Chiang Mai Babies

When we first arrived in Chiang Mai, we were invited to dinner at the home of a nurse. There was another couple who were at dinner that night and were also expecting their first child.

The morning that we arrived at the hospital, the same couple was in the room next to us. Both mothers had their water break less than one hour apart from each other; both also delivered their babies the same day. The weight of both babies was only a few ounces different and their lengths were about 1/4" different

Three days after the babies deliveries, both fathers met again at the government office where they were getting their babies birth certificates. The following week both families met again when they applied for the newborns US passports. Today we met again at the lunch of another mutual friend. Here is a picture taken today of the moms with their new babies.

Maggie with Anna and Melanie with Josiah

More Josiah Pics

Here are a few pictures that we took today.


This is Josiah sleeping in his "Moses basket". A friend let us borrow this so that he would have a place to sleep while we were in Thailand. It is really nice for traveling. We can just put his basket in the trunk if we need to go somewhere for the night; we take it out of the trunk before we let him sleep in it :)


Mom and Josiah


Josiah getting a kiss from mom.


Making faces.


Bad hair day.

Just In...Delivery Room Pictures!

The hospital where Josiah was born does lots of things for the new child and their family. They made Josiah a pillow cover that has his footprints on one side and his birth information as well as attending Doctors on the other side. They made a birth book with his footprints, picture and birth information written down inside. They took many pictures and arranged them in a picture book for him as well. Today they sent us a CD containing delivery room pictures. These are pictures which we had not seen until today; we wanted to share them with you.

Although this picture is slightly blurry, it shows Josiah the moment that Dr. Suppachai pulled him from his warm home of nine months into the outside world.


This picture is of Aaron bringing Josiah to Melanie; this is the moment that she saw her son for the first time.


This is Melanie giving Josiah his first kiss.


This is the first picture of the three of us ever taken.


This is mom with her son.

Josiah and Mommy

Here is a picture of Josiah and Mommy taking a nap after a long night.

Surprise...more pictures of Josiah

Josiah is doing well and slept most of last night. He is still feeding well and has begun to gain weight. He lost about 190 gm (6.7 oz) his first two days following birth and gained 20 gm (.71 oz) his third day.

Josiah chillin' in his crib




Josiah displaying his lack of amusement to one of his papa's jokes

More pictures of the manchild

We apologize that most of the little one's pictures show him sleeping. We have included one with his eyes open.

Sleeping


Sleeping


Sleeping


Here is the picture you have been waiting for...eyes open! This was taken in the nursery after bath time. Josiah is about 15 hours old in this picture.

Some of Josiah's new friends

Josiah has had quite a few visitors in the past two days. Here are some pictures with his surrogate family.

Josiah with Grandpa Mike


Josiah with Uncle Jeremy


Josiah with Grandpa Jim and Grandma Trudy


Josiah with Uncle Jesse (Pee-Paw)


Josiah with Aunt Jessica and Cousin Birdie

It's a...boy!!!

For unto us a manchild was born in the city of Chiang Mai...

At 2:15 am, Melanie woke me up and told me that her water had broken. Twelve hours of intense labor (entire time having contractions 3-4 minutes apart) the doctor told us that Melanie had made no progress between 9 am and 3 pm Thailand time. Melanie was still 60% effaced and only 4 cm dilated. The choice was made to deliver via cesarean section.

Josiah (Yahweh supports) Evan (Yahweh is gracious) Goccia was born at 3:21pm on Wednesday 15 August 2007. He weighed 2930 gm (6.46 lbs) and was 50 cm (19.69 in) long.

I was able to be in the operating theater while the c-section was performed. Melanie was allowed to see Josiah but not hold him since she was somwhat sedated. I was able to hold Josiah within minutes of his entrance into the world. Since Melanie was sent to recovery and could not immediately hold the baby, I was given the opportunity to do skin to skin bonding. This is when in the absence of the mother, the father takes off his shirt and holds the baby on his chest. This provides an opportunity for the baby to bond with one parent during the first hours of life. It was an awesome priveledge to hold this amazing creation. I did feel somewhat guilty though since Melanie did all of the work and I had the chance to bond with the baby for over two hours before she was even able to hold him.

Melanie with our friend Jessica in between contractions. Jessica assisted me as a birthing coach and was a tremendous blessing.

