Friday: two weeks...and more

Isaac is two weeks old today!

But first, here is a sneak peak at some of his newborn photos. I really like all of them, but some of my favorites are the first one of me holding him (he has that look all the time after nursing), the wrinkled brow, and the basket. http://www.christenbphotography.com/?p=2898.

Here is isaac at two weeks

Good job with the head! (there haven't been anymore rolls, so it must have been a fluke).

Isaac also decided to play with a tiger.

First it scared him

Then it got him

Then he got the tiger by its tail

And finally Isaac captured the tiger. It was tiring work.

Isaac also lost his umbilical cord today!

Thursday: out!

Last night we tried a new swaddling blanket...with Velcro. It was awesome. It contained Isaac's hands while only requiring one adult to put it on. He also slept for over four hours at one point. Er, he waited four hours between feedings. I guess there is actually a large difference between the two statements,

In the morning we went out for the first time! It was a little challenging trying to remember what buttons on the stroller do what,but we got it figured out. We really werent out for long...we were home within 45 minutes and most of that time was spent in the car. But I was exhausted for the rest of the day

Wednesday: eating. Sleeping. Rolling?

Eating.
Isaac seems to have developed a few poor habits in regards to eating the last few days. 1) when he's hungry (and in eating position), he turns his head as far as possible in the opposite direction of where his food is. He is still looking for food, straining his neck, it's just in the wrong location. This of course makes him even "madder" than he was because he still doesn't have food. It only takes about 10 seconds to turn towards the correct direction, but it feels like a really long time. 2) Isaac sometimes just seems to play with his food. I'm not sure if this is because milk comes out so easily in the beginning that he gets a taste without latching and that makes him go crazy or if it is another reason. I'm not sure if this is interfering with eating.

Sleeping
Several pictures were taken of a sleeping Isaac today.

With his hand straight up in the air (it stayed there for a while).

In his crib

And in his bouncer. Flurry is jealous of the hanging things

Rolling?
I put Isaac on his stomach for tummy time. He got mad so I started patting his back. Next thing I know isaac is on his back. Did he do that by himself? Did I unknowingly help? We will find out.

Tuesday: more pictures

This morning Isaac slept until a little after nine, so I actually got up about ten minutes before he did...and it was wonderful. I was able to get dressed (at least as much as i "get dressed" these days) and get some breakfast together.

Isaac slept better in the swing this morning so I was able to do some light housework.

This afternoon we had our first official tummy time. (he's had unofficial tummy time on our chests.). Since he was awake I tried to get some of his facial expressions...it's amazing how many he can make in a short time.

He also took a nap on the floor. Flurry watched.

Monday: home alone

Today was our first day home alone. It went fine...not great but not terrible either. Isaac was a bit fussy so I held him more than I expected too. (although I'm sure I could have tried a little harder to get him to sleep somewhere else...but why would I want to? He's so small and cuddly.)

Sunday: another laid back day

Today was another easy day, although Isaac was awake a bit more today. He took an awesome nap on Ben's lap while Flurry slept next to me.

Dad and Pat came over for a little bit this afternoon and watched Isaac while Ben and I took a nap.

Saturday: laid back day

Today was a pretty laid back day. Isaac slept a ton.

At one point Ben was in the middle of changing a diaper when Isaac feuded he needed to urinate again. He pretty much completely missed his goal (Ben) and instead got himself in the face instead.

Friday: busy day

Today was a busy day, as we had another home visit from the nurse and newborn pictures.

Since there were pictures, we started the day with a bath.

"help! Im being eaten by the monster shark."

The nurse said everything is still looking great.

Isaac did a great job with the pictures. He was man-handled for three hours but only started getting fussy at the end. He didn't always do exactly what the photographer wanted, but at least he wasn't mad.

The photographs, of course, threw off any schedule that he might have and so he slept soundly for the rest of the evening.

Thursday: super Dad

So, continuing from last night. Around 1:30 I had no clue what to do. Laying him down didn't work, holding him didn't work because he would just root around, and feeding didn't work because he stopped to quickly. So Ben took over and managed to get him to sleep. And didthe same thing a few more times at night.

We have noticed that Isaac will more easily calm down in Ben's arms. He seems to have a magic touch.

