Sitting in a Tree Blog

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So the holidays were intense for the Coelho family. We flew to Boston for 8 days, returned to Pittsburgh for 1-1/2 and then drove to Kansas for a week. The week was cut a little short by all the driving but we packed a lot in to just a couple days. Unfortunately we didn’t make it to Junction City to see friends and we missed a couple in Lawrence, but we did as much as we could muster. Here are the pics:

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My mother brought Julian a little santa’s helper outfit and we tried to get a good shot of him in it. We figured out best bet was near our little tree. Here are our efforts!

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I’m behind on posting so I’m going to keep things short. Jo’s parents came to visit for two weeks right when my mom left. Jo’s dad had a broken leg, so he was stuck inside most of the time. He was a trooper and braved the stairs twice to take us out to eat. Jo’s mother was amazing – she took the dreaded overnight shift with Julian and managed to cook every meal and tidy up our apartment. Here are the pics:

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My mother came to see Julian. It’s a long story but she originally planned to come on the 6th because he was due on the 11th. We discussed the expectation that a mother is there for all the rather personal, painful and slightly gross aspects of birth and decided that while she was welcome to be in the room if she happened to be around, this was not a need and that Jo was going to be there no matter what, so I was covered. We also agreed that I needed her most after his birth and we did not want her to be here for weeks before and have to leave when he arrived. I had read that most first babies were born on or after their expected due date, so we decided for her to come on the 10th and purchased her ticket. Believe it or not, the very next day I went to the doctors and found out that I was already having contractions and dialation and the projections that he would come early began. I felt terrible.

This all worked out pretty well because it gave Jo and I a couple days with Julian to see what it really is like and made us more appreciative of the help. In other words, we were able to balance the benefit of getting to see our folks, having help with feeding, changing, etc. and get some sleep with the reality that we had guests for 24 days straight in our rather small apartment.

My mom, who claims to have a strong preference for toddlers and children over newborns, fell in love with Julian. She tried to buy him something everytime we left the house and I caught her talking to him and staring at him numerous times. This was pretty entertaining. Here are some pictures of Linda meeting Julian and instructing him on the facts of life.

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We were instructed to give Julian sponge baths until his umbilical (sp?) cord fell off. I am trying to avoid posting pics of him naked, so it might not be clear that the pics are of his fist bath with mom and dad. The pics of him in the little truck outfit are of the day he went to see the doctor. His first appointment was with the funniest doctor ever – a man who resembled George Burns, without the cigar, and talked like him too. However, his actual doctor is a woman who he also met last week when he had a bit of the diaper rash (read: a horrible rash that made his mother freak out, call the nurse twice and insist that he come in, only to be told to use diaper rash ointment and to follow the basic tx for diaper rash.)

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My mom bought Julian a baby book and I should have let her do it earlier because I’m scrambling to fill it out. I know it doesn’t have to be perfect but I don’t want it to be half empty. There are ridiculous pages, like a page for his newspaper announcement. I know that some people do that for their weddings, birth announcements, etc. but I’ve never been such a part of a community that I have even considered such an act. Now that we’ve purchased a home, maybe we will start to do these things. Of course, feeling at home here in Pittsburgh may need to happen first.

Anyway, here are some pics of Julian’s first couple days with Mom and Dad before Grandma arrived. I am realizing now that his first outfit (for purposes of filling out the baby book) may have been a t-shirt, diaper, and blanket or an outfit that was much too big for him. We took a handful of stuff to the hospital but he was too big for most of it and ended up wearing most of the other outfits before we went home. It’s funny because everyone gets blown away by the cuteness of baby clothes but getting the clothes on him before he out grows them or gets them dirty is a lot harder than one would think and at 3 weeks, the clothes he has outgrown are already staring to pile up! In other words, readers, we do not need any more clothes! I know this is falling on deaf ears, which is why I try to put blinders on when I walk through the baby section at stores because I too feel the urge to buy him stuff.

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So I will try to backtrack and give the story of Julian’s birth. Sometime around week 34 or so, I stopped by the doctor’s office and was told that I had already started to progress we’ll say and that he would likely be born early. I was given similar feedback upon subsequent visits and I started anticipating his birth at any second. Finally, around week 38, we scheduled an induction for Friday, November 4th. I got a little nervous and decided to reschedule for Monday. Then Friday afternoon, I decided to stop by the doctor’s to make sure my water had not sprung a leak. My boss dropped me off at 1pm and told me that I could head home afterwards. The doctor confirmed that I did in fact spring a slow leak and that she was sending me down to labor and delivery because she was not confortable with me leaving. I called Jo and started texting family and friends. Jo arrived right before they sent us back to a room. We got comfortable in a large delivery room and eventually two nurses came in to assist. One nurse informed me that pitocin had been ordered and she would administer it soon. I explained that my wish was to avoid pitocin and that I had been told my water would be broken futher and that we would go from there. The doctor stopped by and agreed to this plan and proceeded to break the water. I laughed at this process because it was so unmistakable and nothing like peeing. Things proceeded and eventually the contractions became about 3 minutes apart. Jo was helping me through them, but I realized I needed the epidural, especially because I was tensing up. Luckily this came quickly and in no time I was numb. The doctor stopped by and confirmed that all was ready and I just needed to call her when I felt the urge to push. She also told me to stop requesting pain medication so I would be able to. The nurse followed this with the advice that I should hold out as long as possible, so I did. The pushing lasted about an hour and Jo helped me through it all. It took a while for me to understand that all the poop refereces in our birthing class were serious. When Julian finally arrived, I barely looked at him because I was nervous about the next few steps, especially after they paused to get the pediatricians. Luckily the pediatricians came quickly and had him in my arms in no time. Afterwards we were taken to our room where we stayed for the next two nights just hanging out with our son. Here are some pictures.

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I’m backdating these pics because I did not actually post them before Julian was born. I can’t complain about the pregnancy. I will admit that I started to get anxious with a full sized human (albeit baby) inside me. I could feel his little feet nudge up in my ribs, his little hands wiggling and his little hiccups. As far as difficulty goes, I had some heartburn, back pain, selling in my feet, anxiety, and frustration with feeling so bulky and awkward. I had little bits of acne early on and some symptoms I’ve already forgotten. Sure I complained a lot. I did not think I looked beautiful. I thought I looked deformed. I did not like spending days on the couch and I would have traded feeling energized for a seat on the bus or an open door at any moment. Regardless, I was a pregnant lady with a big basketball of a belly and here are a couple pics to prove it. I was inclined a number of times to take pics of my naked belly but somehow overcame this urge every time. A friend advised that I shoud take pics every week or so but this never happened. So here’s what we got.

 

Jo and I went out to Trax farm, which is supposed to be 20 miles away, but somehow managed to take over an hour to get to. Fortunately we had a good time and left feeling that it was worth it. The farm has a big market and kicked off it’s fall festival this weekend, so we got to see little animals and all kinds of fall stuff. We bought a peck of apples to make our own pie and we got some delicious pumpkin butter and cider. It was a little more of a market than a farm but it had enough activities to make the drive worthwhile. There was a hayride out to the actual farm to get pumpkins but it was $8 a piece and we decided to do it next time because it’s a bit early to buy pumpkins. When I called to find out if they had U-pick, which they don’t, the woman asked if I was looking for activities for kids; I had to explain that we are the kids. Here are some pictures of our day.

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