Helio Semper Fong lands on earth

On August 12, 2008 at 11:43 pm Helio Semper Fong was born to two tired, excited, and dazed parents.



kava says: helio began his adventure to earth from the watery sea of his home in my placenta monday night at 9pm. i was getting ready for bed when i felt a few gushes and trickles of liquid and i knew this not to be pee. we decided to get some rest and call the hospital in the morning. by 3am i was having mild contractions every 5 or so minutes that kept me awake. by 7am we called the hospital and asked if we should come in. i was examined and the aminotic fluid was confirmed using litmus paper. we were shown to LDR 8 and put on the baby monitor for a while. things weren't in any hurry to get going so we went to the cafeteria and ate dispassionate potatoes and toast.

the afternoon stretched on, us moving steadily weary from lack of momentum. the midwife came in and suggested we start pitocin to speed along the contractions. we were anxious about this option because it is known to increase the pain level experienced and often leads to other interventions like epidural and c-section. we decided to take a walk down to the montlake cut to think it through. we weighed the pros and cons and talked about being tired from waiting all day and how eventually the hospital would have us induce labor since the risk for infection goes up after 24 hours of the water breaking. at this point, there were only 7 hours left until the dawn of august 13th, and i felt an affinity for the 12th... so we went ahead and got the i.v.



from there time became less of an issue. it seemed to speed up, slow down and stand still all at once. with the love and support of wing and the nurse and midwife cheering me on, helio was born 6.5 hours later without any major medical interventions. he was all purple at first because the cord was wrapped around his neck, but he turned pink pretty quick.

Wing says: Helio is now 12 days old and has been lots of things. He's been lots of fun, amazing to watch change so quickly, confusing, tiring, cute, funny, loud, messy, and did I say cute? Every day brings a new experience. Between feeding, sleeping, and his funny facial expressions we are always on our toes, even if we're trying to get a long 2 hour stretch of sleep.



A few days ago we took our first venture outside. Destination, the park. He slept most of the way but when we stopped walking he started crying, so we had to continue on our way. The second trip for the day was to the doctor and the third trip was to target for baby wipes.





Helio is growing steadily. He's up and past his birth weight proving he's eating enough. I'd sure hope so, cause it seems like he's always eating. Everyday we learn new things about him. More to come....