2 weeks and 4 days. That is how old Henry is today. Getting close to 3 weeks! I spent all this time on the April Baby Board on Babycenter, but everyone I sorta got to know over there has 6 week old babies or even 2 month old babies. No one was at the latter part of April with their due dates and none of them went into May. Now I'm a May Mama!
Henry is doing well. He really is a good baby. It's just at night he doesn't really want to go to sleep. I think he just doesn't like not being held. He looooves to be held. He loves to lay on our chests too. Jason lays down with him on his chest a lot. He had to start wearing a shirt at night though, the little guy tries to rip his chest hairs out! Amazing though, it calms him down almost immediately. Well unless something else is wrong, like he's hungry or a dirty diaper, then his legs start going. He kicks and kicks and kicks and works his way up your chest until he has no where left to go! It is pretty hilarious to watch, except for the fact he needs something.
Our baby boy is SO strong. He has the longest legs and people keep commenting on them. And loves to use them. He already tries to scoot around on his blanket during tummy time. He's not even 3 weeks old! I have no idea what this means for the future, but I don't think he'll be sitting still a lot.
He also loves to be burped. That calms him down really more than anything. He has loved being burped since day one, since the first time Jason sat him on his knee, put his hand under his chin and started patting him on the back. His face goes into an immediate look of satisfaction. Sometimes we burp him just to calm him down. He rarely spits up, except this weekend when he spit up EVERYwhere! He's spit up three times total, and two of the three times we know for certain he got too much to eat. The other he had a gas bubble. 3 times in 18 days is pretty dang good I'd say.
He also loves his swing. He takes naps in it daily. We've used it for nap time so much that we already had to replace the batteries (yikes, three Ds!!). I dunno if that is a bad thing, letting him sleep in his swing, but he loves it, he's right near me and I can see him from where I sit. That's surely ok, right?
We've tried to stay away from the pacifier so far. We've given it to him twice now, just because he clearly needed to suck and he just isn't finding his hand to do so. He will get it a bit but he moves SO much when he is awake, he keeps yanking it out of his mouth, but I do not think it is on purpose. He doesn't understand his arm movements yet, just that he needs to move. He doesn't get that when he moves his hands or arms, they won't be where they were a second ago.
We love him to pieces. Looking forward to the days he sleeps through the night though. Might have to take my mother in law up on that offer to watch him while I nap.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Two weeks
Well I never really continued my last post. I haven't really had much time to do so lately. Finding time with two hands where I am not completely exhausted is rather difficult. I have so much to get off my chest. I am feeling rather lonely right now. I have Jason, and believe me, I am very grateful to have such a supportive husband, but I feel so alone outside of him. I spend all day in this barn, mostly in the living room, except at night. Nights are by FAR the worst. I hate nights. When the sun goes down I actually get nervous. I get nervous that I will get no sleep, that I will be too drowsy to hear Henry cry, that I will finally get to sleep and he will start crying. He loves to take naps right before bed time so he doesn't like to go straight down to sleep. I hate waking up at 4am to pump if he HAS fallen asleep. Mostly because he will invariably wake up in the middle of my pumping and start crying. He will fuss until he gets food and then be awake. For hours. I dread he will get hungry again. I cannot feed him upstairs, not breastfeeding. I can pump and give him a bottle, but our set up is for downstairs. I am too large up top to feed in bed. There isn't enough support in the bed to let me feed while sitting in bed.
Also, I feel completely abandoned by my group of friends. For the most part, none have kids, very few are married, and none are interested in kids. None of them have called me since I gave birth. None have even left ONE single comment on a single picture on facebook. No one replies to my tweets. They respond to each other, but not me. I got a few text messages the day I gave birth, but I got about 60-70 messages that day. There was no way at the time I could respond to them all then they started getting deleted. I dunno if they are offended because I didn't have time to do so on the day I gave birth or not, either way I feel like it is time to step back. If they want to continue their friendships with me, they're going to have to make the effort. If not, I just need to make new friends.
I want to post about Henry, I really do, but I am so down right now I don't think I can. Baby blues I guess....
Also, I feel completely abandoned by my group of friends. For the most part, none have kids, very few are married, and none are interested in kids. None of them have called me since I gave birth. None have even left ONE single comment on a single picture on facebook. No one replies to my tweets. They respond to each other, but not me. I got a few text messages the day I gave birth, but I got about 60-70 messages that day. There was no way at the time I could respond to them all then they started getting deleted. I dunno if they are offended because I didn't have time to do so on the day I gave birth or not, either way I feel like it is time to step back. If they want to continue their friendships with me, they're going to have to make the effort. If not, I just need to make new friends.
