Monday, March 14, 2011
Celebrate
Because of all the trials we've had on the breastfeeding front, I thought it important to celebrate one month of breastfeeding. Wahoo! There was a time I didn't think I would make it this far. Thanks to my husband for being so supportive. And thanks to Alexander for plumping up and making it worth it.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Balance
Alexander is 3 weeks old already. Time and events are referred to as "before He was born" and "after He was born".
So how are things?
Things are going ok. Monday began the real challenge. All by myself with the two boys. My mom was here this past week but she is home now. I wish she could stay a month. Or better yet just not live so far away so that our time together could be more spread out. But unfortunately that is not the case nor will it happen.
How is eating and sleeping?
Well he sleeps really well, as a newborn should. I feel like the eating thing has been an uphill battle the whole way. A few highlights; cracked bleeding nipple, painful letdown, finger feeds. He just doesn't eat well at the breast. He gets lazy. He falls asleep. But he's still hungry. He just won't work for it. So he ends up snacking all the time. And it's frustrating. I would love to just sit and feed my newborn and hold him all day. However, life with a toddler does not allow for that. So my goal is to find balance. We all need to be taken care of, physically, emotionally and mentally. It's finding the right balance for us all. But it is exhausting to feed and pump and feed and pump. It leaves little time for anything else.
Have you been out with the two by yourself yet?
Why, yes. Monday I took Nicholas to MyGym. Of course I was trying to plan out feedings for Alexander. And of course he had different ideas. Luckily though he likes to sleep in the car so he slept the whole time. Even at MyGym. It was really nice because I didn't know how I was going to chase Nicholas and feed Alexander. MyGym is active for Mommies too. But it worked for this week. We'll try again next week and see how it goes.
How is Alexander?
I haven't described much of his features. He has auburn hair and when the light hits it, it looks reddish. He has Joe's wide flat nose. My head, it's small and round and so soft. I just love to touch and kiss it. His eyes seem to be turning brown. Go figure.
So how are things?
Things are going ok. Monday began the real challenge. All by myself with the two boys. My mom was here this past week but she is home now. I wish she could stay a month. Or better yet just not live so far away so that our time together could be more spread out. But unfortunately that is not the case nor will it happen.
How is eating and sleeping?
Well he sleeps really well, as a newborn should. I feel like the eating thing has been an uphill battle the whole way. A few highlights; cracked bleeding nipple, painful letdown, finger feeds. He just doesn't eat well at the breast. He gets lazy. He falls asleep. But he's still hungry. He just won't work for it. So he ends up snacking all the time. And it's frustrating. I would love to just sit and feed my newborn and hold him all day. However, life with a toddler does not allow for that. So my goal is to find balance. We all need to be taken care of, physically, emotionally and mentally. It's finding the right balance for us all. But it is exhausting to feed and pump and feed and pump. It leaves little time for anything else.
Have you been out with the two by yourself yet?
Why, yes. Monday I took Nicholas to MyGym. Of course I was trying to plan out feedings for Alexander. And of course he had different ideas. Luckily though he likes to sleep in the car so he slept the whole time. Even at MyGym. It was really nice because I didn't know how I was going to chase Nicholas and feed Alexander. MyGym is active for Mommies too. But it worked for this week. We'll try again next week and see how it goes.
How is Alexander?
I haven't described much of his features. He has auburn hair and when the light hits it, it looks reddish. He has Joe's wide flat nose. My head, it's small and round and so soft. I just love to touch and kiss it. His eyes seem to be turning brown. Go figure.
He is such a good baby. He likes to lay by himself and just look round.
He's getting long. Filling out his newborn sleepers. He had a dr visit last Friday. He weighed 7 lbs 5 oz and 19.5 inches. So he grew an inch and is 7oz above birth weight. Thats good in my book.
He likes to suck on his thumb. When he finds it. I think he will do well with a pacifier. I am just waiting to get this eating thing settled before giving him one. We've thrown a lot of things at him in three weeks.
How is hubby?
