Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Timing
Sorry for the further delay on Part 2. After a strenuous weekend I have come down with a bug that has provided me with a sore throat, sinus trouble and a low fever. Needless to say I haven't felt like writing and Angie is exhausted, taking care of two helpless people. She and the baby are so far healthy, partly due to Angie's robust constitution and partly due to my self-imposed quarantine and wearing a sanding mask (I have them for fiberglass work) if I venture out of my room. I will keep everyone updated.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Delivery, Part One
I think I am ready to write a summary of events around the little one’s birth.
First, I’d like to note that at the last minute, we decided to try and hire a doula. The decision was made for multiple reasons, but basically we both saw the need for experienced, continued, one on one support during the birth. Angie’s mom was four hours away, and I felt that I was prepared for the event, but had no experience. So on the 25th, I searched for a certified doula and found one who had provided excellent information about herself and made an inquiry as to her availability. I was a little concerned whether she would be interested in assisting, since we were not allowing for the normal time to get to know each other. Fortunately, she understood the reason for our short notice and was excited about assisting us. Here I will stop and point out a couple of things. Even though our doula was last minute and had not had time to interact with us and get to know us, I cannot emphasize her help enough. Having an experienced hand to help us make informed decisions during the process was wonderful, and even though we had an excellent and pleasant doctor, and wonderfully supportive nurses, they were not able to sit next to Angie the whole time and hold her hand, and help her “dance” through contractions, and all the other things that our doula was able to do. I was a little concerned about feeling as if I were not needed since our doula was so capable, but quite the contrary, it let me feel more effective because I was able to do what Angie wanted me to do without feeling like I was ignoring something else (it can be hard to hold her hand, call her Aunt and Uncle and go to the car for the extra pillow, for example). Then you get into the statistics of having a doula and the better experience all around, from C-section to speed of labor. The bottom line is that while it does cost some money, and is likely not covered by insurance, I felt the health and happiness of Angie and baby were worth every penny, and will have one for our next child, should we have one. Our doula has enthusiastically allowed us to post her information:
http://www.infant-wisdom.com
Again it was a wonderful experience.
Back to the delivery:
The 28th had become our due date and despite my earlier concerns, I finally agreed with how they chose the date, so we dutifully went to our doctor appointment that Thursday. Angie was checked and all was well. She was 100% effaced and at about 3cm, so everything was primed. The doctor recommended “sweeping the membranes” a very non-invasive procedure designed to break the seal, so to speak, but not the amniotic fluid membranes, and encourage the release of the hormones to start labor. Angie weighed the options and decided to have it performed, and we were sent home to rest. Angie was pretty exhausted so instead of going back to work she decided to nap and I chose to keep her company. We slept most of the afternoon, then had some dinner, and went to Target for an exercise ball to use as a birth ball, something highly recommended by our doula. Later that night I decided Angie had been still and calm enough to have her body communicate what it’s plans were, so I asked her “What do you think is going to happen?” She replied “I won’t be surprised if I go into labor in the middle of the night.” I took that to mean we’d be at the hospital tomorrow. Around 10:00 pm we both wandered off to bed and as has been the trend over the last several months, Angie went into the guest room to sleep so she had some more room to spread out.
Things were quiet until 1:00 am when Angie woke me up and said she was having contractions. We had been told that the procedure done the day before could take some time and could also end up not being “the real thing”, so we decided to start timing contractions and to wait awhile. Enter: The Birth Ball. This was the single most important item for the next eight hours. Angie sat on that birth ball, like, well like she was born on it. During four hours of contractions at the house, while we waited to make sure we weren’t premature to call the hospital, Angie bounced, circled and rolled her way around the bedroom. When prompted to take a bath to relax, she couldn’t tolerate lying down, but offered the birth ball in the shower, I couldn’t get her out. I tried hard to stay awake for her and to write down all the timing information for the contractions but I would drift off only to find her asleep half on the bed, half on the ball. At about 3:30 am I called our doula to let her know we would be heading to the hospital soon-ish, a few hours, maybe less, and called my father who was eight hours away and had been adamant I call if anything was going on so they could get driving. At this opint Angie was was not interested in heading to the hospital, so we help out a little longer. At 5:30 am when I asked her if she was ready she said “yes” without hesitation, so I called our doctor, our families and our doula, and started getting the bags, the pillows and mist importantly the birth ball into the car. At 5:30, after four and a half hours of laboring at home we were on our way to the hospital, where I was sure they would send us home and tell us she was not ready.
More to come…
First, I’d like to note that at the last minute, we decided to try and hire a doula. The decision was made for multiple reasons, but basically we both saw the need for experienced, continued, one on one support during the birth. Angie’s mom was four hours away, and I felt that I was prepared for the event, but had no experience. So on the 25th, I searched for a certified doula and found one who had provided excellent information about herself and made an inquiry as to her availability. I was a little concerned whether she would be interested in assisting, since we were not allowing for the normal time to get to know each other. Fortunately, she understood the reason for our short notice and was excited about assisting us. Here I will stop and point out a couple of things. Even though our doula was last minute and had not had time to interact with us and get to know us, I cannot emphasize her help enough. Having an experienced hand to help us make informed decisions during the process was wonderful, and even though we had an excellent and pleasant doctor, and wonderfully supportive nurses, they were not able to sit next to Angie the whole time and hold her hand, and help her “dance” through contractions, and all the other things that our doula was able to do. I was a little concerned about feeling as if I were not needed since our doula was so capable, but quite the contrary, it let me feel more effective because I was able to do what Angie wanted me to do without feeling like I was ignoring something else (it can be hard to hold her hand, call her Aunt and Uncle and go to the car for the extra pillow, for example). Then you get into the statistics of having a doula and the better experience all around, from C-section to speed of labor. The bottom line is that while it does cost some money, and is likely not covered by insurance, I felt the health and happiness of Angie and baby were worth every penny, and will have one for our next child, should we have one. Our doula has enthusiastically allowed us to post her information:
http://www.infant-wisdom.com
Again it was a wonderful experience.
