TGIF

Today has been the first day I woke up truly exhausted.  It's been a fantastic week - we've been getting out of the house a few times and making all sorts of new discoveries - but after 2 nights of nearly impossible sleep, I am TIRED!  So why am I typing instead of taking another nap right now....

Mom, I don't like getting buckled unto this swing

Let's start with all of this weeks highlights.  On Tuesday Wally and I attended the first of six weekly "New Mama" classes at Amma Maternity near the Galleria in Edina.  Oh my gosh, it was absolutely fantastic!  To all of my prego girlfriends and family, I recommend 3 things:  the epidural, a daily hot bath, and taking a new mama class.  This list will grow, but that's my start.  There are about six other moms in this class with me, all with little ones quite close in age to Wally (2 girls who were born the day before him!).  For over 2 hours, we talked about all the emotions, struggles, and highlights of being a new mom.  So cathartic!  All of these questions just stared pouring out - I was so surprised that many of my concerns were brought up by other moms too!

I can't tell you how much I learned just from seeing other mamas interact with thier babies and hearing about thier experiences.  Yay, I'm not the only one having breastfeeding issues, or loosing sleep, or hitting the "3rd week slump."  The first obvious disparity:  Wally is about the size of an NFL linebacker compared to the other babies.  He is bigger and chunkier than one baby who is 3 weeks older (double his age).  He weighs 11.2 lbs - in at the 97th percentile.  Holy crap!  On thursday I had an apt with a lactation consultant at Methodist (Coleen - she is my cheerleader) and was assured that Wally's size is nothing to be concerned about.  You can't overfeed a breastfed baby, but from the outside it might look like I'm trying to defy that law.  Also, he grunts alot because of the breastfeeding and my initialy strong milk flow.  The plus side to his size is that I really feel more comfortable handing him - like I don't have to be super delicate.  He's pretty strong and durable.  In fact, on Thursday night (and he was up from 1:30-6:00am straight) we were doing a little tummy time and he held his head up for a good 20 seconds and just looked thoughtfully at me.  I teared up a little.

I've kept mom up this many nights in a row

It's so helpful to feel like I am on a team of moms who are all going through this with me!  We got together on Thursday for coffee and got to know eachother, which was great.  Of course, Wally had a blowout.  Yellow paste all over everything - his clothes, blankets, my shirt, his whole body, etc.  But I still had a great time.

Today we did a little shopping/walking around Ridgedale so that I could test out the stroller.  It's a Chicco Keyfit, and I really like it.  I had to watch a few youtube videos before leaving the house just to figure out how to get the carseat into the stroller, but it worked and we had a great time.  This weekend, the goal is to pump and introduce the bottle - just so he gets use to Brian giving him a bottle once in a while, and eventually so that I can work for a few hours in a row.  Hope it works!

This week's milestones:  More awake and alert, lots of kicking and head bobbling during tummy time, starting to fit into more 3 month clothes, on the verge of smiling at times, looking up at me while nursing, I'm getting more confident leaving the house

Happy 3-week birthday Wally!

So patient for mom's photo shoots

It's Sunday, Jan 23rd.  Today at 10:56pm, Wally turns 3 weeks old!  It's amazing how much he has changed in the past 3 weeks.  For a few days now, he's been pretty fussy.  I'm atributing this to a "3-week growth spurt" he's going through that I read about on some official looking pediatric website.  Up to this point, Wally has been a very happy, mostly sleepy, baby.  But the past few days he's been awake more often, and he has tended to be fussy when awake.  Our friend Megan was over yesterday laughing as Brian was walking laps around the upstairs trying to lull him to sleep.  Last night as I picked him up out of his bassinnet for a 4:00am feeding, he felt like a little sack of potatoes....that's the growth spurt.  He's suddenly got this super-cute double chin.  His legs and arms are looking ever more chubby.  The newborn diapers that we synched up for the first two weeks are now almost tight on him.  I wouldn't be surprised if he's weighing in at 12+lbs when I get him weighed on Tuesday.   I'm considering all this a gold-star accomplishment of breastfeeding.  The sore boobs are worth it!
This weeks milestones: - he's holding his head up more often during tummy time    - he's starting to kick his legs and hold them straight out instead of tucked in   - he is awake for an hour or two at a time and opens his eyes wider

The Big Photo Shoot

I have to blog about this before I forget because it was such a "big deal."  We had a newborn photo shoot yesterday for Wally.  I found this fantastic photographer here in Mound - Kirsten O'Hara Gordon.  She has a home studio and just some amazing photos of infants and families, I really like her style.  Check her out:  www.kirstenoharagordon.com/


link to pic of Wally:  http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=155549741161759&set=a.115293708520696.14351.100001202030320


So Wally woke up promptly at 5:00am, and insisted on getting fed once an hour until about 9:30.  I tried really hard to make sure he was awake, changed, and well fed when we left so hopefully he'd be comatose for most of the photo shoot.  Amid this, I was also trying to get myself and Brian looking half way decent and bags packed with props for photos.  Well, of course none of this worked.  We got there and I immediately realized I had left the 2 outfits I had planned for Wally to wear sitting on the bed.  Then for the next three hours, Wally was either awake and fussy or asleep and fussy.  He kept wrinkling up his face as soon as Kirsten would try to snap a photo.  She would try to position his arms and legs but he'd just wait until she let go and kick them out.  For the naked shots he peed or pooped on every single surface we set him down on.  So much pee!  I tried to feed him twice to calm him down and get him asleep, but neither worked.  Kirsten was so patient with this, but I'm sure we were the most difficult    It took us three hours to get through (by the end we skipped the last two sets), most of which was just waiting for Wally to settle down. I was exhausted and a little embarrassed by the time we left.  So this is motherhood...

