Friday, October 31, 2008

Pirate Toby and Baby Brother

Bris Milah

We've scheduled his bris for next Wednesday at noon, and found a mohel -- David Bolnick.  We're pretty excited.  My parents are cancelling dad's meetings and flying in for it. 

One more day

The doc said it was up to us whether we wanted to go home, or stay another day.  He recommended staying another day, since preemies sometime regress on the eating/weight loss front between days three to five.  Strangely, I thought he had said yesterday that they regressed after the first twenty four hours.  We decided it was better to stay an extra day now, rather than risk having to go back on the weekend, when there would be less going on.  So Jen and Elijah are bunking down for a (hopefully) last night at the hospital. 

They like the babies not to lose more than 10% of their body weight before they start gaining, and Elijah lost 3% the first day, and 2% the second day.  They weighed him at 2 this afternoon, and he was up 1g day over day.  So hopefully that means that he's started to gain.  He is doing a good job eating, although Jen has to supplement her milk with formula.  All in all, I can't imagine any stats which would make him more likely to go home.  So I am pretty bullish on release tomorrow. 

Car seat check

This morning, they told jen that they wanted to do a car seat check before she can leave...that sounds like a good sign. I think that's the last step before releasing the baby. Hopefully we can go to Trix and Treats at Amazon this afternoon with the whole family!

Thursday, October 30, 2008

A smooth day

The boy did a good job of breastfeeding today, and he only lost 3% of his weight overnight last night (<10% is good).  So we are cautiously optimistic that he will be discharged tomorrow.  If not tomorrow, most likely Saturday unless something goes awry.  We are now trying to schedule a Bris for next Wednesday.  We are in need of a mohel.  Please send me any suggestions. We've got three names who we're chasing down, so hopefully one of them will work out.

The morning after

Just talked to Jen.  She got to feed Elijah last night at 10, 2:30 and 5.  Fun.  He is a little frustrated that he can't get more milk faster...impatient little bugger.  He was very mad after all the feeding, he spit up his hard-earned milk.  She thinks there's a good chance that Elijah will be discharged from the nursery and moved into her room today.  That's pretty exciting, since it means all his systems are working right and he's getting enough to eat.  They will probably wait another day or two before sending everyone home.
We're hoping that they will let him out in time for Trick or Treats at Amazon on Friday afternoon.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Toby meets TLB

Baby's first poop!

Elijah just had his first diaper change...one step closer to home...

Welcome Elijah Gabriel!


20.5 inches
6 lb 8 oz
7:19 am

New baby

So about 6:20 the doc came in and said "there have been new developments". it turned out that jen was so far dilated that she could do a vaginal birth or c section, our choice. We went with vaginal birth and about 7:20 we had a baby. He's over 6 lb, and mom and baby are doing fine. His name is elijah gabriel glick.

They just came to update me.

They're working on getting the epidural in, and the doc is looking for a "rabbit suit" for me.

Jen's in the wheelchair..

Heading for the OR. They've asked me to hang out in the exam room til she gets the epidural. But I've been assured that I will get to be there for the c section. Apparently Dr. Easterling (the blood pressure guy at the high risk clinic) is the attending, and will be doing the c section. He was our friends' (the silvers) doc, so we at least know his name by association.

They say about T-15.

The resident is here...

She's gonna check the cervix to see what's the story...5cm dilated. She feels a head. She's asking questions about a consent form. I nurtured her a little. She said we should be able to start cutting within 30 minutes.

I just heard the nurse say "30 minute C section in exam 1"

Looks like we're having a baby.

Jen woke up this morning about 4am, and had contractions at 3:57, 4:04, 4:10, 4:16, 4:21, 4:26. So we called the hospital and headed in. We got here just before 5. She's now (5:30) in the exam room and the nurse just strapped the monitor on. They took her bp and it says 144/97, so the nurse went to get a doctor.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Home Again

Jen came home this afternoon, and is laying on the couch trying to relax. They've set a C-section date of 11/1o, unless she goes into labor before then, in which case we'll have a baby. Since the last time she came home, she went into labor, we are expecting a baby pretty soon. Stay tuned.

Home again?

