Dominic Noah Escalante

Our little guy is growing up quickly.  He has nearly outgrown a few of his newborn outfits.  It helps that he is a good eater.  He weighed in at 9lbs 7oz today at his check-up compared to his birth weight of 8lbs 3.5 oz 2 weeks ago.  He is starting to develop more of a personality.  By this I mean he cries more---hopefully it's just a short phase :)  Anyways, I just wanted to take a minute and post a few of my favorite pictures of him.  Many of these have been posted on Facebook already, so this may be old news to a lot of you, but I love sharing them!

Who would've guessed that Michael and I would have a blonde child? Not me.

I love his widow's peak!

He was so good to put up with the mini photo shoot despite how he was really feeling

He is often awake and just looking around, taking in the world around him

"Thank ya, Thank ya very much"-his Elvis face

I have a feeling that we'll see this face a lot when he's a teenager.

It's the best feeling in the world to catch him smiling

He loves munching on those hands of his

For a blonde, I still can't believe how much hair he has.  It seems like most blonde babies are born bald.  

Aside from the blonde hair, Michael and I have been debating to whom Dominic bears greater resemblance.  What do you guys think?

Baby Escalante's Birth

Our sweet baby boy was finally born on January 5, 2012 at 9:26pm.  I say "finally" not only because I was 11 days late, but because I was in active labor for about 50 hours prior to his arrival.  But before I get into those details, I'll catch you up on the events leading to the birth.

My last blog ended on New Years Eve, so I'll begin this blog with January 1, 2012.  New Years Day marked my 1 week over-due date.  We headed to church and went about the day as usual.  Deb, Michael's mother, was still scheduled to be in town for a few more days.  We were all hoping the baby would arrive before she had to fly back to Utah.  But at the end of the day, I was still pregnant.

Monday we went for a hike at Sleeping Giant State Park.  The day was cold, marked by the nor'eastern winds.  A 1 1/2 mile scenic trail lead us to a stone observation tower on the peak of Mt. Carmel, which provided an excellent view of the Long Island Sound and New Haven.

Michael and his mother, Deb

It was pretty windy as you can see!--Brrrrr

The hike back down the trail grew difficult as I began to experience cramping and contractions (I experienced some on the hike up, but the intensity was increasing as we began our descent).  I began to grow hopeful that labor was near.

We stopped by a small little sandwich shop in Hamden for lunch, complete with hot chocolate!  The contractions ceased as the day went on however.  Monday came and went-still no baby.

Tuesday I had a doctor's appointment to check the fluid levels in the placenta-they wanted to ensure the placenta was still holding enough amniotic fluid and had not yet began to deteriorate.  They also monitored the baby's heart rate for about an hour to make sure that he was not experiencing any distress.  Everything looked good!  Next we headed to a check-up with my OB.  Still no dilation.  The Yale hospital doesn't like women to go beyond 2 weeks overdue, so we put my name on a waiting list to start an induction Wednesday evening.  Technically I won't be 2 weeks overdue until Sunday, January 8 but of course they want to avoid a weekend induction.  Michael was also considering flying out to California for his grandmother's funeral on Saturday.  I was really hoping the baby would come on it's own because I wanted to experience a natural childbirth.

Later that evening contractions resumed and by 7pm I started timing them because they were coming fairly consistent: 6-10 minutes apart.  The three of us (Deb, Michael and I) sat down to watch a movie.  I spent a lot of the movie up and about pacing with the contractions.  The contractions maintained all night and into Wednesday.

