Beau Patrick Stewart

WARNING!: This post may contain material that is unsuitable for people who don't want a very personal view into what transpired during our boy's birth....


"A brand new baby was born yesterdayJust in timePapa cried, baby criedSaid your tears are like mine"
Woof.
On the evening of Wednesday, 27th of June, Kim and I went to the Auckland City Hospital to induce labor.  We had to do this because our birth was a "high risk" one and the doctors did not want us to go much beyond the due-date which was June 24.  Well, waters did not break by the 24th and we really didn't even have a whole lot of movement on the labor front.  The little man was still just kicking and squirming away inside mom's tummy.
When you induce labor in New Zealand it is pretty much a 3-step process:

1. Prostaglandin jelly applied to the cervix.  This helps to soften the cervix and move you into waters breaking and proper labor.
2. Manually break waters.  This is done crudely with a hook.
3. Oxytocin drip.  This is a hormone drip which tricks the body into labor... it is the same hormone which is naturally released by a pregnant woman who goes into labor.

We did not want to go this route because we had heard induced labors are usually very long, more painful, and increase recover time.  But our time ran out.

4PM Wednesday, June 27th, in we go to the Birth Center at Auckland Hospital.  Our doc (Lynda) applies the jelly and slaps a monitor on Kim's belly which shows the baby's heart rate and contraction frequency reader... this was pretty cool.  Even before the jelly went on, we could see Kim's uterus having sporadic contractions.

last time "comfortable" for a while...

The jelly took about 2 hours to bring on some activity. It went on at 5PM and the contractions started at 7pm.  These were unlike any Kim has had before during the pregnancy and it took some concentration to get through them. Most of the labor was in her back - which is the most painful kind.  This went on for about 5 hours, and then, finally, they brought a pethidine shot and gave it right to the poor woman's thigh. This helped out a lot and allowed Kim to rest and for me to catch a few hours of shut-eye as well. Pethidine has a bad reputation with pregnancy these days but it is out of your system in about 5 hours...which they knew was going to be more than enough time before the proper labor was to start.

waiting.....

So pethidine shot Wednesday night.  A bit of rest, and then Thursday morning we had enough progress that they allowed us to move to the delivery suite down the hall. This was a much nicer room and we are supplied with a midwife to oversee our progress the entire time as well as the next doctor on call for the day, Gillian Gibson. Gillian manually broke our water at about 9AM. This brought on some more severe contractions which the midwives tried to help us get through but at no point offered the sweetness of the epidural.... a four-letter word for some around here.

Kim tried for the non-epidural route for about 4 hours.... she no likey.  I'll skip the details of this part of the nightmare, but if you ask Kim she will agree that it was the low point of the whole exercise.  We called for an epidural at around 1PM, the anesthesiologist did not show up until just after 2..... but ahhhhhhhh.  Once that bad-boy got kicking in we were in business. (slightly relieved Kim below)

oxytocin drip...waters broke...now the fun starts....

We also received the Oxytocin drip just before the epidural. This stuff kicks the pregnancy behaviors into overdrive.  Once the epidural was in full effect it became a waiting game. We were at about 2-3 cm when we got the epidural and we needed to get to 10 in order to get bubs out the "natural" way.

I fortified our boredom with endless episodes of Entourage whilst Kim rationed the epidural drip.  I was of the mind that she should bank 4 hits of the stuff for the end, but she had other plans.

The Doc came every 4 hours after this, up until about midnight. Each time we had progress but it wasn't moving along as fast as the Doc would have liked.  She kept hinting that we would have to wheel Kim into "Theater" (I ain't talkin Shakespeare, my man) but wouldn't/couldn't really tell us what was going to happen.  This pushed Kim to the breaking point and I have to admit that it was really frustrating after all this time and pain to think that we may be headed for a "Caesar".  But, we had another look at 1AM (Friday now) and we were almost there.  Doc said one more hour, check again, and it might be time to push.  An hour later she said it looked good and the midwife (Anna from Christchurch) gave Kim a few words of advice for pushing and pretty soon we would be off to the races.

At 2AM it was Me, the Midwife, and Kim starting the pushing.  Midwife said it should take about an hour's worth of pushing to get him out.  Kim had 2 hours since given up on the epidural as she wanted to be able to feel a bit more during the active pushing stage.

