in case you hadn't heard, The Children have taken over. check 'em out here: http://aujoko.blogspot.com xoxoxo
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Hazel asked nicely and I had some time....
A non-lethal bullet list for y'all.
+ Jeremy & Rita came over today!!!
- Audrey was so excited that she did.not.sleep.all.day
+ bedtime was SUPER easy tonight
+ someone renewed my subscription to mothering magazine! Thank you, mystery wonderful-person!
+ an article about meat in said magazine has me all fired up
? Jonah looked at the toys on his hippo for about 2 minutes. Then he cried.
- There is no LOST this week. *sigh*
+ It's me birfday on Thursday!
+ cloth diapers seem to be going really well with Jonah. and Emily just sent him s'more!
+ I love my friends
+ Matthew & I will probably get to have a birfday date sometime soon. we'll take Jonah with us, but he's pretty unobtrusive
? Audrey MAY have said her first sentence yesterday. but we're not sure because it was after she dropped her cup on the floor and she said "Get it" which she might just think is one word... you know "geddit, biotch!"
+ Jonah is trying to hold his head up. he gets about a minute and then it just kinda...... falls.. =)
+ Jeremy & Rita came over today!!!
- Audrey was so excited that she did.not.sleep.all.day
+ bedtime was SUPER easy tonight
+ someone renewed my subscription to mothering magazine! Thank you, mystery wonderful-person!
+ an article about meat in said magazine has me all fired up
? Jonah looked at the toys on his hippo for about 2 minutes. Then he cried.
- There is no LOST this week. *sigh*
+ It's me birfday on Thursday!
+ cloth diapers seem to be going really well with Jonah. and Emily just sent him s'more!
+ I love my friends
+ Matthew & I will probably get to have a birfday date sometime soon. we'll take Jonah with us, but he's pretty unobtrusive
? Audrey MAY have said her first sentence yesterday. but we're not sure because it was after she dropped her cup on the floor and she said "Get it" which she might just think is one word... you know "geddit, biotch!"
+ Jonah is trying to hold his head up. he gets about a minute and then it just kinda...... falls.. =)
Monday, March 9, 2009
Jonah is One Month Old --OR-- Why Does He Still Sleep So Much?
The poor kid is STILL SO SLEEPY! The most I've gotten out of him at a stretch is 2.5 hours. Which is pretty good. Usually, he wakes up - eats for 20 mins - and then looks around for about 40 mins - and then starts crying and being generally cranky - and he goes back to sleep for 1.5-2 hours.
BORING!
He is probably growth spurting since he's been eating every 1.5-2 hours today instead of his customary 2.5-3.
We go back to The Doctor next Monday, so I'll have an update on his stats at that point, but he's definitely fitting into his cloth diapers so he's more than 8 lbs. (P.S. If anyone knows how to keep the poop off the covers, that'd be great. I'm sick of doing laundry!!!)
So, life is hectic, but we're surviving. I wish I could report some things that Jonah *likes* - as in, likes to look at, for example... but apparently the answer is the back of his eyelids. HA! He's more of a comfort nurser than Audrey was; he also prefers to be laid down by himself more than Audrey did/does. He's starting to control his head a little but, but he's still VERY bobbley... and adorable. I still think he looks like an old man and I'm having trouble deciding whether he has started smiling for real yet or if his little smirks are still leftover newborn muscle twitches.
I loves him!
BORING!
He is probably growth spurting since he's been eating every 1.5-2 hours today instead of his customary 2.5-3.
We go back to The Doctor next Monday, so I'll have an update on his stats at that point, but he's definitely fitting into his cloth diapers so he's more than 8 lbs. (P.S. If anyone knows how to keep the poop off the covers, that'd be great. I'm sick of doing laundry!!!)
