Day 6 - Rough Night, Great Day

Friday night was rough.

We brought Yarden home from the hospital and my parents went to their hotel, so it was our first night without nurses, lactation consultants, bedside delivery of pain medication and meals, and the option of dropping her off at a nursery.

First - Yarden wouldn't eat.

Backstory: All babies lose weight after their birth, but her weight had dropped precipitously while we were in the hospital and she was 1 oz away from getting put on formula. Before her weigh in that night at the hospital nursery, I pumped and breastfed incessantly and we managed to get her up to fighting weight. That's why her refusal to eat on Friday night was particularly stressful.

Seamus and I are charged with taking care of our daughter - which at it's most basic interpretation means keeping her alive. In other words, FEED HER.

In addition to not eating, she wouldn't sleep - oh, and she screamed.

This went on for hours.
Then, suddenly...she wanted to eat.
In fact, she wanted to eat every hour - but screamed every time we put her down.

But at least she had eaten.

The whole family ended up asleep on the couch as "Eastern Promises" played on a loop 3 times.


At 6 am I woke up in a panic thinking I'd missed a feeding, then realized in was 7 am, panicked even more and got up too quickly (OUCH!) and realized I had missed a dose of Percoset.

I force fed my daughter - she was back to no interest in the boob - and then we were off and running.

Saturday was our busiest day yet.
We took Yarden to the lab at Cedars for her Bilirubin test (for Jaundice).
She suffers needles way better than her mama. Then - with an hour left before her next feeding - we picked up her stroller and made it back home in time for all three of us to eat.

Seamus and I are getting good at completing tasks within a 3 hour ticking clock.

It's been fantastic having my parents here.
They brought cold cuts for lunch, including pre-washed lettuce and pre-cut onions so that their zombie kids could assemble sandwiches and get nutrition no matter how sleep deprived we get. My mom also has great breastfeeding advice and she's done non-stop laundry since she got here.

The lunch feeding went AWESOME.
She sucked for 25 minutes and then went into a drunken monkey bliss state.
My heart breaks she's so adorable - she seriously gorges herself and looks like a drunk old man.


After lunch, I spent my first 3 hours away from her.
My mom and I went on a Babys R Us pilgrimage.
Details would bore anyone who isn't me.

We went home - I fed her again (ANOTHER SUCCESS!) - and then we all went out for dinner.

Yarden only weighs 7 pounds, so she doesn't fit in any of her beautiful clothing yet.
To go to dinner, we put her in a combination of the few things that do fit her.
When she's older and asks - I plan to tell her that she dressed herself.


We went to a restaurant and actually made it in time for our reservation. Six days into our lives as parents and we proved ourselves capable of making it out to dinner and back in time to feed her again.

Well it's 11:19 and the girl is starting to rouse.
Fingers crossed for an easier night.

**UPDATE - It took me almost 20 hours to post this.
She is now better at nursing, but still not good at sleeping at night.

Early this morning we had a moment of bliss as the three of us lay in bed calm, sleepy and snuggly. This is what we've been waiting for all these months we waited for Yarden.

Yarden's Photo Album is at http://aliyahandseamus.smugmug.com/gallery/4991527_yox6V#299228734_FxH2N

Aliyah

1 Week Old and She Already has Food Issues

We're having a little trouble feeding. Lactation Consultant blah blah blah she went over six hours w/o food blah blah blah I called Aliyah at 3:30 PM and she was (no joke) still working on the 12:00 Noon feeding.

But, when she eats - she eats. And eats. And EATS. It gives me hope that someday she and I will causally discuss the nuances of regional California sparkling wines paired with omelets made with truffle oil.

Lessons for so far:

(1) She will teach me just as much or more than I will teach her.
(2) Plan to throw away "The Plan," but still make "The Plan." When you plan for a regular birth and then you have -5 seconds to decide that you must have a c-section or loose your baby, at least you know what more than "c" in "c-section" stands for. Or if you want the baby to nurse they may have other ideas (no matter how hungry he or she is) but at least you know ahead of time that it's okay if a single feeding involves 4 hours or forcing her mouth open.

Tomorrow she comes home.

House is Ready

Now if Family Services show up they won't automatically take her into protective custody.

Yarden is Exceptional

Yarden just turned 2 days old and already she is proving to be exceptional.

