Alex's birth - a G'ma's side

it was a long day and night. I got to be there the whole time. just after she gave birth she looked at chip and said "i don't think i want any more babies." we just laughed at her. i told her to wait a year then think about it. katrina's doing well. they had to cut her three times. ouch! i was off by one stitch - i said 15 and it took 16. she ended up with a hemorrhoids that are causing her pain too. she started contractions on monday then they sent her home. she was induced on tuesday. she went in at 4 pm. they started the pitocin at 5 pm. we got there around 7:30 pm after getting a few errands done. they broke her water around 9 pm. she was so grossed out! and she is the gross queen! i kept teasing her for a little bit since she's an stna and you know what you used to clean up! she said she could handle that it's her own fluids she was grossed out about! she was so upset she cried a couple of times over it! alyssa said something about it being gross. i whopped her lightly on the butt and her dad whopped her on the arm. he told her any more comments like that and she wouldn't get to see his birth. that was the last of those comments. around midnight we went home to let the dogs out and sleep for a few hours. i don't do hospital chairs well anymore to sleep in. we were back around 4:30 am. before we left they gave her nubain for pain. she was hilarious! you could see the instant is kicked in! She went from pain to a smile. She kept saying "this is goooooooood shit! i want to write a letter to the guy that invented it! this is gooooooodddd shit!" throughout the night several times she asked for her dad. he always calmed her down. she will always be a "daddy's girl". somewhere around 3 am she needed a breathing treatment. baby didn't like the breathing treatment and the pitocin. he went into stress - heartrate and breathing dropped dramatically and became erratic. doc discontinued the pitocin and gave her an epidural. that eased up the stress on her and alex. she ended up with two epidural total. she kept asking why no one talked her into it around 10 pm. i was very impressed with how she hung on as long as she did! pitocin makes the contractions a lot worse. around 8:30 am tuesday when they gave her the second epidural she was all thinned out and dilated except for her left side which was where alex was laying. she was still at 70% thinned out and a 7 dilation. at around 9:30 the nurse came and moved her to her left side. within 10 minutes she said, "i've got to poop." i told her hold that thought. i raced out to catch chip who was going for a cigarette. i told the nurses on my way past, caught chip and told him to grab alyssa. doc had just left the hospital and had to turn around. sharon (lamaze coach) was behind and sharon's hubby Jonathan (pre-med student) who had her left leg, chip had her right leg with alyssa (big sis who's 11) at her head, and g'ma snapping pics. i don't know why she wanted pics of his head coming out but i took them. she labored for 30 - 40 minutes. once he came out and was suctioned out he was wailing. when the nurse cleaned him up he was not happy. he kept wailing and kicking and trying to roll over. i told alyssa to go talk to him. she thought he wouldn't know her. i told her "you talked to him the entire pregnancy, he'll know your voice." as soon as she started talking to him and rubbing his head he calmed right down. then he looked around at everything. katrina was upset that he wasn't crying until we told her alssa was talking to him and he was fine. i ended up explaining the cord blood drawing procedure and afterbirth to her. she'll make a good surgeon one day if she has a inclination to become a doc - nothing fazed her. i ended up waking his oldest sister, trina who was asleep in the waiting room. she was all woozy and didn't comprehend until we were passing the nurse's station. when it dawned on her that the baby was born she woke right up! she was the first to hold him. katrina was worried about her milk coming in so i had to explain that. then she was worried he wasn't eating enough until i explained how tiny his stomach was and that about 2 tablespoons would fill his tiny tummy. g'pa got to hold him and i got lucky and snapped that picture. they just kept looking at each other for a long time. we went home around noon and came back later in the evening. i got about a 2 hour nap. we didn't stay long last night...too tired out. plus alex's other g'parents came to visit and they needed time with him. chip called earlier this am with an update. they can go home today if the doc can get there from another birth to do the circumcision. mommy's feeling better today after some sleep and a shower.

Minutes old

"Would someone PLEASE turn off these bright lights!"

"I clean up pretty good don't you think?"

My stats.

Mommy and G'pa. She sure looks tired!

G'ma and me

G'pa and me



Uncle Jonathan and me

Aunt Sharon and me

My big sisters and me. Trina says good for you Alex. Alyssa's holding me.

G'ma and me. I'm a whole day old!

G'pa and me

G'ma Gale and me

Yes It's all about me!!!

The Quest

“Why so sad me beautiful lass?” He asked.
She looked down at her three bristle- haired children. She’d been with him now nigh almost five years. How could she tell him she longed for her own kind?
“Ye’ve done me proud since you came,” he continued. “I din’t think ye had it in you at first.” Juliana looked around at her home.
She sighed, “I never thought I’d be able to call this place home.” “It’s so different,” her words trailed off into her own thoughts. “It’s so alien from what I’d ever known; so unlike my world.” Her last born squealed with laughter at the antics of her first born, snapping her back from her musings. Her husband, “Yes, she could call him that now,” she thought, grunted a low command and their youngest offspring stopped the mayhem and scampered off to hide.
“Is it truly so hard to be away from those of yer own kind, lass?” he asked.
Juliana looked at him in surprise.
“How did you know I was thinking that?” she asked.
“I’ve known ye for long these five years now.” He continued, “Ye were mightily unhappy when ye first came to be with us after the great fire. At first ye were a slave like all the others. Ye did not openly rebel and therefore lived. I protected ye from Elan. I could see the good inside of ye that ye kept hidden. After a time ye were allowed to become one of us.”
The great fire. That is how she now too thought of that moment in time. Her thoughts drifted back to the day she arrived in this barren place that she now called home. Their ship had crashed. Someone had sabotaged the ship’s navigational computer. She could now still only speculate as to whom. Only a handful of the crew and she had escaped the fireball. Warily they had banded together to avoid the dangers of this foreign world. They traveled by night and slept by day, searching for some suitable shelter – any shelter after a few days. Food rations were low to begin with and then non-existent. No one dared eat the indigenous plant life or animals – if you could call these alien creatures, animals. Juliana lost track of time on this quest. One night, the group instantly awoke to a strange grunting noise. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she noticed odd boarish-shaped beasts. They walked on two legs, and did not have cloven feet or hands! “How strange” she had thought, “for pigs.” She was instantly snapped to awareness with the sharp point of a spear.
“Aye, it was a difficult time.” She answered him. “But it is over now and I am here with you.”
“Would ye change any of it?” he asked.
Juliana did not answer him. She kissed him on the snout, turned, and returned to tending her garden. She was content – for now.