New Pictures

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Alex is 1 month old today...well, 4 weeks. I guess one month would be on the 31st. Anyway, the pictures with his hand in the air were taken today.

pictures

here's fussy Alex and the bib is from Alex's Great Great Aunt Dolores. Also, if anyone knows where my car keys are, that would be great. They've apparently been missing since the hospital and I'm just now finding out because I'm just now able to drive. I called the hospital and torn the house apart.

Cell phone pictures

It's been a while.

Things have been pretty boring (routine) so there's not really much to talk about, but I figure I'd give an update anyway.

Alex is doing fine. He's gone from eating 3oz every 3 hours to eating 4 oz/3 hrs. If you feed him less than that then he's hungry an hour later. I guess he has his dad's and mom's appetite. He's still sleeping at night. He wakes up every 3 hours without fail, and thankfully goes back to sleep..mostly. Sometimes I have to rock him for 30 min or so.

Patrick's doing well with school, I wish he didn't have to work so much. Sometimes he doesn't get to see Alex because we're sleeping when he gets home.

That's about all...I'll try to take some pictures later today and put them up here.

Baby Update

Things are going well. He seems to have a pattern of sleeping at night. He wakes up between 3-5 hours to eat and goes right back to sleep. It's pretty nice. Some days he stays up from 7am on, other times he goes back to sleep until 10 or 11 and that's even nicer for me.

He's begun to stay awake for 6 or more hours during the day. He's so good, because when he's awake, he's content in the swing, bouncy/vibrating seat, or the pack and play bassinet. I hold him a lot too, but I have choices when I need to get stuff done.

I've started to try to do some housework. I did some laundry and dishes yesterday and today I'm feeling sore in my incision area. I'll take it easy today. I do think that it's about healed though.

Alex has been to 2 doctor appointments. He's gaining weight and growing. Last appointment he was 7lbs. 10oz and 20 1/4 inches long. There's one NB outfit that's getting a bit short on him. His face is filling out and he's looking even cuter. Unfortunately he's not so photogenic (lol) and his pictures aren't nearly as cute as he is in person.

That's about all for now.

New Pictures

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or

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one of these works

Doctor Appointments

Yesterday Alex had his first dr. appointment. He weighed 7lbs. 2 oz. The doctor checked his body and reflexes and stuff...no shots! We go back in a week.

My dr. appt. was today. I still can't do anything. No cleaning (I really do want to clean now...go figure), driving, lifting, etc. I go back in 2 weeks, he said my incision looks good.

Alex is here...stories and pictures

On New Year’s Eve we went into have Alex at 5:30am. The surgery was scheduled for 7:30am. I was prepped and ready to go. They wheeled me out of the room at 7:35am and got Patrick ready. The epidural is the weirdest feeling in the world. Patrick held my hand and watched the whole surgery. I could see snippets that I wanted to in the reflection of the light base above the table. At 7:58am, Alex Ethan was born. He weighed 7lbs. 5oz. and was 19.5 inches long. He has a full head of black hair and is so pink. I was out of the OR by 9:30ish. I didn’t get to a room until 11:30ish…I stayed in recovery.

There were so many visitors in and out the first two days. I knew I would be tired, but WOW. Patrick has been awesome. He changed his first diaper EVER and it was a poo diaper. He’s a pro now, I think he changes faster than I do. Tuesday the doctor came in and said I would be released on Thursday. Wednesday another doctor came in and said I’d be released that day. Someone wrote on my paperwork that I was a vaginal delivery. After I corrected him, he said I’d be released on Thursday. I really was not ready to go home on Wednesday.

The first few days Alex wasn’t eating much so we thought I wasn’t making milk. Milk doesn’t come in until day 3, so the first 2 days are practice. The second and third days Alex wasn’t latching well. He wasn’t opening wide enough. The lactation nurse gave us a few techniques to try, but said I was doing everything else right as far as making him latch on and getting him interested. My nipples started to get really sore. I had been using Lanolin/Lansinoh and that made them not hurt…until a feeding time. By day 4, a different lactation nurse came in and showed Patrick and I how to pull Alex’s chin down to make him latch properly. She gave me gel pads and breast shells and said not to use the Lansinoh because my nipples need to heal.

We could have left earlier than we did on Thursday, but we waited for Alex to be hungry again because the lactation nurse needed to see how he latched. We left around 5pm and when we got home it was freezing in the house. Our heater broke. Yes, Thursday was that really cold day. It was 45 degrees in the house. We left to go to Patrick’s grandma’s and got in touch with my friend whose mother works for an AC/Heat company. The owner came out within an hour to help us. So, with the heater fixed, we were on our way.

The first night was tough because of the nipple pain and the previous things that happened in the day. By the next morning I was on the phone getting a rental breast pump until mine comes in the mail on Monday. I am exclusively pumping and Alex is successfully eating with bottles. Last night (Friday) was a bit better sleep wise. Alex eats about every 2-4 hours and he eats about 2oz. every feeding time.
I don’t think I forgot anything, since this entry is long anyway, I’ll stop. Don’t forget to check out the picture link!!


Updated link...let's hope this works
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Last pregnant belly pictures

Birthday

On New Year's Eve (12/31/07), Alex will be delivered by c-section. It is scheduled for 7:30am. I suspect it will be about 2 hours from that time that I will be in a room. I will be in the hospital at least 3 days so people will have plenty of time to visit. Right now, Patrick and I are trying to get loose ends tied up and enjoy our last 3 days together. If we need anything we'll call you.

Dr. Appt.

Everything went fine. I'm not dilated and his head is still under my ribs. I'm waiting for a secretary to call me about scheduling the c-section. She's off of work today and tomorrow and Patrick and I wanted the birthday to be before the new year. So, we'll see what happens.

Christmas Thanks

Thanks to all who gave us cash for Christmas. Patrick's radiator in his car broke and last night our dishwasher broke. We would have liked to have done something fun with the money, but a dependable car and a dishwasher are necessities. So, thanks for the $$$.

37 week belly slideshow

Dr. appointment

So I had another appointment yesterday and nothing major happened. Actually nothing happened at all. I weighed the same as last week, so yay!

Next week's appointment I'm going to ask about a due date/c-section date. It's getting so close and although we're ready, it's going to be crazy that it won't just be me and Patrick.

36 weeks belly pics

The ones in the blue shorts were sitting down.

Dr. appointment

So, this doctor (different than the one I saw 2 weeks ago) said that it doesn't look like the baby will turn. Alex is hanging in there like he's in a hammock with his head under my right ribs and his feet under my left. He's going to be breech and I should prepare myself for a c-section.

I like this doctor the best because he's older and has experience with patients with bicornuate uteri (lol).

The earliest they'll schedule a c-section is a week before my due date. Since my due date is Jan. 6, I could still have a 2007 baby!! The doctor did keep stressing...unless you go into labor first. So if I don't go into labor, they'll schedule a c-section.

35 week picture

Christmas Lights

Patrick put up lights because he's such a good "daddy"!

34 week belly

Doctor's appointment

We had an ultrasound today. Alex weighs 4lb 15oz. He looked so cute!

As far as delivery goes, they won't tell me anything until I get to 37-38 weeks. They say they can't tell if the baby will or won't turn until that time. At that point I guess they'll talk about what kind of birth to expect.