She only NEEDED to have 1 wet diaper and 1 dirty diaper on her first day according to the nutrition chart, but our little overachiever had 2 black tarry diapers in her first 24 hours.

She also took this very cool hearing test.
They put tiny baby headphones on her and tested to see if her brain reacted to a series of sounds. She passed.

She's also shown a subtle defiant streak - or at least a desire NOT to be fenced in by labels or boundaries. For the 3rd time today, she has kicked off her id tag and her baby lojack. I don't know how our little Houdini does it, the devices just suddenly fall out of her baby burriito wrap.

We can't stop photographing her - so I made an album of her that we will keep adding photos to at http://aliyahandseamus.smugmug.com/gallery/4991527_yox6V#299228734_FxH2N

Just some random pictures for the Fan Club

The Yarden Dialogues - Part 1

INT. - Living Room. Day.

Yarden Fenway Hurley, 19, enters through the front door carrying a large duffel bag filled with unwashed laundry and wearing a collegiate sweatshirt that says Yale-Microsoft Law across the front.

YFH: Hello? Is anybody home? I'm home for my weekly- oops, I mean daily visit from my full scholarship to Yale-Microsoft University Law School.

Just then her father, Seamus Hurley (54), enters from the kitchen. He is carrying a six pack of microbrew beer with his tail.

SH: Hello little girl!

YFH: Hi dad. Nice tail!

SH: Thanks. I've been meaning to have this done since they opened that gene-splicer store down the street.

YFH: It looks great.

SH: Thanks!

Seamus checks his Curious George watch.

SH: Hey, the game is on and Dice-K is gong to try out his new arms. Let's watch.

YFH: Okay. But I have something to ask you during the seventh inning stretch.

LATER - DURING THE SEVENTH INNING STRETCH

SH: 35 to 0. What a great game!

Seamus' tail hands him a beer.

YFH: It sure is, but I'm surprised they allow minor league teams like the Yankees to play the Red Sox.

SH: Me too. What did you want to ask me, little girl?

YFH: Dad, how did I get my name?

SH: Well, we gave you the last name Hurley because that is my last name, and because when your mother and I got married, we had already considered every reasonable blending or hyphenate name and the best one we could come up with was "Silverley."

YFH: Wow, that's terrible!

SH: Yes it is. It hurts my brain just to think it. Then we made your middle name Fenway after Fenway Park.

YFH: It's such a great name! Why didn't you make it my first name?

SH: We thought about it, but decided that it wold be better as a middle name.

YFH: Now that I think about it, you're right. And Yarden?

SH: Yarden is Hebrew for the Jordan. It was the river your ancestors had to cross to get to their promised land and to be free from slavery. Seeing that river and the land on the other side must have been the most beautiful thing they had ever seen. Almost as beautiful as you.

YFH: Wow Dad, you and Mom picked the best names ever! Now let's watch rest rest of the game!

SH: Perfect.

Just then, Aliyah and Seamus' and Aliyah's other ten children quietly sit and watch the rest of the game with them.

We Now Resume Our Broadcast

Sorry for the delay. The hospital's network limits what guest users can send out and it took me all day to find the wire to attach my camera to the computer.
This Yarden's first picture. She blinked.
Afterwards Aliyah felt a little woozy from the drugs.
Both recovered quickly. Aliyah felt strong enough to hold Yarden about an hour after leaving the O.R.
Aliyah tired to teach Yarden how to thumb wrestle.
Yarden quickly re-invented the sneak attack using charm and her gums in place of her index finger. Aliyah was gracious in defeat.
We hated to put her down, and she didn't like it much either, but she had visitors... Bubbie and Grandpa.
She sized up Bubbie first.
I gave Yarden the secret sign that Bubbie was okay.
Yarden relaxed.

Then Kendal, Clarke and Gina burst in. They had been checking every room in Maternity and the hospital police were after them, so we gave them asylum.
I think this is before Kendal cried.
Gina refused to trade Brady for Yarden because Yarden isn't housebroken.
Visiting hours were over so I took Grandpa and Bubbie back to Sycamore.
Yarden went to sleep unsure if the outisde-Aliyah world was real or if it had all been a dream.
The next morning Dr. Shahedee came by. We were very happy to see her, but it felt a little weird to have this close a connection with someone I interviewed once 2 months ago and have not spoken to since. Still, I know we picked the right doctor for us. She gave it to us straight and was pleasant to talk to. I still have a little trouble wrapping my mind around the idea that Dr. Walden and Dr. Shahedee really adjusted their lives around our family.
After Bubbie and Grandpa arrived, I left to finish getting the house ready for Yarden. I can't believe she's one day old and has already run out of closet space.