So, life is hectic, but we're surviving. I wish I could report some things that Jonah *likes* - as in, likes to look at, for example... but apparently the answer is the back of his eyelids. HA! He's more of a comfort nurser than Audrey was; he also prefers to be laid down by himself more than Audrey did/does. He's starting to control his head a little but, but he's still VERY bobbley... and adorable. I still think he looks like an old man and I'm having trouble deciding whether he has started smiling for real yet or if his little smirks are still leftover newborn muscle twitches.
I loves him!
Shoulda named him BENJAMIN (..as in.....Benjamin Button..)
"I've fallen and I can't get up!" (TM)
Audrey didn't want to fall behind in her education since Jonah gets to come to class with me. Sibling rivalry already!
Monday, March 2, 2009
Ja-ja-ja-jonah!
Aight, so here goes...
On Monday morn, ver' ver' early (around 1) I woke up to some contractions. I didn't wake Matthew up until they were about 7 mins apart for half an hour. So then we called the midwife - it was probably 2:30 a.m. by this point - and she told us to go ahead to l'ospidale. As soon as we called everyone under the sun (read: my parents, Matt's sister who was to deliver the news, and Audrey's Godmother who was to come watch Audrey for us), the contractions all but stopped. It was kinda sick. We decided to go up to Mo'town anyway in the hopes that they would pick up again.
3 contractions and 50 minutes later, we arrived at the hospital. And I was totally embarrassed. And we almost turned right back around. But we decided to just go up and see what the nurses had to say.
They hooked me up to the monitors at around 3 and told me to wait and see what would happen over the next hour. Basically nothing happened. (Incidentally, I had not even dilated or effaced any further since my appointment on Thursday...) At 4 they told me that I could either go home, or sleep until shift change at 7 a.m. We decided we may as well stay.
At 7, the nurses told me that my midwife wanted to see me. So we waited. And at 7:30-ish, Gail came in and told me that she was uncomfortable sending me home because my cervix was "so ready" and, with my history of fast labors (er, A fast labor - singular...), it would be quite troublesome to get all the way home only to have my water break, for example. So I was advised to stay and try to get my contractions in a regular pattern again (I was "contracting" occasionally the whole time, basically). I tried walking, nipple stimulation, etc. etc. The nipple stim worked - until I stopped. So, at around 6:30 p.m. they started me on pitocin (I KNOW I KNOW! I'm such a hypocrite!!!!).
It wasn't so bad; I don't think they gave me a very high dosage. In any event, I had a super-scary-long-intense contraction at around 7:30 that put Jonah in distress - his heart rate dropped for too long because his cord was compressed. They gave me oxygen and turned me from side to side; it was kinda scary actually. They completely stopped the pit at that point.
Anyway, the contractions didn't go away!!
It was kind of a boring labor after that. I didn't sleep in between contractions like I did with Audrey. The contractions were less intense I think; I was told that that could have been because my water had not broken like it did with Audrey. Having said that, the pushing stage was WAY WAY worse! I was such a baby about it, too! I did not feel the "urge to push" before Gail told me to start pushing (later I found out that I was still only 9 cm so that's probably why - she just wanted to spare me the last 15 mins or so of misery that it would have taken me to get that last cm taken care of). Jonah was out in, maybe, 3 contractions? 4? Again, it didn't seem as "easy" as Audrey's birth, but it wasn't really so bad all things considered.
He was born at 11:41 - almost exactly 5 hours after they started the pitocin.
It's a boy!
I was right!
I got to hold him right away, and my first thought was "Jonah" which is kind of weird because that name wasn't exactly the top pick a few hours earlier. I didn't tell Matthew that right away. We silently/simultaneously agreed that we wouldn't name him officially until the action was over and we could really concentrate on that. So he was nameless for about 45 minutes.
Jonah had fluid stuck in his throat because he didn't cry right away, so I didn't get to hold him for very long before they took him to the little table thing to work on him. It was kind of heart-breaking to hear them trying to suction out the fluid, and Matthew was completely torn between seeing to me and checking on Jonah. Once that was taken care of, they gave him right back and he was a good latcher almost immediately. It was kind of awkward because I had literally forgotten how to hold a newborn. That was a surprising aspect of the experience.
