Your Friend, the Epidural?

I keep getting these pregnancy e-mails from babycenter.com and parents.com, etc, and this is the one that arrived in my inbox today. Perfect timing! The wonderful epidural that I received on Thursday has had a wonderful side effect...let me explain (oh, and I also thought about naming this blog post "Jeremiah's First Trip to the ER", but I didn't want to freak out any of my loyal readers).

So apparently, between 1% and 5% of people who receive an epidural can get something called a "spinal headache" as a result of fluid being taken out of the spinal area when the epidural is removed. SOOOOO, lucky me! That is what I was dealing with since Saturday. Let me just say.... I have never had a headache like that before, and hope I never experience it again! It was throbbing in my head and in the back of my neck, and I could only "function" if I was laying down! Can't do much that way! So we decided to call the Dr. Saturday evening (the day of our discharge) and he suggested going to the ER. Great. So we packed up our little bundle and headed BACK to the hospital (so the trip to the ER was for me, not Jeremiah), where they diagnosed a spinal headache, gave me 2 bags of fluids and pain meds through an IV and a prescription for Vicodin. By later that night I was feeling fine, obviously! However, I woke up with a worse headache Sunday morning. The only other option to get rid of this spinal headache was to do what is called a "blood patch," and let me tell you, that is just about as fun as it sounds! :) So we ended up back at Mercy hospital Sunday evening (thankfully Grandma Wiers was able to stay home with Jeremiah), and I had the blood patch preocedure done (this involved having an epidural put BACK in, then having blood taken from my arm and put into my back. This apparently replaces the fluid lost when the original epidural was removed). Anyway, I'm not sure about how all that works, but it made me feel 100% better, so I am glad I did it! And those of you who know me well, know that I HATE all things medical (hospitals, IV's, gurneys, you name it!), so this has been QUITE a week for me. :)

So, now that we are all back on our feet and doing well, I figured it was time for another post with some pictures of Jeremiah (Grandpa Wiers has been requesting more pics!). Jeremiah is doing well! We went to the Dr. for a weight check today. He was 8 lbs 3 oz at birth, 7 lbs 11 oz when we were discharged, and 7 lbs 13 oz today. So he is gaining! It is hard for me to believe that this teeny little guy is STILL smaller than he was when he actually came OUT. Crazy. He is a good eater and pretty content (so far). We are enjoying having Grandma Wiers here to help out for the week (and I think she is enjoying being here as well...), and also cook some meals while she is here. On the menu tonight-- cauliflower soup! Yum! :) We're looking forward to Grandpa Wiers coming back this weekend, and hopefully Aunt Abby will be coming the NEXT weekend. I'll leave you with some more recent Jeremiah pics:



All bundled up and ready to head home from the hospital!



Snuggling with Grandma Wiers before leaving the hospital.



Jeremiah and Mommy!

Introducing....

Jeremiah Adam Wissink! Born at 1:03 pm on Thursday, February 18, 2010, weighing a solid 8 lbs and 3 oz, and measuring at 21 and 1/4 inches long.

For those of you who don't know, I was scheduled to be induced this morning at 7:30 am. I had all kinds of worries, etc, about being induced, but fortunately Jeremiah must have known this, because he decided to start making his debut a little earlier. Contractions began about midnight and continued to get stronger and closer together.... and about 2:30 am we decided to head to the hospital (we figured, if anything, we'd just be "a little early" for our induction). So I will spare you all the labor and delivery details, and just say that after about 12-13 hours of labor, our wonderful, adorable son finally made his appearance. :) We think he is absolutely perfect! He has spent a lot of the afternoon being wide-eyed and looking around.... and of course, he has done some sleeping and eating as well. We will see what our first night with baby Jeremiah is like!!


3 Generations of Wissink men!

Not a huge fan of being out in the cold!

Isn't he cute??? :)

"Amazing Race" starts tonight!!!

I have nothing exciting about the baby to report, so I figured I'd talk about the NEXT most exciting thing going on-- The Amazing Race! YAY! I thought maybe I'd be watching it from the hospital, but apparently not. However, I might make Puppy Chow to eat while watching it, just to make myself feel better.

So my due date was 2 days ago, and I am still pregnant. Not a huge deal, I know, because lots of women go MUCH longer than that. We are just SO excited to have our little guy here, so now the waiting is getting a little old. It wouldn't be so bad, but starting at about 36 weeks at my weekly doctor appoinments the doctor would say, "Any time now!" Well, yeah, great. Or not! And as much as we tried not to, we would just get our hopes up that it would happen soon! And of course, we know NOW that it definitely will happen soon-- hopefully this week sometime! My maternity leave officially starts tomorrow (which, ironically, could actually be another snow day-- that would be #12 for my school...), so I am really hoping for a baby soon to spend that maternity leave with! :) But at least I don't have to go into school and here everyone say, "You're still here??? No baby yet???" I also have another doctor's appointment tomorrow where they will do a non-stress test and an ultrasound to make sure the baby, placenta, and fluid all look good... then we'll see what the doctor has to say about being induced.

Oh, and also, Happy Valentine's Day to all! My hubby did a great job (he is feeling more and more guilty about the pain of labor and delivery that I will soon go through)-- a dozen roses and a gift certificate for a 5 hour spa day! YAY!

I will leave you with a very special final baby bump picture (taken this morning--40 wks and 2 days pregnant!)... poor little Molly has been dying to be in a bump picture for the past 9 months! So here we are together. Look at the sadness in her eyes-- she knows that a big change is coming to her life!

We started a blog...

Well, I am following in my big brother's footsteps, just like I always did when we were little. Apparently, when you start having kids, you MUST start a blog. So, here it is! Seeing as we live in the middle of Iowa, with our closest family a good 3 hours away, a blog seemed like a good way to keep everyone updated on our life (and, more importantly the life and adventures of our new little boy-- due to be born February 12, 2010!). However, if Baby Boy Wissink (or Robert Adam, as my dad likes to call him. Don't worry, though, we'll break the news on the day of his birth that his name is NOT in fact Robert Adam) would like to arrive sooner than the 12th, there would be no complaining from me. And if the little one decides to stay in his warm uterine home longer than the 12th, we will have an induction set for the following week. So that means that FOR SURE by February 19th we'll have our baby!!! Now seemed like as good a time as any to get this blog started, especially since I was bored and really do not care if the Saints or the Colts win the Super Bowl. And honestly, I don't even really care that much about the commercials either. So, check back-- hopefully we'll be updating soon about the birth of Baby Boy Wissink! Oh, and since I do not have any cute baby pictures YET to post, I will leave you with a view of our nursery, and also a picture of Baby Wissink's big sister, Molly. :)