In the evening, more people came to visit so I went back to the hospital.
Alan, Sonja, and little Jocelyn came first. The girls nursed together. Alan had made me a New Dad Survival Kit: Beef Jerky, Powerade, and other stuff non-patients may need for a long stay at the hospital.
Deb came too. She's been very helpful in getting the word out to people who I may have lost touch with.
Alexa and James showed up.
James thought if he saw the baby, he would pass out so he sat on the other side of the privacy curtain.
Unfortunately he accidentally caught a glimpse of the baby.
I was able to revive him with a book on sharks James is reading to study for the 7th Grade.
Dan came by too. He brought six or seven meals from Jerry's deli. I was able to snap this picture just before he was sure he would drop her.
Time for sleep again. We will resume transmissions tomorrow.

At Last

Yarden Fenway Hurley was born at 1:57 PM via c-section.
She is gorgeous at 7 pounds and 21 inches. Pictures to follow after mom, dad, and baby spend some time together.

No Baby Yet. Everything is Okay.

Either she is her father's child and is being stubborn for the sake of being stubborn, or she is her mother's child and trying to hold on until the official due date. Since it's unlikely she has a day planner in there I'm going to guess the former.

The baby won't turn into a position that allows her to fit through the exit. With over 24 hours of this and Aliyah having the shakes and nausea from the medication and fatigue, Dr. Walden is ready to start talking about cesarean delivery. We'll see what develops over the next 2 hours. The nurses and Dr. Walden are trying to coerce our little girl along by putting Aliyah into different positions. It takes three people and a half dozen pillows propping things up.

Nothing to Tell

We're coming up on 11:00 AM (which would make 24 hours since the water broke). Dr. Walden is around somewhere reading a good novel. Aliyah is napping through some medium sized cotractions. Jay's and Tamar's flight has just taken off. I'm just sitting here listening to my daughter's heart beat over the monitor at a steady 140/minute.

Anyone who has ever seen me try to manage a walkie, ifb and cell phone at the same time would be amazed to know...

I'm currently hooked up to:
I.V. (2)
Epidural
Oxygen
Catheter
Internal contraction monitor
Blood pressure cuff
External baby heart monitor

Given that I don't like needles or taking any sort of medicine, I'm going to go ahead and say I'm being a trooper.

Seamus is being an amazing support. This process started 2 days ago - Sunday at 1 am, when the pain got so bad that Seamus had to help me in to the bath where I stayed until 8 am, with Seamus sleeping next to me on the bathmat.

And if you think that Seamus is blogging comprehensively - you should see the journal the nurses are keeping.

At this point I'm 7 cm dilated - finally - and my doctor is going to stop in on the way to her office.
And the nurses are all confident the baby is coming today so Seamus has started investigating her birthday. Also born on this day: Pol Pot, Malcolm X. Ho Chi Minh, and Pete Townsend.

Until this morning, the labor has progressed so slowly that it hasn't felt real. Now, we are close enough to pushing that I'm getting pretty scared.

Still No Baby

The nurses decided to move Aliyah to a delivery room on the north side of the tower. I decided to come too. It's got a great view of the rich people's houses over-looking the Sunset strip.

She's on oxogen now. She's dilated 5 centimeters. The baby has hiccups.

This is the "Everything's Alright" Alarm

It was time for the epidural. The nurses' shift had changed. It was getting late. "Runaway Jury" was coming to an end. And no matter what or when things happen next, Aliyah needed some sleep. And that wasn't going to happen without medication.

About this time it became clear to Aliyah that she was going to have to give up the dream of giving birth a nightgown chosen from from that would be slightly nicer than a hospital nightgown but not so nice it couldn't be thrown away after becoming saturated in umbilical cord juice. But after the nurse (#4) explained where all the wires and tubes go and that little part of her vision for a perfect delivery died and the floral-print, previously-worn-by-sick-people, cotton hospital gown won out.

During the epidural procedure, two things happened. (1) Aliyah once again performed that magic trick in which she 'accidentally' finds out that everyone in the room besides me was in some way from Midwood Brooklyn and (2) it officially became Monday.