Now..... my wife isn't one of the "gossip-girl, lets-go-shopping, oh...i broke a nail" variety of dame....nossir. More like a "fall off a horse, concussion-oh-well, kettle-bell-tossin" flavour (epidural aside).  So now when it was time for her to become actively involved in this process and push..... she pushed HARD on every contraction and had the midwife hold up a mirror so that she could see the fruits of her efforts.  Midwife wanted 3 pushes per contraction.....well she could stow that, Kim would give her 4.  (Consequently I was given the job of holding one leg...so I changed status from utterly useless to foot-rest).  Doc came back in and was impressed with the progress. After about 30 min everyone agreed that bubs was coming out the old-fashioned way.... kind of.

Doc called for the stirrups and I was relieved of my leg-holding duties and basically told to move on out the way. We were at 1 hour of pushing and last I saw very close to full crowning. But as an the hour went by... and the doc pre-emptively applied the local anesthetic to an unmentionable area.... I could start to sense that we were in for some extra-curricular activities. This baby was estimated at 9.1 lbs.... a big boy and the doc knew it.  The midwife very calmly, and quietly, picked up a phone on the wall and I overheard something about "blah, blah, fetal distress".  Out of nowhere 3 more people were in the room... a lady with a ventouse machine, a guy with a bright orange resuscitation bag, and some other person who just seemed to want to see the show.

All of this went down so quickly that it could have been unnoticed..... but I noticed. I've never felt, in a matter of seconds, a wave a panic and helplessness where it seemed like everything you love in the world could be snatched away right in front of you. That's what those seconds felt like and the midwife must have noticed because she asked if I wanted to sit down.

So then, episiotomy... blood... baby's head got out... attached the ventouse machine... but you could stow that too because Kim pushed the rest of him out on the next contraction.  35.5 hours from when we were admitted to the hospital to baby in arms....

Big boy.  Purple.  Full head of hair.  Right onto Kim's chest gurgling with all attitude we knew he had from his 9 months inside.

Beau Patrick Stewart. 56.5cm long.  4.115kgs.  Where the heck did she keep it all???

Big boy.  Purple.  Full head of hair.  Right onto Kim's chest gurgling with all attitude we knew he had from his 9 months inside.

4.115....like I said....a bruiser

4 more hours to allow the epidural to wear off and verify that Kim could walk and we were off to Birth Care.  Birth Care is a neat benefit of being a resident of New Zealand. It is like a hotel which is loaded with midwives who help mom out in her first tough, few days.  We opted for a partner suite where I could stay as well.  The help was great.  All meals and cleaning is sorted out so it makes it really easy on you.  The only negative is that they are hell-bent on breast feeding.  Which is fine, but we weren't getting a ton of milk to little Beau.  Rather than suggest we supplement with formula, they said nothing. As a result Beau lost 0.5 kgs of weight... over 10% of his birth weight.. much more of a weight loss than is acceptable.  We didn't find this out until we got home and our local midwife (Cathy) came by to weigh him.

Mom and Beau at Birth Care

We stayed at Birth Care from early Friday morning through to Monday morning whereupon I FINALLY got to use the new truck for its intended purpose:

the truck is correct.

 Now lets get this baby home safe. Pre-flight check.  Go!:

1. Baby - Check
2. Wifey - Check
3. Travel music - Check
4. Adjust Range Rover to appropriate suspension height - Check
5. Watch fuel gauge move counter-clockwise the whole way home - Check
6. Heated seat for navigator (me) - Check

proud Daddy driving new family truckster

One more event before we can settle in back home though.  Got to hope that Li'l Ella doesn't go ballistic and tear off one of Beau's arms when he gets home.  Not to worry though.... the great Lyn Ekdahl provided me with some literature on the proper way to introduce a new pack member to a previously single-child-spoiled doggy.  Once I figured out that Ella is probably slower in more than one way as a greyhound, the information made sense (www.greyhoundsaspets.org.nz).

As expected the introduction went smoothly.  To date, Beau is just another strange smell for Ella that she wants to lick. 

can I eat him now?

The week we got home we actually made several trips out of the house with Beau, and sometimes Ella, for various reasons including running back to hospital for a checkup on Kim, getting Beau's tongue and upper lip laser'd (he was tongue-tied like Kim as a baby), going to dinner at a friend's house, and last but not least, Beau's first trip to a west coast (best coast) beach. This time we went to Piha.... never been before:

new world order.... finally got Ella off the seats and in the boot!

