What Does This Baby Weigh??

When Henry was born, Dave looked at the scale and thought it read 6 pounds .146 ounces. Then we looked at the picture he took and realized it was displaying 6 pounds 14.6 ounces. When we discharged from the hospital, the papers said he was 3.135 kilos, which jives with the 6 lbs 14.6 oz. But now we're not sure again...

I took Henry to the doctor today, 8 days old, and his weight was 2.57 kilos or 5 pounds 10 ounces. That's a 1 lb 4 oz, or 18%, weight loss! The doctor was surprised and questioned me about how often he eats, dirty diapers, etc, and I needed to feed him while we were there to calm him for the exam so she was able to see and was pleased with his latch. We're both quite confident he is feeding well so she sent us on our way just wanting to see him again when he's a month old.

But as Dave and I think about this more, we're really wondering how he could have lost so much weight. When we looked online, it looks like the very maximum weight a baby should lose in the first week is 10%. I can vouch that Henry is eating plenty and now that my milk supply is coming full-forsce, often taking in more than he can handle (evidenced by frequent spit-ups). He sleeps well (as I mentioned in the last post), eats at regular intervals and doesn't act like a hungry baby. All we can figure out is that he must have been mis-weighed at birth. We really weren't that impressed with the Corniche Hospital (people sure talked it up, though) and wouldn't be surprised if they forgot to zero the scale before placing him on or something. To Dave and I, he never looked like an almost seven pound baby. Dave says he thinks Henry seemed the lightest of all our kids and I would have to agree that he certainly didn't seem to be the heaviest by half a pound (Davey 6 lbs 8 oz and Charlie 6 lbs 0oz). If Henry were really right around 6 lbs at birth, losing 6 ounces in the first week would jive much better with that 10% weight loss limit. But, I guess we'll never really know the answer!

One Week Old

The first week of life with little baby Henry has been a great one! It seems I made a super-positive post like this one shortly after Charlie was born and then things got a little harder, but I'm going to do it anyway :) We just love our little guy. It is amazing how the instant you see your new child your heart's capacity to love increases amazingly. The love you feel for your other children isn't diminished in any way; it just grows. I just love to look at his tiny face and look into his eyes. And, I have been greatly rewarded by smiles! Henry first smiled at me at two days old. I know many people would not believe a baby so young will smile and I was skeptical the first time he did, but he was fully awake and looking at me as we were waiting for our car to be pulled up when we were leaving the hospital and he smiled at me. And he has smiled at me every day since, always when I am talking to him.

In addition to the smiles, Henry is a great nurser. He is very picky about his latch, which he knows how to do well, and I am greatly benefitting from it as I have experienced no soreness, which I think is amazing. He also is on a very good 3 hour nursing schedule that I haven't had to force.

The first two nights (in the hospital), Henry had a hard time sleeping because of a bunch of congestion in his nose. He was always sneezing trying to get it out and his breathing was very loud, bordering on snoring. Sometimes it would keep me awake just with the noise. His discomfort at sleeping made him think he wanted to suck all the time so the first two nights I got a pretty small amount of sleep. During the second night I called a nurse in to see if she would suction it out but she wouldn't! She just said it was natural that the baby had this drainage since he was just immersed in fluid. Ugh, I wished I had brought my own. But finally in the morning of the day we left, his breathing was clear and he sunk into a very deep sleep. I think he was so exhausted from not sleeping well those two nights.

Thankfully the better sleeping continued once we got home and he has slept most of the day, like most newborns. On days 5 and 6 he started having 1 to 2 waking periods about an hour each during the day and today on day 8 he had 3. He times them well, staying awake after nursing and then dozing for another hour or so before waking to nurse again. (I point this out because it is the "Baby Wise" way - the cycle to eat, then wake, then sleep - to teach them how to fall asleep on their own, not nursing - and he's doing it much more naturally than the other two did.)

