Our First 10 Days with Baby Myles

*Just for clarification, I noticed in his “birth story” post I said his APGR went from a 5 to a 10. It actually went from a 5 to a 9.

Whew! I cannot believe that our sweet baby Myles is already ten days old! Of course it feels like he just joined our family (because he did!), but in a way it feels like he has always been here with us!

These last ten days have been a whirlwind—full of doctor’s appointments, nursing, diaper changes, and exhaustion.

First off, the doctor’s appointments. Because Myles was only in the hospital a little over 24 hours, we had to bring him in the very next day for his first pediatrician appointment. At that appointment on Tuesday, the doctor said that his weight gain was borderline where it should be and that he also might be a little jaundiced. So we came in for another appointment on Thursday. On Thursday the doctor said his weight gain was good and he was NOT jaundiced so we were good to go. However, as we were leaving the appointment a nurse ran over to stop us. She said that he had failed his PKU and actually tested “borderline positive” for hypothyroidism. So we had to go back Friday to have his PKU redone. Then yesterday (Wednesday) they called to say his new PKU results were in—and he was still testing positive for hypothyroidism. So this morning I took him in (this was my first time out with the three kids on my own. Whew! That’s a lot of work to go anywhere with three under five!) for more bloodwork and tests. They took FIVE tubes of blood from his little tiny arm! He cried and thrashed and tried to get away and they had to hold him down. However, I think his mom cried more than he did! Man is it hard to see your little guy go through something like that! Anyway, the nurse said he is so borderline, they actually think he is probably totally fine. But for now it is just wait and see what the test results end up saying!

Nursing--The majority of our time has been spent with me nursing this little guy. He LOVES nursing and I think he would be quite content being nursed all day every day. Mom, on the other hand, is NOT a fan of nursing. Sigh. He usually eats every hour or two hours during the day for 20-40 minutes each time. This means I’m usually feeding him all day long! Lately he does take a couple of pretty good naps that are about 1-2 hours long. Then at night he goes 2 or 3 hours in between feedings. So from people I’ve talked to and things I’ve read online, that is a pretty typical schedule for a breastfed newborn. However, for a mom who needs around 10 hours of sleep a night PLUS takes naps every day… I’m so tired!!! Oh well, what do you do? I’m sure I will get used to it… eventually! I will add that I have an app on my phone that keeps track of my feedings. It times how long I feed him and tells me which side I should start the next feeding. Technology is fantastic! My app has been a lifesaver because my brain is pretty fried and I couldn’t remember or keep track on my own!

Diaper Changes—We plan on using cloth diapers with Myles. However, cloth diapers come up higher than disposable diapers (and you can’t roll them down) so we weren’t going to use them until his umbilical cord fell off. Well that happened and I was excited (and nervous) to start cloth.

Doesn’t he look so cute in his little diapers?!?

Unfortunately, when the diapers are pulled up where they should be (in this picture it’s really low for some reason), it covers his belly button. Since his belly button is still healing, it caused some irritation and bleeding. So we only used the cloth for about a day and a half and will be holding off on our cloth diapers until he is COMPLETELY healed!

Exhaustion—For the first several days, Myles was ONLY happy when I was holding him. He didn’t even want anyone else to hold him—only me! In fact, he wouldn’t even SLEEP unless I was holding him! So for the first week, I had to sleep sitting up on the couch holding him. Needless to say, I was EXHAUSTED! Then I read about a Rock and Play. It’s like a cross between a bouncy seat and a bassinet. We went and bought one for Myles and now he will actually sleep without me holding him! I’m still super tired, but I consider that a success!!!

I guess that’s about it for our first week. Other than the doctor’s appointments, we have just stayed at home every day. The last day or so, I feed him at about 7:30, then feed the big kids at about 8. Then the rest of the morning is spent getting everyone ready and nursing and trying to do a few chores (sadly as much as I try, I am ALWAYS behind on my chores!). After lunch we have nap time (usually I end up holding him during naptime because he wants to sleep AND cuddle during that time). Then the afternoon is spent more of the same—nursing and trying to get some chores done in between. Austin gets home at 6 or so and we have dinner and then it is time to get everyone in bed. Once again, at night time Myles only wants cuddled by mom so I spend a lot of time holding him until around 9 or 10 when he goes to bed (then up around midnight, three, five, and then we start over again at 7ish). It’s not too bad of a schedule, but I look forward to the days when we nurse less and sleep more!

