Visitors

Last weekend Shona & Kyndal came over to meet Nathan. Justin had a ball watching Kyndal play with the helium balloon.



Today Ron, Danielle & Zoey and Donald, Kelicia & Donne visited. It was fun seeing the kids play together. We hope to get together more often for play dates once Spring arrives.

Justin's new chair

GI Appointment

As expected the GI doctor was not happy with Justin's lack of weight gain so he has to undergo a series of procedures which I don't 100% understand the reasons why since Carl took J to this appointment. But J had to have blood drawn, which I guess is pretty standard, he's scheduled for an abdominal ultrasound on March 9th, and he has to have an EGD (Esophagogastroduodenoscopy).

I'm not sure what they're looking for in the ultrasound but the Dr. is concerned about the shape of J's stomach. Now I've never noticed anything unusual about his stomach and Dr. Hirsch has never mentioned anything either, but an ultrasound is pretty painless so I'm not too worried about it. But I got emotional when reading the pamphlet they provided on the EGD.

• An EGD allows us to find the cause of problems such as belly pain, throwing up, bleeding, slow weight gain, or trouble swallowing. EGD's are done in the operating room. Your child will sleep through the procedure. A small rubber tube will be placed in your child's mouth. The tube will then be passed down the throat through the stomach, and into the small bowel. Small pinches of tissue will be taken during the test. You should plan on being at the hospital for 4 - 5 hours total.

Just hearing that he'll have to be put under for this procedure sent me back to our NICU days. Obviously I want what's best for J but part of me wonders if all these procedures are really necessary. I know he hasn't experienced his catch up growth, but he is growing, just slowly. So at what point do they just attribute his small size to genetics. And I know things could be a lot worse, but I just wish things were more normal for him. At any rate, I am going to ask Dr. Hirsch about these procedures at his next appointment and get her take on them.

2 week post partum appointment

BP: 170's/70's & 190's/90's
Weight loss: -13 lbs

What I thought would be a pretty uneventful appointment to check my incision turned into yet another trip to labor & delivery. Given the fact that I've already delivered I thought I had seen the last of that place, but my blood pressure was high, and given my history my Dr. was concerned that I may be developing postpartum preeclampsia.

I was hooked up to the monitors so they could cycle my blood pressure every 10 minutes, they drew blood to check my platelets and liver enzymes and took a urine sample. My blood pressures were all fine but they wanted to make sure there was no protein in my urine. Fortunately all my labs came back normal so I was discharged after about 2 hours.

Newborn follow up appointment

Since Justin didn't gain well when he was given my breast milk in the NICU I was a little nervous about the quality of my milk this time around. But Nathan now weighs 6 lbs 4 ozs, a weight gain of 12 ozs in 1 week. Good weight gain is unchartered territory for us and Dr. Hirsch was so pleased that she gave me a hug. He's doing so well that I can continue feeding him on demand and don't have to worry about his lack of nursing on both breasts at each feed.

She was also impressed with how well Nathan is sleeping because newborns typically wake up every 2-3 hours for a feeding. I hope he keeps this up; just my luck he'll start waking up more often when I go back to work. But for now I'm appreciative of the extra sleep I get at night.

Waiting on Daddy

This is how Carl was greeted when he picked J up from Carlene's yesterday.

Hey, i'm still a baby too!

Justin started using his big boy car seat a few weeks ago. But I guess he feels a little left out, he now likes to crawl into the bouncer and Nathan's carrier. I think it's time for us to buy him his own big boy chair.

Our first week at home

Overall Nathan is a pretty good baby. He doesn't cry much, except during diaper changes. Breastfeeding is going well, although he often falls asleep during a feed and only ends up nursing on one side. So it seems like I'm feeding him every hour or so. Fortunately he sleeps longer at night so I'm only getting up once or twice. Our biggest problem is that he is peeing through his diapers. Carlene had this same problem with Aiden when he was born. She tried different diapers but it didn't really matter which brand she used until he got some more meat on him.

