A month already?!?

Ok, technically he's not a month old for 2 more days....but close enough.

Everyone has always told me "Cherish each moment, they grow up so fast". It's not that I didn't believe that was true, it's just that I had no idea HOW fast it goes!! My lil man already looks so much different than he did 4 weeks ago. He's starting to get those chubby baby cheeks and make those cute little noises (not that fart grunts aren't cute). We're very close to our first actual smile. His face lights up now when he sees or hears Dave or I and his mouth opens- he's just not quite sure how to work those smiles yet. And thankfully he's still the sweetest, easiest baby ever!

Here's the next picture in the "Mom, I Really Wish You Wouldn't" series:

Aaaaay

(in best Fonz voice)

"Hey pretty lady, do you have plans for later? How 'bout heading back to my place for a bottle?"

Hitting that mark

We are officially into our 3rd week. The magical time when colic is most likely to show up. So far we've dodged that bullet and WOW am I hoping to keep on that plan!! We've also started to do the newborn version of 'sleeping through the night', which is not really sleeping through the night at all. We're pulling 3-4 hour stretches between night feedings though and for that I'm ecstatic! Now it only takes me 14 hours to get 8 broken hours of sleep. WOO HOO!!

Time is flying by so fast, honestly. It breaks my heart to know that I only have 4 more weeks to sit around with him all day before I have to go back to work. On the bright side, I'll only be going back part-time AND I won't need to put him in daycare. My neighbor is having a baby in the beginning of March so we've worked out a fairly confusing calendar of who-works-when and we'll watch each others babies. I'm sure I'll have plenty of posts when I come to THAT bridge but I'm not going to worry about those challenges until I need to.

We've also discovered a love of PJs. For the first week and a half I kept him swaddled, and I still do at night but during the day he LOVES to sprawl out.

Took me long enough...

As most of you know, our lil man HAS ARRIVED!! It's taken us some time to get used to each other and we're still working out the kinks, but my First Time Mom Paranoia has subsided enough that I can put him down for the 15 minutes it will take for me to update everyone.

Here's how it went:
Around 11:45 in Saturday the 22nd, my water broke. I called my doc and she told me to head into labor & delivery. We got to the hospital at 1 am (No, we don't live that far- Dave & I had a bit of both dillying and dallying to do before we left). In triage they checked me and found that my water had indeed broken and I wasn't just peeing all over myself, and I was dilated to 3.5 cm. I was told I was not going home, but the nurse didn't seem to think I'd be having him all that soon either. Between 2:30-3am I was finally sent upstairs to be admitted and I got my epidural. I was checked again and had progressed to 6cm so they called my doc & told her to make her way on in. By the time she got there & checked me I was dilated to 9cm. By now it was a party in my room. I could still feel the contractions, but at about a 3 instead of a 10. Melissa, Steve, Joyce and Dave were all keeping me company. At about 5:30am my doc made the announcement: Everyone who isn't staying for pushing, needs to leave. So Joyce & Steve went to the waiting room for what would be a pretty short time. After pushing for about 20 minutes, James Andrew made his appearance at 5:52am on November 23rd. He weighed in at 7lb 11oz and was 20" long. (sidebar: my labor experience? NOTHING like on TV. We watched "Romy & Michelle's HS Reunion" between pushes. It was all very laid back & calm- until the last 5 pushes, that is.)

Although a short labor is a blessing for sure, it does have it's own set of complications. My body didn't have time to loosen up as it should have so I had quite a bit of tearing AND James had quite a bit of bruising on his head. When the bruising started to fade and the red blood cells started to break down, his biliruben levels went up and he ended up jaundiced. I was released from the hospital on Tuesday but James needed phototherapy until Thursday. His levels were never dangerously high but the pediatrician that we are taking him to doesn't round at the hospital I delivered at and the ped on-call would not release him until his levels were ridiculously low. If I were to continue to see the ped from the hospital they would've let me take him home on Wednesday with home treatment. It was a bit frustrating and heartbreaking to leave the hospital without him but Dave & I both agreed that the lil guy's health was worth the trauma to us (this is where I interject props to Dave. Post labor hormones + leaving your baby at the hospital = lots of tears and trips to the hospital to sit in uncomfortable chairs, watching a baby sleep. Dave was so patient with me even when we both knew I was being a bit irrational).

We're home now and everyone is doing great. James is an absolute dream. He rarely cries and it is super easy to read what he wants. It took us a few days but I think he finally knows the difference between night & day. Not that he sleeps through the night but at least he stopped being wide awake through it!! Dave took last week off and is back to work this week, so now I am adjusting to being alone with James. Basically I also sleep like a newborn now- every couple hours for an hour. Joyce has been here almost every day to give me a break (nap) in the afternoon, and there aren't even words to describe what a huge help Melissa & Steve have been. They basically spent every possible minute with us from the moment I went into labor until the moment they went back to work. Having such a great support system has definitely made this an easier transition.

Senor Wiggle-Butt is starting to stir, which at this point means "FEED ME" so I'm off. Now that we are getting adjusted, I'll post regularly. I'm putting up some new photos also- see links over there ---------->

Moving Forward

I had my 37 week appointment today and it went VERY well. Right now I'm 2cm dilated, 100% effaced & station -1 (or however the hell you phrase that). After a bit of prodding from me and her insisting there is no way to predict when labor would happen, my doc said "there's no way you're making to your due date." She said she can't narrow anything else down, which I didn't really expect her to. I also found out that even if James looked like he was never going to make his appearance, my doc doesn't let her patients go past 41 weeks.

It's strange to think my due date is just shy of three weeks away and I should have a lil guy be then. Exciting times!

Short and Sweet

I guess I really could've mentioned this in my previous post. Oops.

During my last doctor's appt we did an ultrasound. Everything looks great (fluid, position, etc). So far James is measuring 6lb 4oz, which we all know is nothing more than a guess. My doc said that I'm on track to have an "average" size baby. According to every book, average is between 6-10lbs. Gee doc, thanks for narrowing that down for me. I believe she meant between 7.5-8 lbs, but we'll see.

Oh, and yes- he is still a he!

37 weeks and counting.....

Well, we're finally entering the home stretch!!
Still feeling great and I have no complaints. I mean don't get me wrong- I won't be sad when I my feet return to normal size, but these things are to be expected. My doctor appts are weekly now and this Thursday we're going to start tracking my progress (for the uninitiated that means poking & prodding to track effacement & dilation).
All and all this whole pregnancy has been very easy. I hope the old adage about easy pregnancy meaning hard labor is untrue. Oh, well- even if it is true I'm pretty committed by now!
Anyway....stay tuned for all the James Andrew updates!