Here he is holding his head up after a good nap.Some mommy and baby cuteness 
Smiley in his swing 
Puppy licks :-) 
And my favorite: swing escape artist
Friday, June 26, 2009
Cuteness
Two days ago, my baby boy laughed for the first time. It was the cutest thing EVER. Unfortunately I didn't get it on video (boo). And the way I rolled on the floor and kicked my legs in the air and squealed with excitement was pretty fun too. HEHE. In place of a laughing video, here are a couple of recent pics:
Here he is holding his head up after a good nap.
Here he is holding his head up after a good nap.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Postpartum
Right after delivery and as I was almost finished with my stitches, the nurses brought Caleb over to me and let him lay on my chest, skin to skin. I was told that this is very important. I was surprised at how heavy he seemed to me. Maybe it was because I was so wore out from the whole ordeal. A lactation consultant was there and helped him hook up to my breast for his first feeding. There were very few problems. He latched on and started to eat. However, in the days and weeks following, his "thrust reflex" (the tongue going in and out of his mouth) got in the way and we couldn't get the poor child to latch for anything. Consultants tried everything--dropping a little sugar water on the breast to attract him to it, squirting formula in his mouth while he's close to the breast so he makes the association that breast=food. Nothing seemed to help. I also think my colostrum wasn't fully in until a couple of days after delivery. I'm sure that was part of his frustration as well.
One thing I quickly learned in the few weeks following Caleb's birth is that it IS possible to be given too much advice. While I'm sure the lactation consultants meant well, their advice really turned out to be more of a headache in the long run. The nurses gave me the option of taking care of Caleb in the nursery while I attempted to get some sleep at night. They brought him in two to three times each night for his feeding and basically left me there to figure it out. They said to call if I needed help but they didn't really know how to help anyway. So I was left there in a state of sleepiness with a crying and hungry baby to try and get him to latch and eat. Sometimes it was sucessful, sometimes not. The doctor was worried about the amount of a certain substance in Caleb's blood, called biliruben, which somehow prevents him from being jaundiced. They made a big deal about this because if he didn't eat enough then he would have a low biliruben level. This was worry number one for a scared and confused first time mom. They also told me he needed to eat every two hours and that if he was asleep I should wake him up. They reccomended cruel things like taking off his clothes, slapping his back, etc. These methods basically made him nice and mad and do you think he would settle down for food after that? Not a chance! Advice to any mommies-to-be out there: do NOT wake your baby up to feed him, especially at night. I promise, he will be okay.
We also got a breast pump from our sister-in-law. I had it with me in the hospital and tried pumping a little bit so we could feed Caleb using a bottle. Another word of advice to new moms: don't introduce the bottle to your little one until he's at least a month old. Caleb became a victim of "nipple confusion". Formula bottles have a faster flow than the breast. They don't require latching, and they're generally a lot easier to get food from. If the kid can get easy food from a bottle, do you think he's going to make the effort to get food from the breast? Not a chance! So we were up for a good four hour screaming match late one night after we got smart and decided we were going to cut the bottle completely. It was trying, but worth it. Now he's a breast feeding pro.
We didn't get smart about the words of advice we were going to follow until we talked to our sister-in-law. She has five kids, so her advice came from experience. It's not to say that doctors and lactation consultants don't have kids and/or experience, but sometimes I think they have an agenda. They stick to what "the books" tell them is the right thing to do, and really have a hard time catering to the needs of the individual child. I truly believe that only the parents know best and even as a first time mom fluttering to figure out how to tend to the needs of my new little bundle, I could have done better with just the words of my sis-in-law and left the doctors and consultants to their own.