Once we were home, however, he started having fussy periods at night, from about 1 to 4am. Dave, thankfully, took these on the first three nights but the poor guy got so little sleep since I have been unable to do much for the older boys during the day due to so much pain. So I said I'd try to handle the next night and then he slept for 6 hours straight! 10pm to 4am! And the next night again! The following night he was fussy again until about 2am but then slept until 7 this morning. I'm just hoping this continues!

Davey and Charlie have done well with having a new baby around (and not having much of a mommy for them) so far. Davey is a little disinterested mostly but certianly shows no ill-will. I was most worried about Charlie but he is very interested and gentle with the baby. The only sign I've seen so far is that sometimes he is very forceful that he needs Dave or me to hold him right now. So we're trying to be sensitive to that. Hopefully soon I'll heal enough to get off the couch and can give him more of the attention he needs.

Overall, a very good week!

Baby Henry's Birth Story

I went to the doctor on Thursday, June 16th, and told the doctor that if I hadn't yet delivered, I wanted the next appointment to be on Wednesday so we could schedule an induction for Thursday. That would be one week overdue. For my emotional health, I just couldn't take going any longer than that.

Friday about 7am I woke to a "bloody show." (Ugh, I hate that term but the only alternative I know is no better.) Which only means you'll probably deliver within a week, but I was glad at least that I saw some sign of things moving along and that maybe I wouldn't have to be induced. I got up and started getting ready for church and within about an hour I started having some contractions but didn't think too much of them since I'd had so many during the last few months. They seemed to be not going away though, so I was hopeful. By the time we left for church about 9 they were fairly consistent so I started timing them once we got there. They were about 9 minutes apart.

By the time Sacrament meeting was finished and they hadn't stopped, I figured it was time to head home and get ready to go to the hospital. Some very kind friends we've made here, the Ethingtons, had offered to watch the boys when the time came, so it was convenient that we were already with them at church. We took Richard home with us, showed him around the things the boys might need during the day and then he went back to church with our car so he could drive the boys home. Their plan was to come back, have lunch and a nap and then take them to swim. That day was also their daughter's first birthday. Luckily they had already celebrated it the weekend before. I felt a little bad infringing on their day with her, but what could I do? :)

As I hurried around trying to think of last-minute things we needed to do, I lost track of the contractions and thought they might be dissipating. I was going to be embarrassed if the baby never came that day since after leaving church for the hospital, everyone there knew what was happening. But once I sat down and started timing again, they were coming right along. By the time we left around 1pm the contractions were about 5 minutes apart. Richard got home with the boys just before we left so it was nice to get to see them and hug them again before we went off since I knew next time I saw them I was going to be so much more distracted.

We took a cab to the Al Corniche Hospital, which is probably just 2 miles away from our apartment and checked into urgent care. I sat in triage being monitored for about an hour, being dilated to a 2 when they first checked. My contractions didn't progress much until I got up to go to the bathroom about 2:30. Then they sure got moving! I had been thinking of trying to do this birth naturally like with Davey but once the contractions really kicked into gear, I decided to abandon that idea and get an epidural. The nurses finally arranged for me to go upstairs to a delivery room and no, they didn't take me up in a wheelchair, I was walking all around the hospital. By the time we got to the ward, I could barely walk the contractions were coming so quickly and strong. I was doubled over in pain trying to deal with them and crying - not really sure why I was crying... partially from the pain, unsure I could do this again, and partially from the crazy hormones, amazed that this pregnancy was finally coming to an end and I was going to get to meet my little guy. The nurses ushered me into some sort of waiting room before figuring out what to do with me. Then they had me walk down a long hallway to the end into a room. Took me forever to get ther and when I did, I realized I wasn't in the delivery ward, I was in a recovery room! What?!?! I was dying for an epidural and knowing I was making fast progress toward delivery. They had just dropped us off in this shared recovery room - a lady was there with her baby, listening to me in labor - and left. I couldn't believe it! So I sent Dave to find someone to come back and check me again and get me to the delivery room. They checked me, I was dilated to a four, and saw how much distress I was in and finally got themselves into gear and made arrangements for a delivery room. Apparently it was a really busy day in the hospital and the rooms had all been full. Which I think is crazy for a hospital that does nothing but maternity.

