First Holiday Season

I love Momai's family, there is such a wide range of beliefs when it comes to spirituality and yet it has never ever been an issue. We gather at or around Christmas time, I call it Christmas time but it's more like Family Celebration.

This year was extra special for me for two reasons.

One, the obvious, is to watch Griffin play with paper, be given a box to open and do nothing but squish it and slid around on his knees (thinking wow! best gift ever....carpet slider!!), explore new territory, play with his cousins, play with his cousins animals, laugh with Grandparents, laugh with his Aunts, laugh with his Uncle, get pictures taken of us all in matching pjs (thanks to Nana) and I can keep going and going, we will post pictures soon.

Second, I got to watch my Momai's parents witness the love of their children. Momai's sister Jeanne came up with an idea to make a floor plan of their old house, and each of the four children were to make a laminated overlay to said map and mark places where they have memories and write them out with corrosponding numbers. They weren't suppossed to get together and work on the project, only at the end when the books were put together did Jeanne get to first witness the memories.

I sat back watching the love from Momai and her siblings as they watched their parents open up the best gift of all. Witnessing what their children remembered about growing up, the love, the humor, the tears, the fears and the comfort. Many memories had been forgotten, many memories renewed and many of the memories were marked by two, or three siblings but seen through different eyes.

I saw in that moment, myself and Momai, lucky enough that our son Griffin, and perhaps his siblings, will be so cared for and so loved that he will have memories, and we will have memories. Some memories will be shared here, shared with strangers as we reach out for support for the uncommon family.

To all the single mothers, to all of the single fathers, to all of the daddies, all of the mommies, the lesbian dads, the lesbian moms and so so many more labels, I wish you the best at this time of the year, and into the new year.

We are gardians of such treasures and hopes; and I for one am proud to stand and call each person who reads this family.

To memories old and new, Blessed Be.

Baba Oops

So remember those photos of the fauxhawk the other day?

Well it was at a request by Momai's coworkers and she was at work, so of course I took up the task.

As I've said before I take no where near as good of pictures as Momai's so I knew that I'd have to take /lots/ of them.

Ahem....soooo I went into our bathroom and picked up some of Momai's styling gel thinking I'd give his hair a hand in standing up for the photo shoot.

All of the gels and stuff say uber hold, ultra style, 12 hour spike and stuff like that so I picked the first one that I could reach thinking that "yeah yeah they're all the same."

So I styled the little guy's hair and sure enough it stayed up through the whole photo shoot and all the way up until Momai got home that evening... and through till that night.

As we marveled at the fact that his hair was still standing up Momai asked if I'd used something to help it stay up. Which I answered quickly (with pride at my own cleverness) about the gel (which now that I remember back was the consistancy of almsot dry elmer's glue) and then promptly got a giggle, then a laugh.

Apparently I'd chosen the most powerful styling product that we own, that also happened to be water proof.

Needless to say through all of Griffin's play, washings, hair brushings, sleeping he kept that fauxhawk for about 6 days.

Yes my friends, 6 days; even after it was slicked down it'd still dry and retun to resemble its former style.

I wonder if I should call the company and compliment them on their very effective product?

Editor's Note

I am retracting my previous statement regarding Griffin calling me Baba.

I am pleaed to announce that he has dubbed me Pbff pbff.

I wonder how well that'll go over at the social secruity office when I go to change my name.

Tee hee

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Not as good as pictures taken by Momai.

Almost 8 months...wow!

No pictures with that post; that's usually Momai's department so we'll get some up for you soon.

So what's happened since we last shared:

-8 teeth in total
-Eating solids more than formula
-Pulling himself up to sit
-Pulling himself up to stand
-Lots and lots and lots of babbling and starting to take his turns in babble.

Whew...yeah lots has happend and I think (I hope) I got a fair video of Griffin standing up his first time. I looked over my shoulder because he was quiet and sure enough he was standing. So shocked me tried to go for the camera before I startled him and he sat back down (or fell).