Breast feeding was probably the biggest challenge I had postpartum, but there were a few other challenges as well. The first time I went to the bathroom in the hospital, the nurses came in to help. When I got up I became very light headed. So much blood is lost during the whole birth process that this seems to be a typical reaciton. It was kind of scary--I almost passed out. My face stayed a whitish color for a good couple of days. Also I had the shivers for about a week. I'd complain of being cold and Greg would say "but it's not cold in here". At least he'll know next time that I'm not being strange. And of course there's the general uneasiness of being a new mom, and trying to figure out how to care for my little one, etc. Plus I was incredibly emotional, and didn't have energy to do much even though I wanted to do everything. The ibuprofin helped for my vaginal pain (from the stitches), and thankfully I didn't have to take that for very long. The postpartum bleeding was annoying but only lasted about 7 weeks so I can't complain too much. And I haven't had a period since, also a plus side to breast feeding. :-)
So now Caleb is 16 weeks old and he brings so much joy to my life. I can't wait to begin writing in "real time" and share his many adventures with you. :-)
One thing I quickly learned in the few weeks following Caleb's birth is that it IS possible to be given too much advice. While I'm sure the lactation consultants meant well, their advice really turned out to be more of a headache in the long run. The nurses gave me the option of taking care of Caleb in the nursery while I attempted to get some sleep at night. They brought him in two to three times each night for his feeding and basically left me there to figure it out. They said to call if I needed help but they didn't really know how to help anyway. So I was left there in a state of sleepiness with a crying and hungry baby to try and get him to latch and eat. Sometimes it was sucessful, sometimes not. The doctor was worried about the amount of a certain substance in Caleb's blood, called biliruben, which somehow prevents him from being jaundiced. They made a big deal about this because if he didn't eat enough then he would have a low biliruben level. This was worry number one for a scared and confused first time mom. They also told me he needed to eat every two hours and that if he was asleep I should wake him up. They reccomended cruel things like taking off his clothes, slapping his back, etc. These methods basically made him nice and mad and do you think he would settle down for food after that? Not a chance! Advice to any mommies-to-be out there: do NOT wake your baby up to feed him, especially at night. I promise, he will be okay.
We also got a breast pump from our sister-in-law. I had it with me in the hospital and tried pumping a little bit so we could feed Caleb using a bottle. Another word of advice to new moms: don't introduce the bottle to your little one until he's at least a month old. Caleb became a victim of "nipple confusion". Formula bottles have a faster flow than the breast. They don't require latching, and they're generally a lot easier to get food from. If the kid can get easy food from a bottle, do you think he's going to make the effort to get food from the breast? Not a chance! So we were up for a good four hour screaming match late one night after we got smart and decided we were going to cut the bottle completely. It was trying, but worth it. Now he's a breast feeding pro.
We didn't get smart about the words of advice we were going to follow until we talked to our sister-in-law. She has five kids, so her advice came from experience. It's not to say that doctors and lactation consultants don't have kids and/or experience, but sometimes I think they have an agenda. They stick to what "the books" tell them is the right thing to do, and really have a hard time catering to the needs of the individual child. I truly believe that only the parents know best and even as a first time mom fluttering to figure out how to tend to the needs of my new little bundle, I could have done better with just the words of my sis-in-law and left the doctors and consultants to their own.
Breast feeding was probably the biggest challenge I had postpartum, but there were a few other challenges as well. The first time I went to the bathroom in the hospital, the nurses came in to help. When I got up I became very light headed. So much blood is lost during the whole birth process that this seems to be a typical reaciton. It was kind of scary--I almost passed out. My face stayed a whitish color for a good couple of days. Also I had the shivers for about a week. I'd complain of being cold and Greg would say "but it's not cold in here". At least he'll know next time that I'm not being strange. And of course there's the general uneasiness of being a new mom, and trying to figure out how to care for my little one, etc. Plus I was incredibly emotional, and didn't have energy to do much even though I wanted to do everything. The ibuprofin helped for my vaginal pain (from the stitches), and thankfully I didn't have to take that for very long. The postpartum bleeding was annoying but only lasted about 7 weeks so I can't complain too much. And I haven't had a period since, also a plus side to breast feeding. :-)
So now Caleb is 16 weeks old and he brings so much joy to my life. I can't wait to begin writing in "real time" and share his many adventures with you. :-)
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Birth Story
So you wanna know my birth story? Great well I'll tell you anyway. ;-)
Around 4am on March 4th I awoke to some very bad back pain. I attributed it to the normal aches and pains of pregnancy. I rolled over, took a deep breath, and went back to sleep. A little while later, I felt pain again. This time I asked my sleepy husband to reach over and rub it. His efforts weren't very effective. I decided that it must be the bed that is causing the discomfort and since my constant movement was keeping my husband awake, I decided to move to the couch downstairs. I laid down, dozed for a bit, and again the pain came back. I got down on my hands and knees and did a few pelvic thrusts. That caused temporary relief from the pain.
