Adjusting to Daily Life with 3

It's been 2 weeks now since Brayden has entered our world. Wow does time fly! I think it's partially because I am delirious from lack of sleep! Also without having to work at a paying job, a Monday is the same as a Saturday!

Brayden has been a joy to have in our lives! I say that now since he's sleeping peacefully (and not crying without us being able to figure out what's wrong)! Everyday he is becoming more alert and aware of the world around him. He opens his eyes more often looking around at everything. Recently he has become cranky and somewhat inconsolable in the early evening hours. His umbilical cord fell off at 10 days and his day 2 surgery (that only a male requires) has healed.

Over the past 2 weeks my maternal instinct has kicked in drastically. I didn't know that I could change a diaper, hold, dress, comfort, consol, and LOVE a baby (not just any baby - my baby!) without thinking until now.

I've had to call the pediatrician twice so far. One was a 'new Mom call' and the other worthwhile. On day 3 his little chin was red and raw from feeding and I didn't know what to do. The simple answer is put lotion on it - I was oblivious to the easy answer on day 3! He also had an infected tear duct that was causing him to get crud in his eye (8 in 100 babies get this) and the doc prescribed ointment for his eye and he's better now.

For me the hardest part of having a newborn is breast feeding him. Breast feeding babies eat every 2-3 hours (formula extends this by an hour)! And each feeding takes a good 40 minutes. I just don't pop a bottle in his mouth and call it a meal. I have to get comfortable, sit with him for 15 minutes on each side (at 2am and then at 5am), and move him around to keep him awake since he really has to work for it (otherwise we both fall asleep). Then there's the burping, swaddling, and comforting him to go back to sleep. No wonder formula is so popular! I have used my Medela pump once thus far (so I could have my first well deserved beer in FOREVER!) and he drank the milk in 5 minutes that would take me 30 minutes to give him. I am going to continue breast feeding for as long as possible, but this is the main thing that I have shed a few tears over. Brayden is totally dependent on me and I can't get any help from Dan in this area.

Life with a newborn honestly has its ups and downs, but ultimately that precious itsy bitsy handsome (if I may say so) fellow staring back at me makes it all worthwhile!

Birthday Boy

Our little bundle of joy Brayden Daniel Bowes has arrived! He entered into our world on Thursday, April 2nd at 7pm sharp! (Ironically this was 3 days after his due date just like me). After all you hear about birth from friends, read in books, and watch in videos, nothing really prepares you for the wild ride that really happens! Here is our story (warning it might be a little too graphic for some):
I started getting sporadic contractions at 6pm on Wednesday, April 1st while Dan and I were at Adobo Taquiria for my usual – cheese dip, soft shell beef taco, rice, and beans. Little did I know this would be my “last meal” before baby. The contractions were a little harder than the frequent Braxton Hix contractions that I had been experiencing over the past couple months. As the night progressed, the cramping contractions were coming on a little harder and more frequent. At 10pm the season finale Damages came on and I opted to take a shower instead of watching just in case this was the real thing. (2 days before on Monday night there was a false alarm when I thought that I was having real contractions since they hurt, but they diminished after a couple hours). After my shower I started timing the contractions. They were occurring slightly stronger and closer together. I called the OB office and they told me to go to the hospital. Dan and I loaded the car with our packed bags and headed to the hospital!

By 12:30am while checking into Northside the contractions were getting pretty intense. In birth movies and movies in general you see people walking around when they have contractions. I don’t understand how this is possible! I was frozen solid with week legs. About an hour later in our room the L&D nurse Lauren examined me and said that I was less than 1cm dilated and barely effaced. Somehow my real pain was false contractions...

Lauren said that since I was there and 3 days past my due date, I was going to have a baby and they weren’t going to send me home. This was good news since I was still in pain! At 4pm they inserted Cervidil to encourage “ripening”. They gave me some morphine to help me sleep a little while. For some reason the morphine killed my contractions, but I was able to get a little sleep. Three hours later by 7am the meds wore off, I woke up, and the REAL contractions started! I was ready for an epidural, but no such luck until I dilated some. At 11am our new L&D nurse Karen examined me and I was 3cm and fully effaced. I was so elated with the news that I could finally get an epidural that I cried.

