How we became a BajaFam...or how we had a baby in Baja!

We left for Mexico on May 14. This would give us 3 weeks before Tristan was due to arrive.

On our last check-up with Dr. Tindal my OB/GYN, all was progressing well, and he was still confident with the due date of June 7, 2008. What a cool birth date! 06-07-08!! When we told Dr. Tindal of our plans for having Tristan in Mexico, he was broken-hearted. It was not an easy thing to tell him, as we knew he would take it personally. He was my doctor all through Erin’s birth, and gave Lionel the opportunity to deliver her, and has since become part of our extended family. He is truly “good people” and we love him, so it was hard to tell him that he would not be delivering our son. But, to my surprise, he gave us his blessing, and wished us the best, adding that if he had known earlier of our plans, he would have made arrangements to be there, too. I know that this was said in jest, but I have a feeling that there was a bit of truth to it, too. He could have easily berated us, and passed judgment on our plans, as so many others have, including members of my own family, but he did not, and that made me respect and love him even more. We promised to keep him updated throughout the rest of the pregnancy. The next day, he called me to make sure that our decision wasn’t because of something he did, and to give me the results of my strep B test (which ordinarily would have taken up to a week to get back, but he rushed them because he knew we were leaving) which were negative (hooray!). I reassured him that no, it was not because of him, and that we loved him and respected him so very much, but this was something that we had decided long before we had even thought of a second child.

I know that Lionel had very much wanted Erin to be born in Mexico, but I was nervous about the pregnancy, and, I will admit, nervous about Mexico as well. I was ignorant to all the beauty that Mexico beholds, and had yet to feel as though it is my second home. So I told him that when we had a second child (which was laughable at the time) that we would have it in Mexico. Of course, I figured that this would never happen. We were quite happy with our little family of three. But, lo and behold, we wind up pregnant with whom we initially thought was Lola Adriana, but eventually discovered was Tristan Xavier….our soon to be Mexican national!!



So here we are, off to Mexico to stay in our vacation rental by the beach in Costa Brava (yippee!!) and wait for our son to be born. Little did we know that it would be a much longer wait then we had anticipated.



My parents were set to arrive in Mexico on June 5, two days prior to Tristan’s due date. This, in and of itself, was a great feat for them, especially my mom. She was being very supportive of our decision, but I knew that she and my dad had many reservations. Well, of course they did!! Their only other encounter with Mexico was a touristy spot in Cozumel on a cruise 15 years ago, and that excursion to Tijuana from San Diego that, let’s put it nicely, didn’t go well. So, when I told them we were having the baby in Mexico, and that we would be thrilled if they would join us, I wasn’t really expecting them to agree. I was hoping that they would come, but I had prepared myself for the disappointment of a “no”. To my surprise, they said they wanted to be there…and we set to making plans. The town in which we planned to stay is not easy to get to. It’s not what you would call a tourist attraction, and isn’t serviced by airlines, or anything like that. A lot of Baja is still only available to those willing to make an effort to see it, and that’s part of it’s charm. In order for my parents to meet us in San Quintin, they would have to fly across the U.S., and then somehow make their way down the Baja peninsula. It was decided that they would fly into San Diego, take the trolley to the U.S./Mexico border, brave Tijuana and get on a bus to Vicente Guerrero. This was all well and good, except that the bus company, ABC, didn’t have any schedules available online, or otherwise, and we had to go by pretty much word of mouth on how and when to catch the bus. Amazingly, my parents were up for the adventure, and didn’t seem to bat an eye at the fact that their main means of transport was unbooked and variable. By some luck, and good fortune, their bus ride turned out pretty much uneventful…no terrorist attacks or baby smuggling ( ), and they arrived as planned. They had to wait a little more than an hour at the bus depot in Vicente Guerrero, as Lionel and I were misinformed about the arrival time, but other than that, it went well. Mom got to use some of her newly acquired Spanish language skills, and they were in good spirits when we picked them up!

