A snow photo

One more of Tessa

The BIG DAY!! Friday, December 21

Friday is the big day!! Lisa and I will be in court on Friday morning with Koen for the finalization hearing. Assuming all goes well, which is what we expect, Koen will be legally ours!! The past 7 months have been an absolute dream come true. Koen couldn't be a better baby - we are so lucky.

Please email us if you would like to join us at the hearing. Family and friends are all welcome. :-)

Major Meltdown

Little Miss Tessa had a ROUGH night last night. She screamed at the top of her lungs for a very long time! I think the garlic and sausage on the pizza Lisa ate must have gotten to her. That was the first night that Tessa couldn't settle herself down. We thought we might end up at the hospital, but luckily we gave her a little Mylecon and she finally settled down. Today Lisa had chicken soup for lunch. Hopefully that will alleviate some of Tessa's intestinal distress. Poor little thing.

Koen was such a trooper through it all. Eventhough Tessa's crying woke him, he was able to mellow out and go back to sleep amidst the screaming. Thank God!!

I have to remember... "Sleep is overrated".

Tessa with Nana

Back on Track!

Wow - what a week. A new baby in the house AND Koen!! It has been absolutely wonderful, but absolutely crazy! Like Lisa and I have said before, we wouldn't have planned it this way, but we feel so blessed to have these little munchkins in our lives.

Little Miss Tessa is a champion sucker just like Koen was at birth. Fortunately she has latched on to Lisa without much of a problem. The first few days were touch and go, but now she is doing great. It's strange not to have to mix formula and wash bottles in the dishwasher almost every day. The $ savings will be great - especially being on only one salary.

The kids had their Dr's appointments today - Tessa her one week appt. and Koen his 6 month appt a little late. He is 23.5 pounds and 28.5 inches! Turns out Tessa's length measurement at the hospital was a little off. She is 20.5 inches instead of 21.5 inches. We thought that sounded kind of long for such a peanut. Believe it or not, 20.5 was Koen's length at birth too. So many similarities!!

It feels strange to say "the kids". Who's kids? Our kids? I still can't believe it all came together. I guess eventually it will feel real.

You probably won't believe this, but Koen has been standing on his own for a few seconds here and there. He got an Elmo table from a friend and it requires that he stand next to it to play with it, and he is really getting there. I wonder if he will skip crawling and just go right to walking....

I need to figure out how to post photos!

She's here!!!

After a very long day and night of labor yesterday and this morning, Miss Tessa Elizabeth arrived by emergency C-Section at 11:57am today. We tried to like heck to get her out the usual way, but she was in fetal distress and the Dr's wanted to get her out asap. Thank god she is healthy and safe now.

Believe it or not, her weight is 6 pounds 14 ounces - the exact same as Koen! We couldn't believe it. She is 21.5 inches, one inch longer than Koen.

Tessa is doing fine now, and sleeping like a baby,

The staff at MGH were wonderful. We had two fantastic nurses, Maureen and Joann - so incredibly nice and compassionate.

We are both wiped now from being up for 40 hours. Hopefully we will get some decent sleep tonight.

Photos to follow soon.

Progress

Lisa is now 3 centimeters dilated!!! and she hasn't asked for the epidural yet. Go figure! The baby's head is very low, so we are hoping for a speedy arrival, although she is not technically in active labor yet. From the pictures Kristen sent, it looks like Koen is having a blast at their house. We miss him SOOO much!!!

Stay tuned...

Note to readers - The post time for these blog entries is on West coast time. So addd 3 hours to the post times that show up on the screen.

Action!!!

We finally have some action! Lisa has mild contractions 5 to 6 minutes apart!!! Keep 'em coming!!!

Vitamin P

We are finally here at the General, and they just started the IV with Vitamin P (also known as Pitocin). Let the fun begin!!!!

O M G!!!

No - The baby has not arrived yet. But today I had an O M G moment. We were just about to leave to go to the cape for the day (to shut down the house at Scraggy Neck) and Lisa noticed that Koen needed a diaper change. I said I would go take care of it, as somehow she ends up with most of the changing. So I brought him upstairs and started to take off his Franz outfit (grey sweats with a grey turtleneck onsie) and my cell phone rings. I pick it up while I am changing Koen. As I am talking, my fingers feel wet when I pull up his onesie. OMG!!!! Let's just say I thought our little Koen was immuned to massive explosions. He's not! Many parents warned us about the "all the way up the diaper" incidents. I kept saying "Oh that doesn't happen with Koen - he doesn't do THAT." Well - I guess things change, babies get bigger, and we are probably in for many more "explosions". Thankfully, Lisa rescued me and helped me with the wipes, washcloths, and soap. OH MY GOD!! I never knew someone so little could expel that much!!! Good thing he's such a cutie patootie.

