Monday, September 27, 2010

Cael James

Born August 26th, 2010 at 7:35am. Weighing 8lbs 7oz and 21 ¼” long.
Our little man has come into the world. Here is his birth story and first month of life.

I went into labor on Wednesday the 25th dinner time. I wasn't sure it was real labor until around 10:00pm or so. We decided to take nap because my contractions were still 10 min or so apart and they weren't hurting to much yet. We slept from 11:00 until around midnight. I woke up in some good pain and they were coming every 4-5 min. We got our things together and woke up the girls. My mom took the girls to my brothers house for the night and my hubby and I headed to the hospital. It takes approximately 45 min in good traffic to get the hospital. And, boy am I glad that it didn't take any longer! I was having contractions every 90 seconds to 3 min in the car. And, they hurt. When we got to the hospital my Midwife and a nurse were waiting for us. We got set up in our room and I was already 7 cm dilated. They quickly got my IV started and I soon had my epidural. Baby was still posterior (sunny side up...basically he was looking the wrong way and his head was coming out biggest part first) so my midwife had me move from one side to the other and they even got me up sitting to help him turn over. It worked and after just 30min of pushing he came out. They put him on my chest all gooey and beautiful and he just looked around in a daze. Compared to my labor and delivery with the girls this one went very smoothly. We stayed in the hospital until the next evening and then we went home.

His First Week:

Our little man wanted to do nothing but nurse during that first week. So the first few days home all I did was feed him. I wanted my hubby to be able to sleep during the night so that he could take care of our girls during the day. Big mistake there! I didn't really sleep at all that first week. Talk about sleep deprivation! His second week went better. My milk came in so he was sleeping and nursing a bit better. I was also waking up my hubby to help out more in the night. He got so much love from his sisters and family. He's such a good baby and so stinken cute!

Day 15:

We ended up at Children's hospital on day 15. He was projectile vomiting and our pediatrician said it could be pyloric stenosis and that he needed to be checked out at the hospital. I've never taken any of my kids to the hospital before so I was really shaken up and scared. The girls went to a family friends house and my mom hopped in her car and made a 4 hour drive to be with us. He ended up having an ultrasound, x-ray and catheter (to get a urine sample). His stomach looked fine, and his intestines looked fine. They said his kidney tubes thingies that were immature at 32 weeks still looked a bit small. They thought he might have a kidney or bladder infection so they took a urine sample. Everything came back clean. He said he was a real mystery to them. So, they sent us home telling us that it was most likely reflux and to keep him upright after feedings and gave us things to watch for over the next few days. Scarry....
The next two weeks:

They really flew by fast. My mom was here during week 3 when hubby when back to work. It was sooo nice having her here. She helped with the girls and housework. And, she watched Cael in the mornings so I could catch an extra hour or two of sleep. He had no more problems with vomiting. We were feeding him a bit less and keeping him upright. We think maybe he was overeating.
Love his little "pouty face". My brother made this same face as a baby.

He was a month old yesterday. And, boy has he grown. He's between 11 and 12 pounds and I'm sure he's grown at least an inch. (I'll check on that later... he's sleeping now) He's doing everything a newborn should be doing. We've been using cloth the last few weeks (more on that later) and we are loving it. The girls are doing great with him. Alaina wants to hold him and watch him. Rachel mostly likes to look at him and try to play with him. He really rounds out our family. He's got a very peaceful soul and is a very loving baby. We couldn't love him more.