Eli's First Days Home

After all the Hellfire and Crazy, Eli Scott Bacon came home for the first time ever at 2pm on Monday afternoon. Our stay in the Hospital was great - we couldn't have been happier with the accomodations, the level of attention and care. And each of the Nurses, Doctors, Lactation Specialists and support staff were incredible. Thank you all for your energy, knowledge and kindness.

As we were prepping Eli for his ride home, he decided pretty quickly that he didn't appreciate being put into something as confining as the car seat. But once inside, he decided pretty quickly that he was tired and didn't care. He screamed for 5 minutes, then passed out and didn't wake up until after we had gotten home, had some lunch and put most of our stuff away.

We got through the first at-home feeding without difficulty, then lay Eli down to rest, and sat down for a quick rest ourselves.

By then Cathy had arrived. And can we just say, Cathy, you are a Godsend. Thank you so much for everything that you have done, are doing, and will probably get stuck doing in the near future. You are the best. So far, she hasn't decided what she wants to be called in place of Grandma. Taryn and I have been refering to her as Anti-Gamma. Here's the proud Anti-Gamma with her new Lil Man.

We've had a lot of calls from friends and family, and even some visits already. Katy and Anders came by the Hospital to see us that first night, as did Linze. We even had a visit from The Matt (that's Duke Chin to You) on his way back north to Seattle. Sorry Laura, he beat you to it. Now Eli's tainted forever by The Matt, and will probably never understand you because of it. To everyone else, please come by and visit! We love the company and appreciate the break.

Here's a great shot of the Lil Man while feeding with his Daddy. I love his eyes, and the fact that he's always so ready to have a "Face Down" with me - a game that I never win, because, I mean c'mon, just look at that face!

Taryn left the house for the first time today (Tuesday) with her Mom, and left me with Eli for the better part of the afternoon. It was only 2 1/2 hours, but it felt like days! I had 2 poopy daipers, 2 spittle burpies, a clothes changing, and a feeding all by myself. It was work. When she came back, I asked that Taryn never leave me again. She laughed and said that my sincerity was more touching than on our wedding day.

Here's an after-shot from the feeding. Looks just like his Daddy with a full belly - sprawled out and ready for some sleepies.

When he got a bit restless while I was alone with him, I let him try out his Bouncer from Uncle Kendall. He seemed a bit unsure, but did enjoy the motion. (Crazy how big the baby clothes can look until you put them on and realize that the baby's way smaller)

Eli's Comin' ...

So yesterday ...

On Friday, Taryn finished her final day of work. She had spent the last two weeks making sure that everything was ready to transfer her caseload. She had scheduled herself an entire week of free time. This was meant to allow her to relax, to get things in place around the house, to make some finishing touches, and most importantly, to take some much needed time for herself.

But Eli had a different plan ...

I worked a 13 hour day on Friday, and got up at 3:45am Saturday morning to get to work by 4:30. At about 6 that morning, my phone went off. Taryn was breathing hard, was in a considerable amount of pain, and was very worried that something wasn't right with the baby. Even more so, she was terrified that she might be in labor. She explained how when she had gone to bed the night before, she had noticed some increased activity and pain in her abdomen. She chalked it up to too much pizza on top of the normal baby movement, and came up to sleep. When I got up that morning I unintentionally woke her up, and by the time I left the house, the pain started getting worse. She lay in bed for a while, trying to calm down, to fall back to sleep - to do anything to quell the pain. But at 6am, she couldn't hold out anymore and called me at the store.

I suggested we do exactly what our doctors had instructed us to do - to call the nurse practitioners at the hospital and let them know exactly what was going on to determine what our course of action should be. And that was the last level-headed thing I did or said all day.

I asked Taryn to call me back when she had spoken to a nurse, then spent the time in between making sure that I had someone to come in for me if I had to leave. Taryn called back to say that the nurses were pretty certain her pains were contractions, and that she should take a warm bath or shower, time the frequency of the pains, and call back if they were regular enough. She said she'd give it a try, then call me back before she called the nurses to keep me in the know. Sure enough, I got the call saying that we needed to get our butts to the hospital.

