Catherine Piper Bau
|
August 6 started as an ordinary day. Heidi went off to work in the morning as usual and took off in the morning to visit her doctor for a regular OB checkup. David fixed himself some breakfast and squirreled up in his home office.
But then David got a call from Heidi at the doctor's office: "The doctor says that I'm at 4 centimeters already and that I'm ready to have the baby today." Oh boy, thought David. That was fast! "Bring something red," said Heidi, "it's supposed to be good luck."
So David showed up and Heidi checked into the hospital at around 11am. The staff did the usual prep: Heidi got wired with a little baby monitor (we could hear the little "thump-thump" of Piper's heartbeat), a contraction monitor, a pulseox monitor, and other gadgetry. And the doctors put her on NPO - she wasn't allowed to eat anything except for ice chips. ("I think one red jellybean is probably OK," said one nurse.)
All the nurses could tell Heidi was an old pro: after she was settled in she promptly requested an epidural. "Could you please have the attending physician do it?" Three years ago one of the anesthesia residents gave her an one-sided epidural, so this time around she didn't want to take any chances.
The doctors ruptured her membranes manually (just like with Anthony), and then labor progressed quickly. Little Piper was crying her little lungs out by about 4:30 in the afternoon. Everybody was impressed by how promptly Piper arrived. ("Usually it takes a lot longer than this," explained one of the doctors.) She was due on August 5, and she arrived on August 6 after just a few hours of labor.
Piper came out on her side, with her eyes closed and her hands under her head. "I think we woke her up," said David, as Piper made her first cry. In her first couple days of life, Piper has continued to sleep frequently, waking up every hour (especially through the night) to have a little bit to eat. "I'm not sure she's met everybody yet," said Heidi, "because she keeps on falling asleep!" But when is she going to sleep for more than an hour at a time?
Costa Rica and Ecuador
Paul, Rachel and Kevin spent 2 weeks in Costa Rica and Ecuador with their good friends Yen and Julia Tan. Kevin had just completed 5 weeks of "home stay" Spanish lessons at the Ilesa school in San Jose and was chattering away with new confidence in Spanish, when he was joined in mid-July by his parents and the Tans.Some highlights of their vacation:
1. They chose to do some "white water rafting" with the Amigos del Rio on the Rio Naranjo(graded 3+ on a 1 to 5 scales with 5 being the most dangerous). The morning before the trip, torrential rain was soaking the area, and the rafters were wet to the bone even before they reached the river. The waters were high and fast moving.
AS they entered one of the whirlpools, all rafter were ordered to the center of the raft for safety. Within two to three seconds, Rachel and Kevin were swept overboard into the churning white water rapids! Fortuately, our raft was a lead raft in a party of three rafts. The second raft, under the control of a skilled guide made directly for the two bobbing bodies in life vests and crash helmuts. With about three to four minutes, Rachel and then Kevin were pulled safely aboard the second raft. Whew!
2. In the Indian Market at Sakasili(just south of Ecuador's most famous volcano, Cotopaxi), Rachel was given some free taffy. Plop!? What's this? One of Rachel's mollers was cracked and came out of her mouth along with some taffy candy.
Rachel asked our guide, Marco Gonzales, to recommend his local dentist in Quito to fix her tooth.... she did not want to wait until her return to the USA. No knowing much about local medical customs or coverage and with limited dental and Spanish knowledge, we made off for the dentist's office. It was another adventure and it turned out that Rachel was delighted with the Ecuadorian dentist;s skill and prices. He fixed everything on the spot and charged her about 10% of what it would cost us back home.
3. Turtle Nesting was the order of the day at Tortuguero National Park in Costa Rica. We paid $15 per person to talk a guided night walk along the beach in search of Green Turtles coming ashore to lay their eggs. Each mature females Green Turtle older than 35 years old, is capable of laying about 100 eggs at a time. The night was warm and humid, but the rain had stopped and our beach guide set a brisk pace as we marched double file down the dark beach without flashlights(so as not to disturb the turtles), rapidly building up a pretty good sweat. We had to hurry, as the park rangers only allowed 80 people on the beach at one time and we were to be off the beach in two hours or less.
Bingo, after about 45 minutes, we came upon a Green Turtle laying her eggs. It was fun and exciting to watch... somewhat like a human mother giving birth. Turtle are among the oldest living animals on earth. And Tortuguero is one of the most important nexting areas in the world. Fortunately, the Costa Rican government is taking step to protect the area and preserve the nesting area of these endangered species.
