Mia at 11 and 12 weeks: New friend Ducklet

May 25th was Dominican Mother’s Day here, and we spent the afternoon with Heuris’ family in the river at Los Patos, with about everyone else (and their mothers) from Paraiso and along the coast. Heuris brought our blow-up baby bathtub for Mia to sleep in, but decided to try it out as a waterbed first. So here is our baby on her first “swimming” excursion, even though she didn’t actually get wet.

Some shots from that afternoon when Mia was having a sit in the kitchen and recovering from her voyage:

A few days later, Abuela Teresa and three of Mia’s cousins came to visit. From biggest to smallest and with pronunciations in parentheses, the cousins are: Yinet (Jeannette), Jarvey (Harvey) and Hermione (as in Harry Potter).

This is what happens after the cousins come to visit.

Other big news is that Mia has discovered her own hands and feet. She spends much time studying them closely.

She also has a new friend to keep her company. His is yellow and soft and his name is Ducklet. Mia spends much time handling, massaging and sometimes tasting Ducklet. He doesn’t seem to mind this at all.

Mia is smiling more and more every day. Except never when we try to take her picture. Here are a few examples of her new camera face:

Luckily, her crafty mother figured out the old mirror-picure trick.

Mia at 1 and 2 weeks: How to dress a Dominican baby

When Mia was 10 days old we finally took her back to Paraiso. Here she is resting on her Grammy Judy’s lap at home.

















Heuris’ family was very excited to meet Mia. Here we are outside their house for an afternoon visit. Holding Mia is Heuris’ older sister Cristina. Heuris’ mom Teresa is the one sitting and peeling green bananas, while Heuris’ dad Verian looks on eating a homemade ice cream. The standing on the left is a neighbor who came by to inspect the new arrival.













Being a new mother – and an American one – in this culture is a real learning experience. Since the second we arrived back in Paraiso, everyone (and I do mean everyone!) has been intent on giving Heuris and me (but especially me) specific advice about how to take care of a new baby. And Dominicans have very particular rules about babies. There are rules about how to hold babies, how to dress them, how to carry them, how to lie them down for a nap, how (and what) to feed them, how to talk to them, how to protect them from the evil eye, etc, etc. Rule number one, I learned quickly, is that you dress a newborn in a hat and socks and bundle her in a blanket at ALL times, even if it is wicked hot outside.


That’s Mia’s abuela, Teresa. My mom and I had shamefully dressed Mia that afternoon only in a baby dress and wrapped her in a blanket, so when we arrived at Teresa’s for a visit the baby was quickly taken away and re-dressed in hat and socks, and so tightly bundled up in her blanket that I thought she might expire. It was probably 80 degrees in the shade when this photo was taken.

Mia's Great Arrival

Big news! Ellen Miamar Matos Powers (a.k.a. Mia) was born on Sunday March 9, 2008 at 2:08pm in Santo Domingo. When she came out she weighed 7 lbs exactly and was 19 1/2 inches long. And she came out yelling! Just minutes after arrival she was lying on my stomach lookingall around with these big wide-open blue eyes and taking everything in – not crying at all, just looking.In a nutshell, the birth (at least my part in it) went flawlessly. I was in labor for a little under 11 hours, but really only about 5 of those hours felt like hard work. I managed to stay at home with mymom, Nancy and Heuris attending to me until about noon, and so it was nearly 1pm by the time we arrived at the hospital after a wild cab ride running all the red lights in the city and our poor cab driverscared to death that the moaning pregnant American woman was going to have the baby right there in the back seat of his car. The driver was justifiably worried: only an hour and eight minutes later,Mia was out.Even after all the adventurous things I´ve done in my life (and there’ve been a few), I can honestly say that none of it compares to the sense of accomplishment and pride that I felt when they put this little person in my arms. Heuris was with me the whole time, quietly coaching me along through the hardest parts of the labor and having his usual and extraordinary calming effect. Because of this, I was able to do the whole thing med-free, of which I am so grateful because I got to really participate in the birthing process. And honestly the birth itself - plus or minus a few particularly strong contractions around transition and pushing - was mostly pain-free as well. It was centainly full of aches, stretching sensations and a lot of inner heat, but not anything mind-blowing or incapacitating. Less than 15 minutes after, I was lying there smiling and eating a sandwich and talking on the phone to folks at home. The first night, I was still so excited I could hardly get to sleep.