Beau and Kim on Piha Beach

Lion rock at Piha

So far so good. We are figuring out this parenting thing one day at a time and have been overwhelmed with the amount of support and kindness from neighbors, friends, and co-workers. The health care here has been amazing... it is almost like they WANT you to have babies and actually care about the well-being of mom and baby from the start to the end of the process.  The government here paid for most of the Birth Care stay, a lactation consultant, and weekly visits from our local midwife to make sure everything is going ok.  They aren't just trying to gouge us or our insurance for as many dollars as they can.... weird... and refreshing....

As a final example, a very nice woman I work with (Monique Judd!!!) , but do not even know that well, went ahead and knitted Beau a pair of booties.... I mean.... how do you repay that level of un-solicited kindness?

new kicks!

Additional pics of the li'l guy..:

this is Lee after a night out with the blokes....

Beau and Dad having a snooze at birth care

Bugga-Beau

cute....for now...

5 min after birth. He is a whopper jr

Beau, Kim, and Lee's belly

Our New Addition

The long awaited moment is here!

Months of anticipation...  planning.... saving....  preparation.... choosing names....

What will he look like?

How much "energy" will he have?

Will he have a good "roar" like a lion or "purr" like a kitten?

Will it be an easy transition for us?

Are we ready?

Welcome to the Stewart Family!!!!

introducing... sherman

the tank...

new shoes....

chancellor fits in the boot!

I was happy with the li'l Chancellor, but Lee needed yet another money pit, I mean another "man's" truck.  After thinking about our new lives with prams, car seats, diaper bags, visitors from the states, and having room for baby + li'l Ella... I suppose it makes sense.  

2004 Range Rover HSE 4.4L BMW V8... plus FULL mechanical warranty... and of course, we've already had to swap the rims from the 22" Gangster Wheels to 15-spoke 19" Land Rover Alloys to make it "drive-able".  Lee claims it was for the baby's safety....

Night Out

The time. She is a runnin' short. "Alone" time for Kim and I that is.

Final prep for the trip to the hospital is underway this Queen's Birthday weekend (3 weeks to go!) and we thought a date night out is in order. So....fellas.....allow me to explain (dream) about how things work in the Stewart household over here:

1) Golf Saturday morning. Well yeah....Kim works on Sat morning as it is still business time in the States. Must sharpen up those skills should any would-be challengers from the States show up to toss down the gauntlet.

2) Real sore from the gym this week....finally decided that it is NOT ok for me to go ahead and gain weight as my gorgeous wife somehow manages stay trim whilst the belly comes out. The whining about soreness from my first trip back to the gym in 8 weeks is not well received for some reason...

3) Must show her off....itinerary for the evening is dinner and a movie. "District Dinning" restaurant tonight. Fried Pig Ears and Duck Confit were well above average....why do I get a strange look around here when I ask what N/A drinks they have? They don't even know me!?

Whoa girl! "So dope I'd have to smuggle you across state lines or else pay fines!"

4) Appropriately, we went to see "What to expect when you're expecting".....heh. Got to see a new section of downtown Auckland at night which was beautiful. Event Cinemas does "Gold Class" movie options. Which means you hang out in a lounge until the staff guides you in to a proper theater outfitted with real comfy lazy boy chairs. So feet up, order a wine (for me), a club soda (for her) and its movie time.

5) Navigating out of downtown Auckland? Kim can take this one. Hop in the trusty Chancellor and we are back to Titirangi in no time.

Chariot awaits!

Great night out. Lee to spend the rest of the weekend figuring out how to spoil Kim.

Posh Pooch?

So for all you folks in the Northern Hemisphere who are enjoying the spring time weather, fresh may flowers and all that pollen, us kiwis down here in the Southern Hemisphere are gearing up for winter - such that it is.

This is our first winter in NZ and so far it is not all that bad. A LOT more rain - think Seattle - and the temps are a bit more chilly - upper 40s at night and lower 60s during the day.  It is truly amazing how the kiwis don't let any weather change modify their daily outdoor activities and routines.  Every morning we still see the same runners training - rain or shine.  It can be a downpour outside with 20mph winds and moms are still outside pushing their prams with rain covers and walking their dogs.  We must adjust...

Li'l Ella being the very pampered inside pooch that she is, has not really taken to the cooler temps and rainy days.  ESPECIALLY when Lee makes her ride in the bikini top jeep after a swim in the chilly Tasman Sea.... what to do?

