This is Laura at approximately 11 am.
Notice the mild discomfort in her face.

This is Laura at approximately 1 pm.
Notice the strong contractions in her face.

This is Laura at approximately 2:30 pm.
See how she reacts to immense contraction pain!

Written the afternoon of Friday July 14th
Laura's water was broken at about 8 am on Thursday (July 13th). She had mild, rather tolerable, contractions until 11:30 and then it started getting rough. After a bit, she requested some stahdol (she got 1 microunit to take the edge off), but it only helped a tad. By 2 pm she had started "active labor" (I think that is the nice way to say "when it really really hurts") and she reached 4 cm dialation (which evidently is the hardest part) at about 2:50. From there you are supposed to dialate about 1 cm per hour (the goal being 10 cm); Laura did it in 20 minutes! Add 20 minutes more of some real hard pushing and I got to catch the baby (with support and direction from the doctor). Way cool. I also got to cut the cord after Griffin was placed on Laura's chest. Very cool.

Laura then proceeded to shoot out the placenta after 10 minutes. Rather humorous seeing Dr. Morell trying to stop it from coming out while he retrieved a container to catch it (he used the Heismann Trophy maneuver). Thank goodness he finished getting the stem cells from the umbilical cord before that (Griffin's stem cells are going to be stored at Cryo-Cell in case of the unhappy event that he needs them in the future).

Griffin is small but completely in proportion and everything is great (Laura had pregnancy induced hypertension or pre-eclampsia - and that is the reason Griffin is small; that's what happens to babies of mothers with it (unfortunately they don't know why it happens and the only treatment is bed-rest (which Laura was on for 6 weeks) and the only cure is delivery of the baby (which Laura obviously did, so she no longer has it and her blood pressure has returned to normal). Since he is small, he is having trouble (not as bad as "trouble" sounds though) keeping his blood sugar high enough and his temperature stable (small babies don't have enough stored fat to use for processing & growing). So unfortunately he had to be admitted to the nursery. Being in the nursery means that Laura and Griffin are separated (thank goodness her mother is here to split the support duty with me).

Added Saturday July 15th
Unfortunately, now Griffin has come down with a bit of jaundice (evidently almost half of the babies born get some level of jaundice). He is on light therapy for the next three days I think (then two days of watching him on his own - without any equipment).

Added Sunday July 16th
Griffin will have to stay in the nursery until Thursday. Now that Laura feels better, she is visiting with Griffin a lot and going back and forth to breast feed him. It looks like Laura is starting to get her milk in! She was trying to speed up the process (shave off a few hours maybe?) of getting the breast milk to come out (usually takes 3-5 days) by pumping as well as feeding throughout the day. It appears she was successful in making it happen sooner rather than later (she always has been a high performer!).

Right now he is trying to be off of the IV (it was removed because it was irritating him today); I guess we will know tomorrow (Monday) if he can do that (this would mean he can maintain his blood sugar levels).

Added early Monday July 17th
Griffin's sugar levels started dropping yesterday after his IV was removed (we were bumming). Then later in the day, Laura's milk started coming in more and Griffin started chowing on that. Then his sugar levels started rising early this morning. I guess breast milk is best! Maybe I should figure out how to have it with my Wheaties. . .

Added Tuesday July 18th
Griffin's jaundice is dropping off quickly! Yeah. He might come off the phototherapy today. The doctor said yesterday there was a chance of sending him home today. We'll see about that. I presume he would have to continue the light therapy at home (probably not using the light of a thousand suns that he has been sleeping under). Seems to me the only hurdle for him to go home today is the stablizing of his sugars. He seems to be maintaining his body temperature (his isolette is no longer heated). He just needs to eat more. Eat Griffin eat! Think "boobie" Griffin.

Added Wednesday just after midnight
Well, Griffin is coming home tomorrow (presuming nothing bad happens) after the doctor sees him. Since the doctor comes sometime between 10 am and 2 pm, we're clearly hoping for 10. We're kind of annoyed but Griffin got a tiny infection in his tearduct from the eye cover he was wearing for the photo therapy. Nothing major but there is a little gunk every time he wakes up. They say almost every baby gets it, but we clearly think it was the cover. Hopefully the warm wet cloth we keep using to clear it (they said it was the best thing to do) will help it go away quickly.

He is doing quite well and Laura thinks she can already see him growing. His head has returned to its appropriate shape, his skin looks great, and he can hold my finger rather tightly for a long period of time (he actually cut the circulation off the other night after about 10 minutes).

Now there seems to be some disagreement between my story and Laura's. But if you go to the pictures, you can see that they seem to support my story. OK, the times may be off a bit, but you can see my point. What I learned that day is that Laura is amazing and can bear an unbelievable amount of pain with little or no cursing!

I got the first roll of film back and put the pictures up in the digital photo gallery.

Added late Thursday July 20th
Well Griffin came home last night! Yeah. Today we had a post partum care appt and he gained 2 ounces. Yeah! Today was fun. Laura took care of Griffin most of day. In the evning she trusted Griffin with me alone and took Wasabi to the park. They both had a great time; Laura is very happy to be able to get out again. I think the 7 weeks of bed rest was getting to her. Today we were the family we intended to be - enough said.