So talking, babble and we've started to identify ourselves to him as Momma (Momai) and Baba (Mombi) so we'll see how that works. He hadn't really picked up on the different sounds and the family gets a bit confused so we're going to give these changes a go. Not quite ready to change my name on the blogs though.

Yah, back to talking.

Tee hee

So I do quite a bit of talking over the computer internationally and he has started to pick up on the cadence of a conversation. He knows that when a computer is talking he is quiet and when the computer is quiet I star to talk. Only issue with that is he usually babbles over me when I'm trying to respond, which gives everyone a good laugh. He gets a bit confused when there is more than a few people talking at once and I've been quiet for awhile so he just stares blankly.

So we've started watching a couple programs on Nick Jr. to suplement what I'm teaching him on my own. I've been really pleased with the programing, and wow we have come a long way since Sesame Street when I was a kid. There are four that I love (and some a love hate relationship) that he gets into.

Well I say gets into is he usually watches the first ten min or so of the show then goes off to play, and either listens while he plays and usually goes back to it in a few minutes.

So onto the list.

Blue's Clues
Nice slow scene transitions that don't make his eyeballs go crazy. Very good educational tool, I was impressed that their episode on colors consisted of the primary, secondary and terciary colors. I wish I'd learned how to identify magenta when I was a kid. Draw back for me is the songs, they're so easy to get stuck in my head and they're the kind that don't seem to really have an ending.

Backyardigans
Love this show and how it explores imagination. Right now he's only processing the colors, voices and music but the boy loooves music and the songs are fun as well as the episodes

Wonder Pets
Uber cute, almost too much cuteness but again the music, good themes (even though he might not understand them yet) and nice slow scene transitions. Major one for this show is their "different" song every show is really just the same song with only a few minor changes....so oooh yeah do I get this one stuck in my head.

Yo Gabba Gabba
Hmm...this one is my least favorite out of the four only because it's a bit too much for his age...and yet he giggles when he sees the puppets so if it happens to be on when we're at a stage that he'd like some entertainment other than Baba (yes shock and horror I do get boring after awhile) I go ahead and let him watch some of it. If you've never experienced the show... it is...well I'll try to sum it up in a few words. DJ, orange fro looking hat, orange 70's jump suit, magical boom box straight from the late 70s....nuff said.

Well I think my quiet time is over, I promise we'll get new pictures (and hopefully a video or two) posted.

Blessed Be,

Baba (just testing it out, Mombi)

6.5 Months Full of Personality

I took Griffin to the park today to get a couple outdoor shots of him before it gets too cold out. He was all grins, but somehow all the big grin shots came out blurry or were focussed on the background. He ran out of energy toward the end, but we had a great time. Enjoy!

Also, a big "Hello!" to Griffin's Tati Fifi, who finally got to meet him in person today! Unfortunately it was at the end of a long day and when he was uncomfortable after an unfavorable reaction to his first carrots, and he didn't have many smiles left. She did manage to get a couple chuckles out of him, though!

Griffin is 6 months old!

On Monday, Griffin will be six months old. Wow, how time flies! He got his first two teeth at around 4 months old. He's recently learned to sit by himself, and yesterday morning we saw him up on his hands and knees for the first time. He's been doing it frequently ever since, and even doing the rocking forward thing, so we wouldn't be surprised if he's crawling within the next couple weeks. He never did develop a love for rice cereal, but he just started baby oatmeal and he loves it! He's got a great personality and a wonderful sense of humor, and we're having a fabulous time being parents. It's the most amazing experience! Here are a few random photos from this weekend (the grins and the one of him sitting) and one from last weekend (with the giraffe in the background). Enjoy!






And just for fun, here's a video from a few weeks ago:

Bringin' on the Scripture

Baby conversations with people really run the whole range. There are those who just want to hear that no one but the cat gets any sleep, and that the cat is bald from the baby pulling its hair out. There are those that want to gush about what a wonderful experience parenthood is, and how much they miss "that age." And then there are those conversations that are, well, just plain interesting.