Now we were all at the beach house, and ready for Tristan’s arrival. We did some sight-seeing and some wonderful meals out. Mom and Dad enjoyed all of their culinary adventures…Gaston’s on the beach, La Cuerva de Pirata for a seafood feast, Guero’s for shrimp and fish tacos, Los Poblanos for asada tacos, and Don Diego’s for dinner by the bay. We showed them the super secret beach where they played in the tide pools with Bobo, and went for several drives along the Baja 500 route. We went shopping at the Globos market and had pizza! We spent a lot of time on the beach and just generally had a great time. When it was time to move to the bay house at Pedregal on June 13th, Tristan had yet to make an appearance. I had been feeling some “contraction action” but nothing at regular intervals.



It wasn’t looking good for Grammie and PawPaw. We continued to sight-see and have fun, trying out several labor inducing methods. For the record, spicy food, bumpy roads, long walks, and sex didn’t work. Tristan was officially LATE!!!

We were all starting to get a bit concerned and Lionel decided it was time to check in with a doctor. We had driven past a Gynecologist/ Obstetrician’s office on several occasions, so we decided to make an appointment with him. Unfortunately, we never did arrive when he had office hours, so at last we decided to check in at the ER of the town’s private hospital, Hospital San Francisco. The attending Doc, Dr. Ruiz was exceptional! He listened to our worries, and proceeded to examine me through broken English on his part, broken Spanish on our part, and many sincere smiles. He assured us that Tristan was progressing just fine, had dropped into position and would most likely arrive shortly. He then made arrangements for us to meet with the OB/GYN, Dr. Rodriguez on the following Saturday. I was impressed. The OB/GYN would come to see us? This would never happen in the U.S. And neither would the ER bill of 350 pesos!!

Okay, I just realized how long this was getting, so I will try to hurry it up...kind of like how I felt wanting to have this baby!!! Needless to say, my parents had to return to Florida and there was still no grandson for them to snuggle We met with Dr. Rodriguez on Saturday and he made an appointment for us to have an ultrasound right away, just so that he could see for himself that our little boy was doing good and probably just had the wrong due date. The ultrasound was awesome, we were shown all the details of our baby boy to be and he looked great! Not too big and as Dr. Rodriguez had suspected, his due date seemed a bit off. The cost of an ultrasound? 420 pesos!! We brought the info to Dr. Rodriguez, who saw us right away, and gave us some recommendations on how we could speed up the labor. And if nothing happened, we would return to his office in 3 days. Office visit? 250 pesos. You guessed it, 3 days later we were in his office again. He did another exam and ultrasound and told us that if nothing happened by Saturday, then we would be scheduled for an induction. Not what I wanted, but it was looking like that is what would happen. Office visit with ultrasound? 300 pesos.

Saturday arrived, and we made our way to the Hospital San Francisco. We were checked in and settled into our room. The hospital was under construction, and there were only two maternity rooms. It was very simple, but clean and nice, and big enough for all of us to hang out in.



Long story short (yeah right) I was induced with Pitocin, same as with my daughter, at 10 a.m. and after several hours, a lot of pain, no epidural and a helpful push from the ER doc Dr. Rubio - a giant football player sized man who squeezed me like a tube of toothpaste Mister Tristan Xavier VanGurp Salch was born at 8:46 p.m.



Total bill for the induction, all medication, the delivery, pediatrician visit, and the overnight stay? 7500 pesos!

Now, came the fun part! Getting him registered! This would prove to be quite a challenge that we really were not prepared for! Come to find out, we needed more documentation than we had to file for his papers, so we would have to return before he turned 6 months. We began planning our trip for November. To be continued....

[Edited on 11-25-2009 by bajafam]

thanks for sharing Mister's story with us all...pretty funny and with a happy ending!!! LOVE LOVE LOVE the photo of you preggers inbetween the c-ck fight....kiss those adorable kids for us.
Here is Mister in all his mexican glory a year later

[Edited on 11-25-2009 by shari]

Thanks Nomads!!! I will write up the next chapter very soon. It's like the Neverending story when it comes to his paperwork (just ask my daughter, she'll tell you about all the different trips to get everything done )

Shari, I know, I found it kind of ironic and funny! It was one of those "only in Mexico" moments and thanks for putting up that picture! It is too cute!