Monday, June 21, 2010

Papa Shaved

Amber has been trying to get me to shave my beard for some time now. She got the bright idea that my paternity leave would be an ideal time for me to shave, since I have basically a month to regrow the beard before returning to work if I decide I want to.

Well, I went ahead and took the plunge and shaved it off. I'd had a beard since I went to India in 2006, and I'd had a goatee since college, in 1997.

Here's the "before" shot:



Here's just the goatee left. This is what I looked like in college.



Here's just the moustache. Hm. Not my style. Fun for a few minutes, but definitely creepy.



And finally, clean-shaven.



I think I like being clean-shaven. At least, for now. I'm going to keep it for awhile.

Audrey adapted amazingly well, and didn't seem to care whether her papa had a beard or not. I was careful to come downstairs for the first time with my face covered, and slowly unveil it to her, so she'd at least understand that I'm still the same person. She didn't seem to give it a second's notice.

Amber on the other hand had a great deal of difficulty adapting. She's just recently become completely comfortable with her 'new' husband ;)

The Hospital Stay

I wanted to write up a blow-by-blow synopsis of what happened in the hospital leading up to Ethan's birth. I did a similar post for Audrey and found it really helped me remember the experience, though admittedly it may not make the most interesting reading to anybody else :) As things happened I jotted down notes in my palm pilot--I'm going to now try to reconstruct the events from those brief notes.

Amber was scheduled for a 6am induction on May 28th, 2010. We arrived on time, and because the labor and delivery wing was empty, Amber was able to skip the triage and antepartum rooms and go straight to a labor and delivery room. Things stayed slow the rest of the time we were at the hospital (only one other baby the next day), so we were thankfully able to stay in our labor and delivery room for our entire stay, rather than have to move to the less comfortable postpartum room after the birth.

The staff was great and Amber was able to start settling into the room while they asked the obligatory barrage of stupid questions, rather than being forced to answer them first and then get settled in. We arrived around 6am; by 6:19 we were admitted to the room and Amber was changed and in bed at 6:25. By contrast, the stupid questions lasted until almost 7am.

I mentioned the 'stupid questions' a bit in Audrey's birth story post, but let me elaborate here. This hospital staff is required to ask these questions by law, but they're frustrating because some of them are a bit outlandish (e.g. Do you have running water in your home? Do you have any prosthetic limbs?), and most hospitals want answers to these before they'll even look at you. Even if you preregister you can't answer these questions in advance. I'm sure the intention here is well-founded--i.e. trying to determine if the parents-to-be will need assistance to care for their new child--but *before* you're checked in hardly seems like the appropriate time to ask these questions. If I didn't bring a car seat with me, for example, then it's already too late to get one, and you've got ample time to figure that out during the subsequent two-day hospital stay. You don't need to be delaying my wife's pain medication (which happened at North Austin with Audrey) to determine it.

During our stay we usually had two nurses--one Labor & Delivery nurse for Amber and one nursery nurse for Ethan. At North Austin with Audrey we instead had only one nurse, and I think I prefer the 2-nurse arrangement. Perhaps it was due to simply having more staff available at Cedar Park Regional Medical Center (RMC). Regardless it was really nice and we always felt well taken care of.

The nursery nurse finished Amber's IV at 6:49. Some blood was sent off for lab work and fluids were started.

The pitocin was started at 7:02 after the fluids had been given a chance to start and the lab work came back okay. The dosage at this point was very small. About thirty minutes later Amber was still the same as when she'd come into the hospital--3cm dilated and about 70% effaced.

Doctor Meadows came by at 8:43 to break Amber's water and to recheck her for progress. She was now 4cm, 70% effaced and with a fetal station of -2. This was brisk but healthy progress. The best guess now was for a delivery around noon.

After her water was broken, Amber's contractions started to become painful. She didn't have any pain meds yet and had to manage the contractions herself for about an hour until the epidural was in. We had to wait on the epidural to make sure Amber had enough fluids pushed through her IV. This is standard practice intended to combat the drop in blood pressure that accompanies the epidural.

