Thanksgiving

 Wow, the weeks are flying by!  One day it's Monday, then it's Friday and I have NO IDEA where the week went.  Then the weekend comes and I'm a single mom with no help (Britton has been working the past 5 weekends in a row).  But I can easily still see that I'm blessed: I have an ADORABLE, sweet baby who takes my breath away; life is very good.

I finally have a minute to upload my Thanksgiving pictures just before Christmas!  

We hosted Thanksgiving at our house this year.  My parents stayed with us and my grandparents and uncle Ed came over from Clearwater for the evening.  Britton actually had the day off on Thanksgiving(!!!) so it felt wonderful to have my family home.

Nathan had his 4 month check up two weeks ago.  He now weighs 15.1 lbs and is 24.8 inches tall, still around the 50% percentile for both.

I wish I could report that I feel great, but I keep getting really sick.  I came down with mastitis this weekend and spent the past two days burning up and shivering and aching all over, not to mention the pain, ugh!  Why can't pumping be easier?  Why can't moms take a day off?

We are driving up to Charleston in a couple of days (assuming these antibiotics work well).  It will be great to see the family for Christmas but, of course, we have a few worries about traveling for 8 hours with an infant.  Well, I should say that it is normally an 8 hour trip, I'm guessing it will be 10-12 hours with Nathan and praying it won't be more!  (At the time this blog entry was written, sadly, teleportation was still not feasible).

Halloween

 My parents came into town last weekend and we all spent some time in Clearwater with Pop-pop for his 97th birthday!  He seemed to be in good spirits as he was telling other residents of Regency Oaks to tell him "Happy Birthday."

On Sunday, Nathan dressed in his finest pumpkin hand-me-downs to celebrate Halloween, blissfully unaware that he was missing out on the traditional sugar rush.  I took him for a walk with some neighbor friends whose 5 month old daughter was dressed as a daisey.

This week, I went back to work "full time" - 32 hours - which allows me to get to work at 9am, yay!  Britton is still on nights so I'm really looking forward to the weekend!

Back to work

Me strapping Nathan up for his first trip to daycare.

 Last week I went back to work part-time to slowly adjust to leaving Nathan at daycare.  I have two transition weeks and then I'll be working 32 hrs/week.  The first drop off at daycare was very hard!  I had  this crazy idea that I wouldn't cry because I'd only be gone for 4 or 5 hours, ha!

I spent a lot of time at the daycare last week...like 30 minutes every morning and 45 minutes every afternoon.  While I may have seemed like a stalker, it helped to ease my worries because it was apparent that Ms. Laura and Ms. Ashley are very good infant room teachers and really love the babies in their care.  Nathan seems very comfortable and happy there and gets to see new things.

Britton is still working nights, so with me going back to work and then being alone on the "night shift," the weeks feel long and lonely but the weekends are great.

Nathan is learning to pick his head up really well off the mat.  Each week he smiles a little more which is really rewarding for me.  I always get a smile now in the morning and often when I change his diaper, as if to say, "thank you, Mommy!"

Speaking of the morning...Nathan has now slept from 11:30pm to 7 am 4 times in a row!!!  Today would have been day 5 but just as I was typing this, he woke up 45 minutes early.  I've been getting up at 5:30 to get all my stuff done so as long as he doesn't wake up before then, I'm thrilled!

Nathan's 2 months old!

 Last week Nathan went for his 2 month well baby check up, which included shots, ouch!  These were harder on the mommy than on the baby.  He screamed for about 1 minute after each shot and then stopped; I'm still shaken up a bit!  He is now approximately in the 50th percentile in all categories and weighs 11.8 lbs!

This weekend I officially started running again!  Britton pushed the jog stroller and we took a slow pace; it felt good (physically and mentally) just to be doing it, whatever the pace.

This week Britton started on nights for the next five weeks so we are just looking forward to the weekends (he has Saturday off when he works nights).  I already miss having help with Nathan at night.  No more 10:30pm feeds with daddy while mommy gets a jump start on sleep; it's all me, baby!

A visit from Ann, Julieann, Caleb and Elijah

Last Saturday we were visited by Britton's mom, Julieann, Caleb and Elijah. We spent most of the day hanging out at our house watching kiddie movies, having lunch and visiting with Nathan in between naps.

Later in the afternoon we went to a nearby park where the kids (and adults) played and ran off some energy.

They all left that evening to go to Disney and we joined them for a day trip the next morning. Nathan had his first trip out of town! No, I did not drag a 7 week old baby around Disney, I'm not maso- chistic! We hung out in the shade by the pool at the resort. They all joined us at lunch time and we got to swim while the kids took naps.

Then Nathan had his first boat ride on a boat that took us all from the resort to Magic Kingdom where we met up with...Bobby, Tia, and Joey who just happened to be vacationing at Disney that week!

Nathan was apparently exhausted because he slept for eight hours for the first time that night (which has not been repeated since, unfortunately).

