Changes

It is so weird how my days just fly by. Birdie will be 11 weeks tomorrow. Where has the time gone?

She has grown immensely in these past few weeks. And my inclination is telling me that this will be how it is going to be. She smiles ALL of the time. She laughs occasionally. She can kind of hold her head up. And she sleeps 10 hours a night- thank you!

Her face also continues to change. Last week, I swore she looked like me. Today she looks more like her dad. In the end, I wonder who she will look like. I hope that she has inheritaed the best parts of both of us!

I love how she is really laid back. She definatley gets that from me. She does not a fussy baby at all. She has her momemnts, but she is really a good good baby.

Last week, I took her to get her first round of vaccines. I really almost cried when she screamed after they poked her. It was really heartbreaking. For the rest of the day she was not her self and I was paranoid that she wasn't going to be the same calm loving baby she was before. But, alas, the next day she was back to her "old"self- old in the 10 week old sense.

M and I talk about vaccines and what which ones we are going to give Birdie. We decide against the Hep B vaccine. I mean we just got this last year so we could go on a trip to Dakar, Senegal. Did my one day old baby need to get this one? No, I don't think so.

Well my little birdie is chirping again, so I've got to go. I promise to post more often.

It Really Is a New Day

My mind has continually thought about what Tuesday meant for America and what it means for Birdie. For the first time in our history we have elected a man who is black to be our 44th president- Barack Obama. He is an inspiration to all through out the world. He is an inspiration to me.

What I love is that Birdie will grow up in a world where the color of your skin cannot prohibit what you can do. I have no doubt that in her life time, probably in mine there will be a female president.

What I also love is that my generation is starting to lead the country and our world. The baby boomers do not think like us. They love to fight with each other and do not seek a spirit of unity. There is too much to do in the world for fighting amongst democrats and republicans. People are fed up with a Washington who does not work for the people, but for themselves and the lobbists. There is a new day of change coming to American. I am exicted to see where it goes.

I leave you with quote from Obama speach in NH.

"We will remember that there is something happening in America. That we are not as divided as our politics suggest. That we are one people. We are one nation. And together we will begin the next great chapter in the American story with three words that will ring from coast to coast, from sea to shining sea, yes we can."




American's global reputation has been tainted by what our government has done over the last eight years. And as our world continues to shrink, this has been detrimental to our standing in the world as a leader of peace, freedom and democracy. As Thomas Friedman book The World is Flat

The Beginning

Birdie's entrance into the world started the morning of September 8th 2008. By this date she was 9 days "late" and I was ready for her to come! The whole pregnancy went well and it wasn't until the very end that I was "ready."


You may wonder why write about this, but the thing is that if I don't get these details down, I will forget. I have a bad memory and forget a lot of things. I think this blog will help me to reflect on the details of "My Life with Birdie" and to just plain remember them.


So the morning of Monday September 8th 2008, M and I went to the midwife to see if Birdie was ever going to come. The Friday before there were no signs of her and we were anxious to see what, if anything, happened over the weekend. Indeed I made progress and was 2 cm dilated and was a candidate to be induced with a Foley catheter. I will spare you the details, but it was painful and we went straight home from the appointment.

Around 3 pm that day my water broke! And at 5 pm the catheter fell out. This meant I would have been around 3 cm dilated. About 6 pm I called the midwife. Thankfully the midwife that I love, Mary Kaye Mackanin was on call and would be the one to deliver our baby. At this point I was having contractions about 6 to 8 mins apart and they were not too painful. Mary Kaye said she would call back in a couple of hours. Around 8 or 9 pm she called back. The contractions were about the same and she said to come into the hospital by 3 am at the latest, since that would have been 12 hours since my water broke.

At this point, we both laid down to try to get some rest. I didn't sleep much and around 11 pm the contractions were much stronger and I was not comfortable in bed. So I went and laid on the couch. At midnight, I felt like the contractions were much closer, so I woke up M so he could time them. We counted them to be 4 mins apart and about 45 seconds long.

We took a Bradley class, which is a husband coached, drug free child birthing method. At this class our teacher told us that we should go the hospital when the contractions are 4 mins apart, 1 min long for an hour.

At this point, I thought it was time to go to the hospital. M thought we should wait because there were not a minute long, but I protested and we ended up leaving around 1 am. We got to the hospital around 1:30. The drive was not too bad and of coarse there was no traffic. We were all settled in by 2 am. When the nurse checked me, I was 4 cm dilated.

I thought I would be further along, but I was glad there was progress. Right away the nurse asked me if I wanted to know my options for anesthesia, but I said no. In my birth plan I said that I did not want any, nor did I want an IV. They did not push either on me.

For the next few hours, I walked around. I would lean on the counter in the room through the hard contractions. Around 4:30 -5:00 am, I was at my wits end with the pain. I wasn't sure how far along I was and I was told by the nurse that I could push from anywhere from 1 to 3 hours. I was exhausted, so I decided that I would need to get the epidural. I just couldn't do it any more. I was really disappointed and so was M. The nurse was even shocked that I wanted it and tried to persuade me not to get it. I also think secretly she wanted to see a natural birth.

So while she was gone to call the midwife and tell her of my decision to get the epidural, I used the restroom. Every time I went, they would examine it, YUCK, and when she saw there was a lot of blood, she decided to check and see how far a long I was. She was going to wait until I got the epidural, but decided to do it before. When she checked I was 9 cm dilated and the baby was coming. Needless to say, the epidural idea was out!

Unfortunately, Mary Kaye had not even left her house yet! So basically, I had to hold her in for about 45 mins! This was the worst part of the whole process. M and the nurse kept yelling for me not to push, but to breath through the urge to push. Finally around 5:45 am Mary Kaye arrived and was ready for me to push around 6:00 am and Birdie was born at 6:14 am!

The whole thing happened so fast. I was grateful and thrilled that I did not have any drugs. Birdie was so alert when she was born and I was up and walking around within an hour of having her. We went home the next afternoon and started our new life as parents!