Well what say you?

Ian pics

So what's your favourite flavor of ice cream?

are the other two hidden people?  I've already flushed out two.  Demo? 

I'll be eating sour cream blueberry from Marie Calendar's.  Just 8 more minutes.

I don't feel like working.  Where are you all?  Entertain me damn it!

Here are some new ones of Ian

Here in CA, we have two different kinds of lights for the most part.  One where on green left, right, and straight all go on the green and the other three directions of the intersection are red.  The other has left turn arrow, green for straight, so sometimes the straight have greens for opposite directions.  I've been to some states where there will be a left turn arrow indicating a protected turn and then it goes off when no longer protected, but can still turn as long as the the light for the straight people is green and there is a break in traffic.  In CA once the green arrow turns it's a red arrow and then you have to wait a full cycle until you can finally make your left turn.  Well this pisses me off.  I wish we could be like those places where you can turn as long as the light is green even if the left is not protected, because often there is no oncoming traffic and yet I'm forced to sit there at the red arrow.

Ian pics

Hurray!

Ian Zachary Shepherd was born Wednesday October 25, 2006 at 5:03 pm P.D.T.  He weighed 7lbs 12.7 ounces and was 19.5 inches long.  He has a full head of dark brown hair and has a cranial circumfrence of 13.8 inches.  He is a very alert baby and seems to have a pretty good temperment (compared to the other babies in the ward).  I have pictures and video but they are back at the hospital so maybe later in the week.

Now for the ordeal.  We called at 6:30am Tuesday October 24, 2006 and Lucille Packard Children's Hospital didn't have any rooms available, and since we were scheduled for an induction, we were lower priority than those already in labor.  We were told to call back at 8am.  So I tried to sleep for another hour or so and called at 8.  Still no luck.  I was told to take Sandy out to breakfast and call back at 9:30am.  So we go to the Cardinal Lounge and dine on breakfast comistibles, come home and call back at 9:30am.  Now we have a time to come in--11am.  So we hang with Bear and Scooter (who are now over at their friend Josie's the Basset's house), load up the car, and head up to Stanford.  When we get there, there still isn't a birthing room available, but they put us in the ultrasound room and hook up the fetal heart monitor.  We're told that we'll have a room probably around 1pm or so, and they start an IV so they can start the Pitocin.  We finally get into room 3 at sometime after 1pm.  Our nurse is Jody, and she loves the gummy eyeballs that I brought with us.  Sandy is already having light contractions from the pitocin.  We turn on the TV and find Jerrry Springer, unfortunately we can't find the volume or remote (which is on the call thingy as we later discover), but I manage to put the captioning on.  We're in luck!  The first guest is a dude who is going with a Cat V tranny with removeable dentures.  But the best part is the next guest, a female midget who dumps her midget boyfriend who works as a bouncer at the same midget bar.  She finds another midget dude on Myspace, who travels half the country to woo her after two weeks of correspondence.  So, yep, you guessed it, midget brawl ensues, and the bouncer on the show picks up the smaller midget dude, who flails.  Funniest thing I've ever seen!  I was thinking the whole time, I wish Dangermonk could see this!

My, what a long paragraph, time for a little visual break, sorry!

So the contractions get stronger and Sandy becomes more uncomfortable, but she doesn't make really strong progress.  Her mucous plug breaks in the late afternoon, early evening, but no dropping and no dilation.  Sandy kicks me out to go to dinner at about 6pm, so I go to Max's Opera Cafe at the Stanford Shopping center.  I was so dehydrated.  We brought snack food for me, but we didn't bring any liquid refreshment.  So on the walk back I buy some bananas and some Gatorade.  They stop the pitocin at about 9pm to allow her receptors to rest.  Now Sandy has a small window of opportunity to eat.  So all she wants is a vanilla milkshake so I trek over to Jack In The Box to get her one.  She enjoys it and we start the pitocin again at a little after Midnight.  I have now lost the pool, since I guessed Tuesday the 24th.  FEH!
The contractions start up again and get stronger as they turn up the drip.  Our night nurse is Julie.

At about 4am or so Sandy has some nausea and yaks.  She gets an anti-emetic and it helps.  A little later the pain becomes pretty strong and she gets some fentnyl.  It helps for a while.  She gets another dose about 6am or so.  By about 7:30 we get our next nurse, Sally and Sandy is really uncomfortable, so we bring in the big guns and she gets the epidural at about 8am.  Our Ob/Gyn comes in and checks her a little after she gets the epidural, and she's progressing, but he still hasn't dropped.  The epidural seems to work well and she starts dilating.  Our Ob/Gyn breaks her water.
by about 2pm, Sandy is still only dilated about 2cm, so it's more hurry up and wait.  At about 3 our Ob/Gyn comes back and still only maybe 2-3cm, so the decision is made to go C-section.  So our nurse gets me scrubs, (since the one size fits all paper gown, doesn't) and we go to the C-section room.  Since the epidural has already in, the anaestesiologist just has to add some more happy drugs.  I think they start cutting about 4:15.  Everything is going OK, but then they have trouble getting to him.  Yep, the little feller, definitely doesn't want to come out.  They dig in up to their elbows and wrench around Sandy's abdomen.  Sandy doesn't feel anything.  Pretty amazing to watch. 

They finally maneuver his head to the incision site, but it won't come out.  They use suction and after several tries his head comes out.  But he's still stuck.  It takes awhile of yanking, but they finally get his shoulders out and the rest follows pretty easily.  They take him over to clean out the fluid.  He cries and writhes and wiggles.  I videotape a good portion of the removal and cleaning up.  Pretty cool stuff.  They wrap him up and bring him over to mom.  I take some video and pictures.  They start putting Sandy back together.  I get scolded for videotaping some of the procedure.  They say video the mom and the baby being cleaned up.  Oh well.  Later on I show Sandy them taking him out of her.  So Ian and I go down to the nursery for his check up and bath.  They stitch Sandy up.

Two fricken hours in the nursery.  Highly unorganized.  They're redoing the regular nursery, so we're in a new room.  The poor lady is there by herself for a good hour with three of us.  Meanwhile the phone keeps ringing and she becomes discombobulated.  She keeps asking what she has done and hasn't.  Well eventually Ian gets warmed up, gets his vitamin K shot, gets measured (see above for measurements), and gets his bath.  We finally get to go up and see mom.  Room 222-B.
Our nurse now is Marian and she's fantastic.

Ian gets to eat at about 8pm.  His toxic waste meconium poop is about 11pm.  He feeds about every two hours.  He was very active and alert almost all of the time since he has come out.  He had three wet diapers along with the meconium, so he's feeding well.  But between him and our roommate (much more fussy baby).  I haven't had any sleep.  So Sandy kicks me out at about 9am, and I come home and pretty much pass out.  Now I'm posting this so all of you can be in the loop.

Pictures and video will follow!

I found this rather amusing

Happy Birthday Socrates dude!