First Bath

Ari had his first bath yesterday. We had to give his circumcision a week to heal to Saturday was the first day we were able to bathe him. I was surprised - I was expecting lots of fussing if not outright screaming. But he just sat back and hung out; he did look a little bewildered but not upset. Look how chubby those cheeks are getting! I bet he weighs 6lbs now.

better late than never... a birth story

I had been in the hospital about 2.5 weeks by July 8. We had an induction scheduled for July 14th, which would have been when baby was about 37 weeks and also my OB would have been back from vacation after the 11th. The morning of July 8th the tech came in to take my blood pressure around 7:30am. I had not gotten up or eaten yet so they couldn't blame the usual things when she got a high reading that morning. It was around 158/109. I immediately became worried because these numbers were about what the doctor had said would be a problem. The nurse took my b/p again maybe half hour later, with about the same result. By 9:00 or 9:30 I was informed that I would be heading down to the first floor, labor and delivery, for an induction. I called my mom and my husband and the staff moved me and my stuff before my mom could even get there even though she was only about 10-15 minutes away.

Down in L&D they started an IV and also started giving me magnesium sulfate, which doesn't necessarily lower blood pressure but can help prevent seizures if the b/p gets too high. Sean got there from work around 10 or 11. They didn't actually start the induction until the mid to late afternoon, which I guess is when the doc became free to give orders. They started giving me pitocin via the IV. I don't remember exactly when the first cervical check was, but I wasn't at all dilated or effaced. Sean's mom and older sister arrived sometime in the afternoon or evening (it's all a little blurry now!). I started having contractions that would come every 3-5 minutes, but only for 15-30 minutes and then they would go away. I was still not dilating by that night. (Part of the issue was likely that they also use the magnesium to stop early labor, so it was directly counteracting the pitocin.) They decided to use cervatil (sp?), this thing they put next to my cervix to help soften it; they left it in overnight. In the morning, July 9, I was maybe 0.5cm dilated, not the progress anyone was hoping for.

I got the epidural sometime that day, not because I was in that much pain yet but because the baby was going to have to come regardless so I was going to want it one way or another eventually. (That was fun - third try is a charm I guess, I still have a bruise on my lower spine.) My blood pressure was still labile, although it had not spiked super high again - but I wasn't being given the option of going back up to the 4th floor and putting all this off for another few days.

Cut to around 6:00pm. They had been trying to induce the labor for 30 hours to no avail. The doc said we could keep trying and it was up to me, but he obviously felt I should have a c-section. I was exhausted and the magnesium was making me feel like absolute crap. More than anything though, I know my body, and this just wasn't going to happen. I was only 36.5 weeks, my body wasn't ready. I felt certain that even if the induction eventually worked, by the time I would have to push baby out I wouldn't be able to anyway. So after a very tearful discussion with my husband, I opted for the section. I was extremely disappointed at the time, but now I'm glad for more than the obvious reasons - I'll explain why later.

Once I made the decision things happened quickly. In the OR I just tried to focus on my breathing and being calm so I wouldn't have an anxiety attack or throw up. It helped to hold Sean's hand and be able to see his face. Ari was born at 7:05pm and the doc made a funny - when he pulled Ari out, he announced that we had a beautiful baby girl! Hardy har har. They whisked him away to an examining table in the hallway; Sean followed. They let Sean carry him back in a few minutes later so I could see him for a moment. They finished closing me up (which I felt more of than I thought I would). They had me in a recovery room for about an hour and then I went back into the L&D room. At some point I learned that Ari had a brief spell of apnea right after delivery, so he was in the NICU being checked out and would probably stay there for 24-48hrs according to the neonatologist. 

Five hours after the section I got up out of bed and into a wheel chair so that I could go see my baby. His magnesium levels were too high. However he had not had any more apnea, his vitals were good, his lungs were good, etc. This is why I'm glad in the end that I opted for the section. I should have asked about the magnesium and I'm still mad no one mentioned it: how it could affect the baby. Aside from making him sleepy it could have depressed his breathing and all kinds of other yucky stuff. Luckily it had only made him sleepy but if I had decided to keep trying the induction while on the magnesium, who knows how badly it could have affected him.

After 12 hours after the surgery, the doc agreed to take me off the magnesium and let me go up to the third floor "couplets" room, which is also where the NICU is located. So around 7:30am on July 10th I moved to yet another hospital room, very hopeful that baby Ari would be able to come home with me in a few days since they said he would probably only be there for a couple days and they just wanted to flush some of the magnesium out of his system.

