The Next Michael Phelps

Improvements

Dear Isaac

You started to breastfeed at 6 weeks old! It was worth every ounce of energy I spent in exclusively pumping, and emotional energy to get you here. After you had your frenulectomy we spent 3 weeks only breastfeeding about 1x per day and bottles the rest. I ended up pumping 36-40 oz a day. When you would go to the breast after your bottle you would get so mad. At least for the longest time I thought it was you too used to getting the bottle and hating having to do hard work at the breast with a nipple shield. Until two weekends ago you really seemed to have strong reflux symptoms. And that Sunday you cried after taking the bottle for over an hour. It is so hard for a Mom to see her baby in pain like this. 

I called the Pediatrician after hours and got the amount of Tylenol needed, and made an appointment for the next day. After we got the baby Zantac in you, you started to breastfeed without any issues! I am not working on lowering my milk supply slowly...I usually have to pump 3x a day to relief, waking up engorged is not fun! But it is also due to you sleeping longer. Last night we had 2 four hour stretches!!!

Today I signed you up for free swim classes in Leesburg at Swimkids for infants 2-5months old. They are once a month, so hopefully Michael can join us, since they are during the week at 11-11:30am. Isaac adores the tub, and I love swimming. I can't wait to raise Isaac loving the water!

Above you fell asleep this afternoon while doing tummy time. Usually you sleep after nursing in the mornings, but I tried to put you down in your crib for a nap, and you woke up and stayed awake for another hour. I do enjoy the times that you nurse, play, then sleep. Especially during the day. You have become so much more interactive. You started to smile this past week, coo more and cry out for us.

Photo Shoot

With the pictures of Sydney and Isaac I posted the other day, here are the rest of the adorable pictures I took.

So this outfit is a little big...first time I put him into a 6 month outfit, and he looks funny in the pant region due to the cloth diaper

Sydney's Love

Sydney is our 5 year old Australian Shepherd, who has been wonderful adjusting to her new roll in the home...as dog, no longer my baby. We were so lucky to have Michael's parents take her for the first two weeks after Isaac arrived...She put too much stress on us and with me ending up back in the hospital and Michael to take care of our less than 1 week old alone, this was a god send that we had family to help us out with the dog. But ever since she's been back her bond to Isaac has gotten stronger.

-She wants to know where he is at all times
-Loves to lick the breastmilk off his face, yet kiss him whenever she can. We are trying to work with her on "No face" but still no success because he's just too stinkin' cute!
-She has already picked up on being his protecter
-If Isaac is on the floor either on his play mat or doing "tummy time" she wants to be right there with him
-The first time we had Isaac in his play mat, she loved it, and after we took him out Sydney thought it was her turn and skidded right underneath all the toys...this did not last long, since Michael disciplined her right away-
-Aussie's are known for being maternal dogs...whenever Isaac cries out, especially if we are in the other room, Sydney starts to cry and run over to him to check him out then run to us, what a good "Nana" she is

These pictures were taken today (Isaac being 7 weeks old)

Baby's and Movies

Now that Isaac and I have become more mobile and ready to get out of the house. Thanks to us discovering he has reflux, and is on Zantac making him a new and improved baby. He is much more happy in his car seat and I don't have to worry about him over heating or choking on his mucous while driving with him alone, due to him silently sleeping in the back.

Aside from a new happy baby, since I am trying to get out of the house and meet new moms such as the Mommy group sponsored by Loudoun Inova in Leesburg, there is a Ashburn baby wearing group as well as Ashburn LLL drop in at the Ashburn Library. 

Today I found that 2 area movie theatre's have "baby friendly" showtimes. 

Fairfax Corner 14: Last Thursday of every month

Tysons Corner AMC: First Tuesday of every month

At Tysons' Part of your ticket purchase will go to the Will Rogers Institute, a nonprofit that provides much-needed equipment to neonatal intensive care units and promotes research, treatment and education on cardio-pulmonary diseases.

I plan on checking what movie Fairfax has to view next week. I'm hoping it's Les Miserables!

Birth Bliss

Here is my last picture pregnant, right before we left for the hospital Tuesday night.

Dear Isaac, 

Your birth was priceless. It was unexpected and beautiful, not my plan at all, and you are the best thing I've ever done! 

How most women as young girls dream of their perfect wedding day, I always dreamed of becoming a Mom, and Isaac you make me proud to call you my son!

Tuesday (12/4/12) I had gone into the midwives' office for another AFI (amniotic fluid test). And there were very tiny pockets of fluid in the four quadrants. Right away Margie (one of the midwives)told me that I would need to be induced. At this point, I was ready, since the past Thursday was so scary, this came by surprise but I wanted me and my baby to be healthy. So at 4 pm my mom and I left the office, went home to pack and ate dinner (with much excitement). Michael was already home, and at 7:30 we had to go to labor and delivery at the Birthing Inn. They started me on Cervadil to "ripen my cervix." I thankfully took the suggested Ambien, since I had gotten no sleep the last Thursday while on the baby monitor all night.

Wednesday morning nurse woke me at 6 am to eat some cereal and take a shower. My cervix was still closed. At 7am I was started on Pitocin, for the first hour I was able to rest in bed while listening to music, my mom came around 7:30 to be with us for the big day. By 8 am I was demanding to get into the labor tub, the hot water felt so good, since at this point the contractions had started to get stronger. 

