For those unaware, I'm a graudate student at Eastern Illinois University. I'm not sure whether I just enjoy punishing myself or if I just really love education, but whatever it is, I'm about to finish my Master of Science in Technology degree. That means I take classes. This semester I have a class on Wendesday nights that happens to meet in Champaign, about 45 minutes away. Lucky for me, several people I have taken classes with in the past were also taking this class, so we decided to carpool together and take turns driving.
This particular week it was the only guy in our car's turn to drive. It's this poor guy and three women. I'm sure he gets more than his share of chatting and girl talk than he cares to have, but he's a good sport. The ride up there started out interesting and it just kept getting better. We all ride together every week and have been for almost 10 weeks now and I've had other classes with these people so we know quite a bit about each other by now. I know this guy is a former EIU football player, he's from Florida, he has a great family, he's very intelligent and loves school; but you learn something new every day.
First, me and this guy have the same taste in music, which is rare because my taste is pretty eclectic. He plays a song on the radio by Jason Derulo. It's something I know and like so I comment aloud to him about how much I enjoy Jason Derulo's music. His response, "I went to school with Jason Derulo." I had to call him out. "Seriously? You mean he went to your school and you know who he is, right?" His reply, "Nah, I really know the guy." So, that blows me away! He tells me all about how Jason Derulo is actually from Haiti like he is and how he went to a performing arts school in New York after leaving Florida and all kinds of interesting facts. I'm in awe, but we discuss it a little more and I let it go. Very cool.
But anyway, we get to class, gather out things up and get ready to head into the building. It's a nasty, rainy night so we're in a hurry. I start to walk up to the building and I hear the guy we rode with yell, "Hey, did you see my keys?" I laugh and think 'him and those keys!' because it always seems he's losing track. They're generally in his backpack or other pocket he didn't look in yet so I go back to help him look. This time...no such luck. They're locked in the trunk. I laugh about this and he's like "What're we going to do!?" So, we head into class and tell our teacher, who has also driven up from EIU about the debacle. He offers to drive us home after class and then drive this gentleman back up with the spare keys. I'm telling him the whole time, "Call the campus police, they'll unlock it for free!" Everyone is naysaying me on this one. "No they won't, they don't do that!" I say, "Ok, but I've had them do it at EIU or at least had friends that had them do it, so surely they'll do it up here (at Parkland)." So, facing the alternative, my teacher decides to call the campus police for our friend and driver. After a while he comes back in with the keys! "See!" I said. "I told you they'd do it!" They all agreed that I was right and couldn't believe that the campus police would actually do that.
Sometimes I'm right. Haha. At any rate, I'm glad we got the keys back and no one had to drive us home. It was a misadventure that had a happy ending.
Friday, October 28, 2011
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
The Painful (on several levels) Misadventure
Each day as new parents there are new challenges we have to master. One of those we have to do often is trimming finger and toenails. Apparently everything on babies grows like a weed! Sometimes I feel like that's all I get done is trimming nails. But, I digress. My latest misadventure begins with this very task.
On a normal weekend morning I got up with Tyler and got him changed and fed him his morning bottle. He was getting droopy-eyed so we finished the bottle and I let him relax there for a while. He was pretty much asleep so I decided that'd be the best time to cut his nails as I usually do. My first issue is that I couldn't find the nail clippers. I looked in the bathroom, the diaper bag, his bedroom, and finally, I find them in a random box in the kitchen. I remembered later why I'd tossed them in there, but at any rate it took me a while to find them. Luckily Tyler was still lightly dozing so I went ahead and started the nail clipping process. This went as normally as one could hope...at least for 9 fingers.
I finally got to the last finger, one of his thumbs. He's a little awake now, but still dozing so I figure I'll go ahead and finish quickly before he wakes up fully. I slide the clippers over the nail and just as I'm about to clamp down, he startles awake (most babies do this, and it's quite the event if you've ever seen it) and I've already clamped down. The tears and wails start. I've cut his thumb. So, he's all red-faced and screaming now and I'm already feeling bad because I've hurt him (the first time I've actually made him this upset from something I physically did). I finally get ahold of the flailing hand to survey the damage and I see it. I cut the side/top of the skin near the nail. Now blood's trickling everywhere! It's on the baby's pajamas, on me...I'm beginning to get uncomfortable, but not panicking.