I want to post about Henry, I really do, but I am so down right now I don't think I can. Baby blues I guess....
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Henry is here! Part 1
It is a long story, but I want to document it all so that I don't forget any of it. It might have to be done in pieces though, if Henry doesn't let me finish.
Jason and I spent most of Thursday getting things done around the barn, making sure things were clean and put away. We knew we would have guests after Henry arrived, and we just didn't want to come home to a dirty house. Around 2 or so we ran over to Wal Mart for our last run without a child. Ever. That was a surreal experience. Knowing it was the last time we would walk in there without being parents sorta hit us both pretty hard.
After we were done, we ran home, I got a shower and we made sure we had everything we needed. BTW we needed about 1/3rd of the things we brought. First time parent overpacker syndrome kicked in. Did we really think we needed that many books?
We made sure we got to the hospital by 5pm, and after being redirected to three different places, we found the right place to be. I felt bad for all the mothers I saw coming in there having contractions, looking worse for wear, and I just waltzed up to the front desk and filled out my paperwork. They had me in a room within 5 minutes. I was shocked really! I figured it would take forever.
I should note that earlier in the day, I started having stronger contractions, or at least what I thought were contractions. I hoped that this would help things along and maybe he would come on his own. by 6:15 they administerd the Cervidil. BTW that hurt! Wowza. They have to shove it up behind your uterus. They said at that point I was 2-3 cms, leaning towards 3cms. So we definitely had progressed since Monday. They hooked me up to the baby heart rate monitor adn the contraction monitor which was very interesting to watch. I took an ambien around 8pm to help me sleep. It helped a little bit, but I did start feeling contractions so it woke me up. I slept maybe an hour and a half.
I should also note that the nurses both had told us that most people did not react to the Cervidil and that probably at most I would feel mild contractions through the night. When the night nurse said this, I was watching the monitor and my contractions were already timing themselves at like 5 minutes, if not less. They were consistent too, but then nurse seemed very adament I was NOT in labor. These were just pre labor contractions or Braxton Hicks. I knew better, or thought I did.
The contractions just get stronger and more painful through the night. Poor Jason had to help me to the restroom, it was too painful to try to go alone. Neither of us got a lot of sleep. By about 6am the contractions are about 1.5 minutes apart, and yet the night nurse still seems to think nothing of this. I finally decided to get the Staydol or whatever it is called for the pain, to help take the edge off. In order to get this, I needed to get an IV. Three people and an anesthesiolgist later and finally I had an IV. Once the meds started going in, the contractions were so painful it did not work at all.
I had to ask for an epi at that point. I couldn't continue going through that every 45 seconds basically, that's about how long it was before another one started. They checked my cervix beforehand and low and behold I was a solid 4. After the epi went in, my doctor came in, around 7:30 or so, and at this point I was a 5. Around this time she decided to break my water since she could see it bulging out at that point, could even touch it. She also could see that there was meconium, meaning Henry had pooped in the womb. We were sort of afraid of this since he was late and that is not uncommon at all. Jason did the same, so he takes after his daddy!
They checked me every 45 minutes to an hour after that and by 11am I was 10 cms. No Pitocin at all was necessary. I dilated all on my own. I don't know if the Cervidil helped or not, but if it did, it was all I needed to get it going.
Dr. Carnevale had a procedure to do at 11:30 am and she said if she had to, she'd get another doctor to do it, babies come first, but my mom wasn't there yet and he hadn't dropped into the +3 station yet. He was still at 0 to a +1. I told her to go ahead, we'd start trying to push afterwards. It should only take an hour or so, and again, I wanted to wait for my mom. Actually she had me try a practice push first, nothing happened, so she was comfortable with this decision.
My mom shows up shortly after, and come to think of it, this was probably more like 10:30 or so. Through all of this my doctor was so surprised that I was moving as quickly as I was. I was too, and happy about it, for sure. Well I sent my mom, Jason, his parents and my grandparents to go get some lunch. In the meantime, I could start feeling more, mostly pressure but some pain, so they came and gave me another round of epi meds into the epi catheter. I went back to being completely numb and I was perfectly fine with this. Also, they found out I had a fever that ended up peaking at around 101.5, so some IV meds were required. They are not sure why, but it could possibly be because of the meconium.
