Coming Home to Meet the Family

We received a clean bill of health on Saturday and were able to be discharged in time to watch the Badgers dismantle number one Ohio State on national TV. It was the first time Wisco had beat a number one team since 1981 likely dashing OSU's hopes for a national title. Gavin, Q, Dad and grandpa all were able to enjoy some couch time and watch the first half together before Q had to go to bed. It was a nice generational moment. Maybe Gavin will follow in Quinny's footsteps and be a future player. We'll see. He's smaller than Q was when he was born so maybe a skill player. It would be possible for Q to block for Gavin some day being they are only two years apart. One can dream.

Quentin has been great through this whole ordeal with both sets of grandparents coming down and staying at the house. Through all that transition Quentin has slept well and behaved even better. He's not quite sure how to treat Gavin yet, but does know he's part of the family and has welcomed him in open arms. Quentin pokes him and every time he cries he says, "ungy, ungy" and tries to offer up good food suggestions including sharing is own. We are of course reusing Q's old things like a little vibrating rocking chair and there is some confusion with that. We had Gavin in the chair sleeping and Q comes over and tries to sit in it too. So we have gentle moments of explanation and how he needs to be a good older brother and share. So far so good. I have been giving Quinny the majority of attention while Carrie tends to the baby since Carrie can't pick up Q for the next couple of weeks. It's been working out pretty well so far and we know it will take a while to hammer out a routine.

I think Quentin has really enjoyed the grandparents but he is confused what to call them. He is currently calling everyone Gramma. It's hilarious. My dad came upstairs from the guest room this morning and Quinny was at the top of the stairs and screams, "GRAMMA!" He thinks all the grandparents are called Gramma, except Carrie's dad, who he does call Poppa. I didn't realize he was calling everyone the same name until this morning. My dad was all too aware so for the rest of the weekend I got to call him gramma too. Ahhhh, it's life's little moments that bring true pleasure. Pretty funny.

The Luckster met the newest addition to the family on Saturday with a lot of sniffing and some nuzzling. Who knows what he's thinking. I had a long talk with him before we left to go the hospital explaining that he was about to be number five on the depth chart. He took it pretty well. He's still acting neurotic since moving here. I think he's waiting to head back to Florida still. One can dream. Every time we leave the house he runs out to the car and tries to get in. This is a new behavior for him. He hasn't spent a ton of time in the car so I do think he thinks living in Iowa is temporary. Wait until we move to yet a new house this spring. That should really help!

Everyone did fine yesterday and it was nice to find the comforts of our home. Gavin was circumcised Saturday and I was allowed to watch the procedure. I figure if he has to endure it I should see what he's going through. Solidarity! That was an experience that forced me to go to my happy place. He wailed and wailed through it. They gave him a localized anesthetic but I don't think it took because he never really stopped crying through any of it. And as you can imagine it's pretty brutal. That happened in the morning and then they monitor the bleeding every 15 minutes for the first two hours. Little Gavin only has about as much blood as a coke can so even what we would consider a small amount is a lot for him so it needs to be watched closely.

Gavin has been eating better and a nurse will come out to the house on Monday to weigh him and check him for jaundice. He appears to be eating well so we think he will pass. A lot of younger babies do end up back in the hospital because they start dropping weight once they get home. Q was a good eater so hopefully Gavin is too. When we checked out of the hospital he was down a half pound since being born, which is common. They don't want him to fall below 10% of his birth weight. I'm sure he'll be a 10 pounder in no time.

He hasn't slept at all during the night and Carrie has been taking the brunt of that. You forget how brutal the lack of sleep is. To go through the day on 1-2 hours sleep day after day is nothing short of miraculous. I took Q to daycare this morning and the daycare is 2-3 miles down the street but it's on the same street we live on. Upon exiting the parking lot, I for whatever reason took a left and started driving to who knows where. About a block down the road I asked myself where I was going? I am chalking that up to no sleep. Carrie hit the wall around 2:45 am last night so I was up until about 4:30 with baby G and then got up with Quentin at 6 am. Not sure if it will be a household of napping this afternoon or what but something needs to give. We'll see. I can tell you our goal of 5 children is shrinking daily. I definitely can't keep this up 3, 4, 5 or 6 years from now. I think if you want a big family you need to get started in your early to mid-20's. After that you are either a sadomasochist or an incurable insomniac. We are neither, which means outside of triplets we aren't going to get to 5. We'll see how it pans out. Ask me in 4 years where we're at.

