Christmas 08" PDX

Santa's Little Helper

Bradley Class Reunion

Sarah and I took a class to get us ready for labor. Now a few weeks after everyone had their babies, we had a reunion.
Chris

Thanksgiving '08

We had a nice dinner just the three of us in Portland. Notice Cece at her place on the dinner table. Then we went to Shari and Matt's place in Seattle for another great Thanksgiving dinner courtesy of Chef Matt. Umm umm good.

My first hike

My first hike was at Eagle Creek in the Gorge. I went with my mommy and daddy and my mommy's friend Sita. We saw hundreds of salmon that were swiming up Eagle Creek to spawn. They were bright red. We hiked higher and higher. We walked under rocks that had water trickling down. Some of the water landed right on my nose. I was blessed by mother nature, that was my chrsitening. It was cold. Then we found Punchbowl Falls. There we stopped for a snack. We were hungry. I had milk.

My first Halloween

Cecelia two weeks

Birth Stats

Weight: 8 lbs 8 oz
Height: 22.5 in
Head: 13.5 cm
Apgar: 9
Labor Began: 4 pm
Born: 11:07 pm
~7 hr labor

At the hospital

Oct. 1 Labor & Delivery

The official due date was September 23rd, but it came and went. On the morning of Weds, October 1st, Sarah felt a bit crampy but no signs of contractions just yet. So she decided to go to class (ironically, it was Natural Childbirth class). She made it through half of class but then had to leave due to the intensity of her cramps and an overwhelming sense of heat. She got home at about 10 am, rested and waited for me to come home from work at lunch. We rested all afternoon, anticipating that this could be the big day. We decided to take Ruby for a walk at about 6pm to get things progressing. We got a block out the door, and Sarah’s water broke. Immediately, she began feeling intense contractions about 5 minutes apart. We phoned our midwife, and she advised that we come into the hospital.

We arrived at the hospital at about 7:30 pm. The midwife checked Sarah and said that she was 4 cm dilated. Sarah was having contractions about 3-4 minutes apart at this point. She asked the midwife how much longer she thought it would take to reach 10 cm (fully dilated) and she thought it could be up to 6 hours. The contractions were picking up in intensity so we decided to go across the hall to labor in the warm jacuzzi. This seemed to help ease the pain a bit. We spent about an hour and a half in the jacuzzi, and then Sarah suddenly felt the urge to push. We hurried back to the delivery room, and the midwife checked Sarah, revealing that she was 10 cm, or fully dilated and ready to push. The midwife and nurse were amazed at Sarah’s speedy progress, for we had only been at the hospital for a mere 2.5 hours. After the first push, the midwife revealed we had a redhead. After the 3rd push, the baby’s head was out. And after the 6th mighty push, we had a crying, healthy baby in our hands. I cut the cord, and within 15 minutes of the birth, Cece was already eating.

We were overwhelmed with joy as we held our little babe in our hands for the first time. She was perfect; 10 long fingers, 10 long toes, and full head of red, wavy hair. Our little Buddha weighed in at 8 lbs, 8 ounces, chubby cheeks and all. She is a tall 22.5 inches long. Sarah achieved her goal of a natural childbirth. She experienced intense pain and let me tell you, it didn’t look easy! But she did it with the help of deep breathing, my constant reminder of her strength, and preconditioning- exercise and knowledge of the process. We were elated at how relatively fast the process was and the perfect end result, Cecelia Rosea.