More of the Everyday

Well, Hadden is about 2 weeks old now. He is twice as old as he was last week. Still, his major talents are eating, pooping/peeing, crying and sleeping. No matter what we dress him in it seems it's only a matter of hours before he either soils it or pees on it. Yes, we are using pampers - I guess we're just working on our pampering/diapering skills. We've signed up for a diaper service and are going to try the sustainable route (altough there is a fair amount of controversy over this).

Yvonne is doing better now but is still recovering from the C-section surgery - still not allowed to lift anything heavier than a baby in a baby carrier. Leslie (her sister) is here this week so they are doing work and taking care of Hadden during the day while I go in to school to try and catch up on all the stuff that's passed me by the last couple of weeks. I'm trying to stay home on Tuesdays and Thursdays (I teach the other days) and so far I think it's doable.

We are thankful Hadden is a good sleeper. Typically, he'll hit the sack between 11pm and midnight and sleep until the 3-4am hour. Then he'll go down again until about 8-9am. That gives us enough sleep to carry on...usually.

Thanks to everyone who has stopped by, helped, given us food or baby clothes or extra pampers or baby toys. It's all much appreciated. We are still working through all the food and it's great. Tonight was enchiladas from Cathy, last night was chicken in a tomato sauce with potatos from Sara and the night before was pulled pork sandwiches from Bill and Anne. We have stockpiled a few frozen casseroles ourselves and will begin working through the remainder of those too. We have a great baked bean recipe frozen but are a bit afraid of eating it all and then watching Scooter get all "windy" on us. Some of his farts and poops are quite impressive - no pictures, I promise. Right now he's sleeping with mom upstairs and I just got home from a soccer game and finished dinner. Grandma Wendy says he changes every day and I'd say she' right. Can't wait to see him tomorrow.

steve

1 Week Old

Hadden is now one week old and doing well. I'm writing this with Hadden in the baby sling sleeping. He's pretty tolerant of movement/noise etc.(unless he's hungry). It has been a joy having him at home these last few days and Wendy (Yvonne's mom) has been a tremendous help since we got back from the hospital. All that and she didn't even take the "grandmother class" that Swedish Hospital offered.

I do get some sleep (see Trixie Tracker for Hadden's sleep patterns - web address is in the 17 April post or below Hadden's picture on the right) and he's quite the attraction around here. I can't remember the last time I crapped my pants and had everyone in the house come running to see it. Actually, I'm not sure that's ever happened. Currently (if you're interested) it's about like honey mustard barbeque sauce. That's normal.

Leslie arrives on Monday and Wendy will be back this Saturday so Hadden is busy getting ready by sleeping, eating and going to the bathroom (his only three talents if you don't count being really cute). Personally, I am falling further behind in work because I'm taking as much time off as I can to help out and be with Scoot but it doesn't seem to matter too much. I'm teaching 2 classes in person and 1 online this quarter so at a minimum I have to go in MWF when I teach my classes and have office hours. I do tend to do the online class from home and I can answer lots of questions from the other two classes via online discussion boards.

Well, that's all for now.

steve

Some Fun Links

Quick entry before I go to bed tonight (I'm sure only to be woken soon). I've started a photo album area for Haddens' stuff at Snapfish:

Birth stuff: http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=159917736/a=19125389_19125389/t_=19125389

First month: http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=159917738/a=19125389_19125389/t_=19125389

Also, I've started a trial of Trixie Tracker, an online service that tracks mindless stuff about your baby. Actually, as you may know, it's useful to track these things early on. Anyway, take a look at: http://go.trixietracker.com/site/hadden

The password to get in is "scooter". How many poopy diapers has Hadden had in his life? Eight so far (out of a total of 24 diaper changes). You get the idea.

steve

The rest of the birth (part 2 of a 2 part series)

So...we had a couple more pelvic exams and dilation was going nicely and finally, in the early evening hours (something like 8pm) the baby was at +2 station and we were ready to start pushing. However, we had noted decels when Yvonne switched to certain positions and the doctor was concerned that the pushing, the most traumatic part of labor for the baby, would probably cause more. We tried a serices of pushes that seemed to go okay but then the doctor noted that the baby was OP (occipent posterior - face-up, not the preferred position but acceptable).

We talked about the distinct possibility of a C-section if the baby's heartrate went down and didn't recover and the timing of it. In the end, we decided to go into the operating room and push there. After a couple of tries, the baby was doing okay but it just seemed like we were in a position where a C-section was the better option. In my mind I was pretty sure that was where we were headed when we talked several hours ago. I give the doctor credit for trying for a vaginal birth.

