Sleep

So I really need to post more and not worry about if this is a nice looking entry with lots to say. So I was telling my friend Melanie about how well Eli is sleeping and she told me it was journal worthy and I didn't journal it. So here it is. I've been working on getting Elijah to sleep through the night (8 hours) as the pediatrician said that a baby can sleep 8 hours through the night by 8 weeks. She said that if you get them sleeping 5 hours by 5 weeks, 6 hours by 6 weeks and so on that they can be sleeping 8 hours by 8 weeks. It sounded good to me and since he was already doing 4 hours when he was 1 week old I figured it could happen. She said that when you are doing this that the baby will probably eat every 2-3 hours during the day. At 4 weeks old Eli had a bad tummy and the next day he was better and we went to San Antonio but he has altered his "normal" schedule a little the night before with his bad tummy. The first night in San Antonio he put himself on a 5 hour a night pattern. I was thrilled and he kept it up and was eating every 2-3 hours. When my mom was here I didn't want to mess with it and keep her up if he cried but he was consistently sleeping 5 hours each night.

When she left I thought I'd try putting him to bed 30 minutes earlier and see how that went. He woke up at the same time the first night putting him at 5.5 hours and the next night slept 30 minutes later which was 6 hours. Last week his eating changed a bit (eating less at each feeding for a while then increasing again). He had a really bad night with some gas last Wednesday and so he kept fussing but was happy with if I put his binky in his mouth so I did that every 10 minutes for an hour then a few more times and then I realized he has slept 7.5 hours. I felt so guilty so I got him up and fed him and put him back to bed.

The following night he whined 2 or 3 times total and I put his binky in his mouth and he slept for 8 hours before I was in so much pain I had to wake him to feed him. The next night he had just had shots and ate like crap during his last 2 feedings so I was sure the dream was over, but he slept for 7 hours before I woke him up to make sure he had some Tylenol in him and fed him (who wants a hungry baby in pain screaming at night right?) Since then he has consistently gone 7-8 hours between feedings at night. Sometimes he has really bad gas and I have to rock him back to sleep but he is doing so well. He eats about every 2 hours during the day but I am so glad to have good sleep at night. I have such a sweet boy.

Now all I need is some advice about adding formula to his eating. I don't want to stop nursing but I do want him to bottle feed formula periodically so that if I need to be gone for more than 2 hours (ie a date with my husband) I know he'll take a bottle. Advice?

The 4th

We were lucky enough to be able to go to San Antonio for the 4th of July to see Elijah's cousin Jamison be blessed. It was the first time all of the cousins were together. For those of you who don't know Elijah has 2 cousins who are about 2 weeks older than he is. Here are some pictures of the boys. Jamison (Lindsay & Logan's) is in the plaid shorts, Remington (Doug & Hallie's) is in the navy shorts and of course our little one is in the red shorts.



We enjoyed our stay although Elijah was quite overstimulated by the end and screamed our last night there. We were glad to be home and Elijah was too. So much so that he just laid on the floor and talked for 30 minutes when we got home. Now for his blessing this weekend!

Strong boy

The day after Elijah was born he was laying on my chest in the hospital and he lifted his head turned it the other way and laid it back down. That was my first indication that I had a very strong boy.

The next evening when we brought him home from the hospital I did my first diaper change on the floor on a blanket. I have quite a bit of diaper changing experience but I was not prepared for my little boy to straighten out is legs as I was wiping him up and stiffen up his whole body so he was balancing on his head. Needless to say, diaper changing was a two person affair for the first little while until he got used to it.

When Elijah was 5 days old we went to our first pediatrician appointment. We were pleased that he had regained birth weight and laughed as he peed all over the scale and the wall next to the scale. It was quite amusing as Dave cupped his hands and put them in front of the stream to try to prevent the pee from going everywhere. The doctor came and checked him over and when she was holding him and checking him over she was like "Holy Cow he's strong." She let us know that we are NEVER to leave him unattended on anything. She even recommends that when we put him on the changing table that we buckle him on even though we are right there.

At his two week appointment a week later the doctor was checking him over again and put him on his tummy on the table and started saying "Oh my gosh, you should not be doing this." Then he rolled from front to back. I was dumb founded. He's definitely not a pro at it but he's rolled over twice more since then. The other good news was he's gaining weight very well. He had gained 9 ounces between his one week and 2 week appointments.

Elijah tends to eat in 4 hour increments and night which is great for me. After he eats and I change him I end up getting about 3 hours of sleep about twice in the night and about 2 hours around the same time. He's been doing this since birth so I really hope he keeps it up. The pediatrician said he should be able to go 5 hours once a night by the time he's 5 weeks, 6 at 6 weeks, and if we can keep that up we should be able to have our boy sleeping 8 hours a night at 8 weeks. Here's hoping it works that well.

That's about all for now. He's doing well, we're doing well although a bit bored at times when he's napping and when I can't nap. We're looking forward to him being more interactive. For now he sometimes stares at us when we talk to him and that's nice.

The Birth of Baby Elijah

As most of you already know Elijah David Figgins was born on Friday, June 4th at 4:28 pm. He weighed in at 7 lbs 14 oz and was 21 inches long. For most of you that's all that matters. For journaling purposes I'm going to write a detailed account. Feel free to skip it.

