From Wit’s End

Click on the links to see the short videos that my Mom sent us from her phone (on Jack’s behalf, of course):

“Happy Birthday, Baby Nora!”

“I love you, Mommy!”

[I'm pretty sure that there's a way to embed the videos on this page directly, but I will have to read up on that before I can do it.]

Safe and sound. Grandma is bringing Jack home even as I type. Soon we will all be one big happy! When things calm down after he gets back (HA!), I will see about posting some more pictures (and videos? Maybe. ) from the last few days.

I was trying out the new facial recognition feature on iPhoto, and practically fell out of my chair giggling when I saw this:

Rachel’s folks sent these flowers. Check out the Bible verse for a laugh.

Rachel is sitting up and taking nourishment, and generally enjoying being lucid after childbirth (a distinct improvement from last time).

If you’d like to come over for a visit, we would love to see you. We are in room #223 at LMC. I’m told that we will probably be discharged on Thursday, so you are welcome to see us anytime before then.

Coming in at 19.75″ and 7 lbs, 7 oz, a stealer of hearts and a seller of smiles, I give you… Baby Nora!!!1!

Rachel is holding Nora and seeing if she will latch on. We are all well, as you can see.

Wow, that was fast! She only took about five minutes to go from seven to ten cm dilation. And she only had to push twice!

Baby Nora was born at 12:11pm.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

The contractions are more regular (about every 2.5 minutes) and more intense now. Rachel is starting to do her Lamaze breathing.

She is also eating a red popsicle.

Contractions are about two or three minutes apart now, and Rachel is actually finding it more comfortable to stand up.

“Man, I should have brought a pack of cards or something.”

This is definitely much less crazy than last time. Fortunately, I brought some reading material.

If I’m reading the computer chart correctly, it looks like the contractions are about five minutes apart.

Per grandmotherly request, the time is now shown on each post. I was pleasantly surprised that I found the WordPress syntax to make that change, and I was pleasantly unsurprised that it was so easy to do it on the iPhone. (Enter gushing Apple fanboy statement here. )

Which is different from last time, when things were so weird and fast that the doula never saw us.

The internal sensors were put in and are showing some mild contractions, but Rachel isn’t feeling very much yet. She is laying quietly and watching TV.

He said Rachel’s platelets were at 128, so that’s good. The next thing they’ll do is give her some Pitocin and make Rachel’s water break.

We have arrived at Lexington Medical Center, and Rachel has changed onto her hospital gown. The room is a lot bigger than last time.

…and “D” is for daughter!

The doctor scheduled our induction for 5am. [journalist voice] And we will be covering it live and exclusively right here, so tune in bright and early. [end journalist voice]

Jack’s Mama set up a chore chart for him today. Apparently, Rachel got him to do three tasks and gave him stickers for each one. He seemed to get the idea, and wanted to do the fourth task, too. Rachel told him that he had to wait to brush his teeth until he had his bath in the evening, and she thought that was that. A few minutes later, Jack ran down the hall with a little bit of toothpaste at the corners of his mouth, asking for another sticker. Rachel checked in the bathroom, and sure enough, there was blue foam on Jack’s toothbrush. This is quite a contrast from before, where Jack had to be practically put in a headlock at bathtime when it was time to brush his teeth.

Just like with Jack’s birth, time sure seems to be slowing down right before Nora’s upcoming delivery.

Added to the familial anticipation is the fact that my search for a new job can only be peripheral and can’t really begin in earnest until after Nora is born. That makes the time pass even slower, I think.

The one mitigating factor is Jack, believe it or not. He is a definite time accelerator of some kind in the hours when I am home. But even his effect works uphill before the looming event horizon of Baby Nora’s Birthday.

No news is good news from Rachel’s doctor.  We weren’t told a number, but we weren’t told that she had to be induced, either.   So she’s going in for another blood test on Friday.

On a completely unrelated note, this is our 400th post on this blog!  That’s an average of about 50 posts a year, which is a fairly respectable average rate of almost weekly.  That said, my posting rate is sure to spike in the “Nora future” near future.

The results from Rachel’s blood test from last Friday are in: her platelet count was at 126. She had her blood sampled again today. The doctor’s office will call her with the results again tomorrow. If they have moved down again significantly, then she will probably be induced this week. Stay tuned…

It’s called “the Bandit Song”:

Bandit climbed the tree
Bandit swam up the tree
Washed the buses
Washed the cars

(The rest is incomprehensible)

Rachel had her blood taken this past Monday, so that the doctor could monitor her platelet count.  Since low platelets were a symptom of the complications that she had during Jack’s delivery, this number will apparently be a useful gauge of when it may be necessary to take action this time.

She heard about the results of this blood test today: her platelet count was at 140 on Monday.  The doctor told her that he would have her induced if that number went below 100.  He wants her to get the same blood-work done again tomorrow, so that we can keep good tabs on this number.  As an engineer, I can appreciate it when these things can be quantified.

Taken at a friend’s house during a party. Jack made his way into the office/school room, and found this most aptly-named board game.

Every morning, Jack has peanut butter toast (“toast an’ bubber”) for breakfast. I spread peanut butter on the toast, then cut it in half and fold it over into a sandwich. Then I put it in front of him and ask him what shapes he wants it cut into. Until today, he has asked for squares, triangles, or rectangles, and usually there’s also a “moon” shape from the rounded top of the bread. Today, though, he asked for something different, and I did my best:

Jack thumped down the hall at about one in the morning last night, which might have been annoying, but it was made smile-worthy by the following cuteness: for some reason he was carrying his small bead maze down the hall with him!