Curtis's First Month Home

On Monday, Curtis will be one month old. I can't believe it, the time is going by so fast. I already feel like he is getting so big and changing so much. 

My mom stayed here for the first 3 weeks of Curtis's life, which was the most helpful thing ever. Isaac's leave didn't start till last Monday, so it was great to have her here to help out feeding Curtis when Isaac wasn't here and to help out with all the little things around the house so I could focus on Curtis. 

So far, that has been the biggest challenge for us. He loves to eat and even sometimes eats every hourish, but he does not like to breast feed, at all. It's something I've just always assumed I would do, something that I really thought, if given the chance, every baby could do. I have learned in the last month that is not the case. We've been told it mostly has to do with him being early and that closer to his due date, it would get easier. In some ways, it has because my hormones aren't quite as crazy so I don't cry quite as much, but for the most part, it hasn't gotten much easier. What our typical routine every 2 to 3 hours is Isaac gives part of a bottle to make sure he's not too hungry, the I try and nurse him. If it doesn't work, Isaac gives more bottle then I try and nurse again. We do that until I just can't take the screaming from Curtis anymore then I pump so that he can have milk for the next feeding. All of this takes close to an hour, then we do it all again in 2ish hours or sooner, depending on when Curtis wakes up hungry. The encouraging thing in all this is that on Wed, we turned somewhat of a corner and Curtis actually latched and ate. It's happened maybe 5 or 6 times in the past 3 days, and each time it gives me hope that eventually I will be able to just breast feed and not go through the whole nurse, bottle, pump thing. I have been told by our pediatrician that infants up to 2 months have had success, the mom just has to be persistent. So I'm hoping it doesn't take that long, but even if it does, I think in the end it will be worth it.

Yesterday was Thanksgiving, and obviously, we have so much to be thankful for. We are both so thankful for our son, thankful he's healthy and home with us, thankful that he sleeps very well and is not a fussy baby unless we're trying to feed him. I am so thankful for baby leave in the Navy, it has been the greatest thing ever to have Isaac home since Monday, and will be home until Thursday. I am thankful for God answering our prayers with a yes for Isaac's advancement to First Class. A few months ago when he was able to take the test, we began to pray for him to advance, because that is how I will be able to stay at home with Curtis and not have to figure out how to supplement our income so I can focus on our son. I am thankful for our family, especially my mom and dad for coming and staying and helping and allowing us a date night for the first time in a month before they left. And I am thankful for our church family, who have taken us in as family, serving us with bringing meals and sweet gifts for Curtis and offering babysitting when we're ready for a date night. We are truly blessed way beyond what we deserve.

Here are just a few pictures from the first month of Curtis's life:

Our good friends in Colorado sent us this Bronco's onesie and hat. He wears it every game day

Curtis enjoys anything that vibrates to put him to sleep, so rockers and swings are pretty awesome

Papa loves singing and rocking Curtis in Grandma's chair

We've been trying to do tummy time some...

...he doesn't really like it very much at all...

...so he rolls on his back as quickly as he can

Isaac is the best daddy ever! I fall in love with him more and more every time I get a chance to watch how he loves our son

This is Isaac's face trying to tell me to stop with the pictures

This Thanksgiving outfit lasted all of about 2 hours before he pooped out of his diaper and messed it up, but he was still pretty stinkin cute in it.

On of my best friends, Brenna, made this for Curtis. Sometime soon, I'll get a picture of both Isaac and Curtis in their hats together.

First Week Home

We've had Curtis home for just over a week now. It's been a wonderful, exhausting, amazing week with our little man.We have some of the typical stories, sleepless nights, lives revolving around Curtis's schedule for eating, stress, crying, but it's been a beautiful week. 

My mom has been here for the week to help out and we couldn't be more thankful for her. She has washed and folded clothes, cooked dinner, washed dishes, swept floors, gone to several doctors appts with me while Isaac was working, helped with feedings while Isaac has been working, she's been wonderful. And we will miss her when she leaves this weekend. 

Also, a big part of this past week has been my care group. They threw us a baby shower on Saturday, we are so incredibly grateful for their generosity and the love they've shown Isaac, Curtis and I. They've also been so helpful with providing meals for us. We have been incredibly blessed with such a wonderful group of friends.

I think my favorite part of this week has been seeing Isaac with Curtis. He is the best daddy in the world. He is so involved, he loves cuddling with out little man, loves being the one to swaddle him, loves giving him his bottle after I've attempted to breast feed. He is so patient, kind, loving and encouraging when I get discouraged with breast feeding. That has been the only really difficult part of this week, trying to feed my son. Tonight, we have a woman from our church coming over who can hopefully help us, because right now, Curtis just doesn't want to eat from me, but he loves his bottle so I am incredibly grateful that at least he will eat. But Isaac has been so wonderful through the whole process; I am the most blessed wife and mama there is. God definitely gave me 2 of the greatest gifts ever in my husband and my sweet son.

Here's a few pictures from Curtis's first week home.