The day again went pretty quickly, although not much of note happened. Yesterday I realized that I hadn't taken many pictures, so today I tried to remedy that.

This is the quilt I'm making him. It isn't quite finished, but enough for pictures.

This one is my favorite.

Wednesday: unpredictable

Last night continued to be better. I only had to get up three times during the night, which was awesome. (we'll note that they way we figured out the actual count was the swaddling blankets...the first time was monkeys, the second time I didn't get a diaper on fast enough so we ended up with plain white, and the third time there were other fluid problems so we ended up with lions.)

Isaac continued this great trend throughout the day, sleeping for rather long periods.

Ben's brother and sister in law brought over an excellent dinner and we played some games with them. Half way through games he wanted to eat. No problem. But then he wanted to eat again ten minutes later. And again ten minutes later.

This trend continued, with one or two slightly longer breaks...until midnight. What happens after midnight? You'll just have to wait for the next installment of "new parents living with a new born."

Tuesday: four days old

Last night went pretty well. Isaac still fed more often than I hoped, but the swaddling and bouncy seat meant that it was easy to put him back to sleep in between.

It was a morning of firsts. Isaac was dressed in his first cloth diaper. I was happily surprised at how easy they were and how well the plastic thing kept everything dry. Maybe surprised is the wrong word since no one would be using them if that were the case, but surprised that my first try worked so well.

Isaac was awake, so we read our first book together. However, I didn't explain to him what a book was, so he kept looking to the side of the book.

I then needed the use of my whole body, so he got his first swing ride.

Dad came to help out after that and Ben was able to come home early, so most of the rest of the morning/afternoon passed by as normal.

We were getting ready to go to the doctor when we got a call saying Isaac's great-grandmother was coming over with dinner. We felt bad that it would have to be a really short visit, but were glad she was coming and were keeping an eye out for her. Then Ben said "someone's in the driveway" as I saw a pair of legs fall to the ground. My heart raced. But on further inspection it was only the neighbor kids having a snowball fight. Phew.

The doctor's visit was pretty uneventful. We got a few more questions answered, and found out that Isaac is back over his birth weight already at 7lb, 2oz. (they like to have babies hit that mark by two weeks.). Three cheers for Isaac! But then we told him that maybe now it would be ok to not eat so often.

Monday: nurse visit

Last night went better than the previous night. Still a lot of room for improvement though, but we'll be trying more different things tonight.

Isaac's appetite was still voracious, so a lot of the day was spent feeding.

A nurse came by to check everyone at home today. We got this because we could have spent another night in the hospital but chose not to. (Our first night there didn't count as a night since Isaac wasn't born until the a.m.). Anyway, she was very happy with how Isaac is doing. His bilirubin number is low, he is strong, alert, and nursing well and he gained a tad bit of weight since being discharged (now at 6lb, 13oz). The only thing she didn't like was the lack of diaper changes needed and the stool color.

So tonight Isaac worked on increasing that number. Significantly. He also managed to get the right stool color.

Can you tell we're proud parents?

We haven't forgotten about Flurry. Mom brought over some catnip toys with dinner and she loved them.

This evening we're trying two different things with sleeping. 1) We're putting a bouncy seat in the bassinet to help him feel more confined. 2) Mom brought over some actual swaddling blankets. After Ben looked up how to swaddle last night, I was rather disappointed in what the birthing class had taught us. They just used receiving blankets (not large enough) and the technique wasn't quite the same.

P.s. To whoever cleared our driveway from snow, thank you so much. It was an awesome surprise

Sunday: hunger

The theme of today was hunger. Isaac was hungry pretty much all day. It often felt like he finished nursing just to start again 15 minutes later. Luckily, he liked being held by grandparents, so we did get a few breaks in the day.

The other thing we found out is that Isaac doesn't like the bassinet. We aren't really sure what to do about this since he is too young to just leave in it. We'll ask the nurse who comes tomorrow and have a few other things to try.

There were several fun things that happened today too...

Isaac had woken up and was wide-eyed, so both Ben and i were looking at him. He discreetly looked at Ben's face, then my face, then Ben's again.

Ben showed him, by example, how to sleep on his back.

We started to wrap Christmas gifts.

My family came over with a delicious dinner and we opened presents.

