The missus is all knocked up and whatnot

Hopefully this won't get too long and scrambled... Everything went according to plan until the pushing part. Four hours of pushing didn't result in much progress. Jodee was dealing with back labor and Adrian's head was stuck at an odd angle. We made the decision to have a c-section before it turned into an emergency (it was reassuring to find out later that Jodee could've pushed forever with no result... a c-section was one of her worst fears). The cut they had to make on her was longer and lower than usual. (The worst and best things I have ever witnessed happened at the same time: seeing my wife's insides splayed on her body and seeing our boy for the first time.) She lost a good deal of blood and had to have two transfusions. Thankfully she's recovering well and Adrian's in ideal health.

Photos of Adrian

(I'd post some of them here but the original source files would display and they are massively huge.)

The pics with mom are sweet. :-)

A few days after coming home from delivering my baby, I started feeling really bad pain on my right side. It got so bad that I could barely walk. My doctor advised me to go into the ER on Wednesday and I was there for 12 hours undergoing every sort of test before they decided to admit me that night. (During this time I was unable to eat or drink anything or even take pain medication.) I had to fight with the hospital to keep my baby with me so I could continue to breast-feed. Fortunately my doctor intervened and they were able to find a private room for me (on the oncology ward of all places.)

I was in the hospital for days before they finally determined that I had a large mass of fluid in my side. On Friday, I underwent a procedure which entailed them using a CT scan to measure where the mass was, and they used a large needle to drain out most of it. (During this procedure I had to remain completely still which was hard, especially when I felt that needle!) It turns out it was blood left over from C-section. It had started an internal infection and my white blood cell count was very high, as was my temperature.

They made me stay in the hospital through Sunday so I could get IV antiobiotics and monitor me until the fever broke and my white blood cell count started to improve.

I am thankfully now back at home, although I still have a cathether in my side to drain the excess blood. I hope to have that removed on Thursday. I am feeling a lot better, but I have to tell you, those five days in the hospital were pure torture. I just wanted to be back at home with my newborn, and there were so many things I went through. Ugh. Needless to say, name a body orifice, and I had something stuck there. My arms look like Courtney Love's from all the IVs and twice-daily blood tests.

Anyway, I just wanted to post as I am now mostly recuperating on the couch and not on the computer much. I hope to be back in the saddle soon.

Obviously I'll be very very happy if Jodee never again goes through something 1/100th as intense/painful/dramatic. I felt like I was losing my mind at least a couple times (felt as if my limbs were shaking uncontrollably but looked down and was awestruck to be perfectly still, etc.) I don't know how anyone can maintain their sanity while watching her/his loved one go through a more trying experience.

Adrian got us through it. I'll tell him some day about how brave and strong his mother was, and how hard she fought for him.

p.s. Adrian and His Cheeks needs to be your Moodymann-style pseudonym pronto.

p.p.s. I quoted you in the Chicago Reader!

Adrian sure is a cutie.

Here's hoping Jodee heals just fine. It should get easier from here on out. Babies get easier and more fun as they grow.

Best phrase ever.

gosh, rereading that makes me worry I look like I'm making light of what happened--I'm totally not. that's some serious stuff and Jodee obviously handled it extraordinarily well, as did you. blah blah well-wishes pumping-fist-hoorays blah.

No, no, any and all humor is appreciated -- with the exception of the Bush/Cheney '04 sign that my (otherwise extremely helpful and kind) sister-in-law planted on our front lawn before we returned home Sunday. I wish I had time to hatch my revenge scheme: The placement of many signs reading, "KKK rally this way --->" across a five-mile radius from her home and then placement of a sign reading, "YES, THE KKK RALLY IS RIGHT HERE IN THIS HOUSE RIGHT NOW" in her front lawn.

Matos: Apologies for not responding to your email. I haven't been able to dig through my inbox. Thanks for the quote!

And thank you, Maria D. We're loving the little one more and more with each passing minute (yes, even when he's all gaseous and grimace-faced).

http://www.globalhermit.com/ilx/sleep-dogg.jpg

Ned, the Prince show was a couple months back.

*views photos*

VERY cool. :-) And hey, now at long last we know what you look like! ;-)

He smiles a lot.