I was finally taken up to a delivery room, though I don't remember the time. I'm guessing about 3pm. I immediately asked my midwife, Princess, for an epidural. She promptly told me it would not be possible, which made me angry. I was almost yelling at her, for which I apologized a couple minutes later. Apparently there were 3 women ahead of me who had asked for one and it sounded like no one was getting one because there weren't enough midwives on duty to watch over them after they'd been administered. Ridiculous. If you're having a busy day, call in some more midwives to work.

I didn't want to use drugs that would affect the baby so she advised me to try using the nitrous oxide gas (laughing gas) during my next contraction to see what I thought. I didn't feel much help but it did help me focus on breathing to get through the contraction... since I wanted some kind of pain relief so badly, I was taking very deep breaths through that mask. Eventually it started helping a little as it made me drowsy. From that point, the gas made me loopy. It was a strange experience, really. It seemed like I could still feel everything but I was sleepy and disconnected from it. And I started making no sense. I knew what I was saying was silly but couldn't help it. Sometimes I would alternate groaning in pain with laughter at the crazy things I was thinking, which really confused Dave and the midwife. I kept on telling Dave how I loved his eyes. The gas made me feel like I loved everyone there, even though now looking back I would not repeat the experience and don't feel much love for it. My water broke just shortly before it was time to push. Dave says I pushed for about fifteen minutes.

Henry was born at 4:14pm (GMT +4). He had Apgar scores of 8 and 9 because he didn't cry right away and his hands were blue. I held him right away, which was wonderful. He was so tiny. Then he was weighed and sat on the warmer for a long time while they sewed me up. I had, as usual, tons of tearing inside and out. They spent an hour and a half sewing me up and removing a quite large cyst as well. It was about the size of my thumb but wider. The sewing me up part was just as hard as the delivery to get through. So I didn't get to hold Henry again for a long time but he was happy.

Some random details to remember: The Corniche Hospital policy is not to bathe the babies for 6 hours but they didn't bathe him until about 24 hours later, but he came out amazingly clean. A couple nurses commented on it. Also, nurses kept coming into the recovery room and commenting on how fast my labor was. One nurse told me I looked like I was Arabic. Sharing a recovery room wasn't terrible but wasn't nice. The worst parts were sharing a bathroom and dealing with the other person's light being on so bright in the middle of the night when I was trying to sleep. Luckily her baby didn't cry too much. They really left me alone a lot and it was very quiet in the room (we were at the end of a long all, which probably helped), which was nice since they rarely woke me from sleeping. Henry had a Hep B shot in the hospital, but I declined the BCG vaccine (tuberculosis) because its not a shot they give in the US and it leaves a nasty welt on the child's arm that often gets infected and it just looks so painful. When I spoke with the pediatrician at his 8 day appointment, she supported my decision saying it only protects the child for a couple years anyway. The shot is, however, mandatory in the UAE. For that reason I'm glad we don't live there. The food at the hospital was surprisingly edible.

Nap or No Nap...?

I can't figure out whether to continue with Charlie's naps or not... and I can't believe I'm even thinking about nixing them because I am such a believer that kids need sleep and lots of it. But Charlie is perplexing me... He's not quite 2 and a half yet but if I let him sleep as long as he might on his own, about 2 hours, he will wake too early in the morning. I put both he and Davey to bed at 7pm but Charlie will often wake before 6 these days. I have been shortening his nap, waking him after one hour, but it hasn't been helping much.

Some days he doesn't nap anyway because he'll get out of his bed (moved him out of his crib about a month ago). I've resorted to locking the door to not let him out. Being 8 months pregnant and on my own with them I just haven't had the energy to deal with bringing him back to his room over and over all night and day for naps.

Normally he'll never sleep anywhere but his bed, never in the car. But the last few weeks he's been falling asleep in the car a lot which leads me to believe he still needs naps. No conclusion here... just writing about my confusion! Guess I'll have to give it some more time to figure out...

