Too Tired for Blog Post

(Originally posted on Saturday, July 15, 2006 by Tim)

zzzzzzzz...

Dalton Discovers Computers

(Originally posted on Friday, July 14, 2006 by Tim)

I want to thank everyone for their encouraging emails. Cat has been somewhat restricted to the upstairs so I brought her my tablet so she could read them. As you can see from the picture, Dalton is showing an interest. This is great news. If I can teach him to play Diablo II, we can have a three person group for our games. He would be a great help in my accomplishing frivolous life goal #3. Of course, this assumes that he isn't a PK.

On a more serious note, taking care of a baby is exhausting! We?ve had tons of support. Cathy?s mom and my parents are here to help and I?m still worn out. While I planned to stay home once Dalton was born, I had the hope of working half days in the back of my mind. Hope is an important thing to have, however, I?m having trouble finding time to do simple things like returning phone calls right now.

I did expect Dalton to be a lot of work, but not in the ways he has been. Our biggest problems are centered on breastfeeding. I never anticipated that this would be a problem. I figured that when the baby cries, you feed him and he eats. Last night was a very frustrating experience with Cathy fighting with Dalton and trying to get him to feed directly from the breast. He essentially starts screaming as soon as the nipple is in his mouth.

I was really worried last night as his weight was down about 10% and he was a bit jaundiced during our lactation consultation visit yesterday. Just in case you didn?t know, my job in the family is to worry about things. Cathy tends to be better about not overeating to things than me. Needless to say, neither Cat nor I got much sleep last night between worrying about Dalton?s weight and fighting with him over feeding.

Today was much better. We essentially gave up on trying to get Dalton to directly breastfeed and have been finger feeding. Cat?s milk has come in as well and pumping has been much easier for her. Now that we have temporarily given in to his refusal to breastfeed, Dalton has been eating a lot. As a result, his weight was back up today. We also had an appointment with our family doctor and she didn?t think he was alarmingly jaundiced. We are all much relieved.

We are going to meet with the lactation consultant again in the next day or two. We need to come up with a plan to transition Dalton over to breastfeeding while still keeping him healthy and keeping Cat and me sane.

Small correction

(Originally posted on Thursday, July 13, 2006 by Cathy)

Ok, so I made it down stairs, at least briefly. (We had to take Dalton in for a lactation consult, more about that later, but things are improving, even if I'm having to pump some of his meals...)

I was actually in labor for somewhat less than 24 hours, although it sure FELT like a day and then some. I thought I was maybe in labor by 1pm, was pretty darn sure by 5pm, at which point Tim headed into the kitchen to make dinner and I called the midwife. By around 7-8pm, I was in active labor. Dalton's stuck shoulder and arm put in an appearance at 8:50am the next morning, and we were done with the placenta about an hour later. So it was 21 hours if you count -everything-, and more like 14 if you just count the active labor and pushing.

It was hard, because I had a lot of back labor (and thus a lot of pain, even between contractions). Apparently Dalton's stuck hand had a similar effect to a posterior baby, without any of the approaches used to turn a posterior baby actually working, since he wasn't actually posterior. In total, the labor time wasn't all that large for a first birth, it's just the pushing time that was waaay above average. I feel very lucky to have been at home, since I do NOT think I'd have gotten the five hours of pushing required if we'd been in the hospital.

And on that note, it's time to go pump again. MOOOOO.

Demoted to Dog

(Originally posted on Thursday, July 13, 2006 by Tim)

...and you thought you would get a baby picture.

We had a couple of firsts today.

1. Cathy came downstairs for the first time from the birth.
2. Sam and Modi got to meet Dalton for the first time.
3. I changed my first (and second) diaper.

I'll let you decide which you think is the most exciting event.

Dalton is still slow on picking up breast feeding. We had a meeting with the lactation consultant at the local hospital today. She was great. She spent 2 hours with us and got Dalton to finally feed from Cat's breast. At two hours per session, it's no wonder they don't answer the phone. While we still have some work ahead of us, the improvement is very encouraging.

My parents arrived today and also met Dalton for the first time. Mom took this picture of her grandson. Note how Mr. Long Labor still has his hands up around his head.

Day 2

(Originally posted on Wednesday, July 12, 2006 by Tim)

I can already feel this web space threatening to become a string of baby posts and pictures. Over half our readership is probably grandparents so I expect it will be well received.

Both Cat and Dalton had a checkup from Hannah (our midwife) today. Both are doing well. Cat is healing fast and Dalton is progressing as expected. The only real difficulty at present is Dalton seems to be a little slow on picking up on breastfeeding. We?ve rented a breast pump and he is being fed colostrum from a syringe. Hopefully he will get things down in the next day or two. Regardless of the slope of his learning curve, he is getting fed.

Cat?s mom (Carol) was here for the birth. She actually made it just in time. The original plan was for her to come up here on the 10th after stopping in Tennessee for an appointment. Cat started having contractions early that day, but wasn?t sure if they were real since they were irregular. While talking together on the phone that morning Carol remarked, ?Feel free to get started without me.? Apparently Cat took her seriously. Carol arrived about an hour after Cat began active labor.

The picture above was taken today (Day 2). Dalton is being held by his aunt Jessica and is looking quite lively.

Dalton S. J.

(Originally posted on Tuesday, July 11, 2006 by Tim)

Born early this morning after 24 hours of labor (12 of it active and 5 of that pushing). He had his hand up by his head and that prolonged the experience. Hopefully, he has learned his lesson and will steadfastly avoid causing his parents grief in the future.

9 pounds even
21 inches long
1 day early

Both mother and baby are doing well.

The father is still a bit freaked out by the experience.

4th of July

(Originally posted on Tuesday, July 4, 2006 by Tim)

I hope everyone is having a good 4th of July. Cat and I are going over to a friend?s house for Middle Eastern food. Eating food from that region of the world on the 4th of July seems a bit un-American based on events of the last decade. Still, we like the food, so we?ll be off soon. I?m taking the precaution of eating bratwurst and baked beans before we go to try and keep us off the FBI and NSA watch lists.

The other issue with today?s dinner is that it is in Radford. Normally, this location is neither here nor there, but I was at work today and the entire city or Radford has no water. Our friends called ahead and warned Cat that there was only one flush left in the toilet. Cat got a double take out of me when she said, ?Oh, I?ll be fine.? As you all know, Cat is pregnant and due any day now. With the baby pressing on her bladder, she has to use the rest room every 10 minutes. Just this morning, she kicked me out of the bathroom in the middle of shaving because she couldn?t wait any longer. Now I know what you are thinking. Cathy could stand on her head at dinner and that would take the weight of the baby off her bladder. Unfortunately, it would put the weight on her lungs instead and then she wouldn?t be able to breathe. I suppose I?d better start finding some containers to load the car up with water to flush the toilets this evening.

On the bright side, these friends didn?t give us an option of something to bring and now we have something. I?ve been trying to think of an idea, but I keep coming up short. I was thinking about a bottle of wine, but they are wine people and always bring a really good bottle when we see them. I?ve been drinking very little wine the last few years and I don?t have a prayer of picking out something that wouldn?t be embarrassing. Another idea was to bring a basil plant over. Last time they were at our place, they commented on the basil hedge I had upstairs. Unfortunately, I haven?t prepared for this and I don?t have any basil plants ready to give away. Fortunately, I just thought of what they need. You guessed it, they need drinking water. Their entire town is out of water and has been all day. I bet their grocery stores are out as well. Water, it?s the perfect housewarming gift. We?ll pick some up on our way over.