Picture Update

The July pictures are now complete and uploaded for your enjoyment! You can either start with the entire set of July pictures, or you can choose to start with the newest set. Either way, here's some of what you can expect to see:

• Aidan loving on his little brother
• Devin's first bath
• Pictures of me, taken by Aidan
• Devin and his newest little friend, Jacob (who is about 3 weeks older) together on the changing table

Devin Drake's Birth Story

Earlier this year, Grandma Jackie offered to fly down to Austin, Texas in order to lend us a hand with the new baby, whenever that might be. After thinking about when would be a good time for her to plan on arriving, we suggested that she should come into town on Saturday, July 9; the plan being that the baby wouldn't be much later than July 8 (i.e., a week late), since that's pretty much where doctor's feel comfortable and that's how late Aidan was. That was the plan, anyway. But sometimes plans fall apart. And sometimes the result is better than anything one could have planned....

The baby didn't come on July 8. Or July 9. Or July 10. I was thinking that the baby would definitely be here by Monday, July 11 at the latest. But Monday came and went and Renee wasn't showing any signs that labor was imminent. At this point, I was beginning to feel a little worried that Jackie might have come down to help us with the baby, but we'd have to send her home (she was scheduled to go back to Connecticut on July 18) without her even having met the baby.

However, Grandma Jackie was able to spend some quality time with Aidan, which in retrospect, was incredibly helpful.

On Tuesday, July 12, Renee had an accupuncture appointment. She called me at work, just as I was about to leave, and told me to meet her, Aidan, and Grandma Jackie at Aidan's gym class ... but be prepared, because she was starting to feel some "real contractions." I was terribly excited and rushed to the gym class. However, the contraction, while real, weren't all that frequent or intense; we were still a ways off from rushing to the hospital.

The contractions continued through the night, strong enough and frequent enough — we were measuring them to be about 20 minutes apart — to keep Renee from getting any restful sleep.

The next morning, Wednesday, July 13, we had a regularly schedule doctor's appointment with the doctor's nurse (our regular doctor, Dr. Love, was on vacation with his family for the week). Again, we were lucky enough to have Grandma Jackie around, as she took care of Aidan for us as we tried to bring on labor...

The nurse checked Renee and everything looked good, but she didn't recommend that we check into the hostpital yet. Renee's contraction were still about 20 minutes apart and, while they grabbed her attention, she was still able to walk through them.

But things were heading in the right direction. So, to encourage things to progress, Renee and I headed out to one of the enclosed shopping malls in the area. It was still only 9:30 in the morning, but it was hot enough to want to walk indoors.

As we walked, we saw lots and lots of teeny-bopper-type store fronts (it's been a long time since I've been inside a mall ... were they always like this?). It was at this point, with pictures of pre-teen girls all dolled up with glitter and "mature" clothing and such that Renee and I decided that we were not at all ready for a girl...

The walk around the mall helped some, but it wasn't as though it was the key to bringing on active labor. We headed home and I massaged some of the accupuncture points on Renee's shoulders, ankles, feet, and hands. This seemed to help, too, as each time I hit a point well, the baby would obviously move about in the womb. It was pretty freaky. The contractions were getting closer, maybe 15 to 12 minutes apart.

Later in the afternoon, after Grandma Jackie and Aidan came back from their activities (upon his return, his first quesiton was "is the baby here?"), Renee and Grandma Jackie headed out to the grocery store. Upon their return, which was around 6 p.m., Renee's contractions were about 7 to 5 minutes apart! Things were progressing and I started to get a little adreneline flowing.

We ate the dinner I made while they were at the store (a curried cauliflower and tofu dish) and after dinner, went for a walk around the neighborhood. During the walk, I tried my best to keep tabs on the contrations and they seemed to be about 5 to 4 minutes apart. Yet, after we returned home, the contractions spaced themselves out again, closer to 10 to 7 minutes.

Still, Jackie and I felt things were progressing to an obvious end, while Renee was a little less receptive, saying that they weren't all that intense and that she could still walk (and mostly talk) through the contractions...

