Monday is our day!

Per the neonatologist, Griffin will be released from care Monday. He'll be getting his last round of antibiotics on Sunday night at 10, but we'll have to wait until the doctor is there the next day in order to do the discharge stuff. It'll be a great one-week gift to all of us to have him home again. As much as I love the staff at the NICU, the trips back and forth to the hospital are getting a bit old!

Wide Eyes

Did we mention that he's a very alert baby?

Collection of Mental Moments

As the experience of labor begins to fade in my mind, there are moments that remain vivid and strong. What moments were best or worst? Hard to say. The entire experience was so overwhelming that it's nearly impossible to rank them in any sort of specific order. However, there are definitely a few that stand out as top contenders.

The first half hour or so after my water broke were probably the most "fun." I managed to maintain my own calm, and so I was really able to enjoy watching Mombi and my sister and her partner all running around and pulling everything together for the trip to the hospital. There were so many smiles and cases of people running around forgetting what they were supposed to be looking for. It was great fun to watch from my waterproofed spot on the couch.

The span of time when Griffin's heart rate dropped during labor was definitely the scariest, despite the drugs that kept me from total awareness. I remember trying to prepare myself for the possibility that we had come so far only to lose him right then. After hearing that steady doplar beat for so many hours, hearing it get slower and slower was terrifying. Twelve hours and one successful birth later, sleeping off the meds in my recovery room, I kept hearing the doplar in my mind. I woke up with a start several times when I thought I heard it slow down.

The moment that was even better than I dreamed it would be was the first time I looked over and saw Mombi holding Griffin. It gives me tears every time I think about it, and it's not hormones talking. We've been together nearly six years, and for at least five of those years I've been imagining what a great mom she'd be and what it would be like to have kids together. Seeing her with our child, and the pure love and joy she was pouring over him, was indescribaby beautiful.

Here's a bonus shot of my mom hanging out with Griffin in the NICU:

Griffin's Birth

First, I have to give some huge thanks to my amazing wife, to my mom, and to the staff at the hospital. They were all amazing!

Griffin's birth was a bit scary with a few close calls. See the post below when you see a (number) if you want all the details.

The beginning was certainly uneventful. After my water broke and we got to the hospital, we discovered that I was only dialated about a fingertip, which is about half a centimeter. At ten the next morning, with 17 hours or so already elapsed, I was still at the same dilation, even though I was totally effaced. They decided at that point to increase my pitocin, give me some narcotics in my IV to help me relax, and do a catheter drain. The combination worked a bit too well too quickly, and I dilated to 6 over the next half hour. Griffin's heart rate dropped suddenly. (1) After his heart rate was stabilized, I slept for a while while they gradually brought the pitocin back up. I dilated steadily over the next few hours. When it was finally time to push, it took only about ten minutes and 7 contractions or so for him to be born. (2)

Mombi got to hold him a lot and had some great 1:1 bonding time while I was cleaned up. His Apgars were 8 and 9, and he spent the next two hours wide awake and observant as my dad, sister Amy, and sister's partner Shelley arrived to meet him.

Mombi and I are back home at last. Griffin is still in the NICU, due to a mystery infection which necessitates giving him several days of antibiotics. They were prompted to do some lab work on him after they noticed that he tended to squeek or grunt when sleeping soundly, which indicated that he was having a bit of a hard time breathing. He's doing great now, though, and he now looks and acts perfectly healthy apart from a touch of baby jaundice. We're visiting him at the hospital as frequently as possible. It looks like we'll be bringing him home on Sunday if nothing changes.

They don't know what the infection is/was or what caused it, but there are two top theories. The first is that it was related to how long his amniotic sac was ruptured. It was nearly 22 hours from rupture to delivery by my calculations, but possibly longer if it started out as a very small leak. 24 hours is the maximum they'll let you deliver vaginally after it ruptures due to risk of infection. The other possibility is that I had a cold or some other virus/bacterial gunk that I wasn't aware of that was passed to him even though I wasn't showing symptoms. Sheryl's had a bit of chest/throat funk for a couple weeks, so it's possible that I brought something home and gave it to both of them but didn't show symptoms myself.

Would I do it again? Yup! I definitely wouldn't do it at home, though, because I can't imagine how stressful it would have been to not have help at hand when it was needed. I was very glad to have been at a hospital that has a good NICU. I probably wouldn't resist medical assistance with the labor, either, but that would depend a lot on whether or not my water broke before contractions started. That really changed things. I do wish that my own doctor had been available (she was in Central America with her family for Easter) but of course that's nothing that can really be planned for so far in advance!

Here's the Scary Stuff

Caution: This post contains the more graphic and/or scary details of Griffin's birth experience. It all ended up fine, but I'm sure that many of you may wish to skip this one. I'll post the happy details right after this, but I wanted to post these first so that they won't stay at the top of the blog for long.

(1) At one point during labor, Griffin's heart rate dropped to about a third what it should have been. I was on IV narcotics at that point so I was not entirely lucid, but I remember that the room was suddenly full of medical personnel. As the nurses had me roll from side to side and put an oxygen mask on me, my mom and Mombi hovered at my sides, keeping their hands on me for reassurance. Since I hadn't had an epidural, there was serious concern about what they would do if they had to do an emergency Cesarean. I had to sign papers giving permission for general anesthesia and/or epidural. They gave him an internal monitor at that point. They gave me something to stop my labor, and luckily his heartrate stabilized. Just in case it got bad again, they put in the epidural so that they would not have any delays if it got critical again. I fell asleep for about 45 minutes after that, the first and only steady sleep I had during labor.

(2) When Griffin's head was delivered, the doctor commented that one mystery had been solved. The cord was wrapped around his neck twice, which explained his severely fluctuating heart rate. I ended up with second degree tears and major swelling due to the speed of the delivery during the pushing phase, but I'm still glad that I pushed him out as quickly as I did. At that point, I just wanted him out so that he would be safe!

First Tour of L&D

I was at the hospital this morning for a standard blood draw, and decided to wander through the Labor & Delivery area. The nurses on duty were fabulous. One of them gave me a short tour and a stack of information about their policies, and everything looks good. The nurse was a bit confused when I asked her how they deal with excessive volume. I'm sure I'll be vocalizing quite a bit! I have no intention to curb it for their sakes, so I just hope they'll take it gracefully.

:)