Sleep? Has anyone seen any sleep?

Ahh, Mr. Sleep, hello? Where are you? Umm, when people said take your naps now because you won't get them later I thought that meant less sleep not no sleep at all. We're dying here. Everyone said stay in the hospital for as long as possible but there are people coming in and out of the room every 10 minutes so we can't grab any sleep. They are used to working at 2am and they just stroll in all happy as clams being like, "Hey, how's everyone doing?" Well, if this isn't last call I'm sleeping right now! 2 am? Really? I think those days were pretty much behind us and after Quentin's arrival they definitely are.

The Quinster has it backwards as well. (Maybe he should hang with the nurses - he's such a looker anyway). He's spending the night crying and wanting to hang out while we want some sleep. During the day he's as quiet as, well, a baby. Carrie only clocked about 30 minutes of sleep the first night and I got a couple of hours. We didn't have a dog sitter so last night I ran home to attend to the dog and get some sleep. Carrie had a rough night. Quentin apparently was fussy last night so she only got about 90 minutes of sleep. I dealt with Lucky this morning and headed to the hospital to give Carrie a reprieve. I don't think she'll really get one though, until we head home. The doctors and nurses are checking on her regularly for this and that so she gets attention about every hour or so. Our nurse yesterday told us the key was to sleep in the mid-afternoon, since that's the quietest time. I think we will try that today.

The hospital staff has been a little less organized the last day or so complicating our schedule. We weren't allowed to feed him from 6-9 am the first morning so he could get circumcised and then they didn't show up, so our poor little guy was starving. They came in during lunch time and of course they couldn't do it then because he had eaten. Then we went through the same ordeal this morning and once again they showed up at 10:30 am, which of course was right after he finished eating after holding out for 3.5 hours. Don't they know Quentin needs to put on weight to fulfill his life long (all 18 hours of it) dream of playing quarterback for the Packers? Coincidentally they look like they need one right now.

Yesterday afternoon Quentin and I spent the late afternoon watching Favre and the Jets, honing our throwing technique. It's going to be great to have another football fan in the house. Carrie has been holding her own over the years but Quentin, with those big hands, long fingers and his height will really have an advantage to see over those tall linemen. I figure another 21 years or so and after winning the Heisman during his junior year, he'll graduate early and be a number one pick thanking his parents at the podium for laying the groundwork for such a successful career. At the draft in New York I'm sure the crowd will be chanting Quen-tin! Quen-tin! Quen-tin!

But I digress. We are hoping to go home this afternoon. Quentin has his glamourshots this afternoon so we are making him look pretty - ahem, I mean handsome. That hair is awesome. I think a little gel, mess that up a bit and he could model for Abercrombie. We'll pass out some pics soon. In the mean time here is a shot about 1 hour after birth still in labor and delivery.

Labor

The big day has arrived, November 29, 2008. At 7 am the water broke. Carrie woke up and I woke up shortly after and we had a quick discussion to see if that's what really happened. According to our class only 10% of people who go into labor have it start with their water breaking. Due to the risk of infection we are supposed to immediately get to the hospital. We got the dog fed, showered, packed and took off. We arrived and were admitted to triage at 10:15 am to confirm that the water did indeed break. We were questioned as to whether or not one of us wet the bed. We both looked at each other for confirmation and agreed neither of us wet the bed. We are house broke. We were in triage for about 45 minutes while they ran some tests and gave us some information about what to expect. It was pretty quiet being a Saturday on a holiday weekend. Fortunately our doctor was the doctor on call so Doctor Baker will deliver our baby, which is nice for Carrie.

At 11am we were moved up to labor and delivery and given lucky room #11. Carrie got comfortable in bed and an IV was started. I think the needle was the worst part. Her blood pressure fell a bit and she got a warm sensation, but then again so did I watching that needle getting poked around in there. I think the nurse was more worried about me. Apparently, a father-to-be earlier in the week took a header after watching that portion and broke his jaw ending up in the hospital across the street. I persevered and survived the initial IV. Carrie survived too. Carrie was hooked up with some antibiotics, pitocin because her water had broke six hours ago and she wasn't making as much progress as they wanted, and some fluids in preparation for the epidural. At about 3pm Carrie asked for the epidural. Surprisingly the epidural went through with out much fanfare. I wasn't watching the needles this time and either was she. The doctor was nice, cracking jokes, and was married to the attending nurse (sound familiar)? The procedure took about 10 minutes and the worst part according to Carrie was the weird sensation of "back cramping." From that point on Carrie was resting comfortably, or as one having contractions every 90 seconds can. At about 4pm she was dilated to 7 CMs and the nurse told us it wouldn't be long.