Here are a few pics of Gavin coming home in his car seat, meeting Lucky with Quinny excited to have him home finally and Quinny "petting" his new baby brother.

Our First Night

We are happy to report that Gavin slept through the whole night. Ha! No kid of ours is ever going to sleep through a night. We hit the sack around 12:30 am and the second I climbed into my single camp like bed Gavin blew an O-ring having his first poo. Carrie is immobile so I climb back out of bed and had a chance to tackle my first blowout 12 hours into baby number two. It was nasty and about the only thing I hadn't forgotten about having a newborn. While I was cleaning his bum up I had forgotten that proper technique is three quarters of the battle. I turned to toss a dirty wipe and he wazzered all over the place; his hat, the sheet, the towel, the clean diaper - everywhere. Par for the course. So after changing his diaper, the sheets, his hat, and his blanket we attempted to settle in for a much needed good night's sleep. That's when the crying started, so we didn't get much sleep, which is really to be expected.

His lungs have healed so we no longer have that as an issue. His breathing has normalized and the doctors decided not to follow up with any further X-rays. They have taken another blood sample to make sure everything looks normal. For one test he hit the highest level of "normal" so they wanted to make sure he didn't push any further, but we haven't heard back so things must have tested fine. He should get a clean bill of health tomorrow and we can then be discharged Saturday afternoon.

I picked up Quentin from daycare yesterday and brought him to the hospital so the boys could meet for the first time. Quinny had on his "I don't know what to think expression," which is where he is trying not to smile. It was probably hard for him to see his mom in the hospital holding a baby but he seemed to understand. It took him a while to warm up to the new surroundings and all the hustle and bustle. Quinny loves cords (vacuum's, the Swiffer, the baby monitor - anything with a cord) and of course the room has cords going every which way so he was entertained for a while just being in the room. After he settled down he asked if he could pet Gavin, meaning stroke his hair and we said okay. Kids are so great in that regard. He was nice and gentle and eventually held on to him before leaving for the night. Gavin was pretty upset and crying most of the time Q was here. Carrie kept telling him that he was hungry so Quentin, playing big brother well offered him up some of his apple juice. We had to explain to him that he only drinks milk. The rest of the time Gavin was crying Q kept saying, "Ungry, apple juice?, ungry, apple juice? Snack? Snack?" Good times.

While Q was here we learned a few things about having two kids. Since the hospital will serve the family dinner we decided we would do that last night. Well, dinner is a little bit different with two kids, a hospital room and little space. Trays got dumped, food got spilled but patience were kept. It was crystal clear that we will need to significantly increase our daily planning. Today it's what do we want for dinner and we will occasionally cook him up something different. Well, with this addition there is no way that's going to fly. We are definitely going to have to plan well in advance and have our meals for the week ready to go. No more trips on the fly to the grocery store. It's funny, but within 10 minutes of Quinny being in the room and the four of us together, it was clear that we are going to need to make major changes. Your head is just spinning.

On the way out I could hear Quinny asking about us as he walked down the hall. Q misses his mom and dad so I will go home and spend the night with him tonight. I guess on the on way to daycare this morning he was saying, "Momma, Dada, baby, home." I miss him too. When he was in here and put his hand on Gavin's head it covered three quarters of Gavin's head. It was unbelievable how much bigger Quentin is just being 23 months older. Carrie's parents have been a huge help and have stayed with him this week, picked up and taken him to daycare so we are thankful they are close by. My folks are going to drive over from the Badger state this evening to help out this weekend. We are excited to get home but are worried that Q will have a tough time this weekend so we are hoping the additional grandparents will get him some much needed attention.

It's been a crazy week but we are thankful everyone is healthy and we will leave the hospital on time. Here are a couple of pictures we took last night of the introductions.

