Homecoming

We're finally back home after a busy couple of days at the hospital. We arrived at 7:30am Sunday morning, and even then Michelle was feeling good and smiling. It wasn't until around 2pm when they broke her water that she finally stopped smiling during contractions.

In between contractions an hour and a half before Gabe came out. Can you believe she's still smiling? She kept on smiling and joking in between contractions all the way through delivery. How she made it through without any medication is beyond me, but she did it!

Gabe entered the world at 4:14 pm on Sunday July 27th, 2008. Michelle looked over as I took this picture and said 'He must be a Gabe, he looks like a little angel with a halo right now." This was after commenting as he came out. 'Holy shit did that come out of me?!?'

Mom worked really hard for this picture!

Gabe tipped the scales at 8lbs 8.8 ounces. Not quite lucky 7s across the board, but it was just as happy a number for us to see. We had expected him to be closer to 6-7lbs based on estimations during checkups leading up to his delivery, so it was a bit of a surprise. He's 20' long, has really long fingers, and sharp nails on them. He's already managed to scratch himself a couple times on his face when he's been out of his sleeper.

Speaking of sleeping it is really easy to just sit and stare at him as he sleeps. Mom and Dad both have to be reminded that for now when the baby is asleep they need to try and catch a few winks. We him breastfeeding we don't usually have long before he's hungry for more.

Grandpa and Grandma Sullivan flew up on Sunday night and have been a huge help the past couple of days. This photo is from this morning. We actually got some sleep last night and Michelle was looking much better for it. We have no regrets about letting him go to the nursery so we could get some sleep. We can't exactly do that anymore;)

Here Gabe shows how he gets milk out of Mommy.

Thwarted from sucking on his fingers!

A happy new family, getting ready to head home!

We didn't get the timing quite right and he was ready for a feed as we were ready to leave. He was fussing like mad so I was entertaining him by letting him hold my finger in his hand. This made carrying him harder, but there are times when I feel like I'd do handstands on nails if it'd make him happy. Michelle walked out, and is feeling good for all she's gone through. She and Gabe are settling into the nursery right now, and I'm going to go join them.

Go Time!

We're off to the hospital!

The Contractions are Getting Regular

The contractions have settled into a regular discomfort every six and a half minutes! As soon as they reach five minutes, we’ll head to the hospital. Oof, here comes another one. . .

I spent the morning doing fiddly clean-up things about the house, and doing garden things with Chris. We learned how to braid onions (which made me feel like a proper farm-wife) and we ate chard, cucumber, and cherry tomatoes from the garden.

Here’s my absurdly cantilevered belly again!



And here is Chris, proudly displaying his onion accomplishment (and still wearing the shirt that he slept in!)

Still at Home. . .

Well, I decided to get some sleep while I waited for the contractions to get regular, and here I am feeling nicely rested and still having irregular, painless contractions. Chris wore his Hawaiian shirt to bed, in case he should have to spring into action at a moment’s notice. I think both of us slept better than my parents, who had already called the hospital this morning to see if I had checked in.

I’m going to do some housework to see it that’ll move my contractions along. . .

Dressed for Success

For the childbirth education class we took, as my homework I had drawn a picture of myself in labor. The image consists of myself, in a hospital gown, standing in a squat while grimacing; and Chris is sliding in across the floor in a Hawaiian shirt to catch the baby. (I’ll have to post the image later, because I forgot it at work.)

Yesterday, Chris said I couldn’t go into labor because he wasn’t wearing a Hawaiian shirt. So today, I lined up his Hawaiian shirts and told him to pick one so we could get on with it.

Finally, my scattered contractions are becoming regular! I guess the shirt did the trick.

The contractions feel about as uncomfortable as a really full bladder, and the discomfort doesn’t last for the duration of the contraction. They come every three to seven minutes so far. We’re going to track them for another half-hour or so, before calling the doctor.

I suppose I should grab a towel to sit on, because at some point I suppose my water will break.

Chris is being absolutely adorable. :)

Wheee!

Still Not in Labor. . .

Chris is on tenterhooks waiting for this baby to come out. Since we work together, he is able to stop by my desk during the day to check up on me. “You in labor yet?” he asks hopefully. If he were a puppy, his tail would be wagging and wagging.

In pregnancy I have achieved a level of mellowness that I have never had before. I feel like such a more patient and content person than I ever was, and I sincerely hope this feeling stays with me. I like being this person.

Baby preview!

Yet Another Night of Frequent Peeing

Nope, I’m still not in labor. The last few weeks have been amusing, though: I finally hit that fabled “pregnant women have to pee a lot” point. I have been awake to use the bathroom about as frequently as I will soon be awake nursing. I guess it’s a good warm-up for the real deal. I’m pleased to find that I can switch between awake and asleep with that frequency and still wake up feeling refreshed. (Though I know when there is nursing involved, it’ll mean half the amount of sleep in addition to the interruptions, so I expect to be a zombie at first, like every new mother.)

The worst part about the night-time interruptions is maneuvering my oversized belly in and out of bed! Just flipping from one side to another makes me sore.

Training my replacement at work has been going exceptionally well. We started off with a lemon of a situation: since we hired him so quickly, there was no computer set up for him, nor even a desk. I had to hunt down a chair for him on the first day so that he could sit next to me at my station. Monday we ran through how to use the software, and yesterday I started a small landscape-building task. I was able to show him my work-flow, and periodically I let him take over the work while I either watched or took care of other tasks offline.

I have heard of hot-seat programming, but I have never heard of hot-seat level-building, and I only know of one oddball pair of professional illustrators who take turns working on the same piece of art. I’ll be damned if this isn’t a most efficient way to ramp up a new employee on both tools and creative techniques! It gives me the opportunity to catch his bad habits before they become bad habits. I am forced to explain everything that I do, and he is present to spot techniques which I am not entirely conscious of using. And since I am always being watched, I waste less time. Between the two of us, I may just finish my current task on time in addition to getting him trained.