Alexandra Ilene Powell

Alexandra Ilene Powell was born on November 21, 2007 at 12:50pm and was 6lbs, 12oz and 17.5 inches. She was named after her great-grandmothers, using the "A" from James' grandmother Adelina and after my grandmother Ilene.

As many of you have asked about the birth, here is the short version....

My water broke at 4:30am on Tuesday morning but by late afternoon I hadn't felt any contractions and our doctor sent us to the hospital to be induced. We had a fantastic nurse who helped us through the night and through the epidural and by the next day we were ready to go, the nurses estimated that I would be giving birth by the afternoon. Our doctor arrived to the hospital at noon to help another patient with a c-section, but her plans quickly changed when she came in to check on us first. Alexandra's heart rate was dropping with every push and suddenly her birth became very urgent. What we later learned, was her umbilical cord had been extremely short and with every push it was being pulled in different directions.

What happened over the next 40 minutes is still surreal to me. Within minutes, what started out as a few practice pushes quickly changed and suddenly our room was filled with NIC nurses and doctors and serious efforts were being made to get the baby out as soon as possible. We can't thank Dr. Huh enough for her actions and her ability to keep me focused. At literally the last possible second, we avoided an emergency c-section and Alexandra was born naturally and completely healthy.

Our stay in the hospital was not bad as far as hospital stays go. The food wasn't awful, they served a very edible Thanksgiving meal and on our last night, they wheeled in a special dinner served on a white linen tablecloth with sparkling cider.

We are now home and learning our way. We want to thank everyone for your kind emails and calls, we feel so lucky to have such great friends and family. We will be in touch soon, I promise.

Any Day Now...

The bags are packed, baby clothes washed, and I get butterflies anytime Gabrielle calls me. At our most recent doctor's appointment, Dr. Huh calmly informed us that she doubted we would need our appointment for the coming week, as our daughter was likely to be born by then. That was Monday, when Gabrielle's stats were 2cm dilated, 95% effaced, and -1 station. Any further along pretty much means active labor. Short of leaving the car running in the garage, we've done everything we can do to be ready to go at the drop of a hat.

Gabrielle continues to take fantastic care of herself with yoga and near-daily walks, though she's quite uncomfortable as you might imagine. Our daughter has shown no signs of calming down prior to birth, which while a sign of good health also means that her mother does not get much sound sleep. That in turn means I don't get much either. We knew fatigue accompanied parenthood, but no one told us we got a head start on it.

Aside from being a bit tired we couldn't be happier, and we're very much looking forward to meeting our little girl.

Stay tuned!

36 WEEKS

Look at my belly! When I actually see it in pictures, I realize how big it is! At our doctor appointment last Friday, Dr. Huh told us that I am 1 cm dilated and 70% effaced, this baby is getting ready to make her grand entrance. You should have seen James' face when our doctor calmly told us that we should have our hospital bags packed this weekend, just in case....

5 more weeks!

November 29th is getting really, really close. We're meeting with a pediatrician tomorrow, and if we like her, we're more or less ready for our daughter to arrive. We've still got a few small things to take care of, but all of the big important stuff is done and we're as ready as we're likely to be. We can't wait.

Tonight we decided to treat ourselves to a night out at one of our favorite places, Luna Park. They do a fun smores dessert with the chocolate and marshmallows melted at the table over candles. They also made Gabrielle a Mojito without the rum - her first cocktail in months!

These photos are as fresh as they come, taken just a few hours ago before we left for dinner. I've got a gorgeous wife, don't you think?

Baby Shower

A few friends threw me a very sweet shower this past weekend. Here are a few photos - I wish you all could have been there.

WEEK 32

It’s been a very busy couple of weeks for both of us.

Yesterday while the Blue Angels were doing their thing in a perfect blue sky over San Francisco, we were in a big room attending a full-day birthing class called The McMoyler Method. It’s the first year we’ve missed the air show, but the class was fantastic. It was informative, highly entertaining at times, and really helped us both put some context around all of the various bits of information we have learned to date. The week after next we are taking a two-day class focused on what happens once the baby comes home. Gabrielle is already very comfortable caring for infants, while James is thinking that as much as he may want to avoid it, he might finally be shown how to change a diaper.

Today was another baby-centric day. After James made his girls breakfast, we met Alina Carolyn Noyes for the first time. Alina is the 3-week old daughter of Meredith & Roger, two close friends of ours. From there we went straight to the baby store where we bought a crib mattress, car seat, diaper pail, baby monitor, baby bathing thingamajig, and a couple of other things. Once home, James inspected everything and laid it out to air, and then set out to clean the changing table we got from our friends Brett & Jane along with our crib.




With the weekend we had, it is now very, very real: we are having a baby. Soon.

Gabrielle is doing well, and as usual our last doctor’s appointment was uneventful. She’s gaining exactly the right amount of weight, her belly is the exact size it is supposed to be, and baby & mom seem healthy as can be. Baby is learning some new dance moves and practices them often – whenever she’s not doing Judo drills or practicing acrobatics. She is one lively baby, and she seems impatient to enter the world. We’re getting more and more eager to meet her too, so we’ve at least got that in common.

