Purple-Footed Pooper

5a.m. feeding time.  We (sort of) have the babies on a schedule now, but the first part of each feeding is completely unavailable to daddy--which means I can actually do some family blogging.

In case we forget over the years to come... Jon and Bea were scheduled for delivery on the 17th (today!), but at our appointment last week, they seemed ready enough to come out that Dr. Shepherd thought our choices were between a planned c-section for the 11th or an emergency one sometime over the weekend.  I'm grateful that we went with the planned.

Everything went great on Wednesday the 11th.  Jonathan was born at 12:05 and weighed 5lbs 12oz.  Bea was born at 12:06 and weighed 5lbs 6oz.  Right from the beginning the children did a good job of eating, burping, pooping, sleeping.  Of course, we're only 6 days in, so that sentence may seem either prophetic or ironic by the time we're a few weeks out.

Heather, however, began to develop symptoms of preeclampsia.  One of the labs necessary for a positive diagnosis isn't back yet, but she received treatment as if she had it, because the condition is too dangerous to sit around and wait for a 24 hour lab to verify.  Basically, it includes pregnancy-induced high blood pressure and protein in the urine, and if untreated causes eclampsia, which includes seizures and brain hemorrhage.

The worst part (because there was no brain hemorrhage or seizures) was actually the treatment: magnesium.  It was very hard on Heather, but she bore it patiently,and eventually the symptoms of preeclampsia subsided, allowing us to come home late on Monday the 16th.

Which brings us to the meaning of the title of this post.  So far, whenever Jon exerts himself to poop, his left foot turns a deep shade of purple.  I don't know if we should be drawing any medical conclusions from that, but it is otherwise amusing.  I hope that he will live either to be glad to have grown out of it or mortified that he hasn't.  For now, however, he is our little purple-footed pooper.  It's like having a color-changing doll that lets you know when it needs a new diaper!