He’s here!

I keep trying to make this post, but it seems that whenever I have time for myself I end up doing something else, like chores.  So, let me try this again…

OMG I had a baby!

Andrew Sheldon Hicks was born on June 1st 2010 at 7:35 PM.  He weighed 8 pounds and 13 ounces, and measured 21 and 1/2 inches long.  Yes… BIG BABY.  As for the birth, well, that is a story!  I went in on Monday afternoon (31 May) for an OB appointment to check my progress, and the doctor felt that I was far enough dilated (approx. 3 cm) and effaced on my own that the induction could wait until Tuesday morning.  So, no Cervidil for me, just Pitocin.  I was so nervous and excited all night that I only got about 20 minutes sleep!  We arrived at the hospital at 6 am, and looking back on it now, Sean and I agree that we should have known right from the start that things would not go as planned… “Why?” you ask?  Well, because we’re dumbasses and we showed up to the wrong freaking building!  Our hospital is set up as a series of buildings, and when I was scheduled for induction I was told to just “go to the desk downstairs” and check in there.  But, I was thinking that wasn’t right because the birthing center was next door, but I did what I was told and went to the desk downstairs of my OB-Gyn (as well as my Endocrinologist and other offices in that building).  I was so embarrassed.  But, at least anyone watching us got a treat – how often can you say that you saw a nine months pregnant woman being pushed across a parking lot in a wheel chair?  LOL

We finally got to the right building and checked in, and then we were shown to this really nice room that I was supposed to have my baby in.  They started the IV and the antibiotics (I’m Group B Strep positive) and when the doctor came around they plugged in the Pitocin (which was about 6:45).  The contractions started and they weren’t too bad at first.  I was even able to nap on and off for the next couple of hours.  And then… oh boy.  They started coming a little harder and Dr. Jones-Monte (the doctor who scheduled the induction and would be delivering Andy) broke my water.  I was actually having a contraction while that happened and the pain intensified IMMEDIATELY.  At that point I asked for the epidural.  I was in a lot of pain while the anesthesiologist was trying to administer the epidural and kept shaking.  It took the poor man three tries to find a place for the needle to go in… which was… unpleasant, to say the least (imagine someone digging around in your spine with a pencil lead… yeah – icky).  But then… glorious, glorious drugs!!  This was probably sometime around noon.

I went back to sleep for a while (good sleep!!) and woke up feeling really sick.  I started vomiting just as my mother-in-law came into the room.  LOL  It wasn’t her, of course, but Sean couldn’t help but point it out and laugh a little later that his mom made me vomit.  I then requested a movie (they had a DVD player and TV in the room) and Sean ran home to get Star Wars (yes, that’s what I requested – and we only live about 10 minutes from the hospital, and he wanted to go get his laptop – the hospital had free WiFi; I had the urge to post something from the hospital about being hardcore but decided against it LOL).  He came back and we watched episode 4 and just as the movie ended Dr. Jones-Monte came back to check me again.  *sigh*  She checked me out and told me that I was still at five centimeters (I had been at five for hours now) and that because they had already broken my water, and that because I was starting to run a fever, that she recommended a C-section.  She also gave me the choice of using Cervidil now, and waiting a few more hours, but she really didn’t think it would have an effect and then with my fever she didn’t think that was the best choice anyway.  So, I agreed.  I just wanted to see my baby!

Around 6:50 PM everyone who had come to the hospital came into the room before they wheeled me off for surgery – my mama and daddy, Sean, Sean’s sister Katy and her husband, Markus, and Sean’s mom.  This was a nice big room so we weren’t too crowded.  I had been given even more medicine and forced to drink this horrible antacid (tasted like stinky feet – if stinky feet had a taste) and started to get a little overwhelmed.  The shaking came back.  Of course, some of it was nerves; I was nervous about the surgery but mostly about meeting Andy.  I’d been writing him letters the entire pregnancy, telling him how things were going and how I felt about everything, so giving birth to him was kind of like meeting someone I already knew.  Like, a pen pal or something.  But more than that – this was my child… who I had dreamed about and cried about and wanted for so very long.  I also had some feelings crop up concerning the miscarriage and the D&E that followed and how once again doctors were going to take my baby.  But I kept (I hope) a brave face while everyone was in the room.  And then they came to wheel me to the OR…

