thank you, momma oak

The most adorable handmade Brobee baby blanket arrived today, courtesy of MommaOak. She’s very talented, right??? We love it!

birth story

Today baby F is one week old! He is doing great – started latching on and nursing like a champ at 3 days old. He is a pretty mellow guy so far, and his big brother is seriously in love with him. He kisses him and sniffs him and rubs his arms and legs all the time and is doing really well with being gentle for the most part. Monkey is a great big brother!

I figured I should get my birth story down before I forget anything now that I have a minute to breathe, so here goes.

We arrived at the hospital on Monday, April 29th at 5:30 AM (groan). They took us up and had me change into a gown and got me hooked up to a monitor and the IV placed. The first woman who tried to do the IV did a horrible, painful job (shudder) and it had to be redone. Thankfully the second woman got it in without incident. I had a couple of dizzy spells and felt like I was going to pass out, which wasn’t too pleasant. Finally I was wheeled into the OR.

Once there, I got the spinal (not a big deal) and started getting numb. Once again, I thought I was going to pass out, but the anesthesiologist told me it was normal and he would give me something to bring my blood pressure up. DW came into the room and told me she got a nice text from Monkey’s teacher, which made me cry (hormones).

After a while, they told me they were going to start pushing the baby out. My doctor exclaimed, “He has a bunch of hair!” Then I heard cries and watched as they whisked him over to examine him. DW cut the cord and they rubbed him down for quite a while. I heard them saying he was having trouble breathing and that he probably had fluid in his lungs as this is common for c-section babies. Then they said he needed to go to the NICU for them to take a look. They said he’d be there for a couple of hours most likely. DW went with them to the NICU while the doctor finished putting me back together.

When I got to recovery, I had them send in my mom and MiL. That part is kind of a blur as I was so doped up, but I was concerned that I hadn’t heard anything yet about how baby was doing. MiL went to the NICU to meet the baby, my mom left to pick up Monkey from school, and I got wheeled to my room. I was lying there with no visitors, no baby, and all doped up on pain meds. It was really lonely and I was so worried about the baby. After several hours, I got to go the NICU (in my hospital bed) to finally see my baby and DW.

Baby F was hooked up to monitors, had an IV in his hand, a tube down his throat, and oxygen tubes in his nose. It was so sad. I asked DW how he was doing and when he would be released. She said he was doing well but they were keeping him overnight. My heart dropped. I couldn’t hold him or nurse him. All I could do was put my hand into the isolette and rub him and talk to him. It felt awful to go back to my room without my baby.

I told DW to just go home and sleep that night since there was no baby to care for. The NICU nurse told me that I should pump for him and they’d give him bottles. I said that was fine but I’d really prefer to get him on the breast. I was so worried nursing would be a problem and I so didn’t want to give that up. She said I was welcome to come for any feeding (in a wheelchair), so that’s what I did (after strong-arming my nurse, who was like, “We’ll see” when I told her I wanted to do that for the overnight feedings – I was like, “Oh hell no. We’re going!”). I ended up going down several times overnight and baby would latch on, but he wouldn’t eat. I wasn’t overly concerned because BFing is a challenge to get going with any infant, let alone one that had the day poor baby F had.

The next day, DW came back and we went to the NICU to check in. They said all of the items they were monitoring for were normal, but they wanted him to nurse properly (or have us supplement with formula) before they’d release him. It ended up being an excruciating 5-6 hours of us trying to get him to eat and being totally pissed off that they wouldn’t let me work on it in my room. I was sure it would happen if they’d just get him off the wires and let me keep him at the breast. I have never felt so helpless.

My doctor came to see me that afternoon and was just as livid as I was that he still wasn’t released. She called up to let them know this but they quickly said he was being prepped to be released right then. He was finally in my room around 3PM that day. Within a few hours he was latching on and eating. I can’t explain just how effed up the communication (or lack thereof) was between the maternity unit and the NICU. It was so frustrating and I told several people who came and asked how my experience was that it was a big problem. I feel so awful for people with preemies who are in the NICU for long periods of time. My experience was terrible and my healthy 9 pounder was just there overnight.

The final days in the hospital were pretty non-eventful, thankfully, and we were released on Thursday morning. Aside from the sleepless nights, everything has been going smoothly. I finally brought baby to bed with me last night and he slept soundly and nursed like a champ all night, so I’m feeling pretty good today.

I leave you with one of my fave recent baby pics of my beautiful baby boy. He has Monkey’s nose and his dimples, too! This may be the last pic I don’t password-protect, so let me know if you need my password.

he’s here!

Introducing Ford L-M! Born 4/29/13 at 8:06AM. 9 lbs, 21.5″. In NICU due to fluid in lungs, but will be with me tomorrow. Argh!

Protected: 38w6d: over it

This post is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

Password:

38w4d: almost there

I had my last OB appointment yesterday. DW and Monkey came with me as DW has only met my OB at our first appointment and Monkey has never met her, so we thought it might be nice since the birth is coming right up (scheduled c-section for Monday, April 29). Interestingly, at my last two appointments, my OB has seemed to be telling me that we don’t really have to wait for the 29th, and seemed to be implying she’d rather go ahead and deliver him over the weekend. DW confirmed this after yesterday’s appointment (she got the exact same impression). So we are considering heading in on Sunday instead of Monday. Reasons?

