How it all got crazy…

Continued from: “How it all started…”

With Dr. Byrne telling us that we could expect nearly another month until Sariah was born, Cristina and I settled in to a pretty slow routine of preparing for Sariah’s arrival. After all, there was certainly no rush right?

Fast forward to our next doctor appointment, one week later (This puts us at September 19th, for those of you who are making timelines at home with popsicle sticks and play-doh).

How it all started…

The day after my 9/11 post, Cristina and I went in to visit Dr. Byrne. What we were hoping for was some kind of indication that Sariah was due to arrive on-time (October 5th).

The doctor came into the room and hooked Cristina up to a television. Almost immediately a list of upcoming arrivals, flight numbers and, arrival statuses flashed up onto the screen. We noted that Pan-Am Flight 227 from Boston would be arriving late due to inclement weather. After scrolling down for several minutes Dr. Byrne located Sariah’s info on the screen and suggested that with a little bit of luck might actually have a baby by Halloween.

This was not what we wanted to hear. Unfortunately, in labor terms, we had several strikes against us:

• Sariah was not measuring very big
• Sariah had not yet “dropped” into the birthing position
• Cristina was showing no other signs of pre-labor
• Sariah had built a uterine roadblock consisting of piled up mud, twigs, rocks and Cristina’s left lung

“So what can we do to help things along here?” I asked Dr. Byrne “We heard walking helps the baby drop”

“Absolutely, if Cristina starts walking now, the baby should come out right around Barstow.”

And so I went ahead and bought the tickets for my Catalina trip, departing Friday, September 28th.

Sariah Lena

Yes, I know I haven’t posted in oh… 3 weeks or something outrageous. But back off, you jackals. I actually have a lot of stories to tell and I’ll break them up into a couple of posts (which I plan to write while I let Sariah wail herself into a fitful and uneasy sleep).

My main concern is that with Sariah actually here and alive and breathing, the post-worthy events will probably happen faster than I can write about them. You’ll just have to cross your fingers that I can keep up with a fraction of the craziness that Cristina and I have just blindly plunged ourselves into.

One thought before I move on to the next story: The placenta, although miraculous in it’s life sustaining functionalities, is ugly. I mean, come on Placenta… couldn’t you have at least tried to tidy yourself up a bit for the big day?

Seriously, it’s extremely ugly and I’m not ashamed to admit that I voted Sariah’s placenta as “Most likely to be made fun of for being extremely ugly”

Sariah’s numbers:

Birthday: September 27, 2007

Birthtime: 3:09 pm

Weight: 8 lbs. 7 oz.

Length: 19.5″

Labor: 16 hours (although this number is slightly debatable as I will explain in the labor/delivery post)

It’s 3:00 am on Thursday

Contractions are 5 min. apart and lasting about 60 seconds.

The hospital says wait until 3 min. apart – then come in…

I’ll keep you posted.

—

5:20 am, We are leaving for the hospital now, contractions are rgular and about 90 seconds long. Cristina is wanting drugs 🙂

Dear Sariah, Today is 9/11.

Today is the sixth anniversary of one of the most jarring and disturbing events in modern history. You will likely read about it in a history book. Maybe you will see a movie or a documentary on it when we commemorate the twentieth anniversary. It’s been called a lot of things by a lot of people. Lately I have heard it labeled as “The day the world changed forever”. Or, more briefly: 9/11.

Pictures from the baby shower

Here’s the cake before it was wolfed down by the attendees

Pregnancy & Birthing Class (4 of 4)

So we finished our class on Tuesday night. We started off with a review session. This included discussion of:

• Breathing techniques (because apparently I’ve been doing it all wrong for the past 26 years and have thus narrowly escaped suffering from bouts of random asphyxiation)
• Stages of Labor (“It’s coming!” , “It hurts!”, and “It’s here!”)
• Interventions (Including a guest appearance by an anesthesiologist who explained exactly why he makes two brazillion* dollars a year, and how he spends it.)