But by no means was everything easy, especially not once we left the hospital. By far, the hardest part of the birth itself was the initial recovery: not only did I have to learn how to take care of Mia, but also attend to my aching, tired and traumatized body. My doctors rushed me through the pushing stage (literally jamming down on my abdomen to get the baby out asap and yelling at me to push, PUSH), and because of this (though they would never admit it was their fault) I sustained a significant amount of internal lacerations and external tearing. Coping with the stitches for 8 days was rough, and getting them out by my witch of an obstetrician (also and unfortunately a med-free experience) even rougher. Learning with Mia how to feed her was a real challenge as well. On day two she quit latching on and was intent on eating only her hands which left her hungry and frusterated. A scary 12 hours of crying and struggling later, we began feeding her with an eye-dropper to make sure she was getting enough nourishment. By the end of day 4 and a LOT of patience and trying later, we had managed to get feeding pretty well established, and now she is eating like a champ. FYI – For those of you wondering where we got her name from: Ellen is for my wonderful Granny Ellen - my dad´s mom - who turns 90 this year. We put it first because we thought it sounded better that way. Miamar we made up from mia + mar. In Spanish “mia” means “mine” and “mar” is “sea,” so you could say her name means something like "sea of mine," which is important since Heuris´ family is full of fishermen and we both love the water. Matos is Heuris´ paternal last name. And Powers, of course, is for me.

Here are a few shots of Mia from that first week:

Check out her active little hands – she was busy with them from the very beginning.

Update for January and February

We are getting very close to the arrival of our new little person, and as a consequence my energy for making internet treks and blog updates has abated. So, at last, here´s a picture rundown of what´s been going on these past couple of months and where we´re at now:


Here is Heuris with his nephew Yeron who had his 2nd birthday party on January 18th. The Sponge Bob cake was very special (and sugary!).












Yeron´s mom Cristina (on right) and neighbor Narini (with the curlers) spent the day cooking various forms of fried or stewed carbohydrate (including fried bread and spaghetti) for the party.










The fried carbohydrate and festivities were a big hit with the little invitees from the neighborhood. Here they´re indicating the number two for Yeron´s birthday, not the peace sign.










Other big news is that on Feb. 6th Heuris and I bought a little piece of land in the center of Paraiso. It´s on a little hill up the street from the town market, on a dead end road. The photo to the right shows the shack that came with the land, but will be torn down before we begin building our new abode.







This is a view down our street, Calle John F. Kennedy. See the ocean?? At night when the motorcycles stop, you can hear the waves. From the roof of our future house we´ll have a great view.









View from the interior of the property. You have to imagine it sans the scary shack.












We bought the land from a nice old lady, Doña Maura, who lives next door with her handicapped brother Bolo, a new kitten, and a burro. To the left is the burro. Sometimes he gets upset and makes a lot of noise.









Heuris and I have already moved all our house plants onto the land, with varying results thus far. I wouldn´t call it a "garden" yet. It´s more of a gathering of withered greens amid stones. Heuris is the official waterer. On the right side of this photo you can see Bolo, Doña Maura´s brother, observing the new additions to the rubble.













We have a great view from the back of our land, looking out through banana trees and over the roof of a small chicken farm at the foot of the hill, across to the mountains to the southwest.


















Meanwhile, as you can see, the belly has continued to expand! Here I am at 38 weeks on the waterfront in Santo Domingo, in the colonial district where we´re staying temporarily until our peanut´s arrival.

Heuris has been taking excellent care of me as we go waddling about the city very, very slowly.























We remain, as always, quite fond of each other.