Now time for pictures!!! I haven’t been good at posting pictures or keeping people updated so far, but I have been snapping a few pictures as we go about our day! Excuse the picture overload, but I just think he is too too cute! I also take a lot because I love the different facial expressions he makes!

We call this his “grumpy little man” face. He uses it a lot. : D

I love his little feet in this picture!

This is his “super full tummy” look:

Sound to sleep in his Rock and Play:

His first bath. So far he has NOT been impressed with bath time!

So I’ll just warn you—the next few pictures are about 100 pictures of the exact same poses. However, once again, I kept snapping because of his changing facial expressions! I can’t help it! I love the little chubby monkey’s many different looks! It must be a mom thing—I can’t see anyone else getting too excited by these pictures, haha.

I take it back—MAKENNA also gets excited about all his different expressions! She loves to look through all his pictures too. : )

Oh, I guess this is a good time to mention how the big kids have been doing with a new baby in the house. They have actually done really well. Makenna LOVES the baby and wants to constantly be touching him and looking at him and talking to him. I’ve had to warn her several times to get out of his face! It’s hard for her though because she loves him so, so much! Max is occasionally a bit rough with him. He doesn’t want any of this cuddling business—he wants a rough and tumble brother he can PLAY with! So for the most part, Max just does his own thing and expects brother to do his own too! The kids have watched a LOT of TV lately. I’m just always so busy nursing I haven’t had a lot of time to do other things with them. So for the amount they have been without mom’s attention, they have been doing great actually! I’m hoping I’ll be better at spreading the attention around soon!

Okay, okay… I’m done! : D

Anyway, so just to kind of close things out (I’ve been typing this out as fast as I can while he is napping but I have GOT to go lay down for a nap too!), we seriously love this guy! I cannot stop kissing his fat little cheeks and I absolutely love looking at him and his dark hair and shiny, big eyes. In my nonbiased opinion, I think he is a BEAUTIFUL baby! He is actually a really good baby too—a bit needy with his always wanting to be held and whatnot, but all in all a good baby. I feel like he is also getting grown up really fast. When you hold him now he loves to lift his head up and look all around and everything. He also stays awake quite a bit and is very alert and likes to look around at everything. He also seems to be chunking up and filling out even more. If he has made so many changes in just ten days, I can’t wait to see what he is like in a few more weeks!

Makenna’s 5th Birthday

With all of the craziness of having a newborn baby, Makenna’s birthday got pushed to the backburner this year. Usually we spend the kids’ entire birthdays doing fun things. However, with a five day old baby, we couldn’t really get out and do much this year. We also usually have a big birthday party for the birthday kid, but I just didn’t think I could handle a party after just giving birth. Nevertheless, we tried to make Makenna’s special day a fun day for her!

Makenna woke up to a few decorations celebrating her birthday:

I told her for her birthday she could do whatever she wanted. Her first choice? Open presents of course!

I love looking at her expressions when she opens presents! She just truly gets so excited!

A doll set with Merida (from the movie Brave) and her mom

A “decorate the house” sticker set

The rest of the morning was spent in pjs, playing with new toys and watching TV. Sounds like a good day to me! : D

Right before lunch, the mailman brought a birthday package from Grandma Becky (notice Max still in pjs? He kept them on almost all day too!):

And of course Makenna wanted me to take her picture with all her new things, haha.

After a lunch of macaroni and cheese, Max had to go take a nap—but not Makenna! We told the kids that when they turn 5 years old they no longer have to nap. Makenna was so, so excited to not have to nap—but ended up getting tired and laying on the couch for a while, haha.

Austin came home early and took her to get her haircut (not sure how the tradition started, but we always get her haircut on her birthday!).

Apparently she and Dad just had the very best time. Austin said everyone there made a big fuss over her and she felt VERY grown up!

After they got back home, we had to take Myles to the doctor but then got right back to birthday festivities.

We picked up pizza on the way home and then Becca and Derek came over to join us for dinner (the kids LOVE these guys so Makenna wanted them to come over to help her celebrate her birthday and have a little “party”).

Makenna picked out her own plates and napkins for her “party.”

After dinner, the kids watched Makenna’s new Barbie movie from Grandma Becky and then we had cake and ice cream (she picked out the ice cream too—Oreo ice cream and cake ice cream with blue frosting and sprinkles).