The stroller arrived!

This is how we now spend our Friday nights. Notice the glass of Scotch that appears by the 2nd picture! The crib arrives tonight, I better buy more Scotch...

WEEK 28

A few belly shots. The baby continues to be extremely active, I am sure she is practicing some sort of dance routine in there.

Ahhhhhh, Swenson's Ice Cream. A neighborhood favorite for a certain pregnant woman.

WEEK 27
Our visit to Michigan

James, sister Christine and baby Julian



Vinne and Auntie Elle


Cristian and Uncle James

It's been a while since we posted; we had a busy August! We spent 10 days in Michigan where we visited with a lot of family. In 10 short days we saw my parents, James' parents, our sisters and their families, my uncle Noah, aunt Andra and couins Sophia and Julia who were returning from Camp Michigiania, my uncle Tom and aunt Sue who came up from Baltimore along with my cousin Natalie, my grandparents, Grandpa Powell and family and James' grandfather who lives in Sault Ste Marie, Canada. Phew! The bad news...we were camera lazy and didn't get many pictures, it just all passed so quickly. The visit ended with a baby shower thrown by Grandma June, my mom and my sister. It was wonderful to celebrate with our family and friends.

Before we left for Michigan, James painted the baby room a beautiful blue (I went to Vegas to meet my friend Kelly - sounds fair, right?). Now we are shopping for a crib and changing table/dresser and will post pictures once the room is completed. I am feeling good and growing quite a bit. The baby is moving like crazy and now has hiccups every day! At our latest doctor appointment everything was exactly as it should be and baby’s heartbeat was healthy and strong.

22 Weeks

I am loosing my belly button! We met our new doctor, Dr Julie Huh and we really like her. She challenged James to find the baby's heart beat with the monitor, which he found immediately. We spent the weekend picking out colors to paint the 2nd bedroom and James ventured into his first baby store...

20 Weeks

20 weeks and growing! We are half way there. Last week she started her first "real kicks", not just little flutters, and right away James could feel them. Every night, just as I am nodding off, the kicks become the strongest, it's like she knows! For now it's very sweet and it has been fun for us to feel her move around, but I am guessing in a few months when the kicks become even stronger and I become bigger, it won't be so cute!

18 weeks - It's a Girl!

Well, it's not a girl yet - but come November, Gabrielle will have a cute new doll to dress up, and James will be about a dozen years from having to chase a bunch of boys away from his kid. He's been drinking heavily since we got the news on Monday.

We've been taking some belly photos as of late, and have included a few here. You'll notice that even though the belly is definitely throwing Gabrielle's center of gravity off, it's not stopping us from enjoying California's great outdoors. The photo you see of us in the woods was taken last weekend at Point Reyes National Seashore, where we spent a morning hiking before a great breakfast at the Pine Cone Diner, our new favorite out-of-the-way breakfast spot. Best pancakes ever, by the way. Across the street from the Pine Cone is Cowgirl Creamery, birthplace (pun intended) of some of Northern California's best cheeses. We bought some fresh mozzarella that day (pasteurized, of course) along with some basil and a gorgeous heirloom tomato that turned into a Caprese salad that night, followed by pasta with James' homemade Bolognese sauce. Yes, we still like to eat :)

The realities of having to gear up for the imminent arrival of our daughter are upon us, and we've started to figure out what we need to buy. Strollers, bassinets, swaddle blankets and other assorted stuff that neither of us knows anything about are now regular topics of conversation, and we're heading out tomorrow to do some comparison shopping. It's likely to be a long day...

Our nephews

Vinnie (4 1/2 years)


Cristian (5 1/2 years) and Julian (1 month old!)

4 months and counting...

We just returned from a weekend on the Oregon Coast with friends from London. One couple (Jen and Nate) have a 9 month old daughter, Jacqui, so we got the low down on what gear to buy, the tricks of the trade and what it's like to travel with a baby. No problem.....

I have hit the 4 month mark and I am feeling better. Here are a few "belly shots"... the bump has started to grow. I promise more pictures in the upcoming weeks.

xoxo gabrielle

Ultrasounds are cool!

Check it out: images of what's going on inside Gabrielle's belly. The first set is our favorite, as we're pretty sure our very advanced fetus is doing a true-blue Michigan Wolverine "HAIL!" arm pump.


More below, including some old-school scans:

Three Months In

Hi everyone!

Welcome to our little corner of the Web. As you've no doubt heard, Gabrielle is pregnant and James isn't. Just how we planned it. So far all is well, and it looks like our family will be growing by 50% on or around November 29th. We think that's a pretty good birthday, don't you?

Since we don't get to see many of you as often as we'd like, we figured this might be a good way to share this experience with you. From time to time, we'll post a photo or a few words chronicling the latest chapter.

Talk to you soon...