Marcus John's First Walk in the Neighborhood at 4 Days Old

MJ's first outing (outside of a visit to the pediatrician) was a walk in the neighborhood with his nanny, Yaya Goring.  Goring was eager to take him out for a walk with our nanny share, Alexander, and her friends from the neighborhood.

MJ was 4 days old when he went for his first walk.  The weather was pretty nice, not too hot, not too cold.  The nanny got him bundled him and off they went!  Thank goodness we still had CJ's old hats and blankets.

 Yaya Goring, Alexander and other nannies and babies from the neighborhood

Baby Comes Home

After a couple of days at the hospital, Maki, MJ and I went home.  I was antsy to be home and since all was well with MJ, we were released after a couple of nights at the hospital.

Our hospital stay, btw, was pretty good.  The food was much improved since CJ was born.  The doctors, nurses and nurses' aides were all very caring and helpful.  Poor Maki had to sleep on a fairly uncomfortable couch-that-converts-to-a-bed and the food in the cafeteria is not as good on the weekends (since I was induced on a Friday, our stay was over a weekend).  We had Marcus John with us in the room most of the time since I was able to nurse successfully and he was sleeping pretty well.

Around noon on Sunday, we were released.   It felt good to be home, to see CJ and my mom, to sleep in my own bed, to be all together.  CJ was thrilled to have as back home and he was even more thrilled to be a Big Brother.

CJ lovingly calls him Baby Brother

Mommy's Boys

The boys with Grandma

First Photos of Marcus John

2nd and 3rd childrewn (and so on and so forth) often complain that there are precious few photos of them as babies.

Being the mommy photographer that I am, Marcus John may be the only second child to have a lot of photos taken of him.  I just love taking photos of my family, I love sharing them, and I love looking at old photos.  So here are some of my favorite photos of Marcus John from his first few weeks.

 Marcus John's eyes were wide open within a day.

Love those baby yawns

Love this peaceful photo of sleeping Marcus John

This is MJ in the portable bassinet portion of his pack and play

Yaya Goring took MJ out for a walk when he was just a few days old.

Here is MJ sleeping in the Moses basket from Uncle Alex.

We keep the Moses basket in the family room so MJ has a

sleeping area where we spend most of our time.

Don't you love those cute little baby fingers?

Here is MJ in the little playmat from our friends Eve and Karl

First Visitors

Jonathan and Tree were Marcus John's first visitors.  They were actually CJ's first visitors when he was born six years ago; they brought me chocolate, cherries and Indian food.  This time, they brought macaroons, which I was craving.  They are amazing friends.

Later that afternoon, CJ arrived with my mom and Maki's parents.  CJ was so happy to see us.  I think he was more excited to see his parents than his baby brother, but that's only because he missed us.

The grandmas with Marcus John

Grandpa Kato, Grandma Josie, CJ and MJ

CJ was really happy to see Maki

CJ was really happy to see mommy and wanted to snuggle

Welcome, Marcus John!

Marcus John was born at 1:33 pm. He weighed 7 lbs., 15 oz. and measured 19.5 inches. By comparison, CJ was born 6 lbs., 8 oz. and measured 19 inches. So Marcus started out life as a much bigger baby. Of course, CJ was born two weeks early, while Marco went full-term.

I can't remember what it was, but Marco's apgar score was evidently good, he didn't need any formula to get his blood sugar up (like CJ did) and he didn't need any lights. He also cried right after being born, which is always a good sign. I nursed Marco right in the delivery room and he did pretty well.

It felt so great to hold Marco, to finally meet him and give him a great, big hug!

This is Marcus John with mommy. His eyes and face
are all shiny because they put drops in his eyes.

This is Marcus John with his dad.

This is Marcus John with Theresa, the nurse who delivered him.
Theresa was awesome. She knew I wanted to deliver naturally,
she gave me courage when mine was flagging, and she kept
reminding me to breathe.

 This is Liz, the midwife who delivered MJ

Labor and Delivery

Maki and I got to the hospital around 8:00am; my wonderful mom got CJ up and ready for school. We didn't see the OB and midwife around 9:30am because of paperwork, getting dressed, waiting for a delivery room and waiting around.