Becca made the cake for Makenna. It turned out super cute!!!

After dessert, Makenna opened a present from Becca and Derek. She LOVES her new outfit!

Happy Birthday to the best 5 year old ever! Love this girl and glad we had another year with her!!!

Baby Myles Birth Story!

I guess Baby Myles’ birth story starts back with my doctor’s appointment Wednesday, February 27. I had my appointment and the doctor was (as always) telling me how absolutely horrible my sugar numbers were when I said, “Well I’m being induced Sunday so I guess it doesn’t really matter anyway!” Then the doctor threw me for a loop, “Oh I think we aren’t going to induce until Wednesday.” When I reminded him that at my last appointment we had set up the inducement for Sunday, he said, “I don’t think you have progressed enough [I was 2 cm and 60%] to be induced Sunday.” He went ahead and stripped my membranes but then sent me home. Well I was INCREDIBLY upset! He had told me the whole time that he thought I would go into labor by myself at around 37 weeks. And then when I didn’t, he said he wouldn’t let me go past 39 weeks because of the gestational diabetes. Well Sunday WAS 39 weeks and now he was pushing me BACK when my sugar numbers were getting higher AND my blood pressure was shooting up?!? I went home and cried myself to sleep!

On Thursday I woke up feeling horrible! I had quite a bit (TMI) of bloody show and was cramping like crazy. By 10 am I was having painful contractions that were 3 minutes apart and lasting for a minute each. I didn’t know what to do because Austin was in surgery all day. I finally called him and told him to come home in between surgeries and take me to the hospital because the contractions were so painful and consistent that I didn’t think I could make it to the end of the day. So after his morning surgery, he picked up our friend Becca to come and watch the kids and picked up me and dropped me off at the ER and then went to his next surgery! I was quickly checked in at L&D and they saw I was having contractions at 3 minutes apart. However, when the doctor came and checked me I was still at 2 and 60, just like I had been the night before. The doctor was just going to send me home then (even though the nurse kept saying she thought he should admit me because my blood pressure was so high and I WAS having significant contractions), but in the end decided to have me walk the hospital for a little while and see if that did anything. Well that was fine with me—I couldn’t go home anyway because Austin was in surgery and I was ready for that baby to come!!! The next two hours were incredibly painful. Here I was, absolutely huge anyway and having painful contractions every three minutes, trying to walk around the hospital! After two hours I went back to be checked again—still no progress and I was sent home (well, after waiting in the lobby a couple more hours for Austin to get done). For the second night in a row I went home and cried myself to sleep. Only this time I was in major pain—the contractions lasted all night!

Friday was more of the same—contractions all day but these weren’t consistent at all. I was just really tired and achy and felt pretty bad. That night I was up at least every twenty minutes (sometimes more than that) because I felt like I had to go to the bathroom all night! It was so crazy. I would feel like I was about to wet my pants and no matter how many times I went the feeling never went away! So once again, no sleep!

Saturday—same thing again. Cramping, contractions, and feeling like I had to go to the bathroom. I was miserable and absolutely exhausted so I spent my day either in bed or the bathroom. The poor kids just watched tv all day (Austin was at work). Around 10 pm that night my contractions were more consistent and I started timing them again. Once again, they were three minutes apart—just like they had been on Thursday. Austin got home at about 11 pm and by then I was walking the floor and getting in and out of the bath and just bawling because I hurt so much! My contractions were between 1 and 3 minutes apart, but I was afraid to go to the hospital because I didn’t want to get sent home again. Finally I decided to go to the hospital anyway. I told Austin they would either have to admit me or give me some medicine to stop the contractions because I couldn’t take anymore! So Austin woke the kids and we bundled them up and set off for the hospital.

Random picture that I took of myself on Saturday. Absolutely huge and miserable!!!

