Monday, February 28, 2005

Two things I didn't realize would be an issue when having a newborn:

1) Bumpy terrain is everywhere. It's really bad in stores when you have kid asleep in the cart.

2) Lots of back pain from lifting the little package repeatedly.

Thursday, February 24, 2005

Alien vs. Predator - Does that mean Alien had home field advantage and Predator was the visiting team?

Thursday, February 17, 2005

Midnight Diaries Of A Newborn's Parent

Midnight Diaries Of A Newborn's Parent

Last night was better. Baby Lock only wanted fed at 11:30p and 5:30a. She slept downstairs with me on the couch since Mrs. Lock is still sick. I was on my side the whole night to give her room to stretch out next to me. My body will tell me in the next couple of days if it were wise to sleep in only one position all night.

Diaper was quite full when I changed it this morning. It had the works in it, worst I've seen so far and the phantom smell is still with me. I managed to recreate the exact smell after eating a bowl of sugar Smacks, then brushing my teeth and using Listerine mouth wash. Maybe it was just my imagination? The diaper was so full, I had to cram it into the diaper pale and shove it down.

I'm a parent - nothing is gross now.

Wednesday, February 16, 2005

So Mrs. Lock is sick. She had a 102 fever last night which makes me the sole care taker now. I've got two people to take care of and I have to keep the two separate from each other until the sick one recovers.

My schedule last night went like this:

11:30 Feed the baby.
12:30 Feed the baby. Get some sleep on the couch.
3:30 Feed the baby.
4:30 Heard Mrs. Lock coughing on the baby monitor which is now the mommy monitor. Went upstairs to climb into bed, put baby into crib. Baby woke up, wanted fed again. Mrs. Lock was out.
5:30 All were asleep until 8:30.
Got ready for work.

Monday, February 14, 2005

How do you throw away trash cans? How would you get the trash collectors to pick them up?

Friday, February 11, 2005

Baby Doctor

Baby Doctor - Baby Lock's First Appointment

Today, Baby Lock had her first appointment with her pediatrician. We got her in there and the nurse asked me to strip her down to her diaper (the baby, not the nurse) which I complied. She asked me to bring her down the hall and onto the scale. So I was carrying this near-naked newborn down the hallway, and passersby would catch a glimpse of her and say things like, "Awwwww" and "She's so cute," "Look at that!" It made me a proud papa to put my child on display to adoring fans.

She weighed in at a heavyweight 8 lbs 14+ oz. She's back up over her birth weight. (She had lost almost a pound a few days after her birth). Growing girl!

I got her back to the checkup room and onto the patient bed that had white protective paper strewn across it. As soon I set her down, her diaper started leaking up the back and all over the paper, soaking it. So I did a quick diaper change, the nurse changed the paper then we were in business. The pediatrician, a very nice man, came in and asked us a few questions, gave us some pointers, some things we can expect to see in the next couple of months and did an exam on the baby which included listening to the heart, checking the spine, ear and eye checks. Everything looked great. She has her one month appointment on March 2.

Wednesday, February 09, 2005

Sex and Dirty Diapers

Sex and Dirty Diapers

I will not be talking about a fetish here. This is two separate topics in the same post.

Mrs. Lock made a sex life check with me and I said I actually feel pretty good; that I wasn't missing it. She told me that it is believed a father's testosterone levels drop when around his daughter, especially a newborn, which might explain the decrease in my libido. It's very strange to be without something I've lived most of my life with. I'm not sure if that's good or bad. I'm sure it'll come raging back in no time.

So the other night I was cleaning out the diaper pale. I sacked it all up, pulled the pull strings out to tie it off into a knot and a gust of diaper air shot out of the opening of the bag and blew into my face. It was with so much force, I instinctively slammed my eyes shut and could feel my hair flipping around. So a gale force of dirty diaper wind hit me in the face. I'll be handling that bag differently from now on.

