girlymama

the crazy still lingers...

...even though I am no longer pregnant.

Today we took Colin to the doctor and she was not happy with his very meager weight gain of 2 ounces. Now I'm convinced that his jaundice is worse than we think and he is not getting enough milk and is going to be dehydrated and I won't be able to breastfeed and maybe I should give him some formula and why is he sleeping so much and on and on and on. Seriously, I think I might be paranoid.
Today exhausted me. I learned that it now takes me 20 minutes to get out of the house with three kids. As in putting the first socks and shoes on to pulling out of the driveway... 20 minutes. This may throw off my mornings a tad. The doctor looked at me, looked at the girls sitting on the floor coloring in coloring books and at the baby and asked me, "You have help, right?" I said, "Well, my mom left today, but we have some help. People are bringing us meals and stuff" She raised one eyebrow and gave me a look. (This doctor is clearly a mother. Only a mom can give you that look.) Maybe I look worse than I feel...
Speaking of which, off to bed. At 8:50. Gotta save my energies for the 4am parties in Colin's room ;-)

zzzzzz

Right now, we're spending as much time as possible doing this:

Colin had a great night last night. He even slept in his own crib. I guess after being in the incubator, the crib seems pretty darn nice ;-) Except for a little mishap involving his pooping and peeing while I was changing his diaper, which resulted in me cleaning off 3 walls and changing my clothes at 4am. My reaction time is a tad slow at that time.
We don't think we'll have to take him back to the hospital today, as he is eating well and seems fairly alert. That would be nice!

I'm a little afraid, since my mom is going home tomorrow and we will be on our own. Starting with taking all three kids to the pediatricians office for Colin's weight check and then to the hospital for a blood test. By myself. I'm feeling very overwhelmed at the thought of taking care of three kids. Taking care of just Colin is exhausting me, so having the other two to look after is a bit scary.
One day at a time.

home

We're home. Exhausted, but home.

 Colin is dong much better - I'll write more soon. I've slept about 3 hours in the last 24, so I need to sleep first!

back to the hospital

Colin and I are headed back to the hospital. He has lost over a pound and is very jaundiced, so the doctor wants him in the hospital asap.

Pray for us and we'll update soon!

the cuteness is killing me

Reading to Baby Colin

moo.....

Well, today has been focused on nursing Colin as much as possible. He is looking more and more jaundiced, so they want me to nurse him as much as I can. Plus, my milk came in, so nursing is very helpful!

Husband took one look at me this morning and said, "Wow! Your endowment is bigger than Harvard's!" Then proceeded to call me "Hooty McBoob" for the rest of the morning.

Its nice to have such sensitive spouse. You know you're jealous ;-)

Last night he did really well. I got a couple 2 hour stretches of sleep. But, please do not pelt me with angry e-mails... we let him sleep in our bed. I know, I know you're not supposed to do that. But we had to choose between responsible parenting with baby screaming hysterically in his crib and slightly irresponsible parenting with baby sleeping peacefully in the bed. We went with sleeping peacefully. Tonight we'll try the crib again. He did great during his nap in his crib, so hopefully it will work.

More pictures soon! And the birth story! Sorry - it hurts to sit up still ;-)

we're home!

Hi, Everyone! I'm back!

We came home from the hospital this morning. I am sooo glad to be home since hospitals are very boring and have yucky food. Although it is nice to push a little button at 2am and have have a nurse take your baby away. That would be nice to have at home. "Rooming in" definitely one of those things that sounds better than it actually is. Like "breathing to manage labor pain." Whatever.

Colin is doing great so far. His hobbies are eating and not sleeping. He is pretty mellow until you try to change his diaper, which he does not appreciate and screams like he's being tortured. He is getting a bit jaundiced, but we are hoping to avoid the trip back to the hospital like we did with the others. He'll have another blood test tomorrow and hopefully we'll know then.

I'm doing well, considering. Very, very sore and very, very tired, but very, very glad to no longer be pregnant. I almost fainted when they told me he was over 8 pounds. I looked at my stunned husband and said, "See? I told you I was really uncomfortable!!" My mom is here taking care of us, so I'm off to take a Percocet and a nice nap, since I only slept 4 hours last night.

We're very, very happy to have our baby boy. We can't stop staring at him - he's just so sweet! I don't want to put him down! (Course, he doesn't want to be put down, so that works out nicely....)

Colin meeting his big sisters...

Introducing...

Colin Paul

March 24, 2008

He's here!

Colin Paul, 8 lbs 8 oz, arrived at 10:22am today, March 24th, 2008!

Both Mom and baby are doing well.  Pictures to come soon!

well, here goes....

Contractions started around 6:30pm and by 9:00 they were 5 minutes apart, although not painful. After 3 or 4 false starts, I was not going to get my hopes up. I called the doctor around 11 when they were about 3-4 minutes apart and starting to get very uncomfortable, and we're going in to the hospital! Husband is driving the kids to a friend's house, then we're going to head over to get checked.

I'm praying that its not fake labor, cause I'll be really annoyed ;-)  I'll send you all an update when I can!

Pray for us!