Bella or Liam, now 2 and 4 years old, should either of you take up guitar, I'll give you this one if I win it.  It's from DangerousGuitar from which I should be practicing some riffs rather than surfing the internet right now...

George Lynch "Burnt Tiger" Mr. Scary Guitar Giveaway
http://bit.ly/ZijtKa

Bunny Suit Again

So, I donned it again - the white clean suit they make dads wear in the operating room when accompanying their wife for surgery.  Isabella Margaret Fleming was born at 7:47am, December 23, 2010.  She weighed in at 8.02 pounds and 21.5 inches long.  Her crown measured 14 inches.  Apgar score of 8 and 9 and an A+ rating from the pediatrician.

Certainly a lot has happened since my last post - showing that I am a fair weather blog author, only posting when I have time off of work.  Liam has gotten the hang of eating, such that he's high in the percentiles for size.  He's now running everywhere he goes and there's so much that I could go on about his childhood development thus far.  However, this is Isabella's day, our daughter's birthday, and the focus should be on her at this time.

Not long after Liam was born, we were told that he really deserves to have a few years as an only child... Oops, then life happens and we find out that he's going to be a big brother within 2 years of life.  From the get go Isabella was determined to arrive and be healthy.  Beside the nausea for 34 weeks and being breach for much of that, we couldn't have asked for a better pregnancy and delivery.  She cried the entire time we were in the OR and until she got into her mother's arms when we realized that she was just hungry.  After a little fuss here and there she's been happy to just sleep in momma's arms and nurse every 2 hours or so with the occasional rocking by daddy.  Posting this at 9:30 pm, we'll see if she's just been saving up her awake time for the overnight...

One thing I forgot about but thoroughly enjoy is the euphoria felt, despite the tired eyes, with a new baby.  I find myself baby-talking, humming and singing to her and in general pretty care-free.  Though I don't know if it's the fact that I don't have to go to work for a while, I'd like to believe that it's because of our daughter.

After talking this event up to Liam for months, the day before she's to come he begins to projectile vomit - he finally caught the flu bug that'd flown through daycare.  It really couldn't be any other way, right? He'll have to wait a bit to meet her, but he did kiss the computer screen when viewing pictures we sent home (and you may all say it - AWWWWW how cute).

We are blessed to now have 2 healthy children and the support of family to see this event through.  Can't wait to get back to life, but for now kicking back and only having to care for an infant (with a nursery down the hall) is alright for me.

Feeding

Raindrops dot the screen with nothing in the forecast but it's still a beautiful night.

Feeding, nursing, whatever the term people go by, it's difficult. Knowledge I've gleaned from others is that it is different for each child and as I said in a previous post - it's a wonder we have survived thus far. It amazes me how a newborn has the instinct to nurse right out of the womb, akin to kittens knowing to use a litter box (and somehow they figure out how to nurse without a lactation consultant).

Liam seemed to figure it out well enough from the start and so did Mom. Albeit slow and painful, taking much of Mom's time throughout the day, it all seemed to go well and we though we were well on our way to having a healthy naturally-fed babe. Meagan's been a trooper from day one but the hourly feeding schedule that Liam seemed to prefer was wearing on both of us (mostly Mom though). Liam likes to camp out in the comfort of Mom's arms, acting like he's eating but mostly succumbing to the sandman while there so close to where he'd spent the last 9 months.

An alarming report on his lack of weight gain in week 3 from a lactation consultant hopefully got us on the right track of getting a fat baby. We are now supplementing the nursing with a combination of a super slim surgical tube attached to a bottle that can 'go alongside' with the nursing procedure so that he doesn't know the difference, feeding with a bottle after nursing, and the action of a mechanical pump to store up supply. Now our kitchen counter tops are occupied by breastfeeding paraphernalia. To think, the counters used to be cluttered by various tools related to home improvements before but I think a set of breast pump cups is a little more embarrassing to newcomers than some wrenches and screwdrivers - Welcome to parenthood and forgetting about embarrassment...

Liam's been eating all that we give him but it's become a two person job of holding the supplement bottle, tickling is feet and ears to keep him awake, etc. The good thing about it is that he sleeps, and sleeps and sleeps after eating now. The best thing is that now Mom gets to sleep longer than an hour at a time. Eat well young Liam, eat well.

