Sympathy Pain

Yep…We are here. We’re waiting for the doctor to come and break the water. Sarah’s having contractions…about 1 to 3 minutes apart.

“Is the baby going to have red hair?”

“Well, I dye my hair so we have no idea.”

Sarah also has this addiction to birthing shows. She was watching one this morning before we left, and she’s found one here. NICU stories are a great booster at this time..

I hate waiting. I want Tony here. This is how much I can’t concentrate…

We got to looking back last night. It will be 3 years ago tomorrow that I bought Sarah a cold cup of coffee at Waffle House. Our first non date-date. It seems fitting that we have our boy on that anniversary.

It’s odd to think that when this all began, she was never going to get married and never have children. She was the ultimate bachelorette. This was going to be “just for fun”…”nothing serious”.

You never know. When your not looking, things happen. I tell my friends that’s the key. Stop trying so hard. Don’t think that every person of the opposite sex is a prospective life mate. Just enjoy the journey and you’ll know…if it ever happens. And if it doesn’t, you’ll have a full life lived without regrets. It’s only when you “Have to complete myself” that you end up disappointed. Be complete within yourself. Then you don’t have to relay on someone else to fill the void. A good and wise friend said, “You marry the one you don’t feel you HAVE to marry.” That’s what I did. We would have been together regarless of the peice of paper or ring.

I am extremely blessed. It’s easy to see that on this birthday eve. We have amazing friends. One dropped off an awesome cross stitch last night for Sarah. Our family loves and supports us…even though her pop still hasn’t given me his blessing to marry his daughter. Wanna see the grand kid? Pony up, grandpa. My son is a great kid, and, I think, will be an awesome big brother. And my wife…I can’t even put into words what our relationship is. I fell so comfortable in my own skin around her. It’s simply amazing.

So, to Tony, hurry up and get here. You are being born into an amazing situation. You have no idea how cool your parents are, and the people who surround us. I have 61 people on my phone who will get a text message when you are born and a host of others waiting to see a post here. So, come on. We even have a bed for you, not just a dresser drawer…and a Diaper Champ!

So at 5:00 am tomorrow morning, we will be at the Hospital, starting the drip. I’m think sometime, after noon, we will have James Anthony in our midst, ready to unleash him on an unexpecting world.

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.

Thanks to Denise for stopping by. I admitted I didn’t know much about Preeclampsia in an earlier post about a friend. I went to Denise’s site after she dropped by. Pre-e is a possibly devastating condition. At her site I found a link to the Preeclampsia Foundation. They are are great help in the research into a cure…or atleast better treatments, for this condition.

Her page is an inspiration for those dealing with preeclampsia.

preeclampsia

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

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…)

This child will never come…We are at 39 weeks now…

We are hanging out, watching college football, trying to figure out what to do for dinner. The Iron Bowl is coming on later…we’d really like to watch it from a delivery room. I know Sarah is tired and sore. Her hips are killing her. I do have to admit I got a couple naps in today. But I was striking a set until 2:00 last night (Sarah was up when I got home) and I spent the morning cleaning dust and mouse poop from the theatre’s shop from 9:00 to 11:30. It was nasty…but no snake skins.

It’s weird. Jack was induced. We never got to the “waiting for the body” stage. It kinda sucks. I know induction is harder on the body than just natural, but it is very nice to just show up when told. For me, it’s a win win. Potocin sound like a winner to me. A little more pain versus convenience…

Still no luck on the Wii. I really wanted to have that pinned down before Tony made his appearance. Hopefully we wont have to “settle” for a X-Box 360. I really wanted the activity of the Wii. If anyone has an extra one…

That’s about it from the Comer/Brown house. I’ve created a text message group to get news out. If you want, leave a cell phone number and I’ll add you. Otherwise, watch the page. I think I have internet in the delivery room. I’ll try to get info out…within reason. I don’t want to be that crazy dad who is oblivious to his wife during the birth because his camcorder is low on batteries.

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…)

So my wife thought her water broke…and I tried not to laugh in her face. She was so disappointed though, so I felt bad for laughing…inside.

I did look up different way to naturally induce labor. Now, Sarah, they say not to try these before 40 weeks, cause the baby and your body knows best, but here are a few. (more…)

Before I start…I have to say that I never new they went away…Sock Monkeys…

Anyway. I love the updates I get from a few sites about the development of the baby. They all give approximate weight and length, but then they differ slightly in the rest of the information they send. Here’s a few things I learned with this weeks update…a sample, if you will, for those who don’t use them. (more…)

Here’s a list of “What to Pack”from Nina. She is due right on top of our due date…It’s in the water.

The following is a list of things that I found helpful when I was in the hospital delivering Sydney, and things that after the fact - looking back I wish people would have told me to bring.

Hope it helps, but everyone has a different experience so you may find things on this list you don’t end up needing, and other things that you wish you would have had. But, this is what I will be packing. (more…)

If you have read this site before, you know I have a 7 year old. He is every bit “my son”, and I love him with all my heart. Sarah and I are very lucky that we have had no complications with Tony. Jack was the third attempt at a child for my ex-wife and myself. (more…)

My ex-wife worked for the OB/GYN clinic that delivered Jack. Her cousin was one of the other doctors in this practice. If you are using a OB who is a part of this type of practice, know that he may not be the one who delivers.
Usually, about the 3rd trimester, you will start seeing other doctors in the practice when you have your appointments. This allows you to meet them before your water breaks and they are in the Johnny Bench position. It’s standard practice to have whoever is on call when you go into labor, deliver.
Well, the ex didn’t want her cousin to deliver…family shouldn’t see your virginia. So John, our doctor, elected to induce on a weekend he was on call. She also had some elevated blood pressure, but the real reason was his rotation schedule.
So we are shopping at “Babies R Us when the hospital calls.
“Your room is ready when you want to come by”. It was like dinner reservations.
We strolled over and set up that night. They came in around 4 am and started the pitocin. Shortly after 4:00 pm, Jack was here.

So, Sarah ask her doctor about induction.

“I don’t induce on the first baby. I let the body tell you when your ready.”

um…She’s not happy. She wants the sperm infection out of her body.