Three Weeks Ago: A Re-Told Story

Okay, so we don't forget later (and just in case anyone was curious), I thought I would relate the events surrounding The Birth (which was already 3 weeks ago yesterday). And yes, I know, my tensing of my verbs below is not very consistent (I was trying to hold E while typing a lot of this, which was a little distracting - hmmm... was I writing in the present or past tense?...ermm...).

Thursday, Oct. 26

Early in the morning: We got up early for a doctor's appt. for Gilda (and were pretty tired - we had gotten to bed late the previous night and gotten up fairly early that previous morning). The dr. couldn't tell how dilated Gilda was since, as had been the case for a while, her cervix could not be reached - E 's head was in the way still. The doc thought, though, that the baby was probably coming any day now (tomorrow would put us at 1 wk overdue), but just in case scheduled us for an inducement on Sunday if the baby hadn't come by then. She suggested that, because of her lateness, we go ti our hospital in Sac after the appt. and get the baby momitored to make sure she was okay. She thought it was altogether possible that we might get checked out an actually end up staying.

Late morning/early afternoon: Just in case, we went home before heading out to Sac and got all of our labor and delivery stuff together and put it in the car. At Sac, we were tested and the baby was fine but again they couldn't tell how dilated Gilda was. We were sent home, where we have some lunch and Gilda takes a nap.

Late afternoon: Gilda woke up from her nap and thought her water might have broken. So we promptly take walks and make plans for dinner.

Early evening: We ended up eating at a Middle Eastern/Meditterranean food place called "Cafe Mediteranee" (a new place for us) where we had some kabab and shawerma goodness with hummus and red pepper/pomegranite sauce (mmm...Ireally like that pomegranite stuff). After that, we walked over to Borders across the street and browsed for a while.

About 8pm: We finally call the hospital. They have doubts about whether Gilda's water actually broke, but have us come in just in case anyway.

Around 8:30: We get to the hospital and get checked out again.

A little later: The doctor on duty says Gilda's amniotic sac actually hasn't ruptured yet but that he can feel the cervix and that it is dilated 3 cm. Usually they only admit a mother once she's at 4 cm but since we were already almost a week overdue, the doctor decided to admit us anyway. So we were finally in business!! Anyway, we were shown to one of the tiny labor rooms and Gilda got an uber-ouchy catheter/iv thingie stuck into her hand near her thumb. She got some walking done in the hallways, though. All the while, contractions were getting more noticeable.

Friday, Oct. 27

Around midnight: One of the docs (the one that delivered E the next day, I believe) manually ruptured the amniotic sac to get the labor jump started a bit. The fluid had a slight green tinge to it - the baby had passed some meconium into the amniotic fluid, so she would need to be looked at when she was born to make sure she wouldn't get pneumonia if any of that stuff got into her lungs. Sadly, Gilda has to stay in her room from now on (no more walking oot and aboot).

Later on: Contractions get more intense, cervix continues to dilate at a steady, albeit slow, rate. The contractions start to get pretty painful. Gilda ends up finding that sitting on the room's toilet is the least painful position - no pressure on the tailbone, for instance (due to the hole in the middle of the seat). She can also take the pain better when she knows it's coming, so Iwatched the monitor for her to tell her when a contraction was coming or staring to let off. Unfortunately, the best position for her involved not only simply sitting on the toilet but also having me, legs straight, leaning slightly forward in a very straining manner, with her head leaning forward into my chest. All the while, I had to crane my neck around to look at the monitor to see what was up with the contractions. That was really wearing me out - legs, back, and neck. But, of course, that wasn't as bad as what Gilda was going through.

Around 4am: Gilda had had enough. Despite the increasing pain of contractions, she could handle them. What she couldn't handle was the thought of doing this for hours and hours more, especially so early in the morning (and us really tired already from not much sleep). So she called for an epidural so she could actually get some rest.

Around 4:30ish: Gilda got the epidural. Her left leg went totally limp, though she could move here right one still a little.

Later, early morning: We finally got a little sleep. The one chair in the room folded out like a bed so I sprawled out and got an hour nap. Gilda got a two hour-or-so nap herself. Soon, though, she wasn't feeling so well and her Mediterranean food from earlier the previous night came back to greet her. On two separate occassions. Also, at some point, she had a fever and was given antibiotics.

Around 9 or 10am: I call our families and let them know what's going on.

Around 11am or so: My mom arrives. A little while later, my Grandma (LaVeda) does too. Around noon, they buy me lunch - I was starving (all I had eaten since arriving at the hospital was some dried apricots and trail mix we had brought as snacks).

Afternoon: Gilda starts the process of actively pushing. Nurses think she is an incredibly strong pusher. Soon Gilda delivers a lock of hair (the first part of little E to be seen). My mom holds one of Gilda's legs close to Gilda and I hold the other (thus acting as human stirrups). This goes on for a while.

