Three Weeks!

Today Dean is three weeks old! It's gone by pretty fast. Mom was here for his delivery. Dad flew down on Halloween, so almost a week after he was born. They flew back to Utah together on November 7. Here's a four generation picture we took while Dad was here (unfortunately Grammy couldn't hold Dean because she had shingles) :

We also took a family photo:

It was SO nice to have extra hands. Since my parents have been gone, I've managed around the house just fine. Dean sleeps well enough that I'm not a total zombie (granted, I often don't get out of bed until after 10...) and I've been able to do okay with giving him plenty of attention and still getting laundry and dishes done. So yes, I am managing around the house just fine. But I don't leave the house. I tried on Monday. I made a grocery list. But then Dean was sleeping and I didn't want to wake him up, but then when he was awake he wanted held or to eat. The end of the day rolls around and I still hadn't gone to the store, so when Trevor got home, he watched Dean while I went grocery shopping. I'm glad we can tag-team.

Dean loves to sleep in the Boppy. Or at least I love him to sleep in the Boppy because he'll sleep for long stretches. And he just looks so cute all curled up.

He is starting to get fussier. Bummer. There have been more times of "I can't figure out why he's crying" lately. We go through the list. I just fed him. He's not hungry. I just changed his diaper. He's not poopy. Because he just pooped. So it's probably not that he's trying to poop. Is he tired? Just wants to be held a different way? I. Don't. Know.
*I should probably mention right about now that this is NOT a plea for advice of any kind. Just telling you how we're doing.

Even with his slight fussiness (he really isn't bad), he is still the world's sweetest and cutest baby. Ok, ok, tied with Jonah. I love when he falls asleep on my chest when I'm trying to burp him after nursing. I love when he puckers his little lips. I love when he grabs my finger.

He likes his bouncy seat and swing for about 20 minute stretches, but that's long enough for me to make myself some food or whatever. Today I actually put on makeup while he was in his bouncy seat. He also is having more and more scream-free diaper changes, so that's a plus. We're waiting for him to warm up to bath time.

I'll add the pictures later...baby's crying. Thus is life.

Dean's First Week

After the delivery and stitches, Dean was with me pretty much every minute of our hospital stay. I got to nurse within an hour of his delivery and he did pretty good. After a couple hours, we were transferred to our recovery room. The room was pretty small, but nice. The hospital had full room service for me, so I got to order some yummy things. They had a really big menu! They also had a galley on the recovery floor stocked with salads and sandwiches, so we ate very well while we were in the hospital!

Pretty quick after getting settled in the recovery room, I took a nap and Trevor went with the nurse to watch Dean get his first bath. He was not a fan.

For the rest of the day, we rested and attempted to nurse. Dean was not interested in eating! He had done so well the very first feeding that I was a little surprised, but he just would not eat. It wasn't a latch issue. He would latch on, but wouldn't start sucking. That led to the biggest concern from the pediatrician: he hadn't peed. So after a few failed attempts, we decided to supplement with formula and for me to pump to stimulate milk production. He would drink formula because it would drip in his mouth and he had to swallow. Later in the evening, Dean threw up twice. After that, they decided to pump his little tummy. Turns out that he had 14 units of amniotic fluid and merconium in his stomach. The normal stomach capacity for a newborn is 6 units (I don't remember what units), so he was super full. No wonder he didn't want to eat. He had to have his tummy pumped one other time and again they got a good amount. His little tummy had to have been very uncomfortable! Once his stomach was cleared out, he had a pretty good feeding. But in the morning, he still hadn't peed yet, so we did not get the discharge order from the pediatrician. At around 2:00 on Sunday afternoon, the pediatrician came by to do a little exam. She examined his penis to make sure the opening was there and not blocked. He looked good. Then she fastened up his diaper and started checking his kidneys. The next step was going to be inserting a catheter to make sure he was even producing urine, but luckily as she was prodding his kidneys, he peed! And a full on flood of pee, too. Then that wasn't as big of a concern, so we were pretty sure we'd be able to leave the next morning. He only peed one other time before we left, but thankfully they still let us go. He continued to have a bit of a hard time nursing in the hospital, but everyone agreed that once by milk came in and there would be something for him to drink immediately, he would be just fine. And he has been!

Here's us getting ready to come home:

And here's us once we got back to our apartment. Welcome home, Dean!

That afternoon, Dean did a lot of this:

But he was awake and alert for a little bit, too.

So far in life, his favorite things are sleeping and nursing. And pooping. He's also gotten the peeing thing down pretty good. We had his first doctor's appointment on Tuesday and the doctor said he should be having at least 4-5 wet diapers a day and to call if Dean went more than 12 hours without a wet diaper. Well, my milk came in and he eats a lot and has had no problem getting those 4+ wet diapers.