So then everyone left, and Matthew held then-nameless Jonah while I got cleaned up and stuff. He reports that he went through each of the top 5 names we had and none of them seemed like his name until Jonah. We reached the decision independantly, and when we asked him if he liked his name, Jonah did this weird nod thing - which was probably a coincidence, but funny none-the-less.
He weighed 7 lbs., 11 oz. and was 18" long.
He is just as laid back - no, maybe MORE laid back than Audrey was. Jonah loves to be held, he likes the binky, he's a champion nurser (now- the first couple of days, he was only hungry VERY erratically) and everything else positive about Audrey's first weeks. Jonah has the added bonus of not freaking out every time he sits alone!
On our first night home, Jonah ended up sleeping with us. He did that for several nights because his days and nights were completely mixed up. As soon as we were ready for bed, the kid woke up. He has it almost figured out now and has slept in his cradle beside our bed for the past 2 nights. I don't mind sleeping with him when necessary, but I definitely don't sleep as well as when he's in the cradle. I'm always half-awake worrying about Matthew rolling onto him (no offense - he's just a really heavy sleeper) or the covers suffocating him, etc.
We ran out of disposable diapers on Saturday night, and since he was above his birth weight (up to 7 lbs 13 oz) on Wednesday, I figured he was close enough to 8 lbs and would fit into his cloth diapers well enough. He does. I mean, his butt looks HUGE, but it works. Night-time changings are somewhat stressful because we don't want to turn a light on (I mean, he only just recently figured out to sleep when it's dark!) and we're not quite pro's at folding the durn things yet. I'm excited to get some fitted diapers for night time. Tomorrow we'll get a few.
He was weighed today, on his 3-week birthday, because he has an eye infection. Apparently his is now 8 lbs., 13 oz.!! WHA?! Last Wednesday (yes - 5 days ago!) he was an entire pound lighter. I'm thinkin' the cloth diaper weighs more than the disposable. Yikes!
He's in the 25th percentile.
He's a sweet boy - very sleeply usually - and right now he's very hungry. Gotta go!
On Monday morn, ver' ver' early (around 1) I woke up to some contractions. I didn't wake Matthew up until they were about 7 mins apart for half an hour. So then we called the midwife - it was probably 2:30 a.m. by this point - and she told us to go ahead to l'ospidale. As soon as we called everyone under the sun (read: my parents, Matt's sister who was to deliver the news, and Audrey's Godmother who was to come watch Audrey for us), the contractions all but stopped. It was kinda sick. We decided to go up to Mo'town anyway in the hopes that they would pick up again.
3 contractions and 50 minutes later, we arrived at the hospital. And I was totally embarrassed. And we almost turned right back around. But we decided to just go up and see what the nurses had to say.
They hooked me up to the monitors at around 3 and told me to wait and see what would happen over the next hour. Basically nothing happened. (Incidentally, I had not even dilated or effaced any further since my appointment on Thursday...) At 4 they told me that I could either go home, or sleep until shift change at 7 a.m. We decided we may as well stay.
At 7, the nurses told me that my midwife wanted to see me. So we waited. And at 7:30-ish, Gail came in and told me that she was uncomfortable sending me home because my cervix was "so ready" and, with my history of fast labors (er, A fast labor - singular...), it would be quite troublesome to get all the way home only to have my water break, for example. So I was advised to stay and try to get my contractions in a regular pattern again (I was "contracting" occasionally the whole time, basically). I tried walking, nipple stimulation, etc. etc. The nipple stim worked - until I stopped. So, at around 6:30 p.m. they started me on pitocin (I KNOW I KNOW! I'm such a hypocrite!!!!).
It wasn't so bad; I don't think they gave me a very high dosage. In any event, I had a super-scary-long-intense contraction at around 7:30 that put Jonah in distress - his heart rate dropped for too long because his cord was compressed. They gave me oxygen and turned me from side to side; it was kinda scary actually. They completely stopped the pit at that point.