Fast forward to about 1pm and the nurse comes in letting me know that a team from the NICU were on their way. They were going to have to clean Henry up and get the meconium out of his lungs ASAP. They didn't even want him crying first, to help make the cleaning up part easier. The nurse, Jolene, who was wonderful by the way, started prepping me for delivery. They got the stirrups out and she and Jason got my legs up in those. That was quite a feat btw. They had to roll me over a lot during the hours leading up to delivery because Henry's heartbeat would go down every time I had a contraction. They had to monitor him pretty closely, but they figured it was because since he had dropped, the cord had wrapped around some part of him, head, neck, legs, arms, etc.
Once I was up in the stirrups, Jolene went to check on the baby. About this time a team of three nurses come in from the NICU and my mom comes in with her lunch. She even sits down to eat it and then Jolene looks down and says "I see a head!" Sure enough, Henry's head was poking out. I didn't even know it happened like that, or could. My mom decided at that point maybe this wasn't the best time to eat. The nurses then were all staring at my parts, which was a tiny bit uncomfortable, but at this point you just don't care. Their eyes were as big as saucers. Apparently they did not see this that often. Dr. C was still not there and Jolene had called her and even paged her at this point. She needed to get there NOW, this baby wanted out.
The nurses jokingly told me not to laugh or sneeze, he might fall out. They weren't kidding! I started to feel something a bit like a tear, but it didn't hurt. It is hard to describe how it felt really. After frantically trying to call the nurses desk and get them to find Dr. Carnevale however they could, Jolene looks down and says, "Well, we're having a baby." Within 10 seconds, she plops him on my stomach, completely covered in slimy meconium. I was in total and utter shock. My doctor burst through the door 30 seconds later and I just gaped at her with my hands out with this look of total and utter surprise on my face. Apparently the look was priceless. Henry came out without a single push. He just simply came out. I did NOTHING. I still, four days later, cannot wrap my head around this. No one could. The nurses and doctor all said they had never seen a first time mom do this before. Maybe a second time mom, but never a first timer.
At least Dr. C was there then to clean everything up, get my stitches taken care, deliver the placenta, etc. Good thing I had that epi. Because I did not push, the placenta did not want to deliver itself, so she had to get it out one way or another. The NICU nurses whisked him to the other side of the room from my stomach and got to work cleaning him up. They were fast, but because it took so long to get ME taken care of, it was almost 40 minutes before I ever got to hold my son. I was in too much shock to worry about it too terribly much until I remembered we needed to try breastfeeding right away. Jason was able to long before I was, because of the position I was in, it just was not possible. He was so handsome, right away, I knew he was a beautiful baby. Of course I am a very bias mother. Who wouldn't be? :)
I'll continue the rest of the hospital story some other time. This is already really, really long and I doubt anyone else will ever read it besides me lol.
Jason and I spent most of Thursday getting things done around the barn, making sure things were clean and put away. We knew we would have guests after Henry arrived, and we just didn't want to come home to a dirty house. Around 2 or so we ran over to Wal Mart for our last run without a child. Ever. That was a surreal experience. Knowing it was the last time we would walk in there without being parents sorta hit us both pretty hard.
After we were done, we ran home, I got a shower and we made sure we had everything we needed. BTW we needed about 1/3rd of the things we brought. First time parent overpacker syndrome kicked in. Did we really think we needed that many books?
We made sure we got to the hospital by 5pm, and after being redirected to three different places, we found the right place to be. I felt bad for all the mothers I saw coming in there having contractions, looking worse for wear, and I just waltzed up to the front desk and filled out my paperwork. They had me in a room within 5 minutes. I was shocked really! I figured it would take forever.
I should note that earlier in the day, I started having stronger contractions, or at least what I thought were contractions. I hoped that this would help things along and maybe he would come on his own. by 6:15 they administerd the Cervidil. BTW that hurt! Wowza. They have to shove it up behind your uterus. They said at that point I was 2-3 cms, leaning towards 3cms. So we definitely had progressed since Monday. They hooked me up to the baby heart rate monitor adn the contraction monitor which was very interesting to watch. I took an ambien around 8pm to help me sleep. It helped a little bit, but I did start feeling contractions so it woke me up. I slept maybe an hour and a half.
I should also note that the nurses both had told us that most people did not react to the Cervidil and that probably at most I would feel mild contractions through the night. When the night nurse said this, I was watching the monitor and my contractions were already timing themselves at like 5 minutes, if not less. They were consistent too, but then nurse seemed very adament I was NOT in labor. These were just pre labor contractions or Braxton Hicks. I knew better, or thought I did.