It's crazy seeing her hooked up to all the machines. She has 2 IV's going, a blood pressure cuff, a pulse monitor on her finger, a monitor measuring the contractions and a heartbeat monitor for the baby and she also has the epidural pump hooked up. The baby's heartbeat is actually really soothing and is making me sleepy. Carrie is on her way to taking a nap before the final rush to have this baby. "Move towards the light!"

The nurses have been great and we hope to have the baby before the shift change. Our current nurse, Penny, is the same one that checked us in in the triage area who happened to shift up to the labor and delivery section at the same time we were moving so we were able to keep her. I think anyone who has been in the hospital or known someone close to them in the hospital knows their quality of stay has more to do with the doctors and nurses then anything else. So far we've had a very positive experience with everyone. If you're having a baby come on down to St. Joe's Women's hospital conveniently located adjacent to Raymond James Stadium (which is where the Bucs take on the Saints tomorrow). We could potentially watch the game out of our recovery window depending on where they move us to next.

5pm and we just got checked again - 9 CMs. We are looking at maybe another hour or so before the "pushing" and the real fun begins. We just went over the baby names for one last moment of agreement. We agreed to continue to disagree. This kid still might be named Favrefour, we'll see in a few short hours. We have discussed Carrie's pushing abilities. Will she be a rookie or an old pro? She is a little nervous but is getting a lot of encouragement from the nurses and of course me. She just found the button that gives her a turbo boost of the epidural meds. Uh-oh. Does that thing have a fail safe stop button? Can you OD on epidural meds? She isn't too comfortable any more so I think this baby is coming sooner as opposed to later.

At 6:15pm we decided it was time to start pushing. The nurse came in and was very helpful and supportive. I didn't realize I was going to be such a part of the action. I am holding a leg and counting off the 3 10 counts per contraction. The doctor came in around 6:25 and was there for the majority of the pushing part so the three of us were in the room. Carrie did very well and hardly broke a sweat as she pushed our new bouncing baby boy into his new world. He was born at 7:20 eastern standard time on November 29, 2008. He weighed in at 8 pounds and 1 ounce, and was 21 inches and 1/4 long with long arms and legs and big hands and feet. He has a ton of long dark hair covering his head. I promise you this is the hairiest kid you will ever see. He should have a full head of hair for years to come. He is large and clearly going to be tall. His fingers and toes are so long. He's already sporting a size 6 for boys in shoes. I can already see the amount of shoes we are going to have to buy him as he continues to grow. He is above the 90th percentile according to the nurse that charted his height and weight. Due to his large size they are concerned about his blood sugar level being too low so he needs to be pricked in his foot every few hours to check it.

He has had a rude awakening after sliding down the tunnel of life. He receives medication for his eyes, a vitamin K shot in the thigh (with needle), the pin prick to his foot, some medication for his remaining cord to help it fall off and he's been rubbed down with towels to clean him up a bit. All of this while angrily screaming at anyone within ear shot. He then gets his first meal from mom, which is a learning experience for both mom and baby. Fortunately dad clocked 3.5 hours of breastfeeding class and has the certificate to prove it. I can coach from across the room. "No, you're doing it wrong. Use the "C" hold not the scissors hold!" Success after a few tries and the baby gulps down his first meal on the outside.

Once mom gets the use of her legs back long enough to be able to stand and walk around a bit they move us to a recovery room where we will stay for the next 48 hours. We are in room 220 and it's a smaller room then the delivery but we are looking forward to some shut eye. Carrie wants to name the baby so without further adieu...

