Out of the Baby Coma

October 28, 2012

And he is awake, well at least for more than 10 minutes at a time.  I have to admit those first few weeks I was beginning to think Luke was a bit boring because all he did was sleep.  I had to wake him up and pretty much force him to eat before he fell back asleep.  He still sleeps most of the day but now has about 2 or 3 times a day where he is alert for an hour or two. I love seeing those big blue (for now at least) eyes observing the world.
He had his two week check up on the 18th. Our little man is healthy and thriving as put by Dr. Stanford.  He was also impressed for how alert he was during the visit.  He weighed 6lbs 10oz which means he surpassed just gaining back his birth weight by 4oz. He also grew a half an inch. I think he's gotten even bigger since then. The little wrinkles in his legs are slowly filling out into tiny little rolls.
Not only is he doing well but he showed me he can projectile poop and spit up these past few weeks.  I've spent many a days covered in spit up, poop and pee. My seemingly boring baby is slowly turning into a handful. He also has his nights and days mixed up sometimes too. He thinks the hours of 1-3am are the hours to be awake and want to be held.  Hopefully we can remedy this soon.  Other than doing the baby stuff, Luke has been catching up football during the weekends (this is great quality dad time) and visiting with all of the guests who come to see him. During the day we've enjoyed this beautiful weather and go on walks around the neighborhood. We're both looking forward to when he can sit up and go on runs in his jogging stroller. Until then I'm cherishing our walks and long cuddle sessions.

Some pictures of these past 2 weeks:

Pure sweetness

Look how long I can stretch out

football watching with dad

I'm ready for the USM game and he's ready for Rutgers

Southern Miss homecoming. He gave up on them and went to sleep.

Fist bumping Mom.

My 3 favorite boys

This is his not happy face

The cutest little pumpkin around

This week we're looking forward to Mom Mom coming to visit. She can't wait to meet Luke and I know he feels the same way. We're also getting to go out for Halloween with some of the other babies in our Sunday school class. This will be his first meeting with his future daycare classmates.  I'm sure he'll remember it forever.

A whole week at home.

October 12, 2012 

Steve and I have been at this parenting thing for a whole week. We came home last Saturday and three loads of baby laundry (do you know how many baby clothes it takes to fill 1 load - 3 loads is a lot!), a box of wipes and who knows how many diapers later we are all three still alive. And as a bonus all three pets have survived too. It's been a crazy week of trying to figure out this little man and attending to his every need. And when I'm not attending to his every need I'm busy watching every little facial expression and move he makes, trying to capture them all on camera.
This week has been made much easier by the help of my mom who has stayed with us this week to help out.  I've gotten to shower, eat, post a million pictures on fb, and even go for walks with Dash - things I've heard are quite difficult when there is only a 1 to 1 ratio of adult and infant. Visits from great friends baring food, treats and good advice has also been vital. Have I ever mentioned how fortunate I am to have the friends and family that I do? If I don't say it enough - I love you guys and hope you know how great you are.
We went for his biliruben test and weigh in on Monday. Luke is down to 6lbs which is a normal amount of weight loss and his biliruben was in a normal range so no more tanning for this little man.  He also got to meet James Harris Martin at this appointment; he was born just 2 days before Luke. All of his tests are normal and he is pooing and peeing like a champ - nothing more comforting than having a healthy baby. I thank God for this every night and pray that he will calm my anxieties of something happening. I'm also recovering really well. Other than still having high blood pressure which I got put on some meds for, I'm almost feeling like my normal pre-pregnancy self.  My swelling is almost all gone, my feet and hands quit hurting and I'm thinking I may even be up for an easy gym trip next week, that is if I can handle leaving Luke for 30+ minutes. I'm thinking a home exercise video may be the way to go.
Not only is Luke a beautiful, healthy baby, we think he may be the Saints good luck charm.  He wore his little Brees jersey this week and they won their 1st game of the season. This was also the week Drew Brees set the record for most consecutive games for making a touchdown pass. Maybe this will work for USM too; we have a little eagle jersey too.

Touch down Saints!

Also noteworthy this week, half of Luke's daycare class was born. That makes 3 babies for one Sunday School class in one week. I'm sure it's been a busy week for Dawn (our teacher) and Eddie (pastor) making the rounds.
And the best part of this post and probably most future posts - a fraction of the many many pictures we've taken.

Luke's wreath made by aunt Jenn

He sleeps like his dad

Luke meets the Crawfords

He looks good in black and gold

Someone is jealous they lost their spot on Steve's lap

Sweetness

Another child starving for attention

I love that monkey bottom and those lanky legs

Yes, we stole a hospital blanket

Lucas Lee Ryder is here!