The epidural went in at 9:45 and Amber felt better immediately. The anesthesiologist noticed Amber's US Weekly magazine and immediately bonded with Amber over a shared love of trashy celebrity gossip. He also slammed Dr Oz, which I think won him some points with Amber.

After this things moved much faster. At 9:58 Amber was 5cm and 90% effaced. In the next hour she dilated 5cm more. Before we knew it Dr. Meadows was there and Amber was pushing already.

From here on out things really seemed to go like clockwork. It only took a few contractions (<5) APGAR scores, which seemed to impress the staff. There weren't any scares like with Audrey, so I was able to cut the cord. Amber had a few stitches but nothing out of the ordinary. After Audrey's scary birth it was really nice to not have any complications or concerns--what a different experience! Even today, when I look at Ethan, I think "Man, his head sure is round". Maybe I was just used to Audrey's hematomata :) He was an absolutely beautiful baby.

Of course, Aunt Naomi was there to capture most of this on film, which I sure most of you have already seen. She did a fabulous job and I'm sure we'll always treasure these pictures. I also really enjoyed just being able to "be" with my family, and not having to worry about taking pictures myself.

Overall we had a wonderful experience with Dr. Meadows and with Cedar Park RMC. We would confidently recommended both.

Friday, June 18, 2010

Say Cheese!

Ok, here are tons and tons of pictures! These were all taken by (guess who?) Naomi Worley at Pitter Patter Photos (duh!). We took maternity pictures a few weeks before I was due, pictures at the hospital during and after labor, and pictures when he was 10 days old. Whew! The links are to the online galleries on her website. I don't know how long they'll be up. Probably a week or two. If you want any prints you can let me know what size and photos you want and I'll get them to you or you can order them directly through her. Thanks, Naomi! They're gorgeous!

http://nworley.photobiz.com/cart/

The password to Baby Ethan is "EDW"
The password to Wood Maternity Photos is "Awaiting Ethan"

http://pitterpatterphotos.com/viewing/?slideshowID=45015

The password to The Arrival of Baby Ethan is "052810". These are pictures from the birth at the hospital and right afterwards. Nothing too graphic though.

Friday, June 11, 2010

2 weeks have flown by!

I can't believe my boy is 2 weeks old! Things have been very busy now that we have two kiddos to keep up with. Audrey seems to really show an interest in Ethan. It's like she thinks of him as another baby doll. She also had a blast hanging out with her Grandmas while they were here helping out. We really appreciate all they did for us!

Here's a little summary of Ethan's 2 week check up today:

Weight: 7lbs. 3.7 oz., 20th percentile. We were really happy with his weight. He was 6 lbs 15 oz when he was born, but dropped down to 6 lbs 9 oz. It's normal to lose some weight (up to 10%) those first few days, but they need to regain it by the 2 week mark. With his trouble nursing we weren't sure if he would make it. From now on he should be gaining about an ounce a day. He's getting enough to eat now, it's just taking a bunch of gimics to get him to nurse. Pain in the butt.

Height: 19.5 inches, 25th percentile. He was 19 inches when he was born.

Head Circumference: 36 cm, 25th percentile.

He has some blocked tear ducts that are causing him to have a lot of eye boogers. We just have to rub the ducts 4x a day. No big deal.

He's a pooping fool and all that fun stuff is causing him to have a little diaper rash. We are constantly changing him. We were told to try Crisco instead of diaper cream. She said the poo just runs right off of the Crisco. We also need to put Lotrimin AF on it 3x a day. It's an athlete's foot cream. She thought he looked like he might have a yeast problem and this would help it.

We need to start giving him 1ML of a vitamin a day. Poly-vi-sol, tri-vi-sol, or Vitamin D

He also got blood drawn from his heel for the Baylor Metabolic Screen.

His next checkup will be at 1 month. Just two weeks away.

Sorry, no pics today! We've been taking them, but need to find time to post a few.