Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Monday, June 25, 2007
No More Womb
Operation No More (Room) Inside
aka The Baby Reyes Evacuation Plan
Mission Timeline:
05:08 Things began with a splash when V's water broke
05:47 Off to the hospital.
05:51 1st contraction
06:00 Arrival to hospital
06:09 Checked in and rolling to the maternity suite
06:21 Checked into observation room
06:41 STATUS CHECK: 1 centimeter dilated and "-2 station"
08:10 Dr. Cofield reports for duty
08:19 STATUS CHECK: still 1 centimeter dilated
08:39 V moved to LDR (Labor Delivery Recovery) Room 9
09:10 Pitocin IV connected to intensify contractions
10:42 The Epidural Request
11:02 Epidural Procedure (until 11:14)
15:09 STATUS CHECK: 4 centimeters dilated
16:06 Epidural Reinforcement
16:48 Power nap for Daddy
17:07 Daddy up and ready for round 2
17:08 V's parents arrive @ hospital
18:15 STATUS CHECK: 6 centimeters dilated and "-1 station"
19:37 STATUS CHECK: 7 to 8 centimeters dilated
20:19 J's mom arrives.
20:20 STATUS CHECK: Fully dilated
20:21 The pushing begins
21:47 ... On Sunday, June 24th @ 9:47pm, Operation: No More Womb Inside was successfully completed. V gave birth to "Alex"... more formally known as Justin Alexander Emmanuel Reyes: 8 pounds, 2.4 ounces, and 21 inches of baby boy. Mom and baby are doing great, and dad is just totally thrilled and beside himself after the miracle that he just witnessed.
aka The Baby Reyes Evacuation Plan
Mission Timeline:
05:08 Things began with a splash when V's water broke
05:47 Off to the hospital.
05:51 1st contraction
06:00 Arrival to hospital
06:09 Checked in and rolling to the maternity suite
06:21 Checked into observation room
06:41 STATUS CHECK: 1 centimeter dilated and "-2 station"
08:10 Dr. Cofield reports for duty
08:19 STATUS CHECK: still 1 centimeter dilated
08:39 V moved to LDR (Labor Delivery Recovery) Room 9
09:10 Pitocin IV connected to intensify contractions
10:42 The Epidural Request
11:02 Epidural Procedure (until 11:14)
15:09 STATUS CHECK: 4 centimeters dilated
16:06 Epidural Reinforcement
16:48 Power nap for Daddy
17:07 Daddy up and ready for round 2
17:08 V's parents arrive @ hospital
18:15 STATUS CHECK: 6 centimeters dilated and "-1 station"
19:37 STATUS CHECK: 7 to 8 centimeters dilated
20:19 J's mom arrives.
20:20 STATUS CHECK: Fully dilated
20:21 The pushing begins
21:47 ... On Sunday, June 24th @ 9:47pm, Operation: No More Womb Inside was successfully completed. V gave birth to "Alex"... more formally known as Justin Alexander Emmanuel Reyes: 8 pounds, 2.4 ounces, and 21 inches of baby boy. Mom and baby are doing great, and dad is just totally thrilled and beside himself after the miracle that he just witnessed.
14 seconds old
23 minutes old
74 minutes old
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Monday, June 11, 2007
Not Finding Out
Response 1: “Not finding out… well why not?!”
Response 2: “Not finding out… oh, that’s cool!”
Response 3: “... I don't get it... You’re not finding out what?”
My Not Finding Out shirt has definitely been a great conversation piece every time that I’ve worn it.
Actually, the mere fact that we’re “not finding out” (the sex of our baby) ahead of time has been an interesting topic throughout the entire pregnancy. Whenever Jerome and I tell people about us not finding out the sex of the baby, it usually stirs up a lot of comments and criticism. It also stirs up a lot of begging, swearing, and pleas for confidentiality; as in "please please tell me... I swear I won't tell anyone!!!".
For the most part, not many people could really understand why we would choose not to find out the sex of the baby when the technology is readily available. Some people were crazy enough to believe that we actually knew the sex, but were keeping it a secret. But it did help that at least our closest family and friends eventually got on board enough to respect our decision. The funny part is, I wouldn’t call us advocates of “not finding out.” In other words, we’re not renting a tour bus and
campaigning cross-country to ban ultrasound sex testing. It was just a decision that we made with this child and it is a very personal one. We may decide to find out the sex for our next child – who knows?! But we just decided that we wanted to be surprised this time around. For one, Jerome and I are both just old fashioned like that. And secondly, how often in life do you get to experience such a profound surprise for which you’d truly be happy no matter what the outcome? And so we’ve whole-heartedly enjoyed the mystery of it all, and even got used to the very opinionated responses that sometimes came along with it.
Response 2: “Not finding out… oh, that’s cool!”
Response 3: “... I don't get it... You’re not finding out what?”
My Not Finding Out shirt has definitely been a great conversation piece every time that I’ve worn it.
