Painting by Nelson Mandela
Tabitha's Web Page - Pictures and Blog
Born 6/21/2004, 8:21pm

Back to Work - Wednesday, July 7, 2004 - Noon
Tabitha cried alot tonight. It was bad enough that I got up a couple times to check on her and Chris. She just cried and cried all night and even though she ate she wouldn't fall asleep unless one of us were holding her. As soon as we put her down she started crying again. It was hard on Chris because it was her first night alone and I had to work today so she couldn't take a real nap until I got home after 5pm. Hopefully Chris' second night will go better. We got some dispoable bottles because you can push all of the air out of them and they are supposed to give the baby less gas. They are kind of a pain because once you push the air out it is hard to tell how much formula is left in the bottle and we are suppose to measure how much she eats at each feeding. We'll have to see how those work out. When I got home and gave Chris a break, Tabitha didn't want to be set down. I held her and she took a nap for a couple of hours. I've set up my computer to do some training at home for work. I'll probably move the cradle in there so I can work and keep an eye on her. We have baby monitors but it isnot the same.

Tabitha's Bad Night - Tuesday, July 6th - 5:00pm
Tabitha had some problems this evening. She suddenly started throwing up violently then cried hysterically for about an hour and a half. We had problems burping her before it happened so that was probably the cause. After she calmed down and slept for an hour she was ready to eat again. I stayed up all night holding her though just to make sure she was okay. Tommorow I go back to work so this was the last chance I will have to stay up with her for awhile. In the morning we took her to get her PKU. That was not fun. They pricked her foot and squeezed out 6 blots of blood (each about a square inch or so) so they can perform some tests. Chris had to leave the room because she couldn't stand to watch. I held Tabitha's head and just spoke quietly to her until it was over. Tabitha cried when they pricked her and squeezed but then she just fussed for ahwile. Could have been worse I suppose. We then took her to Dr. Schulman's again to have her weighed and to ask about her feeding habits again. She gained 6 ounces since last weeks weighing (at 8lbs, 6 ounces now) so even though the formula is giving her gas and kind of making her fussy sometimes she is doing fine. Again they said we can try the soy based formula or even some pre-digested formula that is supposed to be easier on the baby's stomaches. We may try to go to the soy-based if Tabitha has more problems. Everything is going fine. Chris will be staying up with Tabitha for the first time tonight.

Venture Out - Friday, July 2, 2004 - 10:00pm
Well we took Tabitha with us to the mall and out to dinner with us this evening. Everything went well and she slept through it. I really don't like the car seats because she is so tiny that we really have strap her in. We tested the stroller and everything went fine. This was kind of a test run to see what we would need to make sure we brought with us anytime we left the house with her. We forgot a blanket but that was all. Chris was really tired and her blood pressure shot way up when we got home. We weren't out long but it seemed to have drained her.

First Visit to the Doctor - Tuesday, June 29, 2004 - 5:00pm
Tabitha went to her first Doctor's visit today. Her doctor is Stephen Schulman and his office is near Denton Community Hospital. She only lost one ounce of weight (at 8lbs even now) since she was born so that is good from what he says. We got a lot of information from the doctor and nurse practitioners. Tabitha has had alot of gas and they think it is because of her "aggresive eating style". They want us to feed her every two hours and see if that helps. They also gave us some soy-based formula to try. Eveything else is fine and Tabitha is still sleeping well and not fussing much.

At Home - Saturday, June 26, 2004 - Noon
We are at home now and everything is going smoothly for Tabitha. She sleeps alot and doesn't really fuss alot right now. I don't go back to work until July 7th so I am doing what I can to allow Chris to rest. She still has high blood pressure and has to stay in bed. I stay up late each night and hold her and feed her. When she is asleep I have been watching the "Lonesome Dove" series. She drinks about 4 ozs every 4 hours and is eating well. She eats very fast and acts like she is starving so we may try to feed her every 3 hours and see how that works.

First Night Home - Friday, June 25, 2004 - 6:00pm
Well, we got home yesterday at noon and everything went pretty well until the evening. She cried from about 12am to 7am unless she was being held (and sometimes even that didn't help). We would feed her and she would calm down for about fifteen minutes but then start crying again until we picked her back up. When she started crying again even while we were holding her, we fed her again. She went to sleep around 9am and slept until her next feeding and she is sleeping now. Everything is fine, she is just fussy. The desktop wallpaper is now HERE.  Just follow the link and when the picture is displayed, right click on it and choose "Set as background".

Tabitha Comes Home - Thursday, June 24, 2004 - 9:00pm
We brought Tabitha home today. We moved her into her room and set everything up all through the house for her. We have a cradle in our bedroom and a playpen in the living room. I'll probably get a bassinet or something for my computer room. We have fed her a few times now and she consistently drinks about 2 oz of formula every 3 hours. By Monday she should double that. I have to put togther her swing this evening. I'll try and take a picture of the cradle and swing and post them this weekend.