We have decided to name him Quentin Joshua Spiegelhoff. We wanted to name him something unique and we hadn't made up our minds until a few hours after he found the light. Carrie likes Quinn for short and thinks we may call him that. We will figure it out. His middle name follows the tradition of the first name of the father being the middle name of the first born son in the Spiegelhoff family. I don't think too many people will be calling him QJ but we'll see. Q may be okay. He could be in the next Bond flick. Who knows? President Quentin Spiegelhoff? Take that foreign leaders!

It's been an exhausting, exhilarating, emotional day. Carrie did great and from the water breaking to son being born took about 12 hours. We're told that's pretty good. Carrie feels shockingly good but I think she will have a rough morning. We are getting some dinner for ourselves just after midnight and dying for a place to crash for a few hours. Baby Q is about to get his first bath. It's going to take a blow dryer to dry all that hair. Our kid came out a hippie! He whaled through the whole bathing experience and is currently trying to warm up. He'll get one more feeding before mom and baby settle in for the night. I, am hitting the sack. A great day and one we'll never forget. He came 13 days early and no one pegged a November due date in the baby pool but he was healthy and we are looking forward to being the best parents we can.

The Day has Arrived!

We are at the hospital. Delivery will happen some time today or very early tomorrow. We will keep everyone posted. A lot of leftovers in the fridge if anyone wants to come over. We also need someone to take care of the dog. Any takers? We're having a baby!!!!

17 Days to go

I thought we could have a little caption contest. How about, "Are we there yet?" or "Baby on board!" "It's getting crowded in here," and the clock is ticking. We only have 17 days to go. Favrefour is getting pretty rowdy these days doing a lot of kicking. Now you can tell it that's a foot or a punch beating Carrie up. Look at the size 12 that kid's kicking! (Takes after his dad). I guess he's going into management.

We spent the weekend getting the last details in order. We have the bottles, diapers, wipes, diaper disposal system that's supposedly going to help with the diaper stench. We've heard from some recent parents who tell us we are going to get peed on or worse. We won't go into the worse. Apparently we needed a little test. We went to the dog park over the weekend to wear out the luckster. One of us, who will remain anonymous, decided to go up to a strange dog (lesson learned) and "ohhhh, look at the little puppy, ohhh he's sooooo cute." Well, while that was going on one of us noticed, "umm, that dog is lifting his leg, and umm that dog is peeing on your bare leg and ummm, it's running down your leg into your sandal." Well, needless to say we will not be so anxious to go up to the "cute puppy" at the dog park any more. At least we know we can take a little getting peed on now and then. We are really getting this parenting thing down.

We only have 17 days to do. We hope we make it through Thanksgiving, my favorite holiday. We did buy a ton of a food so our wish is for Fatima to hang on until after we eat our feast and maybe catch at least one of the football games. We would hate to pop the turkey into the oven and go into labor. Although, having a birthday on Thanksgiving would be pretty sweet. We'll keep everyone updated as we near the date! Gobble, Gobble!

Nursery Pics

This is the before. The room was originally Carrie's office. (We both work from home).

The second pic shows the Wisco flavor. It took us 4 coats of paint to get it Sconny red and we had the room that way for about a year so it was relatively painful to repaint it again in such a short period of time.

The third pic shows the color we chose. We of course don't know if it is a boy or a girl so we went with a yellowish color. It appears as a light green when the sun shines on it.

Here is Carrie's artwork and a partial shot of the dresser we picked out.

Lucky explaining how to put the crib together. I really don't know what I would do without all of his help. And the final product and the pattern for the bedding.

The Last Hurrah

I had my last hurrah with the fellas this weekend before the baby is due. One of my undergrad friends was tying the knot in Baton Rouge this past weekend and Carrie was too preggers to attend. We flew in a few days early to check out New Orleans. I have been down there for Jazzfest in the past (which is great by the way) and it was very different this time around. For one thing everything was significantly cheaper. I don't think they are seeing a lot of tourists this time of year. We visited the 9th ward and I would estimate one out of every 20 homes is abandoned. The people who are rebuilding, shouldn't be. They are rebuilding right on the levees again. I don't understand how the government is not coming in there, buying the land, making it a park and letting/helping these folks rebuild on higher ground. They are literally putting houses within 100 yards of the rivers/lakes. It's only a matter of time before it gets destroyed again. The French Quarter looked about the same from the last time we were there so where we were staying we didn't see much change.

