This may be the most boring account, but we mostly wanted to write it all down for ourselves…
(Most recent on top)
WEEK 10
No more visitors…back to what is sort of our routine.
Except for yet another snowstorm Tuesday morning.
The incredible news is that for a week and a half, Tilly has slept at least 6 hours in a row every night. I must be dreaming!!
Since that seemed to be going so well, we put her in her crib to sleep for the past two nights. She was great!
Now instead of lying awake and staring at her, I lie awake and stare at the monitor.
WEEK 9
Tilly had her 2-month doctor check-up. It was nice out so we just strolled on up to the clinic – such a great convenience. As expected, she is perfect.
She weighs 10 pounds/9 ounces and measures 22 & 1/4 inches long.
Uncle and Aunty – Steve and Mary Ann come to visit!
To welcome them, it is quite cold this whole week – and it snowed a few inches, too, but… it is otherwise sunny and the views are gorgeous.
We make some neighborhood outings, S&M give Tilly goodies, make yummy soup, pay much-needed attention to the animals, and fatten us up with cinnamon rolls.
Oh – and we celebrate Shabbat the way it should be done: with a challah and a bottle of Maneshevitz.
WEEK 8
Happy 2007
A week between visitors – so we are just hanging out. I tend to read a lot and monitor the neighbors while set up at my “nursing station.” Tilly and I do errands – she seems very content in the Baby Bjorn while I spend 14 minutes selecting 10 carrots and two heads of lettuce.
WEEK 7
Jerry and Gail (Zaida & Bubby) come to visit!
Tilly is showered with gifts and we are showered with bagels!
We hang out a lot at home, eat late lunches and take some nice walks – the weather is gorgeous.
We took a great walk on Alki (waterfront in West Seattle) where we saw a bald eagle. We stopped for lunch at Spud, where two exciting things happened. I breastfed Tilly in public for the first time. (With coverage, of course, so it wasn’t that “public.”) But still, it felt like an accomplishment and boosts my confidence to take her anywhere. The second exciting thing? Gail unearthed the largest French fry we have ever seen. It was magnificent and we made a photo portrait of it for posterity.
On Friday, Moses and I had a date while J&G take care of Tilly. It was fun – we went out to brunch and a movie – but by the time we came home, I missed Tilly so much and couldn’t wait to get my hands on her!
J&G get a super special activity mat for Tilly. She really seems to respond to the patterns – she wiggles all about, bats her arms and makes lots of little noises.
WEEK 6
As I write, week six was two weeks ago and I can’t remember it!
Oh well, let’s move on.
WEEK 5
Since the stump came off, Tilly can have her first real bath!
It went very well. She looked so adorable – all naked and tiny. She seemed kind of startled by the experience, but did not cry.
Auntie Karen visits! Karen comes to meet her niece.
It is the night of Windstorm 06. Major storm here, but fortunately we only lost power for a couple of hours.
KBO likes to carry Tilly around so she can look into the lights. Karen herself enjoys the lighted snowmen across the street. KBO does not exactly change diapers, but she assists with dispensing the A&D ointment.
With KBO, Tilly made her first journey to the grocery store and I made my first journey out and about without Tilly – for a mani/pedi.
Tilly is already almost busting out of her smallest clothes. She seems to be growing quite long – tall and thin – definitely not like her mother!
WEEKS 3 & 4
Moses took two weeks of vacation time to hang out with Tilly (and me!)
We just really took it easy – stayed home and went for walks.
Tilly continues to get big and cuter than ever!
She seems to be sleeping at night about three hours at a time – we sleep, we get up for about an hour and a half, then sleep some more.
At four weeks, Tilly’s cord stump finally fell off. Actually, it was literally hanging by a thread (of…gunk?) and I decided to cut it. Sounds gross, but it was weirder having the dessicated stump hanging about.
WEEK 2
I spent the first three days of Thanksgiving week alone with Tilly during the days. I was satisfied with simply being able to accomplish taking a shower and eating breakfast. Aside from that, I just juggled Tilly’s eating, holding, diapering and comforting.