Well the talk of sending me home has started up again. They took me off the anti-labor, anti-hypertensive last night and so far so good. The merry band of doctors who rounded this morning promised they'd consult Dr. Brown before making any decisions. We'll see what they report.

The sock knitting continues:

Monday, October 27, 2008

35 Weeks and counting

Sylvia came by last week and brought me a mobile for the baby. It's this cool metal thing that you can hang pictures from. Well, right now the baby and I are technically sharing a room, so I hung some notecards from it. Unfortunately the only thing I could hang it from was an i.v. pole. But they cheer up the room.




Sunday, October 26, 2008

Still waiting

One of the doctors (the attending from the ante-partum ward) came by this morning to tell jen that she didn't know what Dr. Brown's plan is, but that she wasn't going to interfere. So I guess we'll here more form Dr. Brown tomorrow.

Toby and I went over this afternoon for 3:00 snack at the cafeteria...yummy mac and cheese. And to take jen some more provisions. That's the highlights.

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Still no news

No new word from the doctors on when we'll have a baby.  Jen is almost to 35 weeks, so we're thinking it might be soon.  Also thinking that more time in the belly is good for the baby, so we're happy to wait a little while longer.

Friday, October 24, 2008

No news is.... no news

Quiet day today. Cari came by for a long visit (yay!) and Jennifer, Collin and Jack came by too! Toby is looking forward to trick and treating tomorrow afternoon at the Greenwood-Phinney Halloween Safe trick or treating. You can see him rehearsing at http://www.vimeo.com/1833304

Shabbat Shalom

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Ultrasound today!

Today they looked at the baby's growth and amniotic fluid and everything looked A-OK.

I had some impressive contractions this afternoon and lots of general irritability. (The uterus not me. Though I wasn't thrilled either.)


This is what a happy baby and pissed off uterus look like. The nurses have named TLB the happiest baby on the unit and the docs are calling me 'the contractor'. And not the kind that can fix your house and/or run away with your money.











The candy cane sox are done. Check out the awesomeness.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

No news today

No news this afternoon. It looks like we're heading for a term or term-ish baby. That's 36-37 weeks, we aren't expecting to go to 40. Jen would be bored out of her mind. Today Toby got stickers that said "stat" on them from the nurse at reception, rather than the normal plain stickers. That was the big moment of the day!

Good Morning



The Big Mountain was out to greet me this morning. The docs rounded and were very pleased with how things are going.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Thanks Michelle!

Thanks to Michelle and her boys for picking up Toby and feeding him dinner. Jen and I got to have a "romantic" dinner at the hospital cafeteria.

Quiet day

No news today. I got an egg crate for my bed mattress, which is great for the back and tailbone. Why doesn't everyone have one of these things?? Lori came to visit again, yay!

The sock knitting continutes.

A little excitement last night, but back to normal

I think Jen was worried that people were getting bored with the blog, so she went ahead and had some contractions last night. (This was also coincidental with Sylvia visiting, so I don't know...)
This morning the docs came around and checked her and declared the contractions to be "non-productive." So nothing of interest happening so far today.

Monday, October 20, 2008

Plan for the new week

Since the nifedipine is keeping my blood pressure well under control, the plan is to keep me on it and try and squeak out another week. Then re-evaluate at week 35. Good for baby, boring for everyone else. I might get some walking around privileges today since I have been so stable, which would be great for the legs and back!

Sunday, October 19, 2008

More nothing today.

Today was a quiet day at the hospital. Toby and I went over for lunch and he got to ride in the "mommy stroller." Tonight is the last night of nifedipine (we think) because we've finished 34 weeks. So maybe we'll have a more exciting day tomorrow. At least there will be more people running around the hospital bothering her. So we'll see what happens.

A nice surprise



when I opened my blinds today I saw Mt. Rainier. Nice!

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Field trip!



We got permission to take a family trip down to the cafeteria! What a fun outing for Jen. :)

PS. A year old blackberry doesn't take as good a picture as a new iPhone or a real camera.

