Life with a Newborn and Newborn Pictures

Well with it being my last week off before I head back to work and little man heads to daycare (TEAR!!) I have really be thinking about our last 6 weeks together. I never could have imagined that I could love someone like I do Samuel.

For the most part our days consist of eating, sleeping, diaper changes and playing- well I play with him and he mostly stares at me but I get a few laughs and smiles in there sometimes, but my favorite part of the whole day is when I get to feed him and he holds my hand and then I get to rock him to sleep and my son much like his mother is a snuggler. He like to get right up on the top of my shoulder and then snuggle into my neck and I swear to you there is nothing better than that feeling. 

Once Samuel was two weeks old we had two big milestones- first was our first real doctor appointment. Now that morning was a bit challenging because breast feeding wasn't going to well, Samuel is a bit of a biter and had literally destroyed my nipples. So every time he nursed I was in massive amounts of pain and of course he was feeling my frustration and I also hadn't started pumping yet and I really really didn't want to give him formula, but I actually had to break down and try to give him some so he wasn't starving and of course as luck would have it he wouldn't take a bottle either. Luckily my mom is on hand any time I have a question or need something so I called her and I was in tears and so was Samuel and being the awesome mom she is she turned around after she had just got to work, about 35 miles away, and came to my house to help me try to get him to take a bottle and also go with me to the doctor. 

The doctors appointment was ok for the most part, they had to prick Samuel's heel to get blood and he cried and so did I (thank you hormones!) and once that was done with the nurse the doctor came in and talked me off the breast feeding ledge and also helped me give baby man a few ounces of formula to get him satisfied and talked to me about breast feeding tips and gave me the nursery phone number for Clear Lake Regional to talk to the lactation specialists to get some help once my breasts healed and I could go back to nursing. Still so glad and thankful that we chose that pediatricians office! After the doctors appointment my mom took me to pick up some breakfast since little man was asleep then we went to buy buy baby to find some different bottles that hopefully Samuel would take, then it was back home for us and exclusively breast pumping until I was mended- I even squeezed in a doctors appointment for myself that day to get checked out thanks to my mom. I am honestly not sure what I would have done without her that day. 

Then we had newborn pictures the next day with the very talented Taryn Melgoza Photography. She was beyond amazing with our maternity pictures so naturally I wanted her to do Samuel's newborn photos. She took them in her home studio and wasn't afraid to get pooped and peed on, which was a good thing because it happened in the first 5 minutes once his diaper was off (Sorry Taryn!) but she was so great with him! She had tons of wraps, cute hats, and props for us to use and the proof is in the pictures!

Mommy and Samuel

Our First Family Portrait

Daddy and Samuel

Baby in a Box :)

One of my Favorite Pictures

I am trying to get better about posting more frequently- but I make no promises with a 6 week old :)

Have a blessed day!

The Delivery...Dun Dun Dunnnnn!

So as many of you readers can imagine my life has drastically changed in the last 6 weeks (12 if you count my last post), I am now a new mommy to our son Samuel. He is truly amazing! I never thought I would be in love with any one of any thing quite like this. 

Some (maybe not many) of you are wondering about delivery. Well I went into the doctor on February 5th, the day before I was 39 weeks, and I had started to get more swollen and my blood pressure seemed to be a bit elevated when the nurse checked me before we (my mom and I) went into the room to see my doctor. So when my doctor came in she looked at me and smiled real big and said, "So would we like be get induced tomorrow?! and all I could do was smile equally as big and say, "Seriously?! UM YES!" 

Once we had that decision squared away (imagine my moms face and excitement at this point) Dr. Ohlemacher went through everything I should expect to happen when inducing and that she would call and let the hospital know that I was a voluntary inducement and that they will get all of the priorities in first and then they will call me and let me know when to come in, but that I should call around 4 a.m. and check and make sure they couldn't take me then. So of course I was too anxious to sleep knowing that I was going to become a mom the next day (EEK!) so I got up at 3 a.m. and took a bath and got ready and put on some make up and called the hospital at 4 and of course they didn't want me to come in then but to call back around 7 a.m. if I hadn't heard from them yet. So, knowing I was going to be in for a long day I tried to go back to sleep even though that was the hardest thing ever, but around 6 the hospital called and the nurse let me know they were ready for me to head in and I told them we would be there in about an hour since we would for sure hit traffic. 

Once we got to the hospital it was SUPER easy, we checked in at the front desk because Brandon had to get a badge to let them know who he was and then it was up to Labor and Delivery for us! We were sent straight to the nurses station and then they walked us to our room and then it was time to change, answer questions from the nurse, sign consent forms, get my IV started, get hooked up to a fetal monitor and the next thing I knew my doctor was there to break my water and get the pitocin started. Now I have never really had anyone come at me with a crochet needle before (not really what they use obviously) but I was told to sit butterfly style, then lay back and pull my legs in toward me as much as I could- not such an easy task at 39 weeks I might add- and then she broke my water and the fun really began. 

I was somewhat trying to be hardcore (mostly thanks to Bri) and go for a little bit and experience contractions before I got the epidural but of course I am a baby when it comes to pain and so I made a deal with myself once the contractions really got started that I would try for one hour and then all bets were off I would get the drugs. I was having contractions every 2-3 minutes for about 45 second durations and let me tell you once that hour was up I was allllllll about the epidural! I never felt the needle go in or anything like that (THANK YOU LORD!) and once it was in and started I felt like a million bucks. I spent the next few hours just hanging out, taking a few cat naps, watching t.v., playing on my iPad- oh and eating popsicles!

My doctor would come in and check me every fews hours but around 4 in the afternoon I told my nurse that I was feeling a lot of pressure so she said she would call Dr. Ohlemacher and have her come check me again and at that time once she was there I was at 6 cm. Still had some time to wait, however, I asked my nurse to check me again about half and hour later and I was at 9 cm! Super exciting of course but then I also started to have chest pains and difficultly breathing- every one thought I was having a panic attack but come to find out I had an adverse reaction to my epidural due to having a narrow spinal column and it caused that as well as traumatic back pain. I even ended up having another little cocktail added to my epidural to help with that pain but no such luck. 

After all of that drama and pain it was time to start pushing- which seemed to come very quickly! I had Brandon holding one leg and foot, my nurse holding my other and my mom helping to push my forward on my back since I was in so much pain and could barely do it myself. I tried pushing for about 30 minutes when I asked my doctor if I could stop and please have a c-section but she told me that ship had sailed and I needed to commit to really pushing because she could see the top of his head and all of his hair!! So I really tried to give it my all and after about 4 or 5 big pushes HE WAS OUT!! He was born at 6:32 p.m. and he was 8 lb. 2 oz. and 21 inches long.

Now no one told me that babies are SUPER blue when they come out (call me silly) but I sort of freaked out but of course I had been through a hell of a delivery and it was a flood of emotions at this point so Samuel's nurse said, "Oh I got this, I can get him pinked up and get him crying for you mom." and she did just that. Once he was cleaned up a little and warmed up he was in my arms and I knew instantly that I loved him more than anything. 

We spent the next two hours or so in Labor and Delivery until our room in postpartum was ready and we had some of our family and friends come in a visit us. Once our room was ready we left L&D and went and got checked into our room and met our night nurses and once they left Brandon passed out and it was just me and Samuel and of course I was still on a high from just having a baby and so I sat there and just held him and looked at him while our nurses came in about every hour and checked on us. 

Nothing too scary or dramatic happened during delivery God Bless and we ended up with a perfect little boy to call our own. 

Mommy and Samuel