The Birth of Zyla Virginia Drake

Quoting John Prine for many months now had been a fun experience - seems like the little woman is getting bigger every day - but the most important day was steadily approaching. I was relieved when school ended on Friday, but less excited when a huge windstorm and a fire made the weekend a little less fun. We were relieved to see that the road was still open, but the large plume of smoke and the winds ripping away all weekend made us wonder if it would continue to be open. As the rain came down, Jacqueline awoke at 3:30am for one of her many bathroom breaks. She then said to me, I think my water broke. I did not believe her until the flood actually began. Then I was suddenly going a mile a minute gathering things together for our trip to the hospital. I threw as much as I could into a bag and we both made the trip to the hospital. It was pouring down rain as we hit Norwood Hill. As we drove through San Miguel Canyon, we could see the fire up on the cliff above us. 

This little girl was determined, so it did not matter to her that even though it was May 24th it was snowing on Dallas Divide, rather hard also. As we went down the pass to Ridgway, my speed increased and I flew through Ridgway. I was going much faster than the speed limit at times, not wanting to be the one to deliver the baby. I pulled into the hospital at a little after 5 am, happy to hand my wife off to the medical professionals. They got her all set up in a nice spacious room. Her contractions were not bad at first, but by 8am, they were getting worse. She tried many different techniques like walking around, sitting on a birthing ball, getting in the bath, deep breathing, etc... but soon the pain was so intense. 

She asked me what she should do and I told her that she could do whatever she needed, meaning that she was wanting some pain medicine. She tried some pain medicine that wore off after thirty minutes and finally she got an epidural. I was happy to see her more relaxed and in less pain as it is hard to watch her in pain without being able to do anything about it. After the epidural, though, you could see that our little baby was wanting to come. At 2:30 pm, Jacqueline began pushing. You could tell that this was a painful process even with the drugs. The amazing thing about it was that the doctor did not show up until less than half an hour from when the baby was born. 

All I could do was encourage Jacqueline by telling her that she could do it and how exciting it was to see our little baby's head coming out. Eventually she got enough of a push and the doctor was able to pull this little head out and the rest came sliding with her. She was born at 3:44 on 5/24, which I thought was cool because I was born at 5:44 on 3/24. The nurses immediately took her away and Dad immediately grabbed his camera to get the first photos of his daughter. She did not give one of those big cries when she came out, but was making little cries. She had been in the birth canal for a while, but it did make her cry when the nurse checking her out whacked her in the head with her stethoscope. 

They checked her out and then took her back to her mommy, so that she got to hold her for the first time. We already loved her more than anything and you could tell by the way her mom was looking at her. Those first few minutes with your baby are so special, but soon it was time to do the learning. Jacqueline had to feed little Zyla Virginia Drake, which we finally had the courage to name her. We both wanted to see her first and we decided it fit. We knew that feeding was going to be a challenge as we could tell that Zyla was going to be stubborn about it at times. They gave us a few minutes with her, but you could tell they had an agenda as they moved us into another room within the hour. This room had a big chair for me to sleep in and a television. Jacqueline and I slept very little that night, waking with every noise that Zyla made hoping that every time that she closed her eyes that she would continue breathing. Zyla was also feeding very frequently and we had no idea that she was hungry every time she cried, but we would soon learn that we had an awesome baby that seemed to only cry when she was hungry. 

We ended up spending a whole other day in the hospital learning how to be parents. In the two nights that we slept at the hospital, I think we both got less than 5 hours total of sleep. So when the day came to take Zyla home, we were nervous about the hour and a half drive back to Norwood just from shear exhaustion. We got her situated in her car seat and she looked so amazingly cute and tiny. We could not believe how tiny she was, especially since the doctors were telling us for so long just how big she was. She did not like getting in the car seat, but once she was in she was zonked out. I was such a proud papa carrying her from the hospital to the Xterra. As we drove home, we worried about her because we could not see her since she was facing the seat. The amazing part was that she just slept the whole time. We even tried to feed her once considering that she was feeding every hour and a half rather regularly. She did not want it though and we were able to step foot in our house with our baby for the first time and share our life with her. She is so precious and we were just so excited to spend the summer and the future with little lovely Zyla.

