Baby - 6 weeks old

Baby Charlie and I just got back today from a trip to my parents house.  It was really nice to get away and also to get away from our dog!  I know it sounds strange but I'm home all the time and she tends to follow me around the house all the time.  Which can drive a person crazy and I know that she in part wants attention and also its unusual for me to be home so it disrupts her normal schedule too.

Charlie is smiling these days and getting stronger holding his head up. He definitely fixates on objects farther away, like ceiling fans!  He tends to get cranky right before bed or nap time. 

Big brother has finally taken the plunge and has changed a dirty diaper. I did slightly coerce him into it. It started out innocently by having him lay the baby on the changing table and unbuttoning the onesie. And then asking him "oh go ahead and do this part" and then this part, etc and before he knew it it was done. Tada!

My Baby Story

I saw the midwife on my due date and I was 1cm dilated and effaced. So after discussing with the midwife, we decided that I would come in the morning of April 13th for induction, if nothing happened on its own between now and then.

So I went in Saturday morning at 7am for the induction. After getting checked in, etc and finally seeing the midwife everything started it wasn't until about 8:30am. I was checked and was at 2cm dilated, Dawn inserted the foley balloon and we waited. It took about 3 hours for the foley to work and "fall" out.  By late morning my contractions weren't increasing, so the midwife gave me the options of either breaking my water or starting pitocin. I opted to try breaking my water first to see if that would help.

Well it didn't and by about 2pm in the afternoon we had a pow wow with the midwife and I told her I felt fine although I was dilated to 5cm. So it was basically that I had stalled! So we decided that it was time for the pitocin.  That definitely helped to get things going.

It was around 9-10pm that my contractions were getting almost unbearable and I asked the midwife if there was something between nothing and an epidural that I could have.  So she gave me a shot of stadol (spelling?). Which helped me to be able to rest between contractions. I remember feeling like it took a great effort to even consider opening my eyes.  My hubby said I looked like I was sleeping and then I would start moaning when having contractions came.

Around 11pm either it wore off or my contractions were so close that I was more aware. I felt the pressure of needing to possibly push, so they had me lie on the bed on my side and the midwife told me to bend my knees might help.  So I gave birth on my side and the nurse was holding my leg up and I remember telling her not to let go because I knew I was soo tired and couldn't hold it up myself.  My husband said that at one point I screamed and he it was getting too much seeing me like that.

I pushed for 16 minutes (was told later by the nurse) and Charlie was born at 11:46pm. I remember the burning sensation as he was crowning and then the whoosh as the rest of his body came out.  Unfortunately I tore a little on the top near the clitoris. Didn't even know you could tear there, they don't mention that in the books!

I'm not sure if it was because of the tear or just regular stuff but I lost quite a bit of blood.

As a result, later I walked to the bathroom with the nurse for the first time and about passed out and had to sit suddenly on the floor of the bathroom and was wheeled back to bed.  We tried several times over the next several hours and had bad results. It sucked!   So it wasn't until late sunday evening before I was able to take a shower.  Turns out it was a combination of blood loss and low blood pressure and I was still on the increased dosage of my blood pressure meds which I didn't need anymore.

But other than that it all went pretty well and I was proud of myself for not having gotten an epidural but if it would have gone on any longer I would definitely have broken down and asked for one!

First REAL smile?!

So Charlie is officially 31 days old!  Today he was sitting in his swing and I was leaning in and talking to him. He was looking right at me and gave me a huge smile!

This week he has started to definitely let me know when he is tired. He'll be fed and changed but then be super fussy and I'll rock, bounce, etc. Then I look down and all of a sudden he'll be out.