Silvia and I saw this Photo in our Local newspaper and so yesterday we went out to the Santa Cruz pier to see if they were still around.
Sure enough as we stood at the end of the pier we could see them 200 to 300 yards away jumping out of the water. It was like they were having a big splash contest. I believe they are chasing fish and as the fish swim straight up and jump out of the water so do the whales.
Right below the pier were about 30 seals floating and resting there heads on each others bellies. Then one came swimming up and jumped out of the water in to the middle of them like someone at a concert stage diving into the crowd.
It is crazy how much you can love your kid. It kind of freaks me out. I'm not use to getting worried about things, but now when she is sleeping I'm like, "Dude she's kind of quiet. Is she still breathing." Then I poker her in the stomach to get a grunt.
On day ten we discovered that she had an inguinal hernia, and on day 12 we found ourselves at Stanford's Children Hospital getting surgery. Talk about being scared. Even though it was considered an minor surgery, there isn't really a minor surgery when its your 12-day-old-child.
I am so thankful for the amazing people at Stanford. We met everyone of the surgical team and the anesthesiologist's team (12 in all). They shook our hands and looked us in our eyes and said. "We are going to take good care of Isa." They helped us to feel like we were important to them and that we mattered to them. That helped take the edge off knowing that Isa was in caring competent hands. Needless to say all went well.
Seeing Isa like this brought tears to Silvia
My mom was a great support to us staying with us the entire day and then staying the night with Silvia and Isa. She just makes you feel like everything will be okay when she is around.
Now she is five weeks old and we can't stop staring at her.
She is hypnotizing with her smiles and here little dimple.
This was a cute little place with pony rides and corn mazes, but Isa was not totally down with it
Mamae esta uma gatinha! That's right... that is a little Portuguese! I have been trying to speak only Portuguese to Isa so I repeat a lot of the same things over and over again. But... I am getting better.
That is a good looking pumpkin.
There was a farm theme going on at this Halloween Party. Isa was a sweet pea, Max was Corn and Malia was a cow.
I love Halloween. It's the one day out of the year I get to have a full head of hair.
I love how we made so many friends from our prenatal class. Isa has more friends then she knows what to do with. It's fun to watch all the babies grow up together.
Count Boobula differently won the costume contest.
We felt so blessed to have Silvia's Mom and Sister stay 3 days longer.
They were suppose to fly out Wednesday Night, but Mexico City's Airport (their layover) was having black outs and closed, postponing their flight till Saturday night.
We are going to miss all that good Brazilian home cooking, and being able to leave Isa with them in the morning to catch up on missed sleep. Thank you for all your help. Love you guys.
On their last day we took baby Isa out for the first time.
We walked downtown Santa Cruz and stopping at Betty's for a bite to eat.
Jaqueline really feel in love with this hamburger joint. I think we eat there at least once a week while they were here.
Miracles happen ever day, and Friday was one of the many
miracles along our pregnant journey.
Silvia was 13 days late. We
wanted to have a home birth and Friday the 23rd was the last day we
had before we were to be induced at the hospital.
It was the first day of Autumn, the Equinox. I went to work
on a sunny Friday morning at 8:00.
At 11:00 I called home to find out that Silvia had started having
contractions at 9:00. I was just
going into meet a new patient and I told her that I would call her right
after.
3 hours old
40 minutes later. “How are you doing Sil?”
“You need to come home right now. Its happening.”
I walked in the reception room and told them the great news. I canceled the rest of my day and
rushed home.
22 hours old
Silvia was dilating quickly.By noon she was at 5cm and by 5:55pm she was at a 10cm and
ready to push.That’s when things
slowed down, and Silvia had to really dig deep.The baby was head down, but was what is referred to as
“sunny-side up,” “face-up” orocciput posterior (OP). The back of our baby’s skull was in the back of
Silvia’s pelvis.
Its estimated that 5 to 12% of babies are face up at delivery and this percentage is
higher in first time mothers. It’s common for the baby’s position to change
during labor. Unfortunately, for
Silvia this did not happen. If the
baby is face down the pushing part of labor will take about 2 hours. With the baby sunny-side up it took
Silvia 4 hours of blood sweat and tears.
After seeing her power through that, I have no doubt that she can over
come any challenge, any obstacle, A-N-Y-T-H-I-N-G in life! Silvia the Brazilian Warrior Queen gave birth to a 7lb 9oz., 21 inch long beautiful
baby Equinox Princess named Isa Maria McLeod.
As the head came out, I placed my hands under Isa’s
head and with Kate our midwife I was able to “catch” Isa. Together we lifted her up and placed
her on Silvia stomach and chest.
Everything was happening so quickly now, like someone hit the fast-forward
button, but for Silvia and baby Isa time stood still as their eyes locked on each other. The baby was calm and
relaxed and knew she was safe with her momma. As they lay there we rushed
around them cleaning Silvia and Isa. After an hour of Siliva holding the
baby and having her breast feed for the first time, I was able to hold my baby girl Isa. As we went skin to skin all I remember is feeling gratitude and a deep
raw joy that started in the pit of my stomach, that burned through my chest,
and flowed out my eyes.
1 hour old
I am a proud Papa Bear.
What does ISA mean?
We named her Isa Maria McLeod. Its pronounced like Lisa but without the "L." Isa has multiple means. In the Philippines Isa means number one, which is fitting for our number one child.
In German Isa means "Strong-Willed One." This has been evident through out the pregnancy and will serve her well through out her life. To be strong and determined.
In Chamorou (Mariana Islands in the South Pacific) Isa means "Rainbow". She was differently our rainbow after the labor storm.
In Arabic Isa means "Jesus." and in Hebrew Isa means "laughter; salvation of God; the Lord helps me." Like Jesus she will be a light to the world and be "the lords help" by helping be the answers to peoples' prayers. I know she was an answer to ours.
Maria is Silvia's mother's name. Its origin is Latin and means "Star of the Sea" This will be fitting when she be comes a famous surfer of the sea.
Silvia's family flew in from Brazil on September 6th in hopes that they could be part of the birth process. The baby's due date was September 10th, and now its the 20th almost the 21st and still no baby. I feel bad because they are were hoping to spend most of their time with the baby. Instead they fly out the following week on the 28th. If the baby was born tomorrow that would only give them 7 days with the baby. We thought it would be nice to have them here for the birth. It never crossed our minds that she would be 10+ days late. Next time we'll have them fly out two weeks after the due date. Rookie Mistake.
In the mean time we have been relaxing by the pool and taking them on walks around Santa Cruz. On Sunday we walked along West Cliff Drive to Natural Bridges' tide pools. We saw a bunch of whales spouting water and then flipping their tales up in the air as they dove down.
We saw a couple pods of dolphins circling around schools of fish while pelican divebombed all around them from above. And of course we saw the usual suspects: seals and sea otters joining the fun.
We took them to the redwoods and strolled along the giants.
Fortunately Santa Cruz is a beautiful place
to be when waiting.
