Alex

I've decided to move all my Alex posts over to a new blog:

http://alittlebitofalex.blogspot.com/

That way I can keep bitching over here (making it public again), while giving the family baby updates.

Besides, Justin and I will both be posting on that one, so hopefully it will be updated on a more regular basis.

Question of the day

What's 11.5 lbs and 23.25" of cute?



This guy:

He had his 1 month well-checkup (at 6 weeks, but whatever). He goes back to the Dr in a month for his first set of immunizations. I'm sooooooooo looking forward to that (not).

Visit at daddy's work!

Today I had my 6 week postnatal appointment, where I was cleared to, *ahem* resume normal activities. On the way home, I had to pass Justin's work, so I called him and asked him if it was a good day to show off Alex... or not. He said that while it was a bad busy day, things had calmed down, and he had some time. So Alex & I visited Justin as work for the first time. All his fellow engineers ooh and aahed (well, as much as men do) and said he needed a tiny hard hat & safety glasses. Well, I already bought Alex some sunglasses, but I bet I could find him a tiny hard hat.

I went to a children's consignment shop, and picked up Alex a cute little overalls & long sleeved onesie outfit, and it's quickly become our favorite outfit. Here he is in it, sitting on the couch:

In other news, we have been giving Alex "tummy time" a few times a week. Today I put him on his tummy on the couch, and he lifted up his upper body on his arms! He is getting to be so strong!

1 month and 100th post!

Today, Alex is one month old. In that month, Alex

• has used about 250 diapers (we have yet to pay for any though! yay for diaper raffles!)
• has peed on me four times, and daddy only once (dang it).
• has decided to paint the changing table a lovely mustard yellow twice (I was too slow with the next diaper).
• has had four baths - 2 sponge, and 2 in his lovely pink tub (sorry buddy, but it was cheaper than the blue one!)
• has stretched his nighttime sleeping to 4 1/2 hours sometimes.
• has had lots of kisses by mommy, daddy & Chance.
• got lots of new outfits.
• has been to mass twice so far.
• has gotten lots of compliments on how cute and handsome he is.
• has drained the batteries in his swing once so far.
• can hold his head fairly steady.
• has started smiling and focusing on faces.
• makes "ooh" and "ah" noises.
• has wrapped everyone around his tiny little fingers... of course!

(I'll add more today when I think of it)

Your face is kinda scratchy!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Today Alex & I went up to my Alma Mater, Penn State, and spent the day showing off my sweet little baby. Of course everyone loved him!

...yes, yes you are.

Sunset on Lake Erie

So tonight we decided to try out Backyard Burgers, but first went and drove around the Peninsula. It wasn't too cold, and the wind was relatively calm, so we got Alex out of the car and enjoyed five minutes or so of the pre-sunset.

If you've never tried Backyard Burgers before, I highly recommend it. It's "fast food," but tastes like a higher quality burger. We will definitely go back.

Surreal

It's been two weeks since Alex was born, and it still doesn't seem real (maybe it's the sleep-deprivation talking).

We're still having some issues - he doesn't sleep consistently yet (but I know it can take up to 6 weeks for him to get in synch). He also sometimes has problems with latching on to feed. Sometimes he will just scream & scream until he gets hysterical. When he does this, I feel so bad for him. He will turn really red & have tears streaming down his face, and sometimes can take twenty minutes to an hour to calm down enough to decide that the boob in his mouth is actually food. Other times he latches on right away. It can be frustrating, and there's nothing I (or Justin) can do but wait it out.

We went on our first walk yesterday. It was chilly but sunny. I got him in his car seat, then hitched up the dogs and took the dogs outside to wait.

I grabbed his stroller frame, and took that downstairs. I then grabbed my camera and Alex and carried him downstairs and put him in his stroller frame. We all waited for Justin to finish messing around with his new tractor, then we went for the walk. It was nice - I just had to make sure I didn't walk too fast (I have a long stride and would trip the bar between the wheels) or hit any lips in the sidewalk (the wheels aren't great and would pitch the whole stroller forward), or run over a slow-moving dog.

Maybe I'm taking too many pictures...

Best. Diet. EVER

Not that I've ever dieted or anything (heck, I never even owned a scale until my husband's aunt & uncle died, and he "inherited" it).

