Aiden is born...
Sorry for no update. The little computer terminal that I was using at the hospital is having some fits. The last time I tried to use it, the cleaning crew was nearby and one of them came over and told me that they had never seen anyone on that computer. I had to laugh and tell them it was broke.
Anyway, to the much more important stuff. Dawn had little baby Aiden at 6:42pm on 9/30/02. He was 8lbs 11.5oz and 21 inches long. There were actually some complications in the entire process.
12:00pm (noon) - Dawn's water was broke by the doctor. We had a short conversation regarding pain management and it was decided that an epidural would be ordered. About 12:15 the anesthesiologist stopped by and began the process. Around 12:30 she was done and everything was looking good. Dawn was getting numb in her feet and legs.
12:45pm - Her blood pressure had started getting quite low and they gave her something for it (real common drug I had heard of before, but don't remember which at the moment). Within a few minutes she was getting better and things were back on track. I left for some lunch about 1 and returned within 15 minutes.
2:15pm - Dawn was 6cm and almost 90% effaced. Things were going along nicely and assuming 1cm / hour, she would be ready to push around 6:15.
3:45pm - Dawn was getting sick and throwing up. The nursing staff called for the Dr's recommendations.
4:05pm - The nurse checks Dawn and finds her at almost 8cm (almost right on schedule). They start to give her something for her nausea, but conclude she won't be able to keep it down. Return call to the Dr's office. The doctor is on the way.
5:15pm - Dr has arrived and we are making an actual effort to push. I'm counting outloud to 10 so that Dawn will push through the entire contraction. The monitor equipment hasn't really worked the entire time. I looked at it at one point and the light pen box has a broken connector so it isn't going to be an easy fix. What that means is it is harder to see how consistent her contractions are.
Dawn pushed a couple of times and the monitor for the fetal heartrate kept moving around, but when she wasn't pushing Dr. Carbonell was moving it around so we could hear. The baby's heart was slowing down to around 100 beats/minute during the pushing (which isn't bad if your almost done, but he was around 130 most of the time and this was apparently a wee early to get this low). He attached the little head thing (the one that sorta screws into his head) so that he could more accurately monitor the baby throughout the entire process.
Unfortunately, what it showed was that baby Aiden's little heart was really slowing down to around 100 and staying there. This indicated that he was going to be having a real hard time with the birth. We talked about a c-section, and all agreed that it sounded like the better alternative. Dawn was cleaned up a little bit and the anesthesiologist came in to reinforce her epidural. The plan there is to really beef it up so that it is more like a spinal block.
So, once Dawn's epidural was in place and ready to go, I put on scrubs (which the first paper ones were small so they got me some real ones, very cool). Dawn's mom, Mindy and I all moved down to a waiting area. The plan was that someone would come through these doors and let me go in. Mindy asked if I was OK and I of course lied and said sure. I was nervous and a little scared for Dawn. Every bad thing that could possibly happen in a OR that I've ever heard of was running around in my head. However, it all went great. I was able to take a few pics and once they saw that I was actually cheating and watching the whole thing on the camera's swival monitor the anesthesiologist told me to stand up and take a look. A little strange to watch them work on your wife, but I'm glad I got to see it. Made me much more comfortable and better able to comfort Dawn and let her know it wasn't much longer and tell her when the baby was out and everything.
Dawn and I talked during the birthing classes that once the baby was out, regardless of how he came out, my goal would be to stay with him as much as possible. My thinking on it was always that it was hard for him to say, "I'm Aiden" and much easier for Dawn to say "I'm Dawn". So I took some pics of Aiden in the warmer, met with the pediatrician, talked about what was going on and finally when they were ready, I took him back to our room.
Dawn showed up about 30 minutes later when they had already given him his Vitamin K shot and everything. So he was ready to go. She, unfortunately, was not. They gave her some extra drugs during the c-section and she was really out of it. After a little while she was able to breast feed the little guy and that worked out really well. We didn't get much sleep since they spent up through almost 11pm just recovering Dawn from the whole trauma. There was also a baby bath and a few other things.
