Flu Vaccine

It's Sunday morning and Brady is sleeping like a log. I can hear a lot of action going on in his diaper but I don't have the heart to wake him up for a change while he's lying on his mom like that. Deanna and I are both going to get flu shots this morning. (not H1N1). Like everything else left up to the state of MA, it's late! Shocker I know. Everything is going swimingly so far. He was pretty irratable yesterday in the wake of his Friday circumcision. I suppose any other guy, young or old, would be too. At this point Deanna is really looking forward to going home tomorrow. She's been hold up in the little hospital room since very early Thursday morning and it's getting to be very old... We're both anxious and nervous to get him home, anxious for obvious reasons and nervous because once we walk out the front door here at B&W's it's all on us at that point. Luckily we have a really loving and helpful family to coach, encourage, and help us on our way. The laptop is about to run out of batteries so I'm signing off. If your out on your bikes tonight...do wear white... - TK

Resting Comfortablly...

Circumcision

cir-cum-ci-sion 1. The act of circumcising

Thanks to Websters dictionary for that definition. Poor Brady had this barbaric process completed this morning so he can avoid being taunted in the locker room 14 years or so from now. Hopefully his topical anasthetic doesn't fade away too quickly. It's been a while since the last posting, I've decided I'll keep this going until we go home on Monday. Anyways....He had a lot of visitors last night including his cousins Kayla and Ryan (Christopher will be introduced to him in a more controlled enviornment. By controlled I mean something like this ) His cousin Joey is still only three months old so he was home with his father watching his eyelids. Brady also met his two nanna's and grandpa's. He also met his uncle Paul and three aunts, Christina, Linda and Elena. (That last sentence makes my uncle Paul sound like a polygamist) He also got to meet his mother's BFF Mary Ellen. Needless to say i was a very busy night for him. An encouraging item worth noting is that he slept from 9:30 straight through until after 4:oo last night so hopefully that'll develop into a trend. Stay tuned through Monday for further updates...

He's Here!

Deanna's Cesarean section went perfect and Brady Gannon was born at approximately 2:25 AM EST. He wighed 8 lbs 1 oz and was 21 inches long. As you can see he has a full head of hair and he's already taken down his first bottle... You can link to some more pictures here

http://picasaweb.google.com/sgannon75/UntitledAlbum?feat=directlink

Cesarian Section Time.....

Well, it's almost 2:oo AM and Deanna is still only 4 cm dilated and is running a bit of a fever so Dr. Katz feels that it's best to go ahead with a C-section rather than prolong labor for several more hours. He empahasized that it wasn't an emergency but that it was probably the best course of action. So, my next blog update will be when the surgery is over and we're new parents.

Epidural is in... "Dr. Katz is my hero" - Deanna

Deanna is much more comfortable now that the epidural is in. The lights have been dimmed in the room and hopefully she'll doze off for a while while things progress. I feel like we've been here for a week.

Snuggy

Here's the latest picture update of Deanna. This was obviously not during a painful contraction.

Back on Pitocin....

Deanna's going back on Pitocin to get the ball rolling. Despite her earlier claims of having a "pretty high threshold for pain" she has been calling for the epidural and the current nurse is looking at her like she's a wuss... Hopefully this round of Pitocin will move things along.

More Waiting...

I wish there were more updates to report but there's not much to say. The contractions are still coming more frequently but that's about it. She's doing a lot of pacing and rocking in the rocking chair to get the dilation going. I'm guessing that the baby won't be here until midnight or so. It's still too early for the epidural. Sources close to me tell me that triplets were just born on the floor within the last couple of hours which has got the staff in a frenzy. So that's interesting. Let's all put our heads together and concentrate hard on focusing on a Yankees game 1 loss. That would be a nice time to enter the world...on the heels of a Yankees loss.

Peg

For those who might be wondering...Peg hasn't arrived yet. She's still getting loose in the bullpen.

Shower Time...

The pain is intensifying as you could imagine. I was sent out to find a nurse to talk about the epidural but to Deanna's dismay it's still too early. More dilation is required. Instead, she was directed to the bathroom for a warm shower. I guess lying in bed doesn't do much to move things along. She's been in the shower for at least 25 minutes....

Bring the Pain...

I've heard a few utterances of what appear to be F-bombs coming from Deanna. I don't dare say a word. Have you ever been hit in the face with a kickball at recess and someone walks over and says.."did that hit you in the face?...oh man, does it hurt?" You know how you want to punch them square in the face?

Mark it at 1:39 PM. Water has Broken.....

Epidural Permission Granted...

Deanna was just briefed on the pros/cons of an epidural from the anesthesiologist. It didn't take much convincing on her part. The answer was a resounding "yes" as you could probably imagine. The anesthesiologist was wearing an orange Denver Broncos skull cap which seems bold given that they're playing the Patriots this week.

Birthdate and Birthweight Guess results....

