TAW Blanket

This afternoon TAW came over to present Oscar his new blanket. Each person knitted a strip of the blanket and then they were all pieced together. Thanks to everyone for such a special gift, and special thanks to Kathie for sewing it all together.

Oscar is starting to have many more of these wonderful awake and alert times, usually soon after eating a late night snack. We love it because he gives us lots of time looking at his little eyes.

milestone 3.1278

Umbilical Stump Falls Off! For sale on ebay.

Eyes are open more often. Although they always shut with the flash of the camera.

1 week

Hannah let me know that last night was Oscar's 1 week birthday. He celebrated with his favorite meal. As for us, we peaked out the window at the eclipse and headed to bed before 10. With feedings and changings every 2-3 hours, we need lots of naps to keep us going. Fortunately we seem to be taking turns hitting the wall of sleep deprivation.
He has a little blister on his lip from all the suckling. He also has a touch of baby acne and skin flaking. That is a result of the switch of living in a wet sack full of female hormones to a much drier world. He still has the hiccups as he did so often while still in that sack.

Oscar and friends

Five Days old now and his friends are so happy to meet him and get to snuggle with him. We are all now getting the hang of things and really settling in together. Oscar has got the nursing part down now fully and is an eating machine that loves to eat at all hours of the day and night.

As for me, I’m just now starting to feel a bit more normal and functional. It has been a wonderful first few days and I feel I just can't get enough of this little guy. We have his first routine pediatrician appt scheduled tomorrow, which will be the first time I’ve left the house since we got home. Until now the midwives have visited us at home each day to check in on us all. Should be a Wisconsin adventure, its supposed to be quite the chilly day! Other than that we are just enjoying being home and getting to know him. Its amazing to me how much personality a five day old has :)

Thanks to all for the emails, calls, food & good wishes. We are so lucky to have such a wonderful family and so many friends to share this experience with us. Such a fantastic sense of community to bring a new baby into the world with.

Oscar's buddy Alden needs some good wishes

Alden is the son of our good friends Dave and Jessie. Give him some good karma, thoughts, prayers or whatever you got...

little sucker latches

Feeding is working much better. He eats like his mother.

more of what you want

This will have to be brief. The cycle of eating is about to begin anew. Every two hours he is fed. And I can tell by the smell the food has produced something.

Feeding with tube using donor milk (see below)

Cord rotting. Cord is 'tied' with new rubber band gizmo very similar to a castrator on the farm.
Donor Milk from the bank near where Hannah's parents live. Below is what you do with donor milk - feed it to the baby. The milk is sucked into the syringe then pushed through a feeding tube taped to the finger (index for mother, pinky for father). As the baby suckles about 1 mL at a time is dispensed. We need to feed him about 30 mL per feeding. He has lost 9% of his body weight since birth. Most of this was in the first 12 hours when he basically didn't get much if any food. Hannah is producing lots of colustrum, the precursor to milk, but Oscar is having trouble suckling mostly because of tongue placement. Our lactation specialist Arlinda visited today offering much good advice. This evening Oscar is doing well suckling. All indications are Hannah will be producing milk tomorrow. This typically takes place 2-3 days after birth.

Tomorrow we have another visit to check his weight. And Sunday we have a 3 day check-up at home.

Thanks for all the well wishes. Get some sleep for us please!

41 5/7

41 weeks and 5 days later sperm and egg make Oscar Thomas Engel. For those all important stats: 7 lbs 5 oz, 20 inches long, born 10:08 PM Wednesday Feb 13, about 22 hours of labor.

Thankfully we avoided a Valentine's Day baby. And our baby shares a birthday with friend Erik Beck. Someday they will party together - of course Erik has a couple decades on Oscar. No excuse for not remembering Erik!

Name: Last name that is the dad's. Middle name is Hannah's brother Tom. First name is Mike's maternal grandfather. He unfortunately passed away long ago. But Grandma, his wife Lena, is thrilled with the name choice.