The wedding was fine and I got the last of the "non-family" good times out of me with the boys. My friends that got married are both professors at LSU and the crowd was made up by about 25-30 PhD holders. So there was a lot of, "Dr.? Dr. Dr.? Dr." Maybe you've seen that in "Spies Like Us." Everyone was a prof somewhere in the country.

While I was gone Carrie tracked down a pediatrician who she will interview on Tuesday. She is also keeping up with her shopping. For those that don't know, me being out of town equals Carrie at the mall. She found a boy/girl outfit to take Favrefour/Fatima home in from the hospital. She continues to do artwork adding to the nursery. Apparently I married Martha Stewart. Now that I think about it HGTV is on quite a bit these days...The comfort level for her is decreasing but she's maintaining a positive outlook. We're not sure if we should hope for an earlier arrival or savor the last few days. A few recent parents have commented, "I wish for just a few hours I could shove him back in there so I could go to the mall solo." Okay, probably not the mall but maybe a football game for me. I'm sure it will be bliss. Tired bliss, but bliss all the same.

I got trapped in O'hare for 2 days last week. Not pleasant. It did afford an opportunity for me to catch up with another college friend who I crashed with in Chicago one night on my endless airport adventure. His advice (single, bachelor) was it's just another change no different than graduating high school or college or getting engaged. You really don't know what's on the other side but that's what life is all about. It was the best I've gotten to date. There really isn't any reason to be nervous, because that kid is coming and you're going to be a parent nervous or not.

We continue to decorate so I am attaching a few nursery pics. We did get the car seat installed. The hospital folks said it would take an hour. It took us like 5 minutes. Hmm, maybe I should go make sure that thing is actually in there right. I thought I was just a genius but I probably just did it wrong. Ya, I better go take care of that...

We're Certified Parents!

We graduated last night from parenting class. I took the survey, gathered my diploma and walked out of the hospital a new man; one fit for parenting - at least one child. As we took the elevator down to the first floor and began our walk toward the parking lot I felt a new sense of pride overcome me. That's right, I had just succeeded in changing my first diaper, on a doll. I also practiced using a bulb syringe and clearly will be a bulb syringing pro in a few short months. Look out mucous. I will admit I had serious problems taking off and putting a shirt on the baby - doll. I think it will be easier with something less stiff, like a human. We learned other things like how to cut the cord and keep one hand on the child at all times to prevent dropping on the floor. (Dropping baby is not good). Here is a quote from a new dad in one of the videos about cutting the cord. "It was the most fulfilling aspect of the whole process. For the first time it allowed me to be a part of the experience." I think the actual birth will be more fulfilling. We shall see. I hear the cord is like cutting a bungee cord. A little weird and car crash like at the same time. It's sort of gross but you just can't help yourself.

I did get major props from the teacher for making it to the breastfeeding class. That was great until she called on me to talk about what I learned. Umm, embarrassing. See, the dads show up for the parenting class so you sort have to be a little macho. Everyone in the class is having their first child so we are still in the "cool" stage of our lives. I deferred to the wife to save some face. People only made fun of me for the duration of the class. That's been happening a lot lately - go figure. I also learned there is a boot camp for dads. We saw the video and 20/20 did a special on it. It was about 20+ years old (VHS). A lot of mullets in the video but looked like it may be helpful. Several wives volunteered their husbands for the boot camp. Fortunately, my wife took pity on me and remained silent. She was probably too busy thinking about what she's going to wear for the father of the year ceremony taking place during the 3rd Sunday in June. Hopefully right!?!?

All in all it was a pretty good class. Most of it was gross and way too much information from a male's perspective. It will make me more empathetic to the birthing process and probably prepared us as much as possible. We had a good teacher, which made it informative and still pretty entertaining.

As of today we have 35 days to go. That would be five weeks for the mathematically challenged. Our baby currently enjoys mixed martial arts. The kid has a flair for punching and when that gets old moves to practicing its kicks. It's alien-like for me to feel it. It's painful and drives the wife nuts. The baby's current practice hours are generally near 11pm, which puts him/her into the not-convenient hour. Ah, it's only another 35 days. We'll be fine.