What a guy. I could never do this without him. He takes so much on himself. He not only goes to work for ten hours a day, he comes home to a distraught wife, a super active toddler with meltdowns and a messy house. He takes care of us all. Gives me time to sleep and chill with Alexander. Plays with toddler and puts him to bed. Feeds baby. Gets ready for another day of work and does schoolwork. He is my Superman.
He's getting long. Filling out his newborn sleepers. He had a dr visit last Friday. He weighed 7 lbs 5 oz and 19.5 inches. So he grew an inch and is 7oz above birth weight. Thats good in my book.
He likes to suck on his thumb. When he finds it. I think he will do well with a pacifier. I am just waiting to get this eating thing settled before giving him one. We've thrown a lot of things at him in three weeks.
How is hubby?
What a guy. I could never do this without him. He takes so much on himself. He not only goes to work for ten hours a day, he comes home to a distraught wife, a super active toddler with meltdowns and a messy house. He takes care of us all. Gives me time to sleep and chill with Alexander. Plays with toddler and puts him to bed. Feeds baby. Gets ready for another day of work and does schoolwork. He is my Superman.
Okay here are some pictures. I haven't taken that many. I guess it's second baby syndrome.
Alexander with cousin Abbey
Cousins: Abbey. Alexander, Nicholas and Noah
Cousins and Aunt Kerri
Addicted
I LOVE this stuff. Vaseline cocoa butter body oil. I haven't thought about dry skin all winter.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
1 Week Already
I had to start with a little teaser. Look at that precious face.
Leaving the house, feeling good
After my first bath.
Mom's men
There's those eyes.
Squishy face
Home from the hospital
A little more alert at the end of week 1
I love to have my hands up by my face to sleep
My favorite place to sleep...on Mom
Sleeping, burrito style
Alexander is over a week old already. The week has really flown by. We are all still adjusting to having a newborn in the house. I wanted to do question form for this post. Here goes.
How is the feeding going?
Better. He started latching better. Still with the shield but that works for now. We actually started giving a bottle. It seemed easier than the finger tube feed thing. However I think it has disrupted his latching. So we may need to lay off the bottles for a bit longer yet. However, it was nice because Joe could do some night feeding and I would pump. It goes much quicker than feeding him. He likes to fall asleep during feeding and then as soon as I put him down he is awake again and wants to eat. So it can take me an hour to feed him in the middle of the night. It's exhausting. But the kid needs to eat.
Milk is in full swing. We had him weighed at 1 week and he was only 3 oz under his birth weight. Yahoo!!
What kind of baby is Alexander?
He is so sweet. He loves to snuggle and be held. It's easy just to sit and hold him. I get nothing done. But I decided to cherish this time because once Joe's back at work. I won't be sitting any longer.
He loves to sleep. Which is super nice. He is such a chill baby. I sure hope it stays that way.
He does really well just laying awake on his own for 20 mintues or so. And he spent a whole night in his bassinet without sleeping on one of us.
How is Nicholas handling his little brother?
Oh, my spirited child. He is very good with Alexander. He brings him toys when he cries. He thinks mom should pick him up when he cries. Alexander's feet were hanging out the other day and Nicholas thought he needed socks. He's been helpful in small ways too. Getting things for us on occasion. We aren't pushing that. He's not the parent.
He has done some acting out. Fit throwing over the small stuff. We expected some of this. We just weren't prepared for how to handle it. But can you really prepare? We are all working through this together. And I can only hope it gets better with time.
He has done some good things. Peeing on the potty...once. But it's a start. And sleeping in his toddler bed for nap today. He has never been interested in the big boy bed.
It goes to show you that you just never know.
Okay I won't bore you anymore and get on with the pictures.
Big Brother helping to feed
Leaving the house, feeling good
After my first bath.
Mom's men
There's those eyes.
Squishy face
Home from the hospital
A little more alert at the end of week 1
I love to have my hands up by my face to sleep
My favorite place to sleep...on Mom
Sleeping, burrito style Sunday, February 20, 2011
Alexander's Entrance
I have been meaning to write this post all week. It has rolled around in my head and taken many shapes. So now with Alexander one week old and snuggled up on my chest and my two older "boys" wrestling in the living room, I will write the entrance of Sir Alexander into our world.
