3 Weeks 1 Day

I meant to post yesterday, but Little Man had a long scream fest of 6 hours the night before. Needless to say, mommy and daddy are exhausted. Dex has a knack for getting upset when I'm getting settled for a desperately needed nap and Mr. Cobra can only stay up so late because he has to go to work. Last night wasn't bad, thankfully, so we both got caught up on our zzz's. Only a two hour stretch that was hard to calm him down. I wish I knew exactly what he needed to calm down instead of trying 10 techniques until one works. Last night it was pacing the floor with him for an hour while bouncing him up and down. The good thing is, I'm getting some exercise. The bad thing is, our neighbors probably hate us. He'll outgrow this gassy phase soon enough.

It's amazing how fast he's growing! He's stretching his legs out more and more. He has outgrown our home-made towel baby positioner that keeps him from rolling off the bed or couch. I started moving him to the crib last night. I think it bothered me more than him. I kept waking up to check on him. I also have a harder time hearing him start to fuss in his sleep. I barely avoided a meltdown a couple times. I feel like the crib is a little safer for him though.

I am tired and having a hard time getting anything done like making doctor appointments, getting health insurance for Dexter, or getting the request for his birth certificate notarized. I've made it to the postal place that notarizes a couple times, but the one person who's qualified to notarize is never there. I've also had the birth announcements to design, but I think need to just give up on that one and just buy some. They need to be mailed more than they need a custom design by a too tired mother.

First Bath

Little man is now a hella clean, sweet smelling little dude. I expected him to hate it, but he loved it. He was so calm an relaxed that we took our time and mom and dad both got to wash him. He was awake the entire time and just laid back with his arms down in the water like it was the most soothing thing ever. He got a full spa experience too with a buttermilk soak and buttermilk baby wash (Burt's Baby Bees) followed by a buttermilk lotion moisturizing treatment and baby massage.

All of the bath stuff we received from our doula at our baby shower. It was the grand finale for her as she is leaving today. I'll be on my own for the next couple weeks. It's been great to have an extra pair of hands to make the transition easier. Her babysitting while I nap has been a life saver, not to mention all the other wonderful things she did for us. We'll miss her for sure.

Cause and Effect

Dexter has been getting many pet names since he was born. Chicken Wiggle, Mr Chicken, Chicken Man - The best of them deal with chickens because his poop smells like eggs. As long as no one is eating an egg sandwich in the immediate area, we always know when his diaper is dirty. Other cute nicknames we have for him that don't have such a notorious calling card are Lil' Mr. Cobra and Little Man. I'm not sure he'll know his real name until he gets into trouble.

Speaking of trouble, Dexter's crying issues are because he has gas. We figured that out about day 4, but it has been bad off and on. I did a little research and I'm going to dramatically lessen 2 of my favorite foods, milk and peanut butter, to see if it will help. Last night he was very upset and burping just wasn't cutting it. I tried holding him in several positions and finally what soothed him through his obvious bouts of gas was my sucking on my pinky while being propped up at a 45 degree angle on my legs. This screaming fit was after a day of eating lots of cheese. I've already stopped drinking glasses of milk which seemed to help, but I'm still getting the shockwaves of yesterday's cuisine. This morning he can only sleep on my shoulder without being fussy. It makes me feel guilty to see him writhing in pain when I knew dairy was probably the culprit and still proceeded to eat so much of it. Poor little guy! At least I can do something about it in the future.

Tonight is bath night! Dexter is getting drenched. The sponge baths just aren't thorough enough for this dirty little critter.

Two Weeks Old

Dexter has been sleeping at night, for the most part, in 3 hour stretches. That has made life pretty easy with at least 6 hours of sleep generally between midnight and 9 am. Then there was last night - it was by far the most challenging night so far. I didn't take a nap in the evening as I usually do because a) I wasn't tired b) Mr. Cobra was coming home from work and I hadn't seen him all day AND c) I was foaming at the mouth for a new dish our doula was cooking for dinner. I had 2 stretches of 3 hours of sleep, so if I went to bed at 10 pm, I'd be fine. The next thing I know, it's 10 pm and Dexter is wide awake.