We didn't get much sleep that night and Aiden already has his Dad pretty well trained. When he starts crying I would get up with him and walk him around a little bit (which he seems to love). Anyway, I've rambled enough. I'll tell more later, but for now, here are some pics.
Here he is Monday less than a day old. He is wearing a hat because of that funny cone head effect that happens when mom tries to shove your head through holes that are a little on the small side.
This is probably what I would have looked like if I had chose a medical career. Actually, Mindy took this just minutes before I went in to the OR.
This is what he looked like when I left the hospital. We have since been moved to a different room in 1 East which is apparently a recovery wing. The birthing center was getting a little on the full side.
We will probably return home Wednesday night or Thursday morning. Don't know yet, but I probably won't be able to update the site until then. Just so you all know, for now we are doing quite well.
No news is good news...
So we are home now. Aiden is still very much into being active in the middle of the night. Unfortunately, this isn't a real desirable trait. We are kinda guessing we can turn him around in a few days.
However, just to update everything. We started out the night quite well. Aiden fell asleep on me around 10pm and we were woke up by the nurse at midnight. Of course, they seem to have to check your vitals way more than you or I ever want. Of course, since we are up, lets feed the baby (which I'm cool with that part). They weight little Aiden and he has lost a few ounces. He's 8lbs 4.5oz, apparently 4-10 oz is normal.
About 2:15am he gets a little excited and doesn't seem to be comforted by much of anything. We decide to call in the nurse who takes a while to get him to calm down as well, but eventually he calms down and starts to nurse for a while.
Dr. Matt Hough, from Southern Oregon Pediatrics, stops by to see little Aiden about 7am, reminds us of a few things (100 degree temp is bad, check it rectally before calling, etc, etc). He indicates Aiden is a little jaundiced, which I hadn't really noticed up until then, but he is getting some yellow to him.
About 8am, Dr. Carbonell stops by to see how things are going. He indicates that we can leave today if we want. Given that neither of us is getting alot of sleep and that we would like to sleep in our own beds, we go for it!!
The PKU test is done (a little poke on the foot which he slept through). Then the consult with the people from Safe Start or something like that - they just want to see if you need (and want) any public assistance. Then we had one last run down on stuff with the nurse and we were basically ready to go. I ran home to offload some pics, pick up some lunch for Dawn's mom and myself, then returned. When I returned, Tosca had stopped back by and so had Heather and Jenna.
We ate lunch, got ready to leave and we were pulling out of the parking lot at 2:48pm!!! Two and a half days. I'm sure that is some kinda record.
So far tonight, we've had a little issue with the diaper genie (no instructions and Richard is big on instructions - of course, after cutting the stupid tube 60 times Richard finally found a nice flash demo online - brilliant insight, "don't cut the tube anymore"). We had to pick up a few things from the store and we ate at A&W in Ashland for a quick bite. Needless to say, Richard is gaining more sympathy weight with the return home then with the pregnancy. Oops.
Several people have commented that Aiden looks big. So, we had to take some pictures of people holding him yesterday in order to help put things into perspective.
Here is Grandpa Bill. Funny how everyone gets a minor name change (I became "Dad" which was a little startling). Anyway, this should help give some size perspective.
Here is his Grandma Carol, which probably won't be her "official" title. Seems her grandkids usually have a pet name for her. We shall see what Aiden's is.
And here is Grandma Clari. She has been a monstrous help in this entire experience. She is great at helping get stuff for him (especially during diaper changes)!!! You can see in this pic (which was taken on the 2nd unlike the other 2 which were on the 1st) that his little jaundice is getting worse.
Screaming bloody murder!!!
Well, we got to hear the scream to end all screams from him last night. He gets a little too hungry and all you hear from him is this blood curdling scream of absolute discontent and annoyance and something. He arches his little back and is just mad as all get out!!! It takes a little bit to calm him down, but taping the top of his mouth with your finger and feeding him some food through a little drip line thing we got, really really helps.
