First Holiday

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

13 days old

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I looked around in Evan's closet and found a couple of green things for him to wear. The first was a little outfit that was slightly big on him. It was 0 - 3 months instead of newborn, but he didn't seem to mind. I had also found a bib at Babies R Us right before I delivered so he was able to wear his St. Patrick's Day bib for his first holiday. Good thing for me, he had 2 green outfits as we had to change him 1/2 way through the day. His second green outfit was a one size gown. He did have socks on, but he kicks them off in about 2 seconds since his feet are so teeny tiny.

And also on this first holiday, I wore my pre-pregnancy jeans for the first time. I could also tell that my size 6 shoes were kind of getting loose on my feet so I'll be able to wear some of my regular size 5 shoes soon. I weighed on my scale and it says I'm back to my pre-pregnancy weight, but I can tell I have about 3 or 4 more inches to lose in my belly before it looks like my regular waist. My belly button is still a little weird looking and very dark. I'm hoping it goes back to normal soon as well.

A Baby Schedule

Our baby is on such a great schedule. He's a great baby as well. He rarely cries - only when wet. And he cries immediately when he's wet. He will not eat or sleep if he has a wet diaper. And when you change his diaper, he will wet again immediately. He is the two diaper champ of wet diapers. He sometimes fusses just a minute if he's really tired and getting to sleep, but for the most part, he's a very good baby that doesn't cry much at all.

Evan did not latch on good to me at the hospital, nor would he take the regular nipples on the bottles. Since he was only 5 pounds and not latching on, the lactation consultant advised giving him formula in order for him to maintain his weight. She also recommended a speech therapist who came by and worked with Evan on 4 different nipples, and stimulated his mouth for him to accept one. He took to the one that is designed for cleft palettes. So I started pumping for milk and Evan started on Similac. These special nipples are only available on line so we ordered them quickly as the hospital only gave us 2. After two weeks, my milk is still not pumping out very much at all, but I am giving him whatever I can pump along with the Similac. I usually only pump about 5 ML, but one day I did pump as much as 25 ML. I'm not sure how long I'll keep it up since it's just a trickle, but I know these first few weeks are the important ones.

If Evan doesn't gain enough weight by Monday, his pediatrician will recommend increasing his caloric intake. He seems to be gaining weight to me. In fact, we got a nice scale from my aunt & cousin & have been weighing him on it. He was 5 lbs 15 oz on Friday. I'm hoping today that he'll be over 6 pounds. His face is looking a little fuller to me.

He has been eating every 2 to 4 hours, with 3 hours being his most popular time in between feedings. At night, he stretches it to 4 hours, which is fine by me. During the day, he sometimes barely makes 2 hours and acts like we were starving him, but I think he's just growing during that time. He's up to about 45 ML per feeding now. He's also a really good burper and rarely spits any up. However, if he does, it usually comes out his nose. He's only done that about 4 times in the last 2 weeks. It's kind of gross & we have to use the nose bulb.

As for night time duty, I've been trying to go to bed by 9pm. Vince stays up later and does the night time duty. He usually brings him to bed around 11pm or 12am. Then I get up for the next couple of feedings. We usually feed him around midnight, 3:30am, and 7:30am. If I get to go back to sleep after 7:30am, it's really nice, but inevitably, our phone rings by 9am every single day. It's either family, co-worker, doctor, or someone, but it reminds us that the rest of the world is up and we should be too. We are usually up & dressed by 10 or 10:30am, which is really late compared to my former 7am days. But it allows us to get the sleep we want and not be tired throughout the day.

It's been a great 2 weeks! With Vince going back to work on Monday, I know our schedule may change some, but I'm hoping it will stay pretty similar.

Sweet Baby Pictures

At the hospital, a photographer stopped by to take pictures of Evan. They turned out really cute. Mom had bought his going home outfit (which we were total slackers & didn't dress him in it to come home). But Barbara & mom managed to get him changed in time for the pictures before we left the hospital. These turned out so much better than the pictures of old where babies were all wrapped in the hospital blanket with their puffy eyes still swollen. We ordered the disk to get the several shots of him looking super cute.







And my favorite pose (with Vince's hands):

Evan Vincent Williams

Wow, what a difference a day makes. So my last blog post I talked about having 6 days left, but our little Evan decided to make his grand entrance the very next day. On Sunday morning, around 3:30am, I woke up and thought I had a contraction. I came out to the living room couch to rest and then after about 25 minutes, I had another contraction. At first I thought maybe I just need to go to the bathroom & I did. But the contractions kept coming about every 20 minutes after that. By 6am, I went to the bathroom again, and the contractions then started getting about 15 minutes apart. At this time, I knew they were real contractions, getting closer together, and that I was probably in labor. During this time, I had baked some cookies and finished making cake pops that I wanted to take to the hospital to give out (instead of chocolate cigars). They always say to do something to keep busy to take your mind off the contractions so of course, I baked in the kitchen between contractions. They had also told us in class to not come to the hospital until your contractions were 5 minutes apart. So I woke up Vince around 7am and told him "I think I'm in labor. I'm having contractions about every 15 minutes. You can go back to sleep in you want to." He decided not to go back to sleep & jumped up & started packing.

