2 week check up

My "little" boy isn't so little. We went for his 2 week check up today and he is in the 90th percentile for height and weight. He weighed 9 lb 6 oz and was 22 in long. He was 8 lb 3 oz, 21 1/4 in long when he was born. He lost down to 7 lb 13 oz by the time we took him home from the hospital. The nurse said they really just check to make sure they gain back to their birth weight by the 2 week appt. Well, mission accomplished little guy!!

Dr. Burns said he looks great. He did give us a prescription for some eye drops. Apparently it's a tear duct that is clogged. He said it should clear up on it's own, but it can take a while. It's quite normal, though. He had his heel pricked again. He was not happy about it. Of course. I wouldn't be either. But, other than that he was just calm the whole time. He's a good little baby.

We asked Dr. Burns if we were over feeding him since he had gained so much weight. He said that as long as his height and weight were staying proportional, then it's fine. Since he was in the 90th percentile for both height and weight, we're doing good. For now, he's eating 3 oz every 3 hours. He's such a slow eater, though. He likes to savor his food. :)

Anywho, here are some pics for your viewing pleasure! He's a little doll!!

He is showing off his triple chin again! :)

my angel

Okay, so this isn't exactly the most thrilling video...he's just laying there. But how precious is he??

pics

I added a slide show at the bottom of the page. I tried to add it as a post, but it won't let me.

Random thoughts about this experience so far

So far, Cole has peed on the couch, on me, on himself, on his daddy, on his sheets, on his comforter, and, we're pretty sure, in his eye.
It's been a good week.

Our deep freeze something something got tripped and all the food in it spoiled. Good thing I didn't have too much meat in there...and good thing I hadn't gotten a chance to freeze a bunch of meals. It could have been much worse.

Cole's eye (possibly because he peed in it) started getting matted yesterday. It's getting better, though. It looks pretty good today.

Justin and I have been way more excited about poop that we ever thought we could be. Especially someone else's poop.

Cole is sleeping at night pretty well. We've had a few bad nights, but all in all he's been doing so good. He's a good little boy.

He's already changing so much. His face is starting to fill out. The more it fills out the more he looks like his momma. Bless his heart.

We never knew how wonderful it would be to have him here. We thought we did, but turns out we didn't have a clue.

Formula is expensive.

Breastfeeding is not for me.

We have so many nicknames for Cole already, but the main one is "Boog" apparently. I'm sure he'll appreciate that in a few years.

It was a good thing there weren't many people in labor when I had him. Our people filled up the whole waiting room.

My husband is a wonderful man and I love him more than ever. :)

I'm a mommy!

I'm sure anyone who actually reads my blog already knows by now that Mr. Cole decided to make his appearance a little early...2 weeks and 1 day early, to be exact. I had a shower at work on the 16th and a doctor's appointment at which I was 30% effaced and 1 cm dilated. Dr. Shaffer told me he'd see me the next Thursday if not sooner. Well, turns out he would see me the NEXT DAY! (I'll try not to make this too graphic, but this is mainly for me so I don't forget any of what happened that day).
I was planning on doing a bunch of baby preparations that weekend, but I woke up at 6 am on Friday the 17th and my water broke. I went to the bathroom and something came out when I didn't tell it to. I called Justin through the door, "Babe, I think my water broke." He goes, "what do you mean you think?" I said, "well, stuff is coming out after I stopped telling it to. But, I really hate to go to the hospital if I'm peeing myself. Surely that's not what's happening though." Then I couldn't get up because it kept coming out. So we were pretty sure that it was my water. I took the necessary precuations and started walking around the house trying to figure out what to do. Justin was rushing around like a mad man trying to get stuff together. He was like, "look, just get dressed." I was just kinda wandering around. I just couldn't figure out what I needed to do. I was strangely calm. I wanted to clean the kitchen because I had left it dirty the night before. Justin was like, um, no. So I said, at least take out the trash. Anyway, we got my bag and headed to the hospital. I was still hoping I was not just peeing myself. I was going to be mortified if that's all it was.
By the way, I was planning on seeing Harry Potter after I got off work on Friday at noon. On the way to the hospital I looked down at my belly and said, "well I guess you really didn't want me to see Harry Potter, huh?" Justin was like (in his baby Cole voice), "yeah mom, cause Harry Potter is dumb!" haha
So we go to the emergency room. I was walking towards the door and kept thinking I was almost to just gush all over the place. (Sorry if this is TMI). I just had this horrible mental picture of walking into the ER and SPLASH, amniotic fluid everywhere. I walked up to the counter and before I could even say anything the lady behind the counter said "uh oh, we got a labor and delivery!!" I said, "um, I think my water broke." So they put me in a wheelchair and wheeled me up to labor and delivery. They asked me a few questions, sent me to a triage room, told me to put on a gown, then they hooked me up to a contraction monitor and a heart monitor for the baby. By this point it was about 645 or so (shift change time for the nurses). (That will come into play later). The nurse checked me before she went off shift. She verified that my water had broken. (Thank goodness). So we knew we were there for the long haul. I would have a baby within 24 hours one way or another. They won't let you go longer than that after your water breaks because of the risk of infection.
By this point I was having contractions about every 4 minutes. They weren't that bad, but I definitely tell they were there. Since we knew that things were definitely going to happen that day, we started making phone calls. We just told people, don't hurry, it's going to be a long day. We'll keep you posted.
After shift change, they got me moved into the labor and delivery room. I got my iv put in and was told since my water was broken I couldn't go to the bathroom and had to use a bed pan. Oh, this is just the beginning!! Bless Justin's heart is all I can say. So we settled in, watched some tv, and I had contractions. We sat there and watched the contraction monitor. Justin talked to folks on the phone about how my contractions were "not that bad." Oh really? Well, yeah, they're not that bad to you. They actually weren't that bad yet, but still. Come on. :)
Of course I am not able to eat or drink anything at this point. I haven't eaten since about 7 pm the night before. If you know me at all, you know that I am an eater. I was starving. All I could have was ice chips. Justin went to go eat in the cafeteria. He was nice enough not to eat in front of me. People started showing up to see us off and on.
The nurse, Lora, who was wonderful, by the way. When I first came in I was still just dilated to 1 cm. By the time the doctor finally showed up to check me at 1:30 I was dilated to a 3, which I was pretty happy about it becuase getting from 0 to 4 is the hardest part and I was almost there. So I figured, hey good deal, I'm making good progress. Dr. Shaffer apparently did not agree and said, "okay, we're going to start Pitocin." Pitocin is something they use to induce labor a lot. It makes your contractions come quicker and harder. So for me, it was to speed things along. According to Dr. Shaffer we needed to get these contractions going. Well, according to me, if we're doing Pitocin, I'm getting the epidural sooner rather than later. I knew the contractions were gonna get bad pretty quickly. They started the Pitocin about 2 and I had my epidural by 3. I still had to endure some of the contractions after the Pitocin started. Yeah, they were worse. Most definitely. So from 3 pm until about 5 I just labored on the epidural. Not a bad deal.
The epidural ended up being a little scarier that I thought it would be. No one was in there with me except the nurse anesthetist and Lora. Justin couldn't even be in there. But, it wasn't that bad. I was just scared I was going to have a contraction during it, but I didn't, thank goodness.
Anyway, Lora came in at some point and made me lay on my side and wear an oxygen mask because Cole's heart rate was having decelerations. We tried me on my right side for a while, but it didn't work so she flipped me to the other side. His heart started doing what it was supposed to do so I got to take off the oxygen. Well, then the epidural started "settling" on my left side so my right side started getting feeling back. By the way, the epidural I got did not make me completely numb. I could still feel my legs and stuff. Well, when I started feeling contractions on my right side I asked Lora about it, so I flipped back to my right side. She went ahead and made me put the oxygen back on just in case. Cole's heart was still doing okay. So I stayed on my right side.
Around 5 I guess Lora checked me when she had me flip back to my right side (because of my epidural "settling.") She was like, "Oh my, you're about and 8 or 9." Around this time Justin asked Lora what time she thought we'd be having this baby. Something was mentioned about taking bets. She said that they always bet that babies are going to be born at 645 because that's when they start shift change. Keep that in mind...
About 6 or so all of a sudden I had a sharp pain in the right side of my back. I called Lora back in and she checked me. I was a 10! Fully dilated and ready to start pushing. Holy Crap!! I immediately thought about the 645 thing and was like, "oh my gosh I'm so sorry!!" She just laughed. She said, "oh no! Don't worry about it!! You're having a baby!" So they started getting everything ready.
Here's where things started getting graphic. I'll keep the gorey details to myself. I started pushing. Lora called Dr. Shaffer early cause she said she knew he took a long time to get there. At the beginning, I would just push whenever I felt a contraction. I could feel them, but they didn't exactly hurt. In between pushes, it was just me, Justin and Lora and we were having random conversations. No big deal. Then the rest is kind of a blur. I just kept pushing whenever I felt contractions. At some point Dr. Shaffer showed up. And after 45 minutes of pushing I had a BABY! He was born at 7:06 pm. In fact, Lora's replacement showed up and they had shift change during my delivery.
After Cole was born, they started cleaning him up. He screamed the entire time. His lungs were good!! He scored a 9 and 9 on his Apgars. He weighed 8 lbs 3 oz and was 21 1/4 inches long. In fact, at this point everyone started talking about how he was big for a full term baby, but the fact that he was 2 weeks early...he was a BIG BOY! Dr. Shaffer said he would have been over 9 lbs if he had lasted until August 1.
Justin just watched everything they did, admiring him. He almost forgot to take pictures. I asked him who he looked like. He was like, "a baby!! I don't know!" Dr. Shaffer said, "that's what all dads say." Meanwhile I was getting stitched up. Kind of surreal. In fact it was very surreal. Modesty does definitely go out the window during childbirth. We got to hold him and love on him for a little bit, but the more I think about it, all of that time was just a blur. I can't remember exact moments about it. They started disconnecting stuff off me. Then at some point they took Cole to the nursery for testing and stuff. Then finally I got food!! It was the very best fruit and sandwich and DR PEPPER I had ever had in my LIFE!!
Our little guy is just perfect. We love him so much. He definitely had Justin's lips, chin and feet. He had my nose I think. He does look like my baby pictures more than Justin, though. We'll see who he ends up looking like.
I tried breast feeding the whole time I was in the hospital. It is NOT easy. It was frustrating, but I at least wanted to try. By the time we got Cole home on Sunday, he was so hungry we gave in and fed him a bottle. He's a formula baby now. He is a big eater!
I guess that's about it for now. It's taken me all day to write this.
I just want to say that Justin is by far the best dad I have ever seen. I knew he would be good, but I had no idea. He's been absolutely amazing. Cole is a very luck little boy.
I'll post pics and more funny stories later. The past week has been very interesting, crazy, rewarding, wonderful and just surreal!

