1 month

I can't believe a whole month has gone by since James was born.

Time flies when you are having fun, busier than you thought you could be with feeding, changing and trying to entertain someone so little with a very short attention span :)

James is a fairly good baby. He definitely has his "moments" and I have had only one day that I felt like I might loose it... well make that two. The day he had to go in for some additional testing and have blood drawn from his arm while he was screaming I did loose it, but for totally different reasons.

His hardest thing is when he gets over tired and then does not want to sleep. That is a challenging one. He "luckily" does that during the day and by the time night comes, he knows when it is time for bed. He is sleeps good at night and wakes up every 2-3 hours to feed. But he is an early riser and is up and wide awake by 5 or 6am. I am glad Haws is a early riser so I don't always have to wake up with him too at that time.

James loves his swing and is warming up to his bouncer. These are the tools I use so I can shower if he isn't down for a nap. I have been trying to get him on a eat, wake/activity, sleep schdule and I find that the days we accomplish this, things goes smoother. He is a good eater, my challenge is getting him down for naps. He usually will fall asleep in the car, so he sleeps through a lot of our outings. Now that I am feeling better and we have the new stroller, we go for walks everyday. It is good for both of us to get out :)

Everyone has been so nice coming to visit, bringing us dinner or going out to lunch for us. We really appreciate all of the help! Cooking is one of the hardest things to get done along with cleaning. I am doing my best to keep on top of the laundry and keep the house in order. The deep cleaning is lacking... oh well.

Oh yeah... James is a spit up machine! I thought something was wrong, but I think it is just the way he is. I have tried somethings to help him stop and my doc said if he seems to be really gassy and in pain I might need to go off dairy! What a bummer that will be. No more ice cream???!!!! I am trying to cut back here and there. But the ice cream is sticking unless it gets bad.

I know I am missing things I wanted to document, but I will just have to get back to it when I remember.

I love the look on his face here. It's like he is asking "Are we done yet?"

After spending sometime on the activity mat at Nana's house, I realized that we have one too! 

James will reach up and try to grab the little toys. He is very amused by this thing. 

Video

I saw this video on a friend's blog and I had to share it! Now if only it was a Dodge Journey instead....

SWAGGER WAGON

Freedom???

We decided it is time to try the bottle on little James. He has had no problem breastfeeding, so we figure we are in the clear for nipple confusion at this point.

We tried a cold bottle while out to dinner last night and he wasn't having it at all! So today we made the milk warm like mommy's and he totally went for it! Yeah! Since I will be going back to work part time in about a month, I wanted to be sure he would take the bottle. That is a relief and now maybe we can see a couple of movies we have been wanting to see :)

In other news... we have been doing our tummy time and James is getting better at holding up his head. He actually was doing this the night he was born, but he can hold it up longer now.

Sometimes he takes a break and just stares at me... I love it.

smiles :)

I took this video with my phone (which is not very high tech) but I had to try to post his smile. I love this song and play it for him all the time because it was playing in the background when he was born.

Don't mind my singing. I know I can't sing, but he thought it was entertaining :)

HE IS HERE!!!!!

This is our first family photo and a moment I will remember always.

They actually brought him to us right after he was born to see him and give him a kiss before they took him for measurements and to get cleaned up.

James Robert was born June 30th at 10:38pm. He weighed 8 lbs, 7 oz and was 20 inches. I can't believe I had over an 8 lb baby in me!

THE BIRTH STORY

This whole thing started on Tues, June 29th when I went in to be induced after being a week past my due date with a suspected big baby. I didn't want to be induced, so we tried the folley tube/balloon first. That went in around 4pm and let me tell you, that was not a pleasant experience. Seeing as I was starting labor on my own and dilated to one, I thought it wouldn't be so bad. I was wrong. Luckily I used techniques from my hypnobabies to get through it. Once that was in, we had 12 hours to see if I would dilate to 4 and have it drop out. So I labored for the next 12 hours, walking the halls, listening to my hypno cds and working through contractions that were 2-3 min apart. I felt like I had to be making progress. Then the 12 hours were up and they had to remove the balloon. It got me to 2.5 cm which was rather disappointing. I then had to get some pitocin in me. The started me off low and gradually pumped it up. my contractions were getting pretty strong at this point and back labor started to hit. I would not wish back labor on anyone! Ouch... not fun. But again, I was able to work through it just hoping it wouldn't last much longer. Haws was so great during the whole thing. He walked the halls with me, helping me through the tough ones. I couldn't have asked him to be any more perfect. Eventually they broke my water and all hell broke loose! Once that water was gone, the contractions speed up and there was no water to "cushion" the contractions. After about 2 hours I couldnt take it anymore. I couldnt concentrate on my hypnobabies and I told Haws I could do it if I knew I only had to for another hour... but with no guarantee as to how long this might last, I needed that epidural! Once I decided to go for it, it felt like the anesthesiologist couldn't get there fast enough! What sweet relief when the epidural kicked in. I no longer felt like I was going to die.

