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. :)

the daily grind

I thought I'd outline how my days go here on the 4th floor at St Joe's - probably not very interesting to anyone except for me, when I can look back on it in a few months. 

The nurse and/or tech is supposed to do an hourly check. It depends who is on shift but this usually ends up actually being every 1.5-2 hrs. A tech comes and takes my vitals every four hours or so; a nurse does her check up once per shift (they work 12 hour shifts, 7-7, so this means twice per day). A doc comes in once per day. My doc is on vacation so it has been one of the two that cover for her. I have had the same techs a couple times but so far I have had a different nurse every single shift! Anyway. So...

7:30 - 8 ... I wake up, wash up, etc.

8:00 ... A tech comes in, takes my blood pressure, etc.

8:30 ... Breakfast is served. The food here is typical hospital food, but breakfast is probably the meal they do the best with.

9:00 - 11:00 ... The nurse will come in sometime during this period and test my reflexes, listen to my heart etc, and use the doppler to listen to the baby's heart beat. Food service also comes back in and takes my lunch order (we get two choices). The tech will sometimes stop back in just to see if I need anything ("hourly" rounds). Today I also got a visit from Sister Sylvia, a staff chaplain. Between all these check-ins I usually play on the web and/or watch TV.

11:00 - 12:30 ... Things are a little quieter. I read, watch TV, do a crossword or whatever. Sometimes take a short nap. Typically the tech will check in once and take my blood pressure again, for the four hour mark.

12:30 ... Lunch is served. 

1:00 - 4:00 ... Sometimes the doc comes in, unless they already came in the morning. This typically consists of: "Well, your blood pressure isn't too bad, but it's not great either." And maybe I ask a question or two. A nurse or tech checks in a couple times. The cleaning crew stops in to do their thing. Food services comes to take my dinner and breakfast order. My sweet husband arrives sometime in this timeframe if it is a weekday. Sometimes my mom also, depending on which day of the week and her work schedule. Around 4 a tech takes my vitals again.

4:00 - 8:00 ... Hang out with my husband and sometimes my mom. Eat dinner (so far I haven't had to eat a hospital dinner after the first day, it is by far the yuckiest meal of the day - either hubby or mom bring me something else). Sean and my mom take off by 7 or 8. Tech checks my vitals again around 8pm. Nurse checks in sometime after 7pm (after the shift change), does her check up, listens to baby's heart beat etc.

8:00 - 11:00 ... Shower, watch TV, read, go to bed.

Midnight ... A tech wakes me up to take my vitals.

12:00 - 4:00 ... Usually have to use the bathroom a couple times; tech takes my vitals again around 4.

4:00 - 7:30 ... Usually have to go to the bathroom somewhere in there (again!) and then get up for the day.

On Mondays and Thursdays they are taking me down to a different building to do non-stress tests on the baby, and also a sono once per week. They come and get me whenever they can fit me in, I don't usually get any notice about what time this will be other than sometime during the work day hours.

This afternoon my co-workers are bringing my baby shower to me. :) They had scheduled it for today to happen at the office and initially I had my doc's permission to go, but of course that changed. So my team is coming by around 1pm, it will be good to see everyone!

Hospital

I went in for my weekly OB appt yesterday and my B/P had gone up a little, specifically the diastolic reading. Did the non stress test monitoring on the baby and he seemed fine. My doc sent me to triage at St Joe's so they could monitor my blood pressure for the afternoon, do blood work, etc. She warned me she might have to order hospital bed rest if my B/P didn't settle down and pending the results of the other testing.

