Noah is ONE!

No, I didn't forget. No I wasn't just lazy. I have been putting this post off for a reason. I just really don't want to accept the fact that my baby's first year is over. I just love this little boy, and as I watch both he and Cami grow, I realize more and more that I can never have that time back. At the same time, as he grows up, I catch glimpses of how good of friends they will be as they grow...it is so bittersweet.

I don't know his stats yet...I take him in on Tuesday, but let me just tell you a little about this guy.

He has the most tender heart. He loves to give hugs and snuggle. He will put his face against mine just to be close.

He loves his fluffy star blanket, and makes a little sucking sound when he's rubbing it on his face or through his fingers. He doesn't actually suck on it, just pretends to. Hard to describe...but I love that sucking sound he makes when he does it.

He holds his own bottles, which brings me to the fact that he was completely weaned as of about two weeks ago. We started the process when he was 1 week shy of 11 months due to BITING. (stinker...)

Baby food was history at about 10 months...and even before then he was very selective about what he'd let me spoon feed him. Now he insists on having a fork in his hand regardless of whether he actually uses it. Sometimes he even goes to the trouble of picking a piece of food up with one hand, putting it on the fork, and sticking it in his mouth. Or the reverse...if he does get lucky enough to pierce the food with the fork in the first place, he will take it off the fork with the other hand and THEN place it in his mouth. Silly silly boy...

He does this funny fake laugh that I remember Cami doing when she was this age. He hears everyone in the room laughing, and he'll do this "huh huh huh" laugh and sometimes will even throw his head back. Love it!

He sleeps from 7pm to 8am generally with no wake-ups. Hooray!!

Takes two naps a day: at 10 and 2, but is showing signs of weaning himself off the first nap. I have mixed feelings about this, but we will just let him take the lead on this one...

He is obsessed with Balls, which reminds me...I'm not sure if I can count this as official or not, but I'd say his first word is/will be BALL. He says "Ba", so I don't know if that counts or not, but he will say "Ba" and point to the ball to have me get it for him, so I know he knows that the sound goes with the object, but ya...anyway. He LOVES Balls.

Noah, I just love you so much. You make me feel happy when I'm down, and while you can be a handful at times, you really bring peace into my heart.

Please, stop growing up.

Today Noah started clapping his hands. OH, the Joy that little boy brings me. Sigh.

My Dear Noah.

As of today, we've made it! It was my goal to make sure you got the best you could get until at least today. Even though there was a second there that I was ready to give up, we pulled through, and we made it.

Your first 6 months have been so stinkin' awesome. That being said...we've had a little bit of a roller coaster with you. For your first 6 weeks, we thought we had the easiest baby in the world, and it was no secret. Then you turned all "high-maintenance" on us, and we had to eat our words! That didn't last too super long, though, and we got our sweet, loving, happy little guy back around 3 months.

Now, I am frequently stopped in the grocery store so that anyone and everyone can check you out. You are constantly flashing that huge, toothless grin at EVERYONE. And I'm not just talking about the grandmas and grandpas. You get anybody and everybody's attention. We can't get enough of those smiles, either. You melt us so completely.

You definitely have a flip side, though, that most people never see. We try to keep your happy all of the time, and we are usually successful, since it's not too difficult to do. But when we stay out a little late and miss your bedtime, Oh Boy...the world comes crashing down! Your daddy and I were talking about how you are always pulling out new ways to scream at the top of your lungs. You are very inventive...

You have been eating your solids full-force for the last 2 weeks or so. We started on rice cereal around your 4 month birthday, but you have clearly chosen your preference to be oatmeal. You have also made your way through squash, bananas, peas, and pears. It seems you would be happy just eating oatmeal, though, so that's what we usually do. :) We typically get 2-3 feedings in everyday.

You just started to sit up on your own. I don't leave you like that, since you're pretty new at it, but sometimes I'll put a few pillows around you and do my hair while you sit! You sure love your new perspective on life. It makes you that much less satisfied when we lay you on your back. You also love being in your exersaucer, and in your johnny-jump-up when we eat at the dining table. You spin round and round and round...

Like I've said before, you've been rolling from your back to your front for about 2 months now, but you haven't really progressed at all in that department. You still roll right over onto your belly and freak out. You hate being on your belly. I have noticed you waking up occasionally on your stomach, and in that case, you are okay with it.

You took a pacifier for me for the first time last night (in a long long time) and actually kinda liked it. I don't think we'll give you that again, though, since once you dropped it (which you did pretty quick because of your lack of practice) you freaked out. Might as well just move forward without it at this point.