So, they pumped up that pitocin as high as they could, I was at a 4 and 95% effaced at this point. I was having contractions that should have been dilating me a cm per hour and after 3 hours... nothing. The little guys head wasnt coming down which made dilating very difficult. I was communicating with my doctor and she kept letting me try a few more hours before she came in to talk about a c-section. Haws and I talked about it and we both had a strong impression that a c-section was the only way this baby was going to come out. I thought that my biggest nightmare would be to have a c-section. I wanted to be able to move around and take care of the baby as soon as he came out. I know joke that God must have known the only way I would take it easy after birth was to make me have a c-section :) So after 26 hours of natural labor and 7 hours with an epidural we headed off for a c-section.

It really wasn't bad. I went in feeling really good about it. The drugs made me get the shakes, but it also made me super chatty and excited. Maybe that was the adrenalin. So with in 30 min of prep, listening to the KOST in the operating room (unchained melody, some chicago, Hey, soul sista) they held up a mirror and I saw James' sweet little face coming out. Since he was sunnyside up again, he came out looking at us! It was amazing. I was so relieved to see he was perfect and I couldn't believe how cute he was. I gave him a kiss and just looked at Haws while he took him to cut the cord. Then he was back with the baby and we all went into recovery. James latched on right away and I was so grateful that he has been a good breastfeeding baby. I know that can be one of the most challenging things with a newborn. The rest of the night was kind of a blur. We got into our new room and tried to rest a little for the night. I think the whole time we were in the hospital, Haws and I got somewhere between 8-15 hours of sleep total. We were there Tues-Sun and brought baby James home on the 4th of July.

We had lots of visitors who came by and I am just so thankful for all the family and friends who have been so supportive during all of this. For the visits, the meals, the phone calls... just everything! We even had Dana and Chase fly in for the weekend so she was here to see us in the hospital along with other cousins that were here for the 4th of July week. Jared flew in to surprise us at the hospital which was such a nice surprise.

Get ready for a picture overload. This is my journal, so I gotta document :) I wish I knew how to do a collage or something, but I don't.

I love this picture of him.

Using my hypnobabies

 

Look how huge I look!

Baby James

 Visitors (I know I missed pics with a few)

Daddy changing the "tar" diaper. I love the look on his face!

Giving mommy a hug.

Going home!

Baby James Update

Today things did not go as planned. I had called my doctors office to see if I could push back the scheduled induction my doctor had set up for Tues to Thurs. I just felt like little James might need a couple of extra days to figure out how to make his way into the world. I left her a message, but found out it was her day off so someone else would be calling me. I got home from a walk and running some errands when one of the docs from the office called me back. After explaining my feelings she informed me why they don't like their patients to go over 41 weeks, especially if the baby is measuring big like little James is. I tried to explain why I wanted to wait a couple of days and she said she would call my doc and the hospital to see if we could push it to Thurs. Well... the hospital only takes a certain amount of scheduled inductions each day and the next available appointment was not until next Tues. My doc called me (on her day off) to tell me it would have been fine to push it back a couple of days, but she would not be comfortable waiting until I was 42 weeks and would probably only deliver me if it was a c-section! I love my doc and trust her to know what is best. I don't think that James is going to be a 9 lb baby, but he could be if I wait too long. I might be able to handle delivering a big baby, but I just don't know. So after much thought and prayer, we decided to head to the doc today to get checked and do a few things that might help push me along. We will see if they work tonight. I was dilated about 1/2 cm but was 70% effaced with a soft cervix, which is good. Otherwise, I go in tomorrow to possibly be induced. I am hoping I will get there and I will be at a point where I can just let nature take it's course with out any pitocin... but if I need it, that's OK too.

After I saw the doc, she sent me to fetal monitoring at the hospital to have the baby and my fluids checked (his heart rate had dropped a little). Everything there looked good! His heart rate was great and he was moving a ton. My fluid levels are good and the best news of all is that James has turned for me! I was so happy to see that he is no longer sunnyside up and is in the perfect position for birth. I have been doing exercises and seeing a chiropractor to get him to turn, so I guess it worked!

Now back to the waiting game, but it wont be for very long. It is crazy to think that in a couple of days we will be holding our little baby boy.