Not out of the woods yet

Plan B turned into plan C quickly.  Hugo's glucose levels dipped to 32 on Saturday afternoon and caused some forehead wrinkles around the wing--anything under 50 causes concern.  The doctors believe that either Hugo isn't assimilating his diet properly or there could be a blood infection.  He has mild jaundice, a treatable condition that didn't cause much worry, but not knowing what was affecting him was very scary.  He has submitted a blood sample for analysis and remains transferred to NICU--newborn intensive care unit.  Seeing our newborn son connected to machines was not how we imagined things would be.  We have outgrown the initial panic that overtook us because most of his tests have turned out fine; we await the results of a blood infection test but so far no news--which is good news--has surfaced.  He will certainly remain in close observation with glucose IV until Monday evening but there is a bright light at the end of the tunnel; what a tunnel it has been! 

I don't feel so hot, ma...

La Belle Famille!



Part Two--When the Ship Goes Down

“You’ve done your best; mama’s done even better; birth isn’t moving fast enough; the midwife hasn’t been here enough; it’s time to get your lady to the hospital.”

-Matt’s heart to Matt’s head

Sometimes, little voices speak into your ears; quiet, soft, messages of love and fear and caution.  After trying to birth at home for four consecutive days, the voices grew more audible.  Our confidence in the midwife was shaky (at best), contractions and dilations weren’t going anywhere quick, and mother’s energy and pain was becoming a concern—even for those prepared for the throes of childbirth.

St. Pete’s quickly checked us in and took us to one of their laboring rooms.  Our obstetrician, Jack, treated us very well right away (and still does) and gave us our most objective and accurate insight into our status quo.  Our birth landed in the “failure to progress” categories; labor can continue on and on and on until the mother finally collapses or until the uterus exhausts itself and quits pushing.  We were in the right place and none too early; Amy was dilated to 7 cm.  Jack punctured her bag of waters and the wait began.  Shortly after, baby’s heart-rate dropped to 50-60 bpm, causing an armada of Hippocratians to descend on the nativity scene.  Five minutes later—with the heartbeat stabilized at 130—we were discussing how wise (or unwise) it would be to continue laboring with the hope of a vaginal birth. 

Men (despite their best intentions) are handicapped in their judgments regarding these kinds of decisions.  100 hours of muscle spasms is no joke.  You can’t sleep at night when your gut is cramping up.  It’s hard to eat.  Any man can add up this many negatives and accept that surgery may be the most comfortable way to spare a mother and save a child.  We had as much faith in the hands we were in as anyone could hope for when facing these mental and physical conditions; and there is no regret.

Hugo Etienne VanOppedahl was born by cesarean at 00:24 AM on Thursday, February 24th, 2011.  He weighed 6 lbs, 9 oz, and measured 18.75 inches from head to toe.  As could be expected, his hair is quite dark, and he may end up being a supermodel later on in life.  Both mother and son spent an hour in observation to assure that their eventual transfer to “our room” would be satisfactory.  The séjour could not have been more hospitable, contrarily to my initial suspicion of most things hospital.  The slow climb back to normalcy and health began.  Unknowingly, we could not have been in a better place—even if we called it Plan B.



First night as parents in "our room"



Hugo's first capture on "film"

First family photo



Hugo's first bath



Part One--Waiting for Hugo

"Let us not waste our time in idle discourse!  Let us do something, while we have the chance! It is not every day that we are needed. But at this place, at this moment of time, all mankind is us, whether we like it or not. Let us make the most of it, before it is too late!"
- Samuel Beckett

Amy's first serious contractions started on Friday--two weeks before our estimated due date--she delivered our baby boy early Thursday morning.  We laboured (as the English call it) at home, pouring painfully and patiently through each contraction while trying different birthing poses and exercises.  Women who have birthed babies will understand what was going on; guys who have been with them can imagine.  We had prepared all the ammunition, diapers, blankets, Qtips, birthing pool, readings, classes, midwife, umbilical clips, and nesting that you could possibly need to feel safe walking into the end of a finetastic pregnancy. 

Amy lost her mucus plug on Saturday and averaged one minute contrations every eight to ten minutes for  four days.  She was dialated to 6 cm on Wednesday morning and, all of the sudden, her contractions receded to 3 per hour.  My mother says that pregnancy and delivery aren't completely connected.  In this case, after four days of labor, it was obvious that birth wouldn't be as sweet as gestation.  The romantic notions that we had of birthing a child at home wore off right about when those contractions grew fewer and farther apart.  Eight hours later, without much reassurance from our midwife, and very little energy, we couldn't help but doubt that we were on the verge of gambling a human life.  Who in their right mind wagers so high to have a nearly biological experience? 

By all means, the time we spent mosying around our house, relaxing in the birthing pool, and cursing while leaning on the kitchen counter was one of our favorite parts of the experience; in the end we both like our sleep too much for putting the heavy weight of jeopardizing a newborn on our conscience... especially at five driving minutes from St. Pete's.

First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes a baby in a cyber carriage!

Well folks, it seems that in the twenty-first century, babies lead to blogging!  We've chosen this tool to make it easier to share our thoughts and photos with others because of how inefficient and sometimes complicated it can be to keep up with everyone at all times.  We would MUCH rather be talking to you face to face but schedules, distances, and the laws of gravity can sometimes make it rough.  Hopefully, this glimpse into "what's going on" will suffice until we see each other in flesh and blood!  Without further ado, let's move on to important things that we actually care about...