Most of these are older, but I'm playing catch up.
What? You want an update?
Posted in Bradley on by
No, I'm not dead. No, nothing horrible has happended and I don't want to talk about it. I've just been busy and the last thing I want to do is spend more time on the computer. Especially playing with pictures.... I have soo many of them and I hate going through them and organizing them. Maybe I'll continue to blog... maybe not.... I got a sweet email from Kimberly asking for more info about B so she could be his favorite second cousin once removed.
Without further ado:
Life as a mom is fantastic. My baby is adorable and we have so much fun with him.
A little about B: Turns out he is the world's biggest flirt. He flirts with anybody he can and he uses his whole body. Starts with a huge smile, then the shoulders scruch, then he makes a little fists, and sometimes he raises his eyebrows if to say 'hey good looking...'. It is hillarious. He is starting to scoot some when he's sitting in something which means we now have to actually strap him down in his swing. Still no rolling over or sitting up on his own. He also hates tummy time - hopefully that turns around soon.
Nicknames: Peanut (from his Aunt LuLu), squirty man, monkey, Chubs, Mr. B
Menu: All bottles still. He eats about 6-7 bottles a day with 4-5 oz per feeding. He is only on formula... I tried and turns out I'm not enough for him. But he did get breastmilk until he was 3 months old.
Sleeping: For the most part, he sleeps from 8:30pm to 5:30 am... except while he's been sick. He also takes at least one 2 hour nap and then lots of catnaps. His schedule is to eat, play, sleep, and then repeat.
Sickness: He got a cold at the end of January and has been coughing ever since. Poor little guy. Last week we got a fever and sounded extremely wheezy, so we put him on some steriods to dry out the mucus, an inhaler, and some cold medicine. Quite a bit for a 4 month old. He still sounds a little wheezy sometimes and still coughs some... but it seems a little better. He was also kind enough to bring home a stomach bug from daycare. That was no fun. He got it one Saturday, Kyle and I got it the following Sunday night, and then my dad got it a few days later. It was rough.
Biggest adjustment for me: Waking up early. I love sleeping in...I love sleeping in general. The lack of sleep sometimes makes me crazy. Luckily I have parents here that watch him overnight on the a weekend night, if needed.
But here you go, pictures of sweet Bradley who is now 4 months old. His 4 month pictures are a work in progress....
Jersey fist pump
4 generations
Facial Presentation Births
Posted in on byI did some research on how often babies have "facial presentation" births and it is extremely rare. As in.... it happens 0.2% - 0.4% of all births. They are supposed to be some of the most painful births/contractions (which I fully agree not sure how it's supposed to feel). To add to it, Bradley had his first bowel movement in the womb probably due to the stress of the labor which only happens about 5% - 10% of all births.
Here is a view of how he was positioned in the uterus (first image)
Some facial presentations can be born naturally and some require a c-section. If born naturally, babies will have very bruised and swollen faces. I believe with the combination of the facial presenation and the meconium (bowel movement), a c-section was an obvious choice.
At the time, I didn't ask any of the questions or care what they were doing just as long as the pain went away and Bradley was born healthy. But now I know.
Only good news of having a c-section? I can schedule our next child's birthday... no more waiting around.
2 weeks down
Posted in on byI can't believe two weeks have already gone by! It has definitely been busy and a crash course in motherhood. I have loved almost every minute of it (minus my meltdown day).
Things you should know about Bradley:
- He absolutely loves moving his arms and hands. When we swaddle him, we leave his arms out.
- He has amazing neck strength already. He can move his head around without any problems (especially when looking for food).
- When he is hungry, nothing satisfies him except food
- He loves his paci. I was letting him use me as a pacifier for awhile, but decided it was best if I got a little break from him
- He can now go around 3-4 hours at night before waking up and demanding food.
- He loves his swing
- He loves being held our taking naps on one of us.
I'm now a cry baby
Posted in Bradley on byI can count the times I've cried over the past 5 years. I've never been an emotional person and usually only cry if I'm extremely stressed or sad. I didn't cry at my wedding - I did however cry at my best friends. I didn't even cry when Bradley was born.... it was after that that my crying really started.
So... let me round up the things that have been making me cry:
3. Cluster feeding. When Bradley was between 6-8 days old, he cluster fed like crazy. What is cluster feeding you ask? Nursing (about non-stop) from 5pm to 10pm. That means that I was stuck on the couch with him attached...not so comfortable and it wore me out. Luckily, he got over that and we had good start pretty normal weekend and start of this week.
4. Non-stop holding. I love holding my new bundle of joy..... but I was to the point of holding him 24-7. As soon as I put him down he would start crying. What did he want to do after crying? Nurse. It was a vicious cycle that caused me to let him sleep on my chest every time he fell asleep. This also frustrated Kyle because he really didn't get to hold him for a couple days.