When he is awake, it is totally mesmerizing. He is in total awe of the world around him, so I cherish every moment that I can stare into his giant baby blues and get a funny grin. He likes to look around and last night he was intensely watching me take off my hat. I like to grab his little hands and feet and wiggle them around. He likes it too. Time slips away and then it's midnight. Our doula heads off to bed as I start rocking Dexter to sleep.

Usually these awake states only last a couple hours. He has gone 3 hours before, but it was during the day, so it was fun. This was at night and I was starting to get very tired. I had meant to go to sleep at 10 pm, but I couldn't resist the awake time with him. I figured that he would go to sleep after I nursed him an he'd get milk drunk. Yeah right…

He didn't go to sleep, I turned down the lights to give him less to look at and rocked him. Time passed… 1am… 2am… he still wouldn't go to sleep. I nursed him again and again, but it still didn't work. I laid him down and he proceeded to scream and wake up Mr. Cobra and our neighbors upstairs. We burped him, swaddled him, rocked him, but nothing other than sucking on our pinkies soothed him. We tried giving him a pacifier, but he just spits it out because he prefers our fingers. Squee was whining and sometimes barking. It was the classic "life with a newborn" scenario.

After a couple of hours, Mr. Cobra needed sleep, so he went to sleep on the couch. I totally was a mess. The first real meltdown I've had. I was so tired I couldn't focus and kept falling asleep with him propped up with my legs. Dexter was in his totally calm awake mode and even gave me his longest laugh yet, but I couldn't enjoy it because I so desperately tired. Every time I laid him down, he'd scream bloody murder. Finally, I tried nursing him again. After 40 minutes at the breastaurant he was finally drowsy. The lights went off at 3:36 am.

Daddy Cobra

Mr. Cobra went back to work today. He had a full two weeks off since we closed our company for a summer holiday. We're a tiny design shop and since we're the founders and married; the easiest way to take a vacation together is to close up the shop and have everyone take off at the same time. It worked particularly well for Dexter's birth. Mr. Cobra didn't have to deal with work, so he was able to devote all of his time to his son and help me out a ton too. It's just me and our doula until Friday.

Next week will be me and baby on our own. We'll be on our own until my parents come to visit in September. I can't wait to show them San Francisco (as best as I can with a month old baby). My mom has never seen the ocean! I'm sure they'll be more interested in seeing their grandson, but this will be a grand adventure for them.

I just posted more photos. Dexter's head has inflated dramatically in the past week. He's growing so fast! We still can't tell who he looks more like.

The Squee

Our baby dog has some issues with our baby boy. We had to have him stay with some friends for the past week because he isn't coping very well with the new addition. He does fine as long as the baby is sleeping, but as soon as Dexter moves or starts to cry Squee gets upset and barks and whines for several minutes. This is especially problematic at 2 am. His barking is just enough to set someone over the edge because he barks and once he finally stops barking, he huffs for 5 or 10 minutes. Pair that with the stress of calming a newborn and it's just too much to handle. No amount of obedience training has worked. We've tried putting him in a separate room, lots of negative reinforcement and then positive reinforcement. We even threatened him with a bath and he still didn't stop barking and huffing. We sent him away for a bit so we wouldn't go crazy and so he could relax.

We visited him at our friends' to see if things would be better on neutral ground. Unfortunately, if dogs can have panic attacks, then Squee is an excellent candidate for Prozac. He panted and whined when the baby started making noise. It's really sad to see him so upset. He's been the only dog and is partial to me to boot. He can't figure out if the baby is a threat or a rival. I try to get him to sit in my lap while I nurse, but he only stays for a little bit and pants and paces the entire time. He already has a heart problem, so it is especially worrisome for him to get that upset for a long period of time.

We bought a plug-in pheromone that is supposed to calm dogs down. We also ordered a collar that has calming herbs in it that will be here this week. If neither of those work we are seriously considering doggie Prozac. I'm sure he'll adjust with some time, but it's the adjustment period that is going to be tough to deal with. We're both more relaxed with Dexter now, so maybe the dog barking won't make us crazy. Squee is coming home tonight. I'm crossing my fingers that we won't be putting him outside to save our sanity like we did a week ago.

Doctor Visit #1

Dexter went to his first doctor visit today. He's gained almost a pound since last Friday, so he weighs 7lbs 9oz now. That's a lot of growing for 6 days. When we weighed him, the nurse had us take off all his clothes and his diaper. In true Dexter fashion, he peed. Not only did he pee, he shot a stream straight up to his face and hit his own chubby little cheek. He didn't care, but everyone else was laughing.

