Note:The stuff in this directory was written either before Tímea was born or shortly afterwards. Some links and other things might be odd as I try to get this properly integrated with the newer stuff.

The Birth of Tímea Markóczy Goldberg

Tímea was born Tuesday September 15, at 11:50 AM, British Summer Time (GMT+1) in the Cygnet Wing of Bedford NHS hospital, Bedford, Bedfordshire, England. She and her mother, Lívia Markóczy are both doing well. The father, Jeff Goldberg, is doing well enough that he can sit and create this document.

About Tímea

Sex:

Female

Birth weight:

2850 grams, approximately 6 pounds, 4 ounces

Delivery type:

Emergency Caesarian. Scary, but all is very well now. See section on the gory details for more information than you could possibly want.

Health and Condition:

She seems very healthy, is eating very hungrily, and she is -- without a doubt -- the most beautiful baby in the world.

Her Apgar scores were 9 (1 minute) and 10 (5 minutes).

Feeding:

She is a hungry baby. For those reading this who speak some Hungarian she has been described as a "mohó", which apparently has nothing to do with the transition from the Earth's crust to the mantel.

She has taken on the habit of eating for just a few minutes and then falling asleep. We have to work to keep her awake so that she will get a good feed. It is an effort, but on her 7th day (Monday, September 21) she was already above her birth weight by 30 grams (1 ounce) to 2880g.

How to pronounce her name:

Stress is on the first syllable, and the name should sound sort of like an English speaker saying "TEE-meh-aw" or "TEE-may-ah". In the International Phonetic Alphabet it is something like: [ $\stress ti-m\niepsilon-\openo$ ].

Maybe, someday, I will try to provide a sound file.

Visiting the mother and child

Lívia and Tímea came home from the hospital in the afternoon of Saturday, September 19. Lívia still has a fair bit of recovery to do from the Caesarian. Lívia's stitches also came out on Saturday.

At this point we are all trying to get as much sleep as possible. So we would appreciate it if visitors would call first. Leave a message nobody answers the phone. Also please don't think us rude if we tell you to come by another time if you show up. Every moment of quiet relaxation for us is very precious.

Tímea's first song

Although the rhyming is inconsistent, the scansion is rough, subtly is non-existent, and the tune and concept completely derivative, we feel that her song writing ability puts her on a par with Andrew Lloyd Weber, but we are still very very proud of her.

To the tune of the Monty Python Lumber Jack Song:

I'm a baby girl and I'm alright
I sleep all day and I cry all night
I puke on mommy's clothing and poop ten times a day!

She has written another verse, which, I am afraid, is even more scatological than the first. Not even Andrew Lloyd Weber descended to this sort of thing, but I don't feel it would be appropriate to censor her creative output, so to speak.

I'm a baby girl and I'm OK
I eat all night and I feed all day
I poop in when I'm eating, and wee when they change me

A duet

We seem to have jointly composed a duet, which unfortunately is as scatological as her own composition above. Maybe lyrical taste in heritable. Anyway, we've been singing this one a bit recently.

To the tune of "Good Night Ladies" from The Music Man. I assume that you will be able to figure out who takes on which part.

Good night baby
Good night baby
Good night baby
It's time to go to sleep
Eat a little, poop a little, eat a little, poop a little
Eat, eat, eat, eat a little, poop a lot
Eat a little, poop a little, at a little, poop a little
Eat, eat, eat, eat a lot, poop a little

Repeat every 2 hours, indefinitely.

Mommy's song

The whole family appears to be musical (or at least can put words to existing songs) and don't forget that we are bilingual. Again, apologies for the scatological nature of this as well.

To the tune of "Eddig Vendég"

Ettél, ittál, jól betojtál
Most már végre aludhatnál
Szaladj Jeffrey vidd a babát
Kívánj neki jóéjszakát

Gory Details

Warning: The details that follow are truly details about the process and quiet personal. At least one person has questioned the tastefulness of detailing this information publically this way. While we feel that it is appropriate in our case to put this information here (since so many members of our close families are far away and have been asking), it is not unreasonable to find this more information than should be put on a public web page, and should stop reading now. However, what we have here is certainly more appropriate for the World Wide Web than the Kenneth Starr report.

This section contains the gory details of the birth and the events leading up to and through the emergency C-section. The section should primarily be of interest to expecting parents or those who have recently been through the process and want to compare notes.

OK. Here goes. All action takes place on Tuesday, September 15. Times are approximate.

