Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours!!
2018: A YEAR IN PICTURES
7 years ago
Thursday, November 22, 2012
Monday, November 19, 2012
Friday, November 16, 2012
4 Weeks Old
Can you believe my sweet baby is 4 WEEKS OLD?!? Where has the time gone? These last four weeks have been such a blessing for Kevin and I and we love our new family!
Life is going well for us!! Carter is such a great baby; I really can't complain. This was Kevin 2nd week back at work and Carter and I have been making it on our own. He eats every 2-3 hours right now, except at night. The doctor said we could stop waking him up to eat and just let him wake us up when he's ready. Well thankfully he's only waking up once a night!!! We feed and put him to bed around 11pm and he doesn't wake up until sometime between 3-5AM. Then he doesn't wake up again until 6:30-8AM. Its been so nice especially since Kevin went back to work and isn't doing a night shift.
Carter is starting to be more aware of his surroundings now! He focuses in on people and things. He really loves hanging out under this:
He'll lay under there and eventually start moving his arms and legs and will hit all the things hanging down. He LOVES it. He'll hang out under there sometimes up to an hour.
We'll also give him some tummy time too and he is SOOO strong. I dont know if its normal for babies to be this strong this early but he is!! He lifts his head and moves it around all the time. And he pushes against me and resists sometimes. His strength is crazy!!
I love his smiles and we've gotten better at catching them on our camera. They are precious.
Carter is usually pretty alert and awake in the morning after he wakes up from the night and then he's usually alert again after 6pm or so. He sleeps a lot during the day but sometimes is awake when he wants to be.
He also loves his nap nanny; it is probably his favorite place to sleep. He like his swing as well. Without fail, if you need him to fall asleep, put him in the swing and he's usually out within 10-15 minutes.
Bathtime is fun! He hated sponge baths when we had to do those, but now that he gets a regular bath, I think he enjoys it. He never fusses but its more of like, what the heck is going on right now. It is pretty funny to watch him during that.
Carter also has a great temperament. He'll be fussy sometimes, but its usually not anything we can't get under control pretty quickly, so that really nice.
He loves his boppy pillow too. He lays on that when eating, but he also likes to lay on that while mommy gets ready in the mornings. And speaking of eating, Carter is a great eater too. We never have a problem with him eating and he seems to be getting all he needs. He's a fast eater too!
Well thats a little bit about Carter right now. We are excited as we have a bunch of visitors coming in the next week. Tonight, Kevin's sister Holly and her husband are coming in for the weekend to meet Carter as they live in Tulsa, OK. Then next Wednesday my whole family comes down for Thanksgiving and my sister and Patrick will finally get to meet Carter! Get excited for the holidays!
Life is going well for us!! Carter is such a great baby; I really can't complain. This was Kevin 2nd week back at work and Carter and I have been making it on our own. He eats every 2-3 hours right now, except at night. The doctor said we could stop waking him up to eat and just let him wake us up when he's ready. Well thankfully he's only waking up once a night!!! We feed and put him to bed around 11pm and he doesn't wake up until sometime between 3-5AM. Then he doesn't wake up again until 6:30-8AM. Its been so nice especially since Kevin went back to work and isn't doing a night shift.
Carter is starting to be more aware of his surroundings now! He focuses in on people and things. He really loves hanging out under this:
He'll lay under there and eventually start moving his arms and legs and will hit all the things hanging down. He LOVES it. He'll hang out under there sometimes up to an hour.
We'll also give him some tummy time too and he is SOOO strong. I dont know if its normal for babies to be this strong this early but he is!! He lifts his head and moves it around all the time. And he pushes against me and resists sometimes. His strength is crazy!!
I love his smiles and we've gotten better at catching them on our camera. They are precious.
Carter is usually pretty alert and awake in the morning after he wakes up from the night and then he's usually alert again after 6pm or so. He sleeps a lot during the day but sometimes is awake when he wants to be.
