Dear Chris: Two Months

Dear Chris,

I can hardly believe it's only been two months that you have been with us. It feels like much, much longer. We can hardly imagine life without you!

You have grown so much! You started off 5 lb. 14 oz. and you are now 12 lb. 11 oz! Almost 7 pounds in two months! It make you momma proud. You went from 5th percentile to 75th. I love it!

I've gone back to work so you've been hanging out at your grandma's house every day. It's sad to leave you, but I know you're in good hands. Your grandma, grandpa, and uncles love to have you there. Their dog, Jack, also loves to have you there. Every noise you make makes him come over and investigate: What is this thing and what are these noises? We think you guys will become very good friends soon enough.

One of the BEST things ever is that you have started smiling. You started off just smiling as you drifted off to sleep. Then, it's progressed to smiling in a small, couple of minutes session once a day. Now, several times a day we can expect to see you smile. You focus on our faces more and I think you're beginning to recognize us! We love it.

You are getting to be so strong. I'm amazed at how much you hold your neck up. I think you're getting lots of practice because you love to look around. You especially love the light, so windows and lamps are your favorite.

We've officially had our first scare with you. You got your shots the other day and I gave you medicine (children's tylenol) because you were so unhappy and we could tell you were in so much pain. Little did I know that I had gotten the concentrated formula from the store. So, I gave you 3 times the amount of medicine you should have had! I felt terrible and so scared, but after a call to Poison Control, they assured me that while it was definitely too much medicine, it was not a toxic level and you would be fine. Whew! At least I know, I will never make that mistake again!

Well, we just love you. You are so cute and adorable. You have such kissable cheeks. Everyone tells us you are the cutest little guy and we know they are right! Keep up that cuteness!

Love,

Mom and Dad

It's been a while, hasn't it?

I feel like it's been much too long since I've posted. Here are some new thoughts on mother hood:

1) Nursing is going well. The acid reflux medicine seems to be helping, but I wonder if he has some allergy. His little cheeks are a little scaly and red and his forehead is super dry. It may also be excema. I look forward to his 2 month appointment in two weeks to find out what we can do about it. It's kind of crazy how anything you eat can effect your child. If I was better, I would keep a food journal. It would help me lose weight and also help me know if there was a certain food that I ate that made him fussy/gassy. I really should do that. It's amazing how if I did find out that I couldn't eat a certain food, there would be no question that I would change my diet completely for him. I guess this is motherhood! In my mind I feel like if the doctor said don't eat wheat, I would instantly do it without a question in my mind. But how hard would that be? I'm glad I feel such love for Chris that something like that would maybe be a little hard, but I would never not do it. I can't seem to find the right words to explain, but you're getting what I'm saying, right?

2) Today a friend asked me how long I will nurse Chris for. Honestly, I don't know! I feel like I will want to wean him of most feedings around 9 months, but continue to nurse him in the morning and evening. I just don't know. I know there are benefits to nursing for a long time, and I want to give him those nutrients. But there is something to be said about not needing to nurse every 3 hours. It definitely dictates my schedule. And when I miss a feeding (say because of a wedding and luncheon which happened the other day), it is uncomfortable for me and we get so off for the rest of the day. I look forward to being able to just give him juice and crackers for a snack! But at the same time, I would miss those feedings. A month ago I would never thought I would say that! Now that nursing has become easy the majority of the time, I am really enjoying it. I love hearing his swallowing, I love hearing the little noises he makes. I love hearing how he breathes. And it's soothing to just sit there and nurse. I look forward to when we can interact more and he will respond to my kisses and tickling, and I'm sure I'll enjoy nursing even more. So I really don't have a plan for when to start weaning nursing and when to completely stop, but I've come to find that a mother's instinct for her child is pretty accurate and good to follow. I heard that advice before, to just follow your instincts, and I'm happy to say, I feel confident doing that now!