4:20 am: Water broke and contractions started. With each contraction (not very distinct, but about 5 minutes apart) some more amniotic fluid leaked out. The amniotic fluid seemed a bit greenish.
5:20 am: We called the hospital, once we convinced ourselves that the water really was broken. (Our original plan was to go though much of phase 1 of labor at home, but one the water is broken we should be in the hospital.
5:40 am: left for hospital.
5:55 am: arrived at the hospital. As Lívia told the supervising midwife on duty (whose name was Rhoda Labor!) the overwhelming feeling was one of confusion.
Shortly after 6 the midwives confirmed that it looked like there was facal matter in the amniotic fluid. Because of this, they wanted monitor contractions and baby's heart rate. This meant that Lívia was tied to a machine. I will see if we can get a copy of that output, since it will help clock everything.
Lívia was examined and her cervix had not opened at all, even though the contractions were now very strong, lasting a minute each, and separated by 4 minutes gaps. Because they were so frequent and the cervix wasn't opened the new midwife, Jackie Owen, recommended an injection of Pethedine instead of Entonox (nitrous oxide and air) as pain relief and to help relax Lívia. We accepted the recommendation.
Some time, maybe around 9 (A very rough guess of the time). I noted that the baby's heart rate dropped with each contraction. I pointed this out to the midwife. She said that as long as it was with each contraction that is fine, but if it drops after the contractions, it would be another sign of distress.
At around 10, it appeared that the heart rate drops were larger and possibly after the contractions. Jackie asked various other people to look at the monitor output and each came in, listened to the baby's heart, told us that the baby was doing just fine, but that they needed to monitor more closely.
10:30: Lívia was examined again, and her cervix was only dilated 1cm, while the baby's head was all the way down pressing against the cervix. The heart rate drops were getting larger and more distinct, and were now clearly following the contractions.
The Pethedine was very clearly wearing off now, and Lívia was in terrible pain with each contractions. She was coping with it very well.
We were soon joined by a pediatrician "Howard" and an obstetrician (whose name we never caught). They said that the baby seems perfectly healthy at the time, but doubt that it would survive the very long labor. Both very strongly recommend a Caesarian and we accepted the recommendation.
Once that decision was made, Lívia's labor pains no longer had the same "psychological goal" and she was less able to cope with them. However no pain relief could be offered until the Caesarian.
Lívia was asked whether she preferred a general anesthetic or a "spinal" for the operation. With the former, I (Jeff) would not be allowed to be present, with the latter I would. She initially chose the spinal.
Lívia was whisked away in a wheelchair, while I was told to carry all of the stuff we had into the recovery room. Then I was brought to the surgeon's dressing room to get into operating room clothing. Just as I was starting to change, someone came by and said that there had been a change of plan, and that they were going to use a general anesthetic.
Lívia had asked for a general anesthetic when she was informed that they would be able to administer it much more quickly. Also, I hadn't been particularly keen to attend to operation.
I was brought back to the recovery room, where I was given a cup of tea. I could hear the heart rate monitor on Lívia and discovered that there was a little window I could peer through to see the procedure (which wasn't pleasant). I had been informed in ante-natal classes that with a Caesarian under general anesthetic they will not let you watch, and will close that window. I was warned that closing the window meant nothing other then them enforcing the rule of not letting me watch. However, that information and warning did not come to mind when the closed the window (just after the first incision). And I fell apart.
I was sure then that something terrible had happened. I could still hear the heart monitor on Lívia, but was convinced that the baby was dead. At that point I was curled up on the floor in a corner of the recover room, crying, and extremely frightened.
11:50 am: I heard a healthy baby cry from the operating room! The heart rate monitor on Lívia was doing just fine. I don't think that I have ever felt such relief or a switch from terror and despair to elation like that.
A few minutes later, someone came through (pediatric nurse possibly?) telling me that I had a beautiful baby girl and that mother and daughter were doing just fine and healthy.
A bit later, Jackie came through with the Tímea. She was, and is, absolutely beautiful!
We gave her a wash, weighed her and put clothing on her. (I was extremely clumsy and awkward, but am getting better.)
I sang her "Happy Birthday" and a few other things.
Some where in here, I was told that for some reason or other (small placenta?) they were unable to get a sample Tímea's blood from the cord. So, they were going to have to take blood from her soon to check her Rh factor.
About 20 minutes later, Lívia was brought through. She was still unconscious and although over the next hour or so she had moments of lucidity (during which she saw the baby and commented on how beautiful and wonderful she was) she doesn't recall anything that occurred during that period. Basically, she was monitored, checked by the obstetrician or the anesthesiologist checked on her revival. After a while all three of us were taken up to the maternity ward (Orchard ward), where we were placed in the room right behind the nurses/midwives station.
Jackie signed us over to the midwives in the Orchard ward, where we were looked after by several people, and in particular someone named Sheila.
Lívia was too groggy to feed Tímea, so I was helped to bottle feed her.
Lívia came to more fully, and tried some feeding.
Another pediatrician (not Howard, but yet another whose name I didn't catch) came in to take the baby for blood test.
More feeding.
At around 18:00, Lívia had to urinate. She was asked whether she wanted a catheter or a bedpan. Instead she opted to make her way to the toilet leaning on her drip stand. I personally think that this has been an important part of her remarkably speedy recovery.

Throughout this absolutely everyone at the hospital, no matter how rushed or pressured, was able to treat us as individuals. Although things happened very swiftly once the decision to go with a C-section was made, we never felt for a moment that we were being put on an assembly line (although we must have been). The entire set up and behavior was extremely humanistic (I normally despise that word, but I can't think of another one at the moment that does the job right.)

We wish to thank everyone at the Cygnet wing of Bedford hospital who we came into contact with. And also, we would like to thank those who were working behind the scense who we may not have noticed. We plan to prepare a proper "thank you" letter which we will send. Once that it done, we will have a link to it from this document.