March 4th was a Wednesday, which thankfully happened to be my husband's day off. My brother-in-law was also in town helping us with some household projects. Thank goodness for both of these things. By 9am when my husband was making waffles for us to eat for breakfast, I was doubled over the counter in tears and pain. My brother-in-law asked if he could rub my back. His efforts were a little more successful than my husband's (sorry darling). Then I felt some wetness and decided to check it out. I had started bleeding. I came downstairs and told my husband we needed to go to the hospital. The poor guy thought something had gone wrong. He didn't know that bleeding was a normal thing. He also thought I'd be checked out in triage, they'd tell me I have a ways to go, and they'd send me home. Yeah, that's not how it went down.
The first thing I tried to do was get ahold of my doctor. She had given me her pager number so I tried that. Unfortunately I never got into the era of pagers so I had no idea how it worked. I called and got a *beep* and hung up. I didn't know I was supposed to type in my number so she could call back. So we went to the doctor's office. Thankfully it was just down the street and also right across from the hospital. We got to the office and I could hardly walk I was hurting so much. The doors were open but nobody was there, not even a receptionist. We went to the emergency room.
They wheeled me up to the 7th floor Birthing Center and in the middle of my contractions they were trying to get me to sign papers. I think my signature was hardly readable. They kept asking me who my doctor was and they didn't seem to have her in their system. I was so annoyed. I kept saying "Where's the doctor?!?" during my labor and delivery. Apparantly my doctor was listed under her attending physician's name. I had only seen her attending physician one time. I had no idea.
In triage they told me I was 9 and a half centimeters dialated. I laughed through the pain and said "are you SERIOUS?". My husband was clueless. Really, for being one of seven children, I thought he would know more about the whole process. He kept asking the nurses "so wait, we're going to have a baby? today? really?". It was hilarious now that we look back on it.
So they have me put on a hospital gown and they wheel me from triage to the birthing room. The details from here until the birth are kind of fuzzy for me, to be honest with you. Since I was so far along, drugs were not an option. I remember laying on the bed and every time I looked up it seemed like a new person and a new piece of equipment had entered the room. I felt like I was on display for the world to see. Just waiting for that big moment. And still no doctor. I also remember the nurse having trouble getting the IV in. She poked me once on each hand and finally the IV went into my arm. Three pokes for one stupid IV. Then after the birth they took it out too soon and I got light headed. So I was re-poked to put it back in. How annoying.
The nurses kept saying "just breathe through it darling". Did I mention I never took birthing classes? Not like they would have helped anyway. I just kept thinking about taking long deep breaths (as deep as I could with my little lump of awesome still inside my belly). At some point the doctor arrived with her attending physician. I'm pretty sure things happened fast after that. My body shook terribly and I said something about it. The doctor said it was normal. Somehow my body had provided a natural drug--adrenaline. I seriously felt delirious.
My doctor offered to break my water for me since to that point the little sac was still in tact. She showed me the tool she would use and I declined. For the next child I think I'll let them do it if necessary, because when my water finally broke it seemed to explode all over the place. I think I heard the people in the room laugh. For me there was pressure, an explosion, and a warm trickle. I think I said "aaah" which is why people laughed. How embarassing.
