Ryan Andrew LeRoy was born Wednesday, September 30th at 12:02pm. He weighed in at 7 pounds, 5 oz. He was 20 inches long (although, that all depends on how aggressively the nurses “stretched” him).

Prior to Ryan’s birth day, I was getting pretty tired of being pregnant. Ryan was a mover and a shaker. Between his karate moves and my acid reflux, I hadn’t had a good night’s sleep for a couple months, so I was “naturally prepared” for the sleepless nights of a newborn. Because Kevin’s birth necessitated a c-section, the doctor recommended I plan for the same with this baby. I actually had a very easy time with my first c-section – it goes fast, recovery was easy, and it fits with my “I’m a planner” personality.  So, I hadn’t given the c-section much thought.

We arrived at Good Samaritan Hospital at 9:30am on 9/30 after dropping Kevin off at preschool and visiting Noah’s so Dave could eat breakfast. I was immediately hooked up to all kinds of monitors, got blood taken, and got an IV. (Side note: At this point, Dave informs me Kevin is tougher than I, since he was able to watch the needles when he had blood taken. I had to crank my neck the other way so I couldn’t watch.)

Dave put on his clean room suit, hat, and booties. This is when I got really nervous. Dave had video-taped my last c-section, down to the gory detail – lots of blood, organs, scissors, smoke, etc. I was much calmer the first time when I had no idea what to expect and what they were doing to me “down there below the curtain.”

This time, I knew it was major surgery. The anesthesiologist had a difficult time finding the right spot when Kevin was born, so that step took several minutes longer than necessary and was rather painful. This time, the spot was found on the first try (~11:45) and things moved quickly after that (Ryan was born 12:02).

Dave was responsible for announcing “boy” or “girl” when Ryan came out squealing. The nurse then took Ryan away for the initial newborn checks and Dave followed. That left me on the operating table with the doctors sewing 7 layers of my body back together. The nurses counted sponges and tools and made sure nothing was left inside. They transferred me to another table and wheeled me out to meet my new baby. It is all quite surreal, enhanced by the fact that you cannot feel anything from the ribcage down for a couple hours.

The first several hours with a new baby is quite fun. You have lots of help from the nurses and doctors, everyone is all smiles. With so many friends on Facebook, it was easy to share the news. And with free wireless in the hospital, it was easy to email pictures. Not long after, reality sets in and the c-section healing starts and the tiredness sets in. I encouraged Dave to sleep at home instead of at the hospital – to be rested and to lessen the number of times Kevin had to be hauled around. I put Ryan in the hospital nursery from midnight till 6, giving me a chance to sleep. The first night in the hospital was dismal. I was still unable to walk, had an IV, a catheter, and some silly compression socks that whirled, buzzed, and tightened around my feet every 15 seconds. (FYI, these socks supposedly reduce the chances of blood clots from 1 in 10,000 to 1 in 100,000. Seems like my chances were low anyway, I would have gambled if I had a choice.) I laid on my back all night, shockingly still, afraid something would fall out when it wasn’t supposed to. So, no sleep that night. The next two nights were tube-free + Benedryl + Ryan in nursery = 6 hours of solid sleep for Heather. Then we came home. Turns out, Ryan is a great sleeper during the daytime. Since he was in the nursery at night, I didn’t get to witness his late night party behavior (interestingly enough, he held the same schedule in the womb). Our first night at home was a tough one. He was awake a good portion of the night – grumbling, whining, crying, and wanting food (but thankfully no serious screaming). So, the tiredness is definitely here, for both Dave and I. And when I’m tired, I’m completely irrational. I started crying today because I couldn’t get my apple through the apple-slicer. Yeeesh.

Oh, and here is the coolest thing! The moms of Kevin’s preschool classmates have scheduled to bring us dinner each night for several days. We’ve only known these women for a few weeks – I’m touched by their generosity and hope to return the favor. Last night, we had eggplant lasagna, bean soup, and French bread. Yum.