3) I had my 6 week appointment and I can finally exercise! And I'm happy to say I have exercised almost every day this week so far! And boy, do I get sweaty fast. I have never sweat this much exercising, and I'm not even doing that hard of exercising because I'm trying to start a little slower than I would automatically go. I guess all these months of inactivity have taken their toll... So I'm exercising using our Xbox Kinect. We have The Biggest Loser Workout game and I love it! It's awesome. Today was one of the days they designated for resting (but they have Sunday as a day to workout, so I'm switching them!) and so since I didn't have a routine they assigned me, I did some challenges! You basically are against other computer players, and you have to do things like squat to make your computer self push a cannon up a hill and then shadow box (punching the air) to crank the cannon and set it off first. It's super fun to have this competitive drive to squat a ton of times without stopping.

One thing about the game that I find funny is how fast they think I will lose weight. So I have another 10 pounds (9.8 to be exact) to lose to get to my pre-prego weight. Then I have another 15 to get to where I was when I met Jed. Then I have another 25 to what is a good weight for my height. So a total 50 pounds, I'm embarrassed to say, I have to lose. It's gonna be hard! But when I put in my weight, height, etc. and my goal weight into my profile on the Biggest Loser game, they told me I would reach my goal weight, working out 4 days a week, in 12 weeks. Ha! Do they realize I'm not actually on the biggest loser? That would be about 4 pounds a week. Seriously, I could never do that. My goal of losing my 50 pounds is to lose it by next April. One year! I think that is reasonable. I figure I can lose 20 pounds by August (so 20 pounds in three months: doable). I think these pounds will be the easiest lost. If I stick to eating like I should and not snacking on unhealthy food so much, I think I could do it easily and possibly quicker. Then, I'm giving myself two months to lose the next 10 pounds, 3 months to lost the next 10, and 4 months to lose the last 10. If I get into a groove of things, maybe it could be done quicker. I really don't know. I've never tried to lose this amount of weight. Well I've started to, but never gotten past losing more than 5 pounds. I've done a pretty terrible job in the past. So, here's hoping with a supportive husband and this momentum, I'll get into the habit and have the drive to do this!

4) I'm going back to work on Tuesday. 5 days! I'm excited. I'm so glad I have a job I can look forward to returning to. My kiddos are just so wonderful, I can't wait to see them and the progress they've made. It helps, of course, that I only have a month left in this classroom. After that, in order to complete my portfolio, I will be doing the 6 week summer school BYU sponsors so that their students can get some teaching experience before their internship or student teaching starts. That one I'm more nervous for because I have no idea what to expect, and no one can tell me what to expect because they've never had a student do it a second time because of bedrest/maternity leave.

I haven't yet started to feel sad for not seeing Chris all day long. I think the first day I will worry all day long about if he is doing okay. I already do that if I leave him with my mom's for even an hour. I have confidence that he will be okay, but I just feel like I am the best and most qualified person to help him if he starts crying because of that whole mother's instinct thing! I think I will definitely miss him, too, but right now I'm looking forward to a little more structure in our lives. Having a newborn who cannot entertain themselves and wants to be held makes schedules, structures, and going places very hard. I'm not driven enough, either, to push too hard for it either. So this will force us to have more structure in our lives.

I'm not gonna lie, the last several weeks have been pretty lazy. Stay-at-home moms are super busy, right? Well when you only have one, you really don't have that bad of a life. I still feel like I'm kind of forced into laziness (because I haven't yet figured out how to not just sit there and hold him and because nursing for 30 minutes every few hours kind of keeps you from doing things outside of your home), but I know I could be more productive. And so I have been taking it easy. I mean, we take a nap together almost every day! But I feel like I should cherish this time, because once I go back to work, I know I will be working for a long time, probably until Jed is out of graduate school in three years. Plus, next time we have a baby, I will have a (most likely) toddler to take care of too. And THAT I think will make caring for a newborn pretty difficult, and will make being a stay-at-home mom not feel so much like I'm taking a vacation.

Well, I was about to think about any other things I want to say, but Chris is up to eat! Gotta go!