Anyway, the contractions didn't go away!!
It was kind of a boring labor after that. I didn't sleep in between contractions like I did with Audrey. The contractions were less intense I think; I was told that that could have been because my water had not broken like it did with Audrey. Having said that, the pushing stage was WAY WAY worse! I was such a baby about it, too! I did not feel the "urge to push" before Gail told me to start pushing (later I found out that I was still only 9 cm so that's probably why - she just wanted to spare me the last 15 mins or so of misery that it would have taken me to get that last cm taken care of). Jonah was out in, maybe, 3 contractions? 4? Again, it didn't seem as "easy" as Audrey's birth, but it wasn't really so bad all things considered.
He was born at 11:41 - almost exactly 5 hours after they started the pitocin.
It's a boy!
I was right!
I got to hold him right away, and my first thought was "Jonah" which is kind of weird because that name wasn't exactly the top pick a few hours earlier. I didn't tell Matthew that right away. We silently/simultaneously agreed that we wouldn't name him officially until the action was over and we could really concentrate on that. So he was nameless for about 45 minutes.
Jonah had fluid stuck in his throat because he didn't cry right away, so I didn't get to hold him for very long before they took him to the little table thing to work on him. It was kind of heart-breaking to hear them trying to suction out the fluid, and Matthew was completely torn between seeing to me and checking on Jonah. Once that was taken care of, they gave him right back and he was a good latcher almost immediately. It was kind of awkward because I had literally forgotten how to hold a newborn. That was a surprising aspect of the experience.
So then everyone left, and Matthew held then-nameless Jonah while I got cleaned up and stuff. He reports that he went through each of the top 5 names we had and none of them seemed like his name until Jonah. We reached the decision independantly, and when we asked him if he liked his name, Jonah did this weird nod thing - which was probably a coincidence, but funny none-the-less.
He weighed 7 lbs., 11 oz. and was 18" long.
He is just as laid back - no, maybe MORE laid back than Audrey was. Jonah loves to be held, he likes the binky, he's a champion nurser (now- the first couple of days, he was only hungry VERY erratically) and everything else positive about Audrey's first weeks. Jonah has the added bonus of not freaking out every time he sits alone!
On our first night home, Jonah ended up sleeping with us. He did that for several nights because his days and nights were completely mixed up. As soon as we were ready for bed, the kid woke up. He has it almost figured out now and has slept in his cradle beside our bed for the past 2 nights. I don't mind sleeping with him when necessary, but I definitely don't sleep as well as when he's in the cradle. I'm always half-awake worrying about Matthew rolling onto him (no offense - he's just a really heavy sleeper) or the covers suffocating him, etc.
We ran out of disposable diapers on Saturday night, and since he was above his birth weight (up to 7 lbs 13 oz) on Wednesday, I figured he was close enough to 8 lbs and would fit into his cloth diapers well enough. He does. I mean, his butt looks HUGE, but it works. Night-time changings are somewhat stressful because we don't want to turn a light on (I mean, he only just recently figured out to sleep when it's dark!) and we're not quite pro's at folding the durn things yet. I'm excited to get some fitted diapers for night time. Tomorrow we'll get a few.
He was weighed today, on his 3-week birthday, because he has an eye infection. Apparently his is now 8 lbs., 13 oz.!! WHA?! Last Wednesday (yes - 5 days ago!) he was an entire pound lighter. I'm thinkin' the cloth diaper weighs more than the disposable. Yikes!
He's in the 25th percentile.
He's a sweet boy - very sleeply usually - and right now he's very hungry. Gotta go!
Friday, January 30, 2009
Cheetahs never prosper!
I woke up with Lion King quotes in my head today, so thus my facebook status and the title of this post. They're appropriate lines, too, though I doubt anyone could possibly read far enough into them to "get it."
