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finally, baby!
thursday, march 22, 2007 |
yea, it's been too long since i promised an entry about the birth and the trip and all that. i've actually not been hugely busy except on my own projects. my writing is taking off nicely write now, and i never want to mess with it when that happens, and my kitchen looks pretty cool after all the work we put into it over last week. what can i say? i've been very content being home, domestic, and writerly. :)
there've been a few frustrations this week as well, all dealing with the usuals: money, mcat, and jewel. but none of them are major at this point. i did have a small bitch with at&t -- they've taken over bellsouth, which was our phone provider. now, bellsouth would work with me on my payments. if i called and asked for a delay to the 1st, they'd give it to me as long as i wasn't 2 months behind. mind you, that payment had to be in on the 1st, and the arrangement couldn;t be changed, but they'd do it. at&t will only give me 10 days. period. i am not happy with at&t, but what's agirl to do? we've also had our gas payment bounce, which pissed me off since, as far as i can tell, it shouldn't have happened. the next checkbook balance better find me the $60 that i'm apparently missing in my records or someone at the bank better tell me why i balance but we keep going under when we shouldn't be.
anyway, so, yea, haven't really been busy, just . . . preoccupied. ;) but i did promise a baby entry with pictures and here it is! the trip entry and pictures (what few i actually took) will have to wait until we can get the other 2 cameras out of hock ($25!).
for most of the trip, it looked like baby cat wasn't going to cooperate. kitten was ready, but there was no progress in the dialation department. the baby was healthy, as far as we could tell, and active. kitten had an appointment on the friday of the week she was due and was maybe 1 cm. so i did what any other well meaning, determined grandmama-to-be would do: i made her walk. A LOT. we went to the polynesian cultural center (which si where most my pictures will be from), we walked a couple of malls, and walked and walked and . . . well, you get the picture. by monday she was 3 cm, so things looked good. the doctor wanted her to rest in case labor kicked in, so we went home and tried to nap. kitten wasn't sleepy, so we finally went back to another mall for a couple of hour. she kept begging for food -- frnech fries, candy, etc. doctor said no grease, and i just kept saying no because, really, it's not wise to eat much before labor.
we went home when the place was close to closing and watched a little tv before finally settling in for some sleep. kitten kept getting up, so i was sure something was going on. around 11:30, she complained her legs felt "funny" and she couoldn't decide whether or not she wanted to go to the hospital, so i decided for her. personally, i think she was having contractions all weekend, they just weren't as strong as they needed to be to do much good. by now i was an old hand at driving through hawaii (well, okay, not that old a hand, but we had done a practice run to the hospital earlier so i could at least find the thing).
Tripler Army Medical Center
(promotional picture)
as you can see, the hospital was beautiful. and it was located on a hill, surrounded by all this greenery. here's the view from her room, near sunrise:
anyway, at the hospital, they checked her and she was still only 3 cm. (i have a picture of her resting in the hospital bed, but i don't think she'd be too happy if i showed it off. lol) they watched her for about an hour or so, and no progress. they gave her the option of going home, but told her they could also admit her because she was a week overdue. the downside to the admittance was that they would want to see progress, and if she didn't progress on her own, they'd help her. kitten decided on the admittance, so, somewhere around 1:30 or 2 a.m., she was put in a birthing room (GORGEOUS and spacious -- really, a very nice room, even better than my non-military rooms i had when my kids were born!). we were pretty much left alone for most of the night -- the hospital apparently had quite a busy few days with births over the previous 3 days and it hadn't slowed down by the time we got there! lol
the intern finally came in to check on her and introduce himself between babies, and she still hadn't progressed so he ordered a pitocin drip. she tried to rest, but things started getting uncomfortable. she went in the jacuzzi (!!!) for about a half an hour, then climbed back in bed and asked for a pain killer. she had other options, but she far preferred the medicine go in through an already inserted i.v. rather than to have a needle stuck in her back (just like her mama!). the pain killer was some new one i'd never heard of before, and it mostly took the edge off and let her sleep between contractions. we must have given it to her at just the right time since the next time she was anywhere near coherent, she was feeling pressure and getting ready to push. the intern wasn't available, so a midwife came in and checked her and she was indeed pretty much ready to go. by now it was pretty close to 10 am. i hadn't slept much, though i had dozed one and off when i could.
pushing didn't take long. kitten did a really good job, even though at one point she was saying she couldn't do it. we all just encouraged her and told her it was almost over. she didn't need any instruments to help -- the midwife pretty much helped where needed. baby cat was put on mama's belly while they took care of the cord (they offered it to me but i declined -- i'm a bit on the squeemish side, thank you very much; and, yes linnorm, i'm well aware that YOU would have cut the damn cord -- leave me alone. :P), then transferred to the warmer where she was cleaned up and checked.
baby cat soon after birth -- pretty girl!
baby cat was born at about 10:12 a.m. on tuesday, march 6, and weighed in at 7 pounds 9 ounces and 19" long. her apgar scores were both 9's. she was a beautiful, perfect baby girl. we all stayed in the delivery room until sometime that afternoon -- she should have only been there a couple of hours, but, as i said earlier, they'd had quite a busy time and it took until that afternoon to get a room free for her. kitten held the baby for a bit -- even tried to feed her, but we were all pretty wore out, so everyone took a nap while we could.
momma & baby sleep
kitten had to stay at least 48 hours, but i had to be on a plane on wednesday. i stayed with her -- we had wisely loaded packed up all my stuff and loaded it into the car on monday before we went to bed. i stayed with her until it was time for me to go, helping out as much as i could. we wanted to do this special celebration meal the hospital offers, but we were pretty much out of money by that time. i made sure her stuff was all packed and all her goodies were in the diaper bag saxy and i picked up as a baby gift for her (well, i picked it up while in hawaii, but it's from both of us -- and adorable). one of trin's buddies took me down to the airport. the sad thing is, even as wiped out as i was by this time, i still couldn't sleep on the damn plane. even with the lack of sleep and the exhaustion when i got home, though, i'm just glad i got to see my first grandbaby!
now, how's that for a beautiful family portrait! :)
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word of the moment: feria
(in Spanish speaking regions) a local festival or fair, usually in honor of some patron saint; a weekday on which no festival or holiday is celebrated, particularly in the roman catholic church; a surname |
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