It's been kinda a long day, mostly since the night time was filled with numerous "events" involving a little baby that was a little too excited. We ended up calling the peds office and talking to nurse Carrie (I think that was her name), she squared us up on a few things and got us on the right track regarding the whole what to do when he freaks completely.
Dawn has been handling the whole pain thing pretty well. So far we've been real consistent about keeping up on her pain medication and "pain management" (I just loved that term). Neither one of us has been sleeping alot, but hopefully starting tomorrow Dawn will be able to get some rest when Aiden sleeps and that should help out alot.
Anyway, I'm trying to make up for some lost work related time tonight, so I'm gonna just post some pics we took today and get back to work. One that I forgot to post yesterday was the "final hospital" photo.
Here he is ready to go home. He was even sleepy as we got ready to leave.
Joe, Mindy and little Joey stopped by to see the little man. Mindy held him for a while.
Joe and Joey on the other hand decided not to play with Aiden. Actually, little Joey wasn't so sure about him yet. I think once he is able to crawl around Joey will probably be much more interested.
Today we dressed him up in this cute little outfit for the day. I just figured I should take a picture of it. Babies are great when they are like this, asleep!!!
Well, off to do some work.
I could almost live like this...
An entire night of no screaning bloody murder! That was so nice. We were still up 4 times in order to feed him and change diapers, but never more than 40 minutes and none of them involved screaming bloody murder.
A new discovery...
Well, Dad (that's me) has discovered how to sleep through the night. Mom (that's Dawn for those in the cheap seats) gets up with little Aiden over and over and over during the night. She actually has semi-perfected this to a science and is able to figure out what is going on before he starts crying (ooohh, how joyous).
On the jaundice front, we had another test today. Yesterday's numbers were 16.7 mg/dl (16.7 mg of bilirubin per 100 cc (deciliter) of blood), normal levels are basically 11 or below and some kind of intervention is usually performed around the 20 mark (phototherapy with a bili-blanket). Today's test was lower, but I don't have exact numbers.
However, what I do have is a few pics of him in some cute outfits (and asleep for all you dad's out there that can appreciate that particular state).
Isn't he cute.
I'd say "isn't he cute", but I used that on the last one.
Here he goes moving through the clothes. I just hope that he doesn't change clothes as much as nurse Mary's daughter. Now there was a horror story. (FYI, she apparently can't go outside in the same outfit more than once.)
Cousin Darrik shows up to hold the little man.
As did Aunt Julie.
I, of course, have discovered that I'll apparently be spending a good deal of time doing laundry and folding clothes. Fortunately, I lived on my own for several years before getting married so I'm familiar with the process (although not necessarily excited about it).
Let's try this...
So, the little man is sleeping quite well at night. He actually crapped out with his daddy for a few hours at 11pm and didn't wake up until almost 3am. So I would say that he is doing quite well. We gave him his first bath the other day (forgot to mention that, of course, he'll probably get one today, too). And today he is 1 week old!!! He came really close to having his first walk yesterday when mommy was sleeping daddy was thinking about sticking him in a stroller and running walking around the block or something just to get him some fresh air (never happened, but you always here "its the thought that counts" - of course, just so you know, that doesn't work for a diet).
Daddy is going to try to work a whole day today, so we shall see how that works out. In the meantime, here are some more pictures, just because I can put them up here. 
We had a little birthday party for cousin Darrik.
Little Aiden with Grandma just before she leaves.
Here he is asleep with me when I was watching TV.
Here is his little Froggy outfit. Dawn says this one came from Jeff's parents. You can just see his arm in the Darrik birthday photo he's the big guy on the left.
Spent a few hours at the emergency room tonight...
Dawn's c-section "wound" got a minor infection and that just didn't go well with the whole healing thing. At about 7 tonight she suddenly was just bleeding all over the place. After taking a quick look at it we decided to head to the emergency room. Just for personal reference, don't clean up the wife before you take her to the ER. The fact that she wasn't bleeding all over the place when we got there was something the nurse took into account. If we did it again, I'd try to take her in there with blood everywhere. Gets people excited. Gets things done.