Baby Sleeps at Night!

We seemed to have gotten Dexter to be more awake during the day and so he sleeps more at night. Mr Cobra got a whole night's sleep. I still have to get up every 2 or 3 hours, but he doesn't stay awake. I can't sleep if he's awake, I feel too guilty to let him stare into blackness in a dark room while I try to sleep. I think the switch happened because we've been getting out in the afternoons. We've ate out a couple times, walked in the park, been to Target and bought some newborn clothes at Carter's. (We have a ton of clothes, but all 0-3 months, so they don't fit Dexter so well. We got a few onesies that fit him well even if it's only for a couple weeks.) I have to say I really like wearing him in a sling, much more than cruising in a giant stroller. He's so tiny, it seems like overkill to push him around in something that takes up half the sidewalk for a 7lb baby.

Other fun things that have happened recently:

Dexter laughed, just a tiny giggle, but it's happened 3 times in the last day. It's so cute! It is not in response to anything, just totally random much like his funny little smiles. He does sometimes smile now when we poke his cheeks or make funny noises in his ear.

The umbilical cord stump fell off last night. He will probably be getting his first bath in the next few days. They say babies don't get that dirty, but this little boy soaks himself regularly in various bodily fluids.

Speaking of bodily fluids, he spit up all over me last night. It went all over my neck, down my chest and pooled in my cleavage. It's all been fun and games till that happened. So gross!

One Week Old

Our life is now divided into 2-3 hours chunks consisting of sleeping, eating, feeding, diaper changing and burping. We're starting to get a rhythm down now. I have a very odd synchronization with Dexter. We take naps a lot to get a decent amount of sleep everyday. We may be asleep at 4 pm and awake at 5 am, but I always wake up just before Dexter is just waking up to be fed. It amazes me that I intuitively know to wake before he does. It's also amazing how rested we both feel after just a couple hours of sleep.

After feeding, we burp him and change his diaper. Diaper changing has become it's own comedy show, especially for mommy. Dexter almost always pees on me while I'm changing him. I was forewarned about this from my mother, so I bought little cloth covers, pee tee-pees, to deflect the stream. The problem is that Dexter is a squirmy worm when it comes to changing, so I have to try and hold the pee tee-pee on with one hand, wrestle his legs and wipe his cute dirty little butt while he's crying in protest. Inevitably, once the pee tee-pee comes off, he pees. His timing is impeccable. Sometimes, when I get the diaper on and am just fastening it on, he'll pee or poop and I'll have to start over. I have gone through 3 diapers in one sitting playing this game. He pulled a triple-play the other day and pooped on me, then peed on me and when I finally got the diaper on, I picked him up and he spat up all over my arm. He is definitely a Cobra with that sense of humor.

We're Home!

We were discharged from the hospital yesterday. Dexter wore his first little outfit and had his first car ride which he slept right through. Yeah, I know, the hospital is like 2 blocks away, but it's the incredible amount of luggage and stuff that makes hoofing it less of an option. Besides, I just pushed out a 19 inch long 7lb bowling ball. It's not like I'd want to walk anymore than I have to. I came out relatively unscathed though, without stitches and just a couple tiny tears, so I'm not in much pain. I lost around 10lbs already and I have ankles again! I'm looking forward to wearing my wedding ring again.

Dexter is doing beautifully. He lost 9% of his birth weight by day 2 at 6lbs 11 oz which was a little worrisome, but at our home visit today he's already started gaining. He is now at 6 lbs 13 oz and has only lost 7%. All the possible complications from the gestational diabetes never manifested themselves. His blood sugars were great and he hasn't developed jaundice. He's very healthy and incredibly strong. He lifts his head up way more than I anticipated and I have to fight his little bicycling legs for diaper changes. He finds his thumb now and then and sucks it like a built-in pacifier. He also had a brief reunion with his foot which was kinda funny to watch him grab for after seeing him do that so many times on the ultrasounds.

He's feeding regularly now about every 2 hours. I'm exclusively breastfeeding, so it's been quite the learning experience. It doesn't matter how much you read or take classes. It is just something you have to learn by trial and error. Dexter hasn't had any problems latching on, but he is such a vampire! I've had some help dealing with his vigorous feeding style. That's how he gained 2 ounces in a day.

