Sympathy Pain

Not a cowgirl name. It’s a description of our day…

We went to the pediatric orthopedist. He was very optimistic about Tony’s leg. He diagnosed it as “Posteromedial Bowing of the Tibia”…um yeah. It is believed to be caused by the crossing of one leg over the other, cause one to actually form around the other, deforming the bones in one leg. He believes that with stretching exercises, the bones will straighten themselves. If their is not significant straightening before he begins to try to walk, the doctor will begin more aggressive treatment. However, because he will continue growing over the next 2 decades of his life, there is really no reason to get too aggressive until his teen years. He believes the worse case will be that leg being shorter by a few inches than the other. This would need a lengthening in his teens. He might need nothing more than time.

So there’s the straight leg part, on to the McBad Boob. Sarah has an infected milk duct. Doesn’t that seem like a crappy trick of nature? Sure, you can feed your child, and that’s the best method for him, but it’s going to hurt like passing a stone through your nipple and make you freakin sick. She woke up from a nap with a 101 degree temperature, shivering uncontrollably. So we called the OB/GYN and they called in some antibiotic. She’s taken a couple really hot showers and tried the hot compress. She can’t feed Tony though. The pain almost makes her pass out. So she’s been pumping to try to clear the duct up and provide him some milk. I know she feels bad about not being able to feed him directly, but passing out on him would suck.

So, that was a glimpse at a portion of our day. We won’t go into the broken radiator hose on my car, tires being low on the good car, getting new glasses, Jack asking if Santa Claus is real, or my oldest cat beginning to look like she needs medical assistance. Good night America.

Posteromedial Bowing of the Tibia, infected milk duct

So I am an evil person. I have a tendency to find humor in the misfortune of others. Schadenfreude. It will always come back.

When I first started working at my current place of employment, we were at a different location. We could look out our loading dock door and see the parking lot of the establishment next door. We’d have those times in the day were we would stand at the counter and watch the world outside.

Now, my partner and I had a tendency to have the humor of a prepubescent boy. We would tell fart jokes and such. Man, a good sexual innuendo would cause hours of amusement. Not that I’m always proud of this, but it’s how we are wired. And again, this was years ago, and maybe I’ve matured slightly…maybe.

To the point, next door, there was a woman who had a bone deformity in her arm. It actually curved about halfway between the elbo and the wrist. We…uh, by we I mean I…came up with a not to attractive nick name for her…”Ol reach around”.

So, please enjoy the karmatic smack down that is the x-ray of my son’s leg. We call it his lucky foot. You can see a pic if you follow the link to my Flickr page. We go to a specialist tomorrow to see what we need to do to start the straightening process. Lesson learned, great Karma…you bitch.

baby, foot deformity

So, how did you spend your first day home with the baby, super dada? Did you give Sarah lots of rest time? Did you play with and love that baby? Did you puke your guts out and quarantine yourself all day? Yep that’s the one.

So, the first day home wasn’t exactly what I had planned. Mom in law saved the day and brought by food, ginger ail, and drugs. I was really sick for most of the day. Sarah looked exhausted…when I saw her. Luckily Tony is pretty laid back and didn’t cause much of a fuss.

We are not sure if Sarah’s milk has come in. I haven’t heard that rhythmic swallowing sound yet while feeding. So I looked up some infor on Baby Center. (more…)

We’re in the recovery room. After 2.5 hours of pushing, James Anthony came into this world. He’s beautiful. He came out at 6:46 pm. Weighing 8 pounds 5 ounces. He was 20.5 inches long.

We were listening to our song…”Auld Lang Syne” by Dan Fogleberg. It was one of the first songs we clicked about. And sure enough, at the end of the song, there he was.

I’m tired, and will really more of the events tomorrow, but know that mother and baby are doing great.

It the question on every one’s lips…I mean EVERYONE! Everyone at work, customer’s, friends, even random strangers on the street. This homeless guy approached me, and I was like “I have no spare change” and he was like “I was going to ask about that baby. Where is he?”

There’s no baby! There never will be. He’s going to live in there until he’s a toddler then walk out.

I continued tempting fate yesterday. I went to the eye doctor, last minute decision, and he dilated my eyes. I just knew that would do it. Kinda like washing your car, then it raining after the great drought.

“We have to go to the hospital!”

“I can’t see!”

“You suck as a father!”

Oh well. We ate Mexican food yesterday. It did what Mexican food always does…and I’ll digress. We then dined at Cracker Barrel last night. The Hostess was kind enough to inform us that she could not “allow” Sarah to labor inside Cracker Barrel, it was a health code violation and they could loose 10 points. So, we were to let her know if “anything started happening” and she would throw us out, I guess. Yet again, even with the threat, nothing.

So we went home and played Wii for a couple hours. She kicked my ass in boxing. She used the rope-a-dope…or soap on a rope… or something. It was fun. But still did not start the labor process.