Tomorrow morning we head out to Mass General (aka MGH, The General) for our induction appointment at 9:30am. I am hoping Miss Tessa arrives safely, quickly, and easily. We just can't wait to meet her!!!

More to follow soon...

p.s. Can the Pats pull it off tonight??

The 26th it is...

I have resigned myself to the fact that little miss Tessa is in no rush to come out - can't say I blame her. With all the energy I spent HOPING that she would arrive sooner rather than later, I could have probably cleaned up my home office, or maybe finished the basement, or cleaned up the garage. That didn't happen. Just a lot of thinking... What if....

We did get her and Koen's room ready, though, organizing her clothes in the new dresser we ended up buying. Their room has really come together now. All we need to do is add a few pictures on the wall, and I think it will look finished - for my standards at least.

So - as far as Lisa is concerned, she WAS crampy yesterday and this morning, but as usual, she feels "fine" now. Why does she have to feel fine? Can't she just go into labor already!

Lisa and I helped our friend Liz with a mailing today, and Sofi decided to sit like the Queen of the house in the box of envelopes. I was afraid to get her out once the mailing was done, cause I knew she might just wack me with a paw and a claw. We took a picture of Sofi's cross face before we managed to coax her out. I was saying/hoping, "This photo was taken 6 hours before the baby was born." If only that could be true. It's been 6 hours and we are still home with Lisa feeling "fine".

Patience...

The full moon

Well - Still no baby yet, and Thanksgiving has passed. Now I am hoping for the full moon which is tomorrow! Lisa has been feeling crampy and has had indigestion the last couple of days. I am pretty sure that means something is up - or down as the case may be.

This Thanksgiving was the best ever as far as food is concerned - Nothing burned, no overflowing cake pans, and no dry turkey. A major success! The only thing wrong was... NO Homemade APPLE PIE! Steffie and Sue went out foraging for one for Mario and all they came back with was a small hostess apple pie. Before we had a chance to split it 9 ways, Mario had scarfed it down. That was really ok though since we had, let me see, 5 other dessert options; brownies, ice cream, chocolate dream whip, Gregory's Octopus cake, and pumpkin pie.

After dinner, Gregory and I went for a walk down towards the water with Koen in the stroller. We had to do something after gorging ourselves at dinner. It was 60 degrees out and the almost full moon was rising on our walk back to the house - just spectacular. Koen fell sound alseep on the way back and I stayed on the porch with him so he could nap a little. While he was sleeping I got a cool shot of the moon. If I can figure out how to do it, I will post the photo.

Cross your fingers we head to the hospital in the morning.

Can you believe?

I had to drive BACK to Dedham from the Cape tonight because I forgot to leave my Mom her Swedish cell phone for her trip to Sweden. Knowing my luck while I'm up here, Lisa's water will break and I'll have to drive like crazy to go down and get her and Koen. Well the good news is that I found the phone AND the charger without a problem, which is a miracle.

Lisa felt a little cramping earlier this afternoon, but she is "fine" now. Maybe the full moon on Saturday will help the baby out. My latest prediction is the 24th or 25th. I do believe in the connection between the lunar cycle and the cycles of the body.

Mario told us tonight that he wants Lisa to hold off until the 29th (haha) which is his birthday, but Lisa said "Are you crazy? NO WAY, JOSE!!!" She is hanging on by a string.

Little Koen is as sweet as ever, but his cheeks are really rosy from teething. His 2 bottom teeth broke the skin a while ago and are quite big now, and I am guessing his top teeth will be heading down soon. It is absolutely fascinating to watch a little human grow from day 1 on... Gotta get the video recorder out tomorrow.

We Wait.....

I never knew this parent thing would require SO much patience. We thought it was a long wait for Koen, but waiting for the safe delivery of baby number two has been unbelievable, We thought for sure she was arriving by C-section on 11/9 - at 39 weeks. Then we found out she was head down - Yay!!! Since then it has been 12 long days and the induction is not scheduled until Monday the 26th! another 5 days away.

No contractions yet but Lisa is feeling less comfortable by the day. I am so thankful that she is able to do this for us, but I feel bad that she is the one that really feels bad.

Thanks, Lisa!!