My little bundle of joy is 6 weeks old now!  Man time flies (most of the time).  He is too freaking cute for words… but I am a little biased.  I’m so happy and honored to be Wyatt’s mommy!  But I have had my moments.  Here is how my recovery has been since he was born…

The Hospital Stay – I was in the hospital for a total of 5 nights. After 2 nights of hardly any sleep (the night I was induced and the night he was born) and no food because of the epidural and c-section, I needed to feed the baby…AND sleep.. AND only drink fluids…AND constantly take vitals. I was sleep deprived and hungry, not a good combo!  I still haven’t caught up on sleep since then.  On Day 2 of my stay, Breastfeeding was becoming very painful.  On Day 3, Wyatt’s weight loss kept progressing, and thus came the influx of nurses plus the lactation consultant coming in to our room.  The combo of major breastfeeding pressure, sleep deprivation, hormones, hardly any food, pain, and medication sent me over the edge and I started balling.  I just wanted a time out I knew I would never get.  Luckily, my awesome midwife really put things in perspective for me.  When I’ve talked to my mom friends about my hospital breakdown, lots of them tell me they had one too.  I’m glad I wasn’t the only one!

C Section Recovery – My first instinct when I got home was to protect my tummy.  I didn’t want Bella jumping on me and injuring the incision.  The first couple weeks were rough!  I was on a combination of Percocet and Ibuprofen…weaning off them gradually.  Getting up from a lying down position was impossible if I didn’t use my arms.  I couldn’t bend down to save my life.  The good part was that I was on strict orders not to do anything for 2 weeks!  It was nice to be 100% spoiled, hehe.  But even now I can’t lift anything super heavy (like the 5 gallon water jug we have) Exercise wise, after 2 weeks I started very light walking and by week 4 I was going on long walks with the baby.  I had my 6 week appointment today and the midwife gave me the a-ok to start exercising… and to take it slow at first.  I think next week I will start jogging and light weights. Any c-section mamas out there with advice?

Mind – Becoming a mom is a total life changer.  Of course, everyone tells you that but it doesn’t hit you until you have the little one in your arms.  Looking at my baby boy makes me so happy! I’m so lucky that I can be a stay at home mommy.  But it is the hardest job ever!  Even if Wyatt’s sleeping, I’m constantly wondering when he will wake up and listening for any noises or grunts coming from his direction.  Sometimes I feel like the only time I totally relax is when Jay comes home and I can take a shower.  Who knew a shower would be so awesome!?

Most of my emotional downs have been breastfeeding related in some way.  I felt like a milk machine for the first few weeks, especially when Wyatt was not gaining enough weight and I had to breastfeed, pump, and feed him what I pumped.  I had a few crying fits when I was exhausted and had to feed Wyatt when I was still in major pain. Breastfeeding is VERY HARD and PAINFUL!  I wish someone would have explained this in detail to me before I had the baby.  In my case, by day 2 my nipples were hurting… and then it just kept getting worse and worse.  Some nurses said to use a nipple shield, some said it was bad to use one. I did end up using a nipple shield after one of them was cracked and bleeding.  It was a life saver!  I used it until my nipples healed (which was about two weeks).  Also, Soothies and Lanolin were great for pain relief.  Now I only have a few seconds of pain when he latches.  Hopefully it will be smoother sailing from here on out.

Body – When I was in the hospital, I felt like my tummy was exactly the same.  I attribute that to the gas that builds up after a c-section. My baby belly goes down a little bit each week, which I am happy about!  I also used a Belly Bandit about 12 – 18 hours a day starting from the day after my week 1 picture to the start of week 6, not sure how much it helped though.  All I know is that I felt like my biggest change was from week 1 to week 2, so I guess that is a good sign that it worked.  My stomach is definitely still flabby though! I’m guessing the loose skin will stick around for a while.  But I am so grateful that I stayed stretch mark free.

