Meet Lucy Sue

Weighing in at 8 lbs 16 oz and 21 inches length, I present to you Lucy Sue Miadich. I'm pleased to announce that both mother and daughter are healthy and happy - therefore, so am I. Lucy beat Joey in both weight and length at birth. He's a pretty big boy these days so lets hope these stats don't remain proportional as she ages. But if they do, she'll still be beautiful all the same. She looks a lot like Joseph when he was born so I keep calling her a he. I'm working on that and am hoping to have it figured out by tomorrow.

Here's the quick recap: After a pretty uneventful latter half of the day, we didn't think much had progressed. But then the nurse checked Lindsay out around 6:30pm and surprised us all by telling us it's time to push. About 20 grunts and 30 minutes later Lucy made her grand entrance without any complications. Lindsay was nothing short of amazing. It was a pretty special moment for us and made all the more special with the support from Joy, Lisa, and Sharon throughout. Joy held down counting duties during contractions. I'm not going to lie, she started out shaky. At the beginning, the speed of her counting was directly proportional to the level of her excitement. Her ten counts only reeled off about 4 seconds in actuality. After a gentle correction from the nurse, however, Joy began to hold it down. Towards the end, you could set a clock to her pacing and the rising intensity as she got closer to 10 began to pump us all up and gave Lindsay a little added boost at the end of each push. Lisa and Sharon traded off camera duties and despite a few errant shots that captured a bit too much graphic detail, we now have some amazing pics that will allow us to remember this beautiful day forever. And their peaceful and loving presence provided us both with a degree of support that can only be described as graceful. Sharon even delayed a flight back home to Sacramento tonight and was just able to stay long enough to meet Lucy before dashing out to catch her flight. I sincerely thank all three of you for helping to foster such an amazing moment in our lives. A bit later, both grandmas paid a visit to their newest granddaughter. I feel unbelievably blessed that Lucy has two of the most beautiful and loving grandmas on God's Green Earth. And seeing two good friends brought closer together by their second edition of shared blood is beyond words to witness.

Well, Lindsay Sue and Lucy Sue are cuddled up tight in bed now and resting peacefully. It's probably time for me to do the same. Thanks to everyone for your support and prayers. Tomorrow morning Joey gets to meet his new baby sis. Let's hope he doesn't try to claw her eyes out.

Waiting Game

Things have entered slow-mo mode here in Room 6. It's been pretty uneventful thus far in comparison to last time around. During Joey's birth 18 months ago, I had to stand up and let Lindsay lean on and/or throw-up on me for about 6 hours. That was a natural birth. This time around, Lindsay had to have an epidural for reasons I will once again refrain from delving into (as to avoid using excessive amounts of gross verbiage). Right now Lindsay is taking a nap through her contractions and I am catching up on some reading.

Some of the highlights so far:

- I woke myself up snoring to find Lindsay, Joy, Sharon and Lisa laughing at me.

- Being locked up in a small room with a minimum of 4 women at one time discussing the intricate and intimate machinations of the female anatomy has left me with a strong desire to watch Bill & Ted's Excellent adventure just to shut down my mind for some reason.

- I've fought off countless attempts from Joy to force me to do some really weird things to my wife which she read on the internet that allegedly speed up the birthing process (not to make Joy sound like a sicko though. Nothing too outlandish or gross. Just weird...and with zero chance of working).

- The anesthesiologist who administered the epidural talked really fast and sounded like the Micro Machine guy (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2egGfd5j_k).

- Joy, Lisa, and Sharon just returned from cruising the halls for hot doctors to set Joy up with. Upon finding one such potential suitor walking the opposite direction in the hallway, Joy loudly said, "Mmmmm" in passing. She claims it was due to an especially delicious sip of her coffee, but we all know better.

Holding Pattern

Water is broken and now we wait. A contraction here, a contraction there but nothing to write home about yet. Lindsay's friends Joy, Lisa, and Sharon joined us a bit ago and since that time things have officially gotten weird. They've been trying to speed up the process and here's the teams attempt at labor, yoga, ballet fusion (aka baloga). As I suspected it would, it has thus proven ineffective.

