Shaler Travelogue/Blog

Monday, April 17, 2006

Still makes me tear up...:)  

Best thing we ever made was Alex.

Best art we ever made was this, of Alex.

Sheila said, “You had me at coo...”

Sunday, March 19, 2006

First words?

Friday, January 20, 2006 11:40 PM

1.    Inducement

We started the morning with Stacey getting pumped up on Oxytocin (which Michael thought was Oxycontin--yikes!).  She worked hard for 3 hours before it was time to move on to the E-ticket option--that’s right: epidural.

2.    Epidural

It’s a weird feeling watching your wife first suffer through powerful, erratic contractions and then have her spinal column pierced with a big, scary needle.  The benefit, of course, was a few moments of oblivion, as photographed above.  Stacey took a much-needed nap (as seen above) as contractions, smoother and powerful like BIG clean mackin’ sets at Mavericks, continued.

3.    The false start on pushing

Then the pushing started, but without a lot of progress.  This took us to late afternoon, about 10 hours into an already long day for Stacey.

4.    Breathing through contractions

The evidence suggested that we were not making progress.  It was recommended that instead of pushing that we just breathe through contractions.  That was even harder than pushing, and the pain started to jack up again as the first dosage of the epidural started to wear thin.  

The anesthesiologist rejoined us and got Stacey back on a less-painful path, although not as “floaty” as before--not by a long shot.

5.    Pushing, but not progressing

So then Stacey started pushing again--really, really working hard.  This went on for a couple of hours, and was really hard, exhausting work.  We finally started to make some slight progress, but as Stacey said, she was getting depleted.  And things were starting to hurt MUCH more...

6.    First appearance, then suction

At about 10:30, the top of Alex’s head was FINALLY visible, but we were still not making the progress needed.  Dr. Doherty offered to use suction to help get Li’l Guy out of there.  Sure enough, two or three VERY big--and VERY painful--pulls later, Alex appeared.  

When his face and head first emerged, he looked awfully purple and a little inert.  Then, after all that time in the birth canal, he started to come to and started to cry once Dr. Doherty pulled a shoulder and then the rest of his astonishingly long body out into the world.  (Stacey has said several times since, “I can’t believe you were inside me!?!”)

7.    First moments (and comments)

The good Doctor’s first comment was a pretty hilarious recapitulation of empirical fact: “Oh my God!  He’s huge!”  And then, once business had been so succinctly summarized, it was time for encomia: “He’s huge, but he’s cute!”  I said it then, I’ll say it now: “He’s perfect!”  

Once the nurse had done a quick check and cleaned him up a bit, I had my first chance to hold our son.  I was astonished by how heavy has was, and robust, and yet still a tiny little baby.

Stacey was still in shock from all the pain, but once the doctor had finished with her, it was her chance to hold someone who would want to be held as often as possible throughout the days and nights and weeks ahead.  He’s such a sweet little guy.

8.    Later that night...

After getting weighed--tipping the scales at 10 pounds, 3.2 ounces--and measured--taping out at 22 inches, Alex was given his first bath and his first proper swaddling.  He fed, latching on right away, just like a champ.  And at last, we crashed.  All three of us were completely exhausted.  Exhausted but exhilarated...

...and then at about 5AM, I heard this surprisingly loud wailing.  As I struggled to find my way back past the veils and mists through the labyrinth to consciousness, I realized it was Alex.  And I further realized that Stacey could not yet walk, and that the nurses probably wouldn’t come in yet.  That’s when it hit me: “Oh wow.  I’m the last line of defense!”

Alex was born at 11:40PM, and that’s when I formally became a father, but when I had to pick him up and console him long enough to get him to his mother and food, that’s when I officially became a Dad...

Wedding photo-montage: “Better Together”

Saturday, August 20, 2005

With gratitude to George Tolles, Jack Johnson, Summyr, and all our families and friends…

Like so many parents new to the game, we were so very grateful to have the whole iLife/iPhoto/iWeb workflow figured out. My mom’s comment at the time still echoes now: “You’re going to be so glad you did this…”

But it wasn’t iWeb’s premature departure that slowed our progress in capturing and conveying our joy in Alex. All the way from early 2006 in Santa Cruz to late 2009 in Seattle we were able to tell the story in images and words what it was like to grow up with Alex.

Fast forward to December 2012 and Stacey and I didn’t realize until today, in fact, that the last entry in our iWeb blog was just after her father’s death—Lynn, we still misss you. Certainly other venues filled the gap (email, FB), but nothing fills some voids.

Time has passed, the wounds that can heal have as much as they can, but we now want to take up the task again. Lynn would have wanted that—we certainly do.