Author Archives: Britton

We Had Our Baby in Puerto Rico!!!

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Bienvenido al mundo, Aeden Kauffman!!


Aeden’s First Day

Well as it turns out Aeden decided to show up 2 weeks early.  We were about to go to bed at around 11pm on the 13th and Cassie’s water broke.  We weren’t exactly sure what to do as this was our first time having a baby, well I wasn’t sure.  My instincts were to run to the hospital right away.

Cassie was a bit more collected and wanted to stay at home as long as possible so she didn’t have to endure the hospital procedures and doctors.  After having been through this now I TOTALLY understand that desire.  We had some friends come over in the middle of the night to help us assess the situation.  Bill Kersch was here in an instant and like me, was ready to go to the hospital.  Bill phoned another friend Vivian who works as a doula here in town.

They both trekked thru the forest at night with me to get to the cabin.  Vivian checked on Cassie while Bill and I were talking, or actually freaking out a little in the living room.  Vivian confirmed what Cassie had told me earlier, that indeed the process was starting but we could wait a while before leaving for the hospital to deliver but that we would most likely see our little guy sometime that day.

Cassie’s contractions started at around 10 minutes apart and by 5ish in the morning were down 5 minutes then down to 3 minutes apart.  We decided it was time to go!  We walked up and out of the cabin and property, loaded into the Mustang with her pre-packed suitcase and bag of towels, sheets and pillows and headed out as the sun was coming up.

The drive to the hospital was beautiful!  Just a picture perfect vibrant tropical morning, well except for the painful contractions Cassie was going through in the cramped seat of the Mustang….  The drive took about 45 minutes and we checked Cassie into the ER at Pediatric San Antonio Hospital in Mayaguez.


Pediatric San Antonio Hospital in Mayaguez

Luckily we had visited the hospital before going so we knew where to go, that helped tremendously in the stress department.  Plus as you can see in the photo the hospital doesn’t even look like a traditional hospital so it would have been hectic to find.

As it turns out, Cassie was right and waiting at home for the contractions to get closer was the absolute right thing to do.  Waiting in a hospital is the worst part of the whole process and showing up as close to active labor as one can removes those hours of added discomfort and less chance of intrusive medical procedures (like pitocin to speed up the labor!).  Our friend Missy helped out with everything and we really appreciated her interaction with the over reactive, standard process trained nurses.  Missy has a lot of personal experience to share.


Missy with Cassie Trying to Stay Warm in the Hospital

The nurses at the hospital thought this was going to be one of those 12 hour labors, but we surprised them.  We got to the hospital at about 6am and delivered at 9:30am.  She was dilated at 3cm so they thought there was “plenty of time”.  The doctor wasn’t even on-site and the nurses delivered instead!

That turned out good because we were able to talk the nurses out of unnecessary interventions.  We turned down simple things like an IV that would basically tie Cassie to the bed and give the medical system an open port to deliver whatever chemicals and drugs they deem needed.  For instance they wanted to hydrate her immediately with an IV, I am sure they were expecting the 12 hour ordeal where she would be forbidden from drinking fluids.  Instead it was 3 hours and she wasn’t dehydrated.  She didn’t need pain medication.  She had a natural birth in a quick manner.


Cassie and Aeden Just After Birth

The hospital here in Puerto Rico is kind of a reflection of society here in general.  Lots of rules, some enforced and a lot not.  The security at the hospital was completely confused and not coordinated as well as the departments within.  Reception doesn’t talk to billing or administration and it makes it hard to navigate, especially for me because my Spanish isn’t great.  It was awesome to have our friend Missy here to stay with Cassie while I tried to navigate the maze of admissions.

Our Little Family

I luckily got her checked in and I returned to the delivery room so I was able to be there for the birth and to cut the umbilical cord!  We then opted to get a private room so that I (a man) could stay with her and the baby through the night.  This is not possible in a shared room, it is also usually not possible to have Missy and I with her during birth and they have a whole set of rules surrounding every aspect of this process but like I mentioned, some are enforced and most aren’t.  Finding out which ones are and why is just part of the frustrating process.  Sometimes challenging a rule is all that is needed.  It was also very strange how you have to bring your own lab work, your own paper work, your own files to the hospital with you along with your bed sheets and towels.  You are in charge of everything.

Cassie and Aeden in the Private Room

Recuperating After a Big Event

All in all it went as well as we could have done given the awkward circumstances of why we had to deliver at San Antonio with a doctor we had never met (more details on that later).  Cassie was able to deliver on her terms and quickly like she wanted with as little time in the hospital as possible.  We spent the mandatory 48 hours and then got out of there!!  We are now back at home and figuring out this crying and sleeping routine while Cassie heals from what is one of the craziest parts of life.
Victory!

Next week we begin the process of how to get a Social Security number and Birth Certificate in Puerto Rico.  Stay tuned more adventures ahead.

Thanks for the Packages!!!

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Thanks to everyone who sent packages.  If we don’t use everything, we send the items on to those who can.  Much appreciation for the attention and it is amazing how much need there is here.

