TheCalabrias.com

Hey everybody give a big Happy Birthday to my Dad!

Lorenzo.

Paolo’s first week went very smoothly, and he (and Ashley) did extremely well.

As expected, we were all a bit disappointed that we couldn’t bring him home right away. However, it didn’t take long for Ashley and I to realize that a lot of the “premature baby anxiety” was indeed lifted just knowing that he was in the hospital, being monitored, and getting excellent care from the Special Care Nursery. Ashley and I were able to visit him at any time – no restrictions; Ashley was able to breast feed him about 3 to 4 times a day; and, looking at the bright side, Ashley as able to come home and rest, instead of having to stay at a hospital room.

While the first week was mostly about making sure Paolo was stable, the second week was all about feedings and gaining weight. The goal was to keep reducing supplemental feedings until Poalo was able to get all his nourishments through breast feedings. The sooner Paolo could maintain/gain weight without supplemental feedings, the sooner he could come home.

At first, it simply meant Ashley made more frequent trips to the SCN. Not a Problem! By last Wednesday, Paolo was back to his birth weight. And that same afternoon, Ashley checked-in for a “rooming-in”. Paolo was able to leave the SCN and share a room with Ashley; she breast fed him every 3 hours; and the nurses kept monitoring him and weighting him between feedings. It took a few days, but this afternoon (June 7th) , exactly two weeks from his birth, our wonderful baby Paolo finally came home — one week ahead of schedule. Come to think of it, this seems to be his personal mantra: “get it done ahead of schedule.”

Lorenzo and Chloe were ecstatic!!! Paolo couldn’t have asked for a better Big Brother and Big Sister. The kids absolutely love him! I have not yet noticed a single hint of jealousy from either one of them, and they are always anxious for their turn to hold their baby brother. I’m afraid Paolo will be one spoiled, or should I say, loved kid.

Bem Vindo, Bevenuti, and Welcome Home Paolo!!! We love you!!!

Oi Mocada!!!

Na ultima quinta-feira (22/05/2008), comecamos o dia bem calmo. Como ia trabalhar em casa, e nao ia perder uma boa parte da minha manha enfrentando o trafigo de Atlanta, deixei os meninos na escola, e voltei pra cama pra tirar mais um cochilinho. ZZZZZ! Quando acordei, a Ashley comenta, casualmente, que as 5:00 da manha ela achou que talvez tivesse quebrado sua bolsa. Para nao ficarmos preocupado, ela foi ao medico para confirmar “que nao era nada”. Um pouco mais tarde me liga chorando dizendo que precisava ir direto para o hospital.

Minha primeira reacao foi que o “BabyJR” ia nascer AGORA. Mas quando a Ashley comentou que ainda nao tinha tido nenhuma contracao, relaxei, mas tirei o resto do dia fora por precaucao. De acordo com Dr. Goggin, o mesmo medico que fez o parto do Lorenzo e da Chloe, as contracoes poderiam comecar em um hora ou uma semana. A Ashley recebeu uma dose the esteroides para acelerar o desenvolvimento do pulmao do nenem e antibiotico para evitar infeccao.

Assim, mais calmo, enquanto a Huguette levou a Ashley para o Hospital, eu foi para a escola dos mininos ajudar e participar na festinha do final de ano (escolar) — com on celular grudado na cintura. Quando as festividades terminaram e voltamas para a casa, finalmente tive a oportunidade de dizer aos meninos o que estava acontecendo.

Lorenzo e Chloe ficaram tao felizes que choraram, pulando de alegria. Mas logo depois da elforia, notei que as Chloe estava tambem preocupada. Ela e’ super esperta, e nao demorou para notar que o Paolo estava nascendo pre-maturo, e que tinhamos perdido a Sofia por ter nascido cedo – no caso dela, bem cedo. Depois de explicar que o Paolo ja tinha mais do dobro to peso da Sofia, ela se acalmou. Lorenzo e Chloe tomaram um banho relampago, e fomos para o hospital.

O resto do dia foi bem calmo. A Ashley e o Paolo estavam no monitor, e gracas a Deus, os dois estavam super bem. Passamos o resto do dia no hospital. Depois do jantar, como tudo ia muito bem, voltamos para casa. A Huguette dormiou conosco, caso tivesse que voltar para o hostipal durante a noite.

Sexta (23/05) nao foi muito diferente. Passamos a manha no hospital com a Ashley — mae e nenem super bem, sem contracoes, ou sinais de stress. A tardinha, para ajudar com a atecipacao, a Huguette levou os meninos para ver o novo filme do Indiana Jones; a Ashley fez trico e descancou, e eu trabalhei um pouco usando a rede wireless do hospital. Depois do cinema e do jantar, como tudo continuava bem, voltamos para casa — a Huguette mais uma vez dormiu conosco para facilitar qualquer “saida de emergencia”.