We really enjoyed the visit and Julieann's boys were excited about the magic of Disney! Maybe next time Nathan will actually get to go in the park.

Loving being parents

Each week things seem to get just a bit easier and Nathan does new things to keep me entertained. This past weekend, Nathan had another visit from my parents who confirmed that he has gotten even cuter! He is now noticing his toys on the play gym and is bopping them around a bit. But playing with Mommy and Daddy is still preferable over toys. Nathan's most impressive talent to date is his ability to steal our hearts a little more each day.

Britton took a picture of Nathan's toes in our wedding rings so that some day we can compare them to his big feet and sigh as we remember when his tootsies were tiny.

Maternity Leave

Today Nathan is 6 weeks old and last night he slept for over 5 hours in a row for the first time! I'm very excited about it but not naive enough to think it will happen again this week. He is now 9.4 pounds and roughly in the 37th percentile in height, weight, and head circumference.

The past couple of weeks have been easier as Nathan is doing really well on his schedule and Britton has had a relatively easy rotation so I actually see him in the morning and he comes home (and helps!) around 6:30 PM.

Our schedule is roughly:
7:00 AM wake up (if he hasn't already), feed, play, cuddle
9:00 AM nap in stroller while mommy walks
10:00 AM wake up, feed, play, cuddle
12:00 PM nap in crib (sometimes mommy needs to nap during this time too)
2:00 PM wake up, feed, play, cuddle
4:00 PM nap in crib, or in the carrier if mommy is running an errand
5:00 PM wake up, feed, play, bath, waterworks display, baby massage
6:30 PM feed again, cuddle, wind down for the night
7:00 PM bedtime
10:30 PM feed WITH DADDY!, then back to bed
2:30-4:00ish AM wake up starving and scream for food, feed, then back to bed, mommy prays that he will sleep until 7AM

Add in there many diaper changes and 6-9 pumping sessions, 20-35 min each depending on the day. The good news is I'm now able to supply over 2/3 of his diet thanks to many methods of increasing milk production including using "galactagogues" and "power pumping," words and phrases previously not in my vocabulary.

Nathan has rolled from front to back twice but has not mastered it. He is trying to figure out how to bring his hands to his mouth... he is becoming more consistent but still managed to punch himself in the face twice while attempting today. He's also learning to stick his tongue out and it is absolutely adorable!

Britton and I are both enjoying taking pictures of Nathan, included is a sampling of his and mine respectively.

The first 4 weeks and our first photo shoot

I figured that I'd write an entry to catch up to where we are today but everything seems to be a blur. Before my dad left, Nathan was introduced to my dad's mother and siblings though he slept through most of it. The McKenzie group came over on a Saturday for lunch and luckily my dad planned the meal and picked up food at Publix. If it was left up to me, everyone would have gotten a pickle and a glass of water; I was still just trying to put one foot in front of the other at that point!

On Sunday, my dad left and Britton's two weeks of paternity leave started. With both of us home, we were able to concentrate on getting into a routine and really focusing on breast-feeding. We had visits with a lactation consultant, watched videos, and sat down together to address the problems from all angles. It seems that Nathan has a general inability to latch well, stay latched and actually drink at the breast. He is quite capable of chomping down on my nipples and causing a LOT of pain but this does not provide him with food. I began to have problems producing enough milk, probably because not enough milk was being drawn from me despite a few pumping session a day. At three weeks, we decided to give up breastfeeding. :-( This was the hardest, most painful decision that we've had to make. It still makes me sad and I'm tearing up as a type this...I wanted the special breastfeeding experience that everyone talks about but it just didn't work out for us. However, the bright side is that I'm pumping like crazy now and am producing enough to supply over half of his daily intake. Also, feeding sessions are much more relaxed and special now because I hold my sweet baby in my arms and he seems to appreciate the bottle as he stares up at me and we have non-painful, stress-free mommy/baby time.

During the second week of Britton's time at home, we started to put Nathan on a schedule. Following a schedule has worked wonders for Nathan's cousin, Connor, and we are hoping that it will work well for Nathan too. The first 5 days were a struggle: trying to keep him up at certain times to get him to sleep at other times was the hardest part. It is still difficult to keep him up toward the end of his "awake times," but he is doing really well on the schedule. This week he has finally only been waking up once between 11pm and 7 am. And when he does wake up in the middle of the night, he is happy to be fed and put back to sleep. Good baby! Unfortunately, I still have to pump...so that's another 20-30 minutes that I'm up.

We had our first family photos taken with Nathan when he was three weeks old and included some of our favorite photos in this blog entry.