Our Newest Spiegelhoff

We arrived at the hospital by 10:30 this morning and were escorted to our room. We dropped our bags and Carrie got prepped to have her surgery. By 12 noon we were in the OR. I, decked out in a sweet surgery jumpsuit (totally kept it for a souvenir) complete with mask and scrub cap (hair net), and then unceremoniously left in the hallway for a solid 15 minutes totally alone while Carrie was getting her anesthesia. By that time I was totally panicked. I mean these jumpsuits don't have pockets (no cell phone) so you only have the kind of solitude one needs to think all sorts of crazy thoughts while your spouse and unborn child sit in an OR not 20 yards away. Finally, I was summoned to enter the OR, slipped my mask on and began the long walk into life changing fatherhood part two.

Upon entering the OR I was careful to not sneak a peak at what the doctors were working on. I did however, practice by watching some YouTube videos on C-sections hoping to condition myself to what was about to occur. I realized I don't have an issue with seeing someone else go through a surgery but I think the personal nature of my wife being the patient is what gets me upset. Carrie thought I looked awful upon entering and seeing her. She can only see my eyes as the rest of my face is covered in surgery gear so one can only imagine what I really looked like. I had a nurse standing next to me holding me in place so even if I wanted to look I wouldn't have been able to. It was an insanely surreal moment that I imagine most people don't have in their lives. The surgical team, and it seemed like there were 10 of them (7 in reality), are working on Carrie and we are carrying on the oddest conversation like we were sitting in the park discussing the weather. What does one talk about when three quarters of you is under a 3 foot tall sheet having surgery while the rest of you is hanging out with your husband attempting what is appropriate conversation? In retrospect if we have another one of these I'll prepare suitable topics to discuss in advance.

On YouTube the procedure lasted less than a minute. In real life it felt like 45 minutes. Some of that could've possibly been due to the lack of predetermined topics of conversation. In the end we kicked around some last minute name choices, asked what sex we thought the baby would be and mostly babbled small talk hoping the three of us would survive. The whole thing was crazy. First, we realized we were walking the dog three hours earlier in the day discussing what challenges lie ahead after having the baby. Now, three hours later, we are parents for the second time. How does that happen? On top of that while in the hallway contemplating the various probabilities of outcomes I came to the sudden realization that I am truly an adult now. One can possibly have a wife and still be chalked full of immaturity. Sure, buying and taking care of a dog takes a bit of the juvenile edge off but you can still act like a moron daily if one so chose. Once baby number one shows up you absolutely need to grow up. A real life human is now totally dependent on your daily, no hourly actions. But still your spouse can throw you a bone now and then and take care of your child so you can hang out with the boys on an all night poker binge. Now, well now, we are a family of four. With a dog! I'm officially old, mature and responsible. Wow. Three hours ago we were a family of three walking the dog and now we have boys, plural.

Being newly responsible I am happy to report that the procedure lasted a total of two hours and mom and baby came through fine. We have named our newest son Gavin Robert. Robert is Carrie's father's middle name, her uncle's given name and her late grandfather's name. Gavin weighed in at 6 pounds and 15 ounces. He was born at 12:25 pm and measured 19 3/4 inches in length. They had a little trouble getting him out due to his breached position. He's having a tougher time breathing, which we were warned about. Since he didn't improve over time they called a doctor in who ordered some blood work and some chest X-rays. The blood work came back fine but there are more tests they are going to do. The X-rays show a shadow on his right lung and diagnosed him with pneumothorax, a collapsed lung. There are various degrees and they tell us this is a light case. Air is trapped between the lung and the outer wall due to a bulla rupture. It causes him to labor when breathing, specifically exhaling. He has to use his abdominal muscles to push the air out. They will continue to monitor the situation. They may just keep him as is and it should resolve itself.

Based upon by own medical education I would say he's improving over time and I don't think they will do anything. It should take care of itself over the next 24-48 hours. Other than that he's healthy. We are very happy to have another boy and a healthy one. We are glad that Carrie pulled through and handled her first major medical issue with poise, courage and success. I am happy that I stayed on my feet and didn't cause a scene so the attention was focused on the right people; mom and baby. We will be in the hospital until Saturday recovering and the next 24 hours will be a little tough for mom and baby as she transitions out of recovery and gets back on her feet. We will keep everyone posted with the latest developments over the next couple of days. We will introduce Q and Gavin tomorrow afternoon so we are excited about that. Here is a pic after his first bath.