I’m Here and I’m Popular

Hi again, everyone!  Sorry for the delay from my last post, but I’ve been very busy over the last few weeks (somebody has to drink all that milk and dirty all of those diapers!).  Quite a bit has happened over the past few weeks and I’ll catch up on all of this in future posts, but I owe you all my story about my stay in the hospital. 

I left off in my last post talking about my time with Mom and Dad after I was born.  I thought that was pretty cool, but I had NO idea what was waiting for me on the other side of the hospital door!

Two of the first people to come charging through the door were Grandma Lewis (left) and Grandma Aivaliotis.  From what I hear, they were so eager to meet me that they were trying to sneak a peek through the door every time a doctor or nurse went in or out of my room!  I didn’t know much at this point, but I was pretty sure I already had both of them wrapped around my little finger and that both of them were going to spoil me rotten.  Writing this a few weeks after I’m born, I can categorically tell you that I wasn’t wrong. 

The next three people in the door were Grandpa Aivaliotis (right), Grandpa Lewis (next to Dad) and Auntie Vickie!  Both of my Grandpas seemed a bit hesitant to hold me, but I think that’s just because it’s probably been close to 30 years since they last held a little tyke like me!  Auntie Vickie and I share a name – Vasiliki (her first name and my middle name) – so I knew we were going to get along great (so far I take after Auntie Vickie quite a bit since I only cry when I’m hungry!). 

After my grandmas and grandpas and Auntie Vickie came in, all “H – E – Double Hockey Sticks” broke loose!  The room got VERY loud and all I saw was flashes for about the next thirty minutes!  I didn’t know everyone in the room, but I later found out that I must be popular because there were tons of people eager to meet me!  My visitors included: Uncle Dan Blomgren, Auntie Vickie’s boyfriend (he's going to make me baby food when I get older!), Tina and Demetra Siambis, as well as Areti and Elaine Skoulas!  The room was very crowded and very loud (and I think my daddy thought I was going to go blind from all of the photo flashes!). 

After all of the hubbub died down, I finally got a chance to relax a little bit in my room.  My room was a pretty sweet setup: I had a view of San Francisco and my very own bed to sleep in (talk about living the life of luxury!). I also had some more visitors in my room when Dimi and Aldrin Dionisio and Kim Le came by to see me.  

Everyone at the hospital was very nice and kept telling me how cute I was.  One of the nurses even made me a special bow for my hat that only I got!  I spent most of my time in the hospital sleeping, but I was awake enough to know that Daddy was quickly become very good at swaddling me (which I hated because I like to sleep with my arms up by my head) and changing my diaper even though he was pretty much a walking zombie for the first 24 hours – not bad for a guy who had never changed a diaper before in his life!  

After two days in the hospital, I got to go home!  I got to wear my pretty pink outfit that my Grandma Aivaliotis bought me and I got to go on my first car ride.  I heard Daddy say something about how it was the slowest he's ever driven on something called the freeway, but I'm not really sure what that means.   I slept most of the way home, and I'm glad I did, because there was more excitement waiting for me there.  I'll post more later on this soon, I promise.  That's all for now!

Oh, Hello World!

“WTF was that!?!  What happened?  (WAHH! WAHH!) Where am I?  What in the hell is going on?  I demand an explanation as to why I am no longer in my warm little place!  Who’s that lady in the blue suit looking at me upside down?  Whoa…where’s she taking me?  Who’s this lady she’s setting me on?  Oh wait…I think I recognize this lady.  Who’s that guy next to her?  Hmmm…he seems oddly familiar too…why’s he crying more than I am right now?  Oh well…I guess I’ll just lay here on this lady for a while and get comfortable.  Hmmm…maybe I’ll grab that guy’s finger with my hand too…that seems like a good idea.  Sigh…I think I like this."

And that basically sums up my thoughts in my first few moments outside of mom.  Of course, it’s a much longer story than that.  Here’s my take on it:

At around 11:30p last Sunday (March 27^th), I heard mom talking about some pains she was having and I felt some slight movement around my house, but neither of us were quite sure what they were (quite frankly, I thought mom just needed to fart). So mom went to bed and managed to fall asleep around midnight even though I was kicking her in her ribs.  The next morning mom woke up at around 4:30 and felt some more pains that were stronger than the night before so she woke up dad.  Dad took out his phone and started timing these pains on his iPhone (I’m not quite sure what that is, but I know dad loves his because I always hear mom complaining that dad is always on his – I think I want one too!)  After about an hour, mom and dad decided to pack a suitcase just in case I decided to make my debut. 

