February 24, 2004
February 21, 2004
More Photos of Robbie
I still need to find an easy way to share printer worthy photos, but here's some new ones to look at for now.
Click Here for the First Set of Photos
February 18, 2004
Robbie - Day 6
Robbie is now 6 days old. He's had his day 3 midwife check-up on Wednesday and everything looks ok. He's got a bit of jaundice but we've been putting him in sunlight behind a window and it's starting to clear up. We were a bit worried the first 24 hours because he just slept and slept and didn't want to feed no matter what we tried. He started waking up on monday evening and has been feeding well since then.
He's a very easy going baby so far. He sleeps a lot, and only cries very little. When he does cry it's for a reason like needing his diaper changed. His eating pattern is pretty irregular, he'll happily eat 3 times in 2 hours, and then need nothing for the next 3 or 4 hours. He does eat a lot during the day though, so I'm not worried about it anymore.
He has quite the talent for peeing. The other day we were changing a diaper and when he was undressed he peed all over his face and hair. He was not a happy camper about that! Then today, he was lying in his bassinet, sleeping. We suddenly noticed that he has a wet back and that the bassinet sheet has a wet spot under his back. He had a diaper on though, and it was dry.
He makes a lot of funny faces. His face is very expressive. I'll have to try and take some pictures of his different expressions. I was looking at Jef's baby album yesterday and noticed a strong resemblance between Jef's earliest photos and the way Robbie looks now. On some of Jef's photos he is making all sorts of expressions that remind me a lot of Robbie.
Robbie's Birth Story
My mother and brother arrived on Friday, Feb 13 to be here for Robbie's birth and first few weeks. Since I wasn't due till Feb 25, we figured they'd keep me company for 2 weeks while we wait for the baby. On Saturday we spent the day walking around a few stores, and later at dinner I told Robbie that we're ready for him to come and that his lease is up. I guess he heard me.
I woke up on Sunday at 2 am with mild contractions. Since I've never had any braxton-hicks contractions, I figured that's what I must be feeling. I wasn't due for another 10 days so I wasn't expecting labor to start yet. I decided to take a shower to see if that would stop them, but they just kept getting stronger. Around 4 am I finally woke up Jef to get him to help me time the contractions because they were starting to get intense. They were about 4 minutes apart and 30-40 seconds in duration. After an hour of those, we decided it's time to wake up my mom and call the birthing center. That's when things got a bit tricky because their phone would just ring and switch to a busy signal instead of transfering to the pager. We had no other number for them, but we got the idea of looking up some of the staff members in the phone book. We found the home phone of Stacey, the office manager (after one wrong number where we woke up the wrong Stacey). She got Roswita, a midwife at the birthing center to call us back. Jef told her the situation and she said she'd meet us there in 45 minutes.
On our way to the birthing center Jef drove as fast as he could without risking getting pulled over, though I later found out that he ran one red light. On our way, we passed a bridge where people were running the Motorola Marathon. I had always looked at preparing for the birth as similar to preparing for running a marathon, so I think it's great that Robbie decided to be born on the day of the marathon.
We arrived at the birthing center at 7:15 am. Roswita did an internal exam, but she later said she wasn't expecting much because I seemed too cheerful when we came in. To all of our surprise I was 6.5 cm dialated. I decided to try using the birthing tub so Roswita got the water ready. The contractions were really intense at this point and I felt like pushing soon after I got in the tub. I was told to go ahead and try pushing. According to a fetal monitor check, the baby seemed distressed so Roswita decided I needed to be given oxygen and we had to move over to the bed instead. I pushed in the side-lying position for about 40 minutes and Robert was born at 8:50 am. He weighs 7lb 8 oz and is 20 inches long. His first apgar score was 8, the second was 9.
It was a very fast labor and I'm glad we got to the birthing center when we did. I got quite worried when their phone wasn't working, I was afraid I'd have to go to a hospital and be delivered by a doctor I've never met. We later found out that the center had just switched to Southwestern Bell and their pager service went down. They now put an emergency number on all their hand-outs and the website so this wouldn't happen again. I'm glad everything worked out ok and we were able to reach them after all.
The labor went so quickly I didn't get to try many of the relaxation and pain-reducing techniques I learned about in my Bradley childbirth class, but I'm very glad that I was prepared for a natural labor because even if I'd been in a hospital they probably wouldn't have had time to give me any drugs if I asked for them. As it went though, I never felt I needed them, even though I was in pain. It was never unbearable. I'm very lucky to have had such a short and uncomplicated labor.
Robert Thomas Jakobs is here!
Robert Thomas Jakobs was born on Feb. 15 at 8:50 am, weighing 7 lb 8 oz at 20 inches long. Full birth story to follow. First some photos:
February 12, 2004
General Update
Sorry I haven't been posting much. Here's an update for the last few weeks. I'm at 38 weeks as of yesterday, so 2 more weeks to go. Today is my last day at work and my mom and brother are comming tomorrow! As far as I'm concerned the baby can come any time after that. I'm ready!
I had an internal exam at my 37 week appointment last week and the baby is making some progress. He's dropped down low and is at station 0. The cervix is 85% effaced (thinned out) and 1 cm dialated. So, things are starting to happen, even though I have not felt any contractions yet. Of course at this point, it could still be a few weeks before he decides to be born, but it's nice to know something is happening.
Baby Shower
I had my baby shower on January 17. My friends Jill and Manda organized it, and my friend Holly baked a cake. It was great! My friends did a wonderful job hosting it and came up with some really fun games. The cake looked amazing, it was in the shape of a baby carriage. It looked really professional and
tasted great. I got tons of usefull stuff so I think we have pretty much everything we need for the baby.
For anybody new to baby showers, it is an American tradition where the friends of a pregnant woman organize a party for her a month or two before the baby is due. You serve food, play special baby shower games, and open presents for the baby. One of the games we played was with ice cubes. My friends bought these miniature baby dolls and froze them in ice cubes. We each got one ice cube in our drink and whoever's ice baby was born first (the ice melted first) won that game. Mine was one of the last to be "born". :)
Another game was 20 questions. You have to guess the name of a person, place or thing but can only ask questions with a yes or no answer. This was a baby version of the game. Everybody got a name tag on their back with a baby-related famous name or famous song or movie. For example "Santa Baby" (a song), or Baby Jessica (a baby that was in the news a few years ago because she fell in a well and had to be rescued) or Baby Jane (from a movie of the 1950s). Nobody could tell you what name is on your back. We then went in a circle and everybody took turns asking a question about their name so they could guess what it is.
Another game was to be blindfolded and to pick out safety pins out of a bowl of rice for 20 seconds. The person to get the most safety pins won the game. I won that one.
For food we had a vegetable tray, miniature quiches, cheese, crackers, spinach dip, bread and cake. Non pregnant people got mimosas (orange juice with champagne) and I got iced tea to drink.