Eight days after this, we finally took him home. But the whole week in the NICU is definitely subject matter for another post!

2 Week Checkup

Ari had is two week checkup today with Dr. Bean. No Renee he does not look like Rowan Atkinson. Dr. Bean said it appears we have a health baby boy and to keep doing what we are doing. Ari weighed in at 5lbs. 14oz. that puts him at 3% compared to other two weekers and was 19.25in long which is 10%. His weight when we left the hospital was 5lbs. 2oz. so he put on 12oz in the last five days. A couple of more ounces and we'll have an extra pound on the lad. We found the length a little hard to believe since he was 17.5in when he was born meaning he would have grown 1.75in in two weeks. But when we left the hospital the nurse from the night shift and the nurse from the next morning both got different measurements so we're pretty sure it's not that exact a science. In any event he seems to be growing like a stick weed. Our next scheduled appointment is in 6 weeks at his 2 month checkup. That will be his and our first dreaded experience with SHOTS!

Welcome Home

So after some gentle prodding, thanks Renee, I am taking some time while Ari is sleeping to give a little update on things.

We made our escape from the hospital this last Saturday. We were under the impression from the attending neonatologist that it would be the weekend but we weren't sure which day it would be. So much to our surprise the other neonatalogist that came on duty Saturday came in and asked Cara what day we would like to take him home, I was on my way to the house to get everyone some clothes to check out of the hospital with, her answer was of course TODAY! So I hurried back to the hospital, clothes in hand, to bust everyone out after our 9 day stay in the neonatal intensive care unit (nicu). Let me tell you it was not a moment too soon after days of buzzers and nurses going off all the time and fire alarms going off and babies getting medivac-ed in. It was definitely enough to drive even the sanist person insane and we were both pretty close to the edge.

Now we have been at home for 5 days or so and Ari is doing splendidly! He's a serious snuggle bug! He is eating like a horse! In the mornings he will sometimes eat for an hour out of an hour and a half in 20 minute increments of course just to make mom's boobs a little more sore. In the afternoons he tends to sleep for 3-4 hours then wake up and eat and then sleep for 3-4 hours again. This is a pretty good break for mom and dad, only problem is that he wants to be up at 12-1 in the morning just because. Just his way of reminding us who's really in charge. The only other struggle he's giving us so far is that he doesn't like to sleep in his bassinet at night. During the day he has no problem but at night he's having no part of it. So we are alternating nights to try and get him to sleep. When I have him we chill on the cuddler and he tends to sleep pretty well. I don't sleep all that great but at least mom can get some sleep that way. It seems to be helping the sanity of all parties involved. We'll have to see how things go when I go back to work next week.

I think Cara and I will both post stories about our time in the hospital. We could both write a book if we wanted about our "adventure" let's call it. Here are a few pictures of the lad taken the day we got home or in the days shortly after.

Ari in his car seat as we arrived home:
Here he is in his coming home shirt. This was a shirt I got when I was born at St. Joe's. Thanks for hanging on to it for so long mom.
Even Ari agrees it was a long 9 days:
Just in case there was any question about who's in charge, here's a sly reminder.

10 more days...

The final countdown. Happy 4th of July! If all goes as planned, my labor will be induced in ten days, on July 14th.

I had a dream about baby last night. I had gone to a birthing center just for a check up, but went into labor in the waiting room. Before I could even call Sean or anyone they took me back in a room and I had the baby in maybe half an hour. The details on that part are fuzzy, I just knew it was way easier and faster than I had expected. They then sent me home with him. He weighed 8lbs 1oz, had lots of really dark hair and blue eyes. He was more like an older baby because he could already hold his head up and was smiling this mischievous grin a lot (just like his dad). I also wasn't nearly as sore, worn out etc as I should have been. I still hadn't even been able to tell anyone that the baby was here and as happy as I was, I felt really bad that Sean hadn't been there. So I went home and waited for Sean to get home. Baby was still totally naked under his blanket so I put a diaper on him so he wouldn't pee everywhere like boys do. When Sean got home he was shocked but thrilled. I told him about the experience and then handed him the baby. Then I decided to get on the computer, because there was some issue about the birthing center not issuing birth certificates etc like a regular hospital, so I had to figure out how to get all that paperwork done outside of a hospital. So I was googling something like "obtaining new birth certificate Arizona" and we were trying to decide what to name baby (we were debating the same two names we have it narrowed down in real life). That is all I remember...

I know labor won't be that easy... but I can hope the baby will be as cute as he was in the dream. :)