My first instinct is to put his finger in my mouth, so I do in hopes of keeping the blood volume down. That's not helping so I grab the burp rag because it's the closest thing I have and wrap up his little hand and hold it. He's still screaming and the mommy guilt is setting in. I'm nearly in tears and his finger is gushing so I take him in the bedroom to my husband, who was sleeping and say, "I need help, I don't know what to do!" He shoots up out of bed and says, "What happened?" I unwrap Tyler's finger and it's still gushing blood. We all head out to the kitchen and run his hand under water. Nothing. Still gushing. We decide that we should elevate his hand and put pressure on it so I get him on the couch and hold his hand up. Luckily at this point, he stops crying. It was almost like magic. I sat there holding his hand up for a long time and I went to look to see how it was doing, and it's still bleeding. Now I'm debating going to the emergency room. But surely baby nail clippers can't do that much damage, right? So we sit a little longer. My husband gets a band-aid; still bleeding. My mind is racing.
How much blood can a baby lose before this gets bad? Do I need to tie it off or something like you see in those movies? Can you even stitch a baby's finger?
Finally, I get it together and still holding the baby's arm up, take another look. Yes! It stopped bleeding! After a few tears of my own, we manage to get some Neosporin on the finger and put one of those newborn cotton mits that you use to keep babies from scratching themselves on it to keep the medicine on. Not a half-hour afte rthe entire incident, Tyler is already laughing and playing and forgetting about what his mommy did to him. Boy, was that a day I'd like to soon forget!
The good news is, just three days later, you can barely tell it happened at all by looking at his finger. Thank goodness babies are so resillient...even when their mommies aren't.
On a normal weekend morning I got up with Tyler and got him changed and fed him his morning bottle. He was getting droopy-eyed so we finished the bottle and I let him relax there for a while. He was pretty much asleep so I decided that'd be the best time to cut his nails as I usually do. My first issue is that I couldn't find the nail clippers. I looked in the bathroom, the diaper bag, his bedroom, and finally, I find them in a random box in the kitchen. I remembered later why I'd tossed them in there, but at any rate it took me a while to find them. Luckily Tyler was still lightly dozing so I went ahead and started the nail clipping process. This went as normally as one could hope...at least for 9 fingers.
I finally got to the last finger, one of his thumbs. He's a little awake now, but still dozing so I figure I'll go ahead and finish quickly before he wakes up fully. I slide the clippers over the nail and just as I'm about to clamp down, he startles awake (most babies do this, and it's quite the event if you've ever seen it) and I've already clamped down. The tears and wails start. I've cut his thumb. So, he's all red-faced and screaming now and I'm already feeling bad because I've hurt him (the first time I've actually made him this upset from something I physically did). I finally get ahold of the flailing hand to survey the damage and I see it. I cut the side/top of the skin near the nail. Now blood's trickling everywhere! It's on the baby's pajamas, on me...I'm beginning to get uncomfortable, but not panicking.
My first instinct is to put his finger in my mouth, so I do in hopes of keeping the blood volume down. That's not helping so I grab the burp rag because it's the closest thing I have and wrap up his little hand and hold it. He's still screaming and the mommy guilt is setting in. I'm nearly in tears and his finger is gushing so I take him in the bedroom to my husband, who was sleeping and say, "I need help, I don't know what to do!" He shoots up out of bed and says, "What happened?" I unwrap Tyler's finger and it's still gushing blood. We all head out to the kitchen and run his hand under water. Nothing. Still gushing. We decide that we should elevate his hand and put pressure on it so I get him on the couch and hold his hand up. Luckily at this point, he stops crying. It was almost like magic. I sat there holding his hand up for a long time and I went to look to see how it was doing, and it's still bleeding. Now I'm debating going to the emergency room. But surely baby nail clippers can't do that much damage, right? So we sit a little longer. My husband gets a band-aid; still bleeding. My mind is racing.
