First Two Weeks

Wow, life with a newborn.  There is not much time around here to be on a Mac or PC!  We have been trying to settle into a new normal the past two weeks.  We're working through two issues right now... a case of thrush and some slightly bloody stools.  We've been to the doctor and have medicine for the thrush (and I'm taking a probiotic and not drinking any milk) and, because our little guy is otherwise very healthy and not running a fever, we just have to monitor his poopy diapers right now.  Life changes when you have poopy diaper pictures on your phone... and send them to people for second opinions!  Both issues are possibly connected to the strong antibiotics that our baby had in the NICU.  Although I do want to remember the details of this precious time and everyone says "it goes by too fast" it's also very scary.  Your mommy and daddy love you very much sweet Hampton and wouldn't hurt you for the world!  We're trying to make every decision with your best interests at heart! 

Question:  Does anyone have any advice for thrush or have you had the experience of blood in the stools?  

Things I want to remember...

How you sleep with both hands in tight fists by your face, one by your chin and the other under your chin

All of your funny faces and stretches when waking up

When taking a bottle, you make these cute little noises... eh, eh, ehhhhhh

After breastfeeding, you smack your lips

You are so happy with a full tummy

You start out in the pack-n-play at night but end up next to mommy, we both get our best sleep that way

Your "little" cry sounds like a car idling

Your "big" cry sounds like a laugh

The sweetest dimple on your right cheek

The way you open your mouth in a crooked way and stretch your neck when hungry... like a baby bird

How strong you are!  I think you're going to follow your daddy on the mountain bike trails as soon as those strong little legs will reach the pedals!

The wide open, curious blue eyes that love to look in a mirror and stare at the fish on the swing and the Baby Einstein aquarium.  

The laughs & shouts from mommy & daddy getting pee'd and poop'ed on, you'll think that's funny too one day but now you just stare at us like "get on with it and change my diaper!"  (By the way, we are getting better!)  Dad has been the laundry King!  He is extremely anal about using Shout and getting everything to the wash ASAP.  

You are a little guy with some major gas... I feel so bad when you're straining but the doctor said that he would be very rich if he could solve baby gas issues... so mommy will just have to be careful about what I eat!  

I just keep thinking, is this for real?  This is our baby... a baby that very much has stolen our hearts and changed our lives in a way we never thought possible.  

 Special Moments

Singing...

Baby, All I Want For Christmas is YOU!   

Merry Christmas from Mac & PC and our sweet little miracle! 

The Birth Story

I have already written NICU...which is a part 1... but here's what happened prior to that scary wake up call Sunday morning.

The Start
On Friday morning, I woke up about 7:00 a.m. with a crampy feeling.  At this point, I had stopped getting excited over cramps and decided they were just gas pains.
Went to the bathroom and looked in the tp as I have every single day of this pregnancy and there was the mucous plug!  I walked out of the bathroom and said to PC "OMG (and I'm not even a big fan of text lingo) OMG, I just lost my mucous plug... it could be hours now!"  PC said "I thought it could still mean days."  Me:  "Let's think hours.  Good grief, I have to go to the bathroom again."  But I couldn't hold it and didn't make it... my water broke at 7:15 a.m.  For me, it started as a trickle and then the "gush."  It was the strangest feeling ever!  And it kept coming... and kept coming...and kept coming... I  yelled to PC  "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh... my water just broke!  We've got to go!  But I need a shower... and to put a few more things in the bag... go ahead and put everything in the car...gotta call the doctor... I can't believe it!"  PC by this time has jumped out of bed and was worried about a few work things that need to be resolved... one was a pie delivery.  I asked him why he didn't have a back-up plan and that we were going to have a baby and could not be worried about pies!!!  Anyway, we rush around for about 45 minutes making phone calls, showering and getting the car ready and finally we're off.

The Car Ride
I tell PC that I want to get a biscuit.  He told me he didn't want to deliver a baby in a car and I told him everyone's advice was to eat something before labor & delivery and I was hungry!  PC was irritated and driving 85 mph.  I told him I really wanted to actually make it to the hospital.  About 10 minutes into the drive (hospital is 30 minutes away), another gush.  I had a mega pad on and a towel but it didn't help.  So, I had PC make another stop at the Dollar General (one on every corner in the Southeast) for a pair of jogging pants and underwear.  I was not walking into the hospital with wet pants, priorities lol.  I had to change in the hospital parking lot.  He also got a mega lollie... more about that later.