I was thinking of alternatives to having to smell dirty diapers and I figured if we could get our hands on that coroner nose cream, we could put a dab of it under our nose, a little white smear on our upper lip. If it's good enough to protect you from a rotted corpse, what chance does a dirty diaper have?

Saturday, February 05, 2005

First night at home with Baby Lock and what a surprise. Baby Lock didn't go to sleep until 6 a.m. and it happened in front of the television on the couch with her on my chest. Wow, we can't keep that up. We'll have to figure something out.

Friday, February 04, 2005

Day 4 - Going Home

Day 4 - Going Home

Didn't do much logging yesterday. Was busy with my kid and didn't really have anything to report. Today though we're going home.

I went into work for a couple of hours to take care of some things then rushed back to the hospital to take my family home. Got served some papers, id bracelet was removed from Baby Lock.

We got the baby ready. We got us ready. Mrs. Lock was seated in a wheelchair, we put our kid in the car seat carrier and we walked (Mom strolled) out of the hospital and into the world. That was at 1330.

It was a long five minute drive home. We took baby out and brought into her permanent home. She was fast asleep.

Wednesday, February 02, 2005

Day 2

Day 2

Slept till 0300. Mom was already awake. Baby wasn't in the room. We talked for a bit. I laid down at 0330, fell asleep for good. Woke up at 0700.

0900 Needed to get home ot feed the pets. It's freezing outside. frost on the car. CD jewel cases make great ice scrapers. Got home. The cat was yelling at me again but less today than last night. She looks confused about our schedule. The rabbit was sound asleep but when I showed up with a carrot, he snapped out of his slumber and was wide awake. Carrot was demolished.

Back to the hospital, grabbed breakfast in the cafe. Scrambled eggs, hash brown, bacon, sausage and strawberry milk. Hit the spot. Back up to the room where we mingled with baby.

1030 Friends are beginning to stop by. Everyone gets to hold baby, I take their picture. Nurse comes in, removes some cables from Mrs. Lock, Mrs Lock is fianlly able to get up and move around. First action, brushes teeth. Then back in the bed.

1115 Lactation specialist arrives. Baby has yet to eat since being born. Nurse shows us how its done. Baby latches to mom instantly, has her first meal at 1130.

1150 Mrs. Lock's sister pays a visit. Their mom soon after.

Tuesday, February 01, 2005

Day 1 - The first day of the rest of my life...

Day 1 - The first day of the rest of my life...

Release the doves, queue the music, reset the calendar. SHE IS HERE! Hallelujah! I have received the permanent title of parent and here's my log from the hospital.

We got to the hospital right at 0630, our scheduled arrival time. We were escorted to our room where we waited for about 30 minutes before the nurse showed up. She asked Mrs. Lock a lot of questions about medical history and labor plan details. She gave us some paper work that we need to fill out and return before we leave the hospital. The nurse was then relieved by another nurse in an exchange of shifts. Megan R.N. became our attendant for the rest of the labor period.

I got our stuff out, laptop unpacked and realized I forgot the charger for it. Without it, we had about an hour of battery life and since it was our stereo as well as our communication to the outside world, I figured I needed it. So I took off at 0830 and promised to be back in 20 minutes. I got home, grabbed the charger, pet the confused cat, ate some cottage cheese that was in the fridge, then took off back to the hospital. When I walked in, our doctor was attending to Laura and no sooner had I set the stuff down, I heard Dr. M proclaim "No bag is safe from me." She popped (is that the right word?) the water and I barely witnessed it. That was at 0845. Just then the contractions started heavy, taking Mrs. Lock's breath away, and not in the romantic way. The pain, according to her, was enormous. She described the contractions as a menstrual cramp times 300, something Mrs. Lock said I still couldn't relate to. Dr. M said the expelled fluid showed some meconium, our baby apparently had a bowel movement in the womb, not a good thing.