I ran out of the store and sped home to find Taryn hunched over the couch by the door waiting for me. She had apparently not just taken a warm shower, but had done her nails and toenails, fixed her hair, washed and dried the sheets for the bassinet, the changer and the crib, put together the crib tent, and dragged our luggage down the stairs to put it by the front door - all while gasping for breath from the pain. Crazy, right?! I came in the door, and like a chicken with my head cut off went running around the house trying to pack things that had already been packed, trying to change my clothes, and pretty much making a mess of things. But within 5 minutes we were out the door and on our way.

And it was classic!

I was speeding down Sycamore Valley Blvd. yelling at all of the cars in my way, and Taryn was in the passenger seat gripping the safetly bar at every contraction and gritting her teeth.

When we got to the hospital we ran inside, put Taryn in a wheelchair and sped her up to the Labor & Delivery department. She was put in a room right away, and while she was being attended to, I stepped out to take care of the paperwork stuff. When I got back, she was already in a hospital gown, propped up on a bed and attached to a machine that was reading her vitals, the baby's vitals, and monitering the intensity and frequency of her contractions. Within minutes it was pretty clear that she was in active labor. Not just that, but she was already 4 centimeters dilated, and the baby was low in her tummy and ready to go. We met with the doctor on duty who could perform the surgery (not our scheduled doctor unfortunately), finished the paperwork stuff, and got Taryn hooked up to an IV, dosed with a good amount of Happy Juice, and prepped to go.

They gave me a set of scrubbs to put on, and within 25 minutes of our arriving, Taryn was being wheeled into the O.R. for her spinal block. I wasn't there, but I heard that even though the nurse flubbed-up and took 4 attempts to make it happen, Taryn took it like a champ. I did hear a few really good laughs - you know the ones. Go Babe. We all know you hate needles with a passion.

It took them about 20 minutes to finish prepping her for the operation. That whole time I was standing in the hallway in my scrubbs, just pacing and wringing my hands. By the time they finally let me into the room, Taryn was on the table, the drapes were up and they were ready to start.

I took a seat next to her head, talked to her and held her hand while the doctors did their thing. It was only 7 minutes or so until we heard some serious crying and they told me I could stand up and take a look at my baby boy. Here he is fresh from the womb.

He came out screaming with Gusto! I followed him over to the warming station where they started to clean him up and take his vitals. I kept looking back at Taryn to make sure she was okay, and to let her know that Eli was fine. I then got to cut the umbilical cord. It was nuts, and not at all how I thought it would look. I had pictured something dark pinkish-red, skinny and leathery. Kinda like a Slim Jim. This was swollen, squishy, a milky color and very thick.

Eli was born at 11:25am on Saturday March 28th. He weighed 8 lbs exactly. He measured 20.5 inches. When I got to hold him for the first time, it was incredible. It really was hard to believe - that he was here, that he was ours, that it was actually happening. He didn't smell very good, and was still pretty gooey, but he was freakin' perfection. He squeezed my pinky for the first time and I couldn't believe the strength he had. I couldn't take my eyes off of him. Unfortunately, when I took him over to Taryn, she had just gotten pretty nauseous from her medication and wasn't able to hold him herself. But she had a good look, and was able to touch him and let him squeeze her fingers and coo at him for a good long time. Looking into her eyes, I don't think she could believe it either.

I left the O.R. with Eli to follow him into the nursery where they really got down to cleaning him up. They wiped him down, washed his head and hair, checked him out from head to toe, and put him under a heating tray to keep him warm while they took the remainder of his vitals and provided him the tags he needed for identification and safety. That was another weird and unnexpected thing - they gave him an ankle bracelet, like he was on house arrest. And the first time he made poopy, because it was so heavy for him, in kicking his feet around, the ankle bracelet fell into the feces and got pretty nasty. And guess who got to clean that up ...

Here he is all cleaned up and screaming his head off at this crazy new world he's just been thrust into.

