January 26, 2005

No, I’m not talking about Hayes’ diaper, though, if Metrodad’s “If the Foo Shits, Wear it!” post is any indication, that’s in my near future. Nope, it’s snowing… again. 6-8 inches, they’re calling for. Though, if there’s one thing I’ve learned growing up a Masshole, it’s that being a weathman (or woman) in New England is the only job you can constantly be wrong at and still have at the end of the day. That’s just how weather is around here. Just for the record, that means Hayes will be born during the snowiest January in the history of keeping track of such things here in Boston. That’s alot of snow folks.

Another random, not related thought. The Oscar nominations were announced yesterday and I for one am livid. Jen and I defintely make a bigger deal about the Oscars than most, making a nice dinner, opening a bottle of sparkling wine and staying up way past our bedtimes to see it. We even manged to scam two tickets to a 2k a plate Oscar party dinner a couple of years ago on the Sunset Strip. It was hobnobbing with the B-list actors. Tom Arnold, I’m looking at you. Oh, and an aside. We were fortunate enought to be seated next to Will Estes, a wonderful character actor and star of the NBC program American Dreams. In case you ever thought all Hollywood types were assholes, well, you only need to look at him. He was the honestly one of the nicest people I have ever met. He even made a point of finding us on his way out to say goodbye. A really nice guy. Anyway, how the hell do you overlook Paul Giamati? I mean really… nominate Thomas Haden Church but overlook Paul? Clearly this is a looks game. What does he need to do to get recognized. I’m pissed.

That aside, I’m back at the hospital, things are going much better with a bit of sleep for Jen, me and Hayes. We’ve started feeding him a bit differently and he’s actually sleeping. I make it a point use allcaps sparingly, but SLEEPING! What a difference. What a boy!

January 25, 2005

I had a theory that I shared with Jen about birth. I told her that I didn’t think women remembered their births very well, only the outcome. My reasons were simple: 1) husbands, when prodded, often told a much different story and 2) women wouldn’t go through it again if it was awful as the husbands said. My experience thus far has upheld this theory. Jennifer remembers little of the birth, only the c-section and, of course, hearing we had a boy with blond hair. Obviously my study has no basis in statistics, or quantifiable facts. I just think it’s interesting, that’s all.

Today was kinda tough with Hayes. His hunger is insatiable. Jen, can’t move around much, and feels awful about not being be able to help much. We’re both hoping her milk comes in SOON. In fact she just told me she thinks it’s coming in. YES! Hopefully this will fill up Hayes more than the current solution. He fed for 1.5 hours straight today.

Jen sent me home tonight to get some sleep. We both agreed it was a good idea. The room really isn’t set up for two people to sleep comfortably. There’s gotta to be a better way to design a convertable chair that you can actually sleep in. There has to be. Anyway, I said that when I got home, I’d post some more pix. I lied. Waaay too tired. Will have to wait until we all get home on Thursday.

Things are going great. Hayes is up walking and talking. He made us some breakfast, a crawfish and creme freche soufle. It was a slightly overcooked. We even went out in the backyard and threw a football around a bit.

Then I woke up from the two hours of sleep I was experiencing. Things had changed. Hayes is still demanding satisfaction when it comes to breast feeding and just about everything else involving him. The experts say to expect 2 bowel movements on day two and three on three. He had three in the first hour of today. Yesterday, 8. Our over-acheiving son!

We’re slated to leave here Thursday morning. Things are going well. Both Jen and Hayes’ cultures for bacteria came back negative, so they both had the IV pick lines withdrawn. This is good for Jen. Even better for Hayes. Until they took out the pick, Hayes was wearing a hockey goalie type flipper to protect his line. As a result, he was getting pretty good at blocking anything that came near him, like, say, boob, with it. Now that it’s gone, it’s much easier to position his hands.

Hayes got the snip today. Which went well. I’ll have to see how to change the dressing on there soon as our poop machine needs a little maitenance.

January 24, 2005

Hayes like breasts. Like father, like son. Get your head out of the gutter. According to my mom, I was a world-champ breast feeder. As a kid. Come on.

Today we’re trying to wane Hayes off his initial bottle feeding. I can see why people are so adamantly opposed to giving a baby the bottle and then moving to the breast. Well, medical reasons have prohibited that in our case. He’s been at a bottle that gives him 2 oz in minutes and with Jen, he get’s well… not much. That’ll change when Jen gets her milk in (I never want to write that phrase again), so until then we’re left battling Hayes’ taste for immediate sucking satisfaction

We’ve spoken to three nurses, a pediatrician and a lactating specialist. All have provided great insight. All have also said he’s a great sucker. I can attest. The lactating specialist had me stick a finger in there and feed him by syringe. They had to pump his stomach to get my finger nail back. That was a joke.