Dear Chris: 5 Weeks

Dear Chris:

I can't believe we've had you for such a long time! I think back to the first few days with you in the hospital. You were so skinny and fragile. I didn't feel like we had much interaction, but I loved to hold you. Fast forward to today: you may not be fat, but you are definitely chubbier! It's amazing how I can tell the difference. I can even tell that your little hands have more meat on them. I love that you are getting fatter. You fill out your onesies, so I finally feel like you aren't so teeny. You even have a bit of a double chin sometimes when your head is down.

You are awake so much more! You love to look around and love to stare at lights, which makes me a little nervous ha ha. I don't want your cute eyes to get hurt! But it is fun to see you look around and look at me so much more! Now I just am waiting for some more smiling.

You hardly mind your car seat now! I think you know it means you get to go outside, and I think you love outside. You always calm down whenever I take you out there. You also love the car. You almost always fall asleep when you go in it. That makes me feel so much better, because it was always so sad to hear you cry as I drove because I couldn't do anything!

You are still a little cuddler and have given us some long nights where you wouldn't sleep unless being held. We still count our blessings, though, that the majority of the night you sleep very soundly, only waking up when you're hungry. I feel like getting you to sleep is like an experiment: each night we tweak just a little thing and see if you sleep better with that change. It makes me laugh, but it really has helped you sleep better!

Feeding you at night can be a little hard. I get so tired! I am so glad I have the boppy to prop you up, so when I have fallen asleep, I don't have to worry that you could roll off my lap. To help me stay awake, I eat lots of snacks! Cheese nips have been the latest snack. Rice cakes and fruit snacks have also been my snacks. I am so glad to have an iPhone, too, to entertain me.

Speaking of that, the fact that I can play on my phone while you eat is amazing. You latch on so well! I rarely have to help you eat. So it's like what everyone said: around a month, it gets easy. Thank goodness!

A sad thing is that I think you have acid reflux. You've been having a very gurgly stomach, more gas, more spit up, and you've been pretty upset during and after feedings. I thought maybe I just was eating something you didn't like (I already can't eat chocolate, broccoli, and spicy food because it makes you too gassy), but I couldn't figure out what would make you so unhappy after cutting those things out. Once I figured out it was acid reflux, we keep you upright after feedings and that helps a lot. We propped up a side of your crib mattress so that you can sleep better, and that seemed to help. Now, the doctor told me that I should stop eating dairy to help you out. I love my milk! But if it makes you less uncomfortable, I won't have any. I'm excited to see if this helps you! If not, you might have to get a prescription from the doctor to lessen the pain.

You continue to be a generally pleasant baby. Your dad and I love to look at you and love to hold you. You are so loved and we are so glad we have you! Keep growing, little one!

Love,

Mom and Dad

"Happy birthday to Jed; We're glad you're not dead..."

(You can thank our future brother in law, Danny Adams for the blog title)

Who's birthday is it today?

This guy's!

My dear Jed is 24 today! That seems so old to me and yet I know it's so young. This is the third birthday we've celebrated together. Ca-razy. To celebrate his birthday, I am going to say some of the things I love the most about Jed!

1) He is very in tune and responsive to me and my emotions. Let's be honest: women are emotional. Pregnant women are ridiculously emotional. Not only had Jed learned how to respond to me and my emotions pre-pregnancy, he did amazingly while I was pregnant, as well as with some of the ups and downs in this first month of having a baby. I am so grateful for a husband who pays attention to how I'm feeling and does his best to make me as happy as possible! In addition to that, even if he's upset too, he does his very best to work past that and help me feel better. What a guy!

2) He is so smart. Jed knows so much about history, geography, politics, Star Wars ;), current events, and so many other things, but those are the things I know very little about. I ask him about a lot of things and I am always so impressed with how much he knows. We've been recording Jeopardy (maybe this is nerdy, but we are loving it!) and Jed knows so many of the answers! (If only he knew more about literature and authors, he could totally rock the show!) I also love that when he finds a topic of interest (say, for example, our new baby), he is a great researcher and an avid learner to try to find out everything he needs to know. I feel confident in his abilities to take care of our family and teach our children.

