Pictures

As promised, here are some more photos:



Nancy's last belly pic





The fetal heart rate monitor that we stared at for 12 stressful hours










Nancy assuming "the position" i.e. the only position Jacob liked during labor




JKW's first photo


Our first family photo



Jacob's official weigh-in



milk drunk



Crashed out



Resemblance?

Jacob with M and Pa



Jacob with Grandma and Grandpa

Jacob with his Fauxhawk, thanks to Grandma

Ready to go home!

Makinley holding Jacob




Jacob's first bottle

Jacob with his cousin Makinley and Aunt Laura and Uncle Scottie

Chillin' in the swing

Jacob and his Mama

Jacob meets his cousins Brooke and Tyler and Aunt Danielle and Uncle Brandl

Jacob and his cousin Brookie

The indoctrination is starting early

Jacob Kyle Wiltshire

7 lb 13 oz
21 inches
7:35 pm 7/28/10

Well, Wednesday was interesting to say the least. Tuesday night they started trying to ripen the cervix to prepare for induction. They gave her three dose through the night...and NOTHING happened. That should have been the first sign that we were in for a wild ride.

They started the induction on Wednesday morning anyway. As soon as they started the Pitocin drip, Jacob's heart rate started dropping with each contraction. So they had to stop it for a while, then start it back slowly. The nurse finally figured out that the changes in the heart rate were not as drastic if Nancy was laying on her left side. Of course that meant that she had to lay on her left side, in the same position, without moving, for 12 hours. She did get an epidural as the contractions started hurting, but she was still pretty uncomfortable.

After 12 hours, when it became increasingly obvious that Jacob was fine as long as Nancy did not move or have strong contractions, but had problems any time she did, the doctor decided to do a c-section. The rest was a whirlwind. From the time they decided to do the c-section until they handed me Jacob in the OR was only about 45 minutes.

It turns out his umbilical cord was wrapped around both legs and his waist, and that he had twisted in the birth can and was facing upwards toward the front instead of toward the back. So there was no way he was coming out the old-fashioned way.

He has done well from the beginning, and is getting better with his feeding and napping. Him and mom will be home tomorrow.

Speaking of mom...

I have always known that I married an amazing woman, and that I am a very lucky guy...but the last few days she has absolutely amazed me. First of all, she was absolutely miserable all day on Wednesday, but she was so much tougher than I expected. We all had our moments during the stressful times when Jacob's heart rate would drop, but she did amazingly well, and was so much tougher than I would have been in her situation.

And she is an amazing mother. We both have been blessed enough to have wonderful parents, so it is only natural for her to be such a good mom. But she amazes me every minute.

That moment... when the doctor told me to stand up and look over the drape, and she held up that beautiful, coneheaded (from 12 hours being pressed against a defiant cervix) wrinkly, bloody, angry mess of a child up for us to see... is hard to describe. It definitely goes to the top of the list of the coolest things ever.

Thanks to everyone for the prayers and well-wishes. They really helped us get through it. It was stressful and a hell of a long day, but in the end, my amazing, strong, tough, beautiful wife and I have a beautiful healthy baby boy.

So in the end, everything was perfect.

I'll post some more pictures when I get home.

He's here

Born at 7:35 pm last night. 7 lb 13 oz. 21 inches. More to follow

Wai-ai-ting is the Hardest Part

Nancy has been in labor since 7 am this morning, got her epidural...but we're still waiting on this stubborn little guy.

Karma's a *****

Well, I went and did it. My little joke has backfired.

The doctor is going to induce Nancy this Wednesday. Yes, like in 36 hours.

Turns out Nancy has a mild case of Cholestasis of Pregnancy. This means that her gall bladder is not emptying like it should, which causes bile to build up. If she carried Jacob for 2 more weeks, then there would be an increased risk of fetal distress, meconium inhalation, and general bad juju. So he's coming earlier than planned. It is caused by the increased hormones present with pregnancy, and it goes away ahortly after delivery.

Jacob checked out perfectly today at the doctor. Her amniotic fluid, JKW's heartbeat etc were all perfect. So it is more of a precaution than anything.

We'll see how successful I am at finding a relief vet for Wednesday and Thursday. I think Nancy would appreciate it if I was there.

We Have a Baby

...coming on or near August 5th, 2010, for those who didn't know. The picture above is a baby that may or may not resemble Jacob.