Baby pics

Here are pictures from 10/6/08. This is the last sonogram we have. Clearly this is an NFL linebacker. You can tell by the size of his paws. I see a future Packer but you be the judge. The sonographer, an actual profession (look it up & impress your friends and co-workers), says the baby has hair, will be tall and is a "fatty."

Halloween 2008

Here are some pics from halloween this year. We had a pumpkin carving contest and as you can see Lucky dominated. Down here pumpkins go for about $10 a pop. Yikes! We managed a better deal then that and I think due to the cost there weren't very many carved in the neighborhood, so ours were a hit.

Meow!

Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

The Results are in

Just a quick post to follow up on the election. Fortunately for our possible daughter he/she didn't come due yesterday so we will not have a Miss Barack Spiegelhoff in the family but we thought it would be nice to take the front page from yesterday's election (today's results) and include it in the baby book. Maybe Fatima/Favrefour will aspire to be president some day. (No pressure). We thought it was an interesting year in the political arena considering it was likely the most important election since the 1930s when the New Deal was struck. We think it will be neat for our future daughter/son to look back on the year that they were born and see the different things that were going on in the world.

Don't forget to check out Friday. We learn how to be parents Thursday night so I am super excited to get my parenting degree and immediately start full time!

Election Day

I thought I would update this quick since today is likely a historic voting day. We decided if the baby came due today we would name it after a former President. That may get tricky if it's a girl and we can assure you George is out, so no jokes. Obama Spiegelhoff? Probably not and were not even going to try Barack Spiegelhoff.

We attended a breastfeeding class at the hospital last night. There were another 15 or so moms in there and we were the only ones that didn't know the sex of our baby but also the only ones that don't have a full name picked out. I think these must be the helicopter parents everyone talks about. Already named? Seriously? Most of the moms in there had a good 4 months left.

For any males out there my sacrifice was enough for a generation so you can stay home for this one in the future. We had quite the enthusiastic teacher who ran over on a 3 hour class so we got a free extra 30 minutes. Think Hollywood finding a goofy looking, way too happy to have a prosthetic breast in her hand teacher that is only too happy to let you know everything she does about the breast - complete with goofy nurse outfit in a first rate B movie. It was difficult to maintain a straight face throughout the whole class. This whole experience is very much after school special/6th grade health class all wrapped up in one fairly entertaining package. We now know more then anyone should about the inner-workings of the breast. There are a lot of old wives' tales out there so no advice needed. We heard some pretty painful suggestions that just aren't true so it was beneficial to separate fact from fiction. We were also educated on the different colors and textures of baby poop. I am now an expert. Be prepared for yellows, greens and even the occasional black. And we got to see some graphics so we now know the difference between solid and diarrhea. Yes, thank you for taking my $25 for this class. The best news we got? Formula is not cheap but breast milk is actually free. Who knew? The average cost for formula for a year? Around $4,000-$5,000 according to Nurse Enthusiasm and up to $150/week if your baby is fussy about what they eat and you have to buy the high-end stuff. We will need a serious turn around in the stock market if Fatima/Favrefour thinks we are spending $150/week on their food!

At any rate it was several more hours of education into parenthood. We wrap up the educational phase of this delivery on Thursday where we will get tips on actual parenthood. I'll fill everyone in on the details on Friday.

We wanted everyone to have an opportunity to follow the events of our yet to be born baby and we felt a blog would be the best way to facilitate that living so far away from our friends and family. We will do our best to update our blog with the most recent events. We have a little ways to go before our little one is born so I don't expect to be updating this too much until after Fatima or Favrefour is born. The due date is December 12th, although, we've been told we only have about a 5% chance of having our baby on that date. Carrie has had one of her friends go about 4 weeks early and another one that is 3 days late and still waiting so we'll see. The house/nursery is ready and we have several new toys we have been trying out to make sure we can use them - competently. (Strollers are much harder to collapse then it looks and even more difficult to get them back in their usable form). I can't wait for diaper changing! We hope everyone finds this helpful and fun. Keep in touch!