Quiet Saturday morning

So far this morning, Jen has seen hide nor hair of anyone. No nurses, no doctors. I think she's enjoying the peace and quiet. Toby and I are headed over there in a few minutes. Anyone who is thinking that they might stop by, be warned that there is a Husky game about 400 feet away, which starts at 4pm. I hope they don't decide to deliver the baby then (not likely), or they will have to medivac me in. Come to think of it, that would be pretty cool.

On another note, yesterday the TLB site passed 1000 page views, from 172 visitors, from 16 countries and 32 states. Thanks everyone who is following along. The visitors from farthest away are from Istanbul, Turkey and Kowloon, Hong Kong. Crazy!

Friday, October 17, 2008

BP and knitting

I had a battery of cardiac tests today and the result of all of yesterday's and last night's and today's tests are that my blood pressure is a little high, it has jumped significantly in the last week, and it's unstable (all a little worrysome). There was something else that I didn't quite get about my cardiac output not properly adjusting to the demand of late pregnancy. Or some such. Good news is no sign of pre-eclampsia. But it looks like home bedrest has been declared 'not useful' (LOL).

Meanwhile, my bp has mellowed out a bit since I started my candy cane socks. There is nothing else here interesting enough to photograph so here they are:



Two at a time! On one needle! It feels like cheating, hee hee!

In for the duration?

This morning, the doctors came in and said Jen is doing fine.  they want to keep her in the hospital because hospital bedrest is more effective than home bedrest, since you do stuff at home that you wouldn't in the hospital...like make yourself lunch, etc.  So, they think she'll be there for a while.  We don't know if that's one week or three weeks.  apparently, she's not allowed to take nifedipene after 34 weeks (which is Sunday night), so if that is what is keeping her bp low, and her contractions under control, maybe we'll see some movement Monday. 
Also, 34 weeks is where there's a chance that the baby won't have a nicu stay, and can go to the nursery and then home.  So, we're kind of hoping to git 'r done and have the baby early next week.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Another boring afternoon

Jen's still over at the hospital. It was a quiet afternoon, and her BP went back down. Our guess is she'll be at the hospital til the baby's born, and that will be in the next week, but who knows.
Leah came over and hung out tonight, and that was fun.
That's about all there is to report.

Back again...

We just finished the NST at the clinic. Jen's blood pressure was about 134/89 and she was having some contractions during the NST. So the nurse checked with Dr. Brown and he said "two strikes" equals a trip upstairs. So we're in SS616 down the hall from her old room.
She's getting settled in, hospital robe etc. But they're giving her hospital pants too this time, and at least the robe has ties on the back.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Another quiet day

No news today, the baby's still in there. 
Tomorrow we go over to the hospital for the regularly scheduled NST.  We'll see if they try to admit her again....

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Got Medicine?


They really want me to stay pregnant.

Early morning update

Not really an update. She's sitting on the couch playing with her iPod, getting ready to enjoy some peace and quiet as toby and I go off to school and work.

Monday, October 13, 2008

Yay Lori!

We just got home and realized that we forgot to get the nifedipine (anti-contraction drug) at the pharmacy when we left. :( But we called Lori the HMIC at the NICU and she's gonna pick it up and drop it over here on her way home. Yayyyyy!

How quickly things change

This afternoon Jen's latest doc, Dr. Shope, came in and said they thought she's ok to go home.  Jen asked them if they'd talk to Dr. Brown.  They hadn't so they paged him, and he agreed.  So at 5:30 she was discharged.  Jen Pann picked up Toby at school (thanks Jen), and we all went over to the hospital.  We packed up three "Patient Belongings" bags and headed for the exit.

We're home now, and pretty happy about it.  It was pretty expected as she finally had all her stuff at the hospital so that was the ideal time to go home.  :(

So, if you were planning on going to visit Jen at the hospital, hold that thought.  I'm sure that she will be back their soon (about the time I have unloaded the Patient Belongings bags from the car.

I believe in teaching hospitals, but ......

it's like I am living in a circus. And the door to my room is the clown car door, pouring an endless stream of random doctors in.

Today a doc came in and said they are not worried about preterm labor with me. Um.... isn't that why I'm here?

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Toby excited to see TLB

People have been asking us if Toby's excited about having a little brother. Tonight before we left the hospital, he gave his little brother 7 kisses through mommy's belly button.

