Well, everyone has been asking for more photos of Courtland, so here are lots of photos and a couple short video clips. He is such a little cutie! He is the only one of our boys who has a cute little cleft in his chin (like his Daddy). His hair is a light brown color, and his eyes are dark blue. He has a good little personality – he seems to be trying to sleep pretty well the last day or so, and since visiting a lactation specialist this afternoon I think we’ve got this whole nursing thing down, so things should be getting a little easier from here on out. He likes his baby swing and his pacifier, and since he was giving me a hard time with nursing the last couple days we found out that he takes a bottle really well too. When he was born Courtland had lots of red blotchy spots on his face and we thought that maybe he had really sensitive skin, but it has mostly cleared up since then.
His brothers all seem to like him – we haven’t had any jealousy issues yet (cross your fingers that things will continue to go well in that department), and every once in a while even little Isaac will come over and give him and kiss or hug without us even asking him to (we often ask him to give us kisses and hugs). I thought that the boys would do well with the new baby, but was a little concerned about how Isaac would react, especially since he seems to be more attached to Michael and I than the older boys were at his age, and because with moving to Utah we aren’t really around anyone else with kids Isaac’s age or younger so he hasn’t been around little babies at all, but he has done very well with Courtland so far.
Well, here are lots of fun pictures of this cute little guy:
Showing posts with label Hospital. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hospital. Show all posts
10 February 2009
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24 January 2009
False Labor
So, last night Michael and I went to the temple and when we got there I started having contractions. (When the contractions started, it made me think of a conversation we had the other night with some friends, that we thought it would be a cool story for the baby when they got older to tell if they were born in the temple, but not so cool for the mom if she happened to be at the temple when she gave birth). Anyways, the contractions weren’t lasting too long – most about 30 to 40 seconds long, but they weren’t all that far apart for the most part either. For a while I was thinking that it might turn into something real, and after 2 hours of some contractions that got pretty strong I thought I was in labor for sure. We headed home, with a few people making comments that I looked like I needed to leave. I told Michael that it would be kind of a cool date for Courtland’s birthday – just because Kolby was born on Oct 31st and Eli on January 31st, so it would be kind of fun if Isaac was born on Oct 23rd and then Courtland on Jan 23rd. But when we got in the car to head home, the contractions slowed down a lot, and then stopped all except 2 or 3 more after we got home. You hear a lot about women having “false labor” and starting to have contractions but then stopping, but that has never happened to me before. With all of my previous pregnancies (except Kolby’s, because I was induced with him) once the contractions have started to be somewhat regular for over half an hour, they continued to get stronger until we went to the hospital and had the baby. Can you say, “Disappointing?” And not only had I gotten my hopes up after 2 hours of contractions that I would be having the baby, but I was tired and worn out, and then didn’t get to go to the hospital after that. My mom said that with my little sister she had that happen several times before she had her, and that by the time she went in to the hospital to be induced (and she wasn’t even in labor at that point) she was already dilated to a 4. So maybe it just means that my body is getting ready. But I felt pretty ready to have this baby last night. Oh well. At least it can’t be too long of a wait, no matter what, since we have an induction date set for February 10th, so I know I’ll have this baby sometime in the next 17 days (no, I’m not really counting down the days yet, but I tried to explain to Kolby this morning when he asked when Courtland would “come out” that it would be sometime within the next 2 ½ weeks, and he still hasn’t fully grasped the concept of exactly how long a week is yet, so I counted out the days to explain that to him). Anyways, after last night I am feeling ready for this little guy to come. We’ll see what his plans are . . .
20 December 2008
Snow, A Hospital Trip, and Christmas Memories
So, we’ve gotten some snow here this week. Last weekend there were a couple colder days that actually started to remind me of the Milwaukee winters a bit, but it hasn’t seemed quite as cold here the last few days. And yesterday we got the most snow of this winter yet, but Michael and I were both commenting that it didn’t seem that bad (even though everyone was commenting about what a big storm it was). I guess we got used to the Milwaukee winters, because this storm yesterday left several inches of snow, but it surprised me that here in Utah (where they should be used to snow in the winter) it took me half an hour to drive out to the hospital yesterday evening when it would normally have taken just over 10 minutes or so, because of the traffic and all the cars were moving so slowly. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining, I think that this mild winter has been nice so far, and the fact that the snow actually melts here in between storms is a nice contrast to Milwaukee too. It kind of makes me want to find some little internet gadget to put on my blog that shows the weather temperatures and snowfall in the different places that we have lived and will be living in the future – it’d be kind of fun to compare the winter weather in Milwaukee, Salt Lake, Rochester, and San Diego, huh? We’ll see.
On another note, I spent several hours in the hospital last night. All day yesterday I was having what I guess you would call shortness of breath, but it was different than anything I’d had with any of my other pregnancies. I used to think that shortness of breath during pregnancy meant that you got winded after climbing a flight of stairs, but what I was having yesterday was different than that. I couldn’t take a deep breath without my chest hurting, and it lasted for several hours. In the late afternoon I finally called the midwife on call, and she said that since she couldn’t really tell much over the phone I should come in to Labor and Delivery to have it checked out just in case. So, after the half hour drive into the hospital and the long wait after checking in and again after getting into a room, I wasn’t having much pain or difficulty breathing by that point at all anymore. They took my history (the nurse did say that one good thing about my visit was that they wouldn’t have to ask me all those questions again when I come in to have the baby in February). And since it was after hours and I wasn’t just going to the clinic, they had me lay down and put on all the baby monitors and everything – which showed that the baby and I were healthy. They drew my blood, and then it was another long wait for the on call midwife to show up. Michael happened to be on a 30-hour shift in the internal medicine wards and since the snow storms seem to make his patient load a little lighter, he came over and stayed with me, waiting to be paged back if there was an admit. Luckily no new patients came in while we were there, so he got to stay with me for the entire time. When the midwife came, she said that everything looked ok. I was glad that she seemed to take me seriously, even though the problem had gotten a lot better by the time I finally got in. She asked me about a number of things, and said that she couldn’t see anything wrong with me at that point, but to call or come back in if I got a number of other symptoms that she listed. I guess that, although they are pretty uncommon, there are a few things, such as blood clots, that they would be concerned about with this kind of thing in pregnancy, so I guess it was better to have it checked out just to be safe. So, after I got home last night and went to bed, Camden woke up around 2am and I changed his diaper and put him back to bed. When I went back to bed, my heart started racing really fast and beating strongly so that it was uncomfortable for about 10 or 20 seconds. Since this has never happened to me before, you can imagine that I was a little alarmed, especially since one of the things that the midwife had asked me about at the hospital was if I had had any heart palpitations. So it took me a little while to fall asleep again after that, wondering if something could be wrong or not. This morning I called the other midwife who was on call today, and when I got ahold of her this afternoon she reassured me that she would only be concerned if the palpitations lasted for about 15 minutes and happened 2 or more times a day. So, she wants me to write down whenever it happens, for how long, and what activities I am doing at the time, and she said I only need to come back into Labor and Delivery if it happens more often or if it doesn’t go away. So, I guess everything is ok. We’ll just chalk it up to “more weird things that happen during pregnancy for no other apparent reason than the fact that I am pregnant.” Hopefully I won’t have any other problems with that, and everything else with this pregnancy will be uneventful.
So, on an entirely different note, I saw this “Christmas Tag” on a friends’ blog and decided to do it, since it is something a little different than all the other “tags” I’ve seen.
Christmas Tag
1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Although I’d like gift bags for everything because they’re easier, they’re too expensive and it’s too hard to plan all the correct-sized bags when getting all the Christmas gifts, so I usually end up using a couple rolls of wrapping paper.
2. Real tree or Artificial? Artificial, so far. We have a cute little artificial tree that my mom got for us when we were first married because we weren’t allowed to have real trees in our apartment complex because they’re a fire hazard. I’ve always planned on having a real tree when we get into a house and have a little more room in the future – I always loved picking out a tree with my family, and I think cutting one down together would be especially fun.
3. When do you put up the tree? If it’s up to me, it goes up sometime soon after Halloween. :)
4. When do you take the tree down the tree? In January – usually after we return home from visiting family for Christmas and New Years.
5. Do you like egg nog? Oh yes – I think that it’s probably a good thing that egg nog is not available year round, because it is often one of my impulse buys at the grocery store in the winter time. Although I like it how my family always had it growing up: half egg nog and half 7-up, I also like it just by itself.
6. Favorite gift received as a child? One Christmas that I really remember was when my parents didn’t have as much money one year and my sister got home-made doll clothes for her American Girl doll and I got a pet rabbit (I believe someone was giving the rabbits away or selling them for not very much money that year). That little bunny was so cute – it was grey and white and I named it Sweat Pea.
7. Do you have a nativity scene? I have a Willow Tree nativity which I love that my mom and grandma have given me the different parts to over the last few years. We also have a couple other smaller nativity sets – a little ceramic one that Michael’s grandma sent him when he was on his mission in the Dominican Republic and a few little ceramic ones that my grandmas sent for the boys last year. Oh, and we have the little painted wooden set that my parents had when I was growing up – it is kid-proof and so we can set that one down low and not worry about it getting broken. And, if you promise not to tell our boys, I’ll tell you what we got for one of their Christmas gifts: the Fisher Price “Little People” nativity set – it has Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus, shepherds, wise men, the innkeeper and his wife, some little buildings, and lots of animals. I think they will have a lot of fun with that. Someday I’d love to have a collection of different nativity sets that are special to us – maybe from different places we have visited or something like that. I’d love to have one someday like my mom’s that she got at the yearly craft fair in Eureka Springs – they are wooden pieces with beautiful colored yarn wrapped around them and they are so unique. Someday. :)
8. Hardest person to buy for? Maybe my brothers (since I think it’s easier to buy for girls than boys in general), except I didn’t have too hard of a time thinking up ideas for them this year.
9. Easiest person to buy for? My boys – toys are always fun for them, and I enjoy getting them cute new clothes when they need them.
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? We tried printing and mailing out Christmas letters the first year, but postage was so expensive that we ended up only sending them to relatives and a handful of friends. Since then I’ve sent them out by e-mail each year so we can include more of our family members and friends. (And of course I post it on the blog too).
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Can’t really think of anything at the moment.
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Hhmmm . . . let’s see, I quite like the old one, “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
13. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? I can't think of a time.
14. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Egg nog, hot chocolate with candy canes and whipped cream, peppermint ice cream.
15. Clear lights or colored on the tree? I like white lights – they are so pretty and go with all the other holiday colors.
16. Favorite Christmas song? I think probably “Silent Night.”
17. Travel at Christmas or stay home? We have always gone to visit family in the past – alternating each year between my parents and Michael’s parents – but this will be our first year staying here, since Michael only gets one day off the week of Christmas (the day after Christmas) and this wouldn’t allow us to get there and back in time for him to get back to work.
18. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? Rudolf, Commet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen, Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, and Vixen – is that all of them?
19. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas morning. (Except for the one gift on Christmas Eve that is from Santa to the entire family and is always a game that we play together after driving around town looking at the lights – that is a tradition from Michael’s side of the family).
20. Most annoying thing about this time of year? I don’t like the annoying “new” pop Christmas songs that are always on so many radio stations – why not stick with the good old ones – all the wonderful songs about Christ and the good old ones we grew up with, like White Christmas, Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire, etc. And why would any artist want to take those good old songs and change the tune or the words so much as to ruin them?
21. Favorite ornament theme or color? I like the traditional colors – a nice, dark red, green, white, maybe gold. Someday I’d like to have two different trees in different rooms in the house (so we can still use our little artificial tree when we start getting real ones), and the little one would just have pretty, breakable ornaments and the cute little silver frame ornaments that I put in a little family picture every year – and the other tree could have the assortment of all the children’s and other ornaments on it.
22. Favorite food for Christmas dinner? Nothing in particular – just to share it with family.
23. What do you want for Christmas this year? I am so looking forward to enjoying Christmas Eve and Christmas day with Michael and the boys and seeing them all open their gifts from me, because I know they’ll love them. (I have to admit, I’m also curious about what Michael got for me, since I haven’t figured it out, and I am notorious for figuring out my gifts beforehand, even if I’m not really trying to).
Merry Christmas!
On another note, I spent several hours in the hospital last night. All day yesterday I was having what I guess you would call shortness of breath, but it was different than anything I’d had with any of my other pregnancies. I used to think that shortness of breath during pregnancy meant that you got winded after climbing a flight of stairs, but what I was having yesterday was different than that. I couldn’t take a deep breath without my chest hurting, and it lasted for several hours. In the late afternoon I finally called the midwife on call, and she said that since she couldn’t really tell much over the phone I should come in to Labor and Delivery to have it checked out just in case. So, after the half hour drive into the hospital and the long wait after checking in and again after getting into a room, I wasn’t having much pain or difficulty breathing by that point at all anymore. They took my history (the nurse did say that one good thing about my visit was that they wouldn’t have to ask me all those questions again when I come in to have the baby in February). And since it was after hours and I wasn’t just going to the clinic, they had me lay down and put on all the baby monitors and everything – which showed that the baby and I were healthy. They drew my blood, and then it was another long wait for the on call midwife to show up. Michael happened to be on a 30-hour shift in the internal medicine wards and since the snow storms seem to make his patient load a little lighter, he came over and stayed with me, waiting to be paged back if there was an admit. Luckily no new patients came in while we were there, so he got to stay with me for the entire time. When the midwife came, she said that everything looked ok. I was glad that she seemed to take me seriously, even though the problem had gotten a lot better by the time I finally got in. She asked me about a number of things, and said that she couldn’t see anything wrong with me at that point, but to call or come back in if I got a number of other symptoms that she listed. I guess that, although they are pretty uncommon, there are a few things, such as blood clots, that they would be concerned about with this kind of thing in pregnancy, so I guess it was better to have it checked out just to be safe. So, after I got home last night and went to bed, Camden woke up around 2am and I changed his diaper and put him back to bed. When I went back to bed, my heart started racing really fast and beating strongly so that it was uncomfortable for about 10 or 20 seconds. Since this has never happened to me before, you can imagine that I was a little alarmed, especially since one of the things that the midwife had asked me about at the hospital was if I had had any heart palpitations. So it took me a little while to fall asleep again after that, wondering if something could be wrong or not. This morning I called the other midwife who was on call today, and when I got ahold of her this afternoon she reassured me that she would only be concerned if the palpitations lasted for about 15 minutes and happened 2 or more times a day. So, she wants me to write down whenever it happens, for how long, and what activities I am doing at the time, and she said I only need to come back into Labor and Delivery if it happens more often or if it doesn’t go away. So, I guess everything is ok. We’ll just chalk it up to “more weird things that happen during pregnancy for no other apparent reason than the fact that I am pregnant.” Hopefully I won’t have any other problems with that, and everything else with this pregnancy will be uneventful.
So, on an entirely different note, I saw this “Christmas Tag” on a friends’ blog and decided to do it, since it is something a little different than all the other “tags” I’ve seen.
Christmas Tag
1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Although I’d like gift bags for everything because they’re easier, they’re too expensive and it’s too hard to plan all the correct-sized bags when getting all the Christmas gifts, so I usually end up using a couple rolls of wrapping paper.
2. Real tree or Artificial? Artificial, so far. We have a cute little artificial tree that my mom got for us when we were first married because we weren’t allowed to have real trees in our apartment complex because they’re a fire hazard. I’ve always planned on having a real tree when we get into a house and have a little more room in the future – I always loved picking out a tree with my family, and I think cutting one down together would be especially fun.
3. When do you put up the tree? If it’s up to me, it goes up sometime soon after Halloween. :)
4. When do you take the tree down the tree? In January – usually after we return home from visiting family for Christmas and New Years.
5. Do you like egg nog? Oh yes – I think that it’s probably a good thing that egg nog is not available year round, because it is often one of my impulse buys at the grocery store in the winter time. Although I like it how my family always had it growing up: half egg nog and half 7-up, I also like it just by itself.
6. Favorite gift received as a child? One Christmas that I really remember was when my parents didn’t have as much money one year and my sister got home-made doll clothes for her American Girl doll and I got a pet rabbit (I believe someone was giving the rabbits away or selling them for not very much money that year). That little bunny was so cute – it was grey and white and I named it Sweat Pea.
7. Do you have a nativity scene? I have a Willow Tree nativity which I love that my mom and grandma have given me the different parts to over the last few years. We also have a couple other smaller nativity sets – a little ceramic one that Michael’s grandma sent him when he was on his mission in the Dominican Republic and a few little ceramic ones that my grandmas sent for the boys last year. Oh, and we have the little painted wooden set that my parents had when I was growing up – it is kid-proof and so we can set that one down low and not worry about it getting broken. And, if you promise not to tell our boys, I’ll tell you what we got for one of their Christmas gifts: the Fisher Price “Little People” nativity set – it has Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus, shepherds, wise men, the innkeeper and his wife, some little buildings, and lots of animals. I think they will have a lot of fun with that. Someday I’d love to have a collection of different nativity sets that are special to us – maybe from different places we have visited or something like that. I’d love to have one someday like my mom’s that she got at the yearly craft fair in Eureka Springs – they are wooden pieces with beautiful colored yarn wrapped around them and they are so unique. Someday. :)
8. Hardest person to buy for? Maybe my brothers (since I think it’s easier to buy for girls than boys in general), except I didn’t have too hard of a time thinking up ideas for them this year.
9. Easiest person to buy for? My boys – toys are always fun for them, and I enjoy getting them cute new clothes when they need them.
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? We tried printing and mailing out Christmas letters the first year, but postage was so expensive that we ended up only sending them to relatives and a handful of friends. Since then I’ve sent them out by e-mail each year so we can include more of our family members and friends. (And of course I post it on the blog too).
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Can’t really think of anything at the moment.
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Hhmmm . . . let’s see, I quite like the old one, “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
13. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? I can't think of a time.
14. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Egg nog, hot chocolate with candy canes and whipped cream, peppermint ice cream.
15. Clear lights or colored on the tree? I like white lights – they are so pretty and go with all the other holiday colors.
16. Favorite Christmas song? I think probably “Silent Night.”
17. Travel at Christmas or stay home? We have always gone to visit family in the past – alternating each year between my parents and Michael’s parents – but this will be our first year staying here, since Michael only gets one day off the week of Christmas (the day after Christmas) and this wouldn’t allow us to get there and back in time for him to get back to work.
18. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? Rudolf, Commet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen, Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, and Vixen – is that all of them?
19. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas morning. (Except for the one gift on Christmas Eve that is from Santa to the entire family and is always a game that we play together after driving around town looking at the lights – that is a tradition from Michael’s side of the family).
20. Most annoying thing about this time of year? I don’t like the annoying “new” pop Christmas songs that are always on so many radio stations – why not stick with the good old ones – all the wonderful songs about Christ and the good old ones we grew up with, like White Christmas, Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire, etc. And why would any artist want to take those good old songs and change the tune or the words so much as to ruin them?
21. Favorite ornament theme or color? I like the traditional colors – a nice, dark red, green, white, maybe gold. Someday I’d like to have two different trees in different rooms in the house (so we can still use our little artificial tree when we start getting real ones), and the little one would just have pretty, breakable ornaments and the cute little silver frame ornaments that I put in a little family picture every year – and the other tree could have the assortment of all the children’s and other ornaments on it.
22. Favorite food for Christmas dinner? Nothing in particular – just to share it with family.
23. What do you want for Christmas this year? I am so looking forward to enjoying Christmas Eve and Christmas day with Michael and the boys and seeing them all open their gifts from me, because I know they’ll love them. (I have to admit, I’m also curious about what Michael got for me, since I haven’t figured it out, and I am notorious for figuring out my gifts beforehand, even if I’m not really trying to).
Merry Christmas!
15 December 2008
Miriam's Family Christmas Party
So, on Sunday evening we got to go to Miriam Barker’s family Christmas party at her mom’s house. It was fun to meet her family, have a nice dinner, and take part in their annual white elephant gift exchange – especially since the kids got really excited about opening and trading gifts. I took these cute pictures of Kiera, Eli, and Aspen coloring together. It was so nice of the Barkers to invite us and I was glad that Michael got done at the hospital early enough to come meet us there in time for dinner and the gift exchange. It’s nice to have some good friends here in Utah.
11 December 2008
Catching up on Photos
So, I’ve put off adding photos and videos to the blog now since just before Thanksgiving. All the boys are down for their naps right now, so maybe I’ll try to get caught up a bit.
Here are a few random shots from November:
Some plastic animal cracker jars from Costco that I’ve converted into food storage containers. I just cut up the bags from the food items that I wanted in the jars, then taped on the labels so it shows what is in each jar, and there is nutrition info on the back. I was pretty leased with how they turned out. (Now we’ll just see if the boys can eat enough animal crackers so that I can get a few more of these jars for food storage).
Here are a few random shots from November:
Some plastic animal cracker jars from Costco that I’ve converted into food storage containers. I just cut up the bags from the food items that I wanted in the jars, then taped on the labels so it shows what is in each jar, and there is nutrition info on the back. I was pretty leased with how they turned out. (Now we’ll just see if the boys can eat enough animal crackers so that I can get a few more of these jars for food storage).
A couple cute shots of Isaac and Camden in the bath when Kolby and Eli were at preschool one day.
One day Kolby and Eli’s friend, Hannah Johnson, came over to play for a little while after preschool. They played well together, but the boys got a little wild – showing off for their new friend. It was funny to watch them play, though, and see the obvious difference between boys and girls. Hannah had two of the Fisher Price “Little People” toys and was talking for them: “I love you,” “Why do you love me?” “Because I love you.” And then she made the people kiss. Eli, on the other hand, had a Little People bird and a crocodile which he was waving through the air (because the bird was helping the crocodile to fly) and every once in a while his animals would dive-bomb some of the other toys.
A rather unsuccessful attempt at pictures with Santa at the mall (we couldn’t even get Santa to look at the camera, let alone any of our boys). [Not that we would expect Isaac to sit with a strange man and smile for the camera].
When my family came for Thanksgiving, we met Michael at the hospital one day so that he could give everyone a tour of where he worked. These are of my brothers giving my boys piggy-back rides on our way into the hospital.
Michael wrapping a White Elephant gift for his work party that we went to.
And here are a couple shots of our boys with their cousins, Jaden and Kyler, on Thanksgiving at Grandma Bradshaw’s house.
12 November 2008
Birth Plan
*Warning: You might not want to read this post if you are very squeamish about labor and delivery stuff.*
So, I am now about 27 weeks along, and I had one of my regular doctor’s visits today. I am seeing the midwife’s group at the new Hospital in Murray (where Michael works), and I’ve been pleased with them so far. There are about 6 midwives in the group, and your appointments are scheduled with whichever midwife is available each time so that you hopefully get a chance to know all the midwives in the group by the time the baby comes, and then the one who is on call will be there to deliver the baby. (I went to a similar group practice when I had Kolby, except they were doctors and not midwives).
Well, when I went in yesterday the nurse gave me a packet of papers that she said they give to every patient around 28 weeks. It was mostly routine stuff (information about tours of the labor and delivery area of the hospital, hand-outs promoting breastfeeding, info on Group B Strep, a schedule of different pregnancy classes, etc.) But the last few papers in the packet caught my attention. It was talking about writing a Birth Plan (something that I had never done before). As I read through it, they promoted the idea of writing a birth plan so that the doctor, midwife, and other medical staff would know your plans for labor and after the baby was born, and it had a list of common practices that occur at the birth facility (so that new parents would know kind of what to expect), and then it had a sample birth plan. I thought that this was a nice idea, especially for a mom who hadn’t had kids before, but that I definitely didn’t need to write out a birth plan since I have had 4 kids before and I feel like I pretty much know how all this stuff works by now.
Then I read their sample Birth Plan:
“Labor:
If everything is going well and normally, I would prefer:
• To labor at home until I am in active labor.
• To have an IV only if medically indicated.
• Intermittent check of heart tones with continuous electronic monitoring only if medically indicated.
• To eat and drink lightly during labor.
• No artificial rupture of the membranes.
• No artificial induction or augmentation of labor. I would rather try natural methods first, i.e.: nipple stimulation, acupressure, change positions, etc.
• Not have a lot of vaginal exams – perhaps limiting them to when there has been a change in my labor.
• No medication. I want to use other forms of pain relief including breathing, relaxation, massage, hydrotherapy, lots of support, etc. I would like the hospital staff to refrain from suggesting medication and instead, encourage me to try other forms of pain relief.
• Give me a choice about being cared for by students, including nursing and medical students.
Birth:
• Pushing positions I would like to try are squatting and semi-squatting and hands and knees.
• I do not want an episiotomy. I’ve done perineal massage and would like to try other measures to reduce the likelihood of having one, including massage and hot packs, controlled pushing for gradual stretching and positions that promote stretching. I would rather go ahead and tear a little if it’s only going to be small and require a few stitches, than to have an episiotomy.
• I would like (my partner) to help with the delivery of the baby, with help from the midwife if he so desires. No Pitocin given after the delivery of the placenta, unless medically indicated. I would prefer to use nipple stimulation, breast feeding, and fundal massage if needed.
• I would like to be shown how to massage my fundus and then do it myself.
Postpartum:
If everything is okay with me and the baby, I would like:
• Baby given directly to me.
• To keep the baby with us for at least an hour or so and delay eye treatment, weighing, measuring and performing tests during that time. When the routine things are being done, I would like them done in my roo if possible. If not, I would like (my partner) or both of us to take the baby to the nursery and stay with him/her.
• 24 hour rooming in with no supplements given to the baby.
• No circumcision if the baby is a boy.
• To go home as soon as my midwife and the baby’s doctor determine it is safe for us to do so.
If a Cesarean Birth is necessary:
• I would like to have an epidural anesthesia so I can be awake.
• I would like (my partner) and my midwife to be present.
• I would like my arms to be free to hold (my partner’s) hand and touch our baby.
• Option to have the drape lowered or a mirror if I want to see the baby being born.
• Permission for (my partner) to take pictures.
• Breastfeeding as soon as possible.
• If baby is healthy, quiet family time together as with vaginal delivery, including delaying routine newborn procedures.
• If baby has to go to the nursery right away, I would like (my partner) or my midwife to go with him/her and the other person to stay with me.
• Rooming in on a flexible basis.”
Oh boy. Wow, so when I got to the second or third bullet under “Labor” I knew right away that this wasn’t going to be my kind of Birth Plan. I got thinking about it, and figured that there were many women who saw the midwives who were really into all natural births, and that this example birth plan was geared towards them. (Those of you who know me know that I think that having any unnecessary pain is, well, unnecessary, and I think that epidurals are a great thing, especially since they have worked so well for me with past pregnancies. And when I first went to this midwife’s group I made sure that they were totally supportive of my decision NOT to have a natural birth (or else I would have switched to a different doctor), and there has been no problem with this.
But then I got thinking about going into the hospital when this baby arrives (and thinking about how quickly my last couple of babies have come, and how that might not leave much extra time for explaining my views on labor and delivery to each doctor, nurse, or other medical staff who might enter the room). And also considering that by that time I may or may not have even met all of the midwives in the group and may or may not have had time to get to know them so that they understand my views on this, even if I had had an appointment with each of them before the baby is born. And then I wondered if this was their example Birth Plan, then maybe the midwife delivering me would assume that I wanted something similar (or some other medical staff person would assume this since I was being seen by a midwife instead of a doctor). I know, I’m probably way over-thinking all this, and I will go in and have a “normal” labor, just like with all my other babies at different hospitals.
But I decided to write down a Birth Plan, even if it was just to give a copy to the midwife next time I go in and discuss it to make sure that none of those incorrect assumptions would be made. I thought about my past deliveries and what I had liked (getting an epidural as soon as I arrived at the hospital since I am usually dilated to about a 7 or 8 when I arrive, having Michael count for me between pushes if needed, having the doctors and nurses explain things to me before they did them, being able to see the screen and watch the contractions after I have gotten the epidural and before I start pushing, being able to hold the baby and nurse him soon after birth, having Michael take pictures and video AFTER the baby is born and while they are weighing and measuring him in the room, etc.) and the things that I would have changed (having an epidural that worked fine when I had Camden but then having the epidural wear off before I started pushing and having the resident tell me that epidurals were not perfect and not doing anything about it, being woken up early in the morning by students who just wanted to see how I was doing after having a baby and then being up most of the night, having a little too much help from nurses with breastfeeding after I’d already breastfed a couple babies before, having a nurse tell me that I would “have to” give the baby formula if he didn’t take a certain number of ounces of the breast milk I had pumped for him within a certain number of hours after his birth, being told that I had to leave the IV in my arm during my hospital stay just in case it was needed later and then having my 1-yr-old pull on the IV when he came to visit the new baby, feeling like the nurse thought I wasn’t doing the right thing when I let my newborn sleep for about 6 hours through his first night after he was born without waking him to feed him, etc.)
So, here is my birth plan (don’t laugh at some of the silly things I included). I actually Googled birth plans to see what some other people had written in theirs, and there were some things that were even more ‘out there’ than the sample one that I got at the hospital the other day (and some that had good ideas that I added to mine). (Of course, mine is longer than the sample one – I know, I can be rather wordy sometimes. Oh well).
“Labor:
If everything is going normally, I would prefer:
• To have an epidural as soon as I arrive at the hospital once it is confirmed that I am in labor. As long as I am in labor and am dilating as I should be, I request that the anesthesiologist be called and the epidural be given as soon as possible, especially since I have had short labors with my last couple babies.
• If at any time during labor my epidural begins to wear off, I request that I get another dose as long as time allows before the baby’s birth.
• My husband is an intern at this hospital, and I request no medical students, interns, or residents be present at my labor, or during my postpartum care or throughout my stay at the hospital.
• I expect to have a vaginal exam when I arrive at the hospital to see how dilated I am, and then after that as needed.
• I expect that doctors and hospital staff will discuss all procedures with me before they are performed.
• My husband will be present. I would like my mother (or any other female family member that I or my husband approve) to be present.
• To have intermittent check of heart tones with continuous electronic monitoring. To have internal monitoring if my midwife/doctor thinks this is a good idea. I would prefer that the computer screen be turned towards me so that I can watch the progress of the contractions before I start pushing if possible.
• I am fine with rupture of the membranes if/when my midwife/doctor approves.
• Artificial induction of labor (with Pitocin) if deemed necessary by my midwife/doctor.Please discuss options/plans with my husband and myself if assistance (such as forceps or suction) is needed.
Birth:
• While pushing, I plan to be in a traditional laying-down position using stir-ups.
• It is helpful for my husband to count for me while I push, so I would appreciate it if the nurse or midwife could instruct him in doing so if needed.
• I would like my husband to be given the opportunity to cut the cord.
• I plan to have Pitocin post-delivery.
• If stitching is necessary for an episiotomy or tear, please use local anesthetic if the epidural has begun to wear off.
• Permission for my husband or other family member to take pictures or video after the baby is born.
Postpartum:
If everything is okay with me and the baby, I would like:
• My husband is an intern at this hospital, and I request no medical students, interns, or residents be present during my postpartum care or throughout my stay at the hospital.
