CARTER'S ROOM IN THE CHATEAU

July 2002

Jul 7-13
Carter comes early. Carter is born at 36 1/2 weeks. Mother & Son are healthy. We Check into St. Mary's Hospital a little after 5:00PM on the 9th and Carter is born about 10 Hours later. Stacy says that despite the pain and discomfort, time really seemed to fly. She had lots of drugs to help. Personally, it was the longest night of my life. We then spent Wednesday through Friday in the Maternity ward.

Tuesday Jul 9
Longest night of our lives! Stacy and I leave work to get to the normally scheduled, weekly doctor's appointment. Stacy is 36 1/2 weeks pregnant. I come to all Baby related functions, including the OB appointments. After sitting in the waiting room for 45 minutes, I am about ready to call it, and run back to work. Stacy is going to wait it out. Fortunately, I ask if there is some problem. We come to find out that our paperwork has been misplaced and nobody was looking for us. They usher us in quickly to an examination room and we wait for the doctor.
During the physical exam, because of some questions we had Dr. Hirata checks for a leak of Amniotic fluid. She had just gotten out that because everything else looked good, she didn't think that had happened, when the test paper turned color. She looked a little surprised and said "Well... I guess we're going to have a baby". We were very worried about the leak causing problems, but they were quickly resolved after we were checked in at the Hospital. We were taken to the Maternity ward and checked in, after waiting almost an hour for a room. It was almost 5:30 PM when we got in the room. At that point, Dr. Hirata broke Stacy's water fully, and we waited for Labor to start. -We didn't wait long.
Labor started quickly, and contractions were mild in the beginning. After they picked up, Stacy got some drugs, later an epidoral, then a booster epidoral. It was about 20 minutes to midnight when the room was set up and Dr. Hirata and nurses were waiting to get started on the actual delivery. She was fully dilated and seemed ready to go. Dr. Hirata said she didn't think we were going to make midnight, which was unfortunate, because that would give us an extra night in the hospital. Two and a half-hours of pushing later, and we were still ready to deliver. We made midnight, and some.

Wednesday Jul 10
After midnight Stacy pushed and struggled, but Carter just wanted to wait a little while longer. Finally, at 2:26 AM he came out. Afterward, the baby was taken and cleaned up in a corner of the room, and Stacy got some stitches. For the next hour or so, we held Carter and Stacy got a chance to settle after the trauma. Eventually, they took Carter to the newborn Nursery. Because Stacy seemed to be doing OK, I went with the baby and let Stacy try to get some sleep. He was weighed (6'10") and measured (19.5 inches) and they put him under the heater to regulate his heat. The rest of the day is very fuzzy. We slept, we saw the baby a couple times, they checked on Stacy several times, and eventually the day was over.

Thursday Jul 11
Again, this day is fuzzy. We saw the baby, we saw doctors and Nurses, and we slept a lot. A little on Wednesday, and more today family and friends stopped by to wish us well.

Friday Jul 12
Today we went home. We left the hospital late because Dr. Hirata came and circumcised Carter. He wasn't happy about that at all. Late afternoon we were discharged and went home. Stacy's dad and my Mom were waiting for us at the house. After sitting in front of the hospital for about half an hour trying to figure out how an infant car seat works, I finally ask a stranger passing by with a stroller and infant carrier that looks like ours. She explained and we got the baby in the car.
At home we were clueless about how to care for a newborn. We had a vague idea of changing diapers, and cleaning and feeding. Some of this we learned before delivery, some we tried to pick up before we left the hospital. Mostly, fortunately, the baby slept.

Saturday Jul 13
Saturday is more of the same. Baby sleeps and we try to take care of him. Bill and my Mom are still in town. Bill stays at a hotel and my mom stays in the guest room. The one important issue is that he has a little Jaundice and needs to stay on a Billie blanket. This is a light strip that we swaddle him around. We have kept him on this the whole time he is at home.

Jul 14-20
Jaundice! We head back to the Hospital to take care of Jaundice. Brad works part time from home to ease back into a schedule. Carter is sleeping so much this isn't difficult.

Sunday Jul 14
Each day we have been home a home health care worker has come by to check up on Carter. Mostly, she is responsible for taking blood so the doctors can check up on the Jaundice. When we left the St. Mary's Hospital his Billie Ruben count was 14.1, Saturday it was 15.8, and Sunday it went up to 18.1. This unfortunately, was the wrong direction, and the doctor called and told us he wanted Carter checked in to the Pediatric ward of the hospital to make sure we took care of the Jaundice.
We pack everything up and head back in. Bill and my Mom head back home today. The traumatic part of today was watching the residents try to put an IV into a 6 and a half pound person. It isn't easy and it took them a couple of sticks. Carter wasn't happy. The rest of the day was restful. Stacy pumped breastmilk and we fed it to Carter in a bottle. That was nice because at this point nursing was going very poorly. Carter wasn't learning real quickly how to eat.

Monday Jul 15
Monday we are still in the hospital. Carter's Billie Ruben is down to 15.1 and we are hopeful that we can take him home on Tuesday.

Tuesday Jul 16
Tuesday we are able to bring Carter home again. We also have our first pediatrician appointment at Pediatric Associates of Richmond. In fact our appointment is at 2:45 PM, the same time one week later that we originally had our appointment with the OB, and the whole labor and delivery process started.

Jul 21-27
Minor Colic starts. Brad works from home full time. Throughout the week, Carter becomes more and more vocal. He is screaming and crying late into the night. 2:00 to 2:30 AM was standard.

Jul 28-Aug 3
Colic, Colic, Colic!!! Brad started back in the office this week. He helps with the baby until about 5 - 6AM sleep for an hour and a half and get up to go to work. Carter can be cranky much earlier now too. We pretty much assume Carter will be screaming from mid-evening through mid-morning. We have gone back to the doctors several times, but they just say the same things we see in books and on the internet, there isn't much you can do for Colic!