Already a week

Wow, time has flown by. I really meant to post a birth announcement on here, but you know how things go (and my track record for posting in a timely manner is pretty poor)... but, I thought I'd give a quick update on how things went and how they've gone this past week.

I decided last Tuesday to go ahead with the scheduled induction and was given a 5:30 am call time for Wednesday, April 27th. So after putting Callan to bed and telling him when he woke up the next morning I would be gone to go get his baby sister, we went off to bed (after doing things like setting up the bassinet, packing a bag, etc. Nothing like waiting until the last minute). Huge and I got up and headed to the hospital before everyone was up, but it seems like many other people had headed there the night before as well and lots of babies were being born. After waiting for 2 hours, we were told we'd have to come back later that day once things quieted down. I guess having a non-emergency induction really bumps you to the end of the line! So off we went to grab some food and run some errands before baby #2 arrived. We finally got the call that afternoon and headed back to the hospital around 2. By 2:30 I was checked in, hooked up and ready to go. And then that's when the waiting happened... Getting induced is B-O-R-I-N-G! Huge took lots of naps and I caught up on facebook and emails. After a few hours of pitocin, I got an epidural as my doctor figured I'd progress pretty quickly after I got my bag of water broken. It was definitely a little odd to get the epidural before I needed it, but I wasn't going to chance not getting one in time. Unfortunately, that may have slowed down my labor a little bit. I was having pretty regular contractions before that and then once I had the epidural, they started to space out or become uneven. Speaking of uneven, I had absolutely no feeling in my right leg (and found out later that I had lots of it on my left side!). Anyway, after the contractions picked up and I got my epidural fixed we just waited until I was ready to push. At around 1:15 am, it was time and after a few minutes of pushing Nora Kensie was born -all 7 pounds, 8 ounces and 19 inches of her. 

And the first immediate thing we all said was, wow, she looks like Callan! Poor baby girl already has fallen into her big brother's shadow.
But I mean seriously, this is Nora:

And this is Callan. Clearly a strong family resemblance.

Callan came on Thursday to see her (and me) and the first thing he wanted to do was hold Nora and give her a big kiss. He's been unbelievably sweet to her. Of course, he was just as excited about the fries from the cafeteria that he got to eat at 10 am!

Unfortunately, Nora's stay at Prentice (Northwestern) wasn't as smooth as I'd have liked. She was fine during the day, but during that first night the nurses detected some breathing issues. They were finding that her oxygen levels were dropping and that she was having problems breathing. We had noticed that she was kind of wheezy, but were told that it was pretty common for babies that don't spend a lot of time in the birth canal to have excess amniotic fluid that isn't squeezed out, but it should clear on its own. Unfortunately after having a couple of desaturation episodes, she was admitted into the NICU for observation. As hard as it was to have her down there, I'm glad she was able to get the extra monitoring and care (the NICU nurses are fantastic. The post-partum nurses are too, but I just loved our NICU ones). After a few days (and an extra day at the hospital), it was determined that it is feeding related, so we just need to take extra care to watch her when she's eating and immediately after -make sure she burps properly and doesn't have too much reflux. It isn't the end of the world, but it makes those middle of the night feedings that much harder since we can't just lay her back down after she eats (thankfully she's a quick eater!) and we need to stay up with her for another 30-60 minutes after.

Other than that, things have been pretty smooth sailing. We are doing great. Physically I feel so much better than I remember the first time around (and I thought I had a really easy recovery then). Nursing has also been so much easier than last time and since we're not starving the baby she's been really content. My milk came in around day 2 (?) and Miss Nora has been a little piggy. She got discharged from NICU on Sunday and we had a pediatrician appointment on Monday and she had already surpassed her birth weight! With Callan it had taken him a couple weeks, but Nora was able to do it in just a couple of days.

I don't know if it's because we've already gone through this or if our expectations were lowered substantially, but (knock on wood) it really hasn't been too bad so far. I have also been really lucky to have Huge not travel for awhile. Huge's mom was also in town and she cleaned the house, organized and cooked and of course, Adelia has been an enormous help. I think it's helped Callan's transition as his routine stayed mostly in tact and he still gets that one-on-one time with her. Of course, it also helps that Callan pretty much loves on Nora all the time. He's already trying to teach her to high five, likes to rock and push her on the swing and of course always wants to hold her.

The sight of these two just melts my heart -there's just too much cuteness. I can't wait to watch them grow up together.

Week 1

Wow, a week has already passed and of course I'm late with the update. It has been an eventful week and Callan has had lots of visitors.

In the hospital on Saturday, Callan's first visitors were the Perman's. Unfortunately due to hospital regulations non sibling children under 12 can not visit, so Ellis wasn't able to meet his new friend. Later that afternoon, Akiko and Jeff came to visit bringing Callan a beautiful hand knit blanket made by Akiko. We were really excited that Callan arrived on time so Akiko could meet him before she left for Hong Kong for 6 months! So much is going to change in that time and we are really going to miss her.

Speaking of meeting before leaving, Huge's coworker, Allison was moving to DC in a few days after Callan's birth, but thankfully she also was able to come meet the little guy. Other visitors on Saturday afternoon included Lamis, Sarah and Miranda. Callan had quite the entourage of lady visitors! Things settled down for a bit before Lauren and Ted came for a visit. All and all it was a busy Saturday!