How much blood can a baby lose before this gets bad? Do I need to tie it off or something like you see in those movies? Can you even stitch a baby's finger?
Finally, I get it together and still holding the baby's arm up, take another look. Yes! It stopped bleeding! After a few tears of my own, we manage to get some Neosporin on the finger and put one of those newborn cotton mits that you use to keep babies from scratching themselves on it to keep the medicine on. Not a half-hour afte rthe entire incident, Tyler is already laughing and playing and forgetting about what his mommy did to him. Boy, was that a day I'd like to soon forget!
The good news is, just three days later, you can barely tell it happened at all by looking at his finger. Thank goodness babies are so resillient...even when their mommies aren't.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
The Adventure That Had a Small Misadventure at the End
I've said it before. My job is pretty cool. I'm a television producer/director for a small PBS station. As part of my job, I co-host a travel show in which we feature interesting people and places on the backroads. I was out doing one of these stories just the other day and it was a pretty big one! I had the opportunity to tape the world's largest privately-owned telescope being installed right here in my home county! It's 50" and had to be lifted into its observatory by heavy machinery. I was thrilled to be able to watch that happen (because I'm somewhat of a "space nut") and even more thrilled to be able to do a story about it that I'll eventually bring to my viewers.
I arrived just in time to watch them load up the first of three pieces of the scope to be lifted into the observatory, which has a cool, motorized retractable roof by the way (nerd alert!)! What was amazing is once they got each piece in there it had to be bolted in, placed and measured so precisely so the mesaurements and astronomical work that will eventually take place there will be as accurate as possible. The gentleman who constructed/owns the scope sends much of his data to NASA and also works with Eastern Illinois University students for research. He's also a former magazine photographer. These are the kinds of interesting people I'm fortunate enough to meet on my job every day. Also notable is that this man chose the darkest spot in the county on purpose to live and put up his observatories. This is for maximum viewing potential far away from any ambient city light.So, anyway, they get all three pieces in and I am filming a little more footage. I decide to text my husband because it's now 3:50 and we had said we'd keep in touch about who will pick up our son at daycare. Clearly, we hadn't done this. I shoot him a text to ask where he is and he says he's still 90 miles away (he had been at a business/golf outing), putting him at the daycare around 5:30. Well, that won't work because that's when they close. So, it's up to me. I'm still a good 20 minutes from work, then I have to put all of my gear away and get out to the daycare. I text my husband that I will take care of it. I decide that since everyone is sweaty and tired from installing the telescope that I'll probably have to come back another day to do interviews anyway. I tell them that I have to leave and lucky for me, he says, "Oh, that's it anyway! We're finished." So I lucked out on that one! I wasn't going to miss anything! I make my way back to the office and manage to get out to daycare just before 5 pm. Disaster averted! There's always the option to ask our wonderful friends whose son also goes there to pick him up, but luckily we saved everyone the trouble. Sometimes that's how it works out I guess! Life is definitely different (and wonderful) with a little guy in your life!
I'm just glad this was more of an adventure, than misadventure.
Sunday, October 9, 2011
The "That Just Happened" Misadventure
We're typical family people and generally like to spend as much time with our families as we can. Lucky for us, they all live in the same town. So, this weekend we went to visit and had a normal, lovely weekend ending with church, visiting and a trip back to our hometown (about an hour's ride). Our son, Tyler, is such a good traveler. He either entertains himself in the car or usually falls right to sleep. On our trip back this time he fell asleep about 15 minutes into the ride. We had a nice, peaceful trip until about 10 minutes from home when he woke up and decided that no amount of singing or Raffi playing over the stereo would calm him down. We managed to make it home and decided he must be hungry, it was approaching his dinnertime anyway.
