One month ago...

We met the love of our lives!  All 10 lbs 11oz of him! It has been a month of first, learning, and lots of love (and some tears..)  I've never loved any thing the way I love Zach.  I've never given anyone as much as I have given him either, my life, my body, my time, sleep, etc...  Its all part of love!  He is in the middle of a growth spurt right now, so he is eating not stop and quite fussy, but it just means he is growing.  Today I did a little "photo shoot", Our camera isn't very good, but here are the pix!  Enjoy. 

Things sure have changed!

As I'm trying clean the living room to get ready for Bible study tonight, I'm reminded how much things have changed when my sweet little man starts to cry and I need to stop clean and pick him up.  Turns out all he wanted was to cuddle with his mommy... which seems like a great excuse to sit down and stop cleaning :) But really my days are very different now.  Before, I'd get up eat breakfast, get on the computer, clean and get dinner ready.  At night, T would get home, we'd eat dinner hang out, (he'd play some football on the PS3) and we'd go to bed and sleep.  The weekends, we'd go out to eat, see a movie, or hang out with friends.  It was pretty care free.  Now my days are full of diaper changes, nursing, naps, tummy time, and counting the dirty diapers.  Nights daddy gets home, and plays with his son, more diapers, nursing, baths and dinner (normally gotten from the freezer and just thrown into the oven).  Then we head to bed for 3 or 4 hours of block sleep.. more diapers and nursing.  Now weekends are pretty much the same as my days are.  Going out takes much more time and planning, and alot more stuff.. lol.  Things are different now and you know what.. I wouldn't change any part of our new life.  Nothing is more special than having Zach curl up on my chest, seeing him flash a beautiful smile (most the time he is sleeping.. but still), or seeing daddy holding Zach and seeing how much he loves him.  Change is def a great thing!
So now the choice is to put Z down and finish cleaning or stay here and love on my baby!  Well I was reading some of my fav blogs and I found this poem on one of them.. (sorry for stealing it) and it made it easy to pick..

     Song for a fifth child - Ruth Hulburt Hamilton

Mother, oh Mother, come shake out your cloth, 

Empty the dustpan, poison the moth, 

Hang out the washing and butter the bread, 

Sew on a button and make up a bed. 

Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?

 She’s up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I’ve grown shiftless as Little Boy Blue 

Dishes are waiting and bills are past due 

The shopping’s not done and there’s nothing for stew 

And out in the yard there’s a hullabaloo 

But I’m playing Kanga and this is my Roo. 

Look! Aren’t her eyes the most wonderful hue? 

The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow, 

For children grow up, as I’ve learned to my sorrow. 

So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust go to sleep. 

I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep.

 

I put a blanket down to swaddle Zach in.. and Chase took that as his cue to come lay on it..lol

Favorite things... :)

Favorite things!!

Or should I say things I could not be with out now that I have a newborn!  I've seen people do these on blogs and thought it'd be fun.. so here they are:

The MAM pacifier
 Its the only paci that Z will take... and he loves his paci!  He doesn't need it all the time, but its nice to have when he wants it!  We make sure we always know where one is at.. just in case!





A baby swing.. and bouncy chair..  both these have been super helpful with getting sleep for both Z and us!!

The pack n play..  Since Z hates sleeping in his cradle... he sleeps in his PNP.. so I'm def enjoying have that!

The boby pillow.  Really any pillow will do, but it is nice to have this one!

The Moby Wrap!  It is great!  and I'm sure once I have it even more figured out it will be better!  For now, "we" do house work and still get to be close.

Last but not least.. My favorite thing.  Nuff said!  :)

First Bath and lunch out

 

Today was a really nice day!  We started with sleeping in a bit after the 8 am feeding.  Woke up around 11 and headed to town.  We were able to exchange the all the newborn diapers and got quite a bit of money back-which is always nice!  Then for the first time we went to lunch out at a restaurant!  It went really well!  Zach just chilled while mommy and daddy were able to enjoy a meal.  When we got home, Z took his first real bath.. which he loved!  After a massage, he was super relaxed and happy!  While we were relaxing daddy was putting up new can lights and a new fan in the living room.. which look great! 
After that, Grandma came over and hung out with us, so daddy could go to dinner w/ the boys.  With grandma we went out for dinner and then came home.  Grandma was able to spend some good time with Z and Chase. 

