Wow, the last 5 days seem to have all run together, but finally there's a little time to sit down and update on what has been by far the best week of our lives!
Last Sunday, Pablo and I were determined to finish up the baby room and get a few last minute things out of the way before the arrival of Sophia - which we anticipated on Monday afternoon or Tuesday morning of this week. We ran around town doing what seemed like a million errands and my feet steadily went from only slightly swollen to balloon-like to providing some serious competition with the actual Bigfoot character. The crabbier I got, the more snacks I demanded - I figured, this far into the pregnancy with a major surgery coming up in a day or two, well dammit, I deserved them! A plate of nachos (the runny orange cheese kind) and an ice cream later (umm... triple scoop banana split - but mind you, mini scoops!), we got home in time to hang out for an hour or so before falling into bed. As was the norm with my big belly, I slept about 3 restless hours interrupted by around 6 trips to the bathroom before I finally gave up and turned on the TV. Apparently, my snacking was not over. Somehow (despite my complaining for weeks that I had no energy), I found it in me to boil water, cook pasta and dump on some Alfredo sauce! Yes, a bit of a late night snack accompanied by about half a box of cranapple juice. A little more tossing and turning (and heartburn) later, and I was ready for a shower to try to defeat the Vallarta heat. Thus the adventure begins…
Before hopping (ok, haha – not so much light-footed hopping going on in those days but you get what I mean) into the shower, I visited the toilet for the umpteenth time in days and realized that I had pink pee, an interesting development which I wasn’t sure should be attributed to the pregnancy or the massive amount of cranapple juice I drank. I woke Pablo and put him on alert – should we call our doctor? Was something wrong? Was this normal? But Sophia was moving about on the inside and the heart monitor told us her heartbeat was normal, so we decided to sleep on it (yeah, right) and wait until the morning to call our doctor with whom we had a 9 am appointment anyway. Pablo fell right back to sleep – severely irritating me as I figured we were on the verge of a life change and he had the nerve to not only sleep but snore! While I, in a slight panic, realized that I had about a week’s worth of work to do to get ready for our big wedding on May 17th – and I wasn’t sure what kind of time I had left to get it done. For all I knew, I had cranapple juice poisoning!
I got to work: designing, emailing, making list after list, placing flower orders and event orders, sending instructions to everyone and their brother, assigning projects, sending quotes – I happen to believe this to be my personal version of this nesting instinct I heard so much about happening in the last days of pregnancy … but I certainly didn’t go nutty cleaning or organizing, and no lasagnas all frozen and ready to pop in the oven at my house. Nope, I delegated and played bossy right up until the clock read 7am and I was still peeing pink. Pablo called our doctor who asked us to come in to her office right away; ten minutes later we got a call back from her telling us to meet her at the hospital instead – she had booked the operating room for 8 am - it was time!
I hopped (again, not really hopping) in the shower, we grabbed our stuff and off we went! Upon arrival at the hospital, I was whisked away to pre-op for a series of really fun stuff that I will spare you the details of knowing! I just kept my fingers crossed that my doctor's incision didn't go astray and instead open up my stomach where I was SURE there were remains of nachos, ice cream and pasta alfredo.
While being wheeled down the hallway, into the elevator and up to the operating room, I couldn’t help but think of Grey’s Anatomy, and how very dull my ride was in comparison. I mean seriously, no gossip, no doctors making out in closets; in fact, the most remarkable observation I made was that hospitals should seriously consider hiring muralists to paint their ceilings and provide a bit of an art experience for patients while being moved about the hospital.
Once in the operating room, I was poked and prodded in preparation, but it all felt a bit unreal! It was unbelievable to me that Pablo and I would be parents in a matter of a few minutes!
Pablo showed up in his scrubs and mask looking a little queasy as our doctor said it was time to begin! I was all smiles, most likely due to a great epidural, but Pablo’s nervous glances toward my abdomen area made me think he may have needed some drugs of his own!
At 9:10 am, Sophia Alexandra was born! She gave a big holler, kicked her scrawny wrinkled legs and was whisked away to be poked and prodded herself with Pablo hot on the heels of the doctor.
About 2 hours later and out of recovery, I met Pablo and Sophia in our hospital room and the fun began!
During her first five days, she has been a fantastic baby – wakes up twice a night for feeding but rarely cries! We happen to think she gets prettier every day (perhaps we are a bit biased).
So far she seems extremely talented – scored a 9 on her Apgar, eats, sleeps and poops – stay tuned as overachiever Sophia aims for the one-week finish line . . .
