Birth Announcement and Coming to Visit

I am now officially 8.5 months. The average baby at this point is 4.75 pounds. I hit term in THREE weeks (full term in six)!

The upcoming arrival of our little bundle of joy is most definitely going to be accompanied by the arrival of lots of visiting friends and family. Not only are we excited about meeting the baby, but we're excited about you meeting the baby as well. Clearly, we don't know when exactly the baby will born, so for those who want to come to Salem shortly after the birth, you will most likely be making very quick arrangements. If you have an interest in coming from out of town and need to make arrangements in advance, we would suggest waiting until the baby's baptism, which will most likely be Sunday, December 21. We will know for sure if we have this date reserved by mid-October. We will post on the blog as soon as we know for sure, and formal invitations will be sent after the baby is born. So, be thinking about it, but don't book anything yet.

[Should we definitely reserve that weekend with the church, we will be hosting a holiday dinner on Saturday, December 20 for those who are in town, and when those who are driving will receive their Christmas presents--everyone else will get theirs shipped to them. The baptism will most likely be following the 10:30 mass, concluding at ~12:30. Afterward, we will be hosting a welcoming brunch for the wee one. As a note, because of the time it takes to get from Salem to the airport and the holiday travel rush, making a flight before 5:00 p.m. on Sunday would be very difficult.]

Announcing the birth and coming to visit:

As for letting people know about the birth of the baby, unless from the baby's perspective you have the title of "grandparent" or "aunt/uncle," we can't promise you will get a personal phone call from one of us. We will of course post an announcement on the blog, but we will also be sending out an e-mail announcement. Should you be interested in being on our e-mail list, please either post a blog comment with your e-mail address or send an e-mail to olivia.radue@gmail.com to let us know. When we let everyone know the baby has arrived, we will also let you know when we will be accepting visitors (if everything goes smoothly, most likely ~five days after the birth).

The reason for the gap between the birth and wanting visitors is for some recovery time. Most women birth their babies in a hospital where they stay for a few days, only being allowed visitors during restricted hours, and for a good reason. While we may be feeling up to 20-minute visits from those who live locally and come bearing vegetarian casseroles or baked goods ; ) we will certainly want to be able to devote hours and days to family members who have traveled a good distance to see us. Of course, we don't expect anyone to spend all of their waking hours in our living room, so we do have plenty of information about local attractions and things to do.

How to get here:

From Central Indiana to Salem, it is a 16 hour drive without stops. We have done it twice in one day (yuck), and we do not recommend it. Even with two days, it can be a hard drive. If there is snow, we do not recommend driving the Southern Pennsylvania (I-70/76/78 through Harrisburg) route. Instead, we would recommend either taking I-80 across Pennsylvania or I-90 through Buffalo (which is a nice half-way point).

There are direct flights from Indianapolis to Boston. Should you be interested in looking at other airports to fly into, you can look at flights to Manchester-Boston Regional Airport in Manchester, New Hampshire. Depending upon when people will be coming in and with how many others, we cannot promise that we will be available to pick you up from the airport. If you fly into the Boston Logan Airport, cab fares to Salem range from $50-80. You can also very easily take public transportation (the subway + commuter rail) to Salem for less than $8 a person. Should you fly into Manchester, there is a shuttle option (for $19) from the airport to Boston, where you can then take either a cab or public transportation to Salem. There is also of course the option of getting a rental car, which depending on where you plan to stay in the area and how much walking you are accustomed to doing, may be your best option. (Salem is very walkable--clearly, as we only own one car.)

On our last visit, we traveled via Amtrak (taking a Megabus from Indianapolis to Chicago), which saved us from needing to be awake to drive or reserving a hotel room. The travel costs were very low, but we did spend many, many hours sitting in what was the equivalent of an airplane seat.

Where to stay:

We're fortunate to live in a highly "touristy" location, so there are plenty of options for accommodations. In Salem, there are no chain hotels. If that is the type of accommodation you will want, search for hotels in Danvers or Peabody where there are plenty of chains. Be aware that even if Google or Mapquest tells you your hotel in Danvers/Peabody is only 15 minutes away, it is actually with traffic generally 30+ minutes.

For those looking to stay in downtown Salem, there are several options within very easy walking distance (less than half a mile). We would recommend looking at:

The Northey House (northeystreethouse.com‎), which we could hit with a rock from our back porch

The Amelia Payson Guest House (ameliapaysonhouse.com), which is 0.2 miles away

The Washington Square Inn (washingtonsquareinn.com), which is 0.3 miles away

The Stepping Stone Inn (thesteppingstoneinn.com), which is 0.4 miles away

The Hawthorne Hotel (www.hawthornehotel.com), which is 0.5 miles away and an inn, not a B&B

For other Salem accommodation information, check out reviews and recommendations at http://www.tripadvisor.com/.

We have posted this information for those who have started to ask for it in thinking about their November/December plans. We will also re-post this information closer to the birth and when we announce the baby's arrival.