Now its time for a story, and then bedtime :)  Lets all hope for a good night!

 

 

First bath!

Warmed by towels!

Proud grandma w/ Z and Chase

Life with a Newborn!

    So I barely have time for a shower during the day let alone blogging.. lol, but I do want to make a better try at writing in this at least weekly! First let me update on how Zach is doing weight wise.  He is finally back up to his birth weight!  YAY.. 10lbs 11 oz!  That makes for a heavy carseat! 
   Things are going pretty well.  His cord fell off so once he wakes up we are going to give him his first bath!  Which is exciting!  He is eating alot, I'd say about every 2-3 hours during the day and 3 at night...  And most the time our nights are pretty easy.  Wake up and feed and then he falls asleep.  Sometimes he fights going to sleep and is awake pretty late (1-3 am...poor mommy..)  But overall I can't complain too much.  He is so beautiful.. I really can't get over it!
   Today T got home early from work, which was nice for me.  We went for a walk with the dog, and then T put up some can lights in our living room.  They look really good!  I was able to shower and jam out to some music while in there.. lol  Also it gave me a chance to clean up the house alittle bit.. but its still pretty messy.  I'm sure with time it will be clean again.. at least I hope. 
   As far as motherhood is going, it was nothing like I expected.  I knew it would be hard, but I didn't realise how hard it would actually be.  I'm very tired, and kinda feel like I'm always feeding Zach.  I kinda feel like I'm not playing with him enough, but I know I am.  There are times I really feel like I have no idea what I'm doing.. but we manage and I'm def learning as I go.  I didn't fall in love with Z as fast as I thought I would.. don't get me wrong, I love my son so much, it just took much longer than I expected.  I'm sure his birth experince had alot to do with it, but still.  Now somedays I can't stop looking at him!  I'm so grateful for a few websites (bump is a main one) and a few people that have been so helpful-with out these things and people I'd be so lost!  I'm very excited about going to a few "new mom" things.  One is a new mom group in my town and the other is being offered by the hospital where I gave birth.  Its a new mom's tea.  It will be really nice to meet people around here that are in the same boat as we are in and understand.
   Well that is all I have today...  Have a great weekend!!

See told you he was beautiful!!  :)

Motherhood..birth story.. finally!

So I have been awful at updating!  I've been busy running around with a newborn and getting use to our new life together!  Plus is really has taken me a while to be able to write our birth story.  Where as I know that I got the greatest thing I could have (our son) it still took some time for me to be ok with with how everything went.. But here it is:

