FROGLEGS

Anyone for a condemned citrus drink? You can also get “Damm Beer” and “Estrella Damm”.

After much waiting, hoping, praying (by a lot of you too) and hard work (especially on Heather’s part!!!), Sophia Rose was born at 4:15pm (local time) on August 24, 2005 weighing in at 8 pounds 4 ounces (3,74 kilos) and measuring 21.25 inches (54 cm). Both Heather and Sophia are in pretty good health.

I don’t really know how much you all want to know about the birth. Its kind of confusing trying to know what to tell and what not to. The short story is that Heather was induced at about 10am this morning, Sophia began showing signs of distress (elevated heart rate and frantic movement) at 3:50pm. At that point, our obgyn said that he believed that the baby was in trouble and he wanted to perform a c-section.

We felt fine with this as we had tried vaginal birth for about 6 hours by that time and Sophia’s head was still not engaging. Watching her heart rate soar and feeling the frantic movement told us that it was time to get her out of there.

The surgery went off without a hitch in less than 20 minutes. About 30 minutes later, I got to walk Sophia to the neonatal unit where she would get a few vaccinations and be monitored for about an hour or so. She left me completely breathless, I have to be honest. As soon as she heard my voice, she looked right at me and stretched out her hand. It was one of those magic moments that science tells you is complete chance, but I can’t express how excited and happy I was in that moment. This little person knew me as her Daddy and reached out to grab me. She gripped my finger in her surprisingly strong little hand and didn’t let go until we arrived at the nursery.

I saw Heather briefly after that as she was on her way to the recovery room. She was awake, alert and very happy. She had been able to see and hold Sophia for a bit before she was taken off to the nursery for more observation and tests. I had a hard time believing Heather had just been through major surgery! I’ve since seen the incision and I can promise you that she has!!!

Heather and I met up in our room about an hour and a half later. Sophia quickly followed. We figured it was a good idea to give breast-feeding a chance (it had been recommended by every book we’ve read, plus my aunt who was a midwife for 20+ years). We didn’t expect much, but boy did Sophia surprise us with her strength and feeding instinct. She was extremely happy and content to be with Heather and worked on breast-feeding without showing signs of waning or wanting to stop for about 40 minutes. She soon fell asleep and slept for about two and a half hours as a wonderful flow of visitors came in and out.

Being an english speaker in non-English speaking nations has a great perk. You get to laugh at (not with) all the poor companies who don’t research the names of their products sufficiently. Thus I’ve put in a new category called “Unfortunate Names”. I hope to put in more cringe-worthy names as we come across them in everyday life.

Today Jim, Jesús and I were in Carrefour (french supermarket chain) and saw these rather inappriopriately named weiners called “Wudy”. The joke was obvious to us, but may not be to non-spanish speakers. Anyone who speaks spanish would pronounce the name of these sausages as “Woody”. Franks called woodies. Excellent.

The end of pregnancy is every so slowly approaching our lives. Heather’s belly now appears to be a humongous watermelon trapped under a thin layer of skin and muscle. Sophia makes her presence known almost constantly with arms, feet, legs and buttocks sticking out all over the place.

Needless to say, this all leaves Heather very uncomfortable and tired most of the time. The best relief from all this is heading to the beach for a quick dip. Suddenly most of her weight disappears and her body feels somewhat normal again.

Sophia weighs 7 pounds as of this past Monday, so we are on track for a little over 8 pounds if Heather carries her to term (less than two more weeks). Lord have mercy!!!