Sean getting ready for the C-section

I started feeling really sick as they prepped me for surgery and ended up vomiting all over the operating room.  They cleaned everything up before they brought Sean in.  They almost forgot about him!  I was feeling them doing something (it wasn’t painful) and I heard a nurse ask, “Where’s the husband?” and someone answered frantically “He’s in the hall!”.  They grabbed him and brought him to sit by my head.  It wasn’t quiet in the room, what with Dr. Jones-Monte talking to the nurses and them talking back (they were having a conversation about something, I don’t remember what) but when I think of it all I can remember hearing was this monitor thing that they had next to me.  It wasn’t a heart monitor, but it sort of sounded like it and it would go beep beep beep and then a long beeeeeeeep and I was so scared that something bad was happening.  Then Dr. Jones-Monte told me I would feel some pressure and started counting.  I kept waiting for Andy to cry and I’m not sure if I heard him before I got to see him.  I think I did.  I just know that when I heard his voice that the tears could not be contained.  She asked if I wanted to meet my baby and I can’t remember if I answered!  The curtain was dropped and Andy was held up for us to see.  Sean snapped a quick picture.  I won’t share that one, because frankly it is a little nasty, but let me tell you his expression was priceless.  He was scowling at us as if to say, “I wasn’t ready to be born yet, dammit!”  It was the same face my dad makes when he is wondering what the hell someone is up to.  LOL  I tried to reach for him but someone said, “Don’t touch!  He hasn’t been cleaned off yet!” and I was so numbed up that I could barely lift my arm anyway.  They took Andy to be cleaned and Sean followed them.  I heard a nurse remark that we had an “angry baby” (he was scowling hard).

Andy's second picture ever!

I didn’t know it at the time, but Sean said later that he looked over and saw them cleaning me up.  He couldn’t believe they were able to pull Andy through such a small incision (it doesn’t feel small now, let me tell you).  He told me he saw the doctor pick up something from inside me and throw it over her shoulder, and then pull out something else and gasp and shove it back in.  Yes, Sean made a Sims joke.  At the time though, he told a nurse that he had the urge to make a buzz sound and holler out “Don’t touch the sides!” to the doctor while she was pulling things out.  LOL  I was over there bawling to death and unable to move and my husband was making Operation jokes.  At least we have a good story for Andy when he gets older!

Finally, Sean came back to me and I thanked him for our son.  Yes, this sounds so corny but if you only knew what we had been through… which, I guess you do because I’ve told you, but still.  He thanked me too and then Andy was placed in his arms.  I wanted to touch him soooo bad, but I could barely move.  I kept hoping Sean would move just a little closer so I could touch!

Reaching out for Andy

Eventually they were done messing with me, and I was becoming less and less paralyzed.  Andy was placed in my arms.

Finally holding my baby!

After a couple of minutes I was wheeled back into the room I was supposed to have given birth in for recovery.  There was only supposed to be one family member present at a time, but for a few minutes everyone was still in there.  Then the nurses told them to GTFO (not really, but sort of).  LOL  I had a minute alone with Andy (well, there were still nurses in the room) while Sean went to get Mama (I asked her to come hold him first, then Daddy, and then it was supposed to be Sean’s mom but she left… she said she didn’t want to cry… I don’t know if she was offended that she wasn’t first or what, but Andy is now over a week old and she still hasn’t held him *sigh*).

Holding Andy!

About half an hour later (maybe more, maybe less) I was taken up to my room in the Mother/Baby unit.  I found out that one reason I had gotten sick in the OR was that my blood pressure dropped and sort of bottomed out.  Hmph.