He also loves his nap nanny; it is probably his favorite place to sleep. He like his swing as well. Without fail, if you need him to fall asleep, put him in the swing and he's usually out within 10-15 minutes.
Bathtime is fun! He hated sponge baths when we had to do those, but now that he gets a regular bath, I think he enjoys it. He never fusses but its more of like, what the heck is going on right now. It is pretty funny to watch him during that.
Carter also has a great temperament. He'll be fussy sometimes, but its usually not anything we can't get under control pretty quickly, so that really nice.
He loves his boppy pillow too. He lays on that when eating, but he also likes to lay on that while mommy gets ready in the mornings. And speaking of eating, Carter is a great eater too. We never have a problem with him eating and he seems to be getting all he needs. He's a fast eater too!
Well thats a little bit about Carter right now. We are excited as we have a bunch of visitors coming in the next week. Tonight, Kevin's sister Holly and her husband are coming in for the weekend to meet Carter as they live in Tulsa, OK. Then next Wednesday my whole family comes down for Thanksgiving and my sister and Patrick will finally get to meet Carter! Get excited for the holidays!
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Carter's Birth Story Part III
We ended up staying in the hospital until the next Tuesday, October 23rd. We had some ups and downs during the stay. I didn't realize how much pain I would be in afterwards. I didn't even get out of bed until either late Saturday or early Sunday. Our first night with Carter wasn't too bad, but the 2nd or 3rd night was pretty rough. He was fussy all night and nothing seemed to make it better. Then on Sunday, the nurse notice that Carter was breathing pretty fast and they wanted to take him to the nursery to check it out. He'd been gone awhile, so Kevin went to check on him and he ended up being down there most of the day being monitored and having a bunch of tests run. But, everything was coming back fine after all the tests and such. They couldn't figure out what was the cause.
I finally got out of bed and out of my room and they wheeled me down to the nursery so I could spend some time with him. It was tough seeing him in there, I can't even image what it would be like to have my baby in the NICU. Finally in the end, they sent him back to the room with us and were just going to monitor him more frequently.
The next day the pediatrician came by and we discussed all the issues going on. Carter by this point had lost about 11% body weight and they don't want it every going below 10%. So we were told to supplement with formula for a bit while we waited for my milk to come in. She also decided with his breathing stuff that she wanted him to get an EKG done just to make sure there were no heart issues. That night she called me with the results and there were a few things that concerned her enough that she wanted us to go by a cardiologist the next day once we were released from the hospital.
We were definitely overwhelmed with all these things at once, but at the same time thankful we still had a healthy baby boy.
The next day we finally left the hospital but had to go straight to the cardiologist. MAN, was that rough for me. I had been in a bed for the last few days, getting up a bit each day, but nothing extensive. Going to the cardiologist was hard. Hard to get in and out of the car, hard to walk into the office. I just felt awful and kept getting worse the longer we were there. My feet were swollen during my pregnancy, but after this, I really couldn't walk they were so swollen. I thought my ankles were going to break.
Good news though was the cardiologist didn't see anything of concern, but wants to see us back in 6-9 months to just double check him.
After that we finally got home and CRASHED! Man was it great to get home. We've now been home for a few weeks and things are going well. Carter is great! I'll post some new pics of him soon.
I finally got out of bed and out of my room and they wheeled me down to the nursery so I could spend some time with him. It was tough seeing him in there, I can't even image what it would be like to have my baby in the NICU. Finally in the end, they sent him back to the room with us and were just going to monitor him more frequently.
The next day the pediatrician came by and we discussed all the issues going on. Carter by this point had lost about 11% body weight and they don't want it every going below 10%. So we were told to supplement with formula for a bit while we waited for my milk to come in. She also decided with his breathing stuff that she wanted him to get an EKG done just to make sure there were no heart issues. That night she called me with the results and there were a few things that concerned her enough that she wanted us to go by a cardiologist the next day once we were released from the hospital.
