3 months!

The days are going by so fast and my little man has grown so much!  He weighed 12.5lbs at 3 months and is 23 inches long now.  

We are still struggling with breastfeeding and are doing half nursing-half pumped/hand expressed bottles.  CJ's a challenge to figure out in that department for sure. Sometimes he'll latch and eat, sometimes he'll latch on and off repeatedly and not take in much and sometimes he'll flat out refuse to latch at all.  Night time is the only time he will always successfully latch on and eat. During the day it's really hit and miss.  It makes it very difficult to decide when and if to pump or not.  And the pump doesn't pull much out for me anymore either. I've ended up having to hand express afterwards and am usually able to double what I pumped that session. 

Aside from that we are doing well. He's become so interactive in the last couple of weeks, starting to "talk" a lot and to grasp toys. He's got the cutest grin and such expressive eyes and eyebrows.  He literally lights up when's he sees me. It's one of the best feelings in the world.  He also really loves his big sister and smiles and talks to her a lot. She loves him too and has been such a big help both with her brother and around the house in general. 

I really need to write more so that I have a record of what CJ has reached for milestones and when.  I'm still so consumed with the task of feeding him that it seems like everything else just slips by. 

We've been able to do more and more tummy time the last week or so. Before then he would cry within seconds. He's holding his own head fairly well, but still wobbles and bobbles it a bit.  We've got a bumbo seat, but that hasn't been a hit just yet.  The favourites are the swing and bouncy chair that were his big sisters.  He does most of his daytime naps in the swing and likes to sit in the bouncer and look around and talk.  He sleeps good at night, though he does stir every 3 hours or so to eat. I'm okay with that because as I mentioned before, it's the only time he will successfully nurse. I have a feeling that without those sessions, I would likely loose my milk. 

I think we will have another early teether, since he produces drool by the bucket full already.  I bought an amber bracelet and have an amber necklace to use, I just have to figure out where I put it.  

It is still hard for me to believe sometimes that I have a new little baby boy.  I feel very blessed and I am very excited to watch him grow and develop.  He is changing so quickly, especially in his looks.  I'll have to do a picture post to show the changes.  For now, here are a few recent pictures. 

1 month old!

I still need to finish writing out my birth story.  This month has passed in a blur mostly because of feeding difficulties. Both Colby and I are fine, though it's really been a time consuming struggle to get my precious boy fed.  He's spent most of the month either nursing, sleeping in my arms or crying, and I've spent time latching and relatching him, pumping and cleaning bottle supplies.  All of which hasn't left much time for writing, especially when his big sister has lots of extra curricular stuff happening too. Luckily she's been a great helper and has tried to be as understanding as she can. 

I'm hoping in the next couple weeks things will start to work out better, so I can get a bit of free time.  For as rough as it's been though, we are all completely smitten with this adorable little boy! 

 

Introducing...

Our little BOY! 

C*olby J*erome 

Born May 8th at 8:49am at 6lbs and 18.5 inches long. 

39 weeks 4 days

Still hanging in there!  I've been in full on nesting mode for weeks now.  We got the entire main floor of our house painted (it was supposed to be a two day job by painters two weeks ago, and ended up turning into them being here on and of for about 6 days over the two weeks).  Because of that, we had the entire main floor completely dismantled and it still is, because then DH started nesting too.  He decided to move the wires around behind the wall that our entertainment system is on, since all the components and wall until were moved so that means that the living room is still dismantled, because he's not completely done yet. It will look better when he's finished though, having all the cables and wires hidden. 

Because everything is not put back together, I figured it was as good a time as any to have the carpets cleaned, so the guy is coming for that today.  DD and I also spent most of the weekend going through her play room and reorganizing all her stuff.  It's way tidier now, and now I just have to get her to agree to purge. At least she comes by her/my pack-rat tendencies honestly. 

I had a surprise non stress test at 38 weeks, after baby decided not to practice breathe on my BPP ultrasound. It went fine, the baby had two big accelerations and a couple of smaller decels in the heart rate, and movement was great so the on-call ob said I was good to head home and wait it out.

We had maternity pictures done at 38 weeks 1 day and most of them turned out beautifully.  I'd been having tons of braxton hicks leading up to that Friday, so I was a little concerned that I wouldn't make it, but I did and I'm so glad.  We were able to get some wonderful images.  

The braxton hicks contractions have still been a constant companion, though they so far haven't seemed to be doing anything much.  I had a Dr. appt at 38 weeks 6 days.  I'm up between 18-21lbs, depending on the scale and time of day.  The morning of my Dr. appt. my home scale said I'd lost 2 lbs, putting me back at 18lbs gained, but the scale at the Dr. said I was up 1 lb putting me at 21lbs gained.  Either way both my Dr. and I are happy with my weight.  My fundal height measured exactly at 39 weeks, and the ultrasound and NST at 38 weeks showed baby's heart-rate in the high 120's and low 130's.  I can't remember my blood pressure, but I know it was in the normal range. 

I started losing some of my mucous plug on Friday at 39 weeks 1 day, and its continued in small amounts over the weekend.  I am a bit crampy in my lower back and abdomen this morning, but the BH contractions are still painless.  Any which way, I don't think I have much time left.  I am still hoping, along with my family, that I deliver right on my due date, May 8th.  It was my grandfather's birthday, and I know that would make it an extra special day.  

37 weeks!

I've been having braxton hicks contractions for awhile, but in the last week or so there have been a couple of days where they have been so frequent I thought I may need to take a trip to L&D.  They seem to stop when I rest and drink more water, so I haven't had to go in yet. I have also had a few instances of some pretty intense lightning bolt pains through my cervix.  All of that together made me feel like I was running out of time, so at my OB appt yesterday at 36 weeks 6 days, I asked her to check me.  She said that although my cervix is softening, it is still long and closed.  I'm actually really relieved that is the case, because we have so much happening next week, I need this little baby to hold on and not come early.  She also said that baby has his/her head right on my cervix, so that is where the shockwave pains are coming from.

I'm up a total of 20-21lbs, my blood pressure is good (120/78 I believe) and the baby is doing well.  She didn't tell me the heart rate, but on my own doppler it was about 140 bpm still, around the same as the last ultrasound.  Baby seems to be head down and staying that way now, finally.  I've been going to the chiropractor a few times a week for the last couple of weeks, and it has immensely helped the sacroilliac and tailbone pain I was having, and I'm pretty sure that is the reason baby is now able to stay head down.  The Dr's I've been seeing are prenatal chiropractors, and they have a table I can lay belly down on.  It is so nice to lay like that.  :)

This next week is Spring Break from DD's school, and DH has taken it off too.  We have painters coming, I have no less than 4 appointments (ultrasound, OB, chiro and some me time for my hair!), then we have a maternity photo session booked for Friday.  I've washed all the newborn gender neutral clothes and mostly packed the baby's diaper bag but I still need to pack my own bag, put in the car seat and pick up a few more things I want for before baby comes.

I'll get there.  I still feel a time crunch, but I feel better knowing that I'm not around the corner from active labor just yet.  It's a little surreal still that there is only about 3 more weeks to go!

Baby Shower pics

35 weeks 6 days

I'm doing well with this pregnancy, enjoying every minute of it!  I've only had minor aches and pains, that the new chiropractor I found has been able to help immensely, so I don't have any real complaints at all.  I'll be 36 weeks tomorrow, and I am not in any rush for this time to end.

I've had a slew of appointments since the last time I wrote.  I had another growth scan done at 34 weeks, and baby was head down, still hiding his or her face in my placenta.  We are still going for a gender surprise, and I've done so well with telling each technician that I don't want to know and to let me know so I can look away when they go near the genitals so I don't accidentally see what I'm not supposed to see.  :)  Baby looked great on the ultrasound, the heart-rate was at 141 bpm and baby was measuring pretty much right on.  The tech estimated weight at around 5.5lbs.

Since that head down ultrasound, I am relatively certain that the baby has done a few full 360 turns.  I'm able to feel two distinct lumps on either side a lot of the time, so I'm pretty sure baby like the transverse position best, and then I've had a bowling ball right at the top of my uterus a couple times, with hiccups near my ribs, likely meaning baby was head up at that point.  More than once I've had what I'm sure are feet poke out near my ribs, hiccups near my hip and lightning bolt shock waves as a head connects with my bladder and cervix.

Here's a couple of pictures from the last session, where baby is hiding behind placenta and cord:

I saw my hematologist as well, and as of 36 weeks I will be taking a different anti-coagulant until I go into labor.  After that I will switch back to the one I've been on for the whole pregnancy until I'm 6 weeks post-partum.  With the clotting disorders that I have, I will not be able to get an epidural if I am too close to having taken the medication before I go into labor.  I am truly okay with that, since I don't intend on getting one anyway.  I was med free with my daughter and that is my birth plan for this one too.  The only thing that scares me a little is that if I need a c-section and don't have time for an epidural to be placed due to either the medication or an emergency, I would be put under general anesthetic.  While I'm not planning for that happenstance, the thought of not being awake for the birth of my baby, and my husband not being there to witness it, bothers me a lot.  I'm trying not to dwell on that though, instead using my hypnosis birthing techniques to visualize the birth I want to have.

I'm not sure if I mentioned the hypnosis birthing before now.  I'm doing a home course to help me control my responses during labor.  I labored med free without hypnosis the first time, so I'm believing that I can do it again and that the relaxation techniques I'm learning will help make this an "easy, comfortable birth", like the program suggests.

At my last Dr's appt, at 34 weeks 6 days, I was up 18lbs, so I'm on track for my goal of 25lbs total.  I'm actually gaining weight at pretty much exactly the same pace as I did with my first pregnancy.  I gained 26lbs with my daughter.  I'm carrying about the same too, just slightly lower and slightly more out front.  I go back and forth nearly daily as to whether or not I've got a boy or a girl in there.  Only about 4 more weeks till we find out!

I had my baby shower on the weekend, and had a great time.  I got spoiled rotten, with lots of stuff, and a ton of blankets!  I'll put up some pics from the shower in another post.

In the meantime, here's a recent pic, from 35 weeks 3 days.