The first couple of days in the hospital were rather uneventful.  They gave me the option of going home Friday or Saturday and I took Saturday because I was thinking about how it would feel to have cats trying to crawl over my C-section.  The nursing staff couldn’t have been nicer or more helpful.  They actually had to remind me that the nursery was available for me to get some rest (we kept Andy in our room nearly all the time).  Around Friday though… things started to go bad.

Andy's hand and footprints - long fingers and toes!

A very happy Dad!

Andy was circumcised on Thursday and when he came back to us he was so groggy and slept nearly that whole day.  He hardly ate.  Then, on Friday, he was fussy as hell and wouldn’t sleep.  We tried putting him in the nursery, but they brought him back ten minutes later because he was hungry.  I couldn’t sleep.  I couldn’t eat.  I was in pain.  I was getting a headache.  Andy was losing weight and the breast-milk nazis (lactation consultants – not all of them mind you, just one or two – the lady named Gloria was very nice) made me feel like shit.  My blood pressure was rising… dangerously high.  I never had blood pressure problems the whole pregnancy, so this was something new.  I was told that they wanted to keep me another day to monitor me.  I couldn’t do anything all day Saturday but lay on my left side.  No nursing, no pumping, only getting up to use the bathroom.  Our insurance wouldn’t cover Andy being in the hospital another day so he was discharged but got to stay with me – it just meant that the nurses could no longer help us with him and we couldn’t take him to the nursery.  Sean and my mama had to help me out with a lot of things.  I told the nurse about my worsening headache and I think it scared her (for my sake).  Moving me to High Risk was discussed.  But on Sunday, Dr. Jones-Monte stopped by and felt that with the medication they had put me on and with that full day of rest that my blood pressure would improve soon, so I would get to go home that day!  Yay!  My blood pressure probably dropped ten points right there and I told her so.  She agreed and we had a good laugh.  Finally though… I was able to take my baby home!

Andy on the way home

Just look at those droopy cheeks.  LOL

We brought him in the house and introduced the cats to him.  They were a little scared (not Andy – he was still asleep) but for the most part they seemed okay.  No one hissed at him at least!

Henry and Andy - Henry jumped back two feet after this because Andy moved.

When it came time for Andy’s diaper to be changed, the cats went insane.  “OMG NOISE!!”  The only one who didn’t seem to mind the screaming, in a way, was Berkeley.  He actually got really concerned and started loving on my mama (Berkeley does not love on anyone but me and Sean… EVER) and then started rubbing all around Sean’s legs and mine.  I was the most afraid of how Berkeley would take to Andy, because Berkeley is so attached to me seeing that we’ve had him since he was three days old.  But he has impressed me so much… he’s even nudged Andy’s head a couple of times while I was nursing!  Last night I was trying to calm Andy down after a diaper change and Berkeley jumped into the crib and checked things out as if to say, “Why are you crying?” and when he couldn’t find anything he jumped back out.  Henry has started to warm up to Andy too, and likes to lay next to us while Andy nurses.  Bruce is very shy, so doesn’t come around Andy much, but Claudia and Jakob have sniffed him a couple of times and have started to come around him more.  They like it the most when he’s quiet.

Nocturnal baby is nocturnal... it figures!

As for who Andy looks like… well, he’s a pretty good mixture of the two of us.  He tends to look more like me (especially in the hospital – the first day or so he was the spitting image of a newborn picture of me) but he has some of Sean’s features too.  He has my nose and brow, but Sean’s lips and Sean’s chin and maybe Sean’s eye shape.  He has my cheeks but when he smiles he has dimples like Sean.  His feet and toes are the shape of Sean’s, but they are flat like mine (which that may change).  He has reddish-brown/dark strawberry blond hair… which is most likely from Sean’s side of the family. What do you all think?

Slightly fuzzy picture - it was taken with my cell

Me and Sean, both around 5 years old

Everyone says he’s beautiful and I can’t help but agree.  But I’m Mama – that’s my job, right?  😛