Welcome, Aidan!
Congratulations to Hope and her Dear Husband on the birth of their son Aidan!
Born September 9th, 2012
6 lbs., 3 oz.
19 inches
Your HUS family wishes you a lifetime of joy and love with your beautiful boy!
No related posts.
Look at This Adorable Nugget
{ 67 comments… read them below or add one }
Congratulations Hope! He’s adorable.
Congrats!!! And he really is one adorable nugget.
Yaaayyyy, Hope. Beautiful boy!
Congratulations, Hope! – and to your husband.
*squee!!!!!!!*
He’s adorable!
Congratulations, Hope and Hubby! Aiden is absolutely beautiful.
He is so absolutely cute. I totally love him.
Took another look at Aidan.
I think I just got the baby rabies.
Despite my general dislike of babies, even I admit that Aidan is one cuuuute baby!
Congrats Hope!!!
@INTJ
OMG, you are such a dad. What a catch. I know, I know, you need a bit of cad to get the girl. A necessary evil?
@ Susan
Lock up yer daughters! Aidan is on the loose!
Hope springs eternal.
INTJ–You are so cute!
Sassy–You never know, you might just change you mind. I wasn’t particularly fond of babies when I was your age. In fact, I pretty much thought they were sticky and foul smelling. I adored mine though.
Congratulations, Hope and Hope Hubby!
In fact, I pretty much thought they were sticky and foul smelling.
Do you remember if you were on the pill when you have this perception of babies?
I’ve never used the pill. I probably should have. It might have prevented my endometriosis.
The pill tricks your body into believing you’re pg. How would that have made me grossed out by babies?
@ J
I think some of Aidan’s cuteness is rubbing off on me.
Oh boy, I get to rain on parades!
Getting pregnant and having babies is about as normal as breathing. Yup, I said it.
His dick and testicles work as does her womb. Half a million years and the crowing doesn’t stop? Yeesh.
Nice.
Almost seven billion people on this planet. and we’re still giving out congratulations. The elitism is savage.
Here’s my desire… Hope continues to use her analytical skills so she continues to make cogent and observant comments.
Private Man–You are so sweet it makes my teeth hurt.
The pill tricks your body into believing you’re pg. How would that have made me grossed out by babies?
Just curious I don’t know anyone in the third world with this aversion to babies and by anyone I mean not articles on newspapers or magazines or Dominican blogs, not facebook status not a culture of “babies are gross” and yet here is quite common I’m wondering the cause, just that.
It’s common here? I think it was less usual when I was in my 20s then it is now. I guess I was a trend setter.
Maybe it was because I was an only child and the youngest of all the cousins on both sides of the family. I never babysat or had a lot of interaction with babies. I didn’t play much with dolls as a kid or have a lot of maternal longings as a younger woman, and interestingly enough, I don’t go crazy over every baby I see now. I know loads of women my age who have to pick up everday they see and pine over not having a grandchild yet. But I adored my sons and had extremely strong maternal instincts once they were born. And I’m sure I’ll be a super grandmother when the time comes.
It’s common here? I think it was less usual when I was in my 20s then it is now. I guess I was a trend setter.
Oh yeah at least weekly someone in my facebook in english talk about an annoying baby or pregnant woman. If you google pregnant women are…the first complete the sentence word is annoying smug, annoying,crazy , mean…lots of negativity try that in Spanish and Las mujeres embarazadas son…mas sensibles (more sensitives) that is about the only result.
So is a whole world cultural difference I only posted three pics of my pregnancy on Facebook and I sent the rest of the pics to all my friends and family back in DR and the baby’s pics go in Picasa for the Spanish friends and to close relatives that ask for it in here, only one on Facebook and that is. Don’t want to be the ignorant third world mom that gushes about her baby 24/7.
Maybe it was because I was an only child and the youngest of all the cousins on both sides of the family. I never babysat or had a lot of interaction with babies.
This is probably part of it babies are everywhere in our cultures and most people had to help caring for a relative at some point or other usually early in life so I guess there is an element of early socialization involved. I loved the newborn smell I can’t wait to have mine so I get to smell it all day long and last so little I think it disappears after three months or so.