The contractions just get stronger and more painful through the night. Poor Jason had to help me to the restroom, it was too painful to try to go alone. Neither of us got a lot of sleep. By about 6am the contractions are about 1.5 minutes apart, and yet the night nurse still seems to think nothing of this. I finally decided to get the Staydol or whatever it is called for the pain, to help take the edge off. In order to get this, I needed to get an IV. Three people and an anesthesiolgist later and finally I had an IV. Once the meds started going in, the contractions were so painful it did not work at all.
I had to ask for an epi at that point. I couldn't continue going through that every 45 seconds basically, that's about how long it was before another one started. They checked my cervix beforehand and low and behold I was a solid 4. After the epi went in, my doctor came in, around 7:30 or so, and at this point I was a 5. Around this time she decided to break my water since she could see it bulging out at that point, could even touch it. She also could see that there was meconium, meaning Henry had pooped in the womb. We were sort of afraid of this since he was late and that is not uncommon at all. Jason did the same, so he takes after his daddy!
They checked me every 45 minutes to an hour after that and by 11am I was 10 cms. No Pitocin at all was necessary. I dilated all on my own. I don't know if the Cervidil helped or not, but if it did, it was all I needed to get it going.
Dr. Carnevale had a procedure to do at 11:30 am and she said if she had to, she'd get another doctor to do it, babies come first, but my mom wasn't there yet and he hadn't dropped into the +3 station yet. He was still at 0 to a +1. I told her to go ahead, we'd start trying to push afterwards. It should only take an hour or so, and again, I wanted to wait for my mom. Actually she had me try a practice push first, nothing happened, so she was comfortable with this decision.
My mom shows up shortly after, and come to think of it, this was probably more like 10:30 or so. Through all of this my doctor was so surprised that I was moving as quickly as I was. I was too, and happy about it, for sure. Well I sent my mom, Jason, his parents and my grandparents to go get some lunch. In the meantime, I could start feeling more, mostly pressure but some pain, so they came and gave me another round of epi meds into the epi catheter. I went back to being completely numb and I was perfectly fine with this. Also, they found out I had a fever that ended up peaking at around 101.5, so some IV meds were required. They are not sure why, but it could possibly be because of the meconium.
Fast forward to about 1pm and the nurse comes in letting me know that a team from the NICU were on their way. They were going to have to clean Henry up and get the meconium out of his lungs ASAP. They didn't even want him crying first, to help make the cleaning up part easier. The nurse, Jolene, who was wonderful by the way, started prepping me for delivery. They got the stirrups out and she and Jason got my legs up in those. That was quite a feat btw. They had to roll me over a lot during the hours leading up to delivery because Henry's heartbeat would go down every time I had a contraction. They had to monitor him pretty closely, but they figured it was because since he had dropped, the cord had wrapped around some part of him, head, neck, legs, arms, etc.
Once I was up in the stirrups, Jolene went to check on the baby. About this time a team of three nurses come in from the NICU and my mom comes in with her lunch. She even sits down to eat it and then Jolene looks down and says "I see a head!" Sure enough, Henry's head was poking out. I didn't even know it happened like that, or could. My mom decided at that point maybe this wasn't the best time to eat. The nurses then were all staring at my parts, which was a tiny bit uncomfortable, but at this point you just don't care. Their eyes were as big as saucers. Apparently they did not see this that often. Dr. C was still not there and Jolene had called her and even paged her at this point. She needed to get there NOW, this baby wanted out.
The nurses jokingly told me not to laugh or sneeze, he might fall out. They weren't kidding! I started to feel something a bit like a tear, but it didn't hurt. It is hard to describe how it felt really. After frantically trying to call the nurses desk and get them to find Dr. Carnevale however they could, Jolene looks down and says, "Well, we're having a baby." Within 10 seconds, she plops him on my stomach, completely covered in slimy meconium. I was in total and utter shock. My doctor burst through the door 30 seconds later and I just gaped at her with my hands out with this look of total and utter surprise on my face. Apparently the look was priceless. Henry came out without a single push. He just simply came out. I did NOTHING. I still, four days later, cannot wrap my head around this. No one could. The nurses and doctor all said they had never seen a first time mom do this before. Maybe a second time mom, but never a first timer.
