Heading to Va Beach...Baby in tow

So it's time for our first family roadtrip and I'm hoping (Ok, praying) that the gentle rocking and rumbling of the car will send him off into a beautiful dream world for the 3.5 hour car ride.

My mom is holding an open-house on Sunday where all her family and friends can come by and swoon over the little man. Zach also hasn't had a chance to meet his great-grandparents on my father's side yet so we are excited to see them and spend some time with them as well. Zach has 5 living great-grandparents, and so far, he's only met one (My wonderful Bubbie)! He'll meet my Grandma and Pop-Pop this weekend, and Adam's grandparents in April. We can't wait to show him off.

In other news...Zach will be heading to the JPJ with us tonight for his first UVA basketball game. Pics to come.

Sleep training

Ever heard the phrase..."Sleeping like a baby?" Sure the first few days of Zach's life, he slept like a log. I had to wake him to feed! OMG, I will NEVER do that again.

At 5 weeks old, my little bugger fights off sleep like a pro. Don't get me wrong...he sleeps really well at night. I usually get one 4, one 3, and then one 2 hour interval of sleep with him in the evening. Thing is, he is not a big fan of nap time during the day. Sure, he sleeps well at night, but when I got the pamphlet from the doctor at his one month check-up that said infants his age typically sleep 18-20 hours a day, I thought "They must be joking!"

So, with the advice from my friend Shannon, I purchased the book "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" by Dr. Marc Weissbluth. He is somewhat similar to Dr. Ferber (ie: let the baby cry it out, but not really). Actual sleep training (meaning, allowing him to cry for a period of time) won't start until he is about 4 months old, but healthy habits can start now.

With the advice of Dr. Weissbluth, we are now working on soothing Zach into sleep after two hours of wakefullness. I had no clue that he was supposed to get to sleep about every two hours (not necessarily for a long period of time) and that if he doesn't, we risk the wrath of OVER-TIREDNESS! When Zach is over-tired BOY is he FUSSY!

So I started training yesterday and we got two GREAT naps out of Zach before bedtime (about 2-3 hours each). He was a doll. We also worked on a bedtime routine. We are going to bathe, feed, then swaddle and rock in a dark room. Last night it took 45 minutes to get him to bed with the rocking, but he barely cried a peep before going down for 4 hours.

This morning I got a 45 minute nap from 9:00-9:45...so we'll see what the day holds!

There is no denying....

Hmmmm, this one didn't take much scrutiny...Mom is the clear winner in the "who does your baby most resemble" contest. Maybe Adam will win with baby #2.

Zach at one month





Miki at one month

Adam at 3 months

One month old today!

Adam and I have officially survived the first month...only 215 more before he turns 18! I can't believe how quickly time flies.

The past weekend was awesome. We were blessed with a visit from Grammy and Grandpa, who kindly watched Zach while Adam and I went on our first date (Valentines day) alone as parents. It was simply delightful. I was also able to get out of the house with Adam's mom for dinner on Sunday night while the men (Adam and his dad) watched Zach. What a treat!

Adam's parents are checking out the progress on their new townhouse this afternoon and then going to Richmond to order furniture. We are very excited about them buying a second home in the area because it means they will be able to visit that much more often! I am so envious of all my friends who live close to family. Having a child makes me want to be closer and closer to our loved ones. My parents live 3.5 hours away and Adam's live 6.5, so we relish every moment we can get with them!

In other news....Zach was FUSSY, FUSSY, FUSSY, this morning, but I did manage to get a pretty good shot of him during tummy time. He's usually not into it at all, but he managed to enjoy it for a couple of minutes today.

First meal out as a family

Today we went out as a family to lunch. I made sure that Zach was due for a LONG NAP. As long as he is sleeping, everything is GREAT. Lunch went really well, and we managed a trip to Target, and the Car Wash. We got home and he slept for another hours...it was 3.5 hours before he woke up to feed. What a wonderful day!!!

3 Weeks Old

Our little man is now three weeks old. It is amazing how quickly time goes by. My mom has been gone now for two weeks, and Adam, Abby, Zach, and I are learning the ropes as a family unit.

What we know about the Zach man:

Zach is a great baby. He's pretty mellow and rarely cries (as long as you know what he wants). He likes to be carried around the house when he is awake, and hates the swing. He is content at times under his mobile, or in his Pack-n-Play with the vibrator on and his aquarium attachment singing. He falls asleep immediatley when placed in the Bjorn or Sling (this can be good or bad).

Zach sleeps well at night, and since week one, he hasn't cried at all in the middle of the night. He usually goes to bed around midnight, wakes up between 3-4am, feeds, falls back asleep within the hour and then wakes up again another 2.5-3 hours later...somewhere between 6:45 and 7:30am to feed again. If I'm lucky, he'll go back asleep another couple of hours after that!

He is up most of the day, and usually naps from 3-6pm with short naps before and after those times.

Zach loves bath time! His umbilical cord fell off at 3 days old, so he never had to have a sponge bath at home. He ooohs and ahhhs as he sits in the warm water. The only downfall is that he gets so relaxed, he poos and pees, and we have to drain the water and start all over again!

