FINALLY!

We haven't had internet in our home for 2 months! I've been using my phone as a wi-fi hot spot and our neighbors! AND WE're BACK UP AND RUNNING! I'm thrilled. Now I can update my blog and get all my pictures on here and show off my baby is true mommy fashion!!! LETS GET THIS GOING!

my beautiful son

Now that the medicine has kicked in and he's a little older Chase is doing much better. He has started smiling daily and crying less and less. The constant throwing up has almost stopped as well. That is... As long as he's not laid down after he eats. Also because of that diaper changes need to be fast and furious to get done before food comes back up. This happens no matter how long it's been since he ate. Dumb acid reflux. We will get rid of you someday!!! We've got medicine and lots of prayers backing me up on this. My little angel will kick you. Chase has been the light in my existance I have been waiting for. He has been the largest blessing in my life, second only to my wonderful husband who is the perfect father to my baby boy. I wake up every morning ready and happy to see that baby of mine. And since he's started sleeping in his own bed I really miss him when he wakes up, even at 2 or 4 or 5am. I am always happier than I was last time I got to see him. He is a special little boy. He brings such joy to our home and I can't imagine our life without him here. He lights up the lives of his parents in such a way neither Sean or I ever though possible. He is my gift straight from Heaven. I needed this little one in my life. I am so thankful he's finally here.

Now.. Time to show off my little guy!! Seriously. Get a load of these pictures. He's perfect!

baby Chase's birth

Tuesday, August 16, 2011. What a day this was. It started really early for me. 2am bright and early.. OK not bright at all. It was still dark and we'd only been in bed for a couple of hours. I woke up with some really severe cramps. O boy did these hurt. I stayed in bed for a little bit but finally it was too much for me. I started walking back and forth in our upstairs. This did not help the pain one bit. So finally I got out my phone and started timing them. Sean was sleeping so I called my mom and she talked to me for the next half hour or so till I decided Sean shouldn't be asleep. He needed to be awake if I had to be awake.
O dear... Those cramps just kept on coming. Finally after timing them and seeing that they were only 1 minute to 3 minutes apart we decided to head to the hospital. (We called the DR first to ask) This was about 3:30. So... in we go and it takes a bit to get registered and all signed in. So around 4:30 the nurse was able to check me. HOLY CRAP. This was the worst so far! Nothing hurt me this bad. Apparently my son had drooped so low, AND all my parts are in my back pretty far, they had to do some serious digging to see where we were at. Nothing. To make me feel better she told me I was at a 1. nice... All that and NOTHING. They had to send me home. Dang dang. The sweet lady that she was gave me a shot of morphine in my butt and sent us on our way. That was about 5:30.
We got home right around 6 and went to sleep. 7am rolls around and those contractions are coming right through that morphine. O dear... So up again and walking. FINALLY around 9am when I was talking to my mom she says "LAUREN! why are you not timing your contractions!??" UM HELLO!! they just SENT ME HOME! I HAD NOTHING! But I started timing them anyways.. They were about 48 seconds apart... O great. my goodness. OK.. That's very close. So I go downstairs to tell Sean we need to head to the hospital. His response? "Why?? Are you hurting again? or.. are they closer together?" I informed him he wasn't allowed to ask questions. And Sean's little sister who happened to be spending the night let him know all he was allowed to do was say "Yes dear, lets go to the hospital." So we left at about 10:30 am
Upon arriving to the hospital (I couldn't talk at this point.. and walking?? I think I crawled) In I go and GREAT NEWS!! I'm at a 4!!! Fantastic! So immediately I asked for my epidural. Yes yes they tell me! We just have to empty half a bag of liquid into you first. So in goes my IV and I had to wait a little longer. About 20 minutes longer. They moved me to my room where we were delivering and checked me again while waiting for my very favorite person alive, the anesthesiologist, and I was at a 6. O dear.. 4 to 6 in that short time.. and BOY did that not feel good. But Luckily I had just met my nurses and they were fantastic. We got two. Michelle and Becki. (SHOUT OUT TO MY LADIES! I TELL EVERYONE HOW GREAT YOU ARE!) We got two because Michelle was transitioning to Labor and Delivery from the ER. I'm so glad she was.
SO.. Epidural. FANTASTIC! Who is wonder woman and pushed out a baby!?? Me! O yeah.. Because I had an epidural. Yep. I'm certain I couldn't have done it without. In comes the man of the day and gets me all set up and pain free in no time. I was still waiting for my epidural when they said "ok you're ready. Go ahead and lay on down." um? HELLO! I still wanted my epidural. LUCKY ME HAD ALREADY GOTTEN IT! Great news!
So I went to a 10 in next hour and a half or two hours I think. Maybe longer I can't remember. But I was really enjoying my time with the girls. We were so blessed to have them. I was able to talk and share my feelings and excitement with them. And after hearing about our road to babyhood, they were excited with us our our day.
4pm, I started pushing. My DR has the baby slide down naturally for 2 hours before you start working on getting him out. I was only able to push for a few contractions. Baby Chase's heartbeat was dropping pretty steep. So we had to wait for the DR and when he came I no longer had the option of pushing. He immediately took the necessary actions and pulled Chase out. I saw my son! His head of course out first, he was beautiful! Even all covered in the birth goo. He had a little rough start, fliud in his lungs and really fast breathing. Also his heartrate was low for about the first 24 hours. But he was here!! O my goodness he was perfect. A little blonde hair and a mineature of my husband. I was the happiest girl in the world! I had my husband and my son! Everything I could have ever wanted. And the best birthing staff ever put together. My DR, his nurses and my nurses. Sean and I can't say enough about those wonderful ladies who took care of me and my son. They even made sure Sean was fed.
Even when we changed nurses the service level stayed the same. We were so blessed those two days in the hospital to have their care and compassion. Our dreams of parenthood had finally come true. Great great. I love my son.

