The greatest gift ever...

So what could possibly be the greatest gift ever, you might ask???? (note: this is outside of having the opportunity to be a parent)
A bassonnette? Nope. A cute little outfit? Nope. Really comfy holding blanket? Negative. Patriots football tickets? No...with hesitation ;)

It's this: 9 hours of sleep! Thanks to the 2 Marina's, Mommy and Daddy got a whole 9 HOURS of sleep last night. Oh My Goodness! It was so great. Mishka slept 7 hours through the night, and Babu took care of Mishka throughout the night as needed. it was SO great. I can remember my name today, I'm not walking into doorways, ah, SO wonderful ;)

On tap today, daddy and his little girl will be analyzing every pick of the NFL draft, hehe.

More pics:

FEED ME!!!!!!!

Bottle feeding time! Yup, Daddy has inherited feeding duty :) Mishka took right to it, like she has with everything else.











Here's Mishka chowing down and loving it!

Mishka update

The lactation consultant came by yesterday and checked out Mish...turns out that she is quite like her uncle Jon as she is an enthusiastic eater, she weighed in at 7 lbs 6 oz...which means she's put on 8 oz since her birth (actually closer to 14 oz as when she got weighed last leaving the hospital at 6 lbs 8 oz)...and she appears to be filling out. The lactation consultant says she's never seen anything like it and said that Mishka appears to be thriving, YEAH MISHKA!

As for Mommy, she's resting up as much as she can, she's been nails in regards to feedings, cleanings and doing the nighttime cuddling with Mishka, which has allowed me to keep up with school, have some QT with Mishka...and blog ;)

I'm exhausted, time to get a pre-sleep nap!
DB

Bath Time!!!!!!

Sponge bath for Mishka...yeah, she HATED it (as you can see with her screaming here). She did smell nice and clean afterwards...well, until she spit up and pooped. Also got a pic showing how long she is...check out how long and skinny those legs are! :)



Here's Mommy calming Mishka down a little bit here giving her a pinky to suck on.

So what happened again...the birth part 1

Story time!
As I promised I'd post a few things regarding how things happened a week ago (holy cow, has it been a week!!!).
Last Thursday Tasha had 3 doctor appointments to survey the status of the pregnancy, I had a light school day (and frankly at that point screw school work!) and went with her...this is only after I went to school @ 7am to have my Tb PPD read (med speak: I don't have tuberculosis)...and we started at Southern Maine Medical (SMMC) to have a fetal non-stress test. Basically Tasha was hooked up to a machine that monitored heart rate and she pushed a button when she felt Mishka move. That was uneventful, so we moved right along to the ultrasound which was in a office adjoining the OB/Gyn office (across the way from SMMC)...we got to see Mishka again in utero, which to that point was the most amazing thing for me, seeing that little heart beating away and occasionally seeing her yawning. It was at that point that we realized (from the images) that Mishka had her mommy's lips and nose! So cute :)
From there we went to see the OB...sidenote, when we left for the hospital I told Tasha somewhat reluctantly that I felt that we weren't going to be checking out of the hospital because I was certain they would tell us that this was it...but as we got to the OB that feeling was starting to fade. It REALLY slammed shut when during the examination the doc told us that her cervix had not dialated at all. He said he was going to review the chart and ultrasound and come back. We were really crushed as we got our hopes up so much that we'd be able to see our daughter soon. Figured then that it could be another week or so...lemme tell ya, neither of us had much patience left for that!
Apparently God agreed, as did the doc...he walks back in the room (the doc that is) and says "okay, lets have this baby!". I really wonder what our faces looked like at that point...must have been utter confusion and disbelief, I mean, he'd just told us that Tash wasn't dialated at all, and that posed a minor problem for baby to come out. But the doc had an answer for that: Cervadil. Prostaglandin stimulating drug that when placed vaginally can stimulate dialation of the cervix, and if things go ideally, it jump starts labor. He wanted to induce Tasha, he said that the baby was ready, everything about Tasha except the cervix was ready to go...and that we were to check into the hospital by 4pm that afternoon and start the induction at 5. 12 hours later she should be in labor with a child in hand on Friday.

Shocked really doesn't describe the state Tasha and I were in as we left the office. I drove us to the ocean and we spent a few minutes walking along the beach and taking in those last moments where it was just her and I. It was really nice to have that moment, amist (sp?) all the events of the past week I can distinctly remember exactly where we stood, how sunny it was outside, how wonderful the sea mist smelled, and how many different thoughts and emotions in anticipation I had. Being with my life partner at that time gave the confidence for what would come next, even though I had NO idea what that meant.

We got home around 12:30 or so, made a whole bunch of calls, checked all our bags, and nervously milled about the house for the next 3 hours. Really didn't know what else to do (I should have taken a nap...once again, in retrospect!!!). Mama and Babi got their stuff together and did whatever they could to help us out (which turned out to be common theme throughout...they were/are so wonderful to us, kept us closer to sane!)...4pm sneaked up on us and we went to the hospital. We had enough bags that it looked like we were going on a week long vacation to Europe or something. We made our way up to the labor and delivery room, Tasha got herself situated and I showed Mama and Babi around. The doc came in at 5 as promised, set up the Cervadil, and then the wait was on. Mama and Babi hung out with us and got us dinner...we dined while a young lady across the hall was screaming bloody murder in the throws of labor...interesting dinner ambience ;) They left and we later got a surprise visit (well, not that much of a surprise) from Dad & Kathy, aka Topa and Kama...they got the tour and the skinny as to what was up at that point. They were situated down the road at a motel, ready at a moments notice! The final visitors that evening were our friends Suzie and Shawn, we just hung out and chatted while Tasha would have an occasional contraction, but nothing too serious. They hit the road around 11:30...we got ready for bed, but there'd be no sleep that night for us!