We had a quiet Thanksgiving at home. Tilly enjoyed her Tofurky laden breastmilk.
That Friday was Tilly’s 2-week doctor’s visit. She weighed in at 7pounds 5 ounces – an excellent gain in 2 weeks. Doctor told us to turn up the heat at home.
FIRST WEEK
Once we got home, we were just trying to figure out Tilly’s needs and how to console her.
There was really no regular sleeping for me, and felt like I could literally not do anything but feed Tilly.
Fortunately, my mom stayed the rest of the week and was our maid, cook and errand-runner. Nina followed her every step.
We noticed that Tilly could roll over to her side from being on her back. This was surprising.
Tilly had a doctor’s visit on Wednesday – 4 days old.
Everything looked good – doctor pronounced her “ strong!” (Thus her ability to roll herself…)
The next day I got to go to my doctor to get the catheter out – what a huge relief!
Even Tilly’s smallest clothes are so big on her. She winds up cramming both legs into one leg partition of her pjs.
Her wrinkly skin is peeling – doctors say to just leave in alone. The new skin underneath is ridiculously soft.
THE BIRTH
November 9th, Thursday Morning, 3am: The contractions begin. Pretty mild, go on for about 4-5 hours.
Then they stopped. I went to the doctor for a pre-scheduled visit to check on the baby. All was fine.
Went home. At about 4pm, more contractions… these were stronger and about a half hour apart. They stayed like this throughout the evening. I hardly slept all night – kept having the contractions and they gradually got closer together.
November 10th, Friday Morning: By morning contractions were 10 minutes apart, and stayed that way for a long time. We finally decided to take a walk to encourage things to progress.
It was really rainy, windy and cold out. So first we went to the basement and I got on the elliptical trainer while Moses rode his stationary bike. It was pretty silly looking. I felt like that just wasn’t going to do the trick. So we bundled up and went out for a real walk.
We walked up to Admiral and back – about a 2 mile roundtrip. As we walked I needed to stop to hold onto Moses to endure the contractions. He scribbled the times on a piece of paper. By the time we got back home, we were soaked and I had to pee like a big pregnant woman, but the contractions were five minutes apart for an hour – the threshold at which we were supposed to call the doctor.
It was about 4pm, and we headed to the hospital.
Once we got there, we checked into the triage area. I was checked by the nurse and then the doctor and hooked up to monitors charting the baby’s heartbeat and my contractions. Unfortunately my regular doctor was out of town, so I got the doctor on call. Of course it was the only man in the practice! Doctor Richard Agress. He was fine, though – at that point I didn’t care too much. Anyway, I was around 3-4 centimeters dilated. They told us to go walk around for an hour and come back.
We went down to the lame-o cafeteria. By the time we got downstairs, the contractions were coming so, so hard and quickly. I thought I was going to die. Somehow I managed to eat some yogurt and part of a frozen fruit bar - I think because I knew I would not be allowed to eat for a long time. It was nearly impossible to maintain my composure in the cafeteria with the contractions.
We went back to triage before the hour was up.
Got hooked up to the monitors again and was then examined. Up to 5 centimeters – and finally allowed to get checked into a “Birthing Suite.”
Put on an immodest gown. Moses put the issued slipper-socks on my feet. For some reason that was a really comforting feeling.
At this point the pain was insane – I felt like I could not handle it.
Prior to labor, I was undecided about getting an epidural. But now there was no question – I wanted that epidural asap.
The epidural is administered… kind of weird feeling, but not painful.
Ahhh. The epidural kicks in – I swear it only took 10 minutes.
My nurse (name was Jen) mentioned something about waiting for the contraction to pass – I was, like, What contraction? The effect of the epidural was amazing.
Then I lay there and dozed a bit for I think a few hours. Moses slept on a padded bench next to the window.
