Well, Seton hasn’t ousted us just yet, which is good since Ro isn’t quite done with the phototherapy. Her bilirubin levels have dropped about a point a day for the past 2 days, so we’re on our way, but it’s still a long, agonizing wait.

Breastmilk anyone?

Our days right now revolve largely around us traveling back and forth a floor for feedings in the NICU every 3 hours or so. Sometimes bottle, sometimes breast, but Mindy’s been doing a lot of pumping to cover the couple of feedings we can’t make it up for. Meh, it’s a routine, even if one we hadn’t counted on. It’s been kind of nice in one respect; we’re basically getting full time nursery service so we can skive off and get some sleep. Still, it’ll be nice to have her out of there.

I promise I’m not trying to keep Mindy from y’all, but my service as press secretary is allowing her time to take care of various mommy and convalescence business. I tell you, once you learn to live with a breast pump regularly around, truly very little will strike you as strange anymore.

Overpopulation in many parts of the world is a fact, but after you’ve seen a NICU in operation, you wonder how our species could be considered so durable and weedy. Newborns look fragile enough without seeing them in that state. It’s like a nursing home I suppose, only the specter of mortality is strangely twisted up with the hope of potential. The staff nevertheless keep a fairly upbeat energy about the place. Very odd that, optimism is not generally my strong suit.

Anyhow, Mindy is discharged, but still gimpy. Ro is still doing light therapy in said NICU, but looking steady overall. Seton has allowed us to “nest” here in our recovery room for an extra day or two so we can continue to visit Ro on short notice, be around for feedings and such. She is the largest baby in the block by far, most of them up there being preemies and, not to draw any hard conclusions here (as the hospital is an especially metropolitan place) very frequently non-white, FWIW. For those various reasons, we feel a little out of place up there, but the folks up there in the NICU have been pretty nice to us, and quite helpful. It helps the staff all seem to like her, but I suspect her charm is just a powerful, sinister ruse.

Well, sorry we don’t have many more pics as yet.  We’re dealing with a little jaundice situation, involving an IV (which necessitated her getting moved to the NICU) but Aurora is responding well to treatment, so hopefully get some more good news on that today or tomorrow.  Mindy’s doing better as well, though still on the antibiotics.  It’ll be nice to get away from the damned IV pole at some point, hopefully tomorrow.

—

I’m not much for Bible quotes, but our recovery room here at Seton has a pretty good one posted:

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord,
the fruit of the womb a reward.
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior
are the children of one’s youth.
Blessed is the man
who fills his quiver with them!
He shall not be put to shame
when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.

Apparently some translations say “sons” instead of the more contemporary “children” interpretation, and some say “contend” instead of “speak”.  To which my friend Nate summed up: “Sons: they killz your enemiez.”  Heh heh, gotta love that Old Testamenty material.

-D.

Check out the “Baby Baby Baby” set on the Flickr page.

-D.

Well, very long story short, after 22 hours.  Anyhow, we’re all more or less in one piece, more updates, including pics, to follow once we’ve gotten some sleep.  7 lbs. 5 oz. at 1:26 AM Aug 15 for those of you keeping score.

-D.

Hour 13 and no news yet.  Looks like we’re in for the marathon.  More to come. -D.

Well, 8 hours and no progress, so it’s Pitocin time.  I reckon we’ll be trucking along here shortly.

Well, we made it to the hospital at 3:30 AM after Mindy’s water broke.  Things are still heating up contraction-wise, but we’re definitely doing this thing.  Aurora’s on the way!  -D.

OK, as if the prequels weren’t enough of a heartbreaking insult to my childhood, this has to happen.  Meesa wantsa be clawing meesa eyes out.

See especially the AICN review.  If one of the biggest fanboys in the world can say this publicly, Lucasfilm, it’s probably time to wake up and smell the bantha poodoo.  Look, good things are made by people who care, not by sycophants and group-thinkers, and the latest wares you’ve been pushing smell suspiciously of the latter.  Go look at how Nolan rescued Batman from the empty-headed “nipples & neon” era we suffered at the hands of (speak not his name) Joel Schumacher and get a hint.

Let’s face it, the latter SW should serve as a warning to the future that fabulous effects and design doesn’t cover for fundamentally bad storytelling, even if it’s a franchise as classically story-rich as the SW universe once was. The contrast couldn’t be clearer considering the startling (esp. compared to the prequels) magnificence of what Tartakovsky et al. did with their rendition of Clone Wars a couple years back.  Lucasfilm, there really is no excuse.

Sadly, I still feel the need to see this at some point, if for no other reason than to be conversant in what continues to be so frustratingly wrong with Star Wars.  Maybe I can sneak in some how so I don’t help fund this kind of apparent atrocity any more than I’ve already been complicit in.  People depend on me to be informed on the important issues, you see. 

Now we are in the “red zone” as I like to call it, the point after some of the pre-labor signs are showing up but before actual birth. I must say that this stage of pregnancy (which does not get talked about very much) is a lot more difficult than I imagined. Growing up in a (post)-industrialized society our lives are arranged according to a schedule, and within that schedule you have to get your work done by a deadline. This is particularly true at my job. But this thing is different – there is no schedule and the deadline is “just a guess.” Also, you are not in control of the work.

Right now I am about 9 days away from my due date, and my increasing difficulty in getting around helped my decision to start my maternity leave a week earlier than originally planned. I am hoping I can get into a frame of mind that will help me discard the “schedule” and the “deadline” mentality and be more comfortable with whatever and whenever things happen. I might even be able to get a little vacation out of it.