Instead of taking a pacifier, you MUST have a blanket with you while you sleep because you love to suck on it. You are starting to show preference for your light blue star blanket, which kinda makes me sad. I made you a beautiful green and brown polka dot blanket just like Cami's yellow one, and I was hoping that would be your blanket of choice. Maybe I'll try to persuade you in the next few months...

Unlike your big sister when she was your age, you love to give hugs and lay your head on my shoulder frequently. I just love this about you. It makes me think of your baby blessing and how your daddy blessed you to be a peacemaker. You bring so much peace to me when I'm feeling down.

I can't wait to see what the next 6 months hold. I can't wait for you to be able to chase your sister around. I can't wait for you to show us more of your personality. But really though, I can wait. Take your time. Be my baby. I love you.

Mom.

4 months!

I have a hard time believe that I never did a 4 month post. Gee whiz...what is wrong with me?!

Just for fun...here's a little comparison:

Cami at 4 months

15 lbs and 2 oz

Noah at 4 months

17 lbs and 2 oz

I find it pretty funny that Noah was born exactly 2 lbs heavier than Cami and is still EXACTLY 2 pounds heavier. Crazy stuff!

Noah has grown out of his fussy baby stage, forcing us to fall even more madly in love with him.

Hello baby food...

I swore I wouldn't do the baby food thing until I absolutely had to. But...I change my mind pretty easily, and that's what happened in this regard.

It might have something to do with the fact that my Noah is eating at LEAST every 2 hours, and many times wants to eat every hour and a half during the day. He also recently started to wake up at night. Of course...for shy of 4 months old, waking up once a night is definitely not out of the ordinary, but still...when a baby goes from sleeping through to waking up, one has to wonder if maybe that baby is just getting hungrier, right?

I don't like the idea of putting cereal in a bottle, so I decided that if he didn't want to eat it off a spoon, then we would wait until he did. So...we gave it a try. I was quite surprised that he didn't try to push it out of his mouth first thing. He did really well! Cami wanted nothing to do with the stuff, and actually NEVER ate rice cereal or any kind of cereal for that matter. She went straight to fruits and veggies at 6 months. He's no pro, that's to be sure, but he will be in no time. He polished the whole bowl tonight. :)

Definitely sibs!

Cami-2 months and a few days

Noah-2 months and a few days

(No wonder Cami thinks that Noah is her in all of her baby pictures.)

My little 2 month old.

He's 23" long (50th %)

He's 13 lbs and 12.5 oz (90th%)

and He's stinkin' cute!

I don't know what we ever did without this Noah guy.

Things I'd like to remember:

Still loves to sleep with his arms swaddled real tight.

Sleeps in two 5-6 hour increments at night. Generally speaking. (LOVE it!)

Coos like crazy.

Smiles like crazy.

Is just starting to be able to catch a glimpse of his big sister as she runs circles around him.

When I tickle him, he gets all red-faced and doesn't know how to react. I'm just waiting for full blown giggles to burst out of that sweet little boy.

Pushes up on his arms and can get his head way up if he's motivated.

Nurses every 3 hours on average.

First month down!

Little Noah's one month birthday fell on a Saturday, so he went in yesterday (June 1st) for his well-visit.

The Stats:

11 lb 12.9 oz - 91st percentile

22 1/2 inches - 76th percentile

He was such a good boy. Cami on the other hand...yeesh.


On my way out, I started feeling feverish. Looks like despite my best efforts, I am doomed to suffer through another case of the Big "M". Got me some antibiotics, though, so hopefully I'll pull through it quickly. Fingers crossed.

Other than that, things are going great. The guy sleeps beautifully. He goes down for the night between 10 and 11pm and wakes 2-3 times before 8am to eat. I get up and feed him in less than 10 minutes, and he goes right back to sleep. We are counting our many blessings, to be sure. I've been able to get a handful of real, full-faced smiles out of him with quite some effort, but I'm sure he'll be giving them out much more liberally here soon! But for now, we love love love our little guy just the way he is!

Time is flying MUCH too fast...

A few snapshots

13 days.

I should wait until I can say 2 weeks, but it turns out that I have a happy toddler and a sleeping newborn, so I'm going to go ahead and post an update now. Who knows if I'll have such luck tomorrow.



I get a lot of people asking me how Cami is doing with a new baby brother. I'm trying to not worry about it too much, actually. I casually ask her every once in a while if she wants to hold him, and she always says no. I figure she'll feel up to it eventually, and if not, maybe that just means she won't go grabbing at him any time soon. She has kissed the top of his head a few times, and she always says "Baby Sad" when he cries. She can say his name super well, and she'll point to all of us in order and say "Daddy, Mommy, Cami, Noah." I think she really likes him, she just doesn't really want to touch him or have him touch her. She was sitting by me while I was nursing him, and I let his feet touch her arm to see what she'd do, and she screamed "Ouch, baby Hurt!" when he moved his foot ever so slightly. She'll come around.



Noah is a great sleeper. He was even better when I was still taking percocet, but I went off that prematurely when Blair left town...just in case I'd need to be able to drive us somewhere. Since then, he has been awake more. Night time goes well usually...except last night, he decided to be awake between 2:45 and 4:30. Thank goodness I have a guest bed, cause I ended up just going in there and drifting in and out of conciousness as I kept putting his binky back in. I was just glad it was Wednesday today so that Blair would be home in the morning (it's his 11-7 day). I survived.



Today I ventured out of doors for the first time with both kids in tow. It went really well, actually, and it left me optimistic. Maybe, just maybe, I can handle this. :) Only one of my errands involved getting the kids out of the car, though. Baby steps.



The diaper rash is looking 80% better. We're still working on getting it to go away for good, but I'm thinking it'll be in the next few days. It sure would be nice to be able to use baby wipes on the little guy. I definitely wouldn't be cut out for cloth diapers, cause just keeping up with having enough wash clothes for wiping has really been a chore...



And that's the update!

The Rest of the Story

So, I left off with me just getting hooked up to all the monitors. My nurse, Laura (won't ever forget her name!), started me on the pitocin at 7:30 am at a very low level, and I started to feel contractions almost immediately. Okay, maybe within 2 minutes. They started out at about 4 minutes apart. This was when she realized that every time I had a contraction, Noah's heartrate dropped. So, I had to be switched from side to side every so often to relieve the tension. It didn't end up being a big problem. Then it turned out that my blood pressure was getting lower, so they had to stick me with something to fix it. How do you like that for being medically accurate? I could probably go look up exactly what they gave me, but I am comfy on the couch right now. :)

Probably around 10am, nurse Laura told me that Dr. Link would be making rounds and was planning on breaking my water. She suggested that I think about getting my epidural before he did that. Because I knew how much more intense labor got when my water broke with Cami, it didn't take me long to make THAT decision. The anesthesiologist gave me my epidural, and life was good. He had it flowing very low so that I could still feel the contractions, which I was really happy about. They also have this new thing (new to me at least) where they give you a button you can push to release more of the medicine if you feel like the pain is getting too intense. I liked being able to feel SOME pain, so that I was aware of what was going on. I did use the button a couple times though...

When I was given the pitocin, I was dialated to a tight 3. At 1:30, I was dialted to a tight 6. So it took 6 hours to dialate 3 centimeters. Based on this, we figured we had at least a few hours. Of course, things never go the way you plan...even when you're being induced. One hour later, I was at a comfortable 10 and was ready to push! The doctor was notified, and I was prepped for delivering a baby!

I pushed through about 4 or 5 contractions, and out he came at exactly 3:00 pm. I failed to mention before that one reason why I was slightly worried about being induced early was that I really wanted my baby to be at least 7 pounds, and yet I was measuring a week behind at the doctor's office. So, I was just hoping for that 7 pounder.

If you have been keeping up with my blog, you may have noticed that this kid definitely shattered my 7 pound target. I was in complete shock when they announced that he weighed a whopping 9 lbs, 2.7 oz! Holy Crud! I felt a huge feeling of relief knowing that he had packed on plenty of weight, and that losing 6 days of growth inside was probably a good thing for everyone...He was more than 2 pounds and more than 2 inches bigger than Cami was!

Anyway, back to me. As it turns out, I lost an abnormal amount of blood giving birth to my 9+ pounder. I had to be given a shot to help thicken my blood. Before I was even able to hold Noah, I threw up the very little amount of liquid that was in my stomach. I held him for a few seconds before I handed him back to Blair and to my Mom to hold. I was just not right. They talk about that moment as being the happiest moment in a person's life. It just wasn't for me. I was not myself. I felt terrible. Not in pain...just terrible.

I decided not to try to nurse him just yet, since I was feeling so bad. My nurse brought me some sprite to wash down the taste in my mouth from throwing up. About 20 minutes later, I threw up again. This time much more. The bowl tipped and the throw up ended up soaking my entire upper body. On the good side, at least it cooled me down, cause I was cooking. After another 20 minutes or so, I don't know, I totally made up that number cause I have no idea how long it was, but after a little while, I was taken up to recovery.

