I can't believe more than a week has already gone by since I had my sweet boy! His first week home has been really good. He really is such a good baby. He hardly cries and he sleeps pretty well. He eats ALL of the time; absolutely loves to eat. I swear he eats about every hour to two hours during the day and at night it's around every two to four hours. So, not bad in my opinion. I was worried that his frequent feedings meant that he wasn't getting enough but he's had plenty of wet diapers so I know he's definitely getting something. Last Tuesday he weighed 6lbs 7oz (June 22nd) and today, less than 7 days later he is back up to his birth weight of 7lbs 1oz (June 28th). They say 6oz for a breastfed baby is normal, and he just gained 10oz in a week so that is WONDERFUL news for all of us all around.
I took his newborn portraits the other day. He did good! I have a lot of favorites, now I just need to figure out which one I want to get in a 16x20 to put into his bedroom. Here's one of my favorites from the session. There are more on my photography blog if you are interested: http://www.chapmansphoto.com/blog
Kayliana is still all about him. I feel bad sometimes because she just really wants to be near him but when I am feeding him and she's right next to me, it really stresses me out. Probably because it's still very painful for him to latch on. Once he latches on and after about a minute passes by, it's all okay and doesn't really hurt anymore. I've heard that the 2nd week of breastfeeding is the worse so I'm really hoping that next week we will be much better at this.
We had our very first paranoid ER visit lastnight (June 27th). Tristan's circumcision appeared to be pretty swollen with some discharge and a bit of an odor and since all of those are signs of infection, we took him in. We would much rather be safe than sorry. The urologist came down to check him out and said that he was fine. He got a plastibell circumcision and it's literally hanging 1/2 on and 1/2 off. It is scary to clean as I don't want to tear the other 1/2 off and cause him to bleed.
On a much brighter note, Addison FINALLY made contact with Tristan today. She touched his head! It was very brief and she hasn't done it since but it's improvement. I knew she'd warm up to him at some point! I can't wait until all 3 of my kids can interact together.
I've been trying to adjust to being a mom of 3 now. I'm also adjusting to being a breastfeeding mom since it's the first time I've ever breastfed. With Kayliana, I never started or tried or even really gave it a thought since I was working full time and didn't want to have to mess with pumping while at work and stuff. With Addison, I guess because I didn't do it with Kayliana it didn't even cross my mind with her. Being a stay at home mom and getting to know other parents and their parenting style you really do learn a lot of wonderful things. If it weren't for some of the people I've met on message boards there would be very little that I knew. For one, I'd never had known that I was practicing attachment parenting from Day 1 with Kayliana. My attachment parenting style has just evolved into being just a co-sleeper with my first, a co-sleeper and baby-wearer with my 2nd, and now a co-sleeper, baby-wearer, breastfeeding and cloth diapering mom with my 3rd.
Anyways, my biggest adjustment has been the breastfeeding. If anyone tells you it's easy and it isn't painful then they are just big fat liars! It HURTS really bad while you are getting used to it all. Outside of the pain, I'm just having trouble making sure that Tristan gets an adequate amount. We had our doctors appointment on Tuesday, June 23rd for Tristan. He is pretty jaundice and because of it, is sleeping a lot. I'm supposed to be nursing him every 2 to 3hrs but he wants to nurse every 4hrs instead. Waking him up like I've been told is practically impossible. He's lost nearly 10% weight loss from the day he was born, and the doctor was sure to make me feel like a horrible mother for it. Tristan wasn't doing what the doctors like to see. The day we left the hospital, he was circumcised and he didn't eat alot that day so I think because of that we were about a day or two off schedule. Things APPEAR to be better today and I'm hoping that tomorrow will be even better. Ofcourse, I wont know for sure until we have another doctors appointment and check out his weight. He is supposed to be back up to his birth weight by 2 weeks of age. But, we went from 7lbs 1oz to 6lbs 7oz so he has quite a bit of weight to catch back up on! I'm just hoping that breastfeeding doesn't fail us and my lil man starts to gain weight.
Addison still will not touch or get near Tristan. Though, she definitely cares for him from afar. At the doctors office when he was crying she kept watching him and the doctor to make sure he was okay. I have a beanbag I've been using to put Tristan out by our front door where the sun shines through to help with his jaundice and Kayliana was playing with it and Addison had a huge fit and screamed and told Kayliana that it was the baby's. I really hope she warms up to him soon. I'm a little bummed when it comes to Addison though. She's been clinging to Willie a lot lately. She's momma's girl so it's tough for me. I try to help her and do things for her but she tells me "No, Daddy will help me." I did manage to get her to cuddle with me tonight though before she fell asleep, and that was nice. I miss my cuddle times with her.
After being admitted around 6 to 7pm on Friday, June 18th, I continued to have contractions that were irregular. We called Willie's mom to let her know that we were being admitted and I had him call my dad to let him know that I was being admitted and officially considered to be in active labor. I want to say that it was around 10pm that I was told that the doctor wanted to give me pitocin since my contractions were so far apart. They started the pitocin and my contractions became more regular, stronger and closer together. I think they upped my pitocin 4 times before checking to see if I made any more progress. When the doctor checked me, I was only a 7, they let me labor for another hour and then I was told that I was going to have my water broken. I was told that I could get the epidural if I wanted and that the contractions that came after my water was broken would be much stronger and more painful. I wanted to have a natural birth from the get go and the fact that I was on pitocin to make things progress was something I didn't want, let alone the epidural too. I told her that I wouldn't get it before my water was broken and that if I felt I needed it afterwards, I'd let them know. That was probably my biggest mistake. Little did I know how much things were going to get worse for me once my water was broken. IMMEDIATELY after my water was broken, my contractions were about 10 fold and the pain increased significantly. I think I only went through 15 minutes of those types of contractions before I was in tears and told Willie that I couldn't do it, that I had to get the epidural if I wasn't making any changes quickly. They checked me again and I was still at 7cm, so I got the epidural. It took quite awhile before the epidural started to kick in, and when it did, my blood pressure dropped significantly. I started feeling nauseous and tired and felt very short of breath. I was given epinephrine to try to stabilize my blood pressure and put on an oxygen mask. It took about an hour for them to stabilize me. Once I was stabilized and more consciously aware of the things around me, I told the nurse that I felt a lot of pressure. The nurse called the doctor in to check me and I was complete and ready to push. I pushed for about 15 minutes and out finally popped my little baby boy!
Tristan Lee James was born on June 19th, 2010 at 3:04am at 7lbs 1oz and 19.5 inches long. He cried a lot, way more than my girls ever did. The doctor wasn't happy that I was going into labor at 38 weeks originally but when she heard his weight she said that had I gone to full term I probably would have had an 8lb baby or bigger so she was kind of glad that I ended up going at 38 weeks rather than 2 or 3 weeks out. Tristan is absolutely perfect. I've had some issues with breastfeeding but he's eating enough it seems and has had plenty of wet diapers so they are not worried. Hopefully we can fix our issues and get it to work well for us. My recovery has been pretty good! I have had NO edema like I did with the other 2 nor did I tear or have an episiotomy. Right now, Tristan appears to have light brown hair and dark blue eyes. Yes, out of 2 girls and 1 boy, the only child that was born with any amount of hair was my boy!!
He was circumcised today, June 20th, 2010. Right now, I'm in the hospital and both of us are doing so well that we are headed home today, a day early than they originally would. We are waiting for him to have his hearing test and a PKU test done before we can head home.
I feel bad that the girls have been away from us for so long though. Kayliana is absolutely IN LOVE with Tristan. Willie said that yesterday when he took them home to pack them up, bathe them, and take care of the pets that Kayliana kept telling him "I miss mommy and Tristan". I can see she'll be by my side a LOT. Addison is still in denial I think. She wont hold the baby but DID sit next to him and Kayliana yesterday. I hope she warms up to him soon! She's definitely jealous of him. Hopefully she doesn't convert to a Daddy's girl since I'm the one bringing a new baby in the house (in her eyes).
The title pretty much says it all, but I'll go into more details!
Thursday, June 17th, I had my 38 week doctors appointment. I was weighed in at 151 lbs so I was at a total weight gain of 26 lbs from pre-pregnancy weight. I was originally not going to get checked but they ended up asking me, and I caved in said yes. The doctor said that I was 2 to 3cm, much to my surprise! I didn't think I had made any progress at all from a fingertip from the previous week. She asked if I wanted her to strip my membranes. I hesitated because even though I've never had it done before, I've heard that it hurts pretty badly. I told her to go ahead and do it and gritted my teeth and tried to not scream during the process. I headed home and ended up cramping on my way home. The stripping of my membranes occurred at around 4pm, and by 5pm, contractions started. I continued to have contractions off and on for the rest of the evening and I really thought at 1:30am I was going to be waking Willie up to head to the hospital since they were regular and strong, but after I went to the bathroom and walked around for about 10 minutes, the contractions tapered off. I continued to have irregular but somewhat strong contractions until 5:30am. Around 5:30am, most of the contractions stopped and I only had slight cramping. I was able to get some rest finally and slept until around 10am. When I woke up, I continued to have some more cramping and irregular but strong contractions. At around 2pm on June 18th, and the baby having a lack of fetal movement for over 9 hrs and only 2 movements, I called the doctor at the hospital and was told to come in and get checked out.
I arrived at the hospital around 3:30pm. I was put on the monitor for about a 1/2 hour to an hour to check the baby's heartbeat and my contractions. The contractions were strong but irregular still, but the baby decided to move as soon as I was hooked up to the monitors and the baby looked great so there was no worry there. My nurse at the time checked me and she had trouble finding my cervix but said I was a "good 4cm" and told me to walk a little bit and see if I have any changes. I ended up being checked around 2 hrs later though and the nurse couldn't find my cervix and ended up calling my doctor in to come check me. My doctor checked me and said that I was at 6cm. Because I had made a change and I was more than a 4, they admitted me.
Birth story to follow.....
I don't think this pregnancy is ever going to end!
We went to the pool on Sunday for a few hours. I got burnt up a little bit. Nothing too bad, but I should be nice and tan by the end of this month if this continues. I felt pretty good and comfortable on Sunday. Relaxing in the pool, even if it is the baby pool and it only goes up to my waist, is nice.
This week, thus far, has been pretty boring and uneventful. I don't think I'm making any progress still with this pregnancy. It's very frustrating. Yesterday morning I woke up with some intense pressure and decided to walk in the evening since it was cool outside. I had a few contractions while walking and more intense pressure. It equated to nothing once I got home though. Around 10:30pm lastnight (6/15) I started having contractions that were pretty far away. I want to say every 20 to 30 minutes. Nothing to worry about but once I went to sleep around 1am they were a bit closer together. By 4:30am I was awake with pretty intense cramps and contractions. They eventually tapered off around 5:30am and I was finally able to get some sleep. I hate that I've been in so much pain and have made no progress.
The only thing I want from this pregnancy is to go into labor on my own and do it all naturally. I don't think that is going to happen. This pregnancy has been far from easy for me. Between the morning sickness that has lasted nearly 9 months, and the pain I've been in since about 28 weeks, I'm ready for just one thing to go my way. I see the doctor tomorrow, but I'm not going to have them check me. I'll just be disappointed to hear that I've made no progress, I'd rather just not know.
I've been absolutely horrible with my "schedule." I'm just way too uncomfortable to keep up with it all.
It's Saturday, June 12th 2010. Today, I officially turned 26 years old. I am not one to enjoy my birthday. Something ALWAYS goes wrong or it just plain sucks. I figured this year I wouldn't really celebrate it. Willie and I just went to Cove Point Pool with the girls today for a little while, and then dropped them off with my mother in law, then just went out to dinner. We walked around JcPenney and Target before hand since we weren't yet hungry. I was hoping it would help encourage the baby, but so far, I'm failing at getting this baby out sooner rather than later.
I had my 37 week appointment on Thursday. The baby was doing good. I asked to be checked for dilation and she told me that I was only a fingertip dilated. That's pretty much the doctors telling you that you aren't dilated at all but trying to make you feel better about the situation. So, no progress. I walked on Thursday and that didn't help either. I weighed in at 149lbs so I lost a pound from last week.
I posted these on my facebook, but they are definitely times I want to remember so I'm posting them here as well:
Kayliana told Willie the other day that she had to eat her fingers and her toes because she didn't want them to grow.
Tonight's conversation with Addison:
Mommy to Addison: Tell the baby it's time to come out now.
Addison to Mommy: No, I don't want the baby to come out.
Mommy to Addison: Why not?
Addison to Mommy: B/c I'm your baby.
I'm not quite sure what the rest of the weekend holds. I've accepted that my baby isn't coming out anytime soon though. I still hope, but I'm not counting on it.
I am taking things one day at a time. I still have bronchitis and I'm still pregnant, much to my dismay. This week has been uneventful. I have had really bad cramps and back pain the past few days. I've woken up at around 4:30am each morning in agony from them. They usually taper off by the afternoon and come back as a dull ache around the evening. Hopefully the cramping is my body progressing closer to labor. Unfortunately for me, I've never gone into labor on my own, and I'm not quite sure my body will this time either. I made Willie walk with me yesterday (Tuesday evening) for about a mile and no contractions started in the evening from it. The only thing I got from walking was some swelling. I have my 37 week doctors appointment on Thursday and I have yet to decide if I'm going to ask them to check to see if I've made some progress or wait another week at my 38 week appointment. My birthday is on Saturday, and as much as it would suck to be in the hospital that day, I'd love to have my baby around my birthday as my birthday gift. I hate my birthday, so even if I had to share it, I wouldn't be upset. Atleast at that point, I'd have something to look forward to around my birthday.
I've been really bad with my schedule. The girls are getting up earlier, and Kayliana is usually down pretty early, but Addison is still giving me a hard time going to bed at night. I haven't been too crazy strict about it simply because I know things will change once the baby is here and I'll have to get into a new routine anyways. But, the schedule has helped them with their eating habits and such. Addison has been doing really good with being off of the sippy cup too. We've had a few spills, but for the most part she does surprisingly well with it. We've not used one sippy cup in days. I'm so proud of my baby girl.
I'm still sick! It hasn't been fun. I've tried taking Robitussin but it hasn't really helped. Unisom is helping me sleep at night for more than a 1/2 hour at a time but now, today, I'm so incredibly tired. I hate that Unisom makes me groggy all day the day after I take it. I've been lucky enough to not catch a fever with this thus far. My cough is starting to be productive too.
This weekend wasn't so bad despite being sick. Saturday we went to the pool. The girls absolutely loved the water. I was surprised to see that Kayliana wanted to go down the water slides ALL BY HERSELF and that Addison didn't want to go down them again after the first time. Last year was total opposite. Kayliana would absolutely refuse to go down the slides and that is all Addison wanted to do. We have season passes, so I know we'll be there quite a bit this summer. It was nice to relax in the water too even if it was just waist down. My upper back got burnt so that is going to be nice dark and tan while the rest of my body looks super white.
Schedule is still in the works. Tomorrow we start a more strict schedule. Nothing too strict but a normal everyday routine with just about the same things going on each day. We'll probably end up going somewhere (pool, park, etc) once on the weekend and twice during the week. I have the pool and a park for during the week this week, but that really all depends on what the weather does too. I'm also thinking of the zoo on Saturday for my birthday with the kids if it's not overly hot out.
We've also started Addison on real big girl cups. We've taken away her sippy cups so I guess this is her first big step to the big girl world. Potty training is something we'll work with when she turns 3. I really do not want to try that right around the time the baby will be born because I really do not want her to go backwards. Not too worried about having 2 in diapers since I cloth diaper and alot of the diapers I have are One Size so they'll fit both Addison and the baby. So far, though, she's doing great with the cup. We are only filling it up about less than 1/2 way to get her used to it but so far she's been pretty good with it. I need to get some reusable sports bottles for the kids so that I can take those with us rather than sippy cups.
Not much has happened the past few days. It's been a pretty uneventful week thus far. Willie started painting the baby's room yesterday evening and I think he plans to finish up this weekend. He also needs to go get the dresser for the baby's room too. We'll probably even be installing the carseat this weekend as well.
I woke up lastnight coughing nearly constantly and was up every half hour. I got pretty much no sleep and Willie got up at 6am when I was up coughing up a lung. He went out and was an awesome hubby and picked up some Robitussin for me since I can't take much else while pregnant. I'm pretty sure it's bronchitis. Had a low grade fever earlier but took some tylenol and it seems to have gone back down.
Yesterday, we also started the kids on a schedule. I am not being too firm with it right now simply because I'm not feeling well and because I want them to get used to one thing at a time. I cannot take the girls going to sleep at midnight and 1am anymore. Kayliana will still get up by 9am and Addison wants to sleep until noon. So, we've decided to start a schedule for them in hopes to get them sleeping sooner and awake sooner (Addison atleast). They will get their movie/tv down time at 8:00pm, but by 9:30pm they are in bed. Lastnight it wasn't so bad. It took Addison about an hour to fall asleep but being asleep by 10:30pm for her instead of 1am is a huge improvement. Hopefully it works out in the end.
I had my 36 week appointment today! Nothing really exciting to report. I had my GBS test and I guess if something is wrong, I'll know by my next appointment on Thursday, the 10th. I gained more than I'd like in the past 2 weeks. I gained 4lbs, so about 2lbs a week the past 2 weeks. I'm now at 150lbs (WHOA). Blood pressure was normal, and the heartbeat was in the 140's. I was checked and I am not dilated and am about 50% effaced she said. So no progress even though I have been having a lot of pressure and contractions. I also found out that the doctors office does not do checks unless you ask. I probably wont ask next week, but I'll probably ask at 38 weeks if I haven't gone into labor by then. I don't think this baby is coming early or on time though.
I hope everyone had a good Memorial Day weekend. Ours wasn't so bad, pretty good actually.
Friday we didn't do anything, just lounged around the house. But Saturday, I did a bit of cleaning around the house. Willie did too, that was a surprise! LOL! His dad was in town so we met up with him and Willie's little sister for dinner at Ruby Tuesday. The girls did fairly well at dinner time and didn't act up like they sometimes will. After dinner, we went shopping around for something else for me to wear during the end of my pregnancy but I had no luck finding anything at all.
Sunday was my older sisters birthday. She was having a few people meet up at Gilligans Pier and Willie and I thought it would be nice to make an appearance. We dropped the girls off with my mother in law and headed down that way. It was pretty packed and we had to ride the "short bus" to get there. We were going to eat dinner there too so we put our name down and they told us it would be a 1 to 2 hr wait and took Willie's phone number. We hung out outside on the sand listening to the band and catching up with some people that I haven't seen in awhile. I can't believe how many people didn't even recognize me because of my hair. Even my own sister walked right by me. LOL! It was so hot out there though, and I could feel my feet swelling so I grabbed some water and just tried to stay hydrated. After an hour and a half of not hearing from them about our dinner table, we went back and asked for an update and they gave our table away saying that they called but no one answered. Apparently the phone call didn't go through. They told us that we'd get the next available table, so we waited about 10 minutes, watched them clear off a table and give the table to someone else. After that, we decided to just leave and go get dinner elsewhere since it was about 6:30pm and the last time I had eaten was 10:30am that morning. I needed to get food in my system. By the time we got on the bus, my feet were so swollen and even turning purple. It was probably a good thing we left when we did since the heat and standing for a few hours was definitely getting to me. We ended up going to Texas Roadhouse for dinner and it was really good. It was Willie's first time going there and he was pleased.
Later that evening, I had a few contractions in the middle of the night but nothing too bad.
Memorial Day was good. I woke up in the mood to go and do something. I talked Willie into taking the girls to the beach at Flag Ponds. We couldn't find our beach umbrella so we went to Kmart and Walmart looking for one along with a few other items that would be helpful at the beach. We stayed for close to 2 hrs and the girls had an absolute blast playing in the sand and water. It was definitely hot but having that beach umbrella for shade and the cool (but gross looking) water helped me to stay cool. It's a pretty good hike to and from the beach and Addison did not want to walk back to the car. I was smart enough to bring my mei tei sling and put her on my back. I'll tell you what though, having an extra 30lbs on your back when you are 9 months pregnant and walking UP hill the entire way back was definitely killer! My legs were hurting since it's practically 60lbs extra I was carrying with me than I'm used to (30lbs of a toddler on my back and almost 30lbs of weight gain from this pregnancy).
We got home, gave the girls a shower, showered ourselves and Willie went out to get dinner. While he was gone, contractions started in. They were about every 5 to 7 mins for about 5 hrs. They weren't painful, but were uncomfortable. In the middle of the night, I woke up around 2:30am and had contractions, somewhat painful, for 2 hrs every 3 to 5 mins apart. I was able to fall asleep and real labor never did kick in. Today, I'm not feeling so great. I'm more than ready to have this baby!
