Josie is not so little...

Big blue eyes









Big yawn











Big tongue

Hospital stay: Take 2

Jack and Josie and I returned from the hospital late tonight for the second time in less than a week. Here's why I now realize that just because Josie has arrived does not mean that the pregnancy woes are over:

Yesterday (Wednesday), I went to the emergency room with some bleeding from my incision and was told I had to be admitted overnight so that they could fix what was going on. Not only do I have swelling on top of my swelling now, I also have some issues with post-natal blood pressure related to the preeclampsia. Apparently the swelling/blood pressure thing is so bad that there is not only swelling showing up on my outsides, but things are swelling inside as well. Not to get too graphic, but that internal swelling caused some of my stitches to rupture, meaning that my incision was not closing as it should.

My external stitches were undone and I was "repacked" and then hooked up to this thing called a wound vac which will help to speed up the healing process. Unfortunately, "speed up" still means I have to stay attached to this machine constantly for at least two to four weeks. The wound vac is about the size of a small radio and I can carry it around in this black bag over my shoulder. It will limit my mobility for the next couple of weeks and I have to have a visiting nurse come by every few days to repack everything.

This is not how I pictured my beginning days of motherhood.

It could be worse, though. I'm so glad everything is fine with Josie and it's me who is having to deal with these issues. Also, there was no infection, so the healing process shouldn't take as long as it could. For now, we're just glad to be home.

Who's a Snugglesaurus?

You can't quite see the "Snugglesaurus" on Josie's t-shirt here, but trust me, it's cute. We didn't have time to take many pix this morning, though, as we had to head off to her first pediatrician appointment (Note to self: stop calling the pediatrician "the vet" as in "we have to take Josie to the vet today." Old habits die hard).

She is already acing all of her tests and we were relieved to hear that she's doing great in general. She even managed to lift up and turn her head to the side during the doctor's brief demo of "tummy time." Josie did this right as the doc said "most babies her size won't be able to lift their heads...oh, wait...she's doing it!" I guess this begins our long road of being super-proud of everything she does, whether it's lifting her head or winning the Nobel Peace Prize.

PS Happy one-week-old birthday to Josie as of 10:17 pm last night!

Google Scholar in the delivery room

Being aware of your surroundings during major surgery is kind of interesting. During a c-section, they hang a sheet between your upper chest and the rest of your body so that you can't see the actual procedure. However, you can look around from side to side and there is a lot of activity going on around you everywhere, including directly behind your head.

I could hear the anesthesiologist and his resident going over the spinal they had just given me--lots of back and forth questions. They must have been looking at a computer screen because, at some point, the anesthesiologist was going over a study he had pulled up. I didn't hear any questions about the study, but I did hear the resident ask him what he was using to search for the study. I could hear the anesthesiologist explain that he had used Google Scholar and that it was like Google only it searched medical studies and other research material. They were directly behind me at that point, so I couldn't join in the conversation, but as I was wheeled from the Operating Room to the recovery area (while they had to take Josie away briefly and we were just waiting around) I said, "Hey, were you talking about Google Scholar in there?"

They looked surprised that I had heard them and said "Uh, yes...why?" I asked them whether or not they knew they could connect Google Scholar to Northwestern University's electronic journal databases using the "Scholar Preferences" feature. They perked up and said they hadn't realized that and, it sounded to me anyway (Jack was not as convinced), that they were going to go and try out this new Google trick. Jack just said in explanation "She's a librarian" and they nodded their heads in understanding.

Then they brought in Josephine and all thoughts of Google Scholar and other research tools went out the window.

PS For those non-librarian readers of this blog who might not have been aware of Google Scholar, you, too, can point it to any library collections you might have access to (if you're affiliated with a college or university).

PPS OK, that's it for now on this not-very-Josie-related post. I swear that I am not paid to give Google Scholar testimonials or training sessions.

The many moods of Josie

Josie is swaddled.



Josie is mad.



Josie is content.



Josie is dozing in her easter bonnet.

