So this is a little delayed, but anyone who has had a new born can relate. (It's a long post, but something I want to document - for Matthew at least!) Marvin and I have had quite an adventureous and emotional month. For most of the pregnancy I had high blood pressure and always knew there was a slight chance that I would have to be induced early. We were lucky in that I was able to maintain a safe level well into my 39th week. As I was nearing the end of the pregnacy, Marvin was closing up loose ends to take a job with Bell Helicopter. We were very blessed that with the pending birth, Hitachi let him work from home the week before the birth.
With my high blood pressure, we had to stay around Dallas for Easter and missed heading up to Gainesville for the annual Easter Egg hunt. We had a very lovely and relaxing day with Marvin's side of the family as we watched Riley hunt Easter Eggs.
We were scheduled to be induced on Tuesday, March 25th, but with my blood pressure, my doctor didn't wait to wait until Tuesday to see me. So, I had one last doctor appointment on Monday, March 24th. Marvin and I thought all would be ok and had planned one last romantic evening out to have dinner at Lawry's. When we saw the doctor that morning, she said that she couldn't see us waiting another 18 hours and asked that we go straight to the hospital. My blood pressure was just too high. That was met with a flood of emotion. While it was just hours until we would have been there anyway, the fact that it was unexpected caught us off guard. While we should have gone home, grabbed our bags and went to the hosptial, we had to make a pit stop at Target to get Easter candy. Heck, it was half off and we didn't have any, so it seemed rational. :)
We arrived at the hospital around 1:15pm and we were set up to have labor induced. In the midst of the high blood pressure, we also had a baby who was very comfortable and didn't want to drop! The hope was to break my water and get labor started. We ended up being in labor for 8-9 hours and while it was progressing, the baby never dropped. The decision was made Monday night to have a c-section. While this was not the birthing experience Marvin or I had envisioned, it didn't look like it would happen any other way.
I was prepped for a c-section and in about half an hour we had our screaming bundle of joy. At 10:26pm, Monday, March 24th, Matthew Jude Szeto was welcomed into the world weighing in at 9lb 2oz, measuring 19.75 inches long. After seeing our baby the doctors said that there was no way for him to have fit, so even if we had labored another 12 hours, we would have had a c-section anyway.
Matthew had more in store for his new parents. We had a few visitors that first day - Mimi and Granddad, Aunt Judy and Cousin Riley, and Uncle Nathan and Aunt Lori. While everyone was out to dinner, Marvin and I asked the nurses if they could look at Matthew as he was having trouble breathing, wasn't eating and seemed to be shivering while feeling quite warm. The nurses took him for observation and ran some tests. Instead of getting a call from the nurse that he was ok and would be coming back to our room, we received a call from our pediatrician that we would be getting a visit from a neonatologist. Matthew had some sort of infection and was going to be sent to the NICU.
Our prefectly healthy baby was now sick. It took us a few hours to get things straight and to finally be able to go down to see him. When we walked in, he had an IV in his head and was attached to all kinds of monitors. It was heartbreaking. Matthew was a trooper and improved every day as he was poked and prauded. While he was fighting his infection, he also had to spend time under Biliruben lights for jaundice. From what the doctors were saying we thought he would be coming home Monday or Tuesday. I was discharged on Friday morning. We went home, cleaned up a little and headed back to the hospital for Matthew's afternoon feeding. When we got to his bassinet, the nurses said the cultures had some in and assuming his numbers were normal the next morning, we could take him home. What a blessing! We were so excited that he got a clean bill of health!
In the middle of all the chaos, having a wife dealing with leaving her baby at the hosptial and a baby in the NICU, Marvin resigned his job of nearly 14 years with Hitachi Consulting. Even with all the challenges, we feel so blessed to have our baby boy. Marvin's been on paternity leave and taking the last of his vacation, so we've been enjoying the past few weeks as a family getting to know each other and trying to get into a routine! (Easier said than done...)
The plan is to keep updating the blog our activities - sometimes it may be intersting and other times just ordinary. Mimi is coming up to say for a week to help out as Marvin starts his job on Monday.
