Introduction

(no name) ((no email))
10 Jun 96 9:08:08


Hello everyone, I've been following this list for a about a month now and 
thought I should introduce my family and the little boy who is the reason why 
I'm here.

Dylan was born on March 3/96, five days after my wife and I attended a Rod 
Stewart concert (I still say Dylan misunderstood Rod when he was singing 
"Tonights the night").  Deb's membranes had ruptured that night and she 
discovered it when she went to the bathroom at 3am and noticed some blood. She 
was very upset  since we had had a big scare at 12 weeks with bleeding.  She 
called her doctor's office and he was on duty at the hospital so off we headed.

After they had established her membranes had ruptured we had to go for an 
ultrasound. That was one of the longest waits we've ever had to endure but when 
we saw Dylan's heart beating one pressure was lifted. Our next stop was the 
delivery suite to wait for Mother Nature to do her work. Deb's OB was not in 
favour of stopping the labour since she was at 31 weeks and would rather avoid 
any additional stresses to all. Deb got here first dose of Celestone and we 
waited. During that time we got a visit from the NICU nurse with their picture 
book. Again we were shaken with the pictures of all the machines. We also got a 
tour of the NICU which was eye opening, but in the long run helped prepare us.  
After an uneventfull night and Deb's contractions stopped she was moved back to 
the ward to wait.  

After another four days of bed rest things started to pick up (during this time 
Deb was on antibiotics and got her second dose of Celstone).  On Saturday night 
our 8 year old daughter and I had supper with Deb.  She was having alot of back 
pain and occassional contraction.  I took Jessie home and made arrangements for 
her and went back to the hospital. The fetal heartrate monitor worked fine, but 
there were no contractions showing up.  The nurses called the resident at 9pm 
and he did an internal. She was 2cm which was her state 4 days ago.  At 
midnight the contractions moved to the front and the monitor lit up. They 
called the resident back and he had the goofiest look on his face when he did 
the internal and said "she's going to have a baby".  The nurse and I put Deb on 
the stretcher and moved her over to the delivery suite. The delivery team got 
her fixed up, realized they had not done blood work in 5 days so that needed to 
be done before the epidural could be given. The nurse did another internal and 
asked "do you feel like pushing", to which Deb said "yes" she said "don't". At 
that time the OB stepped into the room, gloved up and said push. Dylan's head 
crowned, push again and the head was out and one more little push and he 
squirted out and gave his first cry. That was what we needed to hear. We got to 
see him about an hour latter and found out he weighed in at 3 lbs 8 ozs and 
scored 9 9 on his APGAR :]

Dylan spent 29 days in the NICU and came home April 1 after a couple of false 
starts. As of his last weigh in he is 9 lbs 8 ozs. He seems to be a light 
sleeper, has inherited his night owl gene from his Grandfather and is the pride 
and joy of his sister (she likes to show him off at every chance). 

I'm looking forward to hearing from other people on the list about things like 
sleeping through the night, developmental stages and other small and large 
victories.

so till then, kindest regards

Robert, Debbie, Jessie and Dylan Pangborn
Ottawa