3 Weeks, 8.0 pounds and a happy New Year!

So today marks Samuel's third week with us. I weighed him this morning and he weighed exactly 8 pounds and 0 ounces :) That means that he has added 25% of his original body weight to his mass - in the last 2 weeks (bcs he was at his original weight one week after birth. after having lost some weight in the hospital).

I am trying to be better about taking photos of Samuel because he is changing so quickly. I also just figured out how to add photos to my post (it was really super simple ;) so I will try to go back and add photos to my blog posts to keep things current and also enhance the blog to be more of a record as I had intended.

Tonight is New years eve and Geoff and I are staying home with Samuel and have ordered Chinese take-out and have a bottle of champagne in the fridge. The champagne was a gift from Jordan for our 30th b-day so I am very excited to tuck into that and a bottle of of favorite chianti tonight :) This is also going to mark my first night of "pumping and dumping" so Samuel will have more formula than normal tomorrow but we will be back to normal the following day.

We ordered chinese from Fusion Taste in Arlington. Jon and Christina highly recommended them so I picked up a menu when I was getting them a GC there for X-mas and I am really excited to try them. I just had a bite of their scallion pancake and think the rest will be just as terrific. It is really critical to find a chinese food place when you move into a new neighborhood. We have a thai place, a BBQ place, a pizza/chicken fingers place (on the unhealthy side), and my favorite place in Belmont for healthier pizza and the like.

It snowed a good amount today - Geoff was let out of work early and then came home and shoveled the driveway and sidewalks. He also shoveled our neighbor Al's driveway as well - which I thought was really sweet of him.

Well I am going to pump for one last time before I start to to dump it from there on out. Basically as soon as I finish then I can tuck into that delicious glass of red wine and start celebrating the new year.

A note of quick reflection - I cannot believe how much has changed in the life over the past year. 2008 was an incredibly challenging year for us and 2009 deemed to be a much kinder and wonderful year for us :) I am really excited for 2010 and enjoying all the "firsts" with Samuel.

Baby Myth: Sleep when s/he sleeps

Today I have come to the realization that the oft-mentioned and well-intentioned saying to "sleep when the baby sleeps" is just not possible. Granted I do got back to sleep with him after his 7:30/8:00am bottle, but for the rest of the day I need to be awake and getting stuff done while he sleeps. Someone has to do the laundry, (online) food shopping, make formula, order diapers and supplies, feed themselves, wash and sanitize bottles, clean the cat litter box, pump to keep up the milk supply, and figuring out what is for dinner. If I slept when he slept - granted I would not have such bags under my eyes - but we would wake up hungry, with no bottles or food/formula, surrounded by dirty laundry and general chaos. I know none of this sounds life-ending, but when you have a newborn I think it really helps to have a bottle ready for the quickest possible feeding (and least amount of crying or tears) at 2:00am and the rest of the day. Don't get me wrong - as soon as I have someone her to help me (be it family or friends) I will maximize on that time and get what I need to get done so I can rest, but being awake for the day when he is sleeping is the only way I am able to maintain some sort of a household at the moment and most importantly keeping him happy and well-fed.

I have also decided today to keep this forum more of my baby-ranting world, my LinkedIn updates on my professional work, and my Facebook updates on mostly me - but with an occasional mention of the baby. I am hoping that will keep the 3 main aspects of my life segmented enough to best meet my audiences for each.

Back to baby news - Samuel had his first bath 2 nights ago - he truly did not enjoy it and I have no photos to show from it. He basically cried the entire time, and was only happy after wards when I was holding him in his towel.

We have had a great day so far today - probably bcs he has been sleeping for most of it ;) He has not been fussy at all and I have been able to do some laundry and stay current with my pumping schedule. These are not lofty goals, but make for a good day for me these days. Do note I have not showered or gotten dressed yet - and probably will not today, but you have to pick your battles ;)

Why I don't wear my glasses anymore

I noticed today that I never seem to have my glasses on my face anymore. For a person who usually wore them from morning till bed - it was kind of a significant revelation. I am near sighted so anything beyond my own out stretched hand can get a little fuzzy - I especially need them for driving and reading signs. The reason being these days that there is not much beyond my arms length that I need to care about - or have time to care about. Samuel and I are a perfect pair at the moment - we both can't see much beyond a foot from our own faces ;)

Today my Mom visited with Meghan and Cade. Meghan and Cade are flying out on Thursday morning so this is the last time I will see them for a bit. My Mom is also flying to Utah with my brother Kevin for a ski trip next week so I won;t see her for almost 2 weeks. Geoff's Mum dropped in this afternoon and gave Samuel a bottle while I pumped and sterilized some bottles. Geoff and Joe came to visit on their lunch break today, but I only saw them for a second as they were leaving bcs I was upstairs pumping and then showering for the duration.

