I'm (finally) a Dad!

[Piratecat]

I feel cheated; you're not stout at all!

Congratulations, you guys. She's lovely.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

I feel cheated; you're not stout at all!

Congratulations, you guys. She's lovely.

Geez Piratecat, didn't you read my user title? I thought we had something special but obviously we don't!

Olaf the Stout

 

[AnonymousOne]

Congrats ... and by the way, not how I had Olaf the Stout pictured in my mind ...

 

[Olaf the Stout]

We're now all at home as one big happy family. I think Mrs Olaf was relieved to leave the hospital. Having all of the midwives there to support her while she and Sophie learnt to breastfeed was great but there is nothing like being able to sleep in your own bed. Mrs Olaf doesn't like hospitals at the best of times so spending 5 nights there in a row was more than enough for her.

On a slightly separate note, it turns out that we were very fortunate that our little girl made it through the labour. As I said in a previous post, the baby's umbilical cord was attached to the placenta a bit strangely. Instead of the 1 strong cord attaching to the placenta, for some reason Sophie's umbilical cord had separated into its 2 veins and 1 artery about 20cm before it it attached to the placenta.

This meant that they were much less protected and could have gotten caught up in Sophie's body during the labour, or even sometime during pregnancy. It wasn't exactly heartening to hear 2 midwives say on separate occasions, "Well at least we would have known what happened if things did go wrong."

They obviously said it with a lot more tact but that was basically what they were saying. We're very lucky that everything went ok because it sounds like there was a big risk that it could have ended very differently. Of course, the midwives and doctors didn't know about it until after the labour but it is still a little scary for me to think about, especially now that she is here with us.

Olaf the Stout

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Congrats Olaf,
Your daughter looks very beautiful and healthy.
Your wife's labour went very similar to my wife's. She had the same problem with crowning.
Sophie looks very alert. Did your wife use pain meds? (sorry if thats too personal).

Anyway, enjoy your fatherhood!

Oh, and by the way, thank God that it went as well as it did. You and your wife are very lucky. In our hospital, the labour units were right near the neo-natal intensive care units. As we carried out our healthy baby we couldn't help but see the other parents peering through the plastic incubators at their babies. I wonder if the hospital layout was like that on purpose.

Yeah, Sophie was quite alert after the birth, looking around at things, even if her little eyes weren't necessarily able to focus on anything.

My wife had most of the pain relief available. She started out with the laughing gas, had some pethadine when the contractions got stronger and then eventually had to have an epidural to cope with the pain.

She found that the gas was ok to start with but the pethadine did almost nothing for her (apart from make her vomit a few times). She got an epidural because the drug (Syntosin?) they were giving her via a drip to bring on the labour makes the contractions quite intense. The drip makes the woman go from no contractions to 1 every 2 minutes within a very short amount of time. The midwife said that almost all women that have to be induced with Syntosin have an epidural because of how intense the drug makes the contractions.

They controlled how much pain relief they gave her via the epidural. When the pushing stage started they backed it off so that she was able to feel the contractions more and push the baby out more effectively. That's probably why Sophie was so drugged out when she was born. The pushing stage took just over an hour so most of the drugs would have worn off by then.

Olaf the Stout

P.S. Apologies if that was a little too graphic for anyone!

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Congrats ... and by the way, not how I had Olaf the Stout pictured in my mind ...

I'm curious as to how you thought I looked? I'm assuming you thought I was "stouter" (read: fatter!). I'm not too big but I have put on a little weight recently.

Olaf the Stout

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Congrats, man! Very cute pics!

My new daughter, Sarah, is 2 1/2 weeks old, so I'm right there with ya.

Congrats to you too Rridanis! How have you found it so far?

Olaf the Stout

 

[Samiko The Bard]

Congratulations! She is so beautiful! I think my uterus just skipped a beat! Much happiness to you! The world needs more of us female nerds!

 

[Hijinks]

What a beautiful family! Congrats

 

[Piratecat]

Geez Piratecat, didn't you read my user title? I thought we had something special but obviously we don't!

I thought you were referring to beer. Dang.

And welcome home.