Pictures: If I want to stay married I can't share most of them. Too much TA. A big thank you to birth assistant Susan who grabbed the camera and started taking pictures while we were otherwise occupied.
Birth was at the Madison Birth Center with the help of two birth assistants and a midwife. We are very happy with this choice. Despite the fact that the average gestation for first time mom's is 41 weeks and 1 day, had we used more traditional medical practices Hannah would have been induced into labor much earlier which has many complications. She probably also would have likely had a c-section or used an epidural in the hospital. The old natural way she fought through 22 hours of labor. In fact her strength was an issue. She tended to fight the contractions. She learned to let go and let them flow through her thus opening the birth canal. She had tremendous searing pain in her hips and thighs. Just where all those running muscles exist.

She reports early labor, the contractions, was much harder than expected. The actual pushing out of the baby is what she expected. All those muscles came in handy for the pushing. I am grateful for friends and the videos that prepared me for the whole thing. It is about what I expected. The midwifes said I was unusually calm. Part of that is the biologist in me wanting to learn. Not to mention keeping pretty busy in a support role. I felt like a real wimp this morning when Hannah was foraging for food while I was exhausted in bed. Those hormones are powerful things.

We returned home at about 5 PM today after some relaxation and baby & mother health checking. Oscar and Hannah received coaching on breast feeding. Tomorrow and Sunday we get follow up home visits. In the meantime we monitor baby vitals: blood pressure, breathing, poops, peas, and feedings. So far so good, we have much to learn especially with diaper changing. After about 3,000, I'm sure we will be experts.

And now for what you really want the pictures -

Not today :)

For those interested in the progress (or lack of) over the weekend . . . .

After a brisk walk Saturday late afternoon, I was encouraged by some new and stronger evening cramping, but I managed to sleep it off and woke up Sunday ready to go out for a big breakfast and with no cramps at all.

This morning (Monday) we went to a midwife appointment and spent some time doing a non-stress test (normal for post term) which monitors heart rate of baby, and can also monitor my contractions to see how the baby responds to the contractions. To encourage contractions I was hooked up (much to mike's entertainment as he has been looking forward to this) to the breast pump. Apparently this stimulation can cause contractions and even labor if the body is ready. I guess my body isn't ready. We went out to lunch and then came back later in the afternoon so as to spend several hours on the monitor to see what was happening.

This session was a bit more insightful. I can barely feel them, but records show that i'm having mild contractions every 2-5 min and that the baby is doing just fine with them.

So, at almost two weeks past due, there are some things to help nudge things along. I'm taking Evening Primrose oil to encourage cervical ripening. And a nasty tasting tincture of Partridge Berry, Cramp Bark and Black Cohosh (or Mitchella repens, Viburnum opulus & Cimicifuga racemosa for all you botany buffs) to encourage uterine contractions. And the exciting part was I had an accupuncture session that involved placing needles in my feet, calves, hands and ears.

So, the waiting continues. I seem to recall uttering something around the new year that I was to practice mindful patience as a new years resolution.

Anyday now most likely

Appointment with the midwife today. Hannah assures me something has changed and there will be squirting of the baby by Sunday. So I just bought groceries in case she is right.

So far the birth missed the Superbowl (which didn't matter because the Packers didn't make it there). Also missed a big snow storm.

Even shoveling did not trigger birth. For the record the husband tried to dissuade the stubborn wife not to shovel.







My sister thoughtfully sent some pictures to make sure we don't get too anxious for the little bugger...

Maybe tomorrow or the next day or the next day

Hmm....Visited the midwife today. Everything is OK. Next appointment is Friday.

What to do?

This is sort of like planning a wedding then postponing indefinitely maybe for the next moment.

Hannah and I have both been diligent wrapping things up at work. So much so that with waiting we have to dig work back out.

It is not as if we are ready, it is just at some point one is ready enough.

Haven't seen this but maybe I should "The Business of Being Born"

And all this waiting also reflects why some need to schedule everything even birth