Thanks Dr. Sarah

One of our friends lent us a thinkpad for jen to use in the hospital.
As great as the iPhone is, it's still great for her to be online to
view pictures and real (not mobile) websites.
As for medical stuff, her contractions seem to have died down today.
Today we also have brought jen clothes so she doesn't have to wear the
hospital robe around. And Melinda made dinner for us and we brought
it to the hospital. A big improvement from hospital food!

We figure that jen has enough "homey" stuff in the hospital room now
that she's bound to have the baby soon. :)

That's about all the news today.

--
Sent from my mobile device

Updated blog features

No new news from Jen this morning. She said that the nurses ran an extra long NST last night, and told her to alert them if she saw blood or some other stuff. She was like "duh, of course." But we decided it's possible that not all patients are as smart as Jen.

You may or may not notice I added some new buttons at the bottom of each blog post, for reactions. You can vote "Yay!", "Boo!", or "Boring". Nothing will come of the votes, but Melinda took Toby to get coffee and somehow they ended up at the toy store so I'm waiting around. I think that Toby may have hoodwinked her.

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Friends came to visit today

Jenn Pengelly came to visit for her 2 week old baby (Jack?) this morning, Melinda, Toby and I went over for a few hours in the middle of the day. And Sarah Barrett (aka Madison, Christian and Lillian's mom) came over for the afternoon to keep Jen company. Melinda is going by the yarn store this afternoon and heading back for a low key evening of knitting.
Now that Jen's off the steroids, and the decision seems to have been made (for now) not to go home, there's a lot less hustle and bustle of nurses in and out of the room, which is a nice change.

Jen is wondering if anyone has an old laptop that she could use. She wants to transfer some photos off of the SD memory card in her new camera, and makes sure the camera takes good pictures. I would think 7MP is enough, but better to verify. Jeff Smith will not be happy if we're not happy with our purchase.

Sorry no more interesting news about TLB. But sometimes no news is good news.

Sticking around at the hospital

Dr. Brown came by early this morning and told Jen that he had reviewed all the strip charts from her NST's and that she seems to be getting more unstable. So it looks like she's in the hospital for the duration now. It could change, and we don't know what the duration is. We expect that the upper bound is about three weeks (she's at 33 weeks now) but that it will be less than that.

Funny story, and hope to come home

We'd been hearing for the last several days that they would take Jen off the anti-contraction drugs friday night, and that if she didn't have contractions she could come home. Dr. Rothberg told us that if she had to stay on the anti-contraction drugs, she should stay in the hospital.
This afternoon, she had a Non Stress Test (NST) where they put the monitors on her belly. The good news was the baby's heartbeat was strong. The bad news was that the monitors caused contractions (even with the anti-contraction meds). So we were thinking that she's probably stuck in the hospital for a while.
Then Dr. Brown showed up and said "the NST looks good, you should be able to go home soon." And we said "Dr. Rothberg said she'd have to stay if we saw contractions." Dr. Brown said "You're my patient and this is not a Democracy. You'll be able to go home on the anti-contraction meds, and probably we'll discharge you tomorrow." We then told him that the nurse was worried about the contractions and she was going to come back and redo the test. He said "I'll take care of that," and left. We didn't see the nurse again.
Then the night doc came along, Dr. Debiec, with a resident in tow. She introduced herself, and asked if we needed anything. Jen told her that the nurse was going to redo the test but never came back. She offered to go get the nurse back in there to do the test. I then told her that Dr. Brown (between the time that the nurse said she would come back and the time she didn't come back) said that we didn't need to redo the test. And she said "well, if Dr. Brown said so, that's what we'll do."
Thus, Jen's comment that Dr. Brown rocks.
We think that he may have "nurtured" someone in the hospital. (that's amazon-speak for yelling at them).
That's all for tonight. We expect Jen to be home tomorrow, under the supervision of her personal physician Dr. Menezes (Melinda, our doctor friend who is staying with us). '

Friday, October 10, 2008

Ha Ha! My Doc rocks!