• I would like to hold the baby immediately after his birth. And my husband should be able to hold the baby at this time too.
• After we get a chance to hold the baby, I would like him to be weighed and measured and then cleaned off in our room. After this is done, I would like to have time to breastfeed him.
• Please give the baby and me a chance to work on breastfeeding on our own. I will request breastfeeding help or suggestions from a nurse, midwife, or lactation specialist if needed.
• After I have been able to breastfeed, please do any treatments or testing on the baby in our room. If he needs to go to the nursery for these things, please let my husband go and stay with him.
• I would like the baby’s first bath to be given in our room, if possible. If it needs to be in the nursery, then my husband should be able to go with him for this too.
• With this being my 5th baby, I am assuming that the contractions after the baby is born will not be pleasant. I would like to have the strongest doses of pain killers possible for this, please. • I would like to have my IV removed as soon as possible after the baby is born. I understand that there is a possibility that I could need an IV later on, and I would prefer having the IV removed after the baby’s birth and having to have a new IV put in later if necessary than leaving the IV in longer than necessary after the baby is born.
• I plan to try to exclusively breastfeed the baby, so please do not introduce bottles, formulas, or pacifiers without permission from me or my husband first. We will be using a pacifier at a later time, but since some of my other babies have had trouble breastfeeding, I plan to not introduce a pacifier at all until the baby is a week or two old and has become totally successful at breastfeeding first.
• We plan to have our baby circumcised before we leave the hospital. Please allow my husband to be with the baby during this procedure.
• This baby is our 5th child. At home, we have a 5 year old, a 3 year old, a 2 year old, and a 1 year old. As you can imagine, things will be very busy for us when we take our new baby home from the hospital. My sleep during the stay at the hospital is extremely important for a quick recovery, so please, please, please do not wake me or my baby up for anything that is not absolutely necessary. Please! My view is that a healthy baby should never be woken up during the night, especially in the first day or two after birth when a baby sleeps so often and may not be eating much yet. And the more sleep I can get at the hospital at night and in the early morning, the better. I do want to have my baby in my room with me, and I will breastfeed him if he wakes at night, but please do not come in and wake us up at night to breastfeed or to ask how we are doing, etc. Thank you for respecting my wishes on this matter.
• We prefer that our stay at the hospital be extended to the longest our insurance will allow so that the baby and I may recover fully before returning home. We ask that my husband and our baby both room in. We ask that our other children be allowed to visit.
If a Cesarean Birth is necessary:
• I would strongly prefer to have a vaginal birth as long as this does not pose a danger to the baby or myself.
• If a cesarean is necessary, I expect to be fully informed of all procedures and actively participate in decision-making.
• I would like to have an epidural so I can be awake.
• I would like my husband and my midwife/doctor present. I would also like my mother (or any other female family member that I or my husband approve) to be present too.
• I would like my arms to be free to hold my husband’s hand and to hold our baby.
• I would like the option to have the drape lowered or a mirror if I choose to see the baby being born.
• Permission for my husband or other family member to take pictures or video after the baby is born.
• I would like to hold the baby immediately after his birth. And my husband should be able to hold the baby at this time too.
• I would like to breastfeed the baby after he is measured and weighed (please measure him and weigh him in the room if possible, or allow my husband to go with the baby if he needs to go to the nursery for any reason).
• We prefer the baby and father remain in the recovery room with the mother.”
I don’t know if it will matter much anyways, but I figured I could have it written down and at least go over it with the midwife at my next appointment so that someone other than just myself and Michael would know what my plans were (and that I didn’t want to try some of the things that I consider to be rather strange from their sample birth plan).
Well, that’s probably more information than most of you wanted to know about me and my ideas about labor, but this is my “journal,” so I figure I get to write whatever is on my mind. So there you have it.
So, I am now about 27 weeks along, and I had one of my regular doctor’s visits today. I am seeing the midwife’s group at the new Hospital in Murray (where Michael works), and I’ve been pleased with them so far. There are about 6 midwives in the group, and your appointments are scheduled with whichever midwife is available each time so that you hopefully get a chance to know all the midwives in the group by the time the baby comes, and then the one who is on call will be there to deliver the baby. (I went to a similar group practice when I had Kolby, except they were doctors and not midwives).
Well, when I went in yesterday the nurse gave me a packet of papers that she said they give to every patient around 28 weeks. It was mostly routine stuff (information about tours of the labor and delivery area of the hospital, hand-outs promoting breastfeeding, info on Group B Strep, a schedule of different pregnancy classes, etc.) But the last few papers in the packet caught my attention. It was talking about writing a Birth Plan (something that I had never done before). As I read through it, they promoted the idea of writing a birth plan so that the doctor, midwife, and other medical staff would know your plans for labor and after the baby was born, and it had a list of common practices that occur at the birth facility (so that new parents would know kind of what to expect), and then it had a sample birth plan. I thought that this was a nice idea, especially for a mom who hadn’t had kids before, but that I definitely didn’t need to write out a birth plan since I have had 4 kids before and I feel like I pretty much know how all this stuff works by now.
Then I read their sample Birth Plan:
“Labor:
If everything is going well and normally, I would prefer:
• To labor at home until I am in active labor.
• To have an IV only if medically indicated.
• Intermittent check of heart tones with continuous electronic monitoring only if medically indicated.
• To eat and drink lightly during labor.
• No artificial rupture of the membranes.
• No artificial induction or augmentation of labor. I would rather try natural methods first, i.e.: nipple stimulation, acupressure, change positions, etc.
• Not have a lot of vaginal exams – perhaps limiting them to when there has been a change in my labor.
• No medication. I want to use other forms of pain relief including breathing, relaxation, massage, hydrotherapy, lots of support, etc. I would like the hospital staff to refrain from suggesting medication and instead, encourage me to try other forms of pain relief.
• Give me a choice about being cared for by students, including nursing and medical students.
Birth:
• Pushing positions I would like to try are squatting and semi-squatting and hands and knees.
• I do not want an episiotomy. I’ve done perineal massage and would like to try other measures to reduce the likelihood of having one, including massage and hot packs, controlled pushing for gradual stretching and positions that promote stretching. I would rather go ahead and tear a little if it’s only going to be small and require a few stitches, than to have an episiotomy.
• I would like (my partner) to help with the delivery of the baby, with help from the midwife if he so desires. No Pitocin given after the delivery of the placenta, unless medically indicated. I would prefer to use nipple stimulation, breast feeding, and fundal massage if needed.
• I would like to be shown how to massage my fundus and then do it myself.
Postpartum:
If everything is okay with me and the baby, I would like:
• Baby given directly to me.
• To keep the baby with us for at least an hour or so and delay eye treatment, weighing, measuring and performing tests during that time. When the routine things are being done, I would like them done in my roo if possible. If not, I would like (my partner) or both of us to take the baby to the nursery and stay with him/her.
• 24 hour rooming in with no supplements given to the baby.
• No circumcision if the baby is a boy.
• To go home as soon as my midwife and the baby’s doctor determine it is safe for us to do so.
If a Cesarean Birth is necessary:
• I would like to have an epidural anesthesia so I can be awake.
• I would like (my partner) and my midwife to be present.
• I would like my arms to be free to hold (my partner’s) hand and touch our baby.
• Option to have the drape lowered or a mirror if I want to see the baby being born.
• Permission for (my partner) to take pictures.
• Breastfeeding as soon as possible.
• If baby is healthy, quiet family time together as with vaginal delivery, including delaying routine newborn procedures.
• If baby has to go to the nursery right away, I would like (my partner) or my midwife to go with him/her and the other person to stay with me.
• Rooming in on a flexible basis.”
Oh boy. Wow, so when I got to the second or third bullet under “Labor” I knew right away that this wasn’t going to be my kind of Birth Plan. I got thinking about it, and figured that there were many women who saw the midwives who were really into all natural births, and that this example birth plan was geared towards them. (Those of you who know me know that I think that having any unnecessary pain is, well, unnecessary, and I think that epidurals are a great thing, especially since they have worked so well for me with past pregnancies. And when I first went to this midwife’s group I made sure that they were totally supportive of my decision NOT to have a natural birth (or else I would have switched to a different doctor), and there has been no problem with this.
But then I got thinking about going into the hospital when this baby arrives (and thinking about how quickly my last couple of babies have come, and how that might not leave much extra time for explaining my views on labor and delivery to each doctor, nurse, or other medical staff who might enter the room). And also considering that by that time I may or may not have even met all of the midwives in the group and may or may not have had time to get to know them so that they understand my views on this, even if I had had an appointment with each of them before the baby is born. And then I wondered if this was their example Birth Plan, then maybe the midwife delivering me would assume that I wanted something similar (or some other medical staff person would assume this since I was being seen by a midwife instead of a doctor). I know, I’m probably way over-thinking all this, and I will go in and have a “normal” labor, just like with all my other babies at different hospitals.
But I decided to write down a Birth Plan, even if it was just to give a copy to the midwife next time I go in and discuss it to make sure that none of those incorrect assumptions would be made. I thought about my past deliveries and what I had liked (getting an epidural as soon as I arrived at the hospital since I am usually dilated to about a 7 or 8 when I arrive, having Michael count for me between pushes if needed, having the doctors and nurses explain things to me before they did them, being able to see the screen and watch the contractions after I have gotten the epidural and before I start pushing, being able to hold the baby and nurse him soon after birth, having Michael take pictures and video AFTER the baby is born and while they are weighing and measuring him in the room, etc.) and the things that I would have changed (having an epidural that worked fine when I had Camden but then having the epidural wear off before I started pushing and having the resident tell me that epidurals were not perfect and not doing anything about it, being woken up early in the morning by students who just wanted to see how I was doing after having a baby and then being up most of the night, having a little too much help from nurses with breastfeeding after I’d already breastfed a couple babies before, having a nurse tell me that I would “have to” give the baby formula if he didn’t take a certain number of ounces of the breast milk I had pumped for him within a certain number of hours after his birth, being told that I had to leave the IV in my arm during my hospital stay just in case it was needed later and then having my 1-yr-old pull on the IV when he came to visit the new baby, feeling like the nurse thought I wasn’t doing the right thing when I let my newborn sleep for about 6 hours through his first night after he was born without waking him to feed him, etc.)
So, here is my birth plan (don’t laugh at some of the silly things I included). I actually Googled birth plans to see what some other people had written in theirs, and there were some things that were even more ‘out there’ than the sample one that I got at the hospital the other day (and some that had good ideas that I added to mine). (Of course, mine is longer than the sample one – I know, I can be rather wordy sometimes. Oh well).