The OB wanted to put me on pitocin right away, but pitocin scares the life out of me. Pitocin causes very strong, continuous contractions and women on pitocin are more likely to have a c-section. I always maintained that it didn't matter how the baby was delivered, but if I could have a natural delivery, I knew I was going to be happier and it would be better for the baby.

Thanks to Dr. Sears' The Birth Book, I knew that I had to be an active participant in this delivery, so after some discussion, the midwife and I convinced the doctor to start me off with some prostaglandin gel. The gel is put on the cervix and get things going. The midwife suspected that the gel was all I needed to kickstart the labor. Most importantly, with the gel, I could walk around and not have to be attached to an IV.

So in went the gel and Maki and I started walking around the maternity ward. The gel definitely got me going. I was at 6 centimeters a couple of hours later when the midwife broke my water around 11:30am.

That's when active labor really started. Maki and I kept walking around, but I had to stop every minute or so to catch my breath because the pain was getting stronger.

Around 1:00pm, the doctor checked me again and I was dilated to 8 centimeters. The pain was getting stronger, but still bearable. Between walking around, I was listening to my iPod and Maki and I watched "Up in the Air" with George Clooney. Good movie, definitely got my mind off the labor for a few minutes at a time.

Close to 1:30pm, the midwife came to see how I was doing. By this time, I was in a lot of pain and starting to doubt my resolve to delivery the baby without any drugs. The nurse, Theresa, was wonderful. She reminded me to breathe, breathe, breathe. At one point, when the contractions were growing more intense, I asked for some Tylenol to take the edge off the pain. Theresa, the nurse, looked at me like I was nuts. She said, "Tylenol is not going to do anything." Maki said, "just humor her, give her some Tylenol." So I got 2 Tylenols and they probably didn't do anything, but in my mind, they did and that kept me going.

I had to pee, so I asked if I could get up. Theresa asked me to wait a few minutes so she could finish up some prep and then it all started to happen really fast. Theresa later said she was glad I didn't make it to the bathroom because she would have had to deliver a baby on the bathroom floor. Ew.

I felt a great deal of pressure, the pain was unbearable, I was sweating, I was hot and I had to push NOW. I was gripping Maki's hand like there was no tomorrow and telling him I couldn't do it. Maki said, "oh, the baby must be coming, this happened last time."

The midwife heard me screaming from down the hall. She came running in and said, "why didn't you call me?" I said, "I did. I was screaming for you."

The nurse and midwife were scrambling to get everything ready, I pushed a few times, the pain was crazy and unbearable and then the baby came. And then I delivered the placenta and it was all over. Great relief and a baby crying.

I definitely had more of my wits about me than I did when CJ was delivered because I asked for Marcus John to be given to me and wouldn't let them whisk him away so fast for weighing, measuring and checking. I felt a great rush of emotion when they put MJ in my arms because we had tried so long to have another baby, I had so many miscarriages, and now he was here, and he was healthy and crying.

Ladies, if you can bear the pain, I am convinced that delivering a baby without drugs is worth it. You are able to push harder because you can feel the baby. Plus, the pain is so ridiculously unbearable that you want to push and get it over with. And immediately after the baby is born, there is very little pain and you're not groggy from the meds. Don't get me wrong. I don't begrudge anyone pain management. Friends tell me I have a superhuman pain threshold and perhaps they're right. At the end of the day, what matters is that mom and baby are fine.

Thank Goodness for Friends and Family

Marcus John was born on September 10 and we could not have managed the logistics without family and friends.

My mom flew into town on September 9 so she could be here for the delivery and the baby's first few weeks. If the baby came before September 10, three amazing friends (Jonathan, Tree, Eileen) volunteered to come at the drop of a hat and stay with CJ. We are very, very lucky to have such great friends. In fact, they came a couple of evenings but I was in false labor, no cigar, no baby.

On September 10, my mom got CJ ready for school and neighbors drove him to school. That afternoon, Maki's parents picked him up and brought him home.

On Saturday (while Maki, the baby and I were still in the hospital), Maki's parents took CJ to his swimming class and took him to lunch. In the afternoon, Maki's parents, my mom and CJ visited us in the hospital.

I don't even know what we would have done without our family and friends. I guess that's why they say it takes a village to raise a family!