Eva Linnaea Wrobel

Eva Linnaea Wrobel was born on Sunday January 25th at 12:12 am. At birth, she weighed 6lbs and 5 oz and was 19 3/4 inches long.

Her first name, pronounced "ay-va" is for Jeff's maternal grandmother Eva, also known as Eve. Her middle name, "Linnaea" (a Swedish name pronounced "Li-nay-ah"), is in memory of rea's maternal grandfather, Bertil Cederleaf, whose family came to the US from Sweden. Linnaea is also a botanical name. Linnaea borealis, or twinflower, is a beautiful subalpine plant that grows in here in Colorado as well as in boreal regions around the world. The plant is also named after Carl Linnaeus, the father of botanical nomenclature.

Eva was born without the use of any medical interventions after only about 4 hours of active labor. Eva was also two weeks past her due date and I was scheduled for an induction. Luckily, all the things I tried the last week, must have worked and we were able to have a natural childbirth at the exact time the induction was scheduled for. Or maybe I just needed to get the birth scheduled in order for my body to do its job. Funny how things work out after all.

The proud papa!

Just after posting the blog last Saturday, I started have small pains, which I didn't know were contractions. These went on and off for the rest of the day but got worse after Jeff and I took a walk around 4 pm. The small "pains" continued on the car ride down to the hospital (we had an appointment for induction at 6 pm) and at the deli where we picked up some sandwiches. Once we got checked in at 7:40 pm, I was told I was 3.5 cm dilated, quite an improvement than the 1.5 cm the day before. At that point the nurse told us we were in the "wait an see group", not in "induction group" and we could leave or stay and walk the halls for 2 hours. I decided to stay as we were already settled in. We took a quick jaunt around the halls, and then they hit me like a freight train. Powerful contractions every few minutes. At 9:40 pm, I was 5 cm dilated, and I was at 10 cm around 11:30pm. After about 45 minutes of pushing our sweet little girl was born! It was an incredible experience and I couldn't have done it without the support of Jeff, Sharon, our doula, and Halli, a good friend. Thank so you much! I was told I only cursed a few times, was on my hands and knees most of the time (or hands up on the couch or bed), my water broke in the bathtub, and my biggest comments were "stop asking me questions!" or "socks off" or "blanket on". Of course there was lots of moaning and groaning, crying out in pain, etc. as well. The delivery nurse was amazing, and besides having my blood pressure checked a few times, and the baby's heartbeat monitored by hand during the pushing and a few other times, the hospital really let us have a natural birth. No IV's, no drugs, just a lot of hard work. Hey, they don't call it labor for nothing!

Rea, about an hour after delivery.

Little Eva's head was quite conical after being squeezed through my narrow bony pelvis. Here she is getting her first bath.

Rea in the recovery room the next day.

Eva was two weeks past her due date, and hence had lots of extra skin especially on her feet and no vernix, but otherwise is a healthy little baby!

The proud parents.

I'm hungry.

Big yawn!

It's Time!

Forty-two weeks and forty-two pounds later, I still haven't gone into labor. I've tried most everything I can think of: acupuncture twice this week, massage, evening primrose oil, red raspberry leaf tea, spicy food, and even a bit of jogging downhill in the foothills of Boulder (decided not to take Castor Oil, which is a emetic). But as of yesterday, my cervix is still only about 1 cm dilated, the baby hasn't dropped, and I still haven't had any noticeable contractions. My due date was even pushed back a week from Jan 3rd to Jan 10th based on early ultrasounds.

Sprig is doing great, she has been moving around lots, she still has plenty of amniotic fluid, her heart rate is good and she has been sucking her thumb and practicing breathing in there. Our placenta, however, is getting older and has noticeable calcifications on it. We've decided, it's time for her to be on her own rather than wait till she shows signs of decline, and we go to the hospital tonight to get an overnight cervical ripening gel (prostaglandin gel). Hopefully, this will kick start labor. If not, they will try more "aggressive" measures on Sunday. I can definitely say that I'm disappointed labor didn't happen naturally on its own and I'm nervous about having too many interventions. But, we just want to do what is best for our little one. Here a last few photos we took this morning.

Still Waiting, but in the Meantime....

No, our precious little baby has not made an appearance yet, but we are continuing to make progress over at the house. At least there is progress somewhere. I have this week to try everything I can to go into labor before they will induce me on the 24th. These days doctors and many midwives don't like to let women go past 42 weeks of pregnancy.