I’m 4 pounds away from my pre-pregnancy weight as of now.  Weeks 1 & 2 were my biggest losses, with 12 lbs and 11 lbs.  I’ve lost between .5 and 2 lbs every week since then.  I’m hoping to lose about 15 more pounds, so we will see how that goes!  I’m looking forward to starting up an exercise routine again.

Hopefully I will be able to fit in small workouts while my little guy does this…

Happy Friday!

Well, it’s actually been 5 weeks now, but who’s counting? hehe. I still can’t believe my little baby boy is one month old!  Time goes by so slowly and so fast at the same time.  Being a mommy to a newborn is hard work… late night feedings, being pooped on, crying, fussing.  But it’s all worth it!  Every day that goes by it gets a little easier.  But more on that (and my c-section recovery) in tomorrow’s post.  Today I wanted to talk about how Wyatt is doing!

Milestones

• Grabbing my hair, hard!
• Holding his head up
• He has started smiling every once in a while!  It’s especially cute when he smiles after I give him a kiss.  I swear I’ve heard some giggles too.
• He is definitely more alert every single day.  He watches the mobile above his swing and watches me walk around the room.
• He is very in tune to our voices.  Sometimes at night I hear him fussing around, then I’ll talk for a few seconds and he settles right down.  But then of course a couple minutes later he fusses again.

Size: Wyatt was 8lb 7oz at birth, then went down to 7lb 7oz when we left the hospital.  Since it was more than a 10% loss, I had to breastfeed, pump, then feed him what I pumped.  Man was it rough!  He was slowly and steadily gaining.  But then something crazy happened…he gained 22 oz in 12 days!  The little squirt weighed in at 9lbs 12oz at his 4 week check up.  He is starting to fill in his Size 1 Pampers (we used newborn size until last week) and finally fitting well into his 0-3 clothing instead of swimming in them.  He’s a long baby, 23″!  He’s in the 95% percentile for length and 55% for weight.

Feeding:  Wyatt definitely loves to eat!  I feed him every 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours during the day.  I try to look for his hungry cues like lip smacking and rooting.  But sometimes he becomes cranky pants before I can get to him.  At night he is going from 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 hours in between feedings.  I’ve been pumping once a day also (after the 1st morning feeding) and I’ve been storing for future use.  We introduced a bottle to him this week and luckily he takes is right down!  Jay gives him this one at the 4am ish time to let me get some sleep, woohoo.

Fun Facts

• Times I’ve been pooped on: 2
• Diapers a day: 11 – 16
• Bottles consumed: 3
• Times I’ve been peed on: too many to count

Sleep: Some days he sleeps more than others.  Today he has slept probably a little more than half the time in between feedings.   During the day I put him in the Rock n Play to sleep if he’s not sleeping on me.  Sometimes I put him in the swing to soothe him to sleep if he is extra fussy.  At night he is in the Pack n Play next to our bed.  Luckily at night, he sleeps pretty well… once we finally get him to sleep.  Each night I feed him between 9:30 – 10:30, then head to bed immediately after.  We swaddle then sway with him (or put him in the swing) until he falls asleep after each night feeding.  This soothing to sleep process could be anywhere from 5 minutes all the way to 45 minutes.  That gives me about an hour to 2 hours of sleep in between.  Let’s just say I never wake up rested!  But at least the little man does

Likes

• Hearing mommy and daddy talk
• Being in his swing
• Stretching when he’s done eating (so cute!)
• Being rocked
• Riding in the car
• Being pushed in the stroller

Tomorrow I’ll be posting about the postpartum side of things.  See ya then!

Sorry for the delay!  Every time I have some time to write this I feel like I’m getting interrupted by the little one, hehe.  He is as cute as can be!

My story started at 3:00 PM on Tuesday, April 16th.  At 8 days past my due date, I arrived at the hospital for my induction.  We were quickly brought to a room in the labor and delivery unit, and they hooked me up to all the monitors.  Apparently I was already having contractions, about 12 minutes apart.  I couldn’t even feel them!  Around 5:00 pm, I took a Misoprostol pill, which is for ripening the cervix.