3) He is a great church member and priesthood holder. Never have I worried that he could not care for us spiritually. Jed knows a lot about the scriptures (I suppose 2 years of a mission will do that to ya) and I love it when we have discussion on spiritual topics because he often has an idea I have never thought of. I also feel so blessed that I have a husband who fulfills his callings and priesthood duties. He stays worthy to take me to the temple for a date once a month as well as give me blessings when I need them (which with the pregnancy and the pre-eclampsia, I needed several!). So I feel blessed to have a worthy man by my side!

4) He is a funny man. I think my friends and their husbands would agree, it is so fun to have Jed around. I love his humor and we have a lot of fun together.

5) He is a great dad. Jed has not had much experience with babies, especially newborns, but despite that I don't worry one bit that Jed won't do well taking care of Chris. He has such love for him and is so caring. He also is really great about asking me to show him how to do things when he doesn't know. I love that! I know that because he does that, he doesn't just expect me to be the caretaker of the children. He wants to learn so that he can do it too. I know I'll be the main caretaker, being the stay at home mom, but I'm glad that Jed is so good at learning how to be a parent so that if I am ever away, he will be able to take care of our children by himself and our house won't fall apart! Now I just need Jed to want to learn how to cook....

So I hope I don't make you jealous that I have such a great partner in life and eternity. Ha ha, but seriously, I have a great man in my life and I'm so grateful for him. Happy birthday to my love; I can't wait to share many more birthdays as the years go by!

Bath Time!

Tonight was Chris's first bath! He could only have sponge baths before, so now that his umbilical cord and ring (circumcision) have fallen off, we could have a real bath!

I was worried for the bath.... would he hate it? Well, he didn't! He loved it. He was a happy camper almost the entire time, and the only time he cried was when I took him out of the bath and was drying him off. I understand--it's awful being so cold!

In the tub

Finally dry, finally happy

After the bath, after getting all cozy and warm and getting his perfectly soft hair brushed, I thought we could read. And he loved it! I didn't expect much from reading, but he actually looked at the book the entire time. His eyes never left the book! I'm very excited. We have a little reader on our hands.

Here's a few other pictures we've taken the last couple of days:

This is a favorite of ours. Ha ha he was a happy camper to just sit there.

Losing the Baby Bump: Two Weeks

One more thing I had no idea what to expect: how fast would I lose the baby weight? How long until I didn't look pregnant anymore? So, I may (or may not) post a few more posts like this one to show you how my weight loss is going. I gained a total of 35.8 pounds over the last 9 months, and so we'll see how long until I lose it all! I hear lots of people say it took you nine months to put it on, so you can expect it to take that long to get it off.

However, it's only been two weeks and I feel like I'm looking great! I think a huge contributor to that is the fact that I was SUPER swollen before I gave birth. I never realized how swollen I was until I saw what I looked like after. Whew! So, here I was two days before giving birth:

SWOLLEN!

Now here I am 5 days after birth:

Not bad weight loss, I think.

Here I am two weeks after:

Lookin' good, right? Ha ha I feel so great. I still don't know what I weigh but I'm super excited to see what I've lost. Quite a bit of water weight I bet!

Now I just can't wait to see what I can do once I'm cleared to exercise!

P.S. Like my new hair cut/color?


****Update! At about 2 1/2 weeks after the birth, I went in to have my incision from the c-section checked. There I weighed myself, and I had lost 25 pounds! Only 10 more to go. I guess this happens when you have so much water weight from being so swollen...

Being a Mother: What I've learned so far

I've only been a mom for 15 days, but it is amazing what you learn in 15 days when you are the main caretaker of a newborn!