Congratulations Hope! May you, your husband and your new baby get some good rest
Congratulations! Is it your first baby? I remember how happy I was with my firstborn (a daughter). I cried, despite she was really ugly when I saw her for the first time, with all that blood, wrinkles and so on
So, your father is now grandfather, so you have to have a daughter to make your mother grandmother 
@The Private Man
Have you lost your mind? This is probably the most inappropriate comment I’ve ever had on the blog, and that’s saying something.
At the risk of distressing Hope, I will point out to you that her last pregnancy ended in a stillbirth at 36 weeks.
I hope that makes you feel like the asshole you are.
Congrats again, Hope!
@susan
I didn’t know. Please remove my comment, because I don’t know how Hope would react to my congratulations
@Szopen
No worries, Hope will appreciate your comment, I’m sure. It is heartfelt and is indeed congratulatory.
For the record, Hope shared her earlier story online and even posted beautiful photos of her husband’s hands holding baby Liam’s. She has been excited but nervous throughout this pregnancy, and we’re just so happy for her!
Aidan is healthy and beautiful, and Hope’s friends here share her joy.
“I hope that makes you feel like the asshole you are.”
He’s expressing the ( anti-humanist) view that is at the rotten heart of the problems we seek to solve. It’s population control (and worse) all the way down.
Its not far from anti-humanism to anti-other-humans. Destroys relationships/common decency.
@Ana
When I was ecstatically PG, people either joined me, many because they knew my infertility story, or they ignored me. I think many of those who ignored me did so because they found me smug, were single with no marriage prospects themselves, or just weren’t interested in the blow by blow descriptions descriptions of my pregnancy I gave people(I was really into it!) I think that if you are getting outright hostility, it’s not a first world/third world thing, as much as it is jealousy and a lack of civility. It used to be that jealous people kept their mouths shut.
If people don’t like it screw ‘em.
I loved the newborn smell I can’t wait to have mine so I get to smell it all day long and last so little I think it disappears after three months or so.
You know, I never smelled that. All babies but my own smelled like poo to me. Mine smelled neutral. I wonder how that figures into my attraction to babies!! I also have no reaction to puupy breath which drives some people wild.
I did have a very strong oxytocin reaction to breast feeding though.
He’s expressing the ( anti-humanist) view that is at the rotten heart of the problems we seek to solve. It’s population control (and worse) all the way down.
You’re over thinking this, Des. Look at the link at the bottom of his post. It’ll take you to a story where he congratulates Mentu on his vasectomy and shares that he has never regrettted his own vasectomy. However, this comment makes me wonder: “His dick and testicles work as does her womb.” Perhaps looking at that beautiful baby while the ‘sphere is celebrating Mentu’s cutting off his own nose (or more figuratively balls) to spite his face gave Privateman second thoughts.
Am I alone in noticing this, or does it seem that every time Susan posts congrats or condolences someone just has to have their own little catharsis by posting something hurtful and inappropriate?
Congratulations as well to Hope! Quite exciting!
J:
When I was ecstatically PG, people either joined me, many because they knew my infertility story, or they ignored me. I think many of those who ignored me did so because they found me smug, were single with no marriage prospects themselves, or just weren’t interested in the blow by blow descriptions descriptions of my pregnancy I gave people(I was really into it!) I think that if you are getting outright hostility, it’s not a first world/third world thing, as much as it is jealousy and a lack of civility. It used to be that jealous people kept their mouths shut.
If people don’t like it screw ‘em.
My reply:
I wonder, 40+, 50+ years or so years ago, did people do as much in terms of broadcasting? It seems to me that with the rise of social media, there is so much publicity in ways that were unheard of long ago, and so people just didn’t broadcast much about their lives. We also used to think a lot more, it seems, about being discreet. I wonder, too, about whether the increased use in fertility treatments has pushed the interest in disclosure?
I wonder, were some of the silent ones themselves going through their own fertility treatments and not having any success, but you didn’t know about it? For that reason, it might have been painful for them to congratulate you, those whom you thought saw you as smug?
oops, congratulate as the wrong word, but that they ignored you, in light of how you described it.
I wonder, 40+, 50+ years or so years ago, did people do as much in terms of broadcasting?
No, and I think that social media has indeed increased both smugness and backlash to it.
