Everyone is home now

After 4 nights in the hospital, I loaded up Shelly and Anderson yesterday afternoon and we all went home. Shelly and Anderson are doing great. She still has a sore abdomen and he still has a little jaundice but it's getting better.

A few pics as we prepared to leave the hospital:






Here he is in his bassinet. This bassinet was used by Shelly's dad 73 years ago and also used by Shelly as a baby, a little bit less than 73 years ago. Shelly's mom fixed it up and gave it to Shelly at her baby shower.


How Daphne would react has always been a popular question. She was very curious, just looking and laughing and sniffing. We plan to keep them apart until they get used to one another though.



By today, they were both napping on the bed together. Don't worry, I was in between in case one jumped on the other. By the way, Anderson is in the sun because the pediatrician thought he should have a little sun to reduce his jaundice.


Better get back to handing out Halloween candy. Both Anderson and Daphne are wearing their Halloween outfits right now. Pics a little later.

Mike
Kansas City, MO

Extended hospital stay

Today, Anderson started kindergarten. Okay, not really, I know it's been a few days since I blogged but you know how it is. Here are some updates.

Well, he and Shelly are still in the hospital and are due for release tomorrow. Anderson has a little jaundice going so he's been under the blue light since yesterday afternoon. So the doc decided they should stay in the hospital an additional day. This is him after we told him he'd be in the dreaded blue bag for a while.

But as you can see below he got very comfortable in there. His routine now since we can't really hold him much is to eat, sleep, and poop. And many of you know those are three of my favorite things to do also.


Yeah, I know I should be supporting his head a little more. But hey, I'm still learnin'!

I went to work today for a little bit so I figured we should kinda match today. But we've realized he's a little cold natured. He had this camouflage t-shirt (I suppose it's called a onesy or 1zee or onesie or wunsy or something like that). If anyone knows how to spell that please let me know. Anyway, this left his arms and legs completely exposed so he was shivering a little bit here. Either that, or I forgot to put deodorant on my left underarm.

Anyway, I just stopped by the house to do some of my husbandly and fatherly duties like laundry and general house upkeep. Heading back to the hospital now but I'll try to blog from there later. Shelly and I are having date night there tonight. I plan to walk across the street from the hospital to Blockbuster and rent a movie to watch in the room tonight.

On a serious note, Shelly and Anderson and doing great and we're all looking forward to getting home. Anderson has eaten very well all day today and we expect the jaundice to go away in a couple of days. Shelly has been a little sore and swollen but has been getting around better today. We sincerely appreciate the visits, gifts, flowers, phone calls, messages, blog posts, thoughts, and prayers. It has meant so much to have so many dear friends involved. More later.

Mike
Kansas City, MO

Anderson Cash Essary

Just a quick note to announce the arrival of Anderson Cash Essary. Our son was born Sunday, October 26th at 1:27 PM (halftime of the Chiefs/Jets game). He weighed 6 lbs, 10 ounces and was 19 3/4 inches long.

Shelly was in labor for 12 hours before the doctor determined she wasn't dilated enough (she made it to a 9 but no further). So she had a c-section. More later but it was an amazing experience for us. Shelly and baby are doing great. We will be in the hospital until Wednesday morning. Our families all arrived within 30 minutes of each other from Oklahoma and western Kansas, at a perfect time as he was being born as they arrived.

He's coming today!!

It's 3:08 AM and we're at the hospital. I woke up abruptly at 1:11 AM to the sound of Shelly calling my name. Still in a fog, I heard her tell me her water had just broken. After confirming that Shelly hadn't just peed the bed, we rushed around and got some things together and came to the hospital (about a mile from our house).

So we're here now and she has started some contractions but not into active labor yet. The nurse is beginning to administer oxytocin to help facilitate labor. We haven't called anyone yet so unless someone is up at 3AM we're the only ones who know. We decided to wait a couple of hours to call our families so they can get a little more rest. Actually, Shelly called David Douglass so he can come over in the morning and get Daphne.

Shelly is doing just fine so far. I'm online right now because she wanted to make sure her fantasy football lineup was set for today.

Anyway, so far so good. More later and will add some pics.

