He has Arrived

At 40 weeks and 5 days and a lot of aggravation. 

Delcan Oliver Cade Nottingham.   

 

Saturday afternoon we went to the hospital because Deb's contractions were getting worse and she was having sharp pains in between the contractions (as it turns out that wasn't much to worry about.)  But while at the hospital Declan's movements were slow for him.  So they ordered an ultrasound, which was a fairly long wait.  We finally got into the ultrasound at 7pm, but didn't get the results until after 9, which by this point doctors had changed and this one felt it was worth doing induction.  So we were put on the list for Non Emergency Induction.  Which means there has to be no one else remotely dilated more than you to get a room.  We kept getting hope "You're next" but then someone else would come in.  Buggar. 

 

After being in triage for almost 24 hour Deb had a bit of a breakdown and then agreed to have drugs for the pain to help her sleep. 

 

About an hour into Deb's sleep they woke us up and moved us to a labour room and broke her water.  Then started her on Oxitocin to help labour along.  After a few more hours of coping with the contractions she finally broke down and got an epidural.  That helped a lot.  But meant she couldn't walk around.  They kept upping her Oxitocin, but that only did so much.  After 24 hours of her water being broken and many exams later she wasn't dilated enough, she was at about 7.5 cm.  During this whole thing Declan was pretty happy and doing well, which was good.  Because she wasn't going into "Active" labour soon enough they decided to do a C section.  So shortly after the decision was made we were in the operating room.  This was Deb's worst case, being in labour for 2 days (plus contractions varying in degree for a week prior) then having a c section, kind of worst of both worlds. 

In prep for surgery Deb's epidural fell out and all of a sudden she could feel everything.  So they did a spinal block.  She doesn't do anything easily does she?   Surgery went relatively well, she lost about a liter of blood.  Declan was born at 4:05 on April 20th, 8 lb 11 oz and 20 3/4" long. 

 

Recovering from the spinal block went relatively quickly, which was good.  In the evening however they were taking Deb for her first walk after regaining movement in her legs and unfortunately the incision partially burst.  They eventually got her patched up again at 3 am. She wasn't emergency enough to warrant the resident coming quickly.  (Facepalm.) 

 

Deb still hasn't had much sleep but is trying to get some as she can.  She should be out of the hospital today, provided she can get her blood pressure up, as it has suck fairly low yesterday. 

 

So far Declan seems to be a well tempered little boy.  Spencer is going to need to adjust to baby crying though.  He was visiting yesterday and Declan crying sent Spencer into a crying fit himself.  It will be  a work in progress.  I hope to take Thursday off to ease the transition to Deb and Declan being home. 

 

More photos soon.

And we are still waiting

April 15th has come and gone.  No baby yet.  Deb's contractions have slightly eased off, and are now starting to gear back up again in the form of back pain, but nothing regular.  If she is still pregnant next week she has two scheduled ultrasounds.  If she is still pregnant by Thursday they will book induction.  Let's hope he shows up this weekend instead. 

On another note, still no word from the mill in BC.  It has now been more than two weeks, but they aren't fast acting, so they could be just taking longer, or I failed the tests and I won't be receiving a call.  Alas, I'm at my new job for now, in production and so far it has been nice, but I am kind of looking forward to going to BC work instead.  I hope this is my last hurrah to production work.  As much as I love it, with little ones it is too long of days, and I'm not even on the true production days at the moment that can go upwards of 12 hrs.  So far I've been at closer to almost 10's.

I owe Deb $5

Saturday afternoon Deb started having slightly more painful contractions.  Other ones the only way she knew they were happening was to poke her tummy.  Her doctor said when you're having a contraction, your tummy will go from feeling like the softness of your nose to the firmness of your forehead.  When you have contractions for an hour that are consistently 5 minutes apart, that is when to go to the hospital. 

Deb wasn't focussing on contractions, as she couldn't feel them she had to then continually poke at her tummy to know when one was happening.  I was getting upset that she wasn't sitting and timing them, or paying attention to them.  I tried to get her to go to the hospital, as in times when she was focusing, they were about 4-5 minutes apart.  I was trying to say, this is go time, and she was fighting me about going to the hospital.  She didn't want to waste time going. 

Back history for the past week.  She has been experiencing general constant uncomfortable/pains in one way or another, and that really hadn't changed that day.  She had also had two membrane sweeps.  One on April 1st, she was 1 cm dilated, which the day after she lost her mucus plug.  No baby.  The following week, April 8th, she went to her doctor, and had another, she was 2 cm dilated.  Next day she lost her mucus plug, again.  Did you know it grows back if you don't have the baby in a few days?  I didn't. 

Saturday night she finally said that she would have a shower and if the contractions don't stop or ease she would go to the hospital.  In the end she had two contractions in the shower that had mild pain, so she agreed to go to the hospital. 

I went from grumpy, as I hadn't felt she was taking doctor's advice seriously.  She figured that there was no major pain involved so no rush.  I didn't agree, a contraction is a contraction, when it is regular. 

Alas, after Spencer was in bed, we packed the last minute stuff into her bag and off we went to the hospital.  At the hospital, she got her band and into maternity triage.  They hooked her up to the monitors for 20 minutes and asked the book of questions for medical history.  Yes she was having contractions every 2-4 minutes, but she didn't feel one of them.  Once monitoring was done we waiting for a doctor to come in and do a cervical exam.  She was still 2cm dilated.  Very disheartening.  While the doctor was there she did yet another membrane sweep.  Deb mentioned this one was much more invasive, and Declan wasn't too happy with it. 

While we were waiting for the doctor Deb and I made a bet.  She said they would send her home, I said no way, because her contractions were too close together. 

The doctor said that she could send us walking around the hospital for a couple hours and see if that helps.  But I mentioned that we had been walking all day, as we had gone to Aggie days and grocery shopping and what not.  So we got sent home. 

Since then Deb has been "feeling" the contractions more, but the next benchmark for us to go in is if she has regular contractions that she has to breath through.  She is still a ways off of that, from what she has been telling me. 

So we are still in the waiting game.  Today is one of her due dates.  The doctors either say the 13th, or the 15th, depending on menstrual cycle or insemination date, but the ultrasound doctors and her OB don't agree.  So lets hope that he comes soon.

Babbling has finally taken off

On Saturday April 4, I almost jumped out of my seat.  Spencer finally started saying mumum or momma.  More in a babble sense, but those tones have finally come back.  I am so excited.  He used to say it when angry or just babble when he was about 4-6 months old, but those syllables left fairly quickly.  For the past while he has been stuck on dadadada. 

On the same day, bababa, and hahas started to come out, along with various other sounds and combinations.  He is finally catching up with babbling.  Hopefully recognizable words are coming soon.  I think mum and moma (how we refer to ourselves) are starting to take meaning. 

I have been a little worried about his vocabulary development.  Lets hope things are finally coming into place for his synapsis in his little brain, and now they are forming, they will come fast and furious, well as least a few here and there.  The goal is 6 words for when he turns 18 months, otherwise that is the red flag to get help.