Went to L&D triage. BP continued to be labile, sometimes spiking pretty high, mostly staying around 130s/90s. One of the hospital docs did a consult. He did a sonogram and saw that the amniotic fluid was a little on the low end of normal. Based on this and the BP he said I would probably have to stay in the hospital until delivery, which would probably happen no later than 37 weeks, perhaps earlier. (This doc was interesting, totally reminded me of the House dude and I don't even really watch that show.) They made sure I wasn't leaking amniotic fluid (this scared me, they said if I was I would be delivering right away). But I wasn't. They also did the group B strep test (negative). Blood work came back normal.  My doc ordered a 24 observation period at the hospital and for them to also do a 24 hr urine collection thing (ooh fun). 

So they put me in labor and delivery and I spent the next 24 hours hooked up to the fetal monitor, the IV, and the blood pressure cuff, on the awesome bed that are supposed to be used for delivering babies (not for sleeping). My BP continued to go up and down. I had to call a nurse every time I had to get up and pee, that was fun. ;p This morning I met the on-call doc for my doctor (who left for vaca today). He and his wife cover for my doctor; he seemed nice. I was ordered to hospital bed rest for the duration of the pregnancy, like we had expected (based on the hospital doc's recommendation). They did another u/s to check the amniotic fluid this afternoon and it didn't look low anymore, probably thanks to the IV (I was probably just a little dehydrated yesterday).  They eventually moved me to the 4th floor (uro/gyno unit), and this is where I will stay until it's time for the baby to come and they take me back to L&D. I have my own room and this bed is ten million times better than the L&D slab, so that's good. There is wireless for my laptop, a TV with cable, a big window, etc. Overall it's nicer than many motels I have stayed in - minus of course the hourly rounds and the check of vitals every few hours. ;p But I should say that so far the nurses and techs are all very nice on this unit. (There was one awesome nurse on L&D too, I am going to request her when I am in labor.) Sean brought me other essentials from home, like my own pillow, toiletries, etc etc., so that is very helpful in making this more comfortable as well. He is such a trooper, he stayed with me all afternoon and evening yesterday and all day today, probably 9 or 10 hours. Poor guy has to finish baby prep at home without me. :( Like he doesn't have enough to do!

I am hoping to make it to 37 weeks, both so baby won't be pre-term and so my own doc can deliver - she will be back in town on July 11. This baby might end up sharing a b-day with his cousin Ian or his grandpa, both have birthdays mid-July. :)

I think that's all... thanks to our friends and families for all of the kind words and wonderful support. This baby better be damn cute! ;) j/k. I know it will all be worth it. But I certainly won't be in a big hurry to try it all over again right away! ;p

34.5 weeks

Sean and I met with the baby's soon-to-be pediatrician yesterday. His name is Dr Bean which I find amusing. ;) He was highly recommended by my OB, and since I like her so much I definitely trust her opinion, but I still wanted to meet him. I am picky about docs and I hate it when they treat me like I'm a five year old and/or have no listening abilities whatsoever. Dr Bean practices with one other doctor at Old Pueblo Pediatrics. He was very nice as was the staff and I like the office policies as far as emergency appts, on-call hours, etc. Sean said Dr Bean reminded him of a doc he had as a kid. We also ended up a free diaper bag since the formula companies like to advertise - so we got an enfamil pack that oddly enough has more info and supplies related to breast feeding than to formula feeding, which is cool. (I didn't have a diaper bag yet so this was an extra bonus.) So that is one more item checked off the baby-prep to-do list and I'm glad we only had to meet one doctor (as opposed to my OB search where the third one was the charm).

We still have a few things left to do and/or acquire:

- a dresser for the nursery; Sean's mom has one we can use so we just need to pick it up and maybe clean it up and/or refinish it depending on its condition.

- once we have the dresser, we can finish arranging the nursery, clothes etc.

- I'm debating about getting a cheap manual breast pump...

- a few hygiene supplies for baby.

- finish packing my hospital bag.

- install the car seat.

- get the dogs accustomed to sleeping in a different area than our bedroom (already acquired necessary pet gates and dog beds to accomplish this).

- continue to adjust budget and spending in order to be ready to be fairly broke pretty soon here (I will run out of paid leave in another week or two)!