Na manha do Sabado (24/05), a Ashley liga dizendo que a primeira faze de contracoes tinham comecado durante a noite. Mas como ela recebeu medicamento para relaxar, ela conseguiu dormir, e nao precisou me chamar. O unico problema era que como o fluido amniotico estava acompanhado de sangue, e existia a possibilidade da placenta querer romper, causando uma cesaria de emergencia. Assim, de vez de induzir o parto, os medicos manteram os medicamentos para eeixar a Ashley bem relaxada, e tentar atrazar as contracoes mais fortes o maximo possivel.

Fomos para o hospital sabendo que o Paolo nasceria provavelmente “HOJE”. E os meninos estavao, mais uma vez, super excitados. As 11:00am, Dr. Goggin removeu a cerclage (pontos) do cervico da Ashley, e o cervico delatou 2 cm de imediato. “Vai ser hoje mesmo!” As quatro da tarde a contracoes mais fortes comecaram, e a enfermeira verificou que o cervico tinha dilatado 5cm. As seis a Ashley recebeu anestesia peridural. E as sete, Dr. Goggin confirmou que “esta na hora”.

Quando perguntamos Lorenzo se queria estar presente durante parto, ele nao hesitou um segundo. Ja’ a Chloe, sua primeira reacao foi “nao”. Mas, felizmente, quando a hora chegou, ela resolveu ficar. O Lorenzo ficou comigo, e a Chloe com a vo’, Huguette. Dr. Goggin foi genial; sempre bem calmo, e sempre explicando para os meninos o que estava acontendo. O parto nao demorou muito. Depois de so’ tres contracoes, o Paolinho nasceu, as 7:16pm. Lindo! Dr. Goggin cobriou Ashley, e Lorenzo e Chloe foram ao redor da cama, para ter uma boa olhada do irmaozinho, de perto. Eu pergutei a Dr. Goggin se Lorenzo poderia cortar o cordao, e ele disse que “sim”. E Lorenzo, mais uma vez sem nenhuma hesitacao, recebeu a tesoura, e cortou o cordao, bem orgulhoso. (Ele ultimamente tem perguntado se ele e a Chloe podem ser os padrinhos.) Dr. Goggin, limpou o Paolinho, e o apresentou a Ashley. E pela primeira vez, nos CINCO tivemos alguns minutes de puro amor e magia. Mas, para seguranca do Paolinho, tivemos que entrega-lo a equipe de medicos de bebes pre-maturos.

Gracas a Deus, Paolo Rafael Calabria, nasceu perfeito, pesando 2kg 300g, e 45 cm de comprimento — grandinho para 33 semanas. Gracas a Deus, os esteroides ajudaram, e ele nao precisou ser entubado para oxigenio – seu pulmaozinho trabalhando com 100% de oxigenacao desde que nasceu. Na mesma noite, mamou um pouco, e passou trinta minutos com agente. Amem!

O prognostico e’ excelente! Todavia, ele deve ficar no hospital duas ou tres semanas. Infelizmente, so’ os pais podem visita-lo no momento, e os meninos estao super tristes. Todos os dias eles perguntam quando vao poder visitar o irmaozinho, e os dois choraram ontem quando falei que talvez tenhao que espara mais uma semana para poder ve-lo.

No mais, estamos super bem e felizes, e anciosos para trazer o Paolinho para casa.

Beijao a todos, Chloe, Lorenzo, Ashley e Gildinho.

We had to make a decision on Paolo’s full name to get his ss#, and now it is official: Paolo Rafael Calabria.

As I mentioned on a earlier post, we started the “first name” hunt with “Leonardo”, but we eventually settled on “Paolo”. Since he turned out to be a Preemie, Since Paolo means “small” or “modest”, it became quite an appropriate first name.

Now, as for the second name, the Calabria’s “Reggio” was split down the middle. Ashley and Lorenzo preferred “Rafael” – a Brazilian (or should I say Portuguese) spelling of Rafaello — meaning “God has healed” , or “healer”; while Chloe and I were pulling for “Massimo” — Italian for “The Greatest”.

However, we didn’t have a chance. Given that Mamma did all the work, her vote most certainly carried more weight!

PS: I have been getting a lot of email about posting more picture. As a FYI, I did post more “public” photos on Flickr, which are linked to the “photo widget” to the right of our web site. However, you can see additional photos, if our you register (free) and login into the flickr web site and check the “Baby Paolo” folder.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/calabria/sets/72157605247596744/

I wanted to make sure some of the photos remained limited to “family and friends”. Let me know if you need help access them.

