Archive | Gil

my last day as a mother of one {Part 2 of 2}

February 8, 2013 at 3:53 pm

Exactly two weeks ago today I gave birth to our precious little baby Gil, an adorable bundle of love. Of course, that bundle of love has currently had me dancing for the last two hours to keep him happy and get him to go back to sleep. (Welcome to my new life!) While I would never go back to live without this precious baby, I must admit that this day I am in the process of chronicling — my last day as a mother of one — is looking very restful right now!

I know this last day with just Lena and myself was an unusually good one; we had no errands or activities on our plate and spent the entire day enjoying each other, mother and daughter, and peacefully playing, eating, walking, and talking together. I also know that these days will come again, perhaps in six months or so, once Lena and I and Gil all have a routine. But until then, this day with just Lena and myself is very much a thing of the past, even though it still seems close enough to relive in the blink of an eye.

Anyway, back to the agenda at hand. We’re picking up again at lunch, where I had leftovers (veggie enchiladas and blood orange salad) and Lena had Ramen (so easy…), blueberries, and yogurt. We shared an apple.

Lena: “My?” (Meaning “more” noddles.)

Me: Drink your soup, Lena, and then you can have more.

Lena: *gulp gulp gulp*

After lunch I got to wash the lunch dishes, something which I knew then would be impossible with two little children. (I was right. So far it is impossible.) Lena occupied herself for a few minutes while I did this… apparently by climbing back up into her high chair and shaking her water cup upside down.

I try to make my household tasks into a game and include Lena as much as I can. Helps me get more done! In this case I had to get the stubs of candle out of the top of the candlesticks. She enjoyed playing with the bowl of warm water while I dug out the soft wax. Then we set up the candlesticks with fresh candles to be ready for dinner that night.

Time to do something that she wants to do. We spent the next hour or so playing on the living room rug. One part of playtime was all 150 blocks through the shape sorter. Whew!

Siena, our Maine Coon kitten and ever-present companion.

Bathroom break. Lena’s playing with a jar of chocolate chips, one of which will be her “teet” (treat) when she is finished. We’ve since moved to giving her a goldfish after each successful trip to the toilet, which works extremely well if you only dole out goldfish as a reward! She loves them and always wants the parent who is with her to enjoy a goldfish as well.

Good girl… cleaning up after herself.

And back to playing, this time with the kitty and also the punch and drop toy we got her for Christmas.

Naptime again! These very yellow photos are due to the mellow, sleep-inducing (we hope) lamplight in her room. Siena snuggles down in her new favorite spot until I nudge her out so I can snuggle there with Lena for storytime.

Two naps in one day… I know I’m blessed! I use the 1.5 hours to clean the bathroom…

… put a few more things in my bag for the hospital…

… and do some dinner prep. On tonight’s menu: Sausage, Potato, and Fennel Chowder with fresh sausage from a butcher in town.

She’s up again! Someone’s happy to see her.

She helps me finish up a little dusting, which for her means using a paper towel for about 3 seconds before announcing that it is “tash” (trash) and running off with it to find a garbage can.

Back to the kitchen to finish up dinner before Elliott gets home from work. Lena tries a sip of my “doose” (juice), Pom and sparkling water. She’s not a huge fan.

We’re in the bathroom again when Daddy walks in! Lena runs to him for a hug, telling him excitedly that she just earned another “teet,” which earns an extra enthusiastic hug and kiss from him.

I stopped taking pictures at this point. I think I thought the routine would be the same with two babies as with one once Elliott got home. But I forgot that newborns don’t go to sleep at 7:30pm and wake up at 7am like Lena does. I forgot that they like to be held, especially while you’re eating dinner. I forgot what it’s like to put your baby in the Moby wrap and rock from one foot to the other while you wash the dinner dishes. I forgot that I might be nursing a newborn in the evenings while Elliott and I are watching Downton Abbey or dong Bible study together or attempting to blog. Basically… I think I conveniently didn’t realize how much a newborn would transform our whole lives, not just the 9-5 weekdays that Lena and I spent together.

So yes, the newborn is here. Gil is here, all adorable 8.5 lbs of him, with his beautiful thick hair and sleepy blue eyes. He has completely transformed our lives in every way, and it is taking an enormous amount of sacrifice so far. We’ve sacrificed having free hands. We’ve sacrificed our free evenings. We’ve sacrificed sleep… oh, so much sleep. We’ve sacrificed snuggles with our daughter (and turned them into double snuggles, which aren’t always easy to do!).

But we’ve gained so much. Welcome, little Gil. How will our days look with you in our pictures?

