Okay, I meant to have an update posted a long time ago, but being alternately busy and tired has prevented me from getting around to it. Mea Culpa. As I'm sure anyone reading this on a regular basis already knows, Asher was born about two weeks ago on March 24. I'm not going to go into a lot of detail except to say that everyone is home and doing great now. That's because I'm going to post the running journal I promised to keep during the labor and delivery below, so everyone can get all the details from that. I was at one point going to go through and edit the journal but have now decided not to, both to accurately convey my thoughts and emotions at the time, and because of the fore mentioned busy-/tiredness. I go back to work next week, so maybe things will return to some semblance of normalcy - as much as is possible anyway - and I can post a more verbose entry then. For now, you get the quick and dirty version. Enjoy!
3-23-2011
22:55 – We got to the hospital at 9:00 as scheduled. Denine’s been admitted, played 20+ questions with the nurse, and gotten hooked up to the monitors and stuck with an IV (complete with blown vein in her left arm). Unfortunately, that’s been about it; we’ve been waiting for about an hour for the nurse to come back and actually start her anti-biotic and/or give her the Cytotec. This is probably my least favorite aspect of any hospital visit: everything seems to take forever. Unless there’s an emergency. So I guess I should be grateful that nobody seems to be in a hurry.
Our deluxe suite for the weekend!
3-24-2011
00:30 – The nurse came back about a half-hour ago and started both the Cytotec and the anti-biotic, so we’re good to go now. Now we wait some more, but it’s not on people this time. We’re both going to try and get some sleep while we still can.
06:50 – Last night was kind of rough. The alarm on Denine’s IV machine kept going off because it was detecting air bubbles in the line (which is apparently not a big deal, despite the fact that it sets of the alarm). After the third or fourth time it went off a nurse came in and tried to flush her IV, and discovered that the vein had blown. We had to wait for about an hour for them to come start the new one, so we didn’t really get a chance to get any sleep until about 2:30. Everything has been running pretty smoothly since then, though, and I’ve managed to get a few hours’ sleep broken up by having to help Denine get unhooked from everything about every 45 minutes to go to the bathroom.
11:10 – The morning has been pretty routine. The doctor started the Pitocin at around 8:00 and they’ve been increasing the dosage periodically since then; Denine’s contractions are getting longer and stronger, which is the norm. We’ve got a new nurse now and we like her, so we are two for two in that regard. Went over the birthing plan with her and the nursery staff. The only issue we are having is that the nursery seems kind of reluctant to let her deliver to the belly and pretty much leave him alone for an hour or so until they have to give him the vitamin K and eye drops – assuming everything is fine, of course. We’re standing our ground (read: I’m digging in my heels); it’s aggravating that the nursery nurse kept saying that they want us to have the experience we want, but she kept giving me excuses (read: not sound medical reasons) why she doesn’t want to do that. Denine and I have been playing speed off and on all morning just to pass the time; she was winning for a while, but I think she’s starting to slow down.
13:15 – The doctor checked Denine at about 12:30 and she is still at 4cm and 50% effaced, which is about where she was before they started the Pitocin. Kind of discouraging, but that’s about the same experience we’ve had in the past so it isn’t terribly surprising. We were just hoping the whole process would be a bit faster this time around. I took the opportunity after the doctor left to go and get some lunch, which was even more unappetizing than I usually find McDonald’s; I hate eating when I’m tense, and I hate leaving Denine in the hospital by herself. Denine is watching TV and trying to relax now, hopefully she’ll progress some before the next exam.
17:00 – Still no progress as of the last exam at about 4:00. Every time the nurse ups the dosage of Pitocin Denine will have a lot of contractions for a while and then they will die down again. She has decided, after much discussion and debate, to go ahead and get an epidural and let the doctor break her water when she comes by next time, which should be in an hour or so. We’re hoping that this will finally make her progress, since the Pit doesn’t seem to be doing much. It’s also the one thing at this point that is significantly different from her other deliveries: the doctor broke her water pretty early with Jamie, and she had a high tear before they induced with Ren.
