It's A Boy!!!

I'm very happy to announce the birth of our second child, Martin Daniel, who was born today, Wednesday, August 15, 2007. Both Jill and Martin are doing great and Oliver and I are anxiously waiting for their arrival home on Friday.

4am Wakeup
Jill started feeling contractions around 4 am this morning and 90 minutes later at 5:43 am Martin introduced himself to the world with a nice, healthy cry. He was a "quick" baby, exhibiting the same patience traits as his mom. If Jill had a faster labour, I'd probably be the one delivering, yikes!

Oliver took about 5 hours from start of contractions to birth. Martin took 90 minutes. If we have a third kid, Jill's camping out at the hospital from week 37 onwards.

Key Stats
Martin weighed 3.63 Kg (8.0 lb) and measured 52 cm (20.5"), slightly heavier and longer than Oliver at birth. Good thing 'cause Oliver already have a 2.5 years size advantage over him. They're brothers, so you know there's going to be some flexing of muscles between the two.

Martin was born at Mount Elizabeth Hospital (and thankfully not in the back seat of our car) in Singapore at 5:43 am local time on Wednesday, August 15th, 2007. That's tomorrow for you guys in North America.

And no, he will not be a Singapore citizen since neither his mom or I are Singaporean. He will automatically be a Canadian citizen, just like his big brother who was born in The Bahamas.

Martin, meet Oliver; Oliver, meet Martin
Jill and I had Martin's name picked out months ago. We based our decision on how "nice" Martin and Daniel sounded together with his last name. After settling on this name, we found out the definition for Martin is "Servant of Mars, the God of War". Oliver's name, on the other hand, means "olive tree" and the olive branch, of course, represents peace. Hmmm...the next 18 years or so should be interesting.

And, Finally, The Pics
We don't have the www.joeandjill.ca website up these days 'cause our ISP here in Singapore don't allow residential customers to host their own websites. But, not to worry, I am looking at a hosted solution where we can put up lot's of pictures of Martin (and Oliver) for all to see, especially Grandma. In the meantime, here are a few pictures of Martin.

Joe.