Our family of Three

Our 6lb 6oz, 20in bundle of joy, Lucas Lee Ryder made his appearance at 10:53 pm on October 4, 2012.  Who knew Steve and I could fall so in love with this little guy so quickly? I know we're biased but seriously, he's beautiful.
The labor was overall not that horrible.  Steve and I checked in on Wed. night (Oct. 3rd) to start preparing for the induction in the morning. When we walked in to the Labor and Delivery unit I heard a woman screaming in pain and immediately wanted to walk out, I wasn't really prepared to deal with that much pain. I got hooked up to IV's, put in my lovely gown, and started on some meds pretty soon after we arrived. Steve and I had some mindless conversations and watched the presidential debate to pass the time.  If the debate didn't put me to sleep, the Ambien did. According to Steve, I slept pretty hard and kept talking about my contractions hurting which is odd because I wasn't feeling the contractions at all in the morning.  
Around 6am I was given the pitocin and labor was started.  At this point I was still only about 1cm dilated.  I was hoping for more. My mom came up later that morning and sat with us in the labor room.  Around 11am I actually started feeling the painful contractions and it didn't feel good.  I wanted to hold off on the epidural in fear it would slow things down and I was still only about 2 or 3 cm at this point. So, I opted for some pain meds which did absolutely nothing for me. Fortunately my sister and Tiff and Jennifer and Lindsey had come to visit by this point so it distracted me from the pain for a while. After a few more hours and only about a cm more of dilation I opted for the epidural around 4 or 5pm. Unfortunately it took about an hour to actually get it so the pain really kicked in.
Once it did kick in, things got rolling much quicker. I highly recommend epidurals, especially if being induced!  The nurse said this can happen because my body will finally relax and allow labor to happen since I'm not feeling the pain. After much sitting around and thinking of how hungry I was while chomping down on ice cubes I finally got to 10cm at about 10:15pm.  It was go time! Steve was the best coach.  He took on more of a personal training approach which worked for me. We decided we're going to trademark Lamaze for Athletes.  I was determined to have this baby as quickly as possible. After about 20-30min of pushing the most beautiful cone headed baby arrived and stole our heart. Steve and I were in love.
Luke was beautiful and healthy. He was having a little trouble breathing so they had to take him to the nursery to make sure everything was alright. Fortunately it was only a bit of fluid on the lungs which was easily resolved. Unfortunately he was in there for about 2 hours and I missed him already. During this time I was also being monitored for blood pressure spikes.  It had gotten pretty high during labor (gestational hypertension was the reason I was induced early).  Around 1am our family was united and about 3am I was released to go to postpartum.
Everything was a whirlwind.  I know I have some wonderful family and friends who came to see us and spend time with us in the hospital, I got no sleep but didn't care because I was on cloud nine. Lucas was healthy, cute as a button and got to go home with us on Saturday. This was the greatest time of mine and Steve's life!
And the best part of this post - the pictures of Luke. I also have some videos of our first meeting and him coming home.

Our first meeting

Steve's first time to hold him (he's a little teary eyed)

Getting his first check up. Steve made sure to asked if his toes were webbed like his :)

Nana is in love

On our way home! Steve has the best shirt ever.

