What can I say? I’ve been busy.

All is well on the home front, as both L & E are doing fine.

We had a minor issue with Emerson about a week ago. She started to get a little bit “fussy” for her and we noticed a small amount of blood in her stool. It turns out that she has a (seemingly mild) milk allergy. So, we’ve switched her to a soy-based formula and all returned to normal.

E’s been growing like a week. But, she’s still very much a newborn – meaning she’s more in “receive” than “send” mode when it comes to interpersonal communication (aside from crying and a limited range of facial expressions, of course). However, she has become more alert and aware of her surroundings (motion, noises, etc.). According to the books, she’s right on target (and sometime ahead) developmentally. For example, she learned to suck on her own thumb yesterday. I find watching her learn new things fascinating.

Here’s a picture of E at 1 month old…

Life returns to usual

I’ve returned to my usual work schedule… including travel. This has been modestly uneventful, and both L and E were fine while I was gone. Did I miss them? Sure. But, it’s what I do to earn a living, right?

Last week, I went to a conference in Atlanta. I came home and managed to bring a cold back with me as a souvenir. That sticks because I’ve had (at Libby’s direction) to stay away from E while I’m sick. This is actually more frustrating than being away from home, as I really like interacting with my baby girl.

Another silver lining

In other good news, I got my annual bonus payment recently. I was very pleased, as I managed to pay myself back the entire “shared risk program” fees in a single bound. This is another example of being perhaps more lucky in life than I deserve – a fact which is never lost on me. I suppose that at least I’m grateful… and, I’ll take it!

Now, I just need to save up for private school and college.

Medical update on Harley

I’ve mentioned in that past that one of our four-legged children, Harley, was diagnosed with diabetes. And, we’ve had a heck of a time regulating his insulin levels. I think we finally have that under control, but the poor dog now has GERD (reflux) and/or pancreatitis (common in diabetic Min Pins). I think we’ve actually lost more sleep due to H’s condition than we have due to E. We started some new medicine yesterday, and he finally managed to sleep through the night. So, I’m hopeful that we’ve finally got this thing on the run, which will be great for all of us. Harley’s a good little dog, and we’re hoping to keep him healthy and happy for many more years (he’s about 10 now).

At the heart of it all, E is simply a great baby!

She eats well. After much research and discussion with our (awesome, I might add) pediatrician, Dr. Lipschutz, and experienced moms, we’re opted to bottle feed – without hesitation, guilt, or apology. She on Enfamil’s Lipil Premium (according to Dr. L — ‘premium’ is very important)… and has taken to it like a duck to water.

She sleeps well. Basically, she’s been sleeping for 5-6 hours at night since birth (usually from 10/11ish-3/4ish – when I get up to change her diaper, give her a bottle, and put her back down for another 3-4 hours). Otherwise, she has normal periods of sleep and wakefulness during the day.

She’s not fussy and doesn’t cry excessively. Indeed, she basically just cries when she wants/needs something. Once her need is addressed, she settles down immediately. I think I read that a ‘typical’ two week old infant cries on average 2 hours per day. I doubt if E cries more than 20 minutes.

She seems to be in good health and developmentally advanced. For example, she’s had excellent head control since birth. When I have ‘tummy time’ with her every night, she spends a fair amount of time lifting her head up off of my chest and turning it from side to side.

The only downside to her motor skills is that she’s also been able to rollover onto her side since the first week, if she’s just in footed pajamas or swaddled with a blanket. This made L and me a bit crazy due to the “back is best” thing. For this reason, we make sure that she’s tightly wrapped in a 2-in-1 Swaddle Sleep Sack at night. Of course, this makes her look a bit like she’s a member of the Heaven’s Gate Cult awaiting the Hale-Bopp Comet. But, at least she’s safe.

Update on Libby, too…

L’s bounced back from her Cesarian section really well. She’s now at a point where she’s able to comfortably care for E during the day while I’m “at work” in my office upstairs. Overall, she had minimal pain and discomfort in the post-operative period.

She’s also managed to avoid the “baby blues” or anything more serious. Doubtless, this has to do with the aforementioned “easy baby” observations, the fact that’s she’s well rested (since I take the night shift, she sleeps soundly from 10pm to 7am most nights), and because she had plenty of help early on as she got her “new mommy” sea legs under her.

The only glitch was earlier this week when she suffered from severe headaches for nearly 36-48 hours. Since L was feeling so good, she quite her pain medication cold turkey. Fine… still no pain from the surgery. Unfortunately, her body didn’t like the sudden cutoff from the analgesics and gave her what we’ve learned are called “rebound” headaches. I suppose this should have been anticipated, but neither of us have a lot of experience with pain meds (indeed, even when a broke my leg last winter, I took all of single Percocet and then a few Tylenol).

In the end, this resulted in L taking different pain medication directed at the headaches. But, within 48 hours all of this had passed and life became good again. She’s now happy, totally free from both pain and medication.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

2:30pm – Ate late lunch at Red Lobster.

