Hi baby!
Good news! One of your future best friends, TiVo, sent you some presents. (They think Daddy is funny or something, so they decided you deserve gifts. They’re right!)
They sent us this pouch:
… inside of which was this adorable TiVo hat, bib, and booties:
I had to officially give up on wearing my engagement and wedding rings as of two days ago. My fingers are just puffy enough that it hurts to put them on and it is nearly impossible to take them off again.
We had our weekly appointment with the doctor today. The baby sounds healthy and I’m doing very well – no dilation yet. The only interesting tidbit was that although I am currently 35 weeks, 3 days pregnant, I am measuring about 2-3 weeks ahead of that. This is nothing to be alarmed about from a medical perspective. In my crazy, anxious world, however, this can only mean I am either going to go into labor earlier than my due date…or give birth to a GIANT baby.
Oh my!
We like CentraState, the hospital where our baby girl will be born.
You stay in one room throughout labor, delivery, and recovery. It’s a great room, with a fold-out bed for me, a TV with remote for Lauren to control, nice lighting, a mirror for Lauren’s viewing pleasure, our own bathroom… Good stuff.
You move to a postpartum room, which is also all yours, and has a similar setup, with fewer medical supplies. All designed to feel kinda cozy, like home. Only hospitalier.
But my favorite part about the hospital is the security system. Mother, father, and baby are all tagged with bracelets containing microchips. Both parents must show their bracelets match to leave with the baby at the end of the hospital stay.
And if someone tries to take the baby out of the maternity ward, alarm bells ring. Elevators freeze. Doors lock. The National Guard swoops in. Not even Elvis could leave the building.
I certainly wouldn’t ever consider swiping my own baby just to see the system in action. Never. But I would, without too much guilt, imagine what that would be like.
(In my mind, doctors swoop in from the ceilings on zip lines. And they’re wearing those old school headbands with mirrors on them. Good stuff.)
We had an “eventful” night last night. Since Thursday morning, the baby had not been moving as much or as strongly as she had been previously, though she was still moving. After work on Friday, I called the doctor’s office just to ask if that was okay or if I needed to be seen, and they decided to send me over to CentraState to have a non-stress test. I think the name of the test is misleading – I was definitely not relaxed about this whole thing!
Thankfully, the test showed that the baby was fine – her heartbeat was strong and regular, and of course she started moving like crazy the second they hooked me up to the monitor. However, the test also showed that I was having regular contractions every few minutes. I couldn’t feel them at all, but the doctor on call from our practice, Dr. Dimino, was less than thrilled about them anyway. He checked to make sure I wasn’t dilating at all (in what had to be the MOST painful internal exam I have ever had) and I wasn’t, so that was good, at least, but the contractions kept coming. His first plan of attack was to have me drink a lot of water and see if that changed anything, but it didn’t. He was on the fence about whether I needed to stay for continued observation, but instead he decided to give me a shot of something called Brethine to try to stop the contractions. Brethine is a medication that falls into the same group as adreneline, but it relaxes smooth muscles like those found in the uterus. The injection burned, as the extremely pleasant nurse warned me it would, and I felt very jittery after it took effect. It finally stopped the contractions, and after about 3 1/2 hours total of being there they let me and Lex go home. I already had an appointment scheduled with Dr. Dimino on Monday anyway for a check-up, which works out well since before releasing us, he said he wanted me to come in on Monday – and that I should remind him he wants to do another internal exam while I’m there. Fun. Hopefully I’ll have stopped bleeding from the first one by then.
We’re glad everything turned out okay, of course – Lex and I had a great moment of sheer panic when we were sure that we would not be leaving the hospital without a baby in our arms and what were we going to do about the fact that we hadn’t even set up the bassinet yet?!? Ironically, we are going back to the hospital in about 2 hours from now, since we had our tour of the maternity ward scheduled today, but at least we know where to park now 
We also learned a very valuable lesson while there – it is REALLY cold in the hospital, so for goodness sake, bring a sweater!
On Wednesday, Lex and I met with a potential pediatrician for a newborn consult – basically, an interview to see if you like the pediatrician. This group practice came highly recommended to us from a source we trust – me! I had been a patient there from the time I was 7 or 8 until my parents’ insurance company told us I had to go see a “big girl” doctor.
When we arrived, the office staff asked us if we would mind waiting for a little while, since the doctor had just gotten called to deal with an emergency. We did not mind, and they gave us a new parents booklet which answered 90% of the questions we had been prepared to ask. We also enjoyed playing the free video games in the waiting room.
Eventually, we got to meet with Dr. Wolfe, who talked to us for a long time about everything we might expect from the second the baby is born until she’s in college. Both Lex and I felt very pleased with the practice. I was especially impressed that in our conversation, the subject of nursing while on Asacol (the medication I take for my ulcerative colitis) came up and after checking two sources he had on hand, Dr. Wolfe took down our number and the name of the medication to look into it further. Then he actually called us back THE NEXT DAY! That’s pretty good service, in my opinion.
So, my baby girl, the people who will be responsible for ensuring your health and sticking you with lots of sharp things (don’t worry, they’ll give you a lollipop afterwards) will be Allergy and Pediatric Associates of Freehold, NJ.
3 years of marriage +
1 soon-to-be-born baby girl =
lots of happiness
And when you factor in the Charlie coefficient, we’re having so much fun it hardly seems fair!