The other day I was getting my morning coffee at work when the woman next to me at the other coffee machine asked, "How's the baby?" So I replied with my usual "He's wonderful, he's growing so fast" and mentioned that he has two teeth already. She was very surprised, as most people are, and then exclaimed, "Whew! You just brought on some scripture!"

She went on to exclaim about how the Bible says that in the end times, children will grow up quickly, and isn't it amazing how reminders are everywhere these days. I was just trying to figure out how to respond to her enthusiastic suggestion that my child was an indication of the impending end of the world when she exclaimed, "Well, have a great day!" and walked off.

People are so odd.

Happy End-of-August!

Wow, next week Griffin will be five months old. Where has the time gone?!? Well, a lot of time has gone to changing and washing diapers, cleaning and prepping bottles, and loading and unloading the washer/dryer. A lot more time has gone to smiling, laughing, tickling, bragging, yawning, and a fair bit of crying (by all three of us.) Griffin is absolutely enchanting. He's very happy and easy going, and apart from some dry skin issues, the worst health scare we've had from him since he left the hospital was a big spit-up in bed followed by a day of wanting to be held the whole time. He has two (count 'em, two!) teeth already, both on the bottom. He's even balder than when he was born, and his eyes have brightened to a lustrous light blue. He squeals and coos with joy, and is developing quite the vocabulary of sounds. It's so wonderful to watch him learning and growing. We love our baby boy!

Here are some recent pictures:

Random July Photos

This is the blanket that Griffin's Aunt Amy made him.

The obligatory "cute when he cries" shot.

Making faces for Mombi after a bath. Griffin loves swimming in the tub!

Well hello there!

Thanks to all those who posted harassing comments to remind me how long it's been since I posted!

Things are great here in the land of Griffin. We're all head-over-heals in love with the little guy. He's still a very alert and cheerful baby. He's been sleeping through the night since around two months. Since our last post, he's probably only woken us up once in the night. Of course, I'm still up to pump breast milk each night at around 1:30am (no longer twice during the night.) In the past few days, we've also started changing him and giving him a bottle in the middle of the night. He pretty much sleeps through it, but we were growing concerned that he wasn't getting enough food. We have his 4 month check-up soon, so we'll ask the pediatrician for her recommendation then.

Our schedule is still pretty much the same as it was. Mombi, for her part, is very tired in the evenings because she's such an interactive caregiver. The poor girl actually had a hoarse voice the other day from singing and talking with him so much! For me, the tiredness stems from not getting many breaks. I come home from work and assume baby duties pretty much immediately, until I put him to bed and colapse into sleep myself. I don't mind because I love the time with Griffin, and my day job is much less tiring (most days) than Mombi's is, but it doesn't leave much time for other stuff (including posting on the blog!) It's really horrible and I can't quite believe I'm sharing it, but I've actually gone a full week without a shower a few times. Luckily, I can wear corporate branded baseball caps at the office!

Ah! Griffin is taking a late nap this evening! I think I'll join him!

2.5 Month Routine

Wow, I'm actually posting! Must be the weekend!

Life is great here in Griffin Land. We've definitely settled into a good routine with him, and we're all very happy most of the time. Our day starts at around 4:30AM, when Mombi gets up to prep for the day. She washes the breast pumps that I've used during the night, and gets Griffin's breakfast ready for him. He usually wakes up between 4:30 and 5:30, and Mombi changes and feeds him and does his morning exercises. Around 6:00 I get up, pump, and start getting ready for work. I leave around 7:10 after some baby cuddles, and Griffin settles down for a morning nap. He usually sleeps for 1-3 hours, and then wakes up hungry again. After that, the day varies depending on how tired he is, but around 5:00PM I return from work. I entertain the babe while Mombi makes dinner, we spend some family time together, and then Mombi heads to bed around 8 or 9. I start Griffin's bedtime routine (clothes/diaper change, swaddle, 4 oz of milk, and snuggle until comatose) around 8:45, and he usually falls asleep right around 9:30. I pump while I watch him on the monitor to see if he loses his pacifier (pluggie) and replace it as necessary, usually one to three times before he's deeply asleep and/or doesn't notice when he's lost it. I finish pumping, wash any pumps and parts that are dirty so that I'll have them ready to go at 12:30 and 3:30, then head to bed. We all sleep through the night (apart from my nighttime pumpings) and then we start all over the next day.