3:30 – Water ‘broke’ @ grocery store. Slow leak. Finished shopping.

3:45 – Drove home. Called doctor en route. Picked up bags. Called parents.

4:30 – Arrived at hospital. Pants soaked. Skipped triage.

5:30 – Started ‘pit drip’ (Oxytocin) to induce labor. Played UNO. Nothing happening. Called parents. Dosage kept getting increased. No ‘real’ contractions.

7:30 – Dr. Sanchez arrived (oh joy, L’s least favorite). Inserted intrauterine monitor. This hurt like hell and almost made L cry. L said “It was bad. It was bad!” L at 3cm. Monitor wasn’t working properly… screwed around with that for a while.

8:00 – At much higher dosage, contractions (and pain) started.

8:45 – L asked for epidural and nurse started setup.

9:30 – Epidural finished – went in without a hitch. Great anesthetist – former IVF patient!

9:45 – Pain gone. L happy again.

10:00 – I went for food. Got salami sandwich on onion bun and BBQ chips from UCH’s deli. Returned to room w/ food. Called parents.

10:30 – Nurse checked L: minor progress. Nurse concerned about decline in E’s heart rate during contractions. OK if at 7-8cm. Problematic at 3cm.

11:00 – Reduced drip rate of Oxytocin. Seeing if this will reduce heart rate ‘dips.’ Although it hasn’t been mentioned, we are starting to think a C-section is coming. We shall see.

11:15 – ‘Pit drip’ stopped. Dr. Rousch (now on call; never seen before) called for consult. Libby’s now very nervous and worried – she’s shaking like a leaf. I’m a bit worried too and wish I could do something.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

12:00am – Dr Rousch arrived. Not an ‘emergency’ now. Two options: 1) try ‘pit drip’ again (monitor closely; move to c-section), or 2) skip ahead to c-section now. We quickly made the decision to do the c-section for the benefit of L and E. I had already made my mind up on that front around 11:00. Called parents.

12:30 – We leave for OR. I wait outside while L is prepared for surgery.

~12:45 – I go into the OR.

12:52 – Emerson is born! 7 lbs. 5 oz. 20” long. All is well.

~1:15 – We return to L&D room.

1:30 – Called parents.

1:45 – L feeds E for the first time.

~2:30 – L moved to Mother/Baby room.

Playing…

And sleeping….

I have to get back to at least some work duties tomorrow. It’s a very busy time for me professionally. Fortunately, my mother will be coming over to help out during the day. I also have my follow-up ‘procedure’ at the dermatologist tomorrow for my mildly-to-moderately abnormal nevis (mole).

I’m really tired. I’ll try to post more tomorrow and in the following days (the birth story, me as “Mr. Mom,” additional pictures, and my reaction to it all).

Again, thanks to everyone for the well wishes and congratulations! I’ll try to respond personally soon. I promise. I just have my hands full now.

Anyway, I’m too tired to write in detail now, but I have kept careful notes on my iPhone that I’ll transcribe and post.

I always figured I’d be a “modern father” type. Indeed, I don’t really “get” men who aren’t actively involved in the care of the children (including the feeding and bathing). But, since L has been recovering from her surgery, I’ve really had to step up. I think I’ve done pretty well so far as a rookie.

Heck, I’m practically a breast by now.

More to follow. Thanks for all of the good wishes and congratulations!

For tonight, I’ll leave you with a photo of my girls…

And, for those of you not easily grossed out… some awesome (if I say so myself) photos of her C-section birth.

More to follow later… along with the “rest of the story.”

We were at the hospital by 4:30. And they started inducing her by 5:30.

So far, no contractions.

More updates (probably after E arrives) later!

As the days tick by, it looks like we’ll be headed more and more for the induction on the 9th. I’m not really worried or concerned about what lies ahead. I’m actually feeling pretty calm.

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this previously, but long before we started TTC (and had any idea about IF), I had a lot of apprehensions about the whole ‘getting pregnant’ thing. I just sort of had this sense that we were jumping into the deep end of the pool without knowing how to swim or having any of those little inflatable ‘floaties’ on our arms.

I pretty much despaired over the entire process.

After a while, I came to hate TTC naturally when month after month yielded no results. Good grief, I felt like the prize stallion at the Irish National Stud Farm. When we finally went to the reproductive medicine clinic, I worried about the implications of finding out something was ‘wrong’ with one of us or (possibly worse) finding ‘nothing wrong’ as a case of unexplained infertility.

I think I only came into my own when then the shit hit the proverbial fan and we had a clear diagnosis. Finally! I had something we could do something about. Blocked tubes, who knew?

From that point forward, I’ve become increasingly sanguine about the whole thing. My sense of foreboding has entirely cleared. I’m no longer worried.

Was I somehow psychic and sensed the infertility problems?

Perhaps, I’ve had the first known case of ‘mantuition’ (male intuition)?

I don’t know. I just know that I’m feeling quite contented waiting to meet our daughter.