It's amazing how much life can change in such a short amount of time.
The Details:
Eleanor Hartley Storms
"Baby Nora"
Born July 31, 2014 at 3:11 p.m.
Weighing 7 lbs., 4 oz. and 21" long
The Story:
I woke up on Wednesday morning and started timing contractions shortly after that. They really weren't all that consistent, but they were real and so I decided I'd head into the office and if they progressed at all, I'd head home. So, I worked for about two hours. The contractions would start and stop. My mom called and I ended up meeting my sister, parents and nephews at the splash pad for about an hour before heading home to rest. I came home, did some stuff around the house and around 2:00, the contractions started getting regular. I decided to go on a walk and the contractions picked up. I came home and called Labor & Delivery and they told me to come in. So, I made the calls and put the troops into action. Jeff headed from the office to the hospital and my sister came up to get me and pick up Jack from school. We went and checked in and it was the same story - the contractions were regular, but things weren't progressing. We walked around the hospital for a bit and then the doctor decided to put me on "therapeutic rest" hoping that if I relaxed a bit, I'd start dilating. It totally didn't work. So, we spent the night in the hospital and I woke up around 5:00 on Thursday morning, still in the same predicament. Well, I decided that I wasn't going to leave that hospital without a baby, so I asked for Pitocin. That made the contractions more intense, but I STILL didn't progress much, so around noon, Duckie came in and broke my water. And that got things moving. Jeff and I walked around the hospital wing for a bit and then I came in and bounced on the labor ball. The contractions really picked up steam at that point and so I got into the tub. I labored in the tub for about a half hour before I finally told Jeff that I was tapping out and called for an epidural.
The anesthesiologist came about a half hour later and the epidural only worked on my right side - I could still feel everything on the left side of my body. My nurse checked me for dilation after the first epidural and I'd only made it to four centimeters, which is really nothing in terms of "active labor" and so the anesthesiologist came back and moved the epidural up a few levels in my spine. Well, that worked - kind of. I literally could not feel a single thing from my shoulder blades down, but I had this intense pressure and a desire to push. I asked my nurse to check me again and she looked at me, and told me gently that I still had some time to go, but I asked again, telling her that I wanted to push.
Now here's the funny thing - shortly after Duckie broke my water, he told us a story about his earlier days and a prior patient of his. He said that he had broken a woman's water and was going through what she should expect over the next several hours when she started telling him that she needed to go to the bathroom. Duckie kind of brushed it off, but he said not ten minutes into talking things over with her, there was crying from underneath the bed sheet and this woman had delivered her baby in the span of ten minutes, give or take. Fortunately, my nurse was there and heard the story, and she made some joke about how lightning could strike twice, but still said that I probably would be laboring for a few more hours yet.
So, she humored me and checked me. She then looked at me and said, "Now don't be alarmed, but I'm going to call a staff alert - you're there and you need to start pushing because the baby is crowning." So, she called the alert and our room was flooded with about fifteen nurses and doctors all scrubbing up and going mobile. It was kind of crazy. I was in "active labor" for all of ten minutes. Which really isn't bad, when you think about it, but I have to tell you, it hurt like hell. And the worst part about it was that I'd just gotten the epidural and couldn't feel a thing, which made it really difficult to figure out how to push. Still, I pushed through about ten contractions and then she was here.
We moved to our postpartum room a few hours later and everyone came to visit - my parents brought Jack from school, and my sister, nephews, and grandparents all stopped by. Jack was pretty stand-offish that night - and considering the hormones I had flowing generously through my system, I got pretty upset. But, I can't really blame him - he usually gets mad at me when I leave him. So, everyone stayed for about an hour - my parents and brought us some pizza, so I wolfed that down and then we tucked in for the night. Jeff and Jack stayed for a little while longer, but eventually my boys had to go home and go to bed.
Jeff came down the next morning after taking Jack to school, running into the office and going to the gym. He stayed for the day and left around dinnertime to pick up Jack. We left on Saturday morning and spent the rest of the day cleaning up the house, putting things away, doing laundry and just adjusting to our newest family member. Our friends, Lindsey and Brendan brought dinner up on Saturday night.
On Sunday, we went out for our first breakfast as a family of four. Afterwards, we headed to Target. Now, let me tell you something - Survivor doesn't have anything on this new kind of Target run. You want to get people to break? Send them into Target with a 2.5 year old and a newborn and see what happens. Fortunately, Jeff manned Jack and I took charge of Nora - we've adapted to a man-to-man defense in the Storms household as opposed to a zone defense. We managed Target relatively easily and came home to hang out and take naps.
My grandparents came up later to visit and my girlfriend, Molly, came up to take a few newborn pictures of Baby Nora. For the record, Jack was napping this entire time which is why he's not in any of the photos.
Anyways, Uncle Alec and his girlfriend, Sara, came up for dinner and to meet Nora.
And then today was my first "official" day of maternity leave. My sister and her boys came up this morning to hang out and then Nora and I went on a walk. Jeff took Jack to school this morning and spent the day at home to help me out, although I have to say that so far, this newborn baby thing is a breeze. Nora sleeps. A lot. I usually have to wake her up to eat and she seems fairly content to be swaddled and sleep in her bouncy chair and she really likes to be held. We're getting the hang of breastfeeding and she seems to be pretty happy to be on the outside. Lord knows that her mama is happy she's out. And for the record, I happen to think she's totally awesome and I've been enjoying my time getting to know her.
As for Jack, like I said, he's adjusting. He's been getting a lot of attention from his daddy, which seems to help things a lot. He likes to give Nora things. He likes to bring her a pugger, and cover her with a blanket. He hasn't really gotten the concept that he needs to be gentle around her, and around me when I'm holding her. Yesterday, as we were heading out for breakfast, he kept telling us that we were taking Baby Nora home, so he really hasn't gotten the concept that she isn't going anywhere. However, as I was getting Nora dressed this morning, he followed me into her room and turned over one of the galvanized buckets in her bedroom so he could stand on it and watch me change her diaper and put on her clothes. He's interested in everything that I do with her, and I'm trying to tell him what I'm doing and why I'm doing it. He'll get there - and my girlfriend Molly said that the good thing is that, eventually, he'll get to the point to where he doesn't remember a time before she was here. That makes me kind of sad, I guess.
I just can't get over the differences in my two children - one is huge, the other seems like a doll. One is active, busy, and energetic while the other one is quiet and fairly easy to manage. However, the one being in our house that got with the program fairly quickly is Blue.
He knows where his bread is buttered, that's for sure. He's playing the part of the sentinel and is very vigilant in keeping watch over his new charge. He's pretty apprehensive of the guests we've had over the past few days and he keeps watch over her day and night. Right now, I'm sitting on the couch, Nora is in her bouncy chair (sleeping, of course) and Blue is on the other couch, just watching her sleep.
I do have one unrelated little tidbit about Jack - he's named his willie. Which I find a bit odd, but whatever - he's a boy. I read somewhere that about 90% of learning to live and raise little boys has to do with managing body parts, bodily functions, and their fascinations with the same. So anyways, Jack's willie is called Olaf - obviously from the Disney classic, "Frozen." Oh well. It's funny and something I don't really want to forget.
And so, that's about it, I guess. We go back to the doctor on Thursday for her check-up and we've got a few visitors yet this week. My parents are on an Alaskan cruise until August 15th, and Grandma Jersey comes in to visit at the end of next week as well. I'll keep the pictures coming, of course. Thanks for all the calls, presents, and visits. They are absolutely appreciated and treasured.
No comments:
Post a Comment