The First Week

Wow! The first week has gone by so quickly! Sorry for lack of blogging and pictures, but it just hasn't fit into the day for me for some reason.

So here's how the first week has been for all of us.

Nicholas's birthday Thursday was really good as was Friday in the hospital. I felt pretty good and he slept a lot. I got a little more rest in the hospital than I had gotten with Hannah, but it was frustrating that when they did bring him into me at night to eat, he'd just fall asleep after a few minutes. It made feeding time last like an hour and then he came back again two hours after that. So sleep was for like 1-2 hours at a time, but I guess that's pretty good.

My hospital stay seemed to go very fast, but it was a good experience. All of the nurses at the hospital were great and helpful. I really enjoyed both of my stays there very much. I was up and moving around just fine, took a shower, got dressed in my own jammies and recovered pretty well. Tony & Hannah spent a lot of time with me in the evening which was nice. We didn't have too many visitors, which was also just fine. The low-key two days were just right.

Saturday morning, I woke up and started to get myself ready and all of a sudden broke completely down into tears! I'm sure it was all a hormonal mess because I kept asking myself what's wrong and since I didn't know, that made me cry even harder! My pediatrician walked in on that mess, which seemed to make him look a little uncomfortable, but he discharged Nicholas with no real issues. He said he looked great and they'd see me in two weeks. The only thing was to pay attention to his coloring. He had a bit of jaundice, but not at the levels to put him under the billi-lites, but they said day 4 the levels usually peak, so we just had to keep an eye on it.

I called Tony still crying which I'm sure made him a little nervous too, but finally, I got a grip and that all stopped. My discharge nurse was a bit of a scatter brain - she was the only one I wasn't that crazy about during the stay, but it wasn't that big of a deal. Tony and Hannah came up after swimming lessons and we hung out the rest of the morning and early afternoon.

Around 3:00, we got Nicholas ready, dressing him in the same outfit that Hannah came home in and then they came in to cut off our security bracelets and sent us home.

Here we are just before leaving.

We headed home and Hannah napped, Tony hung out, Nicholas was sleeping and I cleaned. Yep, I cleaned! I'm nuts, but I needed to do it. I put all our stuff away, straightened up, did laundry and that sort of thing. We just hung out trying to figure out what our new roles were all about the rest of the evening. We were disappointed that our swing didn't seem to work with him in it, so we have to get a new one.

Sunday was low key in the morning and then we all went on our first outing with two children later in the day to the store. We got some groceries and a few sleepers and looked for a new swing. Both Walmart and Target didn't have much to choose from on swings and I was a little sticker shocked that they were between $100-125! For some reason, I thought they were cheaper. We held off and decided to maybe hit Babies R Us later in the week. Here's the little man with his cuteness at his new home....I think he'll like it here!

Monday, we had our first photo shoot to try to get a picture for announcements. It's hard to do that with a sleeping baby! I don't think I got quite the right picture today, although he did take some cute ones!

Then I had the bright idea to hit our second hand store for a swing and made out great! I got one in super shape for $42 and picked up a few outfits for him too since we don't have a lot of boy clothes yet. I took him into daycare when I picked Hannah up at the end of the day. It was so cute when I pulled in the driveway. All of the kids were standing at the window watching for me to come in with the baby and then stood there in awe of him! It was really cute. They were all so excited to see the new baby! Aunt Dawn, Uncle Jack, Kendal & John came over to visit Monday night.

Tuesday, Nicholas and I just hung out all day. He loves his new swing! I love how you can imagine that these smiles are because he's happy (who says it's gas?)

I got a little cleaning in, check email from work, get myself ready for the day and took a nap in the afternoon for a while. We attempted another photo shoot which went better, but he still was so sleepy! I may use one of these for announcements, so I won't post here just yet. Around 5, I headed to pick up Hannah. She loves to be by him and this is how she sat until dinner was ready! I asked her if she wanted me to move him out of her way, and she said, "no, mommy, he's fine right by me like this".

She got to hold him for a while too. She's pretty good at it!

It's Tony's late work night, so I got home, made dinner, cleaned up, got Hannah bathed and put to bed all by myself. It's a lot of work, but since Nicholas is pretty low maintenance, it is very manageable.