• Nursing. Oh man! 
• Harder than I thought. It's definitely not what I thought, which was to put the child up to your chest, he latches on, and he goes to town! Even if Chris successfully latches on, often he won't stay there. It's not hard all the time, though! Sometimes, it is exactly what I imagined.
• I used to think nursing was a 15 minute ordeal. Nope! It may be when he's older and can eat faster, but as of right now, it's 30 minutes to an hour. Especially in the night, when he falls asleep so quickly, I have to keep waking him up to get him to have a good feeding. If I don't, he'll just be up in another hour, and I value my 2 hours in a row! 
• The Boppy nursing pillow is a must. No other pillow in my house will do the trick of propping Chris up like I need him to be. It really was a great investment.
• Milk coming in.... so painful! It was a terrible day, the day my milk came in. It was strange, too. Luckily, the pain lasted only one day.
• In the beginning it always made me exhausted and tired, and currently in the night, I struggle to stay awake. Snacks are a must in order to keep me awake. 
• Go to the bathroom FIRST! It's much better for Chris to cry a little longer because he's hungry, rather than he cry much louder and is much more unhappy because I have to pause his meal because I have to go to the bathroom. WORTH the delay.
• After showers, it's a race to get my clothes on. If I wait too long, let down begins and I start dripping milk on the floor. 
• Umbilical cord and circumcision are gross, but at the same time sure cool looking.
• I knew that he would create a lot of diapers.... but seriously, it's usually at least 10 a day. I have such a complex about it sometimes, too, because sometimes, he just has the teeniest bit of poop in the diaper, and I want to just leave the diaper on because I know I'll just be changing his diaper soon and I don't want to waste a diaper, but I don't want to be a bad mom and leave him feeling uncomfortable! One day, I guess I will either decide that an extra diaper is worth it, or I will decide that he can deal with a little poop for a little while. We'll see which way I lean.
• Speaking of diapers, the Huggies newborn diapers are amazing! They have this little yellow line that turns blue when the diaper is wet! I can even tell sometimes that he only pooped and didn't pee. It's amazing. Especially because (did you know this?) newborn's pee in the beginning is clear. Yeah! So it's a little difficult to figure out if the diaper is wet just by looking at it. Now I can just look at the outside and I know!
• Our Pack 'n Play is amazing. They have a newborn bed attachment which is where Chris sleeps for now until he's big enough for the bed. I love it because I don't have to go check on him. He stays in the same spot in his bed and I can put a blanket on him because I can tuck it around the bed attachment, so I know it won't cover his face at all and suffocate him. One of our best buys!
•  Baby blues. What a whirlwind of emotions and hormones I have had in the last two weeks. The nice thing is, I'm not moody like I was with the whole pregnancy, but every once in a while, I get a HUGE mood swing that cannot be helped. The nice thing is, almost always, the best thing to make me feel better is Jed hugging me and cuddling with me, and then sleep. It works well to get rid of the baby blues, and it's easy to get! Let's just hope next time they come, Jed's not in the middle of work or class!
• Along with the baby blues, I've had my moments of frustration. It's all been with nursing, and when combined with my baby blues, nursing seems impossible and something I don't want to do! Thank goodness for Jed to give me a break; thank goodness my baby will eat out of a bottle to give me a break; thank goodness that after a break, I can't wait to cuddle with my adorable baby! He just is so kissable. Just as fast as the baby blues will come, they'll leave just as fast. Plus, I know that nursing will be very worth it.
• We do a lot of laundry... We used to do it once a week or week and a half. Now, we still do our laundry around then, but we do Chris's laundry every 3-5 days. He leaks through his diaper because his little legs are so skinny, he spits up, my milk leaks when he's nursing, etc. and all this makes a lot of laundry! 
• Going out to do things is a hassle. Maybe I'm just lazy? But it just takes so many steps to go do a quick run to the store, and so quick runs are no longer something I do. I am excited for a bigger baby, too, when he will be able to sit in the grocery cart or I'll be able to carry him more easily, so that I won't always have to lug around his car seat when I go inside places. 
• My husband is amazing. Obviously, I get up in the night with our baby. But if Chris gets up in between feedings, I just ask Jed once and he's up and helping the baby. He also still cleans a ton and will do whatever I need him to when I ask him. Then, add in that my husband is super cute with our baby, kisses him so much, laughs at his cute faces, and overall just shows so much love for Chris, I just feel blessed to have a great husband so is making out to be a great dad.