Back to work and sleepless nights

1 am as I lay on the couch with TV on the Food Network (ribeye steak special!), Liam asleep in the bouncy chair and Momma in bed. This is just one kind of sleepless night that I've had since he was born. Basically, the plan is (was) for her to nap while he sleeps; the famous last words were that she wanted to get 20 minutes of sleep before he'd want to eat again. Apparently Liam didn't get the message on that timing as he's been out for hours now. I made the executive decision to let him (and Mom) sleep as long as he wants. Though I've got a sleepless night going on, they had a sleepless day so snoozing now is well warranted.

Other sleepless nights:

Nights like the first one where I was filled with excitement and worry. I lay on the pull out couch watching him in the crib and listening to him breathe, grunt and squeak while wondering if he was OK, if I put him in the crib correctly, if his neck was turned too much, if he was supposed to make those noises, and, of course, if my wife was doing OK after the surgery.

Hospital night 2 - rock rock rock in the chair didn't work and we were both way over tired - the nursery is good

Back home while we were both on leave - Meagan would try to feed Liam every 2 hours and more often if he wanted during the day. The hope was that he would get enough to eat through the day and then sleep longer at night. We'd go with that plan but Mom got pretty tired right about the time that Liam would be at his most alert stage, say around 10 pm. I would be up with Liam doing my best to entertain him, walk and rock him while Mom slept for a few hours. Eventually he would tire for a few winks and then wake Mom up to nurse. On good nights, this would be followed by about 4 hours of sleep, another feeding/diaper change, 3 hours of sleep and then we were all up for the day. On bad nights it'd be followed by a fussy baby wanting nothing but to be held, bounced, rocked, bounced, rocked, diaper changed, hungry, bounced, and so it would go; bringing our wits end near as sleep continued to escape us.

Baby knows Dad has meetings in the morning - Fortunate to have the first couple of days back at work running on adequate sleep, I knew it was only a matter of time before I'd have to arrive a zombie after a baby-rough night. Thursday of my first week back I had to be in two meetings that overlapped, both of which required a significant amount of preparation. I called it quits the night before at 12:30 am though I hadn't gotten near enough done. I was anticipating the usual breaks in sleep when Meagan wakes to nurse Liam, but I should have known the previous 2 nights were pushing it for decent ones in a row. I have my wonderful wife to thank for letting me 'sleep' while Liam wanted to do the eating, bouncing, holding, rocking routine but fussy baby and upset Mom kept me restless from 2:30 to 6:30 am. The alarm at 6:45 came quick and hitting snooze left me little time to prepare for my meeting at 9. Liam slept well the rest of that morning into the afternoon... go figure

Well, it's now 2 am and Liam's stirring. Time to change the diaper, insert baby in sleep sack and wake Mom for nursing. Nursing may have a dedicated post; it's a wonder how we ever managed to survive without lactation consultants... Today the nurse at the pediatric clinic told us that she didn't last 24 hours with breastfeeding - way to go Meagan, 3 weeks and counting!
Rachel Ray is making me hungry...grilled smokey artichoke yum

Learning

2 weeks down...what I've learned so far:
baby socks are hard to detect when emptying the washer and like to fall out of the dryer when you open it
babies that have been 'cut' can pee really far
that 30 pack of wash cloths was not overkill
washing all the new clothes means a lot of laundry
pee and poop isn't so bad, just keeps the washer working
every house with a baby needs to have a recliner and exercise ball (rock rock, bounce bounce and repeat)
mom needs to be able to function on very little sleep
diaper rash is nothing to joke about (ouch!)
swaddling is only a substitute for holding when babies are fast asleep
Bath water for a baby needs to be cooler than you think
bathing a baby takes two people
a 6lb ball of baby has got to be 98% muscle
I need to admit that I shouldn't have thought I'd get half of those things done today
I'm glad that my nipples don't produce milk (another ouch!)
involuntary smiles are really meaningful to those watching
baby shops take you to the cleaners and you don't mind (until you get the bill)
fussy baby at 4am just means bonding time
babies conform to the abdomen while sitting on the couch really well
I thought I was ornery when hungry until now
babies have a lot of gas (or is it just a Fleming thing?)
I'm really rusty on my Beatles songs
Babies don't care if you're out of tune
all of those cute outfits will be put to use (though they can pee far, they also pee close)
cats don't like crying babies (but like to sniff them when they're sleeping)
a support group of family, friends, and neighbors is invaluable
I love making my wife breakfast every morning
coffee is good... really good
beer is good too
coming home from work is going to be double rewarding
the whole idea of reproduction is still very strange
I was mistaken when I thought this list would be short
I love being a dad

