A Chaotic Couple of Days ...

On Wednesday morning, Eli had his first check-in appointment with his Lactation Specialist, as well as an appointment for his tongue-clipping procedure. Cathy, Taryn and I all woke up refreshed from another good night's sleep (so far we've been really blessed as Eli will only wake up once or twice during the night to let us know that he's hungry or has had Action Pants. He's usually back out within minutes, so of course we are too. We're crossing fingers that this trend continues). We made our first trip to Starbucks on our way to Kaiser, and Taryn really enjoyed being able to order herself a latte for the first time in 9 months.

We got to Kaiser just slightly late (apparently with an infant in tow I've been told that we have to throw the "on time" thing out the window. But I'll be fighting that one for as long as it takes ...). We learned that Eli was within the acceptable weight loss limit, having gone from a birth weight of 8 lbs. exactly to 7 lbs. 9 oz. over those few days. We were told that he was the picture of baby health - always good to hear when you're a first-time parent and freaking out over the slightest thing. Which we are.

Next stop on our trip was the Head & Neck department to have his tongue clipped. For those of you who aren't familiar with the term, "tongue-tied" means that Eli's frenullum (the thin strip of tissue that connects the tongue to the bottom of the mouth) was latched too close to the tip of his tongue. This had caused Eli to have difficulties feeding, and could have caused problems later in life with speech. So Taryn and I decided to have it taken care of as soon as possible so as to save the Lil Man feeding frustration, and ourselves the cost of speech therapy down the road. The procedure took less than 5 minutes - the doctor simply held Eli's head down, numbed the inside of his mouth, and used a pair of special scissors to cut the frenullum down. Eli took it like a champ! He wailed as his head was being held in place, but as soon as the procedure was finished, he was back in Daddy's arms and quiet and content as could be. When we got to the waiting room, we fed him right away, and he took to it with no problems, and showed no signs of discomfort. What a guy.

Throughout the 5 days since Eli had been born, Taryn had been complaining of severe headaches, and had been having a real hard time being active, or finding true pleasure in all that was going on. On the way home from Kaiser that Wednesday, Taryn made a call to Kaiser's advice nurse to ask for guidance on how to alleviate her pain (or, ideally, get rid it entirely). She was forwarded to an anesthesiologist, who in turn forwarded her to Kaiser's Emergency Room for immediate care. Apparently, when Taryn had received her spinal block during the C-Section, the hole that was created in the spinal column either didn't heal entirely, or didn't heal correctly. When a hole is created in the spinal column it allows fluid to leak out, which in turn causes a change in pressure in the head, which in turn causes severe and debilitating headaches. We got to the E.R. in Walnut Creek at about noon, and luckily Taryn was taken back immediately (the anesthesiologist had called ahead for her). However, she was left laying on a gurney for 45 minutes in the back hallway waiting for a room to open up. When it did, she was taken back, put into a hospital gown, then left there on a hospital bed (without a call button!) for hours, waiting for someone to not only take care of her, but communicate with her at all. When someone did come for her, instead of taking her to another room (a sterile room!) to perform the procedure, they simple stuck a couple needles in her, and told her that she couldn't move for a couple more hours. Needless to say, Taryn was pissed. She was in pain, was confused, was angry and frustrated, was scared, was everything under the sun except okay. It's bad enough that the procedure that she needed to have (what they call an epidural bloodpatch) involved taking blood from her arm and injecting it into her spine so that it clotted and clogged the leak, but to have had such a terrible and ridiculous experience almost put her over the edge. I think she was a bit traumatized. Finally, after 6 hours, Cathy, Amy (who had showed up in the middle of it all expecting to spend the afternoon cooing at the baby) and I got Taryn back into a car and back to the house. We put her in bed (hooray for sleepnumber beds!), put the Lil Man in her arms, and set up shop in the Master for the night - all four of us. We even had a pizza party in bed (it was like being in a real life chic flick, but with really good pizza). But on the bright side, her headache was rectified immediately, without a single recurrance since. I think Taryn was really disappointed that she wasn't able to be as big a part as she wanted to be in caring for Eli for those first couple of days. But now that she's back to 100%, she's back with a vengeance. Now I can't get the baby out of her arms long enough to change a diaper (which is really okay if you think about it).

Horray for Eli and his new tongue! Hooray for Pie and her new head! Hooray for me just because I don't wanna be left out!