Jay picked up some Thai food (which happened to be my last meal for about 2 days) and we waited and waited.  Pill after pill, nothing much happening.  My contractions were getting closer together, and I was thinning a little.  But I felt fine.  After my 4:30 am pill, my contractions suddenly jumped to 1-2 minutes apart.  The nurse seemed a little concerned, but luckily my contractions started slowing down to 2-3 minutes apart which was fine.  Around 5:30 am, they got painful.  She checked me and I was 60% effaced and 1 cm dilated, ugh!  Time went by and contractions were excruciating.  Of course, it was also shift change at 7am which didn’t help my situation.  I was in horrible back labor, and Jay was helping as much as he could.  At 8am our new (and amazing!) nurse Heather checked me, I was at 3cm and 90% effaced.  I was quickly moved to the delivery room.

I was dying of intense pain during each contraction. It felt like my back was being ripped apart.  Jay was awesome and encouraged me to get the epidural stat, the nurse agreed.  But on a super busy day, the anesthesiologist just started another one.  At 8:45 am it was my turn!  I wasn’t worried about getting it at all, I knew the contractions were worse than anything a needle could do, and I was right!  After 20 minutes he was done with the epi, and the relief came, ahhh.  They also started pitocin at this point.  It was about 10 am when my water broke naturally.  I was so happy progress was happening!

I needed a couple of “top offs” on the epi, the anesthesiologist came almost as soon as i needed it.  I was checked every few hours or so, and was progressing every time.  My doctor, Lizellen, came every so often to check in on me too.  Luckily during this long wait, I was able to take a couple of short naps. My mom and sis made Jay and I company throughout the day. At 8 pm, about 12 hours after my epidural,  I was finally at 10 cm and 100% effaced.  It was time to push!  Luckily our nurse, Heather, took an extra half shift to stay with us through the delivery.

I pushed and pushed.  Lizellen and Heather were giving me tons of encouragement.  “His head is just stuck a little bit, just a few more pushes to get him moving through the pelvic bone!”  Then a little more time went by… “His head is still having trouble, we will just need to help him through!”.  Then after about 45 minutes in, silence was more prevalent.  Between words of encouragement were the hints of c-section talk.  After an hour of pushing, Wyatt’s heart rate was going a bit too high during the contractions, then dropping just a bit too low for comfort… plus his head was not budging at all.  My doctor, Lizellen, said it would be better for us both to get a c-section.  Jay and I already discussed we would do what was best for the baby, and we agreed to the c-section.  After signing some paperwork I was wheeled away to get prepped and Jay put on some scrubs.  It was time for surgery.

The best anesthesiologist ever, Dr. Hatch, upped my epidural and explained everything that was happening.  It was him talking me through it which helped us so much!  I started shaking uncontrollably and he assured me it was normal.  The curtain went up, Jay came in, and the surgery started.  About 10 minutes went by, and Dr. Hatch explained I was going to feel tons of pressure and tugging, which was the baby coming out.  Boy did I feel it!  But it was not painful.  After a couple minutes Jay and I heard him crying, and we both started balling.  The doctors and nurses took turns saying “he’s adorable” and “he’s huge!”.  “Huge”?  I was expecting a 10 pounder at this point. Jay went to be with the baby and they started sewing me up (and vacuuming, which was the worst sound ever at this point).  Then I hear… “Born at 9:57 PM, 8 lbs 7 ounces, 22″ long, 14.5″ head”!

When Jay brought Wyatt over to see me it was the most beautiful sight I have ever seen.  He was gorgeous.  I was one proud mommy.  Jay left with him to go to the nursery (with my mom and sis in tow).  I had more stitching up to do.  Dr. Hatch was constantly reassuring me everything was okay and talking to me about his kids, which was a great distraction!  My shaking was so bad though at this point, that my neck was more painful than anything else.  I think it was about 20 minutes from when Jay and Wyatt left when my epidural was removed and I was rolled into recovery to be reunited with my family.  After being in the hospital for 30+ hours and 12+ hours of labor and a c-section, I never knew how utterly exhausted and happy I could be at the same time.