Covered in Kisses

Happy Valentines day, I'm 10 weeks old!

Dear Baby boy,

I am so in love with you!

This week you found your hand to suck on and self soothe. Grandma is visiting us for 2 weeks. Monday morning Grandmom and I were talking to you in our bedroom and as we started to have our own conversation Grandma noticed you making a different noise than usual...you were clucking your tongue! Once we praised you, you became so proud of yourself! After a few clucks, you lost how you had managed to organize your tongue, but we keep practicing, (later that evening Daddy was trying to get you to cluck, but instead you farted hehe). 

You are still doing wonders with your development at swim class. Grandma was so excited to be able to watch you in the water! She also constantly tells me of what a wonderful job I am in letting you explore you environments and in teaching you. This week the water was colder, and you particularly did not like floating on your back, Mommy has patience and will slowly acclimate you to this position, the most important this is that you are having fun.

We've been working on your ability to grasp items, I hold the link of rings above you as you lay on your back, and dangle them until you hit them enough to stop them. And eventually you are able to grasp on to them!

I have also laid down the wardrobe mirror we have, so that you can admire yourself in it! But most importantly you are learning about movement, and watching yourself. I can't tell if you know that baby is you in the mirror or not. But you especially like when you are naked and looking in the mirror. 

Today was your 2 month check up at the Pediatrician's office. You have started to consistently throw up after meals, but Dr. Bill reassured me that it is "Delayed gastric emptying." And this, plus the reflux baby's tend to grow out of. Especially once solids are started, they help hold down the bolus of milk. Dr. Bill was proud to hear that you started breastfeeding as soon as we got you on the Zantac medication. Mommy really appreciates him, since he was very empathetic to our feeding struggles in the beginning, since his wife had the same experience. You got 2 shots, which was hard to watch, putting you on the breast did not help (next time I'm bringing a bottle of breast milk to help soothe you, this helped the first time you had a shot). You have slept most of the day, but this afternoon and night I've had to give you tylenol to calm you down. It hurts to see you in pain. 

Leaving on a better note, I'm looking forward to your second infant massage class tomorrow!

Smiles

Photoshoot!

 He loves to drool 

Sharon my dear coworker made these booties for Isaac, with a matching hat, but the his head grew so fast that unfortunately the hat is too small now.

January is for Growing

Isaac now weighs 12 lbs, 7 oz more he has doubled his birth weight in 2 months! He is now 24 inches long, growing 4 inches since birth, and his head circumference is 16 inches. I downloaded a free apple "app" for growth charts and his percentiles on 2/2/13 are: weight: 60%, height: 85% , head circ: 90%.

Here are pictures through out your second month (almost taken everyday). I usually try to send my Mom 1 picture a day, since my parents don't get to see Isaac often. But we are very excited that Grandma is visiting for 2 weeks in February!

The choo choo PJ's are my favorite outfit thus far

Milk drunk

 Isaac and his buddy J.R. at their first mom's group. When Isaac first saw J.R. he was surprised to see other baby's existed! Since then I look forward to getting Isaac to play group, and swim class so he can interact with other babies.

 Lately it's been below 30 degrees, under Isaac's PJ's we put a onsie, and definatly can't go without the socks as mittens

2 Months old!

Happy 2 Months old my sweet boy!

Dear Isaac:

You have me tied around your finger. For how exhausting some nights or days can be, I always do look forward to the morning wondering what exciting new things we'll accomplish.

-You have started to point your finger while buzzing your arms around, and you've gotten more control of those flying arms
-You are able to identify your favorite toys
-You are able to be in your swing for much longer- even falling asleep in it (this really helps me be able to eat lunch)
-You found me by looking in our stand up mirror while laying in your bassinet
-You have found interest in focusing more, for example the other night you were focusing on the design pattern of my socks, I stripped them off and you were very interested in observing my moving toes and decided you wanted to touch them and learn
-When we sit at the couch and have you laying on out propped up legs you love to stare at Gigi's water color painting's
-And best of all you have started to laugh while smiling

One morning while you were sleeping you woke up and lifted your head back and had this ear to ear grin. It sadly did not last long because you immediately fell back to sleep, I look forward to every morning since then in hopes you'll have that same happy face staring back at me.

This is my favorite pose he does:

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!

 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.

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. 

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. 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 meds. 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!