19:00 – Denine’s epidural is in and her water is broken, here’s hoping that this will move things along a little more briskly now. She’s sleeping now, so if we hold to the historical pattern she should make some progress. Breaking her water did apparently get her an extra centimeter, so we’re officially at 5 and 50% now. I went and choked down some food, since I had to leave during the epidural anyway; Quizno’s was a little more palatable than McDonald’s was earlier, but not by much.
22:15 – As of the last exam Denine was at 4-5cm and 75% effaced, so no more dilated but significantly softer. The doctor said she was happy to see that more than more dilation because that means she should dilate faster when the time comes. They are basically saying it could be anytime now, but I’ve come to believe that’s just medical professionals’ way of trying to keep their patients optimistic. Denine is at least sleeping pretty consistently now (between her half-hour position changes when they make her role over, quite a challenge when one can’t feel her lower body) and I took the chance to catch a quick shower. Now I think I’ll watch some Netflix until I get tired enough to sleep in either the tiny fold-out couch/bed or the hard recliner. Sometimes it really stinks being a night owl.
3-25-2011
00:45 – Rather a lot has happened since my last entry. About fifteen minutes after that, the doctor came in to check Denine, and her exact words were “Are you ready to have a baby? You’re complete!” So about a half-hour of pushing and we were holding our new son, Asher Armstrong Lee Bailey, born at 11:02 p.m., 19 ¾ inches long, and weighing 8lbs, 5.8oz. We had about an hour with him before they carted him off to get poked and prodded in the nursery, and now they just brought him back to us. So, screw you guys, I’m gonna go play with my new baby! J.
Not even squeaky clean yet...
17:05 – Today had been mostly slow with bursts of business. I think everybody gets together and decides to come in at the same time; we seem to always have Denine’s nurse, the nursery nurse, and somebody needing paperwork filled out all in the room at once, or else some other combination. Then they will all go away and we’re left to ourselves for an hour or so. We’ve spent most of the day enjoying holding Asher, or trying to get him to nurse. He’s not a pro yet but he’s getting the job done, he just seems more interested in suckling than eating most of the time. Of course, he had his circumcision done this afternoon, so now he’s in kind of a gripey mood, relatively speaking; thus far he’s been a very laid back baby.
(I realize at this point that I neglected to put anything down about people visiting us in the hospital or our first day home; I'll have to catch up with that on the next post. In the mean time, I do have pics!)
(I realize at this point that I neglected to put anything down about people visiting us in the hospital or our first day home; I'll have to catch up with that on the next post. In the mean time, I do have pics!)
Going home!
Asher's first car ride.
3-31-2011
00:10 – Well, I thought I was done with this log, but here I find myself sitting in a hospital room again. Asher had his first doctor’s appointment on Tuesday, and he was a little more jaundiced than she would like and she had us take him to get his bilirubin level checked. The levels were also a little higher than she would like, so she had us come in again on Wednesday and get them checked again. They called us around 8:30 Wednesday night and said his bilirubin level was 20.1, and that we needed to come into the hospital (Texas Children's in Katy) to give him photo therapy. They just got started with that at around 11:30, so we could be looking at staying here until around midnight tomorrow. Thus far Asher is not too happy about the whole situation, not that I can blame him; between having his heel pricked for the fifth times in about as many days of life and being stripped naked, blind-folded, and made to lie out in the open, I don’t think I’d be very happy either. Despite the nurses’ reassurance that “the babies are really cozy under there once they calm down,” I’m not seeing it so far.
10:19 – The doctor came in a couple of hours ago and said that Asher’s bilirubin count has gone down enough to discharge him, they just had some routine blood tests left to do before we can go. They’ve gotten the blood drawn for those and now we are just waiting on the results. Hopefully we’ll be home by lunch time; God has faithfully fulfilled another set of prayers!
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