The saddest person in the world

This is the closest attempt at capturing the face, but still was unsuccessful.



Bad phone call. I think we have all been there.

The sad face or as they say in spanish - "Cucharita" which translates to little spoon.

This rare event only takes place when she is tired or hungry. Its very hard to capture it in its peak form which is my favorite. My favorite sad face is when just the lip curls down and she makes no sound at all. That one is so rare that I could not get it with a camera. It took me about 50 video takes to get these true sad faces.

If you want to fast forward to pure sad faces they can be seen at the following marks.
40s
49s
105s
108s



I'll leave you with some general outtakes and recent happenings.
A hilarious bald spot that has just appeared. Most locals here shave the babies head during this stage but honestly I kind of like it. The hairs as seen in their usual alfalfa formation.


I grabbed this photo actually trying to capture a sad face. Its not all heartache, misery, and pain here.

The Nuffini and the evolution of the swaddle

Swaddling is a must. It started out quite different than its present state. The current swaddle is what I call a tension set, double bisecting, cross-compression swaddle.

The swaddling started as a need to restrict the hands. These are no ordinary hands. They are a crazy uncontrollable force that will never allow sleep. We thought that she was never going to sleep the first few nights until we first swaddled.

20 Dec - First swaddle takes place. Pretty much a lame attempt at duplicating the 'Happiest Baby on the Block'

23 Dec - Swaddling becomes a must and our technique is improving. Here I coin the phrase "We have been reduced to just a head".

30 Dec - Swaddling starts to come undone frequently. The hands are busting out almost every sleep. The hands are poking her in the eye and are uncontrollably flailing.


7 Jan - I start what I call a tension set swaddle. This advanced swaddle sets all loose pieces around her or tucked under her so that escaping or " Pulling a Nuffini" becomes increasingly harder.

20 Jan - The arms are back. Tension set swaddles rendered ineffective. A sad day for all mankind. Being awoken every 2 hours.

22 Jan - Some unorthodox methods are being tried out. Experimental swaddles as seen here.-

26 Jan - I awake with a revolutionary idea of a new technique at 2:30 am.


To present day...the Nuffini has not been able to defeat this new technique.

Smiles

She really has started smiling a lot lately. These used to only come when she was asleep. Now smiles are all over the place. Nothing is sweeter than this little one smiling up at you.

Birth Certificate

Only in Costa Rica.

So when you get your Birth Certificate from the hospital its not really a birth certificate. Although it does say it is on the document. In order to receive the real one, you have to go to downtown San Jose to the Registro Civil. Its kind of a cross between a house of mirrors and the DMV in the 80's. Confusion, lines, stamps, and multiple floors all designed to deceive you. Dont' be fooled here by waiting in the mother / disabled / and elderly line. These musical chairs only fake you by showing signs of moving. We were spared by an angel who allowed us to jump in front of her. The cuteness of the little one seemed to part the spanish red sea.

We did our best to document this event, but like any CR government process it is best experienced.

The Registro in all of its glory.



Musical Chairs.

The real birth story

Its basically taken me this long to compose myself enough to re-tell this. So here is the full birth story:

As we set out to have a natural childbirth we realized in the end we had sought after a great birth experience. We definitely got that. Renee’s water had broken around 2 am on the 16 Dec. So the clock had started to begin ticking. Couple this with the fact she was nearing 42 weeks, and needless to say we were ready for some contractions. I think about 24 hrs had passed before they began with excitement around 4 am. Renee went back to sleep as I ran down and tried to finish ½ week of work in the next 4 hrs. After it hit 9 o’clock and Renee didn’t come down the stairs with a baby in arms like I had anticipated. Things began to calm down and we had some smooth consistent contractions that continued on.

Uva (Midwife) had told us that things would pick up in the afternoon. Things actually remained the same and the feeling of when is this baby going to arrive crept back in again. We were walking up stairs, up and down the road, just about anything to get this baby down and out.

As labor failed to progress we went over to Uva’s for some tea. Pretty typical birth story. I had a sneaky suspicion not to drink whatever was served to Renee. Anita stayed at Uva’s as the decision was made that we now were going to need a medical intervention to speed things up. Well on the way over the 1986 Isuzu Trooper’s bouncy suspension beat the shit out of any pitocin or drug we could get. Of course San Jose traffic was getting heavy around this time as Renee really started getting in some heavy duty contractions.

We arrived with great excitement as it had seemed the need for medical intervention was fading and Renee’s body was taking over. When we arrived they put the monitor on her and said her contractions looked good and the baby was great. Also at this time Renee began complaining about her tailbone in the supine position of the seat. That was when daddy was not happy. Renee had to stop me from ripping the monitors off and rolling the machine back in the hall. That was Nurse strike one.

