Thursday, January 10, 2013

Drew's Birth Day

In an effort not to forget the events of Drew's arrival, I kept a log of key items throughout the big day...

5 am - Arrived at hospital, check-in, etc.

6:30 - In room. IV in arm. Pitocin started. There's a monsoon outside. Assuming DS is awake and Gran (and Papa) are all getting ready for drop-off for his first day of "preschool."

7:05 - Dr. G arrives. 3-4 cm dilated and breaks my water.

7:45 - Scotty self-proclaims himself to be the Nick Saban of birthing coaches.

8:40 - Got epidural. Mercifully.

9:25 - 6 cm dilated

9:41 - popcicle time. Scotty looks delicious today.

10:00 - 8 cm

10:05 - zofran to avoid nausea

10:23 - can't stop thinking about the night Drew was conceived.

10:24 - read previous entry to family; family just puked

10:35 - 10 cm!!! Will start pushing in a few minutes. Giving Baby Drew a little time to turn a bit more.

11:00 - start pushing.

11:58 - Baby Drew is here! All 8 pounds, 11 oz, and 20.5 inches of him! He looks a lot like David Scott but with bigger cheeks, and lots of blond hair! Goodbye baby weight, pelvic pain, and acid reflux!

1:15 pm - Baby Drew gets to eat lunch for the first time. He takes to it like a champ. I have a feeling this chunk will not miss any meals for a long time.

2:35 - First non-family visitor -- CJ came to visit!

4:05 - Second feeding.

4:08 - DS is here and meets Drew for the first time. Instant love.

4:14 - Resume second feeding

5:35 - Mimi and Mamaw leave heading back to Monroe. Lee wads back to Lafayette. And Gran and Papa take David Scott for a quick bite to eat and then home for the night.

5:45 - Scotty went to get our dinner from Little Village. While my spaghetti and the bread (of course) were good, they did not give us utensils or my salad and Scotty's steak was not even warm. #disappointing.

8:30 - Getting ready to feed Drew again. IV is hopefully ready to come out if my fever is gone. My temp has been running a smidge higher than normal since having our sweet boy. We are so in love with this little man. However, Mama and Daddy are exhausted and will be sending our sweet boy to the nursery after he eats so we can get some shut-eye. It feels like it's 2 am and I am barely able to keep my eyes open.

A quick addition: Efforts to sleep were futile. However, I finally got to lose the IV early in the morning on the 10th. Drew has been great these first 24-36 hours following his birth. We are so glad (most of) our family were able to come in and experience this time with us. David Scott seems to love his little brother although we fully expect there to be some adjustment period for our firstborn. Thanks to my birthing coach/husband/co-author of this post (fun game: figure out what he contributed to this blog post...) who I literally couldn't have done this without. We are so blessed to be the parents of these two boys. What an awesome responsibility we have. Looking forward to it...











Tuesday, January 8, 2013

2013: The Beginning...

Baby Drew will be here tomorrow! I'm scheduled to be induced on Wednesday assuming I don't get the flu that our firstborn has caught. Yes, despite getting a flu shot last month, David Scott tested positive for the flu yesterday. Fever started on Saturday with our poor boy saying he "just don't feel good" then he puked later that night. No more fever Sunday so we thought we were safe and then the fever returned that evening. Poor thing, he had watery eyes, had developed a weird cough, and went downhill fast. Thinking it was still just a cold, we put him in bed with me while Scotty slept on the couch. In retrospect, that may not have been the best decision, but whatever. Just after midnight, DS needed to "blow his nose," which, when checked was actually a nosebleed. Grand. Scotty dealt with the nosebleed while I dealt with the laundry, the less involved of the two tasks. And he still had fever.

Although his fever seemed to be gone overnight, since I had one last dr's appt on Monday, Scotty came back from work to keep DS so I could take care of baby business. I'd made a little progress, (a little over 3 cm and 85-99% effaced). The big news though was that my weight capped out at 26 pounds. Woohoo! I told Dr. G about DS being sick and she said I should still take him to dr and if he had flu, I should call her for Tamiflu. So away we went to the pediatrician. Our regular ped was out, so we saw another one in the practice. Although, the initial diagnosis was an ear infection causing the fever, as a precaution for me (again, two days away from having a baby!), they tested him. And yep, he had the flu. Luckily, it's a mild case and he seems to have peaked based on when we think exposure happened (at daycare on Friday since some of his classmates have the flu as well). So now Scotty and I have begun our Tamiflu preventive. And my maternity leave officially started two days early. And with a sick child. That I really can't take care of for a couple of reasons: 1) he is still contagious (the fever's returned, though it's only 101, and seemed to break overnight) and I've been advised by the ped to keep my contact at a minimum, if possible and 2) it hurts to walk too much as Baby Drew is on some nerve in my pelvis. So yes, it could be worse. I'm praying Scotty and I both avoid the flu as well as my caretaker for the next week or so (my mom, who has also started Tamiflu) and that DS has no more fever after tonight. He officially missed his first two days of preschool due to sickness.  And assuming he has no more fever, he'll get to go tomorrow, but we won't get to take him -- Mom and David (Gran and Papa) will. And if not, he'll stay at our house with Papa (David) who broke a bone in his ankle on Monday. We are just a hot mess over here. Prayers appreciated -- a quick recovery for DS/Papa too, no flu for the rest of us, an easy delivery for me, a healthy Baby Drew, and anything else thrown in for good measure. I'll post another update when I can as I plan on doing a play-by-play of Drew's birth day like I did with DS'. Wish us luck...