How it all started

Liam Michael wasn't supposed to arrive until about May 1, 2009. In fact, Liam Michael wasn't Liam Michael until April 7th or so; up until then he was known as baby to us and Buck to some of our siblings.

We knew from the ultrasounds that he was breach whenever we got a peek at him after 20 weeks. When 36 weeks came along and he was still breach we were given the choice of scheduling a cesarean section after 39 weeks or try to turn him around via external cephalic version at 37 weeks. We opted to try to turn the baby on April 9 during an appointment at 11am. After 2 unsuccessful tries we scheduled a c-section for April 28th (by the way, I never want to have to watch any abdomen be manipulated like that again, not to mention have to wait for my baby boy's heart rate to return to normal afterward...).

Meagan felt well enough to go to work that afternoon, albeit a little sore in the belly. I opted to work from home after the appt as we had a crew of sider's wrapping new aluminum on our windows and they needed to tap power off of the garage (I don't like leaving the house or garage open without us present). Since I was home I figured I'd have time to get some dinner prepared for the two of us - Irish pork steak stew was on the menu and all I needed to pick up was parsley and a good Irish Stout. As I was dusting the pork chunks with a floury mix the phone rang. Seeing Meagan's office on the caller ID, I suspected she had gotten off early and was calling to see if we needed anything for dinner, to which I'd cheerfully respond, "No honey, I have every we need and am in the middle of preparing it". My answer was met with a slightly frantic, "I think my water broke, what should I do?". I recalled from the morning discharge papers, as I scurried to find them, that she was to get to the hospital without delay. Her boss was to take her there and I would meet her as that was the fasted method. I went into autopilot for a bit, grabbing the cameras, laptop, phone, putting the raw meat in the fridge, pouring out cat food and water, etc. When I walked out the door I called Meagan back and asked where they were at. She said that the boss was just finishing up an x-ray and then they'd hit the road. Apparently he didn't get the message that he was supposed to be her ride... It was still faster for her to get a ride from her office than for me to pick her up so I just reminded her to grab the hospital bag out of her car.

See, there was a reason that we had the bag packed and in the car, we just didn't know that reason would come this early but we both had a feeling. The clothing I put on in the morning was chosen with post c-section bare skin-to-skin contact in mind should Meagan not be able to do so. Also, that morning, we had a 8am appt at the cop shop to get the car seat installation checked; another thing checked off the list. As we left for the car seat check Meagan reminded me that it was a full moon that night too.

I rushed to the hospital and on the way took advantage of anticipating the arrival of our boy without a laboring wife screaming next to me. I called the local Flemings to arrange a pickup for Meagan's car and called my parents to give them the status update.

At about 8:00pm Meagan met me at the emergency entrance after a drawn out trip sitting on a floor mat and garbage bag - the boss's new Explorer has suede seats. He said that he would have driven faster if she was having stronger contractions. Since her contractions were only minor he opted to avoid a speeding ticket. We hurried up to the maternity ward, floor 2 or the one with the dragonfly, whichever is easier to remember. They were expecting us and had a room all ready.

Couldn't Be Prepared

The nurses hooked Meagan up to the baby heart rate and contraction detection machine (that's my own technical term for it) after she visited the bathroom and gowned up. I'll write this only because it was comforting to find a little humor during all of the commotion - as Meagan was laying on the bed she told me that she thought that she might have to go #2 and that the water that broke was, ummm, well leaking again. I looked at the contraction reading and, though it doesn't measure strength, it was showing that she was going through a contraction. Once that passed she felt better, as in no #2. Then another one came and went, and another, and another. It seems that Liam and her body were ready to go with this labor and delivery regardless of his position in the womb. Blood tests had to be conducted because Meagan had just taken her heparin shot about 5 minutes prior to her water breaking. She had switched to heparin due to it's shorter residence time in the body in case something like this happened, but 5 minutes beforehand? Come-on, as if we needed another thing to worry about...

