Welcome, Gabriel!! You're a gift from God.

We welcomed Gabriel Timothy Rice into the world on April 8, 2014 at 12:48 pm, with joyful hearts and elated spirits.  Neither Tim nor I can believe the wonder of it all, as this experience stands diabolically opposite to Sophia’s birth.  Before I continue, I should start with a photo of our little tyke!

Gabriel Timothy Rice

I apologize for the delay of online photos, but one way to celebrate everything going well this time around was to capture these precious first moments in an extra special way.  So we got a professional photographer..!   We had so much excitement about Sophia's first glimpse of her much anticipated brother, so we had to make it just right.  Thank you all for your patience, and continued patience since we’re still waiting on most of the photos.  

 Sophia arrives to the hospital, with congratulatory balloon in hand.  No sister has ever been so eager to meet their little brother!

 Here is Sophia's first glimpse of Gabriel.  She was curious and also relieved to learn he was real.  :)

 With Sophia’s birth almost four years ago, I had an emergency c-section to a slightly premature baby who was immediately intubated before I could hold her, and had to stay in three different hospitals over the course of 30 days, recovering from pneumonia, persistent pulmonary hypertension, pneumo-paracadiam and an early-developed addiction to morphine.   

Given this experience, suffice it to say Tim and I are in complete shock and overcome with joy that we just had a full-term baby by a planned and normal c-section, and there is no need for the NICU, much less three of them!!  In fact, for the past three weeks, Tim and I had unspoken anxiety that Gabriel would come early.  But as God would have it, Gabriel waited patiently.  (I hope Sophia forgives me for referencing these unhappy memories; obviously she’s perfect today so the past is behind us..!)

 Soph continues to gaze in astonishment.  

 Grammy gets some quality time with an already-spoiled Gabriel.

 Yesterday, I woke up at a decent hour, knowing ahead of time that my 39-week full-term baby would arrive by c-section around noon that day.  I took a shower, washed my hair, put on my make up, and Tim and I bid our farewells to Sophia and Grammy for the afternoon, one last time as single-child-parents.  Instead of driving in pain to a hospital 20 miles from home, as happened with Soph, we took a leisurely 3-mile-drive from our new house in Baltimore to a city hospital called Mercy Medical Center.  

We used valet parking upon arrival at Mercy, as if we were going to see a movie on date night, and were quickly checked in to make preparations in the PACU which lasted about 2 hours.  Tim was perturbed with our nurse at first because he asked her what “PACU” stood for, and she skirted the question.  It turns out she was actually quite nice, and perhaps she was merely trying to save face because she forgot the words “Post Anesthesia Care Unit”.  (Thanks to Eric Pope for clarifying via text message).  After walking into the operating room (again, distinguish this from having to be wheeled in under emergency circumstances), I was happy to see my regular doctor in a cheerful mood, making me laugh with stories about her own childbirth.  My anesthesiologist had great bedside manner as well, and he reacted quickly when I felt nauseous after he administered the spinal block.  Tim was allowed to enter the room soon after as he took a seat by my head.  Probably because of nerves, I peculiarly asked him to massage my hand “really hard”.  I later learned that Tim’s hands started cramping after five minutes, but he courageously powered through, thankful that he wasn’t having a c-section himself. What a sacrifice! 

Thirty minutes later, after a nerve-racking but otherwise smooth operation, there arrived a healthy 7 pound, 2 ounce and 20-inch-long Gabriel Timothy.  There was only happiness to follow.  The nurses didn’t turn their backs to us like last time, slapping the baby’s back in efforts to spur breathing.  Nope.  Gabriel was showing off his lung power all by himself, just like it’s supposed to work!  The nurses placed him in Tim’s hands within five minutes as the doctor completed the operation, and I got to watch my little son start acclimating to his new environment.  Beautiful skin, shy hair, curious eyes and a vocal yet modest cry.  Heaven on earth.

Thanks to all of your for your thoughts and prayers.  We will do our best to stay in touch, but let's be real... We'll see you all in about six months!