New Things

We celebrated Valentine's Day a little early (on Friday) by going out to dinner with our dear friends Matt and Sarah Morrell. We went to Macaroni Grill and it was yummy. Grant was hiding on the floor in his carseat sound asleep. Sean gave me a beautiful necklace with one little heart inside a bigger heart. That represents my two valentines, Sean and Grant.

Here is the first of three new things.

1. This is our little stud muffin and his new corduroy shoes. They look big but they actually fit him very well when he wears thick socks.

2. Our new (used) car!!! After lots of looking we finally purchased our first car. It is safer for our family of three and that is the most important thing.

3. My new haricut. It looks a little weird in the picture but I'm pleased with how she cut it.

5 weeks Old (posted one week late)

Grant is growing bigger but I don't know how much he weighs. I need to weigh him in the produce department of the grocery store on one of the hanging scales. Here's our cutie in his big boy outfit (the others look like baby outfits) laying on the quilt Grandma Kathy made. The last pic is his ceramic piece we had specially made with his prints--too cute and priceless really.

The last week

We're still in the process of going private but here are a few more pictures for your enjoyment while we're waiting.

This is Grant's vibrating seat. We don't have batteries for it yet so it's really just a chair, but he doesn't seem to mind. =)

Testing out the comfort of the boppy pillow

I feel like the majority of the time when Grant is in my arms he's eating so we don't take many pictures of us together. Here is one finally. Yes it's messy hair day at our house.

Happy One-Month!!

Grant doesn't enjoy "tummy time" very much. (His hair isn't red even though it looks like it here. )

Sorry about my hand in the picture. I didn't realize that and I'm bummed I ruined the pic.

Dear Grant,

Today you are one month old. I love you so much. I feel like I know you well and can understand your needs as you express them to me. You still hate getting your diaper changed but you love taking baths and showers. You haven't lost any of your hair from birth. You have beautiful, dark, blue eyes. You got to meet great-grandma Ruth this weekend and she loves you too. You feel relaxed when we go on walks outside. You always fall asleep in your carseat. You came with mommy and daddy on a date this weekend and you slept through the whole thing. Thanks for being patient with us as we learn how to care for you and how to help you. We feel so blessed to have you in our family. We are grateful that Heavenly Father has sent you to us.

Love,

mom

Any tips?

The first 2.5 weeks of Grant's life he never spit up. We would feed, get a good burp, and he'd be good to go. This last week has been a different story. He spits up a lot and I would even go so far as to call it vomitting. Occaisionally it has been enough to drench his clothes requiring an outfit change. Between spitting up and diaper leaks, Grant goes through 3-4 outfits per day. He is not in pain at all and sometimes spits us while sleeping. Any tips from you seasoned mothers?

Am I feeding him too much?
Is he reacting to something that I'm eating?
Is this just normal newborn stuff?

And because a post is not complete without pictures...

(This is what we call the "baby bird face" with the mouth wide open looking for the mommy bird to give him a worm.) =)

The Latest

Grant is almost three weeks old now and I can't believe it. I am trying to get used to broken up sleep and being a mother in general. Some things come naturally and other things don't. We love our little Grant so much. I could just stare at him all day (sometimes it feels like that is all I do). He is a good tempered baby except he hates getting his diaper changed. With everything else he's pretty mild and quiet.

Grant had his two week doctor's visit a couple days ago. He now weighs 7 pounds 13.5 ounces (19th percentile) and he is 21 inches long (51st percentile). He's a very good eater and sometimes it seems as though he never wants to stop feeding. I love comforting my baby and holding him in my arms. I love how he holds his hand straight up in the air when he's latched on and eating. I love that he takes a binkey and falls asleep when riding in his car seat. I love that he and daddy always fall asleep together in the recliner. I love him to pieces.

We had some professional pictures taken last week so I'll post a couple when I get them.

Time for an Update

We have been without internet for two weeks now so sorry it's taken so long for an update. This may be a long post. Sorry if you get bored.

I went to work like normal on Thursday, Decemeber 31st. I was scheduled to work from 6am-6pm. I was contracting all day but nothing too painful. Around 2pm I really started feeling them but I still didn't think I was in labor. At 3pm I had a nurse friend check me and I was dilated to 4cm and 80% effaced. She went ahead and put me on the monitor so we could see the contractions and see how Grant's heartrate was doing. Turns out I was contracting every 2-4 minutes and they were getting more intense. (Sean was still at work this whole time.) Grant had a few questionable dips in his heartrate which made me a little nervous. My doctor happened to be there helping another patient so he came in the room to see me. He said that my cervix was very favorable and my contraction pattern was great. He said he could break my water and help the process along or I could go home and probably come back that night in hard labor. I voted for getting the show on the road. I called Sean and had him meet me at the hospital. (That was a little anticlimactic compared to the stories you hear of driving to the hospital.)

Sean arrived. I got my IV placed. The doctor broke my water which was a very weird sensation. After that contractions got really intense. 20 minutes later I got an epidural which was amazing. It was the perfect epidural in my opinion. I could move, lift, and feel my legs but I wasn't hurting at all. I could feel the pressure of every contraction but still no pain. Wonderful!!

At 5pm I was dilated to 5cm. At 10pm I was 10 cm. That's ironic huh? I pushed for 1 hour and 45 minutes. Sean was an amazing pushing coach as was my nurse (and good friend) Kellie. I got pretty nauseous during pushing but nothing worth complaining about. Our beautiful son Grant was born at 12:03am on January 1st. That was completely natural timing and we didn't rig anything. (I didn't even rest and descend for you nurses reading this.) Our baby just knew when he wanted to come. The hospital gave us free diapers, wipes, flowers, a target gift card, and other little baby accessories in honor of being the first baby of the year.

What an amazing experience the delivery was. I have seen it so many times but now it was me as the patient and not the nurse. It was very surreal. It all went smoothly and for that we are so grateful. The following week was a little more difficult.

Three days after delivery Grant had to be re-admitted to the hospital for critically high billirubin levels. He stayed for 2 days and I stayed with him. With intensive phototherapy, IV hydration, and constant monitoring he did improve. I now understand how hard it is to see your child in pain. I really wished I could have taken the 14 needle sticks upon myself so he wouldn't have to feel it. That was extremely hard to see my new baby hurting. Sean and I love him so much and are so grateful that we are all home and doing better.

Right after delivery they cleaned Grant off then gave him back to me to do "skin-to-skin". (He's hiding under the gown if you can't find him. =)

Back in the hospital, here is Grant handling the whole situation quite well.

Daddy and Grant. Look at that head of hair.

After his first bath at home. (He actually seemed to like it.)