I also had my first official bad dad moment. I left Hayes on Jen’s bed to retrieve a diaper. The pediatrician was here and yelled at me. Oh well. Bad dad.

So right now Hayes has gone from being a sleep champ to a constantly hungry boy. Fortunately, in Hayes’ world, breasts solve all problems.

Well… I’m back. And we’ll be here until Thursday morning. For those of us who want to call us, please wait another day. We’re still getting acclimated and need some time with just the three of us. Rest assured, you’ll see Hayes soon enough. In the meantime, I plan on posting more pix tomorrow when I go home for a bit to my speedier net connection.

Hayes was in the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) after his birth for about 18 hours, as he was having some difficulties breathing. That, and he really wants to be a doctor, so he thought he’d get some firsthand experience. The fact is that even had he not had breathing problems, the doctors informed me, he would have been brought there, as Jen was holding a 101F temperature through about the last 24 hours of labor.

Yesterday was new grandparent day. We had both sets come in and out. The grandparents were all really excited to see him. My parents went up seperately to the NIRC to see him. At that point he was doing very well (and he still is). They wanted to release him from there earlier, but they were running a skeleton crew of nurses and doctors who had been mostly on for over 24 hours. So, needless to say, doctors to sign-off on the release were hard to come by.

Speaking of the storm, I had a chance to experience it first hand when I plowed through snowbanks in my Subaru to pick up my in-laws who were staying about 2 miles east of here in the Back Bay of Boston with my sister-in-law. I felt like I was in a Subaru commercial, passing lesser front-wheel drive cars and even a partially stuck snowplow. I honestly wonder why someone living in a snow state wouldn’t have a Subaru or, at the very least, all-wheel drive.

Anyway, Jen baby and I watched the Pats whoop some ass last night. More acurately, Jen and I watched the Pats and Hayes mostly cried and slept. I even got a couple of beers in. In a classic Eric move, though, I had to find a bottle opener to open my Singha beers because they weren’t twist-offs. As a result, I have my first bit of valuable advice for those who will be needing a beer in the hospital soon (I’m guessing that number is… uhm… me): The Hill-Rom stretcher that seems to be standard hospital bedding, is equiped with a handy-dandy rectangular hole behind the head of the bed which worked so well as an opener that I’m quite sure it was put there with the express purpose of opening beer. In fact, I bet that’s a big selling point for the hospital.

Hayes and Jen are awesome. I can’t believe I would be as lucky as I am to have both of them. Many of you know that Jen and I’ve had a lot of Pedro Matinez-type pitches rifled at us in the last 10 years. None of them thrown by either of us. I’m living proof that things have a way of working themself out. I can’t believe my great fortune.

A quick word about our hospital. I remember writing some time during Friday night/Saturday morning about how good the staff here is. I want to reiterate that. Brigham and Women’s has a reputation that preceeds them that is obviously well deserved. They worked through one of the biggest storms in State history, doing so with good humor and passion. In hindsight, even the couple of people that weren’t our personal favorites, made good decisions on our behalf, even if we couldn’t see so at the time. Thank you for putting up with us. Most of all, I hope for all of you out there who will be “making people” (Seinfeld’s words via Andrew Teman, not mine) that you are lucky enough to be in the company of such a great medical staff.

I really want to thank all of you for following along with this experiment. Many of you I don’t know and may never meet. You were really gracious. If you’re one of those people and you have a website that I have not already listed, rest assured you will be added to my list. Thank you. We are grateful. Funny story about two great stangers following our saga: Leigh (I hope I got the spelling right) via Elizabeth Kennedy dropped us a paper note last night. It seems Leigh is the cousin or Elizabeth, a nurse here at Brigham, and has been following along online. She asked Elizabeth to share her congrats. You don’t know how much it means to us to here from all of you cheering us on. It’s been tough and rewarding and we have a WONDERFUL son to show for it.

Jen is sleeping now and they plan on bringing Hayes back in here shortly after his antibiotic, so I am going to finish up. Dunno if this is where technology is going, but if it is I’m betting more people will share their experiences in realtime like I did. (Heck, shenuts blogged her own birth!) For those of you out there about to make your own people here’s my first bit of unsolicited-dad-knows-best advice: some of you will have easier stories to share, some harder. All birth are different. This just happens to be the one that is most important to me.

Oh, and pack extra underwear. I forgot to do that.

Most of all, I want to thank my wife. She is awesome.