My recovery is coming along. I'm slow getting out or sitting up in the bed because my incision/stomach is still very tender, but I'm down to only 1 pill a day to manage the pain.

In the past few days Justin has been acting out. I'm sure he senses that things are different now that Nathan's home so Carl and I are trying very hard to make things as normal as possible for him. Since I'm not supposed to pick him up I try and spend some one on one quality time with him at least once daily. I'll admit that I have bent the rules just a little because how do you explain to your toddler that mommy just had surgery and can't pick you up. He still goes to Carlene's Monday - Wednesday so when he and Carl get home the 4 of us spend time together playing in Justin's room.

Expect the unexpected

Well ladies and gentlemen, it looks like hell has frozen over and pigs have flown. When I had Justin everyone asked "well when are Carlene and Lalla going to have kids". My answer "Carlene's just waiting a few years until she can build up her clientele. And Lalla, well, she's never having kids".

But I guess Justin was/is so sweet that my sisters decided to join in on the fun and have kids of their own. And since Carlene already has Aiden, that only leaves Lalla, who is 12 weeks pregnant, due September 3rd. Check out her baby journey at Expect the Unexpected.

Funny how the oldest and first to marry is the last to have kids.

Spaghetti... its not so bad

Hopefully mommy and daddy can keep up with giving me new foods, baby food is so bland.

Nathan's newborn appoinment

Weight: 5lbs 8ozs
Length: 19 inches
Head circumfrence: 30 cm

Nathan had his first appointment with Dr. Hirsch on Monday. Since Nathan was a little jaundice (occurs when bilirubin builds up faster than a newborns liver can break it down and pass it from the body)when he was discharged from the hospital, the resident pediatrician wanted us to schedule a follow up appointment with his regular pediatrician as soon as possible. Jaundice is a very common condition in newborns, but occurs frequently in premature babies since they are even less ready to excrete excess bilirubin for premature babies. Jaundice can also occur when a breastfeeding baby is not getting enough breast milk because of difficulty with breastfeeding or because the mother's milk isn’t in yet. But since she didn't notice any yellow in his skin or eyes she decided not to take a sample of his blood to check his bilirubin, especially since the numbers were on the lower end anyway, based on his discharge papers.

Nathan weighed 5lbs 5ozs when he was discharged Sunday and his weight was up 3 ozs at this appointment. His stools have also transitioned from meconium to yellow seedy stools, so it appears that he's getting enough breastmilk. So overall Dr. Hirsch was very happy with how well he's doing and the fact that I was able to stay pregnant as long as I did. We have a follow up appointment next Thursday to check his weight to make sure he's still getting enough breastmilk.

20 month appointment

Weight: 18 lbs 6 ozs
Length: 28 3/4 inches
Head circumference: 43.5 cm

Although weight gain at this age usually slows down, Dr. Hirsch is now concerned with Justin's lack of weight gain since we still haven't seen his catch up growth. I felt bad, but at the same time I pretty much saw it coming because we haven't been as diligent with his solid feedings as we should be. In Dr. Hirsch's words we've been in "survival mode". We made sure that he got his main source of nutrition from 3-4 bottles of Pediasure daily, but making sure he got enough solids each day was hit or miss. Justin gets picky, especially when it comes to breakfast, so when we try to feed him he refuses. Home cooked meals were few and far between due to my pregnancy so we got kind of lax with introducing new foods. And when he did get solids it was baby food, which unfortunately is not that high in fat and calories.

We got some additional tips and tricks to get him to eat more so after Carl dropped Nathan and I off he went grocery shopping to buy some new foods for J to try. We're both hoping that the change in diet helps and we realize we definitely need to be more diligent in ensuring he's getting 3 meals of solids daily. Carl is off for 2 weeks and then my mom will be here for the next 2 weeks, so hopefully we can get into a routine during my maternity leave and keep it up once I return to work.

Nathan's homecoming

Nathan and I were discharged Sunday and boy does it feel good to be home. Justin seems to be adjusting well so far; when he gets home from Carlene's he walks into our room calling "baby, baby" and loves peeking over the edge of the bassinet and giving Nathan love taps.