This whole time Taryn was in recovery. She did such a great job, and reacted so well to the operation, that within an hour she was able to be wheeled into the hospital room where we would spend the next 72 hours. And there she was finally able to hold her son for the first time. It was surreal - still is.

Eli is amazing. The lactation nurse has said that she's just astounded at the strength and control he has in moving his head and neck. And his grip is crazy strong.

We've already decided that he has Taryn's tongue and mouth. And he has my nose, and cowlicks - one on the back of his head like alfalfa, and one at the front right of his head. And he has lots of hair - it looks like he's already balding because he's got this Friar Tuck thing going on.

But the best part is how aware he is. He's really good at opening his eyes wide and staring you full in the face if you're close enough for him to see you clearly. And he is really good at following sounds with his eyes too.

I could go on forever, obviously ...

Here he is in the middle of one of Daddy's famous daiper changes ...

And here's the new Dad with his Lil Man. Can you tell I haven't slept in two days? So be lenient on the blog info, I have no idea if I'm making any sense, and no energy to go back and check.
And the little guy's already giving me the once over ...

And here's the beautiful new Mama. She looks amazing for having just had a baby, right?

Unreal ...

And here he is, Eli Scott Bacon.

Nursery: Take 3

Here's an overview of the Nursery as it'll be when Eli gets home next week. After a couple baby showers (thrown by Family, Friends and Co-Workers), tons of shopping, and a few last-minute scrambles at the store, Taryn and I have just about everything we'll need for the Little Man. Of course we're sure that there'll be a hundred more things that we'll need that we didn't think of, or a hundred more things that we already have, but have already run out of - and most likely both. But that's the fun of it, right? (Just say "yes")

Here's a close-up of the crib. You can see the blanket that Cathy has made for us, and the matching bumper will be in soon. We have a few learning toys in there for visual and auditory stimulation, but mostly the Octopus from Lamaze was just so we could accurately position the baby monitor camera on the wall. The mobile is one that Taryn found that is supposed to be great for visual stimulation, and the cards that it contains can be switched out at any time for any number of other ones. It's very colorful and has a lot of different shapes and images.

Our changing table is all set up, with diapers out and ready to go. Also, Taryn found that shag rug, and it's the most comfortable, squishiest thing ever. Freakin' incredible. She's come into the room a few times to find me and Momo sprawled out on it together. Oh, and the monkey's on the chair ...

Thanks Casey for the stuffed animal hammock. We've got the hummidifier, the organizer, the sanitizer and even the Constellation Turtle all set up and ready to go. Niser and Jay, here's a shot of the Pirate Piggybank that you'll find on your doorstep any day now.

Not only do we have a huge stock-pile of diapers, but we finally have enough clothes to make even Taryn comfortable with the amount. And that's saying something, right? I dig the dividers that tell you exactly where which sizes go. I need help like that most of the time.

In the mesh cabinets we even have overflow of everything that couldn't get hung (because we ran out of hangers), and that stuff that just needed to be folded. Lots of beanies, bibs, booties, binkies ... now we just need a baby ...

I had The Matt (Duke Chin to You) come through and visit on his way south earlier today, and he asked if we put "something baby" in each room of the house just to remind ourselves that we have one coming. I told him Taryn was reminder enough, and was extremely thankful that she wasn't home yet. We joke, we kid, but she hits hard. Gotta say this car is pretty sweet though ...

Here's the bouncer playpen springy thing in the other room. I never know what to call these things. We have 50 different versions of what I think do the same thing, or work to the same purpose, until someone (Taryn) corrects me and makes it clear just how far I have yet to go in my understanding of everything baby.

Here's what used to be our dining room. Now it's a warehouse for everything baby. Good thing we haven't yet upgraded from the card table to a real dining set. We wouldn't have the room. I guess we could take down the mounted wine shelves, cork wreath, wall mounted bottle corker and wine rack from the opposite wall to make extra space, but what would be the fun in that? The point is, the highchair is awesome.

And here are our bags. They are packed with everything that we'll need for a comfortable stay in the hospital. We even went out and got some chocolate assortments for the nursing crew to say thank you and butter them up while we're there. Now all we have to do is wait for Eli ...