So maybe this is a little long of a post, but just as I hoped that my pregnancy posts would help some of you know a little more of what you could expect, I hope this helps you know what to expect afterwards! I had no idea what being a mom would be like, but so far, I love it. I love our little guy so much and I'm so glad we have him!

Dear Chris: One Week

Dear Chris,

We have had you for one week today. What a week! Your dad and I are so grateful to have you in our life. It is amazing how much love we feel for you, and how instantly we felt that love.

It's crazy that after only a few days, we could already see some of your personality traits. For example, you love to have your back patted and rubbed. You love to be swaddled in your blankets. You probably wish you could sleep on your side all the time, so when we put you down to bed, we set you at the slightest angle, and that little teeny turn to be on one side of your back makes the biggest difference in how well you go down to sleep.

One of our favorite things about you is that you love to cuddle and be held. When you are unhappy, all we have to do is pick you up and you will calm down (most of the time). Your mom loves to cuddle with you and loves that you will nap on her chest while she naps, too.

You make us laugh when we change your diaper. You definitely don't like it, so you kick your legs in and out and back and forth. It's super cute, but we try to change your diaper as fast as possible because we don't want you to be uncomfortable for too long!

Already you are learning to get used to new things. You have learned that you don't need to cry when you're getting your clothes on because you'll be warm afterwards, which you love to be. You cry for a little bit when being put into your car seat, but you are starting to love the feeling of being in the car.

We're working hard on learning to be good parents and to get you into a sleeping schedule! We know that you are so little and so sleeping can be hard, but you are doing so great! You can soothe yourself to sleep sometimes and if you are still unhappy, you calm down really fast and go back to sleep really well when your mom or dad come in to comfort you. Last night you even let mom get three hours of sleep in a row!

You definitely take after your dad. You are thin and tall like him. You look like him, except for your mouth which you got from your mom. You like to cuddle and have your back rubbed like your dad (and mom!). We're excited to see as you grow up if you continue to be so much like your dad.

Another of our favorite things are the cute faces you make, especially when you sleep. We love to watch you sleep, but we love the few times in the day when you are alert and look around. You have such a cute face!

We love you Chris and we are excited to see what happens as you grow bigger and stronger.

Love,

Mom and Dad

A Baby Story

Whew! What a whirlwind this last week has been!

Last you read, I was at 36 weeks, things were going fine, and that was that.

On Monday, I had my 36 week appointment with my doctor. They always start the appointment by taking your blood pressure. Mine was 173/95. Eeek! So the doctor did the Group B strep test and check to see if I was dilated, which I wasn't at all. He told me that they would take my blood pressure again, and if it didn't go down, I would be sent to the hospital right then and there! If it did, he thought he would schedule the induction for Thursday when I was 37 weeks along. Well, we took it again, and it was 177/110. So we were off!

The plan was to give me citatec, which would hopefully dilate me more and prepare my cervix for delivery. Once I was dilated enough (probably to about a 3), they would give me pitocin to really get the induction going. So, 6:45 I got my first dose of citatec. Every 3 hours I got another. Long was the night. As the hours wore on, I was hungrier and my cramps were getting worse. My hunger was eased slightly with flavored ice chips, and once the cramps got bad enough, some medicine was put into my IV which gave me relief in literally less than 10 seconds. It was amazing! So 12 hours later, they check me for probably the 4th time. I was dilated to a 1. Not much progress! But the doctor decided that in an hour, they would start the pitocin.

My lime ice chips.