Sorry for the little practical joke. :) I'm bored while we wait for JKW.

Stroller Derby

Well, it looks like my Mom and Mr. Paul Groom are the odds-on favorites for the coveted stroller prize. At Nancy's doctor's appointment today, they decided that they would induce her on August 5th if she has not already gone into labor. It is still too soon to call August 5th the winning guess, though...because a lot can happen in 15 days. Although she is not dilated at all yet, and only 50% "soft". Being the medically curious guy that I am, I tried to talk her into letting me do periodic pelvic exams on her, so that when labor finally does start, I can quickly tell if we needed to go to the hospital or not. "C'mon, I'm a doctor" has not worked well so far.

If it all goes down on that day, then we'll have to come to some sort of compromise on the stroller. I'm betting I can get Paul to give up the rights to his share of the prize for a case of beer and dinner at Orleans. That way my Mom can have a stroller to wheel J-Dub around while Nancy and I are at the Aggie football games.

I've gotta get on the horn to try and find a relief vet for August 5th and 6th...so I gotsta go. Bye.

She looks a little flushed

Last week, I noticed more and more often that I would go to use the bathroom and there would be used toilet paper in the toilet. After about the fifth time, I had decided that Nancy was just losing her mind due to the hormones of pregnancy and forgetting to flush the toilet after she urinates. Well, it kept happening. So I had my own little intervention with her. I've watched the show Intervention enough to know how to do this. I wrote my thoughts down and read them to her:

"Your forgetting to flush the toilet has affected my life negatively in the following ways:

1. Our bathroom smells like piss all the time.
2. It creeps me out a little when I pee and it hits the used toilet paper instead of the toilet water. Just doesn't sound quite right.
3. Our bathroom smells like piss. "

I was about halfway through the intervention, when Nancy dropped a bomb on me. She wasn't forgetting to flush the toilet. She was not flushing the toilet on purpose. Evidently she has decided that, since she has to pee every 20 minutes now that there is a 7 pound fetus playing soccer with her bladder, flushing every time she pees is a waste of water. Why not let the foul-smelling bodily fluids just sit there and ferment for a while? After ten or twelve rounds have built up, and our whole house smells like a porto-potty, then it will be permissable by Al Gore for her to flush the damn toilet.

Seriously.

On the bright side, at least as far as I know, she is still flushing the toilet every single time she "drops the kids off at the pool". Of course, if she had to do that every 20 minutes too, who knows?

Jacob, please hurry up. Before your mom's craziness rubs off on me.

Tick Tock

Wow. Has it really been 5 weeks since I blogged? What a slacker I am.

Nancy had her latest ultrasound yesterday and doctor's appointment today. Everything looks good with J-Dub. He is 7 lbs 13 oz. Which is great. At birth. Trouble is, we are still 3-4 weeks away. But the doc says Nancy is good to go because she has child-bearing hips. I'm not sure what that means, but with the distance I saw the doctor stick her hand up there, I guess she would know better than anyone.

Our house is beginning to look like the showroom at Babies R Us. What was once a spacious house now has baby paraphernalia in every nook and cranny. Yes, I am under 85 years old and said 'nook and cranny'. I think, at last count, we have 74 strollers. I have learned that baby strollers are sorta like Nancy's shoes. She must have different ones for every occasion, they cost way too much, and chances are most of them will sit there taking up space while she only uses the one she really likes. We have so many different types of strollers that I lost track of what the difference between them is. I know one of them is a jogging stroller. The last time either of us went jogging was during the Clinton administration, but that was somehow a must-have.

Now that we have all this crap we probably will never use, I don't think we have room for a baby. So Jacob is gonna have to stay at the inlaws. Even if we make room and are able to let him stay here, there is certainly no room for any toys or spare diapers. Poor kid.

I am blogging earlier in the evening than normal because, although Nancy is still awake, she is not paying any attention to me, because some riveting show called Big Brother is currently on. Should I be offended that she would rather watch complete strangers eat and brush their teeth than talk to me?

So, with J-Dub currently measuring 2 weeks bigger than he should be, the conventional wisdom is that he will be here before his due date of August 13th. My guess is July 31st. Nancy thinks July 27th. Make your guesses in the comments section. The closest guess wins a jogging stroller.