Day 15 - Walking Milk Machine

9:35pm

Today is my day off this week. My only one, because I am going to work some overtime at a different store, on my other day off. We could use the extra income due to my wife being off of work. Looks like she might be off for 8 weeks now instead of the original 6. It's up to her doctor when to release her. 

This baby won't stop eating. What is normal for a two week old? She eats about 4oz every time we feed her. She is looking for food probably four or five times a day. But sometimes she spits some of it up afterwards. It's like her eyes are bigger than her stomach. Her dad seems to have this same problem. (The big eyes part, not spitting up). But she seems to always be hungry. I don't think babies are supposed to eat as much as she does. But then again, she does have a few chins to feed. She's quite the little chunker. 

Today I noticed that she doesn't really like when I hold her. It's either that, or she just favors her mom. Or coincidence that she was uncomfortable or something every time I held her. Today she just didn't want me to have her I guess. She would cry and cry. I had her diaper changed, she was fed, and burped. Still cried. Gave her to her mom and she was fine. 

Now I'm thinking, wait a minute? Does she not like her dad!? How could she not? I feed her all the time! I talk to her and change her. I kiss her. I hold her and comfort her. She better like me! I try to be the best dad I can be, but I think all kids are a little partial to their mothers. After all, mom is a walking milk machine, and I can't offer anything close to that. 

Mom has been a little crabby today. Baby, too. I don't know if the normal monthly women problems are in effect or not yet, this soon after being pregnant. But I like to blame it on that anyways. Maybe she has me trained? When I am in a bad mood, I tend to occupy my time with getting stuff done. This morning I cleaned the house, after being up most of the night with Brynlee so that mom could get some rest. Now it all makes sense.....

Week 39 Day 5 - Preeclampsia Scare

8:08pm



Well, we had quite an evening last night...


What started off with an easy morning of overtime, and then a great game of golf, turned in to most of the night at the hospital!

We had a doctor's appointment at 4:40pm. My wife didn't get home from work until about 4:20pm, and she had to change and then we had to get to the office, about 10 minutes away. So she rushed to change, and we hurried to the office. We were about 10 minutes late. (Normal for us, actually).

They always take her weight and blood pressure, and then do a vaginal exam to see how dilated she is. Yesterday she was at 1.5cm. And the baby's head was low, which is good. However, her doctor was concerned with her blood pressure.

It was somewhat high, and high blood pressure could be a sign of Preeclampsia.

Preeclampsia is a medical condition characterized by high blood pressure and significant amounts of protein in the urine of a pregnant woman. If left untreated, it can develop into eclampsia, the life-threatening occurrence of seizures during pregnancy. (Source - Wikipedia.com)

So, after a quick stop at KFC (because we need to eat!), we headed to the hospital. 

They took us into the Labor & Delivery wing, and gave us a room. About an hour went by before a nurse came in. My wife was ready to leave, because that is ridiculous. Turns out, they forgot about us, and the nurse that noticed, had just started her shift at the time that she discovered us. She was very nice and helpful, also knowledgeable. We were at the hospital from about 6pm to around 11pm.

A blood pressure monitor was hooked up to my wife's arm, a baby's heartbeat monitor to her belly, and they took a few vials of blood for testing. Oh, and urine, they took some of that, too. 

Her blood pressure fluctuated the whole time we were there. It would start to go down, but then next time the machine took a reading, it would be back up to risky levels. We thought that maybe because we had rushed to the doctor's appointment, that could cause the blood pressure to rise, and it could, along with a lot of other possibilities including diet, and stress.

Her blood results came back perfect. So her doctor decided that the hospital could release her, even though the blood pressure was still a little higher than normal. She is now required to save her urine, so that they can further test and monitor the situation. If preeclampsia becomes determined, the only real way to stop it is to deliver the baby. She would have to be induced.

She was also told that she is no longer allowed to work, and to take it easy. Bed-rest, basically. Her work already knows that she is due on Tuesday, and it's pretty surprising that she was able to work up until now. A lot of pregnant people stop in their 7th or 8th month of pregnancy. We got lucky. Plus, she makes more money than I do, so that helps!

Still no baby. She obviously stayed home from work today, and a few of her coworkers called to check on her. I thought that was nice of them. 

In other news... At 7:30am this morning, a drunken neighbor went on a rampage through the subdivision. He drove his truck into several parked cars, took down a few trees, hit some buildings, and drove through a garage. Finally ended up, in the parking spot in front of his condo, like nothing ever happened. He was arrested. I left at about 6:15am this morning, so luckily I made it out of there before it happened. My wife thinks that she heard it happen. She said there was a lot of loud noise around that time, and that she woke up. He didn't come by our place, so that's good. I just don't get how he did so much damage. He had a big Chevy truck, fairly new. I remember seeing it parked there the day before. Crazy.

Driver being arrested.

Every day is something different! Always some sort of excitement.