the Novakz

Yes most of you know that Isabella is here, though without wifi at the hospital I’ve been limited in the amount of communications I’ve been able to get out. Mostly texting. I’m home briefly to check on the cats and feed the fish but will be back at the hospital and internetless again shortly.

First of all let me say that everyone’s support and love has been overwhelming, thank you all so much for your all your kind messages and texts, it’s been a long few days. I’ll explain how everything went down since we’ve been out of communication for a while. Phia and I decided to go in this part thursday for an induction as her body didn’t seem progressing along. I’ll spare the gory details however suffice it to say that the doctor decided to use a non-drug related form of induction. That process while minimarlly invasive was mostly a matter of waiting. And wait we did through the day and night till the next morning.

Based up the re assesment at that point the doctors also opted to further the process with a a drug that is called pitosin (sp)? which bring about the labor process even further. yesterday morning afternoon Phia was having contractions that were painful but manageable (Phia has a high pain threshold), however by late afternoon they became so intense that could barely stand them and opted for the epidural.

Unfortunately though her body was not progressing, she had been stuck at 3 cn dilation for over 24 hours. In the back of our heads we knew that Phia’s mothers bone structure was such that she could not pass a child and therefore had to have all her children via C section. After all this time we began to believe that perhaps this may also be the case with Phia. At around 8:30 Pm we decided the best course of action would be to also have Phia do a C-section.

It was a little scary, but I know plenty of people who’ve done it this way, notably Phia’s mother as well as friends and family, so that was some comfort. I was able to stay with Phia during the procedure and she was awake and despite the reality of the procedure it was still a moving moment when we knew she was out safely. Phia and I both cried and although we could not see her, we could hear her first cries signaling she was with us.

What we weren’t expecting was that she would be so big! Isabella Jean Novak is 8lbs 15 oz and 20.5 inches long and was born about 9pm last night Oct 23rd! She is as you might expect cute as a button, but that is simply because she looks just like mommy did when she was a new born. This can only be bad news for me down the road, but I’ll enjoy it while it lasts. I’m certain she’s going to be an adorable child and a beautiful woman some day. I’m as proud as any father could be, when I look at her it brings tears to my eyes and I finally understand what it means to be dad. I will love her always, defend her until my end if needed and raise her to be a strong, intelligent and beautiful woman just like her mom …. I will also buy her anything she points at.

As is very common place with c-section babies, they don’t get a great initial breath, sometimes related to the fluids that don’t get squeezed out of them like with a traditional birth. So as a standard procedure they took her (after a brief hello) to the NICU, for some oxygen and monitoring. I stayed with her last night for a while and saw her this morning and she’s doing just fine. Her lungs are great and just needed to clear out the fluids a little better, we hope to have her released completely to us today or maybe tomorrow from the NICU.

As you might imagine Phia is wiped out, lots of drugs, no sleep, no food but what a trooper. She has made me more proud than I could even imagine, she is an incredible person to have gone through all she has with such poise and beauty. She never looked sad or overwhelmed and took every needle, poke and prod (and pain!) in such stride. I could take a lesson from her courage because I know I could never go through what she did.

Finally this brings me to my conclusion, because Phia is totally drained today, we’re not going to take any visitors, we should be at the hospital until at least Monday, so perhaps tomorrow. Because the bear cub is (as of right now in the NICU) even Phia were up to it you would not be able to see the baby. Only she or I are allowed in the Nicu to be with Bella. If you want to check in with me tomrrow, that would be great, but for today we’re both just trying to catch up on a little rest and recovery from the last few days. We love you all and hope that this message finds you well. I’ve attached a couple of pics of the little peanut, the little space man bubble is just a baby version of an oxygen mask that helped kick start her lungs into full action! She’s off of it now and just relaxing while mom and dad recover. We’ll all be together soon!

Click on any image below to view it larger, last picture in the set of the baby wrapped in white is Phia as a baby! Man can you see the resemblance or what? All that means is she’s going to grow up to be gorgeous just like mom!

