Amazing

We checked in to the hospital at 8pm on Sunday, 10/16/05. The plan was for The Wife to receive a cervadil equivalent at 10pm & 2am and then get pitocin at 6am. We started watching Harry Potter & The Prisoner of Azkaban at about 9pm. Apparently she was quite ready and just needed a little nudge. The 10pm cervadil equivalent started contractions about 10:30pm. She didn't get the 2nd. She got one dose of stadol (sp?) around 2am and that helped her sleep until about 4am. The second dose didn't help all that much, but she did get some rest. But it also made her groggy. She didn't get the 2nd dose of cervadil. She didn't get the pitocin. She stayed dilated to a 1 all night, but was making great progress in the effacing (thinning) department. At the nurse's shift change at 7am, all of a sudden she was dilated to a 5-6 and we had to decide about an epidural fast. So the nurse explained it to her. Then The Wife asked for the anesthesiologist to come explain it. He did and she decided to get one. It went well. One complaint I have is when he said she would feel a "zing", I didn't realize she would jump. So when she jumped, it kind of freaked me out. But everything turned out fine. By 8:15am, after she got the epidural, she was dilated to a 7. By 9:15, she was a 9. At 11:15, she started pushing. She ended up getting some pitocin at some point to strengthen the contractions. She pushed for 2 hours and 15 minutes, and The Boy was born at 1:32pm.

I wasn't going to watch. I wasn't going to cut. The nurse needed help holding The Wife's legs. So I helped. But I looked the other way. Except then I stole a peek. And then another. Then I was staring. Finally, I was ready to push the doc out of the way and pull him out myself. Okay, maybe not that much. But I did watch. I still can't believe how hard she pulled on him to get him out. It's a good thing his head is well attached. I'm still in shock at how big he is. The doc was surprised, too. She's pulling him out and there's just more and more coming. I couldn't believe how long he was. Then I cut the cord. I had no idea how much I would participate.

Then everyone started asking his name, but we weren't sure. One of the three could be eliminated right away, it didn't seem right. The other two were okay, but didn't quite ring true. So we held off. He is so strong, right away he was holding his head up for several seconds at a time, looking around. So I looked up names with "strong" or "strength" in the meaning. And when we got to it, it just sounded right. The funny thing is, it wasn't on our original list. Not even close. So we shocked everyone with our final decision.

Things went well and we came home Wednesday. One exception. He had some jaundice and the pediatrician said she'd send us home with a billi-blanket, a.k.a. wallaby. Only she didn't explain it at all. So when they brought it to us, it wasn't at all what we expected. But they explained how to use it. Told us to check his temperature when we changed his diaper. Said it might make him warm, but nothing about a fever. So we kept it on him constantly all night, like they said. The next morning, his armpit temp was 100.4. So I called the pediatrician and they directed me to take it anally. It was 101.1. They said come in. We freaked. At the office, it was 101.2. They also said he seemed a bit dehydrated. They checked us into Children's Mercy as a precaution. We totally freaked. His fever was gone by later that day and never came back. But they ran all kinds of cultures on him to be save. Blood, urine, spinal, etc. He had an IV. What a nightmare. All of the test results were good. So it was one of two things. A quick virus that came and went. Or the wallaby overheated him, the jaundice made him not eat as well, and the combo dehydrated him. We're super pissed that the pediatrician sent us home with that wallaby instead of treating it in the hospital since we were there. But on the other hand, it seems like it was all a blessing in disguise. We learned so much while we were in Children's Mercy that nobody else told us. Nobody told us we might need to supplement depending on how nursing was going. None of our classes, nobody in the delivery hospital, not the pediatrician, nobody. So when the fever fiasco hit and people started asking us what we were using to supplement (not IF we were supplementing, but what were we using), we were like WTF? Nobody fucking told us anything about this shit. So, we are so thankful to everyone at Children's Mercy. They were so helpful and so nice.

