Three weeks old

Olivia is three weeks old today. Which is about the last time I updated this blog. It seems like just yesterday that I told Spencer to make an extra sandwich for her when he told me she was hungry upon our return from the hospital.

Here are some pics from the past three weeks.

GUEST BLOGGER!

I am in visiting them this weekend, and since Joyce is busy at Olivia's beck and call, I get to be her guest blogger. I learned a few things:

1) Olivia's day includes eating, sleeping, and pooping, but she really is very cute doing all of it.
2) My mother would make a very good nanny. She says she is even better than a real nanny, because not only does she take care of the baby, but she also cooks, cleans, and will put all the money back into Olivia's bank account. And - - my mother is the only person that will talk to Olivia in complete sentences.
3) Joyce has decided that every time Olivia cries, the best thing to do is to feed her - - which certainly quiets her down, but hmmmm the doctor also said that she is in th 75th percentile for weight - - we are wondering why . . .

Week one

Sorry to ruin your fun in the 'Who's our baby?' guessing game, but here are some pics of our baby (Baby #3.)

Saturday 11/10 (the day after we brought her home from the hospital)

11/15

11/15

11/15

Labor Day

As promised -- the details of Olivia's birthday...

On Tuesday at 1 am, I passed the one week anniversary of my due date. I started feeling a few promising cramps, but by that point, I regarded every minor discomfort below my ribs as the onset of labor. Not wanting to cry wolf, I didn't milk these early contractions for backrubs from Spencer.

My doctor called around noon to request that I come in for another non-stress test (NST). As previously reported, we had two earlier tests, one of which was slightly abnormal (depending on your risk tolerance as a physician.)

Alas, the baby decided to take her naptime during the 30 minute testing window. And my water broke while I was there. Which led the doctor on call (as well as my doctor) to 'highly highly recommend' that we check ourselves into the hospital Tuesday night to have my labor progress 'monitored,' and induce the following morning if nothing happened.

The thought of getting induced was a little freaky to me. And I thought I might be better off spending the evening in the comfort of my own bed rather than at the hospital. However, the redundant use of the word 'highly' caused Spencer to encourage me to check in that night.

It turns out that the doctor and I had two different notions of the word 'monitoring'. My idea of being 'monitored' meant that nurses would drop in every couple of hours to see how I was doing. What it actually meant was being hooked up to the NST monitor and an IV for the entire evening.

The Contraction Contraption

The tubes and wires rendered the time we spent in the 'Coping with labor pain' as useless (I'm glad we didn't spend $145 for the full length class). Forget walking, bouncing on the labor ball, changing positions, and taking a shower. I was pretty much limited to supportive words from my partner and massage.

I spent most of Tuesday night fussing with cables every time I needed to use the bathroom, trying not to go to the bathroom, nursing contractions (which were gradually getting more painful), and listening to multiple women screaming in agony down the hallways.

They started me on Pitocin (the labor inducing drug) at 7 am. The contractions weren't too bad until around noon, when I had to ask Spencer to get up and massage my back after each contraction. Given how hard Spencer had been working this month, this didn't seem like a feasible plan for 7 hours or even 20 minutes. (It's never a good sign when your birthing partner is more tired than you are.) I decided to order the epidural on the early side, rather than waiting for 8 cm.

I was not a happy camper getting drugs staple gunned to my back. (I remember saying, 'This hurts more than labor.') I wasn't a happy camper during the first half hour after drugs either. But it seemed to do the trick, as I reached 8 cm about 40 minutes after the epidural was installed and 10 cm by 6:30 without feeling a thing. In retrospect, I wasn't thrilled with the numbness from the epidural and might have gone with the fentanyl if I had to do it again.

The baby (a girl!) was born at 9:40 pm. That was when the room really started to buzz. There must have been 10 people in the room. The 2 labor and delivery nurses, the obstetrician, a team of people to clean the baby up, a pediatrician, the anasthesiologist, a guy taking away the medical waste, and who knows who else. And a bloody mess everywhere. Not at all like birthing is depicted in the movies.