Unfortunately, his least favorite thing in the world is getting his diaper changed. He screams the whole time. He also hates getting his clothes changed. But when he has massive explosions of urine, sometimes that is also necessary. Sorry, buddy, it's for your own good.

He had his first sponge bath at home Tuesday before his doctor's appointment. He didn't like that so much either...

Isn't that the cutest face you have ever seen?!?
If he isn't getting changed or bathed, he is a very calm baby. He doesn't even really cry when he wakes up. He is very snuggly and cuddly and I love that!

Trevor has had a very busy week. He missed a midterm on Monday and had to take it Wednesday. He also is competing in the final moot court competition tonight, so he's spent a lot of time this week preparing for that. And on Saturday he takes the MPRE which is the professional responsibility part of the bar. All of that the week of having a brand new baby. He is working so hard and is still managing to make time to cuddle with Dean and have good conversations with me. He's pretty much superman.

While Dean was being born on Saturday, Trevor's family was together in Utah at his cousin Jared's funeral. He passed away exactly 5 years to the day of his mom (Anne's sister) passing away from the very same form of brain cancer. We were celebrating a new life while they were celebrating a life well lived and a life now free from pain. Life is precious, and we feel so blessed to have this new, innocent life joining our family. We love our little guy!

Halloween

Is it hard to create a costume for a baby less than a week old? NO! We're already on #2. And we have more.

Dean's Birth

Friday morning I woke up feeling crampy, but not really in pain, so Mom and I went out to run some errands to see if we could get things going. We went grocery shopping and ran to Target and DI. Then we went home to watch a movie. While we were watching, my cramps started being a little more defined, so I was able to actually start timing them. At around 6 they started getting closer together. Again, not painful, but we decided that given family history, if contractions were getting closer together and more defined, it would be worth going to get checked. We weren't in a big hurry, so we gathered up some things we hadn't packed yet just in case and then headed to the hospital. We got there around 7. On the way, Trevor totally made the red light camera go off. We hope they buy the "My wife was in labor and we were driving to the hospital" story. When we got there, I hadn't really dilated any more from my appointment on Wednesday, but my water broke right then, so I was at the hospital to stay. We called Jason to come help Trevor give me a blessing, so Jason, Brittany, and Emmett came for a short little visit. Then, it was time to get on the monitors and such. Here's a pic of Trevor and I in the labor/delivery room:

The staff at Banner Desert was AMAZING. I hear all the time about how women need to be more respected during the labor process and be able to make decisions about how they wanted things to be. That was the exact experience I had. I said I wanted to be able to take monitors off, and they were totally accomadating. I was only on the monitors for the required 20 minutes out of the hour. At around 10:00 PM my contractions had reached a point of "incredibly painful." I tried lots of things. I went for a walk, used the labor ball, took a hot shower, etc. Trevor was amazing at helping me breathe through contractions. Counting my breathing has always been helpful for me (I have to count my breaths as I run or else I pant) and he was right there with me every step of the way. Mom was always near to let me squeeze her hand and to rub my back. I had wanted to use the labor tub, but Dean's heart rate was already high and being submerged in the warm water would make it higher, but they said I could take a shower until his heart rate calmed down. It really helped a lot. But by the time I was getting out of the shower and I'd been having really painful contractions for a few hours and had only dilated a little bit, I decided I would rather scratch the tub and just have an epidural.

I had gone in to labor with an open mind about an epidural. I figured if it seemed like I would progress quickly, I would rather go unmedicated. If it seemed like I was going to be in excruciating pain for a long time, I would take the meds. It was clear to me it would be a while longer, and I wasn't sure I was going to be up for that long of hard labor. Plus, it was in the wee hours of the morning and I figured it would be good for all three of us (me, Mom, Trevor) to get some rest. Best. Decision. Ever. My regrets about getting medicated? None. I didn't really sleep after, but I was able to rest. I didn't feel a thing! But I still had mobility in my legs, which was nice.

