You may notice a faint purple color around Liam's mouth. This is the Gentian Violet that we've been using to treat thrush. Doesn't it look like we gave him a grape popsicle? We've been singing "Start Wearing Purple" a lot lately. :-)
6.28.2008
"Start Wearing Purple"
Bili-Blanket
Liam was born with Jaundice (like most babies), and to help reduce the biliruben levels, he wore an ultraviolet blanket for a couple of days at home. Gone are the days where the babies have to stay at the hospital under lights...so thankful for this new piece of technology and that he was at home with us.
Liam's Arrival
Very early in the morning on Sat., May 31, I felt my first real contraction. By the time we were up and moving around the house, each contraction was lasting about 30 seconds and they were 15 minutes apart. We set into a few projects that we had been planning on...B worked on a recording/mixing project for his brother, and I sorted through file boxes and archived/shredded/re-sorted old papers. I spent most of the day on it, pausing as the contractions became more and more painful. Around 4 pm, the contractions seemed to be getting stronger, so we began to keep track for an hour. They averaged 1 minute long and 4-5 minutes apart. We called our doula and she said we sounded like we were doing good, but that she could come over at any time. We waited a while and around 7 pm, B called her back and said it would be nice for her to come over. She arrived around 7:30 pm, and she and B helped me breathe and stay relaxed through contractions. Hank and Kazu were aware, attentive, and very gentle. Hank acted concerned a few times as I breathed through some of the more difficult contractions. Kazu was her normal self...sweet, constant, loving presence.
Around 10 pm, after laboring at home throughout the evening, we decided it was a good time to head on over to the hospital. In the triage room, the nurse told us I was already 5 cm dilated. That felt like great news...we were half way there! We were admitted to room number 8 (go Matt Hasselbeck!), put on the wireless monitoring system and we were right back to laboring. We made it to 8 cm, and then to 9 cm, and by sometime around 5 am-ish, the nurse said I was at 10 cm, that we were ready to start pushing, and she was going to page our doctor. So B and our doula helped me as we started to push, but when the doctor arrived, he checked me and said that I was not quite 10 cm after all...I needed to stop pushing. We managed to get through a few difficult hours of not pushing (easier said than done!) while being in an upright position and sometime around 9 am-ish, we were ready to push again...
and on the morning of his due date, in the most beautiful moment,
Liam Morrissey was born into our arms,
June 1, 2008 at 11:11 am
8 lbs. 15 oz. and 21"
