OKAY OKAY I'm BACK, JEEEEZ

So. I've been totally avoiding updating my blog because of the sheer enormity of everything that has happened.

Phineas Morgan Hertz was born, surprisingly, on June 25th at 2:52pm, about 3 hours after I got to the hospital. He was 6 weeks early and 5lbs 13oz and 17in long. He spent 1 week in the NICU.

Had his Fairly Oddparents not been there, I would have had my c-section ALONE. Ryan and Sara happened to be visiting Sara's parents up here and we had a playdate for around that time, albeit, not in the waiting room of Labor & Delivery, but a playdate, just the same.

I let Yorick go to Gymboree while I packed a bag for me and, just in case, Phin while they were at Gymboree and emailed Sara to let her and Ryan know where to meet us, since we weren't going to be home.

I took a book (Twilight - more on that later) to read, since it's always hurry up and wait at the hospital. I thought they were just going to stick me on some monitors, pop in an excruciating IV and make me sit around... but, no, they decided to give me a c-section, much to my surprise. Especially since they told me without Josh there. I don't know if you guys all know, but Josh is usually there for everything when it comes to our kids. So I was a little peeved. Ryan and Sara got there and Josh had them watch Yorick while he came to check on my status... about 10 minutes after they told me about the c-section.

And we were being wheeled away about a half hour after that. So if Ryan and Sara had not been there, since we don't know anybody up here in San Jose, had they not happened to be here on that day, at that time, I would've had my c-section alone.

So, please, everyone give it up for Phineas' Fairly Oddparents, Ryan and Sara!

It was a really long hospital stay. They gave me pitocin, which I had a terrible reaction to when I was in labor with Yorick, they gave it to me after the c-section to cause me to contract and shrink my uterus, but they didn't ask how I reacted to it and gave me 3 freakin' IV bags full of it, so a few hours later, I was in so much pain, I couldn't breathe or speak to tell them what was wrong. I could just lay there and cry. They finally took the pitocin away.

It was just a big long series of complaints that I'm sure none of you want to hear. But, the NICU was pretty far from my room, so I ended up having to walk a little earlier than I would have liked to after major surgery, just so I could go see my son. As it was, I wasn't able to see him until he was more than a day old, and it just broke my heart.

He had an IV in for the first couple of days and then they took that out. He was only on oxygen for the first few hours of his life, he was breathing fine without it. (I had been given steroid shots for his lungs a few weeks prior to his birth at one of my other hospital stays) His temp kept dropping and that concerned them and he wasn't eating as well as he should have been.

I proved stubborn and started showing up in NICU like clockwork, every 2-3 hours to feed him myself and I think that contributed to them letting him go home as early as he did. I did go home a couple of days before he did, which was harder than I thought. It was really hard leaving the hospital without my baby.

Anyways.
Here's some new pics of the little nugget:

And a week old, compared to Yorick, who is a giant stinker next to him:

And here's a pic of his first real bath, taken a couple of days ago:

I'll post more later, I have lots to talk about, that are non-baby related...

Things we need:
diapers
a non-manual breast pump (lol)
diapers
socks and hats
Phin is wearing preemie sizes, and I love most everything except sports and baby ducks (ducks are too girlie)
diapers
and believe it or not... receiving blankets and burp cloths... I don't know what the heck happened to Yorick's... but ugh
and...
diapers

Thanks for checking in on us!!
We'll be down in the OC for our whirlwind Baby Tour '08 the second weekend of August.