During this time, I kept getting examined by various people. At some point, they grew concerned about the baby’s heartrate – it was dipping. They applied an internal monitor to more accurately gage her. I had to wear an oxygen mask, which was uncomfortable.
There were periods of some hustle and bustle for quite a while and I was aware of the doctors and nurses conferring with each other. I was not worried.
Around 11pm, Dr. Agress told me that he was very concerned about the baby with her heartrate dipping down and recommended doing a C-section. He decided to wait just a bit and monitor baby closely since her heartrate had just improved.
At about 11:45pm, Dr. Agress said we would really need to do the C-section. I got prepped and Moses woke up to the news. He was put in a sterile suit with hat and mask.
November 11th, early Saturday morn:
I was wheeled into the OR. It was wild in there. So many people rushing around...
Moses was right up next to my head – with his camera ready.
Dr. told me I had a chance to try to push out the baby before proceeding with the C-section. He used the vacuum extractor and I tried to push. Baby was now faced up (toward my belly) instead of the ideal – down (toward my back.) This was complicating the effort to push her out.
Dr. Agress then said baby needed to come out NOW. There was an increased sense of urgency in the room. I was never worried about the baby – I just never considered that she would not be fine.
Things were happening – I don’t know – I couldn’t see anything. I suddenly felt incredibly nauseated and vomited. That was icky.
Then pretty quickly, baby was out – 12:28 am - I heard her crying. When I heard her, I automatically started crying, too. It was such an intense feeling – I guess of relief. I could look to my left and see the pediatric team working on her – with Moses over there. There was a special “Mec Team” to clear out the meconium that she had swallowed in-utero.
I got the feeling that she was fine – I mean, I don’t think anyone actually said to me, “Your baby is fine.”
Eventually – it took longer than I expected, Moses brought Tilly over to me.
It was very surreal to see the baby – my baby! She looked perfect.
But where did that blonde hair come from? I just assumed she’d look like me!
I can’t quite remember where Tilly went, but Moses went out of the room while they sewed me up – he was feeling ill.
Me, too. I could not stop shivering and had another bout of nausea.
The anesthesiologist was the only person by my head – and he was wonderful. He kept reassuring me and covered my shoulders in a warm blanket.
I don’t remember finding out that the Dr. had nicked my bladder, but I think I knew while still in the OR.
Finally we got to go back to the birthing suite.
We stayed there for a few hours. Tilly had a bath and I rested. Moses slept.
I got to breastfeed Tilly for the first time – she did very well!
We were then taken to our post-partum room, where we would spend the next few days.
Interesting note: A woman on the pediatrics team in the OR began crying a bit when Moses told her Tilly’s name – her Aunt Tilly had recently died. Also – We ran into Dr. Agress later that weekend and told him Tilly’s name – his grandmother was Tilly. We thought these coincidences were really cool.
Also: Moses’ great Aunt Tillie spelled her name with the ‘ie’. When we told Lynn (Tillie’s daughter) that we were going to spell our girl’s name with a ‘y’, Lynn told us that her mom Tillie had always wanted to be Tilly. In fact, she legally changed it to Tilly the last time she got married,
Ok – so that night, post birth…I guess I slept a bit – I was really in a lot of pain despite the iv meds.
And I felt so gross, I had not been out of bed to shower or brush my teeth. And I had a catheter, which was unpleasant. I heard that I would have the catheter for a week. Oy.
My mom arrived (around noon maybe.)
She was pretty excited.
My father arrived later in the afternoon. He was excited, too.
Tilly was greatly admired! She was doing very well – slept mostly and nursed.
I was so out of it.
That night was very difficult – I was in so much pain and I could not sleep.
I was just thoroughly exhausted and had reached a sort of breaking point.
The nurse gave a different pain med and finally I got more comfortable and was able to sleep.
The next day, Sunday, I took a shower – made me feel like a new person. I even applied all 5 of my hair products.
Tilly wore a hat most of the time, but I liked to take it off so could rub her amazingly soft and fuzzy little coconut.
We stayed in the hospital for three nights & three days – going home on Monday night.