11 :: in a picture an hour, Becoming a Stay-at-Home Mom Series, family, Gil, Lena, motherhood, thoughts

life lately

February 6, 2013 at 3:30 pm

Today is the last day to enter my Italian food giveaway! The competition closes at midnight EST. All the details are in this post!

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Oh the joys of having a newborn… and being the parents of two! There has been a lot of laughter and so much rejoicing these past 10 days, but there have also been some semi-sleepless nights and a realization that life will never quite be the same. Although I would never go back, I also am very tired and am not quite sure how I am going to survive once Elliott goes back to work on Friday! A blog reader shared this piece of wisdom with me today: “if the bums are clean and the bellies are full, it’s been a great day!” I’m going with that for now.

Here are a few other shots of life around our home these days:

We have been so blessed by some delicious meals from our friends after Gil was born. We told people that we like vegetarian and seafood dishes, and I’ve been amazed by our friends’ creativity and cookin’ skillz as they have put meal after meal on our table. Last week my friend Anna brought us a meal on our anniversary, and so she chose to bring one of our favorite meals of all time — chicken curry — and also brought a fancy tablecloth and long red candles. How sweet is that?!

I got this amazing package in the mail yesterday from a 16-year-old blog reader. She goes to my parents’ church and got my address so that she could send little baby boy Gil a hat she made for him! I was blown away. I love the colors and the style, don’t you? It’s going to get a lot of use over the years. Thank you so much, Kara!

I slipped out of the house for a few minutes today to do my weekly market shopping. The man at my favorite fruit and veggie truck broke into a huge smile when he saw me coming (sans gigantic belly) and gave me his enthusiastic best wishes for our new son. I loaded up on these blood oranges, which were just 40 cents a kilo!

To cloth diaper or not to cloth diaper… always the question. My friend Emily loaned me her newborn cloth diapers and covers so that we have all we need to get started whenever we’re ready. We cloth diapered Lena from 9 months until a few weeks ago (she has abruptly decided to potty train herself) and are enjoying a break from all the diaper laundry. I must say that these diapers are so stinkin’ cute compared to Pampers…

If you cloth diapered your baby, when did you start? Right away? After an adjustment period to a new baby? Any tips as I get started cloth diapering a newborn for the first time?

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If you’d like to see more pictures of life around here, you can find me on Instagram now. My username is beccagarber. See ya on the filtered side!

15 :: in Baby Numero Due, family, friends, Gil, giveaway, life lately

the many faces of Gil Garber

February 4, 2013 at 3:43 pm

Gil fell asleep on Elliott’s chest the other night as we were Skyping with Elliott’s parents. (They could hardly look at us the entire time because they were too enthralled with their grandson!) After we said goodbye, we were admiring Gil ourselves when all at once he started making some hilarious faces in his sleep. I grabbed my camera and tried to capture a few of his many expressions.

What was he dreaming about? Rivers of milk? Your guess is as good as mine!

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Don’t forget to enter the Italian food giveaway!

16 :: in Baby Numero Due, family, Gil, giveaway, wedding

our first hours with Gil

January 31, 2013 at 9:24 pm

Elliott and I worked on a name for our son for months. We knew we wanted to cull his first and middle names from our family heritage, so we spent awhile piecing together family trees and picking out our favorite first and last names on both sides. We would then try out different combinations, saying them aloud over and over. Eventually, we thought we had the right one.

But then our baby just did not look like a… well, can’t say because we might use it one day!

So there we were, in the hospital, everyone asking us what his name was, and we had no idea. We went back to the drawing board and at some point one of us remembered an old favorite. “What about Mark Gilchrist? And call him Gil?” And then back and forth and back and forth again… and it just fit. What could we say? He was our Gil Garber.

“Mark” is my father’s name, and I am so proud to name our son after my dad. I know my dad’s mom, my beloved Gramma (who died when I was pregnant with Lena), would have loved that! I hope in so many ways that Gil is like my dad: sincere and thoughtful in faith, a seeker of true truth, a lover of books and reading, a disciplined and conscientious worker, a man who prioritizes his wife and children before any other relationships, a faithful and honest friend, and, of course, an insatiable adventurer.

“Mark” is also the name of the author of the Gospel of Mark and one of the first New Testament missionaries.

