Last night was the first night Owen and I slept in separate rooms since the hospital. There was some separation anxiety on my part but it went quite well. He was inconsolable from about 8-11 and then finally fell asleep in his seat. He still woke up every 1.5 - 2 hours during the night but went back down as soon as he finished nursing. Although I would love a longer stretch of sleep I'll happily take not struggling to get him back to sleep outside of my arms. We'll see how tonight goes though. He was crying again and then I gave him a bath which he loved this time. Sometimes he likes them and sometimes he screams the whole time so I had no idea if it would chill him out or make things worse tonight. I kept him in the tub until he started crying which was maybe 15-20 minutes. He screamed for a while but then calmed down and fell asleep. Right now he's sleeping in his seat and we'll see how long he goes before needing to eat. I found a recording of a blow dryer and that seems to be doing the trick. Thank you white noise!
Sounds like he's waking up. I guess it's been 2 hours since he last ate so time go!
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Thursday, March 8, 2012
4 weeks
I can't believe my baby is a month old already! (pretty sure I'll start every post out with "I can't believe he's ... old already)
We are still in a fussy stage and sleeping less at night now. Monday we started a new routine of putting Owen to bed earlier and trying to get him used to sleeping in his crib. The first night went okay but it's gone downhill from there. Last night he was waking up every hour and a half and was only happy while he was nursing. Finally around 3:30 (after it was my turn to cry it out) we laid down in bed and nursed that way and we both fell asleep. Not my ideal but if it meant sleep I was okay. Co-sleeping was something I always said I wouldn't do but so far with Owen we've only done the few things I said I never would. I guess even when you set your expectations extremely low you can still be disappointed. I'm slowly learning to adjust though. Hopefully we can get this nighttime sleeping issue figured out. Usually we swaddle him before putting him down but this morning he was fussing and calmed down as soon as I unswaddled him so tonight we're trying him in just a sleeper to see how he does. I figure it can't make anything worse at this point.
Our days our hit & miss with where he sleeps. Sometimes he'll sleep in the bassinet or in the Moby or just while I'm holding him. Sometimes he fights sleep like crazy and other times it's not an issue. There's still nothing I can count on happening during the day other than diaper changes and lots of nursing. He does seem to get tired around the same time everyday though.
We are still in a fussy stage and sleeping less at night now. Monday we started a new routine of putting Owen to bed earlier and trying to get him used to sleeping in his crib. The first night went okay but it's gone downhill from there. Last night he was waking up every hour and a half and was only happy while he was nursing. Finally around 3:30 (after it was my turn to cry it out) we laid down in bed and nursed that way and we both fell asleep. Not my ideal but if it meant sleep I was okay. Co-sleeping was something I always said I wouldn't do but so far with Owen we've only done the few things I said I never would. I guess even when you set your expectations extremely low you can still be disappointed. I'm slowly learning to adjust though. Hopefully we can get this nighttime sleeping issue figured out. Usually we swaddle him before putting him down but this morning he was fussing and calmed down as soon as I unswaddled him so tonight we're trying him in just a sleeper to see how he does. I figure it can't make anything worse at this point.
Our days our hit & miss with where he sleeps. Sometimes he'll sleep in the bassinet or in the Moby or just while I'm holding him. Sometimes he fights sleep like crazy and other times it's not an issue. There's still nothing I can count on happening during the day other than diaper changes and lots of nursing. He does seem to get tired around the same time everyday though.
Saturday, March 3, 2012
3 Weeks
Mr Owen has begun a fussy stage in the last couple of days. I think most of the time his tummy is causing him trouble. I'm trying to cut dairy out of my diet to see if that is causing his issues but it is proving much more difficult than I planned. It's more than just not drinking milk and eating ice cream or cheese. I didn't realize just how much dairy I eat until I started looking at labels and seeing that almost everything I love has milk in it. I haven't been strict enough so I should probably work on that if I'm going to find out if that's the issue. I'm really praying that it isn't the issue because that is going to be so difficult.
Owen was so good last night and it was the first time he slept somewhere other than in bed with me or while someone was holding him. He slept in his rocking seat which is one step closer to his bassinet or crib. He slept from 11-3 which was awesome but then woke up every 1.5-2 hours to eat which made for a pretty tired mama in the morning. I felt great at 3am though! I'm not counting on that happening tonight though because last night he was really relaxed and didn't even scream during his bath which is a first.
I think he's hit a growth spurt because he's pretty much been nursing since 3:00 this afternoon. He falls asleep while eating but then wakes up as soon as I move him and wants to eat again. It's exhausting. I'm exhausted and there's no way that anyone can help. We just have to wait it out.
Even though a crying baby and exhaustion and feeling like you don't even have the time to pee let alone eat is hard I LOVE being a mom to this little person.
I'm learning to be thankful for the times when everything seems to be going well but not get excited for them because there is no "usual" with this little guy. Just when I think we maybe have some sort of routine he changes it up and I feel like we start over. Thats okay though because we'll get there eventually. This is a temporary phase that will seem like eternity while in it but will have flown by when I look back so I'll work on enjoying and treasuring every minute I have with this precious little bundle.
Owen was so good last night and it was the first time he slept somewhere other than in bed with me or while someone was holding him. He slept in his rocking seat which is one step closer to his bassinet or crib. He slept from 11-3 which was awesome but then woke up every 1.5-2 hours to eat which made for a pretty tired mama in the morning. I felt great at 3am though! I'm not counting on that happening tonight though because last night he was really relaxed and didn't even scream during his bath which is a first.
I think he's hit a growth spurt because he's pretty much been nursing since 3:00 this afternoon. He falls asleep while eating but then wakes up as soon as I move him and wants to eat again. It's exhausting. I'm exhausted and there's no way that anyone can help. We just have to wait it out.
Even though a crying baby and exhaustion and feeling like you don't even have the time to pee let alone eat is hard I LOVE being a mom to this little person.
I'm learning to be thankful for the times when everything seems to be going well but not get excited for them because there is no "usual" with this little guy. Just when I think we maybe have some sort of routine he changes it up and I feel like we start over. Thats okay though because we'll get there eventually. This is a temporary phase that will seem like eternity while in it but will have flown by when I look back so I'll work on enjoying and treasuring every minute I have with this precious little bundle.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
recent photos
Snuggling with my bear from Grandma & Grandpa Downes (2 weeks)
Thursday, February 23, 2012
2 Weeks
Owen had his 2 week check up this morning and he is growing like a champ!
He's 20 3/4 inches (60%)
6 lbs 14 1/2 oz (25%)
The doctor was very impressed with his weight gain. They like to see newborns back near their birth weight by 2 weeks and Owen has definitely surpassed that. I can't believe how fast he's growing. It makes me a little sad sometimes when I realize he won't be this tiny baby for much longer. We are having so much fun with him. He makes the best facial expressions especially when he's trying to wake up.
He's 20 3/4 inches (60%)
6 lbs 14 1/2 oz (25%)
The doctor was very impressed with his weight gain. They like to see newborns back near their birth weight by 2 weeks and Owen has definitely surpassed that. I can't believe how fast he's growing. It makes me a little sad sometimes when I realize he won't be this tiny baby for much longer. We are having so much fun with him. He makes the best facial expressions especially when he's trying to wake up.
Monday, February 20, 2012
Owen's Birthday!
He's here and we are so in love! Owen Patrick arrived at 2:56am on February 9th weighing 6lbs 3.5ozs and 20 inches long. He's absolutely perfect!
(warning! This may be way more information than most people want but I wanted it written down for my own memory as well.)
This is the story of his arrival:
Dr Adam called at 1:30 on Wednesday and said "I think we should have a baby today". I wasn't expecting that so I was a little taken off guard. The results of my protein test had tripled from Saturday and was half-way to the severe pre-eclampsia range so she thought it best to induce me that day. She told me that there were several people delivering right then so she'd call around 3 or 4 to let me know what time to come in. The 4 hours until she called back was weird. What do you do when you know you're a few hours from having a baby? I kind of just wandered around the house trying to figure out what I should be doing. I did some laundry, took a shower and made sure I had everything packed that I thought I needed. I probably should have tried to take a nap but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have been able to sleep anyway.
Dr Adam called back at 4:30 and told us to come in at 5:30 and we'd get started. She told me not to eat anything so looking back I should have eaten something after my 12:30 lunch in that timeframe of wondering what I should be doing. Little did I know how long it would be until I got another meal!
The drive to the hospital was a little surreal. I always assumed I'd be in the middle of contractions while on my way to the hospital so it was difficult to get in the mind set of having a baby when you aren't feeling any different physically.
Dr Adam broke my water shortly after arriving and started me on pitocin around 6:00-6:30. I started having regular contractions around 9:00 so they started me on magnesium sulfate so that I wouldn't have a seizure during labor. Because of the pitocin I had to be hooked up to internal monitors so they could keep track of my contractions and how Owen was doing and because of the magnesium I had to have a catheter put in which meant no getting out of bed. The nurses told me I would probably feel really lousy after they started the magnesium since that's what they use for women in pre-term labor to stop contractions. I didn't really notice anything though so I must be one of the rare ones to escape unscathed. One of the nurses when we first got there kept trying to push me to have an epidural because it would lower my blood pressure but when we asked Dr Adam she said I could do what I wanted and it was fine. I had really wanted to try giving birth without an epidural but once I realized that I was confined to bed I knew that wasn't going to happen and I was having terrible back labor so I gave up that idea since nothing else was going as planned anyway. Turned out to be the best decision of the night. (I heard a woman shortly before I started pushing going drug free and that sound confirmed that decision!) Pat was happy I got it as well since he was getting worn out from pushing on my back during every contraction. I worried a little bit that I was wussing out so soon since I hadn't been having contractions for very long but turns out I was progressing very quickly. As soon as the anesthesiologist started the epidural it was instant relief. She said it would take 2-3 minutes to start working but I think it was 30 seconds. I thought I'd be able to get a nap in but the epidural made me itchy and by the time that side affect wore off he had moved down into my pelvis so I was feeling a lot of pressure during every contraction so no nap. The nurse told me to try and hold off on pushing for as long as possible so that my uterus would do more work and I could conserve energy. My uterus was a rockstar this time because I ended up only pushing for 16 minutes. 3-4 contractions with the nurse and about the same with the doctor there. I don't think they were quite ready because the nurse was still opening the sheet on my chest when he came out. No words can describe what you feel the first time you see your baby. It's so incredible. I had to keep asking Pat if we had a boy or a girl. I think he was in a little bit of shock. He had said before that he didn't want to cut the cord but Dr Adam just handed him the scissors and he did it and said it wasn't as bad as he thought it was going to be. I remember at some point Dr Adam saying that he didn't have much hair and my response was "all that heartburn for nothing?!?!" Turns out he has quite a bit of blond hair so he just needed to get cleaned up for it to be visible.
After they cleaned him up and got him measured and weighed they brought him over to me to nurse. He's been a rockstar eater from the beginning. He seemed to know what he was doing better than I did. It amazed me how alert he was right at first and we just sat there taking him all in.
The next 18 hours or so are a total blur and I really don't remember much. Our parents were there so I know they came in to see him and they moved me to another room. Typically you get moved to the OB side a couple of hours after but they had to keep me on the L&D side due to the medication I was on so we were in this tiny little room until they took my IV and catheter out around 8:00pm. I was so groggy that whole day due to the meds and the fact that I'd been awake since 8am the day before. I don't know that I slept that much though which was probably a mistake. It seemed like there was constantly someone coming to check my blood pressure and reflexes or taking blood. Pat and I kept saying "is it still the 9th? How is it still the 9th?" I will say that Owen's birthday was probably the longest day we have ever had. They ended up taking my IV out at 8 instead of 3 so I got to drink 7 hours sooner than originally planned. All I wanted was ice chips which the nurse laughed at. She said "really? that's all you want??" Well, when you haven't had anything to drink for 24 hours you are REALLY thirsty.
Pat ordered me Jimmy John's which I'd been wanting since I was 4 months pregnant and it was everything I hoped for!
I was still in quite a bit of pain and pretty much any type of movement was extremely slow and difficult. They had me sit in a tub for a while and getting in and out of that almost put me in tears. Going to the bathroom was terrifying for me which meant that I almost had to have the catheter put back in because I hadn't peed in 8+ hours. The nurse brought this little ultrasound type machine in to see how full my bladder was and told me "you either need to pee now or the catheter is going back in". That was enough motivation for me to get over that fear!
One of the nights Owen was really twitchy and I thought he was shivering and asked the nurse what she thought and she ended up taking him to the nursery to make sure he was fine. They checked his blood sugar and pulse ox and both were fine then put him under the warmer for a while and he just slept there. She said that babies have an immature nervous system and that's probably what it was. It was nice of her to have him checked out though and not just brush it off. She was one of my favorite nurses after I moved to the OB side.
Everyone at the hospital was so good to us. My doctor is great; Owen's doctor is great and we loved all of the nurses that took care of us.
We were in the hospital until Saturday afternoon and then it was time to bring Owen home!
(warning! This may be way more information than most people want but I wanted it written down for my own memory as well.)
This is the story of his arrival:
Dr Adam called at 1:30 on Wednesday and said "I think we should have a baby today". I wasn't expecting that so I was a little taken off guard. The results of my protein test had tripled from Saturday and was half-way to the severe pre-eclampsia range so she thought it best to induce me that day. She told me that there were several people delivering right then so she'd call around 3 or 4 to let me know what time to come in. The 4 hours until she called back was weird. What do you do when you know you're a few hours from having a baby? I kind of just wandered around the house trying to figure out what I should be doing. I did some laundry, took a shower and made sure I had everything packed that I thought I needed. I probably should have tried to take a nap but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have been able to sleep anyway.
Dr Adam called back at 4:30 and told us to come in at 5:30 and we'd get started. She told me not to eat anything so looking back I should have eaten something after my 12:30 lunch in that timeframe of wondering what I should be doing. Little did I know how long it would be until I got another meal!
The drive to the hospital was a little surreal. I always assumed I'd be in the middle of contractions while on my way to the hospital so it was difficult to get in the mind set of having a baby when you aren't feeling any different physically.
Dr Adam broke my water shortly after arriving and started me on pitocin around 6:00-6:30. I started having regular contractions around 9:00 so they started me on magnesium sulfate so that I wouldn't have a seizure during labor. Because of the pitocin I had to be hooked up to internal monitors so they could keep track of my contractions and how Owen was doing and because of the magnesium I had to have a catheter put in which meant no getting out of bed. The nurses told me I would probably feel really lousy after they started the magnesium since that's what they use for women in pre-term labor to stop contractions. I didn't really notice anything though so I must be one of the rare ones to escape unscathed. One of the nurses when we first got there kept trying to push me to have an epidural because it would lower my blood pressure but when we asked Dr Adam she said I could do what I wanted and it was fine. I had really wanted to try giving birth without an epidural but once I realized that I was confined to bed I knew that wasn't going to happen and I was having terrible back labor so I gave up that idea since nothing else was going as planned anyway. Turned out to be the best decision of the night. (I heard a woman shortly before I started pushing going drug free and that sound confirmed that decision!) Pat was happy I got it as well since he was getting worn out from pushing on my back during every contraction. I worried a little bit that I was wussing out so soon since I hadn't been having contractions for very long but turns out I was progressing very quickly. As soon as the anesthesiologist started the epidural it was instant relief. She said it would take 2-3 minutes to start working but I think it was 30 seconds. I thought I'd be able to get a nap in but the epidural made me itchy and by the time that side affect wore off he had moved down into my pelvis so I was feeling a lot of pressure during every contraction so no nap. The nurse told me to try and hold off on pushing for as long as possible so that my uterus would do more work and I could conserve energy. My uterus was a rockstar this time because I ended up only pushing for 16 minutes. 3-4 contractions with the nurse and about the same with the doctor there. I don't think they were quite ready because the nurse was still opening the sheet on my chest when he came out. No words can describe what you feel the first time you see your baby. It's so incredible. I had to keep asking Pat if we had a boy or a girl. I think he was in a little bit of shock. He had said before that he didn't want to cut the cord but Dr Adam just handed him the scissors and he did it and said it wasn't as bad as he thought it was going to be. I remember at some point Dr Adam saying that he didn't have much hair and my response was "all that heartburn for nothing?!?!" Turns out he has quite a bit of blond hair so he just needed to get cleaned up for it to be visible.
After they cleaned him up and got him measured and weighed they brought him over to me to nurse. He's been a rockstar eater from the beginning. He seemed to know what he was doing better than I did. It amazed me how alert he was right at first and we just sat there taking him all in.
The next 18 hours or so are a total blur and I really don't remember much. Our parents were there so I know they came in to see him and they moved me to another room. Typically you get moved to the OB side a couple of hours after but they had to keep me on the L&D side due to the medication I was on so we were in this tiny little room until they took my IV and catheter out around 8:00pm. I was so groggy that whole day due to the meds and the fact that I'd been awake since 8am the day before. I don't know that I slept that much though which was probably a mistake. It seemed like there was constantly someone coming to check my blood pressure and reflexes or taking blood. Pat and I kept saying "is it still the 9th? How is it still the 9th?" I will say that Owen's birthday was probably the longest day we have ever had. They ended up taking my IV out at 8 instead of 3 so I got to drink 7 hours sooner than originally planned. All I wanted was ice chips which the nurse laughed at. She said "really? that's all you want??" Well, when you haven't had anything to drink for 24 hours you are REALLY thirsty.
Pat ordered me Jimmy John's which I'd been wanting since I was 4 months pregnant and it was everything I hoped for!
I was still in quite a bit of pain and pretty much any type of movement was extremely slow and difficult. They had me sit in a tub for a while and getting in and out of that almost put me in tears. Going to the bathroom was terrifying for me which meant that I almost had to have the catheter put back in because I hadn't peed in 8+ hours. The nurse brought this little ultrasound type machine in to see how full my bladder was and told me "you either need to pee now or the catheter is going back in". That was enough motivation for me to get over that fear!
One of the nights Owen was really twitchy and I thought he was shivering and asked the nurse what she thought and she ended up taking him to the nursery to make sure he was fine. They checked his blood sugar and pulse ox and both were fine then put him under the warmer for a while and he just slept there. She said that babies have an immature nervous system and that's probably what it was. It was nice of her to have him checked out though and not just brush it off. She was one of my favorite nurses after I moved to the OB side.
Everyone at the hospital was so good to us. My doctor is great; Owen's doctor is great and we loved all of the nurses that took care of us.
We were in the hospital until Saturday afternoon and then it was time to bring Owen home!
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
are we done yet?
Today was another doctor appointment, another trip to the hospital, another blood draw and another "you can go home but take this jug with you and pee in it for 24 hours".
At my appointment this morning the doctor told me that my protein levels indicate mild pre-eclampsia and the only cure for that is delivery. No baby today but I don't think that an induction is off the table yet. My blood pressure at the hospital worked it's way down to normal pretty quickly and my blood tests came back fine so they sent me home but with the lovely orange gas can again. The doctor will call tomorrow with those results and we'll go from there.
I think this whole situation is taking more of a toll on my emotions than anything else. I was fine with not having a baby for another couple of weeks and I was fine with having the baby today if I went into labor. It's this not knowing whether I'll be induced today, tomorrow, next week or if I'll just be able to let it happen on its own. It's a different uncertainty that I wasn't prepared for so it's causing some frustration and anxiety.
Last night it finally set in that this baby could come at any time so I decided I needed to clean. I'm not sure if I'd call it nesting or just an "oh crap, I'm not prepared!" moment. I feel a little calmer now that the house is in better order although it's far from spotless.
At my appointment this morning the doctor told me that my protein levels indicate mild pre-eclampsia and the only cure for that is delivery. No baby today but I don't think that an induction is off the table yet. My blood pressure at the hospital worked it's way down to normal pretty quickly and my blood tests came back fine so they sent me home but with the lovely orange gas can again. The doctor will call tomorrow with those results and we'll go from there.
I think this whole situation is taking more of a toll on my emotions than anything else. I was fine with not having a baby for another couple of weeks and I was fine with having the baby today if I went into labor. It's this not knowing whether I'll be induced today, tomorrow, next week or if I'll just be able to let it happen on its own. It's a different uncertainty that I wasn't prepared for so it's causing some frustration and anxiety.
Last night it finally set in that this baby could come at any time so I decided I needed to clean. I'm not sure if I'd call it nesting or just an "oh crap, I'm not prepared!" moment. I feel a little calmer now that the house is in better order although it's far from spotless.
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