Just Chillin'

I know, I know... but we didn't pose him. Really.

This week's admirers

Tia Nettie, who wept the moment she laid eyes on our little guy.

And Tio Andy, who although I didn't actually see him tear up, seemed quite taken.
The next day it was Grampa, who had to be reminded to hug and kiss Mummy and Mommy before grabbing his grandson and making googly eyes.

And Cousin Joey, all tanned and freckled after a summer working on the beach, happy to finally have a young cousin to corrupt, er, play with. (Nice t-shirt, btw, Joe.)

And finally, Uncle Jacob, who grinned this broadly *before* being asked to be Asa's godfather. The smile afterwards was blinding. (Good luck, Uncle Jacob, as you begin your Ph.D. program. We love you!)

Thanks to everyone who's come by, and to everyone who has restrained themselves. I can't tell you how much we appreciate everyone's understanding that we both love having people meet our little Bean, and that we need rest and family-time. We are so lucky to have such great friends and family!

High-Tech Boy!

Cordless!

The newest kitten?

That's how we explained it to the kitties.

We were very interested to see how our three felines would react. From various folks, we'd pretty much heard all about how to prepare a dog. We'd also heard that preparing a cat is an exercise in futility. When we thought Asa would come on time, we'd talked about bringing home a receiving blanket, so they'd know his scent. But things turned out differently, and we just arrived with the car seat.

Oliver seemed to be fine with the whole situation. She usually sleeps on my pillow, but spent the whole first night tiptoeing over M.'s head to check on the newcomer. Just sniffs, no trying to climb into the co-sleeper or anything. Since then, scritches and cuddles have been known to happen simultaneously (even on the kitchen floor still in my pj's.)

Luna... well, she decided a couple weeks ago that the changing pad was the *ideal* new sleeping spot. Asa's arrival hasn't changed that. Fortunately, he's still small enough that he doesn't take up much of the pad, so there's room for two.

And Gracey... well, I'd photograph her reaction, but this is a family blog, and I don't want to be flagged for obscene content. She'll get over it.

Jiggity Jig

Home again, home again, and Mummy is blogging again... albeit with a twist.
It was a fairly easy drive home, and Asa slept the whole way, like the champ he is. We fed him right before leaving, and got in just in time for his next feeding. Along the way, he did experience his first-ever back-seat diaper change, at a rest area on the Mass Pike.

Yesterday afternoon, it was time for Mummy and Mommy's first attempt at a baby sponge bath. Thank you to the nurses who'd taken care of that for us! Asa didn't seem to mind too much - he only fussed for a minute, and then became very interested in the goings-on around him. This is not uncommon for our little guy - he's a lot more alert than I'd expected a newborn to be, and if I didn't know better, I'd swear he could see more than eight inches.

And, if that weren't reason enough to be smitten, get a load of the curls when his hair is wet!

Asa also has a fondness for fabric - his sleeves and collar are often wet because he chews on them. Froggie towels are yummy, too... Granna Kate, is this a variant of my infant "frog legs" shot?

All in all, we're doing pretty well back home. Reality is sinking in, and it's wonderful.

Homeward Bound

Homeward bound, I wish I was...

Homeward bound...

Home, where my thought's escaping...

Home, where my music's playing...
Home, where my love lies waiting silently for me.

(from the top, the ceremonial removal of hospital ID bracelets; sitting in the kitchen with Grandma; hanging in the living room with Mommy and Mummy. Grandma and Poppy's today, home on Monday. What a week it's been.)

We got us!

Here's a glimpse into our babymoon in the NICU family room. Special thanks to Grammy Linda for capturing the moment.

Babymoon

Babymoon n. A neologism for the last vacation time that expectant parents take before the arrival of their child, i.e. the calm before the storm.

This is what these two weeks were supposed to be for us. Vacation time after the end of my internship and before the arrival of the Bean. Turns out Asa had other ideas. So I would like to propose to the writers of all of these fad pregnancy magazines that churn out cutesy neologisms a redefinition.

Babymoon n. The time that new parents get to spend with their child just cooing, kissing and snuggling, before the crush of day-to-day responsibilities sinks back in.

That's what we've had with Asa this week - hours of time in the "Family Room" at the end of the nursery complex. The doctors and nurses can still monitor him - how much he's eating, what the jaundice is doing - but we're mostly left alone to just revel in the softness of baby skin and the scent of newborn hair.


Grandma and Poppy come by every night with dinner for the moms (THANK YOU!!) and we sometimes get other folks as well - like Grammy Linda.

In other news, our boy is doing great and we hope to be able to take him home really soon!

Asa's arrival, part two

First, a picture to whet the appetite:Now then, where were we?

Ah, yes.

Do you know what that sound is, Highness? Those are the shrieking eels...

Oh... sorry. Wrong story.

So M. had been in labor for 47 3/4 hours, she was finally dilated, and the room was full of people. Because of the epidural, she couldn't feel the contractions, so we had to wait until one showed up on the monitor for her to push. Made for some interesting breaks in the action. But it only too two big pushes, and out he came, our little boy. Specifically, our little boy blue. The OB asked if I wanted to cut the cord, and as I moved down I noticed something odd about the umbilical cord, but didn't think much beyond cutting. (Note: by this point, he hadn't made a peep.) Someone got him over to the warming pad and the neonatologist and the nursery nurse spent several eternal minutes suctioning and rubbing him. He pinked up pretty quickly, but never did much more than whimper. Talk about the longest couple minutes of our lives. Finally, we got to hold him, not for nearly long enough, but still... at that point, we knew it would all be okay.