Added early Monday July 31st
Things are going well. Last Monday Griffin passed the 5 lb. barrier!
Last Friday night he was quite fussy (any previous fussiness was "fixed" by feeding, changing diaper, snuggling, carrying, or singing). It would be a whole lot easier if he could talk and tell us what was wrong (how many new parents have said this before?). After an hour long process of elimination, we concluded (well ok, I did) that he was reacting to caffeine or constipation (Laura thought this). After several hours and two dirty diapers, I began to think it wasn't constipation. We then recalled that Laura had her first soda on Thursday and evidently even though they say it is generally ok to have soda, some babies don't like it. So since then Laura hasn't had any soda in the hopes that it was the problem. Bummer for her of course. The good thing is that we haven't had any more fussy periods for so long since. Unfortunately Laura hasn't had any soda as well as our use of formula (which can cause constipation) has significantly droppped off and breast milk is almost 100% of the time (which doesn't cause constipation). So which theory is correct is still up in the air.

Griffin is eating like a champ. He seems happy most of the time. Doesn't flinch when Wasabi barks at people at the door (his barking is loud and deep). He doesn't seem to mind Wasabi's occasional lickings either. But don't change his diaper soon after soiling and boy do you hear about it. Funny thing is that while you are changing his diaper he is so unhappy. Surprisingly he also doesn't seem to mind when I dig around in his eye to remove the eye gunk either (the tear ducts are still mildly infected). However, he didn't like me sticking the aspirator up his nose to retrieve some baby boogers (which by the way were impressive in size). He screams and cries at that, but seems to soon realize that he can breath tons better afterwards and quickly starts smiling.

Laura is doing a great job at being a mother. She sings to him, cuddles, and just stares at him for hours (kind of like she did with Wasabi when he was a puppy. . .ok, like she does with Wasabi every day. . .alright, way more so than she does with Wasabi. . .in other words, she is really motherly). Laura is doing well physically; she is itching to start work on returning to her normal size and is starting to make plans to resume exercising. Hopefully Griffin will be big enough on Wednesday to pass his car-seat test (small babies have to show that they can stay in a car-seat for an hour without any reduction in the oxygen levels in their bloodstream caused by slumping over in the chair - Griffin failed two weeks ago). Once he can do this then Laura can start driving him around in the stroller and using the jogger. That should make things a lot more fun for Laura (she doesn't do well staying in the house all day and night like I do!). Maybe two more weeks and we will start taking him to the dog park with Wasabi. Things will definitely become more interesting when he can get into a baby carrier (babies have to be 8 lbs. to be safe in a carrier).

I should be getting more photos on Wednesday afternoon; so check back then. Also some time this week Laura has dictated that we will have "photo day." She evidently has a slew of artistic baby photos she wants taken. So maybe the following week after that the artistic photos will come back from Kodak on CD so that I can put them up in the digital photo gallery.

Added late early Friday August 4th
Well Wednesday's car seat test was great. Annoying too. He is supposed to be tested for 1 hour and his ozygen levels evidently monitored towards the end to make sure they stay above some magical number (we got different stories of what that number was but the last nurse said 95%). Well, a shift change happened during the test and he got left in the seat for 1.5 hours. Mind you I was pacing the last 20 minutes trying to attract attention (should have started writing on his chart - that got the nurses riled up several times while he was in the nursery!). Well, he passed. However, he was quite upset about being in the seat untouched for so long. The best part is that now Laura can go places and won't be stuck to the house (since I have been working a lot and can't parent as much as she would like).

Oops, I forgot to write that on Monday (I think) that Griffin weighed 5 pounds 11 ounces! He also gained an inch and a half. Wow wee the breastmilk is doing wonders.

Added Sunday August 20th
Well things are getting boring now. Griffin doesn't have to go to the doctor's for any special reasons (he is now on the regular baby schedule), he weighs more than 6 pounds 14 ounces, he rides in the car seat, and basically eats and sleeps several times a day. I am so happy about this! As is Laura; however she is still being the ultra-concerned mother (mind you, I am happy about that too). He actually slept for a 4.5 hour period last night and Laura thinks he didn't eat for 6.5 hours (from 8 to 2:30)! I think she is forgetting a feeding but since I was downstairs working, her story must be considered the truth. So this would seem to indicate the ability to sleep all night (just need to move the time period to 11pm-6am); oh my will that change things. I can't imagine getting a whole night's sleep!

Marilyn has finally written her account of what happened. I can't figure out how to include it within this interface, so I am just putting it on another page (same window as the pictures are showing up in). Hopefully Laura will get some time this week to write her account.

Griffins_pose.mov (1 meg Quicktime movie)
Griffins_Face.mov (1.2 meg Quicktime movie)

Griffins_Opening_Moment.mov (35 meg Quicktime movie)
   [you will need a password for this one - since it is for family only]

The larger pictures were extracted from the movies (I don't have a digital camera yet).
That is Laura's mom, Marilyn, in the picture holding Griffin.
And that is my hand in picture one.