Tune in later for more (time for dinner!).
fyi-Mishka just got her first bath this evening, got some neat pics of her screaming her head off ;) Will post them later.
DB

Early morning sunshine!

Another early morning...but I have a feeling that Babu's day has gotten off to much more than a good start :)

New hobbies

So what do I do now with all my free time, you wonder...

Given the habits of my family, I guess it was merely time before I embraced napping :)

I'm posting this pic mostly for my benefit...when she's kept me awake later this week I can look at this pic and remember what life was like when she liked to sleep ;)

Wednesday morning updates

Well, I've been awake this morning for the past 4 hours which is okay and normal I guess...that is if I was from London!!!
:)

Everyday with Mishka there's something new as she's growing with every minute. She's eating like a horse...pooping about the same (side note, I felt kinda bad and embarrassed for Mish after my last poop entry from Monday...then I remembered that I/we have spent the last month talking at length about Tasha's cervix, how dialated it is, how pliable it is, ect...modesty be damned!!!). She's awake alot more, which is very cool because she's starting to figure out how to use her ears and eyes simultaneously...she give the illusion that she's looking at me, which melts my heart like you wouldn't believe (seriously, I'm whipped like you wouldn't believe...me thinks that everyone else already knew that tho!). The lack of sleep for me has been okay for now (although this blog might have a much different tone in a couple hours!), poor Tasha has been up alot more than I have to this point...that'll hopefully balance out a bit more once she's able to pump and I can feed at night.

That's the excitement on this end. More soon.
db

Welcome home pics

A few first day close ups. One with Mishka in her car seat, another with a BIG yawn, and the last of her staring at Daddy :)

Monday morning update

Here's an in class post...yeah, this parenthood thing is gonna ruin any and all study habits...hey, maybe that'll be a good thing ;)

We all made it thru the first night at home, as you would expect, there wasn't alot of sleep due to feeding schedules and overhypersensitive parents...yeah, I'm pretty bad, poor Mishka makes any sort of gurgle and I'm doing commando flips through hallways, over beds to get right next to her to find her sleeping away healthy and angelically. :)

Mishka's GI system is up and working. Last night around dinner Babi and Babu detected a little smell around Mish, so I jumped up to see what was going on...mind you, to this point I'd checked the diaper several times when she's smelled like she's pooped only to find an empty diaper and cold, ticked off baby. (She's gassy, just like her daddy!!!) This time, not the case.
She erupted in her diaper, liquid poo EVERYWHERE!!!! To make this first significant poop even more fun, Mishka decided to do calestenics for daddy which lead to poo splatter and more crying, and eventually peeing on daddy who was cleaning the plethora of liqui-poo. I didn't gag, which I'm actually pretty psyched about. Tasha was in the other room yelling in to see if I was okay...I guess I might have busted out a few curses when Mish stuck her leg into the dirty diaper ;)

So it's as you'd expect, new parents fumbling around trying to figure out this new little life.

Back to class.
DB

More pics thanks to Jon and Jess!

Changing time, with cousin Bella looking to give the old man and assist :)

Little feet!!!!

Eyes wide open (okay, seriously, nothing melts my heart more than when she wakes up, opens her eyes and looks towards me trying to figure out how to work her ears and eyes simultaneously...just putty in Mishka's hands I am!!!)

And here's another family pic while Mishka yawns...she's got a really cute yawn...who am I kidding, she's got a real cute EVERYTHING!!!!

The Queen and her Princess...

These pics come courtesy of Jon and Jess...they just show what was on display all weekend long and what most of us already knew prior to Mishka coming to being...that Tasha is a natural at being a Mommy. Seriously, look at those infinitely caring eyes and stares!!!! :)

So now what!?!?!?

The Towers are back home from the hospital, and Mishka is getting used to her new home! Simultanously, Mommy & Daddy are attempting to figure out how this new addition to the household changes things (early returns on this subject matter is that it's changed extensively!!!!).
Tash is resting and recovering well.
Mishka has really taken to breastfeeding (TG!!) and has been totally mellow and taking life in as it comes...I think Daddy could learn something from his daughter as I've been, how shall I say, a bit more vigilant and up tight ;)

So now what to do with the blog...hmmm...
I'll put on more pics as they come in (Uncle Jon hooked me up with some really great pics, especially with Mommy and daughter!), and I think I'll do a few text updates here and there; maybe put in a few blurbs about the birth itself...like I said before, we were all incredibly lucky as everything went real smooth, the nurses at SMMC were fantastic, especially the labor nurse, she was NAILS!!!!! Maybe tell a few stories too...we'll see.

later
daddy DB