Hospital photos

Nathan had his newborn photos taken yesterday and I'm very happy with how they turned out. To view Nathan's pictures log on to Bella Baby Photography and click on "BELLA BABY". Then click on "View my Photos:Login" located in the top right hand corner and enter our password, 0211nathanjones.

First family photos

Happy B-Day Nathan Michael

Stats
Thursday, February 11, 2010
7:04 pm
5 lbs, 10 ozs
19 inches long

Birth Story
After they realized I was 1 cm dilated, 40% effaced and -6 station there was a whirlwind of activity. Residents, nurse anesthetists, anesthesiologists and nurses were in and out of my room asking questions and prepping me for a c-section. I was pretty calm until I realized that Carl might miss Nathan's birth and it was like I was reliving May 29th all over again.

I'm no stranger to surgery, but it's always been under general anesthesia. This time around I was getting a spinal, which would allow me to be awake during the delivery, and emotionally I wasn't prepared for it. Fortunately the spinal wasn't bad at all (pain wise) but I was still upset that Carl had not yet arrived by the time the anesthesiologist finished and my Dr was ready to make the first incision. The whole process went relatively quickly, and no sooner than they started it seemed like they were pulling Nathan out and I heard him crying. At that point Carl walked in, was able to hold Nathan and show him to me. Although Nathan was breathing on his own and looked really good, he was having some retractions so they sent him to the NICU for monitoring. He spent a few hours in the NICU while I was in recovery and I was able to meet and hold him once I was settled into my room.

35 week appointment and a trip to labor & delivery

BP: 130/69
Total weight gain: +9 lbs
Nathan's heart rate: 152 bpm

According to the scale I've finally gained some weight, although I question how accurate that gain is since my past appointments have always been first thing in the morning and this appointment was late in the day. At any rate, things looked good so I received the Group B strep test. When the Dr measured my stomach I was very tender so he asked if I was having any contractions. I told him that I was, but nothing timeable or measurable, roughly 4-5 daily. But since I was so uncomfortable, and given my classical c-section incision, he was concerned that I may be in labor, so he sent me to the hospital for monitoring.

Labor & delivery triage was very slow so I was taken back immediately and hooked up to the monitors which showed that I was contracting every 2 minutes. When the midwife checked me I was 1 cm dilated, 40% effaced and -6 station. In short, I was in labor, and what I thought/hoped would be a quick trip to labor and delivery turned into another admit to the hospital.

I'm ready for my close up

Baby in the mirror

Justin loves to shut himself in our bedroom so he can stare at himself in the mirror hanging on the back of our door.

The brouzins photo shoot

Carl's really having fun with his new camera and decided to use Aiden & Justin as guinea pigs. Below are some of my favorite shots of the boys. Click HERE to see the rest. Note, there are a lot of them since my husband now thinks he's a photographer. And of course I think they're all cute so I couldn't leave any of them out.

Boys will be boys!

If you've been following the blog you know how Justin likes to stand up on the changing table during diaper changes. Well during this diaper change I looked away for a moment to grab a diaper and when I turned around Justin was peeing on the wall. It totally caught me off guard and I just stood there watching. It took Carl walking in the room to cover him up to prevent further damage. In 20 months I've been pretty fortunate to not get "sprayed". BOYS!

3 weeks, 21 days...

until Nathan's arrival. I have an amnio scheduled for Monday, February 22nd and if Nathan's lungs are mature I'll have a c-section on Tuesday, February 23rd. And just in case Mr. Nathan decides to make an early arrival it's nice to know that babies born between 34 and 37 weeks who have no other health problems generally do fine. They may need a short stay in the neonatal nursery and may have a few short-term health issues, but in the long run, they usually do as well as full-term babies. But since I've already had the steroid shots I'm pretty hopeful that Nathan's lungs will be mature and he won't require any NICU time.

Best buds

Carl & Justin have been spending a lot of quality time together since I've been on bed rest. But even before I was admitted to the hospital I noticed a change in the interaction between the two. I think Carl is really enjoying this stage.