Wow! What a day. Things got moving fast this morning (see below) and stayed that way until Simon popped out into the world at 1:48 this afternoon. I’ll save blogging about the delivery itself for Jessica when she gets home, except to say it was absolutely amazing.
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About two hours after Simon was born, I was watching him through the window in the hospital nursery with all of the grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, et al., when I noticed that Simon’s breathing had about as much rhythm as I do dancing after three beers. Oh, I’m sure it’s not a problem I said out loud.
Well, it turns out it is a problem, although we’re all hoping it’s the high-probability best case scenario problem and not one of the “make the new parents bawl low-probability but as your doctor we hafta tell you” problems.
Simon is breathing a bit irregularly. It’s inhibiting his oxygen intake, though not by very much. It seems that in the process of being born, Simon horked down a good deal of amniotic fluid — some into his lungs, and over 5 cc into his stomach. (For the record, I didn’t even know a newborn’s stomach could hold 5 cc! Maybe that’s why I caught him throwing so much of it up later this evening…?) This extra amniotic fluid in his lungs is the most likely culprit for his irregular breathing, and if nothing else goes wrong (e.g. bacteria in the amniotic fluid) it should clear up in about 36 hours. So instead of spending his first two nights outside the womb with Mom and Dad, Simon gets to spend them wired up to monitors in the Neonatal ICU. Bummer.
Amazing first day. You’re in our thoughts and we’ll be checking in to see how Simon is doing. Love to all of you,
J&S