Now that the water is broken, Mrs. Lock stood up to go to the bathroom and expelled a lot of fluid onto the floor. So much so, the nurse paged the janitor. The janitor showed up with a mop and a Slippery When Wet stand - joking about the stand.

After about an hour of the excruciating contractions, Mrs. Lock ordered the epidural. She calculated that if the contractions continued at that rate, she would have no energy when it came time to push.

The epidural doctor arrived quickly and administered it to Mrs. Lock at 1010. After she got the hookup, Mrs. Lock was in high spirits. She said she could barely feel the contractions now and felt much better, and as a result, I could relax too (and find time to write this).

1120, the spoonfuls of cottage cheese I had a couple of hours ago have done nothing to break my fast, so I told Mrs. Lock I was going to go on a walk. She asked me if I had eaten breakfast and I said no. She told me I should try and get something to eat and I confessed my walk was going to go through the hospital cafeteria but I didn't want to admit that to someone has hasn't eaten in over 12 hours and can't eat for the rest of the day.

Mrs. Lock has been complaining about various fluids coming out of all of her orifices. Also, since the epidural the contractions have mutated into a dull tightening of the colon or as she puts it, "my butt hurts." During one of the contractions, Mrs. Lock said she was seeing stars and I was to summon the nurse if she were to pass out. I can do that.

1145, nurse is worried about Mrs. Lock's blood pressure being too low, 80 over 40. What they don't realize is this is normal for Mrs. Lock. She's always had low bp and low body temp averaging 96 point something all of the time. They give her epinepherine to raise her bp. This is how it starts. You start with one drug (epidural) and the hospital has to administer many more in a juggling act to keep the body's systems balanced.

1210 Mrs. Lock's mom and step dad stopped by for a surprise visit.

1220 Dr. M stopped by on her lunch break to check Mrs. Lock's progress. 8 cm, 80% effaced but the head still has not dropped down. Still at -2. Dr M says the patient's cervix is cooperating, the baby isn't.

1245 I dozed off for 2 minutes. Amazing. I'm sitting here waiting for the arrival of my first child and I'm calm enough to fall asleep.

1400, the nurse is installing a lead on the head of the baby for better measurements. Works like a cork screw to a cork.

1515 Mrs Lock is at 9cm, getting close. Her family is still here in the room and we have the TV on. We're watching an Animal Planet special with the sound off, a show about miracle animals. This particular episode shows a police dog in an a reenactment and it is sparking conversation in the room. In the reenactment, they show the police dog attacking a gun man, but the gun man fatally wounds the dog. The guests that are with are throwing out theories about how the police department could've done a better job and saved the dog's life. And everytime someone in our room says something about this tv show, I have to laugh because other than having a woman in labor in the room, the situation is a normal one and such conversations are common.

1550, starting hour 9 of labor. I've been on instant messenger for most of the day and received about a thousand queries about Mrs. Lock's status. I finally got wise and just posted the status in my status message. That's what it's there for right? A status message?

Dr M closes her office, dons scrubs and is attending to Mrs. Lock full time in the maternity ward.

1600 We start pushing even though the baby is still high up. Mrs. Lock is fully dilated.

Pushed for 2 hours. 1800 decided on c-section.

I entered the OR at 1825. Baby Lock was born at 1835. Took lots of pictures of the baby and the procedure. Emotions all over the place. I now understand the word joy. Mrs. Lock got to see the top of the baby's face (from nose up) when the surgeon held her above the surgery divider at Mrs. Lock's chest. Baby is whisked into warmer for cleaning and respiration initiation. Mom and daughter back in the room at 1915. I called friends and family.

2010 weighed and measured. 20.05 inches, 8 lbs 12oz

Family visited until about 2100 then left for home. I ran home and greeted a very angry cat and a famished rabbit. I myself scarfed down a couple of PB&J sandwiches and booked it back to the hospital. I'm downloading the 80+ pictures I took today to the laptop at 2230. Sleep? Can't sleep now. This is too exciting.