We got to the ER a little after 1 am. Austin dropped me off at the door (he and the kids just waited in the waiting room until we found out if I was going to be sent home). This time they RAN me back to L&D and quickly checked me. I was dilated to a 5 and 80%. They were definitely admitting me! Before 2 am, I was already up to a 6 and going fast! They quickly ordered my epidural but apologized in advance if I didn’t get it in time—I was going that quickly! I sent Austin a message and he called Becca and Derek and asked them to come and get the kids. By the time he made it up to the room, I had already had my epidural and was starting to feel better. The doctor came in and said that the feeling I had that I had to go to the bathroom was because my water was bulging so much. He said he could break it then and the baby would be born quickly, or we could wait a little while. I chose to wait a little while because I wanted to make sure my epidural had me good and numb! So for the next couple of hours, Austin slept and I tried to relax (IMPOSSIBLE when you know you are about to have a baby!). Finally at around 6 am I called him and said I was ready to have him break my water. He broke it and I was dilated to an 8. He started to leave the room and I immediately told the nurse I was ready to push. The doctor said no way was I ready to push already and left. However, the nurse believed me and started getting things ready. At 6:30 I told the nurse I could not wait anymore—I HAD to push. She called the doctor in and he checked me and said we were good to go!

The next thirty minutes were so horrible. I felt like I had to push—nothing to be done about it, I HAD to push—but I was just so, so exhausted! I hadn’t slept in days and I was just honestly too tired! Everyone around me was telling me to push and all of a sudden I was crying and screaming and throwing a fit basically and saying I could not do it. Haha, I was absolutely ridiculous! I can remember yelling that the doctor had to get that baby out because I could not do it!!! I can also remember being SO annoyed because they were going to let Austin deliver the baby and I thought them getting him ready was taking way too long! I’m pretty sure several people wanted to smack me before it was all over! But all over it soon was, and at 7:02 am Myles Austin Matthews was born!

After he was delivered the doctor asked me if I wanted to cut the cord—umm no. That grosses me out! So he did it. I mostly think he was trying to distract me from the fact that they did NOT give me the baby right away. I didn’t hear him cry and I kept asking what was going on and no one would tell me. Turns out he wasn’t breathing right when he was born. However, he was totally fine and the nurses said sometimes when delivery is so fast the babies just have a hard time adjusting at first. His original APGAR score was only a 5 but after ten minutes he went up to a 10. Finally after about half an hour they gave him to me and he immediately started nursing and he nursed for a full hour until they needed to clean him up and check his blood sugar (because of my gestational diabetes his blood sugar had to be checked every few hours).

He wasn’t nearly as big as we thought—he was only 8 pounds, 1 oz and 21 inches long. He weighed exactly as much as Max and Max was born at 37 weeks when Myles wasn’t born until 39 weeks!

The proud Daddy with his new little baby:

Austin was actually on call, so a hour after Myles was born, he had to leave to go and do rounds and was gone until after lunch time. So the whole morning it was just me and cute baby boy!

He was VERY sleepy, but also nursed quite a bit!

At about 3, Becca and Derek came and brought the big kids to visit their new baby brother.

I had only been away from them for the day, but boy did I miss my big kids!

Becca and Derek left after a hour or so, but the kids stayed with us to have our “Celebratory Dinner” with us. Finally a little after 7pm, Austin took the kids home for the evening (only they didn’t make it home until much later because Austin kept getting calls about patients!). Then it was just me and little man! That night was pretty rough. I hadn’t been able to sleep all day and I was SO tired, but baby Myles did NOT want to sleep. I also had a huge scare: I was changing his diaper when he spit up and it went up his nose and all of a sudden he stopped breathing! I couldn’t find the nose thing (what’s that called?!?) anywhere and I started freaking out so I had to call the nurse in. She ran and got a new one and we cleaned out his nose and he was good to go. But seriously that freaked me out. At that point the nurse offered to take the baby until the shift change at 7 am (it was about 4 am then). I was so tired I eagerly agreed and fell asleep—only to be awaken at 4:30 am by a resident who was there to discharge me. Who gets discharged at 4:30 am?!? Anyway, after the resident left I tried to sleep again but finally got up for good at 6:30 am.

The rest of the morning was spent doing check-out things—paperwork for medical records and the birth certificate, taking pictures, etc. I was ready to go by the time Austin got done with work at around noon (once again, Becca was watching the kids), but we were waiting for the pediatrician to come and discharge Myles. They finally came in and we left the hospital a little after 1 pm.

I wish I had taken pictures—Becca and the kids made a “Welcome Home Mom and Myles” banner that was too, too cute! But I was just so happy to have my entire little family home together safe and sound! It is SO great to finally have our little Myles! We absolutely love and adore him already!!!

Special, special, special HUGE thanks to Becca and Derek for EVERYTHING! Becca spent SO much time watching our kids and straightening things up and left us a yummy dinner that first night. They were (and are) truly amazing and we are so grateful they took care of us and the kids during this time!!!