A New Year

Just a few more pictures to share as we turn the corner into 2008... First, Heuris and his first American stocking experience:

We didn't have any socks big enough to fit all the loot in, so instead Santa used our shoes. Evidently Santa shops at Trader Joe's as we both received a hefty amount of TJ's chocolate. Smart Santa.

Next, a photo taken at the end of December in front of our mango tree, after I hit 30 weeks:








Hard to believe we've got less than 8 weeks left to go until our scheduled date-of-arrival. Everyone here says the belly still looks chiquita (small), but it certainly doesn't feel that way. It feels like a small truck with feet in my middle.

Weather remains about 85 degrees every day, but at night there is sometimes a breeze and if we keep the window open, we don't have to sleep with the fan directly on us. Such is the "cool" of Dominican winter.

International Christmas

My Christmas visit to Philadelphia ended more quickly than I'd hoped - so many things to do, people to see and good American food to eat!

Lili and I got some quality auntie-neice time. She is a little gem. Smiles that could make hot fudge out of stones. And how amazing: only 3 months and already she's excited about reading! By the time I left last Monday, she had even figured out the basics of page turning. Her nona Nancy and Mom Earth were so pleased. Our little Lil.

Last Saturday the family threw me a fantastic baby shower, and lots of nice folks and friends from Philly came. Everyone was so thoughtful and generous in their gifts that it nearly killed Heuris dragging my bag-the-size-of-a-small-cow back to Paraiso from the airport in Santo Domingo. Luckily everything made the trip intact.

The rest of my time in Philly was mostly spent doing paperwork for our petition for Heuris' green card. US Immigration (USCIS) is so backlogged because of fee changes back in July of this year that they haven't even glanced at our petition yet. It was sent in September. According to the official website, we probably won't hear anything from USCIS at all until the first week in January, at the earliest. Once our initial petition (the I-130) goes through, we're looking at a second petition for "quicker" visa processing (the I-129F). After that, we get put on the waiting list for our visa interview at the US consulate in Santo Domingo. Last I heard, there are more than 26,000 people in the Dominican Republic waiting on the list. And we'll get to start right at the bottom. It is by far the slowest, most overburded consulate in the world. All this means is that Heuris and I will not be moving "permanently" back to the States for at least another 2 years, or however long it takes for us to get our interview. When I get depressed about how long that seems, I think about how we're at least together and lucky enough to be able to stay together while we wait. Most people don't have the luxury to do that. Most people have to be in love long-distance while they wait.

As for the current details of everyday life back in Paraiso, I've sent Heuris out this afternoon to retrieve the essentials for our Christmas Eve dinner. Since turkey is ridiculously expensive (almost $3/pound!) we're looking at a nice substitute of baked chicken or ham with pineapple.
Dominican Christmas is really not as present-focused a time as is the American version, which means that of the few gifts brought back from the States, we've both already opened most. Among Heuris' favorites: an ipod nano with radio remote, a solar-powered radio with crank option for cloudy days (genius invention!), and a certain T-shirt that he's been wearing daily with pride (see photo at left).

26 weeks and counting

I am now nearing the end of my 26th week and feeling fine and hungry and large. Getting out of bed in the morning is increasingly becoming an exercise of pushing and pulling to get the whole business upright. In month eight I may need to invest in my own personal come-along. Heuris affectionately alternates his pet names for me among vaca (cow), ballena (whale), and - my personal favorite - burgado (giant snail or slug - pronounced Dominican style it comes out real pretty: vulgao).

At least the burgado isn't so huge that she can't travel... Until next Sunday I'm in Philadelphia for a pre-Christmas visit with family, and also for the cheese steaks (yum!!). Heuris remains at work in Paraiso.

This past week our good friend Kathryn left Paraiso after 2 years in the Peace Corps. She threw a rockin going away party, even though there was no electricity that night. Never fear! It is difficult to kill the spirit at a party full of Dominicans, even by candlelight. The evening was spent telling Dominican-style cuentos (jokes) and singing along to Maná songs played on a guitar by a local muchacho.

Above are some of the tigueres in attendence at said despedida (going-away party). Katy's the one with the glasses. We will all miss her like crazy.