Tuesday, August 24, 2004
Zoe
Zoe (zo'e) [Greek Zoe, literally, life]
Much of my world these days revolves around my daughter Zoe. She was born June 2nd, 2004. She's also the reason it's difficult to not post more because she really demands one's attention!
I want to keep track of my early impressions of her in the first days and months of her life.
The reason my wife and I named her Zoe, I think, had to do in large part with how she came to be. Back in the spring of 2001, we seriously started pursuing fertility treatments. Going through fertility treatment is an emotional roller coaster. One begins to think one's making progress, but then one's hopes are dashed. First my wife tried chlomid. Then we went through a few rounds of more advanced hormones with inter-uterine injection. Finally we went on to try in-vitro fertilization (IVF). The first round elicited many viable embryos. But the first attempt yielded no pregnancies.
The embryos had been harvested and frozen in June 2003. In September 2003 we tried another cycle, and this time my wife got pregnant! At first there were two fetuses, but eventually one did not live. It was very difficult to find this out at an ultrasound appointment where we could see the two fetuses and one of them with its heart not beating. But eventually the other one did keep on developing and resulted in our beautiful baby girl.
Each stage of the fertility treatment was a new level of hope. Now these stages continue on. For example, Zoe was born early because my wife is diabetic and the baby was getting too large. So we had to worry--will her lungs be developed enough? Well, thankfully they were so she did not have to go into the neo-natal clinic at the hospital. Then the next thing was worrying about whether or not she was eating enough. She had some difficulty learning how to latch on. Then there was the lingering diaper rash.
At the moment things are really good with her. The one slight problem is that almost every evening she gets very cranky and has inconsolable crying. Eventually babies get over this colic thing, and it will be a relief once she is.
It feels like we've had her forever already, but of course she's only ten weeks old. She's grown so much already. It is such a joy to see her develop. We are so glad she is alive.
p.s. Sometimes my wife and I like to joke that she's our unfrozen daughter, and our world must "freighten and confuse" her. (This is a reference to an old skit on Saturday Night Live by Phil Hartman who played an unfrozen caveman lawyer.)
Much of my world these days revolves around my daughter Zoe. She was born June 2nd, 2004. She's also the reason it's difficult to not post more because she really demands one's attention!
I want to keep track of my early impressions of her in the first days and months of her life.
The reason my wife and I named her Zoe, I think, had to do in large part with how she came to be. Back in the spring of 2001, we seriously started pursuing fertility treatments. Going through fertility treatment is an emotional roller coaster. One begins to think one's making progress, but then one's hopes are dashed. First my wife tried chlomid. Then we went through a few rounds of more advanced hormones with inter-uterine injection. Finally we went on to try in-vitro fertilization (IVF). The first round elicited many viable embryos. But the first attempt yielded no pregnancies.
The embryos had been harvested and frozen in June 2003. In September 2003 we tried another cycle, and this time my wife got pregnant! At first there were two fetuses, but eventually one did not live. It was very difficult to find this out at an ultrasound appointment where we could see the two fetuses and one of them with its heart not beating. But eventually the other one did keep on developing and resulted in our beautiful baby girl.
Each stage of the fertility treatment was a new level of hope. Now these stages continue on. For example, Zoe was born early because my wife is diabetic and the baby was getting too large. So we had to worry--will her lungs be developed enough? Well, thankfully they were so she did not have to go into the neo-natal clinic at the hospital. Then the next thing was worrying about whether or not she was eating enough. She had some difficulty learning how to latch on. Then there was the lingering diaper rash.
At the moment things are really good with her. The one slight problem is that almost every evening she gets very cranky and has inconsolable crying. Eventually babies get over this colic thing, and it will be a relief once she is.
It feels like we've had her forever already, but of course she's only ten weeks old. She's grown so much already. It is such a joy to see her develop. We are so glad she is alive.
p.s. Sometimes my wife and I like to joke that she's our unfrozen daughter, and our world must "freighten and confuse" her. (This is a reference to an old skit on Saturday Night Live by Phil Hartman who played an unfrozen caveman lawyer.)
