Finally Back Home

Thank you so much to everyone in Anchorage who was so wonderful to us during our stay there- Marika, Marika's friends, Dr Ha, Dr McCleave, Dr Tulip, and everyone at the Providence Alaska Medical Center and the Hickel House. But on Tuesday, August 10, 2010, we were finally going home.

Jack with all our luggage (5 checked bags, a stroller and car seat that were gate checked, 3 carry-on bags and a boppy) at the Anchorage International Airport at 7 am on Aug 10


Jack and me on our flight from Anchorage to Minneapolis. He slept almost the entire 5 hours!


Chris and Jack at the Minneapolis Airport, waiting to board our flight to Boston.


Arriving in Boston at 11:15 pm!

The three of us at home in his nursery on Aug 11. His nursery was very nicely set up by his extended family while I was in Alaska.

And they all lived happily ever after. The end!

Meet Jack!

Sorry about the delay since the last posting, but we've been kind of busy. Just to warn you, there are A LOT of pictures in this posting...

On Tuesday July 27, we woke up at the crack of dawn, and by 5:15 am were walking across the SkyBridge at Providence Alaska Medical Center towards Ob Admitting. They quickly got me settled in and started an IV. Around 7:15 am, I was wheeled to the OR, where the very nice anesthesiologist started the spinal. I think I was more nervous about that than anything else! The spinal was pretty trippy, it was really weird having my legs and lower abdomen numb and paralyzed. Chris came back to the OR once the spinal was complete and I was prepped. It always amazes me how quickly it takes for the baby to come out during a c-section. At 8:01 am, Jack was born! The first thing I heard was Dr Ha say was a comment on how much hair he has, and he does have a lot! Apgars were 8 and 9- I didn't see the breakdown but I'm imaging 1 point lost for color at both times, and 1 point lost for some grunting at 1 minute (breathing difficulties, for you non-medical people out there). Chris got to see him get weighed (8 pounds 12 ounces) and measured (length 21.5 inches, head circumference 34.5 cm). They then brought him over to me, so I could be with him while they sewed and stapled me up.

Jack a few minutes after he was born

At some point, Chris took Jack out to meet my mom, dad, and step-mother, who were all waiting to meet him and for the big announcement of his name: John Francis Brigham. John was Chris' dad's name, and Francis was my maternal grandfather's name. Like Chris' dad, we will be calling him Jack.

Me, Chris, and Jack shortly after his birth

Because I had a c-section, we were in the hospital for 4 nights (through Saturday July 31).

Jack and my mom on 7/28

Jack on his belly on 7/30, slightly jaundiced. And look at all that hair!

I honestly don't know how women do it who go home after only 2 nights in the hospital. I really needed the support of the nurses and lactation consultants, and 2 days and nights certainly wouldn't have been enough to make me feel confident as to what I was doing. And the nurses there really were wonderful. Chris slept over in the room with me, and we kept Jack with us at all times, and one night we were really struggling- I was having trouble breast feeding and then even when that was over, we couldn't get Jack to settle. One nurse sat in the room with me for an hour, helping me feed him and then helping me get him to sleep. I couldn't believe that she was able to spend some much uninterrupted time with me!

Chris with Jack on 7/31

We came "home" to the Hickel House on the afternoon of Saturday July 31. It was nice to be back among familiar surroundings.

The three of us heading leaving the hospital!

My dad and step-mother flew home to Boston on Saturday, but my mom is still here, staying at Marika's house, until this coming Thursday, when she returns to Boston. It was been very nice to have that extra support! Jack is a really good baby, so happy during the day and a great napper! However, at night, for the first few nights, he did NOT want to sleep, and spent several hours crying, which was hard on all 3 of us. But last night, we had two 3 hour chunks of uninterrupted sleep, which makes such a difference!

Our first bath time experience with Jack on 8/1


Jack and me hanging out in our room at the Hickel House

We have had a relatively busy day today. Jack had his 1 week follow up appointment with his Alaskan pediatrician, Dr Tulip, who is so nice. He has gained 5 ounces since his discharge, and is doing really well. We then went up to the Chugatch Mountains, the same place that Chris and I went the first day with Marika, and then later went back with my mom. We went for a little walk with Jack, and then had a picnic lunch.

Chris, Jack, and me on the Anchorage Overlook Trail

Chris, Jack, and me on a bench with the Chugatch mountains in the background. This is the same bench (although slightly different angle) as earlier pictures of Chris and my mom. He is wearing a hat knit by Marika's mom and a sweater knit by my mom. Fortunately, this is summer wear in Alaska so he wasn't sweltering...