It will probably sound uneventful here in these words but if you have ever had a child or attended a labor/delivery or adopted a child, you know that it is not uneventful to you. It is your story. Of your child.
So it began on Valentine's Day morning. The only day I told this baby growing inside of me it couldn't be born. Well "he" had other plans. The contractions started around 8:30 am and were very mild, 15 minutes apart. I called Joe after this went on for an hour.
"honey, I am having contractions. They are 15 min apart so I will see if they develop into anything. Just so you know."
Now I knew these weren't Braxton Hicks. But with 10 days to go I just wasn't sure if they would progress.
Well they didn't.
They started stretching further apart to every 20-25 minutes. I was becoming disappointed. Joe too. I emailed him with an update.
However, I did start to lose the mucous plug with some bloody show. After a quick reference on the www I discovered this could happen days or even weeks before labor. Ugh!
I was feeling a lot of preessure and had to pee every 15 minutes.
Around 2 pm I put Nicholas down for nap and continued to let the contractions roll when they so desired. I laid down for my own nap thinking it could be a long night ahead.
Well I couldn't sleep. Are you serious? I might be having a baby.
The contractions began to pick up around 3 pm. They were 10-15 minutes apart and growing in strength. But totally manageable. I called Joe around 4pm encouraging him not to be late tonight. He said he was leaving very soon and would call from the car.
At 4:15, I redialed my husband.
He answered with a " i'm leaving soon."
I answered with a "you need to leave now."
It would take him 30 min plus to get home.
Contractions kept flowing. Now coming 7-10 minutes apart.
Nicholas woke up. Joe rushed in the door to find: me and Nicholas chillin' on the couch watching tv.
The contractions were manageable, coming 7-8 minutes apart.
I called my dr around 5:30 pm. Telling her they were averaging 6 minutes apart. She didn't seem concerned and said if they were manageable then stay home and call the on call dr later when needed.
Joe's parents were on their way from MA to stay with Nicholas. I took a shower. Joe and Nicholas ate supper. We were getting ready but doing good.
By the time joe's parents arrived after 7 pm I was ready to go to the hospital and have my epidural. That was the plan. I don't like pain. I did not want to be a hero.
The contractions were 5 min apart. We called the on call dr to say we were coming in. He seemed a little more "ready". So we left the house at 8 pm. It is a 30-40 min drive to the hospital.
About half way there the contractions came 2 minutes apart. Yikes! They hurt.
We made it to the hospital. 8:30 pm. A nurse brought me in with a wheelchair. She said get in the gown and she'd check dilation. She gave us our first verbal lashing for waiting. Second baby and all.
She checked. I was soft and 8-9 cm. What?!?
Nurse rushed out to get the team. A hord of people flooded the room preparing pans and instruments and the dr in his gown and goggles and cap.
They were starting the IV in my arm, no time to find the vein in my hand.
It was while all this was happening that I realized I would be receiving no pain meds. The contractions were still coming on strong, mind you. I think I may have squeezed some blood out of Joe's hand. My head just kept saying, "I can't do this. No meds? Oh my gosh!"
my dr rushes in. I was relieved to see her. I like her. It took her 2.5 min to get to the hospital. She had just moved. Otherwise her 12 min drive might have made her late.
Contraction coming. I wanted to push. I said so. She checked, 10 cm! Okay, next one push.
Contraction came on ( I think I was clawing my husband's chest at this time) and I pushed. I could feel the baby's head enter the birth canal. Weird. Okay stop pushing. Breathe, relax.
Here comes another one. Push! Baby slides a bit further.
Water has not broke. Dr comes in with a hook to break my water.
Another contraction. Push! With the membranes out of the way I could really feel baby just right there, ready to pop out. I just kept pushing. I wanted baby out. Then pop! Baby's head came out. Checked for cord. All good. Push, and out slid my new baby. It is quite a feeling. It was now 9:14 pm. Only 45 min after arriving at the hospital.
I hear Joe say, "it's a boy". My new baby boy was then placed on my chest and Joe and I just stared at him. He was here. Finally, here. And I had done it. I birthed this son with no drugs. I will wear my badge of honor, thank you very much.
