Making room for baby

I just spent the last hour or so rearranging our bedroom. When we first came home with Ian, I tried sleeping in the bed. Since he was nursing 347 times a night and I still had fresh stitches in my crotch, sitting up and lying down was getting to be a bit of a drag. So after a day or two of that we switched and I slept in my recliner downstairs (LOVE that recliner! Best pregnancy purchase ever!) and Rich slept on the sofa in the living room with me. That way I could lean back to nearly flat to sleep with Ian and then just sit up in the chair to feed him. If I fell asleep he couldn't fall out of the chair or off of me so it was comforting.

But after a few days, I started to miss my husband way over on the other side of the living room. And Ian was getting more of a solid schedule of only needing to nurse every two to three hours versus constantly through the night so I had a better chance of getting solid sleep. So we decided to head back to the bedroom as a family.

The only problem was where to put the baby. I wanted him in the bed with us, preferably in contact with me. I've found that holding him or touching him or being very close to him does great things for fending off any hormonal depression I may have. But Rich was concerned that one of us would smoosh him in our sleep. So while the baby and I were getting better sleep, poor Rich wasn't getting hardly any because he was convinced every noise he heard was the baby suffocating.

So for now, we're going to experiment with my modified bassinet. I raised the mattress up on the Arm's Reach co-sleeper to be nearly bed height and I've given up my nightstand. We'll try this out tonight and see how it goes. I'd still prefer him on me but we get plenty of snuggle time during nursing and I'd like Rich to be able to sleep as well. Wish us luck tonight!

Setting the record straight

When I was about to be discharged from the hospital, the doctor on duty came by to go over my discharge information and see if I needed anything. While she was there, I asked if I could have a copy of all the medical records from my stay in the hospital. She thought for a moment and said, "well we normally only give those to other doctors, but it's totally within your rights to have. We just don't get anyone asking for them." I told her that I know it was a bit of a weird request and she just smiled and said, "yeah, but you're a little weird." I took it as a compliment. So I went back to the hospital today to sign for my medical records and drop off a few much-deserved thank you cards. My OB Dr. D had unfortunately gone home early after pulling an all nighter the night before so I missed her, but was able to chat with a few of the nurses and promised to bring the boy back for another visit next week. My fetal diagnostic nurse was there and super excited to see our beautiful son. And I was able to get to the front desk of the maternity ward to deliver thank you cards to my delivering doctor and nurse which they hopefully will receive this evening when they get to work (more soon on all they did to deserve those as I chronicle this birth).

After getting fussed at by the woman at "Patient Information Services" (that's what they call the medical records department now) for bringing the boy with me to the hospital while she has a cold, she did print out a copy of all my records from my stay. For being such a thick packet of paper it is surprisingly sparse on the details of my birth experience. I did find out I was officially on an epidural from 23:35 Wednesday night to 06:44 Thursday morning, but nothing says what the dosages were during that time and I know for a fact they turned it off around 3am. I had to Google what it meant for me to have macrosomia since it sounded serious - apparently that's medicalese for "big baby". Other notes include:

"Patient requests natural TOL (trial of labor?) despite Bishop score of 2 and fetal macrosomia. Patient preference is no Pitocin, saline lock on the IV, doula in the room, and not to remain in bed during trial of labor. Patient has been offered a C/S (c-section?) in the past and today, but requests TOL prior to C/S."

I also learned that I had "bilateral 2nd degree sulcal tears repaired with 2.0 vicryl" which translates to "shredded crotch", but it doesn't detail all the lengths and care the doctor went to putting me back together.

The records told me that Ian's Apgar score was 5 at one minute and 7 at five minutes, something no one told me while we were there.

What's odd is that nothing says what time I was given Pitocin and what the increments were changed to over the evening. I'm not sure if this is because they didn't give me all the records or if they literally don't log all that. I lean towards the latter since it says I only had 30mL of mineral oil and I know for a fact they must have dumped at least a gallon on me to keep me from tearing more than I did.

