One Month Old (sort of)

Jake is one month old today, sort of. Technically it would be on the 29th, but this year there is no February 29th, so we will celebrate the occasion today! I can't believe my baby is already a month old! It doesn't seem possible that he has been here that long, but at the same time it feels like he has been here forever. He is such a great and happy baby. And strong! He already holds his head up and will push up on his arms when we lay him down on his tummy. I am pretty sure we will have our hands full when he starts moving.

Jake is growing fabulously still. We weighed him at home a few days ago and he was about 10lbs 8oz but he has been cluster feeding in the afternoon/evening the past few days so I'm sure he is growing more. He eats great and sleeps great (most of the time). I usually get to bed between 11 and 11:30 and he usually doesn't wake up to eat again until 4ish. (Sleeping through the night is technically defined as a 6 hour stretch) He usually goes right back to sleep after that feeding and sleeps until 7-7:30 then is up for a little while, we usually cuddle in our bed and fall back alseep for an hour or so. We got really lucky with his sleeping habits!

Josh gives him a bath every few days and is now comfortable doing it by himself. And he is great with changing diapers and getting him to sleep when we go to bed. I hear a lot of people say that their husbands don't know what to do to help or don't offer but Josh has taken to daddyhood quickly and seems to love it. (He and Jake just took a 2 hour nap together in the chair.)

I am more and more in love with our little boy everyday. And so far being a mommy is a lot easier than I was planning on (althoug I'm sure all the experience with Gabrielle helped). He is a pretty easy baby though and if my next pregnancy, labor, and baby are just as easy it might be hard to stop at two!

Attempt at tummy time

We have been trying to have some tummy time every day, usually it is either on Josh or my chest. On Monday I got out the play gym, to give Jake something else to look at and a new place to try some tummy time. This is what happened:

Snow Day!

We got snow yesterday. All day yesterday. I believe the final total for our place was 7 inches! This means Josh got to stay home all day today! Which was nice because he was going to be off for a half day anyways so he could go to Jake's doctors' appointment this morning. The doctor confirmed what we already knew, he is perfect! So at 2 weeks he is now up to 9lbs and 21 1/4 inches long. That means he is getting enough to eat, which makes me happy. It is really hard to know that he is getting enough when I can't measure it!

Jake had his first pictures done yesterday. He was not a fan of that. More so because he was naked for the pictures. We are hoping we got some good ones in between the fussiness though. Hopefully we will be getting those fairly quickly so we can get his birth announcements done and sent!

Not much else is going on here. Just hanging out at home mostly. So here are a few pictures from the last few days.

First snow!

Napping in his crib, he looks so little in there

Making funny faces while he was sleeping on daddy

His shirt says "Totally Handsome"

Just hanging out

Monster baby!

One Week Down

Well one week plus some now. It has taken me three days to actually be able to sit down and write this. It is much harder to find time when you have the world's cutest baby to cuddle with!

So with the exception of the whole appendicitis thing, our first week home has gone really smoothly. No major meltdowns, no injuries, and a decent amount of sleep for everyone. Sounds like a great first week home to me! Jake got his first (and at this point 2nd) bath. Josh got pooped on once (through a towel thankfully!). And we have learned a bunch about out little monkey boy.

Things We Learned During the First Week:
-Jake likes to poop in a clean diaper
-Jake is a good sleeper and is almost impossible to wake before he is ready
-He won't eat if he needs to poop
-Daddy's goatee is fun to grab and pull
-He is not a fan of the sponge bath (hopefully this doesn't mean he won't like water!)
-0-3 month clothes are big even on a "big" baby
-Jake likes the car...as long as we are moving
-Socks do not stay on baby feet
-We go through a ton of diapers! (Can't wait to start using the cloth diapers!)
-Jake will let you know when he is hungry...by screaming very loudly
-We have great family and friends (We knew this before but can never be said enough)

And some pictures from this week.

First Bath

Not liking being naked and wet

Getting dry













First doctor's appointment

Nakey baby sleeping

Mommy's Little Monster

Cosmo checking out Jake

Hanging out with Grams while mommy was in the hospital

Mommy and Jake sleeping

And Home Again.

Well, we have had quite an eventful and emotional last 24 hours.

About 2:30 yesterday afternoon I started having severe stomach pains, bad enough that Josh and I decided we needed to call the doctor to see what they thought we needed to do. Josh was told to call an ambulance if I couldn't move or get me to the ER. I definitely didn't want to have to call an ambulance so Josh got all three of us dressed and in the car and we headed to the closest ER. The pain wasn't any better when we got there and I could barely walk. Once we got checked in and the doctor checked me out she wanted to do a CT Scan to see if it was my appendix, but ideally they needed to use an injectible dye contrast to get the best results, but I wouldn't be able to breastfeed and would have to pump and dump the milk for 24 hours, which I really wanted to avoid. She figured out something else for me to do, drink the dye, which would be fine for my milk, but would take a lot longer to get into my system and get the scan. Josh and I decided this would be a better option to try first even though it could have resulted in having to do the other one anyways.

In the mean time, we had called my mom to come get Jake and take him back to our house. She came and asked Josh if he wanted to stay with me or take Jake home himself. Josh (and I) had a tough time with this decision. Neither of us wanted to leave him and at this point we were assuming I was staying overnight and we definitely were not prepared to leave him overnight. Somehow it was decided that Josh would stay with me and Jake would go home with my mom and she would stay for the night if she needed to.

It took FOREVER for the CT Scan results to come back and longer for the doctor to come in and tell me what was going on (although Josh was told when he went out to ask if I could have some water). I got a pump from the hospital so I could pump so Jake would have some food and I pumped while we waited for the results to come back. When the doctor finally came in and told me (although by this point Josh had already told me what was going on) that I had appendicitis and was going to have surgery in the morning. At this point (for the third time since we had been there) I started bawling again. Not as much because I was having to have surgery, but because I just wanted to come home and be with Jake and I was upset that I would have to be dumping breastmilk for at least 36 hours which meant that Jake would be getting formula all day today and tonight. I didn't have enough stored up to feed him for that long.

They let me pump one more time before giving me an antibiotic that wasn't safe for breastfeeding. We waited for a while for a room, but neither Josh nor I had eaten in a long time so he was going to go home and get us food, take the breastmilk home for Jake, and get us some clothes. We finally got settled in a room about 10:30pm. At that point Josh and I were both upset again that we had to leave Jake for the night (I tried to talk him into staying at home with him, but he wanted to be at the hospital too). We found out I would be going in for surgery at about 10am the next morning. So we got some sleep, but I was up pumping every 3 hours and sadly watching it all go down the sink each time. And I was still in pain so everytime I pumped I took more morphine, which never helped for more than 2 or so hours.

This morning the surgeon came in and told us how he would be doing the surgery (laprascopiclly) and he said I should be able to go home this afternoon. This made both Josh and I feel a great deal better because we had been told the night before that there was a possibility that they would keep me another night. So a little after 10 this morning they took me in for surgery. It took less than 30 minutes (according to Josh) and everything went great. I woke up crying in recovery and the nurses thought I was in a lot of pain until I told them I just wanted to go home and see my baby boy. Then they understood why I was crying so much, especially after I explained that he was only 6 days old.

I finally got back to my room and asked what I needed to do to get home. They said I had to be able to walk on my own, keep solid food down, and pee. So I asked for food and water and started drinking and eating. Then got up and walked to the bathroom by myself (well Josh supervised) and peed. After I let the nurse know she started getting stuff ready for us to leave. We left there about 3pm, a LONG 23 hours after we got there.

I don't think I have ever been so happy to be home. And to hold my baby for the first time in over 24 hours. We took a nap together for a little while and my mom got dinner ready for me and Josh. I don't know what we would have done without her here to help us. Jake was well taken care of while we had to be gone. But I think he will be completely spoiled for a few days as Josh and I take every chance we get to hold and cuddle him (my mom had to pry him out of my arms earlier).

So, again, we are home. And even more thrilled than before to cuddle with our little monkey boy.

Home!

We got to come home yesterday afternoon. And I think we are all glad to be out of the hospital. At least now Josh and I only have to wake up (or stay up!) for Jake, not for all the nurses in and out all night too! So far everything is going well. And we actually got more sleep last night than we have since he was born so that was nice. Today we are on our own all day and are just taking it easy. Right now he is sleeping but he had a rough morning. He wouldn't eat from 4am until about 11am. We think he was really gassy and had a tummy ache. But now he is all satisfied and seems to be feeling much better.

Cosmo seems to be adjusting well to having Jake home. We put Jake on the floor in the carseat when we got home and she sniffed him for a few minutes, and once he was out she was sniffing him every few minutes trying to figure him out. I think Jake crying in the middle of the night scared her at first, she jumped up and did her little growl and backed up the first time Jake woke her up. The rest of the night she just looked at him then laid back down. She was cuddling a little with him this morning, which was beyond cute! We have been making sure was a giving her all her normal attention too (which is easy during the day because she sleeps all day!)

Jake has his first appointment with the pediatrician tomorrow morning so we will see how we do with getting out of the house! Hopefully it is good and not too stressful for us or Jake!

Josh sleeping with Jake before we left the hospital

All dressed to go home!

Getting ready to leave

In the car, the hat was a little big!

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Cosmo hanging out with Grams and Jake

Trying out the swing

Cosmo cuddling with Jake