6 Months

Natalie hit the 6 month mark yesterday. She heads to the doctor on Thursday, I’ll be taking her in for the first time. Tiffany may come with us and head to work after, but I don’t think she’s decided yet.  Natalie’s mobility is improving. She’s progressed from the inch warm to more of a breast stroke to move across the floor. I’m not a swimming expert, but she seems to have good form. I’m sure it’s only  a matter of days now before she is legitimately crawling and moving along at top speed.

Here you also see her sitting. We can place her and she will sit for quite a while but for the first time this morning, she found herself in a sitting position on her own. Tiffany and I were both getting ready in the bathroom and Natalie swung her leg out and there she was sitting. I’m sure it was an accident as she was probably just trying to figure out a better way to move across the floor, but when we both got excited, she looked pretty pleased with herself. So we’ll see if she starts to do that more often.

We’re a week away now from our big trip up north. That should be an experience. Hopefully, Natalie handles the plane okay. It certainly will be a little shock to her and the time change will probably make her schedule a little haywire. I’m sure preparations will start over the weekend. The days of packing and leaving the same day are probably over. 

Birthday Wishes

It was my hope that Natalie would start crawling this past Sunday, my birthday. No such luck. Truth be told, she’s probably not that close. She’s good at flipping herself over and getting up on all fours, but that is usually followed by a lot of flailing around and some verbal frustration. Either way she is starting to like to be on her activity mat more and more.

My birthday weekend did mark the beginning of Natalie sleeping in her crib at night in the nursery. On Saturday night, she even slept through the night which is getting a little more rare now that she seems to be eating more. She’s also started on solid foods, first some rice cereal and now we are mixing in some fruit. Sunday night, Tiffany’s mom was feeding her when we were all done dinner. As you can see here some visual coaching appears to help.

She’s also eating from her high chair now. I got the pleasure of putting that together on Friday or Saturday. It’s a high chair, booster seat, child seat and chair. It’s a 4-in-1 setup, not sure if I got the name of all four parts right though. Anyway, all the pieces do not get used so it made putting it together a little more complicated. It also continued a theme that I’m noticing in instructions lately. 

It seems as though some companies in a move to save time and money have stopped printing written instructions at all and have decided to just use pictures with symbols which is always a fun adventure. I suppose this saves them from writing instructions in four languages which I’ve seen, 50 pages of instructions, 8 of which are in english. I guess it’s crazy to think that if you buy a product in the United States, the instructions should be in english and english alone. Likewise, if you live in France or Mexico, the directions should be in french or spanish respectively. I know, crazy. I knew things were going down a bad path when the circulars here started having coupons that were both in english and spanish. I guess I should be thanking these companies, it’s pretty easy to learn Spanish when you have the English translation right next to it. That’s probably why they print them in both so hispanic folks can work on their english while putting together their bookcase from IKEA. Some might say that if you don’t offer the spanish option, folks might actually have to learn english and become better assimilated...Another crazy thought...But i digress.

Tiffany’s aunt headed to the airport today, but her grandparents remain in town for now. As retirees they have no set time to return to Virginia so hopefully they will spend another week or two. Her aunt seemed to have a good time. She got to use our guest level (the second floor) and seemed comfortable. Chase enjoyed her company as well. 

A sad development is that today appears to be the last day afloat for the “It’s a Girl” giant foot balloon I got at the hospital gift shop the day after Natalie was born. It was purchased on January 12, it appears it will be laid to rest on May 25, that’s 132 days for those keeping score.  A pretty good life span as far as a mylar balloon is concerned. 

And Then There Were Three

The alarm went off around 5 a.m. We had called the hospital Monday and they told us we could call as early as 5 to check the list for induction. I made my way to the bathroom as Tiffany got her phone together to make the call. By the time I came out she already knew that there was no room and we wouldn’t be leaving to be there by 7 a.m as we had hoped.

Already awake, I headed to the gym and Tiffany laid back down. As I mentioned before, she wasn’t able to eat or drink anything but clear fluids so we were concerned about waiting too long to head to the hospital. Tiffany gets a little shaky when she’s hungry or needs some sugar. Anyway, they told us to call back at 9 if we hadn’t heard from them.

I stopped at Starbucks on my way back from the gym anticipating a long day and also picked up some apple juice up for Tiffany. We had a LARGE meal ;) the night before at one of our favorite restaurants (Pappadeux) which included a complimentary dessert since we were celebrating a birthday. We had told he waiter what we had planned for the next day and he immediately offered it up, which we thought was very nice. Point being, Tiffany was not starving when she woke up.

We called back at 9, no dice, our next time to call was 11. Meanwhile Tiffany began to have contractions on her own. The mild contractions had started again Monday, but by morning they were stronger, albeit 20 minutes apart and pretty inconsistent. Still we were holding out hope that our girl would come on her own so we headed to Target, which is a short drive away to stroll around, and also to stock up on some more clear liquids with sugar in them. We had completed about three laps around Target and had stopped to browse when TIffany’s parents and brothers and sisters showed up. They were getting antsy too.