I am about ready to be done with the whole pregnant thing. As happy as I am that we are having a baby and we were able to get pregnant pretty easily, I am getting tired of the toll it is taking on my body. In addition to the hypertension / bed rest issue, being pregnant has ruined my skin (which wasn't great to begin with), turned me into a blimp, ruined my sleep (which also wasn't great to begin with), plus all the other typical aches, pains and discomforts... I never seem to have experienced that whole "glow of pregnancy" thing. Instead I feel fat, tired, totally un-sexy, etc etc. and I will be so happy to be able to touch and smell and see my baby, and have my body back to something resembling normal!!! I've heard of women (and even met a couple) that absolutely love being pregnant, and I was hoping to have that experience, but as hard as I've tried there are just too many factors working against this possibility as far as I can tell... for me anyway. ;p

finally... photos

Here is a sample of the photos I had done at 31 weeks. You can find more at my livejournal scrapbook, because it is much easier and faster to upload to that site! ;p Just follow the link:

http://pics.livejournal.com/gemini7/gallery/0001241h

33 weeks, 4 days...

I had another doctor appt today. The good news is that my blood pressure was much lower today, 118/78 (compared to 140/80 a week ago). The doctor said I looked better in general and she seemed happy with the overall effect of the prescribed bed rest. I didn't gain any weight from last week, which is nice - I anticipated maybe gaining too fast while on bed rest. (I have gained a total of 22.5 lbs the entire pregnancy, if you are curious.) She did not say I could go back to work; her opinion was more along the line of let's continue to do what's working to keep this under control, preventative measures etc. Which is ok, I have mixed feelings about all of it at this point and am content to go with her advice. If I could go back to work, these next few weeks would go by a lot faster, plus it would be easier financially... but at the same time, I know work would be stressful as this is the end of our fiscal year etc and I wouldn't be surprised if going back sent my blood pressure shooting up pretty quickly again. The number one goal is to keep this baby healthy and cooking as long as he needs to, and I really don't want any traumatic trips to the ER to deliver him prematurely due to sky rocketing blood pressure or anything terrifying like that. 

We also did a NST (non stress test) on baby today. This consisted of being hooked up with the monitor thingie around my belly so they could monitor his heart beat, then I pushed a button every time I felt him move, for maybe 10-15 minutes. The results were normal and healthy. I am going to continue to go in weekly for blood pressure monitoring as well as weekly NSTs. My next appt is next Friday morning. She also said we would do another ultrasound in a few weeks to estimate his size. After the next appt my doc is going on vacation for two weeks, so I will go in to see the nurse while she's gone. So this baby better stay put between June 29 and July 13, because otherwise some other doc would have to deliver him. 

Sean and I have a childbirth class at St Joe's this Saturday, from 9am to 5pm. Fortunately the doc gave me permission to go, so I didn't have to try to argue with the hospital to get a refund of the $70 we already paid for it. ;p 

That's about all that's going on here. Sean finished the tile job he was doing for my mom's coworker and they liked his work so gave him a nice tip on top of what he charged. He was working the past two weekends in a row plus a couple evenings after work, so we are both glad that's finished. Bed rest is making me feel tired and lethargic, oddly enough, so I am not getting as much done as quickly as I thought I would (i.e. thank you notes, scrap booking, etc), but I still have plenty of time. 

The only other news isn't really our news, but it is way more exciting than any of 'our' news: Sean's baby sister Renee had her second baby yesterday, June 17: Everett Vincent. She had a fairly quick labor and both she and Everett are doing well, I think they got to go home this afternoon. He is adorable and I think he looks a lot like his "big" brother Ian! Congrats to Renee, Cory, and Ian, and a huge welcome to baby Everett!! Now if only I can convince the doc that I should go to Flagstaff over 4th of July weekend for Ian's 2nd birthday party and to meet Everett... who knows, maybe if my b/p stays what it was today, she will say it's ok!