Pictures

Here are pictures from the last three weeks.. He clearly sleeps a lot.. except of course when mom and dad really want to sleep.

Thanksgiving

This year is a special thanksgiving, with lots of things to be thankful for! Usually we go home to hampton and spend the main meal with Steve's family, and then visit my family in the evening.  This year since we had a baby just 3 weeks ago, we are staying in Lynchburg, and some of my family is coming to visit.  My grandparents (Ethan's great grands!) and my parents and my sister and her husband are all coming to Lynchburg.  Some are staying in a hotel and my parents are staying at the house with us.  We are going to have a good meal and time together on Thanksgiving day.  This will be the first time my sister and husband have gotten to meet the little guy! We are so excited that family is able to with us for the holiday. 

The little man (as Steve loves to call him) is growing everyday.  He looks more like a baby now, and less like a newborn.  We've left him a few times, but for no more than 4 hours.  He is eating good, but often has some fussiness in the evenings, but we are working on this. 

Gotta go - hopefully another update with pictures later this week.

First week home

I thought the easy way to update everyone on how we are all doing would be to post a list of top things that have surprised me about becoming a mother:

- How much my schedule and world has changed.  I knew this would happen, but didn't know exactly what this means.  It means that the moment my baby needs me anything I planned on doing gets put aside.  It means my whole day runs on three hour schedule because that is often I need to feed him. 

- How easy it is to worry about the small things.  I knew this was a struggle for every mom.  That it takes a trust in the Lord, and a willingness to give the little things over to him, but I didn't know it would be a constant thing over every little detail.

- That I would have to wake him for feedings.  To keep my milk supply good I need to nurse him every 2-3 hours, but he would sleep much longer if I let him.  At night he goes 4 to 5 hours before waking and needing to eat.

- He doesn't cry at night when he is hungry, its more of a fussy grunting noise.  Perhaps I just wake up when he starts fussying and if I didn't respond he would cry more.  Not really sure, but for now it works out nicely because Steve doesn't really wake up.

- How quickly I know his different cries/noises.

- How much I love just to sit and hold him.  This is one of my favorite things now.  I could do it all day (but maybe not all night)

- How much I love seeing Steve be a father.  It is awesome to watch your husband love and care for your son.  It just melts my heart to see him with Ethan.

And here are some pictures from the hospital.. including his first time in the carseat:



1 Week Old

Things are going great.. I love being a mommy and Steve is an AWESOME dad.. parenthood is by far the hardest thing I've ever done, but already the most rewarding.  Ethan is a great baby, as long as he is warm, held often, and fed regularly he is very happy and content.  I am nursing him and so far things have been good.  My milk has come in and he is gaining weight.  We went to the doctors yesterday and he weighed 8lbs 9oz, which is above his discharge weight of 8lbs 5 oz.  It is perfectly normal for babies to lose some weight during the first days of life, and then start gaining it back around day 4/5.  The doctors say he looks healthy so far!

Here he is at one week old.. Steve calls this his "Rocky" pose.

Things are great.. Ethan is sleeping and eating like a champ.. hopefully mommy can get more rest as time goes on.. here are some pictures.

Well.. time for him to eat now.. so more pictures later.. thats the life of mommy. :)

38 Weeks, 5 days = Ethan's arrival!!

Well.. for those that want details.. here we go..

Timeline:

8:00pm - while working on the nursery and enjoying a quiet normal Thursday evening at home.. my water broke!.. totally shocked.. I felt a burst and I felt other things I had never felt before.. went to the bathroom and the evidence was clear.. frantically I called my midwife practice while trying to take care of myself, let Steve know.. midwife confirmed I needed to come in.

8:05 - Steve and Jen frantically start throwing things into a suitcase - at this point still unsure if everything was going okay and with Jen having some cramping/contractions, but not super strong.

8:40ish - Arrive at hospital, get checked in..

9:00 - set up in room with monitors on indicating everything looks normal.. checked by midwife and biggest suprise ever.. I was 8cm dilated, fully effaced, and zero station!! - Which basically means I had been in some form of labor for days or hours and didn't even know it... I laughed.. and Steve and I quickly realized that not only were we going to have baby tonight, but that it was happening fast.

10ish - a few church family members arrived for a quick visit.. at this point Jen was in a lot of pain, but managing with no meds and no IV.  Shortly after this I was measured between 9 and 10 cm,

11ish - started pushing.. had a wonderful midwife that encouraged me to change positions and  alos gave suggestions for things to help.. Still no pain meds.

For Jen.. the rest is a kinda of blur.. I would push really hard then roll over and go to sleep for about 2-3 minutes, then i would wake up and push again.. Already, a little over 12 hours later it seems unbelievable that I was doing this...

Pushing.. Pushing.. Pushing..

At 1:53am I reached down and grabbed my newborn baby boy Ethan and become overwhelmed with a variety of emotions.. love, laughter, tears, relief..

Placenta came out normal sometime after this..

Ethan was checked out and totally normal.. weighing in at 8lbs, 15oz.

Jen started to have heavy bleeding.. midwife worked on me for about 25 minutes.. ordered Pitocin to help uterus contract and control bleeding.. given an IV for this.  Things were scary for a few minutes but they got it under control. Once they got me under control i was able to hold Ethan for longer and nurse him.. the biggest thing was this kept me in Labor Delivery until amost 5am for observation before they moved us to mother baby ward.. this is a little longer than normal.  They also would not let me get out of bed until after I ate so they had to wheel me on a stretcher from one unit to the other. 

Highlights so far.. had the most amazing nurse.. nurse Freddie (female).. she was sweet, encouraging, attentive, and especially with the bleeding and first feedings she was very attentive and wonderful.  She told me afterwards that I was amazing for pushing him out with no meds, and that I was an inspiration.  She was just such a blessing sent from the Lord.

I truly believe that little Ethan is a miracle in everyway.  We are overwhelmed by the love and support of family and friends.  The Lord is truly wonderful and this special gift just reminds me how much he loves each person, and what the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross means as a parent giving up their child.  God's grace was evident in our delivery and we are so thankful to him for a short delivery with a safe recovery so far. 

How can you help?  Pray for my recovery as I lost a lot of blood.. contact Steve for helps with meals and visiting.  We will be discharged sometime on Sunday.

38 weeks, 5 days

This is a poor quality picture - took with my camera on my computer.. but it gives a good idea of how big I am.