The nurse asked his name. And funny enough, we didn't know. We had picked a girl and boy name probably in the second month of pregnancy and it never changed...until. Until I threw a curve ball on Saturday saying I didn't know if I liked Alexander. So I thought and came up with another name. So now we had two boys names. And we had a little baby boy in need of a name.
It only took a few minutes and I just started talking to my son and out came Alexander. I immediately looked at Joe and said, it's Alexander. Alexander Thomas.
This is how Alexander came into the world. And this is his story as much as mine.
It will probably sound uneventful here in these words but if you have ever had a child or attended a labor/delivery or adopted a child, you know that it is not uneventful to you. It is your story. Of your child.
So it began on Valentine's Day morning. The only day I told this baby growing inside of me it couldn't be born. Well "he" had other plans. The contractions started around 8:30 am and were very mild, 15 minutes apart. I called Joe after this went on for an hour.
"honey, I am having contractions. They are 15 min apart so I will see if they develop into anything. Just so you know."
Now I knew these weren't Braxton Hicks. But with 10 days to go I just wasn't sure if they would progress.
Well they didn't.
They started stretching further apart to every 20-25 minutes. I was becoming disappointed. Joe too. I emailed him with an update.
However, I did start to lose the mucous plug with some bloody show. After a quick reference on the www I discovered this could happen days or even weeks before labor. Ugh!
I was feeling a lot of preessure and had to pee every 15 minutes.
Around 2 pm I put Nicholas down for nap and continued to let the contractions roll when they so desired. I laid down for my own nap thinking it could be a long night ahead.
Well I couldn't sleep. Are you serious? I might be having a baby.
The contractions began to pick up around 3 pm. They were 10-15 minutes apart and growing in strength. But totally manageable. I called Joe around 4pm encouraging him not to be late tonight. He said he was leaving very soon and would call from the car.
At 4:15, I redialed my husband.
He answered with a " i'm leaving soon."
I answered with a "you need to leave now."
It would take him 30 min plus to get home.
Contractions kept flowing. Now coming 7-10 minutes apart.
Nicholas woke up. Joe rushed in the door to find: me and Nicholas chillin' on the couch watching tv.
The contractions were manageable, coming 7-8 minutes apart.
I called my dr around 5:30 pm. Telling her they were averaging 6 minutes apart. She didn't seem concerned and said if they were manageable then stay home and call the on call dr later when needed.
Joe's parents were on their way from MA to stay with Nicholas. I took a shower. Joe and Nicholas ate supper. We were getting ready but doing good.
By the time joe's parents arrived after 7 pm I was ready to go to the hospital and have my epidural. That was the plan. I don't like pain. I did not want to be a hero.
The contractions were 5 min apart. We called the on call dr to say we were coming in. He seemed a little more "ready". So we left the house at 8 pm. It is a 30-40 min drive to the hospital.
About half way there the contractions came 2 minutes apart. Yikes! They hurt.
We made it to the hospital. 8:30 pm. A nurse brought me in with a wheelchair. She said get in the gown and she'd check dilation. She gave us our first verbal lashing for waiting. Second baby and all.
She checked. I was soft and 8-9 cm. What?!?
Nurse rushed out to get the team. A hord of people flooded the room preparing pans and instruments and the dr in his gown and goggles and cap.
They were starting the IV in my arm, no time to find the vein in my hand.
It was while all this was happening that I realized I would be receiving no pain meds. The contractions were still coming on strong, mind you. I think I may have squeezed some blood out of Joe's hand. My head just kept saying, "I can't do this. No meds? Oh my gosh!"
my dr rushes in. I was relieved to see her. I like her. It took her 2.5 min to get to the hospital. She had just moved. Otherwise her 12 min drive might have made her late.
Contraction coming. I wanted to push. I said so. She checked, 10 cm! Okay, next one push.
Contraction came on ( I think I was clawing my husband's chest at this time) and I pushed. I could feel the baby's head enter the birth canal. Weird. Okay stop pushing. Breathe, relax.