Wednesday was pretty much the same. Tony did pick Hannah up for me last night and brought home Boston Market for dinner to make the evening easier.

Nicholas sleeps all the time! He is up about every 3 hours to eat - like clockwork. He's a great eater and HATES to have his diaper and clothes changed. My real milk came in on Sunday and he seems to be doing fine on it, not much spit up. The hardest thing is keeping him awake to eat long enough to last 3 hours. He lets some serious wet farts!!! I've been peed on at least 4 times and have learned that you need to open his diaper and leave it there for a few minutes to wait for the fountain of pee!! I went through that lesson with about 3 clean diapers - he peed just as I was putting the new one on and had to change it again! Tony got sprayed for the first time last night! It's pretty funny, but has become quite a game to get the changing done without the mishaps! He's been smiling while he sleeps and making cute little faces and a few little noises. I think his days and nights are a little mixed up because the longest he's been awake at one time is from 11 pm to almost 12:30 and then he's up at 1:00 to eat, so the past two nights I've resorted to letting him sleep with me on the couch after the 4:00 feeding to get some decent sleep. He doesn't do very well in his basinette yet, which is hard because I don't want to start a habit of sleeping with me, but to get some sleep right now, we'll do what it takes! He's so good and I'm so fortunate so far that he's not like Hannah was as a newborn. I wonder how long this sleepyhead stage will last? For now, I just soak in his cuteness and let him sleep. I'm totally falling in love with this little guy - he's just so sweet!

Big sister Hannah is doing great. She thinks he's pretty cool and likes to hold him. She thinks it's funny when he makes his "little baby noises" as she calls them! We make sure to spend special time with her to play and ensure her that she's still so very special to us. It's kind of cool that we have a little boy now so Hannah will always be our only special little girl!!!! I love that she gets to have that title all to herself!

Tony's doing well too. The new daddy thing came much easier to him this time around, although he's still a worry-wart about everything! That's just him and I try to reassure him everything is fine. He's super helpful with Hannah and holds Nicholas most of the evenings since he's at work all day. He's going to be even busier with work since they did a major layoff on Monday. Thank God Tony wasn't part of the cuts! But they cut the staff almost in half, so he's super crazy there and will probably have two late nights now.

I'm doing really well too. Healing up very nicely. I'm a bit tired, but I'm sure I do most of that to myself. I should rest a little more than I do, but so far, I rest when I know I need to. My back is sort of achy still, but I try to stretch real good every day to work out the kinks. I've had trouble breathing a little since giving birth. I had that sinus infection last week and after the epidural, I wasn't able to get any good coughs in to help relieve the mucous. That's slowly getting better too. I'm finally feeling like I can get a productive cough again and the sinus infection seems to be gone now. I was pleasantly surprised to have lost about 10 pounds at the hospital. I weighed the same when I came home with Hannah which was so frustrating! I've lost another 5 pounds since Saturday, so it's encouraging that it's coming off easier so far - at least the first part of it. Unfortunately, I got some big ol' stretch marks across my tummy - hope they fade!!!

So, we're great! We're so in love with Nicholas and we're just so grateful he's here with us and has made our family complete!

Welcome Nicholas Anthony!

Well, the countdown has ended - we welcomed Nicholas Anthony into our family Thursday, February 18th at 10:40 am!

It all was very fast!

Wednesday evening, I really felt like things were happening. I was contracting mildly about every 10-12 minutes. I went to bed around 10 and woke up many times throughout the night with the same fairly mild contractions, still like 10 minutes apart. I woke up for the morning around 5:30 trying to decide what to do - I still wasn't really sure if something was going on or not. I told Tony I thought it was the day, but I wasn't sure, so I went to take a shower. I got out of the shower and laid in bed waiting to see if the contractions were still happening and then I felt a huge pop - like the baby kicked me really hard and then I said, "uh-oh" and ran to the bathroom. At around 6:45 a.m. my water broke (there's a LOT of liquid when that happens!). Luckily, I made it to the toilet so there wasn't a huge mess. Then I knew - it WAS happening!

