8/30/05 The Eagle has Landed Pt 2

Tammy is fine and doing well, but the little one is having a few difficulties breathing…she grunts…now I thought that was normal for a daughter of T’s : “grrrrrrr…why I oughta…”…

But apparently it’s a symptom of immature lungs…so off to ICU she was whisked.

Very sad to see a little 12″ baby have 5 full grown adults surround her all sticking wires into her…so 2 hours later and a heart monitor, temp monitor, iv drip, oxygen monitor and a black & blue foot (after various attempts at taking a blood sample) they were finished…so was I…2am and a full 24 hours from when this all started.

I wake up on Sunday on the government issue torture device : the hospital fold-down bed, to a room full of people and  Tammy with her breasts out, attached to a milking device…very surreal.  The really funny thing is, there’s a man at the end of the bed talking like nothing is out of place…it’s Dr Del-Boy, so I guess he’s pretty much seen it all anyway!

Tammy finally gets to see her daughter and is happy & sad all  at the same time.  The day is spent retelling our labour & birth story 25 times.

We have lots of visitors…and lots of food…which is great,, cos i’d spent the previous 24 hours with next to nothing, so we hoard it like a Britain in the Blitz moment…”We will fight them on the beaches…right after i’ve had my chicken salad on rye, hold the mustard…”

As the time to leave the hospital and the baby approaches (she has to stay under observation for 5 more days), panic sets in over names…every other baby in ICU has a name tag, ours has Baby Krutchkoff stuck on the outside of her plastic box.

One of Tammy’s friends (Joei – super organised) is phoned and she promptly brings over a baby name book…so, tonight’s fun activities include scoffing food, milking Tammy and wading through 25,000 names…are you jealous yet?

8/27/05 The Eagle has landed pt1.

So, 21:01 on 8/27/05 – microSaunt entered the world, all 5lb 8ounces of her.

All came as a bit of a shock as I had just left Tammy’s side (the first time since her waters broke) and gone to the cafeteria , Tammy was at 2cm dilation.  When I came back after my slice o pizza, there was a room full of people all on def-con 1.  Tammy had jumped from 2 to 9cm!!

The doctor delivering looks like Del-Boy Trotter…hope that jewelry doesn’t catch on anything and those soveriegn rings can’t feel good…?

About 1 hour later she was out!

“Lovely-Jubbly innnnit”

She gets a quick clean up, as does Mum and I go with the baby to have her checked over…Dad bonding time…oh yeah!  I take my opportuntity to tell her the correct pronunciation of the words tomatoe & herb (that’s Herb not urb!) and you really do need to put those u’s back into words.

Then shock hits…we’ve already established that her “stretched” head is normal for a “V” birth and that it WILL go back to normal – no really it will, i’ve been assured…right?…

And we know she has most of her Mum’s best facial features (lucky!), has plenty of hair and the requsitie number of fingers & toes, however, as the woman is turning her over to bathe her I’m stunned to discover she has hair on her back and shoulders!!

Tammy’s gonna’ kill me!  My contribution to our baby is a shoulder fro!

At this stage I feel like a prisoner doing jail time : i’m negotiating with the nurse over how many cigarettes it’s gonna’ cost me to get the baby shaved before Tammy finds out!

The nurse assures me this is normal too, although as i’m stood at my “baby station” while my baby gets bathed, another guy next to me is doing the same thing and there’s a definate urinal moment as we check out each others pride & joys (baby’s!)…”HIS doesn’t have a HR Geiger head and a hairy back”!!  I look up into his smiling face as he is now feeling very proud of himself…

8/23/05 The new addition arrives

I’m talking about the car!
Tammy picked up her brand new Honda CRV today and is she excited?!! If we’re not careful, she’ll have the little one in the driving seat!
She also sold her black jeep too…I’m sure she’ll miss it, but Barclay and the baby were not gonna fit in the backseat of a Wrangler convertable!
Talked to a colleague at work today – frightened me silly : told me how much Pre-School costs (that’s younger than 5 to the Brits!)…up to $900 a month!!! HeeeeLLLoooooo!
That motorbike’s getting further and further away…!
Here’s 3 photo’s of T looking all…and Tammy’s new pride and joy…