Reflections.

How quickly they change :(

 A few hours old

Four weeks later.



Here we are four weeks later. If you haven't noticed, I'm a bit sentimental, and every Sunday when I look at the clock I think "oh it's noon! This time four weeks ago I was waist deep in labor and had just had my epidural!"

As the weeks go by, I am amazed at how quickly Noah is changing. He will sit for a minute or so on his own when propped up, he can hold his own head up for several minutes, and he is awake for a good chunk of the day now... where did me tiny baby go? What a bittersweet feeling. There is nothing more satisfying than watching him grow, change, and progress. At the same time, I am not ready for my 7 pound newborn to be growing up yet.

Here in week four of our new lives, I am finally feeling normal. The traumas of his birth are now a distant memory and I find I know longer linger on the scary aspects of the weeks past.

While we were so fortunate that labor and delivery truly went amazingly smooth, just like anything else in life, it was not without trials.

The scariest moment of Noah's birth came when I started pushing. It was such a short period. I only pushed through one contraction before his head was emerging, so it took literally minutes for him to arrive, in fact I had to stop pushing for quite some time while the nurses prepared everything, and the doctor got ready because no one expected him to come so quickly. However, as soon as I started pushing the nurses noticed distress. After the first push I was immediately put on oxygen in hopes that it would keep his heart rate up.

With the oxygen being a success, our little miracle was born. In those first few minutes I shook with adrenaline as I heard the doctors and nurses speak. My heart dropped when he was born and the nurses were shocked to see the cord wrapped twice around his neck. To this day the thought makes me a little nauseous. I have heard babies be still born with the cord wrapped once, but for me.. twice was unheard of. Angels had been watching out for my son.

The nurses whisked him away to be cleaned off. I finally heard his sweet little cry for the first time, then I heard the nurse mention something about a cleft lip, then the doctor replied "He has a cleft lip?" and again the nausea... On further inspection his lip and palate where whole, but he does have a microform cleft. In other words, when he was just a small embryo he was developing a cleft lip. Amazingly as he continued to grow the cleft closed and healed itself, free surgery! He now has a simply charming birthmark on his lip where his amazing little body healed a potential birth defect, you go baby Noah!

So much potential for danger and we managed to skate through every flaming hoop unaffected. How truly blessed are we? Now four weeks later he is growing, changing, and bringing joy to his family everyday. Even his little head is in perfect condition now.

Speaking of his head, here is a nice little tidbit for moms to be...

Noah was born with nice big bump on his head. When he came home it was black and blue and HUGE, it was about the size of half a naval orange on top of his tiny head. It was soft and swollen, and did I mention it was quite large? I understand that squeezing through a tiny hole is pretty challenging, so I wasn't much concerned about it, until it was almost time for his two week check up and it was still there as huge as ever.

Me being the morbid worrier I am, worried myself sick thinking it was like his brain poking through the little bony plates in his head (I get it from my mother, I swear!) So at his two week check I brought it to the doctors attention. Him being the good guy he is didn't laugh in my overly worried face like he should have, but very gently told me the medical term for what it was, and exactly what that meant and when it would go away... so for anyone wondering, this is exactly what he explained to me.

This squishy swollen orange sized bump is called a Hematoma (I believe there are a couple different types depending on where they are on the head) A Hematoma is when there is trauma to the head during birth. Generally it happens when the baby comes through the birth canal too quickly. There are membranes that cover the little bony plates in a newborns head. A Hematoma happens when those membranes are ruptured causing blood to pool over the plate lines. It could take several weeks for the blood to reabsorb and the hematoma to go away. In some cases the blood will calcify meaning the hematoma doesn't really go away, but in those cases, as the child grows the bump usually becomes less noticeable. Even though the hematoma is a nasty little injury that is pretty uncommon, it is pretty much harmless. The biggest worry for a child with a hematoma is jaundice. For some reason this injury raises the chance of a baby having problems with jaundice.