At some point, a nurse asked me to breastfeed the baby. I think I replied 'What? Haven't I been through enough today?' But the baby was all cleaned up by then, and pretty darn cute. Spencer was there too. Somehow I made it work, and one week later, here we are with a healthy little girl at home.

Interactive Poll: Who's our baby?

Today's poll: Who's our baby? What's your best guess -- baby #1,2,3 or 4? Vote early, vote often.

Baby #1

Baby #2

Baby #3

Baby #4

It's a girl!

We had a baby girl last Wednesday night at 9:40 pm. I am of course biased, but I think she's pretty cute (picture to the left.) Look out Jessica Biel.

I wrote up a full account of our two nights in the delivery room, re-read it, decided it was way too boring and am working on a condensed version.

Wednesday night was an evening full of surprises. First of all, we were excited to learn that we had a girl (for some reason, we were convinced that it was going to be a boy.)

We also got a surprise visit from Spencer's parents, who have been fantastic about driving between Berkeley and San Jose to help us out with getting ready for the baby. We know it was a late night for them.

We got another surprise visit from a friend who lives near the hospital. She brought champagne to celebrate the occasion, although we were in no condition to drink it at that time. I think that her visit to the labor and delivery room will serve as birth control for the next 2 years.

The other big surprise is that after delivering a 7 lb 13 oz baby girl, I was able to maintain the figure of a woman who is 9 months pregnant. That's right folks, I still can't see my feet below my belly. Or the floor 6 inches in front of my feet. Spencer is surely excited about this as he will be able to continue to park in 'expectant mothers' parking when we go to Babies R'Us later this afternoon.

Heading to the hospital

Well, I'm not at the 5-1-1 stage (5 minutes apart, 1 minute each, for one hour,) but my water has broken and I've been in light labor since 1 am today. So, they've advised that I should get admitted to the hospital tonight. Hopefully we'll be able to keep y'all posted.

Poll Results

Thank you to everyone who participated in the due date poll. 24% of you correctly guessed that the baby would be born November 5 or later, hopefully the 8% who guessed a due date after the Cubs win the pennant will be incorrect.

We had a bit of an adventure on Saturday. I was scheduled for a fetal heart rate test on Saturday afternoon. I grabbed a decaf coffee at Starbucks that morning. I think they must have given me a caffeinated coffee as 2 hours later, I was totally amped. The baby was also amped. Nothing like seeing the effects of caffeine on a fetal heart rate test to make you wish you had maintained a better diet during pregnancy.

Likely due to the caffeine, the test was abnormal enough that the OB on call recommended erring on the side of caution to schedule an inducement. It was our call to make, as my ultrasound came out totally normal. But nothing like the threat of getting induced to light a fire under your arse to get moving on household preparation. I came home, did 2 loads of laundry, put away the dishes, took out the trash, and packed the hospital bags.

Spencer tried to call the doctor to get info on the test directly from the doctor (rather than my paraphrased version.) But labor and delivery docs are pretty busy. We decided to spend the night at home, as 24 hours probably wouldn't affect anything. Later that evening, the shifts rotated and the new doctor called us. Since the test was borderline, and since we preferred to not induce (at least not that night,) she approved for us to come in the following day for a repeat test. (The testing facility is normally closed on Sundays, so we were very appreciative.)

The good news is that our Sunday test was totally normal. It's not uncommon for babies to be born up to two weeks late. Now the project for us is to pick a day to accelerate the process should it not happen on its own.

Recommended reading

If you haven't read Edamames in a Pod yet, start now. While Edamames in a Pod was the motivation for getting this blog going, I maintain absolutely no pretense that this blog is as entertaining or as well written as Scott's blog. I was trained as an economist, for crying out loud.

Nothing to report

We went to the doctor today, nothing new to report. While we could schedule to be induced any time after the 5th, she's comfortable with waiting until the 12th. But who knows, anything could happen between now and next week.