5. Call from the pediatrician telling us that one of Bradley's State Screening tests came back abnormal. The state of Arkansas runs many tests on newborns that looks for genetic problems and metabolic abnormalities. The GA-1 test came back abnormal for him - not saying that he for sure has Glutaric Acidemia, type 1 - just saying that they needed to pull more blood and urine to run the full test. We were called at 1:30 and told we had to be at the hospital by 2:30 to run the test. Poor B was poked and prodded for over an hour and then we met with the pediatrician to discuss next steps. I felt helpless because he was screaming his head off for over 2 hours while were out. We are still waiting on the results from the test.....
6. My mental/physical breakdown on Tuesday night. Not sure what happened, but all of sudden, Bradley wanted to nurse non-stop starting Tuesday evening. We nursed from 5:30 - 9pm then took a nap on the couch until 11:30. Nursed from 12 - 3:30am, passed out for an hour, nursed again, passed out for 30 minutes, nursed again..... I was exhausted. He was crying his head off and all I wanted to do was sleep for a few hours. Mix feeling helpless, hormones, being physically drained and cue the tears. I cried all night. When my mom called in the morning to say hi and I was crying, she came over with bottles, formula, and pacifiers ready to alleviate some of my duties so I could sleep a little. Looks like I was under a little more stress than I thought and the milk I'm producing wasn't enough for B. After a couple ounces of formula he was out for over 2 hours while I got to sleep some too. Thank you mom. Now that I can supplement him a little with the formula, he actually go to sleep in his crib and stay asleep for several hours. Thank God and hallelujah. Last night we all got 4 hour intervals of sleep and B slept in his crib. So nice.
Hopefully now that I've gotten some good sleep without B sleeping on me, my crying days will be mostly behind me.
Hopefully now that I've gotten some good sleep without B sleeping on me, my crying days will be mostly behind me.
Welcome Bradley James
Posted in Bradley, pregnancy on byBradley James
Born November 4, 2010 at 2:52 am
7lbs 1oz, 20in long
Here he is (and yes I realize he is a mini-me of Kyle)
Born November 4, 2010 at 2:52 am
7lbs 1oz, 20in long
Here he is (and yes I realize he is a mini-me of Kyle)
The Birth Story:
I kept telling myself that I wasn't going to expect anything with the birth. I wasn't going to have any plans in my head, wasn't going to be upset if it didn't go as planned, and was going to go with the flow of what happens....because really, it is all beyond my control. I definitely did not expect the scenario we had....
On Wednesday (11/3/2010), it was a normal day for me. I had been having some contractions on and off for a couple days. Sometimes they'd be as close as 6 minutes apart, but they were never constant and they always stopped at some point. On Wednesday, I was still having contractions and Bradley was being quieter than usual....as in I couldn't remember any good kicks. Very unusual.
When Kyle got home, he was definitely worried that I wasn't feeling the little guy much. 2 glass of orange juice later, we jumped in the car to drive around some. I always feel him kick in the car... not sure if the the vibrations or the angle of the seat, but he always kicks... but no kicks. So while driving around, we drove to Willow Creek Women's hospital just to hear his heart beat. I thought it would be an in and out thing... but they took it as an ER - get fully undressed - get fully hooked up thing. Kyle was as white as a sheet until we heard a steady heartbeat.
After being hooked up a for a few mintues, I noticed that the needle thing on the machine reading contractions was going up and down about every 2 1/2 minutes.... and then they got stronger.... and stronger.... After being checked by the doc - I wasn't dialiated at all.... so no active labor in progress even though my contractions were getting good and coming regularly. After about two hours of sitting around and not progressing, they had us walk around the hospital for an hour to push things along. After that...still no progress. So, they sent me and my extremely strong contractions home to sleep...ya right.
After about 10 mintues of being home my water broke. GO TIME! So, Kyle ran around like a chicken with his head cut off and finished off our bags for the hospital. I hobbled to the car and basically screamed with every contraction. Ouch. You know how sometimes it sounds like the women is mooing with the contractions? I get why...
Once we got back to the hospital, they checked us again and it turns out that Bradley was "sunny side up". He was face first in the birth canal - not ideal for a natural birth. Without any question, the doc said we needed to get in the OR for a c-section. At this point I just wanted drugs and Bradley out; I didn't care at all that it was via c-section. They warned us that his face might be bruised and swollen from all the pressure (scary).
About an hour later, Bradley James was born without any bruises or swelling and was beautiful. C-section went as planned and Bradley was healthy.
We did have a bump in the road at the hospital that I'll save for another day. Main thing is - it ended up being not such a big deal (although I completely broke down) and Bradley is healthy and mostly happy (especially when nursing).
Happy Grandparents
Happy Uncles
I'll attempt to post more often to keep in contact with everyone while I'm stuck at home....attempt. It's taken me a full week to get my pictures on the computer and I can only do it b/c I have Bradley in my Moby wrap and he is passed out at the moment. Which reminds me that I should be napping too.
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