Things kept progressing, even as we were trying to put Aidan to sleep. Aidan was tired and yet very excited about the baby; putting him to sleep was very difficult, as he wanted Mommy at times, other times Daddy, other times he just wanted to jump on the bed. All of this while Renee was having contractions (back in the 7 to 5 minute range). Eventually, Aidan did fall asleep, but in our bed — we had hoped that he'd sleep in his bed this night if only so Renee could comfortably labor in her own bed without disturbing Aidan. So, Renee moved to Aidan's bed, while I sat on the floor timing contractions (5 to 3 minutes apart, but sometimes spacing out again to about 7 or 8 minutes apart).

I called our doula, Monika to let her know how things were progressing and to ask for some advice. Basically, we were wondering if there was anything that we could do to help encourage active labor, so we could get this over with (Renee hadn't slept much in the last 24 hours), or if there was some thing we could to slow it down to allow Renee to rest.

Monika recommended taking a bath. She said that it would either slow things down or encourage labor, depending on how Renee was physically. We took her advice, filled the tub (after moving Aidan to his bedroom) and prety much immeadiately, the contractions spaced out to 11 minutes, then 15 minutes. Okay, I thought. The bath will slow things down so we can have some sleep. No baby tonight, I guess we'll meet the baby tomorrow... maybe even the next day.

Yet, almost immediately after the bath, the contractions started to get pretty intense and closer together. Renee was now moaning through the contractions, but still handling them beautifully; they were now about 5 to 3 minutes apart. But then they would space out again. So, around midnight, we both curled up in bed. I tried to continue to massage Renee's back and time the contractions, but I was too tired. Between the contractions, I would sleep. But every five minutes or so, I would wake up, look at my watch to see how long it's been, and drive my knuckles into the small of her back to help ease Renee's pain.

Around 1 a.m. on Thursday, July 14, the contractions were pretty regularly in the 4 to 3 minute range. I was getting a little antsy. Renee was spending more and more time in the bathroom and the contractions were pretty intense. I called Monika to see what she thought and she recommended that we hang on for as long as we could at home; as soon as Renee suggested the hospital, that's when we should call her back and reassess.

It wasn't too long after that when Renee mentioned that it might be time to head out. I called Monika and the doctor who was backing up our doctor, Dr. Pollon. At about 1:30 a.m., we were out the door on the way to the hospital. And, once again, feeling lucky that Grandma Jackie was there for Aidan, so when he woke up in the morning, he would be in comfortable surroundings with someone he was getting used to spending time with.

We arrived at the hostpital around 2 a.m. We were checked into our room and assigned to Nurse Paula. As one might expect at 2 a.m., there wasn't much going on in the labor and delivery area; things seemed pretty calm, hopefully an omen of things to come...

Nurse Paula found that Renee's blood pressure was regular (a concern since Renee's blood pressure was high with Aidan's labor; some thing that the labor inducing drug Pitocin may have contributed). Renee was dilated to about 5/6 centimeters (out of a complete 10 cm) and the baby's heart tones were strong. All of this was great news, as we were hoping to have some freedom to allow Renee to walk around and labor as she felt the most comfortable, something that would have been difficult to do if she had to be constantly hooked up to monitors and IVs.

Over the next few hours, Renee walked and moaned through her contractions, drinking Gatorade and water as she pleased. Monika and I would each press an accupuncture point during a contraction to help ease Renee's pain and to also encourage active labor.

However, by 5:45 a.m., almost 4 hours after we arrived in the hospital, and after missing two nights' worth of sleep, Renee was becoming exhausted. But Renee was able to find some deeper strength and kept going. Monika recommended a shower, so we helped Renee in to the shower in her room while she labored. From my perspective, the showers were wonderful and seemed to help Renee a lot with the contractions.

But after checking to see how far things had progressed, Renee was starting to think that and epidural would be a good idea. She was just so tired and Renee was very concerned that, without sleep and with the exertion that she was putting forth, she wouldn't have the strength to push the baby out when it came time. By getting the epidural, Renee felt that she would get some relief and be able to sleep for a couple of hours.

Both Monika and I were dubious, as with the epidural would also come the Pitocin. Renee had been laboring so incredibly well that I felt that introducing the Pitocin at this time was not a good idea; I just remember how tremedously strong her contractions were with Aidan that I didn't want to have to put her through that again, if we could at all avoid it. And, with the introduction of the epidural, Pitocin would be right around the corner.