Alex is 11 days old. In those 11 days, I've lost 30 pounds so far. Thirty freaking pounds! Last week I was able to "fit" into my regular jeans, but I had quite the muffin top going. This morning I put on my maternity pants and took the dogs for a walk. I practically walked out of my pants! I think I'm down to one actual pair of jeans that I can wear - my "shopping" maternity jeans that have the extra supportive band at the top that gives me a weird indent halfway up my stomach, but my pants stay ON dang it! I think I'm going to have to pull out my regular jeans again and see if I'm any less banana nut-like. Hopefully the weight keeps coming off, and maybe I'll even eventually be a whole size smaller! That would be nice.

First (sponge) Bath

Alex got his first bath at home on Sunday evening. Since he had just lost his stump and was circumcised just a week ago, it had to be a sponge bath. I got to use some of the Cucumber Melon body wash that I got from the baby shower.

He wasn't too happy about it.

Cord

Alex lost his umbilical cord stump today! We're one step closer to giving him an actual bath.

Alexander James

Born: Sunday, March 1, 2009 @ 2am
Weight: 7lbs 14oz
Length: 21"
--------------------------------------------------------------

On Saturday, I woke up around 3am with minor pains. I went to sleep on the couch (Justin was snoring like usual), and woke up around 9 or 10 with more consistent pains. Justin had gone into work for a bit, and I just rested and checked my email - normal stuff. By the time he got home, I was looking for an online contraction timer, and they were erratic, but slowly getting closer together. I took a shower, and Justin made lunch. As I was eating, I was timing my contractions, and they were about 4 mins apart, and just over a minute(ish) long. I eventually got ahold of my mom & asked her to come get the dogs & change the guinea pig cages. We started gathering up what we needed for the hospital, and left about 6:30.

Once there, they checked me & saw that I was already at 5cm! They asked me if I wanted anything for the pain, but really, it wasn't that bad. Around midnight or so, I was nearly dialted the whole way, and the nurse had me lay on my side, which made my contractions feel 10x stronger (and made me throw up my lunch - hopefully I'll be able to eat rotini & meat sauce again). My body did its job though, and soon it was time to push. I won't go into details, but I pushed for an hour and then Alex was born! He ended up coming out with his hand right by his face. (ow).

<-- Check out my Twitter

I just recently re-remembered the Twitter text address, so I've been sending some txt's from bed lately.

Since I *think* I've been having contractions since about 3am, I might not make it until Monday! Keep an eye on my Twitter bar, or add me as a friend on Twitter to get updates right on your phone!

MONDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am being induced Monday morning! I have to be at the hospital at 7:30am, then wait for 12 hours while Cervadil (hopefully) does its thing, then maybe get Pitocin, and then FINALLY have this baby Monday or Tuesday.

Guess it's true that all the cool people are born in March ;-) (no offense to anyone who doesn't have a March birthday).

No Change

Well, I just got back from the Dr's office, and there's been no change. I do have to go back on Friday though, so they can do yet another ultrasound to check the amniotic fluid levels since this morning it was an 8 (lowest that is safe is 5, range should be 5-25). I couldn't even get another baby picture since the fluid is what provides contrast, and since it was low, there wasn't a lot of contrast.

Come out, come out whoever you are!

Tomorrow

Dr's appt tomorrow... will post an update afterwards. Hopefully I'll have progressed some!

Baby no later than March 3!

Well, I had another OB appointment, and while the baby has dropped, my body is not ready to eject him/her. I was told though, that they will not let me go more than 10 days past my due date (Saturday), which is March 3. At least there is an end date in sight!

I also got another 3d/4d picture, but it was terrible. The baby had its head all squashed against my uterus (lovely picture, eh), and so it looked like the baby had a malformed head. Oh well. A picture is a picture, right? (I did not scan it in, so unless you see me in person, you're not gonna see it).

Other good news: I was told I don't have to continue checking my sigars since my 2nd 3 hour test was ALL NORMAL. YAY!!!!!!!!!! I can eat pizza and spaghetti and eat more often than every two hours again! (all in moderation of course). I only have to test if I feel funny after eating.

Maybe if you all send good thoughts my way, the baby will want to come out? It couldn't hurt!

Updates

I haven't been online much lately due to the fact that we're now living in our apartment full-time and I won't have internet until Monday at the earliest (and it's killing me, let me tell you). I'm sitting at Panera right now, eating a roast beef sandwich and asian chicken salad and using their wi-fi.