“Gilchrist” is an old Scottish name, probably of Gaelic origin, that means “servant of Christ.” “Gilchrist” is also a family name on Elliott’s father’s side, which they have traced back to the 12th century in Scotland. The Gilchrist denominational heritage is Reformed Presbyterian, and there have been RP Gilchrists since the early days of the Protestant Reformation (16th century). A significant Gilchrist in the recent family history was Elliott’s great-grandfather, Herb Gilchrist, who was a Colorado cattle rancher and deacon in his local RP congregation. Elliott’s dad spent many summers of his childhood with his Gilchrist grandparents in Colorado and felt a very close connection with them their whole lives. Gil’s Uncle David has the middle name Gilchrist, too.

We were thrilled to have some visitors that first day in the hospital, including a lot of little kiddos who were very excited to see the baby!

We’re hugely grateful to our dear friends the Arthurs, who watched Lena for us that weekend. She was in heaven, I can tell you. She asks every day if we’re going to see them. “Bukka? [Becca?] Dosh? [Josh?] Ees? [Elise?]”

Thanks to the sweet Arthurs, Elliott was able to stay with me the entire 36 hours that Gil and I were in the hospital. I savored that time with just the three of us. Elliott and I had so much time to just sit and talk and admire our baby. It hasn’t quite been like that since we got home with Lena bouncing around us all day long!

I also am kind of a funny natural birth mama, I guess, because I actually like being in the hospital. Think about it:

So much food… multiple courses delivered to you on a tray while you lounge in bed! You didn’t have to prepare or plate a single dish. And they take away the dirty dishes when you’re done.
People make sure that you are okay all the time (not you making sure everyone else is okay).
You can shower anytime you want to… and without a toddler in the stall with you.
They make your bed with fresh sheets every day.
… and you can eat all the chocolate pudding you could ever want.

What can I say? Sometimes it’s the littlest things that mean the most… like that darling little baby in your arms!

27 :: in Baby Numero Due, family, Gil, Instagram, motherhood

{birth story} welcome, Mark Gilchrist!

January 29, 2013 at 9:57 pm

As I write this, a sleeping baby boy is nestled next to me, I can still hardly believe this is happening. To us. Again. We get a newborn of our very own! A tiny, days-old baby who does nothing but eat, sleep, and poop; who needs us more than anything else in the world; who is ours, flesh of our flesh and bone of our bones; who looks like an adorable chipmunk right now but will one day look like his daddy and me. I just want to wrap all these beautiful moments up and lock them away so that I can pull them out and savor them again over and over.

And so I blog about them.

I’m excited to share Gil’s birth story with you all, but of course it will be a pretty simplified version of the story. My brothers-in-law are some of my most avid readers and I want to spare them the birthing details! If you would like to read a more extensive account, I’m going to type one up today. Feel free to let me know through my Contact Page if you’d like to receive a copy.

OK, here we go…

Well, Friday, January 25th, began as any other. Lena was eating breakfast and I was making oatmeal when suddenly my phone rang. It was my OB calling to let me know that she wanted me to come in for another blood test. Remember how last week I was complaining about itching on my hands and feet? All week we’d been waiting for the results of one remaining, all-important blood test to come back from the military hospital in Germany. Finally I requested that we get my blood tested in Sicily as quickly as possible, and so my OB had asked for insurance approval on my behalf. As of Friday morning the claim had been approved, and so… could I come ASAP to get my blood drawn?

By 9:30am I was watching the lab technicians take my blood away. If it came back with elevated bile acid levels, it would mean I did have cholestasis of pregnancy. That would probably mean induction. As I hadn’t felt itchy for days now, I put it out of my mind and went on with my day.

At 4pm Lena and I were out on a walk on a crisp winter afternoon. My OB called again then and I answered cheerfully, not really thinking about what she might have to say.

“Hi, Becca. Well, your lab results came back and you do have elevated bile acids. The highest normal value is 7 and your level is 10. Based on the elevated level and the fact that you are already over 39 weeks, my recommendation would be induction. Preferably tonight.”

For a minute it felt like everything went into slow motion. Induction? Like… go into the hospital and get Pitocin? Have a baby? Tonight? This long-awaited event… now?

I called Elliott and we talked for a long time, going back and forth, reviewing a medical journal article about cholestasis, discussing whether we should wait until the morning or have the baby that night. Finally I said I wanted to go ahead with induction, even though it might mean a long, hard delivery for me. The right thing to do was to get our baby out of harm’s way.

I walked home with Lena, feeling emotional. I would never walk this way with just one baby again. She was about to be a big sister! I was about to be a mother of two. I was going to meet my son that night!

I called my friend Becca to come get Lena, finished packing my hospital bag, and then packed a bag for Lena, too. When Becca came, I laughed and was cheerful, but she knew there was so much more under the surface. I couldn’t shake the dark cloud that hung over me. Becca hugged me and told me she understood; “just pray and commit it to God, and then go forward.”

