He's so cute, I just want to take him home!!

Thursday night, July 24, I went for a haircut and strolled over to my friends' house to hang out before heading over to Didi's place for some QT with the Rotis. The older Rotis had mentioned that things were going to change dramatically when the baby came so they wanted some Mamu/Mami-love before that happened. We were happy to oblige. When I left their house that night at 11:30, I was convinced that I still was not going to be holding a baby until the following weekend.

Boy was I wrong!

I woke up on Friday morning feeling like (forgive the TMI) that I had peed but I knew I hadn't. I just thought it was one of those late-in-the-pregnancy things so I told myself I would just talk to my doctor about it during my 10 am appointment that day. I was NOT going to call her and make my 5th trip to Labor and Delivery to be sent home again. As I walked out of my apartment that morning, I locked the door thinking, "Wow. The next time I open this door, I might be a mom already!"

I went to the appointment and my doctor indeed confirmed that my water had ruptured (but not fully broke) and she told me that I needed to be admitted to the hospital to be induced. I walked to my sister's office to tell her that I wouldn't be needing her help with an Excel spreadsheet but I would need her help to push and she just started jumping up and down. Usually, it's the other way around but this time, I was the calm one and she couldn't stop squirming. Then we walked over to Didi's office (all on the NMH campus) and told her. Her reaction was priceless - she was just in complete disbelief. My sister accompanied me to the Women's Hospital and we checked in at around noon.

The induction started at 3 pm. No internal exam was conducted because they didn't want to introduce anything to the birth canal until we were sure of active labor. My blood was collected to check my platelets but the blood got lost in the tube system so at 4 they had to draw blood again. We didn't get the results of the second platelet check until later that evening. We were all holding our breath to see if I could get an epidural. Well, I wasn't holding my breath. I was breathing pretty heavy as the contractions started to come in harder. We were also trying to wait for Mom to arrive but she didn't arrive until 7 pm. I finally got the epidural around 8 pm and the doctor said that nothing was going to happen until 3 am at the earliest. We decided now would be the time to sleep but the challenge was getting all the women (Mom, Amma, Didi, and Che) to go home and get some sleep too. I think they wanted to camp out all night at the hospital but that just didn't make any sense. We asked our sweet nurse, Kristy, to be the bad guy and she got it done! Unfortunately, Mom and Amma just kept Didi up all night at home instead of at the hospital.

At 3 am, the doctor told us that the pushing would start soon so we got everyone back there. We pushed and pushed from 4:30 until about 7:45 am. It was hard but that epidural is truly a miracle - I hardly felt anything. Unfortunately, RRC's heartrate kept dropping during/after each contraction. The doctor was a little worried and so she suggested if it continued to happen a C-section might be the best option. I told her whatever was medically necessary to keep everyone safe was fine by us. But his heartrate continued to drop and then it was decided at 7:45 that we would for a C-section. Again, not an emergency. Then, all the sudden some one said the words, "We have a crash." Now, I am not in the medical field but I have watched enough episodes of House to know that is a bad thing. The peaceful L&D room was flooded with 10 medical professionals within a few minutes - to me it seemed chaotic but they all had their jobs and purpose. I was terrified that they were going to put me under general anesthesia and I yelled out to RC that I loved him as they wheeled me to the OR. I could hear the panic in his voice as he told me that he loved me back.

In the OR, I was further doped up which made me horribly ill on the table. It was disgusting because they have to strap you down and I ended up almost choking on the sickness in my throat. The urgency of activity in the room continued and with it, my anxiety continued to escalate. Rohit was scrubbed in and even though all I could see were his eyes, the fear was clear and I knew that he had been crying outside. They had me opened up in minutes and the doctor annouced, "It's a boy!!" We were relieved when we heard his scream. Rohit was unable to cut his cord because he was rushed to the NICU doctors but they delivered the good news that his APGAR scores were 8 & 9.

We headed to recovery and he was scrubbed and Rohit finally made it outside to tell everyone that both Rishi and I were okay. I was almost completely unconcious as I made my way up to the Mother/Baby floor. It took me most of the day to come out of my anesthesia fog. Fortunately, Brutus was there to keep an eye on Rishi (picture above).

We had loads of visitors at the hospital over the weekend and it was absolutely fabulous to see Rishi get showered with so much love from so many friends and family.

We came home on Tuesday and the ups and downs of the first week home have been interesting. Our first night at home was something out of a sitcom. We couldn't figure out how to console him or get him to sleep in his bassinet. We tried everything and at around 4 am, I just started to laugh because just how much we fit the stereotype. We have struggled with the awfulness of learning how to breastfeed. If you want details, email me and I'll be happy to share. Last night, I think RC finally got some sleep because we decided to use a bassinet that actually goes in the bed. It was a night without much screaming and that was a relief to everyone. Then today, Rishi had his first doctor's appointment. He has lost 6 oz of his birth weight so now we have to try to pack on that weight over the next seven days. Unfortunately, he is a sleeeeeepy baby and we have to wake him up for his feeding most times. But I determined to avoid formula.

Well, that's our week so far. I have been trying to return phone calls and emails when I can but the every two to three hour feeding schedule has me tied up quite a bit so apologize to all those that I haven't returned their contact. It will happen sometime, I promise! More pictures coming to RC's Flickr soon!