Wednesday we called the OB and went into the clinic to be checked.  I had dilated to a 2 and was 90% effaced.  I was excited to finally be making progress!  We ran a few errands but stayed pretty low key most of the day.  The contractions maintained at about 6-9 minutes apart and were growing with intensity.  Wednesday was possibly one of the longest nights of my life...not to be overly dramatic.  The intensity of the contractions increased, while the time in between decreased to about 4-5 minutes.  Michael and Deb went to bed with the assumption that we would be leaving for the hospital in the middle of the night.  I didn't sleep at all, but spent all night pacing and breathing through contractions.  Around 4 in the morning, I had Michael call the on-call OB to inquire about going to the hospital.  After talking with the doctor, he informed me that once I was experiencing contractions 3-5 minutes apart for about an hour, I would be ready to go the hospital.  I got off the phone and broke down in tears.  I had already been having contractions for over 24 hours and didn't know how much longer I could handle them at their current intensity.  Michael gave me a priesthood blessing of peace, comfort and endurance.  I am grateful to be a member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and for our belief that the power of God can be called upon for healing purposes today.

By about 8:30am on Thursday, we decided to go to the hospital because I was absolutely exhausted and the contractions had reached 3-5 minutes apart for the past hour.  We called the OB clinic on the way and let them know.  Once at the hospital, I was devastated to learn that I was still only dilated to a 2!!  The only progress that I made throughout the course of an extremely long and painful night was that I was now fully effaced.  To make a long story slightly shorter, the doctor said that I should go home and walk around for a few hours.  I kindly declined that option and was admitted to the hospital where they gave me some morphine and started the smallest possible dose of pitocin in hopes to encourage the little guy's arrival.  After a few hours, I was relieved to learn that I had progressed to a dilation of 5cm.  However, the progress seemed to freeze again after that.  The morphine didn't seem to be helping much, and with growing exhaustion, I defeatedly consented to have an epidural.  I could recognize that I would need some strength/sleep to be able to complete the birthing process and this was my best hope due to the intensity and frequency of contractions.

I don't know that I ever fell asleep, but the rest was relieving and slightly rejuvenating considering I had not slept for 2 days.  I finally dilated to 10 cm around 7:00pm-a full 48 hours after the contractions began to be consistent.  They turned off the epidural and I pushed for 2 1/2 hours before gladly welcoming our son into this world.  Michael didn't get to cut the umbilical cord because as our baby came out, the cord was around his neck so the doctor quickly cut it to enable breathing.

Love at first sight

So glad he's finally here. (I love Deb's smiling face in the background)

Finally moved into our recovery room about 10pm

Beaming Grandma

Deb had to extend her trip by one day to be there for the birth.  I'm glad she was able to meet her newest grandchild

Cuddling with Dad

Our friends the Granges came to visit the next day (Friday)

More cuddling!

View from our room on Friday night

Our first family photo with the new addition

Deep in thought

This was taken on Monday morning.  We took him in for his first doctor's appointment.  I just think he looks like such a little man here.  It's so funny!

So, it took us about a week, but we finally came up with a name for our little guy: Dominic Noah Escalante.

Well, that's plenty long for tonight!  I need to get some rest so I can wake up soon to feed Dominic!--The joys of parenthood are upon us.

We love having visitors

Despite being 1 week overdue, it has been a good week.  Michael's mother, Deb flew into Connecticut on Wednesday (the 28th) so we have been getting out and showing her the area.  This helps the time pass more quickly since we can't travel very far from home.

Prior to Deb's arrival, we were able to finish a little home decorating.  We had been intending to hang 2 of Michael's guitars for a while now, and just got around to it.  I think they look beautiful.

We took it pretty easy on Wednesday after Deb's arrival due to her red-eye flight.  We did enjoy a lovely dinner at Miyas Sushi, one of my favorites in town!  The wind made the evening grow quite cold so we were very bundled up and didn't do much walking around downtown.  We found out there was a Yale hockey game so we went straight to the arena after dinner.  It was my first time ever watching a hockey game.  They are so fast paced and intense!

Yale ended up beating the Russians 6-4.  It was like watching the Mighty Ducks 4, pretty intense/physical game.


Thursday we hopped on the Yale shuttle and headed to explore the beautiful architecture of Yale's campus.  The next 2 pictures are Yale's Divinity School, where students study the history of western theology.

Beautiful set of buildings!

Next we headed to the Sterling Library--Yale's main library.  The architecture inside and out is breathtaking.

The library-try to notice the intricate-detailed carvings.