My body finally kicked in to gear and dilated. About 5:00 I was at an 8.5. The nurse thought by shift change at 6, I would be about ready. She was right. The new nurse checked me at some point after six, but took her time with calling the doctor and such, so I was at a 10 and ready for about half an hour before anything happened. I pushed with the nurse to get Dean's head down and crowning and then she called the doctor in. He came in at 8:10, I pushed through about 4 contractions and Dean was born! Mom made sure there was a mirror in the room in case I wanted to see, and in the end I decided I wanted to. I would look in between pushes. Most of the time I had my eyes closed when pushing, but the doctor made sure I had open eyes the last push so I could see Dean's arrival. It was a pretty incredible sight! (but I won't post a picture)

Dean had pooped in his amniotic fluid (silly boy) so I didn't get to hold him right away. He had to go to  the table where doctors and nurses from the NICU were waiting to make sure he didn't aspirate any of the fluid. Trevor was able to watch them clean him up and weigh him, etc. Meanwhile, the doctor delivered my placenta and stitched me up. I'm pretty sure Trevor had more fun during those few minutes.

But then they brought me my sweet little angel boy and I was so excited to be able to snuggle my son!! It was pretty surreal. (These are not the best pics of me. There's a better one on my phone, but I haven't uploaded it to my computer yet. But I'd just given birth, so I'm allowed to not look my best.)

Out of Order

"Out of Order" makes it sound like something is broken. Well, something is broken. And that something is our bank account! So when we were charged over $200 to renew our bluehost site we opted NOT to pay bluehost and switch to blogger instead. So, really the "Out of Order" is referring to the new site and some mixed up posts. I just copied and pasted entries from our old blog, so they may be scrambled. And some pictures are missing.

Oh well. Enjoy!

And stay tuned. . . especially for a baby update!

Almost There!

Just for kicks and giggles, here’s a few more preggo pics.

My feet at the beginning of the day:

My feet at the end of the day:

Holy hugeness, batman. Good thing Trevor is very sweet to me and rubs my feet every night. We used to take turns reading scriptures aloud. Now, I read and Trevor rubs. It works out great. It’s relaxing and my feet aren’t quite so puffy anymore. Have I mentioned that Trevor is the BEST?

37 Weeks:

As of today (38 weeks) I am 60% effaced and dilated 1 1/2 centimeters. This little guy could come in about a week! We’ll see how long he decides to cook. We’re excited to meet our little man!

Pregnancy Update

In case anyone out there was wondering about my pregnancy, here are my thoughts:

1) The first 16 weeks were miserable. The end.

2) I could honestly just sit and watch my stomach move around and dance all day long and be immensely entertained. I can only imagine how fascinated I’ll be when Dean is OUT of my body!

3) One night while in Pennsylvania, I forgot to take a Unisom. And I didn’t feel awful the next day! I was so excited. I had been feeling pretty good for a long time, but only if I took a Unisom pill. But since then I’ve only taken a pill a couple times. Yay!

4) I have a super power in life. It’s called the bladder of steel. I seriously never have to wake up during the night to go to the bathroom. I have (many times) honestly thought, “Man, I kind of need to go pee, but I’m already in bed. I’ll just go in the morning.” And then I sleep through the night and just go when I wake up. I have been nervous that pregnancy would suck my super power right out of me, but so far so good. There is still time I’m sure, but for now, I am enjoying uninterrupted sleep. Although…

5) I have to sleep with my feet elevated because they are the size of watermelons by the end of the day. But I usually wake up with normal sized feet. The strange thing is that only my left foot swells. I’ve been trying to make sure I go on a walk or go jogging everyday because getting my circulation up keeps my swelling down.

6) I enjoy going jogging, but as I get further along in my pregnancy, I can’t go as far. And I run at a snail’s pace. And sometimes my bladder of steel isn’t as strong when running. Sometimes I can’t make it very far before I have to go, and there aren’t any bathrooms unlocked at the track, so I have to stop and walk. Also, my back was starting to hurt when I was finished, but thanks to Megan, I have a maternity support band that I started wearing when I run and it works wonders!

7) No one should ever attempt pregnancy without a belly band. I kind of hate maternity pants, but with the belly band, I just wear the same jean shorts I always have and just keep them up with the band. Although sometimes I just prefer elastic waist skirts that I can wear below my belly, then I don’t have to have the extra layer in this heat.

8) We have finally made decisions about what things we want to buy! It makes me relieved and excited. We’re registered at Target and Babies R Us, in case you were wondering.

9) I think Dean is in a growth spurt because I’ve been extra hungry the past few days.

10) Overall I feel pretty good. My least favorite thing in the world right now is putting on socks. My favorite thing is feeling Dean move. I’m kind of bummed I haven’t had any really weird cravings. Cravings always make the best stories. And when people ask, “have you had any weird cravings?” I want to have a cool answer. But I don’t.

And that’s about it. Here’s some pics of my bump progress:

25 weeks

28 weeks (I got MUCH bigger between 27 and 28 weeks). I accidentally deleted the pic that showed my face. But we’re all more interested in my belly anyway, right?

30 weeks