I was wondering what the hospital would do if a parent demanded to leave with their child prior to the doctors recommendation? Does the parent get to make the call or does the doctor have final say in the care of a baby?

At any rate…

Brittany and I both stayed at a parent room last night with Gabriel. The room is a bit is a bit like a university dorm room but in the hospital. All the stories that we’ve heard about the sleepless nights were certainly true. I woke up this morning (after not being terribly helpful last night) feeling totally hung over. I guess I was baby drunk last night.

The baby seat has been fastened, the final paperwork is being done and later today we’ll bring Gabriel home, one month after his birth and almost one month before his due date….

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1. The arrival of Gabriel Adams
2. OpenVPN on a home router
3. Montenegro.

Brittany went into labour two months early, so it was quite a surprise when she woke me on Thursday morning, half asking and half telling me that we should be heading to the hospital. We had learnt about which driveway to use and the best route to take to the hospital two weeks prior as a result of a false start, so we were familiar with the process of admissions, which helped greatly to keep us calm during the process.

Brittany was not 100% sure she was in labour, but was sure that she should go to the hospital to get checked. As we have experienced a wide variety of strange bodily changes (all normal) throughout Brittany’s pregnancy, we were not overly alarmed at this point. It was also nice that all of this happened early in the morning as there was little to no traffic on the roads as we drove down Quinpool and onto Robie towards the IWK.

The nurses in the assessment unit of the IWK quickly determined that Brittany was indeed having contractions. At this point they called Brittany’s OB/GYN Dr. Archibald (who is wonderful!). In short order Brittany was admitted into the Birth Unit where she was assigned her own BU Room and and was also assigned a nurse (you are assigned a full time 1-on-1 nurse while you are in the Birth Unit. At this point the calls to various family members started we were assured that this was not another false start.

At this point family started their travel plans and the doctors started to try to slow or ideally stop the labour. Though none of the doctors or nurses indicated it, I got the impression that there are not often successful at stopping a delivery once a womans body has decided to start it. Brittany spent the better part of 36 hours with her uterus contracting and preparing for the delivery. After about 24 hours she indicated that her heart felt like it was racing. The doctors started to look at her heart rate and noted that it was now hovering at the 130 to 140 bpm rate, twice what it was previously in the day. Many specialists came to see Brittany and EKGs were performed in order to try to understand what was causing this. Brittany didn’t have any other complications as a result of the elevated heart rate (which the doctors found puzzling, but a good thing), but I found it added a great deal of stress to the labour as I was now able to sit watching her heart rate, the babies heart rate all on a digital monitor that would chime and alarm when either went too high or too low.

During this time Brittany was unable to get any sustained sleep and was getting worn down from what her body was going through. On her doctors recommendation she received an epidural, at which point her body was still contracting, but she was able to sleep and rest while it was doing so.

After the epidural Brittany was able to rest so nicely that family went home and just Brittany, the nurse and I were left in the birth unit. I was also sound asleep when I was woken by the rush of doctors coming into the birth unit and Brittany altering positions on her bed, laying on one side, then the other, then on all fours. All of this was because Gabriel’s heart beat had dropped (constantly monitoring the babies heart beat is one of the activities of the assigned nurses). Leaving no time to spare the doctors rolled Brittany into the Operating Room which was right across the hallway and got suited up to do a C-section. Of course as soon as Brittany was in the OR everything went back to normal, at which point the doctors looked at each other and said if the baby was happy they were happy and that they would leave her to progress naturally again.

At this point the operating room went from a bustling room filled with nurses and doctors, to a cold empty room with just Brittany, her nurse, me and lots of expensive looking equipment. Brittany was able to get some more sleep, strapped onto the small OR bed so she wouldn’t fall off. I sat trying to keep warm and looking at all the equipment, readouts and displays. Several hours later Brittany awoke with a more intense contraction – feeling different than before. A resident doctor came and ‘took a look’ and indicated that it was now time to push. Brittany got a 30 second description of how she should push and also some techniques.

As each contraction came Brittany would put in three pushes, holding her breath as she assisted to help Gabriel out into the world. Brittany commented she was surprised how tiring it was to push, but luckily for her it was not long before the doctors proclaimed they could see Gabriel’s head. Once Gabriel’s head was fully out it was obvious that the umbilical cord was wrapped around his head. The doctors quickly clamped and cut the umbilical cord and then out came Gabriel. Gabriel’s first sounds – a tiny sounding cry – was a wonderful indication to Brittany and I that he was doing well. He was tiny – but looked perfect and has been a very healthy baby for someone who took the stage two months early.

As I am writing this, it is hard to believe that Gabriel is already two weeks old. Brittany and I are sitting in the Transitional Care unit of the 3rd floor of the IWK, which is where Gabriel calls home until he able to fully feed on his own.

Full Name:Gabriel Taylor Scelo Adams
Birth Date/Time:19th December, 2009 at 05:14AM
Birth Weight: 1890 grams (4.2 lbs)
Birth Length: 17.2 inches
Gestation: 31 3/7 weeks
Hospital: IWK Health Centre – Birth Unit 11 – Operating Room 8
Post Birth Care: NICU 1 (Dec. 19th->25th) – - NICU 2 (Dec. 25th -> 29th) – - Transitional (Dec. 29th -> …??)

Some more photos:

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1. Gabriel is coming home today!

Click on the more to view the full post with HD video samples.

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Recently I have sumbled accross several articles on making your own whole home monitoring system.

http://www.picobay.com/projects/2009/01/real-time-web-based-power-charting.html (which uses http://www.iobridge.com/store/ ).

http://scienceshareware.com/how-to-measure-AC-DC-current-with-a-hall-effect-clamp-.htm.

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I ended up receiving a NordicTrac treadmill from my mother recently and after setting it up for the first time I found that the front pulley was loose on the front roller causing the treadmill to slip when I ran on it, which is a very unnatural feeling. After being put in contact with a local repair technician he actually told me just to drill a hole in the pulley and put a screw through to the front roller. Having done that last night I went on my first real run tonight.

I have also managed to start work on the house again. After the wedding and after Brittany and I had settled back into the second floor of the house we have really been taking it easy on our home renovations. I don’t think we are very good at motivating each other and have become a little complacent.

I’ve also been spending some of my time as a Big Brother, which is a lot of fun. I’m sure I enjoy doing activities with my Little as much as he does as it gets me out doing things that I likely wouldn’t do. I would really recommend getting involved with the Big Brothers Big Sisters program to anyone that had an interest in spending some time with a Little, and getting out in the world doing fun things.

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