Dad found a picture of me as a baby...I look a lot like Isaac.


We decided that Isaac might become an escape artist after he repeatedly escaped from the swaddling sleep sack, in spite of Ben's best efforts to put him there very tightly.

Dec 31: coming home

To begin with, i'm happy to report that Isaac seemed to figure out how to latch on after we sent him to the nursery last night. Maybe there was a class they didn't tell us about, but we've barely had any problems today.

Therefore, Today we came home from the hospital. The day was much more relaxed than yesterday. Not as many random people, more sleep at night, etc.

So here's Isaac, ready to go home.

Oops...he had a small blowout. Back to yesterday's outfit.

Amy and Brian stopped by on their way north. They weren't able to stay for long because Isaac got hungry, but it was still nice to see them for a little bit.

Then my family stopped by after dinner. While it is always nice to see them, it was especially nice this time because they did some laundry. I hadn't washed much of the newborn clothes since I was expecting a larger baby, so I wasn't really sure what Isaac was going to wear tomorrow. Instill don't have an answer to that, but at least there are possibilities.

I was going to post this tomorrow, but this child won't stop eating. I'll think hes done because he is almost asleep and not responding to stimulus to keep eating, but then he says he's sill hungry.

Friday: first day of life

Today brought a few challenges, lots of holding, and lots of visitors.

For example, it currently takes two of us to clothe Isaac. And since he liked to sleep, we had to unclothe (and then reclothe) to make him wake up for feedings. There was also a struggle to make him nurse on the right side...he won once, but we won most of the time. Of course, after the time he won he was hungry soon after, so I'm not sirens really won.

But besides that, we just spent a nice day with him and with visitors, getting to know him as he mostly slept. (there were lots of pictures with family and I'm not going to post, along with some cute ones taken on phones that I can't post right now.). Oh, he also had his first pee, which was expected. Unfortunately, I also got peed on. While I'm sure it is the first of many, I was hoping it would be longer.

Here we all are!

Isaac. The hat kept falling off, but his temp was on the cool side so we were trying to keep it on.

Isaac's celebratory dinner...that he didn't get to eat.

Mom and Isaac. We had both managed to get dressed.

Thursday: happy birth day

2:30am (Thursday): Amanda's dream about what a bad basketball player she is gets interrupted by contractions. For some reason she keeps going back to sleep even though it is a dumb dream.

3:00am: amanda gets up to see if they are real.

3:30am: Ben gets up. They play a few games while timing contractions. Things seem to be progressing and they call the doctor's office and plan to go the hospital around 7am

6am: they take a quick stop at Burger King

7am: Contractions are spreading out, but taking longer. They decide to wait to go to the hospital.

12pm: Contractions are close to 5 minutes. They hope to go to the hospital after lunch.

1pm: Contractions spread out again.

3pm: Contractions start to really hurt.

4pm: Amanda calls the doctor to see what is going on and if they should go in, even though contractions are not constant and range between 5-10 minutes.

5pm: the doctor says that it is Braxton Hicks and that I don't need to go to the hospital. Amanda pretty much cries for the next hour. How is she supposed to go through real labor if fake labor hurts so much? How is she supposed to sleep? How is she going to last through the night with the pain before her doctor comes on call?

6:30pm Amanda calls the doctor again, And this time talks to the doctor on-call (vs through the nurse). He says that Amanda is not in labor because those contractions are two to four minutes apart. And while I could go get checked, there isn't a good reason.

7pm: Amanda throws up her dinner.

9:30: after trying to sleep and completely not succeeding because of contractions, Amanda gets up and thinks her water broke. After looking all night for an excuse, she declares it is time to go to the hospital, even if they send every one back home. Ben quickly gets the last things together in case they get to stay.

10:00: Amanda is dilated to an eight! She doesn't have to leave! The baby is coming! Amanda asks for an epidural, even though the nurse says it is almost time and she could probably make it without one. (Did we mention even walking was getting painful?). A few contractions occur before the drugs can be administered and Amanda almost squeezes Ben's fingers off. Ben proceeds to only touch the top of Amanda's hand and Amanda squeezes the bedrail. The anastesiaiogist shows up promptly and administers wonderful drugs.

10:10: Everyone is happier once the epidural kicks in.