We had taken a natural childbirth class, at this point in my labor we started to try some of the techniques and this is how it went:

1. Turned on my iTunes "birth" playlist, we made it through 2 songs and that's when I wanted it turned off. It was too distracting with me trying to focus on my breathing pattern. Which was breathing in and out for 4 counts each, then counting how many it took me to get through that contraction...this way I knew when to look forward to a break.

2. Michael began to stroke my back with water, immediately I told him "don't touch me". I didn't want counter pressure or any massage. I had even bought vanilla scented oil just for birth and we never used it.

3. Visualization is the last thing Michael attempted to help aid me through the contractions- and once again there was the immediate " don't talk" response.

In the end it's a good thing we didn't shell out $1,000 for a doula. Since I had internalized everything to get through labor.

As the tub became too hot I started to get nauseous. So Michael started to flush the hot water with cold...and this did help. I spent about 2 hours in the tub. Luckily the hospital has wireless baby monitors for us to wear to be able to be in the tub, and for the IV line I just did my best not to get it wet. I couldn't keep still due to the contractions, I kept moving my position which then caused the monitors to move. My poor pregnant nurse (with twins). Once I got out I didn't feel the need to get my gown back on. Being strapped to baby monitors and my IV line I had enough going on I didn't need one more thing on me. I did however ended up tossing my breakfast, after getting out of the tub. Which then after the clean up I hopped into the shower to hose me down. 

At this point labor was really getting tiring and very painful. I ended up getting Flutanel (spelling?), which is given through the IV line. I could still feel my contractions but it helped to relax me, and I was able to rest for a good 1/2 hour, though I was awake, and still doing my breathing exercises it did help. But by the time the drug was wearing off I wanted the Epidural. Shannon and Paula the midwives came to check me. Getting checked was more painful than the epidural (which didn't hurt at all). I was 2 cm dilated and 80% effaced after being in labor for 4.5 hours. HAHA, there was no way I was continuing at this point I could barely concentrate on breathing, the contraction were excruciating at this point. Not only was I in full body pain, and exhaustion, the contractions were now piling on top of each other and I wasn't getting any breaks. I told them I wanted the epidural, and Shannon then asked if we wanted to discuss the matter, and I said no, no, no need (Since she knew I had planned for natural childbirth she wanted to make sure I knew I was making the right decision). Shannon had to get in my face and help me breath while getting the epidural, I had small pits in my spine so the Anesthesiologist ended up getting the needle into the spinal fluid space (once I got to my postpartum room, every time I sat up I had an instant headache, called a Spinal headache).

As soon as I was comfortable in bed, I kicked everyone out to take a nap. I felt bad Michael and my mom hadn't gotten to eat lunch yet. Well I should have had my mom go get lunch because, I felt nauseous once more from just having ice chips awhile back. I was scared, I was completely numb, I called the nurse and the secretary sent her to another room. It took every inch of strength I had to toss my torso over the side of the bed to "toss my cookies." My nurse Lani was not happy when she arrived since she wasn't there to help due to the stupid secretary. Just the look on her face I could tell she needed a break. But she was a rock star and gave me excellent care. I have yet to write her manager to tell her how happy I was with my experience, thanks to Lani, and my midwives. I'm not gonna lie, both times I puked, it got on me. This time though of course I couldn't get out of bed. 

The epidural felt very weird. Being completely numb, made my legs feel as if they were floating. And now I know how amputee's say they can feel their toes wiggling still. Because I kept asking Michael if my toes were wiggling. 

I ended up taking a 1 hour nap, then the midwives came back in to check me. I had gone from 2 cm to 10 cm in 1 hour!!! My body needed the drug to calm me down. There would have been no way I could have continued without the epidural. I have no guilt what so ever because I got an epidural. It was the right choice for this labor. 

As the midwives prepped for delivery which took 2 seconds, I began to push, and with the first push we could see the top of Isaac's head! I did watch on the mirror, I never thought I would want to, but it was extremely encouraging. Shannon joked saying that this baby will be out by 2:03pm, when we were 20 minutes in. When we were getting closer I had them take the mirror away, I definatly did not want to see myself tear if that was going to be the case. But after a good hour of pushing Isaac arrived into this world at exactly 2:04pm! On the last push I love how they yell "STOP" and his head popped right out. Isaac had stooled in utero, so Rachel the Neonatologist Nurse Practitioner was waiting with a NICU nurse to take care of my sweet boy. Shannon first suctioned out his mouth and nose, then the rest of his body just slid right out. The nurse needed to cut the cord, and I saw my green baby rush to the warmer. I was HIGH on adrenalin and love! I still can't believe I was only in labor for 7 hours, with my first baby!

It was extremely difficult to focus, as Isaac came back to me all cleaned up, the midwives started to stitch a tear inside of me. Thank god because I was so scared of tearing on the outside. Due to Isaac having a tongue tie he was unable to breastfeed his first 24 hours of life until we got a nipple shield from lactation. In labor and delivery i just hand expressed for him to lick and enjoy. Although it was hard just to concentrate on him with so much information buzzing around. I remember really wanting to know his weight. So after we bonded for 15 minutes they put him on the scale. He was 6lbs 11oz, and 20 inches long. My sweet petite baby boy had arrived. Isaac Neal B. has forever changed our lives!

Enjoying skin to skin (Isaac and me)

My Mom holding Isaac for the first time, I thank her daily for being there with us, it will be a bond that will be shared forever!