Visits

We did a lot of visiting with the relatives this past weekend. Went down to CT and saw L's Great Aunt Sue, cousins Kim, Rebecca and Frank, and Great Grandfather (Pop-Pop). We also had a surprise visit from grandpa! Even though we are driving down to VA in 2 week grandpa came up to visit. L did really well on his car trip to CT (2 hours each way), he slept the whole time. Hopefully he'll do just as well when we drive to VA, an 8 hour ride.

Progress

We had our fourth PT appointment today and things are looking good. The PT feels that L will probably not need the helmet as he's doing so well. We do a lot more exercises at home now, tons of stretching; some we like, others we don't. We have 2 more appointments next week, then on vacation for a week, then back again for our last week or PT. Here are some pics of L doing PT w/ the ball.

Randomness

just some random L photos b/c he's so adorable.

Physical Therapy

L started PT this week for his torticollis. He'll go for a total of 8 session, 2 per week. We've already completed 2 this week, 6 to go. Our first visit didn't go so great. L didn't like all the new positions he had to be in to stretch his neck, but today's visit went much better. L spent some time using a ball and getting a little neck message. If you didn't know what to look for you'd think L had the usual newborn floppy neck going on, that's what I thought. But that's what Dr.s are for. The PT says L had fine neck rotation; looking from side to side (when something of interest is there to look at), but he has the tilt on the right side due to a tight muscle. So we're working on getting that loosened up. His PT, Greg, is great, he's been doing this for 7 years and he thinks L should recover no problem. He also saw the slight plagiocephaly that I noticed as well. LIke L's pedi. he thinks that w/ the PT for the tort. it will work itself out. really hope so as I don't want L to have to get a helmet if we don't have too.

In other news I think I've found daycare for L. We visited 5 places total. The first place was our #1 choice until I visited the last one. I really like her right away, a very grandmotherly type. She was super nice and great w/ interacting w/L. I want to confirm w/ S, but she's the one I want to go with. The only problem is that she only works M-Th (but so did most of the others), so we will have to figure out what to do for Friday. Our first choice would be for S to get the day off, I will try as well but it would only be temporary. If not, then there is another daycare that could take him on the Friday's, although not my ideal choice to have L go between 2 places. I'd prefer to be consistent w/ 1 person. If anything I'd much rather be a SAHM but we just can't afford it :(

Almost forgot, L has an eye infection in his left eye :( He's not in pain or anything, luckily, but it's tearing up quite a bit and has some mucus. His pedi. called in a Rx for some ointment, it should hopefully clear up w/i a week. I guess it's a clogged tear duct, quite common in newborns.

2 months!!

L turned 2 months yesterday! I can't believe how fast time flies. I am so thankful that I have 6 months maternity leave, I couldn't imagine going back in only 3 (what most people get). Well at today's 2 month pedi appointment L weighs 12.5 lbs and a height of 23.5 in. The dr. also re-examined L for torticollis, a condition of favoring one side of the head, tilted head. So L will have some physical therapy to correct the problem. I guess I'll receive a call and the PT will come to the house to work w/ us. Hopefully it will get better fairly quickly :) Not that he seems to mind or anything, but we want this taken care of asap so it doesn't become an issue as he gets older. L also got some vaccinations today, 1 oral and 1 shot. He did not like the needle at all and his been quite irritable all evening. No fever or swelling, just not a happy boy tonight :( He's sleeping now, so I'll take it. I hate to see him crying and in pain. Hopefully tomorrow he'll be feeling better.

On another note, I've been taking some sewing classes. We cloth diaper and it's crazing the $$ one can make from sewing diapers. Not that I expect to make $, but it would be nice. But there's no reason why I can't sew CD for L, once I learn how. In class we will be sewing a pillow and tote bag. I'll take pics once I finish my projects. So far I am enjoying the class, I just hope that I will be good at it b/c I really want to sew my on CD.

