A boy and his blanket(s)

Once this boy is allowed to sleep with a blanket in his crib (12 months), I think he is really going to dig it.  Under supervision, he's such a lovey towards blankets and loves to cuddle with them and rub them on his face.  I have a great giveaway coming up at Chasing Davies on Monday for a custom blanket.  Maybe your little one will or does love blankets just as much? :)

Alone with a baby

Last weekend, I experienced life as a single mom for 3 nights and days while my husband went out of town for a bachelor party weekend with the boys. Every single mom out there deserves the highest amount respect possible.  That is one hell of a job.  Being a mom with a partner is hard enough, but alone was even harder.  Here's how it went.

1st night started off great.  We had company over, dinner and off to a good bedtime start.  Liam went down well after his new routine of new diaper, book and bottle around 9:30.  I was feeling pretty good around 10:30 when he was still sound asleep and started to hunker down myself.

Then 11pm hit and little man awoke.  I went in to soothe him, put his fallen pacifier back in and turn the Sleep Sheep back on.  12:30, again, same thing. 2:30, again, same thing. This time, not working. 3am I fed him a bottle and rocked him back to sleep by 3:30.  4am - again, more soothing.  6:30, up again, this time wide awake.  Except I was dog tired.  So I tried to soothe him a bit to catch some extra zzzz's when we really should have been getting up for the day.

7:30am we got up for the day to try to get myself and him ready by 8am (hah).  At 8am, I was at least dressed and working on getting him dressed when I noticed he had had a huge blowout. I noticed this while holding him against me, so naturally I got covered in poo.  It was bad enough that he should have gotten a bath, but we were already running late.  So I used about 15 wet wipes and got him cleaned up and changed.  Now I had to get re-dressed myself.  I left our poo clothes on the floor and started to pack him up when I realized the poor dog hadn't been let our or fed!

All in all, we made it to school 30 minutes late, then I was off to work with no make up and a messy (bad) bun. With only 3 hours of sleep all broken up, I was super tired, but made it through the day and even managed to get home to take a shower before picking that little guy up from school.

We spent Friday night at our friend's, whose husband was on the same trip as mine.  We had pizza and played with the kids.  It was a fun night!  I changed Liam into his pjs and a new diaper before heading home, so we ended the night with a bottle in his room and he was asleep by 10.  And didn't.wake.up.until.5. O.M.G.  SEVEN hours!  It was a miracle!

At 5 I changed and fed him and he was back to sleep by 5:30 until 8:20 (and so was I).  We got up and played and then about 10:15 went and picked up my sister who came in from Chicago!!  She was going to spend the whole next 2 days with us!!

She even came bearing new cool duds for the little dude!

Saturday we napped, took a long walk and then went to my parents' house for a party they were having for friends.  We partied until about 9:30, then changed the little man into his jammies (like the night before) and headed home.  I gave him his last bottle and rocked him in his room and he was down by 10:30.  At 3:30 he woke me up for a quick soothe and pacifier check and then back to sleep.  Then he got at 5:15 for a feeding, and again at 8am.  Another pretty good night!  We then cuddled until 10am (when my sister finally got up - jeesh, to be young again).

We went on another walk, and hit up Einstein Bros Bagels for breakfast.  Then we went to the plaza to shop the day away.  

We ended the weekend with husband returning, family over and watching the Jayhawks win to advance to the Final Four.

Things got off to a rough start, but with help from my family and friends, we ended up having a pretty good time.  It was good to know that I could do it by myself and we even had some special bonding.

But I have to say, those middle of the night up and down are not only exhausting, but lonely.  It's nice to have another adult there, even if they're sleeping.  Just in case you get so tired you just can't do it.  Or if something goes wrong.  I imagine things get easier as the child grows, but with a 3 month old, life and nights are still very unpredictable.  Which is a little scary to face alone.

And I'm a wimp.   

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Resemblance

Liam is definitely our child.  No doubt about that.  I love looking at him and seeing my husband, and then a second later seeing me.  He has such a great blend of the two of us.  What do you think?

 Baby Liam and me

Baby Liam and Greg

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P.S. 20% off coupon for H&M Kids clothes here!

One Week to Twelve

How did this happen so fast?

Next I'm going to turn around and he'll be 1 years old.  Slow down time.  But he is super fun these days.  Those smiles melt my heart.

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Birth Story, Part 2

See Part 1 of the Birth Story here.

While listening to sweet Liam belt out his first cries as his holes were suctioned out by the nurse & my husband watching him and taking his first photos, I was on the other side of the tall blue sheet with tears rolling down the sides of my face.  I already loved this little boy more than ever and couldn't wait to see his face.  My husband brought him over to me minutes later and I saw the most beautiful thing ever.

The doctor's worked on closing me up - which actually takes long than to deliver the baby.  Get this, they completely remove your uterus from your body to sew up and check for bleeders.  I had a few bleeders, so closing took a few minutes longer.  Meanwhile, my doctor also informed me that we had indeed made a good call by going in for the c-section...

When I was in labor & Liam wasn't descending down enough, not only was he face up (his forehead wanting to lead the way out vs. crown of his head), but he was also stuck on my pelvic bone.  His head actually couldn't get through.  I wanted to laugh at this.  I have "womanly" hips and his head was of normal size - what do you mean he couldn't get through my pelvic bone?!  Well, my hips may be wide enough, but the bones on the inside at the top of the birth canal are not.  This means, all future babies will also delivered by c-section - at least now we know and no more 18 hours of labor to start with just for fun.