We had another kind of rough night last night. Geoff handed him off to me around 11pm and then I don't recall getting much (if any sleep) in between then and 5am today. I am going to pump and then lay down for a bit now while he is napping. This will be my 7th pump of the day - just three more to go after that.

ps - my other title for my blog today was going to be "I am sick and tired of leaking" ;)

2 plus weeks of parenting

My last post was almost a week ago today and I have come to terms with how difficult it is to actually find 5 minutes to draft a blog post ;) Last week was busy and fun - on Wednesday Geoff watched the baby so I could get out of the house by myself! :) I had a mani/pedi at Skintelligent in Belmont Center, then came back to the house bcs my sister, brother and Holly had come over for a visit. It was the first time Kevin had met Samuel bcs he had just finished up school for the semester. I pumped and then headed to the Burlington mall to buy myself clothes that would fit me for X-mas and were not from the maternity section. Anne Taylor was having a 40% off everything sale so I picked up a green cardigan and camisole and then a black dress - all as strategically fitting as possible to help hide my flabby belly. The dress was a size 10 - not horrible, but def. not my normal size 6.

After that I went to Whole Foods - which was so crowded there were no shopping carts - so I used one of the specialty carts with a car seat on it. I just did not care - technically I have a baby - it was just not on me at the moment ;)

Thursday I finished up wrapping X-mas gifts (I hit a new low with mini gift bags for all my gift certificates ;) and then we went to Geoff's parents for Chinese take-out. We skipped my family's Christmas Eve this year bcs it would have been a lot and I did not want to risk exposing him to that many germs.

Christmas day we went to Geoff's parents for stocking and some breakfast from 9-10:30am, we then stopped by the house so I could pump, and then headed to Saugus for most of the afternoon. We has a great time at my parents house and basically all my favorite family members stopped by - in total there was around 25 of us. We stayed there till 3:30pm and then went back to Belmont to open presents for 4pm.

After presents I needed a nap! Geoff made up a bed in the apartment in Belmont, so I laid down for about 20 minutes but did not sleep. It was then dinner time so I had to get up. I felt kind of bad though bcs Geoff's Mum did all the prep work and cooking and after dinner we left so she ended up having to do all the clean up work as well. It is usually more balanced, and I know we kind of have an excuse this year, but I still felt bad bcs she was tired herself.

On Saturday, I minded the baby so Geoff could sleep in and get a good stretch of 7-8 hours of sleep - the most since Samuel arrived. The service guy from Jordan's came in the early afternoon to fix the massaging recliner and that was about it for the day - we did not leave the house ;)

Sunday (yesterday) I went to pick up the Alphabet print that was at the framer's and then went to Starbucks (grande skinny caramel latte at noon - thank you very much) and then to Trader Joe's to get some stuff for dinner this week. My Mom dropped in yesterday for an hour to see Samuel and then Geoff's parents came over as well. I was napping for most of the time his parent's were here, and then got up and made dinner.

I am still trying to pump 10 times a day to keep up my supply in light of Samuel not being able to do the trick. It is really time consuming but worth it. I don't mind having to pump during the day, but the ones in the early hours really stink bcs I can hardly keep my eyes open as it is for him, no less a machine ;)

Must run to wake him and feed him. As of last night he was up to 7 pounds and 11 ounces - I can't wait for him to hit the 8 pound mark!

Almost 2 weeks in

So I started a post yesterday or the day before and I closed my web browser by accident and lost my work - I think the auto "save now" did not kick in.

Anyways since my last post we had our first pediatrician appt. on Friday morning. The Dr. said he was doing great and was very happy with his weight gain. He weighed 6 pounds and 6 ounces which was pretty much his birth weight. He also measured 20 inches (he was 18.5 in the hospital bcs his legs were scrunched up).

Friday afternoon Geoff's parents dropped in and gave us some news. I will talk more about that in later posts once things have settled down a bit.

I had my first glass of red wine on Thursday or Friday night and I have to say it was amazing! I only had half of a small glass, but still it was heaven.

Saturday Jeremy & Amanda, and Colin and Jenn came over to meet Samuel. It was really great to see them and have adult conversation :) After that we went to Geoff's parents for dinner with the whole family. It was kind of a late night (out till 10pm) so that was a pretty big day for us.

Sunday we got dumped on with a foot of snow. Our neighbor Al was really sweet and snow blowed our driveway for us :) We pretty much stayed in the whole day bcs traveling was not an option.