This kid, I tell ya. But we are scheduled for induction at 5:00 am friday morning. So there is a light at the end of the birth canal.

cracker barrel, Wii, past due date, induction, induce

We tried. We went to dinner with Sarah’s folks. Sarah had balsamic vinegar…upon her mom’s suggestion that it induced labor. I ordered eggplant on my pizza, and Sarah ate a slice…it looked like a soggy pig ear. We went home and watched “Hostel II” trying to scare the baby out…And something happened.

By the end of the movie Sarah was having some major contractions.

“Do we need to go?”

“Yes…better safe than sorry.” The adrenaline kicked in and to the hospital we went. I so wanted to put the emergency flashers on and drive like Brittney outta detox.

Got there about 10:00. Got a room…with a window…and hunkered down. The contractions where pretty strong and regular. Then the nurse checks her, and said she was at one cm…

What? You have man hands or something? Check again…but no. Just one cm…but she said the doctor on call was a pushover for induction. She felt very good about the possibility of being able to talk him into it. She even brought me pillows and such.

Then, about an hour later, she came back in, very dejected.

“I was wrong, Doc “start the drip” is not on call tonight, it’s Dr. “the cervix knows best” and he says to send you home. She tried really hard…but to no avail, so home we went at about 11:30. We did find out that they have an induction limit of 16 per day…staffing issues I guess. They already had 16 scheduled for today, so we drew the short straw.

We went to the doctor today. She’s at 3+cm…thank you very much Nurse Man Hands…and 80% effaced at station -1 to 0. The doctor scheduled an induction starting at 5am Friday and put her on medical leave. That’s the magical trigger…her not having to be at work.

So, anyway, we are still waiting. The doctor thinks, because were her effacement and station is, that we will have a quick delivery. This coming from the man who keeps say “we won’t get that far” every time he sets a milestone. Well, sir, we keep “getting that far” so probably will see you Friday at 5 and be there for days.

Sarah and I started talking about the “triggers” to pregnancy this weekend. Not the milestones, like “37 weeks is term” or contractions, or even the Bloody Show. I’m not even talking about the wives tales, like olive oil…or Castor oil. No, I mean the moments or happenings that we as parents look as the trigger for pregnancy.

Sarah’s big one was the full moon. She just knew the baby would be born on the full moon. She’s had more, like the Iron Bowl, putting the bags in the car, and her latest was the cold front that came through last night. These are ridiculous in my opinion. Not based in reality at all. You’ll see how ground in fact and medical science mine are in a moment. Needless to say, none of these triggered the labor process.

Mine, much more rooted in actual logic are as follows: Being in a basketball court with NO cell signal, The storm that hit last night, Renting 2 movies and having the audacity to think we would be able to watch them (That’s just daring him to make his move), and… pretty much…any of the ones Sarah brought up. I cleaned out my truck and put in the car seat base and thought “Now you can come”…but guess what…no baby.

It’s weird, I even thought Friday morning that being in my work groove would start labor. You know, being really focused at work, getting things done, then BAM the phone goes off.

I even looked up today’s date…as well as other days…to see if anything had happened historically that would connect to our baby. Like “It makes since that our baby would be born on the same day as the Great Smog of ‘52″. Or even share the same birth date, like ” Of course Tony would have the same birthday as Little Richard”.

So we keep looking for signs and triggers. Tomorrow we are getting a free lunch at work. I can see it now… “damn, and just when Steak Out is on the way with my baked tater!…”

FYI:Venus enters Sagittarius Arudra 02nd Moon Wednesday, December 06th

Well, now that I’m awake, I’ll recap the evening. A look at a dry run.

We got there, and signed in. Had to tell them what was happening, doctor’s name, and pediatric doctor name. We wait. I take the obligatory waiting room pic. She looks so happy.

We got to the room. The nurse…who looked 16…gave here the drafty pajamas. She wrapped her belly with a fetal heart-rate monitor and uterine contraction monitor.

They then checked her…girl parts. She was still at 2 cm and about 75% effaced at -2 station. Huh? We’ve talked about the others, but this station thing is new. That’s the reference to the spines of the pelvis. -3 is way up there but a starting point. +2 is through the pelvis and close to crowning.

They also checked to see if the fluid that had been coming out was amniotic fluid. Now, this is done with a dry glove…and looked very uncomfortable…or painful if you will. They took a couple slides to a microscope. No amniotic fluid.

So we waited. If we had hit 4 cm or if the contractions got very strong, we would stay and induce. they checked every hour, and although she lost the mucus plug, she was barely 3cm after about 4 hours. So hungry and tired, we left and headed home…after Taco Bell.

So far today, nothings happening. Now Jack played basketball this morning. They won 32-5 and jack had a great steal/score, and got a busted lip. So life is continuing at the Comer/Brown house, minus the mucus plug.

mucus plug, effacement, delivery, pregnancy station, labor, dilation

Sorry to leave mid post.
Well, we are at home. Went to the hospital. Sarah is about 3 cm dilated. While we were there, she lost her mucus plug…BLOODY SHOW!!! She got hooked up and we saw contractions about every 2 to 5 minutes.
We could have stayed to see how things progressed…but when given the choice of staying or going home and eating…well, we went to Taco Bell.
We are going to try to get some rest, and if we need to go back we will…now that fourth meal is out of the way.