The red line is Chris's heart rate and the blue line is my contractions

So come 7:30, they started the pitocin and I requested to start my epidural. The nurse went to get the anesthesiologist, and lo and behold, his shift just ended and the next anesthesiologist would be here in a half hour. Rude! I wasn't too happy, but what could you do? Some of you may know, I was nervous for the epidural. For one thing, I have seen the size of the needle they stick in you. Huge! Secondly, they are sticking something in your back! Hello! In between your spine! That alone is bad enough, but I tend to have a pretty extreme reaction of arching my back when someone surprises me or pokes me hard enough. So I was nervous. Then, add to the nervousness the worst cramps I've ever had. And add to THAT the fetal position they put you in so that your stomach feels even more squished than it already is and you can't move to relieve your contractions. Add all this together, and you have me squeezing the blood out of Jed's hand. But, it went totally fine! The blessed anesthesiologist, I think his name was Dr. Lund so we'll just call him that, gave me lots of local anesthesia so that I felt nothing. And 10 minutes later, I was all numb and it felt great!

Then started the problems. Once in the night, my baby's heart rate went down. They gave me oxygen and had me lay on a different side, and all was well. But after they gave me the pitocin, his heart rate went down again. The oxygen didn't help as well as the last time, so the nurse stopped the pitocin. They started it up a little later, and again his heart rate went down. This time, it wasn't coming up. Dr. Thorpe had been at the hospital in Orem and was on his way, so the nurses did what they could to keep trying to get his heart rate up. Dr. Thorpe arrive just as my mom did, and they assessed the situation. My poor baby's heart rate was down to 60, which while quite low (it should be 140), they said it wasn't dire. I was still worried, though. They warned me that I may have to have a c-section, and minutes later, Dr. Thorpe decided a c-section was the best way to help my baby, and I was fine with that. I hadn't wanted a c-section, but my dear baby needed to get out!

The c-section was strange, but kind of amazing. They had me in there and done in 10 minutes. Dr. Lund even said as they were prepping me that they were only on their moderate speed and if they needed to, my baby would have already been out. So the c-section. It was such a strange feeling, because I could feel things, and yet I couldn't feel things. It felt like they were pulling and tugging at my skin and tummy, and yet I knew they were doing a lot more than that. So after a minute, they said, "The head is born.... the shoulders are born.... your baby's born!" And I heard these two teeny little grunt cries and that was that! I teared up but didn't cry like I thought I would, which probably was because I didn't get to see him. Because he was preemie, the NICU nurses whisked him away the moment he was out, and for good reason. Instead of breathing normally, he had to grunt to barely breathe. So he was given surfactant and put on a little C-PAP machine.

And with that, Christopher Daniel Stephenson was born at 9:45 AM on March 13, 2012. He was 20 inches and 5 pounds, 14 ounces.

So, it was over! It felt weird. It was almost like nothing changed. I couldn't feel anything, my stomach still looked huge, and I didn't see my baby. Jed was great and kept going to the NICU to check on Chris and he would tell me what was going on. After a few hours, they moved me down to the Mother/Baby floor where I would stay the rest of the time in the hospital. On the way down I got to see my dear baby. It was sad to see him on the machine, but they said he was doing really well.

In his NICU bed

Chris on the C-PAP

All afternoon we kept checking to see how he was doing, and with each update things got better and better! By 5:00 he was out of the NICU and down in the nursery on my floor and a little while later, I got to hold my baby!

I will finish the story off with how recovering from the c-section went. I was expecting terrible pain and an inability to stand up straight or at least without terrible pain. Perhaps I was lucky, but it wasn't bad at all! The first time standing up I had a flash back to the first time I stood up after I broke my femur. Oh that hurt like nothing I had ever felt, but after the c-section, my first time standing up was relatively pain free! Mostly just uncomfortable. Over the course of the week, things were going really well. Walking was great and although a trip downstairs to the cafe wore me out completely, it felt so good to walk around. So I'm extremely happy with that!

It's been a week and this last week has passed by so quickly, yet last Monday seems weeks ago! I can't believe all that's happened in only a week, how much has changed, and how amazing life is. I am extremely grateful to the doctors and nurses for taking care of me and my baby and delivering Chris to us safe and sound.

And that's my baby story.