Friday, January 28, 2011
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Announcing Owen! & Worst mom of the year awards...
As usual, Jenn's photographs turned out amazing! Here's Owen's birth announcement. I'll post photos from the session soon.
In other news, we continued to try to put Collin down for a nap by himself yesterday. Well, after 30 minutes of crying, I couldn't figure out what the problem was, as on Tuesday it took less time than Monday, so on Wednesday I was expecting just 10 minutes of breaking my heart or so. While preventing myself from crying and simultaneously trying to glue myself to the chair, I couldn't take it any longer-- so I went into his room.
There was Collin, crying, saying, "momma" in his saddest voice, with PUKE all over him and on the crib rail, bumper, floor etc. That's right folks. This mom let her kid cry until he puked and then left him to stand near it/in it for who knows how long while I tried desperately to IGNORE him.
Imagine this face, tear stained, with puke stuck to it, pouty lip yelling, "MOMMA!" as if its the worst tragedy of his life.
WORST. MOM. EVER.
SERIOUSLY.
After I went in I cleaned him up and then took him up to our room to lay on our bed with me and we curled up together, I cursed sleep-training, and he fell asleep in my arms.
Epic FAIL.
Trying to figure out option B now, we'll see how Thursday goes....
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Swimming!
To help give Collin the one-on-one attention he needs while we are adjusting to Owen's schedule (and entrance into our lives) I signed Collin up for swimming class with Drew on Saturday mornings. Collin generally loves the pool, so this seemed to be a no-brainer. Since the Little Gym closed up shop I wanted to put him in something that would be just as demanding physically to help wear him out and swimming fit the bill.
After the first class Drew happily reported that Collin loved it. Since then he's been having a blast swimming with friends in the Fairview pool and getting to spend some much needed one-on-one time with daddy.
3 weeks!
Another week has passed and here we are, Owen is a whole 21 days old and we're starting to get into a rhythm. I think part of my struggle with our schedule and learning how to meet Owen's needs stemmed from thinking back to how things were with Collin. With Collin we were on a schedule rather quickly and I was expecting that with Owen, but it hasn't been quite the case. Granted we are getting on a schedule of sorts now, but its quite different. About the middle of week two I convinced myself to let go of any pre-conceived notions about what to expect and just went with it. It turns out life got a whole lot easier when I gave up the OCD-make-my-life-a-timetable-with-corresponding-bullets tendencies.
Owen is an overwhelmingly easy baby. I don't know why I haven't appreciated this before now. Its unfortunate. I was so busy trying to get Owen to be on Collin's old schedule that I seemed to have overlooked that he's about as easy of a baby as they come.
Lets talk about Owen's easy baby-ness a bit more. Like, for example, Owen doesn't have the "fussy" time that Collin had starting at about 2 and a half weeks. He doesn't really even cry unless we get him undressed or change his diaper (both of which he hates). He's still super sleepy (maybe because he was born three weeks early?), or just takes after his momma and loves to sleep. Or maybe its because we are in the frozen tundra of Minnesota and there isn't anything better to do besides sleep???
Owen's also happy to hang out in the swing, the crib, the cradle, his bassinet, etc. This kiddo really is okay with not being held 24/7, which seems so strange to me, because with Collin we had to hold him ALL THE TIME.
He doesn't quite sleep through the night, but one night he slept from about 10 pm to 3:30 in the morning. I couldn't believe it (I actually was a bit worried!), and otherwise he does well with eating and going right back to sleep. Its not too difficult to get up with him, as we're using a co-sleeper bassinet for him right now, so I don't actually have to get out of bed and he's pretty much amenable to me moving him around throughout the night as long as I don't make him cold by leaving him without a diaper for too long.
He tolerates Collin's hugs and kisses and has yet to make a sad face or fuss when Collin kisses him a little too hard or hugs him a bit too much.
He's almost like a little doll, the way he sleeps, so soundly in my arms (or in the swing, bassinet etc.). He's so incredibly precious and easy to handle, incredibly so, almost like he's giving us a break in light of still having to chase a toddler around.
