Welcome Adele Marie Hille

Sarah: Well it's time to announce the birth of our new daughter, Adele Marie. Two and a half weeks ago on Friday, David and I went into San Jose with our bags packed. We knew it was 2 weeks early, but we wanted to be prepared in case the doctor said we needed to stay close to the hospital....which ended up being the case. After a minor freak out by both of us, David and I walked around in a daze the rest of the day, as the reality of the situation was hitting us hard. We stayed with our friends Trevor and Laura over the weekend, and had another routine doctor's appointment the following Monday.

As we were waiting for the doctor, I began going into labor. As one of our fears was the fact that we live 2 hours away from the hospital, we were extremely thankful that we happened to actually be IN the hospital when labor happened! The doctor checked me out, and then sent us down to admissions to check into the hospital. After that everything went (relatively) quickly. My contractions got closer together and much harder, and it was only a matter of hours by the time we settled into the maternity ward to the time little Adele made her appearance.

Now granted...I'm NOT going to say it was easy. :) But, everything went so smoothly that we couldn't have asked for a better delivery (I guess I could have asked that it wouldn't have hurt so badly!). David did an excellent job keeping me calm and sane, and the other doctors and nurses in the room did a great job of yelling encouraging words and directions in Spanish. It was a pretty surreal experience. Adele Marie was born at 7:27 on November 16th, and weighed in at 7 lbs., 18.5 inches long.

The following day my mom (who just couldn't wait) jumped on a plane and came to visit for a week. It was her first time visiting Costa Rica and we were happy to show her our lives and our home, and were extremely thankful for an extra set of hands and her knowledge as a mother as we were trying to figure things out during our first week as parents. It was great to have her here and introduce her to our friends and support system in San Jose and in our community.

We also had a number of visitors in and out of the hospital to welcome Adele to the world. It was great to feel the support of friends during such a special time. We were especially grateful to Trevor and Laura, who let us invade their house as we were waiting for Adele to join us, and also let us crash at their place right after she was born. When we brought her back to our community of San Gerardo de Dota, we were also welcomed by our neighbors around us. It now is quite common for someone to stop by and see Adele, and fight over holding her. Last weekend lots of the women threw us a surprise "tea" as well - which is what they call a baby shower in Spanish. It was really sweet - lots of balloons and streamers, and really good food. We also got more presents - mostly blankets, since Costa Ricans seem to think babies are ALWAYS cold and need to be bundled up in warm blankets all the time.

Now David and I are settling back into some sort of a routine as we're still figuring out what our lives are going to look like with a newborn here at QERC. It's been a fun change though (besides the fact that Adele is sort of confused when it's night and when it's day), and we both really enjoy spending lots of time just simply staring at her. She's super cute trying out all her new facial expressions and her vocal chords with her grunts and squeals.

Pregnancy update

Sarah: Well it's officially November, which means we have reached THE MONTH that our little baby girl will be born! Things have continued to go well for us, and I have been feeling great. And by great I mean there is nothing out of the ordinary that needs to be complained about - I'm definitely bigger, slower, a bit more uncomfortable, I grunt more, and don't always get the best night of sleep...but that's all normal, right? This first picture is of me at 32 weeks.

As our time is coming closer and closer, we feel like we are scrambling a little bit trying to get prepared. The nice thing about living in another country in a small one-bedroom apartment is that we can't spend any time on fixing up a nursery (since we don't have one) and it doesn't take much time to organize things (since we don't have the space and thus don't have a lot of baby clothes and accessories). So while we feel "prepared" for this baby to come, we've been working a lot on getting things in order at QERC and for the semester program. We can recognize the fact that our lives WILL change after having a baby....we're just not sure HOW. :)

So back to baby. We have decided to name her Adele Marie. That was one of our top two names and once we started thinking of her that way, it just seemed so right. It is exciting to have it finally decided and start imagining what her personality will be like to accompany her name. In Spanish her name will be Adelia, or even Maria Adelia as the full name. Many Costa Ricans use their middle name as their main name, and Maria is a very common first name - especially here in the valley where we live. So little Adelia will fit right in! This second picture if of me at 34 weeks (enjoying the special parking offered for pregnant women in Costa Rica!).

In preparation for little Adele's arrival, we picked up a crib from our friend Laura at the bakery here in the valley a few weeks ago, who is lending it to us while we live here. We were extremely grateful for the offer and upon setting it up in our bedroom felt a bit of a reality kick settle in. (The TV will eventually be moved...and we do have a mattress to put in the crib!) Next came the washing-the-baby clothes ritual, which our housekeeper Ana was quite excited to take part in. Since our weather has been unpredictable, she constructed her own makeshift clothesline in one of the bedrooms upstairs to hang the clothes up to dry. Ana had been begging me for weeks to let her wash the baby clothes, and once I gave her the go-ahead, she got right on it as she "ooohed" over every small piece of clothing. When it came time to take the clothes off the line to fold them, she called up her 9-year old daughter Karla who had been begging to come help organize the clothes. However, when it came time to actually put the clothes away in their own organized fashion, I told them I'd like to go ahead and do that (much to their dismay) - because I'd like to play with my own daughter's clothes too!

We've also had a couple of doctor visits in the last month, and he seems to think everything is progressing very well. At this last visit I was almost 36 weeks and he said that Adele looks like she's right on schedule to be born toward the end of November. We're still hoping she might decide to make an appearance a little earlier...but are extremely happy she is developing so well. The ultrasound guy kept saying every part of her was perfect - "su cabeza está perfecta", "su tamaño está perfecto" etc. The most fun for us on the ultrasound was being able to see her open and close her eyes, open up her mouth and stick out her tongue, and suck on her fingers. She continues to move A LOT as she rolls around all over my stomach and tries hard to stick her little feet up in my ribs whenever she gets the chance.

Also this last time in the city, our friends at LASP threw us a baby shower. It was really special and thoughtful, and we are very thankful for good supportive friends here in Costa Rica. Our good friends from LASP Trevor and Laura are kind enough to let us store some things at their house in San Jose so that when we stay with them for about a week up until the due date, or however long we will stay with them after Adele is born, we will be as prepared as we can be. This last time in we brought our pack-'n-play, our diaper bag full of supplies, and some extra personal items and toiletries we could afford to leave there for the next few weeks. Finally, this last picture is from today, and I am 36 weeks and 4 days along.