He has quite a bit of baby acne (his way of getting rid of all my womanly hormones), and it takes everything I have in me not to mess with all of the pimples on his face. It doesn't seem to bother him much.

He hasn't cracked a real smile yet, but we are eagerly waiting for it!

I cried when she left....

My mom came in for the first week after Zach's birth and I honestly don't know how I would have gotten by without her. She was simply amazing!!!!!!

She arrived with my Aunt Heidi (major props to her for spending all day wednesday, then thursday, then friday morning with my dad just WAITING for the baby) a day before I was admitted to the hospital (I was contracting and was SURE that I was going to be admitted that day...wrong!). They took me out shopping so we could walk, and walk, and walk, to try to get things moving. The contractions kept coming, but were not at all strong, and not less than 10 minutes apart. ugh.

On what was supposed to be my delivery day, my mother sat with me in the hospital longer than even my husband! Even though I got cranky and quite unpleasant, she stood by my side, holding my hand, massaging my back, and helping me breath through my difficult contractions.

After Zach came, she sat with me in the hospital, keeping me company and giving me pointers on diaper changes and feeding. She probably rested no more than I!

The first night home, my mom woke up with me in the middle of the night when I was downstairs trying to console Zach (while not trying to wake-up Adam). She cooked massive quantities of food for us to eat and freeze, ran errands for us, and helped console me when we were informed that Zach would need to go back to the hospital for jaundice.

My mother ran multiple trips to Target and the Supermarket everyday! She also single handily organized Zachary's Bris, preparing cheese plates, ordering pastries, challah, eggs, and other platters for the meal. Adam's parents were gracious enough to bring some wonderful Jewish deli favorites from NJ to round out the festive meal!

After 9 days by my side, it was time for her to say goodbye. I cried.

Boobs and Poo

Zach at 8 days old.

Everyone told us that our conversations would change when we had a baby. I just never realized how they would completley revolve around Boobs and Poo.

Poop:

I am proud to say that Zach has a perfectly functioning GI track. So perfect in-fact, that I change his diaper about 14 times a day. Rarely is the diaper just wet...he is a pro at Pooing!



Now, I understood that I would have to dodge pee when changing his diaper, but NO ONE every told me that I would also have to dodge FLYING POO! Ohh my goodness, this is nasty. My first experience with this was at the doctors office. I had to undress him in order to have him weighed and of course he had a dirty diaper. I lifted his legs to wipe him off and .....WHOA...Poo went flying all the way across the exam table on the walls and door. I am being completely honest when I say that it shot out 3 feet! Good thing I brought an extra outfit, wipes, diapers etc! I have now had the pleasure of having this happen 4 times in the past 3 weeks of his life.



Boobs:


Zach is strong. The first week, I literally cried through his feedings. Things aren't so bad anymore and I don't even have to use the creams and gel pads that kept me sane through the first 10 days. I have one hungry man though, and sometimes all I feel like is a BOOB!

The Zach Man has arrived! Birth Story

We have a new man in our lives. Our beautiful baby boy, Zachary, arrived January 16, 2009 weighing 7lbs 11oz. He was born on my Mother In-Law's birthday!

Birth Story:

I went into the hospital on January 15th at 8am for a scheduled induction. I was 41.5 weeks pregnant. I was contracting on my own and 3cm dilated, but not in active labor.

The midwife broke my water and gave me a Cytotec pill to help my labor progress. After several hours, the contractions became stronger. I was checked at noon, and had only progressed to 3.5 cm-4cm. The midwife decided to hook me up to Pitocin. By 2pm, I was contracting painfully, I inquired about an Epidural, but was told I really needed to make more progress before I should get it. I was ordered to walk the halls to try to get me to progress more. The pitocin was causing me to have contractions that overlapped each other, but they weren't giving my uterus enough of a break to successfully cause my cervix to dilate any more. After two more hours, I was READY for the epidural.

The lovely doctor with the pain medicine arrived and administered the Epidural at 4:30pm. I was now feeling great! I hung out in bed with Adam and my Mom and waited, and waited, and waited. My midwife came in and checked me at 7pm, I made NEGATIVE progress! At this point, my cervix was starting to swell from the pressure the baby was putting on it and I had gone from 100% effacement to 80%. Guess what, no further dilation either! To top it off, my Epidural stopped working, and the pain came back. The lovely anesthesiologist came back and gave it a boost. I was feeling good again.

11pm...MORE PAIN! I had to have the Epidural re-done. Now I was finally feeling good. Fast forward to 3am. The midwife hadn't visited for 6 hours, mom was getting mad and asked the nurse to check me (the midwife didn't want to check too often because my membranes were broken and didn't want to possibly introduce infection). The nurse agreed to check me and...NO PROGRESS! She called my midwife up and I was informed at 3:30am that I would be having a C-Section. 45 minutes later at 4:17am, Baby Zachary was born.

After the Birth:

Recovery from the C-Section was so much easier than I had expected. The OB remarked at how good my abs were doing during the surgery and how she was going to do her best to spare them. She must have done wonders, because I had very little recovery pain. I never took the prescribed narcotics and didn't feel the need to take them. I did so well, that I was allowed to leave the hospital a day early!