Anyway, everything is OK now, but that just wasn't the big load of fun that I was planning for the evening. We will have to go see the doctor tomorrow morning, but it looks like everything will be OK.
Sorry I don't have time for pics and stuff tonight. I'm going to bed. It's late and I'm tired. I'll tell you all more about it tomorrow.
WOW!!! Everyone is getting some kinda something...
Rachel called yesterday and said that she had some strange virus thing that was affecting her muscles.
Dawn gets this infection in her c-section "wound".
And now poor little Aiden has an infected eye. We are calling the doctor at 8:30 to see if we can get some goop. I already read a little on her wonderfully informative website about puss eye, but since all I can do is be officious and scan the internet, figured she should have the final say. 
So on that whole going to the hospital thing last night. The funny part was the entire caring for the child without the mother issue. Thinking that all was good with Dawn in the hospital waiting room, I took Aiden outside to get fresh air and so that I didn't have to worry (hopefully) about him getting something from someone in the waiting room. We went out and sat in the car for a little while and Dawn called my cell phone to say that she was still waiting and that it was taking forever. After that, Aiden started acting like he was hungry so I thought I would just feed him some formula from his bag. We had these really simple little 3 oz pre-mixed and sealed bottles that you just stick the nipple on and you are ready to go. I looked and looked and looked and couldn't find one. So, I decided to run back to the house, figuring that I could use some Tums (I scarfed my dinner).
Getting back to the house, I can't find any baby stuff. Gives you an idea of how much of this Dawn actually does. I find some powdered formula that I'll have to mix up, but no bottles. Figuring that this could take a while and with the baby getting a little more upset by the minute I know I need to get someone to go to the hospital to be with Dawn in case she gets done early and I'm not there. So I called Mindy and she was kind enough to go out to the hospital and wait, even though she works 12 hour days and has to work tomorrow morning at 7am!
One thing down, two more to go (bottle and formula or pre-mix and nipple). Finally, I find the mother-lode. The pre-mix bottles and an unopened nipple are sitting in the same place as the alcohol (and I'm not talking about rubbing alcohol - however, check out this flash site made by 2Advanced)!!! Hahahahaha, someone must have cleaned up the kitchen quickly. So I sit down and Aiden finishes off an entire bottle no problem. I burp him a little and we are back in the car on the way to the hospital.
Well, for you parents out there, you already know that what goes in - must come out. So, as I drive up to the hospital I hear the unmistakable sound of the little man messing up his diaper. No problem, I have the diaper bag, right! Uh, there aren't any diaper wipes. Poor little guy got a dry washcloth to clean up with and a new diaper and we are in the hospital.
Dawn is in one of the ER rooms and almost done anyway, so Mindy got to see and play with little Aiden for a while. We all laughed about the diaper bag and the nurse (who has 2 kids) informed us that about the time we get the diaper bag really figured out, we won't need it anymore. Oh well, I guess we'll have a few dry runs with the diaper bag anyway. Dawn informed me later that she didn't see the need for the formula since we were breast-feeding and she would always be with the baby. I'd have agreed with her logic up until last night.
All in all everyone is doing fine and once we get these little infections cleared up I'm sure all will be happy.
My eye, my eye!!!
Aiden's little eye is looking alot better today. Doc says it is a clogged up tear duct and give it a message. So I washed my hands and gave his little eye the message of a lifetime. Now he is doing just fine.
Dawn got the big check up and apparently none of it is infected, but she's popping the anti-biotics just as a precautionary measure. So, life is good here.
I found time
Aiden is 9 days old and I have finally found time to log on. As I’m sure you can tell by reading Richard’s comments we have been busy. Aiden is a good baby and lately he feeds at midnight then again around 4:00 Am and doesn’t wake up until 8:00 AM or so. I get up with him at night and Richard pretty much sleeps through it all. In return during the day Richard takes him in his office so I can get in a nap or two. If I time my nap and feeding time just right I can get an hour or two in at a time.
My c-section is feeling a little better. I can’t wait until it’s healed. The soreness is one thing, but the not being able to do things is another.