Kevin is taking this all in pretty good stride. He visited the hospital just a few times for a few minutes. Here he is giving the hospital breastpump a whirl.

He is a pretty flexible kid, we’ve learned over the last 2 years. All in all, he’s very nice to Ryan – interested in his little fingers and toes, combing his non-existent hair, noting he has no teeth to bite a pretzel, saying ‘good morning’ and ‘good night.’ But there was plenty of crying from Kevin that first day home – frustrations over things seemingly unrelated to new baby. Our rockstar babysitter Dena, has cared for Kevin several times recently with her 6-month old baby in tow. This has given Kevin great exposure to babies who need gentle handling and can’t ride a tricycle or wave hello. My parents are willing to help out quite a bit by taking Kevin, picking him up from preschool, taking him to garage sales, you name it. He loves this time with my parents and is fully engaged and happy when with them.

Little Ryan is faring well. He is a moderate eater, albeit slow. We are trying to keep him awake during the day (hoping for sleep at night). He doesn’t seem so interested in Kevin’s matchbox cars or Finding Nemo, but he does seem to notice the ceiling lights and our big sunny windows.

Hey, hey! She’s kinda cute! And, she has a full head of hair!

Woo-hoo! I got a smile out of her. Wow, that’s a cute dimple she has. Must be my charm.

Oh no! I have spit-up on my shirt! Do you think she noticed? Is she laughing at me?

She likes me! I win the girl! Er, oh, I guess I just smacked her in the face with my victory salute. Oh boy.

I know, I know. All our posts seem to be about babies lately. That’s just tough. You’ll have to deal. We went to a reunion for our Childbirth Prep Class and all compared stories about what our babies do and don’t do, how they cry, how they sleep (or not), how they eat, etc. It was a cute group of babies.

Kevin continues to grow like a weed. He weighs nearly 13 pounds now, and my arms are getting stronger to show for it. At his 2 month doctor visit, he measured in at 75th percentile in weight, 50th percentile in height, and 25th percentile in head circumference. My comment? “So, he’s a short, fat, bald, pinhead.” The doctor’s comment? “He’s going to get all the girls.” No, but really. We still think he’s the cutest baby there is. He is smiling regularly, especially when we rub that special diaper rash ointment on his behind.

Big breakthrough this week – he has started to play by himself, unaided by mom or dad. He lies on the floor on his back and whacks at toys and kicks his legs. Very cool! And he is still the best sleeper around. He sleeps from 7pm to 7am, with a 25 minute feeding interlude. Mom loves that!

All pictures of Kevin can be found here

On Wednesday, Oct 3, Kevin LeRoy will be 6 weeks old. People have told us the time would fly by and it certainly has. People have told us that babies change every single day and he certainly has. Some forthright people are honest with us and tell us the first 6 weeks are kind of a blur and are, at times, hideous. This is true too! Sleep deprivation does funny things to your outlook on life. Perhaps this why people have more than one child….the sleep deprivation of the first 6 weeks makes them forget what it is really like.

No, but in all seriousness, things are going very well. We think Kevin is pretty cool baby. He is growing like a weed – he gained over 3 pounds since birth in the first 5 weeks. He weighed 10 pounds at the doctor, but then spit up a bunch on the scale, so they subtracted an ounce; 9 lbs, 15 oz. He has many chins to be proud of.

Kevin is doing all the things he’s “supposed to” at this stage. And some better! He really showed off at the doctor’s appointment by doing a full head/shoulder raise for many seconds. His daddy was so proud when the doctor told us that was typical of a 2 or 3 month old. Daddy says that he has to start doing real man push-ups…none of these girlie push-ups with his knees on the floor! No pressure, Kevin.

Tracking objects is also a milestone for this age. He likes looking at black and white patterns and can follow these when moved across his face. His changing table is right under a sunny window with lots of trees, so he is quite content looking at the horizontal window blinds with the sun shining through. Supposedly, babies tend to focus on the upper part of your face – between the nose and the hairline. Kevin does this often and tries to mimic our eyebrow movements.