Round 2

Well, we've just checked back into the hospital. I say "back" because we were just here a short 18 months ago when Joey made his grand entrance. Now we're back and ready to give Big Bro Joe a little sister.

Here's where we're at right now: The Dr. suggested inducing Lindsay after her appointment yesterday. Without getting into words such as "dilation" let's just say things were far along and the doctor wanted to break her water to speed it up for some precautionary reasons which I won't get into because there's many more gross words that I don't want to write about (everything is looking great though so no need to worry). So, we checked in this morning at 7:30 after a nice relaxing night. Grammy Pam picked Joey up so we got to spend a rare evening alone. I was especially excited because, with no little one asleep in the other room, I got to blast my surround sound for the first time in recent memory. Harry Potter and his wizarding world was coming at me from every direction and I was loving every minute of it. Lindsay wasn't so appreciative once snakes entered the picture and she found herself enveloped in the auditory-epicenter of 5 discrete channels of high fidelity hissing and slithering.

So here we are in Room 6. The Dr just walked in and is breaking Lindsay's water as I type....stay tuned.

Glowey the Future Baby

Well, it's day 6 and I'm pretty sure nobody is actually reading this anymore (I wouldn't), but what the heck - this blog site is free and what kind of a new dad would I be if I didn't waste everyone's time by forcing stories about my newborn son upon them.

The first few days back home felt extremely busy, yet it's difficult to relay any particular events of interest. Basically, it's watching Joey eat, sleep, eat, sleep, eat, sleep, eat, sleep, eat, poop, yeah! It turns out number twos are a good thing, so we're constantly rooting for them despite their olfactory consequences. Don't worry, I'll refrain from describing them in detail. For those of you with kids, you already know. For those of you having kids, you will soon know. And for the rest of you, you don't want to know.

The strangest thing so far has turned out to be this light blanket thing that we have to wrap around Joey because he's jaundice. This thing is straight of Star Trek. Basically, the base looks and sounds like a video projector and there's a tube coming out of it that connects to a blanket/strap thing. This blanket glows neon blue and has to be wrapped around our little guy's torso 24/7 for a few days. For this reason, I've begun calling him "Glowey." The strangest moment came last night when I woke up in the wee hours of the morning. Caught somewhere in the haze between sleep and reality, I looked about the room in utter confusion. There was a loud humming noise, the room was glowing with a neon blue hue, and I had no idea where I was (those of you who know me know that it takes me a while to wake up). I thought that I had somehow gone back in time 3 decades to the time of lava lamps and black light art. After scoping the walls and failing to find felt Led Zeppelin posters, I looked to my left and found that the source of the glow was coming from something under the blankets. I peeled back the covers and saw that a little body was the source. He looked like a hybrid of E.T. and Avatar. I was so out of it, I momentarily forgot that I had a son and I almost screamed. Anyway, the whole contraption is pretty futuristic and pretty cool I think since I'm kind of techie. The future is now folks, and my glowing blue baby is proof positive.

Lindsay is doing unbelievably fantastic. We went straight from the hospital to the Beall's house for a family BBQ. She was cruising around the house playing with her nieces as if nothing had changed. In fact, we later joked around that both of us forgot a few times that we even had a son. Lindsay is the best mother any little critter could ask for. She has to wake up every 2 hours to feed him in the middle of the night, but does so with joy - even telling me that it's like Christmas morning every time she wakes up and sees him snuggled up next to her.

Our dog, Walter, has taken the whole thing unbelievably well. He's taken it upon himself to be Joey's personal protector. Whenever Glowey cries, Walter sprints to him to ensure everything is OK and then lays down right below him. He needs to learn a thing or two about personal space, however. When Joey is on the couch, Walter loves to stick his face right in Joey's and lick his head.