tired

I feel really guilty for saying this, just because it could be taken the wrong way, but I'm getting really tired of being pregnant. It has nothing to do with the actual baby though. I love having him in my belly. It's the most amazing thing I've ever experienced and I wouldn't trade it for anything.
I'm tired of answering the same question multiple times a day, every day. I'm tired of walking around like I have a bowling ball between my legs. I'm tired of not being able to sleep however I want to, and actually being comfortable when I sleep. I'm tired of getting up to pee 40 times a night. (Yes, I'm aware I'll be getting up 40 times a night to take care of my child, but guess what, I have a husband that can help. I can't necessarily make him go pee for me, now can I?)
I have 19 days or less. I'm ready to get the labor and delivery to be over with just because it's going to be so stressful and scary. But, I'm also scared to death about bringing home my new baby and not having a friggin' clue what to do with him. The unknown and I - not so much good bed partners. So this will definitely be an experience for me. It will be exciting that's for sure. And I can't wait to see Justin with him. He's going to be such a great father. I hope that between the two of us, we'll be able to figure all this stuff out.

37 weeks

36 weeks (l) 37 weeks (r)

view from above

So I'm technically full term now. I could have this baby any day now. Holy crap!!

My dog just puked a huge pile in the hallway. She's not making a very good case for herself these days. She's currently barricaded in the kitchen so she won't puke on the carpet again. Justin said, well I guess we better get used to this. I will never get used to puke. Ever.