“Labor:
If everything is going normally, I would prefer:
• To have an epidural as soon as I arrive at the hospital once it is confirmed that I am in labor. As long as I am in labor and am dilating as I should be, I request that the anesthesiologist be called and the epidural be given as soon as possible, especially since I have had short labors with my last couple babies.
• If at any time during labor my epidural begins to wear off, I request that I get another dose as long as time allows before the baby’s birth.
• My husband is an intern at this hospital, and I request no medical students, interns, or residents be present at my labor, or during my postpartum care or throughout my stay at the hospital.
• I expect to have a vaginal exam when I arrive at the hospital to see how dilated I am, and then after that as needed.
• I expect that doctors and hospital staff will discuss all procedures with me before they are performed.
• My husband will be present. I would like my mother (or any other female family member that I or my husband approve) to be present.
• To have intermittent check of heart tones with continuous electronic monitoring. To have internal monitoring if my midwife/doctor thinks this is a good idea. I would prefer that the computer screen be turned towards me so that I can watch the progress of the contractions before I start pushing if possible.
• I am fine with rupture of the membranes if/when my midwife/doctor approves.
• Artificial induction of labor (with Pitocin) if deemed necessary by my midwife/doctor.Please discuss options/plans with my husband and myself if assistance (such as forceps or suction) is needed.
Birth:
• While pushing, I plan to be in a traditional laying-down position using stir-ups.
• It is helpful for my husband to count for me while I push, so I would appreciate it if the nurse or midwife could instruct him in doing so if needed.
• I would like my husband to be given the opportunity to cut the cord.
• I plan to have Pitocin post-delivery.
• If stitching is necessary for an episiotomy or tear, please use local anesthetic if the epidural has begun to wear off.
• Permission for my husband or other family member to take pictures or video after the baby is born.
Postpartum:
If everything is okay with me and the baby, I would like:
• My husband is an intern at this hospital, and I request no medical students, interns, or residents be present during my postpartum care or throughout my stay at the hospital.
• I would like to hold the baby immediately after his birth. And my husband should be able to hold the baby at this time too.
• After we get a chance to hold the baby, I would like him to be weighed and measured and then cleaned off in our room. After this is done, I would like to have time to breastfeed him.
• Please give the baby and me a chance to work on breastfeeding on our own. I will request breastfeeding help or suggestions from a nurse, midwife, or lactation specialist if needed.
• After I have been able to breastfeed, please do any treatments or testing on the baby in our room. If he needs to go to the nursery for these things, please let my husband go and stay with him.
• I would like the baby’s first bath to be given in our room, if possible. If it needs to be in the nursery, then my husband should be able to go with him for this too.
• With this being my 5th baby, I am assuming that the contractions after the baby is born will not be pleasant. I would like to have the strongest doses of pain killers possible for this, please. • I would like to have my IV removed as soon as possible after the baby is born. I understand that there is a possibility that I could need an IV later on, and I would prefer having the IV removed after the baby’s birth and having to have a new IV put in later if necessary than leaving the IV in longer than necessary after the baby is born.
• I plan to try to exclusively breastfeed the baby, so please do not introduce bottles, formulas, or pacifiers without permission from me or my husband first. We will be using a pacifier at a later time, but since some of my other babies have had trouble breastfeeding, I plan to not introduce a pacifier at all until the baby is a week or two old and has become totally successful at breastfeeding first.
• We plan to have our baby circumcised before we leave the hospital. Please allow my husband to be with the baby during this procedure.
• This baby is our 5th child. At home, we have a 5 year old, a 3 year old, a 2 year old, and a 1 year old. As you can imagine, things will be very busy for us when we take our new baby home from the hospital. My sleep during the stay at the hospital is extremely important for a quick recovery, so please, please, please do not wake me or my baby up for anything that is not absolutely necessary. Please! My view is that a healthy baby should never be woken up during the night, especially in the first day or two after birth when a baby sleeps so often and may not be eating much yet. And the more sleep I can get at the hospital at night and in the early morning, the better. I do want to have my baby in my room with me, and I will breastfeed him if he wakes at night, but please do not come in and wake us up at night to breastfeed or to ask how we are doing, etc. Thank you for respecting my wishes on this matter.
• We prefer that our stay at the hospital be extended to the longest our insurance will allow so that the baby and I may recover fully before returning home. We ask that my husband and our baby both room in. We ask that our other children be allowed to visit.
If a Cesarean Birth is necessary:
• I would strongly prefer to have a vaginal birth as long as this does not pose a danger to the baby or myself.
• If a cesarean is necessary, I expect to be fully informed of all procedures and actively participate in decision-making.
• I would like to have an epidural so I can be awake.
• I would like my husband and my midwife/doctor present. I would also like my mother (or any other female family member that I or my husband approve) to be present too.
• I would like my arms to be free to hold my husband’s hand and to hold our baby.
• I would like the option to have the drape lowered or a mirror if I choose to see the baby being born.
• Permission for my husband or other family member to take pictures or video after the baby is born.
• I would like to hold the baby immediately after his birth. And my husband should be able to hold the baby at this time too.
• I would like to breastfeed the baby after he is measured and weighed (please measure him and weigh him in the room if possible, or allow my husband to go with the baby if he needs to go to the nursery for any reason).
• We prefer the baby and father remain in the recovery room with the mother.”
I don’t know if it will matter much anyways, but I figured I could have it written down and at least go over it with the midwife at my next appointment so that someone other than just myself and Michael would know what my plans were (and that I didn’t want to try some of the things that I consider to be rather strange from their sample birth plan).
Well, that’s probably more information than most of you wanted to know about me and my ideas about labor, but this is my “journal,” so I figure I get to write whatever is on my mind. So there you have it.
05 November 2008
Halloween Night
So, we enjoyed trick-or-treating around the neighborhood with a group of friends from church on Halloween. Kolby mostly ran around with his friend, Kaitlyn, and Camden tried to keep up with Eli. The boys all had a lot of fun – I think Isaac even enjoyed it, as he ended up napping in his stroller for a good part of the walk. The boys tired of trick-or-treating about an hour later, and we headed over to the hospital so Daddy could show of his cute boys in their costumes. The boys enjoyed having Daddy do a little pretend check-up on them in one of the empty ER patient rooms.
03 July 2008
"On Call"
It’s 11:30 at night, and there really isn’t any good reason to be up anymore. It’s not especially late yet, but I’m sitting at the computer, the blog updated with the latest photos of the kids, my e-mail checked (and re-checked, just in case someone wrote me while I’ve been sitting here tonight), my blog feed subscriptions updated (yes, I have all of my friends’ and families’ blogs e-mailed to me, so I don’t have to go look at them all the time to see if they’ve posted anything new or not), and I have even checked on eBay and think I may have found the perfect Halloween costume for Kolby – yes, for October. My problem: Michael is on call at the hospital. [For those of you who have not lived through medical school, internship, residency, etc., “on call” is a deceptive term. No, it does not mean, like it sounds, that the intern is at home, enjoying time with his family and waiting to be paged and rush into the hospital if needed. No, “on call” means that the intern is in the hospital, waiting to be paged for the next possible surgery case, at and time, day or night.] It’s really not been that bad of a month – surgery has been a nice enough schedule, although Michael is more tired from having to get up early in the morning, but most nights have not been late. Except he’s on call (overnight) every few days. Which isn’t all that terrible, either, really. I just can’t go to bed at a normal time when Michael’s not home at night. I mean, I can, but what for? With the kids all in bed hours ago (counting my blessings), there’s no one waiting for me to say prayers, no one wanting me to go lay down with them for the night (well, technically Kolby is waiting in my bed – this is the second time Michael has been on call and I have let Kolby sleep with me for the night). Kolby got really sad earlier when Michael wasn’t home to say goodnight, and after a long explanation of what “on call” means, how the doctors have to take turns staying overnight at the hospital to help the sick people, that the doctors don’t have to wait in line to take these turns, what surgery is {note to self: an explanation that doctors cut into people, fix them up, and then sew them back up is probably not the best idea for a 4-year-old, even if you try to make it sound less scary by saying that the doctors are helping, and this only happens to people who are really, really, really, really sick or hurt. Oops, I guess you learn as you go, as with everything in parenting}, and that doctors who perform surgeries use special tools from the hospital and not the tools that Grandma keeps in the garage for gardening; I was able to get Kolby to go to bed by telling him he could sleep in my bed tonight. Why not? Anyways, it’s now 11:48, and I am starting to get that faint sick feeling that I used to get when I would pull all-nighters to finish procrastinated homework assignments in high school (it’s really not all that late yet – what happened to those days when we were dating and it was an early night if we got in by midnight or 1am?) Anyways, good night.
29 June 2008
It has begun!!
My life as an intern has officially begun. I started my first of two surgery rotations on Tuesday. Over the next year I will be rotating through 13 28-day rotations: 4 internal medicine, 2 surgery, 2 ICU, 1 emergency room, 1 outpatient medicine clinic, and 3 electives (I am thinking rheumatology, dermatopathology, and dermatology right now). I didn’t sleep that great Monday night – lots of nerves going into the first day. I had to be there at 5:45am – I was also not used to waking up that early, but I made it. There are two general surgery teams, and on my team we have a chief resident (Dave, who is in his 5th and final year of residency) and three interns (Sarah, who is going into neurosurgery; Nate, who is going into anesthesia; and me). We rounded on our patients as a whole team – meaning we went and saw each of them, looking over a summary sheet of how they did in the last 24 hours and any pertinent labs that have returned, and then deciding on a plan for them for the day. It is nice to do this as a team so we can start to see some of the decision making that goes into deciding when to advance a patient's diet, give them certain medications, and know when they are ready to leave the hospital.
Most mornings we have a conference from 7-8, and then it is time to divide the workload between any surgeries that need to be covered and work that needs to be done with patients on the floor. The other two interns were having computer problems that first day, so I got to go in for the first surgeries and help Dr. Anderson, who was really nice and helpful in letting me assist him. The common things we help out with include removing the appendix and the gallbladder; fixing hernias of different types; and taking out breast cancer. Once the main workload is done for the day, the information about our patients is given to the intern on call and we can go home.
Needless to say, that first day was a little overwhelming as we got introduced to so many things. Lucky for us, the rest of the week has not been quite as busy, I think because many of the surgeons have been taking summer vacation. This has allowed us time to start learning the ropes of being an intern. It is a steep learning curve, but so far we are seeming to manage. We have a very understanding chief resident who is very laid back and very helpful in teaching us what to do.