Another downside (in my eyes) for introducing the epidural and Pitocin was that Renee would then have to be hooked up to monitors and IVs and such, thus limiting her ability to labor as she felt most comfortable. That is, she never felt most comfortable on her back in the hospital bed. But that's exactly where she would need to be if we followed through with her request...

But Renee felt it was best, so for the moment, Monika and I acquiesced. At approximately 7:30 a.m., Nurse Becky (Nurse Paula left around 7 a.m. with the end of her shift), started some IV fluids for Renee, a requirement before introducing the epidural. At this point, Renee was telling us that she was proud that she was able to achieve her goal of starting labor without any assitance and had experienced early labor and active labor at home. With Aidan, this was a different experience.

Since we left in the middle of the night, and we were at a relatively calm cross-road, I called Grandma Jackie to give her an update and to check on how Aidan was doing with all of this. Apparently, Aidan was doing wonderful. Around 3 a.m., Aidan had woke up and went to our room to look for us. Not finding us there, he started to cry. Grandma Jackie went upstairs to comfort him, which apparanetly she did very well, as he went back to sleep and didn't get back up until nearly 8 a.m. He was, in fact, coming down the stairs just as I was getting off the phone with Grandma Jackie, fully dressed (he dressed himself, which is a rare happening these days) and as he came down the stairs, was asking Grandma Jackie if it was time to go to the hospital to see the baby...

Back in the labor and delivery room, Renee, Monika, and I all agreed that it would be a good idea to check to see to how things progressed before administering the epidural; with Aidan, Renee received an epidural very close to the end, and had difficulty pushing because of this. At approximately 8 a.m. Nurse Linda found that Renee had made quite a bit of progress; she was dialated to 7/8 cm and was 90% effaced. We were so close!

Renee was laboring so well and we were so close, Monika and I started to make our case against the epidural, but the anesthesiologist was already called and would be in the room any minute. Renee was now unsure what to do. She had already set her mind on getting the epidural, but I think she could see how far she had come. With the anesthesiologist, Dr. Rauula, in the room, we continued debating the merits of each path. Finally, Dr. Pollon, making his first appearance since we first checked into the hosptial checked in and encouraged Renee to go without the epidiral. So, Dr. Rauula, who had his table of items all prepared and ready to go, put his things away and wished us well. Monika was blown away; she had never seen an anesthesiologist so flexible nor someone like Renee, seconds away from an epidural, refuse one. It was quite impressive all the way around.

By 10:30, Renee was 100% effaced, but was still dialated to about 8 cm. Nurse Linda was also indicating that it appeared that the bag of waters had broken (perhaps while Renee was in the shower?). We continued our regular routine, spending some more time in the shower, walking, sitting in a recliner, rocking chair, and hunched over a large yoga ball.

By 11:10, she was at about 9 cm. We did some more of the same while adding some side-lying positions in the bed. By 12:40, Nurse Linda announced that there had been no further progress. Ugh.

Renee was utterly exhausted. At this point, Monika and I agreed with Renee that the epidural was probably the way to go. At the very least, she may get enough relief from the contractions that she might very well be able to doze off occassionally. Dr. Rauula returned around 1:30 p.m., assisted by Nurse Kelly, and administered the epidural.

During Nurse Kelly's appraisal of our situation, we discovered that the bag of waters had not completely ruptured. In an effort to help encourage the contractions to keep coming and help melt away that last centimeter of cervix, Nurse Kelly ruptured the membranes. The first thing that we noticed was that the water was clear, a wonderful sign, as the baby was 13 days passed the due date, and the longer a baby stays in the womb the chances increase that meconium could be present in the womb, causing problems for the baby.

But the fluid was clear, a great relief. But soon after, the heart tones dipped from their steady 140 beats-per-minute to about 78. Whoa. Nurse Kelly noticed this too. She got to work to find out why this was happening and figure out what she could do to get them back to where they belonged (in the 140s).

Nurse Kelly, the only other person in the room besides Renee, Monika, and myself, called for help ... a nurse, Dr. Pollon, anyone. Just any extra hands that could assist. Then she got to work.