During the pinking of the boy, the OB was getting M. stitched up and put back together. Finally, he held up the umbilical cord. "I think this might be the reason you went into early labor," he said, and we saw a perfect single knot, loosely tied, in the cord. A true knot, the doctor said, and only the second one he'd ever seen. Talented kid, our Asa, and a sailor born, apparently.

After just a few minutes, Asa and I went up with the nurse to the nursery, stopping briefly in the waiting room to see Grandma, Poppy and Uncle Spaghetti. They cried and cooed, and remarked on the amazing similarities to M.'s birth - right down to the weight, as she was also 5lbs 13oz.

By morning, Asa was in the NICU, because his blood sugar was so low. He had an IV, and very soon thereafter, a gavage tube - after two days in labor, he was just too tired to eat.

That was Sunday afternoon. Since then, he has made great strides. He's met most of his Mommy's family, including good snuggles with Grandma and Poppy...
And Uncle Spaghetti.

Yesterday, his blood sugar was so good that the IV was discontinued. Last night, he pulled the gavage tube clear out, and they opted not to put it back in. He's been a much better eater, mostly by bottle until Mommy's milk comes in.

He did get a little jaundiced today, which is almost par for the course for a pre-term baby. Rather than putting him in an isolette, they just slipped a "bili blanket" into his onesie. Result? Our very own firefly. (M. will forgive me for the awful picture, I hope.)

So here's our Bean, our adorable little Asa. He didn't come where or when we'd planned it, but he's here and we couldn't be happier.

Asa's arrival, intermezzo

We were without power at the house last night, so I don't have more of the story for you yet, but here's something to tide y'all over. Thanks, Auntie Jen!

Asa's arrival, part one

So as y'all know, our little Bean wasn't due for another 4 weeks... We had made our way up to M.'s parents for a family shower, with the blessing of our OB team at home. (We were also planning to spend this coming week on Block Island, and I know Beth is breathing a HUGE sigh of relief!)

Thursday morning, M. decided that we should go out on a date night. So we went up to Saratoga Springs, about 20 minutes away, and had a wonderful dinner, and then went to Caffe Lena, one of the pillars of the folk circuit - for me, almost a place of pilgrimmage. We'd only been there about 10 minutes when M. suggested we go home. Now, she'd been having "practice contractions" for about three weeks, but these were a little more painful and a little more regular. We called our doctor in Attleboro, who suggested rest and a hot shower, and told us to go to the hospital here if we really felt that she was in labor. So we got back to her parents' house, and she took a hot shower... and suddenly called out. I ran, and she was standing there, looking down, and saying "I don't think that was shower water."

Into the car we all piled, and headed for the local hospital... which doesn't do deliveries, it turns out. So we were sent on to the women's health center one town over, where M. was rushed into Labor and Delivery. The nurses checked, and verified that it was, indeed, amniotic fluid. By this point, M. was having contractions about every 2-4 minutes and was 2cm dilated. Great. Her parents went home, and I promised a phone call in the morning with good news.

Silly me.

After having regular, fairly strong contractions all night, morning came and.... nothing. No progress on dilation, and soon no more contractions. (apparently, the body doesn't actually like to go into labor this early. Figures.) So we watched TV... and played cards... and walked the halls... and napped... We couldn't go home because her water had broken, but nothing was happening.

Her Mom stopped by during the day with snacks and clothes for us, and a deck of playing cards. And the nurses took super care of us, making sure we both ate. But it was a long and boring day.

The OB said he wanted to wait 24 hours after the rupture of membranes to induce, in the hope that the body would just go naturally into labor. So at the end of 24 hours, he came in with a nurse and a resident and a little tiny pill - not Pitocin. Four hours later, they came in, woke us up, and administered another dose. Three hours after that, labor resumed. But by this point (Saturday, mind you - it had already been thirty hours) M. was exhausted, and although she was really coping beautifully with some very intense contractions, she was just done.




It wasn't either of our first choice, but it made for a very happy, very much less exhausted Mommy.

Now, it's possible that the epidural slowed things down, although she hadn't been progressing very quickly even before it was administered. From about 2pm until about 9:15pm, she stayed at about 4cm. Once again, we were watching TV, playing cards, receiving texts from worried family... or, I should say, I was doing all that. M. was napping. Another looooong day.

Late in the afternoon, the fetal heartrate began to go haywire, dipping drastically and then soaring. The nurses kept M. on her left side for as long as possible, that being where the baby seemed happiest. Still, without progress, there wasn't much to do, and the warming station in the room seemed almost mocking.

It got to the point where one of the nurses mentioned the possibility of a c-section. That one really wasn't in the game plan (like any of what happened actually was in the game plan...). A few minutes later the doctor came in, looking very sober. He checked M.'s dilation and looked stunned. In 15 minutes she had gone from 4 to 9cm. It was just about the best news EVER.


He gave her about an hour to dilate that last centimeter, but finally said to just push... and she did give one mighty push, at which point the doctor realized that he wasn't wearing scrubs... oops. Suddenly, the room was abuzz - everyone scrubbing, gowning up, calling the nursery, taking places...

And that's the story of the labor. I'll tell the birth story tomorrow, but it's now 10:40pm, Asa is 24 hours old, and Mummy is fried. So:

to be continued....

Welcome, Asa!

We all love you sooooo much!

(Full story when Mummy isn't rushing off to the hospital to be with you.)

The Internship is Over...

Let the nesting begin!

For the record, I am not the only one nesting. M. simply chooses to do her scrubbing when I (the usual photographer) am not present. Imagine that.