It really is quite a lovely existance. Busy, but so very worth while!

Video of Griffin

Mombi and Griffin were out playing on the porch this morning, and I couldn't resist grabbing some footage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqUMolbEaQE

Enjoy!

Baby Exercises

(Written by Mombi)

I usually do these twice a day with Griffin, first thing in the morning right after he’s eaten, and in the evening before Momai gets home from work after he’s eaten then. I do this after he eats so this doubles as help burping and he’s usually more receptive when he’s not hungry.

I like to combine both speech exercises with the physical ones, what we do ties face expression to voice and voice to physical movements. There are two stages I like to call ‘serious’ then ‘silly’ during serious I try to keep my face expressions as I would be speaking to a child trying to not make any funny faces to get his attention; silly time is when we play with our tongues big eyes mouth and raising our voice.

It usually takes anywhere from 10 to 20 min depending on how receptive and tired he is, I can tell if he’s had enough when he ‘fights’ against the muscle movements or starts to look away with disinterest.

After we’re done with serious and silly there is a quick massage of his muscles and joints, this he really enjoys and relaxes him after all the hype of exercise time.

Okay, so the exercises themselves, I don’t do these in any order so I’ll just list what we do during the time.

Big and Small – Laying down in front of you let him grab your thumbs and extend his arms out as wide as you can just stretching like wings and as you do so say biiiiiiiig then bring his hands back together to his chest while you say smaaaaaaaaall. If he resists with one arm just go with it, don’t force it too much.

Tall and Short – Same as Big and Small this time you’re going above his head, then flat down to his sides. With each movement tell him what you’re doing, Tall, then short. I try to not let him rotate his shoulders (in a swim type fasion) because that comes later, I try to encourage him to bend instead of rotate down.

Swim Forward and Backward – Just like a breast stroke you want to rotate his arms (slowly at first until they get used to it) and I like to count to ten, first forward then back. I tell him that we’re going forward then count as we swim, then switch to going back then count.

Left and Right – This is sitting up or laying down and his least favorite exercise because he has a favorite side to lay on. Exorsising his neck and shoulders to look in different directions is the goal, I use my palms on each side of his cheeks and say Left and wiggle my left index finger for a visual and then help him look to the left, I hold his head there for about ten seconds counting to ten slowly. Then do the same to the right and holding his head there for ten seconds.

Up and Down – Same as left and Right, this is a neck exercise and easier than Left and Right. I can usually just cup his chin and help support his head if it wobbles and say Up, and Down holding to a count of ten.

Jump – Now moving to lower body I grab his little feet and make him squat. I try to keep his knees as close together as his diaper and body allows so his body learns that Jump is different than the natural ‘oh, we’re changing the diaper now spread’. So jumping, I make him squat and count to ten then pull down in a mock jump. The holding for count of three feels like a build of energy and encourages him to push. After about 5 weeks he’s starting to push.

Swivel – This is again lower body and centers at the hips, this one is real quick again I say left one two three as I hold, then swivel right one two three as I hold in the other direction. I usually only don’t repeat this one.

Run Forward and Back - Lower body, pretty simple you want to simulate him running in place both forwards and backwards and I count to ten or twenty and at each change I tell him we’re going forward and back.