We can't tell you all how much we've appreciated all your support in the forms of visits, calls, texts, notes, dinners...etc. It's such a blessing to have such a loving community and overwhelming support. We thank you all and send our love. When Joey is old enough, I'll make sure he makes it up to you all in one way or another. I'm guessing he'll be pretty tall, but if he's anything like his pops he won't be very adept at manual labor, so maybe he can change out your lightbulbs or something.

As for future posts on this blog, time will tell. If there's something interesting/entertaining to write about, I'll post it. We shall see. I'm pretty sure I've achieved annoying dad status already, but I don't want to push it.

Not So Average Joe

Day 1 complete. We're staying at the hospital until tomorrow because everyone says to stay as long as you can, but I'm starting to get cabin fever. Maybe it's because I'm sleeping on a 4x2 padded bench.

Lindsay is doing great and actually has more energy than me. Many friends and family stopped by yesterday and we enjoyed their visits. Joey was a perfect angel all day while the visitors were around, but after they left I soon learned that not everything about this little guy is quite so cute. Oh, how I look back now and laugh about the first time he cried and Lindsay and I both responded by saying, "Even his crying is cute." That feeling wore off after about 4 minutes. He screamed incessantly until about 1 am. Sleep deprived and rattled by Joey's shrill pitched wails, I told Lindsay, "I don't know if I'm cut out for this." And this was only night number one. I've instructed Joey to learn English ASAP so he can more effectively communicate his needs. We'll see if he's a good son and obeys his father.

Other notable day 1 moments: I heard the term "latching" discussed in both great detail and quantity. Joey had his first poop, which was tar-black and I've come to call "demon poop."

Despite the crying and demon poo, Joey is unbelievably cute and I'm pretty sure we're gonna keep him. We feel unbelievably blessed. It's official, the Miadich's are now a family! Here's some more pictures so that I can fulfill my "annoying dad with millions of pictures of his kid that nobody cares about" quota.

P.S. We didn't have two babies. The other baby in the pictures below is Kyle and Wendy Beall's latest creation - the adorable 9 week year old Isla.

Recap

Best. Nap. Ever. Just woke up and we're all doing great. Joey is milking away and Lindsay is bright eyed and bushy tailed. Since things got a bit crazy during the night/morning, I thought I'd give you a recap and fill in some of those missing hours.

5 am - Turns out that my experience at 4 am was kiddy league. That was tee ball and we were stepping up to the big leagues. Lindsay kept throwing up and started to become faint. Her determination never wavered, but I did. Unbeknownst to her, I had to psych myself up in the mirror when I snuck off to the bathroom. After a few slaps to the face, I managed to mask my terror and headed back out.

6 am - More of the same, just way more intense. Things were getting worse on Lindsay and I have the claw marks on the back of my neck to prove it. Because of the vomiting issue, Lindsay was totally spent for energy and was starting to break down. She began asking about an epidural, but Laura, our fantastic doula, calmly stepped in and suggested that we find out how far along we are before making a decision. Turns out she was at 8 cm, so Lindsay decided to dig down deep and continue on without an epidural since we were nearing the end.

7 am - Pushing time. Lots of people in the room now. Nurses keep telling me to look. I don't want to. A lot of grunting ensues. Lindsay cracks jokes between pushes. Nurse insists that I look down yonder while the baby begins to show. I want to cry. Mid-push, Lindsay yells, "He doesn't want to look!" Nobody bothers me again about that and I focus on Lindsay's face the rest of the way, trying to pump her up between pushes. She turns purple with effort. The nurses cheer her on. They're so good at motivation that my adrenaline flows and I begin reliving high school football glory days. Joey's head makes an appearance. In a primal rage, Lindsay grabs his head and pushes/pulls the rest of his little body out and yanks him onto her chest. Done deal. Don't mess with my wife because there's a very real savage side that lurks just beneath her pretty exterior. What I witnessed at that moment is very real proof that Lindsay wasn't lying about her Native American blood (1/32 Omaha according to her).

7:45 am - Success. Full success.

More pictures to come...