Josiah and me about ten minutes after he arrived.


Josiah in his crib after he came from being cleaned, measured and weighed.


Mom and Josiah


The newly expanded Goccia family. Welcome Josiah Evan Goccia!

Reflections of a husband, dog owner and expectant father

I have learned many things in the past five years of marriage. I have learned to truly love Melanie. I have strived (and sometimes failed) to honor Melanie by placing her ahead of myself. I have learned that she is not just my wife but my best friend. Even when I am strong willed and selfish, I know that she loves me and will not leave me. I have learned to trust her with everything I hold dear. I reflect on this as I look towards having a child.

Before marriage I only knew that having a baby meant little or no sleep, smelly diapers and no money. After one year of marriage, we adopted a homeless puppy (Dixie) and I learned to love again. I also learned that little ones will break and/or chew up things; these are things and we have to chalk it up to having a little one. Dixie taught me unconditional love. No matter how often I disciplined her, she would always come back and love me. Sometimes it would take a while but she always wanted to be around me again. I feel that Dixie helped to prepare me for this next chapter in my life. Knowing how much I care about Dixie and how much fun we have together, I cannot imagine how great a child will be.

Recently, I learned more things such as where babies come from, babies are not born with the ability to walk and talk, they also have many variations of smelly, sticky, solid and liquid leaks. Perhaps even scarier than this is the fact that they will imitate what they see me act out; this is a heavy thought. As I await the arrival of this new bundle of joy with eager anticipation as well as trembling fear I look forward to all of the new things that I will learn.

Melanie is still doing fine

The doctor said that her load will likely be released in the next two weeks. Since we have been given four possible due dates, nobody is quite sure but he seems to think that it will be sooner rather than later. Melanie has also been having real contractions (not braxton hicks) every day.

The doctor seems as excited about the baby as we are. He told us that when it is time, to have the nurse call him, night or day. When he did an ultrasound last month, he spent about fifteen minutes trying to determine the sex of the baby and was frustrated when he could not determine due to the babies position.

The next time he did an ultrasound, he saw what he needed to and he quickly wrapped things up with a big grin on his face. He knows that we want a surprise so he has not told us what the baby is.

We will keep you updated as things develop and there will be lots of pictures to follow once the little one arrives.

Baby got bed

We had a crib custom made for the baby since there were no places available to purchase one ready made. As soon as we ordered the crib, two new stores in our city opened which sold cribs. The beds which the stores sold were made of pressed wood and actually more expensive than a custom made crib of real wood!

We gave the furniture maker a picture as well as the dimensions for the bed which we found on Pottery Barn Kids. We changed a few things but the basic design is the same. The crib is fully constructed from sheesham rosewood. This is stronger and slightly heavier than teak wood.

We then went to the mattress store and picked out the materials and gave the necessary dimensions for the mattress. The mattress was finished within a couple of hours and is a good fit for the crib.


Here is a picture of the crib as it sits in the baby/ guest room. (For those of you planning to visit, you will not have to share a room with the baby). The mattress was removed for the pictures. The crib was constructed in a manner which allows the front to be easily removed thus becoming a toddler bed.



These are a couple of pictures taken from various angles to provide a detailed view of the workmanship, especially the legs.

24 weeks down, 16 to go!

Baby Goccia is 24 weeks now...scary to think but only 16 weeks to go! Here are pictures of Mel and Baby G.

Halfway there!

Today Baby Goccia is 20 weeks, which means we're halfway through. I keep telling Aaron that this little one is going to take after him because he/she is always on the move. Thankfully the movement isn't enough to keep me up at night! Aaron hasn't been able to feel the baby move yet but hopefully soon. It's been 4 weeks since the last picture, so here you go...another picture of the growing belly. And no, we still don't have any names!

Baby Goccia's Dr Appoinment

We went to the doctor last night for an eighteen week checkup. We had an ultrasound done and we were so excited to find out that the placenta has moved up to the proper position! Thank you all for your prayers! Baby G was very active for us and we saw all of his/her body parts...well, except the boy/girl ones. The sonographer even counted the fingers! I would post the ultrasound pictures, but they're not very clear. The baby has been VERY active and I'm feeling him/her move all the time. We can't believe that pretty soon we'll be halfway through. We can't wait to meet our little one!