Happy Mother's Day

Ok, so this is over a week late. I knew I'd be bad at updating. Anyhoo....S let me sleep in, so nice. He made me breakfast, creme brulee french toast with raspberry butter, yummy!!! And I received a gc to a spa (to be used at a later time). S watched L while I went out w/ my mother and got a pedi. It was nice to step for a while and get my feet all pretty. But as much as I enjoyed getting out for 2 hours I so wanted to get home and be w/ L, I missed him. Later that night my mother and her b/f came over for dinner. It was a lovely day, and my first mother's day!

A walk in the park

The weather has been so nice lately that we have gone on many walks together around town and some local parks lately. Here we are at Bird Park.

One month update

I forgot to update L's tats from his 1 month appointment. he's now 10 lbs 7 oz and 21.5 in. long; growing like a weed! He unfortunately also developed a slight diaper rash that cleared quickly but has some new rash that looks terrible like a blister or burn. I spoke w/ the pedi on call on Saturday and he said to use some Desitin (not cloth diaper friendly so he's in sposies). As of today it does look a lot better, but the white cream really gets into the skin and is hard to wipe off. I don't want to irritate L's skin so I don't wipe to hard. I just feel so awful that this happened. He's luckily not in any pain (thank goodness), and it seems to be getting better.

L is getting so good at lifting his head, here's a few pics that S took from outside looking in (notice the glare) but that's all L holding his head up by himself.

One month old

L is one month old today! We go to the pedi. on Wednesday when we'll see how much he has grown.

In just these few short weeks I can see such a huge difference. He weighs more, his head/face has gotten bigger. He's getting so good at holding his head up for longer periods of time. On occasion he will sleep for one four hour nap during the day, but mostly they are three hour naps. He eats more then when he first came home, 4-5 oz. now v. the 2-3 oz.

It was such a nice day out today, high 60s that we went to the lake w/ grandma for a walk.

Lights, camera, action

We have a new toy in the house, a Mino HD Flip video camera that my dad got for us. It's this awesome, simple little camera that is perfect to capture all our L moments. I finally decided to try it out today; to see if I could use even use it. So here's L's first ever video.

Patriot Place Outing

Sunday we went out for the third time.  First time was at the WWI memorial park, second time was to Panera for lunch.  But on Sunday the whole family decided to walk around Patriot Place, it's a pretty big outdoor shopping center at Gillette Stadium, home of the New England Patriots.  We just walked around for a bit enjoying the nice day, L slept most of the time and was very well behaved.  We were probably there for an hour or so, then decided to head over to my friend from work Chrissy's house.  She's the first from work to meet L, I hope my other coworkers aren't to jealous :)  We didn't stay too long, then headed home for a feeding, changing and a nap.

Birth Story

Before I forget the details I wanted to document L's birth.

I was due 3/13, a Friday, which I also made my last day of work.  Obviously he didn't arrive that day or any time over the weekend.  So Monday rolls around and I'm still feeling fine.  I decided to run out to BRU and pick up some last minute items.  I was feeling a bit more crampy than usual and decided instead of going anywhere else I was going to head home and lay down.  So I'm trying to nap on the couch and I begin to doze off and get a phone call from my dad.  After the quick call I try to get back to sleep.  I'm dozing again and then get another call, this time from my mother.  So I go to sit up on the couch and feel this gush of water (it's about 5:30PM).  I was pretty sure I hadn't peed myself; I headed to the bathroom to check it out, with my mom still on the phone.  I'm in the bathroom and it's definitely my water that broke as it's still kinda coming out.  I tell my mom that I need to call my dr., I'll call her back.  I head upstairs thinking I need to make sure my bag is ready and I wanted to take a shower and freshen up.  I try to call Scott and tell him he needs to head home, luckily he's already pulled into the driveway and was talking to our neighbor.  When he gets inside I tell him my water broke and I'm going to call the dr.  At this point my cramps; well contractions were getting more intense and I was having to make continued trips to the bathroom as I was still leaking water and having some other poop issues.  Well I call my dr.'s office and wait for a call back, which was pretty quick.  Lucky for me MY dr. was on call that day.  She said I could wait it out at home (I wanted to labor at home as long as possible), but to head in by 11PM.  I let S know the plan, as I continued to need to use the bathroom.  My contractions were getting more painful, I decided we needed to head to the hospital NOW!