Just a quick not to say that our beautiful baby Paolo has arrived. He was born at 7:16 pm, wighting 5 lbs 1oz, and 18 inches in length — a good size for a 33 1/2 week preemie. Both Ashley and Paolo are doing extremely well.

Ashley is currently resting, and Paolo is breathing on his own and already practicing his rooting reflexes with a pacifier in his cozy “isolette”. He is doing so well, we are delighted that Ashley will be able to breast feed him in a couple hours. That’s already better than we expected.

Thank you for all the love, prayers, calls, emails, and positive support. We are so lucky to have you in our lives!

Now…It is time for me the catch the first of many “power naps” for the near future…. Good Night YALL!!!

The kids and I just got a call that Ashley is starting her contractions. She has taken some medications to slow things down a bit. The plan is to have her cerclage removed around noon and let her go in to labor naturally.

We are heading to the hospital….love, us!!!

Hello Everyone!

It appears we are not the only ones eager to meet “Baby Junior”. He seems to
be even more anxious than us. Yesterday morning Ashley broke her water, and
she was admitted to the Athens Regional hospital in case she also went into
labor, and to prevent any infections. We are currently at Labor & Delivery,
room 3101. (We have our cell phone with us).

Both Ashley and Baby Jr. are doing well, and contractions have not yet
started. She took some steroids yesterday to help the baby lungs develop
faster, and we need at least 48 hours for it to start taking effect. So, we
are hoping to be able to “keep the oven cooking” for at least a few more
days. The goal is to have her induced this coming Wednesday (05/28), if
possible. But “planning” doesn’t seem to be part of Baby Jr’s vocabulary
yet — or should I say ours?

We have one possible concern: Ashley had a bit more bleeding than usual this
morning, which could, and I stress could, be signs of placental abruption.
Ashley and Baby Jr are constantly being monitored for any signs of stress.
If anything happens, we will quickly forgo induction and natural delivery,
and immediately go for a C-Section. But I must say once more that they are
both doing quite well at the moment.

Thank you in advance for all the positive thoughts and support.

Much Love, The Calabria’s.

(I will keep everyone posted as much as I can.)

This was the last match of the season, and everyone was excited about the possibility of finishing it undefeated. Now, I don’t understand why the AUSA would do this, but we had to face the Gold team for the third time for our final match.

During all the previous matches, in addition to coach Matt and I, we also had either coaches Kip or Frank at the game. So instead of “over-coaching” the kids, I usually took the opportunity to take pictures and record the matches. Unfortunately, neither Kip or Frank could make to the final match, and given how tough the last game against the Gold team was, I decided to forgo the pictures and help coach Matt instead. I’m glad I did it, for it was a very hard match.

As I mentioned on my last post, the Gold team had some very big and aggressive players. And since we won our last two encounters, they were very eager to have another shot at us. Both teams played a good first quarter. But in my opinion, we still created more changes, and played better as a team. We scored first, after Owen beat the Gold Team’s keeper on a fast counter attack. Green 1 x 0 Gold. Unfortunately, our advantage was very short lived. The Gold team kicked the ball directly toward our goal during kick-off (mid-field) . Thinking a kick-off was an indirect kick, meaning someone else must touch the ball before it becomes “live”, our players moved away from the ball and let it go in to our net. The Gold team’s coach argued a kick-off is actually a direct-kick, which meat it was a valid goal. Since I wasn’t sure, and I couldn’t remember the rule, I had to let it go. But as you can imagine, I was NOT very happy about the call — even if it is indeed a direct kick, it is just a cheap shot. So we finished the first quarter leveled: Green 1 x 1 Gold.

The second quarter was the toughest. Since we must give all the players a chance to play — a very good rule I must add — we, coaches, must always have to be conscious of playing a well balanced team in each quarter. However, since some of the Gold Team players didn’t show up, their best (and largest) players remained on the field. I knew we were a bit out-matched, and certainly under-sized, but I must say our players never hesitated. We created a few changes and did a great job defending, but in the end, they got a good bound from one of their keeper’s punt, and, on a fast counter attack, they scored a second goal. Green 1 x 2 Gold. Lorenzo has been asking me all season to kick the ball from kick-off; my answer has always been “absolutely not”. However, since I was still mad about their first goal, and since I know Lorenzo could actually score from mid-field, I told him to go ahead and rip one off during the kick-off. It was a beautiful goal. The ball never hit the ground and flew to the top right corner of the goal, way past the keeper’s reach. K-A-B-O-O-M!!!! Gold team gets a bit of its own medicine, and we tie the match. Green 2 x 2 Gold. (And just like that the kick-off non-sense stops!)

We should have put the game way on the third quarter. We completely dominated the mid-field; we defended well, and we created a slew of chances at goal. We did everything right, but put the ball on the net. So we finished the third still tied: Green 2 x 2 Gold.

