Miles' Arrival: The Rebirth of the Cool

Miles turned a week old yesterday, which was a major milestone that made his parents feel very old.

Thanks to some tremendous support from Jill's mother Daisy, the SoCalAllens are starting to get their parenting sea legs so we now have some time to tell a story about the arrival of a little boy named Miles.

As fair warning, the nature of such stories means that this posting will trend on the verbose side. We promise that subsequent postings will include more pictures, and perhaps even some video.

CHAPTER I: HOME IS WHERE THE BURRITO IS

On Tuesday November 21, Jill left work early because she was feeling tired and a bit off. An hour after returning home, she casually mentioned to Peter that she was starting to experience contractions.

We thought we were experts after taking a few birthing classes so we concluded with confidence that Jill was experiencing Braxton Hicks, or practice contractions, that meant that Miles' arrival was approaching, but not yet imminent.

After Jill rested in bed for a couple hours, Jill and Peter decided around 6pm to take their dog Risa for a walk around the neighborhood



We also photographed Jill's belly in all of its glory. The resulting picture, taken between contractions, is now a family favorite and worthy of an encore reposting given its new context.



The next stop after our photo shoot was Wahoo's Fish Taco to pick up a burrito for Peter. This is not the actual burrito, but its mouth-watering yumminess does bear a striking resemblance.



After returning home, Peter prepared oatmeal for Jill, fed the dog, and decided to update the blog while Jill watched television. As the next few hours progressed, so too did the frequency and intensity of Jill's contractions.

Eventually Jill decided to take a shower and Peter started to scramble around the apartment packing for a possible late-night trip to Saint John's Medical Center.

Somewhere around 11pm, Jill called the hospital to discover that we should head over once the contractions were less than 5 minutes apart.

An hour later, around midnight, Jill's contractions quickly spiked to 2 minute intervals so we called Jill's doctor, Tristan Bickman, and jumped in the car. With no traffic, and Jill helping Peter find his way the fifteen blocks from our house, we made the short trip in about 5 minutes.

CHAPTER II: JILL FINDS LOVE AT ST. JOHN'S MEDICAL CENTER

Soon after arriving at St. John's hospital, Jill fell deeply in love with her anesthesiologist because he not only took away her pain with an epidural, but also did so with striking good looks and an accent to kill.

After settling in at the hospital, Jill called her parents and her sister, and Peter called London to alert his brothers Ben and Dave as the rest of his family was sound asleep back in Boston.

Early the next morning around 8am, Dr. Bickman arrived on her way to the office to check in on Jill. Her prediction was that the baby would arrive between noon and 5pm.

Here is a picture of the view from our room looking south on 22nd Street under the early-morning fog of Santa Monica.



CHAPTER III: THE ANTICIPATION

Fighting rush-hour traffic, Jill's sister Leslie and Jill's parents Pete and Daisy arrived at the hospital around 9am. Leslie brought a deliciously nutritious breakfast for Peter from McDonald's and Pete and Daisy arrived with a beautiful bouquet of flowers.


The next couple hours were spent listening to music from our iPod (we highly recommend bringing music for labor and delivery), laughing, taking pictures, and taking pictures of people taking pictures.

Jill's sister Leslie enjoying O.J. while Jill continues to enjoy her epidural.



Peter taking a picture of Leslie taking a picture of Jill and her mother Daisy.



Jill and Peter posing with a student nurse who was adorably emotional during the whole process.

Jill posing with another nurse. Jill is the one not wearing nurse scrubs.



Last picture of Jill pre-pushing with Leslie, Daisy, and Peter.



Jill's parents Daisy and Pete posing in anticipation of meeting their first grandchild.



CHAPTER IV: AN EARLY THANKSGIVING BLESSING

At around 11:30am, Jill mentioned to her family and her nurse in a rather nonchalant way that she was experiencing increased pain and the sensation that the baby had descended.

After a quick exam, the nurse informed Jill that the time had arrived for her to start pushing. The nurse then called Dr. Bickman and organized the room.

To the sound of Latin music, Jill pushed like a champ through a few contractions. Soon thereafter, Dr. Bickman arrived for the final push.

At exactly 12:30pm on November 22, 12 years and 12 days after Jill and Peter first met, Miles Molina ("Moh-lee-nah") Allen was born weighing 6lbs, 10oz and measuring 19.5 inches long.




Jill with Dr. Bickman, the best doctor in Los Angeles bar none.



Miles in his bassinet soon after his birth.



Please stay tuned for another post with pictures of Miles' first weeks on earth coming soon to a blog near you.

Lyrics to a song that we composed during a late night feeding may well appear on that post as well.

Happy belated Thanksgiving!!