8:13 PM | Author: Jonathan.
hey steph has a blog now. liketherestaurant.blogspot.com
update
1:49 PM | Author: Jonathan.
i was gonna do an entry on the adventures with luke and all of the problems associated, but most of the problems have or are about to resolve. so thats good.
luke is doing well now. after the initial weight loss, we started formula. he's now 8 pounds 15 ounces as of last week.
he still spits up a lot. we started luke on some zantac elixir. he still spits up. but we arent being very good about giving it to him like we're supposed to. i still think its getting better though.
i dont like to talk about it especially to pregnant ladies, but steph's incision is getting better too. i'm noticing that the amount of gauze required for packing is getting less and less every day. it does suck that we'll have to do this pretty much all summer. i really am glad i'm a nurse though. i talking to a nurse i work with. she had the same thing steph had. but her husband is an engineer. and her incision got infected and she had to have surgery. but steph's is progressing very well.
everything else is ok. he's not sleeping through the night yet. but i'm not expecting him to either. but we did buy thing sweet ass white noise cd to help him sleep. so now he only wakes up because he's hungry. he only wakes up once or twice a night. not bad.
there really isnt much else going on with me. so i guess thats it.
h1n1 influenza A
1:31 AM | Author: Jonathan.
yeah. overhype. its the fucking flu. more people have died from the regular ass flu. 30000. 8 have died from this one. fuck.
how come the people in mexico died? because its fucking mexico! seriously.
now, you should treat it like the regular flu. wash your hands and whatnot. but we dont have to all go into isolation over it. damn. fucking media.
luke
12:46 AM | Author: Jonathan.
its midnight. i'm up. steph's asleep. and so is luke.
i figure i might as well tell the story of our newest addition.
so on monday, i was canceled from work. and steph had decided to take maternity leave for the week before she was due. so we decided to get out and walk around the mall to hopefully start labor...and to have lunch with maryann. we kinda overdid it with the walking. steph was tired. so we went home and did nothing. we were trying to not get worked up about the baby coming soon. but then, at 9:30p, steph went to the bathroom...and her water broke.
now, her water breaking wasnt...you know, the typical gushing of fluid. it was a small trickle. i was expecting...well, i dont really know what i was expecting...but at least more than that.then we went through the whole do we go or do we wait thing. we called the doctor on call and told her the deal. she didnt say but i got the feeling that she didnt think her water was actually broken. but steph couldnt get off the toilet because she kept leaking. so i made an executive decision to go to the hospital. and she actually listened to me. i know, amazing.
when we found out we were pregnant, there was a moment of shocked silence. when we found out the baby is a boy, there was a moment of shocked silence. and of course, during the drive to the hospital, there was a long, long period of shocked silence. it was the longest drive. and it was like the drive never happened. every thought runs through your head...like i'm excited and panicked at the same time. i could barely function. and i had to drive a car. i felt like i almost needed to call 911 for an ambulance just to for safety.
ok so we get to the hospital. we get to labor and delivery. we get her in the gown and everything else...which was actually difficult with her still leaking. i wont go all into it. but its funny now.
once we got settled, the nurse had to run a test to make sure the leaking was actually amniotic fluid. i didnt have any doubt. in fact, i wanted to go ahead and call in for work the next day. but the first test came back negative. but the nurse said that it was wrong about half the time. i know that as a nurse, you have to do what the order says. i know this. but i wish she could have just done the more accurate test. anyway, the more accurate test came back positive of amniotic fluid. so this baby was coming in at least 24 hours. then i really got this feeling of "hell yeah!" and "holy shit!" at the same time. we decided to make all of the necessary phone calls...mostly to family since at was 1130 by that time. her parents decided to start driving it from tulsa. my mom decided to stay home since my parents live 30 minutes away. and my brother decided to do the same. my dad was working that night. but since he drives around checking on other tlc ambulance crews around dfw, he decided to kinda slack off and visit us at 130am. steph wanted to take a nap and i needed some caffeine desperately. so dad took me to walgreens and i stocked up.
so i got back. and dad left when the contractions started up stronger and more often. steph's contractions were long...like a few minutes long as opposed to 30 seconds. and luke wasnt handling them well. his heart rate would drop. steph was hurting more and more. but the nurses did not want to give her any more iv meds since the meds would likely cause luke's heart rate to drop too. so the next option was for steph to get her epidural. good. i was glad that they were gonna do it early in the game. the CRNA who did the procedure was great. and she got it on the first stick...which i'm sure they normally do but i've seen them miss before.
once the epidural was in, they gave her some pain meds. didnt really say what they gave. but whatever. it worked. and steph was able to sleep. unfortunately for me, i had downed a 5 hour energy about ten minutes before the epidural. so i spent the night on a very uncomfortable cot/chair thing updating on facebook and myspace from my cell phone.
at about 9am, the meds they gave through the epidural started to ware off. and it was obvious that steph had gotten used to not really feeling to pain of the contractions. when she could feel them, she was having a lot of pain from less intense contractions. that sucked. it sucked for me because i couldnt really do anything. we were in a hospital. my domain. and i couldnt go get something...though i bet i could have found exactly what i needed and had given it even though it wasnt my unit.
