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Our baby is changing in front of (and away from) our eyes. Today is her one-month birthday and it took five inches of snow, which is essentially a debilitating blizzard here in Raleigh, to prevent Katie and me from going to the Cupcake Shoppe Bakery to score celebratory cupcakes. Instead of birthday sweet treats, we sustained ourselves at home with inauguration coverage and my return to the working-from-home world.
This past weekend our family, minus the four-legged members, visited the grandparents, uncle, aunt, and great grandmother in Boone. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit and my parents were gracious, loving hosts despite their hectic move back home a couple of weeks ago. The Watauga Literary Society, also known as my Mom’s book club, threw a wonderful shower for Jackie. Our daughter was able to attend one of her own baby showers ex utero and Trimella Chaney, Susan Dubberly, Jeannie Caviness, and the rest of the Pearl Girls were extremely generous. Little Jackie was even initiated as an honorary Mini-Pearl Girl. Thanks to the entire group for the food, fun, and gifts!
We also appreciated our time with Uncle Rich and Aunt Mindy. Little Jackie has been showing emotion for a couple of weeks now, but it took some quality time with Uncle Rich to bring out a bona fide smile. Some of our daughter’s amusement at her uncle’s silliness was captured in this video:
Great Grandmother Jones met Jackie, and the highlight of our visit to the retirement home was seeing my daughter’s tiny hand in the hand of a woman three generations older. Here are a few pictures of that visit and some other fun had over the Dr. King weekend:
Finally, Katie and I took the baby out to brave the elements in Boone. It was her first snow:
Little did we know that her second snow would come today in the eastern North Carolina piedmont…
The doctor decided it would be best for mother and child to do a c-section in about 30 minutes. Jackie’s arrival is imminent!
Katie hasn’t dilated more in the last hour and a half. The doctor wants to give her another hour…if there’s no change between now and then, they might decide to do a cesarean birth. That would happen sometime tonight depending on other patients who need c-sections.
Katie has dilated a little more (up to 6 now), and the contractions seem to be coming stronger (even though they are still about two minutes apart). Jackie seems to be in a traversed position, so it would be nice if she would rotate a little before she debuts. Slowly, but surely she’s getting closer. It’s hard to believe that Katie’s still not in active labor yet, but we’re still hopeful that she’ll come tonight.
Bless her heart…she just watched me eat pad thai with shrimp take-out while she sipped more ginger ale and tried to find a position that’s anywhere close to comfortable. Katie’s always cool like that. Don’t worry though…I made sure to get her permission beforehand.
Well, here we are, waiting for further developments. Dilation and active labor are our immediate goals. The obstetrician who welcomed us last night just took off for the holidays; she’ll be replaced by another OB who happens to be my co-worker’s brother-in-law. From all we’ve heard, we’re in good hands with him.
A mysterious rumbling, drone-like sound is coming from somewhere on the floor below us — it sounds like Robah snoring and groaning, so it’s a comforting reminder of home.
The reality is starting to set in that the baby will not be coming anytime very soon. In fact, I have a feeling that Jackie will be a Christmas Eve baby, but a lot could happen (even cesarean birth) between now and midnight tonight.
We’ve put our playlist on pause for an Ellen/The Sopranos television break.
All is well at the Birth Center. The contractions seem to be intensifying more and more, but Katie hasn’t had any change in the amount of pain and discomfort. No one who works here is brazen or foolhardy enough to speculate about the time of delivery. We get the feeling that it will be later than 5:00 p.m. this afternoon.
I ate a bland lunch at the Quizno’s here at the medical center and walked past one of the nurseries on my way back. There they were — little bundles of life, flushed red and pink, wrapped tight in each baby container. When I returned to our room a few minutes ago, Uncle Bob Pollard was singing, “Happy little babies with red cheeks…you will rock them gently out of sync,” from Official Ironmen Rally Song when I returned to the room. Don’t you love it when music syncs, whether coincidentally or supernaturally, with life? If Salt-n-Pepa’s Push It comes on in a few hours, we’ll know it’s time for Katie to go to work.
After breaking Katie’s water, she got some pain relief from the doctor on call. Things are going very well. Contractions are about a minute and a half apart. Janet is keeping us company in the delivery room. So is Stephen Malkmus, who is singing about the “Cadillac of winter” vis a vis “Old Jerry.”
Katie has insisted on wearing her Saucony running shoes during all this for some reason, so she looks like she ran right in this morning full with child. Of course, I think she looks cute.
Go Jackie go. The nurse gave us a noncommittal ballpark delivery time of about 5:00 p.m. We’ll see.
Katie’s water has broken and she’s about to get a little pain relief. Things are progressing nicely. Panda Bear’s “Comfy in Nautica” is playing on the stereo, so Katie can think of her happy place.
We slept a little last night, Katie in her hospital bed and me in the roll-away cot they were able to find (apparently they are a hot commodity around here). I am very grateful for the cot, because the alternative, a “recliner” that couldn’t have been designed with human users in mind, would have been difficult.
Katie is having minor contractions this morning. The doctors will apply the first dose of the inducing agent, called pitocin, in about fifteen minutes after they reattach the monitors and IV. It’s an IV drip that they adjust until the desired frequency and intensity of contractions are achieved. Then we should get this baby party started!
If you ask me, Katie and I have coped with the anticipation of our daughter’s birth pretty well. We’ve been in hurry-up-and-wait mode for two weeks, and much of our downtime has been spent double-checking preparations for Jackie. I even had a trial diaper-changing run with one of our future daughter’s stuffed bunnies. I also put together a baby playlist of the Jones family’s favorite tunes…kind of a birthing soundtrack to play in the hospital room. It consists of more than 300 songs, and features plenty of our mutual favorites:
Belle & Sebastian Pavement Guided by Voices Rufus Wainwright
George Gerschwin Loretta Lynn Ryan Adams Japancakes
Thelonious Monk Velvet Underground Wes Montgomery Erykah Badu
Karen Carpenter My Morning Jacket Panda Bear The Smiths
…you know, it’s simply the first music any father would want to grace the ears of his newborn daughter. Most of you know that I prefer to wait until Christmas to listen to Christmas music (unless it’s Karen Carpenter).
Katie’s mom Janet is here from Georgia, and has graciously volunteered to take care of our dogs tonight. I’m sure they’ll be on their best behavior. We’re very grateful that most of our family will be in around Raleigh until Jackie is born.
Here’s the plan for tonight:
REX Hospital will call us this evening when they are ready for us to be admitted. They will ripen Katie’s cervix (she gave me permission to blog about her cervix) and monitor her body’s reaction over the next 6 to 12 hours. When Katie has a favorable Bishop’s score, and if Katie isn’t entering labor, the doctor will induce labor. So, Katie will probably be in labor by tomorrow morning. That being said, I know very little about the variables of ripening and induction, so I’ll be updating this site on a regular basis over the next two days (when I’m not doing my fatherly duties with comfort measures for Katie).
Also, I’m just getting into Twitter, and I figure the next two days would be ideal to post tweets about Katie’s and Jackie’s status. You can find brief updates on my twitter page. These updates can be viewed on a computer, or on a mobile phone (if you have an account or set up an account).
It’s almost baby time!
I think I spent the dog food money 