I drove the whole way to base with my hand on my stomach. For a long time the baby didn’t move and I panicked, thinking it might be too late. But then he shifted reassuringly, and shifted again. I would hold him in my arms tonight, God willing!

Elliott met me on base and we walked into the hospital together just before 7pm. I had been there that morning — that morning of the blood draw, of greeting acquaintances and friends around the hospital, of rolling my eyes about “when will this baby ever come?” — and it all seemed so far away now.

A few minutes later the nurses for the night shift came in to introduce themselves. One of them we already knew and we were hoping she would be working whenever I delivered. She seemed so calm and conscientious and obviously loved her job. (She’s probably going to read this so… hi, Melissa! We were so glad you were there.)

The OB on call came in and introduced herself. I had only met her once and was at first disappointed that my regular OB wasn’t on call. However, I ended up loving Dr. Adriano and am so glad she delivered Gil. Together we went over my birth plan. I explained that I had a natural childbirth with my daughter and have taken Bradley childbirth classes, and so my desire with this birth — even with induction — was to adhere as much as I could to a natural, drug-free delivery. I wanted to move around during labor. I didn’t want to be offered an epidural. I preferred as much privacy as possible throughout the process. A little bit shyly, I also said that Elliott would like to catch the baby and cut the cord, two things that seemed rather natural-birthy in a classic hospital setting. But Dr. Adriano was unphased and said she’d do whatever she could to accommodate us.

And then induction began. At about 7:15pm, Melissa started Pitocin, a drug that would begin contractions. Elliott pulled The Italian Job out of his bag; he’d stopped by the library on his way to the hospital! Good husband. We settled back to watch the movie and wait for things to happen.

After about an hour of Pitocin, I was having regular contractions but could barely feel them. That was enough to satisfy Dr. Adriano that labor was progressing as it should, though, so she broke my water. Since I had delivered Lena less than 6 hours after my water was broken, I hoped that meant I didn’t have long to wait for serious labor and then delivery.

By the end of the movie around 10pm, the contractions were definitely painful. With Lena they got much more painful and frequent, though, so I thought I still had awhile to wait. I could still get up and walk around and had moved to sitting on an exercise ball. Eventually I moved the ball to the side of the bed, sat on it, and leaned my torso forward on some pillows.

I think by then it was about 10:30, and the contractions began to get much stronger. I muscled through them for about 30 minutes and then learned I was 9cm and could probably start pushing whenever I felt like it. Around me I could hear Melissa and Dr. Adriano getting ready for delivery. Elliott stood by my side, rubbing my back, encouraging me after each contraction. He was just what I needed through all of this: calm and reassuring, quiet and supportive, and quick to help me smile.

Dr. Adriano asked if I wanted to get into bed at this point, but since I was comfortable (??), I asked to stay where I was. They decided they would just roll the ball away when the baby was ready to be born.

About 25 minutes later, right before Gil was born, Elliott donned gloves and was ready to reach down to hold Gil’s head as he slid into the world. At my request only the doctor, nurse, and Elliott were in the room, and they were all waiting quietly, respecting my desire for no cheering/counting and just letting me take my time. I was in a great deal of pain; I had totally forgotten that it hurt this much! However, the pain wasn’t getting any better, and I finally told myself, “There’s no one and nothing that can help you with the pain except to have this baby. Just push through the pain.” So I did, and it was awful for a few seconds, but then… then I heard a piercing cry, the melt-your-heart cry of a brand new baby, a baby who, in the space of a second, goes from inside you to out in the world, gulping in air, filling his perfect little lungs, and crying for his mama.

They helped me into bed and put Gil in my arms. He was a total mess, not at all cleaned off after delivery. Holding my little son in my arms, naked and brand new and hollering, was an entirely new experience for me, because the hospital staff had cleaned Lena and wrapped her up before I held her. The first time I met Gil was raw and messy, humbling and beautiful.

At first I couldn’t get over how much Gil looked like Lena. That round, red little face and all that dark hair! But Elliott could already see Gil’s Uncle David, his grandfather Mark, and definitely Uncle Eric and Uncle Jonathan too. One thing Elliott thought right away, though, was that the name at the top of our list just didn’t fit. We gazed into our little boy’s face, running down our list of names, trying to decide what to call him. In the end it took us over 12 hours to decide on a name, about as long as it took to agree upon Lena’s! Are all parents so anxious that the face fits the name?

I’ll share the background on Gil’s name on Thursday, as well as a bunch of photos from those first 24 hours with our son!