A quiet month for the blog, but not one for us.

On May 8th in Room 8 at 8pm on the dot, we made an amazing little addition to our family. Clocking in 7lbs 4oz (50% percentile) and 20.5″ (98th percentile), Rebecca and I proudly present Mia Ruth! Mia was a late addition to our short list after I Googled “female athletes” (from Mia Hamm – funny because we’re both terrible at soccer) and Ruth is in honor of my late mother.

She’s been a wonderful challenge and is a decidedly cute baby.

Birth

Given we’re “geriatric” (any birth past age 35) and Rebecca had a nice collection of fibroids, we scheduled induction a week before our due date to be safe. We went in Thursday afternoon, got the ball rolling around 4pm and rode one heck of a rollercoaster until birth 28 hours later. The terms “labor” and “active” are all confused a good bit so I’ll forego them, but Rebecca ended up pushing hard near the maximum amount of time they allowed (four hours). Ultimately, the baby arrived “naturally” and healthy.

Rollercoaster? Within five minutes of being on induced, baby’s heart rate dropped dangerously low for a few minutes. Within seconds we had 15 people in the room ready to rush us off to the operating room. Scary to say the least. Things stabilized, but we were then on high alert watching somewhat regularly but shorter drops of her heart rate during contractions for the next day. By all accounts after the first few hours, we were almost certainly having a caesarean, but when?

Miraculously, after the first night, the heart rate disruptions got even lesser and there was no sign of distress so the idea of not having an operation was back on the table! During the day we would further speed up the labor process by breaking the water, which would lead to the next loop on the rollercoaster… Infection!

Once Rebecca had been pushing hard for a couple of hours, a doctor noticed her temperature felt high. They had only been taking her temperature orally, which given all the ice water she was drinking, was coming back normal. When taken under her arm – surprise! 103 degrees. Bad news as that would cause distress for the baby. They started up the antibiotics and we went from there.

Eventually, baby’s head became visible, but wouldn’t budge that final little bit. We had been looking at using forceps, but baby’s heart rate, after a night of fighting drops, and now fighting infection, was increasing; a sign she was working too hard and needed to come out immediately. One final great push from Rebecca, and baby budged enough to put us into vacuum territory.

After the first vacuum broke (seriously, I assumed they had just ripped the baby’s head off), the second popped Mia right out! It all happened so fast and was so amazing! I didn’t know whether I could touch her, if I needed to be with Rebecca, or if I should stay away. What an experience.

Rebecca was an absolute beast through this. It was hard to see her in so much pain, but so incredible to see her strength.

AND THEN since the infection had lasted so long without our knowing, Mia scored high on a risk assessment meaning we’d have to stay an extra day for her to receive IV antibiotics and monitoring. Joy. Watching them try to get that IV in her was heartbreaking as it took at least an hour (her first hour of “life”) of stabbing her all over. Ultimately, the infection never passed to her and we were released after our 3rd night in the hospital.

Our nurses and doctors (minus one doctor at he end of a shift; she was fine the next day) at OHSU were also outstanding. Highly recommended place for birth.

At some point please remind me to post a proper hospital packing list. We built ours from a few found online and ended up with entirely too much crap we didn’t come close to using.

Postpartum

Oh my, where to start? Where to end? I’ll try to keep this short with random bullet points.

• That first night at home was rough.
• Rebecca was mostly back to normal after 3 weeks. Not running, but riding and walking long.
• At 4 weeks Mia has seemingly forgotten how to sleep at night. Perfect timing with me going back to work.
• Breastfeeding was challenging, but improved steadily over the first week and a half, and is now going flawlessly.
• 12-15 diapers per day, but the poo isn’t bad at all; no smell and rubs right off your hands, arms, or wherever she shoots it. We had dreams of going cloth or hybrid, but juggling another new/difficult task wasn’t something we wanted.
• Time management is a bit nutty given COVID-19. We’ve only had a single visitor for a couple of hours (nurse who was able to get tested prior to coming). Mia doesn’t like napping not on one of us so there’s a lot of trading time, which has been working great.
• Related to the above, no family has been able to meet her outside of FaceTime. That’s been a huge bummer for all of us.
• The cats are coping well. The kitten is interested, but respectful and behaving. The older cat couldn’t care less.
• Our friend network is incredible. For the entirety of this first month we’ve had food delivered every other night. As light eaters (heavy snackers), we always have enough for two meals so we’ve not had to prepare a single dinner. Sadly, the Meal Train is ending. I foresee a lot of cereal or microwaved items for dinner.
• A 12″ balance bike has already been purchased.
• Baby loves the strawberry patch, Forest Park (yes, we’ve already taken her hiking), baths, and milk.
• Her umbilical cord fell off this weekend. We were pretty sure it was on there for good (usually off at 2 weeks).
• Whoever told me I’d never find time to read again, you crazy. Still Kindling every night before bed (single hand usage helps a lot – regular books would be tough) and Audible has been invaluable.
• Sellwood Medical Clinic is awesome. Specifically, Monique Pritchard.

Future

Back to work for me today (I did write this entire thing with her on me so maybe it won’t be so bad?). Rebecca goes back in another couple of months, but given the state of daycare, will she be able to? Baby will continue to thrive, start biking in 17 months, hopefully meet friends and family soon, and enjoy watching Mom and Dad eat her birthday cake.