I wonder, were some of the silent ones themselves going through their own fertility treatments and not having any success, but you didn’t know about it? For that reason, it might have been painful for them to congratulate you, those whom you thought saw you as smug?
Perhaps. I had some issues of my own BTW. I was relatively quiet about my infertility stuff and probably was not as efflusive as many PG friends would have liked. That might have come off as jealous or hostile. And sometimes I did feel jealous. OTOH, I did try to at least congratulate PG women. I knew that the world wasn’t going to stop turning because I miscarried and that others would continue to celebrate their joys. For my own sanity, I had to push on. It was hard though.
@ Desidirius
Yup. These people have been around since at least Malthus (it probalbly goes back a lot farther though). As an Indian, it especially hits a sore spot for me given our experience with population control under Sanjay Gandhi.
Granted though, what Indians went through is nothing compared to what the Chinese are going through right now (and the common Chinese people are powerless to do anything about it).
J,
“Perhaps looking at that beautiful baby while the ‘sphere is celebrating Mentu’s cutting off his own nose (or more figuratively balls) to spite his face gave Privateman second thoughts.”
Absolutely. Cognitive dissonance hurts, sometimes enough to change minds.
There’s a reason that other thought (Mentu’s) is in there, though. He didn’t do it to spite his face. In America, “conservatives” are often liberals a generation or so behind the avant-garde. He and his traditions are just now being hit by second-wave feminism and we’re hearing the aftershocks.
Those things matter little in comparison to Aidan’s arrival, though. He’ll have other dragons to slay.
J,
“You’re over thinking this, Des.”
Of course. Doesn’t mean I’m wrong, just using the wrong organ for the occasion.
LOL. First Donne, now Dickens. BTW, isn’t “Batter My Heart” the best poem?
Please. This thread is not for political debate.
If people don’t like it screw ‘em.
Had I mentioned that you share my hubby’s initials? This is also what he says to me when I’m panicking about being “That ignorant third world woman” he also says “You worry too much” I know I do I need to find balance between the best of my culture, the best of this one and toss the bad of those. Give me time I’m sure at some point I will learn to not worry…that much.
You know, I never smelled that. All babies but my own smelled like poo to me. Mine smelled neutral. I wonder how that figures into my attraction to babies!! I also have no reaction to puupy breath which drives some people wild.
Heh baby’s poo smells good to me, I mean the one from breastfeed when they start solids or other foods they start to smell bad, so I think I was always baby wired in spite of not intellectually believing on adoption I’m sure if someone would had left a baby in our doorstep I would look at it on the eyes and became his/her mother instantly that is how I ended up bringing my cat from DR it was not the plan at all but once she looked at me I couldn’t just leave her I consider her my first child and I do like her fishy breath…crazy I know
I wonder, 40+, 50+ years or so years ago, did people do as much in terms of broadcasting?
I grew up in a communal backyard and while we were washing clothes together or cleaning the beans, everytime there was a pregnant lady in the group all we did was hear about her pregnancy all day long and no one ever got bored or annoyed most of the other women shared their own pregnancy stories and advices to be more comfortable or to give birth so I don’t think is the media this things were really common back in the day.
For that reason, it might have been painful for them to congratulate you, those whom you thought saw you as smug?
I have one of my “closest” friend that is childfree by choice and pretty smug about her superiority to baby mamas and one that I even planned to talk to her about everything but my pregnancy unless she asked because she gets really annoyed when other people tell her that she is 36 and should start trying to have a kid (even her OB/GyN told her that) but she spared me the trouble and hasn’t called me in 6 months…so what is her problem?
While it’s disgusting for PrivateMan to attack the happiness those of us who like and know something of Hope feel about her child, it’s equally tasteless for J to attack Mentu, -a guy who isn’t even here- for his choice to be childfree. Unless we want to start shaming women who have never wanted to have children that is.
The two things have nothing to do with each other. Once again, here’s hoping happiness for Hope , HopeHubby, and HopeBaby
@Clarence
To be fair, J objected to Private Man’s linking to a post in which he champions Mentu’s vasectomy, here on Hope’s birth announcement. What’s more it was intentional – he expressed a desire to “rain on the parade.” In contrast, J did not share her views at PMs, though you may see that as more honest.
I don’t think anyone cares whether PM or Mentu have children. I certainly don’t. What I find objectionable is the pimping of vasectomy as some sort of achievement on a blog celebrating marriage and family.