Mike
Kansas City, MO
St. Luke's Northland Hospital

The mucus plug and chicken connection

At 37 weeks, he's still in there cooking. Although we did have a day this week we thought it may be time to rush down to the deliver room. This past Wednesday Shelly walked out of the bathroom and said, "I think I just lost my mucus plug". Each of us stood there in the bedroom in uncomfortable silence for like 12 seconds, just staring at each other. She was probably thinking, "Wow, he is so excited he is speechless". But in reality I was thinking, "What in the heck is a mucus plug?".

During those 12 seconds I pondered two possiblities. Either a mucus plug is one of those clip things you put on your nose when you're swimming to keep water out of your nostrils or Shelly is getting a cold. I assumed the latter and was heading to get her some tissue and some cold medicine when she reminded me we learned about mucus plugs a month ago in our baby class. I pretended like I clearly remembered that discussion in class and asked if that meant we should go to the hospital. Shelly said she wasn't sure, confirming to me that she didn't remember either.

Now, let me pause for a moment and tell you that Shelly was going to fix my favorite meal that night, baked chicken and rice. She told me she was making it a few days earlier so I was really looking forward to it. Since this was happening at like 3:45 PM the first thing I said to her when she mentioned she may be going into labor was, "Do you think we have to leave before or after dinner?". I mean come on, why couldn't this have happened on a grilled cheese night or leftover night?

I suggested we google what losing a mucus plug means. Not completely so I can have the chicken and rice but just making sure that means she's going into labor. We learned it is common for that to happen and you could still go on for a few weeks before having the baby. So we didn't go to the hospital or call the doctor and we both enjoyed a fine meal at the dinner table that night. But at least we found out he could be coming soon and that he is one step closer.

Shelly still gets around pretty good but has trouble sleeping about every other night. Last night was one of those nights. Early this morning she thought she was having back labor pains. Could have been that or the fact we had dinner last night at a drugstore restaurant and sat on those old time uncomfortable bar stools. All I know is at 4:30 AM I was up rubbing Shelly's lower back and upper booty cheeks.

So until he gets here I'm trying to keep Shelly relaxed but active. We go to the gym every other day and also take Daphne on walks in the neighborhood or at the lake across the street. The pics below were taken Friday night in Overland Park at a charity gala dinner for abused and neglected children. A good time with our good friend David Douglass and a great cause.



So my advice to you all is this. Check your mucus plugs daily because you never know when losing one might result in a missed meal.

Mike
Kansas City, MO

Coming soon

Shelly's shirt seems to sum it up. Go ahead and say that three times in a row. This shirt was a hit last night at a birthday party we attended. Although I'd say she hasn't really been cranky. She's been very good throughout this process in fact. And if there has been a hint of crankiness that is my cue to take Daphne outside for a pee and poop. Usually, she does the pooping and I take care of the other, in the dark of course. Hey, you can take the boy out of the country but it's hard to take the country out of the boy.

The last scheduled ultrasound was Wednesday and she is 36 weeks today. He weighed 6 pounds even and everything measured normal. He is positioned with his head down on the bottom right and his feet are crossed and on the top right, making a "C" shape as you're looking at Shelly. And his hands were both near his face. Heck, this is hard to explain. Here's a hasty picture I just drew to better explain myself:

And yes, I am available to draw your family portraits for a small fee.

The doctor did not try and guess whether she will deliver early, late, or on time. You know how doctors are. So the due date is still November 7th. But Shelly is dilated at a 1, whatever that means. Guess I'd better refer to my book from the childbirth training day to remember what that is. But as I recall, when you are at a 10 is when the baby drops out and starts running around naked and slimy. And I realize I'm probably the only person reading this who doesn't understand those numbers. But I'm learnin'.

This is a 4-day holiday weekend for me so I guess I'd better start whittling down that "honey do" list.

Mike
Kansas City, MO

First comes love, then comes marriage...

...then comes Shelly pushin' the baby carriage.

Yesterday, we put together the stroller mom and dad got for us. It's really nice! Has everything on there except turn signals. And it may have those and I just haven't found them yet. And of course Daphne volunteered once again to try it out so we can see just how heavy that seat will be.

And here's a 35-week pic taken before church this morning. The next ultrasound is this Wednesday. That's the last one scheduled before he hops out into the world in a few weeks. He weighed 4 pounds 3 ounces 4 weeks ago so I predict he'll weigh 6.5 pounds this time.


Mike
Kansas City, MO