Wally meets friends and family

We've had such a teriffic support group this past week and a half between friends and family - many thanks.  Lots of food, love, and attention.  On Sunday both Brian's folks and mine were here with lunch and dinner.  I'll put a few pics up here of our visitors....

Wally and Grandma Kathleen - 3 Days Old

With Brian's sister Mariel - 1 day Old

On Monday my friends Emily and Laura came over and hung out for the afternoon, which was awesome because it was Brian's first day back at work and I was a little nervous going it alone.  Laura just had her little one, Ellie, on Dec. 5th so we had our first play date (we called it a boob date).  Our neighbor Felicia stopped by Tuesday with her two girls and a bag of cute new clothes for Wally.  Later I was complaining to my sister in law Kacy that I didn't have anything but a carseat to just hold the baby while I ate lunch, and the next day she dropped off a swing chair that she picked up at Once Upon a Child - it's awesome!

My brother Andy with Wally - 2 Days old

My brother Jesse with Wally - 7 Days Old

Great Grandparents Rock with Wally - 7 days Old

Wally's first play date with Ellie Harding (5 weeks old)!  Those ladies can play so hard to get :)

Week 1

Horray, we are officially 1 week old!  Actually today Wally is 10 days old, but I'm backlogging here...

Wally sleeping on Papa's chest

I think overall we've had a pretty successful time at home.  We all came home from the hospital on Tuesday afternoon.  I was still pretty sore and not very mobile for the first 4 days, but every day gets a little better.  Wally and I had an in-home nurse checkup on Thursday and we are both healthy.  Wally has already gained 4 oz since leaving the hospital!  He has a little Jaundice, which I think is pretty common, and it's especially noticable in his face and upper chest but is slowly draining.   I spent the week on my "mommy chair" - a burgundy recliner - while Brian was buzzing around getting all kinds of projects done.  He put a screen door on Wally's room (so the animals will stay out but we can still see in), sold a bunch of odds and ends on craigslist, did all the grocery shopping and errand running, researched all kinds of safety things, etc.  I slept.

Thanks to everyone who has been bringing us food, it has been a godsend!  Our fridge is fully stocked, I feel like I live at a restaurant where there are several choices for each meal.  It has been such a huge help!

Welcome Wally!

Brian and I are proud to announce our new addition to the family!  

Walter Charles John

Wally was born Sunday Jan 2nd at 10:56pm at Methodist Hospital in St. Louis Park.  He weighed 8lbs, 2oz and was 21" long.  Wally couldn't wait to join the world, he was 11 days early (yay!).  He is a beautiful baby with a nice round head, lots of hair (and Brian's hairline!), long legs, fingers and toes.  He has an angel kiss on his left eye from birth, but no other birth marks!

First picture on mom's tummy!

Just a few minutes old with eye open- and with tags :)

First family photo - Em, Brian and Wally!

Birth Story  

Wally came into the world in a fairly typical "first baby" kind of way, which I couldn't be happier for!  Pregnancy was overall very stable and by Christmas I was definately big and ready to get the show on the road (even though I was still a good 3 weeks out on Christmas Day).  Lucky for me, so was Wally.  The next week, Brian and I spent a quiet New Years Eve (Friday night) at home.  We spent Saturday morning doing lots of little "final preparations" before Brian's expected return to work the following week.... installed carseat, finished packing bags, hanging pictures in the baby room, etc.  I think that was Wally's cue, because at 3:45 in the morning on Sunday my water broke!  Poor Brian, who had stayed up until 2:00am playing video games (trying to get in that final round before baby).

Our Delivery Room at Methodist

Contractions didn't really get going right away.  In fact, when we arrived at the hospital at 5:30am and got my initial assessment, I couldn't really even feel the contractions that were coming up on the monitor.  After a morning full of walking laps around the maternity floor and a few starts that pittered out, the doctor finally recommended pitocin to help get things going.  Around 1:30pm, I finally "went into labor."  Early labor was fairly steady, although slow.   My dad got there at about 10:00am, and was with us the whole time through labor and delivery (for those of you who don't know - he's a Family Practice doc and delivered many babies in his early days!  Best circumsision doc in Elk River for years :)

Em and Dad.  Way too happy to be in labor!

By 4:00pm I was only 4cm dialated (and I had arrived 2cm).  At 8:00pm, after 2 tries, an epidural was started.  Timing couldn't have been better because by this point I was really starting to labor hard without much of a break in between contractions.  I have to say that this was the best part of my day.  Those epidurals are amazing!  I think this really helped me realax, because by 10:00pm I was fully dialated and ready to start pushing.  At 10:56, at the end of a final round of pushes, Wally's head popped out (literally....the doctor was turned away and everyone in the room jumped when it happened.)  He came out screaming and we were all crying.  It was so amazing.  The other really cool element of this delivery was that my OB doc on call that day, Dr. Thomas, so she delivered Wally!  At Methodist, this is fairly atypical so I was really excited when we got that news!

Here's the one "mid-labor" pic I'm adding.
One of many comfort techniques used - walking in laps around the hospital!

Those first few minutes/hours after Wally was born were life changing.  Wally was on my chest most of the time, and the nurses were just awesome at making sure those initial procedures were quick and easy.  I feel so blessed to have such a healthy, beautiful baby boy!  I think he is just perfect.