The library-try to notice the intricacies of the pillars.

We came home and had a small lunch, then took a brief nap before getting ready to head out for dinner.  We headed to Pepe's pizza, a New Haven classic.  For dessert, we walked down the street to a place called Libby's Italian Pastry Shop where we had some renowned canolli's.

Friday we woke up and went for a hike to the tallest point in the area-East Rock State Park.  We weren't exactly sure where the trail was, so we hiked around for a while until we reached the top.  This monument has been under restoration since we moved here, but all the scaffolding had finally been removed and it looked great!

After exploring East Rock Park, we headed to Lighthouse Point Park so Deb could see the ocean.   The weather was quite lovely (high 40's, and no wind) so it was nice to walk around the beach.

5 days overdue-Lighthouse Point Park

Michael and I walking down the pier at Lighthouse Point Park

We ended up locking the keys in the car, so we walked around some more while we waiting for AAA to arrive.  Once back in the car, we headed home for a bit before heading out for a night on the town.  We ate dinner at the USS Chowder Pot 3 and had some outstanding seafood.  Thanks to some of Deb's kids, she had a lovely gift certificate from Christmas.  I can't remember the last time I felt that full!!!--Not even after Thanksgiving!  After dinner we raced to catch Sherlock Holmes 2 in the theatre.  Deb hadn't seen the first Sherlock Holmes, so I'm not sure if she enjoyed it...but Michael and I sure did!

Saturday (New Year's Eve) morning I woke up at 6am and couldn't fall back to sleep.  Not wanting to disturb Michael and Deb, I hung out quietly for a few hours emailing, reading, etc.  Around 8:30am, Michael left to go play soccer with some friends and I was ready for a nap!  When Michael returned, we all had a lovely brunch of hash browns, eggs, and bacon!  Michael and Deb then went and walked around the Business school while I got ready for the day.

Later that day we went for a drive through some of the narrow, forested roads surrounding New Haven. We ended up at Sleeping Giant State Park (which is near Quinnipiac University).  We started hiking up the trail, but bumped into a someone that Michael knew and ended up chatting for a bit as it grew dark. We ended up just hiking back down the trail.

This is a lake that we passed on our drive to Sleeping Giant State Park.

Hiking at Sleeping Giant State Park

As for our wild and crazy new years eve plans, since we had hoped to be in the hospital competing for the title of "first baby of the year", we hadn't made any killer new years eve plans.  However, it ended up being a lovely night.  We had dinner with some friends/neighbors then the 5 of us (Deb, Michael, Todd, Becca and I) headed off for a rousing evening of bowling.  Little did I know that bowling could be so dangerous...This sign showed on our monitor before our game began.

Todd and Becca Pope just after midnight at the bowling alley.

I also didn't know/anticipate that Deb was actually good at bowling.  She and Michael battled for 1st place in both games that we played, and ended up winning one game a piece.  I always feel particularly bad at bowling, but in my 9 + months, I felt particularly uncoordinated.

Despite feeling tired and a little weary from the 30 extra pounds I have been carrying, we had a great evening.  My energy levels have definitely dropped this past week.  I feel as though the baby may have "dropped" but it's hard to tell.  I go back to the doctor on Tuesday for an ultrasound where they will check to make sure the placenta is still in good shape and has not begun to deteriorate.  They will also monitor the baby's heartbeat for about an hour to listen for any distress. If everything still looks okay, they will likely let me go for a few more days on my own and try to induce me by the end of the week.  I keep praying that the baby will come on his/her own though.

On a different note, Michael got the notification in the middle of the night that his abuelita (Argentine grandmother) had passed away.  She was a sweet and beautiful lady and will be missed by all.  The funeral will be in California later this week.  I like to think that our baby was waiting to be born until they could cross paths briefly and get the chance to meet and embrace.  At least that's the image in my head: Michael grandmother embracing our unborn child and smiling sweetly.

Now we are really hoping that the baby will be born sooner than later so that Michael can fly to California for the funeral on Saturday.  We'll keep you all posted.

Hugs.