Getting ready for Curtis's first bath

He doesn't really like bath time too much, but I just love when he does his little hands and arms like that, Isaac calls it gansta

Much better now that bath time is over :)

I did a little mini photo session with him, am hoping to do a few more once Isaac and I can coordinate our schedules and we don't need a nap :)

Happy Birthday Curtis! & A Labor Story

As most of you know, our sweet little boy decided to surprise us last Friday night by coming 5 weeks early. As far as surprises go, this may be the best one we've ever experienced! Without going into too much detail, here is the story of how our sweet little man came into this world.

We had our 35 week appt on Thursday, everything looked good, nothing out of the ordinary took place. In fact, the entire pregnancy has been pretty text book, nothing unusual, no complications, nothing concerning to make us think he would be here early. 

Friday, I volunteered at the CPC all day, not a busy day, nothing too out of the ordinary that day as well. Isaac had duty, so I went home and had some things to do to get ready for friends coming for dinner Saturday. As I was making dinner rolls Friday night around 2100, I began bleeding. I tried not to freak out, but I knew it wasn't normal. I sat down, put my feet up, tried to rest, but of course I was scared. By 2130, I was still bleeding and decided to call Isaac on the ship. Now, I have never done this before, I only have those numbers in case of a true emergency. I am not one of those wives who thinks just anything is an emergency. I mean, I'm a nurse, I don't get scared too easily and know most of what I can handle without Isaac. So, when a pregnant wife calls the ship at 2130 it's pretty much always gonna be an emergency. I say all that because Isaac's friend that answered the phone, who knew me, knew I was pregnant, first told me Isaac wasn't there, then questioned me as to whether this was really an emergency or not. I wanted to crawl through the phone and punch him. Luckily, he did go find Isaac. Isaac called back, told me to find someone to drive me to the hospital. I literally looked through every name on my phone. Luckily, my friend Michael (Angie's dad) was home and came to drive me. We met Isaac at the hospital and went to L and D triage. I was hooked up to the toco monitor, and then examined, where I was then told I was 3cm dilated, 80% effaced and the toco monitor showed I was contracting. Apparently what I thought was Curtis just moving very vigorously the last few weeks, were contractions. I'd been having them pretty often during the day, and they showed up on the monitor. They decided to keep me and give me some fluids to try and stop it. At 0130, they checked me again, realized my water broke, I was 4cm dilated and in active labor at that point. So they admitted me. The next 15hrs were a crazy whirlwind. Curtis seemed so ready to come, and then even with my contractions 2-3 mins apart, I did not progress. They decided to give me Pitocin, and still did not progress. When I got checked again about 2 the next afternoon, the doc saw that part of the amnionic sac was still intact, so they broke it and that was all it took. I started having very productive contractions. Up until that point, I really thought I would do this without an epidural, I was actually good and while I had been in pain, it was minimal. By the time they broke my water a 2nd time, I had been in labor for at least 15hrs. I was exhausted and didn't have it in me to continue laboring without an epidural, and boy, was I glad. God knew what I needed to be able to get through the rest of the night. I got my epidural at 5cm, and almost as soon as it took effect I felt the need to start pushing. The nurse checked me and I was 10cm dilated, fully effaced and ready to go. I spent the next 3 hours pushing. I did get to rest 3 times for 10-15mins because Curtis just didn't want to come. By shift change that night, they decided that 1 of 3 things were going to happen. I was exhausted and that was visible, so my options at that point were to continue pushing, use forceps to help pull him out, or if that didn't work, we would have a c-section. We decided to go for the forceps in hopes that it would work. This is why I am so thankful for the epidural. I don't know how I would have handled that without it. Once the forceps were in place, I think I pushed 3 or 4 times and he was out. Because he was so early, I was not able to do skin to skin at that point. But Isaac went to take pictures of them working with him, and we both just cried because our little boy was so perfect. I got to hold him for just a min and then they whisked him away again to the observation nursery. They then proceeded to stitch me up for the next hour, again, super thankful for the epidural.

Our life has been a blur since then, but a wonderful, wonderful blur. We have had a few problems; his blood sugar dropped that first night and because of his gestational age, he wasn't really interested in feeding, so they had to give him formula. His respirations were too fast at one point, so that delayed him from coming to our room for a few hrs. And generally, him breast feeding has been a difficult and frustrating process.But we are blessed. Even though he is a bit of a wimpy white boy like I wanted to avoid he is absolutely perfect. I love having him in our room, that first night was killer having to go back and forth to see him. I love all his little coos and spasms as he sleeps. I love how when he falls asleep breast feeding, he puts both his little hands under his chin. I can't wait to be able to take him home and start our life as a little family of 3. God has blessed us so much through this whole thing, from the time I went into labor till now and I'm so very thankful for it all.

One of his first little pictures. You can't see it well in this picture, but he got pretty beat up by the forceps. He has bruises on his eyes, under his nose, on his collar bones, on his shoulders and one on his rib cage. He had kind of a rough first few hours in this world.

I couldn't stop crying, I was so incredibly happy to get to meet my little boy after all that work

Proud Papa holding Curtis for the first time

Yaya getting to take a turn

Isaac is the best dad ever. He's been so incredibly amazing through this entire process

Skin to skin is incredibly good for any baby, but esp a baby born early.So pretty much, any time we hold Curtis, we've become a naked family from the waist up.