The easiest way I can think to describe what having a baby is like is to imagine what it feels like to be constipated...with a really large turd. I know, gross...but that's the facts. My husband told me later that I pooped while pushing too. I'm glad I didn't know that at the time. I was asked to grab the back of my legs and push for 10 seconds, then break, then go right back at it. I felt like I was running a marathon. My husband said he'd never seen my face so red. Then when the head poked through the doctor said "stop!". When I stopped the head went back in a little. The doctor's strategy was to gently "rock" the baby out, in order to reduce tearing. It didn't work. I think once I felt the baby partially out I must have gotten excited because the next thing I knew, my little bundle catapulted onto the table in front of me. Have you ever shot a potato gun (or seen somebody shoot one)? My little babe was the potato. The doctor really did have to "catch" the baby. Then he was passed to the nurses and shortly after I heard the maddest little scream ever. Who can blame him really? He was comfy in there! While the nurses worked on the baby, I was still spread eagle so the doctors could stitch my tear. They gave me a couple local shots to numb me and went to work. I sat with my legs in the air for about an hour. It felt like forever.
So, on Wednesday March 4th and 11:04am, a littlie miracle was born. I was so glad that the whole process only took a total of about 7 hours (and he's my first!). It was the couple of weeks postpartum that were really trying on my patience.
Around 4am on March 4th I awoke to some very bad back pain. I attributed it to the normal aches and pains of pregnancy. I rolled over, took a deep breath, and went back to sleep. A little while later, I felt pain again. This time I asked my sleepy husband to reach over and rub it. His efforts weren't very effective. I decided that it must be the bed that is causing the discomfort and since my constant movement was keeping my husband awake, I decided to move to the couch downstairs. I laid down, dozed for a bit, and again the pain came back. I got down on my hands and knees and did a few pelvic thrusts. That caused temporary relief from the pain.
March 4th was a Wednesday, which thankfully happened to be my husband's day off. My brother-in-law was also in town helping us with some household projects. Thank goodness for both of these things. By 9am when my husband was making waffles for us to eat for breakfast, I was doubled over the counter in tears and pain. My brother-in-law asked if he could rub my back. His efforts were a little more successful than my husband's (sorry darling). Then I felt some wetness and decided to check it out. I had started bleeding. I came downstairs and told my husband we needed to go to the hospital. The poor guy thought something had gone wrong. He didn't know that bleeding was a normal thing. He also thought I'd be checked out in triage, they'd tell me I have a ways to go, and they'd send me home. Yeah, that's not how it went down.
The first thing I tried to do was get ahold of my doctor. She had given me her pager number so I tried that. Unfortunately I never got into the era of pagers so I had no idea how it worked. I called and got a *beep* and hung up. I didn't know I was supposed to type in my number so she could call back. So we went to the doctor's office. Thankfully it was just down the street and also right across from the hospital. We got to the office and I could hardly walk I was hurting so much. The doors were open but nobody was there, not even a receptionist. We went to the emergency room.
They wheeled me up to the 7th floor Birthing Center and in the middle of my contractions they were trying to get me to sign papers. I think my signature was hardly readable. They kept asking me who my doctor was and they didn't seem to have her in their system. I was so annoyed. I kept saying "Where's the doctor?!?" during my labor and delivery. Apparantly my doctor was listed under her attending physician's name. I had only seen her attending physician one time. I had no idea.
In triage they told me I was 9 and a half centimeters dialated. I laughed through the pain and said "are you SERIOUS?". My husband was clueless. Really, for being one of seven children, I thought he would know more about the whole process. He kept asking the nurses "so wait, we're going to have a baby? today? really?". It was hilarious now that we look back on it.
So they have me put on a hospital gown and they wheel me from triage to the birthing room. The details from here until the birth are kind of fuzzy for me, to be honest with you. Since I was so far along, drugs were not an option. I remember laying on the bed and every time I looked up it seemed like a new person and a new piece of equipment had entered the room. I felt like I was on display for the world to see. Just waiting for that big moment. And still no doctor. I also remember the nurse having trouble getting the IV in. She poked me once on each hand and finally the IV went into my arm. Three pokes for one stupid IV. Then after the birth they took it out too soon and I got light headed. So I was re-poked to put it back in. How annoying.