BUT! I have a picture!!!!! No, I didn't have the baby yet, but since I'm "borderline gestational diabetic," I've been getting weekly ultrasounds and non-stress tests. Last week the baby didn't want to cooperate and kept its little hand in the way of its face, but this week the baby cooperated!

Say it all together now... "awwwwwwww" ;-) Justin's liked looking at the ultrasounds, which hopefully I won't have too many more (because that means the baby would be here).

It's been extremely WINDY in Erie the past day and a half, with gusts up to 60mph, but luckily so far we've only had a power flicker or two. There are plenty of business and houses that don't have power though (this is the 2nd Panera I've gone to today, since the first one closer to my house has no power).

Less than a month to go!

I know it's been a while since I've last posted, and for that - I'm sorry. I've been busy, not so busy, and just plain lazy lately. Let's see if I can cram all the updates into this one post :-).

Christmas
My Christmas was pretty much uneventful - my family did presents on Christmas Eve, which freed Justin and I up to drive to his mom's on Christmas Day. Both of my sisters stopped by, and about the only thing I can complain about is that my youngest sister, Nikki, gave me totally rude presents. Back around Thanksgiving, she called me and asked me what I wanted for Christmas. I told her a maternity sweater in size XL. If it looked too small, then she could get a 1x, but XL should be just fine. What did she get me? A red shirt and a red fleece jacket with Tigger on it (I'm not a big fan of Pooh either), in SIZES 3X!!!!! Regular sizes! Hell, my regular size is just XL (maybe 2x depending on the chest area). Thanks so much. Luckily she left the tags on, and I had mom take them back to Walmart and return them for store credit. His family's Christmas was the day after, and his mom's gift to everyone was a family photo. Just what I always wanted when I'm 32 weeks pregnant... to stand in the front row with my hands under my belly, and try to look happy about it. Thanks so much MIL... At least I had a cute outfit to wear.

Dec 29 was my first visit at my new OB's office. We got our family history's redone, and then Justin got to see me depants and get my cervix checked. Fun fun. "Nice to meet you too, Doc!"

New Years'
Justin and I didn't do anything - we drove back to the house in Ohio, got Chinese food, and about 10:30, I fell asleep on the couch. I did wake up around 11:30, and got to see the ball drop.
(Then we went to bed). [we're such party animals]

The guy came from VW to inspect my car the next day, since it's due back by Feb 28. (I'm not going to keep it). The only thing I have to pay for is the damn $219 dent my sister got in my car, back when she was using it to drive to work when she lived with us. I'll never see that money, so I'll just chalk it up to experience... as in, I'm experienced in not letting her use ANYTHING of mine, nor will I ever feel comfortable leaving my baby alone with her.

I got a call on Jan 9 from my new Dr's office, saying they FINALLY got the rest of my records from TN, and oh yeah, I do have gestational diabetes (the test was a freaking MONTH ago!!!) When I went back to the dr's office on Jan 13, I talked to the OB and asked for a retest. They didn't even know how much solution I had drank for the 3 hour test (75g), so they thought my numbers were inflated, and they're not, but even though I went for the retest, I still have to monitor my sugars. At least I got to go through the holidays eating sugar, but now I'm concerned that if I really DO have it, that there could be issues with the baby, since it went unchecked for a whole month. When I called the OB office to get my prescription for the test strips and lancets, they said my repeat 3 hour looked good, but I'm not going to hold my breath until after my appointment Tuesday when I talk to the Dr again.

I really hate having to prick my fingers 4x a day, monitoring how much I eat and when, and oh yeah, I have to check my ketones in the morning (it's a pee test. If you get up several times in the night to pee, just when is the "first" morning pee???) The worst part is my stepdad has a sweet tooth and he keeps asking me when I'm going to make him dessert. Yeah, I'm going to torture myself by making dessert when I can't eat it myself. Sure. Keep dreaming, dad.

We did get an apartment though! We won't be able to move into it until after the 1st of February, but that's ok. We're allowed to move stuff in beforehand, so I put all my baby shower stuff in there, and we moved some kitchen stuff in already. This weekend we have our birthing class, a friend's birthday party, and then will be driving to the house (hopefully with our friend Paul) to get a bunch of furniture in both trucks and bring as much back as we can. Next Saturday (Jan 31) is our 5 year wedding anniversary, so I doubt we'll get much moving done then.

I'll try to do my next post soon, and write about the baby shower.