It’s the Dawsons!

Time flies when you’re having fun, working on a lot less sleep and learning how to be a parent!  We’ve had quite the first month with our little girl.  Neither of us can believe it’s been one month since Elliott arrived and brightened our lives.  We survived Kari’s post-partum health issues, 10″ of snow on our first day home from the hospital (look for a Homer blog post about that in the future), Homer’s return to work and that whole first time parent thing…and we love it.

Elliott is a true blessing and everyone who gets to meet her is uplifted by the cute little faces she makes and her all-around adorableness.  She’s starting to coo, reacts to her Mom and Dad, breaks out the occasional smile and is determined to hold her head up without any help from us.  Elle will have many firsts in her life, but managed to include Dad on three big ones.  Who’s the first person she spit up, peed and pooped on?  You guessed it - good old Dad.  Mom has been stuck with boring firsts like her first smile and first giggle…

While we already miss that tiny little cuddle bug who came home with us one month ago, we are in love with the girl who is starting to show bits and pieces of her personality, growing so quickly and sleeping more than 2 1/2 hours at a time!  Here’s to the first month of a wonderful life!

The Dawsons left Sturtevant a family of two and returned a trio.  We were released from the hospital around 3:30 this afternoon.  Our insurance gave us 48 hours after the birth and with a snowstorm(!) on the way, we decided to get out of there a bit early.  Honestly, while it is nice to have the resources of the hospital right at hand, but the prospect of our own couches and bed beckoned all day.

We spent the past two night on the post-partum floor of West Allis Memorial Hospital’s Women’s Center.  As amazing as our nurses were on the delivery floor, the nurses we had the past few days left quite a bit to be desired.  If I have the energy, it could be its own post one of these days, but suffice it to say - none of our post-partum nurses will be getting any thank you cards, but I do plan on filling out a few comment cards.

Inept service aside, we’re doing as well as can be expected.  Elliott is doing great.  She’s an eager eater, extremely aware and alert and still cute as a button.  She does have a mild case of jaundice, but nothing out of the ordinary for a baby of her size.  Kari is recovering.  The biggest challenge right now is what amounts to a case of serious whiplash.  She pulled nearly every muscle in her neck and shoulders pushing little Elle out (see the “12 Hours Later” post on my blog to read the full story).  Because of that, she is unbelievably uncomfortable.  Do you know what the best cure for a muscle strain is?  Immobility.  Try nursing a baby while not moving your neck.  Doesn’t work so well.

While Kari is fighting the pain, I’m trying to do all that I can to make both girls comfortable.  I’ve changed about 20 diapers already (Elle hits a particularly unique note when that cold wipe hits her little butt) and trying to keep her quiet so Kari can get some sleep and rest her aching mind and body.  We’re all tired and at times all confused at what to do next, but we can’t help but smile at our little girl.  Even when she’s testing out her lung capacity at 3:30am.

At the request of many, here are a few more photos…

Just a quick update from the hospital.  Kari has been a rockstar so far.  She got her first two doses of Cytotec at 5:30 and 11:00 last night.  The next dose was scheduled for 3am, but Dr. Bear (her OB) decided to skip the planned third dose of Cytotec and start the Pitocin around 2am.  Then at 3:15am, Kari woke me up with news that her water broke! 

There wasn’t much progress on the cervix front at that point, but around 4:30am the contractions jumped up a notch.  At 7am, Dr. Bear arrived and checked - the cervix had softened, but wasn’t dilated at all.  The contraction intensity just kept climbing and an epidural was administered around 8:15 this morning.  Now that she’s not delirious from the pain, Kari is much more comfortable and we’re hoping she’ll be able to get some rest this morning (she didn’t sleep at all last night). 

The encouraging news is that between 7am and 10am, Kari went from no dilation to three centimeters!  The nurses were blown away and it just reconfirmed how hardcore the contractions were.  I sit here trying to type quietly as my tough-as-nails wife gets some much needed rest.  We’ve got a big day ahead of us…

Well, we’re about to depart for West Allis Memorial Hospital and get this baby here!  After a doctor’s appointment Monday, Kari’s OB decided that he didn’t want to wait for her cervix to cooperate (it’s been called all sorts of names recently, but the moral of the story is that is isn’t effaced or dilated at all).  Kari’ll be put onto a Cytotec dosage throughout the evening and night with the hopes that Ms. Cervix cooperates a bit more.

If all goes well, they’ll induce tomorrow morning and at some point our little girl will come into the world pink-faced and screaming.  If the Cytotec dosage doesn’t improve the cervix, the doctor will have to decide if we wait another day to try it again or go in and get her via C-section.  We’re excited, nervous, giddy and bit scared.  All-in-all, the exact emotions you’d think we’re going through right now.

Once Baby Dawson arrives, we’ll be sending out pictures (and yes, revealing the name) via e-mail, Facebook and on this site.  For those of you in Milwaukee, we’ll let everyone know if/when we’re ready for visitors.  We’ll be posting when we can.  Love you all.