Tuesday, July 28, 2015

57 Days Later...

So much for blogging every day!

I have a baby - little Jack was born on June 10th at 12:35pm. He was indeed little - 6 lbs 11 oz, but he is getting bigger and is over 9 lbs as of last week. He is 6 weeks and 6 days old. It has been quite a ride...

So much so that I have not been able to find time to blog. But every once in a while, I would capture my random thoughts and seeds of ideas for blog posts, to be written at a future date. I am finally pulling myself out of the brand new baby stupor, and am sort of getting into the swing of things...enough that I think I can start finding some time to write much more frequently, if not every day.

In my last post, I wrote about the extended "last minute" dash my husband and I were on to prep for baby. I think that was what ultimately pushed little Jack to be born. He was four days late and we were still at it - cleaning up the apt, throwing things away, running around town...On the day my water broke, we had just installed a new AC unit, by ourselves. It was heavy.

My sister in law had told us to order chinese food to try to induce labor - it had worked like a charm for her. Something about the MSG. Immediately after concluding my meal with my ceremonial fortune cookie, my water broke. It wasn't like the movies, so I called the hospital for clarification on what it was that had just happened. They weren't really sure, told me to wait a couple of hours and let them know if another "event" happened. Another event happened. At around 12:30am, Johnny (3 glasses into a bottle of rose) and I headed up to the hospital, him in, what I can assume was a pleasant rose stupor, me feeling like a paranoid paranoid fool. Didn't everyone tell me to wait as long as possible before going to the hospital? But alas, when we got there, they said my water had broken and I wasn't going home without a baby.

My water had broke, but my labor hadn't really started (there was only very slight cramping) and I wasn't really dilated. The hospital would take care of that for me. A few hours later (say 4:30am), I was on Pitocin, a couple of hours after that, I was hooked up to an epidural. They said I wouldn't go into labor until the evening and I couldn't imagine being that "uncomfortable" for 9 more hours. A few more hours after that I was getting a C-section as the baby's heart rate was dipping as the contractions got stronger and the Dr. did not think he would respond well to labor. While unexpected, you do what they say to do. C-section it was! I just wanted baby out, healthy, alive and kicking. And that is exactly how he did come out - and also screaming.

When they pulled him out and held him up for us, Johnny and I both looked at each other in disbelief - our little baby looked like Mick Jagger. His lips were enormous! What had we done...hah! But seriously,  they were huge. We didn't know that babies come out looking a bit swollen...things settled into place quite quickly.

I stayed in the hospital for 4 nights, which, I never thought I'd say, was amazing. The nurses were so good at Weill Cornell - they made all the difference. I do not know what I would do if I had to go home after only 1 night, so in a way the C-section had a positive side to it.

I don't need to recount every single thing that happened to me since June 10th...we did it, we named him Jack...he is as adorable as we dared to hope he would be. Figuring him out is taking some work, but I assume it will take a lifetime....all in all, he's a pretty darn good little baby.

From here, I think I will transition to the random thoughts and topics that come to me...why? who knows...because I like to write....because it makes me feel good, like I accomplished something...and because I like sharing...now I just need some people to find me....