Druid Arch

Sometimes it just takes a place upon a map that sounds interesting for a great hike to happen. Wanting to escape the cold of Norwood, Jacqueline and I packed up the Xterra for a long day hiking in Canyonlands. Knowing that with her nearly eight months pregnant, we would not have much of a shot at hiking together in this rugged landscape, she was prepared for a boring day while I got to get my last hurrah on before settling in to wait for the baby to be born. I saw Druid Arch on the map and decided that would be an interesting destination. We drove the long drive of over two hours to get to the Needles District of Canyonlands before taking a dirt road to Elephant Hill. Jacqueline was afraid once again for the health of the baby on the dirt road, but I assured her that it would be alright. Nervous about being away from my wife for so long, I promised to be back by 4pm, giving me just about five hours to do a 14 mile hike in rugged terrain. I knew I had to put the jets on. The beginning of the hike was mainly flat, but with some vistas. I could see the rising spires of the Needles coming ever so much closer. I saw a family walking with a baby in a backpack and hoped that that could be Jacqueline and I a year from now. Soon the flat open terrain was giving way to the less open and more canyon like terrain. I took a series of turns that led me through the canyon country. I began going downhill instead of uphill. After a quick stop for lunch and to change from pants into shorts, I was going down some steep sections of trail to hit a canyon bottom that I would follow for quite some time. The difference in the cliffs above me was that now what I was looking across at was now what I was looking up at and looking up made it so much more impressive. I was surprised how many people were out. I guess it was a warmer day in spring and they were all chomping at the bit to get their season started to. I saw a park service volunteer who asked me where I was going. It is good to see at least the volunteers getting out. At that point I had made my last turn and was following the canyon that would lead me to Druid Arch. At one point, I had to hop out of the canyon in order to avoid a big pour-off. There was a drop-off on my right side that kept me honest, but nothing too bad. When I got to the place right before the arch, the climbing got a bit steeper including the first ladder of the day. No problem and I soon popped out at the spot across from the arch itself. Man, was it impressive. It was probably the most impressive arch that I ever saw. Just the size, shape, absolutely impressive. There was a couple up there which I got to take my picture. They were soaking it all in, but I only stayed long enough to really enjoy it. I had a deadline to meet without the knowledge if I could actually live up to that deadline. I headed back down the way I came at first, but instead of turning left at the junction, I turned right. This led me towards Squaw Canyon, though it would not be that simple. At first it was just easy canyon walking, but this canyon was soon to run out, so the trail headed toward the cliffs. A long ladder was my only option. It makes you worry when you are so far away from the trailhead and you know the park service budget, to see a ladder out in the wilderness. It turned out to be fine and so did the other one that lead me down off the rocky slickrock pass. I was now hiking on the edge of a canyon, high on the rocks. I came to a junction, both of which led back to the trailhead I was heading towards. One went toward Big Spring Canyon, while the other continued to Squaw Canyon. I thought about Big Spring since it was shorter, but since I had trouble seeing the route even from the junction, decided to stick to Big Spring. This was a good idea because even though it was longer, I managed to hit my last ladder and drop into the canyon bottom. Looking at my watch, I thought that there was no way I could make it unless I really stepped on it. Now that it was flat, easy canyon hiking, I even ran for short stretches. In this area, I was away from other people most of the time only seeing one other person. I could sense that I was getting closer to the trailhead, but time was running out. Soon the parties started to increase and I passed a big group who had been out backpacking and looked worse for the wear. Amazingly, I could see the trailhead with only a few minutes to spare. I stepped on it and made it to the trailhead right as my watch struck 4pm. Proud of myself I looked around for my pregnant wife. She was nowhere to be found. Turns out she went to the other trailhead over the rocks on the other side of the campground. I reluctantly took my weary self and climbed over the rocks to find her content at the other trailhead, unconcerned that I was now twenty minutes late. I was proud of her as even though she was carrying a bunch of extra weight, she found the time to go for a few short hikes on her own. Unfortunately the day was now over though, as far as hiking would go, and I was now forced to settle down and weight for the birth of our baby girl.

Back to Hovenweep

We enjoyed camping in Hovenweep so much that we went back. This time I was determined to hike the section of trail to the Holly ruins. So as soon as we got to our same campsite that we had last trip, I left Jacqueline and her belly to go for a hike. It was the same for the first half an hour and I actually was able to hike in a t-shirt which I had not been outside in for quite some time. I passed the point where Jacqueline and I had been before and the trail was similar. Desert landscape, first hiking up a wash, and then in a more open valley. Along the way there were some ruins with no water nearby. You could see how all the Anasazi ruins in the Southwest were just one big series of migratory farming camps. They could not have stayed in the same place year long because one area would not have produced enough food to feed many people. Continuing on the trail was rather flat so I was able to make excellent time. Eventually I reached the Holly ruins. These were much more massive than I originally thought that they were going to be. They were very similar to the Square Tower ruins, just without as many people. It always feels weird when the finish of a trail is another trailhead and a road. I could have continued on another 3 miles to the Hackberry Ruins, but I asked the first people I saw that day who were coming back from it if it was worth it. They said it was more of the same, so I took some pics and headed back to my pregnant wife. I made a quick detour to see some petroglyphs that were not very impressive as I had to stand on a rock overlooking them. I could have gone down closer, but did not want to break the rules. I saw a few folks on the way back including the couple that came back from Hackberry, who were going rather slow up the steep hike out. I used my ingenuity and created a new route climbing up the slickrock and popping out before them on the rocks leading to the campsite. Jacqueline had an adventure while I was away. She managed to lock her keys in the car, so had to get a ranger to get her out. That took up most of the time that I was away doing the ten mile hike. We played some cards and made an early dinner, then went for an evening hike around the Square Tower Group like we did last time. The pregnant lady did pretty good again and it was really good for us to get out. This time the weather stayed good for the drive back and we had nothing but a smooth enjoyable camping trip on the border of Utah and Colorado. I am sure that we will return to Hovenweep again to enjoy its comfortable, quiet setting.