The Mega Lollie

 The Arrival
We arrived about 9:30 a.m. and checked in.  The nurse had to go with me into the bathroom and make sure my water broke.  I was thinking... seriously?  Confirmed and off to lucky room #7!  They did my first check and I was at 2 cm.  So much for the movie scenes where the water breaks and the couple barely makes it to the hospital in time!  A nurse peeked into the room and told me my mom was in the hallway and asked if she could come in.  We had specified to family that we didn't want them there during the labor... I just wanted the time for focusing on baby.  But I'm an only child and we had one really excited grandma-to-be there so we let her in for a few pictures and hugs and promises to send updates. 

The Labor
I was not feeling contractions that morning.  So the walking began.  We walked and we walked and we walked.  At 6:30 p.m., I started feeling contractions and we didn't leave the room after that point.  During this time, I wanted dark and complete silence.  During each contraction, I was telling myself "closer to baby, breathe, closer to baby."  I remember (and so does he) telling PC that his shoes were squeaking.  I told him he was getting off easy with my need for dark and silence!  I snuck in a few graham crackers and had a few of those during this time too.  I disagree with the 'absolutely nothing to eat' policy... definitely a time that strength and energy is needed!  I labored from 6:30 to midnight and just knew the next check would be a "10 and ready to push!"  No such luck.  I was 4 cm. Bring on the epidural.

Walking, walking, walking

 The Epidural
I knew we had to speed things up with my water breaking.  Epidural lady came and she was no nonsense.  I remember telling her I was scared of this because I had scoliosis and she said everything would be okay.  She talked me through each part and I remember her popping the top of the needle with her mouth, putting it in her other hand and tossing it across the room to the trash can, hitting it spot on.  Funny the little things you remember but I was thinking "I'm in good hands here!"  I didn't want the epidural for different reasons, but, in my case, I really believe it would have ended in a c-section if I had not because things were just not progressing and I was getting close to the point of being at risk for infection because of my water breaking. 

From 4cm to 10 cm
From midnight to 4 a.m., they added pitocin

off the charts

Pushing
I remember telling the doctor "let's do three pushes and get him here!"  He laughed and said that it might take a few more than that but we would try.  He had to get a mirror for me and coach me through pushing where I needed to push but when I saw the head and hair, extra motivation kicked in!  Hampton was born at 7:21 a.m. and then the room became a blur while PC and I cried and looked into the sweetest face I've ever seen.  I remember telling him how long we had waited on him and how much he was worth it.  Then he pooped, lol.  But at least he waited until outside the womb, such a gentleman.

Welcome to the World

The "Push Present"
A sweet card and necklace from PC.  It means eternity.  Perfect gift from my P.rince C.harming:]

Little details
In conversation before the pushing, it came up that this was an IVF baby and we had tried for years.  One of the L&D nurses said she had one unsuccessful IVF and adopted a baby girl and that we were giving her hope that they might just try one more time.  She stayed through shift change to help deliver the baby and cried with us.

That darn mega lollie... it caught my eye several times during labor and I told PC to get rid of it... looking at it made me sick!

After I got the IV, they looked for the baby's heartbeat.  It took her a long time and PC and I shared a look of sheer panic.  It became the first of several and I remember saying later in the week "why can I not just get a baby home?!?"

I still had my bra on for some reason and it needed to come off.  The nurses were having a hard time getting it around the cords and IV and I said "cut the bra."  They were like "no, we'll help you save the bra."  Totally a female moment!

Advice for packing for moms to be...

• Lots and lots of socks!  Some for walking on the nasty hospital floor, some for comfort, and cheap ones you can cut if your feet swell afterwards like mine did!

• Disposable panties... they don't give you enough of these things but they worked during the walking/labor part and after labor because they stretch and-best part- you just toss them in the trash!  My ob/gyn said we could purchase those in the lingerie department, another funny detail I remember.

• Snacks... I wouldn't have had any strength without a few graham crackers here and there.  I know the reasoning because you don't know if surgery will be necessary but sometimes people need emergency surgery and they haven't fasted... I was thankful for those crackers!

• Cottonelle and colace to prepare for that first bm.  Enough said. 