Not Succeeding

I must admit I have been loving having a full-time housemaid (for most of) the last year and a half... but I guess I need to make a little more effort in giving the kids more responsibilities... Since we've been in Abu Dhabi it has been hard to find some help at home (and I need it more than ever!) and we had a nice girl helping us for just a week of the time we've been here. Once she left, Davey asked, "Do we still have a maid?" No was the answer. To which he replied, "Then who will clean up after us?" Ugh...

Later That Day...

So that wasn't the only adventure Charlie had that day, though the next one wasn't nearly so scary.

When we moved into our apartment in Abu Dhabi, I decided it was a good time to transition Charlie to a big boy bed. The first couple days went well, but he soon discovered he could get in and out as he pleased.

It took me a few tries to figure out how to respond, but decided the best way would be to just take him by the hand without a word or eye contact and lead him back to his bed every time he came out. Over the first several days, twice a day of course for nap and bedtime, I must have done that a couple hundred times. He thought it was such fun.

It was very tiring for this 7+ month pregnant lady so eventually I started holding onto the door handle so he couldn't open it. I just couldn't keep leading him back over and over for hours each day. The day before the elevator escapade, I heard through the door Charlie talking about locking the lock but he didn't do it. I made a mental note to check if my house key also opened the inside doors. The next morning I did just that and found it didn't work.

So, as you can guess, that afternoon while Charlie was supposed to be napping, he got up tried to lock the door. I heard him start to touch it and immediately opened the door and guided him back to bed. The next time he got out of bed he got to the door and turned the lock so fast I couldn't stop it. He was locked in. Ugh. I didn't know how long he would be in there before I got a key. I was unsure if Oxy had the keys or if the reception/maintenance for the building would. After trying to coax Charlie into unlocking it, I made a call and maintenance was able to come in and unlock it, thank goodness. Needless to say, I now I have keys to all the interior doors.

Almost two weeks later I still lock his door. Sometimes he unlocks it himself but luckily seems to forget that he knows how to do it. Finally in the last two days he seems to be trying to do it less. But he still will get out of his bed and cry at the door and often not nap. Oh well, life is full of transitions.

Elevator Escapade

While we're in Abu Dhabi, we're living on the 5th floor of a 23-story apartment building. The elevator doors close very quickly so I've had to be vigilant about making sure the kids get off before me. Well, they had gotten good about running right off and I got lazy...

So Charlie and I were coming home after dropping Davey at school and I got off before him. He didn't get off right after me and I couldn't stop the doors from closing! What a nightmare! I'm just listening to him call for me... I tried to stay calm and watched the elevator go up to the 7th floor and stop. I frantically called the elevators (there are 3 in the bank) and the same one came back for me - phew! I figured he'd be on it. But he wasn't! So I went up to the 7th floor figuring he'd be there... but he wasn't! Now what do I do? Then I'm looking at all of the floors he could be on... the two levels of parking garage... oh my gosh, it was scary.

I decided the best thing to do was head to the lobby so I could enlist the help of the receptionist and other workers and perhaps find a way to call all the elevators back at once or have us all running up and down the staircases looking for him on each floor. Luckily, when I got there, Charlie was there too. What a relief!

Apparently someone had called the elevator from the 7th floor, the guy must have seen Charlie - imagine an elevator opening on your way into work and seeing this little two year old, wearing sunglasses and holding a train, all alone in your elevator... it makes me chuckle a little now - so Charlie must have gotten off and while the guy decided what to do with him, the elevator left to come get me so they got on another one and rode down to the lobby.

It was all probably over in one or two minutes, but it felt like forever. The funny thing is that it surely made an impression on Charlie since he still talks about it at least once every day... "Remember when I got stuck on the elevator? A man got in with me and I wanted my mommy." You can now imagine that I never let down my guard.