To be honest with you, at this point, I still hadn’t made up my mind whether to come out yet.  I know that Auntie Vickie wanted me to come out early, but she hadn’t offered me a big enough bribe yet for me to take the bait.  Little did I know, I should have taken the deal, because apparently mom’s body made the decision for both of us: at around 5:30 in the morning on March 28^th, while mom was packing the suitcase, her water broke and my house became much smaller in a hurry!  From this point on, it’s all a blur to me – there was a fast car ride up to San Francisco (yeah, that’s right, I was BORN in San Francisco – pretty cool, eh?), lots and lots of doctors poking and prodding at me from all directions and all trying to figure out when I was going to come, and a whole bunch of waiting. 

As the day progressed, the pressure around me increased more and more and started to happen more frequently.  I think mom was in quite a bit of pain because I was coming pretty quickly for a first baby (from what I heard).  At around 2, mom stopped swearing so much and started laughing and having fun.  I’m not sure what she was doing out there, but I’m pretty sure that there were drugs involved because I definitely wasn’t having as much fun as she was – I could barely move and my head was stuck in between a rock and a hard place. 

At around 5:30, I heard the doctors tell mom that she was going to start pushing.  Daddy kept telling mom she was doing great because mom just seemed to know what to do.  About an hour into the pushing, daddy accidentally spilled a giant cup of ice water all over mommy’s leg – it was pretty funny and I laughed at my clumsy daddy (mom didn’t seem to mind either, but dad felt like quite the klutz).  The last 30 minutes of pushing seemed to go by in five – I kept wiggling my head trying to help mom out, but it was really her doing all the work. 

At 7:06pm on Monday, March 28, 2011, I entered this world weighing in at 7lbs even and measuring 19.5 inches.  After getting over the initial shock, I settled in with mommy and daddy pretty quickly.  We spent the next hour or so together and with the nurse before we let everyone into the room (I’ll talk about this more in a later post).  Overall, I think it was a pretty good experience for everyone (especially after mommy got her drugs).  I still miss the womb every now and then, but it’s definitely more fun being able to torture mommy AND daddy at the same time – torturing mommy was just getting to be too easy!

My Future "Crib"

As promised, here are some pictures of my future home.

This first one is of me and my mommy in front of my new crib.  I'm not quite sure what that giant yellow spotted thing is, but I sure hope I like it because there are dozens of smaller ones sprinkled throughout the room.  

Here's where I'll be getting down to business...poopy business that is.  My mommy and daddy will be spending quite a bit of time here with me, so it's a good thing that my changing table looks comfortable (they have to stand, but that's their problem).  

Here's my mommy again with another one of those orange things and some other shapes (again, not quite sure what those are).  My crib looks really comfortable, but I've heard mommy telling daddy that I'm not going to be sleeping in it for a while (I think I get their bed and dad has to sleep in here).  

  

ANGRY BIRDS!!!  I may just be a fetus, but EVERYONE knows what Angry Birds are!  I love the yellow ones because they're just like me...gentle at first, but I'll break down barriers when you jab me with your finger.  

Mommy looks like one of Barker's (pregnant) Beauties modeling next to my new ride!  I like the bookshelf too, and it's a good thing because I think I heard daddy say some not so nice words when he was putting this together!

Anyways, that's my future "crib."  I'm not really sure what that means either, but daddy tells me it has something to do with a show that used to be on MTV (he's old).  Hopefully I'll be making my next post ex-utero.  Bye for now.  

My Expanding Home

Like I mentioned in my last post, I've grown quite a bit since that picture was taken at 13 weeks.  I know I've grown quite a bit in here, but I had no idea how much my current home has expanded over this time.  

Take a look at these:

My First Post

Wow...I need to start watching what I eat...I've put on quite a bit of weight since this picture was taken.  Tee hee.  Just kidding.  This is a picture of me when I was just a 13-week-old fetus and I've grown quite a bit since this time.

I'm now a 39-week-old fetus and my birthday is getting closer and closer every day.  I still haven't decided when my birthday is going to be and I know my mommy and daddy are eager to meet me.  From what I can tell, my mommy and daddy are very nice (a little dorky, but they're good people).  They have my room all ready to go - I'll post some pictures soon - and now the only thing left is for me to announce my presence into the world.  When will that be?  I guess you'll just have to wait and see....