Week 38 / The final week

The last picture of Lucas on the inside

October 3, 2012

I think the only way to properly express how I feel today is OMG! For the past week I've been saying I'm ready for Lucas to come and sitting around trying to figure out if I'm having any signs of labor. After last week's appointment where I was 80% effaced and 1cm dilated, I was sure he would continue to make progress and decide to come meet his parents a week or so early. After a few days of being unsure if I was ready, Steve and I got the last minute items checked off of our to-do list - installed car seat, packed a bag and went tailgating. (We only lasted for about an hour, it was raining so we decided to watch the game at home. Although we lost, this was probably the most exciting USM game of the season.  I'm hoping Luke will be a good luck charm for USM and the Saints since they both have no wins so far. (I can tell there is a boy inside me because look how much I care about football)). 
My mind has been cluttered with thoughts of how will Lucas look?  Will he have light hair and dark eyes like me, dark hair and light eyes like Steve or some combo? Is he going to be an easy baby who sleeps easily or is he going to challenge me? How big is he going to be (Dr. Kot says between 6.5 and 7lbs)? I'm so excited to get to know this baby who's been kicking my ribs for the last several weeks. I'm also ready to not be pregnant just to have a little more say so in what is happening with my body, not go to the bathroom every 5 minutes, not take 5 minutes just to get off of the couch and have all of this swelling go down.
Then I had my weekly check up. I was not dilated or effaced any more which was disappointing but it looks like he's coming anyways.  My blood pressure was a little high - 141/91 so Dr. Kot ordered a non-stress test.  This consisted of sitting in a recliner for about 20 minutes with a fetal monitor and periodically checking my bp.  When I started this I thought, I'm going to be so bored sitting here for 20 whole minutes. It passed so quickly because I couldn't take my eyes off of that monitor, I was watched every change in his heart beat for 20minutes terrified something may be wrong.  This probably did not help the blood pressure situation. The good news was everything looked great with Lucas but during this time my periodic bp checks didn't go down. Dr. Kot then ordered some blood work for me. If it came back with a problem she wanted to induce me that day, if not I could come in tomorrow night (now tonight).  This was a huge bomb that was just dropped. I thought I was ready but I wanted Luke to be ready too.
I called Steve who also seemed to be in a state of shock.  The poor guy couldn't form complete sentences.  The reality had just hit us of how soon we were going to be parents. I was no longer sure if I was ready and never did I think I would have to be induced. I called our moms and some close friends to share the news and headed to work to get all my loose ends tied up. This was officially my last day at work for a while and when I return my life will be completely different. Fortunately, Dr. Kot called and my blood work was ok so I have an extra day to get my mind wrapped around everything.
Last night Steve spent the last night in our house as a family of 2 (5 if you count our furry children and we usually do). We played with Dash who is not excited about the change, Steve got his stuff packed (including The Avengers which I bought for him during my mindless shopping yesterday), and unsuccessfully tried to sleep. Today Steve went to work and I'm sitting at home (doing as little activity as possible by order of the doc.) and trying not to worry about the things I've read about how induced labor can last much longer and be harder. My emotions are on a roller coaster but ultimately I'm excited to meet our son, no matter how he has to get here.

Dash's reaction to telling him this is his last night with us without Luke

He decided to go ahead and get some quality play time in by bringing his rope

Xanny could care less as long as Luke will love her

Addie just wants us to know that she may nibble on him eventually

My next post will include pictures and stories of Lucas Lee Ryder.  I guess it's time to start thinking of more creative titles than the week of pregnancy I'm in. I'll try not to go with Luke's age.

Week 37

 

week 37. The shirt is officially too short

September 26, 2012
 
Thirty seven weeks. I'm full term! It's time to get in high gear preparation for Lucas mode. This weekend I went to get those last few things we need - crib pads, more diapers, a pack and play and lots of anti bacterial soap.  I had a shower at work last week and got some more great gifts and much appreciated gift cards. I spent the weekend washing and organizing all of his clothes. The plan for this weekend is to get the car seat installed and pack my bag for the hospital.

Things got a little real for all of us today at my 37 week check up. I'm 80% effaced and 1cm dilated. I do realize I can stay at this level of effacement/dilation for several weeks but it also made us realize this is happening. I've started feeling random contractions too - nothing painful, just uncomfortable.  I think what got to me the most was when Dr. Kot was doing the check and she said "I can feel the head." It made it real that there is actually a little person in there with a head, he is about to make is way out and Steve and I are in charge of him. It's so scary and exciting at the same time.

In addition to the few uncomfortable contractions, I'm still having some swelling, going to the bathroom every 5 minutes, not sleeping, and have carpel tunnel/ trigger finger.  I must say swelling has improved tremendously over the past week though.  I think the drop of temperature has helped.  I can see may ankles again - it's fantastic. At last week's appt. I had gained 4lbs in a week and this week I was down 1lb - I'm pretty sure that was all due to a decrease in swelling.  Thank goodness for the cooler weather! I hope to not be in my 3rd trimester of pregnancy in a Mississippi summer again. In other pregnancy side effects, I think the funniest thing is my off center belly button.  Luke definitely favors my right side.  I can always feel him over there and my belly big outtie of a belly button sits about an inch to the right.  I really think he likes to burrow his feet into my rib cage too. I've had a few jump out of my seat kicks from him.

As promised, the nursery is ready and I have pictures.  All it needs now is Lucas and some pictures of him to put in the frames. Earlier this week I realized we've spent so much time on the nursery that we've neglected the guest bedroom.  Fortunately my mom is coming to stay for a bit then Steve's mom is coming November 1st.  I guess it's time that we get a place for them nice and cozy too.

 

I was trying to capture my off center belly button

My belly is way bigger than dash's