Sound effects run in the family.

Anyone who knows me knows that I tend to add sound effects and background music to just about every task, motion, or conversation. This is unconscious, automatic, and I am pretty sure it's genetic. (My dad does it too.)

My suspicions about its heredity are slowly being confirmed by the already wide array of noises that emanate from Inen. Here is a list of some noises I've observed, in no particular order:

• grunt (his favorite)
  
• squeek
  
• squawk
  
• coo
  
• fart (as in a raspberry... with his mouth – any baby will pass gas)
  
• peep
  
• hum
  
• chirp
  
• burp
  
• ooh
  
• aah
  
• oh
  
• whine
  
• burble
  
• cry
  
• moan
  
• sigh
  
• boo-hoo
  

He actually intones that last one fairly clearly when protruding his lower lip in an almost comical, nearly farcical, manner. It is an uncanny caricature of what a sad baby is supposed to look like. And he's less than 4 weeks old. Call me easily impressed, or a bit crazy, but I think this is an early sign that our son is an evil genius, out to manipulate his parents with his acute cuteness, and an eerie self-awareness of just how cute and pitiful he actually looks when doing this lower-lip-protrusion-boo-hoo routine.

I'm sure there are more noises in his repertoire that I just can't think of at the moment, but boy are they funny and numerous. Almost as funny and numerous as the faces he makes. I'll have to compile a photo collection of those to post later.

Star Wars: Return of the Inen

So I've found myself making numerous parallels between my newborn son and Star Wars. This is probably my true geekiness showing through, but it seems to happen so naturally. The first time was in the hospital, when they had Inen wearing a little onesie that looked so similar to Luke Skywalker's getup: white, robe-like...

As we got to experience more of the "faces of Inen" (he is SO expressive), I've found that some of those faces are reminiscent of Star Wars characters. First was the scrunchy Yoda face. We've also seen the half-smile smirk so remarkably like that of cocky Han Solo.

Then today, I was wearing a black shirt and Inen was wearing a little white onesie again, ala Luke. I, being his father and not his mother, do not have the built in equipment to feed him. I didn't want to bottle feed him, because his mother was going to be out of the shower and in to feed him shortly. He was perfectly content until he realized that it had been more than 30 minutes since the last meal and he was hungry again. "I can't feed you, Inen. I am your father." (Insert heavy machine-aided breathing here.) Suddenly he showed me the pained, contorted, red face that until previously I thought only Mark Hamill was capable of. "Noooooooo!!! It's not true! That's impossible!"

Oh, child, may the Force be with you.

So, what's the name?

Because we've received quite a few questions about the name Inen, I thought I'd give the rundown.

First, it's pronounced "eye-nen" – rhymes with whinin' when he's feeling grumpy; rhymes with dinin' when he's eating; rhymes with shinin' when he's happy.


Inen is a name that popped into my head when we were trying to come up with names. I didn't know where I'd heard it. ("Maybe a movie or something? I'm pretty sure it's Irish," I said. "We'll put that on hold," says my wife.) Having not agreed on any names for quite a while thereafter, I decided to go online and translate some words into Gaelic. (You know, like when people name their kid "Faith" or "Blue Polar Kraken of the Lord" and then translate it into another language so it sounds cool.) The first word I put into the English to Irish translator was the word "beloved". There are two words for this in Gaelic: one means "sweetheart" and one is just straight up "beloved" – like "one who is loved." The latter, just-plain-loved, is ionúin, which is roughly pronounced i–noon or yih-noon (with the "i" as in "miss"), as far as I can gather. But when I saw that word, I thought to myself, "Hey! There's Inen!"

So we're saying that Inen is derived from the Gaelic word for beloved, but Anglicized so that it's easier to pronounce and spell.

Inen John Buerkle

Okay! Now that my wife and I have grasped some sort of routine, I can finally blog about our now 9-day-old miracle. Korie went in on Wednesday, August 27, to be induced. The previous Friday she had an appointment in which one of the routine checks had found that, as usual, her blood pressure was looking very healthy indeed. When we went in the next Wednesday, her blood pressure was frighteningly high. The doctor said that if she had come in on her due date for a regular appointment with blood pressure that high, he would have induced right away, so it was a good thing we were there.

After 14 hours of labor, that last 4 of which Korie was stuck dilated at 5 cm and the baby's heart rate began to drop, they deemed it necessary to have a birth by cesarean section. So, at 9:58 pm on Wednesday, August 27, our boy, Inen John Buerkle, was born. He weighed a healthy 8 lb 6 oz, and measured 20.25 inches long. Praise God.



While they were in there for the cesarean, the doctor also removed a cyst from Korie's uterus. Two for the price of one! Yay! She was a real trooper, so strong, and I am so proud of her. The narcotics didn't go to her head, so she was lucid the entire time, which is a blessing.



Like any parents, we've had a rough start. Inen lost 10% of his body weight before leaving the hospital, and issues with Korie's milk coming in, her blood pressure, and Inen's sleeping so often (a blessing at times, a curse when trying to feed) made feeding him a challenge. This challenge has been overcome in recent days; the blood pressure medication Korie was put on after a couple of scary nights is having a positive effect, and Inen is gaining weight back at a good pace.

We love our little boy so much! He is the greatest blessing I have ever received. And I can't say enough how amazed I am at my wife's strength, her love for our child, her endurance, and how thankful I am for all that she does for me and Inen. I thank God for them both every day. This is the greatest adventure I've ever begun, and I can't stop smiling.