Friday, September 28, 2012

2 months old

     My little Liam is 2 months old (9 weeks).  To celebrate he slept for about 10.5 hours straight- he only woke up because I was making LOTS of noise in the kitchen to "encourage" him to wake up.  ( I breastfeed- when he sleeps that long I suffer!)
   
    We went to his well child visit on his 2 month "birthday"- they celebrate that by giving him shots.  He got 3 pokes ( 4 vaccinations) and 1 oral vaccine.  I will admit, I cried.  I cried on the way to the doctors office because he was sitting in the back seat laughing and I felt so bad because he was so naive, innocent, and "unsuspecting".  He loves car rides and here I was taking him somewhere where they intended to inflict harm on him.   I cried in the office when he cried.  I'm such a sap.

     He did well- he only cried for a few minutes then stopped but for the rest of the day you could tell his little legs hurt him.  He didn't stand up as much as he usually does.

on the way to the pediatrician's office
  The next day we went to Aunt Jessica's house and took pictures.  Liam also got to "play" with his cousins.  Overall, he had a good "birthday".  






 

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

I survived....

I survived my first day away from Liam.  I cheated a bit though.  I was in a wedding this past weekend - which meant spending nearly all day away from Liam.  I was more than panicked.  I was going to have to pump throughout the day and my husband, mother-in-law, and sister-in-law were going to watch my baby.

The night prior to the wedding was the rehearsal so I got a little practice myself.  My husband attended it with me- it was about an hour drive- so we left around 6pm to get there at 7.  The rehearsal went well, then off to the dinner.  I had to pump in the car on the way to the dinner, but my wonderful husband bought me the car adapter for my pump so it was no big deal.  We got home around 11:30 or so and the baby was asleep already after taking a bottle.

The next day was the wedding.  I left Liam (in very capable hands) at 11:00 am.  We initially planned on staying the night near the wedding but to save money, we canceled the reservations and I planned on just driving home after the wedding.  The day went well- I had to pump in a room full of people I didn't know but  people were pretty understanding.  But, little by little I missed Liam more and more so I text messaged my husband a new plan!


He could drive out to the area where the wedding was with his mom and sister and most importantly, Liam. I  rationalized that Chase was my date and he would have to drive out to the wedding anyway and if his mom came earlier in the day we wouldn't have to worry about getting both Chase and I home after the wedding. I could just drive Chase and I home in my car.
Aaand-  That way I could feed Liam and see Liam and not go nuts.  Thankfully, and most graciously, his mom and sister agreed to my nutty plan.

I had to pump one more time in the car during the wedding because my dress was starting to not fit but overall- everything went well.  The wedding was beautiful and went off without a hitch!

And here are Liam's 8 week old pictures.  He will be 2 months old tomorrow.  I can't believe it!  I will take better pictures though!  I'm reading a book on how to take better pictures and my sister is going to teach me a few things.  So please forgive the horrible shadows and bad lighting!









Friday, September 21, 2012

8 weeks old!

My son is 8 weeks old.  8 weeks.  I don't know which is more amazing, the fact that I have a SON or the fact that we've both survived this long!

Liam is a wonderful baby.  We've only had a few days and nights where I cried when he cried but mostly, he's quiet and peaceful.  I can't believe I'm so lucky (knock on wood).

At 8 weeks old Liam is smiling and laughing.  He likes to look at himself in the mirror.  He likes to stand holding on to your fingers.  He will grab at your earrings, necklace, and/or hair.
He doesn't like to be held at your chest or cradled because he can't see what's going on in the world- he's curious and likes to look around.

At 8 weeks old I can count on him sleeping through the night.  He started this around 6 weeks old but that was hit or miss.  I can now be sure (again knock on wood) that when I put him down after his night time feeding ( whether it be 8, 9, or 10 o' clock pm) he won't be waking up until 4:30- 5:30 am.  I easily get 7- 8 hours of sleep.  After he wakes in the morning, he eats and goes back to bed until 7 or 8.

I can't believe how fast the time is going by.  I have to go back to work in 4 weeks.  I've cried.  I don't want to go back.  We have a wonderful lady to watch him when I do return to work but I'll miss so much. I don't want to go; but sometimes we have to do things we don't want to do. 


sporting his einstein- "Albert" by "Bum Genius" diaper

He likes to stand!