We made a trip to Animates (kiwi Petsmart) to investigate how the Kiwis outfit their dogs for the drizzly winter and you would be amazed at the choices and the fact that dogs actually do get raincoats and winter warmers here - it's not just for chihuahuas anymore!  We hesitantly invested in two items for Li'l Ella:

     1.    ThunderShirt - think UnderArmour

thundershirt!

i think i like it.... i think i like it...

     2.     DrizaBone Jacket - think Australian Oilskin

drizabone - more my style!

room to pee... i mean breathe!

Saturday - rain or shine - we made plans to go for a tramp to get out of the house and a bit of exercise for the whole family.  The weather was a bit chilly in the upper 50s and drizzling rain.  Lee tried to pick a somewhat less aggressive trail for his 35-week preggo wife and we ended up selecting the Huia Dam Walk.   The description said that most of the hike is on a dirt road and most of it is pram/stroller accessible, so pretty easy, right?

huia dam track

The track can take you to two amazing dams and the water reservoirs created by the dams.  If you choose to do the entire track it is 6km one-way.  We were thinking, maybe just a short walk since it was  rainy and just see what the Lower Huia Dam had to offer.  

We suited up - all three of us!  Lee and I in multi-layers covered with our Kathmandu jackets and Li'l Ella with her DrizaBone coat.

The Lower Dam is pretty amazing.  It's just a short (uphill) walk from the carpark.  It was completed in 1929 and is one of the most crucial water supply areas for Auckland.  The dam has a grassy front for grazing animals instead of a typical concrete wall.  The water overflow pictured below is a pretty breathtaking concrete funnel that looks like something from a 007 movie!

lower huia dam with water overflow cyclone

It was just a bit misty so we decided to go ahead and hike a bit further.  Then I see a sign for a tunnel - uh oh, we MUST hike to the tunnel!  Of course there is no indication exactly how far this tunnel is... but we set off in good spirits enjoying the time outside and peacefulness of the day.

suspension bridge over the stream

nice peaceful track

The only part of the track that is really suitable for prams/strollers is the lower dam area.  Although it is a one-lane, gravel road most of the way, we encountered some pretty steep hills and rocky areas.  Getting the extra 15 pounds of baby I'm carrying around up the hills required a few stops for doubled over catch my breath time!

The tunnel is right before the Upper Huia Dam - about 1.5 hours into the hike...  I just had to see it right?  Definitely worth it.  The tunnel is about 65m long and carved into the mountain.  It was really beautiful and worth the trek to get there.

entrance to tunnel

look at my belly!

The Upper Huia Dam is a more typical exposed concrete dam - amazing in its remoteness that man completed this engineering structure in the 1929!

upper huia dam

Three hours and 12km later, we returned to the car park.  All three of us were warm AND dry although a little knackered after the tramp.  Li'l Ella's posh pooch poncho kept her nice and warm... Success!

El Jeep-o for the Peep-le

"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date"

Long lost love.

On November 20th, 2011 my darling Jeep was packed up into a container in Atlanta and, alone, made the long journey to New Zealand. The journey was not without peril. As any lad with google knows, New Zealand is most unkind to importation of older vehicles. They have strict vehicle standards which must be met to allow one to drive on their roads. To give you an idea of what it took to get fair-Jeepo over here allow me to outline:

1. Cost to transport in container
2. Concession fees in L.A. and Auckland ports to remove Jeep from container and "inspect"
3. MAF (Ministry for Biosecurity protection) fees to fumigate Jeep to eliminate any critters
4. Jeep inspected at importers location and deemed rusty = charge to sandblast and paint underside of jeep
5. Jeep still rusty, one month of Panel Beater work to cut out rust, replace steal, and have an "Engineer" certify that it was done properly....this took 1.5 months....
6. Significant monies to repoint headlamps, new driver-side seatbelt, new front brakes, grind rotors, patch small chip in windscreen, etc.
7. Compliance fees. You MUST receive a compliance certificate before you may register your vehicle to drive on their roads. After compliance for general import health, a WOF (Warrant of Fitness) must be obtained. You must get a new WOF every 6 months to drive. Luckily you must comply only once. 
8. Rego fees which gets us, finally, the tags....

My precious Jeep entered the container Nov 20, 2011, allowed to drive in NZ April 20, 2012.

Absence does make the heart grow fonder...

Jeep was, of course, taken straight to Muriwai Beach

Never again....never.

All that trouble to allow to drive on the roads.....nah..

Li'l Ella missed it too.

