From Wit’s End

Each hand is on a ring.
Each ring is at the end of a chain.
Stretched, I will let go of one.
Meanwhile, I must say:
the view up here is spectacular.

February’s overdue Facebook archive is here.

(Taken with Grandpa’s cellphone.)

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.

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.

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.

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…

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.

We were sitting around our kitchen/den watches the pictures float by on the computer screen after dinner. A picture of Kat-Dog came up on the screen, and Jack did his staccato grunt and slapped his thigh indicating that he is seeing (or hearing) a dog (or any other animal really). Then a picture of Jack and Rachel in the boat from the past weekend came up (Similar to this one, but more windy.) When the picture came up, Jack said “Ba-ba”. Rachel and I both said, “Yeah, Mama!” Jack responded by correcting himself, and said, “Ma Ma! Ma Ma Ma!” Hooray, Jack! Now all he has to do is figure out who I am….

I was looking out of my kitchen window as I was washing my hands his afternoon and a little bird caught my eye. He had flown up to the garden fence and perched on the top wire. I hadn’t seen his flight soon enough to know, but he was tiny, so I thought he was a hummingbird. Yep, he was, and he was enjoying my red zinnias, the last thing left in my vegetable garden that hasn’t been decimated by the heat and bugs. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a hummingbird in my yard. Welcome little guy!

Well, I had the most exciting grocery shopping trip of my life this evening. I was standing in line at the checkout at about 8:00pm Monday night when I heard a huge crash coming from the wine section, quickly followed by a scream and a woman yelling “Stop him! He’s got my wallet!” There was something about the way she said it that no one in the store doubted her. He dashed all the way across behind the row of registers and headed for the entrance next to the pharmacy with quite a few people in pursuit. Another crash and the pharmacist came running out the door to intercept him, the manager came over the customer service desk, and three men tackled the thief. He was on the ground right at the doors. He yelled a lot and the men holding him down yelled back. They stayed on top of him until the police arrived.
After what happened at VT today, I couldn’t help but be afraid this guy had a gun. If he did, he never had a chance to get it out. I think I’ll be watching my purse a little more closely now.

Rachel walked into the kitchen this afternoon to wash some baby paraphernelia, and I asked her pointedly, “Is there something that I can do for you?” This stopped her up short, because she ‘remembered’ that the doctor told her to stay off of her feet, and she replied, “Um… you could wash this for me?”
“But of course, dear,” I answered. “Now if you would, please go sit on your butt and boss me around!“
“But I don’t want to boss you around!”
“It’s doctor’s orders, dear, so GO SIT DOWN ON YOUR BUTT AND BOSS ME AROUND!”
“Okay, okay, okay…”

[If you found this exchange somewhat unusual, just remember the saying: There is nothing so strange as somebody else's marriage.]

Just click on a picture to view a larger version of it.

Rachel is eating real, solid food for the first time in over three days. Hooray!

The doctor just found me. She told me that Rachel is on her way to recovery and did very well in surgery. The doctor found the wound to be healing quite well and closed it up most of the way leaving in a draining tube that will be taken out later. She told me that we may be able to check out as soon as tomorrow, or perhaps Saturday, depending on how things progress.

I’m going to go check on Jack as soon as I finish this post. We haven’t heard when he’ll be coming out of the Special Care Nursery, but hopefully it will be soon.

I assure you that your prayers have been quite effective, and would ask that you still keep us all in your prayers.

I should be able to put up more pictures sometime this afternoon or this evening, so be sure to come back then.

For now, I’m going to go be with my son.

I found out this morning when I arrived at the hospital from home that Rachel would be going back into surgery this morning to unpack the wound from her hematoma and either repack it or mostly close it up depending on how well it has healed so far. As soon as I know how it went, I will post again.

Just click on a picture to view a larger version of it.

	Movies! Lonely Jack (11 secs, 3.2 MB AVI file) Flat Feet (3 secs, 1.04 MB) “Hey Jack, How’s it Goin’?” (38 secs, 9.5 MB) “Say Hi to Jack.” (26 secs, 8.1 MB)

Rachel has been put under general anaesthesia (I think I spelled that right) even as I type this for surgery to drain and pack the aforementioned hematoma. Lord willing , all will go well and she will be out and recovered in about two hours. Pray on, fellow saints, in Jesus’ name.

I put my plaid shirt back on over my t-shirt so that I could have some things in its pocket close to my heart: Rachel’s three rings, one for our courtship, one for our engagement, and one for our marriage; Rachel’s glasses, and the two polaroid pictures taken by the nurse of my son Jack.

The doctor consented by phone to give her a drug for pain relief about an hour ago, along with some anti-nausea medication. But she still isn’t comfortable in pretty much any position for long, especially lying down, in which she would have the greatest chance of getting some sleep. The interaction between her changing positions frequently and one of the medications she has taken is making her stomach want to move in the wrong way, but she doesn’t have anything left in there to lose. The most comfortable position she has found is with her knees on a pillow on the floor and her head on the bed. This is the position in which they found her mostly asleep before they decided to mess with her.

Please, Lord, give the medical professionals wisdom so that Rachel can get some kind of rest and relief. Please destroy the infection in Jesus’ name.

UPDATE: 3:30am – Things have finally settled down a bit. Rachel is lying down more often than not, and it seems like we’ll both be getting some sleep.

5:10am – Rachel wakes up and calls the nurse, saying that she is having some discharge. The nurses check her out and take some fluid for analysis. They also take her temperature: 98.2!!! It could be that the fever has finally broken! She has been hovering around 99-100deg F, even with countermeasures in place, but I think things are finally getting better. Rachel’s average temperature is usually about 97.5 deg F, so she is still a little warm by her standards, but I think the prayer-enhanced medicine is finally having an effect! Praise the Lord!!