Strong Baby

This was originally written on Sunday, April 27, 2008:

Great News! Yesterday Logan's jaundice level was 11.9 so it was the first day all week we didn't have to go to the hospital or pediatrician's office. Anything under ten is considered recovered! (Logan's first week with jaundice can be read about under my Newborn's First Week blog.) So, we were able to take him off of the blanket/machine and if everything is good on Monday then he will be able to breastfeed 100% again and start his "normal" life! His weight had also risen to 7 lbs, 9 oz so he is almost back to his birth weight. It usually takes babies two weeks, but we are confident he'll be 7 lbs, 13 oz again before that. :-)
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This was originally written on Tuesday, April 29, 2008:

Logan is officially recovered from jaundice! Sunday we didn't even have to have a home healthcare nurse come out; we just took him to the pediatrician on Monday and were told that all is well! His weight was 7 lbs, 11 1/4 oz. so he should have no problem being back to his birth weight (or higher) by his two-week check-up this Thursday.

Today & tomorrow we're weaning him off of the bottle (i.e. he's breastfeeding again except for three times a day getting breast milk in a bottle just to make sure he's getting enough--so I finally bought an electric pump [Medela's Pump In Style Advanced]; I get 1.5 oz in 20 minutes), but by Thursday we will only give him the breast. Especially since by Friday my milk should be at the "flowing phase," which will make it easier on Logan (I hadn't known it takes two weeks before milk comes out easily) so he won't have to work as hard then--which means we shouldn't have to worry anymore about him getting enough as long as he has at least six urine and six stools a day. Fortunately, he has not experienced nipple confusion (as some this young do if introduced to the bottle) and has done excellent coming back to the breast after his hiatus.

Now that he's over his jaundice, he's like a different baby. In the beginning we had thought he might be cranky & demanding, but he's been the perfect little angel the past few days. He's so content and happy (he's starting to smile every now and then), and seems at total peace in my arms :-) We've been having so much fun with him!!!! I'm having the time of my life!!! He's my best buddy!!!

I used to think babies were scary, but there's no way I can be scared of something so innocent and sweet and precious. I'm surprised at how comfortable and natural being a mother has become. I'm sure things will get harder (the newborn phase seems the best to me--I don't need to worry about discipline, etc.), but right now life is easier/better than when we got our first dog three years ago! Of course I haven't been by myself yet (I had Joe last week and his mom this week; Dr. Phil always says being a stay-at-home mother is equivalent to having two full-time jobs so I'm prepared to have my work cut out for me at some point), but Logan sleeps 20 hrs a day (during his first few days he slept even more than that due to his jaundice--we even had to sometimes wake him up so he'd remember to eat but now he cries for food on the dot every two hours), so at least I don't feel like the chicken with my head cut off like I had imagined prior to his birth. There ARE breaks (with my dog Bella there weren't any for several weeks after we got her).

I'd also been worried about how life would change when we had a baby, but it hasn't changed in the way it did when I graduated high school, college, got married, or moved to Omaha. Those were actually harder changes because they were more drastic; one day I was living my old life and the next I was in a new life. This time I gradually transitioned throughout my pregnancy. Now the only difference from "my old life" is that there's a wonderful addition that makes it more meaningful and enjoyable. (Plus, this is so much better than being pregnant--HA HA!)

Hopefully things will continue this way once Sandi leaves tomorrow and I'm on my own (my mom & stepdad are coming next week). Thanks to her getting up in the night, I was actually able to get my first 8 hrs of sleep since giving birth (just not straight through).

After she arrived on Sunday Joe & his mom went to the grocery store which meant I was left alone with Logan for the very first time. I was nervous, especially since just minutes after they left Logan needed his diaper changed. As I was in the middle of the process, Logan started peeing (something he does pretty much every time we take off his diaper, go figure)--so I tried to catch the spray with a paper towel, but then it began running all over him and his sleep sack! While I was preoccupied with that, he let out a loud fart and poop began shooting (and I mean shooting) out of his butt! Ahhh!

