My First Sight of Jack

Here's how Jack looked when I first saw him...I first saw the color pink (then exhaled) and then saw how handsome he was. He cried continuously during the first minutes of life and his apgars were 9 and 9!

The birth story would be way, way too long for one posting...you know my seem less rambling thoughts....so I'll give it in installments. Here we go...Mr. Tarheel & I had a visit with Dr. Tracy on Friday, Nov 30 with the plan to come back Monday, Dec 3rd for a NST/labs. Beforehand, I thought it could be that day, so I did pack my hospital bag (but unfortunately, I forgot to tell Mr. Tarheel to put it in the car...so we left it by the door that morning). The NST was normal and while we were waiting for the lab results to come back, we went to World Wraps, where I ate a nice steak burrito at 1130am (this insignificant detail becomes significant later:). When we returned to the office about noon to get the lab results, we noticed fire trucks around the administration building of Swedish and lots of people standing outside in the windy, pouring rain. The labs were mostly normal...platelets were low at 140K and uric acid above normal (officially) and increasing. Eva, Dr. Tracy's assistant, had called & told her my labs and she said she wanted to talk to us but couldn't leave the hospital b/c of some type of "electrical" fire in the hospital. Dr. Tracy wanted us to come back before 2:00pm to talk with her. So we went on a drive around Seattle, during the 2nd wettest day in Seattle's history, and guessed about what she was going to tell us. My guess was wrong....I thought she would say come back at the end of week again and maybe deliver next week. Mr. Tarheel dropped me off and after walking in to the office, I did not feel well. I asked Eva to take my BP again...earlier it had been 150/90 & stable. My BP was 168/100! Dr. Tracy came in & said...we need to have this baby....I said....today? The question was lung maturity...so she consulted her partner and the plan was to do an amnio to test for lung maturity and if mature, deliver. I had to ride in a wheelchair over to OB triage...which was initially weird but at least I wasn't short of breath, like when I was walking. I started worrying about the amnio but none of my fears were confirmed. It was less painful than a blood draw! Dr. Finch, radiologist, helped identify the best pocket of amniotic fluid and Jack held still and Dr. Tracy, aspirated (with a 22gauge needle...I had to ask) and the fluid was sent off stat, with the results usually taking 1-2 hours. My concept of time may not be precise, but I think the amnio was done about 3pm. So I started making my calls about what was happening....we knew we had to wait until my stomach was empty for 7-9 hours...so the delivery wouldn't be before 6:30pm.

More next time....Jack's waking up and I must go look into those beautiful eyes again!