• We have to be at the hospital on Monday at 5:30AM for a 7:30AM birth. Ugh!
• I am supremely uncomfortable and just ready to go. I’d never go early simply for my own discomfort, but one day early? When we know this baby is full-term? Seems kinda like a no-brainer to me.

OB said that we originally just had to pick a date sometime after 39 weeks and it seems like you can’t scheduled for a weekend, so here we are. It feels kind of weird to go in and make up some excuse like “decreased fetal movement” or contractions or whatever, but this is what the OB seemed to want and it would definitely be better for us. She even made the comment that she loves delivering over the weekend (probably because it doesn’t mess with her office hours). If we decide to go for it, we figure we’ll arrive at the hospital around 9AM Sunday (isn’t that so much better than 5:30AM???). What do you guys think? Have any of you experienced this?

I am typically a Type A, scheduled, rule-following type of person so in that respect it feels strange. But man would it be nice to do it on a time frame that is nicer for us. My mom gets in on Friday, so anytime after that is fine where Monkey’s care is concerned. Today we lined up a tentative Sunday AM playdate for Monkey with a school friend (we’re close with the family and told them our possible plan) so that we have somewhere to drop him if we decided to go for it.

OMG IT’S ALMOST HERE!!!!!!

35w6d: this is really happening

I have really been neglecting this blog during this pregnancy. I had my OB appointment on Tuesday and all is well. Strangely, she isn’t seeing me weekly at this point – CS is scheduled for April 29 and I don’t go in again until April 16. That will be my last OB visit before the CS. Kind of strange, no? I guess that means everything is checking out great and all, but it makes me a little nervous. They gave me the list of things to pack in your hospital bag, info on the hospital and breastfeeding and all of that stuff and it felt like WOW this baby is really almost here! We even forgot to sign up for the two classes we wanted to take (CPR and the hospital sibling tour for Monkey) so now we’ll be those people who are in the class just weeks/days before the baby comes. Oops! We have CPR Monday night and we went ahead and signed up for the hospital tour even though the only one we could do is on April 25 – we’ll see if I’m even still PG at that point. Hahahaha!

We are having a painter come in and paint the office/future boys’ room and then once we get it all set up we’ll be bringing in all of the newborn stuff in our storage unit and getting it all in order (swing, tub, co-sleeper, etc.). It’s coming together, slowly but surely. Oh, we also need to get to the mattress store and buy a full-size bed for that room. I figure that’ll come in handy having 2 kids – somebody can bail out of the “family bed” if things get nuts.

I continue to be huge and uncomfortable and tired. I am out of breath easily these days just walking around, and all I really want to do is lay down. I’m so so lucky to work from home as I’m able to take naps and generally take it very easy. I’m planning on working right up until April 26, which would probably not be possible if I had to commute every day.

Monkey’s Spring Break was last week and we went down to our friend’s place on Coronado (off the coast of San Diego) for most of the week – I took a couple of days off and just worked from there for a couple as well. We had a great time, just lounging in the pool and watching Monkey go wild on the beach. We had friends come down a couple of days that have kids Monkey’s age and they had a blast. We were even there on Easter and had an egg hunt on the lawn overlooking the ocean. Good old SoCal living right there. These kids have no idea how good they have it

Monkey has a little spring cold right now, but so far it hasn’t been too terrible. He has a fever and a slight cough and tells us he is sick. This is the first time he’s had a cold when he’s been able to articulate what is wrong. It is both cool and sad. Today he told us he was tired and wanted a nap. Whoa! That’s NEVER happened! He’s really turning into a full-fledged kid. Now if only he’d use the *&^%$^ potty

potty training hell

Yes, friends, my 3-year-old son is nowhere near potty trained. Today we put him in undies, prepared to do the three day stay at home bootcamp method (for the third time in the last 6 months). He has peed on the floor three times today. And in the potty? Zero. He definitely understands that he should put it in the potty, will talk about it, will sit on the potty, but will not pee in the potty. He has peed in the potty exactly one time in his entire three years. It is SO frustrating. We are pretty much at our wits end. Do we continue the misery for the weekend? Do we cut it short and keep working with him slowly? Will this child still be peeing and pooping in his undies when he is 12???? I swear we’ve tried everything and we’ve never gotten on him for accidents. It just feels like it’s never going to happen. He’s also learned to hold it for hours as he has to be in undies at school. So he holds it and waits to pee until he gets home and changed into a diaper. Yes, we’ve tried having him sit on the potty when he comes home from preschool. He either cries and refuses, or sits and doesn’t pee, then goes in the diaper. I’ve tried offering M&Ms or chocolate chips as rewards. N-O-T-H-I-N-G W-O-R-K-S! It sucks!

So, what worked for your kids? What didn’t work? Any of you have late trainers like my guy? What finally happened? OMGCantTakeItAnymore!