We were definitely overwhelmed with all these things at once, but at the same time thankful we still had a healthy baby boy.
The next day we finally left the hospital but had to go straight to the cardiologist. MAN, was that rough for me. I had been in a bed for the last few days, getting up a bit each day, but nothing extensive. Going to the cardiologist was hard. Hard to get in and out of the car, hard to walk into the office. I just felt awful and kept getting worse the longer we were there. My feet were swollen during my pregnancy, but after this, I really couldn't walk they were so swollen. I thought my ankles were going to break.
Good news though was the cardiologist didn't see anything of concern, but wants to see us back in 6-9 months to just double check him.
After that we finally got home and CRASHED! Man was it great to get home. We've now been home for a few weeks and things are going well. Carter is great! I'll post some new pics of him soon.
Sunday, November 4, 2012
Carter's Birth Story Part II
So Kevin and got a few hours of sleep and the nurse came and woke us up to prep for surgery. My parents got there a bit early and came by to see me right before we headed back there. Honestly thinking back it was all kind of surreal and kind of a blur. But they made Kevin stay back in the room as they took me back to the operating room. I was a little upset he couldn't be there with me while they prepped me, but I ended up doing ok. Once we got back there all I remember is they got me on the table and gave me the medication for a c-section (I think its a spinal tap). It numbed me from the chest down. Once they finished everything and laid me down and draped all around me, they let Kevin come back.
Kevin came in and sat with me up at my head. Then everything started and went by so fast. Literally a few minutes in, the anesthesiologist was behind me and he said ok you are about to feel a lot of pressure going up to your chest. And as he finished his sentence, then big wave of pressure came over me that hurt and then all of a sudden it was over and Carter was pulled out. All the doctors at the same time go ohh he's a big boy. My doctor said he's glad we ended up doing the c-section.
Again most of it is such a blur and Kevin probably has a better memory of everything but they wrapped him up and showed him to me and then did all his vitals while the doctors then sewed me up. I didn't realize how fast all this took. They say from the time of the incision the baby is usually born within 10 mins and then next 30-40 minutes is stitching me back up.
At some point Kevin and Carter left to get bathed and such and they wheeled me back to a recovery room. I was by myself at this point, but I think I was going in and out of sleep from all the medicine.
My mom came back there at some point and checked on me, and then finally Kevin and Carter came back there and finally got the hold my baby for the first time. I then fed him for the first time. I was in love with the little human. He was perfect and I couldn't believe he was mine!
After I was in recovery for a required certain amount of time they wheeled us all to a postpartum room and all the family finally got to come and meet Carter as well. They did get to see him through the window during his bath though beforehand.
The rest of the day everyone taking turns loving on Carter. I was on such an adrenaline high that I don't think I slept the rest of the day, but I remember that night my eyes kept closing and I had a hard time staying awake but mentally I was on such a high. Physically I was exhausted.
The next few days were an adjustment period and at times difficult as recovering for me was pretty hard. More on that next...
Kevin came in and sat with me up at my head. Then everything started and went by so fast. Literally a few minutes in, the anesthesiologist was behind me and he said ok you are about to feel a lot of pressure going up to your chest. And as he finished his sentence, then big wave of pressure came over me that hurt and then all of a sudden it was over and Carter was pulled out. All the doctors at the same time go ohh he's a big boy. My doctor said he's glad we ended up doing the c-section.
Again most of it is such a blur and Kevin probably has a better memory of everything but they wrapped him up and showed him to me and then did all his vitals while the doctors then sewed me up. I didn't realize how fast all this took. They say from the time of the incision the baby is usually born within 10 mins and then next 30-40 minutes is stitching me back up.
At some point Kevin and Carter left to get bathed and such and they wheeled me back to a recovery room. I was by myself at this point, but I think I was going in and out of sleep from all the medicine.
