Thursday, August 31, 2006

simon


Simon, originally uploaded by jandjgilbert.

Ladies and Gentlemens:

Simon Jonathan Gilbert.

Born, August 31, 2006, 12:28 am
Weight: 7 lb 15 oz
Length: 20 in
APGAR: 9

simon david


Simon David, originally uploaded by jandjgilbert.

he's here!

Simon Jonathan has arrived! 7 pounds, 15 ounces, 20 inches, APGAR-9, hair? Yes! Black. And, of course, he is beautiful.

It was sort of non-climactic. Compared to David--much easier on all fronts.

We came into the hospital Wednesday morning, for the scheduled induction. As planned, they started slowly. As feared, not much happened. I even went home and did some work mid-morning. Around 4:00, Dr. Wiley came in and I figured that he would just send us home pregnant.

Instead, he ruptured the membranes. This kind of frustrated me. As previously mentioned, he said that they would apply a modest effort to see if things would kick in naturally. Now, without discussion or preamble, he breaks the waters, committing us to a birthing within 24 hours. We had gone through this with David--a lengthy process of agressive drugs forcing the issue.

From there, everything progressed normally, until, at midnight, Jaime was pronounced ready to birth a baby. Skylar had been with us most of the day and was planning on attending the birth, but by 11:30 she was tired. She went home, leaving instructions for us to call her when something happened. So, thirty minutes later, I summonsed her back. She nearly missed it. By the time she came in, everything was prepared and Jaime was pushing. Grandma Suzie was also part of the team this time. Not quite 30 minutes of pushing and he came out without a hitch and with very little tearing.

Jaime used the same pain meds that she used with David, but less of it, so she was able to feel much more the experience.

This morning a nurse ran in to our room, waking us up and asking us where he is. We didn't have him. They had taken him for a bath sometime in the night and we fell sound asleep, so they kept him. Seeing we didn't have him, the nurse ran back out. She returned a few minutes later to assure us that they had found him. Appearantly the security device had fallen off of his ankle, setting off the alarm. The security device has a unique code that matches bracelets we are wearing. It is the primary way that we identify what baby belongs to whom. So now, we'll never be absolutely sure that he is ours until a decade from now when routine bloodtests after a skate boarding accidents reveal a shocking secret that leads to a 20/20 special investigation.

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

ready to roll

Well, in spite of some days with long periods of regular, but light contractions, and some days with heavy, but irregular, contractions, no baby has arrived.
sigh
So, tomorrow morning we are off for an inducin'. We'll arrive to the hospital around 7:00 and start things going. So, I don't expect to sleep a lot tonight, which is why I am blogging at 11:00.
The feeling is somewhere between the excitement you feel the night before going to Disney World and the foreboding you feel the night before . . . well, before you'll submit your wife to one of the most physically painful experiences she'll ever have.
Grandma Suzie is here and pretty excited to be able to participate this time. Everyone is on high alert, waiting for the phone call, which you already know, because you are pretty much everyone.
So, here we go, perched at the top of the roller coaster after a long nerve-wracking tug up the hill. Ready to roll.
later, Disney fans

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

our best-laid plan

OK, we have a plan, which is a great relief.

Jaime and I have been torn between waiting until spontaneous labor and going completely batso insane. The litany of fears basically boils down to "in another week, this child will spring, fully grown (and armored) from my forehead." You may recall that David got stuck and we had a few scary moments because of that. This is not an indicator that the same thing could happen again, but the specter is ever-present cloud over our desire for a natural childbirth.

We met with the OB today to discuss the issue in a more rational, less metaphorically soupy way. On one hand, he is willing to induce Jaime when ever she feels like it at this point. On the other, both she and the baby are healthy and he is happy to let the pregnancy go until September 7. He has very little advice to offer otherwise. I wish I could get paid so much for so little.

But he did have this: in a study, 328 near-term pregnant women who have previously had a child were asked to guess the weight of their baby. Then, the OB did his exam and made a guess as to the weight and the women were given a sonogram and the weight was determined from that. On average, the doctors' guesses were off by 1.5 pounds plus/minus, the sonograms were off by 1 pound, and the mothers' guesses off by .5 pounds. Our doctor used this to illustrate where the decision for the next step ultimately lies. He could examine and guess and make a recommendation, but it is less likely to be as accurate as what Jaime thinks. If she thinks it is getting too big and wants to go ahead an induce, then that is what he'll do.

Another fact I didn't know: inducing doesn't always work. They'll give it a try for about a day--less, if the weather is good for golfing--but if the mother and baby are honestly not ready, then it won't work and the woman will go home as pregnant as when she arrived--but more batso insane. That helped me. David was induced because Jaime's water broke. It was an unpleasant and drawn-out process. But in that case, they wanted the baby to come before the risk of infection developed from the ruptured membranes. So they were much more aggressive than they are with a voluntary induction. I am relieved to know that induction is actually a good try to get things started--not an attempt to artificially force the issue.

Lastly, Grandma Susie is coming next week. She'll be here for several weeks.

So, this is the "plan." Our OB is on call for deliveries tomorrow, this weekend, and next Wednesday. The plan is that we'll wait one more week. If we don't have spontaneous labor or a nervous breakdown by Wednesday--which is the day before the "due date," then we'll induce and Grandma Susie will get to be there, which wasn't possible with David.

Why are we relieved to have a plan? Because it allows us to stop thinking about it and relax. That, combined with our decision to wait until Grandma Susie can be with us, will cause the immediate onset of labor, which is what we are counting on.

So, mark your calendars. Sometime in the next eight days we are goin' to the hospital to have a baby or give it our best effort.