After I was sewed up and ready for the recovery room, I began to get really shaky.  The first hour of recovery is typically (according to my hospital's policy) when I'd hold my baby skin to skin and have alone time with just me, my husband and the baby.  But because I was shaking so bad, they wouldn't let me hold him!  Instead they went ahead with taking his weight and measurements (right in the room next to me) and in the meantime, gave me demerol & warm blankets to calm my post-surgery shakes.

By the time he was measured, weighed and printed, my shakes had calmed down and I was able to hold my baby for the first time. It was an instant bond that I'll always hold close to my heart.  After an hour of cuddling time, we were rolled to our new room where we'd stay for 4 nights...

Stay tuned for Part 3: Hospital stay, beginning breastfeeding woes, baby weight loss and my recovery bumps.

A Few Faces

Liam makes a lot of faces, here are just a few sweet faces:

I could just stare at his sweet face all day... oh wait, I do!  Ok, back to it!

Birth Story, Part 1

The birth story of my baby, Liam, really starts 8 days before he was born.  I was admitted into labor and delivery on Wednesday, December 7th (37 weeks and 5 days along) with patterned and strong contractions.

We weren't sure if this was the real deal, but earlier that morning I had lost "the plug" and contractions had started to get stronger and stronger, culminating 5 minutes apart. So there we were in a recovery room, the triage rooms were full and they weren't ready to commit me to a labor room yet, being monitored.  I was putting up the contractions on the screen that I was feeling and they were getting closer and stronger, so that was good, but I wasn't progressing in my dilation.  I came in at 2 and 6 hours later I was only at a 3, so was sent home. I got in the bath for an hour, and boom, contractions slowed way down and over the next few days almost stopped all together.  What the heck!?

At home waiting for something to happen!

Monday, December 12th I had my weekly routine doctor's appointment at 12:45pm.  I went to work in the morning and then met my husband at the appointment.  I was expecting and hoping to have progressed in dilation, but was still at 3 and 70% effaced (where I was at when I left the hospital the Wednesday before).  I was bummed.  But then, my doctor found that my blood pressure was a little higher than usual for me, there was a little protein in my urine, and my reflexes were "jumpy".  She looked at us and said, well, I think it's time.  "I want you to go straight across the street [to labor and delivery] and check in."  Apparently, all these factors were preeclampsia indicators.  The only cure for this is delivery of the baby, and since I was 38 weeks and 3 days along at this point, it was time. Preeclampsia basically means pre-seizure, so it's dangerous for mama and baby.

We checked in to the hospital and this time, given a real labor & delivery room.  This was really going to happen.  We were going to be induced and meet our baby in a matter of hours!  An hour or so later, the staff started the "pit drip" (pitocin to induce labor), but also the "mag" (magnesium drip to manage preeclampsia). The pit and mag have to be balanced because while pit induces labor, a side effect of the mag is it slows labor, so we figured it was going to be a long journey.  They started each out slow tweaking and turning up the drip slowly after seeing how my body was reacting.

My doctor broke my water (ew, that was a weird feeling) and I got an epidural (hated the feeling of them in my back).  The epidural completely deadened my right leg, but I could feel my left leg and hip - this worried me.  As I progressed, the anesthesiologist kept having to give me shots of the "strongest stuff he could give me" to help with my left side and the massive amount of pressure pain I would come to feel.

By the evening I was progressed to a 5 dilation and 80% effaced.   I was still feeling good, watching TV and socializing with my husband, parents and nurses.   Then things started to progress quickly.  Finally!  I went from a 7 to 9 in 45 minutes and at midnight, I thought it was only going to be a bit longer!

Boy was I wrong...

Four and a half hours later, I was still only at a 9-9.5 dilation and in the most pain I could ever imagine.  For some reason, I just wasn't getting over that last little bit and baby boy's head was not dropping.  My doctor and nurse kept putting me in different positions to try to maneuver the head down further hoping that would take out the last little bit of cervix.  By 6am on Tuesday, December 13th we were talking about my options.

My doctor said the baby's head could just be stuck on my pelvic bone, or I could just need more time.  It was hard to say, but I was getting tired fast (um, 18 hours of labor at this point).  So because I had already put in those 18 hours, we decided to try one more position for 30 minutes.  My doctor came back to check on me, and no change.  I couldn't scream c-section fast enough.  It was time for this to be over.

My doctor and the hospital staff flew into action and prepared me and the OR for surgery.  My husband changed into scrubs and joined me at my head just in time for it all to begin.  I was able to stay very calm because of the amazing people working on me.  They were very clear on what was happening (a play by play if you will) and what I should and shouldn't feel.  The anesthesiologist stayed at my head the whole time ready to tweak anything should I feel pain.

I'm guessing here, but about 7-10 minutes after they begin, the baby was delivered.  At 7:17am on Tuesday, December 13th I heard the sweetest cry ever.

Liam came into this world at 8 lbs 3 oz, 20.5 inches long and with strong lungs!

...Part Two later this week on everything else that happened after birth and in the hospital!

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