Balding Baby and Firsts

I know babies must loose their baby hair, but why must Andy's hair fall from the front first? Poor A and his giant forehead.

I took this picture this morning after he ate. We were watching the Woman's Olympic Volleyball Team beat Italy. He likes starring at the TV. Don't think that's a good thing.

I was just looking at him sleeping in his crib, and it amazes me to think that in a short time he will be up and about talking and walking...becoming his own person. To think that G and I will be shaping this little person to become a contributing member of society. Amazing this whole parenting thing is. I love it more than I would have ever imagined.

Falling in love with this little person has definitely been a process. It isn't love at first sight. I mean it is because this person came from you....was made by you...but it takes time. I feel that Andres and I both had to get to know each other. The moment I was in love happened on our 2nd day in the hospital [Monday after A was born]. I had been a little upset all day because visitors were beginning to come and everyone was holding and feeding and changing him. I still hadn't done much since I was bound to my bed for the first 24 hours, and I had been letting G feed him so he could bond. By the end of the day I felt as if everyone knew my baby better than me.

So that night after everyone left I asked G if I could feed him. I was sitting there, holding him in my arms and Andres was sucking away at his bottle when he suddenly stopped sucking and looked straight into my eyes. We starred at each other for what seemed like an eternity. It was at that moment that it instantly clicked - he was mine and I was his. He looked at me like he had known me forever, given he was only a day old. But he looked straight into me like no one else ever had, and I lost it. I started bawling at that moment. Tears of joy, love, excitement, fear of what lay ahead. It was the single greatest moment of my life. And it didn't happen the minute he came out of me.

That is what I want to make clear. It doesn't need to happen at that time....you don't have to feel those intense feelings right away. It can take time. You have both just been thru a lot! You have to have that moment with your baby, and this was our moment. I sat there thru his feeding with tears running down my face and so much love running thru me. I looked up and saw G looking at us with tears in his eyes. He witnessed history...he witnessed our moment....and he was beyond moved.

I sit here typing this with tears, once again, running down my face. Could be the hormones, but this motherhood thing...is pretty damn awesome. Just sayin'.

Happy 3 weeks Andres.

You would fall in love if you saw this face everyday. <3

3w 2d

Update

I'm way too sleep deprived to do a full update so here's the short version.



After 2 failed attempts at the spinal tap by the ER doctor last night, Andy was admitted to pediatrics. He has had no fever and the preliminary blood work looks normal, but since he is so young he is being kept for observation. Assuming he does not get a fever by tomorrow morning we will be going home. Some time at the crack of dawn we will be getting the blood and urine cultures (takes 24hrs).



Worst case scenario - his temp spikes and he will immediately get the spinal tap, and IV and antibiotics. A whole lot more tests will be done to figure out what's causing the fever. And at minimum he will stay here for 48 hrs more. But that's worst case.



Right now he is perfect except for the congestion in his chest. But he is eating like a champ, peeing, pooping, sleeping. He's alert. Pedi was amazed at what a calm baby he was. Even with a poopie diaper he didn't cry or fuss. And he is growing like a weed!! It's awesome.

1 week ago: 7lbs 19.5in

Today: 7lbs 15oz 22in



The pediatrician came in not too long ago and he thinks it might be a virus, nothing bacterial. It sounds like an upper respiratory infection because of all the chest congestion. Good thing is it hasn't traveled south to his lungs. So nothing bad. And we have no idea how he could have caught this. No one sick has been around. We mention the contact with BIL with the staph infection and he said that wouldn't cause a fever and he would have needed to be directly touched.



So my short update is pretty complete. Sparing all mundane details. We've slept about 2hrs in the last 24hrs so you can imagine how we feel. But we're just hanging out. Not worried as much.



Thank you all who have texted, called, sent twitter messages, posted good vibes over on the SAL board. It's amazing how much love and support you can feel from not just family and friends, but from total strangers or "internet friends. " :-p We greatly appreciate it.

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2w 2d

Sad Picture

This how we spent our night/morning. A full recap to come once I've gotten some sleep. We're still at the hospital. Waiting...and waiting. Check the side of the blog on my twitter to read what's been going on.



Long story short Andy had a 100.5 fever at 830pm. We got here at 930pm and at 415am we r still waiting on test results. The good news is he hasn't had a fever since we've been here and he's been completely normal. But since he did have a fever they went ahead and ordered blood and urine tests and a chest xray. Since he hadn't had the fever here he (thankfully) didn't get a spinal tap done.



So we wait. Hopefully soon. Docs keep getting code blues and trauma patients that come first. Sucks. I'm just praying to be in my bed by 5am. Its looking slim though. I got my second wind around 330am but my eyes are starting to burn again.



We were also gonna take...fuck! Nurse just brought in the spinal tap kit. Looks like I'm gonna cry again. Wtf. Ok doc is coming. :-(

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Picture taken @ 2w 1d

1st trip to L&D and more

Let me tell you about my fuckedup night.

When I got home from dinner at my mom's I had the sudden urge to take a huge dump or throw up. So I took a small [tmi] loose dump and my stomach immediately started hurting really bad. I laid down and my back started hurting. I couldn't tell if it was contractions or just overall pain. But I was in pain. Lot's of it. I chugged some water and immediately threw up. It was like I was auditioning for the exorcist. I felt like shit. I laid down again and my back pain became more intense.