Wednesday was Callan's first pediatric appointment. We really like his pediatrician and although we were a little late arriving, we all survived the trip. Callan did really well in the car and only fussed a bit at the doctor's. He isn't above birth weight and is a bit more jaundiced than when he left the hospital so we will go back on Tuesday for a weight check and to see how the jaundice is doing.

The rest of the week was fairly uneventful. Nana and Papa were visiting from Boston, so Callan got to spend a lot of quality time with them. Nana loves holding him and can talk and read to him for hours.

Otherwise, things are going well. We are trying to get into a routine and rhythm with Callan and only a few tears have been shed this week (by me). We have had some feeding issues and hearing a baby scream bloody murder really pulls on your heartstrings and makes you feel like you are failing them as a parent. Of course, it's much more built up in your head and the baby doesn't know any better, but it doesn't make those moments any easier. We are really trying to exclusively breast feed, but have supplemented twice in order to satiate and soothe Callan. We are holding off on introducing a bottle until we get the latch/feeding issues down, but in the wee hours of the morning or after a particularly difficult feeding, the bottle is looking more and more appealing. I know that this will pass and we are both just getting the hang of it, but it is very demanding and emotionally exhausting. Hopefully as time goes on we get better and better and this problem will just be a distant memory.

It's been a busy first week for Callan and I'm sure the fun is just getting started.

Callan's arrival

I figured I should write Callan's (pronounced Cal-in, not Kay-lyn) birth story before I totally forgot and before too much time had passed.

For the past few weeks I had been having strong Braxton Hicks, but no real painful contractions or anything that would be real measurable. The past few pre-natal appointments I had been dilated and somewhat effaced with a little bit of progress each week. But without real contractions I figured I was going to go past my due date and would probably have to be induced. Baby G though had other plans.

Friday morning, April 22, 2011:

I went to bed on Thursday feeling about the same as usual. At 2 am I woke up with pretty painful cramps/contractions, but they weren't very long and I was able to fall back asleep in between. By around 5 am, I realized that this could be it -the contractions were getting stronger and more noticeable. Excited Huge and I started thinking that this was the day baby would arrive. We started timing the contractions and although they were measurable, they were only lasting about 30 seconds, varied in intensity and about 7-8 minutes apart. Realizing that labor was not going to start in the next hour we decided to go about our day as usual. Thankfully Friday was a holiday for me, so I had no plans, but around 7 am, Huge left for a photo shoot and then to go help a friend pack up for a move cross-country. By 10 am the contractions were picking up and hit the magic 1 minute length, 5 minutes apart for at least 1 hour. Of course being kind of stubborn and thinking that I would be able to labor as much as possible at home, I dragged my feet about doing anything. I emailed/texted Huge while he was out and a friend (hi Jess!) at work about my progress. Of course, they two of them were kind of freaking out and trying to take this more seriously since I had already been 3 cm dilated on Tuesday. Finally after taking a shower I called the doctor at 11 am and she told me to eat something, relax and then head to the hospital in about an hour. Huge made it home and made me lunch while I got our bags ready and got myself ready. Finally around noon we made our way to the hospital in the slowest cab in Chicago.

At 12:30 pm we arrived at the hospital with good contractions and dilated to 4 cm -so unfortunately that meant some progress had been made at home, but not nearly as much as I had hoped. The good news was that meant I was staying and that baby was going to arrive soon. We walked around the hospital and had the contractions measured until around 2:30 when the contractions were coming on much, much stronger and much, much faster. The worst of it was the shooting pain in my back that did not ease up with breathing, walking or massage. I assumed that meant that I must be doing a great job laboring, but when I got checked I had only progressed 1 measly centimeter! I had hoped to labor as much as possible au natural, but since we did nothing to actually prepare to labor that way (i.e. take a class of any sort) we were totally unprepared to cope with the amount of pain I was feeling and I decided that I would need an epidural. I had said that I wanted to make it to at least 4 cm before getting an epi since some theorize that sometimes epidurals slow down labor and would lead to unnecessary medical intervention and I wanted to try to avoid that as much as possible. Of course, that decision was made before I felt real contractions! I finally received an epidural at 3:15 pm and although it was a little painful -that numbing medicine and needle poke is a bit more uncomfortable then they let on - it was totally worth it. At 3:30 pm they broke my water in the hopes of speeding up my labor and I was dilated 6 cm, -1 station and 90% effaced so I was confident that I was in the homestretch. With the epidural in place I was able to rest and relax through the contractions however, I think labor did slow down a bit. At 5:30 pm I had only progressed another cm, but I was at 0 station and fully effaced. It was decided to start a slow pitocin drip to try to get the contractions a little stronger and a little closer together. Finally a bit before 8 pm I was fully dilated, effaced and ready to push!

I started pushing and at 8:19 pm (yes, your math is correct, it was 20 minutes of pushing), Callan Joseph Galdones was born. He was 8 lbs 2 oz and 21 inches long. This part was a bit surreal and something out of a bad slasher flick -Callan's limbs flailed a bit while coming out and some of the amniotic fluid few towards me (yes, it hit me) and then when Huge went to cut the umbilical cord there was some blood still pulsing that sprayed the doctor!

When my bag of water was broken they noticed that there was muconian in it (i.e. the baby had pooped) so a team of pediatricians were there to take Callan and check him out immediately after birth and to suction out his lungs to get out all the gunk. Thankfully when he was born he was already whimpering/crying so we knew things were ok -his Agpar scores were good and they were able to suction most of the fluid junk. After a check out by the pediatric team Callan came to do a little kangaroo care, and even though he cried the whole time, I knew I was in love.