Monday (yesterday) my Mom came over around 11am and brought diapers with her and a shirt box that I needed for gift wrapping :) After that Meghan, Cade and my Dad came over to see Samuel. They left around 1pm and then my Mom took me to my 2pm mid wife appt. at MGH. We brought Samuel in for the ride. The midwife said everything with me looked good and she took off the steri strips from my incision. She also mentioned that I may feel a bit tired from recovering from the preeclampsia. My blood pressure was fine (125/88) so they were okay with that. I was not thrilled with the 88, but if they are okay then I am okay ;) After that my Mom took me to Babies r Us to pick up diapers and feeding items, and then after that we swung by the post office to drop off my bundles of baby announcement/holiday cards and thank you notes. We got home around 5pm and I was exhausted!

Geoff came home around 6:30pm and I threw in some Trader Joes madarin chicken for dinner. That and a salad and I called it a night. Samuel has been doing really well and eating well, but he seems to be having issues with effectively sucking when nursing. I noticed my milk supply going down a few days ago so I started to pump to keep up the levels. So now we are back to having quite a production for feeding: first I nurse him on both sides, then we give him a bottle of breast milk or formula (depending on the time of day and what is available in the fridge); then I pump for 15 minutes to keep up my supply. All in (with diaper changes, burps, warming and washing) it takes about an hour and a half for each feed. I am hoping he will grow out of this soon, but I scheduled an appt. with the lactation consultant at Isis for Thursday (in 2 days).

Tomorrow I also schedule a manicure and pedicure for myself! Geoff was really sweet yesterday and texted me that on Wed. (tomorrow) he would take over for a few feedings so I could "take the care and bugger off for a while and do something" for me :) That was so very thoughtful of him - I really appreciated it! So I am booked at Skintelligent in Belmont from 11-12 tomorrow. The last time I was there (in June before Jeremy & Amanda's wedding) the woman who did my nails said "are you expecting?" Seeing as I was only 10 weeks then - she was the first stranger/person to ask me that at that point.

Okay - I must run to start up the next round of feeding!

Snow!!

Today we were dumped on by over a foot of snow! It started last night after midnight and by the time we roused out of bed today - around 11:30am everything was thoroughly covered! It looks so pretty outside, there is def. a ton of the white stuff everywhere.

Since my last post on Thursday we had out first pediatrician appt. on Friday morning in Lexington. That was our first outing as a little family and trying to get all of us dressed and showered and out the door. We did pretty well and were only 9 minutes late - which the receptionist noted upon our arrival ;) Samuel checked out just perfectly and was back to his birth weight at the appt.! He also measured 20 inches in length - which is 1 and 1/2 more than he was born. He did not grow in the last week - it is just bcs when babies are born their legs are kind of folded up and he extended then fully at the Dr's office. Everything went well and the Dr. said to get him baby vitamins, which Geoff picked up later that day.

Geoff's parents came over later that afternoon to share some news about his mother's health. I am not going to post any details for now until his Mum is comfortable and it is a more appropriate time.

We had a really rough

Saturday

Home

So we were discharged from the hospital on Tuesday afternoon and made it home around 3:30pm. I had no idea how much I missed being home until I got back here and breathed a huge sigh of relief. It was so wonderful to have Samuel home and be in the comfort of our own things.

Wednesday my Mom came over to help me as Geoff went to work for the day. The day went really well and my Mom was getting me to do more things and be less dependent on other people for burping and changing his diapers. I know I could have been doing these things all along, but with the pain from the c-section, I was happy to have help earlier for these tasks. Now I am really not in much (if any pain) so I can do more things and be more independent. It is also a confidence booster to know that I can take care of him all by myself and handle anything that may come our way. If you think about it (besides medical emergencies) there is really only a small range of things that you need to be able to handle when you have a baby including, diaper changes, feeding, crying, getting peed on and fussiness. I am not making light of these things bcs they can be very tiring after hours upon hours, upon days of it, but it all seems pretty manageable at the moment.

Last night Mum, Dad, Jon, Christina and Nicholas all came over for dinner. We got Thai take-out and Dad took some photos of the babies, Mum with her grandsons, and then Christina and I with the boys. Nicholas gets cuter everyday and it is really amazing how much bigger he looks compared to Sam. Nicholas feels like a solid baby, like you could not break him, whereas Sam is still a skinny little chicken and can feel a bit fragile when you hold him.

I slept really well last night (almost 7 hours in total) and then Geoff stayed home today to help. It has been really great - this is Geoff and my first day together taking care of him at home. I went for a walk around the neighborhood today, in spite of the 20 degree temperature and caught up on my voice mails and calls that I needed to return. I also spoke to Lauren who may be moving in with us for a little while come the New Year :) It would be so wonderful to have her here - Geoff and I really enjoy her company.

Tonight we are having lasagna that Mum made for us and then hopefully to bed early(ish). Samuel has been gaining a very good amount of weight and gained 2.5 ounces in one day, when they expect (or like to see) them gain and ounce a day. Hopefully he will keep up the pace so he will be back to his birth weight at a week and one day (this Friday), which will also be his first pediatrician appt.