“I don’t think anyone cares whether PM or Mentu have children. I certainly don’t. What I find objectionable is the pimping of vasectomy as some sort of achievement on a blog celebrating marriage and family.”
I agree, but the ironic thing is that Mentu seemed sad about his choice. This wasn’t one of those “celebratory” posts about abortion or circumcision, this is just something Mentu felt he had to do, and I honestly think that his post shows Mentu KNOWS what he is giving up – unlike some of the young men and women who are convinced children are nothing but a buzzkill and they’d never wish to have any. PM seems happier about Mentu’s choice than Mentu does.
As for Hope she’s one of the few people whose struggles with childbearing I know about, I am tickled pink for her and her hubby.
That may be the first baby I have ever seen that doesn’t have on one of those beanies with the alternating pink and light blue stripes. Those seem to be shipped to every hospital on the country. My kids were born in different states but they both got a supply of those identical little baby hats.
Cheers to Hope, her love and that precious little blue-eyed monster there.
@Clarence
OK, thanks for clarifying. I have not read Mentu – I now know far more than I want to about his testicles!
Susan
Thanks for clarifying my remark. The more I look at this thread, the more I feel that anything not directly to congratulating Hope/welcoming Aidan probably shouldn’t be here. Feel free to delete anything of mine you’d like.
@Susan
You can delete my post too I can talk to J by email I just got curious and curiosity is my Achilles’s heel.
Thank you all!
Been busy but finally have been having some breaks… I’m double-pumping at the computer nowadays. 
“Please. This thread is not for political debate.”
Yep – figured that out too late. Tried for the save with the Dickens link.
Comment deletion function would be nice.
= )
Congrats!
The way Aidan looks at the camera just makes me melt.
Awwwwww. Cute as a button! Congratulations!
@ThePrivateMan
“Oh boy, I get to rain on parades!
Getting pregnant and having babies is about as normal as breathing. Yup, I said it.”
Back in relatively low birth survival days, a living healthy baby was definitely something to celebrate. So allow some of us to practice tradition. We promise it is not meant to offend you.
@Hope
FYI, I had similar difficulties to yours when I breastfed my second child, and the pediatrician referred me to a breastfeeding consultant. It made all the difference. I’d highly recommend that if latching on continues to be a problem.
I’ve actually gotten some emails from women saying Aidan is the most beautiful baby they’ve ever seen! (Not sure why they didn’t just comment, but whatever.) I hope you’ll keep us supplied with pics.
Congratulations Hope and family!! He is gorgeous.
I particularly love Hopebaby’s stare. aidan looks straight into the camera, as if he’s thinking, ” what is that thing? and who are you people?”
I adore babies more than anything else.
Also, Susan, with all respect, I don’t understand one thing. You deleted PJ for her offensive posts, I find Private man’s posts just as ridiculous, can you delete his post too? It has no place here. I think HUS is completely different from most of the because we are not taking joy in the degradation of relationships and family, we want to change it.
I meant most of the manosphere.
@Just a thought
You make a valid point. I left it up because I wish him to be exposed for his horrendous views and bad manners. It is my hope that people will see his comment, and discredit him. I have removed him from my Blogroll.
Private Man used to seem like a decent fellow. But he embraced misogyny and now prides himself on being part of the “Evil Patriarchy” blog network. He is also a coward, just another playground bully who likes to kick people in the shins and then run away.
I’ve gotten several emails complaining about his comment, so I’m glad awareness is spreading. Sometimes the smackdowns need to stay up.
Hope,
Aww! He’s adorable!!!
Congrats to you and your family!
Congratulations, Hope!
Congrats Hope & Company
Now comes the *really* hard part. Enjoy!
Congratulations, Hope. Welcome to the world of 3 A.M. feedings, teething and toddler tantrums…. But seriously, the rewards far outweigh the costs!
“Lock up yer daughters! Aidan is on the loose!”
“That may be the first baby I have ever seen that doesn’t have on one of those beanies with the alternating pink and light blue stripes. Those seem to be shipped to every hospital on the country. My kids were born in different states but they both got a supply of those identical little baby hats.”
LMAO at those two.
Sleep well, Hope’s family!
@ Just a thought
You too!