It really started on Wednesday morning. I woke up around 3 feeling horrible and fluish. My skin hurt and I felt sick. I had a doctor's appointment that morning and in the waiting room I noticed I was having contractions pretty regularly. The doctor stripped my membranes and said that my fluishness could be early labor. I was beside myself being so uncomfortable and feeling so horrid. She told us to go find someplace to walk to try to help the labor. She told Dave if I was still feeling so horrid to come to the hospital later. We had some lunch and walked around the mall and my contractions were still 10 minutes apart albeit pretty painful at times.

That evening we waited at Dave's parents' house for my little sister Stacy to fly in (that was an adventure). We ended up driving all the way to Hobby airport only to find out that she had flown all the way to Houston and then been turned around back to Dallas due to bad weather. We stayed the night at his parents to be closer to the airport to pick her up in the morning. That night I was still having contractions.

The next day we picked up Stacy and headed back to Conroe. She and I went walking at some stores in our local strip mall and the contractions were seeming to get harder. She kept me walking and bending over and all sorts of moving. When I got home we had dinner and I was having some pretty decent contractions while talking to my two other sisters on the phone. We decided that we'd wait through the night and go in the morning if the contractions continued. I went to sleep around 11 and woke up at 1 having contractions every 10 minutes that were hard enough that I had to breathe through them. Poor David did not sleep much that night either. We put off going in until I was sure they'd talk to my doctor while I was there. They hooked me up to the monitors my doctor came and checked me and said that I'd progressed 1 cm from my appt 2 days before. They admitted me and I was ecstatic! We were having a baby. They admitted me and broke my water which had a little meconium in it. Dave watched saying that he had to see everything once. He has since said that he doesn't ever have to see that again. I thought he was gonna puke right there.

I told them we should go ahead with an epidural seeing as the contractions were getting stronger. By the time the anesthesiologist came I was glad I had asked. I do have to say that getting the epidural was one of the worst parts of the whole thing. I cried and the got yelled at for crying because I needed to tell them what was hurting and not just cry. So then it became "pinch" sob sob "nervy feeling" weep weep. I do have to say I was grateful for it though. Labor wasn't too bad.

My contractions became weaker so I had to have some pitocin. Then my blood pressure started to drop (no big deal unless your normal blood pressure is 90 over 60) so I was given oxygen and rolled on my side. Then the baby's heart rate started dropping between contractions. I was rolled from side to side each time I set off an alarm for either myself or the baby. The doctor came and explained what was going on and checked me. I was dialated to 7cm by then and they said that they would see if I would progress fast enough to deliver vaginally but that if things didn't get better that I'd have the have a C-section.

I cried. I know that once you have a c-section you always have to have one and I didn't want to have the longer recovery. I had David give me a priesthood blessing and just had faith that if it was the Lord's will that I would not have to go to the OR to have the baby. Another nurse came in a little while later to turn me yet again. When she did so she yanked the mat under me really hard and got me on my side better than I had been (it's hard to be on your side with a completely dead leg) and the baby's heart rate stabilized. I was dialated to 10 when the doctor checked me so we sent Stacy out to the waiting area at 4:08 (because seriously, no one needs to see that who doesn't have to). They got me into the stirrups and on my back and explained the art of pushing. I started pushing and the doctor called the nurses station for a bunch of stuff among which was forceps. I was proud that I held it together and just kept pushing. Dave was watching and thought it was gross until the doctor pointed out the top of baby Elijah's head. They all praised my pushing which I assumed was normal and then asked if I wanted to feel his head. When the nurse came in with the forceps she asked the doctor what for and she said nevermind, they wouldn't need them (YES!). Baby Elijah David Figgins came into the world at 4:28 after about 15 minutes of pushing. He was holding onto his umbilical cord when he came out (which may have been the cause of the heart rate issues). He is beautiful. I cried, David cried and we both feel so blessed to have him in our lives.

Ready whenever you are!

So here I am at 38 weeks. Our baby is due in less than 2 weeks! We're so excited. I decided that Friday would be my last day so I let the school know on Wednesday. Now all I have to do is change our spare bedroom from a storage/computer room to a nursery/computer room (we decided that since we're moving by the end of summer it doesn't make sense to relocate the computer). In preparation for that I started to catch up on laundry yesterday and finished this morning. I also cleaned the kitchen and started rearranging things in the closet (we took one load of stuff to Dave's parents for storage a few weeks ago) now that there is more room. We'll probably get Dave's drafting table and some art supplies down to his parents house tomorrow and then bring up our changing table and crib. Then the real fun will begin and after that our baby can come whenever he wants and I won't feel unprepared.

Now people keep commenting on how little I am which is kind of nice (no one wants to feel huge) but I do have to let you all know that as nice as it probably looks to you all, I assure you that my baby is normal sized. He has been in my lungs for months and has been pushing on my pelvis for weeks. He has always been nearly in my ribs and now they are his favorite kicking place because he is completely in them. Not that I mean to complain because I couldn't be more thrilled to be having this little guy. Dave and I have wanted kids for a long time. I'm just saying that when you are pregnant and sticking out into the world you need to remember 2 things. 1-sticking out pregnant is cute, much better than kinda just looking fat which I did until about 2 weeks ago. 2-as uncomfortable as you are I'd be willing to bet your innards are quite pleased that the baby hasn't squished them all up. 3-(I know I said only two but I just thought of one) I have stretch marks too so it doesn't matter that I held my baby all on the inside.

I love you all . . . thanks for reading with me and keeping me company, being my friends, and making me feel like I'm cute in my tiny but uncomfortable pregnancy. I am excited to introduce our little guy to you all soon.