Monday, June 16, 2008

Koren James

Finally got some pictures downloaded…

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Home Again, Home Again

Well, we’re all home again, which is very nice.  Jens and I are looking forward to sleeping in our own bed again, even if only for a few hours at a time.  Not that it comes close to the whole “giving birth and recovery” experience, but husbands do get a few sympathy points for having to sleep on the plastic bricks they call “fold out beds” in the hospital.

Koren is doing well.  He’s very sweet, cuddly and mellow.  I remember Kaelin being a sweet baby, but not in quite the same way.  She was never particularly mellow. 

Koren sleeps A LOT.  I even have to wake him up and coax him into nursing.  I’m going to have to start setting my alarm, lest I forget - I never needed reminders with Kaelin because she was like clockwork and did not let us get away with being behind schedule.

So the second one is definitely different than the first, even though it’s only been a couple of days.

Honestly, the most difficult part of this has been Kaelin.  She did not do too well with us both being gone at the hospital, and suffered quite a bit of anxiety and outright sadness about it, especially at night.  It was heartbreaking, and there was nothing we could do about it.  Unfortunately, “Mama and Daddo will be home soon” wasn’t much consolation, and her inability to sleep well contributed to her overall stress level.

She’s much happier today having us all around, and she’s totally in love with her Baby Brother.  Which is, of course, good and bad.  She’s a bit overstimulated and has more energy than normal (which is, um, a lot), so getting her to be still and calm and quiet around the baby has been a total lost cause.

Being the incredibly tactile kid that she is, she wants to hold/touch/kiss him 24 hours per day and does not understand why she can’t.  My heart has skipped a thousand beats today.  We’ve let her hold the baby in her lap, but it requires constant attentiveness because, well, SHE’S TWO. 

When she’s not holding the baby, she’s trying to climb onto whoever is.  She’s relentless and spends every waking minute trying to touch the baby, which is stressful because there is literally no “safe” place we can put him that she can’t get to, aside from holding him while we’re standing up.  So we’ve had to begin a pretty intense “training” session with her on where the boundaries are, with strict and consistent consequences.  It requires constant energy, and more of it than I have at this time.

I know that sounds like a lot of complaining, and I don’t mean to imply that she’s being “bad.”  She’s just TWO and very fascinated by this new person in her household.  She calls him “Sweetheart” and “Little Fella” and becomes very concerned about his well-being at the slightest frown.  She offers him pacifiers and blankets and words of comfort while she gently strokes the back of his head.  “It’s alright, Sweetheart, you don’t have to be upset.  Are you hungry Little Fella?”  And once we get past this “training” period, I’m sure my stress level will lower substantially.

There are a TON of pictures on my camera, none of which did I take, and therefore I haven’t seen any of them yet.  So once I sort through and download them all I’ll post some here.  In the meantime, I hear a hungry little guy downstairs.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Amy Gets Feel Good Juice

The epidural is in. Such an interesting procedure to watch.

Do you ever think about how much trust we blindly give medical professionals? It is, of course, grounded trust. Their profession is to care for and assist patients, but it is interesting, as I sit and watch a man I don’t know insert tubes and liquids into my wife’s spine. I could not do the same. i don’t know what the liquids are. I do not feel the same thing so feels with it (or rather, doesn’t feel).

Contractions are getting a bit closer together, though Amy can not feel them. We’re looking at maybe a couple hours more, but you never know about these things.

All I know is, I appreciate and trust medical professionals. My wife is relaxing comfortably in no pain, slightly sleepy.

Sidestepping Eve’s curse for a few hours is priceless.

In the Delivery Room

So today is the day - assuming, of course. Everything looks smooth so far, but not much to report. It’s always a bit surreal sitting in a hospital room and feeling like you should participate somehow, but it’s the constant hurry up and wait.

We got here at about 7:30 this morning and commenced with the hooking up of tubes, the drawing of blood, the application of about 25 monitoring devices and a partridge in a pear tree. Kind of leaves you in awe of the awesomeness of the moms who used to do this without any pain killers, antibiotics, blood pressure monitors or comfy (ish) beds. And they had 17 kids.

Being a dad x2 will be an amazing trip to be sure. A bit apprehensive, a bit excited, and a bit nervous. We haven’t had a boy before, you see. Girls are a known quantity, boys a bit of a mystery. Plus, I know how boys think, so having a little one of me might be familiar, but terrifying. 

I’m sure we’ll have more to report soon. Meanwhile, the drum of the heartbeat and the drip, drip, drip of the IV are keeping us company.

Jens