My first week...

...as a stay at home mom has been a good one. John will not be working tomorrow because his parents will be flying in for a long weekend. I am happy my first week is only 3 days, but it will be back to full force next week! Here are some pictures I've managed to take during my busy days. :)

Jude and Daddy

Jude and Riley hanging out while I cook dinner

He did so well in his bouncer and just watched me sing and dance while cooking dinner.

"Good Mornin' Mom"

My baby boy trying to smile at me.

Jude trying to talk to me. :)

Jude's First Bath

Jude got his first official bath last night. We had been sponge bathing him because of his umbilical cord, but since that has fallen off it was time for a real bath. He did really well and seemed to somewhat enjoy it. However, he did not like being taken out of the warm water. He cried until we warmed him up. We put a gown and socks on him then swaddled him tight and he was happy again. :)

He looks so tiny here!

My friend blogged about the turtle you see on him. It soaks up the warm water and then you lay it on top of him so he stays warm. Jude squirmed so much it kept falling off, but it seemed to keep him warm when it was on him.

I have a feeling our little man is going to be rolling over sooner than later. He's almost there already!

Remember when I blogged about the maya wrap I bought? My 8lb, 11oz baby is in it and loving it! It took me a bit to figure out how to maneuver him and the sling, but I figured it out and Jude loves it. He usually falls right asleep in it so I have to keep hm out of it during his awake times.

We all had a great night! Jude slept for 6 straight hours until 4am. John fed him and put him back to bed about 4:30 and he didn't wake up again until 8am. In other words, Mom got a whole nights sleep!!! I hope it wasn't a fluke and the same sleep patterns continue. I'm sooo not complaining because we feed him at 9pm and he's asleep in bed about 9:45. He sleeps until 2am, back to bed, up at 6am, back to bed, then we wake him up at 9am. He's a really good sleeper and doesn't have his days and nights mixed up. We are totally blessed with such an amazing baby!!!

My little man

2 Weeks Old

Can you believe it? Where has the time gone? I have a feeling I'm going to be asking that question a million times throughout the rest of my life. We are all doing well over here. A little sleep deprived, but that's to be expected. We mostly have good nights where he wakes up twice to eat, then usually goes back to sleep. However, there are those other kind of nights too where I want to put my Facebook status as "Sleep? What's that?". Jude is pretty much on a feeding schedule as well, which is nice. We can somewhat plan around that. All 3 of us took a trip to Target today and Jude was so good until John decided he needed to go to the bathroom and of course Jude cried the whole time he was gone. Otherwise, it was a good outing. I'm still very nervous to go out with him by myself, but I'm sure I'll get over that one day.

Anyway, things are good over here in CA. I'm excited for everyone to meet him one day. He's a cool kid and we just love him so much. :)

Newborn Pictures

The love of our lives.....

Jude's Birth Story

I know many of you wanted to read my birth story so here it is!

38 week appt: 2cm, 90% effaced, and baby at -1 station.

39 week appt: 2cm, 100% effaced, and baby at almost 0 station.

My doctor stripped my membranes at both appointments, but I felt like my baby boy was never going to come out. I had contractions from about week 35 and I was over it. After my 39 week appointment where I was having pretty bad contractions, I decided to go to yoga and squat him out. That didn’t quite work. I had contractions on and off for the next couple of days but they weren’t anything I could time.

Sunday morning I was feeling pretty crummy and decided to start making meals to freeze. I should have known I was nesting but I never thought about it. I cooked most of the day and realized about 3pm that the contractions could probably be timed. I was right, they were 12 minutes apart. About 7pm John and I decided to take a walk to get things moving. They were still consistent and were about every 10 minutes. I showered and made sure our bags were packed and tried to go to bed about 10pm. However, that did not happen. The contractions were getting worse. Around midnight I had John start timing them because they seemed to be right on top of each other with little breaks in between. After an hour of them being 3-5 minutes apart for a minute long we decided to go to the hospital.

There weren’t any positions that were comfortable and walking was the only way to get through them. We drove to the hospital about 1:30am and the nurse informed me that I was still only at 2cm. She gave me some meds that would either make the contractions worse if it was real labor or it would make them go away if it was false labor. I thought I was being sent home to die because I was in so much pain.

We got home, went to bed, and I breathed through the contractions until about 7am when they practically went away. They were still close together but not intense at all. I was so upset but sent John to work because mom was here just in case anything happened. I slept until about 11am when back labor hit me. I tried taking a bath but the only position I could tolerate was being in the frog position. My mom called my doctor’s nurse and explained the last 12 hours and she told me to come back to L&D. The contractions were so much worse than I ever thought possible. The drive was the worst part.

We got to L&D about 1:30pm and they took one look at me and put me straight into a room. I was 4cm and begging for an epidural. I had to wait about an hour, but when once I had it I was a very happy person. I (half) joked with my mom that the only position that worked was the fetal position. I spent 1:30pm-11:30pm at 4cm. I just knew my water needed to be broken, but they wouldn’t do it. Apparently baby was so low he pushed my bag of water to the side. Finally, around 11:30pm my doctor broke my water. In 2 and ½ hours, I went from 4-10cm. I was ready to push at 2am. During my practice push, my nurse made me stop because baby was coming. She called my doctor (who thankfully was already there) and my sweet baby boy was born at 2:12am after pushing for less than 10 minutes.

It was such a great experience.  I'm not sure I could have had a better birth story. It went pretty much as I had hoped. John and Mom were invaluable during that whole experience, including up until today. John and I aren't ready to make baby #2 by any means, but if I were guaranteed the same experience, I would do it over again.

Anyway, that's my story and I'll leave you with a picture of my favorite little man. :)

Crabby Judebug

John and I gave Jude a bath last night and we decided to keep him in his crab towel to keep him awake for awhile. We put him under the jungle gym and finally got to play with our little man!



Mommy loving on Judebug

Daddy having fun with Jude.

Riley loves his little brother and often gives him kisses on the top of his head.

Could he be any cuter?

Bedtime

Our firstborn



4-5 days old

Here are just a few...