It is amazing how long everything takes now. We think we're ready to go out the door when he decides he's hungry, and then after I feed him, he needs a diaper change. I wanted to do a blog posting yesterday, but never had time to do it. I started this posting at 9:45 am, and 7 hours, I'm only this far.

It's actually pretty hard for me to believe that we are scheduled to go home in 1 week! I almost can't imagine being at home at this point. It's going to be weird not seeing Marika so frequently, I've gotten spoiled by seeing her so often again! But I am looking forward to returning home, having Jack meet his aunts, uncles, and paternal grandmother, as well as many friends and family in the Boston area.

Chris and I of course think that Jack is just about the most handsome, adorable baby ever, and feel very lucky that everything turned out so well in the end. And all that hair!! What has been somewhat of a surprise is that we have become some of those people, you know the ones, the ones who endlessly talk about how cute their baby is. This is somewhat surprising, given that neither one of us were particularly baby people, but I guess having one of your own really does change you!! And along those lines, here are a few short videos my mom took of Jack, videos that my mom would point out only a parent could love (specifically his parents), because otherwise they might be a bit boring. But I think they're awfully cute...

Jack wiggling and stretching

Jack discovering the joy of sucking his thumb for the first time

39 0/7

So today is my last posting before the baby is born! Last Thursday, my mom and I went to the Alaska Zoo. It was neat because it was mostly animals native to Alaska, such as black bears, brown bears, polar bears, moose, caribou etc. And the non-native animals were all from cold weather places elsewhere in the world, like tigers from Siberia. We also twice heard the wolves howling, which was pretty eerie. My mom took a short video of this, which you can see on YouTube if you click here.

Black Bear at the Alaska Zoo, similar to the one seen the next day in Anchorage!

Then on Friday, we were driving down Lake Otis Parkway, between 15th and 20th (for those of you who know where that is), and in the backyard of one of the developments there I saw a black bear moseying along! It was very exciting! But also a little scary, because that's just a few hundred yards from where Marika lives! But it was nice to check off "seeing an urban bear" from my list of things I wanted to do while in Anchorage. If only I could see Denali once before I go home, then I would feel that my trip was complete. :-)

On Saturday, Chris, my dad, and step-mother Joyce all arrived. It was so nice to see them! It had been 7 weeks since Chris had flown home, so I was pretty happy to have him back here, and before the baby was born too! Last evening, we tried to go for a walk on the Coastal Trail, but it started raining again, so we didn't get very far. But my mom was able to take this picture before the deluge.

This morning I went to the hospital for my pre-op blood work, and impressively the phlebotomist was able to get me on the 1st stick without even needing to use a butterfly needle! Later today, we're going to Babies R'Us to buy some more supplies off my registry- Babies R'Us gives a 10% discount 1 week before your due date, and since my due date is technically 8/2, today is 1 week before. Chris assembled our stroller yesterday, and I think we've mostly figured out the car seat, as we're feeling as prepared as I suppose we can, at this point. One sort of amusing thing that happened today is my watch died, and we've decided that this is symbolic of the fact that once the baby is born, I'm not going to have any control over my schedule anyway! Tomorrow, we have to be at the hospital at 5:30 am, and the c-section is scheduled for 7:30 am Alaska time (11:30 EST). We'll send out some sort of announcement as soon as we can afterwards...

38 1/7

The end is finally approaching! I had my last ob appointment this morning before my c-section next week. Everything continues to be fine. I got to sign the consent form, which listed the usual million and a half ways they could maim me and the baby- frankly, the list was so ridiculous, it almost makes it pointless because if you were really worried about all those things, there is no way you could go through with it. But that's out the medico-legal world rolls. I am beyond ready for this baby to be born. I remember my mom telling me a long while back that 9 months is a really long time, I had no idea...

We've had a relatively quiet week since my last posting. I have seen 3 movies in the theater though, that should hold me for the many months/years that I'm sure it will be before I am able to again see a movie in a theater. We have also been exploring the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail, which is a very nice paved path along Anchorage's coast. I think it's about 11 miles long, so we've tried starting at various parking spots and walk for about 30 min round trip. It's very pretty, I wish all cities had done as nice of a job of conserving it's coastline for everyone to use!

