Sunday, July 16, 2006
Sunday, July 02, 2006
Oliver's Grand Entrance
This is a picture of Oliver's first nap in his own crib. After I put him down, I just started bawling. The whole experience was so amazing and my hormones were out of whack. I cried very easily for the next few months. Jenny would find me standing over his crib crying, muttering something like "he's just so amazing." I don't think I got beyond the word amazing. It's cliche and inadequate, but there are no words ...miraculous, wondrous, extraordinary, awe-inspiring... they're all inadequate.
I think that Oliver was held the entire time we were in the hospital. This is a picture of him nursing for the very first time - he always used to stick his little pinky out.
Based on Oliver’s date of conception (5/15/05) he would have been 40 weeks old on 7/12/06, but the doctors estimated his due date to be 6/26/06. When that day passed, they were willing to induce my labor. I wanted him to be born on 6/30/06 because the numbers are so nice and also because I read all the horoscopes between 6/26 and 7/12 and June 30th was the luckiest day. Our appointment for induction was at 5:00pm on 6/29 but they didn’t start the pitocin until 8:00pm. Previous to this, I was doing everything I could to induce labor naturally, but it wasn’t going to happen and we didn’t want to wait anymore. I knew that I wanted an epidural, but I waited a little while because I wanted to feel something. I started to have some cramps at around 10 or 11pm so I decided to go ahead and have the epidural before the pain got too intense. I don’t think that the epidural worked at all, and at around 3:00am, the pain got so bad that I couldn’t talk. I was so scared because I hadn’t mentally prepared myself for excruciating pain and I could feel my body pushing Oliver through the birth canal – it’s an amazing process, but I felt so out of control. It was the most intense, scary pain I have ever, and hopefully will ever feel. Jenny helped me try to breath through it, and I suppose it helped a little but there's no way to go but through it. The anesthesiologist was in an emergency c-section, but when Dr. Neives came in and saw how much pain I was he went in and got her. She fixed the epidural and after that it was cake. Dr. Nieves broke my water at around 4:00am then at around 5:15 Irene, our nurse, came in and was astonished to find that I was fully dilated and ready to push, so I did. One would think that pushing a baby out of your body would cause some discomfort, but I didn’t feel a thing (god bless anesthesia). After about 20 or 25 minutes, Oliver was born and they put him on my chest. I was completely astounded to hold this tiny toothless creature and suddenly he was no longer an abstraction but a real baby. I remember thinking, holy crap, there’s a baby on my chest.
Later that day we had an endless stream of visitors - Rose, Aaron, Heather & her nephew Savior, Mike, Becky, Jason, Snooky, Laura, Grandma, Ruth & her ex Jen, and a whole bunch of people that Jenny works with - Heather, Janet, Jen (Towlie), Brian, Carla, and others - I can't remember, I was in daze.
I think that Oliver was held the entire time we were in the hospital. This is a picture of him nursing for the very first time - he always used to stick his little pinky out.
Based on Oliver’s date of conception (5/15/05) he would have been 40 weeks old on 7/12/06, but the doctors estimated his due date to be 6/26/06. When that day passed, they were willing to induce my labor. I wanted him to be born on 6/30/06 because the numbers are so nice and also because I read all the horoscopes between 6/26 and 7/12 and June 30th was the luckiest day. Our appointment for induction was at 5:00pm on 6/29 but they didn’t start the pitocin until 8:00pm. Previous to this, I was doing everything I could to induce labor naturally, but it wasn’t going to happen and we didn’t want to wait anymore. I knew that I wanted an epidural, but I waited a little while because I wanted to feel something. I started to have some cramps at around 10 or 11pm so I decided to go ahead and have the epidural before the pain got too intense. I don’t think that the epidural worked at all, and at around 3:00am, the pain got so bad that I couldn’t talk. I was so scared because I hadn’t mentally prepared myself for excruciating pain and I could feel my body pushing Oliver through the birth canal – it’s an amazing process, but I felt so out of control. It was the most intense, scary pain I have ever, and hopefully will ever feel. Jenny helped me try to breath through it, and I suppose it helped a little but there's no way to go but through it. The anesthesiologist was in an emergency c-section, but when Dr. Neives came in and saw how much pain I was he went in and got her. She fixed the epidural and after that it was cake. Dr. Nieves broke my water at around 4:00am then at around 5:15 Irene, our nurse, came in and was astonished to find that I was fully dilated and ready to push, so I did. One would think that pushing a baby out of your body would cause some discomfort, but I didn’t feel a thing (god bless anesthesia). After about 20 or 25 minutes, Oliver was born and they put him on my chest. I was completely astounded to hold this tiny toothless creature and suddenly he was no longer an abstraction but a real baby. I remember thinking, holy crap, there’s a baby on my chest.
Later that day we had an endless stream of visitors - Rose, Aaron, Heather & her nephew Savior, Mike, Becky, Jason, Snooky, Laura, Grandma, Ruth & her ex Jen, and a whole bunch of people that Jenny works with - Heather, Janet, Jen (Towlie), Brian, Carla, and others - I can't remember, I was in daze.
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