Welcome, Ripley Ann!

I Love Babies!! Isn't that WEIRD?

OK, so the rule is, the person making the post gets to pick the picture, so here’s our latest (and last) addition to the Family, Ripley Ann, posing beautifully with her oh-so-proud and happy Dad.

First, the name:  Many of you know we were struggling with a name for this one, to the point that we were referring to her as Agnes as kind of a joke; after doing so for 8 months or so, we got kind of hooked on the name, but we stopped short of saddling the poor thing with what I still think of as a mean old lady/mean old Catholic nun name.  We tried on several options, but it wasn’t until late September that we finally seriously considered Ripley, after Lisa’s Dad.  We wanted to honor Lisa’s side of the family with this one, as The Fabulous Ginny Boo is named after my mother, so I suggested Ripley, Lisa’s Dad’s middle name.  We both liked it a lot, but agreed there needed to be a distinctly female, girly, middle name to counteract the genderlessness of it.  I suggested Ripley Elaine, and Lisa quickly countered “Ripley Ann.”  I thought, and said, “that’s nice, but Ann’s kind of plain, right?  How about Anne?”   A word to those of you who go thru this in the future: don’t forget your wife’s middle name when discussing kid’s names.   Oops.  Lisa Ann didn’t think Ann was plain at all.  And so here she is, the Remarkable Ripley Ann!

BORN:         10 October, 2011  (10/10/11, except in Mexico, where it’s 10/10/11)

TIME:          0951 hrs.

PLACE:        Hospital Español, Polanco, Delegación Miguel Hidalgo, Mexico, D.F.

LENGTH:    50 cm = 19 & 3/4 inches

WEIGHT:    3405 grams = 7 lbs, 8 oz

APGAR:      9,9   Doc said a little darkness in the hands kept her from a perfect 10, and at high altitude, nobody gets the full 2 points for extremities coloration.  So adjusted for altitude, she’s perfect!

She was born with what I think of as the Hines Birth Hair, that fine, dark, kind of greasy almost-black temporary hair that a lot of kids have.  It falls out to be replaced by her “real hair” after a month or two.  Ginny had that hair all over – she was very hairy on arms, legs, back and face.  This one’s just got it where hair goes, on her head.  But it doesn’t grow in nice patterns like the permanent (HAH!) hair… but the nurses in the nursery insisted on combing it anyway.  If you can explain the following picture to me, you understand Mexican nurses a lot better than I do:

The Mohawk Baby

The Hospital Experience was very nice.  The Hospital Español is kind of old, but the Maternity/Obstetrics section is actually housed in a separate, small building, very recently renovated.  Beautifully rustic and old-timey on the outside, fully modern and professional on the inside.  We were whisked inside after a 3 minute check-in, and set up in a room for a few minutes, before Lisa was wheeled away for some prep.  During this time I was sent to the Principal’s Office for more check-in; this took just 15 minutes more, including a little wait time.  I was pleased with how quickly and smoothly everything went, but we were the first check- in of the day, so maybe things bog down later.

Lisa was taken away from me around 8:30, and the nurses set me up with our extended-stay room and help me schlepp our belongings in there, and then took me to change clothes and mask up and join the docs and Lisa in the operating room – it was a scheduled C-Section, so involved an operating room rather than a birthing room.  At 9:51, Doctor Villalobos pulled a red and squalling Ripley Ann from Mama’s insides, and away we go!

We stayed in the hospital from Monday thru Thursday morning, and brought little Rippy home Thursday afternoon.  Ginny came by the hospital Wednesday to meet her little sister;  I thought the meeting went very well.  Since then, Ripley does almost nothing but sleep with brief interruptions to eat, followed by loud, flatulent pooping, and back to the Land of Nod.

Lisa is doing very well; the recovery from surgery this time is a bit harder and more painful than last, but it gets better every day, and she’s feeling mostly human by now.  Ripley is sleeping like a champion, in 3- and even 4-or-more-hour stretches   – during the day.  At night, it’s two hours and “Feed Me!”  But we’re getting the rest in, and sleep dep hasn’t hit us very hard yet.  Of course, we have all the help in the world, in our amazing nanny, Ednalyn.  She’s made it easy going so far, and we’re enjoying our newly and fully expanded family.

Hope all is well with y’all; it’s late in one of Rip’s sleep cycles right now, and I wanna get in bed before she wakes demanding food.

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