10:30: Amanda is dilated to 10!

11:45: Amanda starts pushing. (the doctor finished another delivery and so while he isn't there he is available.

12:00am: a mirror is brought into the room. Amanda enjoys watching the head crown, even though she wasn't sure she would.

12:15: the doctor is called in because the baby's heart rate was slightly in distress.

12:57: Isaac Bruce is born!

Tuesday: 39 weeks

It's that time of week again! Doctor appointment time!

I'm dilated to a 2-3, 90% effaced, and the baby's head is still low and facing the correct direction. The OB also stripped the membranes, which is supposed to help if you're close to going into labor but not really do anything if you're not.

Stay tuned.

Monday: no work

Yay, we didn't have to work today. We took it pretty easy, putting some stuff away and going to see the mission impossible movie.

Saturday: high school

Some friends from high school got together for breakfast this morning.  It was really nice to talk with them again.  I haven't seen some of them for...probably seven to ten years.  So we all got caught up.  I was taking the recycle out to the garage just as they were starting to arrive and reflected on how weird it is that we're adults now.  It might not seem that way to us, but we really are.  We are in charge of bringing the recycle out to the garage.  (And lots of other things too :) ) 

Thursday: done

Hurray!  We're done with work for a long weekend.  And I got to leave early, which was awesome.

Tonight Ben and I went to play Hand and Foot with his grandparents.  We did really, really well the first hand but decided they must have just been being nice to us.  By the last hand, we were way behind.

Wednesday: conversation

Amanda: I feel like I've been having little contractions all night.
Ben: do they hurt?
Amanda: no.(sigh)
Ben: (laughs) this is the only time that we want pain.

Tuesday: 38 weeks

Today was a doctor's appointment! They're fun.

I'm dilated to 2, 70% effaced, and the head is "very low". Progress!

Due to various things though, it would be nice if he would wait to start contractions until noon on Saturday. Or do it tonight. But I'd like to be out of the hospital Friday and Saturday. It probably means that's when he'll come.

Monday: dropped

Apparently the baby dropped a lot over the weekend.  "Everyone" at work mentioned it when they saw me today.

It also meant that I had to go to the bathroom any time I walked for more than 50 feet.

Sunday: Christmas

Today was Christmas with one of Ben's extended families.  We brought banana pudding.  Below is a picture of it being made to make Dusty jealous.  We had a lot left over, so if any one wants some, come on by.  I'd also like to say that I have an awesome husband who got some puzzles in the gift exchange because I wanted them.

Flurry is also enjoying hanging out under the Christmas tree.  Her white fur does make her seem like the perfect accessory for the tree.

Saturday: pep talk

Jess asked what I'm telling Baby to convince him to come out...

*It will be more fun to be out.
*You can see Dad (and other relatives)
*Christmas is a fun time...you don't want to miss it.
*There's more room to move.
*You have a name
*We have everything that you'll need for the first little bit...and most of it is set up.
*It works with scheduling better if you come sooner.

What I'm not telling him...
*It will be cold
*it's hard work to communicate
*Going through the birth canal is traumatic.

Friday: It's time!

It's time to meet the muppets! (Did I trick anyone? Please?). Ben and I went to see the Muppet Movie. It was good. A bit more singing than I expected, but a ton of cameos.

Wednesday: Christmas party

Today we had a work Christmas party.  It was pretty fun.  There was a ton of delicious food and we did a white elephant exchange.  We did the stealing game, but didn't unwrap the presents first.  That made it a little weird, but it went a lot faster.  Someone (easily) managed to convince someone that is scared of critters that something was moving in the box she had.  It was fun to see her proceed to hold it as far away from herself as possible.  In the end, it was a kazoo.

We also submitted Christmas child pictures.  Here's mine.

Tuesday: 37 weeks

Today we hit the 37 week mark, which means Baby is full term and can come whenever he wants.  I've started giving him pep talks on why he should come sooner rather than later.

I went to the doctor and am a "true 1" dilated and 50% effaced.  So at least there is progress.  The last day or so has also had an increase in cramps, but nothing that hurts.  On the weird side of things, I've felt better the last week or two than I have for a majority of the pregnancy.  I am still pretty tired, but nothing else is really wrong. And I can deal with being tired.