Once it was over Aliyah was tucked in, the TV turned off, lights out
and time to get some sleep. Then... about two minutes later an alarm on the I.V. drip machine goes off. The bag of neutral liquid has emptied. About five minutes later, that's fixed and it is again time for sleeping. I don't think I'm exaggerating that about 2 minutes later a different machine starts making an alarm noise. However in this machine's defense, it was a very soothing alarm. It was a gentle, two-toned alarm that sounded a glockenschpeel played with felt mallets. Unlike the I.V. machine which clearly displayed a message as to what was wrong, this machine appeared to be working exactly as it had for the last 13 hours Aliyah had been hooked up to it. We decided that this relatively friendly alarm could only mean one of three things: (1) It was the "Time for Sleep Alarm," warning the patient that he or she is tired and needs to go to sleep (2) It was the "Your Sushi is No Longer Edible Alarm," warning the patient's husband that even very large amounts of wasabi will not kill all of the bacteria on sushi kept at room temperature for 6 hours; even if said sushi is tuna wasabi roll (3) This was the "Everything's Alright Alarm" indicating that everything is alright and that as long as this alarm was going off there is no need to worry. We were pretty sure it was an "Everything's Alright Alarm" but also that it was broken because Aliyah clearly needed sleep and by virtue of the fact that the alarm going off right next to her bed and keeping her awake, everything was not actually alright. [A side note to any engineers designing medical equipment: alarms should go off at a nurse's station or a doctor's cell phone; there's not much a patient or a patient's spouse can do.] Eventually a nice doctor from Framingham, MA thought our laughter might wake up other patients and turned it off.

Then I.V. machine went off again half an hour after that. I'm not kidding, and by that time it wasn't funny anymore.

Aliyah's still barely dialated, but the epidural has let her sleep through some very big contractions. The monitor shows there are some fairly small ones coming right now about two-and-a-half minutes apart. It's about 5:30 AM on the East Coast right now, so I'm going to post this so my mother can read it with her morning tea.

12 Hours Later

It's been 12 hours since Aliyah's water broke and 11 since we checked in. We've finally had our fill of "Law & Order" and "The Office" reruns. Aliyah was allowed to walk around the halls for a while and evidently we walked too far because Amanda, our nurse, came looking for us.

Since we started, Amanda has turned up the pitocin dosage 3 times. We've moved on to "Runaway Jury" [which I think is Rachel Weiss' best performance], but I can't sleep in spite of how tired I am. The drugs have finally forced the contractions to about 5 minutes apart. When we get to about 2 to 3 minutes apart there will be another exam. Maybe then it will be time for the this young lady's debut.

It seems like this little girl is going to make sure Dr. Walden also doesn't get much sleep tonight.

3 nurses, 2 doctors, and 4 Law & Orders later

We got dinner from a Japanese place down the street. Alan, Sonja, and little Jocelyn came by to visit though Jocelyn wasn't allowed in the room. The hospital has a policy of not allowing babies which are outside of their mothers into Labor and Delivery. Jocelyn didn't seem to mind though; she now has her ears pierced and was busy flirting with older boys.

A resident did a fifth round of tests to determine if the fluid coming out of Aliyah is, in fact, amniotic fluid. Shockingly, it is. Our friend Helga texted to say she was sent home after a similar situation and got an infection for her troubles.

There's nothing resembling active labor now, and there hasn't been for the 9 hours since Aliyah's water first broke, so we're talking about inducing to avoid infection. Aliyah has an I.V. in now - which makes her very unhappy. Sometime in the next few hours she'll get a dose of Pitocin. Looks like it will be a late night delivery. Make that 3 sleepless nights in a row. Good practice for the future.

Soooooo bored

We are at the hospital. Aliyah's water broke around 11:00 AM. Unexpectedly, we are sooooo bored. And hungry.

We've been here since 12:00. Now it's about 4:45. There's no clear test result that will say the constant trickle of liquid coming out of my wife is amniotic fluid. They were about to send us home, but when Aliyah stood up she splashed the floor. Our nurse asked us to wait. Now we're waiting to see if they will let Aliyah eat.

There's a "Law & Order" marathon on TNT. It's what we'd be watching if we were at home, but every time they say Lenny Brisco's name, the voice inside my head becomes Homer Simpson and says "Mmmmm.... brisket."