HOME

Thank you blog friends for your thoughts and prayers during my stay in the NICU.  The doctors and nurses helped me to get healthier and stronger every day and I am happy to say that I am HOME!
Love, Hampton

Update... NICU... prayers please

Blog friends, please say a prayer for our sweet little Hampton. 
(Typing as fast as I can version because we're in survival mode and every minute spent with our sweet boy is the only way we're holding it  together.)  We spent all day Saturday rejoicing with family and friends.  There is no way our little one didn't feel the love because of all the hugs, happy tears, smiles and baby adoring going on!  Throughout the day he would spit up in a choking kind of way and the nurses said it was perfectly normal because he could have swallowed some amniotic fluid/mucous.  We learned to use the little suction tool and all seemed well.  Later that night, PC and I had about two hours before the next feeding and one of the nurses said they could watch him sleep for a couple of hours in the nursery since the spitting up was a worry and we could get a couple hours of sleep.  We said that would be okay.  One and a half hours later, the nurse comes in and says that Hampton spit up and it was green and she called someone from the NICU to come look at it and he was downstairs being checked out.  Two things here- #1- PC and I would have not known that was cause for concern- sorry but we're amateurs here-and we would have thought 'mucous.'  So, kind've a blessing in disguise that he was in the nursery when it happened.  #2- You do not wake up any mother- and especially an IVF mother- and tell her that her baby is "down there being checked out."  Within the next hour (when we could sort everything out...this is around 2 in the morning btw...) our baby had been hooked up to an IV, a chest x-ray was taken and he was on antibiotics.  I called our ob/gyn and some people really got in trouble for taking these steps without the parents knowing... you girls could understand my anger, but I had to move past that quickly... Hampton needed me.  So- green spit up is a cause for concern because it could indicate a bowel blockage, infection or (best case scenario) just a sensitive tummy.  However, you have to rule out blockage/infection.  His bloodwork that morning came back with a high white blood cell count which could mean #1- he's fighting infection or #2- (other best case scenario) sometimes it's elevated just from the birth experience and adjusting to their new world.  He has been down there ever since and my heart is outside my chest right now, it's wherever he is.  I'm down there as much as possible, only coming to our room for meals and meds and a few short naps when a grandma or dad is with him (dad's on duty right now and that's a different post- thank you God for my sweet PC).  When I try to nap, I smell him on my hand and that's when I cry myself to sleep.  He is doing so good... a little trooper meeting every goal... but they are not letting him go yet in order to totally rule out infection and watch him after more feedings to check for anymore suspicious color in the spit up.  NICU is "they do not go until we're 100% sure he's a well baby."  With newborns, every doctor & nurse has explained to me that timing is everything and pre-prevention and being overly cautious is what keeps babies from a more serious illness.  I want them to be overly cautious but I WANT HIM HOME.  AND YOU ALL KNOW HOW BAD I WANT HIM HOME.  So please send some good thoughts or prayers for our sweet little guy our way... for this face... and this mama that has waited on this for almost six years.  Thank you blog family!  Love to you all!  Back to my baby boy!

Introducing...

Baby Hampton born 12-10-11 at 7:21 a.m.  

 More details to come but we are SO in LOVE 
with our little Miracle Baby!   
Indescribable.   

He's On The Way!

Water broke 5 1/2 hours ago.  We are in the hospital and doing well.  Prayers please... to be continued.

Official: Miserable

Please let me explain before someone thinks that I have lost all memory of IF and the long- almost 7 year- journey it took to get to this point!

It's the "I'm in the middle of another 2WW miserable."  One week down, another to go!  Anticipation... nerves... what if's... all of those same thoughts that I went through 39 weeks ago during a very emotionally & physically draining time of waiting.  Then we got the news that we had been waiting to hear for so long and now I'm waiting to be able to share the news of a lifetime!

Physically, I have to say that I'm just making it day to day right now.  I'm still working and pushing myself to get things done but I'm swollen and walk waddle to try and relieve pain in my lower back and right knee.  Tuesday is my last day of work and Wednesday we go back to the ob/gyn for an update.  Last week we were 1.5 cm dilated and 25% effaced.  I was so excited to hear that and then Dr. Google tells me women can be at that status for weeks- BOO! 

Emotionally, I'm not in a (total) fearful state about pain and childbirth.  I'm in a nervous/anxious state of wanting this sweet baby boy to get here healthy and safely.    

In no way do I mean for this to be a somber post at such a joyful time, just that a major dose of anxiety has kicked in through another 2WW.  Bring on the grand finale!!!

PC has been a true partner through all of this, but especially the past few days.  Have I ever mentioned that he has been to every single appointment?  He takes care of the laundry, keeps the fur babies fed and has been company for them when I just haven't felt like it, helps me with my socks and shoes, massages my back, puts his hand on my stomach every day to experience the baby's movements with me and so many more little things that mean so much.  I haven't thanked him or told him how much I appreciate those things enough, but I really, really do!  Today he gave me a pregnancy card that was meant to be funny but it brought on laughter and tears at the same time.  Worth a share...

Laughed when I opened and saw the front (he knows how much I love to plan) and cried when I got to his note... everything is going to be okay with this man by my side:]