Along the Coastal Trail, looking back at downtown Anchorage with the tops of the Chugach Mountains peaking through the clouds

Our most exciting day was Saturday, when conveniently the weather was gorgeous. We went to the Fire Island Bakery for breakfast, home of the most delicious scones (they have to be about 25% butter), and brought breakfast to a picnic bench at one of the parking spots along the Coastal Trail. After breakfast, we took a walk. Later that day, we drove up to the Chugach Mountains to the Anchorage Overlook Trail, the same lookout that Marika took Chris and me to on our first day here, way back on May 22. Much less snow on the ground, the mountains were a lot greener, and there were a TON more cars in the parking lot than there was in May.

My mom in front of Flattop Mountin in the Chugach Mountains. If you go back to my 1st blog posting in May, you can see a picture of Chris sitting on this same bench.

Also on Saturday, we took a tour of the maternity ward at Providence Medical Center. My mom and I had very different reactions- she was impressed by how many delivery rooms there were, while I thought it seemed so small! But I am a bit biased, since my delivery room rotation as a pediatric resident was at Brigham and Women's Hospital, which I believe has the 2nd highest number of deliveries of any hospital in the country. But regardless of the number, it seemed very nice. They also gave me a booklet of all the various birthing and child care classes that they have. They have the typical classes that you would expect at any hospital, plus 2 that I am pretty certain you wouldn't see in Boston: Babes in the Snow ("designed to empower parents of infants and tots with the tools and confidence they need to embrace winter with their little ones") and Babes in the Woods: Hiking/Backpacking ("how to stay safe, sane, dry, and relatively bug free on the trails of Alaska's backcountry"). There were several other pregnant women on this tour, and it surprised me that quite a few of them who aren't due for weeks/months looked more pregnant that I do. While I feel a big as a house (and you can see this latest profile picture of me below), I guess I'm still not as large as I potentially could be. This is not something that concerns me though, because all my ultrasounds have confirmed that this baby will likely be on the large side (and given Chris and my heights, what else would you expect?), and certainly is appropriately developed for age.

The most recent of the many profile pictures my mom has insisted on taking, much to my chagrin.

The weather hasn't been very nice the last few days, so we haven't done much since then. Tomorrow, we will likely be having breakfast with the husband of my mom's best friend from when she grew up, who is arriving in Anchorage late tonight for a fishing trip. Then tomorrow night, Marika's parents are in town so we'll be getting together for them with dinner. It should be fun to see new people! Nothing big planned for Thurs or Fri, but on Sat, Chris, my dad, and step-mother all arrive. I'm just crossing all my fingers and toes that I don't go into labor before then. Their flight gets in at 2:18 pm, and frankly I'd be thrilled if I went into labor at 2:19 pm, but hopefully not before then!

37 0/7

Mom by the totem pole at the Alaska Native Heritage Center

I am now officially full term and it's time for my weekly post-ob appointment posting! I had my weekly visit this morning, everything continues to be fine. I am starting to feel more tired though, and I'm not sleeping as well as I had been before, mostly due to lots of kicking. I think either he's training for the World Cup in 2034 or is going to be a drummer, because the kicking is very rhythmic. His new favorite place to kick me is on the left side on the underside of my ribs, which is actually kind of painful. The nurse today asked me if I was counting the days, and I told her I'm counting the days to 3 different events: Chris coming out (13), the baby being born (16), and when we are heading back to Boston (30).

In the meantime, the time here is actually going by more quickly that I would have expected. Sleeping so much certainly takes up much of my day. But everyday we try to go for a walk and then do something else. On Friday, my mom and I went to the Alaska Native Heritage Center, which had really interesting exhibits about the various native cultures. It also happened to be a beautifully sunny day, which was nice because most of the exhibits were outside. We had lunch at their outside grill, and had native foods too: I had a reindeer burger (tasted pretty much like a hamburger) and mom got grilled salmon. We also got pedicures on Sat, which was pretty crucial for me, because it's getting harder and harder for me to touch my toes!

Today is another beautiful sunny day. I'm pretty tired this morning due to my lack of sleep last night, but hopefully if I feel a bit perkier later in the day, we'll go for a walk. The nice thing is that since the sun sets to late, we can take walks late in the afternoon/early evening and it's still broad daylight out there! Tonight is the season premiere of "The Closer," which I'm kind of pathetically excited about seeing. Then later this week, I'm going to be joining Marika and her friends for some get-togethers in the evenings, which should be fun too.

Thanks again to everyone who has emailed, written, and called me. It's nice to still feel connected to home!

