The new Addition to our family!!!!

frostytheplebe

frostytheplebe

Seventh Part of the Seal
Hi all,
Sorry I haven't been around in a while, but I have good reason...

My wife just gave birth to our first. Gabriel... he's 7.9 lbs. and 19 & 2/3 inches long.

We have a few pictures, which I have uploaded, just know, our little boy has CDH (Congenital Diaph ramac Hernia), so he's currently in the NICU at the hospital, but he's a fighter and is doing fine. He's expected to go through surgery ok and will be home within a few weeks.

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Let me be the first to say congrats and my best wishes go out to baby Gabriel from across the pond! What a great time to come into the world with all the WC goodness coming along at the moment.
 
Could that be hobbes with his tail sticking out in the last picture? talk about getting them started young ;)
 
ELTEE said:
Congratulations! Looks like you had a far more amazing reason to be away :)
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Thank you very much! He actually went into surgery yesterday and did very well. He's resting comfortably now.

I will say this though... watching a C-section is one of the most scarey things I've ever seen.
 
The C-section stuff didn't bother me much.. But the month of incubators and tubes and stressing about meds and sugar levels and stuff was much more intense and stressful for me. Glad to hear your little guy is doing well, and congratulations.
 
AD, very sorry to hear that you went through that... my boy was lucky, he almost needed an incubator.

I dunno what it was for me, I already had a fear of hospitals and seeing the person I loved the most cut open on the table and shaking like someone in an action movie that just got blown up and was moments from death, didn't help matters. EXTREMELY UNPLEASANT!
 
frostytheplebe said:
AD, very sorry to hear that you went through that... my boy was lucky, he almost needed an incubator.

I dunno what it was for me, I already had a fear of hospitals and seeing the person I loved the most cut open on the table and shaking like someone in an action movie that just got blown up and was moments from death, didn't help matters. EXTREMELY UNPLEASANT!
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I felt more like that with our firstborn. Our daughter's birth was a nightmare on many levels. And I think what you describe encapsulates the kind of helpless feeling that goes with knowing your loved ones are suffering and you can't do a thing about it, so I completely empathize. Despite the rewards of fatherhood it's not something I ever want to have to go through again.

With our boy on the other hand, the c-section stuff seemed relatively calm to me. There weren't really any huge major complications as far as that was concerned. Our boy was about 2 months early though, but he didn't have any trouble breathing. But he still had to be in an incubator as they have zero body fat and cant regulate their temperature at that age and he had issues regulating his blood sugar. It was a problem that eventually corrected itself but for a while the doctors were panicking trying to figure out how to get his blood-sugar to stabilize and they had to do wierd risky IVs and kept upping his meds and whatever trying to figure it out. So you have all that on top of all the electrodes from the baby monitors and feeding tubes down their throats. Also, since the hospital here doesn't have a dedicated NICU we were at a hospital literally hunderds of KM from home. But now he's a fine and healthy 2.5 year old.
 
AD said:
I felt more like that with our firstborn. Our daughter's birth was a nightmare on many levels. And I think what you describe encapsulates the kind of helpless feeling that goes with knowing your loved ones are suffering and you can't do a thing about it, so I completely empathize. Despite the rewards of fatherhood it's not something I ever want to have to go through again.

... So you have all that on top of all the electrodes from the baby monitors and feeding tubes down their throats. Also, since the hospital here doesn't have a dedicated NICU we were at a hospital literally hunderds of KM from home. But now he's a fine and healthy 2.5 year old.
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Let me guess, you needed a level 5 NICU? I work in the healthcare field on the corperate level, so I knew which hospitals were the best. I was lucky that Boston has a lot to choose from. We decided Newton Wellesley was the best hospital. We loved their facilities and their staff. Sadly, that plan died when an ultrasound revealed the hernia. Now we needed a hospital with a level 5 capability. Two hospitals in the area had that sort of facility, Brighman and Womens, and Mass General. So we had to choose between the two.

The day of our son's birth turned to dross when I walked in the room and saw what I told you. The worst part was all my fears came to fruition when they told me that there was a complication and my wife had been injured in the procedure. My heart jumped into my throat. I sat their telling my wife to keep her eyes open... I guess you could say I was terrified that if she closed them, they'd never reopen. Stupid I know as this kind of thing happens some times, but here I was tired, filthy from not showering during a long labor, and the two people I loved the most in an ICU. So I know how you feel about not wanting to go through it again. I told my wife that we needed to sit down and talk it out long and hard before even considering a second child.

Though it all ended well, things like this really make you step back and think before trying again.

Anyway, sorry to load all of this on you guys. I should just be grateful it ended so well.
 
Best wishes for a speedy recovery of your wife and new son!

(currently smuggling load of body parts from Crius for you!)
 
frostytheplebe said:
Let me guess, you needed a level 5 NICU? I work in the healthcare field on the corperate level, so I knew which hospitals were the best. I was lucky that Boston has a lot to choose from. We decided Newton Wellesley was the best hospital. We loved their facilities and their staff. Sadly, that plan died when an ultrasound revealed the hernia. Now we needed a hospital with a level 5 capability. Two hospitals in the area had that sort of facility, Brighman and Womens, and Mass General. So we had to choose between the two.
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It's a little different here in this neck of the woods. I guess you could say I essentially live in Rural Canada desipite being in a "city." We might be able to choose a doctor (When our daughter was born our choice decided to be on vacation... yay) but choosing a hospital isn't a luxury we have. With our son, we knew something was up because of my wife's instincts and sure enough there was an issue with the bloodflow through the umbilical. She ended up in bed in the hospital for 2 or three weeks before they decided the issue had worsened enough that they needed to deliver the baby. The nearest hospital with a NICU is 600 KM away. There is a hospital with decent equipment here, but they just don't have the staffing to provide the 24/7 care that a dedicated NICU requires. They know they can't care for a 2 month premie and send women out preemptively if they know they have to do and emergency C since it's better for the baby and easier if they can do the delivery after they take you out on the air-ambulance than trying to med-evac a premie that could be in distress from the birth process. The other issue is that the nearest NICU is 600 KM away, and I believe it's only a level 1 though they may have level 2 capability now since it's a brand new unit. I don't know how the levels compare compared to the US, but here Level 1 is the minimum, and then Level 2 NICUs are slightly more severe, and Level 3s were infants that could not breath without help and whatnot. I'm not sure if there are more levels in our Medical system. Anyway, I ended up doing a lot of flying between work weeks that month. Our guy was in what we called level 2.

The day of our son's birth turned to dross when I walked in the room and saw what I told you. The worst part was all my fears came to fruition when they told me that there was a complication and my wife had been injured in the procedure. My heart jumped into my throat. I sat their telling my wife to keep her eyes open... I guess you could say I was terrified that if she closed them, they'd never reopen. Stupid I know as this kind of thing happens some times, but here I was tired, filthy from not showering during a long labor, and the two people I loved the most in an ICU. So I know how you feel about not wanting to go through it again. I told my wife that we needed to sit down and talk it out long and hard before even considering a second child.

Though it all ended well, things like this really make you step back and think before trying again.

Anyway, sorry to load all of this on you guys. I should just be grateful it ended so well.
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It's ok. It can be a little overwhelming when you are in that situation. After the birth I got to stay in the Hospital with my wife for a few days and the whole outside world feels like it disapears and life gets kind of uncomplicated for a few days as you are so focused on the well-being of your wife and child. I was super touched by the dichotomy of just how fragile yet resilient the little guys are. Life is precious.
 
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