Yesterday was my first overnight call as an intern. I was there from 6:30am Saturday until about 8:30am this morning. I got to help in two surgeries – removing an appendix and draining a really smelly abscess that was starting to have some dead tissue in it – actually got to do quite a bit in those surgeries, which was really cool. I also had a lot of people to dictate discharge summaries on that were leaving the hospital, which is a whole new experience to learn. You basically have to give a summary of their hospital course by talking into a phone and then transcribers get your report processed and into the chart. It was so weird to return pages and have the person on the other end start by saying something like: “Dr. Bradshaw, I have a question about patient so-and-so….” Things actually went really well and nobody died as a result of my decision making, so that is good. :)
Steph has been adjusting this week to having me at work again during the day, so being in charge of taking care of the kids all day at home. She found the library and has the kids doing the summer reading program. They also went to a fountain downtown by one of the malls where the kids could run through the water. They really enjoyed that.
She was able to get the boys all ready for church this morning and get there on time. I was able to meet them over there so that was nice. We had a really good lesson on why we go to church – it is to worship our Savior Jesus Christ, and that the meeting where we partake of the sacrament is one of the most sacred things we can do each week, so we need to do everything we can to prepare ourselves mentally and then show reverence while in that meeting in order to have the best spiritual experience possible.
Monday we were able to get the boys down to temple square. They were able to see the inside of the conference center (briefly), the north visitor center with the statue of the Christus, some things in the church history museum, a quick peek inside the tabernacle, and then a walk around the temple and the reflection pool. They keep saying how much they liked it and asking when they can go back. We also had a really yummy dinner at The Red Iguana.
Even with my busy schedule, at night there is not as much to do right now, so we have been able to enjoy watching a few movies together this week. And I have been able to play on my Nintendo Wii a little bit. Steph also found a couch at a garage sale for $25. It is brown leather couch with an ottoman, and the people delivered it here for us, so not a bad deal. Now we have more than just chairs to sit on in the basement.
Most mornings we have a conference from 7-8, and then it is time to divide the workload between any surgeries that need to be covered and work that needs to be done with patients on the floor. The other two interns were having computer problems that first day, so I got to go in for the first surgeries and help Dr. Anderson, who was really nice and helpful in letting me assist him. The common things we help out with include removing the appendix and the gallbladder; fixing hernias of different types; and taking out breast cancer. Once the main workload is done for the day, the information about our patients is given to the intern on call and we can go home.
Needless to say, that first day was a little overwhelming as we got introduced to so many things. Lucky for us, the rest of the week has not been quite as busy, I think because many of the surgeons have been taking summer vacation. This has allowed us time to start learning the ropes of being an intern. It is a steep learning curve, but so far we are seeming to manage. We have a very understanding chief resident who is very laid back and very helpful in teaching us what to do.
Yesterday was my first overnight call as an intern. I was there from 6:30am Saturday until about 8:30am this morning. I got to help in two surgeries – removing an appendix and draining a really smelly abscess that was starting to have some dead tissue in it – actually got to do quite a bit in those surgeries, which was really cool. I also had a lot of people to dictate discharge summaries on that were leaving the hospital, which is a whole new experience to learn. You basically have to give a summary of their hospital course by talking into a phone and then transcribers get your report processed and into the chart. It was so weird to return pages and have the person on the other end start by saying something like: “Dr. Bradshaw, I have a question about patient so-and-so….” Things actually went really well and nobody died as a result of my decision making, so that is good. :)
Steph has been adjusting this week to having me at work again during the day, so being in charge of taking care of the kids all day at home. She found the library and has the kids doing the summer reading program. They also went to a fountain downtown by one of the malls where the kids could run through the water. They really enjoyed that.
She was able to get the boys all ready for church this morning and get there on time. I was able to meet them over there so that was nice. We had a really good lesson on why we go to church – it is to worship our Savior Jesus Christ, and that the meeting where we partake of the sacrament is one of the most sacred things we can do each week, so we need to do everything we can to prepare ourselves mentally and then show reverence while in that meeting in order to have the best spiritual experience possible.
Monday we were able to get the boys down to temple square. They were able to see the inside of the conference center (briefly), the north visitor center with the statue of the Christus, some things in the church history museum, a quick peek inside the tabernacle, and then a walk around the temple and the reflection pool. They keep saying how much they liked it and asking when they can go back. We also had a really yummy dinner at The Red Iguana.
Even with my busy schedule, at night there is not as much to do right now, so we have been able to enjoy watching a few movies together this week. And I have been able to play on my Nintendo Wii a little bit. Steph also found a couch at a garage sale for $25. It is brown leather couch with an ottoman, and the people delivered it here for us, so not a bad deal. Now we have more than just chairs to sit on in the basement.
13 December 2007
A Quick Update on Isaac
Thank you for everyone who has written and called to check on Isaac. I just wanted to let everyone know that Isaac hasn't had any more problems with the spitting up since we were at the hospital the other day. That makes 2 1/2 days so far without any problems. I think it would be pretty amazing if he just suddenly stopped having these problems the same day that we took him in for them, but maybe we'll be lucky and that's what will happen. We'll keep you updated though, and let you know if he does get any worse. Thanks!
10 November 2007
Finally Home!!!
So, Isaac is 18 days old today, and he is finally home. They let us bring him home from the hospital tonight just before dinnertime. He had his surgery on Thursday to remove the tubes from his nose, and everything went well with that. He seems to be doing great now. We didn’t expect that he would be discharged from the hospital today – we thought they might let us bring him home early next week, but they said that he was doing well and there was no reason to keep him longer. He will have some follow-up appointments with the pediatrician and with the ENT who did his surgery next week. He came home without any monitors (up until yesterday the nurses were talking about sending him home with an apnea monitor), and it is nice to hold him and not worry about any wires or IVs connected to him. The nurses have mentioned that he has been awake a lot at night, so we’ll see how long it takes before he gets his days and nights straight again. But it was nice that they happened to have the same kind of baby swing at the NICU as the one we own, so we know that he likes to sleep in his swing already, if he needs any extra help with the sleeping at night.
The boys are excited to have him home. Kolby and Eli both took turns holding him (after we talked about washing their hands each time before touching the baby). And Camden touched his hair a few times and kind of petted his head. I am curious to see how Camden will adjust to having a new baby – but I think I will need to give it a while to let everything get back to normal before we can tell if he is going to be jealous at all or not. Camden has had a pretty rough time with me being gone everyday for the last few weeks – he has been more fussy than normal most days, so hopefully he will return to his normal, happy self soon now that we are all going to have a lot more time together at home.
This evening, after dinner, I picked him up and held him for a little while before nursing him. I just sat on the couch while he ate – I didn’t need to weigh him before and after he ate to measure exactly how many milliliters he ate or have a lactation specialist or nurse watching to see how well he latched on – and then after he finished, I laid down on the couch and just held him sleeping for a little while. This is how it should be to have a new baby.
Thank you to all of you who have helped watch our kids for us, brought us meals, called us, visited, and kept us in your prayers through all this. We really appreciate it! We probably won’t be taking Isaac out much for a while, because we really want to avoid him getting sick this winter. But I will be sure to post some more photos of him sometime soon.
The boys are excited to have him home. Kolby and Eli both took turns holding him (after we talked about washing their hands each time before touching the baby). And Camden touched his hair a few times and kind of petted his head. I am curious to see how Camden will adjust to having a new baby – but I think I will need to give it a while to let everything get back to normal before we can tell if he is going to be jealous at all or not. Camden has had a pretty rough time with me being gone everyday for the last few weeks – he has been more fussy than normal most days, so hopefully he will return to his normal, happy self soon now that we are all going to have a lot more time together at home.
This evening, after dinner, I picked him up and held him for a little while before nursing him. I just sat on the couch while he ate – I didn’t need to weigh him before and after he ate to measure exactly how many milliliters he ate or have a lactation specialist or nurse watching to see how well he latched on – and then after he finished, I laid down on the couch and just held him sleeping for a little while. This is how it should be to have a new baby.
Thank you to all of you who have helped watch our kids for us, brought us meals, called us, visited, and kept us in your prayers through all this. We really appreciate it! We probably won’t be taking Isaac out much for a while, because we really want to avoid him getting sick this winter. But I will be sure to post some more photos of him sometime soon.
05 November 2007
My Feelings on the NICU
So, we have been posting a lot lately about how Isaac is doing in the NICU, but not a lot about how we are doing and what we are feeling. I have been thinking a lot about this lately – how I am feeling, and how I should be feeling – about all this. Isaac will hit his 2-week-old birthday tomorrow, and he hasn’t even been outside yet. Yesterday, though, after I gave him a bath (so he had all of his monitors off), I took him over to a window and let him look outside (although he mostly just squinted at the bright light coming in). These last two weeks have been a blur – I can’t really keep track anymore of what has happened on each specific day since we’ve been here. And it seems like his stay in the NICU has gone on forever. The surgeon originally told us that he thought we would be taking Isaac home on the Sunday or Monday after he was born, but since the disappointment of not taking him home that early has worn off, I am just trying to not figure out a specific day when I think he should be ready to come home, because I think it is likely that his stay here may continue to drag on longer than we plan.
It is a mix of emotions being here. I am glad that Isaac is being taken care of by competent doctors and nurses, and that he is constantly being monitored in case something goes wrong. I am glad that the night he had that bad episode he was taken care of and people were able to help him right away. But it is hard having him here. I have been thinking a lot about it, and I think this has been the hardest thing I’ve ever had happen in my life so far. Thinking that makes me realize how nice my life has been, and how we haven’t had many difficult trials. I know that it could be a lot worse – he could have some serious problem that would affect him (and us) for the rest of his life. That’s why I keep thinking that we should be happy. Even though he has been in the NICU longer than we expected at first, they have continued to tell us from the beginning that they think he will have no long-term problems after we get him home. But at the same time that I am telling myself we should be grateful for that, I am still feeling bad that we don’t have our baby home and that everything is not normal right now. It is reassuring to me that as I have been feeling this way, I haven’t thought to question why this is happening to us or to question my faith in God. I know there is a reason. The thing that keeps coming to me is “endure to the end” – I think that is the reason for this, at least for me.