Later, batso insane fans.

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

37-weeks

Jaime emailed me.
Well the good news is that I am dilated to a 2 and Simon is head down.

The bad news is that Wiley said he would not let me go past my due date of "September 7th". I almost wanted to die.

In a passive-aggressive attempt to get him to think about going earlier, I asked him to compare my current size to that of David at 36 weeks.

I am dilated which I don't think I was at that time, I weigh almost 10 pounds more, and Simon measures 3cm bigger than David did. And after all that he still won't let me go past September, oh lucky me.

Wiley asked if he was moving ok and I said the movements have seemed to slow down a bit so he ordered a stress test. Simon is fine and moves like a champ, I even had two mild contractions during the test. The nurse was really nice and talked to me for a bit after it was done. She said the August 31st (according to the sono) was probably the most accurate date and to give it until this weekend when I hit 38 weeks.

I still feel like crying, which I am getting sick of but I will try to remain patient.

Monday, August 14, 2006

david & the tummy


david & the tummy, originally uploaded by jandjgilbert.

restin


restin, originally uploaded by jandjgilbert.

david & the tummy 2


david & the tummy 2, originally uploaded by jandjgilbert.

wedding


wedding, originally uploaded by jandjgilbert.

Here we have a rare shot of David watching TV in his underwear. And who is that hansom couple on the screen? Tomorrow's Hollywood superstars? Nope that is Uncle Grant and the now-officially-Aunt Tina recently married in Seattle. Jaime couldn't attend because she is knocked up so she is just outside the frame, crying.

Congratulations from the Gilbert family to the newly-weds. We wish more than anything we could have been there--well, more than anything but giving birth in the isle of a 737.

Saturday, August 12, 2006

hurrying up, waiting

Well, we are disappointed to have no real news yet. When Jaime lost her plug Monday, we were pretty excited. Yes, one can unplug as much as three weeks prior to the birth, but with David that was only five days and the second is supposed to come faster, right? Additionally, Jaime was showing several other signs of a pending birth. So, we have been preparing for a birthin' this weekend. Alas, no. Not only is there baby yet, but most of the symptoms have subsided.

We went to the mall today for a long walk--because that is supposed to help. Sure enough, while walking through Dillards, Jaime had a pretty significant contraction--the first in 24 hours. It maintained while walking and while not walking whereas false labor generally subsides when you change modes. So, we were stoked. But it subsided and nothing followed. Jaime is convinced that it has something to do with Dillards.

We were trying to remember details from David, but are not recalling much. I didn't record enough information. For instance, there is a scale from -5 to +5 that tracks the baby's progress. -5 is just starting, not even in the birth canal yet, and +5 is crowning. The baby is -2. I don't remember where David was when, so I can't compare. Jaime is partially, but not fully, effaced. Again, I don't remember when David met this milestone.

I do, however, remember that, when Jaime's water broke with David, I was surprised--even a little incredulous. I recall thinking that there had been no accompanying signs, perhaps she is mistaken. I was prepared to take Jaime to the hospital in labor, but that didn't happen, we had to induce the actual labor. So, this one could take us by surprise as well.

Nevertheless, we wait. It is hard, especially for Jaime. I am trying to get us in the mindset of abandoning the idea that it will come this week. Let's just assume that it will come next week. That way, if it comes earlier, great. But, if it does not, then we'll at least get out of this craziness of planning to be at the hospital sometime in the next 24 hours. It is an impossible level of hyper-readiness. I am cramming as much work in to every day in preparation for leaving at a moment's notice and I am putting off any project that will take more than 24 hours to execute.

So, we hope it will come sooner, but are trying to resign ourselves to it coming later. Or later still.

Later, fans.

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

perhaps on the mtv blog

--I've gone acoustic [giggle].
--huh?
--I'm unplugged.
--oh. Ha! That's pretty good
--You should blog it.

Monday, August 07, 2006

labor: true or false?

For the time being, false.

faq

Has Jaime birthed that baby yet?

No.

The OB, Dr. Wiley, has the due date set at August 31 (cute story, David has a baby cousin named "Riley." When they were introduced on Saturday, David called him "Dr. Riley"). Jaime's calculations, based on being present at certain stepping-stones in the process, put her at August 11. However, Dr. Wiley trusts her instincts. If labor has not begun by the weekend, he is willing to order sonograms or measurements or whatever it takes to determine how big the baby is and induce if necessary. The goal is to avoid a baby bigger than about eight pounds--one that raises the possibility of needing an emergency c-section.

So, there are two issues at work here--uncertainty about the due date, and concern about the size of the baby. It is common knowledge that due dates are highly unreliable and nearly arbitrary. People often say to us that baby will come when it is ready to come, regardless of an established date. That may be true, but having a due date helps with addressing the size problem. If the due date comes and goes, then that will trigger doctors to monitor the size to be sure that the extra time is not causing problem. Having such a wide discrepancy as we makes it difficult to address this issue.

You may have noticed that white American people are having larger and larger babies these days. While certainly not a health crisis, it does pose interesting issues. We have gotten very good at promoting prenatal health to middle-class women--maximizing every opportunity for the fetus to develop as much as possible. They are so healthy that they are reaching birthing weight and beyond just a little quicker than they should.

What facts am I citing to support this supposition? You are clearly not familiar with the way blogging works. I'm just typing to kill some time. If you want facts, go watch Fox News.

It just seems to me like babies are getting bigger, that's all. I would be curious to know how many women of my grandmother's generation had to worry about an emergency c-section because the baby would be too big at the onset of labor.

later, big baby fans

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

brushing


brushing, originally uploaded by jandjgilbert.