Day 135, Year 7: Oliver, Day 2
Date: Thursday, March 22, 2012
Weather: Foggy Morning, Beautiful Afternoon, Unseasonably Warm
Location: Brewer Fiddler’s Cove Marina, N Falmouth, MA
Writing ‘Oliver, Day 2’ sounds like an ocean passage log title. And I guess
the birth of a baby is a passage of a different sort. Like an ocean
passage, each day you make progress and this is the report of Oliver’s
progress. Oliver and mommy and daddy are doing great and will be coming
home from the hospital tomorrow. And Sam and Jonah are still in awe and
wonder at the new addition to their family. And I can’t tell you how
relieved Mark and I are that all is well. When Heather was diagnosed with
cholestasis last Friday, I think we were all in a state of mild shock. None
of us had heard of this obstetric liver condition and we certainly didn’t
like the possibilities for what could happen to the baby. Inducing the
birth early was just not something any of us had ever thought about, but
Heather and Jed definitely made the right decision to move quickly. Heather
found out yesterday the numbers on her liver enzymes had elevated
significantly from Friday to Tuesday and the doctor concurred that haste in
this situation was a good thing. I hate to think what could have happened
had Heather not researched the reason for her out-of-control itching and
taken action on it. In another few days Heather’s liver should be
functioning normally once again and Oliver is already doing all of the
things new babies should do even though he was an early term birth. He is
not having breathing difficulties and he nurses voraciously and then sleeps.
Sometimes early term babies have trouble staying warm and admittedly, Oliver
loves it under the special heat lamp. Thankfully, we are having warmer than
normal weather and will just have to keep him bundled for a couple weeks.
But basically, he is just fine. We were at the hospital this afternoon when
the doctor came in to see him. As she was checking him over and explaining
that he should have his first bowel movement in the first 24 hours, he
presented her with a lovely present! So all systems seem to be working just
fine. He is a very relaxed little guy and seems to enjoy having lively,
sometimes loud, little brothers around. He squeaks a little when an adult
speaks in a loud voice, but the squeals and antics of two brothers don’t
seem to bother him. And this is definitely a good thing. I got to hold him
for a nice long while this afternoon and didn’t want to give him up. And it
was very special for Sam that one his classmates, Ezra, had a baby brother
in the room next door a few hours after Oliver was born. Ezra’s baby
brother’s name is Simon, so Oliver already has a friend and a future
classmate.
Sam and Jonah have been so good for Mark and me the past couple of days. And
I mean extraordinarily good. I know they have missed mommy and daddy but
they have only mentioned that a couple of times. They have gone to bed on
time each night with no problem and have been sleeping late in the morning
Jonah gets up sometime before 7 am and comes in and gets in bed with Mark
and me, but then he goes back to sleep. So we’ve gotten plenty of rest and
are going to miss our morning snuggles with Jonah. Tonight Jed came home to
play with the boys, have dinner with us, and then put the boys to bed. At
bedtime, they made the transfer from daddy to Oma without too much of a
fuss. Tomorrow night Mark and I will be back on the boat and I don’t know
if I will make the transfer back as easily. I’m going to miss my little
guys.
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| 120322 Day 135 Cape Cod, USA–Baby Oliver, Day 2 |