Daddy!~





Friday, September 14, 2012

Liam in photos



I love him.  I can't stop looking at him.  And since he's still sleeping I will let you look at him too!  Here's a post of mostly photos!
1 day old
one week old


2 weeks old

3 weeks old

1 month old

5 weeks
6 weeks






7 weeks

bath time

Authentic flight jacket- a gift from Papa Hogan.  It maaay  be a little big!


chillin' with Papa


I'm baa-aack- Labor story

So it's been a long while since I've "blogged".  From the last post the ironic? funny? thing is I went into labor later that night.  Goes to show that you never know when the baby is ready to come- only the baby knows.

Here's the story of my labor and delivery (for those of you who don't know or don't remember!):

Around 9 o'clock pm Wednesday the 25th I was laying on the couch watching "Masterchef" with Chase when I felt a little "leak".  I said- "oops I think I just peed myself" so I stood up to go to the bathroom.  No sooner than I stepped on the tile floor my water broke.  I'd describe it as it exploded.  I called Chase in and I was laughing hysterically.  I looked at him and said "Now what do we do?"

  I had intended on a "natural birth"- This meant laboring for hours at home until the contractions were so bad I had to go to the hospital.  But- I wasn't having contractions and my water was broken.  We called the Doctor and she said to come in straight away and get admitted.  Well, after a shower and packing and doing the dishes we headed in.

   They admitted me and checked me and I was still at 2cm.  They said if there was no progress then they'd induce at 6am.  I did not start contracting until about 4 that morning.  I had been pacing the floor and bouncing on a "labor ball" while Chase slept.  I was concerned I had little to no progress- and induction usually means "natural labor" is harder to do because the drug given to induce, pitocin, causes more painful contractions.  I was bummed but when they checked me at 6 am I was already 6cm.  I have to say that fortunately the pain was pretty tolerable at this point.  We moved rooms so I could labor in a tub and the labor continued.  (The tub did not help much to be honest).

    Overall, I think I did pretty well managing the pain. My husband would remind me to relax in between contractions and having my mom there gave me some extra support.  Thankfully, the nurse did not make me stay in bed hooked up to monitors because laying on my back made the contractions much worse. I had to get hooked up for 20 minutes here and there to get a good reading of contractions and the baby's heart rate but then I'd get unhooked and move to a more comfortable position.

 All was going wonderfully until I got to be about about 9 cm.  Then I got stuck.  An anterior lip of the cervix would not dilate and it was pressing against Sprout's head.  The nurse (who was a god-send) told me not to push because that could cause more swelling of the cervix and that can lead to a c-section.  Telling someone not to push and actually me not pushing was an entirely different thing.  Your body does what it wants to do, and mine wanted to push. 

Anyway after 2 hours of being stuck at 9 cm they finally convinced me to flip to my hands and knees like a dog to try to get that piece of the cervix out of the way.  The nurse basically wanted to push Spout back up the birth canal and move the piece of cervix behind his head.   (I have to say I was at this point begging for drugs, begging.   My Mom and Chase kept telling me that I didn't really want them and they wouldn't let the doctors give me any.)  The doctors suggested giving me a super low dose of demeral and phenergan (I kept thinking I was going to throw up) to help relax me a little for the "procedure".  This was my last hope before I was going to have to have some kind of major intervention (I feared laboring for 19 hours and having to have a c-section!).      Fortunately it worked!  The nurse was able to move the cervix out of the way and I was finally cleared to push.  And push I did.  For 2 hours!     

      At the beginning of all this I told them no episiotomy but once I hit the 2 hour pushing mark and the Doctor told me if she didn't do one, I was in for another 30 min- 1 hour of pushing.  I told her to do whatever it took to get that baby out!

    After 21.5 hours of labor (2 of those pushing) Sprout was finally born.  Chase was the one to tell me "It's a boy!" and I said " It's Liam!".  I was so happy but so exhausted.  I think I fell asleep a few minutes after they handed me Liam.  He was born at 6:45 pm on August 26.  He weighed 7 lbs 1.2 ounces and was 19.5 cm long.  He was perfect!

    Liam and I had instant skin to skin contact to help with bonding.  I also started breast feeding right away.  Everything was pretty much a blur but I do remember telling the doctor I could feel every stitch of the episiotomy repair- which meant when she did the episiotomy I probably wasn't numb but I was in so much pain I never felt it!

My recovery was surprisingly fast and easy.  I could have easily walked our new room but they took me by wheelchair.  I felt well enough to go home the next mornig but we had to stay another day because they did not count the 26th as a day because it was so late.

Liam's birth was amazing.  I'm super proud of myself for not having an epidural and I'd consider foregoing one again for the next baby but we will see when the time comes!