Surviving Motherhood

My boss let me borrow a book before EJ was born and told me that it was an easy read and that it helped her a lot when she had her 1st baby. It's called "The Girlfriends' Guide to Surviving the First Year of Motherhood" by Vicki Lovine. So far, it's really good...I'm skimmed through some parts of it because I actually didn't start reading it until AFTER I had EJ. Therefore the whole preparing for birth and what to expect in the hospital stuff was a bit late. lol

Anyways, I just HAD to share some of what I read tonight because it's rather humorous (as much of the book is) and very very true! (Well, thankfully, the part of the baby sleeping in my bed, and not sleeping at night and constantly crying isn't true in my case....so far)

...But wait a minute, you're working twenty-four seven here! This blame can't just be lain on your doorstep. If it isn't you, then it must be your husband. Yeah, that's whose caught this is! Only your blind devotion prevented you from seeing it earlier. If only he would hold up his end. After all, it was he who got you in this predicament in the first place. Sure that baby books advise you to pump an extra bottle of milk so that he can feed the baby while you rest, but you haven't managed to squeeze out one extra ounce, let alone a full bottle. If Mother Nautre is so smart, then why didn't She put working nipples on dads? And why does he get to escape to work every day and leave you alone to face this eight-pound bottomless pit of needs? And what's with his always asking you, "What should we do about dinner tonight?" He's a grown man-- can't he handle it? Is it too much to ask to enter the dining room and find a cooked meal already there, just once? And if he doesn't handle it, why doesn't he earn a better living so that you could afford to hire someone who will?

Then again, the poor guy looks as haunted and tired as you do. Sure he isn't a wizard with baby wipes, but he is working awfully hard. So if it isn't his fault, there is only one possible culprit left...that's right; it's the baby's fault. Sure she's absolutely gorgeous and perfect in every way, but she really doesn't play fair. She sleeps all day, she cries all night, she is only happy if you are walking around with her in your arms and she screams when you sit down on your hemorrhoid donut to rest your aching back. She nurses until you think your breasts will fall off, and then proceeds to spit up what must be half of the meal. Then she wants to nurse again and gets mad at you if the well has run dry. She hates her crib but loves your bed. You try to let her cry for a few minutes to let her learn to comfort herself, but she refuses to learn. You try crying yourself. She's right; it doesn't make you feel much better. The babies on TV and in books sleep all night, take two naps a day and never cry unless they have a dirty diaper or are hungry. Your baby, however cries at phantoms, loves to party all night and naps unpredictably. Clearly motherhood would be a snap, if only your baby cooperated. 

HERE'S THE TRUTH: THE BIRTH OF A BABY IS SUPPOSED TO BLOW YOUR SCHEULE TO BITS, EVEN IF IT NEARLY KILLS YOU AND YOUR MATE. THIS IS NATURE'S WAY OF MAKING SURE THAT WE GET OUR NEW PRIORITIES STRAIGHT. THE THREE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS BECOME, IN THIS ORDER. 

1. THE BABY'S HEALTH

2. THE BABY'S COMFORT

3. THE BABY'S PARENTS' SURVIVAL. (THIS IS A VERY DISTANT THIRD.)

If you're a mom, you probably know exactly where she's coming from. I would have thought she was heartless and crazy for saying all of that BEFORE I became a mom. Now, only 6 weeks into this, I totally understand and feel exactly like that on some days. 

2 weeks

EJ had his 2 week checkup on 12/1/11. Thehubs had planned to go with us of course, but due to unforeseen work circumstances, he wasn't able to. Which meant I was left responsible for getting this 2 week old baby up, dressed, in the car, to the doctor in Hwy 280 rush hour traffic, and in the doctor's office by 9am!! And with a 9 lb baby, that's not so easy when my body was still healing and I wasn't supposed to even be lifting anything over 10lbs. Let's just say I broke that rule that day!

But...I'll go ahead and say WE SURVIVED!! Of course we did! And boy did I feel like supermom that day! I felt like I needed some kind of award after that day or something.

We actually made it to the doctor only about 10 minutes late, which I thought was milestone #1 considering  I pulled over twice and was going to give him a bottle I had prepared for him. Both times I pulled the car over, he immediately calmed down and went to sleep. Guess he's not a fan of 280 traffic either! lol

Everything went very smoothly in the doctor's office. He checked out to be a perfect baby boy....which I already knew!

