Venturing Out

Justin recently pointed out that I have taken quite a hiatus from posting. I will say that I don't feel like I've had much to talk about, as my days revolve around feeding a baby. But today was different...

I decided that I would run a quick errand with Jack today. I will call this my first outing alone with the baby (in truth, we had one other solo outing, but it was just to a lactation consultant so I didn't have to plan it around feeding times). So this morning, I fed Jack, quickly threw on some clothes, and strapped him into his car seat.  He didn't particularly like being tightened down, but I figured I'd put him in the car, and if he stopped crying, we would run into Target, and if he didn't, we'd return home. He did quiet down, so we headed into the store.  My goal was to return a couple articles of clothing (girls clothes from the baby shower), and pick up a bottle brush and maybe some pants for Jack.

I stood in line to return the clothes, and as I was standing there, these 4 kids were messing around, and the youngest started screaming at the top her lungs. This stirred Jack, so I started to panic a little. I hung in there though, got the clothes returned, all while soothing him enough to keep him from getting worked up.  We headed to the baby section, and I started with the bottle brush.  As I stood there, I looked at the color options, pink or blue.  Definitely needed to get the blue one. Then, as I walked down the aisle, I saw a package of pacifiers that are similar to the ones he got at the hospital. He likes them, so I figured I'd get a couple more to have on hand, in case we lose the ones we have. I grabbed the top package, and swiftly moved onto finding some pants. After circling the baby clothing section 4 times, I realized there really isn't pants for newborns in the middle of the summer.  I picked a couple sleepers off the clearance rack, and went to make my purchase. All the while, Jack would make little sounds, so I knew he wasn't in a deep sleep as I'd hoped, and I felt like Jack was on the verge of getting upset. Naturally, this put me on edge.  But I checked out, and headed to the car.  It was sprinkling and windy, so I rushed to the car, got him in, returned the cart and tossed the bag of my purchased items on the passenger seat as hopped in myself.

All of a sudden, without even opening the bag, I realized that I'd purchased my son pink and purple pacifiers (and here I was concerned about bottle bursh colors). When I got home, I realized one of the sleepers I purchased didn't have the footies, and the other has snaps instead of a zipper. I was obviously distracted during shopping. Basically, I'll be returning 80% of what I purchased, and I'll be doing it on another day when I'm feeling adventurous. Some might consider this venture a failure. I consider it a success, as I survived.

When Tummy Time Becomes Nap Time

Normally Jack does great with tummy time, but this time he thought it'd be better to fall asleep.  We'll have to keep him on a rotisserie to stay awake.

Ready...Aim...Fire!

It was a quiet Saturday afternoon and Jack was in the middle of his feeding.  He's a bit of a lazy feeder, so he was taking a nap half way through.  Typically if he's sleepy I'll rub his belly or change his diaper or whatever to wake him up... so Sonia asked me to change his diaper.   No biggie, I bring Jack to the changing table, peacefully sleepy little guy that he is and take off his diaper.  I look away for less than three seconds to grab a wipe and Mt. Jack erupts!  Pee going north and poop going south.  Like any reasonable father I froze and watched the horror unfold.  Poo rolling out like playdough down his leg and pee just spraying into my cupped left hand.  The cupped hand was way too late, he had already hit me (hand and arm) and himself (in the belly and face) and probably even Ozzie and his bed below... serious range... truly impressive.  To top it all off, while this is happening Sonia is sitting in her glider laughing hysterically.  Maybe because I took it like such a wuss moaning and groaning about how much pee and poop was everywhere while trying to suppress a gag.  In hindsight it was pretty funny, but it really took her at least a minute to even pause laughing to ask if I needed help. We were planning on giving Jack a bath yesterday, but thankfully we didn't, cause he's getting one today!

Milk Drunk

It taste's so good when it hits the lips. 

Little Monkey

Well, we've been at home now since Sunday around noon, and this is tough!  It feels like a time warp.  You barely sleep, and loose all awareness of everything aside from the baby.  Totally worth it, he's the best thing that's ever happened to us.  Thankfully we haven't been doing it alone.  Joan and Allan have been incredibly helpful and made us dinner for the second night in a row, amongst many other things.  I don't know how people do it without family.  We had Jack's first doctor's appointment today and it was a bit rough.  They strip him naked and poke at him and of course and he hates it. It's heartbreaking to see him cry so hard, but he got settled and everything turned out fine.  He's in great shape and got a big thumbs up.  

He's a cute little monkey...

 

It's a beautiful evening in Littleton and is finally starting to cool off after another hot day.  Our AC is currently broken, but we've been using a portable unit my parents let us borrow.  Thankfully it's been managing and I think this week we'll have it fixed.

This week both of our family's take off for the weekend, so I think we'll be able to see some friends for those that are around, and want to come meet the little monkey.

Jack is Born!

