More reason to be jealous of me...

I just met Gordon D'Arcy, star Irish rugby player and brother of one of my co-workers.

Troublemaking Sisters

A certain sister of mine asked a scurrilous question that I won't repeat about a photo posted earlier. See the truth in this full resolution crop.



She's just jealous because I scored another hit on Taranto today.

My ever-changing mood

Joyful.



Thoughtful.



Inquisiful.

I think we'll keep him.

Finishing up the boat pictures from October, pre-baby

Riko, baby still inside, on Lough Key

Photo from around October 25th.

Peace out, yo.

Usefulness

He has mastered yawning and having the hiccups.
So that makes him all set to be just like dad, out on a Saturday night.

The New First Mate

He's going to have to get a good deal more useful than this though.
I sometimes wonder if he even knows his port from starboard.

My Old First Mate

He really wanted to be up high with us. It was amazing how he coiled himself into this chair.

Yes, he's wearing a scarf.

More boating, pre-baby

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water...
Riko at the helm!

The situation back in control, we're under way on Lough Ree.

Dublin Ladies

This is from several days ago, when we were sunning him for jaundice. He's looking much more normal now.



On the other hand, the Oompa-Loompa look appears to be quite fashionable among some Dublin girls who use tan-in-a-bottle products. It's quite striking coming here from California and seeing these strangely colored fashionistas.

Happy sleeper

A word from Mommy

Instead of attempting (and failing) to write to everyone individually I will post answers to all your questions in my next blog entry. That's what it's meant for after all. Just post them in the comments section. Or you can email me if you want.

First I want to thank all of you who sent me emails and cards regarding my Dad. It was the saddest moment of my life followed shortly by the greatest moment of my life. I think Ryan knew I needed him so he made an early appearance. Thanks Ryan.

You may not have been able to tell by the photos but I was in the worst physical pain of my life once the contractions started which was around 3-3:30 am (I think). And they only got worse as the morning progressed. I learned new things about my body like exactly how much pain I could withstand without the aid of drugs. I think Mike forgot to mention that I DID NOT HAVE AN EPIDURAL OR ANY PAIN RELIEF OF ANY KIND. I feel I've earned bragging rights. Fortunately (according to the midwives anyway) the labor was really short, and all of a sudden I was a mommy.

They put him on my chest almost immediately. (I wouldn't have minded if they had given him a quick bath) He looked looked up at me and I fell in love right away. It took a while for them to get me a bed and I stayed overnight in Unit 7 where there were about 6 other women who had also recently given birth. We all shared our stories. It was like a college dorm room only we all had babies instead of exams. I went home the next day, Wednesday afternoon.

At one week since Ryan's arrival I am feeling pretty great. My feet and ankles are no longer swollen, I can walk without waddling, I can bend over to put on my shoes and I got 3 straight hours of sleep last night, the most I've gotten since Tuesday November 6th at 1:30 am . I will omit all the gory details for the sake of the men folk but things are healing up nicely and my belly is shrinking a tiny bit every day. I'm not that tired in spite of the lack of sleep. Ryan is a beautiful and well behaved baby (knock on wood). Breast feeding is no walk in the park and I can see why some women give it up (Ireland has the lowest breast feeding rate in Europe) I think I was the only woman in Unit 7 who was breast feeding.

I'm looking forward to our new life and Whiskey seems to be adjusting. I think he misses our daily walks though. I know I do.

Mike has been great. He walks the dog everyday, cleans the house, runs errands, goes grocery shopping and feeds me whenever I'm hungry which is basically all the time. On top of that, he's resuming his normal hours this week at work. Had I known he'd be this helpful around the house I'd have had his child a long time ago.

Back to the vacation

During the week of October 20-26th we rented a 2+ sleeper cruiser and motored up and down the Shannon River. Kind of a combination birthday vacation for the two of us.

We started at Carrick-on-Shannon, if you care to know.



The dog was fine with being on the boat, but he definitely wanted off the moment I stepped off. Riko was not as predictable.

Here's a happy looking one.

A little diversion

Yes, the baby postings will continue, but we've got a passel of pictures that I had all lined up for the blog. So I'm going to post them.

October 14, 2007.

Mike turns 40 and has his first beer ever.

Taken at Crowe's Pub in Ballsbridge, South Dublin.

Pretty old, but my dad was 40 when I was born too.

Dublin Sun Baby

You might have noticed in the last photo that Ryan is doing his impression of a banana. He's got a bit of jaundice, but the midwife says it's no reason for worry. He's already gotten visibly better.

Still, she suggested we give him some sun as a treatment. Dublin cooperated and gave us a sunny morning today. Whiskey did his part as well.

Second hardest job in the world

 

Especially when somebody is a little jealous of the attention.

The hardest job in the world is having these guys as the three men in your life.

The New Rage: Moving Pictures

Before viewing this "Motion Picture," you'll need to pick up your computer monitor and lay it down on its side.

Riko went through much of her labor on her side, and I suspect there's some kind of knock-on effect of sideways-ness with the baby.

Boy

Dawn on an amazingly sunny November morning in Dublin. Clear and cold.

This was not stub-your-toe kind of pain.

Ryan Michael Fogarty
Born on November 6th, 2007 at 9:47AM
Just a shade under 7 lbs

We went to an admissions exam room. A midwife with a strong sort of Jamaican accent told Riko she wasn't in labor and considered sending us back home.

Well, I wasn't about to pay for another taxi ride without a baby to show for it. So we stayed.



The upper line in the graph is the baby's heart rate. The lower line is EMG data for her contractions. The text at the top says "Not in labor." This was not of much comfort to Riko, who was feeling the pain.


Then they moved us to "Unit 3," where we were to wait until she started really being in labor. This was not comfortable, and about 2 feet to the right of this photo was another couple.

The other woman just sat and bounced on a Yoga ball the whole time. She didn't appear to be in much pain. I don't know how long they'd been there, but Riko sure wasn't fooling around. We were out of there in about 2 hours.

We got up and walked around a bit while still in Unit 3.

Right out the window where Riko has her head down there was a tall narrow window with a view between buildings. I caught this image of the moon and a star on this very clear, cold morning.

Oh yes, but before that....

I started noting her contractions. Then, being me, I had to get a spreadsheet going. This is the result -- without some graphs I was trying.

Riko rolled her eyes, because this was still at the stage where she had the energy to roll her eyes at me.

I couldn't help it.

Back to the Hospital

Water breaks at 1:30 AM. We're both mentally squared-away right off. After some gathering and data collection at home, we're off to Holles St.

Excitement. Not the really good kind.

See the clock on the wall? 2:47. That's AM, and the scene is Holles Street National Maternity Hospital.

Everything is fine. We had one of those normal, getting-close-to-having-a-baby sort of medical events. We got back home around 3:30 this morning.

I was especially dopey, Riko having woken me from what must have been Stage 4 sleep a little before 1A. I had a hard-ish time pulling myself into reality, but having a pregnant wife saying "we're going to the hospital" is a potent stimulant.

Still, the doctor chuckled at me when I somehow constructed the phrase "meaningfully pregnant" in answer to some question or other. It made sense to me.