Height- 22 1/2 inches....95th percentile
Weight- 9 lbs 13 1/2 oz....75th percentile
Head- 14 3/4....50th percentile

Everybody kept saying that it looks like we have a basketball player on our hands! Stayed tuned for the ONE MONTH update....let's just say that this boy is certain to be playing sports of some sort with his weight and height!

Bilibed

Jaundice....I hate it! EJ (which is what I'll refer to baby boy as from now on) had a slightly high level of bilirubin on the day we left the hospital on Friday. It was at 10 point something, and the doctor just told us to go into the office the next morning to have his levels checked again.
We didn't think much about it, as I was certain that his level would be good the next day.

Well....it had jumped to 13.9 by then I believe. When the doctor called us that Saturday afternoon to inform us of the jump in his level, she said that the treatment would be for home health to come out and bring what's called a bilibed. He would have to be in the bed for a few days until his levels came down.

So that evening, the nurse came out to our apartment and brought the bed. Mr. EJ had to be in the bed unless he was being fed or having his diaper changed. Ugh, this sucked because we had just gotten home with our baby, and yet we weren't able to hold him and love on him. But then again, all I could think about were all the parents who aren't even able to come home with their baby or the ones who have to go to NICU or deal with something so much worse.

Here's our little man in his bed. The material on top Velcroed onto the light, and he had to be zipped up on the little body suit. He didn't like it too much. There were many HOURS spent leaning over his crib shushing and consoling him while he cried and fussed. But we endured.

I kept quoting the verse "this too shall pass" and "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" over those 2 days and 3 nights.

Sunday morning the nurse came out again, and to call that afternoon informed us that his level had only dropped to 13.2 or something like that. I was totally bummed, because it was only 5 days until Thanksgiving and I thought that at this rate, he'd be on the bed for a week or so.

Monday- the level had dropped to 10 something again, and the nurse sounded certain that the doctor would  give us the okay for him to come off of the bed. Well, that night, we got a call from the nurse saying that the doctor had not returned her pages and for us to keep him on the bed one more night and wait to hear back from the doctor in the morning.

Tuesday morning came and I just took it upon myself to keep him out of the bed and love on him some. Thehubs had to go back to work that day, and my mom was coming to spend the day with me, so I didn't want him to have to miss out on all the fun with his grandma. Another nurse came by that morning, and drew blood again and pretty much told me that his coloring looked great and that with his weight gain (which he was up to 9lbs by that point), and levels from the previous day, that he was certain to come off the bed today.
She unofficially told me that it was okay to keep him off the bed throughout the day unless he was sleeping. My thoughts were "yeah right, that baby isn't touching that awful thing again unless he absolutely has to!"

Mom and I loved on that baby all day long! We ventured out of the house, as I was going stir crazy! We went to Walmart..."we" as in mom went in and got some stuff  I needed while EJ and I sat in the car. And then we grabbed some lunch. By the time we got back home I was absolutely exhausted and ready for a nap!

We got a call during lunch that his levels were down even more, and that the doctor said he could come off the bed. Praise the Lord!! That was the best phone call ever, because Thehubs and I were so ready to get rid of that thing! I gladly boxed it up and gave it back to the nurse when she came back out later that afternoon, and vowed to let go of my bitterness towards to bed. :)

A little behind

Where in the world has the time gone?? I can't believe it has been a month since my little one was born, and I've yet to post the 1st blog about his birth or any of his sweetness!! I want to document about his birthday....the excitement and events that took place. :) I don't blame you if you want to stop reading now- I'll try to spare too many disgusting details for you.

We arrived at the hospital WAY early that morning for what we knew would be probably a long road ahead of us. I had been dilated 3 cm for over a month, and was still at 3 upon arrival. The doctor came in around 6:30 to break my water and get things speeding up a bit. And let me just tell you-that was painful!!! Almost as painful as the contractions. The Dr and nurse encouraged me the whole time, saying it wasn't supposed to be that bad, and jokingly said that I certainly didn't have to worry about my bag of waters breaking in Walmart, as it was one tough bag. (Exactly what you wanted to hear, right??)

So after that, I endured contractions for another few hours as things continued to progress. Rather quickly, I might add. Around 9 I finally got the epidural almost immediately after asking for it. Thankfully I had progressed well, and didn't have to take any pain meds before getting the epidural. I couldn't believe how easy that part was. I was pretty scared of the pain of this huge needle going in my back, and having to sit up in the bed while having contractions and everything. But....it wasn't bad at all. And let me just say that man oh man, once that thing kicked in I was good to go!