We both got showers and dressed & finished packing. I contacted my parents & Rachel at 7:30am & told them we were heading to the hospital. They both had 5.5 hour drives so I wanted to give them a heads up. My parents drove from Virginia and Rachel drove from Alabama. I wasn't sure if they would tell us to go back home or not, but by the time my contractions were 5 minutes apart, we were in the car & made it to the hospital by 9am. The contractions were pretty hard, but not as intense as the one that gripped me as soon as we pulled into the parking garage. It was so intense, it brought tears to my eyes. So what did it feel like? Well, mine started as an ache in my back, and I knew within about 5 seconds, it would come around to the front of my stomach and steal my breath away, making me completely immobile or able to speak. We made it to the triage area on the 2nd floor. They checked me and I was 4 cm dilated.

Vince was at this point texting like mad to everyone that I was indeed in labor & we were having a baby that day. His parents arrived shortly after that to keep me company while my parents & Rachel were on the way. By the time I got into a L&D room, I had labored on my own for about 7 hours. I then decided to get the epidural. Wow! I love Kelly the epidural lady. She did it perfect. It didn't hurt at all & I felt immediate relief (or should I say complete numbing). I never felt another contraction after that. Nor could I move my legs. They kept wanting me to roll from side to side due to the baby showing some distress signs. Vince & the nurse had to roll me over as I had no feeling in my legs to do so. The baby's heart rate would come back up & then after an hour, he would show distress signs again. My doctor on call was at a meeting, so he asked the high risk doctor to look in on me. The high risk doctor said I was still a couple of hours from delivering & he didn't think the baby's distress would make it that long. He was recommending a c-section for when my doctor arrived. I was dilated to an 8 around 2pm. At 2:45, several things happened at once. My doctor arrived, the baby distressed again, and my parents texted that they arrived & were parking, and Rachel had just arrived & was parking. My doctor said he was doing a c-section, then suddenly changed his mind when he checked me & said I was almost completely dilated. He grabbed the vacuum, told everyone to get in there stat, & had me start pushing. I pushed about 6 times and the baby came out really fast with the help of the plunger. He was born at 3:06pm on 3/4/12 (or if you write the year first, it's 1 2 3 4). March 4th is the only date that is a command (march forth). And boy did Evan march forth!

Mom was allowed into the delivery room about 3 seconds after Evan popped out. She got to see him go from the doctor's hands to the nurse to the heat lamp table. Talk about fast. I never thought I would deliver that fast. My body didn't either, as it caused me to have a 3.5 level episiotomy. The baby had the cord wrapped around his neck, which had been the cause of his distress. The doctor sewed me up as Vince & mom followed the baby around with the cameras. And let me take this time to say that Vince was wonderful during this whole time. He was so patient and right there by my side the whole time, giving me ice chips and blankets. The I.V. or epidural medicine was making me shake and shiver the whole time. In fact, I kept shaking to the next day as well.

They weighed Evan at 5 lbs, 13 oz. I was surprised he was so small. I thought he would be just over 6 pounds. His APGAR score was 8 9. I have no idea what that means, but the doctor said it was good. He had dark hair that looked like it could have different shades in it. His eyes were wide open and he kept them open for about an hour and a half after he was born. They were a deep dark blue/grey color. He was so perfect and cute & tiny!

They finally allowed several family back to see him. They took turns coming back since only 3 are allowed at a time. Evan stayed with me for a while until they took him to the nursery to get a bath and measured. He was 19" long. All his health checks came back good - he passed his hearing, his heart sounded good, etc.

I still couldn't believe how quickly he was born! I made it to a room on 5 tower around 6pm where my family could all come in & visit with me and the baby at one time. I also could feel my legs and other areas by this time and needed pain medication. It took them 2 hours to get me pain meds, and I had just missed the dinner cut off time. I have to say that I was so impressed with everything about the hospital, except the food delivery time. The whole staff was amazing and I couldn't have had better service at a 5 star hotel.

The next day was a completely whirl wind as doctor, nurses, staff, paper pushers, visitors, and more made my room a revolving door. I had zero rest and a lot of pain. We also learned that Evan had a slow palette and was not latching on to me well. He was also 5 pounds, so he couldn't afford to loose any weight. We decided to start him on formula after a speech therapist helped us find a nipple that he didn't choke on and took to after a little bit of stimulation. Of course these nipples only can be found on-line. I also started pumping to help get Evan the milk he needed from me to supplement him until my milk comes in full strength. The lactation consultants and the speech therapist were so wonderful working with us and Evan. You can tell they really love their job and babies.

So after 48 hours, we were discharged and on our way home with a cute little bundle of joy. Pictures & more coming soon!

Pictures and 6 days

Here we are 6 days before the baby will be here!

Relaxing on Saturday.

38 weeks 3 days pregnant (also known as the 39th week).

The black actually hides my belly in the straight on position. Doesn't it make me look slim? Ha ha. We did go eat a late lunch today at Outback Steakhouse. Everyone told us to go out to eat as much as you can before the baby gets here. So we did & I had an excellent steak.

