Teeth and Puke

Well after posting just two days ago that Lucas had no teeth, suddenly he DOES!  Gary noticed last night that his bottom left tooth has pushed through the surface of his gums!  No wonder my poor baby has been so fussy. I tried to take a picture but he kept sticking his tongue out so we will have to wait on that. lol

He slept TERRIBLE last night, woke up this morning drenched in pee like every morning lately (sleeper change 1) and drank his usual 6 oz bottle which he then proceeded to throw up ALL over me and him (sleeper change 2).  We rocked a bit and then I gave him 2 oz of formula, which he then threw up again (sleeper change 3).  Then my poor baby started to dry heave and throw up phlegm for the next 2 hours. :(  We napped together on the couch (for a whole 40 min) and then I gave him 2 oz of pedialite per hour for the next three hours, and formula in small amounts after that.  He was fine until bedtime when he was so hungry he wanted too much and ended up throwing at least 2-3 oz up in his crib.  :(  He also had a fever of 101.5 so we gave him some baby tylenol.   Poor baby I do NOT like him feeling bad..  Hopefully it's just a 24 bug and he feels better tomorrow or I will call his doctor because I don't want him getting dehydrated.  Ugh, I would rather be sick myself than him be sick.  SUCKY!!!

5 Months!

Lucas is 5 months old as of Tuesday this week.  Oh my time is flying!!! Let's summarize him at 5 Mos.

• He weighs about 16 lbs according to my home scale and is about 27 inches long.  He is in 6/9 mos for sleepers and some clothes and in 3/6 mos for most clothes but all the pants are short!  LOL
• He is eating 30-35 oz a day in 5 bottles (including one middle of the night bottle) but has NO interest in solid foods.  So far we have tried cereal, carrots, sweet potatoes, squash, bananas, peas, apples and peaches and he didn't like ANY of them.  I am giving it a couple weeks and will try again!
• He sleeps terrible.  He does 6:30/7 to 6:30/7 with one night time feeding (anywhere from 20 to 45 min) but his naps are terrible.  I am currently trying baby whisperer EASY method and using 2 hours for his awake time but so far no go. LOL
• He smiles, giggles and laughs.  He LOVES it when you blow raspberries on his belly or pretend to eat his hands and feet.  He has discovered faces and loves to touch, play with, pinch, push, grab our faces and lips especially.
• His favorite place to be is his Jumperoo, he spends a couple hours a day in it!  (not all at once of course!)
• He rolls both ways and always sleeps on his belly now so we had to ditch his swaddle
• He knows his name and will look at you if you call it.
• He doesn't reach for us yet but will throw his body towards daddy or mommy if he wants one of us!
• He is VERY vocal!  He babbles alot and now he SCREECHES for fun.  He thinks it is hilarious.  He also makes a noise that sounds like he is talking to snakes. LOL  Oh and he makes a sound like Mmmmmmmmaaaa.  He is gonna say Mama very soon!! ;) 
• He hates to sit, I think he will walk before he can sit alone!  He will stand/jump all day if you'd let him!  (my arms get tired!)
• He loves the Sprout channel and has a baby crush on on the nighttime host Nina.  He has HUGE smiles whenever she is on!
• He is fascinated by the kitties yet they have NO interest in him.
• He has no teeth yet but I think the bottoms are close.  He teethes on EVERYTHING he can and drools through 3-4 bibs a day!
• He loves stroller walks and we go every afternoon that isn't raining
• He is OVER his swing.  He won't stay in it more than 15 min and ONLY first thing in the morning when he wakes up.  Soon we will have to get rid of it to make room for stuff he likes!
• He loves his feet.  He plays with them and tries to eat them constantly, which makes diaper changes difficult!
• Speaking of diaper changes, he manages to pee so much at night now he leaks even in overnight diapers!  I think it is cuz he sleeps on his belly, that is when it started. :(
• He hates being in his carseat, even AFTER we got him a nice huge convertible one cuz we thought he might be too cramped in the infant seat.  And he always manages to fall asleep 3 minutes from home. LOL
• He has the beginning of stranger fear I think.  He always has to have Mommy or Daddy in sight when being held by someone else.
• He LOVES to be up in the air like superman.  And you usually get a face full of drool when you do it. LOL
• No matter where we put him in the crib, he will squish up to a side as close as he can. I think he feels more secure there.
• He puts himself to sleep 95% of the time now, sometimes in 5 minutes, sometimes an hour.  It depends how tired he is.
• He HATES a pacifier and sucks his thumb and fingers occasionally but not to go to sleep yet.

I'll be doing his 5 mos photo shoot this weekend and will add some pics then. :)

Mother's Day

Mother's Day was bittersweet for me this year.  You see this is my "third" Mother's Day but my first actually having a baby.  Confusing?  Let me explain.  Three years ago in 2009 I was pregnant from our second IVF procedure on Mother's Day and actually we told Gary's parents that day by showing them the pictures.  I miscarried that pregnancy four days later at 8 1/2 weeks.  This was my second miscarriage and I was devastated.  I was convinced I was NEVER going to celebrate an actual Mother's Day with a baby. :(  Roll forward one year to 2010 and again I was pregnant on Mother's Day.  Ten weeks this time so further than I was at my last miscarriage but still not in the "safe" zone.  Gary was forbidden from uttering anything resembling Happy Mother's Day to me and we did NOT share the news with family this time.  I was afraid it would "jinx" things, which I know is ridiculous but try telling that to a hormonal pregnant woman who is terrified of miscarrying again.  You can't.  We kept the news to ourselves until the 20 week ultrasound, crazy I know!  But until I knew that everything was "ok" in there I just couldn't do it!  Anyway, so here it is, 2011 and I finally have my take home miracle in Lucas.  Gary would have loved to do grand things for me this year but since I decided to quit my job and stay at home his first year this means we have to give up certain luxuries, such as exchanging gifts for holidays.  So I got to sleep in til 9 (heavenly!) and Lucas and Daddy brought me breakfast in bed.  Then Lucas refused to nap and screamed for an hour. LOL  So that was pretty much like everyday.  But he did finally nap and then we went outside and Daddy took these..

I am pretty sure it was the best Mother's Day, Ever.

Who's really getting trained here?

As I briefly mentioned in my last post Lucas is NOT a good sleeper.  As a newborn he was averaging 14-15 hours a day when he should of been getting 20.  Now at 4 1/2 mos old he is averaging 12 when he should be getting 14-16.  He has been getting 8-10 at night and MAYBE 2 hours during the day broken up into 4-5 "naps" of 40 min or less.  If he was happy and thriving on that sleep I wouldn't care, but he ISN'T.  He starts out the day happy and as the day progresses and he sleeps less and less he gets crabbier and crabbier to the point that before bedtime he is a serious crabass!  It's not working so I picked up Healthy Sleep Habits, Healthy Child and immediately started to try out some of the stuff.  That night instead of rocking him to bed for what seemed like FOREVER we did our bedtime routine and put him down in his crib drowsy but awake.  He "talked" to his mobile for 8 minutes, cried for 2 and fell asleep.  He was up at 1 to eat and 5:40 for the day.  WAY to early.  So the next night I moved his bedtime from 8 to 7 because the book said the earlier they go to bed, sometimes the better they will sleep.  I laid him down at 6:45 after his bottle and again he talked, but no crying and was asleep at 6:58.  He slept until 12:30 to eat, was up 45 min and then fussed at 4:30 and 6:30.  I left him both times because he was fussing, NOT crying and he went back to sleep both times within 5-10 minutes and didn't get up for the day until 8:10 am!  Success!!  Last night I laid him down at 6:52 and he was out at 7:14, again, NO crying.  He was up for 20 minutes at 12:30 to eat, fussed a bit at 5, but I left him and he went back to sleep and up for the day at 7:10.  I know he would have slept a little longer if that darn fire truck hadn't gone blazing by at full blast volume.  UGH.  But still, another successful night!  So I think we have nights worked out for now.  But naps. OMG THE NAPS SUCK.  I am trying to watch his sleep cues but he really doesn't have any good early ones.  Once in awhile I will catch a yawn but most of the time he is entering the "over tired zone" and rubbing eyes and getting fussy before I know he's tired.  So for now I am trying to go by the clock.  I know that awake time for his age is between 1 and 2 hours.  I know that early morning awake time is less than afternoon.  I am changing it up, trying to find the perfect number but so far no go.  Today I laid him down for his first nap after he had been awake an hour because yesterday I did 1 hr 15 and he was over tired.  He laid awake in there "talking" and playing with his toes for 35 minutes before he went to sleep so obviously he wasn't tired yet.  Then when he did sleep he slept 35 min.  Sigh.  Got him up and kept him up 1 1/2 hours.  I think I missed the window again because he was rubbing his eyes during his bottle which means he passed tired and is entering over tired zone.  Dang it.  But the he stayed awake in the crib for 40 long minutes, 8 of which he was crying.  Then he fell asleep and woke up at 37 minutes.  I left him because I KNEW he was still tired.  He fussed for 4 minutes, cried for 8 and fell back asleep.  He woke AGAIN 10 minutes later, rinse and repeat the last time except he only cried for 4 minutes.  Woke up in 10 minutes AGAIN and cried for 2 minutes before passing out.  Now he has slept 65 minutes straight since that wake up.  So obviously he was tired, he just has trouble with sleep cycles I think.  He doesn't sleep through the change, it wakes him and he has a hard time self soothing himself back to sleep.  He is getting there though since he did it and did it shorter each time.  It makes me sad though when it takes him that long to take a decent nap cuz that cuts into our fun playtime and it KILLS ME to listen to him cry but it IS working and nothing we tried before worked so I have faith it will get better.  Dear god, please let it get better.

I will end this with a couple pics.. :)  This first batch is his first Easter at Auntie Nancy's house. :)

Lucas and Auntie Nancy with his singing duck

Lucas with Gramma and Grampa

Lucas and his cousin Danny

Lucas and his cousin Jessica

Lucas in his Easter outfit, which yeah got drooled on QUICK.

Lucas with Gary and I.  The ONLY family picture we have other than one Gary's Mom took at Xmas!

Lucas tried carrots for the first time on Easter.  He is not a huge "eating" fan yet so we will be waiting a couple more weeks before we try again I think.

Save me Daddy!!

The aftermath.  He was wearing as much as he ate. LOL

Lucas after our walk yesterday.  He held out until 3 min from the house to fall asleep. LOL

Last night he was rocking his Guns N Roses onesie for bed! :)

Wow, time flies!

Holy cow, it's been 4 months since Lucas born!  It hasn't been easy for sure.  Poor Lucas has reflux and milk sensitivity so he is on medicine and special EXPENSIVE formula.  I was supposed to go back to work last month and couldn't do it so now I am a SAHM, which means we are massively poor but I get to experience Lucas's "personality" every day.  He is sooo cute, but NOT A SLEEPER.  OMG, he sleeps terrible.  His naps are 20-40 minutes long and he gets maybe 10-11 hours a night.  Ugh.  If Gary didn't step up and take over the night feedings I think I would be insane from lack of sleep by now.  LOL  Here are some pics, look how he's grown!!  I hope to start updating this more often, I totally forget!

1 Month Old

2 Months Old

3 Months Old on St. Patty's Day

4 Months Old

A random shot of Lucas & I

Lucas's Birth Story...

This will be long, just like my labor was..

Thursday December 16

We got up for 6 am and headed out the door at 6:10.  I wanted to eat a good breakfast before heading to the hospital because I knew it would be the last time I ate for awhile.  We hit the diner and I got a nice omelet full of protein to hold me off.. :)  We got to the hospital for 7 and I was checked in and in a room by 7:30.  They hooked me up to the monitors and then tried for an IV.  The nurse got it, but it was infiltrated so she had to restart it, missed that vein and had to go for help.  FINALLY, my IV was in, saline started and was just waiting for the doctor to come and give the order to start the pitocin.  She finally arrived about 9 am and we started it.  She then checked me and I was 2 cm and 50% effaced.  That is it!?  I was surprised as I had been told in the office I was 3 cm dilated and 80% effaced.  Odd..  I was contracting on my own at about 5-6 minute intervals.  I was on the pitocin ALL DAY with them increasing the dosage pretty regularly and the closest we ever got my contractions was about 3 minutes.  They were uncomfy but not really bad, although everything I was feeling was in my back.  I moved from the bed to the glider at about 4 and they got stronger and closer for awhile then to the point where I started to tear up during them.  The doctor came in at 5:30 and I was STILL only 3 cm and 50% effaced..  She made the decision to stop the induction for the night to give me a chance to rest and we would start up the next morning.  I got dinner and walked the halls with Gary for quite awhile trying to get things moving along.  Went to sleep and woke up nice and early at 6 am the next day to get started again.

Friday December 17

Today my doctor was not on call so I was to have Dr. Dohr.  She wasn't my favorite doctor after having seen her in the office because she was so quick.  I always felt like she had one hand on the door handle my whole appt.  Well this time her quickness was to work in my favor.  We started the pitocin at about 9:15 and at 9:30 she broke my water and HOLY COW did it GUSH.  And for AWHILE too, it was an interesting sensation to say the least.  Anyway, this is where things start to go downhill.  My "water" was green, meaning that Lucas had already had his first poop in utereo.  This isn't good as if baby breathes that in, it can cause massive problems. So now we knew the pediatrician would have to be present for his birth.  And of course I started to stress about the possible problems.  I started to contract pretty reguarly but again never any closer than 3 minutes.  But the pain, omg the pain.  It was ALL in my back and was quickly becoming very uncomfortable. By 12 I was shot, I couldn't go any further without an EPI.  I was crying through contractions.  So he came in and while it was unpleasant, it wasn't the worst thing that happened that day.  Finally I was comfortable!  I was feeling the tightening of the contractions but not the pain.

You can tell in that pic cuz I am actually SMILING that the epi was obviously working wel. LOL  They continued to up the pitocin every half hour or so because I was just not progressing.  At 7 pm I was checked and was only 5 cm.  They made the decision to go OVER the normal limit of 20 to try and get me further.  I was told if I didn't make significant progress by my next check we would be doing a c-section because baby's hb was dipping during my contractions and we were all worried about a possible cord issue.  They decided to give me an amnioinfusion.  Meaning, they put saline BACK into my uterus to try and give some cushion during contractions..  Time rolled on and his heart rate was dipping a little more with each contraction.  At 9 I was checked and I was 7 cm so they decided to let me go a BIT longer and it was also discovered I was running a temperature, which means Lucas would be too.  Things got intense quickly after that.  I started to feel huge pressure during my contractions that was painful.  At 9:15 I was 8 cm and my butt felt like he was trying to crawl out of it. LOL  By 9:30 I was 9 cm and now instead of crawling I kept telling the nurses it felt like he was going to fly out of my ass.  By 10 I was pushing and I was told we needed to do this fast because his heart rate was going VERY low during contractions.  Contractions were coming on top of each other so I was almost constantly pushing at that point and I started to get lightheaded from lack of oxygen so they put an oxygen mask on me for that and to help get more oxygen to Lucas. I was determined to get him OUT safely and was pushing as much and as hard as I could.  Finally after one REALLY LONG push that went way past the 10 count his head popped out and they made me stop for a minute.  His cord WAS wrapped around his neck so they had to remove that and then suction him out REALLY good because of the meconium.  One more push and the rest of him was born at 10:14 pm.  They put him on my belly and I heard the doctor say, baby is hot and he WAS.  He had picked up my temperature.. :(  Gary cut the cord and they whisked him away to the warming table to work on him.  He had not yet cried at this point and I was scared.  They cleaned him all out and rubbed him down and finally he started to scream, thank god.  He did have a fever of 101.5 but I know his Agpar scores were 8 and 9 which I believe are good ones.. :)  Gary stood between me and the warmer but most of his attention was on Lucas, rightfully so!  

About this time I knew something wasn't right with ME.  The doctor told me I had a very bad internal tear in my rectum wall.  Basically the wall between the vajajay and the rectum had a 2 cm hole in it that needed repairing.  I was also bleeding alot so I got a shot to help with that and she had to run next door to deliver another baby before coming back to repair me.  Meanwhile, Lucas was weighed and measured and he was 8 pounds 3.9 ounces and we were told 22 1/4 inches long, but turns out it was actually 21 1/4 inches.

It took her well over and hour and FOUR layers of stitches before she was happy it was closed sufficiently.  This particular tear can cause BIG problems later if it doesn't heal correctly.  :(  Finally, 2 hours after he was born, I was FINALLY able to hold Lucas and it was truly the happiest moment of my life..  (even though I look exhausted in these pics, I was still the happiest ever)

Because of the delays I didn't try breastfeeding for the first time until about 3 am.  It was a failure with him not latching on.  He stayed in the nursery that night because he needed extra monitoring because of the conditions he was born in.  We ended up leaving the hospital on time on Sunday and now we are home and trying to get used to the incredible changes our life now has!  It is amazing how much different it is already in just one week but we would NOT have it any other way..

Appointment Update :)

Well I had my appointment today and things ARE progressing slowly.  I am now 2-3 centimeters dilated and I was contracting every 9-10 minutes during the NST.  Had my biophysical ultrasound done and Lucas again scored an 8 out of 8 so he is hanging out in there just chilling.  My bp was a little higher at 140/90, which is about what it has been at home for a couple weeks now, but my last few appts it was lower there for some reason.  I have to go back tomorrow morning to have it checked again.  I am scheduled as of right now for induction on Thursday morning at 7 am but not sure if that will get moved up depending on what my bp is tomorrow, so guess we will see!!!  :)