We can call this one now because we had one person guess 10/7 and no one pick 10/8. Unfortunately for three finalists...Kayla Konstantopoulos, Christina Keough, and Papa Joe Eliseo, they were each eliminated at midnight last night because they guessed 10/6. The winner looks to be Frank Keough who guessed 10 lbs 7 oz's on 10/7. Let's hope for Deanna's sake that he's only half right. Elena Eliseo guessed 10/9 so she's technically still in it but Deanna will jump out this 5th floor window if Elena wins... So by virtue of being closest without going over it appears as though Frank is the winner. For winning we will be middle naming him Frank.... Just kidding. There really is no prize.

Update:

Deanna just used the ladies room...more updates to follow.

Pitocin In... The Countdown is on

Pitocin Room #2... Electric Boogaloo

It is 9:00 AM and a lot seems to have transpired since last night. We're back to Brigham and Women's and Deanna's cervix has "improved alot" according to Dr. Schuler. She examined her about 15 minutes ago and determined there was no need for another "magic bean" because she was experiencing pretty good contractions. So we moved from the initial monitoring room to Pitcon room #2. Last night we were in room #5. Dr. Schuler seemed pretty encouraged that this was all going to go down relatively soon. I just asked Deanna if she wanted to give any shout outs to any of her peeps and she just looked at me for an awkward two or three count... My guess is that this baby will be coming sometime this afternoon. Hopefully we don't go through what we went through yesterday. I've attached a picture of our room status board because these posts seem empty without a picture.... You'll notice that Peg as listed as a "support person" to be present in the delivery room but she's been downgraded to questionable. Seems she battling a bad cold and will have to call an audible at the line of scrimmage and determine if she can go. It might be better for her to just take a knee on this one rather than dawn a face mask in the delivery room. That's no way to show yourself to a new grandchild. First impressions are everything.

Who Could've Seen this Coming?

Beleive it or not but it's 9:26 PM and we're home...Yep, that's right. We were sent home. Deanna and I came across a new doctor who took over at 6:00 PM tonight and her attitude was dramatically less urgent than her doctor this morning who "wanted to have this baby today" because he wasn't comfortable with her blood pressure...to the Doctor on duty when we arrived who told us "there's a very slim chance you won't be here tonight having this baby".. Her feeling was that Deanna's blood pressure had stablized sufficiently that she couldn't give her another "magic bean" to dilate her because she was already experiencing contractions but that she wasn't far enough along in said contractions to give her the Pitocin to induce labor. Her feeling was that she didn't want to force the issue. So, we're heading back in tomorrow morning at 7:30 AM! That's right, less than 12 hours from now. Clearly, the insurance companies don't like paying for any extra time in the hospital... I asked what was the risk/reward of sending us home just to come right back in the morning and I got a runaround answer... So we actually have been told to call them at 6:00 AM to be sure there's still room for us at 7:30. So today was one GIANT false alarm I guess. Deanna is feeling contractions so it is bound to happen soon. We're both very tired after a pretty stressful day. Stay tuned for more drama tomorrow. As you can imagine, Deanna is very upset to have this lingering on after getting her hopes up today... So unless something dramatic happens tonight there won't be anything else to report until tomorrow.

It's actually spelled "Pitocin"

Behold!!! The Patocin Room....

The reason Deanna is smiling in this picture is because just over my left shoulder is a flat screen tv.....

Unprecedented...

Deanna is going to attempt the first sideways delivery.....

Just kidding. The nurse is just drawing blood.

Contractions are Underway

Okay, it's 5:00 and it appears as though Deanna's contractions are underway. The Doctor is being paged so hopefully she'll say we're good to go and Deannas can be moved to the Patocin (Pa-toe-sin) room. That's a drug that induces labor and Deanna has been told that room has a TV. (priorities) I just got scolded for calling for a spelling of patocin in the middle of a contraction. Things are getting testy in here... haha. Once there's more news to report I will let you know. There are babies crying all over this floor by the way. I guess I better get used to it.

In a holding pattern.

Here we go

Well, it seems the time is upon us. Deanna had her weekly appointment this morning with Dr. Greenberg this morning at 9:00 and he decided that it was best to try and have the baby today. Her blood pressure was a little too high for his comfort so he told us to head home, pack a few things and head into Brigham and Women's hospital. That's where we are now. Now, I'm no doctor but I heard something about a closed cervix and dilation....yada yada yada but it seems we may be in for a long wait. Dr. Kline just gave Deanna a "magic bean" that will help prepare her cervix for labor. The bean went in at 1:00 PM so we have an hour of monitoring before she can get up and walk around until 4:00 when she'll be re-evaluated to see if she needs another magic bean. Long story short....We're in for a long wait. But the good news is that the process has started... So I will keep updating the blog as we get more info... In the meantime Deanna is very cranky because they brought her raisin bran and a bananna which is "disgusting" according to her...also, to add to her misery she's complaining that there's no tv in this room...in fact she's babbling to herself about it right now as I type this entry... I've added a picture of the tv-less room for your amusement.