We get him inside and I warm up some squash (we're finally on to veggies!) and mix in some cereal. He's still in full-on scream mode and is having nothing to do with it. We fight a little and he manages to eat a few bites. Meanwhile, my husband is unloading the car and putting things away so he is in and out. The squash isn't working so I ditch the idea and start making a bottle of formula. Poor Tyler is red-faced and wailing in his highchair at this point. I get him out and take him in the living room in an attempt to administer the bottle. My husband all the while making suggestions about what to do and trying to help me hurry along to get the bottle in his mouth. I'm beginning to get frustrated, my husband is beginning to get frustrated and the baby is past the point of frustration. Tyler takes some of the bottle and then needs a break as he usually does since he's currently congested. My husband goes back to his unloading the car business and I let Tyler relax a little bit and decide to try some more squash while we wait. He gladly takes a few bites of this since he's calmer now. All of the sudden out of nowhere he starts up again. The red-faced wails come back and the tears are flowing. Now I'm confused. Here, I thought we were all friends again! So, I decide maybe that pesky tooth is bothering him. I'll get him some Tylenol and let it start to work. I give him that and still the crying continues. By this point we're all frustrated.
The checklist begins. Hungry, no, we just ate. Hot, no. In pain? Probably not. Ah, maybe he's dirty! So, I take him to the bedroom with my husband in tow. I get his diaper off and he's barely dirty but maybe that's the problem. I go to switch diapers and here it comes, the rest of the apparent problem (he has just started real food so the digestive system has been working slow...this was a welcomed "problem"). Luckily the diaper was slid in there right in time. We get him all cleaned up and put in his pajamas (we have given up the rest of the eating thing by now). As I'm carrying the baby and his dirty clothes out to the laundry room, BURP! Squash. All over my arm, the baby's clean pajamas and the only clean sleep sack I currently have. With a little laugh (because what else are you going to do at this point) I head back to the bedroom to change him again. New, clean pajamas. While I'm there, I decide to check the diaper one more time. As soon as I open the flap on one side, yep, you guessed it! Pee. On the sheets, on my hand, on himself. Luckily, not on any jammies yet because he didn't have any on at this point.
So, I get him re-jammied once again in the warmest jammies I have because he has no clean sleep sack now and change the sheets on his crib. I finally get him to sleep with a little round of crying, pacifier-in, pacifier-out. It was definitely one of those trying nights! Hopefully he'll sleep all the way through it now after all of that excitement! And don't worry, I'm drying a clean sleep sack now. He'll be warm and cozy in no time.
That's the latest misadventure! Sometimes even normal Sundays get crazy around here.
We get him inside and I warm up some squash (we're finally on to veggies!) and mix in some cereal. He's still in full-on scream mode and is having nothing to do with it. We fight a little and he manages to eat a few bites. Meanwhile, my husband is unloading the car and putting things away so he is in and out. The squash isn't working so I ditch the idea and start making a bottle of formula. Poor Tyler is red-faced and wailing in his highchair at this point. I get him out and take him in the living room in an attempt to administer the bottle. My husband all the while making suggestions about what to do and trying to help me hurry along to get the bottle in his mouth. I'm beginning to get frustrated, my husband is beginning to get frustrated and the baby is past the point of frustration. Tyler takes some of the bottle and then needs a break as he usually does since he's currently congested. My husband goes back to his unloading the car business and I let Tyler relax a little bit and decide to try some more squash while we wait. He gladly takes a few bites of this since he's calmer now. All of the sudden out of nowhere he starts up again. The red-faced wails come back and the tears are flowing. Now I'm confused. Here, I thought we were all friends again! So, I decide maybe that pesky tooth is bothering him. I'll get him some Tylenol and let it start to work. I give him that and still the crying continues. By this point we're all frustrated.
The checklist begins. Hungry, no, we just ate. Hot, no. In pain? Probably not. Ah, maybe he's dirty! So, I take him to the bedroom with my husband in tow. I get his diaper off and he's barely dirty but maybe that's the problem. I go to switch diapers and here it comes, the rest of the apparent problem (he has just started real food so the digestive system has been working slow...this was a welcomed "problem"). Luckily the diaper was slid in there right in time. We get him all cleaned up and put in his pajamas (we have given up the rest of the eating thing by now). As I'm carrying the baby and his dirty clothes out to the laundry room, BURP! Squash. All over my arm, the baby's clean pajamas and the only clean sleep sack I currently have. With a little laugh (because what else are you going to do at this point) I head back to the bedroom to change him again. New, clean pajamas. While I'm there, I decide to check the diaper one more time. As soon as I open the flap on one side, yep, you guessed it! Pee. On the sheets, on my hand, on himself. Luckily, not on any jammies yet because he didn't have any on at this point.