It has been incredibly helpful to have a doula. I honestly can't imagine doing this without her. Mr. Cobra and I are able to get some sleep and just day to day things like getting groceries, laundry and cleaning has been easier or even taken care of by her. She's still managing to do a little freelance graphic design work done at the same time. She's absolutely amazing.

Since I'm gushing, I have to say that Mr. Cobra is such a totally great dad. I've never seen him so happy. He's so helpful and so into being a father. This will be so fun to watch their relationship blossom over time.

Baby Cobra is here!

The birth went fairly well. After being induced on Sunday, I hadn't made much progress until well into Monday. I was put on Pitocin early Monday evening to get thig going a little faster. My water broke about 7:00pm and everything was fine until 11:00pm. I was handling the pain perfectly well and was having an absolutely beautiful laboring experience with both Mr. Cobra and our doula. It helped so much to have 2 people for support. The Pitocin was nearly doubled after I'd only made it to 4 cm after 30 hours though, so at about 2:00am I was delirious with pain due to the increased strength of the contractions. I finally caved into getting an epidural. The first one didn't work, so on the second try it finally kicked in and made the contractions tolerable. The epidural really helped. I went to sleep and went from 4 cm to 10 cm (complete) when I woke up a couple hours later. I pushed for a couple of hours and just as the sun rose over the San Francisco skyline, our son was born. Mr. Cobra cut the umbilical cord and we became the Cobra Family.

He is incredibly cute, but mothers are always biased. I am feeling surprisingly well and am up and walking around ok. I am not in too much pain because I didn't need any stitches. Mr. Cobra hasn't smiled this much in his entire life. Our son is healthy, alert and feeding well. Here are some of our pictures.

Labor Update!

We have the best room in the hospital. I think they must've felt guilty moving the induction. We have a sweeping view of San Francisco from the 15th floor. We can see from the Pacific to the Bay including Golden Gate Bridge and downtown. It's just such a beautiful place to give birth.

So I'm in early labor finally! I finally dilated enough to get a Foley catheter which is a small balloon full of saline to help manually open the cervix. I've already had 3 doses of "Miso" to just pry it open that much. My body just doesn't want to let go of the little wiggle worm. I've got my IV of Pitocin and some contractions going. The first hour was hard to get used to the pain because there was hardly a break in between them. Right now, the contractions are spaced a little farther out, so they are easier to breathe through. I will gradually get more and more Pitocin until I'm in active labor which is being dilated at least 4 cm. Still a very long way to go. Maybe we'll see our son sometime tomorrow…

D-Day!

I just called in and we are scheduled to go in at 10am to be induced. Woo-hoo! We'll be meeting our little boy soon. I had a lot of contractions for around 8 hours yesterday and more bloody show, so hopefully I'm a little more ripe for the occasion. I feel so calm and happy today. Think good thoughts for us :)

Too Many Babies Being Born

My induction has been moved to tomorrow because the hospital is completely full. We all missed the message the hospital left and trouped up to labor and delivery with all the luggage, leftover pizza, and a giant exercise ball looking like a circus. We sat in triage for about 15-20 minutes before they told us that they didn't have enough room and even had someone waiting in the wings for the next available room. We called again in the afternoon and were told that there was a slight possibility of this evening, but they would call and let us know. I took more castor oil and took a 3 hour nap before some contractions started kicking in. We all walked for a couple hours up and down some decent hills to try and keep them going. We grabbed something to eat and walked some more. When we got home there was a message from the hospital that said it definitely wasn't happening tonight and to call in the morning.

I'm disappointed, but maybe my body will be just a little more ready for it. The baby has another day to cook. Who knows, maybe I'll go into natural labor and won't have to worry about being induced. I'm just going with the flow — some things you just can't expect or control…

Here Comes Baby

I went to my doctor's appointment yesterday. I'm a little more ripe for labor than last time, but my cervix wasn't dilated yet. I've been wanting them to do a procedure called "sweeping the membranes" which sometimes stimulates labor, but they've been unable to do it because it requires getting up past the cervix and detaching the membranes above it which requires it to be dilated. This procedure causes a release of labor hormones that may make things go a little faster Saturday.

