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cwest (1514)

cwest
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http://caseywest.com/
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Perl geek.

Journal of cwest (1514)

Thursday February 14, 2002
12:46 PM

I'm a daddy

[ #2867 ]

Evelina Valentine West
7lb 9oz, 20"
DOB: 2.11.2 16:16 -05:00

This little girl rocks. Mom was in labor for only 7 hours and the hard labor was less than 2 hours. Drugs made that time more bearable for her.

The nurses and doctors kept getting on my case because I didn't want to cut the cord. One nurse said it was special, I replied by telling her that slashing a rope attached to my baby didn't seem that special. The doctor told me it was just like cutting a rubber hose to which I said "have fun." I still don't understand what the big deal was.

One cool thing is that the hospital put a little device on her since dead cord that would pretty much shut down the whole hospital if anyone tried to remove her from the recovery section of the hospital. Elevators stop, doors lock, sirens blast. That was cool, we didn't get to test it though.

Also, our baby is actually pretty. Others mentioned it, and I think it was not out of obligation. One interesting thing is that Chastity and I look like kids (we are just barely adults, age wise) and some nurses made off hand remarks about us being too young to have kids. One nurse seemed to think we weren't too happy about it, like we were both 16 and punks who didn't want the kid. She right out asked us how old we are and I said we're both 21 and quite happily married. Then I turned my back to get something and she asked my wife if I had a good job. The nerve of that woman. My wife told me later that she bit her tounge from asking the nurse if her husband had a good job.

Last tiny rant. This hospital seems to have designed everything to make you believe that you're incapable of handling anything for yourself. Take for instance, going to the bathroom. When it's time to wipe, you look over at the transparent toilet paper and grumble a bit. But when you go to pull you realize that they have forgotten to grease the toilet paper holder and you need the strength of samson and the patience and tender touch of great grandma all at the same time in order to get the right amount to wipe your arse properly.

All said and done, we have a kewl new ch1x0r and I'm a happy man. :-)


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  • While the nurse seemed rude you have to understand that medical people see a gigantic cross-section of the general population and thus may seem rude when they are actually a product of their environment. You are both very young and babies aren't cheap....most often such young couples with kids face a long tough financical struggle if they aren't realistic about it. My father was an engineer whose salary would never have supported 4 girls on its own so my mother worked as well. Nurses especially deal with a

    • bah, people should just learn to think before they speak.

      on the cord note, the doctor asked me and I was like "whatever, just let me get back to my daughter already." it seemed strange to be focusing on the wrong side of the room once she was born.

      at any rate, congrats. fatherhood is wonderful.

      • That hasn't stopped geeks from saying dumb things or posting porn to mailing lists. It's no worse than people asking just marrieds if the bride is pregnant or asking singletons how their love life is....irritating but not worth getting your panties in a bunch over.

  • Can't remember where I read it, but I'm pretty sure they can culture cells from the cord that can be used for that person later in life if needed.

    Maybe this is standard practice now in hospitals.

    Do a google search for more info. I don't remember the details any more - just that it's important.

    • It's not standard practice, and costs thousands of dollars, and most insurances won't cover it. Viacord [viacord.com] seems to be one of the biggest companies that does it. It can be life-saving, but in most cases it won't be, and the cord blood will either be tossed after 15-20 years, or it can be donated (I don't know if you can get a tax writeoff if you do donate it later ... probably not).

      As to cutting the cord, I've learned long ago to let doctors and nurses know things up front. So before we start anything, I'
  • I had the same feelings about cutting my son's [paxmarner.org] cord. Not frightened, not grossed out, just not interested in that part of the experience. So I said "No thanks, that's why you are a highly payed professional".

    In retrospect, I should have said "Cool! Can I circumcise him too?" After three days of slow labor, we were pretty chummy with the staff.

    --
    s/q/o/g to mail
  • First things first ... congratulations to you and Chastity. And if you thought that was hard work, wait until you get the baby home! :-)

    Now ... nurses. They have a lot of power over the way your birth goes, and if they push you into something you're not comfortable with then you can really end up with a lot of regrets about the whole deal. It doesn't sound like yours was that bad, so well done! The rest of this is aimed at your next time, or anyone who's reading and might have kids.

    The natural birth

    • We have a midwife ... she basically acts as your coach and doctor except for those times where the doctor is required. I know of "doulas" but the name sounds fruity to me. I fear that which I don't know.

      And yeah, the natural childbirth class is generally useful if you're ignorant (like most of us are) even if you do want to go with drugs. You can still use the relaxation techniques, and you can learn what's going to happen, and if you're lucky, you get a teacher who re-arranges the time of class so you
      • This would be so much more fair if, say, I had something usefull to say in return. Unfortunatley, there is no way to dispute the fact that your team beat my team.

        I don't have some wise comment to make. Perhaps if we would have injured Brady correctly and he didn't play the Super Bowl... but we didn't.

        This is the best I can come up with to vent my frustration. I suppose I could be ignorant and just say your team stinks and mine r0x0rZ but, that isn't all true.

        All I'm left with till next season is "G
        --
        Casey West
  • Glad to hear all went well and you and your family are home, safe and sound. Congrats!

    As to the nurse, they do see and assist a large and varied group of people. However, that's her job, and part of the responsibility that comes with that job is to treat people as individuals and not as generalities.

    The long and short of it is that she was rude. It's none of her friggin' business one way or the other, and in no way falls within even the most liberal interpretation of her job description. She was jus

    --

    If things get any worse, I'll have to ask you to stop helping me.

  • [From The Real Zappa Book:]

    When Dweezil was born, Gail decided to have `natural child- birth'. At that time, the only hospital in Los Angeles that would allow this process to occur with a Dad in the delivery room was Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital.

    When it was time for the Big Delivery, we experienced a slight delay - we had to fill out a mass of papers before they'd let us in, riddled with irrelevant questions like: ``What religion are you?''

    Gail looked at me and said ``What do we put?'' I said, ``Mu

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