36 1/7

I really don't have much to say since my last posting, it's been pretty quiet since Kristin and Chris left. But I did have my weekly ob visit this morning, and feel somewhat obligated to do a posting as a result. Everything continues to look fine. The baby is still growing and kicking. Now we're just waiting.

I suppose the big news is that Chris now has a ticket to come up Saturday July 24, the weekend before the c-section is scheduled. I'm just crossing my fingers that this baby doesn't decide to come early! And the perhaps bigger news is that we now have tickets to come home 2 weeks after the c-section, on Tuesday August 10. Somehow it makes it more bearable to be here, knowing that the end is in sight. My dad and step-mother are also coming up on July 24, and will be here for a week. My mom is scheduled to fly home on August 5, and Chris and I are hoping that we will be seasoned enough at that point to survive the last few days on our own!

The other thing I (re)learned yesterday is that it could always be worse! When we were having dinner at the Hickel House, another woman was saying that she was staying here because her daughter was having complications with her pregnancy. Her daughter was attending school in Fairbanks and developed some sort of complication (I didn't ask) and now she is on strict bed rest. I can't even imagine how miserable strict bed rest would be. But the real kicker is that this mother came all the way from Cameroon to be with her daughter! Kind of puts coming from Boston in perspective...

35 6/7

Since my last posting, we have been trying to get a bit more organized, since this baby will be here in a little over 3 weeks! We went to Babies R'Us and bought what hopefully will be enough clothing and supplies to get us through 2 weeks in Alaska without doing daily laundry yet without requiring us to pack 3 extra suitcases to get home to Boston. It's very hard to figure out what exactly I need here, and what can wait until I get home. Despite being a pediatrician, I feel very clueless about the whole situation. The other thing that I've decided is really stupid is the cut off between newborn items and size 1- it's around 8 pounds, and so many newborns are around 8 pounds. Why couldn't they have made it something that is more clearly an actual cut off for newborns, like 10 pounds?!?

I have also decided though that I want to go home all in 1 day, when it is time to for us to go home. While it will take over 12 hours door to door to go from Anchorage, AK, to Watertown, MA, and I'm sure I'll be exhausted and in some degree of pain at the end, I think that stopping off halfway, getting our luggage, checking into a hotel room, checking out the next morning, rechecking luggage, re-going through security etc would also be quite exhausting. The pediatrician side of me is also fairly convinced that he is going to catch a cold from all the lovely recirculated air on the plane, and any baby 28 days old or younger with a fever of 100.4 or higher essentially automatically gets a 2 day hospital admission, so if he does spike a fever, I'd rather have that happen in Boston than in Minneapolis, Salt Lake City, Seattle, Chicago, or wherever we'd end up having an overnight layover. At least in Boston, I could choose which hospital to go to (Newton Wellesley Hospital would be my hospital of choice, by the way, no offense to MGH or CHB, but MGH and CHB don't have single rooms and NWH does!) and would be surrounding by family and my things! Also since our last posting, my mom, sister and I took a drive up north, and walked to Thunderbird Falls, which was a pretty waterfall, but nothing spectacular like other sites I've seen here. But after that, we went to a really fascinating church in Eklutna. St Nicholas Orthodox Church is left over from the days when the Russians came to Alaska and converted the native Athabaskans. The church seemed quite traditional Russian Orthodox to me, with beautiful paintings of icons in the inside. But the church burial ground incorporated the native tradition of Spirit Boxes, which are still being used today. So that was really neat to see.

St. Nicholas Orthodox Church

The inside of the church.

Spirit Boxes.

Kristin and Chris (my brother-in-law, not husband) left last night. It's always sad for me to drop people off at the airport, both because I'm sorry they're leaving and I'm sorry I'm not going with them! But at least Chris (my husband) will probably be here in a little less than 3 weeks and then the baby should be here in a little more than 3 weeks! The big challenge between now and then is to keep both my mind and muscles from atrophying. My mom and I are going to try to go for at least a short walk everyday and then a car ride somewhere, just to keep from getting too stir crazy. Other goals for the next few weeks:

• read some more books, as I've been told I won't have time like this to read for about a decade or so
• finish seasons 4 and 5 of "The Wire"
• start reviewing my Spanish, thanks to some CDs that have been sent to me
• learn how to install a car seat
• organize all the baby stuff and figure out if I need to buy more stuff
  

That's about all I can think of for right now.

Happy 4th of July!