at the same time, luke's heart rate was still going down with each contraction. but, it was only happening when they would lay steph on her left side. when she was on the right side, everything was cool. i know i'm a nurse. but i dont know everything. i actually know very little about the ob/gyn women's services thing. i just figure if the right side works, use it. whatever. i guess i'd rather them be concerned about it and nothing happen than not be concerned and something serious happen.
so its 9am. steph is dilated to an 8. this whole deal is happening with luke. they said they would be back to check everything again at 10am and if nothing else has progressed, then we would have to go with a c-section. actually thats what we wanted. or did we? i didnt want steph to go through any pain. if i could have changed places, i would have. that isnt bullshit. i would.
anyway, the CRNA comes in and gives the full on numbing med through the epidural. it did work. they did this test where they touch parts of her body with a needle to see if steph could feel it. i'm glad. you always hear of these epidurals that dont work.
oh yeah. at some point, steph's parents came by. i knew i'd forget something.
and both my parents were there. and my brother too. gabby wasnt yet. she had a class she couldnt miss. thats cool. she's family...but not officially yet.
so its time to go. and steph starts to get sick...nauseous. david had just shown up from ft worth. and my mom asked if it was ok if david could say hi before she went to the OR. we said no. mom misunderstood and sent david in. as soon as david stepped in, she puked. and without saying a word, david turned around and left. its funny now. its time to go. we start rolling out. and then they stick me in a room across from the OR by myself for what seems like an hour and a half. i'm sure it wasnt longer than 15 minutes. probably 10. during that time, i start flipping out...like most would in that situation. at least dr paroski came by and talked to me before anything went down.
apparently in OR, steph was doing the same thing. and dr paroski ordered someone to come get me. and when no one moved, she barked it out more serious like. steph said she had never seen dr paroski sound like a doctor before.
anyway, so there i am. in scrubs and a surgical cap. and the booties too. i'd worn all of these things before...but never with sandals on. that was weird. and i was walking into OR...only the other times i had been in an OR it wasnt with my wife as the patient. it was like a dream. but walking into the OR, there suite next door had metallica's master of puppets playing. for some reason, i took this as a good sign. a good song...good day, good procedure, good baby...uh, i guess.
i sat right next to steph's head...since they had her draped from her neck down. she was very drugged...or tired. probably both.
officially, the surgery started at 1059am. by 1113am, our son, Luke Brayden, was born. 6 pounds 15.3 ounces. 20.75 inches long.
i tried to take some pictures from the beginning. i got some. not very good though. the nurse took some for me under the heat lamp thing. then they gave him to me. honestly, this is gonna sound awful. but i was really more concerned how steph was doing. i wish i could say it was this amazing moment. i just wanted to skip ahead to everyone being ok. it wasnt 3 minutes until we had to take luke to the nursery so they could do their thing. i got more shots of him on the scale and all that stuff. he didnt cry. like at all. until...they took his rectal temp. some people arent cool with that. i am. rectal is the most accurate route of temperature. so i was ok with it. but after that he didnt cry much.
i left the nursery. the rest of the family was there watching him from the outside glass. i went to try and get back to recovery to see steph. recovery is in L&D. and L&D is locked. i picked up the phone to get back in. i told them the deal and they wouldnt let me back in. i would have been pissed off if i hadnt been so sleep deprived. i'm actually pissed off about it now. but it doesnt matter now. they said they'd get me in about 5 minutes. so i waited in the waiting room...for 5 minutes...15 minutes...i was in waiting for 45 minutes. no i'm not exaggerating. i watched an episode and a half of home improvement. then they let me in. i didnt care about the time after i got it. i just wanted to see steph.
i can say this now. she looked like shit. i know she just had a baby. she looked like shit in a different way. she was very pale. i wanted to know what her labs were. i thought she needed a blood transfusion. damn i'm such a nurse. but i decided i needed to leave and let her take a much much needed nap.
so at 1pm, she was taken to her post partum room. everyone was there. it was a bit
stressful. steph finally held luke. it was a great thing. glad we have a picture of that.
steph progressed pretty quickly. she had a clear liquid diet for dinner. and she had a regular diet the next morning for breakfast. since she had no problems using the restroom, she had her iv taken out the next morning. we were waking up every 2 hours or so to breast feed. yes i woke up too. dude, its only fair. but i wanted to help if i could.
dude, breastfeeding is a bitch. i'm still glad we're trying. but i understand ladies who quit very close to the beginning. there's more to that. but another story for another time.
thursday night about 830. dr paroski came back to do the circumcision. some people have different opinions about doing the circumcision. here's mine. in day surgery, where i work, we see all different types of procedures. one is a circumcision. no, not on babies...but on old dudes. when i asked one of my 80 year old patients why now. its either because the foreskin gets infected all the time or the foreskin basically turns into a rubber band and constricts to penis. so there. thats why we did it. i didnt want to give him an errand in 80 years.
i felt bad though. cutting penis is not cool. but he did stop crying. and its ok now. just saying.
so friday morning. and its discharge day. dr paroski came by early in the morning and wrote the dc order. we were cleared to go. but, the pediatrician, dr levy hadnt come back to dc luke. i understood when my patients would get mad at the doctors for not coming by to send them home. i did. but it was that day that i actually fully understood. we didnt get discharged until about 1pm. oh well. at least we were home...with everyone intact. God is good.
i'll tell about the two weeks at home later. i've gotta feed luke in about 15 minutes.
later