FILE UNDER: PRE-PARENTHOOD, PARENTHOOD

Tired

This is really hard.

FILE UNDER: PARENTHOOD

The Boy

I have so much to type. I don't know where to start. I'll stick with the basics at first. If I have time, I'll go into the details later.

The Boy arrived at 9 pounds, 3 ounces, 21 inches long. Pretty damn big considering me and The Wife. We're now at home and getting settled in.

I've got so much more to say. But there's a lot of other things to do, like hold The Boy, and stare at him for no apparent reason. I wish I didn't have to go back to work.

This is amazing stuff.

FILE UNDER: PARENTHOOD

The Last Supper

Fuck. I just typed in a bunch of shit and accidentally deleted it.

Anyway. We had a date on Monday. Dinner at our favorite restaurant and then went to see The Corpse Bride. We had fun. We went out to dinner with friends tonight. (The one's that are 6 weeks behind us.)

We bought a few last things we wanted. A snugli backpack/frontpack. A Pack-n-Play. A Dr. Brown's bottle. I installed a dimmer light switch in The Baby's room. I tightened up the rocker we bought at the garage sale.

The Wife's sister had a baby boy on Friday. She told us by announcing she has a box of girl clothes for us (this is their 5th child). Since it seem unlikely that any of her sisters will have more kids, The Wife is happy about having the last baby.

21 hours. 13 minutes.

FILE UNDER: PRE-PARENTHOOD

Police Brutality

The police made The Wife cry. Those bastards. We had an appointment to make sure the car seat is properly installed, but nobody was there that could do it. While we completely understand that people get called out on emergencies, you would think they'd have someone there dedicated for that if they actually make an appointment.

4 Days. 7 hours. 23 minutes. (until hospital check-in)

FILE UNDER: PRE-PARENTHOOD

Hockey, It's Good To Have You Back

Woo. And. Hoo. Hockey is back. All 30 teams played on opening night Wednesday night. And thanks to a free preview of NHL Center Ice, I got to watch a crap load of hockey. It would have been a shit ton, but we had a breastfeeding class from 7 - 9. (No, that's not a complaint. More on that later.) It was so freakin' cool. There was so much hockey on TV that I didn't know which game to watch. I was like a baby in a topless bar. I'm not even that upset that the Blues lost. Well, okay, yes I am. But the sheer volume of hockey I got to watch is easing the pain. The Wife was thrilled, too. If your definition of thrilled is "completely indifferent" or "couldn't care less". And I have to say, I was quite pleased with the way the refs were calling the games, based on the new rules.

The breastfeeding class was interesting. We learned quite a bit. I guess I don't have anything more to say about it. I'm glad we went.

FILE UNDER: SPORTS, PRE-PARENTHOOD

I is what I is

Stolen from KD

• Micah is a great looking guy who likes to play music, and we all like him
• Micah is being taken down by the man
• Micah is a George Bush
• Micah is a shortened form of Micaiah which means "Who is like unto the Lord?
• Micah is the 6th of the 12 books of Minor Prophets in the Old Testament
• Micah is a Word Divinely inspired from God
• MICAH is committed to strive for quality public education in the city of Milwaukee
• Micah is an independent producer, writer, critic, and radio host from Portland,Maine
• Micah is a 9 year old boy with mixed spastic dystonic quadriplegia cerebral palsy.
• Micah is the "man"
• Micah is free

I did 11 instead of 10, but what the hell. That was amusing.

Thirteen days left. Holy. Shit. Balls. I suppose we're as ready as we can be. Bags are packed. Car seat installed (inspection to follow soon). Birthing class complete. Newborn class complete. Breastfeeding class this Wednesday. List of names not finalized but narrowed. Every second consumed with thoughts of baby-ness. Here we go.

The Wife's rib-spreading pain is back today. Don't really know if that's what it is, but it's the best guess. Other than that, she's doing well. She's ready to be done.

FILE UNDER: PRE-PARENTHOOD