Noah was brought in to try to be fed. The nurse handed him to me, and I just lay there, looking at him. I felt really weird still. The nurse must have noticed, because she looked at me like "um...I don't think I should be letting you hold that baby..." She was right, though, because I still felt terrible. She politely asked if maybe I wanted to try in a little while, when I was feeling better. When she realized that he had just been born 3 hours earlier, she assured me that he would be fine for another hour or so and that she'd bring him back. I felt bad about sending him away, but I really wasn't me, and I just wasn't ready.

They brought dinner, and I ate the fruit cup that was with it. I felt decent, so I lifted the lid on the dinner. As soon as I smelled the cheese on the salad, I threw up again. Everything. Oh, and did I mention that I hadn't eaten since 10:30pm the night before? So I was running on empty. I did still have an IV in me, which was why I even had so much to throw up, but my body was just so taxed at this point. I fell asleep, and when I woke up, I tried eating some crackers and peanut butter. That was really good. In fact, I'm sitting here snacking on crackers and peanut butter because the hospital made me addicted to them...:)

They brought in Noah, and I finally fed him. He did so so well, and I was so so relieved. I finally felt like I could love on him and relish in his perfection and let the euphoric emotions take over me. That moment was more like the moment they talk about.

Fast forward a bit to when my nurse finally unplugged the IV's and had given me some time and then helped me to the bathroom for the first time. My left leg was taking it's own sweet time to get feeling back, and so I was pretty much useless. She had to call in a second nurse to help me get there. I got there, and started feeling dizzy. I waited a few minutes, and felt a little better. Not for long, though. I looked down at the floor, and about blacked out. They rushed me back to my bed, and I barely made it there. Cold towels were put on my neck and head, and I fell asleep almost immediately.

It was probably an hour or so later that they tried taking me again. This time, things were going just fine. My left leg was almost all the way back, and I was able to put some weight on it. I wasn't dizzy at all. So I took care of my business in the bathroom, and suddenly started feeling dizzy again, so I called the nurses to take me back to bed. On the way there, I passed out. It is the weirdest feeling to be standing awake at one moment, and then wake up on your knees on the floor with nurses struggling to hold you up. Apparently my lips were blue because they kept commenting later about how much better my lips looked. They took my blood pressure and it was fine. They called my doctor (it was in the middle of the night) and he had them put my IV back in and take some blood tests to see if I needed a transfusion. My counts were fabulous, though, so I just ended up staying on the IV for a little while. Oh, and I was also given an anti-nausea shot in my butt. Lovely. I still have the bruise from that...

Anyway, the rest is history. Needless to say, I ended up recovering just fine. I guess I just needed a little longer to get more regulated. You could also blame it on any or all of the following: working myself ragged the day before-trying to go into labor, not eating or drinking anything after midnight the night before, losing a lot of blood, a reaction to the epidural, side effects of the blood thickeners, or really just giving birth in general.

And that's the story! Recovery is still a process, but we're home and doing well, and Noah is a SLEEPER! He has been sleeping so well, night and day, and is feeding well, and gaining weight well, and we just have been so blessed. The one issue we are dealing with is a really bad diaper rash. I had to get a perscription called in for it, and then had to take him to the doctor to look at it. His diapering process now involves wetting a washcloth, wiping him clean, blow drying his rash for 30 seconds or so, applying the cream, blow drying for another couple of minutes, and finally putting on a clean diaper. It's a pain, but it's the least I can do for my little mister. Oh, and I ate 3 brownies at once yesterday and about 4 hours later, Noah was pretty fussy. He didn't go to sleep for night until about 1:30am, which was unusual. So...I better lay off the brownies, or anything super chocolatey for that matter. I can handle that...

If you made it here, then congratulations! Thanks for reading!

The Story-Before

This will be a long post with as many details as I can remember, so it may not be the kind of post you want to read. That's okay. I will probably read it enough times in the future to even things out...:)



We'll start the story at my 37 week check up. It was at this appointment that I explained to my Doctor our situation with Blair's work schedule. We had to plan his vacation days back in December, and we banked on Noah coming a few days early, since Cami came 9 days early. We were just flipping a coin, really, between the weeks of May 3-7 and May 10-14, and that's just what we ended up doing. So I explained this situation to my doctor, and asked if it might be possible to schedule an induction the week before my due date, in order to take the most advantage possible of Blair's days off work. I have to say, I never thought I'd be the one vying for an early induction, but it just made too much sense. At that appointment, he said it would be NO problem. It won't hurt to make a note that I was less than 1 centimeter dialated and only about 40% effaced. Not much progress at all. I had him strip my membranes to see if that would help me progress some.