He also smiles a lot, which is so darn cute. I realize its just gas and not a social smile, but its still adorable. Sometimes its like he's having a fantastic dream, he'll be sleeping and all of the sudden this tiny little beaming smile will appear on his face. So cute! Collin was Mr. Serious for the first 8 weeks or so, and wouldn't crack a smile, gas, social or otherwise to save his life.
Owen has some unique skills too. For example, he has incredible trajectory. This past week we had Owen circumcised, which broke my heart to hear him cry (because he does so rarely), and since then he's been showing off his peeing skills. If we leave the diaper off for even a moment too long then away he goes, like a sprinkler. Today he was laying on the changing table and peed and hit the crib, about 4 feet away. Seriously, this kid could put somebody's eye out.
Along with circumcision we've been battling colds at our house (again, everyone but me), and its made me desperately afraid of RSV. First Drew got the cold, so I sent him straight away to get Airborne to hopefully stop the cold dead in its tracks, and luckily I think that it's at least shortened the life of Drew's cold, but then today Collin woke up with a runny nose (read: faucet of snot) and watery eyes. This makes me even more paranoid because he wants to kiss and hug Owen so much. As most new parents know, newborns are not supposed to cough, and over the past three days he's probably coughed 8 times, which makes me a bit more worried and anxious. I'm watching him like a hawk and hopefully this little guy weathers his first bout with germs well and doesn't get sick.
I suppose this all goes to show how much a season makes a difference. Having a baby in the middle of the dead of winter has been totally different. We can't really go anywhere because I'm afraid of germs with Owen, since he's not even a month old yet (not to mention the high last week was around -15), and we don't exactly have an enormous house, so its not like you can run off steam on an indoor track or anything. January makes for feeling cooped up, introducing germs WAY earlier than I had hoped (Collin didn't get his first cold until something like 11 months or so!), and generally going day to day with a slight dose of seasonal affective disorder (self diagnosed, of course :)
So this week I've been a bit of a maniac, chasing people around the house with hand sanitizer, checking and double checking that hands have been washed and that no unnecessary kisses are coming near Owen, while following Collin with a case of "Boogie wipes" (saline wipes so that his nose doesn't get raw) to prevent the faucet from filling our house with snot residue. I'm like the germ Nazi, its true.
I've also learned that I'll have to just make due with this whole "Old Man Winter" thing. Once Owen's old enough I plan to get out of the house every single day. Its too much to be all cooped up all the time.
This week I've also discovered that it will eventually be impossible to put two boys down for naps at once without one crying. Up until this week I still liked to rock Collin to sleep for nap. YES, I KNOW. I shouldn't do this. BUT, its one of the only times that I get to have time alone with Collin and he loves to cuddle. Its so perfect to have him cuddle in and fall asleep in my arms. This worked well up until now, because it used to just take 15 minutes to rock him to sleep and put him in his crib. But, now, every time he hears Owen make a peep he perks up and says "Owen" meaning it takes oh, about a half hour to put him down. So, now if I kept this up I'd have to leave Owen in his crib alone for a half hour. I'm pretty sure eventually Owen won't tolerate this very well, so on Monday we started training Collin to put himself to sleep on his own in his crib for nap time. It was HEART-WRENCHING the first day and took 20 minutes for him to go to sleep. Today (day two) it took much less "MOMMA!!! MOMMA!!!" and he was asleep in about 15 minutes. Hopefully tomorrow it will be even less time. The current problem is that usually Collin sleeps for about 3 hours, and the last two days its been about 1.5 hours. I'm hoping this has more to do with not being able to breathe well because of his cold than his new nap time routine.
In other news, he gave up the night wakenings and is back to sleeping through the night! Hooray (although, as I type this at 8:30 pm he has woken up and is currently being rocked back to sleep by Drew- I'm pretty sure its because he's so congested that he can't breathe very well).