Back to the delivery:
The 28th had become our due date and despite my earlier concerns, I finally agreed with how they chose the date, so we dutifully went to our doctor appointment that Thursday. Angie was checked and all was well. She was 100% effaced and at about 3cm, so everything was primed. The doctor recommended “sweeping the membranes” a very non-invasive procedure designed to break the seal, so to speak, but not the amniotic fluid membranes, and encourage the release of the hormones to start labor. Angie weighed the options and decided to have it performed, and we were sent home to rest. Angie was pretty exhausted so instead of going back to work she decided to nap and I chose to keep her company. We slept most of the afternoon, then had some dinner, and went to Target for an exercise ball to use as a birth ball, something highly recommended by our doula. Later that night I decided Angie had been still and calm enough to have her body communicate what it’s plans were, so I asked her “What do you think is going to happen?” She replied “I won’t be surprised if I go into labor in the middle of the night.” I took that to mean we’d be at the hospital tomorrow. Around 10:00 pm we both wandered off to bed and as has been the trend over the last several months, Angie went into the guest room to sleep so she had some more room to spread out.
Things were quiet until 1:00 am when Angie woke me up and said she was having contractions. We had been told that the procedure done the day before could take some time and could also end up not being “the real thing”, so we decided to start timing contractions and to wait awhile. Enter: The Birth Ball. This was the single most important item for the next eight hours. Angie sat on that birth ball, like, well like she was born on it. During four hours of contractions at the house, while we waited to make sure we weren’t premature to call the hospital, Angie bounced, circled and rolled her way around the bedroom. When prompted to take a bath to relax, she couldn’t tolerate lying down, but offered the birth ball in the shower, I couldn’t get her out. I tried hard to stay awake for her and to write down all the timing information for the contractions but I would drift off only to find her asleep half on the bed, half on the ball. At about 3:30 am I called our doula to let her know we would be heading to the hospital soon-ish, a few hours, maybe less, and called my father who was eight hours away and had been adamant I call if anything was going on so they could get driving. At this opint Angie was was not interested in heading to the hospital, so we help out a little longer. At 5:30 am when I asked her if she was ready she said “yes” without hesitation, so I called our doctor, our families and our doula, and started getting the bags, the pillows and mist importantly the birth ball into the car. At 5:30, after four and a half hours of laboring at home we were on our way to the hospital, where I was sure they would send us home and tell us she was not ready.
More to come…
Saturday, September 06, 2008
Sore Wife and a few pictures
One of the reasons I have been so slow to post all the exciting details of our beautiful new baby is that, in addition to the normal exhaustion of newborn in the house, Angie had an epidural that went badly. The anesthesiologist apparently nicked the spinal sac and dosed the epidural directly to the spine fluid. This is not the normal method. In fact, only about 1 in 150 births that use epidurals have this complication. This complication ends up being essentially a spinal block. The two biggest problems are that, first, the test dose for the epidural is about 10 times stronger than the dose for a spinal block so all feeling below the block is gone for 8 to 12 hours instead of being manageable, as an epidural would. Second, the resulting leakage of spinal fluid from the spinal sac causes extreme headaches, similar to a raging migraine, and back shoulder and neck aches. So needless to say, poor Angie has been suffering. In the hospital, she received multiple morphine doses to relieve the pain, and when the head ache waned they released her on Sunday. Unfortunately, on Wednesday, the headache returned so on Thursday, after a quick checkup for the baby which went well, we went to her doctor to see what they could do. Her doctor recommended a blood patch ASAP, so off we went to hospital to have the procedure done. This is very similar in process to the epidural/spinal block, but instead, they insert some of Angie’s blood into the spinal column to assist the clotting and stop leaking. It took about two hours, and it may not solve the headaches completely, but it is the only real option. So far it has helped, but Angie is still struggling in the evenings with an aching head. I will keep you all updated.
The baby is doing well, and her baby checkup indicated she was gaining weight already. She is sleeping quite well and twenty minute crying spells are the exception not the rule. She has been a remarkably unfussy baby, and we are considering ourselves blessed, but are weary of the other shoe dropping. Here is what you came for, more pictures:
The baby is doing well, and her baby checkup indicated she was gaining weight already. She is sleeping quite well and twenty minute crying spells are the exception not the rule. She has been a remarkably unfussy baby, and we are considering ourselves blessed, but are weary of the other shoe dropping. Here is what you came for, more pictures:
Thursday, September 04, 2008
Esmé Jane Dawson
Born to us on August 29th, 2008 at 1:22 pm. Weighing in at 7 pounds 12 ounces, and 20 inches long.
Baby is doing wonderful and mother is going to be great but is still suffering from the complicated epidural. Dad, well, I am emotionally and physically spent.
Thanks to all for your thoughts and prayers, and thanks to Wilma, Dad, Rachel, Mom and Denis for your on-site support, and Julie, Gina and Daniel for your phone support. We love you all and feel so fortunate that you are in our child's life.
Again, I promise to try and get the whole story up here about our doula, labor, delivery and anesthesiologists who mysteriously retire the day after your epidural.
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