If my hand wasn't killing me from the iv, I'd type all about it. I have to leave that story up to Dave.

A nice birthday present



No baby today. Good job, baby.

Another boring day

Jen is still doing well, no contractions and the baby's still inside. Tonight the steroids will be all done and they will put her back on her regular insulin regimen.
They're going to also take off the anti-contraction meds. Tomorrow morning they'll try a "non-stress test" to make sure the baby's ok. If they can do that without contractions, we may go home. If not, she'll go on anti-contraction meds and hang out here.

Our friends aaron and patty are coming by to visit tonight, so that should allay some of the boredom for a few hours.

Friday morning update

Another boring night at the hospital for Jen (that's a good thing). Her blood sugar went up a little overnight, to about 150, but came back down with the insulin drip early this morning.
Melinda had an uneventful flight in, and is now wrangling Toby. She got him to empty the silverware from the dishwasher, which is better than I can do.
Efrem and Cari came by and picked up Toby to go to gymnastics this morning, so all is quiet here.

We are hoping that Jen might be able to come home this evening, but the doc has tried to lower our expectations to coming home over the weekend.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Dr. T

Dr. Toby saves the day

Our friend Lori brought Toby a junior doctor kit and he is enjoying helping me "get better".

Test mobile post

I think I've just configured the TLB blog to accept mobile posts. If so, I'll be able to post from the hospital room or anywhere else via my BB.

Wrap up of today

Today was a very boring day...and that's a good thing. No contractions today (she's on meds to stop the contractions). And she got her second (of two) shot of steroids this afternoon. So the next steps are:
1) Let the steroids take effect (takes 24 hours after the second shot is given).
2) Bring blood sugar back under control, once the steroids have worked their magic. Apparently the 'roids induce high blood sugar, so they have her on an IV insulin rather than boluses. Patients are usually back to normal by 24 hours after the second shot.
3) Take her off the drugs which stop contractions.
4) See if she has contractions. If she does, they will put her back on the meds and keep her there. If not, she can go home.

If all 4 steps go well, she can come home. By my calculations, that could be as soon as friday afternoon, but Dr. Rothberg thinks we should plan to be there into the weekend, if not through the weekend.

Toby and I spent pretty much all day at the hospital and Toby and Jen played with the numbers ad nauseam.

That's all the news for today, except that Melinda (Dr. Menezes) is coming tonight to help us wrangle the boy. Maybe we can tell the docs that Jen will be under a physician's care for the weekend, and she can get special dispensation to come home.

Admitting

One funny moment from today:
Mary Jean from admitting came down to the room today to get a care consent and let us know they're a teaching hospital. And to give permission to bill insurance. I'm glad that we agreed because we would've had to take back a day's worth of care had we not.

Morning update

Just talked to Jen. She said contractions have stopped. That's good news. She still has to stick around the hospital til tomorrow so that the steroids can have the full effect, but she can potentially come home after that.

When the mom's away...

This isn't about TLB, but funny nevertheless (at least I think so). In our house there is a clear pecking order.
Mom = Alpha
Toby = Beta
Dad = Gamma
(btw, I've been told by a friend that soon there will be TLB = Gamma, and Dad = Delta)
So what happens when the Alpha is ooth? Toby came in this morning at 6:35 and said "can I come up in the big bed so we can snuggle." This was very cute, and I said "sure." What I later found out was that this means "I'm gonna come up and lay on your side of the bed, and you can lay on mom's side of the bed if you want to, or else get out of the bed."

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Quick update on the meds

For those of you doctors out there...the name of the drug to stop the contractions is nifedapine and the steroids are betamethizone. These may or may not be spelled right, but I am trying to be detail-oriented in the blog. Other than a very uncomfortable bed, Jen is doing ok and the contractions have gone away for now. Yay!

The next day...