He isn’t smiling yet, but he is definitely thinking about it! He smiles at random things (usually due to digestive issues), but we think he is very close to smiling back at his smiling parents.

After Kevin’s umbilical cord fell off, we gave him his first real bath. His infant tub seat fits perfectly in the kitchen sink. He didn’t dislike the whole experience, but he wasn’t really sure what to make of it! After his bath, he gets to do naked tummy time to work on those push-ups. We are prepping him for crazy college days when he’ll have to partake in naked drinking games. What a trooper.

We are very lucky parents because Kevin does very well at night. He gives me the luxury of eating every 4+ hours. Last night he went 6 hours! In general, I only get up twice in the night to feed him and can manage 3 hours of sleep at a time. He goes to bed early though, so I miss all the new primetime television shows because I hit the sack early too. Kevin started out sleeping in a bassinet next to our bed. He did this for 4 nights. He grunts and groans all night long (even in his sleep), so we kicked him out. We put him in the hallway, just outside our door. Each night, however, we scooted the bassinet a little farther down the hallway, and even around the corner! Last night, he slept in his own room for the first time. I don’t think he noticed. He’s so flexible.

Now, for the hideousness. He cries. And cries. At week 2, he started to cry every evening, between 6 and 9pm. The medical field has given this “crying for no reason other than to hear your head rattle” a name: COLIC. At 10pm one night, I made a Craigs list purchase of a Graco swing. At 3am one morning, I made an Amazon purchase of a Miracle blanket for the ultimate swaddling (next day shipping, of course). At 5am one morning, I made another Amazon purchase of the “Happiest Baby on the Block” DVD, per recommendation from our pediatrician (next day shipping again). And actually, all these things put together have helped tremendously. His crying was reduced by more than half and his parents’ sanity was restored! And thankfully too, because our budget might not allow for too many more middle-of-the-night-panic Amazon purchases.

So, a side note about “Happiest Baby on the Block.” We decided we didn’t have time to read the book, so we went with the DVD. Good move. Dr. Harvey Karp demonstrates his 5 S’s – swaddling, shushing, side/stomach, swinging, and sucking. We watched some parts of the DVD twice, just to get the techniques down. I’m telling you – a miracle worker! His approaches don’t work when Kevin is super hungry or has a dirty diaper, but when he’s just drying to hear his head rattle, these techniques worked wonders. I highly recommend.

Some comments from my last posting stated that there was an awful lot about poop. So, I’ll leave those details out of this posting. But, rest assured, he still poops often and proudly!

Breastfeeding. Sigh. What a job. It is supposed to be a peaceful, beautiful, bonding experience between mother and child. Sometimes, I get a glimpse of that. Kevin is a vigorous eater, so the experience can be painful at times. He grunts, he groans, he pulls, he tugs, he kicks, he stretches, he arches, he cries. I went to a breastfeeding support group to see what others’ experiences are. There are a lot of gung-ho breastfeeders out there. I’ve nicknamed them the “militant formula haters.” When I admitted that Kevin had formula the first night of his life, they glared at me and looked at him like he was a devil child. I didn’t go back to that group.

Kevin has been napping for a full hour, just long enough for me write this post. Guess what? He’s hungry! Gotta go!

Pictures are constantly being uploaded to the “Baby Pictures” directory, organized chronologically. You can find them here

This post is rather long, so I’ve divided it up into sections so you can chew on one piece at a time, if reading the whole thing is too much baby for ya.

The Summary….

Kevin was born on August 22^nd, at 11:58am. He weighed in at a whopping 6 pounds, 14 ounces and measured 20 inches long. (That length measurement, by the way, is a bit subjective. It all depends on how much the nurse wishes the stretch the little bugger out. A strong nurse makes for a longer kid.) I had a scheduled c-section, because Kevin was a Frank breech (meaning, he was in the pike position, bottom down, head and feet up). The doctor didn’t have a lot of confidence he’d turn, nor did I want to take the risks, so Kevin was born 10 days early. He’s healthy as a horse, cute as a button, and Mom and Dad are doing well too.

