This is a long one folks!

We know, we know it’s been a while…we just got out of the hospital on Wednesday, so we’re finally ready to post an update, and of course pictures! We lumped a few blog entries into one, starting with when Gabriel was born until we brought him home. Hopefully we will do a better job at keeping the blog updated from here on out once we get adjusted! BTW, this post is for Aunt Laurel!!

Welcome Gabriel!

May 9th, 2009

Gabriel Hilton Goodwin was born Saturday, May 9th at 4:53 AM (8 days ahead of schedule). He weighed 7 pounds 5 ounces and was 20.75 inches long … AND was born via emergency C-Section…….now rewind about 36 hours to where labor began (thus the long awaited part)…

Prior to Thursday May 7th, Ash had had over a week of prodromal labor, pretty much fake labor, and was already dilated 2 centimeters. We were excited to know that Ash had already started early labor but still had no idea when active labor would begin. Thursday morning, we had our weekly exam at the doctor and found out that Ash was now 2½ cm dilated. This was a little progress from last week, but still no real indication that active labor would begin anytime soon. Well… by Thursday evening Ash was having regular contractions about 6-7 minutes apart and they were more intense than all of the ones from the previous week. We decided just to keep an eye out and try to relax through the night. The last thing we wanted to do was rush to the hospital prematurely; Ash wanted to labor at home as much as possible. We were up all night (in and out of sleep) with the contractions that indeed seemed to be getting closer and stronger, but still wanted to wait for the morning. By 5am, Ash was up and having the contractions about 4-5 minutes apart regularly. We continued with our morning routine, but also began to make sure everything was in order if we needed to leave suddenly. We decided we could wait until 8am to call the doctor when the office opened. As luck would have it, the office had not turned off their automatic answering service and by 8:30am I finally called through to the “emergency” line to get in touch with a doctor. We never were informed why the office was not picking up their calls, but that is neither here nor there at this point.

When we finally spoke to the doctor on call, he instructed us that we needed to go ahead and go to the hospital to be checked. Still not wanting to arrive prematurely, we took our time getting ready; Ash’s contractions were pretty intense so it actually did take us a while to get things ready to head out the door. At 10:30am, we hailed a cab and off to St Luke’s we went...Ash’s contractions were 4 minutes apart on the button. When we arrived in triage, the resident doctor informed us that Ash was now 3cm dilated and as they tracked the contractions on the monitor noticed they were getting closer and stronger. Since Ash’s water had not broken, the doctor said she was borderline for admittance and recommended that Ash try to walk around for an hour or two and return to be re-checked.

SO, off we went through the streets of New York to find some lunch and walk around. Ash was having a lot of trouble maneuvering through the busy streets, but we managed to find a good lunch place near the hospital. I guess you know a woman is in labor when she has to literally stop chewing her food to let a contraction pass! We timed the contractions during lunch and they were steadily four minutes apart, with a few 3 minute ones thrown in. We decided to go to Central Park to walk around since the hospital is only a few blocks away from it. Luckily it was a gorgeous day outside. As we walked in the park, Ash timed her contractions. They quickly became 3 minutes apart, with an occasional 2 minute one. We must have looked very strange shuffling through the park, stopping to bend over and rest during a contraction. Finally, after an hour and a half of 3 minute contractions, we decided to head back to the hospital to be checked. It was now 4pm.

Back in triage, we were informed that Ash was now at 3½ cm and progressing into active labor…it was official! We spent another hour or so in triage to be monitored before we were moved to a labor and delivery room. The nurses kept asking Ash if she wanted to go ahead and get an epidural…we certainly wanted it as an option, but we had only just begun and Ash was managing the pain pretty well so far, so we passed.