Calm day
Today was a pretty calm day. The time has gone by so fast. It’s hard to believe that Aiden is 10 days old. He sure does keep us busy, but it is well worth it. Even when he’s sleeping I find myself checking on him a lot and just watching him sleep.
We forgot to mention when we took him to the doctor on Wednesday he weighted 8 lbs 9 ounces. The Friday before he weighed 8 lbs 2 ounces. So he is gaining his weight back pretty fast. He sure does eat a lot.
Tomorrow I go back to my doctor and he will check my incision. It’s still sore and I’m taking my antibiotics so hopefully there will be no infection. I can’t wait until it heals and I can actually bend over, walk better, sit down easier and drive.
I’m off to bed so I can get in a little sleep before Aiden wakes up at midnight for his next feeding.
4 whole days without a pic
Well, it's been 4 days now since I posted a pic of my kid. Some people are probably wondering if everything is OK. Yes, it is. So, here's a pic of Aiden crashed out in my office one day when Dawn was taking a nap. He seems to like the hum of the computers, which I think is completely hillarious.
I noticed that in most of the pictures he is sleeping. I guess this just proves that when you are a baby all you do is eat, sleep and poop.
Baby in general
Aiden's little eye is looking much much better. He occasionally has a little muk on it in the morning, but otherwise it is clearing up substantially. His little eye was kinda red when we first took him to the doctor, but now everything looks pretty normal.
I found out that my dad had some horrendous eye issue when he was first born. He wasn't sure what they did, but apparently neither of his tear ducts worked when he was a little man.
Aiden's cord finally fell off the other night. Normally this falls off somewhere between 10-14 days. His button looks a little funny for a few days and we keep cleaning it with rubbing alcohol (because we love that stuff). Of course, this means that there will be more outfits that he can wear now - some of the ones that we had wouldn't work out because they were too tight on his little button-cord-thing.
We also took him to his first car wash. He slept through the entire thing and only flinched a few times when something made a loud noise.
Big Mess
We went to the doctor on Friday to get my incision checked out. The doctor said every thing was looking fine. On our way out of the doctor's office Aiden made a noise that could only mean he just dirtied his diaper. He usually does it twice in a row so we decided to wait until we got home to change it. We were right and on the way home the same unmistakable noise happened again. When we got home he had poop up his back and down his legs. Unfortunately the sleeper he had on did not button down the front so we had to pull it over his head. When he was finally undressed he had poop from head to toe. Needless to say it was bath time. So that is the first major dirty diaper story. I'm sure there will be many more.
On Saturday I had cabin fever so Richard suggested we go for a drive. It was nice to get out of the house and have some fresh air.
Aiden GRUNTS!!!
My kid cracks me up. When he has to go poop, he grunts. When he has gas, he grunts. When he wants to burp, he gets pissed (sometimes he cries, other times he has this frumpy look). I think I'll have to record it and post it on the site, just so you get the picture. It sounds like a really old guy in the bathroom with some serious constipation. I'm sure some day he will probably read this and come to me and say "Dad, how could you put that on the net." Of course, by the time he is old enough to form that sentence and ask that question there will probably be more and more stuff on the net (like refrigerators - hmm, I remember LaMar bringing up signal-to-noise ratio on the net several years ago...wonder what he thinks now).
He is starting to get a strong little neck. He was lying on my chest the other night just before we all tried to get some sleep (back to that grunting) and he held his little head up really high for about 10 seconds. It was quite impressive for the little guy. He is also starting to roll over. Not quite all the way (fortunately), but he is getting some progress with the whole thing. Dawn found him almost flopped over yesterday.
Anyway, back to work, its build day and I have to fix some bugs.
Lunchtime naps
Today the little man was taking a nap on daddy so we decided to take a picture of him. After a few quick shots he opened one eye to see what was going on and we ended up with this picture.
Of course, Daddy had to put him in his bouncy chair and he got annoyed with that so we took a picture of it, too.