Now time for Silly time; this he loves and looks forward to and I’ll do with him through out the day. It’s Dancing with him while chanting or singing, My personal favorite happens to be “dance dance dance dance boogie boogie boogie boogie” while I move his arms in the old ‘cabbage patch’ style or just silly moving around. There are no repetitive motions here, just fun movement. I don’t try to stretch his neck or lower body during this time not until he’s sitting up.

Then a massage, it’s more like just squeezing his hands lower and upper arms, while he’s laying down if you roll your fingers over his spine then up to his neck you might giggle at the funny faces they make as they relax.

As Griffin develops more these will change quite a bit I’m sure, but so far I think these exercises will be good for 0 to 4 months (and beyond).

We'll videotape Griffin exercising and post it soon!

2 months already!

It's absolutely incredible to think that two months have gone by already. I apologize for neglecting the blog, but I'm not sorry for it. It's been very busy around here, with lots of baby stuff and other stuff all happening at once.


By way of making it up to you, here are some photos from the "photo shoot" that I had with Griffin out on the porch this morning!

What was it called?

Mombi and I need your help. We're trying to remember the name of a show that we watched as children, and we're coming up blank. It was a PBS show where a guy would draw illustrations for stories as he told them. The drawings were done in pastels or maybe colored pencils, on colored paper. If you know the name of the show, please let us know. The show inspired our creativity and love of books as kids, and we want to get copies of the episodes to show Griffin when he gets older.

What a day!

It's an amazing day to be a parent!

I know there will be days that Griffin will be frustrated and fussy which in turn will make me frustated and fussy (though I doubt I'll pout as much), but days like this are really just perfect.


Mr. Griffin has been happy all morning, and no doubt he actually slept all though the night, and so did Momai (woot!). We did our exersises and he had a lot of fun and I think he's starting to get the idea that when he makes those sounds when he's happy it matches the laughing sounds I make when he does something funny.

We played with the cat, Basil is our calico cat who is usually very skittish of strangers, but damn she's no stranger to Griffin she layed on him for 9 months and he knows her purr I swear it's like old buddies. They had some play time today when she jumped up into my lap when I was burping him and made sure that his new little blue socks had enough cat hair on them before giving him a head butt on the nose and jumping down.

Then we played with Orange our dog who is wary of Griffin but very protective. I think that is why Orange is so wary is that she knows she's a hell of a lot bigger than little Griffin and he could get hurt easily. Anyway, back to playing Orange nosed Griffin made lots of excited noises and reached out with his little mitted hands and managed to bop the dog a good on in the nose. I think after that they'll be friends for life, Orange is still really careful but I think Griffin proved himself part of the team.

Orange is an amazing dog, she knows what toys she can and can't play with. We've given her lots of stuffed animals to disembowel (after easter sales are great for cheep dog toys, bunny ears rock) but she does not touch Griffin's toys even though Mombi keeps leaving around the stuffed ducks.

We ate lots today in solid chunks, 3 and 4 oz at a time instead of 1 or 2 every hour or so which was nice, and I think makes his little stomach feel much better.

Anyway, lots of rambling but I wanted to share my thoughts of the day and my first week as a stay at home mother.

From a child who refused to play with dolls as a child, hated to play house, refused to be the damsel in distess when we played superheros on the play ground, dislikes housework in general but loves to teach kids I would like to say I think this is going to work. I like being a Lesbian Mom, I feel like something has been completed in my life that I didn't know was missing before.

Tee hee never would have guessed it would have been a little baby Griffin.

Love you Momai and Griffin.

Mombi

Six Weeks Old!

It's so hard to believe that Griffin is six weeks old already. Where has the time gone?!? Tomorrow morning is my first day back to work. I'm excited and nervous and a tiny bit heartbroken. I think it will all be great, as long as I can stay awake!

Here's a picture of Griffin from earlier today:

Family Portrait

Finally, a picture of all of us together! This is the first photo of all three of us since I had an oxygen mask on in the hospital!

Griffin's First Bath

We celebrated Cinco de Mayo with Griffin's first bath. Here are some pictures, plus a bonus video of Griffin making faces in his sleep last night.