So, I get him re-jammied once again in the warmest jammies I have because he has no clean sleep sack now and change the sheets on his crib. I finally get him to sleep with a little round of crying, pacifier-in, pacifier-out. It was definitely one of those trying nights! Hopefully he'll sleep all the way through it now after all of that excitement! And don't worry, I'm drying a clean sleep sack now. He'll be warm and cozy in no time.
That's the latest misadventure! Sometimes even normal Sundays get crazy around here.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
The Mystery Misadventure
So, by now you're familiar with my son, Tyler. I talk about him, oh, just a little bit! This is another blog about him. The little guy has been doing so well lately. He's had a little congestion from the weather changing, but nothing we couldn't deal with. He finally started sleeping through the night too! Well, Sunday morning proved a whole new beast. It went something like this...
3:30 am Tyler wakes up screaming. Since we are attempting sleep training (not feeding until it's actually time to get up, simply putting the pacifier in), we assumed it must've just been a little wakeful period in his night. I get up and go in there to give him his pacifier. That works for a little while. Then the piercing screaming begins just shy of 5 am. Now the whole house is awake. We're trying everything. Diaper change, rocking, singing, walking the house, everything. Finally, I give in and decide to feed the little buger. That calms him down while he's eating, but as soon as he's done, the wailing starts again. The problem remains a complete mystery.
By this point I've sent my husband back to bed because there's no reason for all of us to be awake. After poking, touching and looking all over for something that could be wrong with this child I decide something must hurt and I give him some Tylenol. This appeases him and he takes a nap (and so do I) until about 7:30 am. As soon as he wakes up, it's on again. At this point I just feel so bad because I have no idea what's wrong and can't do anything for him. After taking his temperature and attempting another feeding (which he would have nothing of until an hour later), we determined that he's running a fever and maybe has some sort of bug. We know now that we have to keep him hydrated after our last ER visit (See the Misadventures in Health for more on that) so we're making sure he is eating and giving him water here and there. After his temp gets up to 101.3, I call the pediatrician (or page one, rather, since it was a Sunday). While waiting for the call back we decide maybe it's teeth. I mean, sure he's only 5 months old, but some babies teeth that early. I wasn't one of those. I didn't get my first tooth until almost 18 months and they had to do xrays to make sure I even had any (they had never seen this before at my dentist and ironically, a few years later his very own daughter had the same thing happen).
So Tony looks more closely in his mouth and there it is! A tiny little white speck poking through his top gum. Amazing that something that little can cause so much anguish! So out come the cold teething rings, vibrating teethers and everything else we've got in our arsenal. We kept up the Tylenol every 4 hours and he seemed to be getting much more congenial by the minute. The pediatrician called back and said that's what it sounded like to her as well and to make sure his temp stays below 102, otherwise we'll have to come in for an office visit. Luckily, so far, so good. The fever is holding below 100.
That's the latest misadventure in mommyhood. And boy it really was a mystery until we got it all figured out! I'm just glad we did!
3:30 am Tyler wakes up screaming. Since we are attempting sleep training (not feeding until it's actually time to get up, simply putting the pacifier in), we assumed it must've just been a little wakeful period in his night. I get up and go in there to give him his pacifier. That works for a little while. Then the piercing screaming begins just shy of 5 am. Now the whole house is awake. We're trying everything. Diaper change, rocking, singing, walking the house, everything. Finally, I give in and decide to feed the little buger. That calms him down while he's eating, but as soon as he's done, the wailing starts again. The problem remains a complete mystery.