Lately I've been feeling guilty about not getting to spend as much time with Collin as I would like. It seems like everyday by the time I get things settled with Owen, Collin's having lunch and heading off to nap time. I'm hoping our routine works out so that I can spend time in the mornings playing with Collin while Owen takes a morning nap, but again, I'm not really sure how it will all happen, as we're just going with the flow right now.
So, everyday we try to figure out how the schedule will look, if Owen will be on a 3 hour feeding schedule or 2.5, if Collin's nap will be long enough, if the weather will be so cold that we can't even make it to the mailbox without the snot in our noses freezing like little icicles....We make do, we play with playdough and toys, color, paint... (did I mention we're doing this all without TV? Drew and I are still adamant about not letting either boy see/watch/become mesmerized with the TV until they are 3 or 4 or something much older than 20 months....)
And now that I've given up all my crazies about the whole situation, the outlook isn't half bad. In fact there was at least two moments today when I was home, by myself, with both boys and I thought, this is nice. I love these boys so much, and I'm right where I should be.
Ah, motherhood. How a week can make such a difference....
Owen is an overwhelmingly easy baby. I don't know why I haven't appreciated this before now. Its unfortunate. I was so busy trying to get Owen to be on Collin's old schedule that I seemed to have overlooked that he's about as easy of a baby as they come.
Lets talk about Owen's easy baby-ness a bit more. Like, for example, Owen doesn't have the "fussy" time that Collin had starting at about 2 and a half weeks. He doesn't really even cry unless we get him undressed or change his diaper (both of which he hates). He's still super sleepy (maybe because he was born three weeks early?), or just takes after his momma and loves to sleep. Or maybe its because we are in the frozen tundra of Minnesota and there isn't anything better to do besides sleep???
Owen's also happy to hang out in the swing, the crib, the cradle, his bassinet, etc. This kiddo really is okay with not being held 24/7, which seems so strange to me, because with Collin we had to hold him ALL THE TIME.
He doesn't quite sleep through the night, but one night he slept from about 10 pm to 3:30 in the morning. I couldn't believe it (I actually was a bit worried!), and otherwise he does well with eating and going right back to sleep. Its not too difficult to get up with him, as we're using a co-sleeper bassinet for him right now, so I don't actually have to get out of bed and he's pretty much amenable to me moving him around throughout the night as long as I don't make him cold by leaving him without a diaper for too long.
He tolerates Collin's hugs and kisses and has yet to make a sad face or fuss when Collin kisses him a little too hard or hugs him a bit too much.
He's almost like a little doll, the way he sleeps, so soundly in my arms (or in the swing, bassinet etc.). He's so incredibly precious and easy to handle, incredibly so, almost like he's giving us a break in light of still having to chase a toddler around.
He also smiles a lot, which is so darn cute. I realize its just gas and not a social smile, but its still adorable. Sometimes its like he's having a fantastic dream, he'll be sleeping and all of the sudden this tiny little beaming smile will appear on his face. So cute! Collin was Mr. Serious for the first 8 weeks or so, and wouldn't crack a smile, gas, social or otherwise to save his life.
Owen has some unique skills too. For example, he has incredible trajectory. This past week we had Owen circumcised, which broke my heart to hear him cry (because he does so rarely), and since then he's been showing off his peeing skills. If we leave the diaper off for even a moment too long then away he goes, like a sprinkler. Today he was laying on the changing table and peed and hit the crib, about 4 feet away. Seriously, this kid could put somebody's eye out.
Along with circumcision we've been battling colds at our house (again, everyone but me), and its made me desperately afraid of RSV. First Drew got the cold, so I sent him straight away to get Airborne to hopefully stop the cold dead in its tracks, and luckily I think that it's at least shortened the life of Drew's cold, but then today Collin woke up with a runny nose (read: faucet of snot) and watery eyes. This makes me even more paranoid because he wants to kiss and hug Owen so much. As most new parents know, newborns are not supposed to cough, and over the past three days he's probably coughed 8 times, which makes me a bit more worried and anxious. I'm watching him like a hawk and hopefully this little guy weathers his first bout with germs well and doesn't get sick.