The fourth quarter was a bit more even, but once again, we still maintained an upper hand. To make sure they didn’t score, we played Lorenzo and Benjamin on the defense, and they completely shot the Gold team’s offense down. They only had one good chance at goal, and Fear stopped them cold. With our defense and mid-field secured, we kept attacking and counter-attacking and pressing on. And, with seconds to go, Hunter scored our winning goal with another boomer from an almost impossible tight angle.

FINAL SCORE: GREEN 3 x 2 GOLD.

Congratulations GREEN Team for an I-N-V-I-C-T-U-S Spring 2008 Season!!!!

PS: Sorry! No photos for the last match! The photographer had to wear the coach hat instead!

We replayed the AUSA Gold Team — a rematch of our first match of the season. It was certainly not as easy this time around. As expected, we are not the only team that has improved, and they are way more organize now. However, it was not technical skills or speed that made it so difficult. It is simply the sheer size of the Gold team players. These kids are HUGE. It seems their parents have confused supplemental vitamins with growth hormone steroids. I have no doubt some of the Gold team players must be at least twice as large as Ben or Owen or Ryan, and still quite a bit bigger than our largest player, Luke.

As you can imagine, being lager, the Gold team players were also very aggressive. And since our team didn’t back down, they usually got the worst end of things when fighting for possession. It was especially difficult to watch some of our kids to be mowed down and then watch the referee to be so complacent about it. In fact, for a game as passionate as soccer, I don’t understand how the referee could have been so lethargic about it.

OK enough of that. We started well, and we had some great shots at goal, but the Gold team was first to score. However, before the the first quarter was over, Ben tied the match with a beautiful shot from just inside the keeper’s area. Green 1 x 1 Gold.

The Gold team got a lucky break on the very beginning of the second quarter, and they were able to strike again. Green 1 x 2 Gold. However, we really took control of mid-field, controlled the tempo, and Lorenzo scored two great goals — one from a fast counter attack, and another from a beautiful volley from a throw-in. Green 3 x 2 Gold.

The third quarter was once again a battle. Neither team scored; both teams played hard; but some of their big players started to fatigue. It remained Green 3 x 2 Gold.

The final quarter was very much like the second. We had a bit of an advantage, and we did create some great changes. We kept pushing, and Ben showed, once again, how quick and technically sound he is, and scored a much deserved fourth goal for our team.

Final score: Green 4 x 2 Gold; with one match to go towards an undefeated record for the season.

(Here are some photos of the match. You will quickly find there is a inverse relationship between the number of shots taken and how tough the match has been. When the going gets touch the photographers turns coach! )

Since we were hosting the YMCA-Blue team at our field, I certainly expected this match to have been much easier. It was our hardest test yet. We had to come from behind three times; our team was a bit off; but our players never did give up.

The Y team scored first within a few minutes from start. However, Daniel, playing as our goal keeper, tied the match by punting the ball all the way to their goal. The ball bounce in front of the Y team’s keeper, who wasn’t prepared for it, and in the net it went. No one was as surprised as Daniel — the best play of the match. But the Y team scored another goal, and we finished the first quarter behind: Green 1 x 2 YMCA-Blue.

The second quarter was just as touch, although we did played little better than the first. Lorenzo and Daniel traded some great passes, and Daniel got within inches of closing the gap a few times. We kept the pressure during their goal-kicks, and Fear tied the match when their keeper fail to kick the ball over our offense, and Fear kicked it right back into goal. Green 2 x 2 YMCA-Blue. Unfortunately, about 5 minutes from half-time, the Y team scored another goal and got ahead for the third time in the match. We actually had a great change to tie the match just a few minutes later, but we missed a penalty kick opportunity. We finished the half still behind: Green 2 x YMCA-Blue 3.

The third quarter was quite pivotal, and Ben and Victor were key to our turn around. Ben played an incredible quarter, both on offense and defense. He held the mid-field, he broke several counter-attacks, and he scored a beautiful goal to tie the match once again: Green 3 X 3 YMCA-Blue . A few minutes later, Victor put us ahead for the first time in the match, with a nice right-foot shot that saw his right-boot fly. Green 4 x 3 YMCA. I must also say that since Victor was playing offense, Rylan did a fantastic job on defense keeping the Y team scoreless on the third quarter.

The fourth quarter was a bit easier. Seeing the Green team ahead seems to have taken some of the Y team’s fighting spirit. Lorenzo did pickup this game and took control of the mid-field. But it was Owen who was the star for the forth quarter. He ran harder than anyone else and scored two great goals — making us all breath a littler easier.

Final score: Green 6 x YMCA-Blue 3. And yes…The Green team is still undefeated!