We walked some more and when Tiffany called back at 11 they said they could take us, knowing it would take an hour to get there from where we were. We headed back to the house to grab our bags and I packed a sandwich and some water and we were off.

Hitting no traffic, we arrived at the hospital just shy of 12:30. We headed right to Labor and Delivery where Pam (our first nurse) met us and took us to our LDR room. I have to say it’s a pretty efficient operation. All of our paperwork was ready to go, and there was plenty of it, and Tiffany changed and they started her IV. That was important because the IV solution acts pretty much like sugar water so while she was still hungry, she didn’t get any shakes. 

Pam gave Tiffany an initial exam and determined she was 2 cm dilated, a little disappointing considering our efforts all morning. No matter, the IV was in and by this time I had already paid so they weren’t kicking us out, we would be meeting our baby girl at some point in the near future. I had planned on a long day and nothing about our initial exam suggested otherwise, but soon the pitosin (spelling??) was on board and the contractions picked up....and kept picking up. I had brought several magazines, a book, my laptop, thinking that there were going to be long periods of inactivity. Soon after Tiffany’s parents and siblings arrived things really picked up. I left the room for a short time and her water broke on her own. By this time we also had a new nurse, Erin, Pam’s shift had ended at 2. The nurse plays a big role, at least at this hospital. She NEVER leaves the room. There’s a station right there with a computer and she sits there watching the monitors. By the time I had come back in, Tiffany’s pain had increased. She was having pretty hard contractions every two minutes or so and I was rubbing her back and holding her hand while her mom helped with the breathing. Needless to say, no time for a book or magazine. She was trying to tough it out, but soon the epideral was administered.  Her mom and I had to leave the room for that. That guy was quite the character, I’m not sure it wasn’t a good thing I didn’t see that guy operate a foot long needle. Since I was asked to leave, I used the opportunity to scrounge around for some coffee. They have automated machines in the waiting area but by this point in the day creamers were hard to come by. We found some and by the time I finished we headed back in. At this point it was getting close to 5, activity in the hospital had slowed considerably and I was just hoping it would be before midnight. To my surprise, I walked in and the epideral had taken Tiffany to 9 cm’s. 

Erin said that it can relax people and speed things along. Clearly it did. It also put Tiffany in a much, much better mood. She wasn’t being difficult by any means before, but her mood certainly changed. As an added benefit my massage was no longer needed. I didn’t mind giving the massages but the angle and location made it pretty hard on my fingers and I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to keep doing it very much longer. 

We were getting in the home stretch and Erin’s shift ended at 7 and she wanted to see the baby born because she was impressed how fast things were moving. The contractions became harder to track because there wasn’t any pain associated with them and the monitor was not doing a tremendous job. But an hour later Erin checked and determined it was go time. 

Dr. Thompson was paged, yes they still use pagers, and she said she was en route. Melanie, our next nurse also arrived 15 minutes before 7 and Erin gave her a briefing and said she wanted to stay and would be the second nurse. There’s always two in the room for delivery. Melanie wanted Tiffany to push to see how long it would possibly take so she held one leg up and I held the other. We did this a few times and she was ready to go. You could see the tip of her hair little head and after the last push without the doctor in the room, Melanie told Tiffany to relax because she was VERY close.

Meanwhile  at this tim I’m wondering what role the doctor actually plays. She had checked in twice in person, but the nurses are there the entire time now she was coming in for the last out and was going to be named MVP??? Talk about the ultimate closer.

Sure enough Dr. Thompson entered the room and it was showtime. The stirrups came out and after about four good pushes, Natalie Christine Pirone entered the world at 7:01 p.m. Another assistant, outside the two nurse,s clamped the umbilical  chord and she handed me the scissors. I cut, and promptly had blood shooting at me. I was able to safely dodge it so it hit me direct in the forehead, rather then the eye. It also got all over my hand. I didn’t mind it, but how about some warning folks. Nobody even said anything like, “Can i get you a paper towell or a wet nap.? Thankfully, Tiffany’s mom handed me a spare sheet and I wiped my face and then I saw where OBGYN’s earn their money. I didn’t take a close look, nor did I want to, but Dr. Thompson was fully engaged in tending to Tiffany, calling out orders, asking for instruments, certainly worthy of MVP honors. I carefully navigated the foot of the table and did not look closely and headed over to the warming table where they were getting Natalie cleaned up.

Some calls were made so folks could hear her crying. Then there’s a feeling that comes over you that can’t really be described. For example I’m not sure how anyone could witness a child being born and doubt the existence of god, it’s truly a miracle. I’m sure it’s unique in it’s own way to every individual. At 7:00 a.m. on 1/11/11 I was leaving the gym after another routine morning workout and 12 hours later there was this little person looking up at me like, “Who the heck are you and what happened to my water bed?”

After Tiffany was put back together, Natalie made her way over to Mom for her first breast feeding attempt. It went well and before we knew it she was off to the nursery for more measurements and a bath. I followed just to see where they were taking her and by the time I got back it was time to get our stuff together and move to the post-partum room where we are now and where we will most likely stay until mid-day Thursday. 