So, we went home Monday night.  Jen spent the evening on the couch, then onto the bed.  Everything seemed to be going along swimmingly, although it was pretty boring.  She was very happy that she had her new iPhone, so she could do email, listen to tunes, and play games without getting off of the couch.  (the games on the iPhone, btw, suck).  Tuesday morning, we got Toby signed up for school five days a week for the next few weeks (except not this one).  We expected her to be on home bedrest for the next few weeks, so it would be good for Toby to have folks to play with while I'm at work. 
Tuesday night, Jen had some blood in her urine, so she called the LD hotline.  The nurse said that this may have been due to all the tests and exams from Monday disturbing stuff.  Call back if it happened again.  It didn't on Tuesday night.  She also said call the clinic on Wednesday morning to tell them about it (this was just the after hours line).  She called the clinic Wed morning and they said no big deal, call us if it happens again.  About noon, she again had blood in her urine.  The nurse said since she had called three times that she must be nervous, and that she should come in.  (Of course she had called three times because they had told her to).  So she called me at work and we went into the hospital again.  She got all checked in and the monitors strapped on her, and lo and behold contractions had started again.  Lori came over again to make sure we were all squared away, and she brought a kids doctor kit for Toby to play with when he came over.
 The doctor (I didn't get her name) did an exam and found that Jen was dilated 1cm.  So they prescribed steroids to increase lung development, some pills to stop the contractions and insulin drip to counteract the increased blood sugar from the 'roids.  Unfortunately, although the 'roids were prescribed at 12:30 they still weren't there from the pharmacy until after 4:30.  Dr. Rothberg (I think, I will check) came to check on us then, and called the pharmacy to get them sent up ASAP.  Since they consist of two shots (24 hours apart) and they take a total of 48 hours to get the full effect, we want to make sure that we get the full effect before the baby is born.  We are hoping to hold on at least 48 hours, so 4 hours was a big deal to me.  Long story short, she got the 'roids for lung development at abour 5pm, and the pills to stop the contractions at 7, 7:30 and 8.  And the insulin is now running. I picked up Toby at 5:45 and brought him over.  He got in bed with mommy and played with his stethoscope and bandaid and thermometer. 
In one way, serendipity smiled on us.  A couple who we know is in the room next door to us waiting for their baby to be born, most likely prematurely.  Their daughter is 3 years old, and loves...wait for it...Dora!  So we are planning a play date for tomorrow afternoon for her and Toby.  We and they may be there for some time, so it might be nice to have some friends in the same hallway. 
Tomorrow is Yom Kippur so I will be fasting and watching over the boy.  We plan to spend some time over at the hospital and maybe meet up with Chris' sister for coffee or something...since I don't drink coffee, that's about perfect since I am fasting.  Tomorrow night Melinda is coming to visit us from Hawaii so she and I will share Toby watch on Friday and over the weekend. 

Introduction to Toby's Little Brother -- TLB

Hi all, today's Wednesday, 10/9.  I'm gonna try to chronicle the what will likely be an epic journey to birth of Toby's Little Brother.  We're in Week 32 right now, and Jen's on hospital bedrest for now.  The journey actually started two days ago.  Jen has had once a week doc's appointments at UW for as long back as I can remember.  She started this week with twice a week "non-stress tests" to make sure that the baby is healthy.  On Monday they did the first one.  They strapped on the baby heartbeat gear, and lo and behold, contractions!  So she called me at lunchtime (I was at Tropics, the thai place in the ID) and said "they're going to admit me."  So they admitted her to Labor and Delivery (LDR2) at UW, and strapped monitors to her.  They put in IV fluids, and the contractions went away.  One positive note is that Labor and Delivery is about 40 feet from the NICU where we're old hands.  Lori Chudnosky, who is a friend of ours as well as being HMIC in the NICU nursing staff, came by and made sure that all was kosher and that we are friends of hers.  We don't know if we got better service because of this, but I'm sure it didn't hurt.  After a long few hours at the hospital, Dr. Brown, her OB, came by and said she could go home.  "I want to get another four weeks out of this pregnancy," quipped Dr. Brown.  "You are now on home bedrest, and you should not be doing anything at home that you wouldn't be doing in LDR2 at UW.  No cleaning, no cooking, etc.  I'm saying this in front of your husband so that he knows too."  So, we loaded Jen up in a wheelchair and took her back to the car and then home. For the rest of the night she sat on the couch, transferred to the bed and slept.  As we explained to Toby "Mommy is only allowed couch, bed, potty, doctor."