I started laughing because it was so ridiculous you would have thought I was on a comedy show or something. So then I was trying to catch the poop, but it still squirted all over the changing pad and his clothes, and while I was trying to get him out of the mess, he started rolling in it. ICK!!! If anyone has any tips on how I am supposed to change his diaper without a mess each time (because this exact situation has happened again)--please tell!

Anyway. . .I will give you my update to things I posted on past blogs:

*My dream w/ my maternal grandpa was right--I did have Logan in April! Although my other dream with "4:30" wasn't accurate, since on the day I gave birth at 4:30 am I was in the middle of contractions at the hospital, and it wasn't on April 30th, either. HOWEVER, everything else about that particular dream was right--I did go into labor before my due date and I did wake up abruptly in the middle of the night and know FOR SURE that I was in labor.

*During my "Morning Sickness--No All Day Sickness" blog I mentioned that I was having a hard time talking Joe into taking me on a beach vacation next year. (Since we haven't been to a beach since our honeymoon in 2003.) Well, after Joe had seen me through my contractions and dilation, and two of the four hours of pushing, he said, "We can go on that beach vacation next year." I was too "in my zone" to acknowledge him at that point, but later that day I gave him a big grin and said, "I heard what you said!" Hehe :-) St. Lucia here we come!

*I forgot to mention that the home healthcare nurse who came over on Saturday happens to live around the block from us--so that's comforting!

*My stepdad's sister-in-law won our baby contest (she was the closest due date, 4/30, for those who guessed the gender correctly) and my stepdad's mom received second place! (She guessed a girl but chose the earliest date on the list, April 26th.)

*One of Joe's former co-workers had a baby boy on April 24th (6 days after Logan)--Jaxson was 8 lbs, 11 oz, and 22.75 inches long! We plan to get together for playdates, so I'm glad Logan will have a friend his age!

*As you probably assumed, I tested negative for the group B strep. (My doctor told me this as I began my pushing phase, lol.)

*If I thought my feet were swollen the week before I gave birth, I hadn't seen nothin'. Afterwards my feet looked like they were a balloon that someone had blown up! Fortunately, that only lasted a week and now all of my body parts actually seem tiny to me for the first time in my entire life!

And finally, Logan's umbilical cord fell off between Sunday and Monday. I'm assuming it came off in a diaper because we never saw it and that sounds a lot better than thinking one of our dogs ate it, lol.
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This was originally written on Thursday, May 1, 2008:

Today eight years ago Joe and I had our first date :-) Today this year I had my first full day alone with Logan and it actually turned out well! (It went fast, I really have nothing to report!) Then we took him to his two week pediatrician check-up (I can't believe that tomorrow he will be fourteen days old already!) and he weighed 8 lbs 3/4 oz--yeay--he surpassed his birth weight within the two week deadline! (Meanwhile I've lost 35 of the 42 lbs I gained while pregnant and haven't even exercised or tried to eat healthier yet--that is not my normal tendency!)

Before Sandi left yesterday she watched Logan while I went to go get my hair high lighted. After eight months of feeling very unattractive it felt nice to get a makeover. I'm still not allowed to color my hair while breastfeeding (and I have to continue to follow most of the other "do's and don'ts". . .I'll love the day I get to eat ceasar salads again!) but high lighting is supposedly okay. When I came home, Joe & I introduced Logan to our neighbors.

I'm still having to feed him both the breast and breastmilk in a bottle because it's still too hard for Logan to get enough milk just by nursing, so our pediatrician recommended I buy More Milk Plus at Whole Foods to increase my milk supply since it still hasn't gotten to the easily-flowing-phase (and I should be getting over 2 oz. now while pumping but I'm not). But, after the juandice experience I know that if slow nursing is my worst complaint as a mother, then things are going pretty well!