Other that the pics, things have been pretty good for a kid who is about 0.05 years old now. 0.04 was a little hard on dad for sleep, but we are hopeful that moving from 1/25th of a year to 1/20th of year will have some impact (probably not, but... oh well). He was a little fussy over the last few days, but nothing that really killed the entire sleep thing, until last night. For whatever reason last night was particularly difficult on daddy (that's me). I'm glad I don't have a normal job, I would have been a lump today if I had to be at work at 8am or something.
Sleep!!! I finally got some sleep!!!
Aiden has been sleeping very near our bed. We got a co-sleeper which basically attaches to the side of the bed so that you can sleep next to your kid. (FYI, we liked it and it was level with our standard mattress, unlike the people in the review on that link.) This seemed like the ultimate set up where Dawn wouldn't have to get up every time he cried (especially if he was just trying to say "where are you people"). Well, the downside is that every time he grunts to go poo or something you wake up. He slept in his own crib last night, for the first time ever, which means I only woke up 3 times instead of 60. Yeaaaa!!! Probably explains why I'm up so early.
Aiden's been a little fussier than usual as of late. We are guessing he is getting gas (mainly because Mylicon seems to fix the fuss within about 30 minutes, plus you can roll him up into a little ball and hear the gas escape). I'm definitely glad we don't live in the 1800s because he'd probably really be pissed. Of course, we would have all those cool wives-tales type solutions (some of those are actually entertaining, but if not I'd make up the riding the cow one, but then I wouldn't have a picture for anyone!!! And no, I don't know why I'm obsessed with Aiden riding a cow, it just sounds like fun). Anyway, Dawn is changing her diet to eliminate chocolate and diary in the hopes that it helps. I know both of us were allergic to milk when we were babies and my waistline is still allergic to diary (mostly ice cream, but you get the point).
Sunday, Aunt Susie stopped by to see the little man and he was being good so we took a pic.
Here he is sleeping on Aunt Susie's lap.
Of course, somewhere in all this daddy decided to get some pics of little baby expressions. Here was the first one when he was trying to figure out what I was doing. I'm starting to understand why those staged baby pictures are usually of baby sleeping. They don't tend to get away from you that way.
Here is his “you can get up and change my diaper now” look.
Of course, after that was done, he didn't want any more pictures taken. So I pressed the issue and we got...
At this point I figured we were done. On the upside, it's a digital camera so we will definitely be back for more.
A Good Nights Sleep
Last night Aiden only woke up once at 4:00 AM. I woke up a little before he did and went to check on him to make sure he was ok. About 5 minutes he was awake and very hungry. We went back to sleep around 5:00 AM and then I woke up at 7:30 and he woke up soon after. This is the most sleep I’ve had in a long time. I realize that this could be a fluke and he may be up many times tonight. I’m just happy to get one good night of sleep.
Grandpa Lakeview has passed away.
Grandpa Lakeview died earlier today sometime after breakfast. Another example of I meant to...(go visit). The funeral is currently planned for Tuesday or Wednesday, no one really knows for sure at this point. I guess I'll comment on this more later when I've had a chance to process this.
Funerals and stuff
Well, we all made it home OK, except Mom who is still in Lakeview for a while. Since it was Aiden's first trip out of town we had to get a pic of him in the hotel all ready to sleep.
Isn't he cute?
The next day we went to see Grandma and she held the little guy. He even got all dressed up for the occasion.
Aiden hangs out with Grandma for a bit and does what Aiden does best - sleeps.
Of course, we had to get some quick family shots.
Dawn, myself and Rachel on Grandma's couch.
Aunt Susan, Jim, John and Mom pose for a moment.
Here is an actually good photo. Of course, you have to take 50 pictures to get one good one.
Here is what Mike looks like when he is taking your picture.
About 20% of the pics that I took were all blurry and it took me a while to figure out that I had 2 nice big greesy finger prints on the lens of my camera. That was probably pissing the camera off during the entire thing.
Well, that's the end for now. I'll get some more pics of Aiden up here soon. I've also cut the # of entries that this page shows back to just the last 30 days. There are alot of pics up here and if you are on dialup it takes quite a while for this to all show up.