1 Week Plus a Little

How much changes in a week? BabyKat has cheeks that are starting to fill in and she's getting a tiny double chin. No doubt because she eats 10-12 times a day. Her umbilical stump is getting ready to fall off. And her Wolverine-style mutton chops have fallen out, as has some of the hair that connected her eyebrows to her hairline. And she has less back fuzz. Now she has the invisible eyebrows that Owen had for months, which makes me wonder if her dark hair will fall out too, leaving her bald for a bit, and then she'll get blonde hair like Owen. And Travis (ok, not Travis recently, but Travis when he was little). She still has her skinny newborn legs and arms, but I figure the baby pudge will spread from her head downward.

What was Different this Time Around

So what was different this time around about labor and delivery?

With Owen, I got induced after being 8 days late. I was only in labor for 10 hours and pushed 1 1/2 hours. He had some meconium and got pulled out with the the vacuum-extractor. He spent some time getting extra suctioning and examination by the pediatric team before we got to hang out. In the end, everything was fine, but there were > 10 people in the delivery room with us between the OB and pediatrics teams.

Katherine arrived much, much faster. She arrived 8 days early and I delivered about 20 minutes after we got to the hospital. Fortunately, Travis was working at home that day, or he might have missed it. The contractions started off slowly, but then seemed to speed up much faster than I expected. I was a bit worried that I'd end up delivering in the lobby of the hospital, which would be a less than glamorous, plus I might see coworkers. It never occurred to me that labor could go that fast! So total labor time was about 2 1/2 hours and pushing was less than 2 minutes. The OB told me there was no time for an epidural, so I actually had 'natural childbirth'. People aren't kidding when they say it hurts. However, it didn't last very long, so I think my experience was alot easier than people who labor without medication for 20+ hours. This time, it was the OB, a resident (who stood to the side and watched) and a few OB nurses, me and Travis, so much less of a crowd in the room. Apparently, babyKat was ready to be born and meet us. We got to hang out immediately after her birth and she spent alot of time looking around and wiggling, which was great.

Afterward I felt much less like I'd been run over by a bus, which was a nice change from giving birth to O. We were also much smarter this time about letting littleK go to the nursery at night for a few hours so we could sleep a bit, so I left the hospital less tired.

So, the moral of the story? If we have a 3rd baby ever, we need to live next door the the same hospital where I'm working, and Travis will need to work from home for at least a few weeks prior to the due date.

How to Make the Arrival of D2 as Hard as Possible for Owen

Or, as Travis likes to call it, Single-Parenting-in-Tandem.

Owen celebrated the arrival of Katherine by getting a fever to 102. So he made his 3rd trip to the pediatrician in 1.5 weeks and no specific cause was found. He got labeled with 'bug of the week', not clearly flu, definitely not the ears or throat, and seemingly viral. Instructions? Keep he and the baby in different rooms and wash hands frequently. Frequent, borderline-obsessive handwashing? Check. I am a gastroenterologist after all. Keeping the baby and O in separate rooms? Extremely challenging, since she's the most interesting thing in the world to him right now.

He calls her 'Baby Kafrim' or 'Baby Kathu' and spends alot of time describing what she does in his O-style play-by-play speech. 'Baby Kafrim eating', 'Baby Kafrim sleeping', 'Baby Kafrim crying' sums up much of our day. Sometimes he gets extra descriptive and says 'Baby Kafrim eat mommy milk from mommy booby'. All these observations are being made from a distance by O, since we're trying to keep him semi-quarantined. This means that Travis wrangles Owen for the day while I wrangle babyKat (since I'm the only one who can feed her), my Mom helps with whatever she can, and essentially we single parent in tandem for the day.

So the recipe for upsetting an otherwise normal, mellow 2 year old?
1. Bring home a baby
2. Tell him he can't play with the baby
3. Tell him Mommy is busy with the baby and he can't play with him either
4. Add a temp of 102
5. Favorite nanny has the week off
6. Then add croup at night keeping him from sleeping.

Oh, and our power went out for 6 hours earlier this week. I can't believe how hot our house got. Not the best with the febrile todder and 5 day old baby. Thank goodness it got fixed.

Hopefully O will complete his 24 hours of no fever soon so he can start hanging out with BabyKat and I more.

Don't try to be no hero

Bill Brown was one of our jazz band directors in high school. He was also a former professional football player and coach for weight training. In the weight room*, he had several colorful expressions, including "Don't try to be no hero."

I though of Mr Brown's words last Saturday, as I sat on the floor of Owen's room, covered in Owen's vomit. (OK, "covered" is an exaggeration. His first shot only coated my left arm and thigh, and the second was really scattered over my right chest, arm and forehead.) Owen had woken from his nap, crying very hard. From previous episodes we knew that heavy crying could lead to puking. But I wasn't going to scoop him up and race to the bathroom. No, I was going to sit there with him, comfort him and let him know that everything was all right. And so it was, as long as one's definition of "all right" includes an immediate bath and the lingering smells of bile and Resolve-brand carpet cleaner.

So it turns out that Mr Brown may have been trying to tell us about more than lifting weights. Another of his favorite weight room expressions was, "What are you gonna do when some big dog is chasin' you?" Now I'm a little nervous to learn what that might be all about.

* I know, I took weight training. Please keep the jokes to yourself.

Katherine Sarah

Katherine Sarah was born 5 August at 7:58am. She weighed 6lb, 8oz and was 19 inches long. She came eight days before her official due date, and the whole affair was very quick. Labor lasted two-and-a-half hours, with delivery coming less than 30 minutes after we got to the hospital.

Katherine and Mom are both doing well, currently trying to get some early morning naps.

Mimi (Kerry's mom) arrived yesterday. She and Carla are hanging out with Owen. We're told that all day yesterday, when he heard a car in the driveway, he'd run to the window and say, "Baby sister coming home?"