The nurses kept saying "just breathe through it darling". Did I mention I never took birthing classes? Not like they would have helped anyway. I just kept thinking about taking long deep breaths (as deep as I could with my little lump of awesome still inside my belly). At some point the doctor arrived with her attending physician. I'm pretty sure things happened fast after that. My body shook terribly and I said something about it. The doctor said it was normal. Somehow my body had provided a natural drug--adrenaline. I seriously felt delirious.
My doctor offered to break my water for me since to that point the little sac was still in tact. She showed me the tool she would use and I declined. For the next child I think I'll let them do it if necessary, because when my water finally broke it seemed to explode all over the place. I think I heard the people in the room laugh. For me there was pressure, an explosion, and a warm trickle. I think I said "aaah" which is why people laughed. How embarassing.
The easiest way I can think to describe what having a baby is like is to imagine what it feels like to be constipated...with a really large turd. I know, gross...but that's the facts. My husband told me later that I pooped while pushing too. I'm glad I didn't know that at the time. I was asked to grab the back of my legs and push for 10 seconds, then break, then go right back at it. I felt like I was running a marathon. My husband said he'd never seen my face so red. Then when the head poked through the doctor said "stop!". When I stopped the head went back in a little. The doctor's strategy was to gently "rock" the baby out, in order to reduce tearing. It didn't work. I think once I felt the baby partially out I must have gotten excited because the next thing I knew, my little bundle catapulted onto the table in front of me. Have you ever shot a potato gun (or seen somebody shoot one)? My little babe was the potato. The doctor really did have to "catch" the baby. Then he was passed to the nurses and shortly after I heard the maddest little scream ever. Who can blame him really? He was comfy in there! While the nurses worked on the baby, I was still spread eagle so the doctors could stitch my tear. They gave me a couple local shots to numb me and went to work. I sat with my legs in the air for about an hour. It felt like forever.
So, on Wednesday March 4th and 11:04am, a littlie miracle was born. I was so glad that the whole process only took a total of about 7 hours (and he's my first!). It was the couple of weeks postpartum that were really trying on my patience.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
The Beginning
So I've taken the plunge. I'm adjusting to a new life as a stay-at-home mom to a beautiful baby boy named Caleb Joseph. In my attempts to maintain some kind of social life as Caleb learns to discover his world, I have come across many different online "mommy support groups", if you will. One that I have enjoyed taking part in is the Babycenter Community. And I discovered through this community that this blogging thing is pretty popular! So I thought, "sure, I have time to make a blog". And so it begins.
I suppose you want to know a little bit about me. Perhaps so you will have some incentive for reading this lump of loquacious verbage in the first place. I have to say I'm not sure how witty I can be on a consistent basis, but I do enjoy writing. And maybe in some of my writings I can find a way to connect to a mom or two out there.
I married my darling Gregory on July 19, 2008. We had a fabulous (but simple) wedding:
We went to San Francisco for our Honeymoon, which in some ways was slightly less than fabulous (we won't get into it now), and had a pretty good time:
. He was born March 4, 2009. Tomorrow he will be exactly 16 weeks old. So Caleb, then 7 lb 11 oz, is now closer to 16 lbs, and looks more like this: 
. He keeps me on my toes for sure, and I can't wait to document the many adventures that we have ahead of us. But for my next post, I think I'm going to go back in time a bit...
I suppose you want to know a little bit about me. Perhaps so you will have some incentive for reading this lump of loquacious verbage in the first place. I have to say I'm not sure how witty I can be on a consistent basis, but I do enjoy writing. And maybe in some of my writings I can find a way to connect to a mom or two out there.
I married my darling Gregory on July 19, 2008. We had a fabulous (but simple) wedding:
We went to San Francisco for our Honeymoon, which in some ways was slightly less than fabulous (we won't get into it now), and had a pretty good time:
and then about 8 months later (ok so maybe we jumped the gun a little bit...), along came our little bundle of joy, Caleb:
. He was born March 4, 2009. Tomorrow he will be exactly 16 weeks old. So Caleb, then 7 lb 11 oz, is now closer to 16 lbs, and looks more like this: 
. He keeps me on my toes for sure, and I can't wait to document the many adventures that we have ahead of us. But for my next post, I think I'm going to go back in time a bit...
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