Post Office
Packing Slips at the PO

Cassie Boxes
Packages back at home

Bored Games
Playing games and passing time together

I just wanted to hop online and tell everyone that everything that was sent will go to good use.  The impact this storm had on the island is amazing.  Lots of people still without power and water.  Deepest thanks.   Packages are still arriving and the Post Office is overwhelmed.  They are however, doing a fantastic job.

Lizard Internet / Mango Wireless

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Our normal morning routine is to wake up, make some coffee and zone out on the internet for a bit until we start our daily do-ings.  Lately however our internet setup hasn’t been working!!  So my routine started to include walking over to the other side of the property and checking out our wireless bridge.

I can usually check segments of our network from the cabin, but lately the cabin has been completely cut off!
britton-ladder
Climbing the Pole
The higher the wireless router inside this little box on the utility pole, the better signal we get from our neighbor’s router that we share with.

chewed-wires
The Problem

Pretty much every day there is rat poop on top of the box, with some leftover parcha or starfruit.  So I know the rats have been hanging out on top of the box.  But these wires are inside of the cage I built!  They can’t be getting inside?!

iguana-on-the-internet
Another Possible Hacker

I saw this one on top of the goods one day too.  But again, it is waayyyy too large to get into the box and be able to chew the wires up!  So probably not the one I am looking for.

It wasn’t until the other day I finally saw the culprit!

lizard
Ah Ha!!! (click to enlarge)

There has been a small lizard living inside the box and eating the cables every night!  The power cables are pretty chewed up but power cables shock them once they eat all the insulation, so he stops.  With the Ethernet cables however, he just chews right thru them.

I’ve mended the Ethernet cable probably 5 or 6 times now.  I covered it in some really thick waterproofing tape and that seems to be working for the moment.  I also will be hunting this little pest.  He is fast and I found myself chasing him with a stick the other day!  It was really quite humorous.

The other idea I had was to electrify the wire cage so that it isn’t such a nice spot for critters to sit and hang out.  I don’t think it will take much to do, but something I’ll have to figure out!  Maybe in the next revision?!

Swiss Family Jungle Internet

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Internet is one of those modern conveniences that is just….. so nice to have. Checking in on Facebook, paying bills or looking how to do things on youtube. We haven’t “hooked” up internet service here yet, but we’ve always had some signal of some sort to utilize.  It is probably more of a personal challenge to find alternate ways of connecting than any actual reason.  In the process you can learn all kinds of new things about networking and radios.

When we first arrived the only way to get an open signal was to be on top of the cabana on the corner of the house. Usually this was in the sun or rain! This is what I will consider internet v1.0. It was much easier than packing up and going to a cafe, plus we didn’t have to buy coffee or sit outside some place and look like moochers. We could mooch from our own home!

Rainy Internet
Version 1.0

I then figured out how to setup a repeater bridge by installing a Linux variant DD-WRT on a Linksys router.  The bridge would take the internet signal from yonder and repeat it so that we had wireless access from within the cabana!  It needed to be waterproof so I bought a plastic trashcan from the dollar store, drilled holes for the antennas and hung it upside down.  I had to hang it upside down to keep the rain from draining into the antenna holes.

Painting the cabana
Version 2.0

Version 2.0 worked really well, it was nice to sit inside the cabana and have access.  Of course with both 1.0 and 2.0 the speeds were pretty much dialup.  The Access Point we were using was pretty far away.  Eventually the trees grew tall enough to block our access.  We had to find another source!

We had been talking to our neighbor about the idea of paying for a share of his internet and in return he would put his wireless router in his window nearest our property to get a good line of sight link to our wireless bridge.  Well this worked out really well!  This was version 3.0 and I even made a little wood box for it out of scrap T-111 because the plastic trashcan disintegrated in the sun!!  The speeds were MUCH faster and it worked really well.

Forward to the cabin being built and wanting to have internet over there.  It is easily 500 feet and there is a forest between the router box, so no signal is going to make it over there.  We had already put in an electricity line and I did some research.

Apparently companies have figured out how to make a device that will transmit from an electric outlet to an electric outlet.  This is perfect!  It is called Ethernet over power in case you may want to use it.  One end plugs into the wireless router (Ethernet up-link) and plugs into the power outlet the router is plugged into.   The other end plugs into an outlet at the cabin.  Since they are on the same circuit they can talk.  The device at the cabin also has a wireless router built into it!  So now we have wireless internet at and around the cabin!

cabin-routergoogle-at-cabin
Version 3.0

The only problem I had now was that apparently wires and cables are fun to chew on.  So rats and iguanas have been chewing up the power and Ethernet cables inside the box and it quits working.

So here comes version 4.0 pictured below.  It is waterproof, chew proof relays a wireless signal from our neighbor to our concrete cabana AND sends a signal thru the electric line to the new cabin.  It isn’t pretty, but hey, maybe nobody will want to steal it?

router-v4
4.0 is Ratproof!

It is fun to invent, design, build and test.  That is what we have been doing the entire time we have lived here in Rincón!  What can I say?  I’m a geek.