I suppose this all goes to show how much a season makes a difference. Having a baby in the middle of the dead of winter has been totally different. We can't really go anywhere because I'm afraid of germs with Owen, since he's not even a month old yet (not to mention the high last week was around -15), and we don't exactly have an enormous house, so its not like you can run off steam on an indoor track or anything. January makes for feeling cooped up, introducing germs WAY earlier than I had hoped (Collin didn't get his first cold until something like 11 months or so!), and generally going day to day with a slight dose of seasonal affective disorder (self diagnosed, of course :)
So this week I've been a bit of a maniac, chasing people around the house with hand sanitizer, checking and double checking that hands have been washed and that no unnecessary kisses are coming near Owen, while following Collin with a case of "Boogie wipes" (saline wipes so that his nose doesn't get raw) to prevent the faucet from filling our house with snot residue. I'm like the germ Nazi, its true.
I've also learned that I'll have to just make due with this whole "Old Man Winter" thing. Once Owen's old enough I plan to get out of the house every single day. Its too much to be all cooped up all the time.
This week I've also discovered that it will eventually be impossible to put two boys down for naps at once without one crying. Up until this week I still liked to rock Collin to sleep for nap. YES, I KNOW. I shouldn't do this. BUT, its one of the only times that I get to have time alone with Collin and he loves to cuddle. Its so perfect to have him cuddle in and fall asleep in my arms. This worked well up until now, because it used to just take 15 minutes to rock him to sleep and put him in his crib. But, now, every time he hears Owen make a peep he perks up and says "Owen" meaning it takes oh, about a half hour to put him down. So, now if I kept this up I'd have to leave Owen in his crib alone for a half hour. I'm pretty sure eventually Owen won't tolerate this very well, so on Monday we started training Collin to put himself to sleep on his own in his crib for nap time. It was HEART-WRENCHING the first day and took 20 minutes for him to go to sleep. Today (day two) it took much less "MOMMA!!! MOMMA!!!" and he was asleep in about 15 minutes. Hopefully tomorrow it will be even less time. The current problem is that usually Collin sleeps for about 3 hours, and the last two days its been about 1.5 hours. I'm hoping this has more to do with not being able to breathe well because of his cold than his new nap time routine.
In other news, he gave up the night wakenings and is back to sleeping through the night! Hooray (although, as I type this at 8:30 pm he has woken up and is currently being rocked back to sleep by Drew- I'm pretty sure its because he's so congested that he can't breathe very well).
Lately I've been feeling guilty about not getting to spend as much time with Collin as I would like. It seems like everyday by the time I get things settled with Owen, Collin's having lunch and heading off to nap time. I'm hoping our routine works out so that I can spend time in the mornings playing with Collin while Owen takes a morning nap, but again, I'm not really sure how it will all happen, as we're just going with the flow right now.
So, everyday we try to figure out how the schedule will look, if Owen will be on a 3 hour feeding schedule or 2.5, if Collin's nap will be long enough, if the weather will be so cold that we can't even make it to the mailbox without the snot in our noses freezing like little icicles....We make do, we play with playdough and toys, color, paint... (did I mention we're doing this all without TV? Drew and I are still adamant about not letting either boy see/watch/become mesmerized with the TV until they are 3 or 4 or something much older than 20 months....)
And now that I've given up all my crazies about the whole situation, the outlook isn't half bad. In fact there was at least two moments today when I was home, by myself, with both boys and I thought, this is nice. I love these boys so much, and I'm right where I should be.
Ah, motherhood. How a week can make such a difference....
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Two weeks of Owen
Well, here we are, two weeks into Owen's little life and we're still adjust and learning from him. Owen is such a precious baby, but delivering early seems to have made a dramatic effect on his adjustment to this world. Making his way into this world at 37 weeks, it seems like Owen still clings to his patterns from being tucked neatly inside. He loves to keep his arms and legs all balled up tightly and still is on an inconsistent schedule.