The post partum room is smaller, but large enough for the three of us. It’s not the Hilton, but the day bed in the corner for me is just fine and there is a pretty comfortable chair. I slept okay the first night, Tiffany did not. The one thing people are right about is the parade of people that come in and out of your room. Just when you think there is no one  else that could possibly come, here comes the woman that submits the information for the birth certificate, or the tech to check blood pressure, or housekeeping etc...

Dr. Thompson was back in our room at 7:00 a.m. this morning and I don’t think we’ve gone 45 minutes without someone coming in. It’s hard for Tiffany to get a nap and I think I started this blog post at 8 and it’s now almost 2:30. I did get down to the cafeteria for breakfast and to the gift shop for some balloons and gifts for Natalie, but I haven’t accomplished much today other then change a couple dirty diapers. More on that later....

I Felt it Move

We’re home again after seeing some friends and family in the northeast, in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. It was the little one’s third trip in utero and the first since we found out that we were having a girl. We did buy some baby girl clothes while on vacation and our friends Matt and Andrea got us a nice girl outfit with a Phillies theme as well as a onesy. We bought some dresses for 6-9 months old since they were on clearance now in Philadelphia, but will be nice to have in May and beyond in Texas next year. 

During the past week Tiffany has really started to feel our baby girl move around. One night at Matt and Andrea’s I actually felt it when I put my hand on her stomach during a particularly active sequence. I’m sure it will get easier for me to feel her over the next few weeks. She is most active when Tiffany is laying still because movement supposedly calms babies down in the womb.

We also saw a sonogram of Matt and Andrea’s little boy and a 3-D version of the face, amazing. We are just a few weeks from that. Their due date is about four weeks before ours so if Andrea is two weeks late and Tiffany is two weeks early, we could both have Christmas babies.

We also got to see Bob and Melissa and their two young daughters who were born about 15 months apart. They are very cute and really love Bob and it was interesting to see their different personalities. Emma and Abigail were born less than two years apart and from the same parents yet seem to be almost two completely different people. Both very sweet, but very different mannerisms. This time next year I’ll be dealing with a 7-month old baby girl with her own quirks and mannerisms. 

This weekend we will be celebrating Cameron’s first birthday (Britney and Brian’s son two doors down). It seems like last week that they were bringing him home from the hospital. It’s been fun to watch him grow over the next year and I look forward to doing the same with ours (and seeing more!).

In name news, we’re 95% percent sure on what we will be calling our daughter, but we’re stealing an idea from Matt and Andrea who are not telling anyone their son’s name until he is born. We will be doing the same. My mother was not a fan of that plan at first...her response on the phone when I told her our plan...”WHAAAAAAAAAAAT!!!” Plus, she almost seemed angry until we pointed out that we didn’t need a bunch of monogramed clothes and/or gear and that she did know it’s a girl. I will say that it’s NOT going to be Madison or Addison. We’ll see if our girl starts “answering” to our name in the next few weeks and hopefully I’ll be able to feel her move again soon.

The Last Birthday

Yesterday I celebrated my 31st birthday and while it won’t be my last (hopefully), it was my last birthday without any children. When you get married you go from being the most important person in your own life to second. When we bought our dog Chase, I was moved to third....without being consulted. Now as we wait for the arrival of our first child, my days in the 3-hole are numbered. Soon enough, I’ll be batting cleanup. Suffice to say, when I turn 32 next year, we’ll probably have a lot more going on than we did this year..and this did not escape me yesterday.

It was a good day, as far as birthdays go. Tiffany made me pancakes (though I think she wanted them even more than me), we took Chase for a long walk and went to lunch at Cafe Express. After lunch we walked around the Sugar Land Town Center and I got a new pair of sneakers before we headed to HEB to pick up some items Tiffany needed to make my birthday dinner: Crab Cakes, 4-Cheese Macaroni and Cheese and Mississippi Mud Pie. The crab cake recipe came from her grandfather and while she said she has made them before, I certainly don’t remember. But we’ll be having them again!

One of our neighbors came over for dessert which led to a quick scan of the living room to remove any baby related items. All books for the most part, they were put on the dresser in our bedroom. The books were easily out of sight until I invited Brittany (our neighbor) into our bathroom to see our large collection of soap that Tiffany has accumulated through coupons and sales for free. When I suggested she take a look, Tiffany quickly said pretty loudly, “No, don’t go in there!” We haven’t told our neighbors yet, we’re waiting until after the next doctor visit so if Brittany had seen the books, it would have ruined the surprise I guess. Brittany didn’t notice, I guess she didn’t make it a priority to study everything in our room as she walked through it.

As far as the pregnancy,Tiffany seems to be doing quite well. She’s just tired a lot and has a little bit of nausea once in a while. It’s been pretty tame so far for her, as far as symptoms are concerned. This Wednesday we should find out our due date (finally) and exactly how far along we are which will be nice to know.