The Birth….

Being the planner that I am, I loved the c-section. There are lots of pros to a planned c-section: instant gratification (no long, awaited, dramatic, painful labor to go through), predictable birth, longer hospital stay to help you recover, delivery at a normal hour of the day (none of this 4am birth stuff!). Emergency c-sections are an entirely different story and I would never wish that on anyone. I went to the hospital at 9:30am Wednesday morning. They prepped me for two hours – IV of fluid, catheter, lots of questions, get Dave and I in the right “bunny suits” for the operating room, etc. I was sooo excited!

Then at 11:30am, the anesthesiologist gave me a spinal block to numb me from the chest down. That took twice as long as expected; something about two vertebrae of mine being fused together so he had to “try again” in a different spot? When he hit the spinal nerve, ooof, I wanted to jump out of my skin. The drugs went into effect quickly and the doctors started. They rubbed me down with iodine and started to cut through layers; 7 in all. They pulled the baby out, announcing it was a boy and that he had 10 fingers and 10 toes. Dave and I sighed a bit of relief that this part was over. The NICU nurse took Kevin out of the OR, Dave followed, and they scrubbed Kevin down, cleared his stomach of fluids, checked him over, etc. He scored 8 and then 9 on his APGAR tests. We knew he was gifted. J

Meanwhile, the doctors spent the next 25 minutes stitching me back together. The surgery went without a hitch and my numbness was gone in a couple hours. Incidentally, Dave captured much of the c-section on video. He held my hand with his left hand and the video camera with his right. It is pretty cool to see. I think Kevin will enjoy that 20 years from now…

Four Days at Good Samaritan Hospital…

The next few days in the hospital were a whirlwind. The nurses come and go, checking and rechecking me, Kevin, the linens, the diaper stock, how breastfeeding is going, how many poopy diapers he’s had, etc. We stuck Kevin in the nursery the first night and they gave him formula. The second night, he again slept in the nursery, but they brought him to me to feed. The third and fourth nights he stayed in my room. I sent Dave home to our house to get some real sleep. One of us might as well be sane, right?

We learned a lot every moment we were in the hospital. Nurse Anita taught us the best way to make a “burrito wrap” – wrapping Kevin so tight we think he can’t breath, but that’s the best way for him to sleep. Nurse Natalie taught us how to give a proper sponge bath and the best way to burp a baby. Lactation consultant Emily came and helped us “teach” Kevin how to suck properly. Now he’s a pro.

Coming Home…

We came home on Sunday morning, Kevin’s 5^th day of life. We were so very excited to be home, on our own schedule, in our own bed. That said, I was so tired I was nearly delirious and really couldn’t focus on much of anything. In the past two weeks, we’ve settled into a pretty nice routine. I feel like a big boob attached to the couch, since I feed him, on average, every 3 hours around the clock. (Now, “every 3 hours” is starting time to starting time, and it takes 45 minutes to feed him. So, all you math geniuses out there can figure that I’m sitting on the couch feeding for… well, you can figure it out. I’m too tired.)

Kevin gained nearly 1 pound from his birth weight within two weeks, so the pediatrician was pleased. That also gives us permission to let him sleep as long as he can during the night hours, without my having to wake him to feed. He’s gone several 4 hours stretches between feedings, which is great for Dave’s and my beauty rest.

All about Diapers…

Now, about the diaper changing. Holy cow, what an adventure. Kevin poops about 8 times a day, if not more that we don’t know about or hear. That is a lot of diapers! Between his circumcision and his nasty umbilical cord stub, diaper changing is an arduous process! For about 1 week, diaper changing required BOTH Dave and I 20 full minutes to Vaseline everything up, alcohol everything down, pin down his kicking legs, etc. Quite a dramatic affair! Add to that, Kevin’s knack for shooting poop several feet across a room when you aren’t ready for it, or peeing up and over your arms onto the pile of clean clothes below…and things are really hectic. But, we’ve learned. We have old carpets on top of our new carpet. And a washcloth covering his you-know-what in case he chooses that opportune time to pee. Now, only 1 person is needed for a few minutes per diaper change. I’m not able to do a one-handed diaper change yet, but that probably isn’t required until kid #2.

