On Tuesday morning, May 8th, we went to a routine checkup with Dr. Shawl. After he took Karen's blood pressure, he said he was sending her to the hospital. "For tests?" she asked. Nope. Her elevated blood pressure meant the baby needed to come out today!
He scheduled us for a c-section that afternoon (as soon as Karen's stomach was empty enough for the anesthesia). We went home, made a few calls and headed out to the hospital. While we waited for the big moment, Karen kept herself calm with meditation and Steve by having a glass of bourbon.
Finally, at 3:46 pm, Zeeke was born! Seven pounds, fifteen ounces. He was crying and pale, but totally healthy. To calm him down while he sat under the heat lamp, Steve sang David Bowie's "Kooks" to him like he used to do when Zeeke was still in the womb.
Karen's legs were numb for a long time after surgery and they couldn't take us to our room until she wiggled her toes. Her blood pressure was still really high too. Fortunately, they let Zeeke hang out with us for a while before they took him away. Steve's mom and dad came and stayed with us while we were in recovery, although they only got to see Zeeke through the glass wall of the nursery that night. Kim came too, which was amazing of her since the twins had been born just a week and a half earlier.
The hospital stay was rough at times. Karen was in a lot of pain from the incision and gas trapped in her shoulder. On the second night, Steve had a mini-breakdown when he couldn't get Zeeke to stop screaming and crying, but Karen saved the day, overcoming all of her pain, and calming them both down.
There were good nurses and bad, good doctors and bad. Karen's sister and mother visited, as did Steve's parents and niece, but mostly we kept visitors away, wanting it to be just the three of us for the first few days. We spent all of our time and energy keeping him alive and staring in awe at the little person we had created.
Zeeke's weight went down eleven ounces from his birthweight, which was expected but scary. Thursday morning, Steve went to a very informative breastfeeding seminar in the hospital and asked the instructor, Tammy, to come see Karen. She helped us a lot, clearing up some misconceptions and showing us how to get a good latch. When they weighed Zeeke the next day he had gained two ounces.
On Saturday, we finally got to bring Zeeke home from the hospital. It was so great to be home, but kind of scary too, since we no longer had a parade of nurses and doctors to save us if we had a problem. Karen's incision meant avoiding stairs for a while, so we decided to all camp out in the living room with Zeeke sleeping in the Pack & Play.
Dena swung by for a visit and got drafted into being Zeeke's first official babysitter while we ran out to the pharmacy to get Karen's medications.
On Sunday, Kris & Ed came by with a ton of food (lentils, chicken stew, pasta & turkey meatballs, corn bread, couscous), guaranteeing we wouldn't go hungry in the coming weeks.