Leo...not so impressed with our efforts to dress him up...



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First- we are all ok now. Need to say that first.

Ok... About an hour ago I was sitting on the couch, Leo asleep beside me, Justin at his desk across the room. Leo was waking up, giving drowsy-eyed looks around and up at me. Then he made a face and started spitting up.(Last feeding was abt 2 hours ago- so not right after a feed or anything) I reached over to turn him to his side and called J to grab a tissue and come catch it before it got all over the couch.
Leo took a deep breath to cry and inhaled his own spit up.
And all of a sudden, he couldn't breathe. His face started turning red-purple as he was struggling to breathe, his eyes got huge, his back arched and he arched back his head.
Justin grabbed him and turned him head-down upside-down and we start whacking him on the back.
He's still unable to breathe, spit-up frothing at his mouth, so I (thinking "suction him out") put my mouth over his nose and mouth and sucked the spit up out of him, spitting it out and repeating
- I think I did it 3 times in all but I wasn't counting- I just kept doing it til he took a gasp of air.
He started gasping and continuing to spit up so we turned him over to let the rest of it come out. At the same time, poor baby released his bowels completely- he was so scared...
He stopped spitting up and his breathing returned to normal in about 5 minutes. We cleaned up his diaper and he curled up with his knees up and his hands in front of him- like a fetal position- I presume that was his way of self-soothing and trying to feel safe. Justin and I took turns holding him and comforting him (and ourselves!) until he fell completely asleep as J was holding him. He never cried once during or after any of this. Which was scaring me, so I kept saying "Make him cry" but J didnt think we should traumatize him any further so we just comforted him and watched his breathing.
He seems fine now- waking up from his nap, looking around like it was just a bad dream. Mommy and Daddy are still traumatized.
Scariest fucking moment of my life. Seriously.

B

More pics are up on my flickr page of the ever-adorable baby Leo...here's the link.

And here are a few pics:
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Some at my Flickr account and some at Justin's flickr account.

And here is one...

There is probably TMI here for anyone who doesn't want to know the gory details about birth. So just be warned...

Leo Duncan Mapes was born at 7:10 PM on Monday, January 11, 2010 after 7 hours induced labor and an emergency C-section.
The induction was expected, the C-sec wasn't.

I had been trying to avoid the induction and trying to figure out how to induce naturally, but my ever-increasing high blood pressure was making it dangerous for me to keep waiting on baby to make his appearance naturally. So I agreed to the doctor's suggestion of an induction at 41 weeks, 1 day (a week and a day after his due date.)

We showed up to the hospital for the induction at 9AM Monday morning. We got checked in and I got my vitals taken. My initial bp reading when we got there was high- as usual these days, so they arranged put me on a bp medication IV when I transferred to the labor and delivery room.
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I guess I'm gonna be having a baby tomorrow...

I report at the hospital at 9 AM to get this whole induction thing started. I will attempt to Tweet some info - or have Justin tweet for me- as things develop. Provided we can figure out how to get his hacked iphone to tweet properly via our VPN if we can't get a wifi connection and need to rely on the Chinese data plan on his phone.

I probably won't be back on LJ until sometime later this week. Depends on how things go, I guess.

I'm fairly excited, slightly annoyed that I have to do the induction and otherwise pretty much at the point of "OK, let's get this done already."
I realized last night that the extent of my hypertension-caused swelling has indeed reached the point of "can't wait any longer" so I'm resigned to the medical necessity of forcibly evicting baby tomorrow.
My watch, normally about 5 links loose, was cutting into my wrist last night.

My cute cloth boots- which I bought a full size too big two months ago are too tight to fit. Literally- the right boot tore in the back when trying to force it on my foot. Everyone is amused that it is now being held together by gaffer tape. (Well, I'm not going to buy new huge boots that will be too big a few days from now!)

My face has started to swell, which is one of those "bad sign" things and my fingers swell so much when I'm sleeping that I can't close my hands into a fist until I rub my arms for a few minutes to get my circulation going.

Yeah, I need to get this done before I end up in a hypertensive seizure.
Sorry kid, it's eviction time.

B

I give up on the twelve days this year. I totally dropped the ball, mainly because I totally have NOT dropped this baby yet! I'll try to get it all done next year when I'm not immensely pregnant and dealing with medical issues.

They are inducing me on Monday if he doesn't make his appearance before then. Which I am not looking forward to. I'm generally really of the mindframe to avoid induction unless there is some serious medical reason. Except, damn, there IS a serious medical reason- my blood pressure absolutely refuses to go down. I've been on bp meds the last two weeks and it's pretty much stuck up there at 150/90. (I should be under 140/80 range) It's not preeclampsia, because there's no protein from my kidneys and I've had high bp from day one of the pregnancy.

So they're letting me have until Monday to see if he will come on his own, but I'll be at just over 41 weeks at that point, so they're not risking another week with high blood pressure.
Honestly, in the US they probably would have pushed for induction already. I'm fairly lucky they've let me go 40+ weeks with hypertension. Also, if they found protein in my urine, I'd be induced immediately. But since its chronic hypertension instead of pregnancy-induced, they're being patient and letting me get monitored multiple times a week instead.

At least my blood sugar seems to be stabilized.(Which was the other concern, since I also have mild gestational diabetes)

Meanwhile, I am trying very hard to convince the baby that he really wants to come out before Monday. I keep telling him that he will have much more room to move and stretch since its getting quite tight in there. He's unconvinced thus far. Either that or he's just a lazy baby.


I guess the good news is, no matter how things go, sometime before next Tuesday I'll have my baby out.

Oh, and happy Epiphany everyone- welcome to Carnival season!

B

I put up some more pics on my flickr of me preggo at 39 weeks.
Here is the link to the whole set (which includes some from earlier)


I think this one is my favorite:


B

Ok, so I've missed some in here. And it's not like I can use the "I'm pregnant" excuse since being pregnant gives me license to sit around on the couch updating my LJ whenever I feel like it.

It's just that I keep falling asleep whenever I'm just sitting on the couch!

Anyway...here's what we've missed:

December 30- Six geese a laying
December 31- Seven swans a swimming
January 1 - Eight maids a milking

And we've reached the end of the food!
Everything up until this point has been destined for the dinner table- which means the menu consists of lots of birds and some milk.
I'm presuming there was something else involved that just isn't in the song...such as, say, plum pudding. Or even better the Galette de Rois, aka The King Cake, for the Twelfth night celebrations on the eve of the Epiphany.

Oh, and Happy New Year everyone!

B

Day five.
Golden rings.
Ring-necked pheasants, not rings you wear.
It's apparently all about the birds.


Sorry today's is short- I'm tired and need to go to sleep.

B