The big day. Luca's first trip to his home. We were discharged, stopped for a sandwich, and proceeded home to begin our adventures in parenting.
The introduction of Luca to the canine brood went very well. We brought him upstairs and intended to eat lunch in the nursery so we could keen an eye on him. Just as I unwraped the sandwiches, all hell broke loose. We needed a diaper, and of course, the first one we grabbed was the wrong size. Oops. A few minutes and frayed nerves later he settled down into his crip for his first nap at home. Until the pacifier fell out. Screams again. More frayed nerves. Instant peace on recovery of his pacifier.
You don't realize how bumpy the roads are around here until you drive your wife home from the hospital after her c-section. You don't realize how bumpy the roads can be at home until you bring your baby to the house for the first time.
A couple of notes about the last set of pictures. The woman in red is our dear friend Mrs. Sally. You may have met her at our wedding. The nurse is our newfound friend Chris. A self-proclaimed "Jets Football Freak", she has this uncanny ability to soothe the nerves of the new parent. She even makes changing a diaper look graceful. I'd suggest we nominate her for sainthood. We'll miss her a lot.
Jim and Toni
Monday, January 29, 2007
Luca goes home
Just got home. Total chaos. Will write more later, but in the meantime, here are a few pictures from Luca's load-out from the hospital.
J
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Note About The Pictures
Please note that the blog software arranged the pictures from last to first. If you want to see them in the order we intended, skip to the bottom and go up.
I'll try to have some video up this week.
Jim
I'll try to have some video up this week.
Jim
The First Pictures!
Sorry it took so long to get these pictures up. There are no easy internet connections near the hospital and between Toni's recovery from her C-Section and the feeding, etc. every two hours, I haven't felt like I could leave until this morning.
Thursday, January 25, 2007
36 hours awake and ...
Still going. Luca has been resting soundly in our room. It's also nice to have great and attentive hospital staff to hand him off to should we get tired. - could see where we'll miss that in the future. Toni is having a great experience with very good pain management, especially when you consider that she went through surgery today.
As for me? I'm in a state combining exhaustion and elation. I still can't believe he's here. He scored off the charts in some damn assessment of child viability they conducted in the nursery after his birth. I'm too tired to remember the name of the test. Sorry about that. Maybe one of you recent moms can post it here and tell us what the test is about.
From my point of view, the whole thing just seems to make so much sense. It feels so right. I'm really comfortable with the huge responsibilities of being a Dad. Perhaps thats a sign of how exhausted I really am
Jim
As for me? I'm in a state combining exhaustion and elation. I still can't believe he's here. He scored off the charts in some damn assessment of child viability they conducted in the nursery after his birth. I'm too tired to remember the name of the test. Sorry about that. Maybe one of you recent moms can post it here and tell us what the test is about.
From my point of view, the whole thing just seems to make so much sense. It feels so right. I'm really comfortable with the huge responsibilities of being a Dad. Perhaps thats a sign of how exhausted I really am
Jim
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Please welcome Luca James Rondinelli!!!
Born 1003 EST
19.5 in long
7lb. 6 oz.
Mom and baby recovering well. Dad's still shaking!
I'll post pictures soon
Thanks for all your support.
Jim and Toni
19.5 in long
7lb. 6 oz.
Mom and baby recovering well. Dad's still shaking!
I'll post pictures soon
Thanks for all your support.
Jim and Toni
The 16th hour...
Things continue to develop here at the hospital. Toni has been laboring pretty hard since about 6PM local time. She has been a study in peacefulness, poise, and beauty throughout the labor. I lost my bet with the doula that our son would arrive about 1:03am. Her bet of 2:03 looks like a better guess, but who knows? Needless to say, we're both pretty tired.
More news coming when we get time to post.
Jim
More news coming when we get time to post.
Jim
We are at the hospital!!!
Went for ultrasound at 8am and was sent immediately to hospital. Do not pass Go, do not collect $200.
Toni is now in full labor, which is proceeding beautifully. More as things develop.
Change continues,
Jim
Toni is now in full labor, which is proceeding beautifully. More as things develop.
Change continues,
Jim
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Just how close is Toni?
These pictures were taken last week. You make the call... Our due date is SUNDAY!