Jamie, a friend of ours, is going through a rough time at 35 weeks. The doctor found protein in her urine at the last checkup. She’s at home, resting. She has to keep all urine to be tested for protein levels every couple days. She’s got to be miserable and nervous. Keep her and the baby in your thoughts.

I realized I really didn’t know much about the condition, so I went in search of a good explanation. I found this at FamilyDoctor.org. (more…)

Your pregnancy: 39 weeks

How your baby’s growing:
Your baby’s waiting to greet the world! He continues to build a layer of fat to help control his body temperature after birth, but it’s likely he already measures about 20 inches and weighs a bit over 7 pounds, a mini watermelon. (Boys tend to be slightly heavier than girls.) The outer layers of his skin are sloughing off as new skin forms underneath.

(more…)

Not ours…

Congrats to Eric and Nina! Baby Ethan was born at 1:15 this morning.

Yehaw!

1 cm Dilated and 20% effaced.” Says the man with the latex glove.”
So what does that mean?

Here’s Wikipedia…I love that site…with the answers:

Cerivical Dialation:

is the dilation (opening) of the cervix during childbirth. In the later stages of pregnancy, the cervix may already have opened up to 1-3 cm (or more in rarer circumstances), but during labor, repeated uterine contractions lead to further widening of the cervix to about 6 centimeters. From that point, pressure from the presenting part (head in vertex births or bottom in breech births), along with uterine contractions, will dilate the cervix to 10 centimeters, which is “complete.” Cervical dilation is accompanied by effacement, the thinning of the cervix.

Now Sarah is at 1cm. Active labor is around 4 cm. She could stay this way for a while…but it does show that things have begun.

Effacement:

is the shortening, or thinning, of the cervix before or during early labour. Prior to effacement, the cervix is like a long bottleneck, usually about four centimeters in length. Throughout pregnancy, the cervix is tightly closed and protected by a plug of mucus. When the cervix effaces, the mucus plug is loosened and passes out of the vagina. The mucus may be tinged with blood and the passage of the mucus plug is called bloody show (or simply “show”).

As effacement takes place, the cervix then shortens, or effaces, pulling up into the uterus and becoming part of the lower uterine wall. Effacement may be measured in percentages, from zero percent (not effaced at all) to 100 percent, which indicates a paper-thin cervix. Effacement is followed by cervical dilation.

Same region of the body, a little different though. And I am sure Sarah is very excited about the Bloody Show!

And, as I as hopping around, I found this post on the next trimester…

Jesus God what a weekend! I saw Sarah for about 3 hours. I hate that. She’s going through all these changes and I’m either building a set or freezing my ass off at a football game…which I’ll talk about later. I wish I had not agreed to do this show, but they are paying me and the arranged a pregnancy message for the baby momma to sweeten the deal. But we load in tonight so hopefully by Wednesday I’ll be about done.

This morning, Sarah text messaged me to say she felt weird today. I got excited and a little giddy. What if the Tony’s close to coming. In that moment I didn’t care that I had a set to load in. I didn’t care that now is “inconvenient”. I was overwhelmingly excited. Everything would be fine with the set. Nobody would even think twice about me disappearing. It’s almost done…and the folks I have been working with could get it up and running if needs be. And, I’D HAVE A BABY! How cool is that? I thought about the evening she told me. It seems a lifetime ago, but it all came back very clearly this morning. I’m very excited!

So, I got to looking into the “How to know when it’s happening” sites, and here’s a list of “Heads up! the baby’s heading out!”: (more…)

It really didn’t hit me until last night. I’ve been planning on going out of town on business for months. This is just one of those things you do as a sales person. But, last night, I really had that moment of…”What if…”

Now, I’m only about 2 1/2 hours away, so I could easily get there …but that’s not the “idea”. I would be there when she started. I’d be there when the water broke. I’d be the time keeper. I want to be the one to make sure we get to the hospital and in ok. I want to be the calming one…if that exist. That’s how this is going to go down…unless I’m here.

And, through her doctor visit, we found out that she is “progressing faster” than the doctor thought. What the hell does that mean? Is that a bad thing? Does that just mean that we are going to have a thanksgiving baby instead of a dec. 1 baby? Or does that mean she’s going to drop sooner? By measuring the fundus he seems to think that she is “progressing faster.”

So, here I set, on the ninth floor of a nice hotel in my home town…with our rental manager, S-annon taking a shower and jonesing for a cigarette, wishing I could be at home, playing with my wife’s hair and planning out route to the hospital.

On a different note, over at “Inside Fatherhood“, I have found someone who shares my views on Graco’s motto.