Video of Griffin in the tub!

Here's a video of Griffin making faces in his sleep.

Busy, busy, busy!

People are starting to ask if all is well, so I figured I'd better check in to let you all know that things are great. Busy, a bit frentic at times, and sometimes issued when there isn't enough milk (he gets burps from the formula so we're trying to reduce our use of it), but great.

Tomorrow we're going to Nana and Grandpa Jake's house for lunch and an afternoon of visiting with some relatives who are visiting from out of town, including my Aunt Terri and Uncle Jim, and my sister Jeanne, who also hasn't met him yet. We're all excited!

Here are a couple more photos of our little man:

Taking a moment

Griffin's napping and I'm actually awake, so I figured I'd take the chance to post. Maternity leave is such a blur. I generally have no idea what day it is, and half the time I don't even know if the time on the clock is AM or PM. As tiring and random as it is, I'm thoroughly enjoying myself. I think Mombi and Griffin are, too.

It's so sweet to wake up to Mombi bringing Griffin into our room for a random snuggle when he's fresh and clean from a sponge bath, or when we're playing on his play mat, or just checking out the light fixtures. Watching Mombi talking to him and playing with him is amazing.

I'm doing about half of Griffin's feedings by pumping for Mombi to bottle feed, and half by nursing. He also gets a few ounces a day of formula, since I'm not quite up to speed with him yet after all the formula he got while in the NICU. I've stopped stressing about it, though, so it's all good. Mombi keeps me well fed and rested, and I try to do the same for her. Last night I actually woke up right before my three hour alarm twice in a row, so my body is definitely adjusting to sleeping in short bursts. Thank goodness for that!

We're also making plans for our first big trip with Griffin. A cousin of mine is getting married in Michigan in a month, and we're going to go up for the wedding. (Amanda, are you going to be there? Any othe relatives lurking on the blog?) We're looking forward to showing him off a bit, and seeing everyone. It's been so long since I've seen that side of the family that I'm sure I won't even recognize most of my cousins. There are over 40 cousins on that side of the family, and I'm the oldest, so I won't be able to figure it out easily! I'm sure we'll also have some sort of get-together with the other side of the family while we're in town. It'll be an adventure, to be sure!


Here's a photo I took of Griffin yesterday. Doesn't it make you just want to curl up with him and take a nap?

Two Pictures

Nana probably won't want to wear these earrings when we visit in a couple months.




Griffin doesn't cry often, but when he does, watch out!

Happiness is...

...posting a blog (or doing pretty much anything) with a baby sleeping on your chest.

Life is grand. Apart from some sleep deprevation, we're all doing great. The first couple days with Griffin home were definitely rough, particularly in terms of sleep (us not getting enough) and food (me not producing enough) but we seem to be much improved on both fronts. I'm coming to realize just how short a six week maternity leave is, though. He's already over two weeks old! I know that anyone else will laugh to hear it, but he seems so grown up! He had his first well baby visit at 12 days old, and had already gained an inch of length. Wow!

We took him to my brother's house on Saturday for a bar-b-que, and had a great time. They have three little girls, ages 7, 3, and 2. Sydney, the two year old, seemed so tiny and young just a few weeks ago. It's amazing how time and perspective can change so quickly.

I'll post more photos soon, I promise. Right now I've got an adorable baby snoozing on my lap, and the camera is on the other side of the room.

*Yawn*

Great baby. Very happy. Need more sleep.

Welcome home, Griffin!

Griffin is finally home with us, and he's doing great! He got a clean bill of health from the neonatologist, with no need for any more special medical attention for his mystery infection. They never did figure out what it was, but his labs look great now. Here are a couple photos from today!

Mombi Loves Griffin

Mombi spent the day creating a web page to introduce Griffin to our online friends. Even with a "mushy" warning from her before I saw it, I still teared up looking at it. She's so sweet. I love my family, my partner, and our little boy!

Griffin's First Web Site

Check it out!

