Tuesday, February 21, 2006

1 Week Old

Miriam is a week old now and we are finding that she is a very calm baby. She mostly likes to sleep, and sleep and sleep. Here's a shot from tonight sleeping at her favorite old hangout - mommy's tummy.



Here's a cute bath shot:



She's really a very content baby, never really crying unless there is something wrong. Mom has to wake her up when it's time to feed, and she is doing much better at letting us sleep half way through the night.

Grandma and grandpa Henderson have been with us for the last week and a half. We have thoroughly enjoyed spending time with them and the kids have enjoyed their time walloping their grandpa and cuddling with their grandma. They are headed back to Europe tomorrow, we'll miss them but look forward to seeing them again in May when they'll be here for a few months.

One of Abigail's favorite activities has been to play beauty school with grandpa.







Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Coming home

I brought the girls home from the hospital last night, Miriam is now sleeping peacefully in the infant seat which is sitting on the coffee table in front of me. Christina is sleeping as well, it seems that Miriam wanted to be up from midnight through most of the night. Christina took the brunt of it since she's the food source, but kicked me a few times to get out of bed and help here and there. That's how newborn life is for awhile.

Here is a precious picture of mom and baby yesterday before we left the hospital, baby Miriam with her valentines blanket:

Monday, February 13, 2006

Baby Miriam has been born!

Baby Miriam decided to join our family on Saturday, February 11, at 5:42 in the evening.

Here is mom 6 days before giving birth, any guesses as to the size of baby in there?



Miriam was a 10lb (0 oz) baby! Huge! 21.25" long. Here's Christina with her less than an hour after the birth.



And Miriam showing off her chub at her first bath...



And me, the proud daddy...



Now for the full scoop, it's quite the story: (more pictures below)

Christina was just a few days beyond her due date but the doctor called her in on Friday afternoon to monitor the baby for a little while. My mom (my parents had just flown in that afternoon) accompanied Christina to the test. The test got longer as they went, the doctors kept wanting to observe the baby for more and more time, by the time I got the kids in bed Christina called and told me to come down the hospital - they now had her on a light petosin drip and wanted to monitor her through the night and see if any labor developed. I packed the bags, made sure that the house was ready for my absence and arrived at the hospital at 10:30 Friday night. Christina had a fever which was causing the baby's heart rate to drop or spike during the contractions (thus the continued monitoring). The contractions were about 15 minutes apart, but too heavy for Christina to be able to sleep through, so the nurse knocked her out with a sleeping pill which gave us about 4 hours of sleep before the stronger contractions woke her up, now ten minutes apart. By noon we were moved into the birthing room. By now her fever was cleared and the baby's heart beat was doing fine.

Christina was now ready for an Epidural, she had been laboring for quite some time and it was hurting pretty bad. They also had her on the Petosin which was making the labor harder on her. The doctor made her a deal - we're going to up the Petosin and get this baby moving fast but we'll give you an epidural so you can get some rest again. The first epidural attempt hit a vein, the second attempt caused her an enormous amount of pain. The third epidural went in fine and they began dosing it up. The plan was that Christina would be able to get relief from the epidural and rest for a few hours so I took off to grab some lunch since I hadn't had any food since the previous evening. I arrived back to find that the epidural medication wasn't taking at all - they had increased the meds to the max - the same level they use for cessarians - but there was absolutely no numbing, not even a tingling in her toes. Poor girl was now thoroughly tubed into her bed and couldn't move around, but all tubes going into her weren't helping things out - she did great though. By now the full dose of Petosin had kicked in and Christina was feeling every bit of it!

Progress was slow and painful. The whole morning of labor was spent getting from 2 to 3 centimeters, and then the afternoon's work brought us to 6cm, and then despite the intensity of the contractions we didn't seem to be getting anywhere. Every check brought about a measurement of 6cm. Around 5:30 Christina told the nurse that she was pushing, so the midwife came and checked here again - this time at 7cm, with the baby still too far up to break the water safely - OK, honey, just keep on going, you're doing good. Right then Christina's dad called the the front desk to get a report, the nurse told him things were a little tough, but it was still an hour or two until delivery.

The next contraction hit less than thirty seconds after the midwife had checked her at 7cm, the water broke on this contraction, the nurse ran out of the room to grab the midwife, and as they both ran in the baby's head had already crowned. Christina did her best to hold back against the contraction, the midwife had just enough time to put on her gloves before the contraction ended and the whole baby was out! So much for the one to two hours.

Going from 7cm to 16cm dialation hurts a body pretty hard, so it took awhile to get Christina repaired and put back together. But boy was she delighted to have it over and meet her new little ten pound baby girl.

That first night Miriam was just a squeaker, but tonight she found her voice, I'm sure it will get even louder over the next few days. She spent about an hour this morning in my arms just looking around at everything - in fact I got to spend most of the day holding her while Christina rested - Miriam doesn't seem to like to be in her bassonet alone, I think I've already spoiled her by bouncing her around on my shoulder throughout the day. She's a cute little thing.

She had plenty of visitors today - David and Abigail both got to hold their new sister...







Here's all three Henderson kids with Grandma Debbie...



And my parents and grandmother with Miriam...



And a final shot of 4 generations together....



Christina will probably come home from the hospital tomorrow, I'll try to keep this blog posted with what's happening.

Friday, February 10, 2006

Headed to the hospital

Christina has been at the hospital undergoing some baby tests this afternoon and the doctors want her to stay overnight. So I'm headed over there to swap places with my mother who has been with her. The contractions are coming harder, so maybe it's time for Mariam to be born! We'll keep you posted here on the blog.

Monday, February 06, 2006

Getting back to baby

I thought I would let everyone know that I am feeling much better. Between Adriel and my mom I was well taken care of and I am so glad to be nearly better now. I hope to be fully recovered in a day or two. Now we have to convince our youngest child that it is time to make her appearance! I am still resting a great deal but that comes with being at this stage in pregnancy. Thank you for all of your prayers for my health. If you could spare a few of those prayers to motivate this baby that would be great.

To David's great delight school is out for the month of February. I think he has been a little bored but he is to wise to have said anything. Once the baby is born and Daddy is home I think he will be helping with some projects so the boredom shouldn't be a factor anymore. He has worked hard since August and not taken off all the breaks most kids get. I am very proud of him and he deserves this time to goof off a bit.

Thursday, February 02, 2006

In 5...4...3...

My friend Damon, video producer extraordinare, and his troupe have put out a new short film. It's called "Forgive and Fuggetaboutit" - let the story develop and prepare to laugh! Here's the link: http://www.mindseyeproduction.com/movies/ForgiveandFuggetaboutitPreview.wmv

In other news...

Christina yesterday was busy having contraction 45 minutes apart, but then came down with the flu that David had over the weekend. The contractions stopped while her fever came up. So now she's recovering from the flu, and here's hoping that the contractions don't start again until the fever goes away and the strength comes back. (I am hoping that I don't come down with it, else I will not be able to be at the delivery).

Also, Christina's mom just landed a new job - congratulations!