Update on departure day

Wow, what a day. Little Fritz has been an eating machine -- he had a few marathon nursing sessions lasting an hour each and we think he's trying to get Ilsa's milk to come in fully (which we think is starting to happen). He also slept a bunch last night and let us sleep -- and the nursery watched him for ~3 hours while he napped after one of the hour-long nursing sessions. We talked to Suzanne (Ilsa's primary care midwife during pregnancy) and she let us know that lil Fritz is a record holder -- having his cord wrapped 3 times around the neck is very rare and they don't even keep stats on it. It doesn't always come out so well, either. They also said that they checked his "cord gasses" and that he was never at risk of losing oxygen during the birth process, which is fantastic news. She also said & reiterated how awesome Ilsa was for getting him pushed out so fast -- with his heart-rate decelerations, he was a bit at risk yet just over their limit so the labor could continue. The alternative was to use the vacuum-delivery method, which has increased risks for both he & her. So -- yay! So great to talk to her; she really listened to us and our suggestions for how they could have improved our experience. He's only lost about 5% of his weight -- and they are comfortable letting him head home with us today.

Day 2

Fritz is sound asleep after some marathon sessions of breast feeding and thumb feeding; he didn't sleep much between 330 and now. He's eating like a champ, and has been awesome. Ilsa is out on a morning walk.

Five expressions of a newborn

Siblings

Josie, Leesee, and Duda came by to visit today just after lunch. They brought us some much needed food and Josie got to meet her baby brother! She was very cute with him, and was very curious about breastfeeding. ;) I think they look a little bit alike at this stage -- in the pics below, Josie is on the left, Fritz on the right.

Frederick Arthur Andre

Frederick (Fritz) Arthur Andre was born at 4:58 am at a strapping 7 lbs 13 ounces. Ilsa started labor at about 1130 pm and we left for the hospital at about 1230 after the contractions were about 3.5 minutes apart. When we arrived around 1, they were a little understaffed (a C-section was being done at the time) yet they got us into an triage exam room quickly. They did an exam around 1:20 and found Ilsa only at 3 cm; they were thinking that we might get sent home. They said we'd stay in the exam room for an hour. Ilsa labored and had contractions every 2-3 minutes during that time. Her water broke around 2:20. They did another exam and found Ilsa at 8cm! (5cm in an hour -- no wonder those hurt), and she had contractions for a while there, probably for another 40 minutes or so. They guided her about how to better do the contractions, and my role became clear -- to provide an object for her focus on during them. The contractions would start, her face would tighten up, her eyes would bulge, and she would breathe through them. They were not terribly happy with the baby's heart rate during some of this; they tried a few different positions. Around 3 or just after, they quickly admitted her and we went back to the delivery room. The contractions were coming quickly, and things seem to happen quite fast after that. They tried a few different positions to help the baby keep his heart rate above 100; on her back was the best for most of it. Ilsa transitioned to pushing around 330am. Ilsa did some work on the birthing stool, where she could sit -- these pushes seemed more effective, but the baby didn't tolerate them as well. At one point, we were pretty close to being rushed back to the OR for a vacuum delivery -- at this point they could see the baby's head and the electrode (they had switched to a clip-on/screw-on electrode (just like Jo had), but the baby tolerated the contractions and pushing better and so we kept going. They noticed that the baby had pooped; there was meconium in the discharge/water, so after birth they were going to have a team to whisk the baby away and clean him off and try to get all the meconium off so he wouldn't inhale it. Ilsa was a champ; she took all the coaching ("don't yell -- use all your energy to push") really well and she quite literally delivered. At one point she was disheartened and I told to remember that she had run 8 miles, and if she could do that, she could certainly do this. After that, she rallied and pushed even harder. At 440am we could see a large circle of dark hair; a few more pushes and the baby was ready. The delivering team wasn't --- the pediatricians (who were going to do the whisking & cleaning) hadn't quite arrived yet, and they asked Ilsa to slow down. That wasn't really possible, and at 4:58 out popped the baby. Ilsa saw his eyes open right after he was out -- I was focused on the fact that his umbilical cord was wrapped 3 times around his neck! They got him untangled, told us it was a him, and brought him over to the cleaning table. Once there, we heard some suctioning and then a healthy cry. Frederick Arthur had arrived. I am so very impressed with Ilsa; she took nearly no pain killers -- just one dose of Fentanyl (and barely that) and some lidocaine for the last pushing (as she was tearing a bit). She was amazing through this; Frederick is very lucky to have such a strong and awesome mother. Afterward, I held Frederick while they sewed Ilsa back up -- it was so very nice to be in the same room the entire time instead of the separation that we went through last time where Ilsa was left alone for so long. After she was sewn, we put Fritz near the boob, and he latched right on. Some pictures from the first few minutes are below.

A picture after his exam

It's a boy!

Everyone is healthy. It happened too fast to blog. More soon.

Showtime

Am at the hospital. Contractions 3.5 minutes apart.

Another day, more prodromal labor. Ilsa's in a lot of pain & discomfort. We didn't go through this last time as we induced, so we're still figuring this out. Contractions are 8 minutes apart this afternoon, only 30 seconds long or so. Leesee & Duda are helping take of Josie, who's a little tired and a bit hyped up. We bailed on going to the beach this afternoon after an outing to Twin Peaks and Giordano Brothers. Ilsa had lots of Crystal on her sandwich.

The Doctor, signing in

Well, we're back on the blog for the birth process of the one we call the gopher. Ilsa is in a fair amount of pain and is having some frequent yet irregular contractions that seem a good step above the Braxton-Hicks contractions that were more common earlier. We're very glad that her parents have arrived and are helping with Josie care -- we really needed the help. Apparently this can go on for a while (days) although of course we're hopeful the day is nigh...

Baby Two: Electric Boogaloo

Stay tuned. Baby #2 is due on August 12, 2012 and the Doctor will no doubt be live-blogging the event as it happens, or at least until I start screaming loud enough to distract him. We are aiming to have a spontaneous VBAC so it's really up to "The Gopher" (as we have nicknamed #2) to decide when the big event will happen.

When the big day arrives we will post a link back to this blog on Facebook so that our baby-averse friends will not be inundated with talk of placentas and epidurals and mucous plugs.