All about Laundry…

Now, about the laundry. I think we’ve run the washer and dryer no less than 100 times in the past two weeks. (And I hear water rationing is going to start soon…?) In fact, we did 3 loads of laundry between the hours of 9pm and 7am the first night we were home! Clearly, we were unprepared for the amount of slobber, poop, pee, milk, spit-up, and other random fluids to soil nearly everything we own. And we just didn’t have enough burp rags, onesies, etc, so we ended up washing everything to quickly re-use it again! Dave made a mad dash for Babies R Us on day #3 with a long list of “must haves” and now we are fine. Oh, and he’s purchased a LOT of packages of diapers too (see previous paragraph).

All about Kevin…

Kevin is a pretty cute kid, if I do say so myself. He doesn’t do much yet, but he’s getting bigger, stronger, and more alert every day. He’s doing a few minutes of “tummy time” each day to ensure he gets neck strength by lifting his head. (Sometimes, he just lies there with his face in the carpet, quite peacefully, with no desire to work on the neck muscles at all!). He makes funny faces (a pseudo-smile after eating or passing gas), funny animal noises (snorts like a pig before eating, chirps like a bird while sleeping), and cries a fair bit (pretty much every night between 7 and 9pm…sigh). It turns out, babies are not peaceful sleepers. They grunt, groan, chirp, snort, and even cry while sleeping. Kevin has a bassinet near our bed, but we’ve actually moved him to the hallway around the corner so we can sleep. When he’s hungry, he cries and some motherly instinct rouses me awake. Otherwise, I don’t need to listen to each little grunt and groan.

Kevin is quite the world traveler. He’s been out walking the Los Gatos Creek Trail and the neighborhoods around our house every day. He’s been to Grandma’s house, Oakridge Mall, Babies R Us, Target, two doctor’s visits, and Kiku Sushi Restaurant. This weekend will be big: he’s going to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk to watch his Uncle compete in the Big Kahuna Half Ironman.

Thank You!

We’ve had a number of visitors to see us, both in the hospital and at home. We’ve also had a number of wonderful home-cooked meals brought to us by friends. We thank you for that! This is a fun and special time in our lives, and we’re glad that we have so many great friends and family to share in it.

We haven’t written in a while about Baby LeRoy. He (or is it a she?) is almost 35 weeks and mom is counting down. 5 weeks to go! I feel him move regularly – anything from turning over, kicking, or baby experiencing the hiccups. For the most part, I continue to feel good. Perhaps a little more tired, but I’m still managing to swim a couple times and week and make it to the gym a couple times a week.

Dave and I are getting the house prepared for Baby LeRoy too. Most of our bedroom furniture arrived and we put together the new crib in a snap. We researched car seats and strollers to death and zeroed in on the Chicco brand. I’ve been walking it around the house empty, just for practice.

The Clark’s – childhood neighbors – held a very nice baby shower for me this past weekend. I received all kinds of wonderfully, soft, furry, green and yellow gifts – books, stuffed animals, toys, onesies, blankets, hats, and lots of tiny little socks. My brother and his family gave us a lightweight travel Jeep Wrangler umbrella stroller. I’m not smart enough to install the canopy yet, but the stroller is ready to go. My other brother and his family gave us a highchair. It is on really good rollers, so we can make our baby fly across the kitchen with just a nudge. (Don’t worry, he’ll be seat-belted in!)

My belly continues to grow, and much to my amazement, my skin continues to stretch. But as much fun as being pregnant is, I’ll be happy when I’m done. And Dave and I are really getting anxious to meet Baby LeRoy!