July 30, 2008
What kids say or Those were the days.
I was reading about Everday News' majestic experience and thought about how my first brood of children used to ask me for permission to do or have something.
It went something like this: Please most perfect father in the whole, wide world who is very, very handsome and is the king of the queen and is never, never wrong and always, always right...please may I "insert request here" and then wait in anticipation for my answer.
Over the years more things got added in terms of me being a black belt and having proficiency with different weapons...all with the idea being to flatter me into saying yes.
That's pretty much gone by the wayside now but I remember the days of adoration with a twinge of nostalgia for when things were much easier.
July 21, 2008
Baby stuff or It was a dark and stormy night.
Well, it wasn't actually dark or stormy...it was sunny and hot on July 11th and PW felt a little like she did when her blood pressure went up during a previous pregnancy. We took her BP at home and it was high so we made an appointment with the OB office to have her checked.
She was a week overdue and her BP in the office was 144/102, definitely high enough to require a trip to the hospital and a comfy bed in the birthing center. This was around 4:00 in the afternoon.
We got settled in the room and they did an immediate assessment to make sure that the baby was ok and then talked about induction. They started with a Miso pill that was inserted "you know where" and required PW to stay in bed for two hours. After that she could get up and walk around. They did another pill four hours later and by that time it was getting to be pretty late and I was beat.
The doctor assured us that nothing was going to happen that night and I decided to go home to sleep because they were going to give PW something to help her sleep too.
I woke up a little after 5am to the sound of my phone chirping because of a text message. I had missed 8 phone calls because I had been sound asleep and never heard the phone ring! Contractions had been happening since around midnight but go more intense at around 5am. I told PW that I would take a quick shower and then be right there.
I called her when I was on the road and she gasped, "I can't talk right now, this is really bad!" before hanging up. I drove much faster and raced into the hospital to find her in the midst of a contraction at around 5:30am. The nurse and doctor told me that she was still at 1cm (had been that way for over a week) and they wanted to give her some pain medication so that she could cope with the contractions until they were more productive.
All PW wanted to talk about was an epidural but they told her that wasn't a consideration until she was at least 4cm dilated. She kept having intense contractions so they checked her again before deciding on the pain meds and she was suddenly 5cm! They told her that now she could have an epidural and moved us across the hallway to a birthing room.
They came in with the IV pole and went about starting the IV while she was having one intense contraction after another. They said that the anesthesiologist had been contacted and would be there shortly. The doctor checked her again and told her that she was 10cm!
At this point PW said, "Can I push?!!?" and when she was told yes she wailed, "I can't!"
The nurses were awesome with getting her to focus and breathe and when PW realized that the only relief from the pain was going to be had by pushing and getting the baby out she pushed with all she had.
Our little boy was born at 6:36am, not even an hour after I arrived, and I got to cut his umbilical cord and feed him his first bottle.
I am so proud of PW! I know that it must have been so scary and painful but she did what she needed to do and brought our baby into the world.
So, now our baby brings our total of kids up to seven and has added to our lives already!
The last two nights he has slept from 10:30pm until 4:30am so we are getting a chance to rest and recover from the whole process.
July 15, 2008
Here's Here!
He was born on Saturday at 6:26am and was 8lbs, 1oz and 21 inches long. He came home yesterday and we had a good first night together.
Mommy is doing well after a short, but difficult, labor. Daddy is taking care of the cooking, cleaning, laundry, dog-walking, etc. so that she can rest and recover.
July 02, 2008
Eating breakfast or Dang! I drew the short straw!
PW had a craving for IHOP the other morning so we drove over and marveled at how filled the parking lot was at 10am.
We had just gotten seated when a party of 9 got seated nearby: grandma, grandpa, daughters, sons-in-law, teenaged boy, 6-ish girl, and a baby that was 4 months old.
There was a lot of shuffling around but they finally got all settled and ordered their breakfasts...and then all got up and left for a smoke break. We knew the new mother was a smoker because she had the baby carrier in one hand when she walked in and two packs of smokes in the other.
I looked back and the only ones left at the table were grandma, the teen boy, young girl, and the baby. I wondered out loud to PW if grandma had given up smoking or if she drew the short straw.
It wasn't long before we heard grandma ask the little girl if she wanted to hold the baby and then she bolted for the door to have her break too. They were all gathered just outside the entrance happily puffing away as we left the restaurant.
I heard them say that they were from FL and so an IHOP without a smoking section probably seemed weird to them but boy, am I glad ours doesn't have one!
No news or Missed my target date.
When we found out PW was pregnant I decided it would be wicked cool if our new baby was born on Canada Day.
He wasn't and PW greeted today with an "Oh F---!" to describe how she feels about still being pregnant. She actually filled in the --- while I decided it wasn't worth the visits I'd be sure to get with "pregnant" and "F" in the same entry...and now I said entry...*sigh* who knows what that will bring my way!