I remember having Collin and settling into a pattern rather quickly- steadily eating every 3 hours, and sleeping during the evenings. With Owen it seems like I'm grasping at straws, just trying to get through the day. Whoever said having just one baby was difficult to handle was absolutely crazy. I mean seriously, one baby seems like a walk in the park compared to wrangling a toddler and a baby all at once.
Owen is such a good baby, which makes me feel a bit like a bad parent because he's already preparing for a life with much less constant attention than Collin had. Now that there are two little boys, my time is much more precious with each of them. Owen rarely cries and is happy to sit in the swing, cradle or crib with only a few peeps here and there. He loves to be held at night though, so we are are still trying to figure out how to get him to sleep in the bassinet. As a result we've sort of defaulted to co-sleeping, which makes me uber paranoid and anxious, so we bought a type of Moses basket made to go inside an adult bed. This makes me feel a little bit better, but I'm still very anxious about the transition back to the bassinet and eventually crib.Having Owen around has added a whole new dynamic to our family. Its drawn out a tremendous amount of love in Collin, who doesn't seem to be jealous or upset about the transition of attention. Instead he spends his time constantly saying, "Hi Owen!" and saying "hug, hug Owen!, hug!". Its adorable how much love he has to share.
Its hard to believe that my original due date is tomorrow (1/20/11) and Owen has been here two whole weeks already. So much has changed in our lives in so little time, amazingly exhausting and exhilarating us all at the same time. As Owen was welcomed home, Collin, in his one opportunity to exude power, decided that sleeping through the night was not quite his bowl of cherries, and so, in addition to being up with Owen we were up with Collin at two and three hour stretches. We're still trying to figure the toddler sleeplessness out, battling if its worth it to try to re-sleep train him now, so early in the upheavel of his life, or if we should wait until Owen's been around a bit longer before making such abrupt changes in Collin's life again. It's hard for me to determine if the lack of sleep or the dramatic changes in Collin's life are more challenging for him.... Any suggestions out there???
So, in comparison, here's how the CRAZY at our house goes these days.
Hold that thought- actually, I should preface this by saying that I really have no idea what our schedule will be like, as we still aren't quite on our own yet. We still have Drew's mom staying with us for another week, so the crazy around here is likely to get a lot more crazy in a few weeks.
Anyway....
We try to wake up around 8. Collin gets up around 7. This is where my biggest challenge is going to be as currently Drew's mom has been getting up with Collin and getting him breakfast, and I've been getting up with Owen a bit later. That won't be the case when its just me again, I'll have to get up at 7 again, which is no fun and a bit intimidating. Maybe I was crazy thinking this was a good idea- you know having two kids under 2.
9:00 Owen eats. He's a good eater and has finally started gaining weight. He's 6 pounds and 13 ounces today, up from his low of 6 pounds 0 ounces when he had just arrived home. He's a whole 7 pounds past his birth weight, and is now the weight Collin was when he arrived. I'm barely awake, have awful breath and generally perusing the house in my robe. There's no way I'm ready to go anywhere. I think, how on earth will I be ready to go to ECFE on Fridays by 9???? Its going to be IMPOSSIBLE!?!? I hope I figure it out!
10-11:00 play with Collin, try to clean up a little. If I've learned anything in having two little boys, its that cleaning has certainly went out the window. I'm lucky if I get dressed before noon with these guys. I stare at the cobwebs that magically appeared since yesterday. Is it possible the spiders will take over our house?
11:00-12:00 get Collin lunch, feed Owen, lay Owen in his crib (cross my fingers that he won't cry and scream) while I get Collin settled in for a nap. I wish we all could take a nap, but if I fall asleep now Owen will miss a feeding...oh, when will I ever get to sleep?????
12:00-3:00 hang out with Owen while Collin naps and Drew comes home. Hooray! We're one-on-one again. Owen gets sleepy in the afternoon and still hasn't "woken up" yet, he still sleeps the majority of the day. He sleeps in the swing, or little bouncy seat, or in his crib while I try to maybe brush my teeth so Drew doesn't think that I just rolled out of bed (because its likely I'm still in my robe). I'm thinking, how did I do this so well as a nanny and now can't get through the day with just two kids????