By this point I've sent my husband back to bed because there's no reason for all of us to be awake. After poking, touching and looking all over for something that could be wrong with this child I decide something must hurt and I give him some Tylenol. This appeases him and he takes a nap (and so do I) until about 7:30 am. As soon as he wakes up, it's on again. At this point I just feel so bad because I have no idea what's wrong and can't do anything for him. After taking his temperature and attempting another feeding (which he would have nothing of until an hour later), we determined that he's running a fever and maybe has some sort of bug. We know now that we have to keep him hydrated after our last ER visit (See the Misadventures in Health for more on that) so we're making sure he is eating and giving him water here and there. After his temp gets up to 101.3, I call the pediatrician (or page one, rather, since it was a Sunday). While waiting for the call back we decide maybe it's teeth. I mean, sure he's only 5 months old, but some babies teeth that early. I wasn't one of those. I didn't get my first tooth until almost 18 months and they had to do xrays to make sure I even had any (they had never seen this before at my dentist and ironically, a few years later his very own daughter had the same thing happen).
So Tony looks more closely in his mouth and there it is! A tiny little white speck poking through his top gum. Amazing that something that little can cause so much anguish! So out come the cold teething rings, vibrating teethers and everything else we've got in our arsenal. We kept up the Tylenol every 4 hours and he seemed to be getting much more congenial by the minute. The pediatrician called back and said that's what it sounded like to her as well and to make sure his temp stays below 102, otherwise we'll have to come in for an office visit. Luckily, so far, so good. The fever is holding below 100.
That's the latest misadventure in mommyhood. And boy it really was a mystery until we got it all figured out! I'm just glad we did!
Monday, October 3, 2011
The Great Birth Misadventure
Tyler Nicholas Pleasant in the NICU
Tyler and Mommy in the NICU
For this post, I'm going back several months, but it's definitely still a story worth telling. Strange as it may seem, the birth of my son was quite the misadventure! I was reminded to tell the story after a recent reunion with all of his hospital buddies from the intensive care unit.
7:50 am: It started like a typical Friday on May 6th, 2011. I got up (34 weeks, 4 days pregnant, so it was a slow process) and got ready for work. As I went to put my jeans on, my water broke. At first I wasn't sure what was happening because we still had 5 weeks until our little guy was supposed to be here! After deciding yes, I was in fact in the beginning stages of labor, I got my husband out of the shower and told him it was time to get going. Of course we had nothing packed and hadn't even installed our carseats! That was all on the list of "Things To Get Done in the Next Week or So." Afterall, it had only been a week after my graduate classes finals, several weeks after my baby shower and only TWO DAYS after my maternity photos had been snapped (Thank you, Jana Johnson for getting those done just in time!)!
8:04 am: A little shaky, but under control, Tony and I both began to walk about the house packing any and everything we could think we might need at the hospital. Strangely enough, this was almost a peaceful, organized process, but I suppose if you know us you know we're generally pretty level-headed. We even had enough wits about us to find the list the doctor gave us of things we'd need to take along. So, we gathered all of that up, spent several agonizing minutes deciding exactly what we should put in our bag for the baby to come home in and got the carseat installed in my car. Phone calls were made to both sets of parents (soon-to-be-grandparents!). Now it was off to the hospital.
8:50 am: But first, we had to make a pitstop to Walgreens because we didn't have everything on the list. Tony ran in while I waited in the car with my beach towel. It had now been a little over an hour since my water had broken. Several minutes later, Tony returned with everything else we needed in hand. He said, "I must've had that 'dad-on-the-way-to-the-hospital' look because the clerk saw me in the aisle and said, 'having a baby?' I told him we were and he said, 'what's on your list?' and proceeded to help me gather it all up." All I can say, is bless that man's heart.
9:18 am: We arrive at the hospital emergency room and are immediately directed up to the birthing center floor. Of course it was Friday and my OB/GYN is out of the office on Fridays. I was sure they'd have to page him, he wouldn't answer and I'd be stuck with someone I'd never met. After the nurses determined, yes my water had broken and it wasn't something else (duh!) they hooked me up to a contraction monitor and told me to wait a few minutes. Low and behold, I hear my doctor's voice. My husband peeps around the corner and there he is! He waved him over and he came to see me. I don't think I'd ever been as happy to see someone at the right moment as I had been to see him then. He checked me out and determined they'd probably try to stop labor and hold me a few more days.