So, NewBaby is obviously not here yet. We've been kind of freaking out all week based on the midwife's prediction that we wouldn't make it to my Thursday appointment. Well, not only did I make it to the appointment, but here were are at 1:30 on Friday afternoon with absolutely nothing to report. No semblance of consistent contractions. Hardly any contractions at all, actually. I'm okay with this. And I've learned a lesson:
PREDICTIONS SUCK!!!
Ha ha!
I'm okay with NewBaby coming whenever NewBaby wants to come. I mean, it'd be nice if Matthew was not in P-burg when "it" happens, but even that wouldn't be the end of the world. So I was kind of surprised when my midwife told me I could take castor oil to get things moving, and that if I wasn't in labor by next Thursday we would talk about an induction.
WHAT?!
I was caught off guard! I mean, I'm 38 weeks now and there's no medical reason for induction. The only thing I can figure is that she was anticipating that WE wanted to be induced... but really the only "panic" concerns Matt's work schedule. It would have been nice if NewBaby had decided to make it's grand entrance into the world this week so that Matthew would only miss 2 days of work and would get to go on a camping trip with his work kids. But I have my theories about forcing children out of the womb before they're ready.
So, after the castor oil discussion incited a bit of a meltdown-slash-argument, we came to the conclusion that the option of control over this blessed event is bad for us. We are not supposed to be able to predict or control when babies are born. I will not be pregnant forever (and I'm not even that uncomfortable, truth be told, except I think I'm getting PUPPP again) and I have this crazy idea that forcing this kid out will have negative consequences in the long run. Maybe its lungs aren't quite ready; maybe it'll be jaundiced (worse than Audrey was) if it's born now.... I mean, seriously, if NewBaby were ready to be born, don't you think it'd be born? I wrote a post about how Audrey's pregnancy was so much more positive than this baby's - I don't want to make this baby's birth unpleasant in any way, shape or form.
I'm repeating myself a lot. Sorry. But that's where we are right now. NewBaby is still in utero and we're at peace with that.
So, NewBaby is obviously not here yet. We've been kind of freaking out all week based on the midwife's prediction that we wouldn't make it to my Thursday appointment. Well, not only did I make it to the appointment, but here were are at 1:30 on Friday afternoon with absolutely nothing to report. No semblance of consistent contractions. Hardly any contractions at all, actually. I'm okay with this. And I've learned a lesson:
PREDICTIONS SUCK!!!
Ha ha!
I'm okay with NewBaby coming whenever NewBaby wants to come. I mean, it'd be nice if Matthew was not in P-burg when "it" happens, but even that wouldn't be the end of the world. So I was kind of surprised when my midwife told me I could take castor oil to get things moving, and that if I wasn't in labor by next Thursday we would talk about an induction.
WHAT?!
I was caught off guard! I mean, I'm 38 weeks now and there's no medical reason for induction. The only thing I can figure is that she was anticipating that WE wanted to be induced... but really the only "panic" concerns Matt's work schedule. It would have been nice if NewBaby had decided to make it's grand entrance into the world this week so that Matthew would only miss 2 days of work and would get to go on a camping trip with his work kids. But I have my theories about forcing children out of the womb before they're ready.
So, after the castor oil discussion incited a bit of a meltdown-slash-argument, we came to the conclusion that the option of control over this blessed event is bad for us. We are not supposed to be able to predict or control when babies are born. I will not be pregnant forever (and I'm not even that uncomfortable, truth be told, except I think I'm getting PUPPP again) and I have this crazy idea that forcing this kid out will have negative consequences in the long run. Maybe its lungs aren't quite ready; maybe it'll be jaundiced (worse than Audrey was) if it's born now.... I mean, seriously, if NewBaby were ready to be born, don't you think it'd be born? I wrote a post about how Audrey's pregnancy was so much more positive than this baby's - I don't want to make this baby's birth unpleasant in any way, shape or form.
I'm repeating myself a lot. Sorry. But that's where we are right now. NewBaby is still in utero and we're at peace with that.
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