Monday is our day!

Per the neonatologist, Griffin will be released from care Monday. He'll be getting his last round of antibiotics on Sunday night at 10, but we'll have to wait until the doctor is there the next day in order to do the discharge stuff. It'll be a great one-week gift to all of us to have him home again. As much as I love the staff at the NICU, the trips back and forth to the hospital are getting a bit old!

Wide Eyes

Did we mention that he's a very alert baby?

Collection of Mental Moments

As the experience of labor begins to fade in my mind, there are moments that remain vivid and strong. What moments were best or worst? Hard to say. The entire experience was so overwhelming that it's nearly impossible to rank them in any sort of specific order. However, there are definitely a few that stand out as top contenders.

The first half hour or so after my water broke were probably the most "fun." I managed to maintain my own calm, and so I was really able to enjoy watching Mombi and my sister and her partner all running around and pulling everything together for the trip to the hospital. There were so many smiles and cases of people running around forgetting what they were supposed to be looking for. It was great fun to watch from my waterproofed spot on the couch.

The span of time when Griffin's heart rate dropped during labor was definitely the scariest, despite the drugs that kept me from total awareness. I remember trying to prepare myself for the possibility that we had come so far only to lose him right then. After hearing that steady doplar beat for so many hours, hearing it get slower and slower was terrifying. Twelve hours and one successful birth later, sleeping off the meds in my recovery room, I kept hearing the doplar in my mind. I woke up with a start several times when I thought I heard it slow down.

The moment that was even better than I dreamed it would be was the first time I looked over and saw Mombi holding Griffin. It gives me tears every time I think about it, and it's not hormones talking. We've been together nearly six years, and for at least five of those years I've been imagining what a great mom she'd be and what it would be like to have kids together. Seeing her with our child, and the pure love and joy she was pouring over him, was indescribaby beautiful.

Here's a bonus shot of my mom hanging out with Griffin in the NICU:

Griffin's Birth

First, I have to give some huge thanks to my amazing wife, to my mom, and to the staff at the hospital. They were all amazing!

Griffin's birth was a bit scary with a few close calls. See the post below when you see a (number) if you want all the details.

The beginning was certainly uneventful. After my water broke and we got to the hospital, we discovered that I was only dialated about a fingertip, which is about half a centimeter. At ten the next morning, with 17 hours or so already elapsed, I was still at the same dilation, even though I was totally effaced. They decided at that point to increase my pitocin, give me some narcotics in my IV to help me relax, and do a catheter drain. The combination worked a bit too well too quickly, and I dilated to 6 over the next half hour. Griffin's heart rate dropped suddenly. (1) After his heart rate was stabilized, I slept for a while while they gradually brought the pitocin back up. I dilated steadily over the next few hours. When it was finally time to push, it took only about ten minutes and 7 contractions or so for him to be born. (2)

Mombi got to hold him a lot and had some great 1:1 bonding time while I was cleaned up. His Apgars were 8 and 9, and he spent the next two hours wide awake and observant as my dad, sister Amy, and sister's partner Shelley arrived to meet him.

Mombi and I are back home at last. Griffin is still in the NICU, due to a mystery infection which necessitates giving him several days of antibiotics. They were prompted to do some lab work on him after they noticed that he tended to squeek or grunt when sleeping soundly, which indicated that he was having a bit of a hard time breathing. He's doing great now, though, and he now looks and acts perfectly healthy apart from a touch of baby jaundice. We're visiting him at the hospital as frequently as possible. It looks like we'll be bringing him home on Sunday if nothing changes.

They don't know what the infection is/was or what caused it, but there are two top theories. The first is that it was related to how long his amniotic sac was ruptured. It was nearly 22 hours from rupture to delivery by my calculations, but possibly longer if it started out as a very small leak. 24 hours is the maximum they'll let you deliver vaginally after it ruptures due to risk of infection. The other possibility is that I had a cold or some other virus/bacterial gunk that I wasn't aware of that was passed to him even though I wasn't showing symptoms. Sheryl's had a bit of chest/throat funk for a couple weeks, so it's possible that I brought something home and gave it to both of them but didn't show symptoms myself.