I guess that sums up the first 4 weeks. I think it's important to note that, though I LOVE Nathan more than I ever imagined was possible, the first few weeks were HARD. I cried every day for the first 3 weeks, usually a few times a day. I was never depressed, just exhausted, overwhelmed, under-slept, and disappointed with my lack of success with breastfeeding (though some would say I am breastfeeding, he's just not getting it from the tap). The 4th week was better but still very overwhelming and I still would love to sleep all night, just once! Everyone will report how great motherhood is (and it IS!) but only your best girlfriends will tell you about the parts that were really tough and how many times they cried. Thank you to my friends who shared with me their times of woe as well as their times of bliss so that I could better understand what I was going through!!! I'm truly grateful!

Yes, the last picture is seriously cute, we know. ;-) How could anyone not love that face?!!!

Family time

It was wonderful to see my family and to get to spend precious time with Todd, Shu-Fen and Connor. They stayed with us for a few days to help out when I got out of the hospital. While I loved having family fun time, I finally figured out that what I really needed was just a little help and a quiet house so that I could truly rest. So with Britton still working, my dad stayed for another week while the rest of my family returned to Jupiter. The aftermath of delivery turned out to not be as simple as I thought it would be and in retrospect I wished I had accepted the extra day in the hospital that was offered. At least with fewer people to visit with at home, I had more time to rest, sleep, take care of myself and get to know Nathan.

My dad was great! He did the little things in the background like making sure the dishes were always clean, picking up around the house, and providing me with food and hydration. My dad and I gave him his first bath and took him to his first appointment with the pediatrician where Nathan received his first good report card. Nathan also put on a 3-foot waterworks display while being weighed and luckily my dad was the one handling him at the time...fun times for grandpa! Dad also got some baby-holding time in and cleaned my whole house before he left, that's one heck of a house guest! ;-)

Our first big adventure - going home!

The day after delivery we were discharged from the hospital and drove home for the first time with our son! It turns out that Nathan is soothed by car rides and snoozed through the picturesque drive down Bayshore (which was a much more comfortable drive this time - where did all those menacing bumps go?).

Nathan spent the next few days at home with his mommy and daddy, grandma and grandpa, Uncle Todd and Aunt Shu-Fen and cousin Connor.

Britton had to work for the next week and a half but he was home cuddling Nathan as often as he could. People keep telling us that Nathan looks like a little Britton with my nose. We see the resemblance but we mostly just think he's adorable.

8/4/2010 NBC's Birthday

Warning: The following entry is rated NFW (not for wimps).

As I said, toward the end, I was pretty uncomfortable all the time. Then August 3rd came and I was fairly certain that going into labor was imminent. Later that evening, I started contracting. Britton went to bed and I told him that I'd wake him when my contractions got closer together. I stayed awake packing and watching a movie, completely unaware if there was some "normal" protocol that I was supposed to be following. By 1 am, my contractions were two minutes apart but I was still feeling relatively okay and I woke Britton so that we could go to the hospital. Right before we left, my water broke and my pain level went through the roof. I was no longer a happy camper (understatement of the year) and we drove to the hospital on a road that I found shockingly bumpy (considering I drive to work that way every day and never noticed the bumps). When we got to triage, we were greeted by our friends (nurses and residents that were hoping we'd go into labor on their shift), but at that point I didn't want to talk to anyone, I just wanted an epidural!!! To make a long story short, for some reason I was not an easy epidural patient (difficulties with dosing) and there was a 1 1/2 hour period where I was in a LOT of pain (next time we will try to get to the hospital sooner). Then I was perfectly happy after the epidural finally worked (see picture of side-lying happy preggo lady) and Britton felt comfortable taking on the roll of managing my labor as my physician.

By about 3 AM I was blissfully painfree and started to push for the first time around 5:30, but after a few pushes we determined that I was not ready and that the epidural had to be turned off. Around 6:00 I started pushing again, feeling only mild contractions, and I watched my husband help the baby's head descend more and more in a large mirror. Finally at 6:38 AM, Nathan Britton Crigler emerged and I was SO eager to hold him. My arms are out- stretched waiting to touch my sweet baby boy for the first time as his daddy is busy cutting the cord.

Finally I was handed our gooey, messy baby straight from the womb and he was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen!!! It was the most emotional moment of my life (new under- statement of the year) and the tears of joy came pouring out!

After a few minutes of holding Nathan, he was taken to the other side of the room to get cleaned up and checked out by his daddy and a pedi- atrician. Then Britton had the honor of placing the first diaper!




















And once again he was in my arms... mmmm... baby.... I am now a believer in love at first sight!

In less than an hour, I was stitched up and taken care of, fed, and transferred to another room with Nathan. Luckily, Nathan and I never needed to be separated because I was having a hard time taking my eyes off him for even a moment! He's so cute I could hardly stand it!

A lactation specialist came to my room and I tried breastfeeding for the first time. It was an interesting experience and unfortunately we are still struggling to master it and get mommy to make enough milk now that Nathan is over 2 weeks old.

This was truly the best day of my life! I am so proud and overjoyed to get to welcome Nathan into the world and into a very loving home! To us, he is perfect!