I called Mary Jo and when she called me back, she said, "Seems like a great day to have a baby!" So she told me to do whatever I needed to do and she'd see me at the hospital. I finished getting ready and Tony took Hannah to daycare. As soon as he got back home, we headed for the hospital - contractions were getting stronger and were about 3 minutes apart. We checked in around 8:10 a.m. They took me to the labor & delivery room and hooked up an IV, drew some blood, I was about 3 cm and around 9:00, I asked for an epidural.

The anesthesiologist was busy and didn't come up until around 10:00, by then, contractions were really strong and painful, but I worked through them. He got my needle in and told me it would take about 20 minutes for everything to really set in. He finished up around 10:25 and the nurse checked me and I was at 10 cm already! It was time to have a baby! I just had to wait for MaryJo to get there. She got there just in time, put on her gown and gloves and I pushed. After the first contraction, we had a head. Second contraction, discovered the cord was wrapped around his neck twice, but luckily his arm was up in there too, so she unwrapped him fairly easily. She said something about the cord was wrapped two times and all I heard was the "two" and I yelled, "What did you say???" I thought for a second she had mentioned two babies or something and was NOT happy!!! We all sort of laughed and then on contraction 3 we had our long-awaited surprise - It's a Boy!!!

It was all so very fast and really, quite easy. And, he was a big boy! 8 pounds 6 ounces and 20-1/2 inches long. I did lobby to name him Nathan one more time, but Tony held his veto power and so his name will be Nicholas Anthony - just right!

Tony watched the "catcher" nurse get all his measurements and Tony almost got peed on for the first (of probably many) times as he laid in the crib. Then here was daddy, so proud!

Here's some right after pictures with Me and MaryJo

And then Mommy, Daddy and new baby Nicholas!

Grandma and Grandpa Kamburoff came in first to meet their new grandson. I knew my dad would be so proud - we weren't sure our family was capable of producing a boy, but thanks to Tony, I was able to change the trend. I'm sure Grandpa Tractor will have a ball in a couple years doing "boy stuff" with Nicholas. And I have to say, Grandpa was a bit choked up - I think he thought it was pretty cool! (sorry for the dark picture - the lighting wasn't right)

Grandma and Grandpa Roberts were also there and came in to meet their little next. Of course my mom (aka: the baby nazi) did a lot of the holding. She's just thrilled to death to have another baby to hold! Grandpa is also very excited for a little boy - I'm sure Grandpa and Daddy will love taking Nicholas on the golf course (although Hannah is quite fond of it as well), but it will be extra special for "the boys" to be able to hang out!

And here he is on his birthday, Mr. Nicholas Anthony! He looks a little angry here, but it was just the first picture I could get of him with both eyes open. His face got pretty bruised up - I guess that's what happens when they come out so fast.

Hannah came to the hospital later in the day. She walked in the room and was excited to see me and the baby and as I was showing him to her, the first thing she said was, "Mommy, I wanted a girl". Sorry, dear, you got a boy and we will love him. She thought he was pretty neat after she accepted that this is who her baby was.

And here is our new, complete family!!!

Hannah went to gymnastics and then came back to visit again after. She was really into hugging Nicholas and cuddling with him. Here are my two babies! They'll be so good for one another.

Our first day was very good. He's a good nurser, although he was so super sleepy yesterday, it took a lot of convincing to finally get him to wake up and eat after about 6 hours. Once that happened, he was good. Here he was last night just before bedtime as he and I were getting some alone time getting to know one another.

They brought him in about 3 times through the night, but I was smart this time and went to sleep early and then right back to sleep after each feeding. I got about 6 hours of sleep total, 2 hours at a time, which really wasn't bad.

They brought him in to me this morning and we just hung out a while. I put him in the boppy so I could eat my breakfast and he slept very comfortably there for a while. He was such a good boy for me....I sure hope this is the kind of baby he really is and this isn't just a trick for our hospital stay! I guess we'll find out soon enough!

The official countdown can now begin

OK, so we can now start an official countdown to baby's arrival. No later than Monday, February 22nd, we will have a baby!!!! So starting today we have 6 (or less) days to go!

I went to see MaryJo today for my FINAL prenatal visit. Geez, after so many trips there over the past 9 months and especially the last two months of weekly visits, it was sort of strange not making my next appointment as I left - but also very exciting!

Tony was able to come with me to today's appointment. I think he wanted to make sure we were really going to be having this baby soon. He's getting so anxious and has been such a good sport allowing me to not find out gender. He can hardly stand a secret or surprise, but I'm just so sure he'll never experience a surprise like this ever again in his life, so I'm sure it'll be worth waiting for. I'm really glad I did this for this pregnancy.....I can't wait for that last big push and the announcement!!! So very looking forward to it!

So anyway, MaryJo said I'm definitely ready to go. I'm at 3 cm today and she said she would expect me to go on my own in the next couple of days. I asked her what was the plan if I go past my due date this Friday? She pretty much left it up to me! So cool! She said, "I'm not into cruel and unusual punnishment, so what do you want to do?" I said, "how about scheduling an induction for Monday if I don't go on my own by then?" She said, "no problem. Be at the hospital by 7 am and they'll start an IV with poticin and I'll be by on my way into work to break your water". Wow - that was easy! I can only imagine what my first doctor would have done - I'd probably stay pregnant for another month!!!
So there you have it - the backup plan unless I go on my own before then. MaryJo said she'd be really surprised if we went until Monday, but you never know! At least for now, the end of the pregnancy and beginning of our new life has a target date!
Stay tuned.............

Another Baby Update

Or not........

I guess there's not a lot to update! We're still WAITING!

I guess the peanut took me pretty seriously when we had our discussion about waiting to be born until my schedule cleared. Well, maybe this is a battle of the wills because the schedule has been clear for well over a week and there's really no sign that we'll be having any arrival coming.

I was having contractions last Monday night around 1 in the morning, but after staying awake for about 2 hours timing them (10+ minutes apart), I got tired and went back to sleep and woke up to nothing happening. As my midwife told me when I saw her last Tuesday, real labor won't stop, so it was not real labor. At my visit, there wasn't much change. My only new happening was that I got Hannah's cold - thanks!!!

So the rest of the week was completely uneventful. We had no plans for this weekend and it was nice to relax a little. We got the new car seat and stroller out and I put together the bassinet, so we're ready......not the baby though!!! Last night at dinner, we asked Hannah if she knew when her baby was going to come and she said, "in about 10 weeks". We said, "oh, no, it'll be much sooner than that." Then she talked to my tummy and said, "Baby, come out of mommy's tummy. Don't make me come in there!!!!" We laughed! It was hilarious!

So my cold went straight to a sinus infection as my colds always do. I could feel the sinus pressure building up yesterday and today I called my midwife to ask her to call me in a prescription. I knew I couldn't wait until tomorrow and I was hoping to not have to pay to go to the doctor to just get a diagnosis that I already knew I had. I've had plenty of sinus infections to know when I've got one. Mary Jo did call me in a z-pack, so I started that today. I'm hoping to start getting some relief in another day or so and it might be all cleared up for baby's big day.

So that's it! At least as far as our peanut goes. Not much to tell. However, I need to send a huge shout out to my friend Maggie!!!! Her long-awaited bundle of joy arrived this morning - 6 weeks early. Congratulations Maggie and Brian! I'm so happy for you. Miss Molly Anne may never know how long overdue her arrival has been (even despite being so early) I hope everyone is doing well......call me (I got your voicemail when I tried calling)!!!!

Baby update

I'm a little late with this post, but this is the first chance I got to sit down and post the update.

Last Tuesday, I took a vacation day to go to the doctor and get my ultrasound. I had an unexpected guest on my day off - Hannah. She came down with a fever Monday night and had this horrible cough. Whatever she had went straight to her chest. I kept her home due to the fever and even took her into the doctor which I never do on day one or two of a bug. I thought I'd better do that in case the baby came so we knew if it was a flu thing or something else. Tony ran her to the doctor since she got in the same time I had my appt but on opposite sides of town. Her doctor said they've been seeing a lot of this, but didn't really have a name for it, but it was viral and should get better in a few days. They wrote a prescription for an inhaler for her to help clear her airways if she was having trouble breathing. Her fever was pretty much gone by Wednesday afternoon and we were done using the inhaler by Thursday. We kept her home from story time, gymnastics and swimmng lessons which was a bummer, but I needed her to get better so she'll be able to come to the hospital to meet her baby - whenever he/she decides to come!

I had my 37-1/2 week checkup last Tuesday. Nothing more has happened since the week earlier. Same old stats, which was a little bit of a bummer, but fine at the same time. I left there and headed to the hospital to get my ultrasound. They did a bunch of measurements - no gender peeks!!!! Everything is measuring right on target, perfect for dates and all healthy measurements. The machine estimated weight at 7 pounds 2 ounces, but the tech said it's always about 1/2 pound heavy, so she thought it was about 6-1/2 pounds now. There was one measurement that was a bit oversized - it's NOSE!!! It's ginormous!!!! Like seriously, I'm a little afraid to see it for real! It looked really big on the 3D pictures!! See the face in between it's arms - it's sort of smashed like "against a window" looking, but there's the little peanut's picture!!!

It was cool to see it yawning and it kept sucking it's thumb, so the hands were in the way of getting really good face pictures. Here's a profile picture when it was beginning to yawn.

So, anyway, everything is good according to the ultrasound. I'll get official results from my midwife tomorrow.

Here's another (not so good) picture of my growing body! I think this camera angle with my tripod doesn't do many favors! But, I feel huge! I'm still not as big all around as I was with Hannah, but I'm big! This past weekend, my hands and feet started swelling to the point to make my shoes and rings tight, but still no kankles and I can still wear the ring.

Tuesday night I had Bible Study. We didn't have much of a Bible Study this month. It was a lot of griping about the church politics. I wouldn't have known there were such politics, but boy, those women thrive on that stuff. I could care less! It was nice though, they all pitched in and made me a "mommy basket" with soaps and lotions and candy and stuff. Sure was thoughtful!

Wednesday was just busy at work and then hanging out at home. Thursday was another busy day at work and then I had my NAWIC meeting after work. It was a late night. The meeting went longer than usual because we had 2 speakers and there was no January meeting , but I also had to stay after to go over stuff with one of the girls for me to take over the holiday social planning for 2010.

Friday night, we ran to the mall to get Hannah some new tennis shoes. I can't figure out why her feet don't grow that fast, but we got her new shoes anyway that I think are a bit too big yet, a pair of Sketchers size 9.5. The left one is definitely too big, but I figure she'll probably wear them for at least another year. By the time we left the mall, it was starting to snow pretty bad and getting nasty out.

I had to get up early Saturday morning to go into work. We were having an office clean up day and I had to direct the activities. We got a lot more snow than we had expected, but I took the 4WD jeep, so I plowed through it. I got home mid-afternoon and was wiped out! I pretty much did nothing the rest of the night. Tony went to play poker and came home early. Bummer that he didn't do well, but yay for him bringing home a Steak-N-Shake milkshake!!!!

Sunday, Dad & Julia came over to celebrate Hannah's birthday belated. They brought dinner - ribs, potato salad and macaroni & cheese with some other snacky stuff. It was really good! Hannah opened her gifts - lots of artwork and crafty stuff that she loved. We had cake and ice cream and then took naps after they left. We went next door to Laura & Aarons for the superbowl. Did everyone get a good look at the KISS commercial for Dr. Pepper? If not, Tony DVR'd the game to get it!!!!! I was glad it ended fairly early and we all went to bed when we got home - I was tired!

So not much happening on the baby front these past few days. Contractions every day, but nothing progressive. I now think I'll go up to my due date, but we'll see if anything more is happening tomorrow. I'm fine with it, but I'm really ready too! I made it through the busyness of my calendar, so from here out, it's open and I'm ready! I really wouldn't mind working this whole week or even next week too, but I'm ready whenever! I think I caught a bit of a cold, so I'm hoping it's not that severe and it's short lived so it's gone in time for the big day!!!!

So for now, that's it - still working, getting rid of cold germs at our house and waiting for the baby's big day!