Would I do it again? Yup! I definitely wouldn't do it at home, though, because I can't imagine how stressful it would have been to not have help at hand when it was needed. I was very glad to have been at a hospital that has a good NICU. I probably wouldn't resist medical assistance with the labor, either, but that would depend a lot on whether or not my water broke before contractions started. That really changed things. I do wish that my own doctor had been available (she was in Central America with her family for Easter) but of course that's nothing that can really be planned for so far in advance!

Here's the Scary Stuff

Caution: This post contains the more graphic and/or scary details of Griffin's birth experience. It all ended up fine, but I'm sure that many of you may wish to skip this one. I'll post the happy details right after this, but I wanted to post these first so that they won't stay at the top of the blog for long.

(1) At one point during labor, Griffin's heart rate dropped to about a third what it should have been. I was on IV narcotics at that point so I was not entirely lucid, but I remember that the room was suddenly full of medical personnel. As the nurses had me roll from side to side and put an oxygen mask on me, my mom and Mombi hovered at my sides, keeping their hands on me for reassurance. Since I hadn't had an epidural, there was serious concern about what they would do if they had to do an emergency Cesarean. I had to sign papers giving permission for general anesthesia and/or epidural. They gave him an internal monitor at that point. They gave me something to stop my labor, and luckily his heartrate stabilized. Just in case it got bad again, they put in the epidural so that they would not have any delays if it got critical again. I fell asleep for about 45 minutes after that, the first and only steady sleep I had during labor.

(2) When Griffin's head was delivered, the doctor commented that one mystery had been solved. The cord was wrapped around his neck twice, which explained his severely fluctuating heart rate. I ended up with second degree tears and major swelling due to the speed of the delivery during the pushing phase, but I'm still glad that I pushed him out as quickly as I did. At that point, I just wanted him out so that he would be safe!

Firsts: Woo hoo!!

Griffin Alexander arrived into this world at 3 minutes to 3pm on Sunday the 8th of April. He weighs 7lbs even and is 19 inches long.

Momai is doing fine and resting in the hospital while I have come home for the evening to rest, take care of the animals and try to navigate through email, and systems I'm not familar with in order to spread the news.

Sadly I was unable to find the connector cord for the digital camera in order to post the pictures that we have.

I promise as soon as Momai gets home we'll get them posted for you.

Thank you all for your love and support.

~Mombi

Going with the Flow!

My sister and her girlfriend came over this evening, and we were showing off the nursery and all the cute clothes and stuff when my water broke at around 5:35 PM. Fun! I'm just giggling right now because everyone is all frenzied. We're going to hang around here until my mom gets here, which will take 40 minutes to an hour. That should give Mombi time to review the videos on Babycenter.

:)

Momai, Unplugged!

Yep, lost the plug this morning. And he's moved way down. Still no regular or hard-core contractions, but we're making sure we have the bags packed and all of that. I know it could still be a couple weeks, but it sure does feel like it's going to be soon!

Introducing... The Nursery!

I finally got to see the nursery on Sunday night, and it's awesome! It was after dark so I took photos with the "mood lighting." The twinkle lights behind the fabric wall are on a dimmer, so they can be set to glow as gently as we want them.

On the side of the room that you can't really see in the pictures, there's a set of shelves and an antique bed that will be used by guests, or by us if we need to sleep over with Griffin. The bed has a fabulous quilt and matching pillows, done in the same fabrics as the rest of the room. Mombi and my mom really outdid themselves!

I really like the colors, because they're soft enough to work for a baby but bold and fun enough that they'll still work for many years. The whole thing is so versatile! Mom also surprised us with a glider, which is very comfortable, and two floor rockers so that we can have back support while playing with Griffin on the floor. Brilliant!