Actually, the mere fact that we’re “not finding out” (the sex of our baby) ahead of time has been an interesting topic throughout the entire pregnancy. Whenever Jerome and I tell people about us not finding out the sex of the baby, it usually stirs up a lot of comments and criticism. It also stirs up a lot of begging, swearing, and pleas for confidentiality; as in "please please tell me... I swear I won't tell anyone!!!".For the most part, not many people could really understand why we would choose not to find out the sex of the baby when the technology is readily available. Some people were crazy enough to believe that we actually knew the sex, but were keeping it a secret. But it did help that at least our closest family and friends eventually got on board enough to respect our decision. The funny part is, I wouldn’t call us advocates of “not finding out.” In other words, we’re not renting a tour bus and
campaigning cross-country to ban ultrasound sex testing. It was just a decision that we made with this child and it is a very personal one. We may decide to find out the sex for our next child – who knows?! But we just decided that we wanted to be surprised this time around. For one, Jerome and I are both just old fashioned like that. And secondly, how often in life do you get to experience such a profound surprise for which you’d truly be happy no matter what the outcome? And so we’ve whole-heartedly enjoyed the mystery of it all, and even got used to the very opinionated responses that sometimes came along with it.
Sunday, June 10, 2007
15 Days Away
V experienced her first real contraction yesterday (Friday). In a word... painful. It came out of nowhere, stopped her right in her tracks,and basically made a mockery of everything she thought was pain before then. What's comical is that, as most of you know our goal is to have a natural childbirth (i.e., no induction, epidural, etc.) ... but when that first contraction hit on Friday night, I think V would've let me give her an epidural right here at home if I had one.
But once it passed, we laughed about it, and of course I made fun of her for being ready to punk out after the first contraction... but all jokes aside, I still trust 100% that she'll be just fine. My guess is that, more than anything else, she was caught off-guard by the unknown. All of the Braxton Hicks contractions before then made her think that she was actually getting a preview of something. To get a better picture, imagine going from playing high school basketball to playing in the NBA overnight: After a few games, you might catch on eventually, but that first one will definitely throw you for a loop and makes you question everything.
But now that we know what we're working with, she has already turned it around and been rolling thru them like a veteran. The contractions are still pretty infrequent... but
frequent enough to give us hope that the birth is truly just around the corner. Like I was telling my mom earlier today, the looming anticipation that's involved easily makes the last few weeks of the pregnancy the longest. Now that we've got everything layed out and are feeling pretty secure in our readiness, the waiting game has quickly gone from super exciting to terribly torturous. I feel like we're standing in the dark, hiding behind furniture, waiting to jump out and shout "Surprise!!!" ... but the birthday boy (girl?) is like 2 hours late.
That's a long time to stand in the dark and hide behind furnitiure. My knees are getting stiff and I'm ready to go home.
With that said, I can't imagine what it feels like for those people who go past their due date. We've got 15 days left, and I already feel like our baby is delinquent with it's tardiness.
In other news, I also got an early Fathers day gift... which was V's obvious attempt to make me look even worse for my Mothers Day faux pas. Anyway, my printer has been "semi-broken" for a while now; bleeding ink all over my printed pages like somebody stabbed it. I say semi-broken because the printer still works fine if you ask me... it just takes me about 20 minutes and a dozen q-tips to clean it out every time I want to print a single page (anything to not spend money!!). Well evidently I was using up too many q-tips, because she bought me a new one. And anyone who knows me knows that I am not an easy person to shop for... especially when it comes to photo related stuff. But I have to say that V definitely did her research and came thru like a trooper. The printer is fantastic, and exactly the one I would've ordered if I hadn't been too frugal to buy one. I know she had to read a lot of reviews and printer specs to get that one right.
OK, so I officially suck for not coming thru on Mothers day. Thank you, V, for the confirmation.
But once it passed, we laughed about it, and of course I made fun of her for being ready to punk out after the first contraction... but all jokes aside, I still trust 100% that she'll be just fine. My guess is that, more than anything else, she was caught off-guard by the unknown. All of the Braxton Hicks contractions before then made her think that she was actually getting a preview of something. To get a better picture, imagine going from playing high school basketball to playing in the NBA overnight: After a few games, you might catch on eventually, but that first one will definitely throw you for a loop and makes you question everything.
But now that we know what we're working with, she has already turned it around and been rolling thru them like a veteran. The contractions are still pretty infrequent... but
frequent enough to give us hope that the birth is truly just around the corner. Like I was telling my mom earlier today, the looming anticipation that's involved easily makes the last few weeks of the pregnancy the longest. Now that we've got everything layed out and are feeling pretty secure in our readiness, the waiting game has quickly gone from super exciting to terribly torturous. I feel like we're standing in the dark, hiding behind furniture, waiting to jump out and shout "Surprise!!!" ... but the birthday boy (girl?) is like 2 hours late.That's a long time to stand in the dark and hide behind furnitiure. My knees are getting stiff and I'm ready to go home.
With that said, I can't imagine what it feels like for those people who go past their due date. We've got 15 days left, and I already feel like our baby is delinquent with it's tardiness.
In other news, I also got an early Fathers day gift... which was V's obvious attempt to make me look even worse for my Mothers Day faux pas. Anyway, my printer has been "semi-broken" for a while now; bleeding ink all over my printed pages like somebody stabbed it. I say semi-broken because the printer still works fine if you ask me... it just takes me about 20 minutes and a dozen q-tips to clean it out every time I want to print a single page (anything to not spend money!!). Well evidently I was using up too many q-tips, because she bought me a new one. And anyone who knows me knows that I am not an easy person to shop for... especially when it comes to photo related stuff. But I have to say that V definitely did her research and came thru like a trooper. The printer is fantastic, and exactly the one I would've ordered if I hadn't been too frugal to buy one. I know she had to read a lot of reviews and printer specs to get that one right.
OK, so I officially suck for not coming thru on Mothers day. Thank you, V, for the confirmation.
Saturday, June 2, 2007
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)