Paul Has Arrived

So I'm a little slow in posting, but it's rough with a new person on the team and a big holiday where everyone is home! Unfortunately, we're already falling into the trap of the second child - not quite so many pictures as we had of Penny by this age. But here's a little to whet your appetite and a link over on the right to the pictures they took at the hospital.

I had had my hopes up early with some reasonably strong Braxton-Hicks contractions a few weeks prior to Paul's due date. While I didn't want to head to the hospital on a false alarm, I had some promise of a quick labor, so didn't want to chance being stuck on the wrong side of the Verrazano Bridge at rush hour. On Thursday morning (-2 days from due date), I had a nice round of strong contractions 4 minutes apart and 30 seconds long, so that seemed like a good time to head to the hospital. Now, I had mentioned this to Dan, but he was getting ready to head to work and figured it would take me a while for my contractions to get to the 2 minutes apart 1 minute long phase. Again, big nasty bridge and morning rush hour, so I insisted on going to the hospital with him right then. He helped me put on my TENS machine (fun little electro-stimulator thing that desensitizes me to the contractions) and we hopped in the car. Wouldn't you know, as soon as we crossed the bridge, the contractions stopped cold.

After a lovely breakfast at the hospital cafeteria, we decided we'd do like we did with Penny and walk around the mall for a bit. I had kinda already done in his work day by making him miss morning rounds at his hospital. Not being totally familiar with Brooklyn, we hopped on the mall we knew was subway accessible - Atlantic Terminal. I was still having contractions and was generally uncomfy and tired, but there seemed to be some signs of progress. While he explored Best Buy, though, I took a bit of a nap break on a bench. We still had a few hours to blow before my regularly scheduled Thursday non-stress test and midwife appointment and I wasn't quite sure I could make it there without a nap.

As we contemplated where to nap in Brooklyn, we thought of our good friends, Brent and Celeste, who had just moved to the area the prior week (in time to make it to Penny's birthday party). Penny didn't seem to recall that she always cried in Brent's presence for some reason when we were down in Grenada, because they hit it off quite nicely at the party. In any case, Brent very graciously allowed us to interrupt his work and hang out for a bit. He fed us some lovely lunch, introduced us to their vivacious kitten and allowed me to borrow the bed briefly as I recovered some strength in the afternoon. Then he even drove us back to the hospital for my non-stress test.

The non-stress test was extra revealing. Apparently, I was having twice as many contractions as I thought. There were little ones in between each one I felt, so I was perhaps a bit further along than I believed. They asked whether I wanted to check into the labor and delivery ward right then and there. It still seemed a little early to me, so we decided to just walk down the street to the midwife with the results to see what she thought about timeline. It was about 4pm and I was starting to require more breaks when walking from place to place. The midwife seemed to wonder why I hadn't already checked in 4cm dilated and plenty of contractions, but was willing to let me walk around the neighborhood a little more if I wanted to. I told her I needed to at least stop and have some dinner because I was starving. She reminded me to not wait too long - no more than a couple of hours at the most - before I checked into L&D. Dan and I walked one block to the pizza place, which was the equivalent of three different contractions. Hmmm...we grabbed a couple of slices of pizza and a nice loaf of bread to go, then headed over to L&D.

Though supposedly there were no rooms available when we arrived, once the midwife showed up at the hospital, I got a room right away. It's such a nice big room at NY Methodist! We settled in and debated when the best time to grab my delivery room bag from the car would be. Kind of a moot point when you're already in the delivery room. My TENS was still serving me well and apparently was the first most of the staff had ever seen in action. Got my antibiotic IV going, but once that was all done, I got off the IV. I was pretty much untethered except for occasional monitoring. I loved being able to be untied!

My midwife was awesome. She gave me this great back massage that helped increase pressure on the cervix at the same time. The only problem was that it was the awesomest back massage I've ever had in life. She told me to just let her know when I felt like pushing and we'd take a break and do some pushing. Why would I ask her to stop such an amazing massage? My back has been killing me for months now! Eventually, I figured I had to let the massage go and get on with the birthing action. She asked Dan if he'd like to deliver the baby himself. Dan very politely asked me whether I wanted him on my end for moral support or the baby's side of things to deliver. I told him I'd be ok, so he could deliver the baby if he'd like. Apparently, he'd never actually gotten to deliver a baby when he did his ob/gyn rotation. So the midwife took charge of positioning me and ensuring I didn't tear anything (as I had with Penny), while Dan took charge of catching the baby. He may have dropped the slippery little squirt as he emerged, but it was a short distance to the bed, so Paul was ok. It was 8:43pm and our little Paul had finally arrived.