First, to help relieve some stress from the baby, i.e., to stop the contractions from squeezing the baby and causing a certain amount of trauma to the baby, Nurse Kelly gave Renee a shot of terbuterol, a muscle relaxant. Then, Nurse Kelly tried to attach an internal fetal monitor to the baby's head. It didn't take. So she tried again. Success. Now, we have a better idea exactly what the baby is going through. But we don't know everything.

Nurse Kelly thought that one reason the fetal heart tones could have taken a nose dive is that the baby could have landed on the cord in the decent after the bag of waters was broken. But after checking as best she could, she didn't think this was the case. However, she was able to feel the baby's nose, which told her that the baby was facing the wrong way, i.e., was in a "posterior" or sunny-side up position.

While Nurse Kelly was checking on the cord, Renee's eyes started to glaze over. Nurse Kelly gave Renee and oxygen mask. Renee didn't look very good. Her hand started to grab at her chest. I had no idea what was going on, but I didn't think it was very good. The only thing that I was thinking was: Is she having a heart attack? Is this delivery getting slightly out of hand? I don't have a clue what's going on...

Renee sort of said something, weakly and through the oxygen mask so that I didn't really catch it. Nurse Kelly, in addition to trying to assess the baby's situation, calmly stated that the medicine that Renee recieved was a muscle relaxant; since the heart is a muscle, she'll likely feel some odd heart beats for a little while. Oh. I guess that sort of explains that ... She'll be okay, though, right? ...

Finally, the heart tone came back to the 140s. Renee was still jittery, but seemed much better than just moments before. No one was really all that sure why the baby's heart tones fell, but everything seemed back to normal at this point. Just then, Dr. Pollon comes in the room. "What's up, what's going on?" he asks.

Oh, nothing ... everything seems under control now, thanks, Doc.

For the next little while, everyone rested. Nurse Kelly was changing shifts and she handed us off to one of her friends, Nurse Jonna.

At around 3:00 p.m., Renee was completely dialated and was ready to push. But we had to go through the shift change, and page Dr. Pollon again and bring everyone back into the room. So we waited a bit. Around 3:15, Renee couldn't wait any longer. Therefore, Nurse Jonna encourange Renee to try pushing a little, assuming that we'd be at this for a little while and that everyone would have time to reassemble in the delivery room.

Renee slowly pushed the baby down, little by little. Soon, we could see the head. Renee did one more magnificent push and ... the baby's head was crowning. But where was everyone? Once again, it was only our nurse in the room. Nurse Jonna paged for a Dr. Stork (any doctor available). No one came. Dr. Pollon was still not there. No other nurses came.

Nurse Jonna placed her hand on the crowning head, trying to hold the baby back. Renee did all that she could to hold the baby back, but really, that's about the most impossible task to ask of someone. Still, Renee was able to achieve the impossible.

Nurse Jonna again paged for anyone a nurse, anyone, to come and lend a hand. No one came. Finally, Renee couldn't hold on, and had to push the baby's head out. We then found out that the cord was indeed wrapped around the baby's neck. Nurse Jonna tried to lift it over the baby's head, but it was too tight. Nurse Jonna put a clamp on the cord and was looking for another one — she was going to have to cut the cord; the baby's shoulders were still not out. Thank goodness that Monika was once a labor and delivery nurse. At least she had a clue what to do when Nurse Jonna asked for another clamp.

Nurse Jonna cut the cord, and Renee pushed the shoulders through. Jonna caught the baby as another nurse came through the door. They both brought the baby over to the baby station and Renee heard one of the nurses say "he's alright." The baby was a boy. I was choking back tears of exhaustion and joy and bewilderment as I was trying to tell Renee "It's Devin! It's Devin!" But I don't think any of that ever made it out of my mouth.

3: 41 p.m. Devin Drake was born. He weighed 8 pounds, 10 ounces and was 22 inches long. And just at that moment, a Texas-sized thunder storm started to boom outside, annoucing the arrival of baby Devin. And, just at that moment, Dr. Pollon finally came into the room. Timing is everything ....