I have had times when I just feel sad about this whole thing. When I spend each day at the hospital, then I come home tired (just mentally, physically, and emotionally worn out), and my boys are excited to see me. I am excited to see them too – I know that not being with me for the majority of each day must be hard on them too. But they are active and sometimes wild, and I am tired by the end of the day, and then I end up getting mad or yelling at them. And while I am doing that, I am thinking, I am seeing what can happen when you have a sick child, and we have been blessed with all of these healthy, strong, happy children – I should be grateful that they are well, not getting frustrated with them when they are fussy or fighting with each other.
The other day, I walked into Isaac’s little room in the NICU, and the lights were turned off and he was sleeping soundly, all alone. And I just started crying, thinking of him all alone, not being held as much as he would be if he were home with us. And I am thinking, logically, that the nurse probably just finished taking care of him a few minutes before I got there, and I know that the nurses are feeding him about every three hours when I am not there, so he is being held at least every three hours during his feedings. But I just cried, thinking of my baby there, alone in the dark.
I wonder if he will be so used to a new nurse on shift every 12 hours, that he will not bond with me like my other kids have. Or what if he is so used to being in the NICU, where there is the noise of monitors beeping, nurses socializing, and other babies crying – but no big brothers running around playing and yelling – will he adjust alright to sleeping at home? And I know the nurses are feeding him about every 3 hours – so, is he going to expect to be fed that often at home (even after we know he is getting plenty to eat), and will this affect his sleeping, so that he might not sleep through the night as early as the other boys did? I worry about what little problems like that might occur after we take him home, that may not have happened if he had been at home with us from the start. And, even though I know it is not logical, since they have told us from the beginning that this is a problem that they can fix and he should be better soon, I still worry that he could die from some bad episode with his breathing one night or something. I don’t think I could handle that. I know, realistically, that that won’t happen – but the thought of it is still there, in the back of my head.
And then I start thinking about bringing him home. I am definitely looking forward to that day. But what if his oxygen rates desat sometime in the night at home, and he won’t have any of the hospital monitors on there, and we don’t know there is a problem? They say that they won’t let him go home until he is doing fine without all the monitors, but who knows what could happen. I want to do normal things with him – to dress him in cute clothes from home, rather than just the plain NICU outfits. But it almost seems silly – to bring clothes in that will probably just get dirty and have to be taken back home to be washed, if we could just save our energy and let the nurses change his clothes and not worry about extra laundry until we take him home. I want to be able to walk around with him, but I have only taken him away from his monitors a couple times for a few minutes. I want to just have him home and have everything be normal. But I guess that will come soon enough. And maybe by then I will be thinking of all the good nights of sleep I got while Isaac was in the NICU with nurses to stay up and take care of him all night long.
It is weird how something like this can make you feel. I am just really looking forward to being home and being a normal family again.
It is a mix of emotions being here. I am glad that Isaac is being taken care of by competent doctors and nurses, and that he is constantly being monitored in case something goes wrong. I am glad that the night he had that bad episode he was taken care of and people were able to help him right away. But it is hard having him here. I have been thinking a lot about it, and I think this has been the hardest thing I’ve ever had happen in my life so far. Thinking that makes me realize how nice my life has been, and how we haven’t had many difficult trials. I know that it could be a lot worse – he could have some serious problem that would affect him (and us) for the rest of his life. That’s why I keep thinking that we should be happy. Even though he has been in the NICU longer than we expected at first, they have continued to tell us from the beginning that they think he will have no long-term problems after we get him home. But at the same time that I am telling myself we should be grateful for that, I am still feeling bad that we don’t have our baby home and that everything is not normal right now. It is reassuring to me that as I have been feeling this way, I haven’t thought to question why this is happening to us or to question my faith in God. I know there is a reason. The thing that keeps coming to me is “endure to the end” – I think that is the reason for this, at least for me.
I have had times when I just feel sad about this whole thing. When I spend each day at the hospital, then I come home tired (just mentally, physically, and emotionally worn out), and my boys are excited to see me. I am excited to see them too – I know that not being with me for the majority of each day must be hard on them too. But they are active and sometimes wild, and I am tired by the end of the day, and then I end up getting mad or yelling at them. And while I am doing that, I am thinking, I am seeing what can happen when you have a sick child, and we have been blessed with all of these healthy, strong, happy children – I should be grateful that they are well, not getting frustrated with them when they are fussy or fighting with each other.
The other day, I walked into Isaac’s little room in the NICU, and the lights were turned off and he was sleeping soundly, all alone. And I just started crying, thinking of him all alone, not being held as much as he would be if he were home with us. And I am thinking, logically, that the nurse probably just finished taking care of him a few minutes before I got there, and I know that the nurses are feeding him about every three hours when I am not there, so he is being held at least every three hours during his feedings. But I just cried, thinking of my baby there, alone in the dark.
I wonder if he will be so used to a new nurse on shift every 12 hours, that he will not bond with me like my other kids have. Or what if he is so used to being in the NICU, where there is the noise of monitors beeping, nurses socializing, and other babies crying – but no big brothers running around playing and yelling – will he adjust alright to sleeping at home? And I know the nurses are feeding him about every 3 hours – so, is he going to expect to be fed that often at home (even after we know he is getting plenty to eat), and will this affect his sleeping, so that he might not sleep through the night as early as the other boys did? I worry about what little problems like that might occur after we take him home, that may not have happened if he had been at home with us from the start. And, even though I know it is not logical, since they have told us from the beginning that this is a problem that they can fix and he should be better soon, I still worry that he could die from some bad episode with his breathing one night or something. I don’t think I could handle that. I know, realistically, that that won’t happen – but the thought of it is still there, in the back of my head.
And then I start thinking about bringing him home. I am definitely looking forward to that day. But what if his oxygen rates desat sometime in the night at home, and he won’t have any of the hospital monitors on there, and we don’t know there is a problem? They say that they won’t let him go home until he is doing fine without all the monitors, but who knows what could happen. I want to do normal things with him – to dress him in cute clothes from home, rather than just the plain NICU outfits. But it almost seems silly – to bring clothes in that will probably just get dirty and have to be taken back home to be washed, if we could just save our energy and let the nurses change his clothes and not worry about extra laundry until we take him home. I want to be able to walk around with him, but I have only taken him away from his monitors a couple times for a few minutes. I want to just have him home and have everything be normal. But I guess that will come soon enough. And maybe by then I will be thinking of all the good nights of sleep I got while Isaac was in the NICU with nurses to stay up and take care of him all night long.
It is weird how something like this can make you feel. I am just really looking forward to being home and being a normal family again.
26 October 2007
Some More Photos of Isaac
Mommy and Isaac after he was born on Tuesday night, 23 October 2007.
He looks more chubby in this photo than in real life, but I
liked the little smile and you can see his dimple here.
He looked so small when he grabbed my ring finger with his little fingers.
Isaac takes a rest in Daddy's arms.
Sweet dreams!
Isaac visits the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit).
Isaac with an oxygen hood over his head to help him breath easier.
Isaac after his surgery today. They intubated (put the breathing tube down his throat) for an MRI and the surgery they did today. During the surgery, they made an incision under his upper lip to remove some bone from the nasal passage, and then they inserted tubes in his nose. So his lip is pretty swollen, and his nose is a little swollen too. But the surgery was successful and it seems like things are going just as planned. He should have the tube removed from his mouth either tonight or tomorrow morning, and then he can try eating. They said that if all goes as expected, he should be able to come home with us in 2 or 3 more days.
25 October 2007
Baby Isaac Has Arrived!
On Tuesday I started having contractions in the morning. I had them irregularly all day, and by that evening I was having them every 7 to 10 minutes. Michael and the boys and I went and ran a couple of errands, and when we got home around 7:00pm I started having the contractions about every 2 or 3 minutes, so Michael put the boys to bed and we called a friend to come stay with them while we went to the hospital. We arrived at the hospital about 8:30pm, and I was dilated to a 7. I got the epidural, which worked just right this time, and then they just had me wait. I was strep B positive, which means that they try to give the mom antibiotics for 4 hours before the baby is born, so they didn’t want to break my water because they were trying to wait the 4 hours. I got the first dose of the antibiotics, but my water broke on its own before they could give me the second dose. After my water broke, he came really quickly. I pushed once and his head came out, and I pushed a second time and he was delivered. That was definitely the quickest delivery yet!
Isaac Steven Bradshaw was born at 11:43pm on October 23rd, seven days before his due date. Michael told me later that he had the chord wrapped around his neck when he came out, but I didn’t even know that. I held him, and then they checked his weight and height and cleaned him up a little bit. He was 8 lbs 13 oz and 21 inches long, so he was our second smallest baby – Camden was 9 lbs 8 oz, Kolby was 9 lbs 1 oz, Isaac was 8 lbs 13 oz, and Eli was 8 lbs 8 oz. (I’m rather glad he wasn’t a 10-pounder).
He got a chance to nurse and we held him and called all the family members, and then we moved to our room. They took him to the nursery for a little bit, and the nurse must have noticed how tired Michael and I looked, because he was all bathed and dressed when they brought him back to us. By then it was quite late, and we got about 4 hours of sleep before morning. Isaac was a noisy breather – kind of making little snorting sounds every once in a while and breathing loudly, but he slept well that entire time. I tried to nurse him a few times the next morning, and he didn’t really latch on well at all. A little while later we let the nurse know that it seemed like he was having a little trouble breathing, and she said that she would take him to the nursery to give him some saline drops and use the bulb to suction his nose. We thought that would be a good thing to do so that he wasn’t so stuffy and he could then nurse without any trouble.
After a little while, we were informed that the bulb had not helped, and they had talked to the pediatrician who had ordered a few tests to check on why he was having trouble breathing. A chest x-ray didn’t show anything abnormal and they put a tube down his throat, but it went down fine, so they didn’t suspect any problems with his throat. They said that they tried to pass a tube through his nose, but couldn’t – so they suspected some kind of blockage. Some NICU doctors came and said they were taking him to the NICU and they were going to see if they could figure out what the problem was.
So, when we went down to the NICU a little while later to see him, they told us that they thought it might be a dermoid cyst (a blockage of dead skin that would have to be removed in surgery, but which was not any type of cancer) in the nasal area which was making it hard for him to breath through his nose, but that they would have to wait until they got a CT scan to see if their hypothesis was correct. Later that night we returned to the NICU and a resident showed us the CT scan. It did not show a cyst, but just that the nasal passages looked more narrow than they should be. We had to wait until this morning until we talked to the ENT (ear, nose, throat) doctor to find out his diagnosis and plans for treatment.