About 5:30pm we were moved to the L&D room. Ash had technically been in labor for about 24 hours now, so we were getting anxious for her to progress. At 6:30pm, the doctor came in and said he needed to break Ash’s water…this immediately dilated Ash to 5cm and we thought for sure the baby would be here by midnight! The contractions dialed up promptly with the water break, coming every 2 minutes or less. The next 2½ hours were pretty intense, with the contractions coming every minute and often being back to back so that Ash had zero rest between them. Ash was now at 6cm, and as 9pm approached, Ash decided that she wanted the epidural. With the pain relief, we were both able to rest up for the next stage that seemed to be rapidly approaching…seemed to be, that is. By 11 pm or so, Ash had reached 8cm so we all thought we were close to welcoming Gabriel. I guess he decided he was not ready because over the next 5 hours Ash remained at 8cm and Gabriel did not progress anymore in his station. The contractions were still every minute and the doctor even supplemented with pitocin to intensify the contractions in an attempt to get Gabriel lower. About 3am, Ash started feeling an intense, acute pain on her right side. The doctor could not figure out what would be causing the pain related to labor since the pain was located away from all the action.

When 4am rolled around and there was still no progress, and Ash’s pain on the right side had worsened, the doctor was concerned that something was wrong with the baby. His heartbeat had dropped several times in the passing hours and Ash had been on oxygen since about midnight. We were rushed through the “tutorial” on what an emergency C-section is, prepped for surgery and wheeled into the OR. At this point, the doctor noticed the urine output from Ash was nothing like what it needed to be and determined that the pain in the right side was likely her kidney stone! Apparently Gabriel was sitting on her right ureter tube, blocking the flow and irritating the kidney stone. Great, just what a girl needs during labor is to pass a kidney stone too!

At this point, Ash had been in labor for about 36 hours and we were concerned about the baby and the kidney stone, so even though the thought of an emergency c-section was frightening, we were ready to have our baby here safe and sound. The next hour was absolutely grueling.

As some of you know, Ash is genetically predisposed to have a resistance to both anesthesia and pain medication…NOT a good combination when you go in for major abdominal surgery. In the past, Ash has woken up during surgeries because the anesthesia had not worked, so even though C-section is performed with the mother awake and the body is numbed from the ribcage down, the anesthesiologists were having trouble numbing Ash… but we were also limited on time, so the surgery needed to progress. I had to wait in the hallway while Ash was prepped. I had to put on the blue scrubs and booties, as well as a hairnet and mask. One of the docs told me that I would be directed what to do and where to sit and I was not to touch anything.

After what seemed like an eternity, I was lead in to see Ash prepped and ready to go. There was a sheet up blocking both of our views (I was seated by her head) and her arms were straight out on boards to keep them away from the surgery. The surgery began quickly, and Ashley was supposed to feel no pain, but just a lot of pressure. This was not even the case. While I will not go into great detail, when I recall this event in my life, the thing that I summon is one of the last scenes in Brave Heart, where William Wallace has been drawn and quartered and the English are pulling out his guts while he is still alive. It was a horrific experience. Ash was feeling the pain of the surgery. She was screaming. The anesthesiologists could not figure out what was going wrong. They had already had a hard time prepping her for surgery and now the drugs were not working. They began to feverishly try many things. Ash was screaming one second and the next second snoring due to the large fluctuations in drugs being administered.

Finally, the moment had come, the doctors told me to stand up and get my camera ready, I was about to see my boy. At exactly 4:53am, he was a beautiful sight, despite being covered in white goo. I got a quick peek and then he was whisked away to be cleaned. The doctors directed me to the scales to watch as he was weighed and then wrapped and handed him to me once I was back on my stool by Ash. I could not believe I was holding my boy, he was finally here. Ash was in a drugged stupor by now and could not speak, but I could see the excitement and love in her eyes as she saw her little boy. It was an overwhelming moment and a memory that will last a lifetime.

Soon Gabriel was taken from me and I had to leave the room while they put my poor wife back together. Since she did not need to witness herself being sewn up, they turned up the meds full blast and she was knocked out. Meanwhile, I had to go wait in the waiting room while she and Gabriel were transferred to the recovery room. Very soon, we were all united, our first moment as a new family. We enjoyed the time bonding with our new little boy for about 30 minutes, then invited Mimi and D-Daddy in to see their grandchild. What a wonderful time and a wonderful day. It’s amazing how something so amazing and beautiful can come from an experience so brutal.