At least Dr. C was there then to clean everything up, get my stitches taken care, deliver the placenta, etc. Good thing I had that epi. Because I did not push, the placenta did not want to deliver itself, so she had to get it out one way or another. The NICU nurses whisked him to the other side of the room from my stomach and got to work cleaning him up. They were fast, but because it took so long to get ME taken care of, it was almost 40 minutes before I ever got to hold my son. I was in too much shock to worry about it too terribly much until I remembered we needed to try breastfeeding right away. Jason was able to long before I was, because of the position I was in, it just was not possible. He was so handsome, right away, I knew he was a beautiful baby. Of course I am a very bias mother. Who wouldn't be? :)
I'll continue the rest of the hospital story some other time. This is already really, really long and I doubt anyone else will ever read it besides me lol.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Quick update
This will be brief, they gave me some ambien to help me sleep and I cannot really see what I am typing. This tray is up too high at the hospital.
We checked in around 5pm. Around 6:15 they had the Cervidil in. That was no fun, no sir. Nurse said I was a good 2cms but closer to 3cms. About 50% effaced. Have the baby heart rate monitor hooked up as well as the contraction monitor. Interesting to watch. I am not in active labor but my contractions are around every 6 minutes or so.
We've been watching tv and the monitors since they are rather fascinating. No food or drink after midnight. They will wake me up around 6am to get the cervidil out then start the Pitocin thirty minutes later.
MawMaw and PeePaw came to visit, which was nice. We will be seeing them more later on.
I have to get off this, it is messing up the monitors, picking up my heartbeat ad not his. Blah, hopefully can update later.
We checked in around 5pm. Around 6:15 they had the Cervidil in. That was no fun, no sir. Nurse said I was a good 2cms but closer to 3cms. About 50% effaced. Have the baby heart rate monitor hooked up as well as the contraction monitor. Interesting to watch. I am not in active labor but my contractions are around every 6 minutes or so.
We've been watching tv and the monitors since they are rather fascinating. No food or drink after midnight. They will wake me up around 6am to get the cervidil out then start the Pitocin thirty minutes later.
MawMaw and PeePaw came to visit, which was nice. We will be seeing them more later on.
I have to get off this, it is messing up the monitors, picking up my heartbeat ad not his. Blah, hopefully can update later.
Monday, May 3, 2010
Appointment update
Well the appointment went well, I'd say anyway. The doctor said I've definitely progressed. I'm about 2cms now, possibly 3cms. The cervix has started to soften, but it is still high up so no labor yet. She did some membrane stripping in hopes it might get some activity going. It feels like it might have helped, I've definitely been feeling a lot more pressure since then. Pressure and just general achiness. Let me tell you though, that was NOT fun. I am glad she did it, if it will help, but that is not something I want to have happen all the time.
The way I figure it is even if he doesn't come until I am induced Friday, at least he is further along in progress than he was before so it will only help things on Friday. That being said, Jason and I are determined to make him a Cinco de Mayo baby. Cmon, how cool would a birthday of 5/5/10 be?! CMON HENRY! You have 48 hours to make your eviction.
The way I figure it is even if he doesn't come until I am induced Friday, at least he is further along in progress than he was before so it will only help things on Friday. That being said, Jason and I are determined to make him a Cinco de Mayo baby. Cmon, how cool would a birthday of 5/5/10 be?! CMON HENRY! You have 48 hours to make your eviction.
40 weeks and 5 days
And still no baby. It is becoming glaringly obvious to me at this point that he just isn't going to come on his own. I cannot explain how much this breaks my heart. I know most people do not understand this, but I wanted him to make his own appearance so very badly. I have a doctor's appointment in about 3 hours, so we'll see if there has at least been any progress, but honestly, I am not counting on any. While I definitely feel increased pressure and more cramps, they don't seem to be anywhere near to the point where a baby could come at any time. I also have yet to lose my mucus plug to my knowledge - TMI I know. It's like his due date arrived and no one gave him the memo.
I'm so over this. I cannot sleep anymore. I might sleep in 2 hour stretches if I am lucky, some nights I don't sleep at all. And then last night, for the first time in a very long time, I started freaking out about the actual birth. What have I gotten myself into!? Another reason I really, REALLY don't want to be induced, just sitting around a hospital all day waiting for him to come. Just waiting.
I'm so over this. I cannot sleep anymore. I might sleep in 2 hour stretches if I am lucky, some nights I don't sleep at all. And then last night, for the first time in a very long time, I started freaking out about the actual birth. What have I gotten myself into!? Another reason I really, REALLY don't want to be induced, just sitting around a hospital all day waiting for him to come. Just waiting.
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