So, today the ENT told us that Isaac has a pretty uncommon condition called Congenital Perform Aperture Stenosis, which just means that the nasal passage is really narrow. They said there is no real reason that this happened, it is not genetic – it just happens to be the way that his bones formed, and they didn’t separate as much as they should have. I guess this is a pretty uncommon condition. But they made it sound like it isn’t going to be a serious problem, and he shouldn’t have any long-term effects from it.
Isaac’s scan showed that the bones in this area were a little closer together, and on one side the soft tissue looked like it was really close together. This is a pretty rare condition, and there is not much information about it online. We did find a few articles that mentioned that babies with this condition could also have one large tooth in the middle, instead of two top teeth in front – but Isaac’s scan showed normal teeth. Other articles mentioned a triangular palette associated with this condition, but we haven’t noticed anything like this in Isaac. In fact, except for the breathing problems, he seems to be doing just great, and he looks like everything else about him is just how it should be. The doctors told us that other articles say sometimes this condition is associated with problems with the hypothalamus and pituitary, two organs in the brain that control many of the hormones needed for growth and development, like thyroid and growth hormone. They want to do an MRI tomorrow while he is already sedated for the surgery, just to make sure that everything looks ok. The doctors seem to be doing everything possible to help us out here.
They are going to do surgery to correct this tomorrow morning. They will remove some of the bone and put in two tubes to make the passages stay open, and then the tubes will be surgically removed in about 3 weeks. They will do this all through an incision under his upper lip, so it won’t leave any scars. I am pumping now, and they hope that he will be able to start nursing normally after his surgery. And they said that as long as everything goes well, he will be able to go home from the NICU two or three days after his surgery. We are not allowed to sleep in the NICU and I got discharged from the hospital today, so we will be home tonight, and then I will probably return to be with him in the morning. My mom is arriving tonight, so that will be helpful to have her here. (By the way, my parents were able to return and see their house last night since the evacuation for the wildfires down in San Diego, and their house was not damaged by the fires at all. A couple of the houses up the hill from them were burned, and the fire burned down the hill to within 50 yards of my parents’ property, but their house and yard were not touched). So, thank you to all of you who have helped out with watching the boys for us this week. And thanks to everyone for your prayers and support. We really appreciate it! I’d better head back down to Isaac’s room now to be with him.
I will post photos of Isaac once I’ve had a chance to get them off of our camera on our home computer. But he’s really cute – he has light brown hair that looks kind of golden in the light, just the same color as Camden’s was when he was born, little round ears, dark eyes, and it looks like he’ll probably have a dimple on the left side. Michael thinks he has the Bradshaw nose. And Tyce Kearl said that he definitely looks like a Bradshaw boy. He is long – he looks tall and he has cute long feet and long toes. And he is strong – when they rolled him on his tummy yesterday, he was lifting his head up over and over. I can’t wait to take him home with us!
Isaac Steven Bradshaw was born at 11:43pm on October 23rd, seven days before his due date. Michael told me later that he had the chord wrapped around his neck when he came out, but I didn’t even know that. I held him, and then they checked his weight and height and cleaned him up a little bit. He was 8 lbs 13 oz and 21 inches long, so he was our second smallest baby – Camden was 9 lbs 8 oz, Kolby was 9 lbs 1 oz, Isaac was 8 lbs 13 oz, and Eli was 8 lbs 8 oz. (I’m rather glad he wasn’t a 10-pounder).
He got a chance to nurse and we held him and called all the family members, and then we moved to our room. They took him to the nursery for a little bit, and the nurse must have noticed how tired Michael and I looked, because he was all bathed and dressed when they brought him back to us. By then it was quite late, and we got about 4 hours of sleep before morning. Isaac was a noisy breather – kind of making little snorting sounds every once in a while and breathing loudly, but he slept well that entire time. I tried to nurse him a few times the next morning, and he didn’t really latch on well at all. A little while later we let the nurse know that it seemed like he was having a little trouble breathing, and she said that she would take him to the nursery to give him some saline drops and use the bulb to suction his nose. We thought that would be a good thing to do so that he wasn’t so stuffy and he could then nurse without any trouble.
After a little while, we were informed that the bulb had not helped, and they had talked to the pediatrician who had ordered a few tests to check on why he was having trouble breathing. A chest x-ray didn’t show anything abnormal and they put a tube down his throat, but it went down fine, so they didn’t suspect any problems with his throat. They said that they tried to pass a tube through his nose, but couldn’t – so they suspected some kind of blockage. Some NICU doctors came and said they were taking him to the NICU and they were going to see if they could figure out what the problem was.
So, when we went down to the NICU a little while later to see him, they told us that they thought it might be a dermoid cyst (a blockage of dead skin that would have to be removed in surgery, but which was not any type of cancer) in the nasal area which was making it hard for him to breath through his nose, but that they would have to wait until they got a CT scan to see if their hypothesis was correct. Later that night we returned to the NICU and a resident showed us the CT scan. It did not show a cyst, but just that the nasal passages looked more narrow than they should be. We had to wait until this morning until we talked to the ENT (ear, nose, throat) doctor to find out his diagnosis and plans for treatment.
So, today the ENT told us that Isaac has a pretty uncommon condition called Congenital Perform Aperture Stenosis, which just means that the nasal passage is really narrow. They said there is no real reason that this happened, it is not genetic – it just happens to be the way that his bones formed, and they didn’t separate as much as they should have. I guess this is a pretty uncommon condition. But they made it sound like it isn’t going to be a serious problem, and he shouldn’t have any long-term effects from it.
Isaac’s scan showed that the bones in this area were a little closer together, and on one side the soft tissue looked like it was really close together. This is a pretty rare condition, and there is not much information about it online. We did find a few articles that mentioned that babies with this condition could also have one large tooth in the middle, instead of two top teeth in front – but Isaac’s scan showed normal teeth. Other articles mentioned a triangular palette associated with this condition, but we haven’t noticed anything like this in Isaac. In fact, except for the breathing problems, he seems to be doing just great, and he looks like everything else about him is just how it should be. The doctors told us that other articles say sometimes this condition is associated with problems with the hypothalamus and pituitary, two organs in the brain that control many of the hormones needed for growth and development, like thyroid and growth hormone. They want to do an MRI tomorrow while he is already sedated for the surgery, just to make sure that everything looks ok. The doctors seem to be doing everything possible to help us out here.
They are going to do surgery to correct this tomorrow morning. They will remove some of the bone and put in two tubes to make the passages stay open, and then the tubes will be surgically removed in about 3 weeks. They will do this all through an incision under his upper lip, so it won’t leave any scars. I am pumping now, and they hope that he will be able to start nursing normally after his surgery. And they said that as long as everything goes well, he will be able to go home from the NICU two or three days after his surgery. We are not allowed to sleep in the NICU and I got discharged from the hospital today, so we will be home tonight, and then I will probably return to be with him in the morning. My mom is arriving tonight, so that will be helpful to have her here. (By the way, my parents were able to return and see their house last night since the evacuation for the wildfires down in San Diego, and their house was not damaged by the fires at all. A couple of the houses up the hill from them were burned, and the fire burned down the hill to within 50 yards of my parents’ property, but their house and yard were not touched). So, thank you to all of you who have helped out with watching the boys for us this week. And thanks to everyone for your prayers and support. We really appreciate it! I’d better head back down to Isaac’s room now to be with him.
I will post photos of Isaac once I’ve had a chance to get them off of our camera on our home computer. But he’s really cute – he has light brown hair that looks kind of golden in the light, just the same color as Camden’s was when he was born, little round ears, dark eyes, and it looks like he’ll probably have a dimple on the left side. Michael thinks he has the Bradshaw nose. And Tyce Kearl said that he definitely looks like a Bradshaw boy. He is long – he looks tall and he has cute long feet and long toes. And he is strong – when they rolled him on his tummy yesterday, he was lifting his head up over and over. I can’t wait to take him home with us!
15 September 2007
Ultrasound Pictures
Last week I participated in an ultrasound workshop at Waukesha Hospital to help teach residents how to do ultrasounds. I went for two days, will get paid $100, and got to keep the ultrasound pictures -- so it was a good experience overall. By the end of the workshop, I felt like I knew quite a bit about how to do an ultrasound, too, so that was kind of fun. The first day I was there, they said that Isaac's head was up (he was breach), and I came home wondering how late in the pregnancy you have to start being concerned that a baby is breach, but the next day I went in and his head was down, so I guess I don't need to be too concerned about that.
Oh, and I'll just mention another cool thing. I was talking to my midwife at my appointment this week, and asked her if this baby comes after the due date, how long she would wait before inducing me. I was pleased when she said that she would only wait a day or two after the due date to induce -- so October 31st or November 1st. So, that was nice to hear, since I have had doctors in the past who said that there was no way they would ever induce before exactly 7 days after the due date. Anyways, if he does come late and we end up inducing, I would definitely choose November 1st, because I don't want to miss out on Halloween with the boys this year (if I can help it), and Kolby's birthday is already October 31st, so I'd rather have them have their own separate birthdays. So, my hope right now is that he either comes a week or two early or comes on November 1st, so I can do the whole Halloween thing with the kids. Keep your fingers crossed for me!
Oh, and I'll just mention another cool thing. I was talking to my midwife at my appointment this week, and asked her if this baby comes after the due date, how long she would wait before inducing me. I was pleased when she said that she would only wait a day or two after the due date to induce -- so October 31st or November 1st. So, that was nice to hear, since I have had doctors in the past who said that there was no way they would ever induce before exactly 7 days after the due date. Anyways, if he does come late and we end up inducing, I would definitely choose November 1st, because I don't want to miss out on Halloween with the boys this year (if I can help it), and Kolby's birthday is already October 31st, so I'd rather have them have their own separate birthdays. So, my hope right now is that he either comes a week or two early or comes on November 1st, so I can do the whole Halloween thing with the kids. Keep your fingers crossed for me!
Here are the ultrasound pictures they took of Isaac:
This one shows a good picture of the umbilical chord (the little bubbly-looking thing near the top-right). They seemed pretty excited to get such a good picture of the chord.
This is a picture of his heart. (It looks a lot cooler on the ultrasound machine monitor because you can see it beating, and they were excited because they got such good views where they could make out each chamber of the heart).
This one confirms that Isaac is a boy.
And this is my favorite picture. It is a profile view of his face (he is laying on his back, looking up at the sky) and you can see one of his eyes, his nose, lips, and chin. It is kind of fun to have ultrasounds taken so late in the picture, because he looks more like a person than like a little skeleton -- I love that you can see his big lips so clearly!
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