So NOT right-handed

When Owen was about 3 days old, we took his little orange self into the doctor and told her that he had not peed or pooped since we left the hospital. This was a time of ultimate freak-out for a new Mom and Dad. After visiting the lactation consultants (who thought I had implants), we realized I was so engorged and swollen that, although Owen was nursing well, he was not getting anything from me. He basically hadn't gotten food since he was born. He was horribly jaundiced. We all know everything turned out ok so you can relax. The point of my story - the title, comes soon.

There is a whole lot more to this that we recognize in hindsight that I won't get into here - that his jaundice was relatively preventable had our doctor let us in on what virtually everyone knows (that vacuum extraction causes a bruise that greatly elevates bilirubin & increases the chances for jaundice). The day that we realized that his jaundice was getting serious was also the day that my Mom had to go home to check in on my disabled father. It was also the same day that our cats ate a poisonous plant that someone had given us as a Welcome Owen! gift. The delivery of the "bili pads" (or phototherapy paddles - oops, nope just one, they only delivered ONE of the two) was beautifully timed to coincide with my Mom's flight as well as Keith's panicked dash with two freaked out cats to the vet to get cat EKGs and some kitty charcoal delivered directly to the kitty tummies. This is a day we will both remember clearly forever & it is probably not possible to overstate how horrible it was.

We had been told to make sure to get 2 oz in him every 2 hours to flush out his system. But the jaundice made him very sleepy; feeding him was no easy feat and included putting a cold cloth on his head among other strategies we will refrain from mentioning. His bili levels did not decrease enough: his levels were 22; they start to worry about brain damage around 25. Most kids have some elevation in bili levels, perhaps to around 11, shortly after birth. (I will mention here that a new Mom who is also a neuroscientist should never read what can happen with high bilirubin levels. Especially if you studied the basal ganglia for your Ph.D.) So, we were admitted to the hospital. In all honesty, we were so relieved to go know that he was getting the fluids he needed. So even though he was this tiny baby who was hooked up to monitors and an IV, and even though Keith and I were sleeping on a sofa-chair the width of a mop, we were in high spirits. Plus, I was introduced to the world's most effective breast pump, the details of which I will spare you. Suffice to say, after we returned from the hospital Keith very quickly ordered a postal scale so that we could weigh Owen after each nursing thereafter to make sure that he was getting milk from me.

Home Again

We don't use the scale anymore (well, Keith does: he uses it to weigh out his grains and hops for brewing). Owen is doing just fine, as you all know. But this evening I was carrying him in my left arm and switched him over to my right and could only hold him for about 10 seconds; and even for that time it felt incredibly awkward. My left arm, though - it's a champ. I can hold his 22.5-lb frame for a LONG time and do just fine. Whenever I register how heavy he's getting and how hard it is to hold him for very long, I remember getting that scale, and the relief we both felt when we could measure when he ate two whole ounces.