3:00 who ever would have guessed?- wake Owen up and feed Owen again. Welcome to the milk bar.
3:30- Collin's snack. I contain him in the high chair and contain Owen in the bouncy chair and smile. Everybody is happy, briefly. Maybe I can take a shower while Drew watches them???
4:00-5:00 try to clean up (second attempt :)- maybe make a bed, get a few toys picked up, get dinner ready, play with the boys a bit.
5:30-6:00 Get Collin dinner. Things are starting to calm down a bit. Hooray.
6:00-7:00 Get Collin ready for bed (bath, stories etc.), feed Owen again. Maybe relax? Is that possible right now?
7:00-9:00 Hang out with Owen, do the tiny bit of home chores I have a window of opportunity to tackle, but continue to be way behind :). Oh, we're always behind.
9:00- feed owen again and start to get ready for bed. Read: start to get ready to be up all night.
10:00- try to go to bed and get a bit of sleep. ha ha. That was a joke.
12:00- change and feed Owen again. wander back towards the bed and hope that I land on the mattress while carefully placing Collin in the Moses basket.
sometime bewteen 12:00 and 3- Collin wakes up, one of us sits with him and rocks while making every effort to will him back to sleep. Hopefully he goes back to sleep, but sometimes he doesn't for 2 hours or more!!
3:00- wake back up (or maybe I never went to sleep?), change and feed Owen again.
3:00 to 6:00- try to sleep, usually with Owen by my side, co-sleeping. Who am I? When did I become a co-sleeping momma? Did I dream this whole thing up?
6:00-8:00. The only time that we actually both sleep well and I don't have to worry about Collin (because his grandma has him, but this little bit of happiness will dissapear in about a week). So, a teeny tiny bit of rest, then it all starts again.
I lOVE motherhood. Can you tell?
Really though, in all seriousness, double the fun= double the trouble, but I wouldn't change it for anything. I love these boys so incredibly much. I didn't realize I had this much room in my heart for two little boys, but Owen has carved out his own little place that seems to be an endless container. He's so new and so little, but I can't image my life without him already. He's precious and perfect and we couldn't ask for anything more.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Owen has arrived
So on the 29th of December we found out that the little Kung Fu fighter inside Alisha's belly, who had been head down the whole pregnancy, thought that his mom and dad were a little too relaxed about his upcoming arrival. At the baby check up we were informed that he had flipped himself and was now breech. The doctor informed us that because Alisha was just shy of 37 weeks that she was at an ideal time for them to attempt a procedure to rotate Owen and reposition him head down but it needed to be done as soon as possible. This was good news but there were potential complications and a likelihood that we might have to have Owen the same day of the procedure. The relaxation about Owen's arrival quickly slipped away. We weren't ready for him to come yet because we had no one to watch Collin. Grandma wasn't scheduled to arrive for another four days but the doctor wanted the procedure done in one to two days. The weather forecast was calling for rain, turning to freezing rain, turning to snow with winds and temperatures below zero. Not the type of conditions we wanted grandma to drive 330 miles through.
We called grandma at 4pm and informed her of the situation. As usual, grandma dropped what she was doing, packed her bags, and drove up the next morning to beat the weather and help out with Collin. Collin was thrilled that Gram was up visiting him and took every opportunity to drag her around the house and get picked up by her. When the nurses got back to us with a time for the procedure, the earliest available time was Monday morning. Since grandma was with us, Alisha and I took the opportunity to go see the new Harry Potter movie on New Years eve, which we had planned to see 4 weeks earlier but instead decided a trip to the Midland hospital would be a better course of action.
So after a relaxing new years eve we were awakened by Collin at 1:30 am. I went down to put him back down. After a drink of water Collin did a great impression of the little girl in the exorcist and I needed new clothes and a shower. Unfortunately our little guy had picked up a stomach bug and spent the entire night/early morning throwing up. So the weekend was spent feeding Collin bland foods and trying to keep him from becoming dehydrated. Things got worse though when grandma and I came down with the bug on Sunday afternoon and night.