Stake Conference Miracle

The evening of the day I went to the doctor and found out I had placenta previa was the adult session of Stake Conference. As I walked in I found it hard to concentrate, I was so worked up about the news I'd heard. Elder Holland attended the conference (we watched on the internet; the conference was in Dubai) and he spoke about how all of us who are living in the Middle East are here for a reason. We may think we are where we are for the job that brought us, but that Heavenly Father has bigger reasons He guided us here. He also assured us that we are safe. As he spoke, a great sense of calm came over me. I felt that it was an answer to my prayer that I shouldn't bail on the Middle East and that I would still be fine not heading to the States.

The next day during the main session of the conference, Elder Holland left his apostolic blessing, specifically mentioning pregnant women and saying that this blessing is as if he had his hands on each of our heads individually. I really felt the power of his words and indeed like he was directly giving me a blessing. I knew then that even if I had to have a c-section, everything would work out okay and I would be able to handle it. It was a very special experience.

A week later, the kids and I were off to Abu Dhabi. Later that week I had an appointment at the Corniche hospital and got an ultrasound that revealed that the placenta had moved! It was incredible news. I can't remember when I've felt so relieved, happy and blessed. From what I understand, the placenta just doesn't move at this point. I know it was a miracle.

Placenta Previa

When we were in Greece, I noticed some bleeding one night when I went to the bathroom. I was 29 weeks and I've never had bleeding before except for my miscarriage. I didn't know who to call or what to do. I hadn't seen my doctor in Bahrain for 3 months, I had seen an OB in Dubai recently but only once and both of their offices were closed. I didn't feel like I had enough of a recent or long enough history with either of them to call them during the night. So I ended up calling Generations in Michigan, whom I had seen for my miscarriage last summer.

The nurse there recommended I go to the hospital right away because bleeding at 29 weeks is not normal and is concerning. I pushed back a bit and when I told her it had stopped she said I could wait until morning to get it checked out unless it started up again. Luckily it didn't but I was worried all night.

The next morning the wonderful manager of the villa found a doctor for me, made an appointment, brought Dave and I there, translated when needed and then took us to the pharmacy afterward.

The doctor was very thorough, giving me a non-stress test, physical exam and ultrasound. He was able to confirm that everything was okay with the baby but never gave me a reason as to why I was bleeding. He was also very through in answering his phone. His cell phone rang so many times and he always answered it. He even answered it while I was lying there in stirrups and left me there for several minutes waiting while he spoke!!

When I returned to Bahrain I went to my doctor who informed me that my placenta was low and that was why I was bleeding. Luckily I still hadn't had any more bleeding episodes but she advised me to stop exercising and put me on pelvic rest, though not using that term. She informed me that I would have to have a c-section if the placenta didn't move. When I expressed my concern (I'm so afraid of going under the knife!) she told me not to worry about anything, but that when I get to Abu Dhabi, I'd better see a doctor immediately. Quite a mixed message.

She didn't ever say the words "placenta previa" but when I googled it, that is exactly what she had described. Its a pretty serious condition with lots of risk involved. I wasn't happy with the little bit of information she had given me and the mixed message she gave me as her parting words. From my reading, I found that a low placenta in early pregnancy will often move out of the way but that at 31 weeks as I now was, it pretty much will never move.

I was so worried, almost making myself sick with stress and worry. I was questioning my decision to have the baby in Abu Dhabi, thinking that if I were going to have a c-section that I shouldn't be doing it in a new city/country where I knew no one and Dave wouldn't be with me most of the time. I wanted to go home and have my mommy there to take care of me! But so much had already been done to arrange our stay in Abu Dhabi and we would have to be away from Dave for so long...

Love the Airlines in the Middle East

I love airlines in the Middle East. Granted, I had to travel to the office to make the change, but today I changed my itinerary for our vacation only two days away - departure city, return date, added an extra flight and changed the return city - and only paid $20 per ticket because of Dubai's airport tax. Amazing! My cab ride to get to the office cost more.

Other great things about the airlines I've been on here: planes are nice, clean and new, food is plentiful, individual tvs usually even on short flights, great customer service, etc. And their change/cancellation fees are either non-existent or minimal. I was dealing with Qatar Airways today. Go Qatar! Now I'm even more excited for our trip to Greece!