Around 4pm: We finally go to the delivery room for - can you guess? - yes, that's right - delivery. There were quite a lot of people there - nurses, midwife, doctor, nursing students observing, etc. Gilda was pushing really hard - which meant she was also pushing really hard with her legs, several times almost knocking my mom or me over (we were still holding her legs throughout the whole thing). Unfortunately, there was not enough room for the baby to come out and Gilda, with her skin of steel, was not stretching. So they ended up giving a lidocaine shot in that area and took some heavy duty shears and cut to make the baby's exit wider (Gilda's skin was so tough, though, that even with the cut there it didn't tear and is now, at the time of this writing, about fully healed).

4:33pm: The baby's head finally pops out, with body soon to follow.

Afterwards: Baby is cleaned off and tested and a tube is put down her throat to suck out meconium-tinged fluid. E is quite alert, which doesn't always happen if you have pain meds during labor and delivery. She gets a whopping Apgar score of 8 (very, very good). She's very healthy. I decide she looks more like an E than a Kaelyn. Gilda finally gets to see her and agrees, so we name her E . Gilda, in the meantime, gets stitches. I get to see the placenta - it's so weird and gross! It looks kinda like a weird plant.
We get to go to the recovery room for a bit and then Gilda gets taken to Postpartum. In the meantime, the rest of my nearby family shows up and gets to see E . At 9pm, I have to leave since visiting hours are now over - my brother Drew spends the night at our place. Later that evening, Gilda's mom and sister Gigi show up and get to see the baby too.


So that about wraps it up. Hopefully, I'm not forgetting anything important.

A "High Needs" Baby

It seems like all babies would be considered "high needs", being that they are totally dependent on their parents for everything... and not only for a little while, but for months. This includes not only the obvious (food and diaper changings), but also things like the ability to soothe themselves and go to sleep. Yet, there is an actual category of baby temperaments that is considered the "high needs" baby.

Ian and I think our Miss E might be one of these "high needs" baby. Sure, she's still young, so maybe it's a bit premature to say (maybe she'll grow out of "it"), and we are new parents and a lot of her discomfort crying comes from gas... but man, it is hard when she won't sleep or be comforted for hours. Pretty much she must be held almost 24-7 (even if she is "asleep", because if you put her down, she immediately wakes up and with a vengeance cry). This also applies to about half of the nighttime hours, too, when we're both hoping to catch a few ZZZZ's. All to say... we are tired and both getting quite the workout in our backs and arms (required for all the rocking, swaying and bouncing).

OK, I might look back and think... "Oh, what a time. It wasn't so bad... just a few weeks worth. I miss her when she was so tiny and needed us so much." (things I've heard from other moms) But at this very moment all I can say is I'm exhausted (and sore).

The Truth about Infant Spit Up

If you have a very weak stomach... this might be a borderline blog to read... so beware.

"Infants spit up, sometimes after every meal. It is not harmful to them or any reason to be concerned. Usually it affects the parents more who now have spit up on all their clothes and their floor."

This is what many websites, doctors and other experts will tell you about infant spit-up. I guess it should reassure all new parents that the stuff coming out of their tiny baby's mouth is mostly benign, doesn't have the sting of vomit that we adults have and that we shouldn't be calling the doc for advice everytime it happens. But what you don't find out (until your new baby arrival comes) is that infant spit-up is not like the kind of toddler spit-up you expect when you put too much food in their mouth and they reject it by pushing it out of their mouth on a bib. No, infant spit up actually does come from their stomach and comes back up their esphogus and out their mouth. It is usually caused by gas, too much food (in E's case - a little of both of these) and also a still-not-fully-developed stomach/esophagus valve that should keep food in the stomach after it gets there.

So all that information is good and dandy. And yes it does prevent me from calling the doc for advice everytime it happens and has calmed my concern that anything is really wrong. BUT one thing all the sites, docs and other experts fail to mention is that the spit up can still be quite forceful, causing our Little E to cough and awaken from sleep AND not to mention... it still smells like vomit (because it is). Albeit it is a very mild smelling vomit as vomit goes... but when it is all over you, all over her, all over her bassinet, all over her burp rag, all over your hands and a little on your floor and furniture, it more than just mildy affects me ... because I can get over being covered in spit up and wallowing in "dirtiness" (babies are eating, spitting up and pooping machines) ... but smelling just a hint of something like vomit all the time can be quite disturbing. I hope it's not something I get used to... and she grows out of sooner than later.

