December 2003

December marked both the end of the year and the end of another chapter in my life. The "married, dual income, no kids" chapter of my life is about to come to a close. I'm looking forward to see what the next chapter holds for us.

December 6

Our new dining room furniture arrives.

December 14

Road trip to Leavenworth; we know we won't have as much opportunity to just get away in a couple weeks.

December 29

Susan's parents arrive to help us prepare the house, and ourselves, for the coming arrival.

December 30

My Mom arrives to help us prepare the house, and ourselves, for the coming arrival. Last in the series of pregnancy poses.

December 31

Today is the day. We load up the Honda and drive to Steven's Hospital in Everett. We have some time to kill, so I take notes in my little notebook. Susan realizes that she forgot something. Finally it is time to go to the C-section room.

The room is cold and very sterile. I'm probably more nervous than Susan. The doctor's are preparing things. I stay on the safe side of the barrier that installed across Susan's middle. Susan is numbed up and doesn't feel a thing from the waist down.

Andrew Thomas Straka arrives at 1:15PM. He is cleaned up and weighed, then eventually taken into a separate room for monitoring.

Everyone but Susan gets to meet Andrew. We are all getting hungry, so everyone but Susan goes to Applebee's to eat. While we're there, we get a frightening call from Susan. The doctors want us to return to the hospital as soon as we can.

When we arrive, the doctors tell us about a problem they discovered with Andrew. His breathing sounded odd, so they did some X-rays and found his bowels where his left lung should be. They called Children's Hospital in Seattle and arranged an ambulance to take him there.

The next time we got to see Andrew, he had hoses sticking out of his arms and legs. He had a tube in his mouth to help him breath. He was strapped down so he couldn't move. It was terribly depressing to see him like this.

Here are my notes:

10:30	Check-in to room 706 at Steven's Hospital. Called home to ask the Haksch's to bring Susan's slippers.
10:40	Called home to ask the Haksch's to bring a box of Kleenex tissues - the hospital's were too rough.
11:15	IV attempted unsuccessfully due to squiggly veins.
11:30	IV inserted successfully by a different nurse.
12:05	Dr. Sciscoe comes in to explain the upcoming events.
12:15	Anesthesiologist comes in to explain the upcoming events.
12:30	Susan starts to prepare.
13:15	Andy is born; legs bent a crazy angles and his heels nearly touching his ears. He weighs 6 lbs 9 ozs.
13:45	Andy taken to nursery for post-birth monitoring - standard treatment for C-Section babies.
15:45	Andy gets his first official cleaning, followed by foot prints.
17:00	The grandparents and I go to Applebee's for dinner.
18:30	The doctors come in and explain to me and Susan that Andy has a diaphragmatic hernia.
20:00	Andy is transported to Children's Hospital in Seattle by ambulance.
21:00	Mom and I drive to Children's Hospital and check in at the emergency entrance.
21:15	Mom and I found Andy on the fourth floor Infant Intensive Care Unit (IICU).
22:00	Dr. Lee gives us the details of the problem and surgery and the prognosis for his recovery.
23:15	Mom and I go home, arriving in time to bring in the new year with very modest enthusiasm.