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My life changing experience....

6K views 69 replies 44 participants last post by  jb4674 
#1 · (Edited)
So Thursday (November 29th), I get a call at work from my wife, who tells me that she's been told that she is to be induced. While we were both aware that it wouldn't go past Friday when Holly would be induced, Thursday was certainly a shocker because the things we wanted to get prepared for had to be put on hold.

My wife had a great pregnancy up until a couple of months ago. Her blood pressure started to rise and she eventualy got put on medication for high blood pressure and put on bed rest. With those issues came the swelling and water weight associated with symptoms of preclamsya (forgive me if my spelling is incorrect).

When I got to the hospital, I thought to myself "well, she'll probably get her drugs and we'll be parents by dinner time" (this was at 1pm). Thursday came and I remained at Holly's side all night long, sleeping on a little couch and tending to her needs like getting her cold towels and putting them on her forehead because the magnesium sulfate was giving her headaches. At 10pm on Thursday, the doctors cut off her dose of pitocin because it was not doing much.

The next day, at 10:30, the doctors put her back on pitocin and set a cutoff timeframe in which, they would look into "other options" (the possibility of a c-section was always kept in the back burner).

At 4:30 pm on Friday (Nov. 30), the doctor had a "strategy talk" with me and basically advised me that the best course of action would be to do the c-section because the baby was not "dropping" as they were hoping to.

Despite a few issues with her epidural injection, she was finally on her way to the operating room and at 6:01pm, our son was born.

We are both so happy that he's here that, at times, we feel in disbelief that he's here.

Alexander William was born 2,5 weeks ahead of his scheduled birth, which would have been December 16th. He was 5 pounds, 10 ounces. Although he's not a premie, he's not full term either. Thankfully, he wasn't required to stay at the hospital because he's fully developed, and did not have any risks.

I thought I'd share my life-changing experience with my Jemsite family. So, without further ado, here are some pictures:











All the pics were shot with my new Canon EOS 40D with an ISO setting of 800.

Jimmy:smile:
 
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#62 ·
Glad to hear things are going well mate. This sort of thing will be my life in around two months too! :)

One thing I would be worried about though is that you are sleeping him on his stomach. SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) has been linked to babies sleeping on their stomachs or sides and pretty much suffocating themselves. If at all possible I'd be trying to have him sleeping on his back at all times.
 
#63 ·
My wife and I thought this was the case as well. We tried to get both of our kids to sleep on their backs as well, but they slept far better on their stomachs. Once we saw that the kids had their minds made up on how they were going to sleep, we made sure there was nothing they could bury their faces into in the crib. Things turned out well for us (knock on wood). There is very few things more depressing than seeing a picture of a 3 month old in the obituary section of the newspaper.
 
#68 ·
The most important thing with babies is to exercise common sense. When it comes to sleeping, just make sure there's nothing loose for them to get suffocated with. If they need a blanket, put it far enough that it covers them up to their armpits and make sure their arms aren't under the blanket. Simple things like that can prevent problems but, again it's not the norm.

Jimmy:smile:
 
#69 ·
the best rule with an infant is that every rule is flexible and common sense always applies :)

one thing about breast pumps is that i would really, really encourage mothers TO DEFINITELY breast feed and the pump is a great way to do that and actually store milk (can be frozen). Alot of women are for whatever reason inhibited about actually breast feeding so the pump helps there too. There are very, very, very few women unable to create milk but it is challenging and something that Gerber & co. discourages (it's healthier since the baby has no immune system for 6 months and milk allows immunoglobulin transfer - but Gerber doesn't make $$$ on natural stuff). Anyways just an FYI this is something that really requires more education on a nation-wide level i'm afraid. The ones who benefits are the little ones, mom (reduces breast cancer risk) and your checkbook... glen
 
#70 ·
I agree with you Glen 100%. The only bad thing is that those mommies that can't produce milk are the ones who get robbed of the experience. I was all for Holly breastfeeding him for the first year but, sometimes you get what you get and you have to make it work for you somehow.

The doctors also told us in the hospital that the colostrum (I hope that's spelled correctly?), is definitely important for the baby to have in his/her first 1-2 days of life.

Jimmy:smile:
 
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