pictures

learning at a young age, life's not always easy

My dear little Chase was born three weeks ago tomorrow. I haven't had time to update anything since then. His birth was up to this point the highlight of my life (aside from finding then marrying my best friend) Chase had a little rough entry, trouble breathing, low heart rate and eating... That was hard for him. The first few days with him after we came home were very surreal for us. We couldn't believe he was finally here. And we were enjoying every minute!
Soon after we came home he started having trouble. He was miserable. Throwing up every feeding BIG TIME and soon it became throwing up every 5 to 10 minutes 24 hours a day. My poor son has been to see his DR 4 times in the last week and we ended up in the ER once. He was projectile vomiting across our whole room. Like.. 10 feet EASY without losing height. And he was crying all day long. He chocked when he ate and couldn't get any air. My poor son was really struggling. We were told he was probably allergic to my milk right off. We changed him to formula, that seemed to work for about 15 hours. The throwing up then started again. Not near as bad as with my breast milk but really bad. You could tell he was in constant pain. He was only 2 weeks old at this point. So again, we headed into the DR and they changed his formula again. This formula seemed to calm his belly. So not only was he not throwing up he had nearly stopped crying. Till that next morning. He was again throwing up just this last Saturday so off to the after hours clinic we went. It seems he has very severe acid reflux on top of his extremely sensitive stomach. My poor son.
Interesting this about this is Sean and I both said this was the problem at the first DR's appt. So... Finally the DR we saw Saturday (he was not the regular one Chase sees) had us feed him then he held him to feel his back and belly while he was trying to swallow. Immediately he said this was the problem. Chase was diagnosed in 5 minutes... After nearly a week of the run around from our other pediatrician. So needless to say we'll be switching. BUT FINALLY!!! my son is on medicine that is helping! He's still on the special pre-broken down formula for his tiny tummy. BUT he's also on meds for the acid reflux. There has been a night and day difference for him. He has been awake without crying!!! This hasn't happened for him since he was about 6 days old.
We've got two very happy parents. I have never hurt so bad watching another person as these last 3 weeks watching my son suffer. It has been the very hardest part about being a new parent. I don't mind the late night feedings, the sleeplessness, the diapers, the spit up or the crying. It's the pain he's been in. On the night we went into the ER I held him over the tub while he threw up. It was the worst thing I've seen in my life. My tiny little son, barely 6 lbs at that point throwing up so bad. It was awful.
Of course there have been many, many good things as well. And the good outweigh the bad. My son is so sweet. When he's not hurting, he laughs in his sleep. Not a little baby laugh. A big person laugh. It scared me the first time. But it's so funny. That laugh is always followed by a smile for about a whole minute. It's the cutest thing. One of my favorite things???? When other people hold him and he fusses... THEN mommy gets him back and he stops instantly, the quickly looks up towards my face. I love that my son knows who I am and wants to be with me. He's already a mamma's boy.
Another thing, everyone has said you fall in love with your husband all over again when you watch him become a daddy. True true. I love seeing them napping together... Or Sean trying to change his diaper before Chase cries. And how he talks to our son and plants those kisses all over his little head. It's sweet as sweet can be. So yes, Chase learned nearly immediately that life is not always easy, he has brought love and happiness in a way we never imagined into our home. Right now while I'm typing this up my son and his daddy are napping on the couch. I'm in love. LOVE LOVE LOVE with those boys. I'll never get enough.