The doctor arrived and checked Renee and to our excitement we were 4 cm dilated. Now that was 2 cm more than we were @ Uvas. The next 4 hours of labor would be something that I would never forget. It was a closeness that I never thought possible in a birth. We just danced, did all the labor positions, and listened to great music while we waited for the next contraction. There was a closeness and beauty that I cannot describe. Seeing Renee in that element gave me a new perspective. It was one of the most beautiful moments in my life. It makes me cry just thinking about it. On a lighter note the nurses kept coming in trying to monitor stuff and asking repetitive questions to the point that it was disrupting Renee’s rhythm and the contractions were lessoning. Strike 2. And you only get 2. When they left I walked over and locked them out until the doctor came banging on the door at 11:00.

The doctor came back around 1am to check Renee again and we found mechoniam in the water. I tried my best to hold it together, but when you see someone’s face who has spent this much time preparing and you know that the next word is going to be Cecarian you melt inside. I think 2 contractions went by until we both just lost it. She had worked so hard. The doctor was nice enough to let us try to dilate out for the next 2 hrs, but if nothing progressed then we would have to operate. Then again Renee trucked on walking the halls with very intense contractions with Uva for the next 2 hours. I could hear them in the halls Renee screaming and just giving it her all. I on the other hand was crushed and trying not to show it. Again I saw such resilience and strength that I had never imagined. Even with the impending timeline we were still giving it a shot.

Dr. Paer returned in to check Renee around 2:00 and delivered the knock out blow. 4 cm. Since we had a pool installed in our room for a waterbirth we thought it would be a relaxing way to wait while the surgeons prepped. I sat half wet on the side of the pool holding her while these bombs were going off inside of her. We all knew that they were all for not at that point and just tried to hold her as best I could. At this time she was shaking had begun to throw up. Even though we were really excited about the birth Renee was my only priority at that time.

During the operation, Carlos our Pediatrician was amazing. Knowing how much we wanted to have a natural birth he brought Fischer up to Renee immediately and for as long as he could. He then let me follow him in where they cleaned, siphoned fluids, and weighed her. I just held her little hand through it all and rubbed her back. We returned back in to the room to see Renee one last time. I just remember her saying come back for me, and don’t leave me. Crying again.

They brought Fischer to me immediately in the room where I held her shirtless for the next hr while Renee was in recovery. Renee returned not too long after and the three of us just all huddled together. In the end the doctor had measure Fischer’s head and made a weird Spanish sound when he said 37cm. Uva was very consoling when she reminded Renee that she birthed her baby, and sometimes you need these medical interventions.

She said “you know, you did the best you could do. I know you wanted to have a natural childbirth, but this was the best you could do. The baby wouldn’t come through.” I said “No we wanted a great childbirth experience and we got it. Thanks”

Date Night

Eating out is hilarious. This was our attempt at acting like we did not have a baby. I innocently asked Renee if she wanted to grab some Italian in Jaco. Apparently we forgot to consult one small member of our family that really would have preferred to vomit and cry and privacy of our own home. I spent the majority of the meal outside this weird wall drinking a beer and holding said football. I was also frequented by random strangers telling me how cute she was even with a 3 foot long milk/spit drewl that seemed to defy the laws of physics and looked more like a successful bungee jump.

Date night redemption was much more successful when we had Gimena come and watch her and we went out for some sushi. It felt a little odd being without her for the first time, but was a much needed break. Aside from the few (She is so cute and I love this face she makes) we actually didn't talk about her the whole date. And yes we made out like high school kids in the parking lot.



Pre-date photos where we took Fischer down to the beach before dinner. Maybe she will sleep through dinner. Incorrect

Sleeping Rituals

Our previous sleep setup had our Nuffin in the bed with us. Probably for the first month of life. For all those who feel the need to say "Ohh my God" or "You can't do that" or "You won't have a sex life" you would be correct. Does it make you feel better if we call it the Sears method? Although it was extremely cute to have her in the bed she started kicking her feet in her swaddle and banana kicking me in the head all night. So this past week we yet again realized how little we knew about parenting and proceeded to correct our mistake.

The way sleep works presently is that you wait for 3 yawns then do the following:
Quickly swaddle
Turn down the lights
Turn on the fan on high
Crank up the Giraffe
Say "Its time for all little ones to go to sleep"
Lay beside the crib and insert a finger/thumb into her mouth. More on our no pacifier use later. (Seriously are we this big of hippies?)
When the finger/thumb is rejected, perform a military roll away so you can no longer be seen.
Wait in the trenches and hope the area remains quiet.

Lack of solid sleep isn't bothering me at all. This photo is not taken before I made coffee it was after. Renee alerted me that I had just made a delicious brew of hot water.




Nightly shower ritual. Possibly the cutest thing ever when she gets all the water beaded up on her face.



This photo is what I call pumping feets.