As we were making our way up to labor and delivery all we could do was hope that all the kicking and punching Owen had been doing over the previous days was his attempt to turn himself around. After being placed in an observation room and answering what seemed like 12 million questions the doctor finally rolled in the ultrasound to check how the Owen was lying. With a pile of gel on Alisha's belly the doctor quickly found his head and determined he had returned himself to a downward position. I breathed a sigh of relief. Although I was keeping fluids down I was exhausted. We went home where I took a long nap and Alisha went to work for a critical meeting that she had.
The calm quickly dissipated as Alisha told me that the contractions were fast and hard and we had to leave now. Bags were grab and thrown in the car, grandma was informed that we were leaving, and we were off. After a little excessive speed and a number of stoplights treated as stop signs, we made it to the hospital. I dropped her off at the ER entrance and a nurse wheeled her off to labor and delivery while I parked the car. I drove to the ramp entrance and hit the button for a ticket only to be informed by the machine that it was out of tickets. An empty ramp in front of me and I couldn't get in. So I backed up and went to the other entrance. Luckily this one was open and I was able to park the car. I then sprinted to get into the hospital assuming that the baby was going to pop out as Alisha was pushed up to Labor and Delivery by the amount of pain that she was in. Since it was 3am in the morning I was greeted by locked doors on our normal route into the hospital. This left me sprinting around the outside of the parking ramp to get back to the Emergency entrance which is all that is opened after hours. The one benefit of all the running and adrenaline was that it was easy to ignore the subzero temperatures of the day.
Thankfully when I got up to labor and delivery Alisha was not sitting there with a baby in her lap. Unfortunately she was still sitting in front of reception and in an immense amount of pain. After a few minutes they got us in a room. Luckily we didn't wait any longer to come in. We found out later that that they closed the ward after we arrived because they were at capacity.
The nurse who wheeled us to our room was the same nurse who was there when Collin was born. After Alisha informed her that she would really like an epidural it seemed like time slowed down. Where was the nurse, the midwife, a doctor, anesthesiologist? It seemed like we had been abandoned. With contraction every 1 to 2 minutes it seemed like there should be a little more concern. I was sent to find out what was happening. I was told by the nurse that yes everything was progressing and they were getting the necessary people. When she got back in the room the real story arose.
Before they can do anything Alisha needed to be admitted. The midwife needed to check Alisha and determine if she was close enough to delivery for admittance. Once this happened then the nurse could ask 12 million questions and fill out a stack of papers which we had filled out the previous day. Once this was done she could start an IV which was needed before she could get an epidural. Luckily the nurse checked Alisha, looked at the monitors and saw what I think anyone else in the world could have determined, she was going to have a baby soon. She got the cart with the IV and attempted to start and it. Unfortunately she was unsuccessful. She tried on the other arm and also was unsuccessful. Then she called in another nurse who also failed in her attempt. At that point they put a call in to anesthesia for someone to install the IV. Our midwife showed up, and guess what, the baby was coming and soon. SURPRISE!!!! The only hold up was that Alisha needed an IV. After a bit of a wait the midwife gave up on waiting and successfully installed the IV right as there was a knock on the door from anesthesia.
Finally they could start giving her fluids, the antibiotic for Owen, and hopefully an epidural. Once again we had to wait, this time until the antibiotic was in and then 500ml of fluid. By the time this happens it is 4:45. Finally it seems like Alisha will be able to get some pain relief, until the midwife tells us that she is so close that the best relief will be to just have the baby. The midwife has Alisha start pushing and after a few minutes, little progress and a lot of pain, a new decision is made. There is time to get some pain relief. They call in anesthesia and give her an ITN which should last for about 2 hours. I say a little prayer, thanking God that she has some respite from the pain. The belief by the staff was that our newest addition would arrive before the medication wore off.