Jim
News from the Orthopedic
Good news to report. Toni had an appointment with her Orthopedic MD yesterday. On a 1-3 scale where 3 is a complete tear, she has a category 1 or 2 injury to her MCL. We peppered him with questions about the viability of a natural childbirth. He's given us the green light, stating: "You can't hurt it anymore in labor that you've done already". Reassuring news. Meantime, Toni's been assigned a new and slightly less cumbersome immobilizer. We'll have pictures up of Toni in her new gear very soon.
She's been keeping a sense of humor about the whole thing. Thank God for that. If I were in her shoes, I'd be losing my mind about now
Jim
She's been keeping a sense of humor about the whole thing. Thank God for that. If I were in her shoes, I'd be losing my mind about now
Jim
Monday, January 22, 2007
Starting the blog after our weekend of excitement
After the excitement of this weekend, we've decided to set up this blog to keep you up to date on the latest activity regarding the arrival of our new baby. His due date is January 28th, so needless to say, we've been pretty busy preparing the house for the new arrival.
You'll have to excuse me if my writing style is a little drier than normal, and I apologize for the poor syntax and grammatical errors inherent in our stream-of-consciousness blog. The blog is really intended to keep the greatest number of people up to date in the fastest manner during these crazy times.
Oh yeah. The excitement this weekend. Well, Friday morning started our as a beautiful winter day here in northern NJ. The trees were covered with a light layer of shiny, dense snow. I leave for work. About halfway into my commute, I get a call from Toni telling me that she's fallen. She is distressed and in a lot of pain. I hurry home. toni had slipped on the stairs in back of our house and hurt her knee.
We spent Friday into Saturday shuttling between the ER and the Labor and Delivery wing of the hospital. After the initial diagnosis of a damaged medial collateral ligament (MCL), Toni was hooked up to an array of monitors tracking the baby's heartbeat. About 330PM, they wheel a woman who has just delivered her baby via c-section into the bay next to Toni. Her baby starts crying, and like magic, the baby monitor starts showing contractions. Every time the little newborn next door made a cry, Toni had a contraction on the monitor. Most interesting of all, the contractions were pretty long, up to 30 seconds in length. i started to think that we were going to have the baby that night.
Later in the evening, the contractions subsided. Once our MD's were certain that we were not going to deliver, we were discharged. Toni is now stuck wearing an immobilizer on her left leg, whihc I'm sure will be really interesting when the real labor starts. By the way, that might not take too long. Toni's contractions have been increasing in intensity all weekend.
All was normal in today's visit to the OB for follow-up. We'll be at the orthopedic office this afternoon. I'll post more details afterwards. For those of you who know us well, you know that we can't seem to do anything the easy way.
Change continues.
Jim
You'll have to excuse me if my writing style is a little drier than normal, and I apologize for the poor syntax and grammatical errors inherent in our stream-of-consciousness blog. The blog is really intended to keep the greatest number of people up to date in the fastest manner during these crazy times.
Oh yeah. The excitement this weekend. Well, Friday morning started our as a beautiful winter day here in northern NJ. The trees were covered with a light layer of shiny, dense snow. I leave for work. About halfway into my commute, I get a call from Toni telling me that she's fallen. She is distressed and in a lot of pain. I hurry home. toni had slipped on the stairs in back of our house and hurt her knee.
We spent Friday into Saturday shuttling between the ER and the Labor and Delivery wing of the hospital. After the initial diagnosis of a damaged medial collateral ligament (MCL), Toni was hooked up to an array of monitors tracking the baby's heartbeat. About 330PM, they wheel a woman who has just delivered her baby via c-section into the bay next to Toni. Her baby starts crying, and like magic, the baby monitor starts showing contractions. Every time the little newborn next door made a cry, Toni had a contraction on the monitor. Most interesting of all, the contractions were pretty long, up to 30 seconds in length. i started to think that we were going to have the baby that night.
Later in the evening, the contractions subsided. Once our MD's were certain that we were not going to deliver, we were discharged. Toni is now stuck wearing an immobilizer on her left leg, whihc I'm sure will be really interesting when the real labor starts. By the way, that might not take too long. Toni's contractions have been increasing in intensity all weekend.
All was normal in today's visit to the OB for follow-up. We'll be at the orthopedic office this afternoon. I'll post more details afterwards. For those of you who know us well, you know that we can't seem to do anything the easy way.
Change continues.
Jim
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