3 1/2 weeks already?!

I can't believe little E has been in our lives, or more accurately, dictating the course of our lives for almost 4 weeks! Sorry for the light posting, as you can imagine, there's not much time now. In fact, right now E is stirring for his next feeding. Luckily M is home today, so he is going to take care of this feeding.

I must say, when you have a newborn, you become astutely aware of choices. For example, when E is falling asleep after a feeding, I am thinking "ok, what do I have time for and what do I want to do--sleep, eat or get a chore done?" More often than not, sleep wins. Especially when M is gone for work and I'm on full-time duty by myself for 24 hours. It's tough getting up every 2-2 1/2 hours to feed E! Throw in a breast attempt every other feeding (trying to get him to take the breast), a diaper change and 20 minutes of pumping time (plus equipment clean up each and every time) and I'm left with roughly 1 hour or so. Anything after that, I'm playing with fire. If I leave the house without having pumped, E will be eating formula at the next feed. And god forbid I leave the house without any food, well then, I'm just asking for punishment. It's not like those lucky moms whose babies are [1] full term and [2] can take to the breast immediately. I dont have the option of throwing a boob at him when we're out. I've gotta either have my hand pump and the foresight to pump ferociously before he starts wailing or have some formula on me. Needless to say, we have learned that lesson!



But all in all, we are doing great. It defintiely takes some adjusting to get used to a new person in your life and making the necessary changes to accomodate him. He needs us! Plus, we have to account for at least an hour a day of just staring at him when he's sleeping. :-) He's our little peanut!



Other observations:

People LOVE babies! Every time we've been out in public with him, women will stop us and want to see him. Aww him and ask how old he is. Tell us how precious it is to have a little baby (no doubt remembering that time in their lives as well). Getting knowing glances from moms and dads of how difficult it is to manuever around. Today we went to Costco and spent at least 10 minutes dicking around with the Baby Bjorn. Who the f** designed that thing? It's impossible to put it on and get the baby in it (without dropping your child) without a second pair of hands. Impossible!



People are nicer to you when you have a baby with you. I don't know why! But it's totally true.



People are incredibly generous when it comes to your baby. Today alone we've recieved a very generous sum of money as a gift to E (one in the form of a US Savings Bond and the other money from a relative). E's grandmother is setting up a CD or something for him. We've recieved baby gifts from friends and family all over the place! Even our housecleaner dropped by the house with some baby gifts. That was the show stopper--our housecleaner giving up baby gifts? WOW! That is seriously sweet. I've especially loved the folks who've made us meals and brought food. That is a gift that keeps on giving because I can get more sleep, get other stuff done, pump more, etc.

Finally, here are some recent shots of E:

Dad holding E fresh after a bath. Spiky hair!

E's first bath

Tummy time with Guinness

Has a week already gone by?

This week is flying by, which is wierd because each day is basically the same as the one before: nap, pump, feed Elliott, run around frantically trying to get stuff done. To add to the mix, this week we discovered our cats had fleas (ICK, I know!) and I've got the worst case of hives I've ever had in my life. Sweet. So in addition to running back and forth to the hospital on no sleep, I had to schedule a time for Fleabusters to come over and bomb the house before Elliott comes home, then arrange for the housecleaner to come over and clean everything up so that none of the bug dust, etc is left behind and try to figure out a way to deal with my constant itchiness.

I should post a pic of what these hives look like, because they are vicious. First it was just on my stomach/trunk area and boobs (perfect for nursing and pumping, btw). But it has since travelled to my ears, face, back, legs, hands and arms (among other places that shall remain nameless). Luckily, I am so busy with all the other stuff that I don't have time to think about how itchy I am. I just try to remember to take my Benadryl and have my benadryl spray and cortisone cream with me at all times. UGH.

In other news: Elliott is coming home TOMORROW-YAY! We are both so relieved and excited (and a bit nervous) for him to come home. In many ways it will be much easier to deal with all of this craziness at home, not having to drive back and forth to the hospital. Although we are SO glad Elliott is here now and doing so well, I wouldn't wish a preemie on anyone. It's unbelievably draining, both emotionally and physically, and it definitely won't be less worrisome when we go home. My good friend who had twins at about 35 weeks understands completely what this is all about--so it was great to talk to her about it. Having a preemie is whole other experience than having a full termer. Nevertheless, I am glad we are almost done at the hospital! I can't wait to get into a normal routine with him and integrating him into our new life.

Finally, congratulations to our good friends W&J who just welcomed their own baby boy into the world on Aug 13th! We are so happy for them and are looking forward to having the boys meet each other soon.

