Simon is 2 weeks old!

Simon turned 2 weeks old today. To celebrate the occasion of his birth he decided to barf all over his crib in the middle of the night. Here's to washing the crib sheets 2 days in a row!

It's so cliche to comment about this, but time really does fly by. This is my 3rd week of maternity leave already, so I only have 5 weeks left. Somehow by then we'll hopefully have him on some kind of schedule and *crossing fingers* he will have increased the amount of time he's asleep at night. Getting up once in the middle of the night, I can deal with, but more than that and I'll be a zombie at work (made worse by the fact that I'm really limiting my caffeine intake these days since I'm breastfeeding).

Some fun facts about Simon:

- he smiles and/or makes a "blue steel" face when he is about to poop/fart

- loves being held (well, I guess which baby doesn't, but he is happiest when in our arms)

- when he's unhappy he doesn't cry first, instead starts flailing his arms around

- he has a good appetite (takes after mom and dad already) & was already 8 lb 10 oz at his 1 week checkup; looking forward to seeing how heavy he is at his 2 week checkup next week. My guess is that he's definitely at least 9 lb already. 

Growth spurt?

Simon is almost 2 weeks old and for the last two days he's been constantly hungry and fussy during certain times of the day (between 10 am and 2 pm and 9 pm and midnight). Not sure if he's hitting a growth spurt or just a variation of newborn behavior. Overall he's a pretty good baby and only fusses when something needs to be done (hungry, diaper, or gas). And he's slowly spending more time awake, which is nice when he's not fussing about something. Can't wait until he's more interactive! I'm looking forward to learning what his personality is like.

I still can't believe that we're parents sometimes and that we are trusted to raise this little guy. I keep trying to read up on various parenting/baby blogs only to realize more and more that it's a "learn on the fly" kind of job, much like my first few months of residency. No amount of reading or mental preparation is quite like the real thing! I'm just kind of figuring everything out by trial and error (like today, where I tried cloth diapers for the first time and he had a giant poop which leaked everywhere...my fault since he's not quite big enough for it yet).

weekend visitors

Simon had a bunch of visitors this weekend since my relatives on my dad's side are visiting (both to see Simon and for my grandma's birthday). Here are some pictures:

Newly minted great-grandmother!

 

Birth Story

Today I'll recount Simon's birth story (that seems to be a thing amongst new parents).

Simon's due date was projected to be July 11, which conveniently fell on a Friday so I scheduled my last day of work to be that day. The whole two weeks leading up to that day I kept hoping that he would come early so I didn't have to drag my butt into work every day (was getting super large/uncomfortable by that point), but alas, nothing happened. Not even any Braxton-hicks contractions. Luckily at my 2nd to last OB appointment we scheduled an induction "just in case" on July 16th. Sure enough, Simon decided not to make any indication that we was going to come out, even though my cervix was dilated to 2 cm, so we walked into labor and delivery on July 16th. Only to find out that there were no beds available. They supposedly called me the night before to let me know but there was definitely no phone call (L&D fail!) so we grumpily went home instead and then decided to run errands. Just when we were about to go eat lunch they called and said a bed was available, so we rushed over to the hospital & finally got checked in at 2 pm.

They started a low dose of Pitocin and I still felt nothing, although there were clear contractions on the monitor. So strange...I guess I had been in early labor at home and had no idea! Well, the OB on call decided that I looked "too happy" and ruptured my membranes (aka broke my bag of water) and then the fun really started. Initially the contractions weren't too bad but then they got to the point where I had to really pause and breathe through them. After about an hour of that I decided that I might as well get the epidural before I got too uncomfortable to sit for it. (I have to insert here how weird it is to be a patient and on the receiving end of something I've done hundreds of times. That and lidocaine burns when it goes in...but it works really well!) The epidural was amazing. I was able to chill and watch TV the rest of the evening with close to no pain; when his head go really low in the pelvis I could feel a lot of pressure but it wasn't terribly uncomfortable. Too bad I've already done my two months of OB anesthesia because I feel like I could really counsel pregnant women on the pros and cons of the epidural having had one myself.

I started pushing at around 1:30 am, and after one hour, Simon was born! It was incredible meeting him for the first time after feeling him move around inside me for so long. He was so alert, too, only gave a token cry and then opened his eyes and started looking around. Jeff wanted to cut the umbilical cord but Simon came out with the cord wrapped around his neck so the OB had to quickly cut it (he wasn't showing any signs of distress during the pushing so we think it wasn't very tight).

So overall it was a really good experience, and I am thankful for the excellent nurses I had and the OB who was on call, and for my anesthesia colleagues who did such a great epidural. Would definitely have one of those again ;)

an unexpected roadbump

Yesterday we received some news that rocked our world - Simon's newborn screen (the heel prick they do in the hospital to screen for a multitude of diseases) picked up an elevated TSH level indicating congenital hypothyroidism. Our pediatrician immediately referred us to the pediatric endocrinologist, but in the short time from when I got the phone call to our last minute appointment (as an aside here, our healthcare team is amazing; the same day they got the screening results back we got to see the specialist 2 hours later) I had already read up on what the internet had to offer.

So the good and the bad news: this is likely a permanent condition and he will have to be on levothyroxine for life. Not only that, but the dose has to be constantly adjusted, especially in the first few months since he's a rapidly growing infant and their thyroid hormone needs are high. Which means frequent blood tests to check his hormone levels (for some reason this part stresses me out the most; I hate the thought of him screaming in pain with the pokes. Ironic since that's what I do to patients every day at work...although for little kids they get anesthetized first before their IV...but I digress). There are other things, too; how challenging will it be when he gets older and realizes what's going on? How do I make life as normal as I can for him? Will he be developmentally delayed? The consensus is that if properly treated he will have a perfectly normal development but of course I still worry.

The good news (that I have to keep reminding myself over and over) is that this IS a treatable condition and that they caught it early. If it was diagnosed later in life he would have been in a lot more trouble development-wise. And there are many worse problems to have!

I'm also trying to be thankful for all the good things that are happening. That Jeff is already an amazing, doting father and husband. Being a dad has brought out this other side of him that is so cool to see and makes me love him even more. Also, our healthcare team is amazing, especially our pediatrician. We had a followup with her today and I love how well she connects with us and is so supportive.


Well, that was an emotionally heavy first post! But I just had to get that off my chest, especially since we haven't told many people of the diagnosis yet. Hopefully there will be some lighter, happier posts in the future :). 

Our little guy at 1 week old: