So what is life like now with a little newborn. The first 2 nights at home were really rough. We couldn’t figure out what Alex wanted and when. His sleep schedule hadn’t been established yet so he was up every hour and constantly wanted food. I MEAN CONSTANT. This little guy was a machine for the first few days. He wanted to eat always and we were worried that he was going to be gassy from eating all the time.  Things have finally settled down though and we think we figured it out.  He  sleeps for about 2-3 hours and then is up for about an  hour and a half to two hours eating twice, playing, doing tummy time, and changing his diaper.  We are trying to make sure he is awake for longer during the day and we cut down the awake time to only an hour at night so that he simply eats and gets a diaper change. 

I couldn’t get Alex to breastfeed and I sortof gave up, but instead I am pumping and he eats breastmilk during the day and then gets formula at night. We think it actually helped with some of the messed up schedule he had going and he seems much more content and less gassy and fussy. 

Changing diapers is definately fun! Alex has quite the sense of humor. He peed  while Paul was chaning him two days ago. All I heard was yelling from the other room “WHOA WHOA WHOA!” It was hilarious. Then yesterday he decided to pull the same thing on mommy and do a nice rotating sprinkler spray that shot sideways as he turned and peed. I had nothing to grab and ended up grabing one of his little hand mittens that was close by to stop the sprinkler action. As Paul came over to help clean up he stepped in the pee that hit the floor. He has quite the aim. We have both learned that the little camo pee pee caps are a must during changings. 

It is amazing already how fast Alex is growing. He is a skinny little guy but I think he is going to grow fast. We had our first Dr. appointment yesterday and he is up to 6 pounds 4 ounces.  The doctor said everything looks great and gave him a clean bill of health.  At the hospital Alex only passed the hearing test in his right ear and so we have a referral to see the auditory specialist in a few weeks.  They say it is nothing to worry about and usually it is just because the test at the hopsital sucks… hmmm.. well then get the better equipment instead of making me go to another place that has the better equipment.  Its actually more of just a hassle I think for us parents.  I can tell Alex hears everything, so I am 99% sure that it is just a way for another specialty doctor to get money   We have our next doctor appointment on the 17th of December.  And now, for what you have all been waiting for!

Grey Eyes- they will most likely change, Paul's nose & eyes

Jewels meets Alex- she has been wonderful!

play with me!

Half asleep

Proud first time grandma

Around 2 am the doctor finally came by and I was only 2.5 cm dialated. On Monday during our Dr. appointment I was only 1 cm dialated, so the doctor said that over the last couple of days that was good progress.  Next came the IV… OMG… Hell on Earth. I have no veins. We had every nurse in the room possible. I was poked 3 times in the left arm and  3 times in the right before they finally found a vein to get my IV into.  I have bruises all over my arms from all the proding! Turns out that I was dehydrated as well and they started a sugar drip and it didn’t help with the struggle of finding my veins.

The contractions slowed to being 10 minutes apart, but they were still going.  I dozed in and out of some sleep with the contractions and poor Paul attempted to sleep on a couch.  Around 4:30 the contractions were gaining strength and 8 minutes apart.  They were definately beginning to gain in intensity, but nothing that was imbearable. At this point my pain was at about a 4 or 5 (scale of 10 as being unbearable).  The nurse came in and checked and I was now 3 cm dialated.  Little by little I was making progress, but boy was I disappointed that with the level of pain I was at I wasn’t even halfway dialated.  I began to think that there was no way I was going to manage this without an epidural.

As the contractions continued to get stronger, Alex’s heartbeat began dropping again with each contraction. During the contraction it would dip to below 100 for several seconds and as muach as through the entire contraction.  That was when we had our first scare.  During one point Alex’s heart beat did not want to stabilize and the nurse had me turing to each side and moving all around until it sped back up.  At this point I began to get a little scared, I just knew there was something wrong. My younger brother even came in at some point and noticed the monitor and the variability of his heartrate.  We hadn’t said anything to anyone because we didn’t want to scare them and I was really in the process of keeping myself calm through the entire situation.

Since we were having issues with Alex’s heart rate they inserted an internal monitor that hooks on the top of Alex’s head to get a better reading of his heartrate.  The contractions continued to increase steadily in intensity and Alex scared us once again.  The nurses had me all over the place, roll to the left, roll to the right, now back over to the other side. I was being pushed around all over the place like a rag doll. Finally… heart rate back. Now things began to get a little more frantic.  I was getting very scared and the nurse said sometimes they like to “bungee jump” or pull on the cord causing the irregular heartrate.  I remember a brief mention of signing consent in case of a c-section, but they didn’t bring me anything to sign.

The contractions began to become unbearable very quickly, but I was only dialated to 4 cm around 10 or 11 am. I decided that I needed the epidural if I was going to make it through this. It is the strangest feeling to feel something affecting nerves the way an epidural does.  To begin to not feel the lower half of my body really bothered me. They tingled and I concentrated to be able to move my legs as they felt heavier and heavier.  All I remember is that as the contractions continued I couldn’t feel them, but I could see Alex’s heartrate reacting to them, and it just still wasn’t looking very good to me.

Then I started to feel really dizzy and as if the room was spinning. My blood pressure was droping and all I remember is being given shots in the IV. Now I really didn’t feel good at all and the next thing I know Alex’s heart rate drops down. I can’t feel my legs and yet they roll me to each side frantically and make me put on an oxygen mask. Then they want me to get on all fours. How am I supposed to do that when I can’t feel my legs? Paul is telling me do it for the baby,  you have to do it for the baby.  Wow.. the panic in my head. I force myself onto all fours and try to get my legs to work. Nurses are pushing my legs under me and propping me up like a car. I feel my legs give out and I am struggle to keep myself from just flopping belly first onto the bed.  I get flipped back over to my back. I am given an oxygen mask and Paul is telling me just breathe honey just breathe. Take deep breathes, Alex needs them. I have tears streaming down my face and I am trying to remain calm and take the deep breaths he is coaching me through. I notice the panic through the room and a paper is brought to me to sign for a C-section.  I sign the paper and close my eyes, focusing on not panicing and listening to Paul’s voice coach me through to be calm and telling me that it is all going to be alright. He says the baby is fine, they got the heart rate, but we are going in for a C-section. Paul says Alex is going to be fine honey, just keep on breathing deep. I stare at the ceiling and watch the white tiles pass by as I get wheeled into the surgical room.

My arms get spread straight out to the side as if I am in a cross position and the doctor that did my epidural is at my head asking me how I feel and to tell her if I feel dizzy or sick or like I am going to throw up.  I think to myself, stay calm or else i am going to send my body into a panic. A blue drap is put up over my face and I am being poked with needles on my legs and all the way up to my armpit with the doctors asking over and over “can you feel this”  I couldn’t feel anything until they hit my armpit. Wow… what a weird sensation… where is my body?

Paul walks in all dressed in scrubs from head to toe and sits down on a stool by my head. I tell him he looks good in scrubs and should be a doctor. He laughs and comments back.  He is talking to me and we are having a conversation, but I dont remember much of what was said. I just remember saying to him, please just keep talking to me honey and he reassures me that everything is going to be fine.  Next thing I know they ask Paul if he wants to see the baby and he peaks over the blue drape. He turns to me and says he looks fine and I begin to hear a baby crying. I said to Paul is he alright and he says he sounds and looks great, someone else in room says something about the baby being good and the crying increases with intensity.  They bring him over for a second, put his cheek to mine, he stops crying. For that brief second I felt like my baby’s face on my face comforted him for a second and he stopped crying.  They wisk him away after what I thought was maybe 5 seconds.  Paul is asked if he wants to go over to see the baby and he looks at me and asks if he should go and if I am okay. All I could think was yes yes yes! Go over there and make sure our baby is okay, stay with him and make sure that he is going to be all right. 

Paul dissappears and I hear the baby crying, people talking, and then they take Alex off to be evaluated and Paul goes with.  Now I have to be stitched up and it is NOT fun. I feel nauseaus and sick and throw up several times. They finish up and wheel me off to recovery.  I can’t move my body, I can’t hear my baby, and I have no idea what is going on.  All I could do was wait.  It was all such a blur and I had no idea what was going on.  Paul came back and at some point I think they brought the baby to me and tried to make me nurse, but I couldn’t even feel my body.  All I wanted to do was just hold my little boy, but people were pushing me around to try and feed him. Finally, relief, we get to go to the room.