Cheers! Have a great weekend!

I should be napping, but I'm not . . .

So I decided to post a quick update. Elliott is doing great and I've been told that the plan is for him to come home Friday. YAY!!!! I cannot even begin to describe how happy that makes me. For many reasons, but a big one is that I am SO. SICK. of the hospital. It's incredibly difficult to be productive or effective at anything else in life when I am constantly shuttling back and forth between the hospital and home every 3 hours. I know it could be a lot worse, so thank god it's not.

Elliott is doing great! He's gained 25g for the last two days, after a record 40g in one day. He now weighs more than he did at birth, so he's on his way/ He's continuing to eat well, do his business and not have any apnea episodes. We'll do the car seat test later in the week (they put him in the car seat for an hour to make sure he continues to breath normally), M and I will watch a CPR video and one other thing E must do (it escapes me at the moment) to go home.

M also went back to work today, so I am on my own until Friday. I made a huge list of to-do's now that I am *supposed* to have more time on my hands. Uh, not so much. I find myself still running frantically from home to hospital after Elliott's lunch feeding, then falling asleep with him on my chest in the nursery. So apparently my to-do list will take some more time to get through than I originally anticipated.

One thing I can't do, which I'd love to, is work out! So far not much of the baby weight has "fallen" off as others have told me it would. Just a mere 9 lbs. So I'd love to be able to work out for that reason as well as the fact that my muscles are atrophying each day I'm not doing much. Ick.

Ahh, c'est la vie for now. I'm looking forward to Elliott coming home so we can take nice long walks as a little family.

I am happy to report, however, that I am back to enjoying wine!! Definitely not as much, since I can only drink right after I pump and not too close to the next pump session (every 3 hours). But I am very happy about that!

Cheers!

Houston, we have a name!

As most of you probably know by now, we've finally made it official! Our son's name is Elliott. We had the hardest time coming to a decision on his name. I can't explain why. We had 3 great names picked out and they were all different. We tried them out almost every time we saw him (which at 8 feedings a day is a lot) and still we couldnt decide.

Then yesterday the birth certificate people came hunting us down. Apparently there is some state law that your child must have a name after 5 days. Oops. We managed to avoid her for another day between our time in the nursery, naps (when we have a 'do not disturb' sign on our door) and our hour or so away from the hospital. But she finally caught up with us yesterday, so the time crunch was on.

Anywhoo, we decided on Elliott and so far, everyone is loving it. Which is great, but of course no one is going to tell you the name you selected stinks. Nor would we care.

As for other updates: Elliott gained 20 grams in the last day, which is great! Almost an ounce. So he'll be back to his birthweight soon. Overall, showing consistent weight gain is a good thing, so we're very happy about that. And he had an awesome day today, feedings-wise. He LOVES feedings with Daddy. In fact, I think he's a better eater with M than he is with me. M says it's because he's more aggressive than I am. I hate to force him to eat when it seems like he's done. But because he's a preemie, we have to make sure he's getting his 30-45mls per feedings. It's like the law. And M is very good about making sure he gets it all. Me? Not as good. When he gets really tuckered out after 30 mins, I have a hard time forcing the last 10mls on him. Plus he looks so freakin' cute when he falls asleep after a feeding.

And this is my life right now. :-) Friday night at the hospital, watching the Olympic opening ceremonies with M, pumping while I blog and looking forward to the next feeding with him at midnight.

Cheers!

Baby Dixon updates

Since many of you have questions... here are some updates:

We havent quite selected his name yet, we are constantly discussing it and hope to have it settled soon.

We aren't at home yet. He's still in the nursery and it looks like he'll be there for at least a week or more. Luckily, our hospital offers "maternity inn" which is basically a room we can stay in until he is discharged. So for now, we are staying at the hospital. We are definitely looking forward to going home! It'll be great to sleep (or nap, really) in our own bed and have him at home finally.

Ok, must run for now! Cheers!

Baby boy Dixon has arrived!

The quick stats:

Baby Boy Dixon arrived unbelievably quickly after just 5 hours of labor on Friday, August 1, 2008 at 7:57pm. He weighed in at a healthy 4 lb 6 oz--which is great for a 34 week old. He came out and cried right away, which was great!

Me and baby are doing fabulously. I just love him to death :-) He is literally the sweetest thing I've ever seen, experienced, been through, waited for, loved. There is absolutely nothing else like it in the world. I'm finally convinced.

Ok, gotta hurry up and eat before the next round of feeding!