Josie's stats

Josephine* Ross Simpson
(born a few weeks early via emergency c-section)
Tuesday, March 18th, 10:17pm
19 inches long
5 lbs 15 oz

*Some of you know that my dad, Joseph Leo Ross, passed away last month at the age of 81. He died knowing that more granddaughters were on the way (my brother is expecting his third daughter at the end of April). Josephine is his namesake.

Paging Dr. Jack

Luckily our cell phones have a camera feature or we would have missed this shot of Jack before he heads into the Operating Room. They made him wear what is called a "bunny suit." He's covered from head-to-toe in scrubs blue. I'm so glad he was there with me. (Update: Jack informs me that this pic was post-op...he was in no condition to be taking pictures as he headed into emergency surgery due to stress and worry).

And here's a pic of the view from our recovery room (only a few have a glimpse of the lake, not that either of us were coherent enough to really enjoy it):

What the heck just happened?

Hello out there, fans, friends and family of Josephine! Jack and I brought Josephine home tonight and, aside from the fact that it has decided to snow all day today after weeks of clear weather, here we are safe and sound.

A bit about what happened on Tuesday the 18th...It all started with me thinking I needed a root canal (another story). Turns out I didn't...got out of the dentist early and headed to my regularly-scheduled doc's visit. A blip on my blood pressure (it was reading high but hadn't all through the rest of the pregnancy) had my doctor decide to send me over to the labor & delivery hospital to have it re-checked and to run some blood tests "just in case." I thought I would be home in an hour or two. I headed over for the test around 3:30.

I was alone and reading my book for about an hour while my blood pressure was monitored by an automatic cuff. Very calm and soothing. Then the nurses came back in and said "your blood pressure is staying high...this can indicate a risk of preeclampsia so the doctor says you're going to deliver today." Calm and soothing was now over.

This was around 5 or 5:30 by now. Jack was on his way over already and seemed less surprised than I had been that I was going to deliver (he had been reading about preeclampsia on the internet while I was having the tests done--the only way to "cure" preeclampsia is through delivery...when the baby is close to term, this is the preferred option). They whisked us up to a labor and delivery room and began to induce labor (I'll spare you the details on this). This was expected to go on all night and actual labor and birth wasn't likely to happen until some time on Wednesday, possibly even Thursday (natural labor, in all of its stages, takes many, many hours, fyi).

However, by around an hour or two into the process (must have been around 8-ish), baby's heartrate started to drop with contractions and I was possibly days away from being able to deliver naturally. This is not good. Our next bit of news was: "You're going in for an emergency C-section. This baby has to come out now."

So...you know the outcome from there. By 10:17pm that Tues, March 18th evening, Josephine Ross Simpson was here to stay. Jack posted the earlier sneak preview shots--we've got way more and will post them soon. Just thought I'd use this lull in between feeding and diapers to fill in some of the missing pieces.

Josephine, the following day

Josephine, age 5 minutes

Mad knitting skillz

Check out this sweater that Beth knit for our baby to be...can you believe it's the first one she's ever made? She also made the card, although the light is too bright to see the cool stamps in this pic. You also can't see the two wooden buttons on the left shoulder, but trust me, they're nice, too!

Thanks, Beth!

Countdown

OK...I'm getting kinda huge now, and it's not just the edema. Today the doctor said, "Did anyone tell you you've got a big baby in there? You do." When I asked her how she could tell, she pointed to my stomach and said "I just can."

This is week 36 which is a mere 4 weeks away from the standard 40 week "end of the road" marker. Most of what I've read says that generally people deliver between 38 and 42 weeks, so there's no telling when this will all go down.

And here are some pix of the strollers we assembled this weekend. The first is a car seat carrier (being test-driven by the sock monkey)...highly recommended by those in the know because you don't have to wake a sleeping baby to get them in and out. The other stroller is designed specifically with public transportation in mind...those front legs fold up quickly (or they will when we get the hang of the thing, I hope). We'll probably have to wait until she's bigger to use that one:

And, lastly for now, here are some pix of (just a few of many) cute things that we're getting excited about using. The shoes are a gift from Nan. The hot fuschia color doesn't quite come through in the photo. The next pic shows some of the cloth diaper covers (OK, maybe I'm a little more excited about using those than Jack is...he's still not sold on the cloth idea):