Here comes another one. Push! Baby slides a bit further.
Water has not broke. Dr comes in with a hook to break my water.
Another contraction. Push! With the membranes out of the way I could really feel baby just right there, ready to pop out. I just kept pushing. I wanted baby out. Then pop! Baby's head came out. Checked for cord. All good. Push, and out slid my new baby. It is quite a feeling. It was now 9:14 pm. Only 45 min after arriving at the hospital.
I hear Joe say, "it's a boy". My new baby boy was then placed on my chest and Joe and I just stared at him. He was here. Finally, here. And I had done it. I birthed this son with no drugs. I will wear my badge of honor, thank you very much.
The nurse asked his name. And funny enough, we didn't know. We had picked a girl and boy name probably in the second month of pregnancy and it never changed...until. Until I threw a curve ball on Saturday saying I didn't know if I liked Alexander. So I thought and came up with another name. So now we had two boys names. And we had a little baby boy in need of a name.
It only took a few minutes and I just started talking to my son and out came Alexander. I immediately looked at Joe and said, it's Alexander. Alexander Thomas.
This is how Alexander came into the world. And this is his story as much as mine.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Pictures as Promised
Big Brother Nicholas
With Grandma and Grandpa
Sleepy Boy
Daddy and Alexander
His ear is the size of my thumb. So adorable.
A happy Mommy and Daddy
Chillin' on the scale
All snuggled up. Look at the scrunchy face.Day 5
And it begins...the fatigue, the hormones, the impatience with all those in the household (even the cat, yes, she's a real Bit#@, can I say that on the Internet.) It might not be so bad if Alexander were latching well, but he is not. So we are battling feeding issues and weight gain and sore nipples and tired frustrated Mommy. Alexander is actually doing great. He's such a chill baby.
So after meeting with the office lactation consultant and a doctor ( not ours), Alexander had a frenotomy (with another dr in another office). That's where they take scissors and cut the little frenulum that holds our tongue down. And the dr cut the part under the upper lip too. Run your tongue up there you'll feel it.
It was a rush decision because the dr doing it was going away for weeks. So Joe and I aren't feeling the most comfortable with it but what is done is done. He bled quite a bit. I didn't watch. I do not like blood. And when it is your 4 day old son, it is hard.
The reason for doing it? To get him a better latch for breastfeeding. That is the main reason. He isn't moving his tongue forward and opening his mouth wide enough. Causing him to bite down, sore nipples and not nursing well. The poor latch also does not stimulate the breast enough to allow good milk production. So I am also pumping. It is a lot. It is overwhelming.
Sorry for all the details. But here we are. Still trying. Working through it.
He is such a sweetie though.
The hubby is fantastic. Dealing with all this and pitching in PLUS dealing with an outward acting 2 1/2 year old.
Yes, Nicholas is working through his own issues with all this. Funny though, he actually used his potty for THE VERY FIRST TIME the other night. Crazy.
Pictures soon, I promise.
So after meeting with the office lactation consultant and a doctor ( not ours), Alexander had a frenotomy (with another dr in another office). That's where they take scissors and cut the little frenulum that holds our tongue down. And the dr cut the part under the upper lip too. Run your tongue up there you'll feel it.
It was a rush decision because the dr doing it was going away for weeks. So Joe and I aren't feeling the most comfortable with it but what is done is done. He bled quite a bit. I didn't watch. I do not like blood. And when it is your 4 day old son, it is hard.
The reason for doing it? To get him a better latch for breastfeeding. That is the main reason. He isn't moving his tongue forward and opening his mouth wide enough. Causing him to bite down, sore nipples and not nursing well. The poor latch also does not stimulate the breast enough to allow good milk production. So I am also pumping. It is a lot. It is overwhelming.
Sorry for all the details. But here we are. Still trying. Working through it.
He is such a sweetie though.
The hubby is fantastic. Dealing with all this and pitching in PLUS dealing with an outward acting 2 1/2 year old.
Yes, Nicholas is working through his own issues with all this. Funny though, he actually used his potty for THE VERY FIRST TIME the other night. Crazy.
Pictures soon, I promise.
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