After receiving the epidural at noon I could barely feel the contractions; only slight pressure. My parents even came and hung out in my room with us. The whole birth experience didn’t seem like it would be that bad after all! Then at 4pm all changed. I was 7cm and the epidural wore off so quickly. I can’t even describe how painful the contractions were. I received a bolus, but it didn’t help. Over the next 2 hours the anesthesiologist gave me two additional bolus’ directly into my epidural. They only slightly helped. The pain and pressure to push was so intense for 2 hours. Our new L&D nurse Patricia from Scottland was very helpful with her tough love in getting me though the birth. Dan was very comforting and supportive and held my hand the whole time. At 9 and 1/2 cm I even demanded a C-section! The last 45 minutes was all pushing 3x for 10sec every 2 minutes. I definitely felt everything at this point. The relief and exhilaration of seeing Brayden’s head out was incredible. Next Dr. Moore put him on my tummy while Dan cut the umbilical cord. Wow! I was so in shock from the experience that I couldn’t shed a tear. Birth is truly a miracle!

Thanks to our parents and friends for visiting us and meeting Brayden Bowes over the 2 days we were in the hospital and once we got home!

Week 29

News alert! We are about 99% sure on the baby name - Brayden Daniel Bowes (BDB). Brady for a nickname. You never know if we'll change our minds either before or after meeting him, but this has been a constant for the past 2 months, so were pretty much in agreement.

Also, since it seems that I know longer have control over my body physically or emotionally at times, I took the pregnancy plunge and changed something I do control - I chopped off all of my hair! You can see this in in the previous baby belly picture. I'm not fully happy with the mommyish look and wanted something more stylish, but I going to be a mommy soon, so it works:) It's easier to dry and style in the mornings too.

Towards the end of December we started to decorate Brayden's room. We are using my dresser and hutch from growing up and bought a crib and changing table topper to match. I was impressed, Dan assembled them right after they arrived! He's definitely excited for Brayden to arrive! Here's picture of the new furniture additions. The cute the Boston Red Sox mascot Wally mobile in the crib was a gift from soon to be Aunt Jeralyn and Uncle Bryan. Wally is the Boston Red Sox mascot. He looks like a neon green cookie monster/elmo.

Week 28

Yay! I have made it to the 3rd trimester. Even though the picture barely shows it compared to the previous month's, I feel A LOT bigger. Strangers are actually asking me when I'm due now, so I really feel pregnant! Of course it always depends on what I'm wearing. I tight shirt looks like a basketball is in my belly, but a loose sweater dress just looks like I am carrying some extra weight down there.

Merry Christmas! Dan took this picture on Christmas Eve. One of the good parts about being pregnant over the holiday season is that you get to eat all of the holiday goodies without regret! Especially now in the third, I can eat and eat and eat (no brandy alexanders this year though). My enemy heartburn does appear randomly though. Sometimes it's not after eating a big meal, but when my stomach is empty and I'm hungry.

Christmastime was wonderful and relaxing (and quiet...no screaming kids yet!) at our home this year. I love Christmas decorations, so this year in addition to a real tree, we bought a 9' faux tree for the foyer. It looks wonderfully festive in our house! The glass ornaments probably have one more year on the tree before having to switch to plastic. Dan's light decorations on the bushes outside looked great too. So much that during Christmas dinner, an onlooker even took a picture of our house! Christmas eve we had 2 couples over for dinner and Christmas day my parent's came over. Boy was I cooking a lot! I wore myself out over cooking and cleaning up the mess. The turkey and stuffing Christmas day turned out delicious though! You know the stuffing is good when my Mom give accolades and asks what I did differently to her stuffing recipe!

One funny pregnancy story was on Christmas day. We didn't go to mass on Christmas eve, so we had to go mid Christmas morning. I must have just worn myself out from the guests the night before, prepping for Christmas day, and being just plain exhausted from making a baby, that mass was just something that I could not emotionally handle. After Dan and I sat in a pew and mass started I just couldn't stop crying! It was the MOST bizarre hormonal induced thing! I would get it under control for a minute and then just start bawling again. Crying easily over the past 6 months has occurred when frustrated and tired, but nothing like this before! When everyone stood up for the gospel proclamation, we jetted for the church foyer. I was able to keep the crying under control there for the rest of mass...plus the kids in the cry room next to us overshadowed me!

Week 24

It's time for an update don't you think??? About a month ago at the doctor's we found out that we are having a baby boy!!! He is growing on track and looks to be healthy at this point. We are ecstatic! To let everyone know the sex at work I painted my nails blue for a boy for the week following too.

So now we're tackling the daunting task of picking a name. It has been more difficult than expected once we realized how important a name is. We don't want our baby to be picked on in school or held back in life because of a name we picked like Zulu or Apple. Also with the recent 2008 presidential election I realized a lot of assumptions can be made from just a name.