All of this goes to show that if you want to know what happens to you when you're at the hospital, it's up to you to log it yourself. I look forward to reading the notes our doula took for us as she wrote down the name of every doctor and nurse we spoke to as well as all the medications I was given and when. It was still very worthwhile to get all the records, but they certainly only tell part of the story. I'll be curious to see if there are more details somewhere else that my OB will have when I see her in a few weeks.

Recap of 10th Living Out Loud project: When I grow up

Ever the team player, my child has slept from noon until after 5pm today so that I take a much-needed two hour nap, write my own entry for this month and compile all the other entries for our latest Living Out Loud project. He has done his momma proud. With no further ado, I present this month's entries. I'm happy to see how we're all faring as grown ups out in the world.

SuziCate's Digging in the Dirt First, let me say that SuziCate has been a writing MACHINE lately. She went back and did all the previous LOLs and continues to write great stuff online. She started out as one of those "hair cutter ladies" I wanted to be but has since moved on to another job I think would be fun to have.

Gina's When I grow up My first grade teacher was also named Mrs. Wiggins and she was awesome! As for getting to where we want to be in life, thankfully it takes us our whole life to get there so there's still plenty of time left.

Wil's When I grow up I find it really funny that Wil's list of potential dream jobs is not far off from my own (perhaps minus the helicopter pilot one). I love languages too and pick them up fast so always thought it would be cool to be a translator or something like that. Maybe there are more jobs than we realize that involve translating.

Deb's When I grow up ... Ah yes, just like Communication Studies there are worse unused majors to have than Sociology. We always said that Sociology was the highest paying major at Virginia Tech, but that was just because the football players picked it and went on to the NFL. I am too sensitive of a soul for social work, but I admire anyone who can do it. And maybe you'll get to bake your bread yet.

Megan's Writer: When I grow up Megan reminds me that what we are when we grow up is not necessarily what we get a regular paycheck for doing.

Ben's What I Didn't Want to Be I married and lived many years with a man with ADHD and it was like the third person in our marriage in many ways, so I can empathize with what Ben says about not wanting to be that person. But just like diabetes is a part of any relationship I have, we make the best of it and in many ways it gives us a lot of our gifts too.

Kim's What I Wanted to Be I would have never guessed that Kim would one day be a nurse if you had asked me 15 years ago. And yet here she is well on that path. And for all the reasons she says, I think it's a terrific decision. That and fashion design is kinda out (but love that drawing!).

JBarbie's Unconditional This entry of course speaks to a recent soft spot in my heart as I embark on this journey of motherhood. Seeing the joy in my own mother's face now at 71 years old as she finally gets to be a grandma, I can see how this is a job that won't ever go away. Despite all the cliches it's a job you never truly quit until the day you die.

Kaylyn Pippin's Reckless Abandonment I can't imagine all that Kaylyn has gone through but it really does make me smile to see how she's gotten to where she is now. It may not seem like a success on paper, but we know it's really the greatest success she's had thus far. Go team!

Karal's Somebody Unlike me, Karal wanted to be an astronaut and an archaeologist as a kid. And I'm so proud of her for all the digging and star gazing she's done lately.

And my own Would you like fries or a hosted server with that?

I was unsure how many folks would be inspired to write for this month's theme, but yet again you all have impressed me with your enthusiasm.

And I say this each time but all the entries were fantastic! I have, however, chosen Ben as this month's winner because he covered an interesting topic of what we don't want to be when we grow up (and I have great empathy for his challenges having watched my ex-husband struggle).

Ben will receive a gift card for a month of World of Warcraft, because while it's a horrible distraction it's also a great way to stay in touch with friends.

Stay tuned for next month's topic very soon. I'm going to try my hand at NaBloPoMo again this year and post every day this month. But since my son is awake now and hungry, it may literally only be one hand at a time.