Pictures!

Timber and his proud mom.

It's a ... baby!

Sorry for not getting something up earlier but it's been a busy afternoon.
After unsuccesful use of Citotek and Pitosin last night and this morning we made the call to have a c-section at 11:00 this morning and this is the first moment I've had free since.
Suddenly the room was full of doctors, nurses, midwives, anestheticians, and we even got a call from a lawyer, I believe.
Brigit was walked into surgery at about 12:30 and they brought me in about 12:45. Brigit was doing great though slightly weirded out at not being able to feel anything below her sternum. Very, very quickly thereafter they were trying to extract a very recalcitrant baby and eventually they pulled Timber Patrick Stevens out. That's right, it's a boy!
Timber weighed in at 9 pound 4 ounces and 19.5 inches. He has a 14.5" head and a 14.25" chest and a perfectly round head which means he wasn't even close to being squeezed out. With such a large head already and no signs of coming out it was the immediate concensus that the c-section was the right choice.
Apparently there is a little canine in Timber because he has some big paws to grow in to. The nurses and doctors could not stop commenting on the size of his feet and hands.
Brigit is great. She's pretty tired and, hopefully, asleep as I write this. I just got back from Timber Patrick's hearing test and first bath. He's already breast feeding like a champ and is apparently trying to set the record for soiled diapers in the first 24 hours.
I'm sure we'll have much more later.. but for now I'm going to hopefully get some sleep myself and I hope I don't burst the buttons on my pajamas in pride while I sleep.

I'll add pics as soon as possible.

Happy Easter

Fresh from a large Easter dinner of "family steak" (round steak marinated in soy sauce, grilled medium rare, and served with garlic butter) Brigit and I are at the hospital. Again.
We just completed the first round of Cytotec which we're going to try until morning. If nothing happens we'll re-evaluate whether to move on to Pitocin or perhaps move straight to a c-section.
We're in a different room and Brigit is now facing east rather than west. Brigit believes this may be better feng shui. This being my baby, I'm fairly certain Ziggy has no concept of flow, design, or anything remotely aesthetic.
Our sense of humor is a bit worn after a long day (sunrise church service at 6:30 during which one of Brigit's elderly congregants fainted) followed by a hike (still hoping for that 'natural' birth) and Easter lunch with 16 guests - who brought dishes and cleaned and made hosting easy)so we hope to have more energy and some good news tomorrow.
Good night.

The End is in Sight

Joe and I are having a baby...soon! Can you believe it???

I had another appt. with the midwife today and asked a lot of questions. There was a pow-wow among the three midwives of the clinic, poring over my chart, consulting with the OB of the office, and much weighing of risks, benefits, and probabilities.

And now we have a plan.

If Ziggy doesn't make a grand appearance on his/her own before Sunday evening, we'll check in to the hospital and try to induce again. If it doesn't work, then we will deliver Ziggy with a C-section.

The bottom line has come down to the preeclampsia diagnosis. The benefit of keeping Ziggy cooking has declined compared to the continued risk of medical emergency for me. Preeclampsia doesn't go away until after delivery and the stats get markedly worse after 40 weeks (40 weeks=April 12th).

Therefore, the landlord has issued an eviction notice, and the sheriff is all set to enforce it...time to move out Ziggy!

I trust that because we have my favorite dinner planned, family steak, and about 20 people invited over for Easter afternoon, my water will probably break just as the steaks are being pulled off the grill and we're getting set to eat.

The upside is I won't have to do dishes!

Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers. It's been an interesting week to say the least. Joe and I are ready and prepared to be thoroughly overwhelmed by parenthood. Bring on the adventure!!

Brigit

Home again, home again, jiggity jig.

We are home again, Ziggy still comfy in the womb.

We checked in this morning at the hospital, jazzed and ready for a long and productive day. I let the nursing staff know that I expected a refund if they sent us home again without a baby! We've become the celebrity couple on the floor that's been trying all week to have a baby.

We saw the midwife who informed us that my cervix had not changed at all, still keeping a tight hold on Ziggy.

So, after a long talk about how/why we had gotten to this point and what the plan should be for moving forward, we canceled the induction. I'll spare you the details, but when weighing all the issues out on the table, the overriding factor is that both I and Ziggy seem to be medically stable and I'm just not quite ready to end this pregnancy yet.

So, with another ultrasound and check-up scheduled for Friday, we're going to monitor closely and wait for things to change (either for the good...meaning my water breaks or contractions start w/o any help and we move ahead on our own, or for the not-so-good, meaning my blood pressure spikes or Ziggy seems lethargic and not able to tolerate things and that will require intervention).

Of course, as we were waiting for the nurse and the discharge paperwork, I was still on the monitor and had a three-minute contraction which sent Ziggy's heartrate much lower than it should go. So, we then spent three more hours monitoring things, and added a cocktail of fluids and Pitocin to trigger contractions and watch how Ziggy did through them. S/he passed with flying colors!

This child clearly already has a warped sense of humor. Add that to the big head and stubborn streak, and I guess we're in for a treat, a mini version of the two of us!

We're of course disappointed, but relieved that Ziggy is fine, I'm fine, Joe's fine, and convinced that at some point we might actually get to yell out, "It's a boy/girl!!!"

We rode the elevator down with a brand new dad on our way out today, and it gave me goosebumps as he gushed about this new feeling he couldn't explain. His joy was literally pulsing in him, he couldn't not tell us, strangers in the elevator, about it.

I can't wait for that moment. It's going to be amazing.

As Woody Allen said, "If you want to make God laugh, tell Him about your plans."

Half-time Report

Well, we're resting comfortably at home, watching America's Funniest Home Videos, with no Ziggy. That's not entirely true, Ziggy is here, comfortably resting in the womb. Ziggy's butt is rounding out my tummy in extraordinary ways, while one of his/her feet is planted firmly in my ribs.

And after 24 hours of induced contractions...my back aches, we're all tired, and we have another appointment to check in and start over on Wednesday morning to try again (assuming Ziggy doesn't decide to make a break for it between now and then).

We're happy to be avoiding Pitocin for now, and the last 24 hours weren't completely useless, just not as productive as hoped for. Thank you for all your good thoughts and prayers. It's just another lesson of life reminding us how little control we actually have over things.

We'll keep you posted as things change.

Brigit

Stalled out

Arrrrgh! Labor has stalled out for now and we're waiting a couple of more hours before deciding on the next step of the plan. There are several options on the list, including possibly sending us home and waiting to see what Ziggy does on his/her own.

I have never wished for pain before...but that's where we're at. Contractions looked good this morning, strong and growing in intensity, but this afternoon things have crawled to a very slow halt.

We'll keep you posted as we know anything.

Brigit