I was disappointed because I had a little bit of bloody show a couple hours beforehand. I was convinced that something had to be happening. I went home and desperately tried castor oil. Now people say it tastes awful, but it just tasted like I was drinking vegetable oil. It really didn't have much of a taste at all. I washed it down with some Diet Coke and hoped that maybe it will help get it started, so I can try and avoid being chemically induced. It worked some magic, but no baby.

I have read everywhere that bloody show is just a streak or spot of blood. I started bleeding lightly like I was just starting my period. At first it was kinda dark and dried looking, so I didn't worry. As time progressed it got heavier. I started feeling intense Braxton Hicks contractions. They didn't hurt that much, just kinda felt like my uterus wanted to strangle me. It was a bit hard to breath sometimes and the really powerful ones bent me over involuntarily. They were coming quite often, but I didn't time them or count them. I was in the midst of the "energy burst" many women say happens before labor. It was around 10:30 pm and I was cleaning house like a mad woman when ordinarily I'd be heading to bed. Mr. Cobra and our Doula were laughing at how much energy I had.

Then I started getting the uncomfortable gassy cramps from the castor oil. For whatever reason, that made the bleeding turn bright red and I started seeing clots in it. My whole pregnancy I've been taught that seeing bright red blood is bad. I called Labor and Delivery about it and they said to come in to get checked.

On the walk to hospital (it's only 3 blocks away), the contractions really started to slow me down. I almost had to stop. When I got to the hospital, they had me do a urine sample, which I couldn't get a clean catch because there was so much blood coming out. It was watery blood, but there was so much, I thought something might be wrong. I'd rather be safe than sorry. They monitored me and I was getting contractions every 3 minutes, but they weren't that painful. The baby was doing fine. They did an internal exam and I was only dilated a fingertip which surprised almost everyone considering the amount of bloody show. One nurse said that it's common to have that much blood when dilated to 4 cm, but I wasn't even close to that.

Everything was fine, and it is apparently okay to bleed a lot. We stayed there until 3 am to see if the dilation was progressing, but the contractions tapered off. Everyone was so tired that we all fell asleep waiting for the doctor. We could've tried to keep the contractions going, but no one would've had the energy to deal with a long labor. I took a tablet of Benadryl (as recommended by the doctor) and was finally asleep by 4 am.

So tomorrow will be the day…

Our Fur-child

I go on on incessantly about our pending human baby, so I thought I should post something about our 7.5 year old chihuahua, Squee. We bought Squee at a pet store in May 2000. He was unhealthy and I never believed that horrible puppy mills were really THAT rampant, but I tracked down the breeder he come from in Oklahoma and order copies of all the USDA inspections for the breeder. Sure enough, multiple infractions about dirty housing, no food or water available. It sounded awful. The worst part was that there was a report of 2 chihuahua puppies being housed outside in the middle of winter with nothing to lay on but the bare wire bottom of the cage right just a couple weeks after Squee was born. It could've been him, but will never know for sure. The breeder went from 10 dogs to over 70 in just 2 years. I will never, ever buy another dog from a pet store.

That being said, Squee is awesome. He is so smart and charismatic. People we haven't seen for a while often ask how Squee is doing before delving into a conversation. People love Squee and Squee loves people (well most people). He always brings visitors his toys to throw and throw and throw and throw. Even at the office, our clients love Squee. He has a big attitude for a 6lb furball. He steals the big dog bed meant for his office-mate, a 100lb chocolate lab even though he takes up 10% of it AND has his very own dog bed. Squee likes to sleep on the biggest pile of pillows and blankets available. The bigger the better, so we sometimes see him climb up on top of 2 blankets and 2 pillows that are easily piled 3 feet tall on top of the couch and he'll make a little nest there. He also is in touch with his feminine side because he LOVES to ride around in his dog purse. All I have to do is put it on the floor and he jumps right in.

So he's our little spoiled dog right now and he's being a great little protector of the pregnant lady. I've been feeling a little guilty because when the baby comes he's not going to get as much attention. He also loves to get new toys, so when I bring home bags of baby stuff, I feel guilty watching him look in the bags trying to find something for him. I decided that I would buy him something fancy, so I special ordered a leopard skin microvelvet dog bed. He loves it. He still prefers our laps, but when he does sleep in it, he's so comfy that nothing wakes him up - not even food. He uses it more than any other dog bed he's ever had. So here's to the Squee…