I got our taxes finished and filed today. I hate taxes. But at least we're getting a little bit of a refund this year. We pretty much took it easy today, but did walk around Costco and Best Buy for an afternoon break. I can feel the baby really tighten up on me sometimes - so much so that it almost takes my breath away. I don't know if it's just the baby or a contraction, but it's good to know that things are progressing. We check into the hospital Thursday evening & then on Friday, we'll have a baby! Only 6 more days!

38 Week Check Up

One week from today & we'll be parents! I went to the doctor this morning for my last check up before I check into the hospital next week. Dr. Pereyo said I measured at 37 1/2 weeks with the measuring tape. You know, I still have no idea how they know that as each woman is different in size. They only listened to the heart beat for a minute with the little hand held device. Baby's HR was 131. So I didn't get hooked up to the NST machine today. My BP was 120/70. I lost 2 pounds since last week, so my total weight gain is 16 pounds. I half way attribute this to the different scales in the office & half way to the baby soaking up all my extra calories at this point because I have not missed any meals or snacks.

The doctor checked my cervix for the first time and I am dialated to a 1. He said I'm about 1/2 way thinned out. I thought this was great (not the checking part as that was uncomfortable, but the numbers part). He said it's not as much as he wants it to be for my induction next week. So he moved my check in time to Thursday evening at 5:15pm. They will insert medicine called Cervadil in my cervix for 12 hours to thin it the rest of the way. He compared it to the baby hitting a brick wall & he wants to make it more like a paper wall. So I will go in at 5:15 that evening, then at 5:15am on Friday, they will remove the Cervadil (it's on this long string). Dr. Goodlett will be on call that night. Then when Dr. Pereyo gets there Friday morning at 8am, he said he will break my water first thing to speed up the process.

So I'm hoping for a quick & speedy delivery with all this prep work going on.

I took a breastfeeding class last night for free at the hospital. The lacation nurse had lots of great info so I'm feeling more confident about this process. I even took my breast pump for her to show me how to use it after class & every single person stayed to watch her demo on how to hook up all the parts. There were about 18 to 20 people in class. Some of the best advice she gave was to make sure the baby or the pump drains the entire breast. The leftover milk is what can cause problems later like infections or engorgement. I also am taking my own Lanolin cream as I just found out today that my friend was charged $208 on her hospital bill for a little tube. I got a tube from my cool ZTA sisters for free!

The baby has been doing this thing lately where he tightens everything up in a hard ball. I think he's pushing his booty, spine & knees out like a rollie-pollie & makes my tummy hard as a rock. Last night his foot moved up & down my tummy over & over again, like he was practicing walking in there. It was so funny to watch it. His most awake time is in the evenings from about 8pm to 10pm or so. It's worked out great as that is when Vince is home & can see & feel him moving around a lot.

The baby has dropped even more this week and it's been more of a challenge to walk without a waddle. I can almost feel my hip bones expanding as they ache a little when I first stand or lay on one side too long. I'm still not sleeping great, but it's mostly due to being so stuffed up at night. The stuffy nose is driving me crazy. I also started getting swollen ankles again the last two days. I've been keeping them propped up so I think it's just my body once again getting ready for things to happen. I haven't felt any contractions at all, but my mom & sister said they didn't either, as they had mostly back pain. So when my back starts hurting, maybe I'll know something is happening. So the count down is on!! 7 more days!!

38 Weeks

Yesterday I hit 38 weeks in my pregnancy! It was also February 29, so I'm glad I made it past the leap day without having the baby. So we'll definitely be having a March baby now. I'm very ready to not be so stuffy all the time.

Vince & I finished the 3 prenatal classes on Tuesday night. We got a tour of the hospital and know where to go when we get there next Friday morning. The second floor is labor & delivery. About an hour after delivery, they move us to the 5th floor. I'm allowed to have 3 people in the L&D room so Vince, Mom, & Rachel will be there. I may also see if Kim can come back.

The nurse said the average induction time to have a baby was 8 hours, but I'm hoping I'm a fast learner. I've got the baby's bag packed and my suitcase mostly packed. The baby moves all the time and is getting really strong now. I think he'll have really good muscle tone when he's born.

I went by Great Clips yesterday to get my hair cut. I haven't been there in about 4 years and now I remember why. They were really busy due to the $5.99 special they were running. The hair cut isn't that bad, but it's definitely not a salon worthy hair cut. I asked her to trim off about an inch. I think she cut about 4 inches off the top layer so some sections look really short to me. Se la vie. It doesn't look bad, just not what I asked for. I remember now why I don't mind paying $30 for a cut.

I came home and highlighted my hair with color I got on sale for 50% off when Foodlion was going out of business. So my hair was cut & colored for under $10 this month! I got a nice long bath & went to bed early. The only bad thing about going to bed early is being wide awake at 4am. The good thing about being awake at 4am is that I have time to blog! Usually when I get up that early, I go back to sleep around 5am and sleep another hour until my alarm goes off. So I'm off to take my early morning nap now.