  Sunday night, T and I were running around the house... T more than me, since I was still on bedrest, but I did do alittle cleaning.  T was going crazy building shelves for storage.. lol, and cleaning what I couldn't.  So after we got alot done, we thought we'd try to get some sleep.  I slept for about 2 hours and T didn't get any sleep.  At 11:30 pm we headed out, said our goodbyes to the pup and got ready for our lives to be changed forever!  We got to the hospital right on time and they got us into a room.  I got my first interal and found out I was SUPER high and just a fingertip dilated.. so that was alittle dissappointing.  In the room the TV was small, but the bed wasn't too bad and the bed they had for T was better than the one when we were in there last.  They started me on Pit around 1 ish in the morning.  Then they noticed that the computer screen wasn't working in the room.. so they had to move us.. back into the room where I spent the night when I went in for high blood pressure.. It was smaller, but the TV was bigger and T had to sleep in the dumb chair thing, again. 
  Since I had high blood pressure, I had that cuff on and it was checking my bp every 15 mins.. and it was getting super tight (my hand would turn purplish black every time.. ugh)  So I didn't get any sleep.  The nurses got pretty busy that night, so they got alittle behind on uping my Pit.  But I wasn't in pain yet, so it wasn't too bad.  Later that morning, they changed nurses and the new one was really great (really all the nurses were wonderful, but you can't help but have your favs)  She was on top of uping the Pit and got my doc premission to up it quicker (since they got behind).  She really wanted me to be in pain, so we called her Crazy Eye.. :)  At one point, they worried that the baby was brech, so they did a quick ultra sound to make sure he was head down (his heartbeat was pretty high up on my belly..)  Good news he was head down..  And finally around 2-3pm I started feeling the contractions.  T helped me breath thru them, but they were getting closer together and stronger (one was 3 mins long).. They started getting worried about them being so close together and it was getting late, so they checked me again.  Sadly, I was still the same.  Very high and only a fingertip.  I was very dissappointed at this point.  Dr. stopped the Pit for the night and let me eat dinner (before this I had been on a liquid diet).  Then overnight they started me on Cervdil to help me progress.  The next morning(the 15th) they rechecked me and I was softer and maybe a 2, but still VERY high.
   So we went back on the pit.  I was on that until about 3, when I got rechecked and still only 2 and high, so Dr said the baby wasn't moving down and we should do a c-section.  So at 4:30pm on the 15th, I went in for a c-section.  They gave me some antibotics in my IV, which made me get sick.. got T his scrubs.. and I went into the OR.  There I got my spinal (which wasn't as bad as I had feared) As I started feeling numb, I got sick again and my blood pressure dropped really low, so they gave me some meds for both.  T got in there and the Drs came in and before I knew it I heard the most beauitful sound ever... My sons first cry.  They pulled him out and showed T and me and then took him over to the little bed thing.  T went over there and was able to carry him to me so we could get a quick pic and then he took him to the bed where they both went into the NICU.  Little did we know that would be the last time T would be able to hold him for a few days. 
   Z (baby) was having some issues breathing, he was grunting, b/c he had fluid in his lungs.  So he had to stay in the NICU for a while and I wasn't able to feed him/hold him or anything like that right away.  They did wheel my bed into the NICU, so I could touch him and see him for really the first time.  It was so great seeing him, but broke my heart that I could hold him and comfort him while he was breathing hard.  We really thought that night he'd be better and be able to be with us.  We were wrong.  It took about 2 days before I was allowed to hold him or feed him.  Finally, his breathing had calmed down, and we were able to start feeding (before that he was only getting fluids from an IV in his little head)  He also had lot so wires and things hooked up to him.  Thursday we tried having him in our room for the night, but around 1 he started grunting again and had to go back into the NICU (It was the worst feeling in the world watching them take him back even tho I knew it was for the best, it still broke my heart)  After a LONG week at the hospital we were finally able to leave Sat... 
   Z is doing well, at first he did have jaundice, and we were close to needing to go back to the hospital, but didn't have to in the end.  He lost a whole lb, due to being on only fluids at first and being jaundice and now we wer working on him getting back to his birth weight of 10lbs 11 oz.  We will get there!!

Sorry this was so long!

38 weeks today..

Counting down the days now!  I can't believe that still will be our last full night in our house with just Tim and I!  Even tho I'm on bed rest we did run into town and went on a quick lunch date.  It was nice, but I was super tired when I got home.  We (Tim) also ran into a store and got some more wood and other stuff for the baby's room and the shelves he has been building in the storage room.  I think he is nesting.. since I can't... lol  But it looks great in there.  I stayed out in the truck and waited and then we came home.  Tonight I think the neighbors are coming over to hang out... so that will be nice. 
All I really need to do now (other than just rest) is put a few things in the hospital bag and pick out a few more CDs.  So.. its just a matter of days now.. Kinda Crazy!!

Here is how I'm doing:
38 Weeks Poll:
How far along? 38 
Total weight gain: +37 pounds 
Sleep: Sleep... I'm not really sleeping well at all anymore. 
Movement: He is always having a party in there.. moves around all the time :) 
Best moment this week: Being able to come home from the hospital again... 
Food cravings: None
Gender: It's a boy!
Maternity Clothes: Well since I'm on bed rest.. I just wear my PJ's.. 
Belly Button in or out? Still in; it's cute and little if you can believe it.
What I miss: Being able to clean.. and get up outta bed.. and get my own food.. you get the idea
What I am looking forward to:  Monday.  :)
Nursery Progress: I'm not sure, I can't go up the stairs now.. But I know Tim has been working up there.. So I think the closet is almost done and he might have the pics up.. not sure..