With that being said these are some that we are considering - Brady (and just tonight Brayden came to mind), Connor, Alex, Cooper, Parker, Heath, Beckett, and Rory. We will probably choose a family name as the middle.

As you can tell from the picture I have finally popped (like a Thanksgiving turkey)! I am finally looking pregnant to strangers. Baby and I are definitely growing. I've gained 11 pounds so far and it shows. According the stats, baby’s a little over a pound now!

I also have had my first bouts with morning sickness. I’m not sure why so late in the second trimester, but about once every other day a wave will suddenly hit me usually mid morning that I am going to throw up. This has only happened once so far a couple weeks ago when I was sitting on the couch at home one morning. Spontaneously without any symptoms I threw up. Luckily I missed the rug and hit the hardwoods instead. I think that might have been a stress (from working 10 days straight), hormones, rice and fruit by the foot for breakfast induced event though. Needless to say I stayed home from work that day!

Week 20

I have been so behind on keeping up with this blog! Life has been so busy recently with seeing Wicked, GT homecomming football games, eating, Coldplay, cooking, eating, clothing shopping, eating, and vegging out and catching up with my bf Tivo that there isn't enough time is a day. Did I mention that I like eating? Last night Mom made some delicious Lasagna and I helped myself to 2 pieces. Last week I even made chicken potpie from scratch. (Dan is happy to add this to my limited cooking repertoire) Also last week during my middle of the night wake-up call aka bathroom trip I was so hungry that I had to cook a bagel! The cold weather and pregnancy symptoms have hit hard, so while I was eating my delicious bagel, I got a gushing bloody nose! (if you don't know bloody noses are common in pregnancy...something to do with swollen membranes)

Other than food, my belly looks more pregnant than fat, but not noicably for strangers to ask if I'm pregnant yet. No complaints with that I suppose. I am also becoming more combersome. I think my sense of balance is off so I'm a little wobly. I must sit down when putting on socks and shoes. Plus it's a little unclomfortable bending over that far. Either way I am having fun with everything and Baby Bowes is growing.

So we have been coming up with baby names. It'll be much more helpful once we find out in 2 days if Baby is a boy or girl. I come up with a lot of girl names so I still think Baby will be a she. My favs right now are Jordan and Reese. Don't you love how Jordan is a play on JoAnn (my Mom's name) and Dan (which is also my Father-in-law's name)! I want to pick a unisex girl name if she a she. Either way Baby will be an adorable little Butto or Dre! My Uncle Tom has thrown in a couple name suggestions too. The best is Raine (like Dwight Schrute from The Office). Then our baby will be Raine Bowes (rainbows)! That's a one had me laughing out loud on Sunday!

Week 18

I went to the doctor's yesterday for my monthly checkup. Everything is coming along as expected. The results from last month's test for down syndrome resulted in a 1 in 10,000 chance. This is the best as it can be for my age group. That's great news! To congratulate myself and Baby I stopped at Wendy's and picked up my (our) new favorite treat - a vanilla and M&M twisted frosty. Yummy! If you haven't had one yet, you really should try one! Food is definitely my friend and I am starting to like breakfast a lot more than I used to. Waking up hungry is new to me!

I also found out that I have a Rh - blood type. At week 26 I'll have to get a shot to prevent my body from considering Baby an antigen and attacking it if it has a + blood type. I read all about this last night. Before 1968 there wasn't a cure to prevent a mother with a - blood type from considering a baby with a + blood type a foreigner. Many miscarriages happened because of this. Luckily this doesn't happen anymore so there's no need to worry!

Dan and I will have to wait 3 more weeks to find out if we'll be having a he or she!!! The anticipation is killing me! We can't start decorating the room and picking out cute little clothes until we know. I don't know if I have a feeling one way or another, but I'm going go with a girl since there are 7 girls and no boys out of all my cousins on on my Dad's side. Dan also has been having dreams about having a girl for the past couple nights. Baby's heartbeat was at 144 this time. According to one superstition, this means a boy. The Chinese pregnancy calendar is not helpful either. The calendar takes into account your age and month of conception to determine if you'll have a boy or girl. I'm not sure if the the month of conception is based on the gestational age (40 weeks) or fetal age (38 weeks). Based on the gestational age I'm having a girl and based on the fetal age I'm having a boy. Obviously I'm thinking about this was too intently! Guess we'll just have to wait 3 more weeks!

Baby belly picture to come later today...