Last Sunday, Pablo and I were determined to finish up the baby room and get a few last minute things out of the way before the arrival of Sophia - which we anticipated on Monday afternoon or Tuesday morning of this week. We ran around town doing what seemed like a million errands and my feet steadily went from only slightly swollen to balloon-like to providing some serious competition with the actual Bigfoot character. The crabbier I got, the more snacks I demanded - I figured, this far into the pregnancy with a major surgery coming up in a day or two, well dammit, I deserved them! A plate of nachos (the runny orange cheese kind) and an ice cream later (umm... triple scoop banana split - but mind you, mini scoops!), we got home in time to hang out for an hour or so before falling into bed. As was the norm with my big belly, I slept about 3 restless hours interrupted by around 6 trips to the bathroom before I finally gave up and turned on the TV. Apparently, my snacking was not over. Somehow (despite my complaining for weeks that I had no energy), I found it in me to boil water, cook pasta and dump on some Alfredo sauce! Yes, a bit of a late night snack accompanied by about half a box of cranapple juice. A little more tossing and turning (and heartburn) later, and I was ready for a shower to try to defeat the Vallarta heat. Thus the adventure begins…
Before hopping (ok, haha – not so much light-footed hopping going on in those days but you get what I mean) into the shower, I visited the toilet for the umpteenth time in days and realized that I had pink pee, an interesting development which I wasn’t sure should be attributed to the pregnancy or the massive amount of cranapple juice I drank. I woke Pablo and put him on alert – should we call our doctor? Was something wrong? Was this normal? But Sophia was moving about on the inside and the heart monitor told us her heartbeat was normal, so we decided to sleep on it (yeah, right) and wait until the morning to call our doctor with whom we had a 9 am appointment anyway. Pablo fell right back to sleep – severely irritating me as I figured we were on the verge of a life change and he had the nerve to not only sleep but snore! While I, in a slight panic, realized that I had about a week’s worth of work to do to get ready for our big wedding on May 17th – and I wasn’t sure what kind of time I had left to get it done. For all I knew, I had cranapple juice poisoning!
I got to work: designing, emailing, making list after list, placing flower orders and event orders, sending instructions to everyone and their brother, assigning projects, sending quotes – I happen to believe this to be my personal version of this nesting instinct I heard so much about happening in the last days of pregnancy … but I certainly didn’t go nutty cleaning or organizing, and no lasagnas all frozen and ready to pop in the oven at my house. Nope, I delegated and played bossy right up until the clock read 7am and I was still peeing pink. Pablo called our doctor who asked us to come in to her office right away; ten minutes later we got a call back from her telling us to meet her at the hospital instead – she had booked the operating room for 8 am - it was time!
I hopped (again, not really hopping) in the shower, we grabbed our stuff and off we went! Upon arrival at the hospital, I was whisked away to pre-op for a series of really fun stuff that I will spare you the details of knowing! I just kept my fingers crossed that my doctor's incision didn't go astray and instead open up my stomach where I was SURE there were remains of nachos, ice cream and pasta alfredo.
While being wheeled down the hallway, into the elevator and up to the operating room, I couldn’t help but think of Grey’s Anatomy, and how very dull my ride was in comparison. I mean seriously, no gossip, no doctors making out in closets; in fact, the most remarkable observation I made was that hospitals should seriously consider hiring muralists to paint their ceilings and provide a bit of an art experience for patients while being moved about the hospital.
Once in the operating room, I was poked and prodded in preparation, but it all felt a bit unreal! It was unbelievable to me that Pablo and I would be parents in a matter of a few minutes!
Pablo showed up in his scrubs and mask looking a little queasy as our doctor said it was time to begin! I was all smiles, most likely due to a great epidural, but Pablo’s nervous glances toward my abdomen area made me think he may have needed some drugs of his own!
At 9:10 am, Sophia Alexandra was born! She gave a big holler, kicked her scrawny wrinkled legs and was whisked away to be poked and prodded herself with Pablo hot on the heels of the doctor.
About 2 hours later and out of recovery, I met Pablo and Sophia in our hospital room and the fun began!
During her first five days, she has been a fantastic baby – wakes up twice a night for feeding but rarely cries! We happen to think she gets prettier every day (perhaps we are a bit biased).
So far she seems extremely talented – scored a 9 on her Apgar, eats, sleeps and poops – stay tuned as overachiever Sophia aims for the one-week finish line . . .
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