Owen had different plans though. Time went on, the medication and pain relief wore off, and he wasn't ready to come out yet. Anesthesia came back and this time they put in an epidural. The new course of action was to to sit back and wait. Luckily this allowed Alisha to get a couple hours of rest. She just let her body do the work. It turned out her body was doing a really good job. At one point when the nurses came in to check on her they commented that she was having really strong contractions, so strong and frequent that if they were giving her pitocin they would be turning it down. Not long after that Alisha felt it was time to push. It was 10:05 am and we had been at the hospital just shy of 7 hours. In what seemed like a blink of the eye, although I am sure it felt much longer for Alisha, Owen arrived at 10:39 am.
He entered the world with a loud cry. He quickly quieted down as he was placed on Alisha's chest. We sat there mesmerized by his beauty, amazed at the miracle he is and thankful that everything went well. He was 6 lbs. 8 oz. and 18.75 inches long.
Thankfully when I got up to labor and delivery Alisha was not sitting there with a baby in her lap. Unfortunately she was still sitting in front of reception and in an immense amount of pain. After a few minutes they got us in a room. Luckily we didn't wait any longer to come in. We found out later that that they closed the ward after we arrived because they were at capacity.
The nurse who wheeled us to our room was the same nurse who was there when Collin was born. After Alisha informed her that she would really like an epidural it seemed like time slowed down. Where was the nurse, the midwife, a doctor, anesthesiologist? It seemed like we had been abandoned. With contraction every 1 to 2 minutes it seemed like there should be a little more concern. I was sent to find out what was happening. I was told by the nurse that yes everything was progressing and they were getting the necessary people. When she got back in the room the real story arose.
Before they can do anything Alisha needed to be admitted. The midwife needed to check Alisha and determine if she was close enough to delivery for admittance. Once this happened then the nurse could ask 12 million questions and fill out a stack of papers which we had filled out the previous day. Once this was done she could start an IV which was needed before she could get an epidural. Luckily the nurse checked Alisha, looked at the monitors and saw what I think anyone else in the world could have determined, she was going to have a baby soon. She got the cart with the IV and attempted to start and it. Unfortunately she was unsuccessful. She tried on the other arm and also was unsuccessful. Then she called in another nurse who also failed in her attempt. At that point they put a call in to anesthesia for someone to install the IV. Our midwife showed up, and guess what, the baby was coming and soon. SURPRISE!!!! The only hold up was that Alisha needed an IV. After a bit of a wait the midwife gave up on waiting and successfully installed the IV right as there was a knock on the door from anesthesia.
Finally they could start giving her fluids, the antibiotic for Owen, and hopefully an epidural. Once again we had to wait, this time until the antibiotic was in and then 500ml of fluid. By the time this happens it is 4:45. Finally it seems like Alisha will be able to get some pain relief, until the midwife tells us that she is so close that the best relief will be to just have the baby. The midwife has Alisha start pushing and after a few minutes, little progress and a lot of pain, a new decision is made. There is time to get some pain relief. They call in anesthesia and give her an ITN which should last for about 2 hours. I say a little prayer, thanking God that she has some respite from the pain. The belief by the staff was that our newest addition would arrive before the medication wore off.
Owen had different plans though. Time went on, the medication and pain relief wore off, and he wasn't ready to come out yet. Anesthesia came back and this time they put in an epidural. The new course of action was to to sit back and wait. Luckily this allowed Alisha to get a couple hours of rest. She just let her body do the work. It turned out her body was doing a really good job. At one point when the nurses came in to check on her they commented that she was having really strong contractions, so strong and frequent that if they were giving her pitocin they would be turning it down. Not long after that Alisha felt it was time to push. It was 10:05 am and we had been at the hospital just shy of 7 hours. In what seemed like a blink of the eye, although I am sure it felt much longer for Alisha, Owen arrived at 10:39 am.
He entered the world with a loud cry. He quickly quieted down as he was placed on Alisha's chest. We sat there mesmerized by his beauty, amazed at the miracle he is and thankful that everything went well. He was 6 lbs. 8 oz. and 18.75 inches long.
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