Phia and I have decided to have an induction and we’re going in tomorrow morning at 6am. I am taking my laptop and camera so hopefully there will be some live blogging! Provided of course they have some kind of wireless network. We’ll see! Wish us luck!

The following is a future conversation I am certain I will have at some point with Bella. One of many I look forward to having with her. By doing so I will take my rightful place as a parent in this society.

Isabella: “Dad can I have my own phone?”
Bryan: “Nope.”
Isabella: “But…!”
Bryan: “Nope.”
Isabella: “Everyone has one!!”
Bryan: “I don’t care how many kids at your school have them, you’re too young for your own phone.”
Isabella: “That is sooo unfair!”
Bryan: “Unfair? You wanna hear unfair?”
Isabella: “No”
Bryan: “When I was your age (as I say this Bella rolls her eyes) no one had cell phones at all”
Isabella: “You didn’t have phones?”
Bryan: “We had Phones, just not CELL phones”
Isabella: “I don’t get it, a cell phone is a phone.”
Bryan: “We had phones but you couldn’t leave the house with them.”
Isabella: “Why? No bars?”
Bryan: “No! There were no bars.”
Isabella: “That’s what I said.”
Bryan: “No I mean bars didn’t exist, the phones were connected by a wire to the wall”
Isabella: “What? You are so making this up.”
Bryan: “I’m serious ask mom, you could only use the phone in the house. Eventually they made ones without the cord but you could only move around a little in the house.”

At this point I assume Isabella will look at me with the kind of incredulity that one reserves for when a homeless man fervently tells you that aliens will be landing shortly and we should all take cover. In other words, absolute enduring skepticism.

Isabella: “Then how did you call someone if you were out of the house?”
Bryan: “Didn’t”
Isabella: “But..”
Bryan: “you didn’t, no mobile phones I swear.”
Isabella: “So if YOU wanted to call a friend, YOU had to be at home and THEY had to be at home at the same time?”
Bryan: “Yes.”
Isabella: “What if they weren’t there? ”
Bryan: “Leave a message.”
Isabella: “How can you check a message with no phone!!?”
Bryan: “I told you… we had phones you just couldn’t leave with them, so people checked them when they got home. ”
Isabella: “What if they were gone aaallll day?”
Bryan: “Then you waited. Or called someone else.”
Isabella: “So what you are saying is you never did anything with your friends, ever. Could you at least text on these “phones”?”
Bryan: “Nope”
Isabella: “Check email?”
Bryan: “Oh I forgot to tell you, no email and no internet. No computers actually.”
Isabella: “WHAT?!!! NO way this is true.”
Bryan: “All true.”
Isabella: “Okay, a phone you could only use in your house, no texting, no email”
Bryan: “Don’t forget no Internet…”
Isabella: “Oh yeah, no internet, so you had the worst life ever? Didn’t you have any money?”
Bryan: “It’s not a money thing and it wasn’t just me, no one had this stuff.”
Isabella: “Gaaawwwd.. I am so glad I wasn’t a kid when you were growing up. BORING.”
Bryan: “It wasn’t so bad it all worked… Oh I forgot to tell you about pagers.”
Isabella: “What’s pagers?”
Bryan: “A.. pager is a little black box you could carry… ”
Isabella: “Out of the house?”
Bryan: “Yes Bella, out of the house.. and it would beep and tell you if someone was calling you.”
Isabella: “Could you call them back on it?”
Bryan: “Nope.”
Isabella: “What the heck? What good is that?”
Bryan: “Well then you try to find a phone”
Isabella: “The ones with wires?”
Bryan: “Yes, that kind, and if you found a phone you could call them back.”
Isabella: “LAME, LAME, LAME, LAME!!”
Bryan: “See I told you! I had it waaay worse! So does that make you feel better about not getting a phone yet?”
Isabella: “NOPE!”
Bryan: “If you don’t stop whining I am going to tell you about the Walkman”
Isabella: * huge eye roll * “Bye dad!”