First smile captured on film (please ignore the drool stain)

First picnic

Trip to San Francisco for Alison’s conference included a trip to the rain forest exhibit at the California Academy of Sciences and her first steam train and carousel rides.

Redwood Valley Railway, Tilden Park, Oakland, CA from Matt McKeon on Vimeo.

Having fun on her Gymini (note how much bigger she is compared to about 2 months ago

Petra on her playmat from Matt McKeon on Vimeo.

Yogini Baby from Matt on Vimeo.

Walking back from pre-natal yoga class Monday night, I started having what I thought were just “practice” contractions. Although they were fairly regular for a couple of hours that night, they died down and I put a full day of work in at the office on Tuesday. Tuesday night the contractions got more regular again, about 10 minutes apart. My water broke around 1 am on Wednesday, at which point the contractions got much more intense and came every 2 to 4 minutes. Around 2:30 pm I walked across the street into the hospital and was examined by the midwife on call. We had been hoping and preparing for a natural, unmedicated birth at the Cambridge Birth Center, part of Cambridge Hospital. The breathing and relaxation techniques we’d learned from Hypnobirthing were helpful in coping with the contractions. However, there was a glitch in the plan.

We had known for a few weeks that Petra wasn’t in the correct position most of the time – she liked to move around into various positions. In fact, I had appointments on both Wednesday and Thursday for procedures to try to turn her into the correct position. But she wasn’t waiting that long! She was breech when we arrived at the hospital, and various factors meant that a C-section was necessary. Although it felt like an eternity to me, from check-in at the hospital to Petra’s delivery was only about an hour and 15 minutes. Matt stayed with her during weighing and other procedures, while our doula stayed with me.

The C-section definitely has not been a pleasant experience, and I will take a few weeks to recover. I’m not used to being an invalid. However, Petra is very healthy (she could have left the hospital Friday; it was me that kept us there until today), and that is the most important thing! We’re very happy to have such a wonderful baby, and hopefully that will sustain us through the sleeplessness and (on my part) pain and mobility restrictions.

Sorry we haven’t posted photos yet, although we’re lucky the new Flip video camera arrived by mail the afternoon before she was born. Cambridge Hospital’s internet blocks Flickr, Facebook, Youtube, LJ, most blogs, etc. Now that we are home we will eventually get stuff up on Flickr.

Petra Comes Home! from Matt on Vimeo.

Alison and Petra walked to the hospital while in active labor, and now they walked back after a c-section! Hooray for living across the street.

Petra gets a visit from Iris! from Matt on Vimeo.

In our drawn-out quest for a dresser/ changing table combo, we drove down to an outlet on the South Shore a few weeks ago. To make it more fun, we also visited a winery:

and took a short hike in the Audubon Preserve:

easter2009-1, originally uploaded by Jin Aili.

We had a wonderful Easter potluck lunch at Alison’s friend Lydia’s. We brought the classic Slovak treat of hardboiled eggs with beet & horseradish sauce (courtesy Matt) and a green salad (courtesy Alison). And of course we had to get dressed up!