A week goes by, and I'm back in for my 38 week appointment. This time I was between 2 and 3 centimeters dialated, and 60% effaced. I was happy that I had progressed, and hoped this would mean an induction would be in the cards if I didn't go on my own beforehand. As the doc was leaving the room, he said we could go ahead and schedule that induction I wanted for May 6th. Hmm...May 6th was the day AFTER my due date, instead of the 29th that he had told me that I could do. I was pretty frustrated, and mentioned that we had talked about doing the Thursday BEFORE my due date, not AFTER. I reminded him of the schedule issue and all of that again. He told me at this point that he would have to have a medical reason for inducing me early because of some policies that the hospital has. He stripped my membranes again and sent me on my way. I didn't even give the induction order for the 6th to the front desk because I felt like if he hadn't come by then, then what's the point of scheduling the induction if we've already wasted almost all of Blair's time off anyway. And I didn't want to share our anniversay with baby Noah's birthday...as uncomfortable as I knew I'd be at 1 day past...



I left a bit dejected, because I had told my family and some close friends to plan on the induction, and I was finally starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel. No one likes being 'promised' one thing and then have it taken away. And although I felt this way, there was also a big part of me that was okay with it. There was always the feeling of guilt from wanting to induce early for convenience, and so I at least felt that this way I didn't have a choice in the matter. If that makes sense...



I definitely didn't hesitate in the next week to walk a little faster in the grocery store, to mow the lawn a little more agressively, and to run up and down the stairs whenever I was using them in order to try to get some action out of it. I had some contractions here and there, but never was able to get labor to start on it's own. Every day I did feel a little closer. Lost my mucus plug between Sunday and Tuesday-Tuesday being my 39 week appointment.



At the 39 week appointment, I was 3-4 cm dialiated, and between 60 and 80% effaced. Had my membranes stripped once more, and as the doctor was getting ready to leave, I spoke up. I told him how much I really wanted to be able to be induced that Thursday, like we had originally discussed at the 37 week appointment. He said that he had forgotten the details, and that there was no problem with that. Who knows if he really did forget, or if he had just been trying to get me out of his office for one more week and just told me what I wanted to hear, but at the end of the day, I got what I wanted. I walked out of my appointment with a scheduled induction for Thursday the 29th. 6 days before my due date.



I went home and if it hadn't been raining, I would have immediately mowed the lawn. Instead I did some house cleaning, played with Cami and soaked as much of her in as I could, since I knew she'd have to take a backseat for a little while. Even though I had the appointment scheduled, I was still determined to break my water or start labor all by myself. Wednesday morning I went grocery shopping. I walked the aisles as quickly as possible...trying to start contractions, obviously. The sun came out, so I bought some clippers and I trimmed all the bushes outside. I weeded. I mowed the front lawn. I did random house chores and whatever else I could think of doing to try to get things going. Nothing happened.



I didn't sleep more than a few hours that night. No surprise there. I was excited. nervous. unsure. scared. happy. I would feel a contraction, and I would say a prayer pleeding that this be it. "Please let this be it...let him come on his own..." 5am finally rolled around. Actually, I called the hospital at 4:57, even though I was supposed to wait until 5. I just couldn't wait those 3 extra minutes. When they told me that there were beds and asked if I could be there by 6, I jumped out of bed with excitement and started throwing clothes on. I took a minute to straighten my hair a little, put some makeup on, and brush my teeth. We packed Cami up and drove her over to the Mortenson's house. Even at 5:30am, when she saw their house, she perked up and said "Zack's house?!" She was SO excited. Love that girl.



We made it to the hospital exactly on time. We checked in, and got me hooked up to all that stuff they hook you up to...In fact, here's a picture:





And that completes the story of BEFORE the induction. The next post will start right where I left off. :)

Introducing

Noah Kevin Brown

Born April 29th, 2010

at 3:00 pm

9 pounds, 2.7 ounces

21 1/2 inches long

More details and pictures to come...:)

9 days

Cami Ann was 9 days early. If {insert secret name here} followed in his big sister's footsteps, I would be holding him right now. Needless to say, this makes me all the more anxious and excited for him to make his grand entrance into this world. I'm trying so hard to be patient and tough as I wait out each day, but it is getting harder...