In retrospect, Renee's contractions near the end of labor were following a pattern: 2 minutes apart, 2 minutes, 5 minutes, 8 minutes. Looking at this now, Monika feels as though this was indicative of the cord being wrapped around Devin's neck, as the uterus was trying not to squeeze the baby out in a bad way. It (the uterus and body) were waiting for things to correct themselves before pushing the baby through. Moving to the epidural and pitocin earlier (at the 6 a.m. time frame) may have been somewhat detrimental, as the pitocin would have been extra harsh on the baby's environment, not allowing for things to "pull back" when the body wasn't comfortable. Doing things as we did, we actually never really recieved any pitocin (technically, we did, per doctor's orders, but by the time Renee was ready to push, the pitocin wasn't even in Renee's system).

As things were winding down and I was able to catch my breath, I called Grandma Jackie to give her the good news and ask her bring Aidan over, the new big brother, so he could be Devin's very first visitor. While talking with Grandma Jackie, I found out that Aidan had been patiently asking all day about when it would be time to visit the baby, and that they had baked a birthday cake for the baby.

Once Aidan learned the baby was a boy, Aidan was very excited to come and visit his new baby brother, Devin the Dragon (Aidan wanted to name the baby Dragon, but we told him we couldn't do that; however, we were able to accomodate this by naming the baby Devin Drake — Drake meaning Dragon in Old Norse and Old English — so Aidan will tell you that the baby's name is really Devin the Dragon).

Devin's Two Weeks Old

Devin is two weeks old, which means we have a doctor's appointment scheduled to check on how things are going. According to the doctor, he is looking great. All signs of jaundice are gone (or virtually gone).

Devin has put on a pound since his birth (he now weighs in at a hefty 9 lbs 10 oz), which is fairly impressive, as most babies are hoping to get back to their original birth weight at this point.

Where's the Car?

Today is one month since the car accident and I still don't have my car. I was originally going to put the claim through the other guy's insurance (the guy who rear-ended me), but they've been dragging their feet and may end up costing me about a month's worth of car rental (only recently did they tell me that they would only cover car rental expenses while my car is actually being worked on — despite the fact that my car is undriveable; this is being disputed, but nothing is resolved at this point).

Anyway, the short story is that I am now putting my claim through Geico (who again, seems to be doing whatever they can to make my life easier). Estimates are that I should be able to get my car by the beginning of next week, possibly sooner.

The odd thing is that I've been without my car for so long, I'm actually experiencing a certain amount of anxiety about getting my car back. A coworker of mine had a similar experience, and was in a rental car for almost three months. She, too, was slightly anxious about getting her car back. We've sort of likened it to meeting up with a boyfriend (or girlfriend) that you hadn't seen in a long time. Would you two still have things in common? Would you still get along like you did before you had some "time off?"

Regardless, I'm all too ready to get rid of the rental and I miss my Element far too much to not wish for its speedy return. But I do have these odd feelings that things are different and that maybe things won't be like they used to be...

More Pictures!

Grandma Jackie and Mema have both been generous enough with their time to visit us from out of state to lend us a hand ... which gave us more time to take pictures! If you haven't seen any pictures yet, start here; if you are intersted in starting with the newest set of pictures, start here.

The new set of pictures of course include pictures of Devin in various stages of sleep. However, Aidan is also well represented in this set, as he just recently received some lightsabers and an inflatable dragon with which he can bring to the pool (but has somehow morphed into a tauntaun that he likes to ride around the living room).

Time for a Breath and an Update

It's been a little busy around here, but everything is generally going extremely well. Aidan seems to be quite smitten with Devin; Devin is getting over his mild case of jaundice. Renee is having some issues with getting enough sleep and having much too much milk available for Devin (which, from what I hear, is the better problem to have — better than not having enough milk).

Devin has been the picture-perfect infant: sleeping, eating, and pooping. The only time that he cries is when his diaper is being changed. Other than that, he seems to be one very content little boy.

Aidan has been doting over Devin since he was first introduced to him. The very moment that Devin cries, Aidan wants to help, find out what the matter is, or point out what's amiss. For example, this evening Devin fell asleep in his car seat, so we left him in there. After a while, he started to stir, twisting his face in a grimace and looking generally uncomfortable. Aidan noticed and proudly announced, "my baby doesn't like it there anymore." When I got up to move Devin to a more comfortable location, Aidan jumped up with me and said, "Let my do it!"