Bottom line is DO NOT try to bring any car to this country. They have plenty of suitable off-road vehicles for you to choose from with air conditioning, navigation, and heated seats. Try to figure out how to get the doors off of your CR-V!

Unfortunately Jeep did not get to enjoy a brights Summer's day... this year....

L'Enfant (Bébé d'Ancrage)

In country for more than three months now and things are starting to settle down......yeah right buddy! As some may not now know (uh oh) Kim is 28 weeks preggo with what looks to be a healthy, punchy tyke.

Yes you heard right. Kim "little-voice-big-attitude-in-male-dominated-industry" Stewart's next big project will be wrangling a little monster in around Auckland for a while. I suppose we just figured packing the dog, the house, the Jeep (still in custody), and shifting across the planet to start a new adventure was just a little too easy...so now this.

what the heck is a bassinet?!?

This is an exciting and terrifying endeavor. The stress, weight gain, and restless nights are enough to drive you crazy....and thats just me....not sure how Kim feels. After getting through settling in, battling insurance claims for damaged items, panel-beaters to fix the Jeep, and a heap of other issues now it is time to get serious about baby-prep.

So antenatal classes it is!  We chose the 2 Saturdays in a row, all day deal.....free in NZ!
Fascinating stuff.

They showed us a very artsy video of how it is done down here with no epidural......I got outed as an American when I asked "Where are the stirrups and the lady lying on her back?".....nossir.
Out West the women don't use the bed......they console themselves with a french yoga ball and squat that baby (bubs) out! I guess knowing that they give a "natural" birth is pain-killer enough.

Truthfully, the classes and the midwife teaching them are fantastic! Though not without their motives.
You can't look in the NZ Herald in a week without seeing some feminist controversy about how a rugby player was photographed bottle-feeding a baby.....BREAST feeding is the agenda that is shoved down your throat at every turn.

And then, there are the other folks in the class. They are.....quite normal...every woman had their man there supporting them and there were about 14 women. They are all local "westies" so it gave a great sense of community or something like that.

nailed it.

So on we go. Time to practice! This week we were instructed to get a dolly or a stuffed animal so that we can practice dressing with baby clothes... and swaddling??  Don't know what all the fuss is about....easy to dress a doll....must be easy to dress a baby! Easy to care for a doll......you get the idea. Donesky!

thanks Jo & John!

Thankfully our great friends Jo and John Russell have showered us with just about all the infant clothes we should need! I can't imagine what it would have cost to gather all this stuff from scratch. And our position is that c'mon....the baby ain't gonna remember what it wore when it was 0-18mo, so it doesn't need to be brand new. 

So off we go on this one. It's exciting and foreign to us all at the same time. After all, the only bottles I have had any experience with are of the brown variety. Not to worry, Kim has loosened up her Green Belt and will do what she always does.....show us guys how a project should actually be done. 

Goat Track Golf

ready to throw down on this hilly "goat track" course!!

Lee convinced me to be his golf caddy for the day and we headed out to one of the more secluded and hilly golf clubs in Auckland - Waitakere Golf Club.  The day was absolutely gorgeous and needed the SPF100 even though the temp was in the low 70's.  For some reason they wouldn't allow dogs, even on a leash, so li'l Ella chilled at the house for the day.

collared shirt?  on an island?

The first time Lee tackled Waitakere, he went in a foursome that included two guys he works with, one of their brothers, and one of their sons acting as a caddy.  The more "established" (read SMART) gentlemen of the foursome hired a golf cart for the course which is rather unusual for Kiwis as most use a truller or carry their clubs for the entire 18.  Let's just say that by the time they reached the 14th tee the brave souls walking the course were knackered and the younger son abandoned the group at the 9th hole in favor of the relaxation of the club house!

Needless to say... we rented a cart :)  I'll hand out clubs and keep score with the best of them - even offer unwanted advice on putting - but just not game with carrying the clubs up and down the hills and back and forth across the fairways for five hours!!!

The course is really beautiful.  It's set in the middle of the Waitakere Ranges and native bush surrounding the west coast.  Some of the holes are really challenging Par 5 doglegs and others have unique tee offs starting in the bush with the green no where in site.

hole 6 par 3 with tee in the bush

rolling par 5

tee'ing off hole 1

nice chip shot with the new wedge!  par?

Lee had some amazing drives on the course and set himself up for several birdies and par shots.  Unfortunately, that short game still needs a bit of work....

nice form... lined up... 

and the crowd goes... awwwww... time for the 19th hole!