My mom came back there at some point and checked on me, and then finally Kevin and Carter came back there and finally got the hold my baby for the first time. I then fed him for the first time. I was in love with the little human. He was perfect and I couldn't believe he was mine!
After I was in recovery for a required certain amount of time they wheeled us all to a postpartum room and all the family finally got to come and meet Carter as well. They did get to see him through the window during his bath though beforehand.
The rest of the day everyone taking turns loving on Carter. I was on such an adrenaline high that I don't think I slept the rest of the day, but I remember that night my eyes kept closing and I had a hard time staying awake but mentally I was on such a high. Physically I was exhausted.
The next few days were an adjustment period and at times difficult as recovering for me was pretty hard. More on that next...
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Carter's Birth Story Part I
So I'm finally getting around to writing about Carter's Birth! These past 11 days with Carter have been wonderful, Kevin and I are enjoying parenthood. I thought I'd write out his birth story to help us remember down the road all the details of his birth. I'll probably do this in several parts as it might be a bit long.
We'll start with Thursday, October 18th, the day before Carter was born. Kevin's dad and his wife got into town that day and we spent the day with them. I requested Newk's for lunch and then Mexican for dinner. We had a great day leading up to Carter's arrival. That night Kevin's dad went to bed as they had gotten up super early for their flight out to Austin, but Kevin and I stayed up and waited for one of Kevin's sisters, Heather, to get into town. Our plan was to wait for her to arrive and then head to bed to get some good rest before getting up early and heading to the hospital the next day. I was told I couldn't eat or drink anything 8 hours prior to my 12:30pm scheduled C-Section. (Again we had to end up doing a planned C-Section as Carter was showing he may be 9 or 10 lbs.) So my plan was to wake up at 3:30AM and have a bowl of cereal or something so I could have something in my stomach and then head back to bed. My parents and my Aunt Lori planned to drive down early Friday morning and meet us at the hospital.
WELL....around 9:15pm Thursday night, Kevin and I were sitting downstairs in our living room and I was readjusting myself (as I always do since I was always uncomfortable). I was trying to sit up a bit straighter on the couch, then all of a sudden, I felt something warm, like I had just peed on myself. I was like OMG, Kevin, I think my water just broke!! I ran to the bathroom and sat on the toilet but couldn't really tell if anything was still coming out. So I decided to stand on some towels in the bathroom and low and behold, I was continually leaking some fluids! SOOO we called my doctor's after hours and they said to head up to labor and delivery for them to test me and make sure my water actually did break.
I called my parents and they decided to go ahead and head straight down to Austin with my Aunt. We headed to the hospital and Kevin's family waited at our house until they heard from us what to do. After checking in and heading to a triage room, they did several tests on me. The results came back and my water had DEFINITELY broke.
At this point, I was excited, nervous, and a bit annoyed (in a funny way) all at the same time. See I'm a planner and I had planned out everything leading up to the c-section. Now I was nervous as I didn't know if my doctor was going to get to do the c-section or not as it was probably going to happen in the middle of the night. And I was like, seriously Carter...we have been wanting you to come early for several weeks and nothing. But now my water breaks! That Stinker! So we waited to find out what was going to happen.
The nurse finally came back in and told us we had to wait at least 8 hours after I had eaten or drank anything, so with that math, it looked like we might have Carter around 3AM. But the nurse said the on-call doctor ended up speaking with my doctor and he said if I wasn't in active labor they would try to hold off doing the c-section until 7AM and my doctor would come in early so he could deliver. This made me very excited as I had been really nervous about having a c-section, but knowing my doctor would be doing it made me feel better. My water had broken at this point, but I wasn't have regular contractions. And really, when the monitor showed I was having contractions, I didn't even feel them.
So we told Kevin's family to get some sleep and they could head up to the hospital just a bit earlier than planned the next day. We then got checked into a labor and delivery room where we'd stay until heading back to the operating room. My parents and aunt came by to say hi once they got in and then headed to get a few hours of sleep as well.