"Hello" from the New Mom

Hello all! Yes, it's been a while... but you're not surprised. Let me answer all your burning questions:

1. Yes, we are all doing well. E is over her jaundice and putting on weight. I wouldn't be surprised if she doesn't surpass her birth weight at her doctor's appointment this week. (Yes... on Friday, she'll have her 2 week check-up... she is already two weeks old! It's hard to believe, even though I sometimes forget and think she's much older - but that's usually when I'm frustrated with her fussiness and her total dependance... a new mom thing I think) I am also doing well... well in terms of what is expected. I will not lie and say I'm ready to run out and meet up with a bunch of people or go run a bunch of errands, BUT I'm doing quite well in recuping physically (and I think emotionally, minus the "trying" days and nights). I will say that usually I am so tired that I'm on the verge of a headache and sometimes I'm so sore from labor and delivery that it is hard to walk or sleep comfortably... BUT having popped out such a large "bundle of joy"... I'd say that's to be expected. Oh and Ian is doing well too. He is considerably sleep deprived (although not in comparison to me, who stays up to feed E ). But since he is not a "nap" person, his lack of sleep at night weighs considerably on him, especially as night approaches. He has been downright "dead asleep" during some nights and I have to forcefully shake him awake for help... and for such a light sleeper, that says a lot.
2. On most nights we have been blessed to sleep considerably well for having a newborn. There's even been a few nights where Miss E (my, gilda's, nickname for her) slept for 4 hours between feedings, which means I got several three hour naps at night. Plenty of sleep for a good start to a new day. Of course the downside is that on the nights when she feeds every 2 hours... or even less (like last night - she ate almost every hour) ... we both find it utterly exhausting and end up being very frustrated with so little sleep. I guess we were spoiled early on with those few nights. (btw, just in case you're wondering how the sleep/eat time figures out... Miss Elizabeth is a "rester" eater. This means she'll fall asleep while eating and often take mini naps. She can't be rushed... and if you make the mistake of thinking she is done before she actually is, she'll let you know about two minutes after you've put her down and you've climbed back into bed. This also means you have to "start over" with feeding her. Oh, and each time our baby girl eats, it's an average of 30-45 minutes of eating & burping. So that's how an hour between feedings really means she's just teasing you with sleep... because remember I still need to go to the bathroom or to the kitchen for a snack because I'm so hungry from being up all night.) Oh and so far, Ian and I's arrangement looks like this: I awake when Miss Elizabeth awakes... and I determine whether she is really hungry. Sometimes she is just cooing/crying or just gassy and not really needing to eat. If she is hungry, I feed her. If she is gassy, I might leave her or give her medicine for it. After feeding and burping her (45 minutes later), if I think she might have "left a present" for Ian in her diaper... then I'll wake Ian up so he can change her diaper. If not, I'll put her back to sleep. Usually after eating she's asleep. If she does need a diaper change that's when Ian's shift (a short, but often dirty shift) starts. He takes her to her room, changes her diaper and then tries to lull her back to sleep before putting her back down. In the meantime, I'm usually going back to sleep or going to the bathroom. Hopefully, after all that... Miss Elizabeth will sleep for a good one to two hours (maybe even three if we're lucky), and Ian and I get some rest.
3. We are being blessed with some food deliveries... if you want to join in the queue, contact Rebekah Karpel (our faithful food coordinator). We're also "eating down" food that my parents have brought over (too much and usually of one sort, plus a lot of stuff that Ian can't even eat, ie: seafood) and some leftovers that I had made pre-delivery for us and before we knew if we were going to have food delivered.
4. And yes, we are up for some visitors. Miss Elizabeth is almost always up for visitors (we have determined, she likes a lot of people around), but because I am still not confident about her eating schedule and my own ability to care for her "on the road" (versus at home, where everything is at our finger tips and is private) ... I do not plan to get out much the next... oh, say two months!! (at least that's how I feel now). So instead I am totally up for visitors in moderation. (I should get out more... but it's hard work to get everything packed, her into the car seat and time it just right so I don't have to figure how to feed her on the go)Mostly it just depends on how the day is going and how much energy I have... so if you want to come over and see Miss Elizabeth, Ian or I ... (and are not sick) ... drop us an e-mail or give us a call. We'll let you know how we're doing and what time (when she's not eating... otherwise you'll be doing a lot of talking with just Ian) is good.

Well, I think it's time for me to try to catch a quick nap before it's time to "sleep" (or maybe it's time for Miss Elizabeth to eat again ... hmm) ... in either case, this ends my first post-partum "Hello". ~~ The New Mom ~~

Pictures!!!

As promised...

Here's one of Gilda early on at the hospital:


Here's a picture of the catheter that Gilda oh so loved!


How much does it hurt?

Some of the stuff Gilda was hooked up to (yes, there was more):

E and Uncle Drew:

Baby sleeping on Mommy:

E 's Close-Up:

Baby sleeping on Daddy:

E and Gilda, now at home, taking a nap: