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
5 comments:
We hated that billirubin light. I think most of the time it isn't even necessary but I guess its better to be on the safe side. (at least in the hospitals opinion)
I never thought to talk to you guys about any of these things because I assumed your childbirth and newborn classes would have done that. Well, here's my $0.02.
#1: Breastfed babies often have a slight case of jaundice because the mother's milk doesn't have enough Vitamin D in it. You know how to fix it? Hang out by a window as much as possible. If it really was a bad case of jaundice they would have kept him in the hospital, like you said. We went through HELL with Gavin and his slight jaundice between the stupid bilirubin light and the constant heel sticks. Nothing like trying to learn to breastfeed (both of you) with this stupid contraption on his back. With kid 2.0 I will REFUSE the stupid light and just hang out in windows all day.
#2: Take this for what it's worth since it's coming from a semi-Boob Nazi, but you don't HAVE to supplement. That is BS. Besides the Vitamin D issue (cured by sunshine), your milk has everything that boy needs. The only reason a mom might think to supplement is if you don't feel your supply is enough to feed the baby, but that can often be cured by pumping between nursing sessions to increase your supply. (You can also take a homeopathic herb called Fenugreek. I've used it and it works.) That really makes me pissy that a person in the medical community is presuming new mothers have to supplement. It's just untrue.
Everybody has to make their own decisions with regards to breastfeeding. If you can do 100% that's great. If you can do it 2% that's great too. Every ounce you give him boosts his immune system and brain development. You are giving him a great start at life, whether it's a little or a lot. If keeping up with him is stressing you out too much (and it does), then please do supplement, but don't do it because some yahoo with a medical degree says you have to.
Having gone through the jaundice circus and having breastfed Gavin (without ever supplementing! See you don't have to!) for a year, I would be happy to help you guys out any way I can and answer any questions you might have. My way is not the right way, but it is one side of how things can go.
To clarify (but not to defend them): They didn't say breast milk didn't have everything he needed. It was more along the lines of he wasn't getting enough & wasn't feeding well & was a bit dehydrated. We supplemented with some formula at first. But now that she's pumping well and all, we only supplement with breast milk when he needs it. But he's feeding much better, so we haven't had to do much.
But, yah, can you beleive they didn't cover that stuff in all of our classes?!?!?!?! So pissed.
To be fair or to even further clariry...At the time I was under the assumption that whatever came out of my boobs would be enough. I didn't know how or when to pump or I would've done that much sooner. I thought pumping was something I'd do down the road not on day 3 of his life. Also, the nurses never said we had to supplement with formula, we just did because it was a quicker way to hydrate him while I learned to pump and the milk came in.
All in all we learned a lot about breastfeeding. We still don't know jack, but at least the boy is growing now. He gets pumped milk sometimes, but mostly he's like his dad and likes the boob the best.
-the wife
LOL! Sounds like you guys handled things beautifully! Glad to hear things are going well. Just remember to enjoy these days. If you blink, he'll be one before you know it.
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