By this time it was like maybe 1AM? Kevin was so excited as was I. Surprisingly though I wasn't as nervous as I thought I would be, maybe because I was in shock about how all this was unfolding. In a few short hours, I was going to be a mom and would have a baby boy in my arms. Kevin set up shop in the fold out bed and we tried to get a few hours of sleep before the nurse came in to wake us up around 5AM to prep for surgery.
We'll start with Thursday, October 18th, the day before Carter was born. Kevin's dad and his wife got into town that day and we spent the day with them. I requested Newk's for lunch and then Mexican for dinner. We had a great day leading up to Carter's arrival. That night Kevin's dad went to bed as they had gotten up super early for their flight out to Austin, but Kevin and I stayed up and waited for one of Kevin's sisters, Heather, to get into town. Our plan was to wait for her to arrive and then head to bed to get some good rest before getting up early and heading to the hospital the next day. I was told I couldn't eat or drink anything 8 hours prior to my 12:30pm scheduled C-Section. (Again we had to end up doing a planned C-Section as Carter was showing he may be 9 or 10 lbs.) So my plan was to wake up at 3:30AM and have a bowl of cereal or something so I could have something in my stomach and then head back to bed. My parents and my Aunt Lori planned to drive down early Friday morning and meet us at the hospital.
WELL....around 9:15pm Thursday night, Kevin and I were sitting downstairs in our living room and I was readjusting myself (as I always do since I was always uncomfortable). I was trying to sit up a bit straighter on the couch, then all of a sudden, I felt something warm, like I had just peed on myself. I was like OMG, Kevin, I think my water just broke!! I ran to the bathroom and sat on the toilet but couldn't really tell if anything was still coming out. So I decided to stand on some towels in the bathroom and low and behold, I was continually leaking some fluids! SOOO we called my doctor's after hours and they said to head up to labor and delivery for them to test me and make sure my water actually did break.
I called my parents and they decided to go ahead and head straight down to Austin with my Aunt. We headed to the hospital and Kevin's family waited at our house until they heard from us what to do. After checking in and heading to a triage room, they did several tests on me. The results came back and my water had DEFINITELY broke.
Final Belly Shot...
Waiting in Triage...
The last look at my big belly...
At this point, I was excited, nervous, and a bit annoyed (in a funny way) all at the same time. See I'm a planner and I had planned out everything leading up to the c-section. Now I was nervous as I didn't know if my doctor was going to get to do the c-section or not as it was probably going to happen in the middle of the night. And I was like, seriously Carter...we have been wanting you to come early for several weeks and nothing. But now my water breaks! That Stinker! So we waited to find out what was going to happen.
The nurse finally came back in and told us we had to wait at least 8 hours after I had eaten or drank anything, so with that math, it looked like we might have Carter around 3AM. But the nurse said the on-call doctor ended up speaking with my doctor and he said if I wasn't in active labor they would try to hold off doing the c-section until 7AM and my doctor would come in early so he could deliver. This made me very excited as I had been really nervous about having a c-section, but knowing my doctor would be doing it made me feel better. My water had broken at this point, but I wasn't have regular contractions. And really, when the monitor showed I was having contractions, I didn't even feel them.
So we told Kevin's family to get some sleep and they could head up to the hospital just a bit earlier than planned the next day. We then got checked into a labor and delivery room where we'd stay until heading back to the operating room. My parents and aunt came by to say hi once they got in and then headed to get a few hours of sleep as well.
Nurse getting me ready...
By this time it was like maybe 1AM? Kevin was so excited as was I. Surprisingly though I wasn't as nervous as I thought I would be, maybe because I was in shock about how all this was unfolding. In a few short hours, I was going to be a mom and would have a baby boy in my arms. Kevin set up shop in the fold out bed and we tried to get a few hours of sleep before the nurse came in to wake us up around 5AM to prep for surgery.
Ready to be parents...
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