Penny's Birthday Party

As you can see, I'm a little behind on my posts. It has been a whirlwind of a month so far. We began the celebration of Penny's birthday just a little after Halloween. It has had almost a year-long build-up, so hardly shocking that we had to spread the celebrating over a few days. As soon as she started getting cards in the mail, it was all birthday all the time. Do you remember when birthdays were this exciting? Every card was a fresh reminder of the impending party and visit with friends. Each gift, no matter how small in size, was immensely significant because it was just for her, to celebrate her being one (I'm guessing #1, because I think she knows that she turned three. She's #1, I'm 2 and Daddy is #3 for anyone who wants to know the official tally). 

The party itself was held on Saturday. I had to change the date and get the day off at the last minute because some goofy person scheduled a marathon on Sunday (my usual day off). The marathon totally closes off access to the island from Brooklyn, which would have prevented some of our guests from coming - not right at all! When we moved to Saturday, it seemed that pretty much everyone was able to adjust to the new date and actually get here with relative ease.

It wasn't a fancy party, but apparently had all the right elements - a rainbow speckled cake with pink icing and butterflies, plenty of stickers for everyone to share, friends to play with and novel toys everywhere. Plus there was lots of space in the house for our little guests to explore. The freely-flowing pretzels were a big hit with the birthday girl as well. All our Grenada friends who live in the area made an effort to come, so it was awesome getting a chance to catch up with the grownups a bit as well. I think Penny had really hoped everyone would spend the night, she was having so much fun! Daddy helped the party along with a little invitation to Goodfella's Pizza for everyone. If you're going to come all the way to Staten Island, you should at least get to eat food that has won international recognition, right?!

Apple Picking

Last weekend we joined some of our Grenada friends for apple picking up in Westchester County. Julie and Liam hosted a delicious breakfast at their new house over in NJ so we were appropriately fueled up and ready for the day. Penny had a great time catching up with her friends, checking out their toys and getting psyched about the day.

We followed our reliable little GPS into the lovely forested hills just North and West of NYC. The trees were just starting to turn- so there were the lovely reds and oranges of the poison ivy draped over the lingering greens of the trees. As we cruised through quaint little towns and fields, I was briefly reminded of fall at home or in Ithaca. Then we got within a mile of the orchard and we found ourselves rudely returned to the reality of being so close to NYC - we were stuck in a traffic jam. Every five minutes or so, we'd inch up one car length. As we finally turned into the orchard driveway, a staff member came out and began announcing to the idling hoards that the parking lot was full and folks should return in an hour when some folks had left. I called our caravan and was pleased to discover we were only a few car lengths apart and we'd all made it in. After a brief line for the bathroom and another to get our apple bags, we got to embark on our apple extravaganza.

Penny had an excellent time picking most of the apples herself. The trees were conveniently short and so heavy-laden as to touch the ground in some places. Though some were firmly attached, Penny still wrenched them free and quickly gathered a couple of pecks of apples. Our little friends were kind enough to sample throughout the orchard and let us know which apples were the yummiest. Overall, a really great time.

When we were truly weighted down with apples ourselves, we headed back to the barn/food area for some apple donuts. They were quite tasty. Plus, there was a fascinating marionette show for the kids. It was Penny's first exposure to stringed puppets, so she spent quite a while right up against the stage and also exploring backstage to see how everything worked.




As the sun began to set and some ominous clouds lurked on the horizon, we bid our friends farewell. I plugged in "home" to our trusty GPS and rolled out of the parking lot. We made it to the main road, then the batteries died. Dan had handed me the phone charger instead of the GPS charger, so now it was me and my phone navigating home. I had my phone set so it wasn't giving very accurate readings of my location, so I used landmarks I recognized to get us back through the countryside to the interstate. Once there, things were a little more straightforward. Of course, a trip to the countryside was what every New Yorker with a car did on such a lovely day, so we soon found ourselves thoroughly snared in nasty traffic. As I nervously eyed my gas gauge, Penny dozed in the back. Gas prices are a good $0.50 cheaper in New Jersey compared with NY state. If I could just get those two little hash marks to last through Westchester County, there should be a rest area pretty quick in New Jersey...my Gas Buddy App promised. I sure am glad there's a little gas left in the tank when those hash marks disappear, that's all I have to say.

We stopped for gas and a bite to eat at Burger King. Penny had her usual - chickens, french fries, chocate milk and soda. She never eats the nuggets at the meal, just fries, but I have to order the chicken anyway. The stop also allowed me time to plot the rest of the way home. My phone doesn't read aloud to me, so I tried to study a few steps ahead so I didn't have to keep checking it (muy peligroso!). The phone suggested an unusual route, but I figured it must know something I didn't about traffic. It had already been two hours, so avoiding further traffic was an attractive option.

We sallied forth once more. Taking a lovely little highway through scenic Newark, NJ. We cruised along nicely until the sign that the left two lanes were closing. Then the sign saying all lanes closed at exit 4. And so we found ourselves cruising quite unexpectedly through downtown Newark, with lights at every block and no real good place to pause and recalculate our route. We managed to make our way back to the highway we had exited and enjoyed smooth sailing from there. A mere four hours from the orchard and we were relaxing at home once more.

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