My mom, dad, and TheHubs' mom and sister came shortly after all of that excitement, and hung out the entire day. My parents had bought a video camera about a week earlier for the little one's arrival, and decided to do some videoing about everybody's predictions of the time of birth, weight, length and all those details. In the meantime, I laid in bed shivering and shaking violently most of the day from the waist up....gotta love the side effects of drugs. Nurses said it was normal- and I just kept telling myself that there is no way I could ever be a drug addict.

3:00 came quickly, and by this time I was of course STARVING!!! The nurse examined me once again, and I had finally made it to TEN CENTIMETERS!!! WHOO HOO!!

So the family was then kicked out of my room, and the pushing began shortly thereafter.

...And continued for the next hour and a half. This was a tad more intense than I thought it would be. About 30-40 minutes into pushing I heard this beeping sound coming from the epidural drip. When asked what it was, the nurse vey calmly said "Oh, that's just an alarm saying you'r epidural is out."

Um, WHAT?!?!  "And how long does it take to wear off?" I asked her. She assured me that it would take several minutes. And I trusted her. "Several minutes" went by and I think she realized that baby boy wasn't coming out any time soon, so she called for someone to bring another dosage. Thank Jesus for that!!

Thehubs was extremely supportive of me not only during the pushing process, but the entire day. Giving me ice chips whenever I asked, holding my hand and watching me cry when I was in pain. And of course having that look of "Oh, I wish there was something more I could do to help" during the whole pushing time. But he did....he supported my back and helped me each and every contraction. And it was awesome.

Our little bundle of joy arrived at 4:36pm weighing a whopping 8 lbs and 12 oz!!! Out of the total of 20 lbs that I gained, he was a big chunk of it...no wonder people kept telling me I was "all baby."
He was 22" long....looks like we have a basketball player on our hands.

Immediately after delivery, Thehubs cut the cord, and they took him over to be cleaned up. I made Thehubs go take pictures of it all and bring the camera back and forth showing me everything that was going on. This was all while I was being stitched up and once again vigorously shaking from the waist up.

Oh, did I fail to mention the vomiting and dry-heaving that occurred 3 times while pushing?? At one point the nurse told me "Well, at least you technically pushed for 3 solid minutes." after one of my little episodes of nausea.
Yeah...and it began again after deliver. While trying to breast feed him for the 1st time to be specific. So they had to take the little man away from me again while Thehubs gave me my Chick-fil-a supper that my amazing cousin brought!
*Note to self* Make sure Danielle has food after delivery whenever she has a baby....her bringing Chick-fil-a seriously saved my life. lol

So after I ate, I then calmed down a bit and was able to hold and feed my baby boy. (And keep my food down.)  Let me just say here that breast feeding is one of the most amazing things on the planet. If the whole pregnancy and birth thing doesn't blow your mind in how cool it is how everything just happens on it's own, then breastfeeding is sure to amazing you. The little guy just knew exactly what to do and he latched right on (with plenty of help from the nurses on my end of things)...it was just beautiful.

While the nurses were still cleaning things up (and after I was all stitched up), in walks my mother. She just couldn't contain herself any longer in the waiting room. She came right over to me with huge tears in her eyes and gave me a hug. Then of course went to see her precious grandson. Shortly after that, the rest of the family entered to see the nurse give him his 1st bath and everything. I was absolutely exhausted by this point, but the epidural was still working, so no pain...YET.

I'll end there for now. I'll try and post again very soon about his progress since then and coming home. Now for some precious pictures of the little fellow. Enjoy!

 Thehubs & I waiting patiently on his arrival.

 Precious baby boy!

 Proud daddy!

 Aunt Shari

 Day 2

First family photo. :) 

My daddy loving on his 1st grandchild....this man is head over heals for my baby boy!  

Isn't he just  cutie?? 

Going home!!!

Scared

I wrote this obviously BEFORE little bit was born, but never posted it....just a view of my emotional state at that point. :)


I am hopefully just a day or two away from giving birth to my firstborn. I seriously had no clue that my emotions would be this strong. I cry at the drop of a hat, which is to be expected I suppose.

I'm just so overwhelmed at how everything is about to change. Thehubs and I will no longer just be husband and wife, but also mommy and daddy. We will have another human being depending on us 100%.

There is so much dependance on the Lord right now. So much is absolutely out of my control, which is often a struggle of mine. I have no control over when he decides to come (other than making a decision of induction), no control if he's healthy or not, no control how long the delivery lasts, no control how my recovery goes (to an extent), no control over so much....and that freaks me out (of course)!