And then the contractions started. There were some I couldn't even talk thru and were really close together. I wasn't sure what was going on though. I kept texting my cousin who is a postpartum RN for advice. She finally said I should call L&D. Of course, they have no useful info and just told me to go in if I'm worried. I felt like a lame ass going in because I really didn't think I was in labor and didn't want to go in for nothing. But 2 hrs later my mom convinced me to go in and get checked out just to make sure everything was ok.

We arrived at L&D just before midnight. I felt so stupid being there as [of course] I was no longer in pain. Maybe the nerves of going magically made the pain disappear. So they hooked me up to the machine. My BP was high but then the 2nd take was low [this has been happening at every appt]. Absolutely no contractions while I was there. [Although there was a girl next door in A LOT of pain. I'm sure she's holding her baby today.] Baby was sleepy and not moving much so the nurse used this "stimulator" that buzzed my belly and made baby's heart rate shoot up. Poor guy! It must've freaked him out. It was so sad.

So after an hour and a half we were home. Contractions were brought on by vomiting. Tea for stomach pain and low-dose tylenol for back pain and cut down on salt for BP. Had some tea and tylenol and headed off to bed.

As soon as I tried to lay down my back pain returned with a vengeance. It hurt so much that I couldn't even cry. It hurt standing, sitting, walking, and especially laying down. OMG did it hurt laying down. And I couldn't breath when I laid down because the pain was so intense. Finally busted out the heating pad which only took the edge off. I was so tired I would fall asleep while it was on and when I removed it the pain was still there just as intense. I would just cry thru the pain. DH finally passed out at 4:30am when I fell asleep for about 20 min. But I woke up in pain and was up until 6:30am. I couldn't take the exhaustion anymore so I laid down in pain and sucked it up. Found a spot that it didn't hurt as much and I could breath and eventually fell asleep. I woke up at 9:30am to my mom calling and was not in pain anymore. Slept till 12:30pm.

LONGEST SUCKIEST night ever. Now I'm crampy. :-(

And it didn't help that the nurse told me to ONLY sleep on my [dreaded] left side.

After last night I am SO ready to be done!

But of course baby isn't. Nurse said I am still 1cm, thick, and high. Baby is nowhere near descending.

OH! And did I mention we had company when all this began? Yeah we eventually left my brother my keys so they could lock up and go home if we took long.


39w

Hospital Tour & Lamaze Classes

Last week we had our hospital tour at Methodist. I am so much more excited to be delivering at this hospital. Their new maternity ward opened up in May of '06 and everything is spankin' new. Assuming we have a vaginal delivery we will arrive and be sent to Labor & Deliver [we have already pre-registered so all the paper work is out of the way]. The new Labor & Delivery rooms are huge! Everything is in the room. The baby is no longer whisked away to be cleaned and weighed and all that good stuff. Everything is done in the room. Baby never leaves your side once born. The room has a full private bathroom [shower included]. You are encourage to labor in the shower [suppose to help with contractions]. You can also request a rocking chair to labor in. The room has a television, chair that folds out into a bed, computer for the medical staff, and everything else baby will need. And the best part - they just got WiFi last month!! Hahhaa. G was a little disturbed I was so excited about this fact. [There is a waiting area here but it is only for immediate family - as in parents and siblings]

The hospital is also very pro-breastfeeding and encourages you to get that started within the first 50 min following birth. I am also very pro breastfeeding. :) They are also very pro-putting baby on you right when he's born. Our Lamaze class instructor was telling us that this is because my body temperature will rise and the skin-on-skin contact will help regulate the baby's body temp quicker and it will also help with his blood-sugar level. Amazing right? I'm all for having a gooey baby on my chest!

So after the baby is born we will remain in the labor & deliver room for 2 hours. After that we are sent upstairs to the maternity ward via "The Baby Express" elevator. Hospital calls it this because it is a private elevator that in the L&D and Maternity ward. No nosy sick hospital gawkers starring at you. Once in the maternity ward we will remain here for 2 days if a vaginal delivery or 3 days for c-section. Baby rooms in with us [stays with us 24/7]. The nursery is hardly utilized anymore unless you request it in advance so that a nurse is available. Visitors can now come to this area. Hospital visiting hours are 11am-8pm, BUT G and I are requesting that no one arrive any earlier than noon and leave no later than 6pm. I know we are gonna be drained and don't want to much going on at the hospital. We both have huge families and really worry about being overwhelmed by visitors.

So that's the hospital! Long post this is becoming.

As for our Lamaze class, we ended up taking these mostly for G. So that he would know what to expect when I go into labor and so that he would be able to "coach" me thru it. The one thing G and I are really getting out of these classes is the idea that a natural-drug-free labor looks damn easy! I hate how they trick you that way. G is all for me going thru a drug-free birth. He really feels he can coach me thru it. That's sweet and all but I'm not saying no to drugs if the pain gets too intense [woot woot!]. But what I am saying is that I am actually gonna give it a try. I've already been warned about not asking for the epidural too late and blah blah blah. But I decided I'm gonna give it a try and see how it goes. Yes....I'm losing it. ;)

Our last class is this Thursday, but we officially end next week with infant CPR training.

BTW - My doc's appointment last week was great. Everything is perfect and after my 1lbs loss 2 weeks ago I gained 2lbs by last week. So I officially gained 1lbs for the month which brings my total to 11lbs! So happy and yet so scared I'll be blowing up at the end.

OH! And I did a Father's day post on my regular blog in case you were wondering. :)


33w3d