She was born Monday, October 22, 2001, at 11:13pm, weighing 8 lbs, 15 oz. and 22 inches long. She has a ton of hair already and is absolutely beautiful. She is completely healthy, eating and sleeping and pooping normally. Better than normally, actually - for the past three nights she has been sleeping the whole night without needing to be fed or changed.
She is fairly quiet, never fussing for no reason. She cries when she has a dirty diaper (she really does not like those cold moist-wipes), and she starts whimpering when she is hungry, but even then it’s not those sustained wails/screams I’ve heard elsewhere. She just lets out a short, loud cry a few times until she gets a bottle. She was this way from the start. When she was first born, the nurses gently shook her and rubbed her as they cleaned her off, which got her to cry for the first time. But when they wrapped her in a blanket and gave her to me, she got quiet and just looked up at me with her big pretty dark eyes. The nurses told us she spent her first night in the hospital nursery sleeping peacefully and hardly crying at all.
jkayla is doing very well also. I am so unbelievably proud of her. She went through the whole ordeal and never lost her sweet nature, never cursed or called me names, just kept hold of my hand and kept her breathing steady. She was given the inducing drugs first thing Monday morning and she started having regular contractions immediately. The doctor manually broke her water at noon, and she got her epidural at 1pm. Unfortunately, it didn’t take on her left side, so we got her a second epidural about 3. That one took well and my sweet wife was able to get a much-needed nap. When the dr. checked on her after her nap, her epidural essentially wore off and never really came back. They gave her boosters every hour & a half, but she still felt her contractions to at least some degree. She reached 10 cm at about 10:20pm and our girl was born at 11:13 - my wife had to push for less than an hour. And she did great the whole time. She was in serious pain, but she made it through beautifully. She is at home, resting and recovering from a few epesiotomy stitches.
As for me, I am simply awe-struck. This is undoubtedly the most amazing thing that has ever happened to me. For the past week I have been holding our tiny daughter in my arms and marvelling in the wondrous miracle that is she. This small girl, who is already showing signs of her own distinct personality, did not exist forty-three weeks ago. And last Monday night, Mrs. Tygr and I finished creating this whole new person who will forever be a part of our family.
Congratulations! Enjoy every moment with her and take TONS of pictures and videos. They change so quickly and the older they get the harder it is to remember how tiny they used to be.
Woohoo!! Tiger cubs. ShibbOleth and his son are both tigers*. We likes tigers. Grrrrrrrrr. We all look forward to reading about your cub tales here. And pictures. Pictures are good.
[sub]*Born in Chinese year of tigers, that is.[/sub]
Congratulations, Tygr!
It sounds like everything is going well. My only advice to you is to warm the wipes in your hands before using them. Only takes a second, and keeps Baby Tygr from the shock of cold, wet things on her bum!
Oh, babies! Now, if I can only get the SO to read this thread…
Thanks to all for the good wishes. We are working on getting the pics online but haven’t had too much spare time yet.
Rue, as for the warmer, oh yeah that’s a definite purchase this week.
Tygr is the most wonderful support person. He really Supported me through the whole pregnancy, labor and delivery. He did everything that either of his girls needed - anything, he jumped. That means a lot to me. Once I was on the IV, he got anything I needed and helped me around when I needed to get up. Once they induced me, he did eveything he could to keep me comfrtable and pep talk me. During the pushing, he gave nice, firm but gentle encouragement and support (physical and emotional).
Tygr is naturally great with our daughter. He has never been around babies, not even changing a diaper before now, but he jumped right in and is wonderful at everything. He swaddles better (tight burritio) than me and he changes diapers a lot. He reads her cries really well too.
He made sure I slept a lot this past week since he had to go back to work this week. I miss him here but the rest he arranged for me has helped a ton.
Gotta go. The wee one is voicing her opinion on the world. Thanks again.
Allow me to add my congratulations!! Enjoy every moment - they truly speed by and before you know it, your precious baby will be a surly teenager demanding car keys…
Congratulations to you all! Welcome to the world, TygrCub! It’s a nice place, on the whole.
A random thought to the parents: print out this thread. That and the we’re-gonna-have-a-baby-at-any-minute-now thread. Someday you can give the printouts to your daughter–for her eighteenth birthday maybe, or when she goes off to college–and she’ll know how people all over the world, people who had never seen her parents’ faces, were full of joy at her birth. She’ll get to read about how excited her parents were that her arrival was imminent; she’ll get to read the love-dazed musings of a new mommy and daddy.