Because in NYC so many people are “just doing their job”, Ash was in the recovery room for 4 frickin hours. No one seemed to care or have a sense of urgency. We just wanted to get to our room and see our sweet Gabriel. In NYC, having a shared room for postpartum is the standard thing to do. For a little extra, you can get the private room, but there are only 7 and it’s by first born, first serve. We were on the list, but 5 people were in front of us. SO, we went to the shared room, and it was awful. A curtain separates the room and you have about 2 feet on all sides of the bed. Your spouse can not stay the night and you have to share a bathroom. We still have no idea how this is acceptable. Our luck, we get a lady who has a loud stupid family that talks and talks and talks. Plus, her baby is crying, and every time the nurse comes in, she runs up against our curtain and it opens a little. We were not doing so well in this environment. The lady next door was being discharged, but she stayed around and yakked for another 2 hours. Soon after she and her horde of morons left, we were informed that a private room was available. We jumped right on it; there was no way we were staying in a shared room.

Once we were settled, the next few days were spent getting to know our new baby boy and figuring out how to care for him. There was plenty of bonding time and also time for Ashley to rest and heal. We took full advantage of our time together.

Jaundice :(

Tuesday May 12th (AM)

We knew we would have to spend an extra day in the hospital due to my c-section, but we had anticipated being released today. Much to our surprise we were devastated when the pediatrician came in to say Gabriel’s bilirubin levels had risen consistently since birth and they needed to keep him for treatment at least one more day. Now I know that jaundice is a pretty common occurrence among newborns and is easily treated, but it’s still disconcerting to hear something is wrong with your baby. These uneasy feelings were magnified when the doctor told us we could not be with Gabriel during his treatment; apparently in New York they don’t have the phototherapy in a portable “light box”, rather infants are treated in an incubator isolated in the nursery. I was terrified at the idea of already being separated from my baby for more than a few minutes, especially after being kept from him for the 4 hours I was in recovery. We only had a short time to sit with him before the nurse came to take him away. We were informed that he’d need at least 24 hours of phototherapy, plus formula supplement, to flush the bilirubin out. Andy and I would be permitted to come see him every 3 hours for feeding. I cried my eyes out when they took him away. We did accompany him to the nursery to see him get set up. They put this mask over his face and then covered his eyes with these goggle looking things. He looked so sad laying there in his new get-up. So we kissed him good bye as they loaded him up and left the nursery.

We will continue to go see him for every feeding. I will attempt to feed him first, then Andy will give him his formula supplement. It’s going to be an empty room without him for the next day.

Yellow is Out; Pink is the new black!

Tuesday May 12th (PM)

It’s about mid-way through Gabriel’s phototherapy and he is already looking so much more PINK! We are hopeful that this is going to do the trick…his little face is still yellow because of the batman mask and goggles he has to wear in the incubator, but everything else is looking good. He’s gained a few ounces in weight too, so we are pleased with that. Hopefully soon he’ll be 100% pink and rid of that dreadful yellow!

Below is a slide show of the first few days:

We're Home

Wednesday May 13th

We went in for Gabriel’s 5am feeding this morning and his color appeared to be even more of an improvement from yesterday and last night. We had hoped they would go ahead and test his bilirubin levels so we could get an indication of when we would get to go home, but the nurse just said for us to come back for his 9:30am feeding. So, sleep deprived and disappointed we headed back to the room. We were exhausted from being up all night, so we decided to try and get some sleep before the next feeding. My doctor woke me up around 8am to check my progress and informed me that she was going to go ahead and discharge me today (one down, one to go).

I woke Andy up so we could start getting ready. Suddenly, we heard Gabriel’s cry…2 seconds later the pediatrician wheeled him in harking a clean bill of health! She said she had never seen a baby make such a quick turn around and was confident in discharging him today – YAY!

So, we packed up all of our stuff, went through the discharge paperwork with the nurse and prepared to get outta dodge! Andy had to go get the car from up at our apartment, so Mimi helped us pack. By 12:30pm we were headed out of the hospital!

Gabriel did great on his first car ride. We made it up to our apartment without incident. When we walked in, it looked like Laney & Tsali had been very busy waiting on Gabriel :) (see signs in slide show below). We promptly took Gabriel to his new room where he fit in just perfect! Ahhhh, it’s so good to finally be HOME. Now the real adventure begins…

More pics since we've been home: