Deakin - 4 months

Deakin is doing great. He is a very happy baby and Scott and I are very lucky. Deakin still isn't sleeping through the night well - but hes getting better, so there is still hope. We took him into his 4 month doctor visit and his pediatrician told us that he is doing great: 50% for weight, 75% for height, meeting all of the milestones. He still doesn't roll over, but the doctor said most babies don't do that until about 6 months now, and since Deakin hates tummy time I assume that he will be really close to that before rolling consistently. He did roll over once (tummy to back) about a month ago (I missed it, sad) but he has refused to do it again since. He can almost roll back to tummy, but he can't get one of his arms out of the way so he ends up on the side of his face and his arm. I actually think that he might learn to sit up before rolling over (I know that this isn't really a possibility but it feels like it could be) he loves to sit up with support and he is getting good at balancing that way with only minimal help. He also loves to stand up and has just recently started picking up his feet like is is trying to walk.

We started him on solid food this past week. He was a champ at his first feeding, he opened his mouth and swallowed - all with minimal mess. I was holding him while I was eating dinner that night and every time I would bring the fork up to my mouth he would open his up and follow the fork with him eyes - such a smart kid. However, subsequent feedings haven't gone quite as well - have to catch him at just the right amount of hungry. If he isn't hungry enough he just spits it out and smiles at you (quite the game) and if he is too hungry he will eat a few bites and then cry until you give him a bottle (just not fast enough of a delivery system). Scott says that Deakin has my patience and Scott's temper -- if this turns out to the true we are really in for it.

I will try and get some pictures up soon - I'm at work right now and don't have any with me.

Oh time - where does it go

The plan was to get better about posting...it didn't happen. I've decided that instead of trying to catch up with old post (Christmas, etc) that I am just going to start with new stuff. I think that the idea of trying to catch up was so daunting that I used it as an excuse to keep postponing it. I was always too busy to catch up.

However, I hate to ignore the last 3 months completely so here is the condensed version.

Scott and I traveled home to KS for Christmas. Deakin and I flew home with my mom and Scott drove home with the kitties. This means that Deakin's first flight was at 6 weeks - I was 18. We really need to get a bigger car - the two door caviler that we drive now just isn't big enough for 2 adults a car seat and 2 cats for making the trip home.

Deakin got so much stuff for Christmas that it almost didn't fit into the car for the trip home, even with Deakin and I flying back. Two months old is an odd time for Christmas. Most toys and things are designed for 6 months and up. So a lot of the stuff that Deakin got he still isn't really big enough to play with. But it will be nice to have all of the older toys come this summer when I am studying for the bar and he needs entertainment.

This semester has been going well. Scott has been busy doing housework. He actually insulated our attic during snowmagedden (I'm sure I spelled that wrong - oh well, you know what I mean the week of 30 inches of snow). We came to the realization afterwards that this was probably a bad idea, if he had hurt himself there would have been no way to get him medical attention. Luckily everything went smoothly. We have finally gotten most of the way unpacked, due in part to having a housewarming party which gave us a set deadline to get things done by. Other housework included have 3 large trees cut out of our front yard. The tree guys gave us quite a deal on the front yard, but while they were there they pointed out that one of the huge trees in the back yard was rotting. We are lucky that this tree survived the snow storm. There was no way that we could leave the tree up - so we ended up spending a lot more on trees this weekend then we had really planned on. I can't wait to get our tax refund - our house fund is getting really low (and since we bought a house we know that we are getting at least 8k). However, when I sat down to do our taxes I found out that my school job withheld state taxes for New Jersey...I've never been to NJ let alone lived there. So now I have to file state taxes with 3 states: VA and MD because we moved, and NJ because my school is retarded.

Other exciting news, not only did Scott get offered a spot in Johns Hopkin's PhD program, the best school of public health in the nation, but they are going to pay him to go. Scott is getting funding that will cover all of his tuition plus about 20k for living expenses. This means that we will be able to cover our mortgage/living expenses when we have our 2nd kiddo - so I can take off more then 2 weeks for maternity leave. Woohoo - after Deakin I realized that 2 weeks at home is really just not enough time. At least Deakin was at home with Scott and my mom after those two weeks...the 2nd kiddo probably won't have the same luxury.

That I believe pretty much covers the last three months - home for Christmas, Scott's school, house stuff. Deakin will get his own post.

Bringing Deakin Home

I guess this is just going to be a little bit out of order - obviously we brought Deakin home from the hospital before Halloween - but I can't figure out how to reorder the post without deleting one - and I'm just not going to bother to do that. I figure that this is a positive step for my anal self - or maybe my slackerism just coming out (less sleep and finals approaching will cause that).

I ended up getting discharged the day before Deakin did. Deakin had jaundice and had to stay an extra day working on his tan. It was really sad but it ended up working out for the best; while Deakin was hanging out with the most expensive babysitters I hope to ever employ Scott, Mom and I were closing on our new house. (a post about the house really will be coming I promise) After leaving the closing we dropped Mom off at the house, because she couldn't come into the the nursery at the hospital anyways and went to pick up our son.

The clothes that we bought him for coming home in were way to big. He was born at just shy of 8 lbs and these clothes were labeled as starting at 8 lbs but really I think we could have fit two of him in the pants. :) Oh well because now (beginning of Dec) the pants fit great - although he is about to outgrow the shirt. I find it odd that the shirt and pants are the same size from the same place and yet fit so very differently - I guess all babies are just different sizes. Deakin is long and skinny, a "banana baby," as opposed to an "apple baby." Bananas are supposed to be healthier - I hope so.

Dressing babies is hard the first time that you do it - in fact I'm convinced that the nurses must get a kick out of it. I didn't look - but I have a feeling that they were peeking through the window laughing at us... :)

We did however finally manage to get him dressed, and by the end of it he was not a happy camper. (and you can tell in this picture how big his clothes are - they were about to eat him alive)

Once we started rocking him in the car seat he settled down very quickly - that is one of the great things about Deakin, he settles down very very fast - what a good baby :)

Baby's first car ride

Kiko was very interested in what this new toy we brought home for her was. Jude on the other hand still wants nothing to do with him and its been 5 weeks. I hope that he gets used to Deakin some day - otherwise it is going to be a very long life - especially when Deakin gets mobile.

And last but not least - Grandma finally got to hold the baby. Due to the swine flu going around, they were not allowing visitors in the nursery so Grandma had only got to see him through the window for a couple of minutes.

Halloween

I love Halloween and we were so excited that Deakin made his arrival before Halloween. We actually ordered his costume while we were still at the hospital. We didn't want to buy it ahead of time because then we were sure he wouldn't get here in time. So we rush shipped it right before Halloween. Originally he was going to be a turtle, but I was worried that his shell might make it harder to hold and/or lay down an infant that was only a couple of days old - so we went with a tree frog instead. When his costume got here it was huge - way to big for a newborn, even though it said that it started at 0 months. So we rolled the legs all of the way up and balanced the head covering on - he will still be able to wear it next summer, if not next Halloween. We are thinking about dressing him up for St. Patties day because its so cute and the color is right :)

Two days before Deakin got here, Scott and I both carved pumpkins. Mine is the kitty and Scott's is the scary face. The plan was to buy another pumpkin and carve it for Deakin if he arrived in time. We put off buying the pumpkin (not like we were busy or anything) until the day before Halloween - and everywhere was sold out. Scott finally found the little pumpkin in the floral department with a sticker of a goofy face on it. On Halloween - right as trick or treaters were showing up (so much fun to have trick or treaters this year) Scott scraped of the dumb face and carved Deakins pumpkin, which says "Boo!"

Here was the inspiration for Deakin's pumpkin. Isn't he too cute.

Halloween was a lot of fun. Deakin wasn't old enough to enjoy it (obviously) and he was not a big fan of his costume (only stayed in it long enough for a few pictures) but we had a good time. We had two little trick or treaters (maybe 2-3) come inside and chase our kitties - their dad was very apologetic but it was adorable, a Georgetown law grad who noticed the hoodie I was wearing and talked about what a great school it is, several congratulations on a new baby (he was helping hand out candy) and lots of people complimenting us on our awesome pumpkins!

...so I finally found some time....

Its been a month since I last updated the blog, so I have finally found some time to write about everything that has been going on in our lives - baby, new house, school, etc. So get ready for several blog posts all at once :)

Deakin's Arrival

After having contractions for 10 days and completely neglecting my school work during that time we finally went to the hospital on Sunday October 25. I had contractions all day Saturday that were about 7 minutes apart and Scott and I had been going for long walks trying to get the contractions to hurry up. We walked over 25 miles in less then a week before Deakin's arrival. The contractions would get harder and more frequent during the walks but then lessen in strength when we would stop. On Sunday, I woke up having contractions 5 minutes apart and they stayed that way all day long. Normally they tell you to go into the hospital when you contractions are 5 minutes apart - but my contractions didn't hurt, which I was assured that they would when they were real contractions and not just false labor.

I spent the hours leading up to the hospital calling several people for advice about when to go to the hospital - because I did not want to show up and get told to go back home. That would have been a waste of time and if we weren't about to have the baby then I needed to be doing homework for school on Monday. I called my mom and then I called my cousin Frannie - who had just had a baby 3 months earlier, and her sister Bridget - who has 3 kids and is an RN. They both suggested that I head to the hospital because the worst that could happen was to go home. At about 5:30 pm I finally call the hospital and asked what they thought. I told them that I had been having contractions for 10 days and that they were finally pretty consistent and close together, and that I had been having other symptoms that would indicate that labor was imminent. The only thing that I was missing was painful contractions or having my water break. The hospital said that it was better safe then sorry and to come in - especially since I already knew that I was dilated to at least a 4.

We got to the hospital around 7:30, and when the nurse checked me out she said that I was only a little past a 4. They allowed me to decide whether I wanted to stay and having the kiddo with the aid of pitocin (if things didn't speed up on their own), or head home to wait for things to happen naturally. I opted for the drugs - it was time for Deakin to make his arrival.

They put us into a labor room and since walking around strengthened my contractions they put me on a wireless monitor and had me walking around the room (they had nice big rooms - see picture - thats about half of it). Scott and I had got the first Harry Potter book on audio so we listen to that to pass the time. A couple of hours later I still hadn't made progress so it was time for some drugs. They set up my pitocin drip a little after midnight and told me to get some sleep.

They came back in around 3 am (Monday morning) and decided that I was now up to 6 cm. They were surprised to find out that I was that far dilated and that the contractions were still not painful. In order to get things progressing faster they decided to break my water. They were surprised by how much water there was - I guess we figured out why I wasn't really feeling my contractions - because as soon as they broke my water my contractions were exceedingly painful. Epidural please!

At one point after they broke my water, his heart beat dropped. They were going to try and put fluid back into the uterus to relieve some of the pressure on the umbilical cord. They told us that if that didn't work that we were going to have to do a c-section. Deakin, I believe, is going to be a poop head (and I say that in the nicest way). He wanted until the doctors had the catheter out of its sterile packaging and were about to insert it - and then he flipped over (or something) and his heartbeat went right back up to normal. I think that he just wanted some extra attention :)

Around 7 am they told me that I could start pushing and that they expected it to take about 30 minutes to get Deakin out because he was already sitting so low. Deakin had other ideas - he wanted to come out sideways. No matter how they tried to flip him over he always rolled back to the same sideways position. His head got stuck to the point that he was missing some skin on his head when he came out, and even after his head was out his shoulders got stuck. I guess they were thinking about having to break his collar bone to get him out - but then he finally made his way fully into the world at 10:08 - that's right 3 hours. It really wasn't too bad until the last 45 minutes or so. I also lost the right to say that I never threw up during my pregnancy in that last 45 minutes - oh the joys of labor.

But I guess he is worth it. This is Dr. Bathgate - she has been my OB for my entire pregnancy. I guess that it is uncommon that your normal OB be the one to deliver the baby because they run a group practice and who ever is on call that day is the one to do the delivery. This photo is about 5 minutes after Deakin was born.

The proud dad. Scott told me that there were times in the last remaining minutes of labor that he wanted to say encouraging things - but he was too choked up to talk. I'm so glad that he was there with me.

Our first family picture. Don't you just love my hairdo - it took me forever to get all of the tangles out of my hair the first time that I took a shower after this.

Deakin arrived weighing 7 pounds 13 ozs, and was 19 inches long, more then a full pound heavier then the admitting doctor guessed he would be.

We talked to Dr. Bathgate about the next kiddo that we are hoping to have. She told us that they were going to induce the next one early in hopes of avoiding some of the problems we had this time with the labor and delivery process. That means I get to schedule it - woohoo!!! You have no idea how excited I am about this. It means that I won't have to wait for over a week having contractions and not getting anything done. (Well I guess that could still happen - but at least now I will know that there is a specific end date.) It also means that I get to know the plan ahead of time - and we all know how much I like to make plans - this is going to be awesome!

Weeks 37 & 38

Here we are approaching the final days of Deakin's life in-utero. We are ready for him to join us in the outside world. I had my 37 week doctors appointment and found out that I was 3 cm dilated and 50% effaced...we didn't figure that there would be a 38 weeks picture...but as you can tell from the title there was, and then there was a 38 week doctor's appointment - we found out that we are almost 4 cm and 75% effaced. At least we are making progress. I also believe that I am going to have to stop posting about the progress on facebook because people feel the need to tell me that they were that far along for weeks and not to get my hopes up....well I don't want to hear those types of comments and the hormonal preggo lady in me got kinda pissed that people would feel the need to tell me that. However, the more rational preggo lady in me said that I shouldn't be upset because they were just wanting to share their experiences etc. So I resisted the urge to write back on facebook - so I'm doing it here instead...the urge was too strong to do nothing.

Hopefully this will be the end of the belly pictures - Scott is voting that we wake up tonight (Friday the 23rd) after going to bed and having to go to the hospital then. I just hope that he is here before the end of the weekend. I don't want to go to school on Monday, but more importantly we are closing on our house on Thursday and I kind of need to be there...but if I am at the hospital then I am setting up a power of attorney so that Scott can sign for me. The biggest problem would be if Deakin comes on Thursday and Scott and I are both at the hospital...then well...I guess we ask them to reschedule - surely they won't hold a baby against us and decide not to sell us the house right :)

Week 37

Week 38