…snooze…

May 8, 2010 | Filed Under Luke | 3 Comments 

Thursday night was pretty rough with Luke. He slept in 20-45 minutes bursts, with plenty of nursing in between. By morning, he had an exhausted and sore Mommy. In fact, she slept right through his newborn checkup. Luckily, the doctor’s office called to offer us an afternoon appointment. The funny part is that it took me hours to realize that they called because we had already missed the appointment, not because they anticipated our missing the appointment.
Anyhow, the afternoon brought Luke’s first outing. His appointment was typical; he started by peeing on himself. His weight is 8lbs 11 oz, which is exactly the same as when he was discharged on Wednesday. The only concern is his jaundice, so the doctor sent us to Rochester for a bilirubin test. Afterward, we attempted to get our tire fixed (slow leak). Turns out that we had a nail in the sidewall and needed a new tire. Luke spent his afternoon at the tire shop.
We arrived home to a message from the doctor’s office asking to call back, but the office was already closed. Jason called over to the hospital and finally found someone who could give us our test results. Luke’s BR was 16 (up from 9.1 at discharge). It wasn’t high enough to warrant the lights, but they want to check him again Monday. Of course, they also had to scare the pants off me with all the warning signs that should send us to urgent care before Monday. I know all these from Ben’s experience, and I don’t think it is a big concern for Luke. I still worry.
Last night was pretty good, with 2-3 hour stretches of sleep. I feel much more human today. Luke is napping with Daddy now, so I’m going to go enjoy my time with the big boys!

Just a quick one

May 6, 2010 | Filed Under Luke | Leave a Comment 

Luke and I came home yesterday and we are slowly settling in. The kids are pretty excited about him, and keep checking him out. Sam is a little too interested. We’ll have to watch him closely. Ben, though he likes Luke, seems a little unsettled by the disruption in routine. As he tried to get daddy up for the morning rituals, he complained to me “Mom, this is starting to cut into my school time. I don’t want to miss snack.” Regardless, I made it through the first night home with Luke. He was up to feed every 2 hours but with limited screaming. I call that a success.
And now he stirs…more soon.

Lucas Rider Eagle

May 4, 2010 | Filed Under General | 5 Comments 

A quick post about Tuesday and the arrival of our new baby boy- I am sure Rachel will want to post more when she gets home.

Rach woke me up when she noticed that her water had broken, and I was pretty groggy because I was on-call all night on the ambulance. For some reason, I really expected to be called out, so I stayed up too late, as I am prone to do… We expected things to move fast, because the last baby came within an hour of her water breaking. We weren’t even at the hospital an hour before Sam came. She threw a bag together quickly, and I got the boys ready for daycare and went to drop them off. Then we headed for the birthcenter, stopping on the way for some coffee (for me, because I was in need). We joked about what kind of yuppie douchebags stop at Starbucks on the way to the hospital; us I guess. Her contractions weren’t coming too hard or fast, so we had time…

At the hospital, they checked her out quickly because they knew she went fast last time. Nowhere near ready, so we settled in and watched some TV to pass the time. I took a badly needed nap, and by the end of the afternoon things still weren’t going very quickly. This wasn’t really how we expected things to go, but I had left our carseats and a bag of toys at daycare in case this happened. Our friends, the Taylors, picked up the boys at the end of the day, and I planned to pick them up in the evening after the baby came. By 7, Rachel was starting to get tired and the pain was getting worse, but things still weren’t speeding up. She decided to get the epidural, which I think was the right thing, because it made her more comfortable and relaxed. Once that was in, they gave pitocin to speed up and intensify the contractions. In an hour she went from 4-7 cm, after taking about 5 long hours to go from 3-4. We had a really great nurse who was very chatty with us, and almost as excited. By 9:30, Rachel was almost ready.

The Dr. agreed that I could deliver the baby, which has been something that I wanted to do, for good EMT experience. I figured better to get some practice with a Dr. in the room in case anything went wrong, rather than have the first experience in the back of an ambulance. We were gloved up, and ready to go, but not before I touched something with the sterile gloves on. Doh! Sterile practice, what is that? Luckily they put out 2 pairs of gloves for me. The Dr. made me promise not to drop the baby. I made the promise, since I figured it was a fair request. When it was time to push, one hard push, and we could see the top of the head. A few more, and his head was out. Very blue, which worried me a bit. He had a nuchal chord x2, which means wrapped around his neck twice, but there was enough slack in it that it wasn’t pulled tight. The doc helped me unwrap it, and I moved his head down to get the upper shoulder out. Then he pretty much came out. I remembered the one thing they beat into us in class. Suction the mouth first, then the nose. If you suction the nose first, the baby can startle and breathe in the fluid in their mouth and throat. 10:07PM

After he was out, the cord was clamped and I cut it pretty long, wrapped him up then handed him to mama. They let Rachel hold him for a very long time- much longer than our other two children, which was great. After that, we weighed him and reclamped/trimmed the cord short. I gave him a half bath- the nurse washed his hair. Then, we relaxed for awhile and admired his squishy little face and his good crop of dark hair. By 12:45, I was getting pretty tired and decided to go home and get some good sleep. We had called the Taylors earlier, and the boys were already asleep, so they ended up staying there for the night. B. even offered to drive them to daycare in the morning- thanks! Also thanks to Darilyn who picked up our dogs last night from our house. We didn’t figure on the long labor, and those puppies were alone for way longer than we hoped for. Long enough for a wet spot. Pet Vacation is the dog-sitting business she runs. (I can give any locals the info). A great person who has always been there when we needed her, and the only person Rossi loves outside this family.

Today, I slept in later than I planned to, and since it was such a beautiful day rode the motorcycle to the hospital, stopping at work for my laptop, and for some take-out lunch for Rach and I. Took a 2 hour snuggle nap with my son, then picked the boys and the dogs up. We went back to the hospital with some happy meals (appropriately named) and spent some time with our new brother and son. Some guests came by and we all had a nice visit with the newest Eagle. The kids got a little crazy, but nothing new there. A great day. We took some nice pictures tonight with all the boys, but I didn’t grab the memory card. I am sure Rachel will be more than happy that I didn’t steal her thunder, as she will likely put a post up when she gets home tomorrow. So, for now, these are the pictures that I posted last night on Facebook. We are very lucky.

J

No, I’m not still here.

May 3, 2010 | Filed Under TheFinale | 2 Comments 

Today’s the day. Woke up to breaking waters at 6am. Jason is taking the kids to school, and I packed my bag. Now we wait for the REAL fun to begin.