We arrived at the hospital around 7PM, I check-in and we're told to wait in the waiting room.  At some point along the way S called my mom as she was there shortly after we arrived.  There were probably about 3 other pregnant women in the waiting room but I seem to be the only one bent over in pain.  We didn't have to wait to long, maybe 30 min. and we were brought into the E-room.  I had to change into the ever fashionable johnny, which took forever because I was in so much pain I could barely move.  Eventually, I got changed and the nurse came to check on my progress.  I was already 7 cm dilated.  We were moved up to L&D right away.

Once in L&D I had to have an IV started to get fluids and prep for the epidural.  It took several nurses and a couple doctors to finally start a line in my hand.  My arms looked like a pin cushion, as it took them 9 stabs tries to finally get the needle in.  Once in I was prepped to get the epi.  I don't really remember this at all,  other than feeling really good afterwards.  The epi. was like heaven, I couldn't feel a thing.  I still knew the contractions were happening, but was in no pain.  I don't remember much in the next few hours, but at 11:45PM I was checked again and was 10 cm dilated, so we were ready to push.  I didn't want to start pushing, it was so close to 3/17 (St. Patrick's Day), I was thinking that's a cool b-day to have so wanted to wait.  But my dr. wanted me to push and I figured there was no way I'd give birth in the next 15 minutes.  Well, I couldn't feel my legs b/c of the epi. so the nurse and my mom were holding my legs while I pushed.  The pushing wasn't really that difficult; at each contraction I was told to give 3 hard pushes, no big deal.  

At 12:42AM (3/17) Landon was born.  7 lbs 9 oz, 19.5 in long, 8/9 APGAR score.  They put him on my chest right away, it was truly amazing.  He barely made a sound, I assumed there would be a lot of crying (that's what you see on TV), but he was pretty mellow.  About 2 hours later we eventually went to the recovery room where we stayed for 2 days before heading home to our new life together.

Happy Birthday!

So today is April 1st, what's the significance, not only is it April Fool's Day, but it's Oliver's birthday (also known as Monkey).  My number one fur baby turned 7 today, that's 49 in people years.  Since the arrival of L I can tell that he doesn't feel as special as he used too.  He doesn't sleep with us anymore, he always slept at the foot of our bed.  I feel terrible but the baby is taking up so much of our time.  I try to make special moments with him.  Like when I get out of the shower he is always waiting on the toilet so that he can get combed, he loves getting brushed.  I give him treats whenever I can, which is not good as he now thinks that whenever I go to the kitchen he is going to get a treat.  Like Pavlov's dogs, he's waiting on the counter top.  But he's still my baby, albeit the fur baby and I love him.  Not that he understands but I do tell him that the baby will eventually become another pair of hands to pet him and feed him with. 

 

 

Happy Birthday Monkey!!

On another note, today was S's first day back at work and I think I did pretty well on my own.  It was tough getting up, I so wanted to sleep in some more, but L needed a diaper change and to be feed.  After that, the day was fine.  I was nervous about the time it would take to shower and how to keep him occupied.  On past days I could get a shower in, but he'd always start crying before I could dry my hair.  But today he was great.  I fed him, changed him, put him in the bouncer and he dozed off.  I was even able to change the bed and do some laundry.  We'll have to see if tomorrow goes as well as today.

White Picket Fence

I don't know why it took me so long to create a blog.  It would seem only natural as I had several of my own websites and I'm always browsing the internet.  Maybe it was laziness or lack of motivation, whatever it was I have finally decided to get back online and document the happenings in our life after the arrival of our son.  I feel this will be a great way for family and friends to check in on us and see what's happening in our life.  Hopefully I will be diligent in keeping the blog updated; I barely seem to be able to return a simple email.  

As for the name, White Picket Fence, doesn't everyone want that happily ever after family and home with a little white picket fence?

Anyhoo, welcome and I hope you enjoy.