The procedure was over quickly - it's very cold in the operating room (OR) and I hung out with "upper Yvonne" while the doctor worked on "lower Yvonne". We were separated by small curtain. Hadden came out fine and I got to hold him a moment later. They stitched up Yvonne with hadden lying by her face and we went back to the labor and delivery room where Wendy (Yvonne's mom) and Sara (cousin) visited for an hour or two. We are now in the post-partum wing of the hospital and will be here until Sunday as Yvonne recovers from the surgery. Everyone's doing well and sleeping a lot. Yvonne has graduated from ice chips (post surgery) to orange juice and graham crackers, Steve has graduated from bench to roll-away bed. Both good things. The cats (Kent and Adele) have no idea what they are in for...

Vital statistics:

Name: Hadden Thomas Muench (not "Scooter")
Birth time: 9:26 p.m., April 12th, 2007.
Birth weight: 8 lbs, 6.2 oz.
Height (I prefer to call it that although most say "length"): 20.5 inches

Love to everyone and thanks for the support and love back. It's all appreciated and makes me thing Hadden will grow up in a world that has a hell of a lot going for it - despite what you may read in the newspapers from time to time. People are, in general, good, love is alive and human life is a great thing. Especially when it's your son.

Love, steve

My delivery story...so far (as interpreted by Steve)

So, morning of April 11th we had an ultrasound at 7:15am. Everything looked fine except the anmiotic fluid level was low (it rated a 6, normal being something like 10-11 or so we are told). It wasn't REALLY low (some have a 1 or 2 score) but low enough that we had to go to the Doctor's office when she opened at 8:30am. There, Dr. Harvey said that "scotter" (we'll call him that until he's named) needed to come out based on the low fluid level.

Nothing was happening on the labor front so we checked in to Swedish First Hill and were set to get a Cervidal supository (it's got proglastigens) to help ripen the cervix. Proglastigen is the hormone thought to help with this ripening. This was going to happen in the Triage area but that area (where all check-ins for births go first) was full so we went to an antipartum room (before labor). While there Scotter had a deceleration ("decel") where his heart rate goes down at the end of a contraction (these contractions were really minor - Yvonne only felt mild discomfort). That immediately got us into a "labor and delivery" room, which is much nicer.

In the L&D room Yvonne got the Cerividal, which is supposed to take 12 hours to work. So we waited 12 hours, which put us at 1am. When done, nothing much - still at 1cm but ripening. During those 12 hours we had a couple more decels, which prompted the doctor on call to suggest Pitocin (an artificial form of oxytocin - the hormone that causes contractions and other stuff like "love") to start contractions and see if Scotter could tolerate them. If not, C-section. Well, contractons started and he was fine during them. It just seemed to be certain positions that caused the decels so Yvonne avoided those positions.

Fast forward to 12 noon on April 12th. Contractions were 60-90 seconds long and 2-3 minutes apart - and they hurt like hell (contractions, and especially ones from Pitocin, are known for that). After a few barfs from the pain (REALLY not pleasant) and Yvonne's water breaking after a Doctor check of her dilation (disappointingly still at 1 cm) we ordered an epidural, which was adminstered at about 1pm by a nice English anesthesiologist. Worked great. Yvonne's feeling better. Currently, we've got something in to spit back some clean saline solution into her uterus to provide Scooter with a bit of a cushion as well as all the usual monitors.

So here we sit, waiting out contractions and dilations. Where do we go from here? Tune in soon. So far the only part of our birth plan that we followed is that we want to have a birth. I guess that's the important part. We are, however, realists so we're doing fine right now.

steved

Happy Easter - still no baby

Well the April 3rd due date came and went - uneventfully. Scooter isn't showing signs of making his move for the outside world. In addition to passing the time with general nesting activities, which has prompted Steve to ask if he should just connect the vacuum cleaner to my hip, I have also mailed off our taxes and got a pedicure - so clearly I'm ready! And with the exception of the back-ordered crib, the nursery is ready too. Here are a few pictures of that.

- Yvonne

P.S. Thanks so much to everyone who has called and emailed checking in! It makes me feel very special, and I also get a kick out of your reactions if I don't call back in a timely manner. Leslie get's the prize for perserverance i.e. calling the most (apparently my lack of response made her wonder if she'd somehow been purged from "the call list" despite being my sister...) But Sonja get's the prize trying another tack. She Steve instead - while he was giving a lecture, causing his students to momentarily think he was getting "THE call".