So if you or anyone you know experience this, you can confidently reassure them that the baby's brain is in proper position in his head, and not poking out where it shouldn't be. I'm still shaking my head at myself.

And now you know!!

One Month Later.

This month has been nothing but one huge learning experience. Everyone kept telling us what an adjustment parenthood would be, and how it would completely change our lives. While that's true, we both have agreed that it feels like we have had Noah forever. Even though it feels like he belongs here, that doesn't mean that life as new parents has been easy, here are our adventures of month one.

Adventure number 1- Spitting up.

Our first week home with baby was probably as close to bliss as life with a newborn can be. Besides the no sleep thing, life was going smoothly. After the first week is when the spitting up started. I mean not just the occasional little bit of spit up, but up to two ounces after every feeding. I have had half digested breast milk projectiled across my shirt and splash all over my neck, I call it my new mom perfume. Concern number one was that he is not getting enough nutrients. After I expressed my concerns about the situation to Noah's doctor at his two week check, we were told to bring him back in a week to monitor his weight gain because he was a few ounces short of where the doctor had wanted him to be. The next week he had gained almost 10 oz, which is a good sign that he is at least getting something. He is still only in the 10th percentile for weight, but the doctor was pleased with our efforts at fattening him up, so good news there. Yes the spitting up is ridiculously inconvenient, I'm doing at least two loads of laundry every day if not more, but the hardest part for me has been the fact that I can't candidly cuddle my baby whenever I feel like it. Holding my son now takes preparation and several burp rags and often frustration, and I feel like I am being robbed of precious moments with him.

Adventure number 2- Gas.

Unfortunately this is the main cause of our poor little guys spitting up, and many sleepless nights with a VERY fussy dude.

Dear gas... go to hell! Sincerely, Katie.

Adventure number 3- Doctors visits.

Seriously, this poor babe has had more doctors visits in the whole one month of his life than some people have in years.  It seems like every other day is some appointment. From regular check up's, extra weight checks, and already a visit to the ear doctor. First I have to say I love his GP. At first when we were looking into choosing a doctor for him I was adamant that it be a pediatrician because I felt like that would be the obvious best choice for a child, but my parents suggested their family doctor. After hearing their stories of how gifted he truly is, I gave in, and I must say that I'm glad I did, he's great at listening to my dumb worries and quieting my fears. The greatest appointment so far has been to the ear specialist. We were referred after Noah failed his hearing test in his left ear at birth. We spent an hour or so fighting a fussy baby trying to keep wires in his ears and electrodes on his head, that was fun, and after all was said and done, we were relieved to find out that he has perfect hearing in both ears and he probably simply had some amniotic fluid caught in his ear at birth that had caused him to fail the initial test.

Adventure number 4- Emotions.

I will be the first to admit that I am the most anxious, emotional, sorry excuse for a human and having a baby has magnified the shortcoming of mine to the extreme. The first week was the hardest with my hormones changing so drastically, I was an emotional hot mess. As time has gone by I have slowly evened out a bit more and feel better everyday, the unfortunate part is that a crying baby on top of pretty gnarly fatigue has made for a weepy Katie.

With all of that said here is some advice that I can share with anyone who needs it:

Take any minute for yourself that you can, it's probably literally a minute, but it aids in sanity.

USE YOUR RESOURCES! Seriously, if someone offers to help, accept it.

Don't try to be super mom, who cares if there are dishes in the sink, I drove myself crazy trying to do it all.

Take your time.

It takes at least an extra hour to get out of the house with a baby, give yourself the extra time.

Take extras everywhere you go, that means change of clothes, diapers, wipes, blankets, pacifiers... EVERYTHING!

Kiss those sweet cheeks every chance you get, they might not always let you, and maybe it's just me, but cuddles and kisses make me feel better.

Don't carry the load yourself, your man is a parent as much as you are, make him share the duty.


there's my limited wisdom, if anyone has an advice for me as a new mother, I SERIOUSLY appreciate it, let's exchange, especially any tips to help gas and spitting up!