This past week Jeff and Harry managed to hang all the interior doors, do almost all the closet systems (except for the pantry), and we got the kitchen cabinet order in (knotty cherry cabinets). Here are a few photos of this weeks work.

Knotty pine door to lower bedroom. Bifolds for closet.

Inside of mudroom closet. Note cubby holes on this extra deep closet (3' deep). We did this to make an easy place to put gloves, hats, and mittens, which we have a lot of here.

Master bedroom door, linen closet (door not hung yet) to the right.

Unloading the kitchen cabinets from the 74' long tractor trailer along the higway near Rollinsville. There was no way a truck that big could find a place to turn around easily along Moon Gulch Road. We unloaded the cabinets into 2 pickups and my jeep.

Rob's pickup heading up to the house.

Fully wrapped cabinets awaiting installation. Cabinets are in our living room, dining room, and kitchen now, but they will all end up in the kitchen of course.

Here's the toilet I put in last weekend.

And the laundry sink (not discolored water). The water color has cleared up a bunch, but we are still getting a sulfery smell. I'm hoping it is just stuff that fell into the well during the drilling process, but we shall see.

A whole house water filter housing between pressure tank and hot water heater. If the water smell doesn't stop, we'll have to install a special filter here. I'm glad we plumbed for it.

The Wedding We Missed

Well, my due date (January 10th) has come and gone. And what did I do on my due date? Well I went to yoga class, and then installed the toilet and laundry sink at our new house. I feel like it was quite an accomplishment, not because it's hard to do any of those things (I guess it's a bit more awkward being nine months pregnant), but because we finally have running water at the house! It's been about 6 months, (and I won't tell you how much $$$ later), but we can finally go the bathroom inside, instead of the cold porta potty that occassionally will tip over in the wind.

And what did I not do on my due date? Attend my cousin Gina's wedding. Jeff and I would have loved to have gone to Chicago for the momentous occassion, but they tell me I'm not supposed to travel far. So we stayed home. But here are a few photos of the event taken by my dad:

The beautiful bride being walked down the aisle by her father, Daniel Cote.

Mother of the bride, Marsha Cote, escorted by her significant other, Rich.

Gina and Peter at the mass.

Peter Fillicaro, my new cousin.

Look how radient she looks! Mrs. Fillicaro

The wedding party.

Pete and Gina cuttinig the cake.

Tommy Starcevic, Gina, Heather Starcevic (Sherwood), Shea Mears, and Mike Orthner

Baby Ante Starcevic.

Painting and Electrical Fixtures

Well, the first coat of primer and first coat of paint are up and all of the electrical switches and outlets are wired and some of the fixtures are up. We also spent all of yesterday cleaning up after the drywall mess. I took a whole jeep load of construction size garabe bags full of rosin paper filled with drywall dust to the dump yesterday. And there is still more. Rob and Jeff spent the day scraping the floors, but finally it's looking a bit cleaner.

Charlie, our painter is pictured above. Actually Charlie is a sommelier (a wine expert), and we had thought he had given up his old career as a painter. Luckily for us, he came out of hiding and was able to give us a great deal on the painting. Capp, another friend (not pictured) also helped.

One of the downstairs bedrooms with ceiling fan Jeff installed. I thought I had found a great deal on a ceiling fan for the Bonus Room at Resource2000 ( a used building material place). Unfortunately, it would be a big pain to find all the missing parts. I'll probably have to return int.

Craig, our electrician friend and the main panel. Doesn't it look neat and well-put together. I have no idea how he managed all those wires.

One of Rea's great deals on a wall sconce in the master bathroom. Only $10. Unfortunately I won't be able to find good deals on everything.

Rea after a day of cleaning up drywall dust. Sprig's due date is in one week, but she doesn't seem to be slowing me down too much. I'm off today to go buy more electrical fixtures.

Jeff in the stairwell to Bonus Room (3rd level). Another light fixture has been hung!

Bonus Room looking north at 1/2 moon window. All wires hanging down are speaker wires for in-ceiling speakers. We have a total of 16 in ceiling speakers in and just outside the house. I think we'll put off buying those for a while. At $100 a pop, they can be pretty pricey.

Outdoor lights.

Jeff, Turner (Criag's son), Craig, and Rob having a beer from the job-site keg after work. Picture taken in living room.