BIRTH ANNOUNCEMENT
December 19th, 2015
I realize that most of you who check on this site regularly (if I have any of you left) are already aware that our little guy joined us a bit ahead of schedule, but not everyone has heard the story yet.
Helen and I went in for a "routine" O.B. visit on Dec 3rd where the doc had to check on things inside. As the doctor casually stated the babies head was "very low" and she "didn't think the baby would make it until Christmas". We departed the appointment to a dinner date with my mom, at IHOP (between our house and the Doctor's office). While exiting the car Helen recalls feeling a "wet" sensation that she says was difficult to describe. As we continued to have our meal, Helen continued feeling the sensation to the point that she need to make an "emergency" trip to the bathroom. All of the time, I was thinking "well played Doc, well played", while watching Helen's brain begin to spin at the thought of baby coming prior to Christmas.
We finished dinner, and Helen informed me that she was "feeling crampy", and I thought wow the mind really can be a powerful, okay honey. I'm gonna rest I thought, as I had a feeling we'd be going back to the hospital for this "imagined" labor. I tried to go to sleep aboout 9:30pm. Around 11:30pm, I heard Helen calling the Hospital Oncall saying, "I think my water broke and my contractions are about 10 minutes apart." To which of course they said, please come in. I remember thinking, "tomorrow is gonna be a long day at work after they send us home from this", but shortly after our arrival they were able to confirm that this was indeed genuine labor, and that the fluid she was "leaking" was indeed amniotic, so baby was indeed on his way.
As we sat in the triage room, we called our doula, Kate. The nurse informed us that docotor's orders were to start Pitocin and Penacillin. We wanted to stear clear of the Pitocin (induction drug), as Helen and I had previously expressed a desire to have this be as "natural" as possible. I'd also heard lots of horror stories. Kate thankfully was level-headed and had been down this route before. She helped ask the nurses and doctors why they wanted to do that as well as ask some other questions about Helen's condition to make sure they realized they didn't have enough information. The nurses were good about it too. I told them that we weren't refusing it out-right, but that I wasn't going to let them administer it until Kate arrived. Who I feel would have been more straight with me if Helen NEEDED it or not. By the time Kate arrived, the more seasoned of the two nurses realized it wasn't going to be necessary (the other one still was nervous that we weren't doing exactly as the doctor suggested).
Shortly after Kate's arrival they kept telling us they were gonna move us into a different room (they were cleaning up two other rooms supposedly). It seemed to take forever, but they finally let Helen try to walk herself down to the other room. She had at least two big contractions while we were walking but she was awesome and only needed a little support from me to get through it. Once we were in the actual delivery room I just remember trying to get some sleep (it didn't really happen). Things went pretty quick.
They came back in to hang a second back of Penacillin and Kate insisted that they remeasure Helen for progress. At which point they realized that it was indeed baby time and that they needed to call the Doctor and that there was no time for more Penacillin. When the nurse called Dr. Estes, I'm pretty sure I heard say, "WHAT?! Are you sure?" thru the phone. Again, the more senior nurse knew exactly how long it would take the doctor to get there and said, "She'll probably arrive just in time to catch the baby." and she wasn't far from the truth. Doc ran in got dressed her apron and mask (then got too warm and had to untie the back of her apron) to wait all of about 30 seconds before she started delivering the baby.
Once baby came out, I couldn't see between Doctors arms at first, but shortly was able to announce that it's a BABY BOY! After cord stopped pulsing I was able to cut it (and again to clean it up later). From there I followed Logan while they tended to him. It looked like his APGARS were 9's (they do it three times?). They took his blood shortly after his birth, and glucose numbers had dropped to a pretty dangerously low level, so they fed him a glucose jelly from a syringe. From there on though, no intervention was needed, though they did continue to stick him the heel of his foot several times to keep checking glucose and bilirubins (for Jaundice).
Our hospital stay was short (we were only there for 48hrs after his birth). With only a quick 1.5hrs in the NICU for the "car seat challenge" where they check his pulse-ox while he's in his car seat (apparently the angle that babies sit in can cause issues for some premmies).
We've been busy taking care of our little guy since then, so I appologize for the slowness to update this. Pictures are so far mainly being posted to Facebook (I'm not sure I'll be able to keep on this site!), but I know I've also used FaceTime to keep up with most of the immediate family (let me know if you feel left out).
