threw his way.

I think it is love!!

When in Vermont

We went to Vermont for Andy's section retreat. Out of 90 people in his section, 85 came to the retreat (+ 30 partners and kids!). It was a fun weekend and MJ was a dreamboat on both the 5.5 hour drive up (due to traffic and getting a bit lost) and 4 hour drive home. She is so good to us!
While in Vermont we could not resist going to the Ben & Jerry's factory. Hopefully they will not ban HBS students from coming on the tour because of their uber-inquisitiveness! (I think one 18 year-old high school student, in particular, may be forever traumatized by questions about production statistics, manufacturing lead time, batch sizes and other nonsense.)

A little kitsch goes a long way :)

This one goes out to Rebecca

Some people think that B&Bs are creepy but I think that these pictures of the place we stayed last weekend just may change their minds.
Some B&Bs win us over by sheer cutesiness and others by the dizzying effect of doilies. This specimen in Vermont used both methods!

With a million teddy bears to chose from, frankly I would be surprised if you can't find one that suits you!


Nothing says creepy-free "cute" like a teddy bear in an antique washbasin...

...or teddy bears on an antique sewing machine...


... or, my personal favorite, teddy bears wearing formal clothes on a mini fridge...

... or a Beefeater teddy bear on another antique sewing machine.
If none of these pictures melted those cold hearts of yours, I am afraid nothing can...

Happy Halloween!!!

... and four week b-day Meghan!


Our little pumpkin...

Gotta love the fleece costume/sleeping bag. I think Meg will get a lot of wear out of this thing this winter. Now her California native parents are wishing they had a pumpkin costume/sleeping bag of their very own.

Of course Meghan did not just have a costume she also had an Halloween outfit underneath her costume (courtesy of Auntie Bean).
She had her four week check up at the pediatrician's office yesterday and she is up to nine pounds!! She skipped the eights altogether. Two weeks ago she had surpassed expectations and was heavier than her birth weight. As a mother, it is good to know that one's child is not going hungry; I'll say!

Meg's headshots

Meghan reading...

Supporting her birthplace team... GO SOX!

Sleeping

...sleeping some more. We love this photo; she'll probably hate it. But she always seems to have the best bedhead!

Mama's favorites...

New & improved fam in Hyannis.

Mama's favorite picture thus far...

Daddy kisses

Mama kisses

Happy two week b-day!

I think it will be many months before we stop celebrating MJ's weekly birthdays... here we are after an Octoberfest party on, you guessed it, MJ's two week birthday!

Nannie's visit

Nannie and Meghan at the Head of the Charles regatta



Nannie and MJ on Harvard Business School campus. We had to head onto campus to collect Meghan's packages from the post office. What a lucky girl!






Nannie, Mama, & Meg's first trip to the Cape.

Nannie planned on coming to Boston on Meghan's due date because we all expected her to be late! Meghan had other plans so she was four days old when Nannie arrived.

First car ride

Happy Birthday Meghan Jane

It is not everyday that your daughter turns zero!

And introducing for the first time...

...first-time grandmother "Bean" and her little grandbaby. Roxanne came out from California on a moment's notice and was able to meet Meghan on her birthday. She battled traffic from Fenway Park, a plane connection in Miami, and October temperatures in Boston in the mid-80s... the things you do for love!

And here she is!!

Meghan Jane Morse
Born at 3:06 a.m. on Wednesday, October 3rd. Weighing 7 pounds, 4 ounces and measuring 21 inches long.

It was a crazy and at times scary labor but it was definitely worth it! Here are a few pictures of our new and improved family.

Hospital and laboring...

We arrived at the hospital in the early afternoon. It was actually incredible at how slowly everything transpired the day of October 2nd. I was still not in active labor by the time we got to admitting at Brigham and Women's Hospital. It was a good thing I wasn't really laboring yet because admitting took an hour or so, then triage took a few more hours in the waiting room alone, then an hour or so in the actual triage room (where they confirmed again that my water had broken). But it was in triage that I was elated to find out that the doctor on call that day was the same one I had met the day before, unbeknownst to me at the time, at my last prenatal appointment. He went to Cal Berkeley for undergrad, where he met his wife, a Cal Forester!! It was so nice to have something in common with the man that would deliver my baby. Go Bears!
Anyway, it was in triage that my contractions started picking up a bit on their own but where it was determined that I would take pitocin to amp them up to make sure I delivered before 24 hours had passed since my water broke (to avoid infection and other complications...). (Notice I am still smiling in the bottom picture (photos are in reverse chronological order), this is because I wasn't in active labor ... yet! Ignorance is bliss.)
So I was admitted to my own labor and delivery room at around six p.m. I was still smiling a bit when we got to my L&D room and stopped shortly after the real contractions started coming fast and furious.
Uncle Tyler hopped on a flight from NYC as soon as he heard that I was in labor. I was only allowed two people with me pre-delivery and Uncle Tylee made the cut! He wasn't present for the actual delivery (don't blame him!) but was the first family member to meet our little girl.

The moment we had been waiting for...

My water broke some time the morning of October 2nd, probably around 8 a.m. Andy had already left for class for the day. To be honest, I wasn't sure if my water had broken, no gush, no ruining clothes/shoes, etc. - nothing like in the movies. It all was actually very calm and surreal. So I called the doctor's office they said that it probably was my water breaking and to come on in to test for sure... needless to say I called the emergency contact number at HBS, they retrieved Andy from class, he hi-fived his classmates and they cheered. Off we went to the doctor's office in a cab because I was not sure if labor would start any second... better be safe than sorry.
The doctor took one look down there and confirmed that my water had, in fact, broken. Andy and I then walked home, finished packing our bags, tidied up a bit, and then took a cab to the hospital (because every time we get into a car in Boston, we end up crossing some bridge, paying a toll, and getting incredibly lost).
This picture was taken in our baby girl's room, the next time I were to return home this room would finally have its very own little tenant!!

Andy and Chelsea get a history lesson

One week before Baby Morse is "expected" to arrive, Andy and Chelsea went to visit the birthplaces of two of our presidents... can you guess who they are? We started the day at the visitor's center and then took a trolley to the birthplaces of John Adams and John Quincy Adams and from there a trolley ride to John Adams's bigger post-Revolution house in modern day Quincy but it was located in Braintree back in the day (for those that have read McCollough's John Adams and are sticklers for accuracy). The trip concluded an unofficial tour of presidents' homes (Grant in St. Louis, White House in DC, and now two Adamses).

Morses gain street cred...

Our Santa Cruz pals Andrew and Nadia sure knew what they were doing when they bought us Red Sox tickets as a going away present... Andy and Chelsea went to their first Red Sox game as Massachusetts residents. Going to a game is a necessity here since the Sox are not just a baseball team they are a cultural phenomenon. Although we did not have on 18 layers of different Sox paraphernalia we thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Maybe next time we will wear shirts that say: "Real women date Red Sox fans" or "Derek Jeter drinks wine coolers." And oh yeah, we have to simultaneously love the Sox and hate the Yankees. There is so much to learn here at HBS...