Good news came that the doctor we'd been seeing would arrive in 15 minutes and Meagan would be prepped for an emergency c-section. They gave me a bunny suit, mask and hair net so that I could be present in the OR during the procedure but we were still waiting on the labs to find out if she could be conscious for it all. If she were to need general anesthetic I would have to wait outside.

Meagan got wheeled off to the OR and the nurse said that they'd come and get me in a little bit. Now, the only reason that I knew we'd arrived at the hospital at about 8pm is that I looked at my phone call log afterward. All of this seemed to happen in either 5 minutes or 5 hours and sitting there waiting for them to escort me to the OR seemed to freeze time entirely. I sat in the over sized bunny suit and hair net with mask around my neck. After making sure to have our little digital camera in my pants pocket my mind was swimming, remaining calm but really not sure what to do or think except that it's all happening now and that we're only partially ready for him at the house, and not entirely ready for him mentally and that I'm going to meet my son this evening - calm. The nurse stopped in and gave me a briefing on what they sometimes have to do with premature babies - take them away for special care. I understood and was hoping that Meagan did too; we're just happy that they'd do all they need to for his health. She also asked me if I'd eaten anything that night and if I'd get all nauseous on them. My response was a short, "I hope not".

The OR was too close to our room. They led me out and down the hall and I was expecting a number of paces to try to prepare myself. I got about 2 and she said, "Just to your right here, oh, and don't touch anything blue". Everything was blue except for the chair I could sit in, the floor (I'm guessing some new father's have kissed that one), and Meagan. A note on the chair - it was a black high back office swivel chair that seemed quite awkward in an OR. As if I was being sat down for an interview or something. They had a sheet up at her abdomen so we could look at each other and not be distracted by her open cavity. Two anesthesia docs, 3+ nurses, her OB doc, and a few assistants surrounded Meagan. I wonder what the bill by the minute was in that room and do not look forward to getting the invoice.

We heard the doc say that he was sure it's a boy but hadn't seen what his face looks like as they wiggled Meagan to get him out. One of the nurses, it felt, was just there to tell dumb dad what to do. She asked if I had my camera and told me to step on the other side of the curtain to see him when he came out. We heard him screaming before that and I was overcome with satisfaction (they're supposed to cry when they come out right?).

The nurses moved him over to the little cart with warming lights and they went at whatever checks they do with premature newborns. I was hesitant to go over by the cart as I didn't want to get in the way if he needed any special care. They told me to get some pictures and that he registered an 8 and 9 on the Apgar score which sounded pretty good to me! I was a little alarmed at the position of his legs due to being breach in the womb but they assured me they would straighten out. He had one hip that was a little loose and some bruising on his bottom as that was the first thing to enter the birth canal when Mom was contracting. He was screaming all the while, with the tubes being pushed down his throat to suck out goo, rubbing off the gooey coating on his body and slapping a diaper on for the first time. All the while, my boy was peeking at me with one squinted eye. They wrapped him up in a blanket and handed him over to be carried by his father for the first time. His crying stopped immediately; I was in a blissful state of awe as he continued to ogle my face with his one un-gooed eye.

Meanwhile, I saw the bucket with the placenta go by me and caught a glance at Meagan's open belly, neither of which I will go into detail about. I'll just say that one needs a different stomach and set of knees than I have to work with such things.

I took our boy over to Meagan and set him on the bed next to her head. She cocked her neck, with oxygen mask on to look at him while he was now inspecting her face through his one eye, up and down, up and down. I asked her if he looks like a Liam Michael, as we had recently decided on. She may have given me a response but I think she was also too awestruck for words (and the docs were counting gauze pads to make sure they didn't leave any inside here). Shortly there after the nurse asked his name to put on the record with the birth time of 9:23pm and Meagan responded Liam Michael Fleming. So there he was named and we think it fits well.