Thanks,
--John
General Update/Shower RSVP Open
October 5th, 2015
Wow! Time flies when you're "having fun", but honestly there hasn't been a lot to report since last time! Things just keep chugging along as time seems to get closer and closer! I can't believe that yesterday we were at 90 days on the dot! Helen's felt a bit of hip pain as her body starts to natually make way for both continuing to support baby and making way for the baby when the time comes to deliver. We were able to do the one-mile long Chicago Heart-walk in honor of Vivian Scafidi with the rest of our Oracle crew which was a pretty big task for Helen! Though one-mile might now sound like much with walking to work and walking to, from, and around the venue Helen's FitBit still had her at nearly 10,000 steps that day which is tough when ever step she took made her hips hurt a bit. The good news is that pain seems to be getting better or Helen is just getting used to dealing with it, as she was able to walk around quite a bit this weekend without problems.
If I haven't mentioned it yet a big, big THANKS to all those who generously helped us get our stroller/car seat. We were able to take advantage of some awesome promotions at Babies'R'Us as well, and we really felt like we've done well there and got a good solid product to bring the baby home in. One big "rock" can now be checked off our list and is now put together awaiting baby's arrival.
I've actually been able to feel the baby move, and although most other pregnant ladies talk about how they feel the "flutters" of the baby moving, Helen has nicknamed our little one "Thumper" as quick thuds or thumps are felt more than "flutters". It's pretty neat, but has also kept Helen awake late at night a couple of times so boo on that.
Finally, the last bit of news for today is that the Baby Shower invitations have went out, and some of the Chicago people are already receiving them! YAY!! If you want to, you can RSVP here (It'll got to both of the email addresses listed on the actual invite). A picture of the original invite is there, so for some reason you don't actually get yours, you won't feel left out!
Ultrasound
September 9th, 2015
As we mentioned last week, we had our follow up Ultra-sound today, so the Sonogram Picture page has been updated with the newest pictures we have. I wanted to get them up quickly because we all know that pictures of the munchkin are in high demand! Baby is still kinda of camera shy, but I still think some of the face shots came out good this time. Kind of reminds me of some early Disney animations the way the lips form. The Ultra-sound tech was really sweet and told us that we have a very cute baby (I'm sure she tells everyone that), and even showed us some "techniques" for being able to better feel movement (for me). So far I still haven't felt anything... :(
Starting off the site.
September 1st, 2015
Hi everyone, and thanks for coming and checking our baby's website. Though I like to believe that I'll be able to make tons of changes, there is also reality that I work and have other things to do. I'll do my best. Hopefully most of what you've come here for is over in the dark brown box on the right side. I'll be throwing the sonogram pictures up here in just a few moments if you haven't seen them already. Of course, our shower is coming up fast (I guess we have a date now, at least tentatively), and that apparently means people want to try and contribute some wonderful gifts. We've put together some registries from a few different places all of which can best be found on the "Wishlists" page. Before you go there, you might check the list of children's stories that we already have on our Book Inventory page. I know that everyone loves all the little updates about how big the baby is, and what the little minion is learning this week, so I'm gonna try and get some automated stuff up on the "Progress" page so you can follow along. Last but not list, our electronic RSVP page was really nice for our wedding, and I may be using something similar for the Baby Shower, but we need to finalize the details first.
In the meantime, Grandpa Lillard really helped out over the weekend as we started preparing the baby's room by finishing up the chair rail (the white piece that seperates the two paint colors). It was a lot of work to make sure all the angles really lined up and the 45 degree angles would line up correctly. It really pulled the room together, and although we still need to touch up some paint and nail holes, we are very happy with the result. Here's a picture of what it looks like.
We still want to hang some floating white shelves (you can barely see them there on the ground). And we'll have to make a small riser so Shiloh can see out the window again. He gets antsy when he can't see out the window. He was pretty upset about the saw sounds and nail gun sounds, but he got "his room" back at the end of the day (this time). He's gonna have a hard time when he realizes it's not really HIS room. Oh well.
Also, on the news front Helen has finally had to look at some maternity clothes, she's been to a couple different stores and finally found somethings she likes. Regular clothes are getting tighter especially when she sets or has to lean forward. She's feeling baby movement now and keeps trying to feel on the outside so I can feel too, but so far no luck yet with me feeling movement. Oh well, we've still got a ways to go. We found out during the ultrasound that the placent is on the back (nearer Helen's spine) so hopefully we'll have a good chance of feeling some soon (and also in it help protect Helen's organs from getting a baby fist jabbing one.
We had a scary phone call after the sonogram from the doctors where they tried to call us just before lunch with, "call us back immediately", and then left us hanging over the lunch break only to say, "we didn't get a shot of the bladder and we just need you come in again so we can try and get a better picture". It's good news though because we weren't able to get the cool shot of the baby's face either so hopefully we'll get another go around here on Wednesday the 9th, so stay tunes for more sonogram photos coming soon to a website near you.
Thanks again for visiting us, we hope to hear from you soon and we hope to make updates soon!
--John & Helen.