New Entries - Thursday, June 24, 2004 - 12:00pm
The entries below are in reverse order so as to be chronological. All entries above this one will be most recent first.

Chris's Water Breaks - Monday, June 21, 2004 : 6:05pm
As I was leaving work today my wife called and said her water had broken. Her mother drove her to the hospital and I went straight there and got a wheel chair ready and told them she was coming. The nurses told me that there was a change in the barometric pressure caused by the coming rain and that is most likely why her water had broken. They didn't think she was very close to having the baby and implied that it was going to be a long evening.

Chris arrives @ Hospital - Monday, June 21, 2004 : 6:15pm
I checked Chris in and the nurses weren't too excited. They talked awhile and then got Chris a room. They had a staff meeting or something they had to go to so it was several minutes before they came and checked on her. The did check her dilation real quick and told us it was at 4 cm. They told us she was not ready to give birth and to just kind of relax. They hooked her up to a contraction monitor before they left for awhile. Chris had about 30 minutes of contractions that were pretty hard (they were off the chart on the monitor) and long.

Waiting for the doctor - Monday, June 21, 2004 : 7:00pm
When they came back to check on Chris they found she was dilated to 10 centimeters. By the way, Chris was very frightened all during this - did I mention that? She hadn't been very frightened about any of this until today. I wasn't frightened or worried until I saw just how scared Chris was. When the doctors told Chris she was at 10 centimeters and asked her to try pushing, she knew she was going to have to have natural child birth - no meds. The next hour and twenty minutes were really hard on Chris but as soon as Tabitha was born she was okay. Everything happend so fast there was no time to mentally get prepared for any of this. One minute we were wondering if the nurses had called the doctor and when they would get the epidural ready and the next they were asking Chris to push.

Tabitha is born - Monday, June 21, 2004 - 8:21pm
Tabitha was born at 8:21 pm, about 2 hours after Chris' water broke. She got nothing to help with the pain. She really regretted not having practiced her breathing excerices (ever). I tried to help her but she just couldn't stay focused on the breathing because of the pain. Tabitha weighed 8lbs 1oz and measured 18 1/2 inches long. The doctor immediately handed her to Chris and begin cleaning her mouth and nose. I cut the umbilical cord while a nurse took a couple pictures. Tabitha was a light purple with a bright red mouth. She cried for about the first 5 minutes but then was pretty calm. We kept her with us until about 11pm and then they took her to have her first bath, feeding and shots. I photographed the bath but then went to check on Chris.

Afterwards - Monday, June 21, 2004 - 11:00pm
I don't really know how to describe how I was feeling. At first everything was just overwhelming, I just tried to make sure I got the pictures taken and kept checking on mother and daughter. After everyone had left and Chris and I got a chance to be with her by ourselves everything seemed very normal, like she had been here long before now. I didn't regret anything in my life tonight. Tabitha is beautiful, more beatiful than I could possibly have imagined.

   
    

  This picture was taken moments after the delivery.  Tabitha had been weighed and measured and a very basic bathing had been performed.  Notice how happy Chris is here.   If you see me showing pictures around the office sometime ask to see the picture of her right after she finds out there is not time for an epidural or any other pain medication.

  This is right after she stopped screaming.  She was actually pretty quiet and alert for the next two hours.  Since there was no pain medication or anything (the baby wasn't drowsy) the doctor pretty much turned her over to us at this point and just asked us to bring her by the nursery when we were ready to have her bathed properly and fed.

  Here is me with the baby after she has been bathed.  She took her pacifier right away and drank almost two ounces of formula.

  This is the next morning.  Chris had been moved to a new room and visitors were officially allowed.  Really the people at Denton Community were pretty good about letting us flagrantly disregard their visitation policies.  Around 11pm they asked the visitors to leave.

  This is the burrito picture.  My sister Aimee is holding Tabitha.   Tabitha looks a lot like Aimee did as a newborn, I think. 

  This is my favorite picture of her so far.  The bow was put in her hair by one of the hospital people.  Check the blog (on the left side of this page for a link to a desktop wallpaper of this image).

  This is the outfit we put her in to take her home.  It didn't last five minutes before she spit up all over it so we had to change her into something else.

  Another picture of her in her "take home" outfit.

  This is Tabitha's room.  This is her dresser and about one tenth of her stuffed animal collection.  They are everywhere.

  Here is her bed.  Since this picture was taken we have added a monitor and musical-aquarium thing that she won't be able to see, let alone play with, for quite some time.

  Here is her rocking chair.  My wife and mother-in-law tried several different chairs here before finally deciding on this one.
 
(2004) M Baggett