Baby Jack was born on June 10, 2011 at 8:36AM.  Jack was about 12 days early, but still a fairly health size at 7lbs 8oz and 21" long.  Labor started at about 4AM and then proceeded at an extremely fast pace.  Sonia woke me up on her second contraction, unintentionally, around 4:15AM and then contractions moved from 15 minutes apart, to 10 minutes apart, and within 2 and a half hours were at 5 minutes apart.  She managed the pain really well, and once she was at 5 minutes for 30 minutes we called the doctor.  Our doctor of course was not in town, so we got handed off to one of the on call doctors....actually a blessing because he was fantastic.  It was about 6:30AM when we called in and we told him we wanted to head to the hospital, especially to beat the traffic, as St. Joe's is about 25 minutes from our house.  It's so far away because we are in South Denver, Sonia's doctor is in North Denver, and the hospital is near downtown Denver.  It was a good thing we called when we did because once I got off the phone her contractions quickly moved to 2 minutes apart, and at this point I was hurriedly trying to get her and our bags in the car.  Ozzie was a bit of an afterthought, but he did get food on our way out the door. Well, driving to the hospital was interesting to say the least.  We took Sonia's car which is a Subaru Forester, thankfully an XT, because there are times when a turbo is handy, and it's when your wife's contractions are 2 minutes apart and your 25 minutes from the hospital.  Our drive consisted of Sonia clutched to the oh shit handle on the passenger door side holding herself off the seat, while I put pressure on her lower back and weaved through traffic.  She's a trooper to say the least, truly amazing.  About 5 minutes into our drive she said she wanted to push....as much as I wanted to panic I didn't, but felt compelled to tell her "baby, I know you are in a lot of pain, and feel like pushing, but you can not push in the car".  Thankfully, she was very receptive and knew she had to keep holding out.  We got to the hospital and the admissions nurse was taking her sweet time, knowing this was our first baby, assuming Sonia was early in labor.  So after a couple of minutes she finally checked and Sonia was completely dilated.  Not incredibly surprising considering the rate of progress.  They were on top of things and immediately moved her bed into labor and delivery.  Still holding out on pushing we waited 10 minutes for the doctor to arrive.  We were told normally pushing takes between 1 - 3 hours for a first time mom, prior to pushing, probably to remind us that birth is really an endurance race.  Well Sonia is evidently not into that, so 36 minutes later Jack was born.  A beautiful baby boy, healthy and happy.  I now know what the transition phase looks like for my wife, and it was at about 6AM two hours into labor, pretty crazy.  At the time I just thought that was the first stage and we were going to be in for a long day....loved being wrong on that one.  After delivery the doctor said that Sonia's body and resultant delivery was very "efficient" and she was made to have babies. As much as I wanted to cheer about that one, I thought the timing would be poor.  The rest of the stay in the hospital was a bit of a sleepless blur, but we stayed two nights and left early Sunday morning.  Baby Jack is doing well and at home and we're just trying to get settled into a routine.  I expect that will take a while, but everything thus far has been fantastic and I've loved every minute of our time with Jack, but especially together as a family.  Ozzie has been very accepting of him today as well.  I feel like our birth story is about as ideal, perfect, "efficient", or blessed as it gets.  I think there were a lot of challenges and hardships with the majority of births we were lucky to avoid, and I am very grateful for that.  We've had an overwhelming amount of love and support from family, friends, and neighbors and we feel incredibly blessed.   We have a whole pile of photos from our time at the hospital, and they can be found through the Picasa link below....

Jack's pictures in the hospital

Field Day

Last weekend we participated in our first field day.  It was pretty fun, tons of people, food, drinks, a beautiful day, and lots of friendly team competition.  Needless to say our team (Carolina Blue) won, but to be honest we were unfairly stacked.  Justin Bradley Cammon was a great host, and Justin Bradley Buckmaster had a great time... what are the odds of two Justin Bradley's existing and both being so awesome.

Prego Photos

Prior to delivery we decided to have Justin Neal (and Carrie Neal) from Intrigue Photography take some Prego photos of Sonia and me... and even some family shots with Ozzie. They took us to the botanical gardens and Cheesman park and did a great job.  We were really happy with their photos.  Here are a couple of our favorites.  You can see even more on our Picasa if you click on this link.... Picasa Prego Photo's

Nursery

So we had meant to do this a while ago, but were learning about our new camera and just couldn't seem to get a decent picture.  Anyway, user manuals are helpful... so here are some pictures of the little ones future nursery.

 

Term

So, I guess 37 to 42 weeks is considered full term. Learning a lot these days, and soon to be learning even more, I'm sure.  But, I had my 37 week appointment today.  My doctor, whom I love, is this no hassle, tell-it-how-it-is lady, which we totally appreciate.  At the 36 week appointment, when I asked what to expect at the coming appointments, she mentioned to me that there really was no medical need to check progress, and she'll only do that if I want her to.  At least that's true up to my due date, then she'll have to check so that we can develop a plan.

So, my family thinks the baby will come early, and are basing that on genetics, as my mom's 4 kids were all early, and Sarah's daughter was born 2 weeks early.  Justin thinks I'm going to be late (cruel, I know).  And today, much to my surprise, the doctor chimed in with her intuition.  She says she really doesn't see me delivering at 37 weeks, and that I will very likely make my next appontment on the 13th.  Her intuition tells her that I probably won't be late, but won't be too early either.  Probably deliver in my 39th week, and she thinks the baby will be around the 7 lb. mark.  If you knew this lady, you would understand my surprise that she finally made some sort of prediction.  I think it's fun, but I certainly won't hold her to it.

On that note, she told us today that she just delivered two babies weighing in a t 9 lb., 15 oz.  And they were born without C-section.  Top priority is definitely a heathy baby, but it would be nice if the baby wasn't 10 lbs. too.