Special Picture Update

There's sooooo much that needs to be shared, but I don't have the energy or time to do it properly at the moment. Please, let this suffice for the moment and be assured that more information will be forthcoming! :)

So, enjoy the early July pictures; there's many of our new family member, Devin, who is Aidan's little brother. The pictures fairly well document his first 48 hours of life...

Happy Birthday

Welcome to the world, Devin Drake! He was born at 3:41 p.m. He was 8 lbs 10 oz and 22 inches long. Aidan was Devin's first visitor and it looked like Aidan couldn't have been a happier big brother. Grandma Jackie and Aidan baked a cake for Devin, and we all got to eat some real birthday cake!

Week 41

Thus far, Aidan's prediction is incorrect, but we still have plenty of Friday left — and we never really clarified which Friday he was talking about, either...

We met with Dr. Love this morning, had a sonogram, and everything looks great, although there really hasn't been any change in status in the last week or so.

Dr. Love felt that Renee and baby are both doing well and are still within the standard deviation of 2 weeks of the average pregnancy (which is on average 40 weeks +/- 2 weeks, thus sometime between 38 and 42 weeks is when most babies are born). Because of their general health and such, he felt comfortable letting things go for a while longer.

Today is Renee's last day at work. After the doctor's appointment, she'll submit her medical papers and start her leave of absence. So, if anyone out there has been e-mailing Renee at work, start sending those messages to her home address.

So, on the upcoming schedule, we have another doctor's appointment on Wednesday and another sonogram for next Friday. If the baby doesn't come by then, we'll schedule an induction for July 18....

Week 40 Day 6

"All human wisdom is summed up in two words - wait and hope" — Alexandre Dumas

The accupuncture session went fairly well yesterday, although it was very different than the last session. According to Renee, this session was a lot more intense and uncomfortable; points were activated in her feet, head, shoulders, hands, and ankles. The points in her feet and head were very sensitive and left her with some tenderness in those areas. The session did create some minor contractions, but ultimately nothing that kicked-started labor.

Tomorrow morning is our next scheduled appointment with Dr. Love. This is the same appointment that Renee had with Dr. Love when she was pregnant with Aidan. We made it to the appointment last time, but for a different reason: Aidan was on his way (more or less).

So, we'll just patiently wait for the baby to arrive while we all grow wiser as we wait and hope...

Week 40 Day 4

No baby yet. However, Renee is going in for an accupuncture appointment tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. The method didn't actually work for the accupuncturist when she was pregnant;, however, everyone else she's worked on has gone into labor....

Week 40 Day 3

Every pregnancy is different, but as some sort of measuring stick, Aidan was about a week late, so the fact that the baby isn't here yet isn't completely unexpected.

Currently, Aidan is predicting that the baby will be here Friday, and that he'll have a baby sister. A few weeks ago, he was saying the baby would be here by July 3, and that it would be a boy, so place your bets accordingly....

Observations from School

Aidan's teacher made the following observations of Aidan at school:

• While outside at the picnic table, Aidan was pretending pieces of a puzzle were chocolate-banana cookies. He said, "Who wants cookies?" I said, "I do!"

  Aidan said, "Okay, one at a time!"

• While discussing with the children what they though I was having for a baby [Aidan's teach is also pregnant], I asked Aidan what he though about his baby, and he said, "A boy, a big boy!"

Week 40

Here we are at the predicted due date. Renee hasn't experienced much in the way of contractions or anything that would be considered serious labor indications up to this point. Dr. Love scheduled us to come in for a biophysical profile (BPP) next Friday (week 41) if the baby doesn't show by then. At that appointment, we'll do a sonogram and check on everyone's general health.

However, earlier this evening, Renee was getting lots of light contractions. So, I went to the rental car and installed the baby seat next to Aidan's. Then I discovered that Aidan's car seat is too wide for both of the car seats to sit nice next to each other (this wouldn't be an issue in the Element), so I had to swap car seats with Renee (the one in her car is slightly narrower)...

Long story short, it took a little while, but the baby's seat and Aidan's seat are both installed in the rental car. The bags are packed, lists have been made of all the extra things we need to take, phone/camera batteries are charge. I think we're ready to roll.... We're just waitin' on the baby.