11 am: My parents are now on the way to Charleston with Tony's not too far behind. The doctor had now determined that they were going to need to transfer me to a hospital in a bigger city (Champaign, for those of you who are familiar with our region) because if they couldn't stop my labor, they would prefer that hospital for their neonatal services. So, they'll send an ambulance, I'm told. At this point we're still thinking I'll be on hospital bed rest for a few days, if not weeks.
12 pm: I'm starving, but of course they won't let me eat. Now the ambulance is here to get me and the nurse is getting me ready to transfer onto the stretcher. Of course they send two male ambulance personnel to assist so all I can think about (and say out loud) is, "Please keep my butt covered!" For whatever reason, although you pretty much lose all dignity during the birth process, I became obsessed with no one seeing my back end! I get to the ambulance and tell my husband to make sure he gets something to eat on his way up to the next hospital (it's about a 45-minute ride) since we don't know when we'll get the next meal. As soon as I get in the ambulance I'm talking to the nurse about the hospital bedrest and such and she just looks at me and says with a smirk, "Oh no, honey, we're having this baby today!" WHAT?! That's all I could think. "Today, you mean, like this afternoon?" Yes, it would be this afternoon, well evening. My poor husband in the car behind us has yet to gain this piece of knowledge...
1:15 pm: We arrive at the larger hospital and I'm taken to my room. Contractions are stronger now. They're going to do an ultrasound. The ultrasound is fine, baby's lungs are fine, no steroid shots needed. My husband is now in the room and is about as shocked as I am that we are going to have this baby today (by C-section because the stubborn little guy was breech, just like his momma).
2:30 pm (I think): Both families have arrived and heard the news. Now it's time to wait and bide our time.
5:30 pm: Finally, an operating room is open and Tony and I get suited up to go in. It's cold as ice (yeah, I'm singing that song now too) in the operating room and I'm splayed with arms out on the table like some kind of posable doll. Now I'm shaky because I've had the spinal block to numb my bottom half and the whole thing is getting very real. The nice and very enetertaining anesthesiologist gets me a blanket and they bring Tony in after what feels like forever.
6:34 pm: They wheel over the most precious, perfect little person I've ever seen (5 lbs, 6 oz, 19 in. long) and let Tony take a few pictures before he is whisked away to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). I'm taken to recovery where Tony graciously waits for a while before I tell him to please go talk to the families and go with the baby. I fall asleep.
This is where the timeline gets away from me. I was pretty groggy, but the long and the short of it is I got wheeled to the NICU in my hospital bed, they took a picture of our new little family and then my family and Tony's came to visit me in my hotel room until I got tired and sick from the anesthesia and everyone went home so we could sleep. It was just about the craziest day I've ever had but it was worth it a million times over.
My poor little Tyler had to stay in the NICU for a total of 18 days. Luckily he was never sick, just still developing. He ate mostly through a feeding tube until we could get him used to a bottle. They called him a "grower/feeder" since he didn't have any health issues. He had an IV for one day and oxygen for one day and then he was on his own unless you count heart monitors for the rest of the 18 days. Only me, Tony and both sets of grandparents could visit him (to keep germs to a minimum), so it was hard not to be able to show him off, but it made it that much more exciting when everyone could finally meet him. It was hard to leave him in the NICU (we stayed at a house on the hospital's campus for a few days, it was a free service and wonderful, but after a while we decided to go home and drive back and forth) but he's home now and almost 5 months old doing great! He's definitely my favorite (mis)adventure to date!
We recently had the plesure of attending the NICU reunion and seeing some of the babies that were with Tyler in the NICU and others that were there while we were. It's nice to see them all healthy, happy and outside the confines of a hospital. It was also wonderful to see the nurses and doctors that provided such wonderful care for our favorite little guy!
Tyler Nicholas Pleasant
4 months old
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